Is there God in the soul or a demonic trick?

Archpriest Dionisy Svechnikov

“I believe in God, but I don’t go to church, I have God in my soul.” This fairly common phrase defines the faith of many people. You can even call it a religion, but it is purely individual for each person, the unifying factor is only the concept of “God in the soul.” Everyone puts their own understanding into it. Let's try to figure it out.

When explaining God to themselves, part of humanity uses the definitions of certain religions. In the case of “God in the soul,” definitions can be very different, so, first of all, it is necessary to understand who a person feels like he is. If he reports that he does not go to church, he probably considers himself a Christian, but due to some factors or personal beliefs, he does not attend church. In many cases, people have little or no knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and the fundamentals of the Christian faith. Undoubtedly, they know or have at least heard about the Decalogue - the 10 commandments, and perhaps even try to observe some of them. This cannot but rejoice, and there is definitely something to talk about with such people, explaining the foundations of the Orthodox faith.

But often “God in the soul” is a complete distancing from religions. The reasons can be very different, and it makes no sense to consider them all. What is common to everyone in this process is to draw God as each individual person wants Him to be. At its core, “divinity” is the religious fantasies of an individual. The consequence is the creation of one’s own religion, where there is a place for both “dogma” and rituals.

How do people picture God for themselves? What qualities are given to him? The British writer and theologian Clive Lewis speaks surprisingly accurately about this: “In our days, by the goodness of God we understand first of all His love for us, and in this we are partly right. But by love, almost all of us understand the desire for us to be happy at any cost. What we need, in essence, is not a Father, but a heavenly grandfather, a good-natured old man who would rejoice that “young people are having fun” and created the world just to pamper us. Although, even now, few fathers will say: Let him be a scoundrel, as long as he lives well.”

This is exactly how, convenient for themselves, in most cases people imagine “God in the soul.” Very often, “God-spiritedness” is characterized by a banal consumer attitude. Such a “god in the soul” does not interfere in a person’s life, but like a genie from a bottle, he is ready at any moment to fulfill the wishes of the owner. The task of “god in the soul” is to bring good luck, protect from troubles, arrange things, help in love, punish offenders, etc. “God in the soul” is in infinite agreement and harmony with the bearer and never contradicts him. Actually, this is why it is convenient for a consumer to have “God in his soul.”

This consumer attitude is due to consumer psychology, the so-called psychology of the consumer society, which is being implanted in the modern world. In a consumer society, its own system of values and attitudes is formed, excessive consumption and all kinds of gratification of all kinds of human desires are placed on a pedestal. The moral values of a consumer society do not require, and even to a certain extent deny, the need for human mental and spiritual development. Illiterate and ignorant people are much easier to manage. This inevitably leads to the degradation of a person as an individual, which in turn is necessary in order to manipulate people’s consciousness and sell them more and more new goods and services. This creates the illusion that a person himself directs his actions, controls his desires, and makes choices. But this is not the case in the vast majority of cases. There are entire sciences that make it possible to instill the need to purchase goods and services; they are actively used by manufacturers, sellers of goods and service providers. When purchasing a product, a person is sure that he needs it and that is why he bought it. A person in a consumer society is confident that everything around him works for him and gives him the opportunity to satisfy any desire and need. This is, indeed, very convenient in many cases, but a person quickly gets used to this state of affairs and loses many useful skills, laziness becomes hypertrophied and other vices develop. This consumer psychology also characterizes relationships with other people; it is not fundamental moral values that come to the fore, but the principle of personal gain and satisfaction of desires.

It is no wonder that man tries to put God at his service, to “tame” Him. And for this we need our own religion, “God in the soul,” since Christianity does not know such a God. “God-spiritedness” is largely due to spiritual laziness, relaxation, and even a fundamental reluctance to be part of the Church. Too lazy to go to church, too lazy to participate in the Church Sacraments, too lazy to pray, too lazy to study the Holy Scriptures and the works of the Holy Fathers, etc. In order to explain this laziness or reluctance to oneself, there are various explanations, the most popular of which says that for faith in God, external manifestations are not important, the main thing is what is in the soul. Undoubtedly, it is important what and how a person feels, what he feels inside himself, because faith is, first of all, an internal matter. But faith must somehow manifest itself, and precisely what the Church offers to its faithful children is the practice of faith. If a person is alive, then he has a pulse, breathing, and reflexes. Also, external signs of faith indicate that faith is not dead.

