Saved: with Love or with Faith?

From a videotaped sermon in 1991 by Fr. Athanasios Mytilineos (… 2006)

Source: https://www.facebook.com/1474496718/videos/1095328786145869

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What more do you want me to say? What more do you want me to tell you?  God have mercy on me here, with all the ugly things that abound - worldwide and also in our Homeland... we have to literally battle with beasts in order to expose these horrific situations....

Let me take a query sent to me by a concerned individual, among the many that I have received, and read it to you:

“While studying a certain speech by an Anglican clergyman - Henry Drummond - I read that man will be judged by God on the basis and criterion of love, not faith. He bases this on the 25^th chapter in the Gospel of Matthew, where it says that the Lord during the last judgment will be judging people on the basis of the works of love that they had done in their lifetime - for example “I was naked and you did not clothe Me” etc.... What is your opinion on this query?'

What is my opinion? Well, I will not give my own opinion; I will just tell you what the truth is... And when we say “opinion” here, we mean something like news analysts tell us about war matters: “I think....”  and “I think”... “I think”... Well yes, justifiably so, because we are living human experiences, so we speak in human terms, hence it is normal to say “I think...

But in this case, we will not insert “I think”;  instead, we will provide that which is found in the dogmas of the Faith.  Of course the aforementioned clergyman is probably a Protestant - an Anglican probably... Oh, sorry, it says it here, that  he is an Anglican clergyman, therefore a Protestant.  My beloved, do not read foreign books, that is, foreign books on religious matters.

Many are translations... very many.... I used to be able to read something, but I don't read any of them any more... I don't wish to read anything.  They talk about prayer, they talk about this and that...  And don't forget that this lust of ours for foreign things (xenomania) has destroyed our contemporary theologians... It has destroyed them, because they often take information from their translations, frequently on a scientific level, resulting in our theologians now being unrecognizable - nothing to do with Orthodox theology. It's a shame - it's a degradation... Oh well, so be it...

So, He will apparently be judging us on the basis of love and not faith?...

When we too say that “the criterion will be love”, then without realizing it, we automatically relate ourselves to Ecumenism.  Because what does Ecumenism say?  Doesn't it talk about love and not about faith? What, unfortunately, did Patriarch Athenagoras more or less do, who  – bareheaded – was an Ecumenist?  That’s what he said, when he actually said, “We don't need dogmas, put them away, in a cupboard...” - which had even been published many years ago... (and now post mortem he is referred to as... “the blessed Athenagoras”?)  

Also this other statement of his: “Love is necessary for us. Why? Because the dogma hinders you from approaching the Protestant and the Roman Catholic (the Papist) - whereas love assists you.” My beloved, this reeks of Ecumenism...

Now the so-called “loveism” (“agapismos”) was also created here in Greece – this “agapismos” is an international thing. Does the term agapismos remind you of anything? I don't wish to say anything more. A book has even been published. I have the book. And the title? “Agapismos”... Its subtitle:  'Love International’ - Just like one says “Socialist International”, “Communist International”, likewise there is “Love International”.

This, my beloved, reeks of Ecumenism.  Because apparently “we will fix everything, on the basis of love”. This element is also very supportive (in the preceding query that we had) of the masons.  Very much so. That's what they want:  that the dogmas must be put aside.

And yet, my beloved, they are probably unable to perceive that the entire Gospel is hidden behind what Christ has said.

And so I pose the question: If I do give or show love to other people but I myself am a fornicator, will I be saved?

Doesn't the Apostle Paul say, “Do not be deceived - neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor effeminates...”  (Notice he mentions the idolaters after the fornicators... - but I'll explain this to the children next Sunday – God willing – we have a certain order for our lessons).  

So, “Neither adulterers, nor... nor.. nor... shall inherit the realm of God...”  and he also mentions some other examples.  In other words, homosexuals, fornicators, adulterers - these three... anyway... let me not say anything more here.... shall not inherit the realm of God...

Have you any idea how many immoral people have a good heart and are philanthropists?  Take the masons for example, who say they do good deeds.  Will they go to God’s realm just because they have love - if they have love?  I ask you, is it ever possible? Is it ever possible?

Well then, someone is telling the truth and someone is lying;  because according to what that author says, we shall be saved with love, while the Apostle Paul says that by doing immoral things you will not enter the realm of God. Then is the Apostle Paul lying? There must be something here.

The entire Gospel  resides behind these words of Christ.

