Lesson Sixteen: The Cultural Marxist Anti-Christs

Cultural Marxism is a greater challenge to "The Way," than were the early heretical challenges.  What were the early heretical challenges but ideas about God, teachings about the nature of Jesus Christ and finally teachings about the nature of Salvation that were open challenges to Orthodoxy, each holding the potential to destroy The Way, who is Christ Jesus. Of course Jesus is not weak, HE cannot be destroyed, but our understanding of the reality of the New Creation HE is creating, in us, can be destroyed, by destroying our proper understanding of it, and access to it, if not for all, certainly for a great many, even the great majority.  These early heresies, like Mormonism and Islam, of course held in honor “a Jesus,” just not “that Jesus” the powerful and wonderful Jesus of The Way.  They were heretics, not the public enemies of God, but slick religionists, claiming God as their own, and their false Jesus as their own, thus they were of the Anti-Christ. 

Pagan Rome was an enemy of Christ, but never an anti-christ. There was never a Pagan Caesar who was an Anti-Christ, even the Caesars who demanded that Christians sacrifice to them as Gods, they were not antichrists. Forgive me while I repeat this, because it is so important. These were not Anti-Christs, these were enemies of Jesus Christ, like the myriad sects of Pagan Priests who would kill Christians at the drop of a hat; enemies of Christ, not antichrists.  No, the Heretics, the Anti-Christs were the individuals and cliques of the Church’s people, Priests, Bishops, Popes, and Patriarchs, and competing sects, etc., who with great subtlety offered slickly designed pagan substitutes for the REALITY of The Way.

Today, Anti-Christ is strong in the Church; outside the Church, Anti-Christ has no context, again those outside the church are “enemies of Christ.” We will see that there are Cultural Marxists in the Church who are antichrists, and Cultural Marxists outside the Church, who are enemies of Christ.

These modern Anti-Christs, are not of the ignorant variety of say, Pastor John Hagee, the infamous Judaizer and denier of Christ, who has dredged up a novel heresy, which is not novel at all, which was exposed and confounded by the Apostle Paul in his letters which are now part of the New Testament text. (Although in truth Hagee is an anti-christ, like the majority of protestant heretics - mercifully not all are anti-christ).  The Cultural Marxist antichrists are far more sophisticated than Hagee; their lips drip peace and justice, which in reality is capitulation to Marxist Socialism and other "One World Government" goals of the Globalist; they make constant appeal to “morality” while denying morality’s ontological reality; they substitute sentimentality for the Love of God, a love that cannot be separated from Ontological Reality. In their sentimentality and Cultural Marxist "tolerance" they condone a Catholic Vice President to Officiate as a High Priest in a Pagan Gay Wedding, and never call him rightly Apostate and they would never dream of excommunicating him. They publish instead a bland statement, even inventing a new category to define his actions, and never even name him, in that statement, they tell him simply his action was "mistaken."  Well, no it was not, it was a knowing violation of Catholic Morality that holds Ontological Reality.

Ninety percent of the collective statements of the American Roman Catholic Bishops fall into this category of antichrist teachings. But take heart we saw the Great and Holy Council at Crete, of the Eastern Roman Orthodox and Catholic Church, billed as almost an Ecumenical Council, produce a purely Cultural Marxist document, as most of the document produced by Vatican II was Cultural Marxist. The words are so soothing, so morally challenging, so beautiful, so loving, and destructive and paralyzing.  Why, because they lack ontological foundation, that is “reality in BEING.” For that reality they substitute both “religion” and the “language of religion” and such are an illusion, not reality and ultimately Unitarian  and Pagan, NOT Christian.  They call what is deadly, merely alternative and in the most sophisticated fabric of words, these documents express the teachings and goals of Globalism/Cultural Marxism and nothing else. They make of Christ a Pacifist wisdom teacher, and reduce his sacrifice to a symbol, His work equal to that of Mohammed, Buddha, Lao Tsu, etc. 

The two major heresies of Cultural Marxism that have invaded the Church and Christian thought in general are “Syncretism” and “Ecumenism.”  Syncretism is the temptation to see in practices and theologies of the world’s religions, parallel paths of redemption, i.e. genuine substitution for Jesus Christ.  Ecumenism is the purposeful recognition of these parallel paths and the creation of an over-arching one world religion, wherein rest these quaint but benign sects of Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism, Islamism, Judaism, and Christianism, etc. all superseded in truth by the Universal Truths of Ecumenism, which is in reality, perennial paganism.

My confessor and mentor (Memory Eternal)Great Schema Archimandrite, Damian (Hart) stated it very clearly:

“Here at Resaca we have been praying in our simplicity that the Lord would show us His Truth, and He has graciously responded to our helplessness. We have not deserved this great mercy that He has shown us. He has led us to see that any separate part of the Church may be wrong - and must be wrong when it sets itself up against all the rest of God's Holy Church. Also, that any individual person in the Church may be right, even though all the rest, patriarchs, and bishops, emperors and kings, may be against him, if only he has the Spirit of Christ. Saint Maximos the Confessor testifies to that. Jesus is Lord, and the Church is One in His Holy Spirit. We cannot lay it out and anatomize it on a table. We can only follow obediently where the Lord Jesus and His Holy Spirit lead us.

“The great heresy of our age seems clearly to be Ecumenism. It would no doubt be nice and convenient if Ecumenism were only true, just that thing that Pope and Patriarch and prudent statesmen of every sort have been looking for these many years, and many now think they have found. But how could that be true and Christianity not be wrong? If Ecumenism is right, then it alone is the one great overarching Truth that stands above everything, not Buddha, not Muhammad, not Jesus, but something higher than any of these individual teachers. Such is not the doctrine of Jesus Christ, Who taught that He Himself is Truth, that He is the Way. He never said that He had found the Truth; he said that He is Truth and that He and the Father are One. Ecumenism is necessarily a Unitarian religion THIS is true, even when Ecumenism begins as ostensibly Christian. If a Christian cannot be Ecumenical, what then can a person do? Obviously, we must follow Christ. But where does Christ lead us, except to Himself? Nowhere, of course; but we must remember that while He is doing this, He also leads His flock through this life, in which He has an individual vocation for each one of us. The Lord has not revealed to us exactly when the world will end, or what He means for each one of us to be doing until then. The only way we can discover that is by following His gracious leading. We know that we are not all to go by the same worldly way because He has told us that, and Saint Paul repeats that doctrine with more variations in so far as it applies to Church functions. For the rest, Saint Paul just says that if a man will not work, let him not eat. (II Thessalonians 3:10)

“A great deal of our task in the world is shown to us in "On-the-Job training”, so to speak, while we are working and eating. We start by doing what we can do, what we are told to do, what we have to do, and what we have been doing. We learn what we ought to do by doing these things prayerfully, through which we may sometimes see what we could be doing instead - or the Lord may simply want us to keep on doing exactly what we are doing, whether we like it or not. If everyone on earth tried to live a richly gratifying and exciting life, the world might not long endure. And the patient endurance of dullness, on the other hand, may be a very useful virtue to learn.

“In addition to patience, we must learn not to judge. People are seldom as good at that as they think, and not always anxious to learn better. But the Lord may have something worldly He wants us to do, and we should always be ready to learn that or to tolerate it in others. These things cannot be explained; we must just take them as He sends them. Life is not meaningless just because we do not understand it. And our Orthodox Faith is not confused just because our reason cannot hold it together for us.

“And so we try to go along in patience at our monastery, working and praying for teaching from the Lord. Some of us may also be drawn to try to understand what we can of the confusion of the present age, and how it got that way; in that way, we may be able to throw some light on the confusion of the searching people who come here as visitors, which they may desperately need. This is our vocation: working and praying and giving hospitality to those who write, telephone, or come here as visitors and pilgrims. By praying the Father that He keep us from the world, that we might have eternal life, by knowing the Father and knowing that He sent Jesus into the world, we do what we can to show forth Christ in our lives that we may share with others what we all hold in common - The Truth, Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God. We ask your prayers for us, and know that we hold in our prayers before God all those whose names are sent to us."

Abbot Damian said of the Ontological presence of Christ’s Church in modern times, “We cannot lay it out and anatomize it on a table. We can only follow obediently where the Lord Jesus and His Holy Spirit lead us.”  So understand that when I speak of the reality of Apostolic Succession, I am not speaking of merely the mechanical form of the laying-on of hands.

There are two kinds of Apostolic Reality, signal signs of The Way, the first is actual connection with The Church, and this does not necessarily mean connection with a patriarchate, rather (1) through apostolic succession a physical connection through the generations, holding and teaching what has always been held and taught, the Gospel once and for all delivered unto the saints, and practicing the same, and (2) actual relationship with TRUTH who is a person. It is most certainly most power to have in our experience of The Way, both these ontological attributes. To this aim I always recite this prayer:

“Our Heavenly Father, Let us not be caught in the fear of servile religion; keeping Tradition out of ignorance and offering our "correctness" as sign of righteous enlightenment.   

“Let us not be caught in the tyranny of our rational minds, which creates "innovations" upon the faith, which leads us to hold prideful "theologies" that diminish God to the level of our understanding, or worse, which deny Him altogether. 

