{"id":11123,"date":"2018-01-17T18:27:10","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T02:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=11123"},"modified":"2020-11-19T09:54:21","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T17:54:21","slug":"christians-must-witness-their-faith-speak-up-and-resist-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2018\/01\/christians-must-witness-their-faith-speak-up-and-resist-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"Christians Must Witness Their Faith, Speak Up, and Resist Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"St. by St. Paisios the Athonite –
\nIf Christians don\u2019t begin to witness their faith, to resist evil, then the destroyers will become even more insolent. But today\u2019s Christians are no warriors. If the Church keeps silent, to avoid conflict with the government, if the metropolitans are silent, if the monks hold their peace, then who will speak up?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The spirit of lukewarmness reigns. There\u2019s no manliness at all! We\u2019ve been spoiled for good! How does God still tolerate us? Today\u2019s generation is the generation of indifference. There are no warriors The majority are fit only for parades.<\/p>\n

Godlessness and blasphemy are allowed to appear on television. And the Church is silent and doesn\u2019t excommunicate the blasphemers. And they need to be excommunicated. What are they waiting for? Let\u2019s not wait for someone else to pull the snake out from its hole so that we can live in peace.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re silent out of indifference. What\u2019s bad is that even people who\u2019ve got something inside have begun to grow cool, saying: \u201cCan I really do anything to change the situation?\u201d We have to witness our faith with boldness, because if we continue to be silent we\u2019ll have to answer in the end. In these difficult days each must do what\u2019s in their power. And leave what\u2019s out of their power to the will of God. In this way our conscience will be clear.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s generation is the generation of indifference.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If we don\u2019t resist, then our ancestors will arise from their graves. They suffered so much for the Fatherland, and we? What are we doing for it?…<\/p>\n

If Christians don\u2019t begin to witness their faith, to resist evil, then the destroyers will become even more insolent. But today\u2019s Christians are no warriors. If the Church keeps silent, to avoid conflict with the government, if the metropolitans are silent, if the monks hold their peace, then who will speak up?
\n…<\/p>\n

Make War Against Evil<\/strong>
\nYou see, if we don\u2019t begin to make war against evil, to expose those who tempt believers, then the evil will grow larger. If we throw aside fear then the faithful will be emboldened a bit. And those who wage war against the Church will have a harder time.<\/p>\n

If we throw aside fear then the faithful will be emboldened a bit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In the past our nation lived spiritually, so God blessed her, and the saints helped us in miraculous fashion. And we were victorious against our enemies, who always outnumbered us. Today we continue to call ourselves Orthodox Christians, but we don\u2019t live Orthodox lives.
\n…<\/p>\n

Beware of Lukewarm Clergy<\/strong>
\nA lukewarm clergy lulls the people to sleep, leaves them in their former condition so they won\u2019t be upset. \u201cLook\u201d, they say. \u201cBy all means don\u2019t say that there\u2019ll be a war, or the Second Coming, that one must prepare oneself for death. We must not make people alarmed!\u201d<\/p>\n

And others speak with a false kindness, saying: \u201cWe mustn\u2019t expose heretics and their delusions, so as to show our love for them.\u201d Today\u2019s people are water-soluble. There\u2019s no leaven in them.<\/p>\n

Spiritual meekness is one thing, and softness and indifference are quite another.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If I avoid upsetting myself to protect my fleshly comfort then I\u2019m indifferent to holiness! Spiritual meekness is one thing, and softness and indifference are quite another. Some say: \u201cI\u2019m a Christian and therefore I have to be joyful and calm.\u201d But they\u2019re not Christian. They\u2019re simply indifferent. And their joy is only a worldly joy.<\/p>\n

He in whom these worldly seeds are present is no spiritual person. A spiritual person consists of nothing but pain. In other words, he\u2019s in pain at what\u2019s going on, he\u2019s in pain for people\u2019s condition. And divine comfort is bestowed upon him for his pain.<\/p>\n

HT: The Holy War<\/a><\/p>\n

\"St.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by St. Paisios the Athonite – If Christians don\u2019t begin to witness their faith, to resist evil, then the destroyers will become even more insolent. But today\u2019s Christians are no warriors. If the Church keeps silent, to avoid conflict with the government, if the metropolitans are silent, if the monks hold their peace, then who … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[113,68,15,5,130,24,157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-persecution","category-christianity","category-moral-issues","category-orthodox-christianity","category-orthodox-church","category-religion-in-america","category-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}