Evil
Initially, there was no evil in the world - God created it perfect.
All the angels were friends of God, but among them there was one who was proud of his beauty and wisdom and wanted to become equal to the Creator. He attracted a third of the angels to his side and for this, together with his ethereal followers, was overthrown. The angels who sided with Satan turned into demons. In the Orthodox tradition they are called demons. Translated from Hebrew, the word “Satan” means “enemy”, “slanderer”. After being cast down to earth, Satan did not calm down and decided to destroy Adam and Eve, whose perfection he envied. Succumbing to his deceitful words, the first people fell and were expelled from Paradise.
Christianity does not consider Satan and demons as certain characters who played their historical role only at the beginning of the existence of the world. According to the Orthodox tradition, both demons and Satan continue to do their dirty deeds, pushing people to crimes, forcing them to deceive and hate each other. These invisible enemies constantly whisper dirty thoughts to each of us. Whether to accept them or not depends on the person himself.
Good
The forces of good in Christianity are personified by God - the Holy Trinity, together with his angels, archangels, cherubim, seraphim and other ethereal forces. Unlike other angels, God is pure Spirit, that is, does not possess any degree of materiality.
Christians are aware of a number of properties of the Godhead. God is triune. He is both One and Three (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Like the Sun - one luminary, possessing three “hypostases” - form, color and heat.
God is omnipotent. Nothing is impossible for him. God is omnipresent. Since he is immaterial, he is outside this world, but permeates it through his divine energies (in Orthodoxy these energies are called the grace of the Holy Spirit).
Another important characteristic of God is love. The Bible says that “God is love.” He is not some being who has the most love or all the love in the world. He is the source and essence of love as a phenomenon.
According to the Christian faith, evil in the world is only temporary. At the moment of the Second Coming of Christ it will be completely destroyed. Satan and his demons will be defeated and will never be able to harm people again.
№6 (95-96) / 16 •July• '10
Simple questions
Good and evil... Which will win?
The theme of “resisting evil” is raised several times in the New Testament. In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ says: “You have heard that it was said: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you: do not resist evil. But whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other also to him; and whoever wants to sue you and take your shirt, give him your outer clothing too” (Matthew 5:38-40); “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-29).
The Apostle Paul writes: “Repay no one evil for evil, but make provision for what is good in the sight of all men. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:17-21).
We talk about the “principle of the second cheek” and about enemies with Archpriest Evgeniy Popichenko.
O. Evgeniy, in these words there is both humility and resistance. How to understand the commandment “do not resist evil”? In what situations should I “turn my cheek”, and in what situations should I resist evil?
If we recall the Gospel story, we will see that Christ Himself at the trial of the high priests did not turn the other cheek when one of the ministers hit Him: “If I said bad, show that it is bad; What if it’s good that you beat Me?” (John 18:23).
Man is a three-part being - he has a body, a soul and a spirit. And sometimes bodily pain is less dangerous for him than the pain of the soul. The Lord gave the commandment “do not resist evil” as a personal one. If another person causes me suffering and pain by hitting me on the cheek, it is unpleasant and difficult, but still it is the sin of that person. If I endure insult and humiliation, endure pain, my soul will become stronger, purer, brighter, more perfect. If in response I begin to take revenge, to repay evil for evil, then the blow dealt to me will reach my heart. The wound that I have already inflicted on my soul through anger and hatred will be more dangerous than physical pain and suffering. This commandment seems to warn: there is an immutable spiritual law, if you break it and win a momentary triumph over your enemy, you will lose peace of soul for a long time.
Temptations - moral choice between Good and Evil
However, it must be said that this commandment can only be fulfilled at a certain stage of spiritual life, when the soul becomes mature. Because it is absolutely impossible to demand humility (and you can endure only by humbling yourself) from a person who has just begun to look towards Christ. Although, as a law, any commandment is addressed to all people.
Humility is the highest virtue, it is divine and incomprehensible, but still achievable with persistent spiritual work. It can be fulfilled by people who understand that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). If a relationship has arisen with Christ, if a spiritual life has begun within me, then there are certain actions that can kill this life. Anger and hatred are precisely what kill peace with God.