“Let us not be caught by the tyranny of our emotions, mistaking our soul's phantasy producing powers for the working of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life.   

“Let us not be caught in the mere form of the visible church, but in the LIFE of it, who is Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God, present to all that truly seek Him.  

“Let our keeping of Tradition spring from the warmth of your Love, from a heart that seeks continual repentance, from a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise.  Amen.

Holding both ties to the Family of God is so very important.

Across the convolutions of history, when I trace the record of my Apostolic ordination into Holy Orders, from Jesus through his apostles, through their successors, there are only 144 hands between Jesus Christ and my ordination; this is my ontological apostolic reality. It is physical; it is spiritual.   This reality is powerful to me.

If I gathered my immediate family, brothers and sisters, children, grand children and great grand children, that crowd would be many times more than 144, yet, it is a fact, that from Jesus Christ's commissioning of his Apostles, via the laying on of hands, to me is only 144 persons. I am not saying, “Look at me, aren’t I special.” I am saying look at all of us in the Apostolic Traditions, at what an immediate tie we have through time to the very Cross itself, to the apostles who taught, to the early church fathers who followed and function inside their teaching. 
 

Go to a calculator and punch in 2100 years, and divide those years by 144 - look at the answer carefully. 14.5 years, each bishop in that line of succession covered a period of only 14.5 years.  Now in truth many served much longer, some fewer years, and because there are multiple consecrators for elevation to the Episcopi, many hundreds of Bishops fall in that line of successors. Canonically three bishops are required to consecrate a new bishop, so automatically that 144 number becomes a minimum of 432, and since many bishops commonly attend such elevations, and are named as “consecrators” the number grows into the thousands.  This is an ontological reality, a physical connection of FAMILY, those who are bound together in the Eucharistic Family, bound together in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. This is my and our Jesus Christ Blood Line, because now that “bloodline” includes everyone I have baptized, chrismated and communed.  We are all tied together in the Ontological reality of Jesus Christ’s divine/human nature, communicated to us through dying with him in Baptism, rising from Baptism to new life, and having HIS REAL LIFE present in our bodies, by consuming his Body and Blood. (Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.) – NOT a metaphor!

There was a time that I thought that Apostolic Succession was a sham and con.  I accepted Ordination in Apostolic Succession truthfully as a symbol, so as to be in “fellowship” with the greater Catholic Church, but something amazing happened, as a result, ministry suddenly became a thousand times easier. Prior to apostolic ordination, I had functioned in ministry by faith alone, post-ordination came an authority and power, removed from the function of my own faith. As a priest, I saw unbelievable wonders happen upon the authority of words I spoke, that personally I did not believe when I spoke them.  (I will give you a striking example in a moment.) This category of fraternal kinship, receiving the familiar blood, should not be viewed as a symbol only. With the priesthood comes power, more than the faith and moral status of the person who is the priest. Jesus Christ literally stands in my shoes when I act in proper ministry for Him. And those acts of ministry amount to NOTHING for me, for my own healing/salvation, they are disconnected in a significant way from who and what I am, even from my faith in Jesus Christ. Holy Orders cannot heal a man; Holy Orders cannot save a man. But Holy Orders are powerful and are supposed to be. Too many priests, bishops, monks, and nuns, do not believe in the power of their “holy orders” and simply do not practice them, or practice them only in the ceremonial forms, and even this, without faith, as so many are conquered by Cultural Marxism and are at heart "Naturalists" that is "extreme materialists" seeing the work as "social" and not eschatological.  This requires them to "be nice" and "try to make things better" it ends in bitterness and disappointment. Where on the other hand the believing priest shakes things up, can be if needed anything but nice, also willing to speak truth for eschatological reasons, and never exchange that truth for temporary and false peace, soothing someone in their error, soothing someone IN their sin, as opposed to challenging them to eternal healing.

I can hear it in a priest's voice when he is celebrating Divine Liturgy if he is certain of Christ’s appearance upon his altar, or if he doubts, but wants to believe, or if he is an actor and has no belief but is playing a role like in a Kabuki play. I also know that the bread and wine, under his touch IS the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, regardless of what category of faithfulness or faithlessness he belongs. Why? Because, no matter the state of the person, when he deigns to step into the role of consecrator it is Jesus Himself, making the offering, standing in his shoes, and Jesus Himself who is the offering, the one offered. Our share in this family is in HIM, by Him, through Him, of Him, for Him and this has both spiritual and physical meaning.

Next the story of a faithless priest and words of unbelief he uttered.

Lesson Fifteen: Such as “I” have, give I thee:

The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews starts the Eleventh Chapter with this profound statement:
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance, the (Gr - hupostasis) the ground and foundation, the real nature, thus the realization and reality) of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained witness. By faith, we understand that time itself was framed by a command of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

So that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. This statement destroyed all forms of perennial paganism, even the modern form call “Materialism/Naturalism.”

Now, faith is the realization of things not seen. Christians treat this statement as if it says; Faith is the hope or wish, for things not yet seen. So their “faith” devolves to wishful thinking, a mere hope for a better day, etc.  Faith that is tried and tested, like you try and test a new airplane prototype, or rocket engine, or automobile for that matter, I mean LITERAL trial and testing, produces a realization, and reality, not a hope.  The realization of faith does not come to us in a vacuum, as a solitary event, even though we may believe it to be solitary.  Saint Paul, the likely writer of Hebrews, makes this clear after he writes, recalling a few of the great “faithful ones”, which fills out the remainder of chapter 11. Then he continues saying:
Heb 12:1 "So therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every impediment, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, (man am I ever witness to how easily sin ensnares us) and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith . . ." Please understand that ANYONE who is not willing to admit their own sinful struggles is a liar, not a saint. The greatest saints give quick and consistent witness to their sinful struggles, because without that struggle they would never be tried, tested and tempered into the strength of sainthood.

The “cloud of witnesses” has grown exponentially in the last two thousand years.

The best test pilots are skeptics. Test pilots do not fly with abandon, nor do they fly with a vision of failure as their goal. Trials and Testing are not taken in a manner of suicide, or even tempting fate, but taken reasonably, thoughtfully and bravely.  I thought I was alone the first time I actually tested my faith, but even the 13-year-old Butch had a cloud of witnesses and the witness of a merciful God.

Virtuous acts, signs, miracles, etc. 

I'm a skeptic - that is always my first position. Every bit of information I have cobbled together over the decades starts from a base of healthy skepticism. I had to be skeptical even of those in my youth who were explicating scripture. I lived is a sea of scriptural explications, mostly unknowingly ripped from context, but there was that orthodox core, I've mentioned in previous lessons. Skepticism was necessary, because my heart told me too often, "this is error."  Across the years without healthy skepticism, keeping economy with the great "truth seekers" of our era, were I not a skeptic I would be a ghost hunting, alien hunting true believer, locked in the delusions of the New Age or Luciferian Zeitgeist movement. 

Growing up, I accepted many things as true, but reject many more things as, (1) the jury's out, or (2) absolutely NOT true. By age sixteen I formed the habit of keeping a little notebook in my shirt pocket I called my "lie list" and I never listened to a sermon or a lecture, never read a book, watched a movie or a T.V. show, or engaged in a meaningful conversation, without making note of what I believed were lies, or at least what I seriously questioned. If I had a doubt, I prayed about it and worked hard investigating. Before the internet that took effort. It landed me in friendship with Congressman Larry McDonald before he was a congressman and president of the John Birch Society. (Memory Eternal) I was too skeptical of the facts the JBS published; however, time and history have proved it all very true. 

The source of my skepticism was, of course, logical as I explained in the lesson, "Miracles, Signs, and Wonders."  But before you read that which I wish to give testimony, an event I think shaped me more than any other event in my life, I wanted to remind you that I am no blind believer; at my core, I am a skeptic.

At age thirteen, six weeks after my father's repose, I came home from school to find my mother talking away on the phone. She was suffering the loss of her husband and had been on the phone many hours every day, talking about "victory in Jesus" while she was unable to function as a person, unable to do much of anything.  A couple of days before she had reacted to something I said violently and I knew she was on the very edge of mental breakdown. It would not have been the first.

I walked into the kitchen intending to warm a can of soup. She was sitting at an old-fashioned phone table-chair just on the other side of the kitchen door, which was closed and I thank God it was closed. I can even now hear her voice, and see her twisting the phone cord around with one hand as she talked. She regularly destroyed receiver lines with this nervous habit. Looking at the electric stove I realized that there was a brand new iron skillet sitting there. I had never seen one before; all of our iron skillets were many years old, black and very well seasoned. I needed to slide the new skillet out of the way, so I reached and took hold of the rim and heard a sizzling sound just as an unbelievable pain hit my brain. For a moment I was in a panic, my fingers stuck to the metal sizzling away. Somehow, I managed to suppress my scream and using my other hand, I pulled my fingers off the blue-hot cast iron.  It wasn't an easy feat, I knew I was tearing flesh away and it would have been excessively bloody if the wound were not being cauterized nano-second by nano-second. You see, she had turned the eye on, forgot it and went to prayer meeting mid-morning. That iron frying pan had been heating on the stove for at least five hours. I know this because I asked her later why the skillet was on, so hot with nothing in it. I can’t believe she did not notice the smoke the frying pan’s seasoning would have produced, but it all had been turned to brown dust. 

