Can an unbaptized person overshadow himself with a cross. Can an unbaptized person go to church? Can a person not baptized believe in God and have His support

The following question is often asked: is it possible for the unbaptized to be saved? After all, there are some very good people among them. Why doesn't God have mercy on them for their kindness? Many unbaptized people say this: God is in my soul, it is not necessary to be baptized; it is important not to do nasty things to your neighbor .... Of course, there is no need to do nasty things to your neighbor. But why are we baptized? Alas, the baptized also often cannot answer this question. The answers can be very different: so as not to get sick, so as not to jinx or conjure, so that there is good luck in life, because in Russia everyone has always been baptized and the Russian tradition must be maintained ... and psychics sent someone to be baptized ... Let's figure out why do you need to be baptized?

The curse of God weighs on the human race: dust you are to dust and you will return. We understand that the body is material and after death it becomes the earth. And what about the soul? The soul is immortal even among the unbaptized! And the soul also goes to the ground. Remember the beliefs of the ancient peoples? Where, according to their beliefs, was hell, tartar, hades ...? It's underground. The ideas of all peoples about the “kingdom of shadows” are the same: the souls are in a viscous eternal half-sleep. They are gray and roam underground. They are silent. In the "realm of shadows" there is no word and it is impossible to communicate either mentally or verbally. There are no sounds. The souls barely move - their movements are heavy, the souls seem to be chained in stone, in a stone shell. Eternal stay underground. And torment, regret for the lost bright life. What do we know about life in paradise? She's the opposite! Bright flowers, orchards with fruits, green grass, kind animals, songs of birds, angels and people... and the light is never-ending, inexhaustible light! And people are active: they can communicate, get to know God – and this is an endless process. They can engage in some kind of activity even on earth - they help the living: they can appear to living people, provide assistance.

These are the ideas about heaven and hell that exist among various peoples.

Now let's talk about Baptism. What is baptism? This is the adoption by God of us earthly people. We become His sons and daughters. Why is it not allowed to read the prayer "Our Father" to the unbaptized! They cannot say to God, "Father!" Undoubtedly, God cares about all people. But the mysterious transformation of our body and soul, which will later be able to live forever, is bestowed by the seal of the Holy Spirit only at the time of Baptism and then at Communion of the Mysteries of Christ. God is the Creator for the unbaptized – for everyone. But He is the Father only for those who want to become His child.

God is beyond the universe, He is beyond space and time. That is why God cannot be portrayed. The notion that God is an old man sitting on a cloud is not true. God does not have a body like a man. And no mortal has seen God. God has no past and no future. His Eternal Son is always born. But God is a Person. And the main characteristics of the Personality are mind, will, feelings. Therefore, in the Psalms, many psalms describe the feelings of God - His wrath or mercy ... We are all in the Divine mind, as in the air. And if God released us from His Hand, Palm, we would not just die, but would cease to exist. Everything lives, breathes, develops only thanks to God and His Divine energies. But God is greater than His energies.

When the Lord created His Body inside the womb of the Mother of God, He became both God and Man. And forever now the Son of God sits on the throne at the right hand of the Father in human flesh! Not as corruptible as ours, but purified, perfect, imperishable. But the main thing is that Man sits on God's throne! A person who endured torment and suffering, having wounds on his arms and legs - this is so that we do not say: “It is good for You, Lord, to reason and judge us! You didn’t see grief and didn’t suffer like we do!” Why do we call Jesus Christ more often Lord than God? The word Lord has Latin roots and means literally: Sacrifice. Hostia - Latin, redemptive sacrifice. The same root can be traced in the Greek language. That is, God is God in general. But the Lord is God who offered Himself as a Sacrifice. That is why we depict Christ on icons and will never agree with the iconoclasts! Our icons testify: God was a Man, God lived on earth, God offered Himself as an Expiatory, Substitutive Sacrifice. Every confessed and repentant sin is washed away by the Blood of Christ. Therefore, a person no longer bears punishment for him. Unrepentant sins are not washed away by the Blood of Christ and cry out to Heaven for vengeance. Every sin must be atoned for - such is the Law.