But not everything in life concerns me personally. If we are talking about confronting evil, which is directed against my neighbors or against my Motherland, then we are talking about a choice between a lesser and a greater evil. Killing an enemy is evil, causing suffering to a person is evil, but a greater evil is allowing this enemy to reach defenseless old people, women, children and the heart of the people - faith.
For example, we remember that during the Tatar-Mongol yoke, when the horde was ruled by the pagan Batu, Rus' endured and paid tribute. When the horde was led by the Muslim Mamai, who wanted not only to receive tribute from Rus', but also to convert it to Islam, the threat of national destruction arose. Because faith is what shapes the spirit of the people, what the people rely on. Therefore, Russian soldiers, with the blessing of St. Sergius of Radonezh and under the leadership of Prince Dimitri Donskoy, entered the battlefield. When a matter of national security arises, the lesser evil must be chosen. This will precisely be the opposition to evil by force.
I remember that Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy expressed the idea that there is no need to resist evil by force...
These views have nothing to do with Christianity; it is no coincidence that they were condemned by the Church. In connection with such ideas, I would like to cite as an example an episode from V. Solovyov’s essay “Three Conversations”, when one general declares that “my only good deed is murder, and a considerable murder, for then I killed much more in just a quarter of an hour.” thousands of people..."
The Turks attacked a huge convoy of fugitive Armenians. “A fire was lit under the carts, and the Armenians, tied with their heads, their legs, their backs or stomachs to the cart, were hung onto the fire and slowly roasted. Women with their breasts cut off and their bellies ripped open. I won’t tell you all the details. There is only one thing that stands out in my eyes now. A woman is lying supine on the ground by her neck and shoulders to a cart axle so that she cannot turn her head - she lies not burned or skinned, but only with a distorted face - she clearly died of horror - and in front of her a high pole is driven into the ground, and on there is a naked baby tied up - her son, probably - all blackened and with bulging eyes, and a grate with extinguished coals is lying nearby.
It immediately turns out that the Turks headed to a neighboring village, to which there is a shorter road. The general leads his detachment with guns there and shoots the Turkish army at point-blank range: “God bless! He ordered the battery to fire. And the Lord blessed all my six charges. I have never heard such a devilish screech in my life. Before they had time to come to their senses, there was a second volley of buckshot. I saw that the whole horde fled back. The third one is to follow. Such a commotion has arisen here, just like throwing several lit matches into an anthill. They rushed in all directions, crushing each other. Here the Cossacks and dragoons and I struck from the left flank and went to chop them like cabbage <...> It was over. And in my soul is the bright Resurrection of Christ.”
This is exactly the situation when it is impossible to respond to evil with kindness and patience. But even evil committed in the name of justice inflicts a wound on the soul. The Church did not immediately allow soldiers returning from the battlefield to receive the sacraments. After all, it is impossible to do evil and not be poisoned by it. They were given penance and time to heal their spiritual wounds, and only after this the soldiers were again united with the Church in the sacrament of Communion.
With the aggressors attacking the Motherland and seeking to destroy our people and our faith, it seems to me that everything is clear. Just assess the situation, just identify the enemy, take out your sword and start fighting. What if our neighbors become our “enemies”? If the “battle” for faith takes place in one family, you won’t pull out a sword, will you?
There is such an ancient wisdom: hatred can be defeated not by hatred, but only by love. We know that it is impossible to defeat the devil with his own weapons. The Apostle Paul writes: “Brothers! If a person falls into any sin, you who are spiritual correct him in a spirit of meekness” (Gal. 6:1). Not with retaliatory anger or resentment, but with a spirit of meekness. The devil can only be defeated by the power of Christ, who is “meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). In relationships with loved ones, the principle “conquer evil with good” should apply.
In the first conciliar letter, the Apostle Peter writes: “You wives, be subject to your husbands, so that those of them who do not obey the word will be won without a word by the life of their wives when they see your pure, God-fearing life.”
In the history of Christianity we see examples of such good living. Saint Nonna, mother of St. Gregory the Theologian, was married to a man who honored some Jewish traditions and worshiped fire. She, with her meekness, love, fulfillment of her household and wifely duties, her prayer and righteous life, led her husband and son to holiness. The husband repented, reunited with the Church and was even ordained a bishop.