I turned and ran to the back of the house, my eyes clouded with tears. I heard my mother declaring another round of victory and thought, "Lord, you know she is on the edge. I can't go to her and say take me to the emergency room." I felt like it would be the last straw for her. Then a sudden white-hot anger hit me and I thought, "I'm thirteen years old. I'm injured and I don't have a soul to trust."  My fingers were a mess, I had left my skin hanging and sizzling on the inside and outside of the skillet rim. I turned my head up and said, truthfully with a lot of defiance, "You know the situation I'm in. I don't doubt you are real. What I doubt is that you give a damn about me.  So, if you care about me show me. Heal my fingers."  By this time I was shaking the injured fingers and thumb at the ceiling.  As clear as I have heard anything in my life (not audible voice, but an impression so clear inside me and outside me all at once) he said, "I will if you promise never to deny it."  I was still angry and rather than being amazed at God speaking to me I thought what he said was stupid. I said, "What do you mean, deny it?  Look at these fingers, who could deny that?"  He repeated himself, "I will as long as you never deny it."  I answered almost sarcastically, "Okay, okay. I promise I won't deny it." To me, it seemed a stupid promise. Of course, I would not deny it. How could I?  He said, "That means you won't deny ME."  I said, "Okay, Lord, I won't deny you." And trying to force my mind away from the pain I drifted away for a moment, almost like a daydream. The second I was again aware of the present I realized that my fingers were not hurting. I couldn’t make myself look at my fingers. Instead, I closed my eyes, and slowly brought my thumb to meet my fingers, thinking I would experience burning pain, but when they touched, it felt a little nervy, like the nerve endings were exposed.  Like the safe-cracker sand papers the tips of his fingers to feel the movement of tumbler inside the lock.  I looked down and realized that the skin on my fingers was smooth; almost like baby skin, and in a minute or two my fingers were absolutely normal. No longer even sensitive as before. By this time I was pacing back and forth rubbing my fingers together with a lot of pressure.


In shock, I thought, "Man, you've got to get a handle on yourself. You panicked and nothing was wrong. You are as crazy as your mother!"  I literally rebuked myself for my emotionalism, and stupidity, and worse, I was kicking myself for giving into the delusion that God had actually spoken to me. Suddenly by rational thought, it all seemed insane and just a dream. I was literally shaking my head no, marveling at my delusion as I returned to the kitchen and there hanging on the side of the skillet was the better part of my former thumb. I looked at that shriveled charred meat hanging and at my perfectly formed thumb and without a sound tears began to drip on my shirt. It has been mere moments and I had already denied Jesus Christ. Every rational sense I had DENIED HIM. Viewing that charred flesh I said under my breath, "My Lord and My God." I have never allowed myself to forget the wonder and shame of that moment of enlightenment. To this day, across the checkered path of my life, I have never stopped looking at the Icon of Jesus Christ, the one that exists deep in my heart, and saying, “My Lord and My God!”  You see, while those were different wounds  that Jesus let Thomas see, nonetheless they were wounds of witness, just the same. In that moment he taught me a lesson, he said, "The carnal mind thinks he is king. He will deny anything that challenges his kingship. He will give it any explanation that allows him to maintain his kingship. Those who are evil and seek signs will believe any hoax because they are deluded. Those of faith who experience wonders are tempted to deny them. Having witnessed the wonder they are tempted to ascribe it to means other than Me."  In absolutely amazed gratitude I promised I would never deny the reality of what I witness and know to be true, no matter what it was or where I was.   

I'm still very, very skeptical, but I'm not cynical. The bottom line is, that little three-pound servomechanism we call a brain, through which my MIND expresses itself, and the spiritual pride associated with it, conformed to it, was knocked off his throne that day, and has never regained "kingship" in my life.  Yes, there is a lot of fraud out there, but there are some real "wonders.” Those wonders are natural and not supernatural. They are supernal of God’s created, and uncreated energies, but totally natural. What could be more natural than our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creative Word of the Father by whom all the worlds hang together, expressing his love in matter? This was an understanding I came to, years before I became an Orthodox Christian. Much of what we think is Miracle, is the rightful exercise of our dominion, which is a power we regain in Christ. That power can only operate inside the will of the Father, through the Son via the Holy Spirit. BUT it is a power given to US, if we do not deny it, if we try and test our faith, like a test pilot tries and tests a new prototype.  You see, it does not matter how many planes you witness flying the question is, is the one you are flying air-worthy; do you have control of it; do you understand its design limitations as well as capabilities?

Now let us skip ahead 50 years.  I shared the following story with the owner of a chain of medical clinics, who is a wealthy Orthodox Christian, who cautioned me in a rather condemning or at least condescending fashion that Christians “needed to be reasonable about that which they pray and ask miracles,’ in effect counseling me not to ask God to do things that seem impossible from the extreme materialists viewpoint - which is the common consciousness of our faithless generation.

So I shared with him, this story, which is especially dear to my heart, this wonder, and blessing:

+++
My grandson Mac was born with a congenital disorder. After four girls, finally a boy, “the golden child” and from the first, he was gravely ill. Almost immediately he stopped breathing. Then a few days later he stopped breathing again. At three weeks he was in the hospital and then released. He began having seizures and would stop breathing. Until five weeks of age when he stopped breathing and turned blue he could be revived with stimuli.

For these weeks Mom and Dad were such heroes, they managed and ran a business, cared for the four girls and rotated constant vigil by his side.  But at five weeks a seizure and no stimuli would revive as my daughter and her husband raced four miles to the emergency room. Days at the hospital and multiple tests and now after a seizure his heart stopped, this time, it took the electric paddles.

At that moment I was newly arrived home, tired, hot, drinking a beer, having spent two days in the hot Georgia sun, at an outdoor art show.  I’m exhausted, home, and in the air conditioning. I didn't even want to eat, I wanted to enjoy the mellow exhaustion only two days in the sunshine can create, and go to bed early. I was concerned about Mac, but I had to keep the engagement I could not cancel (the show must go on – in this instance an art show months in preparation). But sitting cooling off, suddenly I saw and knew and said to my wife, who was nominal Baptist at the time, and not of particularly enlightened spiritual understanding, “I've got to get to the hospital immediately. Mac is dying.  Please drive me.” She asked, “Did Cindy call?”  I shook my head no, “No, I just know, trust me and I don’t trust myself to drive.” I had not eaten in two days, and the beer had gone straight to my head.

As we drove the fifteen miles to the hospital, I silently called with a sincere heart upon God, what to do; I was not sure if I was supposed to be there to bring healing to Mac, or merely to comfort grieving parents.  Yet, I had told Linda, “If I do not get there quickly, Mac will die.” When I arrived on the floor, the doctors were in with my daughter telling her and her husband there was nothing else they could do, that it was cruel to shock the infant back from the dead and that they needed to let him go, that he had terrible brain damaged and could not survive and each time they shocked him it was just needless suffering. As they stood in shock and dealt with the hopeless message, I stood out of sight in the doorway listening. The doctor said in way of explanation, “Sometimes, these infants just die. Who can explain it?”  I felt Holy anger hit me and I said in my heart, “This LIE will not stand.”

They signed the “do not resuscitate order” and the doctors left. When I walked in they flooded me with the afternoon's horrors and what the doctors had said. I said, “I will heal this child . . .” WHAT? Yes that's what I said – not God will heal, but “I” will heal him – why because Peter didn't say to the beggar by the gate. “Sir, if you can have faith that Jesus Christ has the power to heal you, that is, unless your illness is some certain genetic disorders, I know that Jesus Christ will heal you if I say the right words with unwavering faith.” NO. Saint Peter did not say anything close to that!  He said, “Such as I HAVE, give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ stand up and walk.”

Think about it! No one today, talks about the beggar Jesus healed through Peter at the Gates of the Temple. The fact that we act by the power of Christ is assumed of Christians.  No! Rather they talk about the man Peter healed. Jesus didn't say, “Greater things shall ye do – through me," but rather "after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, greater things shall YE do IN MY NAME.” Of course, all of the new life is IN, OF, BY, Through, and For HIM (Jesus Christ).  But in that New Life, we Christians are far too timid. We as Christians take humility to the stupid and debilitating conclusion when we do not grasp this and do not “exercise” that is, try and test our faith. A person lifting weights, “tries” to lift extra pounds, tests to see if they are up to the task. The “exercise” of our faith is directly analogous.

I said, “I will heal this child on the condition that (1) you don't tell anyone, and I pressed the importance of not telling anyone, including Mac. I explained that he could not face childhood in this culture, with the weight of this “miracle” upon his psyche.  That he needed to be old enough to grasp the meaning before he was told. (2) you don't deny what you have seen if you are ever asked to give witness, and (3) that when Mac is out of the hospital you will let me tell you how I did it.”