When we receive holy baptism, our body acquires the ability to resurrect, our soul acquires the ability to live next to God, it no longer goes into the earth. Now man has become partly celestial. The person has changed so that he can go to Heaven along the very road that the Lord has already laid out for us. Like attracts like. The unbaptized soul is pulled by the mortal earth. The baptized soul itself rushes up to Heaven. The baptized person becomes part of the Body of Christ. The body of Christ is a non-disappearing reality.

A baptized person is adopted by the Lord and quickened by the Holy Spirit. It is Baptism and then Communion that makes it possible for a previously corruptible person to live eternal life.

We are saved by the Power of God. This is the uncreated Power. We often call it Grace. When we say that we receive Grace in the Sacraments of the Church, it means that we receive the Power of God. A baptized person regularly falls to this source of Power - to Communion. And the human body really and qualitatively changes.

There are no evil things in the world. Think about how a surgeon can perform an operation without drugs? And how would we live if we did not have a mind? But where do some people's minds go? Someone is creating a cure for cancer, and someone is creating nuclear weapons. Both that and another cannot be created without reason.

And so, thanks to Baptism, we combine in ourselves the most created and uncreated, as far as it is possible for a person. And that is why we can live forever and participate in an active and intelligent life after our earthly death. Earthly days will end, but life will continue. It's like giving birth to a new life.

God created man not in a finished form. So that a person can improve both himself and his knowledge of God. The imprint of the image of God is the same on a man and on a woman. You need to know this and not humiliate half of God's Creation! The Holy Spirit nourishes each person not on the basis of gender, but to the extent that a person can accept Him.

Why is fornication considered one of the gravest sins for a Christian? Remember that a man and a woman in a pair form the whole person, the whole person. They are literally united into one body as one, as the Lord said. What happens in fornication? A person becomes one body with a fornicator or a harlot who up to this point has become one body with other fornicators. Such an ugly monster body is formed. This body, because of its ugliness, cannot be part of the Body of Christ. If Christians form one body - the Church, then fornicators form another body - the anti-church. It is from here that the expression "to set the horns" originates. That is, a wandering person also gives his half (even if the second half is innocent) - the horns of the devil. That is why the Church requires an immediate divorce from the priest, if his wife, God forbid, has changed. The priest can no longer live with his wife and be one body with her. Otherwise, he can no longer serve the Liturgy and will be deposed from the rank.

The body of a baptized person and the person of a baptized person are part of the Personality of Godhead. Therefore, they are to be saved. So baptism is not just some kind of rite or tradition. This is the only way of salvation for humanity that exists. For what is God's will be saved and will live forever.

But what about the man "from the monkey"? If a person thinks so, he is a stranger to God. This man himself chose his father and mother - a monkey. Simply put: let the monkey save him. God gave us the right to choose our own father.

A believing and baptized person becomes a god by grace. In a baptized person, the soul and body are united and acquire the property of incorruptibility. But the unbaptized soul is immortal, but the body is mortal. And therefore the soul and body of an unbaptized person are forever separated (of course, until the time of baptism). God became Man forever so that we become eternal sons of God, gods by grace forever too. After all, if the Father is God, then the son cannot be not God! Our degree of divinity is not the same as that of Christ. After all, Christ was born of God the Father, therefore also uncreated. And people and angels are creatures. We are God's creations. But God, by grace, gives us adoption and loves us. Now we can connect with God through Christ, get to know Him and communicate with Him. Why through Christ? Because He is also human.

Why does God forbid people to turn to astrologers, to read horoscopes? Because the sky and the luminaries are also creatures. This creature was created FOR MAN. When we turn to astrologers, we firstly worship the creature, not the creator. Secondly, we admit the idea that the creature that was created FOR us now dominates us and guides us, determines our destiny. What do we call the stars and the moon? Heavenly luminaries. That is, they shine. Shines and a lantern on a pole. Will you approach a street lamppost to bow to it and tell fortunes about your fate by its light? Of course, this is ridiculous and stupid. But those "lanterns" in the sky were placed by God Himself - for us, so that we could live more cheerfully and more beautifully. Therefore, our worship of them in the Eyes of God is vile.