Faith is that which will provide the criterion for our entry into the realm of God, but not only faith: it will also be love.  We can't isolate these things. BOTH faith AND love.  Love is the deed, and faith is the theory.

And when we say “theory” we do not imply the expression of “acting and theorizing”; we mean man’s stance  – that’s what faith is – man’s stance before the God-human Person of Jesus Christ.  And the Gospel and the Evangelist John clearly tell us, that if you do not accept the God-human Person of Christ, you will not be saved.  You won’t be saved. He who does not have the Son - to quote the words of the Evangelist - does not have the Father either, and therefore does not have God. 

So what are they talking about, when they say that with love we will be saved?

It is very possible that this is the last heresy to exist.  Why do I say the last? Because it is the heresy promoted by Ecumenism, which carries all the previous heresies that have existed in History.

A question had been posed a couple of years ago... I keep them with me – all of them - on Ecumenism, and I would have liked to tell you many more things.... but for now, let's say I managed to somewhat respond to the posed question of what is being said about Ecumenism. 

It is the last heresy of History - Ecumenism.  It projects love as bait, but it contains all the heresies that have ever existed - and not only the heresies that have existed from the time of Christ, but also the heresies that existed before Christ, in the Jewish sphere; for example, we have the Sadducees. In fact, they are coincidentally called 'heresies', albeit the word 'heresy' there does not have the same meaning. It has the meaning of “group”, and not of a deviation from the faith. «… the heresy of the Sadducees...', says the New Testament, etc...    But, in reality, they did have a deviation from the faith.  When it says 'the Sadducees believed the... and the...and  the... and the...' – we realize that only five books from the Old Testament were believed by them; however, they rejected the prophets.  Well, what more do we need?  Or the Essenes, etcetera, etcetera....

It was the Pharisees who had the upright faith. The Pharisees.  It is another thing, that they didn’t act accordingly;  but the faith of the Pharisees was correct.  That is why Christ had said – specifically about the Pharisees:  “Whatever they tell you, do it. Whatever they do, you should not do it.”'

Therefore, since Ecumenism is an all-embracing heresy, I ask you: is it, or is it not the “last heresy”?  Why? Because they have left nothing out of it. It has engulfed every other heresy.

Also, the expression “last heresy” is not mine. It is also used by Father Justin Popovich: “it is the greatest heresy that ever existed”, because it has included everything, and it projects love as its bait.   Just like when we put limpets on a fishing hook, or shellfish, or tiny crabs there on the hook, and then we cast the line in order to catch fish...   Obviously, we don't merely sit there in order to feed the fish; it is to catch the fish... That's the whole deception of these people. And behind this deception... well, the only thing that these people can’t be seen as, is religious – they are definitely not religious. Behind this deception of Ecumenism is masonry, which is idolatry.

And I have one more thing to tell you - the Apostle Paul says it - and I will close with this, because time has already flown.

When the antichrist comes, even though all these things constitute the vehicle of the antichrist, you might ask: “And the antichrist himself?  What will he know? Will he be a fallen Christian, or an ecumenist? Will he be a Jew -  in the sense that he will believe in the Old Testament only? What will he believe - when all of them will be serving the antichrist? Will he be an idolater?”

Will you believe him? He will be none of the above - absolutely nothing. He will only be projecting the divinity of his person. Nothing else.

The Apostle Paul says this to the Thessalonians (2 Thess.2:4):

“... that the opposing one who places himself above every so-called god or respected one, so that he will seat himself in the temple of God, to prove that he is God.”

What does 'respected one' mean?  It means an object that is worthy of respect.   For example, the Buddha - a person who is already respected by several millions of people. Muhammad likewise.... etcetera and so on...  Or Zeus, for example, assuming Greek idolatry is revived.  He will hunt down all of these religions.

These events will lead the antichrist to emerge – the hunting down of all the others – in order to show that the only God is the antichrist.

Do you want me to show you even more?  Does the Apostle Paul write these things, or doesn’t  he write them? «… so that he will seat himself in the temple of God, to prove that he is God ' – says the Apostle Paul very clearly.

I think our Christians should never ignore all these things. Never. They should be regarded as alive before them, studying them, but not becoming alarmed... be careful, please don't be alarmed, don't be alarmed at all. 

Have in you the peace of God, but also be aware of what it is all about,  so that we won't get carried away - into all these terrible tentacles of terrible Hades and Hell.

Translation A.N.