My daughter was adopted and had shallow beliefs, but she believed in me. Her husband was a stubborn agnostic toward the atheist side, bitter emotionally wounded Vietnam Veteran. Both were living dissolute and chaotic lives, with violence in the house and constant turmoil. They stood looking at me like I was insane. I said, “I'm not touching this child without your permission and agreement.” Like being shocked awake they both said, “Of course do what you can do.” I saw my son-in-law glance with a look of condescension and I think pity towards me. I was obviously in denial, after all, the doctors had spoken – in his deep grief he was being generous and humoring his crazy father-in-law, and to this day for Mac's sake I am grateful that he was a perfect gentleman while dealing with a crazy father-in-law, and while under such emotional duress.  I loved them both deeply and knew that what I was doing was primary to their future understanding. It was profound lesson time and the lesson began. I picked the infant up, held him for a moment, never said a word. What I said in my heart was, “Lord Jesus, the life you allowed to rise in me, I give to Mac.” I handed him to his mother and said, “He will never have another seizure, and on top of that, I just saw him; he will be a very healthy even an athletic young man. I know you don't have the faith to do it, but what you need to do is get up and walk out of this hospital right now.”

My son-in-law of course quickly objected when my daughter showed signs of faith, when she showed signs of willingness to listen.  Of course, my son-in-law, being locked in extreme-materialism, cautioned that prayers were one thing, but it would be best to do the prudent thing. 

In that case, I gave them this warning. “So here is the warning. The doctors will not understand what they are seeing, tomorrow; they won’t be able to accept the change they see as real; they will be challenged and they will do something to make it appear that they know what they are doing. That something has the potential to kill this child. Please be on guard and don't let them kill him with tests or therapy.”

All night long that night no seizures, he is breathing fine, next morning, more tests, no seizures. He is home from the hospital, still no seizures and breathing fine, but that next day, seeing that he was not dead, the doctors did exactly as I say they would do, and put him on a powerful drug. Phenobarbital to an infant, I had never heard of such a thing. It is common practice today, it was not then. However, no one noticed that Mac had gone 16 or 18 hours without a seizure, when he had seven or eight seizures, in eight hours the previous day before I “held him” and his breathing halted each time.  Yet after those many hours of non-seizure, which the doctors could not explain they started him on Phenobarbital.  

Mac Bedor with his Station Chief

In the days and weeks following, his parents secretly thought the drug therapy was working – that in fact him surviving the night and day without the drug was luck and now the drug was working – no wonder of healing had occurred, or if it did, it was just the mercy of God not allowing another seizure until the doctors discovered the right thing to do. After all, he had gone many hours before without a seizure. Six weeks later he turned blue, barely breathing; at the emergency room, they discovered drug toxicity that was killing him.  They did the quick detox of his blood and saved his life, the poor little darl’n had to suffer withdrawals. In examination at the hospital the new doctors could not understand why he was on the drug at all since he was perfectly healthy, EVERYTHING was normal, normal brain, no damage.  The new doctors explained to them that the old doctors had almost killed their son with the drug (just as I had warned them.)

Fast forward, from that night that “I” said so, over 25 years now, and never another seizure. Mac grew normally with much higher than average mental acuity, is a talented musician, firefighter (top of his class) and homeland security (top of his class). He is in his mid-twenties and when I told him the story of his first few months of life, he looked at me like I was a kook. Why? Because his parents knew better than to break their word, they had sworn to tell no one.

A few months after the “miracle” they approached me and wanted to know “what” “how”? I said, “You know I am not a particularly religious man. In fact, I rather hate religion, but my faith in Jesus Christ is real. I literally breathed LIFE into Mac. It was and always is Jesus standing in my shoes when I manage to do any good thing because on my own I would be a terribly evil man. Religious people know all about their religion, which for the most part they use to condemn sinners like you and me, but Jesus gives us the power to move mountains and engender life. You will never be able to forget this fact.  From now on, every time you look at this child, you will know that Jesus visited him, restored him to life and all you have to do to come to this faith is pray, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me, a sinner.'”

Note: Mac is a very strong man today. When I told Mac the story of his healing, he was nineteen years old. I finished by saying, “Please, don’t take my word for it. Ask your mother and your father and see what they say, in fact, believe what they say, even if it is different than what I just told you.”  He lives seven hundred miles away, and on my next visit a couple years later, Mac invited me to his home for dinner. He had a couple of friends there who he wanted me to meet. They were amazing “characters.” One had literally raised himself and told me stories of his survival by faith. From the tenor of the conversation, it was obvious that they had been talking about practical faith in Jesus Christ.  I asked, “Did you tell your father the story I told you about your healing when you were an infant?”  He smiled and nodded yes. I asked, “Did he deny it?”   “Oh no,” he said, “No, he said that it was ‘f-ing magic,'" then Mac said it again, imitating his Dad, "F..ing, magic, of course, he didn't say f ..ing."  

"Is that it?"
"Well no, he said that you are a dangerous man.’”  (The reason for the last part, “dangerous man” is another story that will go to the grave with me.)

So to the owner of the medical practices who cautioned that I needed to be careful about what prayers I offer,
whose words were what prompted me to tell this story, I say, “Shame on you William X for arrogating to your limited humanistic understanding the wonders of which FAITH IN GOD is able. Yes, there is great wisdom in what you say, ‘IN GOD'S WILL’ as long as that ‘in God's will’ isn't the usual mantra of disbelief it most times is, an actual taking of the Name of the Lord in Vain, using it to cover our unbelief. Rather we say, "Lord I believe, help my unbelief."

Faith is the realization of things hoped for.  My grandson Mac, is pretty real.

Lesson Fourteen: The Eternal Moment and Things as They Are

"Thy Will be done - in the biologically changing world blinded by sin, as in the un-changeable, un-hampered reality of the eternal moment."

When I think along these lines I always remember one of the great statements of faith recorded outside the Bible in the pre-christian era. Recorded in part of the wisdom literature of the Greeks, which came to be known as ‘gnostic’ in lesser and corrupt forms. We find a story by Hermese Trismigistus (which means “the thrice great Hermese”) about the Shepherd of Mankind. Hermese reports that he was praying for his family, for his children especially fearing the effects the world was having on them, wondering how he was going to pass on to them his experience of “Wisdom”, that is his experience of the reality of God. (Echoes of the story of Enoch here – as recorded in the Book of Enoch) As he is deeply in prayer the Shepherd of Mankind appeared to him and said basically “Your sincere prayers have brought you favor with God, so I am here in answer to your prayers and am willing and able to answer any questions you have.” Hermese didn’t hesitate he said, “I want to know God and things as they are.” We might say, “Lord, teach me what is real” and if that is our sincere prayer, as we pray that prayer the Lord will begin to expose to us our own illusions. (Illusion - a mistaken perception of reality) But to get to this state where we begin to dismiss the fog of illusions, where we begin to “clear our vision” we have to overcome our “delusional state.” (Delusional state - mistaken and false beliefs that persist despite evidence to the contrary)

Delusions for the most part are part and parcel of our “personal religion” or better stated our “religious sickness.” Our “religious sickness” may not appear as “religion” at all; for instance we may be in lock step with the common culture and appear to society as the most rational non-religious of men. An example would be, a scientist who views himself as a practical man, a pragmatist who refuses to believe anything he cannot effect in the laboratory or anything outside of “defined” material reality. Such a one would seem to be anything but “religious” yet in fact such a one, refusing to recognize God in the equation, has inadvertently been deluded by the religion of “extreme materialism.” Or another example would be someone who has adopted the mythology of Darwinism’s Origin of Species, to the exclusion of God in the equation; such a one has been deluded by the religion of “Pure Darwinism.” These are examples of “systematized” philosophies people have purposely or inadvertently adopted. More common are the personal philosophies, adopted on a “gut level” from information grasped inadvertently in development, in ones environment, bits and pieces from the pop-culture, and various philosophical saying and an admixture of accidentally gathered or purposely gathered religion knowledge. Usually such bits and piece of “knowledge” are purposely chosen because they feel good at the time, and/or confirm some preconceived notion of childhood or later development. Such “personal philosophies” may be mildly debilitating or grossly warping. And of course we have the Cultural Marxist media programming people into hedonism and nihilism and constraining their intellect in Politically Correct and Multi-Cultural Solipsism.

Let me give three examples: (1) A person male or female who lives life by rote, moves and acts strictly on ‘received information’ who never critically questions the validity of any aspect of their family mythology, or peer mythology, which in these days is probably stronger; who fears anyone who does not conform to their norms, lives in fear of non-acceptance, carefully ‘acting the part’ their family/peer mythology requires no matter how they feel inwardly or what questions may arrive. The opposite of this person, (the other side of the same coin) is one who mindlessly rebels. One side of the coin is characterized by a grinding fear of failing, which precludes the person from acting upon any course but the prescribed course. The other side is characterized by the fear of disappearing, making it impossible to conform even when such a course would be to their personal advantage.

(2) A sort of middle ground might be demonstrated by the hard drinking red neck, unable to take life very seriously, good natured fun the rule, with an ever increasing cynical edge as he ages, refusing to mature, still partying at 50, mocking any questioning of his life choices, mocking anyone who takes life seriously.

(3) The psychopath or psychotic, totally insulated unable to touch life, oblivious to the experience of anything but his own needs.