The sacrament of the Eucharist will be performed for our own, for God's people until the end of the world. More than two thousand years ago, the era of Easter began. Taurus is fattened for everyone who wants to taste the Easter of the Lord. God is waiting for us with open arms. His hands crucified on the Cross are not a symbol of suffering. With them Christ embraces the world and each of us. Hurry into His arms! Do not deny yourself the joy of eternal life with God.

Andrey asks
Answered by Vitaly Kolesnik, 01/22/2012

Andrei writes: "Hello, I would like to know if a person who is not baptized can believe in God and have his support?"

Hello Andrey!

There are examples in Scripture of how God helped and healed people who had not been baptized. For example, you can read the story of the Syrian commander Naaman (see Chap.). The Bible also says how Jesus healed all people during his ministry on earth, regardless of whether the person was in the Covenant with God, that is, baptized, or not.

However, the best option is when a person is still baptized.
According to Scripture, a person receives water baptism as his faith in God grows stronger and matures. We read about a eunuch who, according to the apostle Philip, believed in Jesus as his Savior:

"36. Meanwhile, continuing on their way, they came to the water; and the eunuch said: here is the water; what prevents me from being baptized?"
(Acts of the Apostles 8:36)

Why get water baptized? This is a kind of covenant, like a marriage union between husband and wife, when a vow of fidelity is made. If a person is not yet ready to receive water baptism, then he can continue to communicate with God, since in Scripture God says: "For I want mercy, and not sacrifice, and theology more than burnt offerings" (). God invites us to enter into dialogue with Him, He wants us to know Him as a Person. If a person already loves God and wants to follow Him, then he should think about what prevents him from being baptized? Jesus once said:

"3. Jesus answered and said to him: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God...
5. Jesus answered: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
6. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit."
(Holy Gospel of, 5, 6)

On the topic of Baptism, you can read about the benefits of it at the following link:
http://site/answers/r/11/

Sincerely,
Vitaly

Read more on the topic "God is love!":

(32 votes: 4.5 out of 5)

The reason for this law of sin, which is constantly corrupting us, is an evil spirit that has built a nest for itself in the depths of our soul. He continually deceives us with evil thoughts that pour like a stream from the depths of the heart. And a person takes them for his own, and therefore they become his. Thus, the original filth of Adam becomes our personal fault, which entails eternal death. And therefore, it is not by chance that before Baptism, the priest asks God to cast out "an evil and unclean spirit, hidden and nesting in the heart" of the person being baptized.

But the worst thing is that having moved away from God, a person loses the opportunity to find the strength to fight sin. Interestingly, during the categorical conversations, I asked many times those preparing for Baptism “what is virtue?”, but none of them could give an exact answer. The reason for this is not at all a lack of terminological training, but from ignorance that goodness can become a habit. The same can be observed in secular culture. Any description of vice, passion, crime looks internally reliable, logical, appropriate, but also any attempt to depict goodness most often looks extremely artificial. This is also due to the lack of real experience of doing good, without which its description is quite identical, for example, to the description of the natural conditions of the planet in the Sirius system. It is about this terrible reality that he speaks, teaching that without the help of the grace of Christ the Savior, victory over internal evil is impossible, and, as a result, good eternity.

In order for a person to break out of this terrible impasse of sin, which gives rise to death and destruction, God, out of His love, gave the Only Way to eternal life - the Lord Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself the sins of the world. The Son of God became the Son of Man in order to make us sons of God (st.). And through the Mystery of the Incarnation, we received the opportunity to receive Divine life in a form accessible to us. Without the Incarnation, a person cannot see the face of God and stay alive (). After all, sin has weakened us too much, corrupted our nature too much, so that by itself it could withstand the light of the Divine. It is no coincidence that even the great prophets of antiquity, having met a glimpse of the glory of the Creator (“a vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord” (), fell unconscious and could not speak. What can we say about those who have not cleansed themselves of sinful habits even outwardly, who even did not try to resist the passions?For such, the light of God's Face will become a devouring fire.