“God-soul” is an attempt at justification, a compromise with conscience. If a person admits that his faith must be active, then he will have to sacrifice something. After all, faith is always a sacrifice. If you take faith seriously, you will have to do everything that the Church offers - go to church, confess, take communion, fast, pray, etc. And this can cause a certain dissonance in the soul. For example, during confession it suddenly turns out that the person is not as white and fluffy as he thinks to himself. It turns out that there are quite a lot of sins, and every attempt to look deeper into yourself will reveal more and more new sins. We will have to study the Holy Scriptures and through this even more realize our inconsistency with what Christ taught. You will have to leave your comfort zone, and through fasting, learn abstinence in exchange for satisfying your own desires. As a result, it will become obvious that there is no place for God at all in the soul, there are only one’s own, native passions, vices and sins. And to correct this, you need to be a Christian not in words, but in deeds. Visiting a temple, participating in the Sacraments, fasting, and prayers will bring spiritual joy, but first you need to overcome your laziness. Without effort, human spiritual growth is completely impossible. You need to take the first step and put aside the “divinity.”

One may get the impression that the Church does not know God in the soul, giving priority only to external manifestations of faith. But this is not true at all. Our soul, according to Tertulian’s definition, becomes a Christian when it freely responds to the call of Christ: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” (Rev. 3:20). To let God into your heart, you need to cleanse it from the filth of sins and vices. This is a certain work, and without it it is impossible to open the doors of your heart for the action of Divine grace. This is exactly what the Church invites us to do through participation in the Sacraments. By repentance, cleansing his soul from sins and reverently accepting the Body and Blood of Christ, a person makes room in his soul for the presence of Almighty God. The omnipresent God is everywhere, He is also in the soul of any person, but in order to feel this, you need to take at least one step to be in unity with Him, as He Himself desires. At the same time, God does not force anyone, He gave each person free will, and a person is free to be or not to be with God. God is a real Person, apparently revealed himself in the history of our world and invisibly always abides in it, and not a faceless force. God is far from indifferent to people, God loves us all equally, but He cannot force us to love Himself, because violence is alien to love, God does not need puppets.

Deification, according to the holy fathers, is the goal of a Christian’s life. This is a process carried out in the bosom of the Church, and is concluded in the assimilation of the believer to God and unity with God. God Himself revealed this opportunity to people through the coming of the Son of God into the world. “The Son of God became the son of man so that man would become the son of God,” says St. Irenaeus of Lyon. “He became man so that we might become deified,” says St. Athanasius the Great. Deification is the very God in the soul that every Christian should strive for. “The soul, in communion with the Holy Spirit, becomes one spirit with him,” says St. Macarius the Great.

Deification by simply stating the fact of the existence of God and the statement “I have God in my soul” is absolutely unthinkable. You can’t just take and place God in your soul based on your own desire. Achieving deification is impossible through human efforts alone. Deification is a gift of God, accomplished in Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to acquire this gift outside of Christian deed.

Thus, “divinity” is, if not the antipode of true Christian deification, then its very primitive parody. This delusion completely deprives a person of the need to actively participate in the matter of his own salvation. This can only benefit the devil. “God-soul” is a demonic invention, a kind of spiritual drug that darkens consciousness and creates the illusion of serenity. Being carried away by the spiritual surrogate of “divinity”, by one’s own spiritual fantasies that have nothing to do with the teachings of Christ, a person inevitably falls into the clutches of the devil. Pride, which is one of the reasons for the phenomenon of “divinity,” leads a person into the impenetrable jungle of spiritual charm, where everything is calm, cozy and comfortable. The true spiritual life of a Christian is a constant struggle “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). Against those who inspire a person that it is enough to have “God in the soul” and no longer lift a finger for his own salvation.

Faith and good deeds

The Lord of all worlds, the Creator of the entire universe, almighty Allah created humanity, which speaks different languages and dialects and with different skin colors. This is a sign for all thoughtful people. After all, all people are equal before Him. The best people are those who fear God the most, and fear of God and gratitude to God is expressed in observing the Quran and Sunnah.