Each example above represents different levels of intrinsic selfishness.

The first time I read Hermese’s request, “I want to know God and things as they are” I was dumbfounded by the wisdom of it and its implication began to work on me. Illusion is false perceptions, delusion is false beliefs; in other words, our perception of what is real in any place or event is predicated upon our core self, how we are formed, what we have chosen to take into ourselves. The more delusional our core being, the more illusory (clouded) is our perception. Saint Paul wrote about the degradation and even disintegration of the mind of the prideful saying:

Rom 1:28 And just as they did not approve to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do the things which are not fitting; having been filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, greed, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness; they are whisperers, slanderers, hateful to God, insolent men, proud, braggarts, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, having known the righteous judgment of God, that those practicing such things are worthy of death, not only do them, but also approve of those who practice them.

Surely we can recognize in these words “sub-cultures” that exist in our neighborhoods, which we collectively call gangs. At least gangs are honest “do bad” societies. What about the hypocritical “do bad” societies like cults, where any “evil” is acceptable to protect the illusion of goodness the cult wishes to project to the world? In the same vein, politics and corporations at the beginning of the twenty first century in the U.S. have become cultish, where the “corporate culture” or “party line” becomes its theology and any sacrifice (evil) is justified for the good of the corporation or party. How many stories of poisonous drugs, poison contaminated foods and dog foods, defective air bags and brakes and parking gears, have we seen where the corporation purposely ignored carnage, and let it continue for PROFIT.  And the mentality has crept into government. Look at all the people damaged in Flint, Michigan, because of the conspiracy to cover up the massive lead contamination in the water supply.

No one could rightly deny that terrorist organizations have become “killing cults” and we have seen in history that entire nations can become “killing cults”, where the most despicable anti-human acts are perpetrated in the name of “for human good.” The deluded Al Qaeda/ISIS member perpetrates anti-human acts of terror, not because he sees himself as “evil” but because he has become so deluded he thinks he is acting “for human good.” Is he not full of malice, full of envy, an inventor of evil things, without understanding, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful? Are the Utopian Globalists less evil? How can individuals and societies (gangs, cults, parties, corporations, even nations) become so blindly deluded?

Orthodoxy might state it this way, “The perception of Truth is primarily a matter of purity or character.” When in impurity we choose also to “deceive” we have come full circle, at the same time we have exposed the “wages of sin” which are progressively: Illusion, Delusion, Deception and finally Death. The which, not incidentally, is the full arsenal of Satan’s power.  The story of Satan’s fall is a story of progressive delusion, as he began to fancy himself equal to God. The story of Adam and Eve is a story of Satan’s own delusion exercised in deception, creating illusion, delusion, deception and death. This is why Satan is called, The Liar and The Great Deceiver.

When we take that added step “to deceive” which is unavoidable in the economy of humanity as we share our ideas, perceptions, opinions, impressions etc, if they are from a core that is “impure” i.e. deluded, our “natural conversation” becomes in lock step with Satan as our delusions, offered as “truth,” act in others to deceive. We pass our delusion, our own false beliefs, to friends and children:
Exo 20:5-6 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and forth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

In America for whatever societal/religious reasons we greatly value the “miraculous.” For us it is a particular challenge, the thought that all miracles might not be “for the good.” How could it be that those empowered to create signs and wonders, miracles of healing and casting out devils could stand before the judgment seat and Christ say, “Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you”? Jesus explains it clearly, “Thus every good tree produces good fruit, but a rotten tree produces evil fruit. A good tree cannot produce evil fruit, nor can a rotten tree produce good fruit.” Matt. 7:18. When Jesus was genuinely healing people they accused him saying, “He casts out devils by the Evil One.” Of course Jesus answered saying, “How can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man?” Yet in our era, for every real there is a false, and I don’t necessarily mean a “fake”, for just as there is the appearance of Christ and anti-christ, both having the “appearance” of goodness so there are miracles by the Spirit of Christ and by the spirit of anti-christ.

Like a pebble hitting a still pond produces concentric waves in proportion to its weight and velocity, so too our words and actions radiate from us, characterized by the condition of our core, they are healing or destructive, pointing towards truth or filled with deception, an exact mirror of our deepest selves. Is it any wonder then that the early monastic movement taught that the employment of silence and stillness (not absence of labor but absence of willful-action) was the quickest way to get to spiritual purity, or that the pre-christian monks of many philosophies taught basically the same thing?

One of the Orthodox Fathers wrote that if one is filled with sinful temptation and despondency that one should keep ones mouth shut and not spread the disease, but in private continue to confess and to call upon Christ at every moment for deliverance. He wasn’t suggesting that one should “fake it until one makes it” spiritually speaking, but rather he was acknowledging the reality that “sin” is “disease” and expressions of the sinful heart are contaminated with sickness that is contagious.

When one grasps this foundational truth, “One cannot act contrary to the reality of ones own nature” the true and deepest meaning of the Sermon on the Mount comes into view. Those who “think” they act contrary to their own nature, are simply holders of that delusion. There is an old saying, “An honest man cannot be conned.” Why? Because we cannot be conned by another by any means we have not already con ourselves. Apply this to the crowds arriving and “blessing” the Carney Evangelist; apply this also to those arriving to see the priest/magician, with the weeping Icon; apply this to all eager to see ANY sign and wonder; apply this to any unwilling to seek wisdom as to the source and means of the “miraculous,” both the real and the counterfeit.

The skilled confidence man knows that the only way that he can get one over on the “mark”(his victim) is through the mark’s own weaknesses, delusions and lusts. The first delusion the con man uses in this culture is the common delusion that “everybody is basically good.” He knows that people will do all sorts of things to affirm to themselves and even to strangers that they are a “basically good person.” Next he finds a way that he can tempt a person to act (usually to act on greed) while the mark tells himself or herself that, “though I may benefit from this action, I am acting because I’m a good person, because I wish to help out, or because I am a smart person, or because I am spiritual person, or because I am a special person _______” fill in the blank. Many people have been robbed of material wealth by this simple delusion – “I am a good person.”

St. Peter of Damaskos lists all the “weaknesses” (passions) of man that he found in scripture; it is quite amazing.  Some of these “passions” are illusions, some are delusions, some are confusion, some are purposeful deceptions and all have the potential to lead to death.

Here is the list:
harshness
trickery
malice
perversity
Mindlessness
Licentiousness
Enticement
Dullness
lack of understanding
idleness
sluggishness
stupidity
flattery
silliness
idiocy
madness
derangement
coarseness
rashness
cowardice
lethargy
dearth of good actions
moral errors
greed,
over-frugality
ignorance
folly
spurious knowledge
forgetfulness
lack of discrimination
obduracy (obstanance)
injustice
evil intention
a conscienceless soul
slothfulness
idle chatter
breaking of faith,
wrongdoing
sinfulness
lawlessness
criminality
passion
seduction
assent to evil
mindless coupling
demonic provocation
dallying
bodily comfort beyond what is required
vice
stumbling
sickness of soul
enervation (lack of physical, emotional, moral vigor)
weakness of intellect
negligence
laziness
a reprehensible despondency
disdain of God
aberration (departing from what is real)
transgression
unbelief
lack of faith
wrong belief
poverty of faith
heresy
fellowship in heresy
polytheism
idolatry
ignorance of God
impiety
magic
astrology
divination
sorcery
denial of God
the love of idols
dissipation
profligacy
loquacity,
indolence
self-love
inattentiveness
lack of progress
deceit
delusion
audacity
witchcraft
defilement
the eating of unclean food
soft living
dissoluteness
voracity
unchastity
avarice,
anger
dejection
listlessness
self-esteem
pride
presumption
self-elation
boastfulness
infatuation
foulness
satiety,
doltishness
torpor
sensuality
over-eating
gluttony
insatiability
secret eating
hoggishness
solitary eating,
indifference
fickleness
self-will
thoughtlessness
self-satisfaction
love of popularity
ignorance of beauty
uncouthness
gaucherie
light-mindedness
boorishness
rudeness
contentiousness
quarrelsomeness
abusiveness
shouting
brawling
fighting
rage
mindless desire
gall
exasperation
giving offence
enmity
meddlesomeness
chicanery
asperity
slander
censure
calumny
condemnation
accusation
hatred
railing
insolence
dishonor,
ferocity
frenzy
severity
aggressiveness
forswearing oneself
oathtaking
lack of compassion
hatred of one's brothers,
partiality
patricide
matricide
breaking fasts
laxity
acceptance of bribes
theft
rapine
jealousy
strife
envy
indecency
jesting
vilification
mockery
derision
exploitation
oppression
disdain of one's neighbor
flogging
making sport of others
hanging
throttling
heartlessness
implacability
covenant-breaking
bewitchment
harshness
shamelessness
impudence
obfuscation of thoughts
obtuseness
mental blindness
attraction to what is fleeting
impassionedness
frivolity
disobedience
dullwittedness
drowsiness of soul
excessive sleep
fantasy
heavy drinking
drunkenness
uselessness
slackness
mindless enjoyment
self-indulgence
venery
using foul language
effeminacy
unbridled desire
burning lust
masturbation
pimping
adultery
sodomy
bestiality
defilement
wantonness
a stained soul
incest
uncleanliness
pollution
sordidness
feigned affection
laughter
jokes
immodest dancing
clapping
improper songs
revelry
fluteplaying
license of tongue
excessive love of order
insubordination
disorderliness
reprehensible collusion
conspiracy
warfare
killing
brigandry
sacrilege
illicit gains
usury
wiliness
grave-robbing
hardness of heart
obloquy
complaining
blasphemy
fault-finding
ingratitude
malevolence
contemptuousness
pettiness
confusion
lying
verbosity
empty words,
mindless joy
daydreaming
mindless friendship
bad habits
nonsensicality
silly talk
garrulity
niggardliness
depravity
intolerance
irritability
affluence
rancor
misuse
ill-temper
clinging to life
ostentation
affectation
pusillanimity
satanic love
curiosity
contumely
lack of the fear of God
unteachability
senselessness
haughtiness
self-vaunting
self-inflation
scorn for one's neighbor
mercilessness
insensitivity
hopelessness
spiritual paralysis
hatred of God
despair
suicide
a falling away from God in all things
utter destruction