In the Holy Scriptures we hear, on the one hand, calls for meekness and love: “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray for those who wrong you” (Luke 6:27-28). On the other hand, in the same Gospel Christ says: “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies are his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36). How does it fit together?
These words are also associated with faith. The Lord says: “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me,” that is, in matters of faith it is necessary to listen only to God. If it comes to property and everyday life, then we must endure harassment from our loved ones.
And if there is a threat to faith, if our neighbors force us to abandon the truth and incline us to sin, then we must show firmness to the point of death. An example of this is the life and death of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine: when she was a little obedient daughter, her pagan father loved and spoiled her, but when she grew up and made a conscious and firm decision to follow Christ, he gave her over to be tortured. Therefore, the “sword” is a figurative expression of how the attitude towards faith and towards Christ divides people.
If his loved ones stand between a person and Christ, then the Lord says: “Woe to the world because of temptations, for temptations must come; but woe to the man through whom temptation comes. If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut them off and throw them away from you: it is better for you to enter life without an arm or without a foot, than to have two hands and two feet and be cast into eternal fire” (Matthew 18:7-8 ); “And everyone who leaves houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name’s sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29).
Fortunately, people who hate Christ as a personal enemy are extremely rare on our path. Our loved ones may be of little faith, non-believers, but they rarely turn out to be ardent fighters against God. Basically, people do not so much oppose Christ as they know nothing about Him.
Ignorance of the Truth is a terrible state of modern society, a residual phenomenon of the Soviet godless past. On the one hand, any person on Earth is created by God and in his soul has a potential desire for Truth, a desire to find and reveal this Truth in his heart. Therefore, a person cannot be satisfied, comforted, or calm down with anything earthly.
On the other hand, man is a damaged, weak, sick creature. A person (even a believer) can consciously or unconsciously resist God, disagreeing with His will. That is why a person who has noticed this resistance in himself needs to perform the feat of ascent according to the beatitudes. The Beatitudes are an amazing ladder in which each step leads to the next. Christians know how this ascent culminates. When you realize your poverty, learn to repent, purify your heart, humble yourself, love righteousness and mercy, when you become peacemakers, the most difficult test in your life will begin - persecution. The devil, expelled from the heart, begins to torment a person from the outside; the person’s closest and dearest people begin to persecute him for Christ. But the end of the Beatitudes is comforting: “Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:12).
A person who has acquired Christian perfection begins to sincerely regret, lament and pray for his loved ones, realizing with his whole being the emptiness and ruin of life without Christ. An example is Silouan of Athos, who prayed for the whole world, grieving and anguished because people do not know God. He said that praying for the whole world is the same as shedding blood.
Christians should treat unbelievers with understanding and feel sorry for them, because the most important tragedy of man is that he cannot find God, break through to Him and open his heart to Him. This is both a tragedy and the worst punishment a person can receive for his lack of faith. And you just need to patiently and humbly fulfill your household duties: not to quarrel, not to reprove, not to “teach” - and the Lord gives grace to the humble.
And if a conflict (as a rule, emotionally acute) on the basis of religion is still brewing, if hatred and dirt are poured out on the Truth, is it better to remain silent or defend one’s faith?
There is one sad description of a similar situation in the Gospel: “Do not give what is holy to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces” (Matthew 7:6).
Evil is defeated only by Good
Unfortunately, even from the point of view of God, there are people who, by their way of thinking and living, have brought themselves to a swinish state. An amazing feature of the pig's body structure is that the pig cannot raise its head to the sky. The pig eats only what it sees under its feet. People can be so preoccupied with “their own pig happiness” that they are unable to either pose questions related to the Truth, spiritual life, or the salvation of the soul, or hear about them from others. But we must remember that man is a changeable creature. Perhaps only at this stage of life he is in a “pig mood.” Perhaps the Lord has a special providence for him: perhaps God will humble a person through sorrows and difficult trials.