But then, when the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth, and from His fullness we received grace (). Then, through the veil of the flesh of Christ (), through the real tasting of His human nature in Communion, through hearing His saving words, we were able to taste the incorruptible power of Eternal Life. And it is this connection that enables us to overcome the corruption and decay of our nature. But how can those who have not touched the Cup of salvation be able to overcome this decay? Where will they get the strength to fight sin if God is just a distant and incomprehensible force for them? And then, when they appear before the luminous Face of the Lord, will not this radiance become for them a terrible flame, which will burn them? Who can resist the all-devouring flame of the Divine (), unless he who already has this flame in himself? But how and from where will a person who is not washed by the waters of Baptism and who does not partake of Holy Communion receive this power?

But it was not enough just to give a person the opportunity to appear before the Face of God, it is necessary to be uncondemned by the Lord's Court. The fact is that, contrary to popular belief today, God is not only love, but also justice. The Lord is righteous, loves the truth (), He is a righteous Judge (), and all His deeds are right (). He does not take gifts and does not look at faces () and rewards everyone according to his deeds (;).

The Bible and the Tradition of the Church teaches, and life confirms this conclusion, that there is not a single one righteous, all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God (). This means that everyone should receive retribution from God. But the love of God has found a way to save us from the punishment we deserve. The Son of God became Man, by the will of His Father, took upon Himself the punishment for our sins. As Isaiah predicted 7 centuries before His birth:

“He was despised and humbled before men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with sickness, and we turned our faces away from him; He was despised, and we regarded Him as nothing. But He took upon Himself our infirmities and bore our sicknesses; but we thought [that] He was smitten, punished, and humiliated by God. But He was wounded for our sins and tormented for our iniquities; the punishment of our peace [was] upon him, and by his stripes we were healed. We all wandered like sheep, each one turned to his own way: and the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all. He was tormented, but suffered voluntarily and did not open His mouth; He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. From bondage and judgment He was taken; but who will explain his generation? for he is cut off from the land of the living; for the crimes of my people suffered execution. He was assigned a tomb with villains, but He was buried by the rich, because He did not sin, and there was no lie in His mouth. But the Lord was pleased to strike him, and he gave him over to torment; when His soul offers a sacrifice of propitiation, He will see a long-lived offspring, and the will of the Lord will be successfully carried out by His hand. He will look with contentment at the feat of His soul; through the knowledge of Him, He, the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify many and bear their sins on Himself.” ()

This teaching is at the heart of the New Testament, and those who reject it cannot be called Christians even in the remotest approximation. After all, the essence of the Gospel preached by the apostles is that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He rose on the third day (). Therefore, the one who did not accept the Redeemer remains under the burden of his sins. To receive salvation from sin requires not only the sacrifice of God, but also active consent on the part of man. The essence of this agreement is faith in Christ (), and participation in His death through Baptism (). The one who, by faith in Jesus Christ, resorts to Baptism receives the forgiveness of his sins and Baptism saves Him by the Resurrection of Christ (). This is God's Way of salvation from sin. Arguments on the topic “well, we don’t know whether it is possible to be saved without Golgotha ​​or not, this is, like, the mystery of God” are inappropriate here. There is no secret here. God has clearly revealed everything. And do not try to find a shadow where it is a clear day. If a person, for whatever reason, does not resort to the Only Way to the Father (), then he will have to bear the entire burden of his actions. I'm not talking about the full severity of Adam's filth, burdening our lives. He can be justified by the law only when he fulfills it completely. Just repentance will not save you from retribution, because evil has already entered the world and must receive retribution. So, what can await such an unfortunate, except for eternal condemnation? How can those who did not want to receive God's justification be justified at God's Judgment? That is why the saint says: “Whoever does not receive baptism has no salvation, except for the martyrs, who receive the Kingdom of Heaven even without water. For the Savior, having redeemed the universe with the Cross, and being pierced in the rib, brought out blood and water from it, so that some in times of peace would be baptized with water, while others in times of persecution would be baptized with their own blood. And the Savior also called martyrdom baptism, saying: can you drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized ()?

“He who does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” () - says the Gospel. And they will be punished differently.

“The servant who knew the will of his master, and was not ready, and did not do according to his will, there will be many beats; but who did not know, and did worthy of punishment, the beat will be less ”().

One thing only makes them related. They won't have eternal life.