--Altogether 298 Passions:
"These, then, are the passions which are named in the Holy Scriptures. I have set them down in a single list, as I did at the beginning of my discourse with the various books I have used. I have not tried, and nor would I have been able, to arrange them all in order; this would have been beyond my powers, for the reason given by St. John Climacus: `If you seek understanding among wicked men, you will not find it.' For all that the demons produce is disorderly. In common with the godless and the unjust, the demons have but one purpose: to destroy the souls of those who accept their evil counsel. Yet sometimes they actually help men to attain holiness. In these instances they are conquered by the patience and faith of those who put their trust in the Lord, and who through their good actions and resistance to evil thoughts counteract the demons and bring down curses upon them."



Honest, if you want to take a deep psychological journey down the road of human illusion, delusion, confusion, deception and death, I would suggest taking Webster's 1828 dictionary (available online) and examining each of these words. Trust me I could write a doctoral dissertation on the significance of these words, vis a vis human weakness and the early American understanding of the same according to Webster's 1828 American English Dictionary vs the Whitewashing of these words in the 20th century.  You see, Webster was not insane, and was not trying to remove the meaning from words, as the later Cultural Marxist dictionaries have done. 

Peter of Damaskos obviously had a lot of time on his hands trying to “systematize” the illusions, delusions and weaknesses of man, from scripture. He used St John Climacus’ words to emphasize that such a task is hopeless, since it is the process of mucking about in a sea of confusion. And really that is the point I want to make with it, to draw a line between “Wisdom” and “Confusion.” Christ’s coming and dying did not nullify the great Wisdom Literature of Holy Scripture. In fact, via the Power of the Holy Spirit available to us today, its “secrets” ought to be easier for us to access and comprehend. Yet, in the name of the Holy Spirit, this great treasure is more and more ignored by Christians of all stripes, and substituted in its place is a sort of “soulish intuition,” an unenlightened ignorance, which carries us about by whims of emotion, purported to be “leading of the Holy Spirit.” Sadly, some have substituted the rambling of preachers, or the sanctity of priests, connection through a purity of jurisdiction, when there is nothing that can substitute for actual reaching to the True Wisdom of God, that is “to Know God and things as they are.” There are no substitutes for this.

Peter of Damaskos’ list comes to us translated from one language to another, from one culture to another, from a perspective of monastic living to the realities of modern life, yet many, many . . . too many of the passions he names may be seen as “universal.” In the confusing array, some are aspects of another and some may not be “passions” at all. I don’t understand for instance why, David’s harp playing, cymbal crashing, drum beating is not “passion” but flute playing is, and clapping is. These are obviously cultural things, not properly translating out of the culture in which they were observed. But in any event look at how the others apply to our actions springing from the reality of our core. Look at how many apply to us going through life inattentive to the state of our mind and heart, acting or not-acting based upon illusion and delusion, paralyzed as it were by confusion.

I noticed that “mindless joy” was listed. I was a little taken aback since Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. But then upon a little reflection I’ve witnessed people who were “poor deluded creatures” (to quote Batman) and filled with joy. Many cultists find this false or “mindless joy” in their religious sickness. I’m sure the Jihadi fanatics find joy in their conspiratorial “fellowship” just as the old KKK rallies were rollicking good times and the camaraderie of NAZI Brown Shirts was warm and uplifting. In each case it is nothing more than the esprit de corps of pagans and barbarians, i.e. mindless joy.

This list of “weaknesses” from scripture may or may not be a complete list of the means we have to fool ourselves; it may or may not be a complete list of the weaknesses a con man may used to deceive us; it may or may not be a complete list of the tools Satan may own in us for our own destruction. But one has to acknowledge the diabolical genius of the Evil One, creating unique webs of delusion where even the appearance of good may be evil, where even the most sacred is mimicked, where even the healing power of the stripes of our Lord is aped. THIS is the nature of anti-Christs, which is very different than the honest “enemies of Christ.” What is anti-christ, mimics what is real. 

A heart filled with the passions cannot perceive truth. A heart filled with the passions cannot discriminate between true miracle and charlatanism. A heart filled with the passions is stymied in all good works. Regardless of the good motives, the appearance of philanthropy and sweat of brow, “the loving kindness of the wicked is cruelty.” Likewise the rebuke of a righteous man is “kindness.”

Pro 12:10 A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

The bold prayer of Hermese, “I want to know God, and things as they are” is so important in its purely Christian parallels. One cannot come to know “things as they are” without first gaining knowledge of Truth who walked among us. We stand in a spiritual stupor when our knowledge of things as they are is a product of our “common culture” which in the first decade of the twenty-first century has proven itself to be insane. Name any aspect of the culture and one with eyes to see can point out the delusions, that is, “the common beliefs held, despite ample demonstrable/contradictory facts.” Just to quickly name one: The mythology that Climate Change is the result of the actions of common man. There most certainly is Climate Change, and there is Global Warming, make no mistake, it is quite severe, causing drastic melting of the polar ice caps . . . on Mars! Yes, on Mars. The atmosphere on Mars, more susceptible to the variations of the radiance of the Sun has been in a period of warming, many times greater than the mere .6 degree in average yearly temperature the earth’s atmosphere has experienced, since the time scientists began keeping such records. The ample demonstrable/contradictory facts are clear since there are no humans on Mars and we share the same Sun, and independently, scientists have also measured an increase in the Sun’s radiance on earth. Yet these two pivotal facts have not been applied to the “mythology” that Global Warming is caused by human action.

Even the Ecumenical Patriarch has thrown in with the radical and blind Cultural Marxist ecologists. He convened an international symposium on Global Warming a few years ago, giving yet another platform to these radicals. Nothing explains this other than societal/cultural insanity. In fact when NASA published its report about the Global Warming on Mars, the clamor that humans cause Global Warming increased exponentially. NASA’s report was relegated to their own web-pages, the back pages of newspapers and not covered by the National Electronic Media at all. Please understand that what I’m saying is not “radical theory” it is instead “knowable, provable scientific data” published by no less than NASA (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and NOAA (the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) parent of the National Weather Service. And in 2010 NASA published the data measuring the heat radiating from earth, and the actual heat radiated (i.e. dissipated via heat radiation) from earth was magnitudes greater than any climatological model’s assumptions, proving the total fiction that were the common computer projections.

Of course we ought to be good stewards of our beautiful home, our earth; of course we ought to treat it with respect and do all in our power to leave it in better shape than the generation before us. But this “good stewardship” has nothing to do with false mythologies. It has instead to do with Wisdom of God, which produces in the human psyche “thankfulness and respect” for all God’s creatures and all God’s creation. And with the Wisdom of God comes the realization that “creation moans and groans for the renewal of all things, that will accompany the revelation of the sons of God.” The single most powerful thing we can do for the ecology of our planet is take our prayer life seriously, praying for our own healing/salvation, that we may both be good stewards of the earth and that we may hasten the revelation of the Sons of God. 

Rom 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

All this to bring us back to that truth written by C.S. Lewis. "I pray not to change God or cause Him to act, but to change me." We could paraphrase, “I pray, not to gain power over others, but love in my own heart.” “I pray, not to cause an effect in the world, but to heal the defects in me.” “I pray, not from knowledge but by Faith, that I might learn how to pray genuinely with knowledge.” “I pray, not for wealth but for wisdom.” “I pray, not for signs and wonders, but for healing/salvation.” “I pray, not to become special and holy, but to become real.” “I pray, to be released from prison, to gain the freedom neither Satan nor death can hinder.” “I pray to gain a mind and heart in which Satan with his web of deceit owns NOTHING.”

It is only with this understanding that the words of Jesus ring clear: we should not seek miracles or signs or wonders, but the kingdom of God, wherein is our healing, and
completion.
Mat 6:33 "But be seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these [things] will be added to you.”
All these?? In this context, literally what we will eat, what we will drink, what we will wear, and since he says that this is what even the pagans seek, he means for our focus
to be “more.” Not more of the same, heaping wealth upon ourselves as the prosperity gospel heresy suggests, but “More” as in everything that leads to true health, true
wealth, and real-everlasting - LIFE. I can hear him say, “While you seek what is REAL, I’ll protect you, that you may find it.” “While you chase after what is false, you remain the
slave of the father of lies.”