But nevertheless, while a person is in a pig’s state, he cannot value beads and pearls. Acorns are another matter! If you throw an “acorn” at such a person - a conversation about fashion, TV series, gossip - he will gladly continue the conversation. And the pig’s beads irritate him because she does not understand what practical use she can find for them: “What does the Gospel have to do with my pig’s life? After all, you can’t use it anywhere. This is all the Middle Ages and relics!”
Today we live not in a Christian, but in a pagan society, where the spirit of the enemy is poured into the hearts and minds of people, even those who call themselves Christians. The mention of Christ sometimes evokes open hatred. Therefore, Christians do not need to shout at every corner: “I fast, I pray! This is good and this is bad! - but you need to serve people with your good life.
There are also exceptional cases when we see that when talking about faith, there are not only people who hate Christ, but also doubters or sympathizers. Then, for the sake of protecting and strengthening these people, you can “enter the battle.”
For example, if a sectarian is “processing” some gullible and illiterate person in matters of religion, then you need to intervene and say: “This is a sect, their ideology is actually against Christ.” But this is provided that we can really help someone with our word, argument. And if the whole company is united in their hatred of Christ, then there is no point in wasting time and energy on convictions, but it is better to go and get down to business. There is no need to argue with anyone, since Truth is not born in an argument - Truth was born in Bethlehem.
O. Evgeniy, why does the Lord even allow people to be born who become evil towards other people and opponents of God?
It is not the will of God for even one soul to perish. All people are created for salvation, but there are children of God, and there are simply creations of God. We are adopted as sons of God through Christ, and before that we are simply a potentially good creation of God, which in life can grow into any villain. Moreover, such a villain can repent and come to Christ at any moment in his life.
Every person is born in the best conditions for his personal salvation. No other person could have been born in our place at this time. An interesting question: why does the Lord tolerate pagan nations or individual sinners? The saints have the answer. Firstly, for the sake of those righteous who may be born in these nations or families and come to Christ. Secondly, as a kind of scourge that humbles Christians, like a sword through which the Lord returns His rebellious children to Himself.
Let us remember the period of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. After all, for Rus' this was a period of high spiritual tension: St. Sergius of Radonezh, St. Andrei Rublev and many other saints were born, through whose prayerful labors Rus' survived. Maybe the Lord tolerates us too for the sake of our grandchildren or great-grandchildren, who will come to Him and will not be His enemies.
In what cases and to whom can the word “enemy” be applied, is it only in relation to the enemy of God?
Here the words of the Apostle Paul will help us decide: “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). On the one hand, for a Christian the real enemy is the spirit of malice. On the other hand, Saint Philaret of Moscow says: “Love your enemies, defeat the enemies of the Fatherland and abhor the enemies of God.” Here, it seems to me, the correct attitude of a person towards various kinds of enemies is very accurately expressed.
Father, you said that through enemies the Lord strengthens Christians and the Church. If in the first post-Soviet decades the Church was treated quite tolerantly, even with pity, remembering the persecutions of the 20th century, now “hissing” is being heard towards the Church more and more often. Does this mean that the Church has strengthened, the time of calm is ending and new trials are coming?
Perhaps, but it's very interesting. Our Church has always been militant; there has not been a single century when the Church lived quietly and peacefully. She was always in combat readiness and was always called upon to educate warriors. Warriors are not brought up at desks and not in theory, warriors are brought up in battles. The Lord says: “If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before you. <…> Remember the word that I said to you: a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you too. <…> In the world you will have sorrow; but take heart: I have overcome the world” (John 15:18-20) (John 16:33).
An amazing sign of the truth of Christianity: a world that lies in evil cannot love Christians. And with this he judges himself: “The judgment is that light has come into the world; but people loved darkness more than light, because their deeds were evil; For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed, because they are evil, but he who does righteousness comes to the light, so that his deeds may be revealed, because they are done in God” (John 3). , 19-21).
If only good things are said about us, it means that the salt has lost its strength, which means that the leaven has disappeared. And if we are not accepted by a world that preaches liberal values of permissiveness, consumption and hedonism - thank God! This means that we are different from this world and, therefore, everything happens as Christ commanded.
Interviewed by Ksenia Vozgrivtseva