Last but not least for the work of salvation. Our God is the God of the Covenant, who made an alliance not with proud loners, but with His people. Now, after the appearance of God in the flesh, all those desiring to receive salvation must enter the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, which is not accidentally called the lot of the saved (canon 7 of the 2 Ecumenical Council), “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy people, people taken into an inheritance, in order to proclaim the perfections of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light ”(). “He cannot have God as His Father who does not have the Church in His own matter,” wrote the Hieromartyr (“On the Unity of the Church”). The Lord Himself, according to the testimony of Scripture, adds the saved to the Church (). After all, the Church is the Body of Christ, the Fullness of the One Who fills everything in everything (), for which Christ gave Himself as a Sacrifice (). He Himself cleanses the Church and all those who enter it through Baptism - a water bath through the word ().

And those who are outside the Church are, accordingly, uncleansed, not a people, not pardoned (), people sitting in darkness and in prison (), under the power of Satan (). And the only way out of this terrible state is faith in Christ and Baptism. And how can those who have not come out from under the power of Satan and have not had mercy on God be saved? How will the unclean enter the Kingdom of purity, already born unclean (), and not wanting to bathe in the waters of Baptism? After all, the Lord said that nothing unclean will enter His Kingdom ().

So the teaching of the Lord that it is impossible to be saved without Baptism (; ), grows organically from the entire Revelation of both the Old and New Testaments, and fully corresponds to the observed state of mankind, which in its current form will clearly not stand before the righteous Face of the heavenly Judge.

Interestingly, non-Christian humanity itself has always agreed with this statement. Many customs associated with the cult of ancestors and death testify that no one expects a meeting with the Creator behind the grave. Moreover, most civilizations believe that beyond the grave is worse than here. As Achilles told Odysseus, it is better to be the last farmhand on earth than the king in the underworld (Odysseus). In Japan, it is argued that the souls of the dead once a year can receive a "leave to earth", and then return to. The Slavs and Celts also believed (hence the modern Halloween). In ancient Egypt, the afterlife was teeming with dangers, but with luck, you could only get something like Earth. The land of Kur Sumerians and Sheol Semites is an extremely bleak place where terrible monsters live, the soul there has clay wings, eats clay and drinks dust. The perverted hells of Buddhists and Taoists in general can only inspire horror filmmakers. There were exceptions in a number of shamanic cults, where the shamans convinced that the deceased would have a good hunting ground, and so on. That is, even if they were right, they did not expect any meeting with God the Creator. But the most interesting thing is that for some reason the shamans themselves did not want to stay in such a "hot place" at all, but tried with all their might to deceive the guards of the land of the dead in order to return to the not at all comfortable conditions of the tundra or taiga. In Islam, after death, all souls are in the graves, where they experience either “torment of the grave” or some kind of pleasure, incomprehensible to the uninitiated. But, again, there is no personal meeting with the Creator. And even in the Islamic paradise, Allah will be as far from the righteous as the Moon is from the Earth.

So what kind of salvation of the unbaptized can we talk about if we proceed from the real religious experience of mankind? And false experience here speaks of the same correct reality – without Baptism there is no salvation, no forgiveness of sins, no meeting and union with the Lord.

Actually, the assertion that it is possible to be saved in the Christian sense even without Baptism arises only as a post-Christian heresy. The very message of the possibility of salvation is gospel news, unknown before. And only ungrateful people, who learned about such an unthinkable possibility, wanted to pave their own paths instead of the Only Way. As the Lord says: “They left me, the source of living water, and hewed out broken cisterns for themselves, which cannot hold water” ().

It is interesting that the statement about the possibility of salvation without Christ is not found among church authors at all, and the idea that it is possible to be saved without Baptism or martyrdom is found only in the most controversial texts (St. and fake 2 volume). In general, this idea, which directly contradicts the essence of the Gospel, is usually found among heretics. These are the Gnostics, and, and Pelagius, and a number of modern radical Protestants (both fundamentalists and liberals).

It is no coincidence that this statement fell under a series of anathematisms, beginning with the Council of Carthage, the 5th Ecumenical Council, and ending with the anathemas of the Week of Orthodoxy.

The Fathers of the Council of Carthage in Canon 124 affirm that even infants are baptized for the remission of sins, “For according to this rule of faith, even infants, who are not yet able to commit any sins of themselves, are truly baptized for the remission of sins, so that through regeneration, that which they took from the old birth will be cleansed in them.” And if so, what hope can there be for those who are under the burden of original sin?