A Serious Caution for Sincere Orthodox Believers

Is it possible that the Veneration of Icons could ever degenerate to the Worship of Idols? This question in no way questions the validity of the findings of The Seventh Ecumenical Council, which took place in Nicaea in 787 AD, and is also known as the Second Council of Nicaea. This Council rightly restored the use of Icons in Christian worship and rightly stood against the prevalent “iconoclast heresy” of the day. History clearly shows that the battle with the iconoclast heresy of that day was yet another round fought against Gnosticism or at least the influence of certain Gnostic concepts in Islam. Bottom-line, it was an attempt by Satan himself to exclusively own the visual means of human communication and to permanently block the communication of the Gospel and depiction of the sacred via visual means. Amazing trick if he could have pulled it off! And in a web of diabolical genius the iconoclast heresy was couched in language that seemed to protect the Gospel and Christian worship from “pagan influence” and a huge portion of The Church was fooled by this deceit. Using Icons as symbols of Holiness and Sanctity in the communication of the Gospel and the work of the worship of God is what the Seventh Council affirmed. Knowing now what a powerful influence “visual media” is, can you imagine it as the sole property of Satan? Yet this would have been the result of the heresy.

Put that larger picture and debate aside, might an Icon become an Idol? This question is a companion question to: Can religion become a sickness? And of course the answer to both is, in the hands of the deceiver, in the hands of the magician, yes it certainly can. There is no more enthusiastic teacher of “all things God” than Satan himself, cunningly choking off the “revelation of the real” substituting the false creatively.

The power of the Tangible Sacred Artifact:
Any iconoclast Protestant fundamentalist were they to look upon a true relic of the Cross of Christ, a documented true relic of the cross, they would intrinsically know that it was something very special, though it were mere wood. Instinctively they would be in awe of it, wish to protect it, not to harm it, not to be the person that lost it to history, certainly not the person to destroy it. They would automatically discover a new bond to Christ Jesus, in the reality of that physical object. Were we Orthodox to venerate a sliver of wood, purported to be a scrap of the True Cross of Christ, a sliver of wood sold to the unsuspecting in times past by a charlatan, no more a part of the true cross than a splinter of wood from my desk, would that be an idolatrous act? NO, for the sliver of wood has become a true symbol, a true Icon of the true cross, a material connection via “symbol” to something especially sacred and grace filled. However, were we to expect that sliver of wood to turn crimson, or radiate especial light, or put on some other “show for us” and were some magician through his trickery to create this illusion for us, THEN it would be idolatry.

Lesson Thirteen: The Death of God

The Death of God - Have Morals, Truth and Civility Fared Better?

Dr Thomas J.J. Altizer

October 24, 2012

Spent a little while this afternoon in my favorite bookstore, owned by a friend who is an agnostic theosophist. He is struggling to come to faith, any faith, I think. I found an old volume "the death of god" (not capital letters which was the vogue at the time) published in 1966, written by an old acquaintance of mine, Thomas J.J. Altizer the infamous professor of Bible and religion at Emory University where he taught from 1956 to 1968. I met him at Manuel's Tavern located at N. Highland and Ponce de Leon in Atlanta where he liked to hang out. 

When I met him he was just about to become famous. I was a teenager willing to listen to anyone's story. (Don't ask what a teenager was doing in a bar - that answer would take a book, I think I would entitle it "The Emancipated Minor." )  J.J. introduced me to modern American theology and single malt scotch. Trust me when I tell you that modern American theology only has context after about three shots of scotch. 

In his book he said, "Observing that the waters of European theology are at present somewhat stagnant, Karl Barth recently said that what we need in Europe and America is not a renewal of an older form of theology but a 'theology of freedom' that looks ahead and strives forward."' 

Here it is 46 years later in the autumn of 2012. Tell me J.J., how did that work out for us? I think you got your wish! One could write volumes about this failure, about the devolution of society and culture, about the exponential increase of every violence and evil, about the destruction of the family, the insanity of a culture that can believe a Human Being can Violate the Natural Law of Non-Contradiction and that a Man can be a WIFE and Mother; and that a Woman, can be a HUSBAND and Father. It is insanity incapable of understanding the "nature" the anatomy of the Human Being, created in the image of God, Male and Female.  I could tell J.J., about the explosion of the Occult, Satanism, Scientology, New Ageism, the present carnage of Political Islam/Jihadism, the worldwide Luciferian movement that is claiming as its own the philosophy of the Saints of the Middle Ages, supplanting Lucifer as the benevolent "knowledge creator" and Jehovah as an evil attack from the ream of darkness.  I could tell him about a host of other spiritualistic religious sicknesses, suicide cults and prosperity Gospel cults, trying to fill the void created by American theology and American religionism.  I could tell him his hope of theological freedom has borne fruit, how one in five children are on some kind of psychotropic drugs, under the care of Marxist psycho-political operators or their dupes, how one in four adults is on mind altering psychotropic drugs, and prescription drugs have become the new tobacco industry with far deadlier result and all the other expressions of the Culture of Death that "theological freedom" has produced.

Piedmont Park, Atlanta In the Hippy Days

Seeing J J's book was like meeting an old friend. At my young age, I was a closed book, really a blank screen, willing to let anyone feel comfortable projecting their image on me, absorbing like a sponge, not "belief" but information.  I had a basis to judge as true or false the thoughts I encountered because I had met Jesus Christ in such a special way at the age of thirteen, (a later lesson) that would never allow me to doubt HIS reality. It was a huge blessing because at the same time I had lost all faith in every religious form and doubted every theology. But somehow through the theological/philosophical forest, Jesus Christ was real, but everything else was suspect. 

If you are old enough to remember that era in Atlanta, I sometimes played piano at a hippy dive on 14th street; I have been trying to recall the name of that basement club but cannot pull it out. There I watched the street people, listened to anything anyone wanted to say. This was my "secret life" away from the religion and the community of my parents and extended family.  It was an education. I met  Stokley Carmichael the black power guru, and witnessed Jesus Christ to him and he mocked me, he thought I was a joke, but he liked me. I met the marxist, the peaceniks, the free love evangelists, the prostitutes, the runaways. It was an interesting, even revolutionary time to be alive. I also witnessed the racial tensions, the riots, the peace marches, it was the era between the assassinations of JFK and Dr King. 

Despite the turbulent times, the era held a common delusion I did not share.  In that era, were you to claim there was actual evil in the world you would cause gales of laughter, so caught in Social Darwinism was society.  It was locked in a humanistic belief in evolutionary human perfection. Much like today, just like the Biblical Literalists are ever expecting the rapture, so then and now the evolutionary Darwinists are expecting the sudden evolutionary step.  It was this sick delusion that had created this era. It was what I described in a previous lesson, "just love and be nice"; the age of peace has arrived, but on mind altering drugs and easy sex, while Vietnam was raging and civil unrest was the norm. Only a few years and the free love hippy generation turned into an MKUltra horror show, the CIA providing the drugs, the Mansion Family Massacres and one of the innocent looking Beach Boys almost losing his soul and his life under the influence of that demonic and charismatic evil that posses Charles Manson. It was the beginning of Doctor Jeffrey McDonald's decades of persecution. It was the era when the sicko-psychopath pedophile Dr Kinsey had hypnotized people into narcissistic idolatrous sexuality and the prophet of the sexual revolution Hugh Hefner was making his mark. Timothy Leary was dropping acid in public, (also a CIA asset) Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael were preaching race hatred, and Dr King was hounded by the FBI. The first picture I saw of J. Edgar Hover in drag was circulating, and in a real way the world had gone mad. We have not recovered, but millions are wiser.  

  

Seeing that book "the death of god" on the shelf was almost like stepping through a tunnel in time and would that it were possible to share the "before and after" reality of that 46 year experience, in a meaningful way and the lessons learned. Sadly each generation has to learn these lessons again and again, and in 2012 in the face of the new atheism, legal pot, once again the government supplying the drugs, who can guess what society will appear 46 years from now.

I stopped at my favorite tobacco shop and spent some time talking with my Hindu Indian friend. The book and the experience of those days still very much on my mind, he told me that he had read Altizer's Memoirs, Living the Death of God. I didn't know he had written it; I haven't read it yet, but am curious. When I left, having sampled and purchased 3 ounces of a pipe tobacco blend called "Cherry Bon Bon" awesome stuff, I passed a Greek Orthodox Church, which represents the poster-child of what the 60s post-modernists were rejecting. It reminded me of a lifetime of experience between those two worlds, and so many characters. My oldest brother and best friend, Bill (memory eternal) use to say to me, "The world used to have characters. There are too few characters, now." He was talking about the homogenizing culture of the 70s and 80s recovering in shock, and in a sick way from the 60s. "But" he would remind me, "your life has no shortage of characters." Yes, I collected characters, because characters tell stories, and teach lessons. Bill would not have wasted much time talking to J.J., that is why he saw too few characters.