And good deeds must be done exclusively for the sake of the Almighty God, and not for the sake of people or anything else. After all, God ordered to do good deeds, and by doing good deeds to people for the sake of the Almighty, the possessors of knowledge, that is, believers, receive a reward from the Lord of the worlds. So, words like: “So, I am good and I don’t do anything bad to anyone, I, therefore, do a lot of good and don’t sin” are already sinful in themselves. Do you do good because it is the command of the Creator, or because it is accepted in society, or to satisfy your own pride? Moreover, in different societies or countries the same act can be perceived differently. What actually is good and evil is established only by the One who created the entire universe. No nation is capable of making a person obedient to God, that is, a Muslim who has taken the path of righteousness and truth. That is why today among Muslims there are often French, English, Germans, Russians and other people of different skin colors and nationalities. And praise be to the Lord of the worlds, Allah, for His mercy shown to these people... In life, each of us makes our own choices quite consciously, while being responsible for our actions. As God points out in the Qur'an: "There is no compulsion in religion - the straight path has already been distinguished from error." If you look closely at the Arabs, the many nationalities living on the territory of Dagestan, if you look closely at the Uzbeks, Tajiks, Chechens, Bashkirs, Turks, Kazakhs, Tatars and many other peoples called ethnic Muslims, then you can see among them many of those who in reality They are not Muslims. They do not follow the Sunnah (the example of the Prophet) and the Koran, the prohibitions and instructions of the Almighty at all. On the contrary, they only follow their own passions, violating the instructions of God, honoring only the customs of their ancestors and their own ego... Such manifestations are often deliberately interpreted by Islamophobes against supporters of the right faith, they point the finger at them with words like these: “Look what these Muslims are really like.” . But they are not Muslims. And the fact that even some of the followers of Islam commit sinful acts does not mean that this is permitted by the Koran and Sunnah. Milk separately, flies separately.

There is no need for a reasonable person to follow rumors and speculation. In the Qur'an, Almighty Allah has commanded to follow only evidence that can be verified. If you believe, then you know! A believer means a knower! Evidence goes hand in hand with faith. How can you believe something that does not have any valid evidence? Such faith is a blind and unreasonable following of individuals, this is fanaticism. But in fact, all non-believers are fans of their abstract conclusions; they blindly follow their own invented values, which are beneficial, if not to themselves, then certainly to those above them. And Islam categorically prohibits blindly following individuals and the thoughtless crowd! Glory to Allah, Creator of worlds, people and the universe! He was not born and He Himself did not give birth. Wise, Knowing, Existing. Whatever we imagine about Him will be completely different from Him. Whoever represents Him turns to an idol drawn by his own imagination, and not to God. The Creator alone is worthy to be worshiped. All the prophets, starting from Adam - the first man on the planet and ending with Moses (peace be upon him), Jesus (peace be upon him) and Muhammad (peace be upon him) were submissive to the One God, which means they were Muslims. After all, we now know how the words “Muslim or Muslim” are translated. All Prophets professed Islam (Submission to the Only God). Mercy, peace and blessing to all the prophets of the Most High Creator, Lord of all worlds!

The Creator is perfect. His actions are devoid of all flaws, holy. There is no one like or similar to Him. God is self-sufficient. All who live in heaven and earth need Him and pray to Him for blessing and help. After all, all the qualities of the Creator are perfect.

If you yourself truly sincerely want to become a successful and happy person, not only in this temporary life, but also in the Next Real Life, then God helps those who come to meet Him halfway. And stop following the crowd that doesn't understand. After all, by the Grace of the Creator, you are given the opportunity to choose: to follow the path of Heaven or the path of Hell.

Today you are building your Real Life. Invest in the Next Life with good deeds and trust in the Grace of the Almighty.
I consider those who, by their own choice, abandoned Paradise, are not reasonable people.

I ask the Creator to guide me and everyone who reads this article on the path of truth and justice, to open the hearts of these people to faith, so that they become successful in both worlds.

The Church is a divine-human organism with Christ at its head

Believing in the church is another matter. Which is the Head of Christ, and where God is a Person endowed with reason, where He is the Creator and Ruler of everything. And God requires me to fulfill certain moral laws. But this is not the main thing in Christianity. In order to live with God, I need to unite with Him, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, and constantly remain in His Church. Without the church and the Eucharist, salvation is impossible. Because the Church is not the Patriarch, not the priest, not grumpy old women. The Church, in Khomyakov’s apt expression, is “the spirit of God living in rational creatures.” That is why the Creed speaks of faith in “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.”

The role of rituals in church life

“Why all these rituals, candles, bows, it’s all unnecessary. God doesn’t need all this,” they say. We can agree here. Indeed, God does not need candles. He doesn't need anything at all. He is the ALL-PERFECT SPIRIT. And he doesn't need anything. That's right, it's not bows or candles that make up the essence of religion. This is just a ritual, a shell. But let us note that there is no content without form. External exercise in fasting, vigil, and prostrations in Christianity is called asceticism, which translated means training. We, sinful people, consist not only of spirit, but also of flesh. And this flesh always tries to guide our entire being, including our spirit. To prevent this from happening, we keep the body in check. Christ did not found a new religion. He founded the Church. Why don’t people want to believe in the church, but believe in their souls? The answer is simple. The root of everything is selfishness and sinful selfishness. It is very convenient to believe in a “FACELESS SOMETHING” that lives out there somewhere and has almost nothing to do with me on earth. It is there, and we are here.