Rule 127 of the same Council speaks even more harshly: “If anyone says that the grace of justification has been given to us in order that we may more conveniently fulfill what is possible for fulfillment of free will through grace, as if we had not received the grace of God, although we could, although with inconvenience, nevertheless, fulfill the Divine commandments without it, such let it be anathema. For the Lord did not say about the fruits of the commandments: Without Me you can work inconveniently, but he said: without me you can do nothing ()».

This rule generally condemns the humanist notion that a non-Christian righteousness is possible. Without the Lord Jesus Christ, only separate good movements of the soul are possible, but rootedness in goodness is impossible. You can try to fulfill the commandments, but you cannot fulfill them. Therefore, how can one say that a person can enter the Kingdom of God without doing deeds appropriate for the Kingdom?

The Council of Constantinople of 1076 against John Italus, in the 5th anathematism proclaims as follows: Those who say that the Hellenic sages and the first of the chiefs of heresy, subject to anathema from the seven holy and catholic councils and from all the men who have shone forth in Orthodoxy (as strangers to the Catholic Church for the sake of their counterfeit and unclean multiplication in words), [that they] are both here and in the future in court are better in many ways than pious and Orthodox men, and in particular, than those who have sinned through human passion or ignorance - anathema.

It is important to remember these words for those who are trying to justify non-believers or heretics (especially), claiming that they are better than the Orthodox, which means they have a better chance of salvation. In fact, even a sinful Orthodox Christian is closer to salvation than a righteous pagan. A sinning Christian is a lost child of God who can easily find forgiveness from a heavenly Father. And the “righteous pagan” is a child of the wrath of God (), who is most often convinced out of pride that he does not need God.

The service of the Week of Orthodoxy, proclaimed in the Churches, says this:

Anathema 4) Those who allow themselves to say that our salvation and cleansing from sins do not require the coming into the world of the Son of God according to the flesh, His voluntary suffering, death and resurrection - Anathema!

Isn’t this what the modern humanistic theology of “God only love” is talking about when it claims that salvation is possible regardless of whether a person believed in Christ, or even simply in God or not, participated in the Sacrament of Baptism or not?

Anathema 5) Those who do not receive the grace of redemption preached by the Gospel, as the only means to our justification before God - Anathema!

It is this condemnation that falls on those who affirm the possibility of salvation through good works. All who are not partakers of the grace of the Redemption through right faith and the Sacraments cannot be justified in the eyes of the Lord.

The idea that God is only love, and therefore He will save everyone, regardless of their attitude to the Church, their love for Christ and the power of God given through the Sacraments, arises only in a world that has generally lost its religious coordinate system and forgot about the need for personal contact with the invisible reality, which is the essence of any religion - both true and false. However, even in the 21st century, the world of spirits is not closed, and the door is not locked, and therefore all such games with invisible realities are deadly. They threaten the disintegration of life here and eternal death after death. It is for this purpose that Satan invented this heresy, in order to immerse all people in pernicious carelessness, in order to prevent the missionary offensive of Orthodoxy and destroy as many people as possible along with him.

After all, if we remember that without Baptism there is no salvation, then how can the mission of the Church be limited to only some nation or social group? Why distinguish between traditional or non-traditional religions, all the followers of which, in friendly ranks, descend into fiery hell? How can one say that respect for other people's religious traditions is necessary in preaching the Gospel, when we know that the result of these traditions will be the eternal decay of their bearers in the fiery abyss? All this is either a manifestation of truly satanic cruelty, when, due to short-term political goals, they even turn a blind eye not to the murder of the body, but to the death of the soul, or a manifestation of ordinary lack of faith, when the Gospel is perceived as a kind of document of previous historical epochs. Something “shaping the spiritual and moral image of the Russian nation”, and not unthinkable news about the only salvation for perishing humanity.

Is God just?

