From Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future by Fr. Seraphim
It is deeply indicative of the spiritual state of contemporary
mankind that the "charismatic'' and "meditation" experiences are
taking root among "Christians." An Eastern religious influence is
undeniably at work in such "Christians," but it is only as a result
of something much more fundamental: the loss of the very feeling
and savor of Christianity ....
The life of self-centeredness and self' satisfaction lived by most of
today's "Christians'' is so all-pervading that it effectively seals
them off from any understanding at all of spiritual life; and when
such people do undertake "spiritual life," it is only as another form
of self-satisfaction. This can be seen quite clearly in the totally
false religious ideal both of the "charismatic" movement and the
various forms of "Christian meditation": all of them promise (and
give very quickly) an experience of "contentment" and "peace." But
this is not the Christian ideal at all, which if anything may be
summed up as a fierce battle and struggle. The "contentment" and
"peace" described in these contemporary "spiritual" movements are
quite manifestly the product of spiritual deception, of spiritual
self-satisfaction-which is the absolute death of the God-oriented
spiritual life. All these forms of "Christian meditation" operate
solely on the psychic level and have nothing whatever in common
with Christian spirituality. Christian spirituality is formed in the
arduous struggle to acquire the eternal Kingdom, which fully begins
only with the dissolution of this temporal world, and the true
Christian struggler never finds repose even in the foretastes of
eternal blessedness which might be vouchsafed to him in this life;
but the Eastern religions, to which the Kingdom of Heaven has not
been revealed, strive only to acquire psychic states which begin
and end in this life.
In our age of apostasy preceding the manifestation of Antichrist,
the devil has been loosed for a time (Apoc. 20:7) to work the false
miracles which he could not work during the "thousand years" of
grace in the Church of Christ (Apoc. 20:3), and to gather in his
hellish harvest of those souls who "received not the love of the
truth"(II Thes. 2:10). We can tell that the time of Antichrist is
truly near by the very fact that this satanic harvest is now being
reaped not merely among the pagan peoples, who have not heard of
Christ, but even more among "Christians" who have lost the savor
of Christianity. It is of the very nature of Antichrist to present
the kingdom of the devil as if it mere of Christ. The present-day
"charismatic" movement and "Christian meditation," and the "new
religious consciousness" of which they are part, are forerunners
of the religion of the future, the religion of 'the last humanity,
the Religion of Antichrist, and their chief "spiritual" function
is to make available to Christians the demonic initiation hitherto
restricted to the pagan world ....
What has brought humanity--and indeed Christendom--to this desperate
state? Certainly it is not any overt worship of the devil which is
limited always to a few people; rather; it is something much more
subtle, and something fearful for a conscious Orthodox Christian
to reflect on: it is the loss of the grace of God, which follows
on the loss of the savor of Christianity ....
How much, then, must Orthodox Christians walk in the fear of God,
trembling lest they lose His grace, which by no means is given to
everyone, but only to those who hold the true Faith, lead a life of
Christian struggle, and treasure the grace of God which leads them
heavenward. And how much more cautiously must Orthodox Christians
walk today above all, when they are surrounded by a counterfeit
Christianity that gives its own experiences of grace and the Holy
Spirit and can abundantly quote the Scriptures and the Holy Fathers
to "prove" it! Surely the last times are near, when there will come
spiritual deception so persuasive as to deceive, if it were possible,
even the very elect (Matt. 24,:24) ....
Against this powerful "religious experience'' true Orthodox
Christians must now arm themselves in earnest, becoming fully
conscious of what Orthodox Christianity is and how its goal
is different from that of all other religions, Christian or
non-Christian.
Orthodox Christians! Hold fast to the grace which you have; never
let it become a matter of habit; never measure it by merely human
standards or expect it to be logical or comprehensible to those
who understand nothing higher than what is human .... Let all true
Orthodox Christians strengthen themselves for the battle ahead,
never forgetting that in Christ the victory is already ours...
