Tuesday, February 7 (January 25), 2023

2Peter 2:9-22; Mk. 13:14-23

“If any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, He is there; believe him not” [Mk. 13:21].   Christ our Lord and Savior, having established His Holy Church on earth, is well pleased to abide here as her Head, Life-giver and Ruler.  Christ is right here, in the Orthodox Church, not anywhere else: it’s a folly to seek Him elsewhere.

Therefore, if a member of a non-Orthodox group comes to you and says that Christ is there, ─ believe him not.  And if you hear from someone that they have an Apostolic community, that they have Christ in their midst, ─ believe him not.  The Church founded by the Apostles has been around ever since: it is the Orthodox Church.  And Christ is here.

As far as a group or congregation is concerned which has been founded only recently, ─ it cannot possibly be Apostolic, and it does not have Christ.  If you hear anyone claiming that Christ is speaking through him, while he shuns the Church, disdains her pastors and avoids her Sacraments, ─ believe him not: rather than Christ, he has a totally different spirit which, under the assumed name of Christ, drags people away from Him and from His Holy Church.

And in general, do not believe anyone who says anything, no matter how small, contrary to the Church.  Those who do that ought to be viewed as instruments of a deceitful spirit, as teachers of falsehood.

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