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THE MYSTERY of the CHURCH the Orthodox Church from Adam to the Second Coming of Christ

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THE MYSTERY of the CHURCH the Orthodox Church from Adam to the Second Coming of Christ THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH The Orthodox Church from Adam to the Second Coming of Christ Vladimir Moss © Vladimir Moss, 2010. All Rights Reserved. He who wishes personal salvation and who wishes to be a true son of the Orthodox Church, must seek in her deliverance from the flood as in the ark of Noah. He who fears the terrible thunder of anathema that overwhelms soul and body must take upon himself the most sweet yoke of Christ - the ecclesiastical dogmas. Let him tame the unruliness of his mind with the ecclesiastical laws and submit in all things to his Mother - the Church! St. John Chrysostom. Nothing is more abiding than the Church: she is your salvation; she is your refuge. She is more lofty than the heavens; she is more far-reaching than the earth. She never grows old; she always stays in bloom. And so Scripture indicates her permanence and stability by calling her a virgin; her magnificence by calling her a queen; her closeness to God by calling her a daughter; her barrenness turned to fecundity by calling her 'the mother of seven'. A thousand names try to spell out her nobility. Just as the Lord is called by many names - Father, Way, Life, Light, Arm, Propitiation, Foundation, Gate, Sinless One, Treasure, Lord, God, Son, Only-Begotten, Form of God, Image of God, - since one name could not hope to describe the Omnipotent, and many names give us some small insight into His nature, so the Church goes by many names. St. John Chrysostom. Christ the Lord called that Church the Catholic Church which maintains the true and saving confession of the faith. St. Maximus the Confessor. The Church is the gathering of the People, the Body of Christ, His Name, His Bride, which calls the peoples to penitence and prayer; purified by the water of Holy Baptism and washed by His precious Blood, adorned as a Bride and sealed with the anointing of the Holy Spirit... The Church is an earthly heaven wherein the heavenly God dwells and walks; it is an anti-type of the Crucifixion, Burial and Resurrection of Christ... The Church is a divine house where the mystical living Sacrifice is celebrated,... and its precious stones are the divine dogmas taught by the Lord to His disciples. St. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople. The ark is the Church; only those who are in it will be saved. St. Nectarius of Optina. 2 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION. THE CHURCH: TRUE AND FALSE ..................................5 1. THE FAMILY CHURCH: FROM ADAM TO JACOB ..................................12 The Church in Paradise ....................................................................................12 The Fall of Man .................................................................................................14 The Ark of Noah ................................................................................................16 The Faith of Abraham ......................................................................................19 The Patriarchal Church....................................................................................24 2. THE PILGRIM CHURCH: THE LIFE OF MOSES ........................................26 The Exodus .........................................................................................................26 The Mosaic Law................................................................................................29 The Journey through the Desert ......................................................................33 Towards the Promised Land ...........................................................................35 3. THE STATE CHURCH: FROM JOSHUA TO JESUS ...................................36 The Temptations of the World........................................................................36 The Israelite Theocracy....................................................................................38 Schism and Apostasy .......................................................................................43 The Holy Virgin .................................................................................................47 The Holy Remnant............................................................................................50 4. THE ECUMENICAL CHURCH: THE CONVERSION OF EUROPE ........61 Every Knee shall Bow.......................................................................................61 Neither Greek nor Jew ......................................................................................62 The Unity of the Church...................................................................................64 The Conversion of St. Constantine.................................................................69 The Ecumenical Councils .................................................................................71 The Spreading of the Faith...............................................................................73 5. THE IMPERIAL CHURCH: EMPERORS, POPES AND PEOPLES ..........76 The Symphony of Powers ................................................................................76 The Carolingian Empire...................................................................................81 The Papist Heresy .............................................................................................84 The Fall of Constantinople..............................................................................88 6. THE NATIONAL CHURCH: THE THIRD ROME AND THE NATIONS ......................................................................................................................................92 The Turkish Yoke...............................................................................................92 The Heresy of the Judaizers .............................................................................96 The Moscow Patriarchate ...............................................................................99 The Old Ritualist Schism ..............................................................................100 The Russian Synodal Church ........................................................................103 The Roots of Socialism ..................................................................................106 The Rise of Balkan Nationalism ..................................................................109 On the Eve of the Catastrophe......................................................................115 3 7. THE CATACOMB CHURCH: THE AGE OF THE ANTICHRIST ..........116 The Moscow Council and the Civil War .....................................................123 The Living Church...........................................................................................128 The New Calendar Schism.............................................................................130 The Sovietization of the Moscow Patriarchate.........................................132 The Rise of Ecumenism and the Fall of Communism ................................137 Towards the Antichrist..................................................................................142 CONCLUSION. THE CHURCH AS THE BODY AND BRIDE OF CHRIST ....................................................................................................................................149 APPENDIX 1. THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT ............................................165 APPENDIX 2. PATRISTIC TESTIMONIES ON THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST .............................................................................................................181 APPENDIX 3. TESTIMONIES FROM THE HOLY SCRIPTURES AND THE HOLY FATHERS ON THE NECESSITY OF HAVING NO COMMUNION WITH HERETICS AND SCHISMATICS .........................................................190 APPENDIX 4. AN OPEN LETTER ON CYPRIANISM ..................................193 APPENDIX 5. DO HERETICS HAVE THE GRACE OF SACRAMENTS? 202 APPENDIX 6. THE SUNDAY OF ORTHODOXY AND THE MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE ..................................................................................................225 APPENDIX 7. THE BRANCH AND MONOLITH THEORIES OF THE CHURCH .................................................................................................................235 APPENDIX 8. THE UNITY OF THE TRUE ORTHODOX CHURCH .........245 APPENDIX 9: ON THE CONDEMNATION OF HERETICS .......................260 APPENDIX 10: WHAT IS THE LOCAL CHURCH? .......................................273 APPENDIX 11: THE LIMITS OF THE CHURCH: A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENT...........................................................................................................286 APPENDIX 12: “THERE IS NONE THAT WATCHETH OUT FOR MY SOUL” ......................................................................................................................296 APPENDIX 13: ORTHODOXY, UNIVERSALISM AND NATIONALISM ....................................................................................................................................302 APPENDIX 14. IN DEFENCE OF THE TRUE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF GREECE ...................................................................................................................321 APPENDIX 15: THE POWER OF ANATHEMA ..............................................327 APPENDIX 16: BISHOP ARTEMIJE AND TRUE ORTHODOXY ..............344 APPENDIX 17. ST. SAVVA AND OUR TIME ................................................348 4 INTRODUCTION. THE CHURCH: TRUE AND FALSE They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him. John 20.13. There is no Christian dogma so fiercely under
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