 Altizer was not so radical, but then he was the opposite of "Orthodox." He taught that the immanence of the holy spirit was God emptying himself into matter and that the transcendent God thus "suicided," and that God's emptying himself, through the crucifixion, ceased to exist except as matter. No longer would followers be able to dismiss the present world as transient. They would have to embrace the present completely, and keep all meaning in the here and now. 

 Like I say, J.J. wasn't so radical as the headlines he generated, "God is Dead!" He wasn't saying God is dead, exactly. He was just another heretic mixing modern philosophy with ancient theology and a touch of New Age mysticism, claiming to have discovered something. Orthodoxy thoroughly accepts the immanence of God, his creative energies coursing BEING into existence nano-second by nano-second, what I call for convenience "The primary Grace of Being." There is not a monad of energy that fires this BEING without HIM.  And further the understanding and the EXPERIENCE of The Way, teaches us, by that experience, the Godhead did not have to suicide to be immanent and indeed did not suicide, since all things exist "of Him, in Him, through Him, by Him." Simply put, God can circumscribe Being, but Being cannot circumscribe God. Like most post-modern theologians, I think what Altizer struggled to reject was not God, but the Person Jesus Christ. He merely created a new form of Unitarianism, a Godless one.  Anyway, I digress, that Greek Orthodox Church had a sign on the marque out front that read, "We had better discover our only hope and help, or brace for the worst."  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said it clearly, "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened." 

"Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: 'Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.' Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.'” -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, (Edward E. Ericson, Jr., “Solzhenitsyn – Voice from the Gulag,” Eternity, October 1985, pp. 23-4)

We should not fear those who do not believe, or those who believe wrongly, if we have met Jesus Christ truly. When sincere seekers are tied to Christ, even the works and words of heretical theologians, agnostics and atheists can be turned to blessing. "All things work together for the good of those that Love the Lord and are the called according to his purpose."

My dear brother, now reposed, at the time in the 60s was a bitter Marxist/Atheist. I think he took his little brother seriously for the first time when home on leave from the military, he spent time at Manuel's one evening, with J.J. and me. By that time J.J. had become famous, or infamous, all according to your view. Don was just impressed that I was "friends" with a man who had caused Time magazine and news papers across the country to publish at Easter time, a blazoned headline, "GOD IS DEAD." In the eyes of a Marxist Atheist that was "street credit" whether he understood the sophistication of J.J's theology or not. I don't think he did. 

I had no idea who or what my brother would become, who or what I would become. But that night J.J. quoted Don a line, from a footnote of his book, (he just happened to have with him) seeing me frustrated dealing with my atheist brother. He said, "Dostoevsky has a special meaning for the word atheist that does perhaps fit your brother Don. In a fragment from The Possessed that does not appear in the final draft, but which has been published recently under the title Stavrogin's Confession, the monk Tikhon says: 'Complete atheism is more respectable than worldly indifference . . . A complete atheist stands on the last rung but one before absolute faith (he may or may not step higher), but an indifferent man has no longer any faith at all, nothing but an ugly fear, and that only on rare occasions, if he is a sentimental man."

That image of my brother, on the last rung of the ladder, I realized to be more true than not, because he was curious and always wanted to engage in deep conversation. He loved examining everything. I kept my brother in conversation, discussing every idea under the sun, for nearly two decades, until life and friendship, love, which is the presence of God, the drawing of the Holy Spirit, created great faith in him. And this happened by MANY means. I lived to see him become one of the Vice Presidents of Delta Airlines, a man of such strong faith that he faced death with peace and resolve at a young age, just in his fifties struck down with a rare form of incurable leukemia.  

He had been in hospital for a week, some days touch and go, but it appeared by weeks end that he had so much improved that he sent the rest of the family home, (some who had gathered from hundreds of miles, were already many hours away) and when I arrived that Sunday afternoon, he told his wife and others to go to dinner, to take time and relax. He knew the week had been rough on them. When they left, he turned to me and said, "You know what I have to do and I didn’t want to do this without you." He looked strong and the doctors were talking about releasing him. What he was saying was incongruent. I could not make his visual image, match his words, yet, in my gut I knew the eternal meaning of what he was saying. Yet, knowing the answer I asked anyway, "Are you saying what I think you are saying?" He just nodded, yes. When I started to speak, to of course offer an alternative to "giving up the ghost" he said, "Butch, all the words have been spoken, just BE here with me."  You see I knew he had taken great care to build and complete the part he was to keep. So much so, I knew even though by then I was a priest, he was so much more complete than me. The sanctity I could see in him, shamed me that day, like another day, standing before Saint Sarah. I knew I had much struggle ahead and that it would not be easy. I could not help but envy him and even that envy shamed me. 

I sat by tears streaming feeling such peace, grief and anxiety all at the same time.  About twenty minutes later he said, "Something is happening, I'm going to call the nurse."  He went unconscious in a matter of minutes and reposed a few hours later peacefully having never regained consciousness.  The presence of the Holy Spirit was like a bright fog in his room. When the church talks about the air turning luminous in the presence of sanctity, it is not a metaphor. All I could hear was that prayer I had prayed thousands of times, "That the Lord may obtain for us pardon of our sins, a sound mind and a Christian and peaceful end to our lives, Grant this, O Lord."

Don was so non-assuming, when he was promoted to be one of the several vice presidents of Delta Airlines, he didn't tell me, I don't think he told anyone. I knew he had risen near the top, but I had no idea that near. Standing wake, a fellow introduced himself, that he was a friend of Don's and that he knew who I was, he said, "You're Butch, I recognize you from your pictures. You are a priest, prison chaplain, composer, piano tuner, recording and visual artist, Don bragged about you quite a bit." I asked him how he knew Don and he said Delta. So I asked him what he did. He said he was over system avionics. I asked, "Like the computers that fly the planes and all the instrumentation?" He nodded yes, I asked in surprise, “over the whole system?"  He said, "Worldwide." 
"Wow! That's impressive. Who do YOU report to?" 
He said, "Until Sunday, him" pointing at Don in the coffin, "VP of Operations."  I've told this story to other siblings and they look at me funny, he didn't tell them either. That, my friend, is a man who understood what was important.

 
So simple the faith and courage to face physical death without terror, what a blessing for a younger brother to witness, especially the death of a former atheist/marxist who came to unshakable faith SUDDENLY and seriously, stepping off that last rung, as J.J. had stated it, nearly 40 years before.  Dostoevsky was right, the step from Atheism to great and unshakable faith is but one rung in the ladder, even upon the very ladder of Jacob. (ref Genesis Chapter 28)

Those unwilling to doubt, unwilling to challenge, unwilling to question will never gain the unshakable faith of The Way. They are the first path clingers to the known, superstitious and sometimes bitter people whose driving force is fear, their religion is sickness and every doubt is a demonic shadow, a wicked plot with no healing properties. Such is not The Way.

The Way is not a road map, it is not a theory, it is the willingness to seek what is TRUTH. Even if you believe there is no God, FIND the TRUTH of it; prove it to yourself. That was how Don found the faith. He used the method that I quoted of Dr. Judy Wood, "When you have eliminated all possibilities, you have to accept the facts, no matter how implausible those facts may seem." AND he did not take this in a theory so he could impress his friends with arrogant atheism; rather he tested his non-God theory in LIFE, in the experience of his LIVING, by willingly having others who believe call on God for him. Most atheists, whose atheism is shallow, would find this frightening. In FEAR they would MOCK the idea of "testing" to see if God is real. It was for Don the witness of impossible situations resolved by prayer, he witnessed it over, and over again, in the experience of his life, destroying the possibility of coincidence. Making of coincidence a statistical impossibility. He would say to me, "You know I don't believe, but if you would pray about x, y, or z. I would appreciate it."  The reason he used this language was because he knew that if he gave me the language of the indifferent, you know, "Send so and so some kind thoughts."  I would say, "No, rather I'll pray for them." He was on The Way, experiencing The Way, for the first part of the hike, claiming all the while that The Way did not exist. 

Even after he started attending Church, for the sake of his children born to him when he was in his late thirties, it was as a social convenience and political advantage; he was still a skeptic. But changed when he witnessed a friend’s four-year-old girl's sight restored by prayer. (I wrote the story down somewhere when he told me about it, twenty plus years ago. I will try to find it and include it in a subsequent lesson) 

Those willing to actually seek the Truth will FIND HIM. Those following a theory, or experiencing through a mediator, dealing merely with mental abstractions, rationalizing and/or romanticizing will rarely find TRUTH. Our only hope is Truth, and TRUTH is a person who walked among us and taught us; Who suffered for us, Who conquered death, hell and the grave; Who comes to us in person and makes himself known to us. His name is Jesus Christ and it is highly doubtful in this culture of American Religionism that you have heard much that is true about Him.

One does not need to be a philosopher or great theologian to recognize the truth desperately needed for this time, "We had better discover our only hope and help, or brace for the worst." 

Here was my Icon corner before I knew what Icons were, 1963. It was here where I would pray on those days I sipped scotch with Thomas J.J. Altizer. I hope he has stepped over those millions of words and stepped from that last rung to unshakable faith.
"Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on us."

My Brothers, Donald and Bill, pray for me that God will grant me repentance before the end.

Archpriest Symeon Elias and Friends.