But here you have to hear such words of modern "Orthodox": "You adhere to the Old Testament literalism. Our God of the New Testament is not the same as the God of the Old. He is not a God of justice, but a God of love and only love. It is your vindictiveness, your depravity, that makes you see some kind of justice in the Source of all goodness. And if something was written in the Bible and the Fathers on this subject, it was for those reasons, in order to somehow curb rude people who cannot stop evil if they do not hear about the punishment for sin. But in fact, we know that God is only, and He does not punish anyone. Man punishes only himself with his passions. And God is only waiting for a person to turn to Him, and it doesn’t matter when, even on the day of the Second Coming, and then He will immediately forgive the person. And if so, how dare you say that only the baptized will be saved?”

Indeed, apart from Christ and His Church, the question of salvation is such that all Orthodox theology depends on its solution. Strictly speaking, we have before us two incompatible ideas about God Himself, from which incompatible ideas about the afterlife of all people (not only unbaptized, but also members of the Church) follow.

In what kind of God do our "Orthodox humanists" believe? Here it is important not to slide into a slogan war and not start to be indignant that, they say, how dare you accuse your Orthodox brothers of almost worshiping other gods. This will not be an honest discussion of a real terrible problem, but an attempt to confuse people with the help of hubbub and insults. In the same way, it is unacceptable to become personal in the sense that this or that person has brought so many people to the Church, and you dare ... We are talking here not about this or that person, but about the eternal Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is under terrible attack. If a person brought someone to the Church, but at the same time taught him a false doctrine, then such a convert, strictly speaking, is not in the Church. After all, the main condition for entering into Her and living in Her is precisely the intact apostolic faith.

But let's get back to the question of who do salvationists believe in besides Baptism. The favorite image used by humanists is the image of the sun, which shines on everyone equally and only those who close their eyes themselves can plunge into darkness. Also, God loves everyone equally, and people themselves, turning away from Him, plunge into the darkness of sin. As one of these humanists says, God does not punish anyone, but people punish themselves. As one who licks an ax in the cold and sticks to it with his tongue, he has only himself to blame.

This image is quite understandable. Moreover, he is often fair. Yes, many sins already in themselves bear the punishment of God. Cirrhosis of the liver is already rooted in drunkenness, and divorce in adultery. Often, but not always. The inhabitants of Sodom did not set fire to the sulfur deposits at all and did not arrange fiery ablutions. It was someone else who brought it on them. The ancient giants did not organize the ecological catastrophe of the Flood at all. The flood was also brought by Someone else. But who is this Someone? The Gnostics taught that it was some kind of evil force or even the devil. And the supporters of "Orthodox humanism" either remain silent, or again confuse two different things - a just punishment for a sin committed by the Judge, with the natural consequences of certain spiritual laws. There is no such natural law in nature when homosexuality would cause sulfur rain. There is no such law in the world of spirits. After all, the rebellious angels do not at all try to destroy their influence in the world (and it is carried out only through sin). Good angels do nothing contrary to the will of the Creator. The Bible says that the Lord sent down fire from the Lord from heaven (). That is, for Scripture, the punisher for evil was Two Persons (and not laws) - while Both are called by the same name Yahweh. It is no coincidence that the prophet Ezekiel says on behalf of God: “I will repay you according to your ways, and your abominations will be with you; and you will know that I am the Lord the punisher ”().

In the conventional interpretation, these Two Persons are God the Father and God the Son. So, for example, St. writes: “When he says: “The Lord sent down fire from heaven” (), then the prophetic word indicates two in number: one who is on earth, Who, the Scripture says, came down to see the cry of the Sodomites, and the other who is in heaven, Who is the Lord of the Lord who was on earth, as Father and God, and the Cause of the fact that He is mighty and is Lord and God ... Having said this, I added: you listeners, understand, if you only paid attention that, according to the testimony of Scripture, this The offspring is born of the Father before all creatures; and that the Begotten is different in number from the Begetter, everyone will agree with this.

So it was the God of the New Testament, before coming in the flesh, that burned the damned cities. So, either the “humanists” simply need to go over to the position of Marcion and recognize all the books of the Old Testament as inspired by a being other than the Father of Christ (and in our time L. Gumilyov and other nationalists adhered to precisely these positions), or abandon their main thesis that God does not punish anyone.

Here it is important to note what is the insufficiency of the image of the Sun in relation to God. The sun is weak-willed, it has no power to shine or stop shining. But our God is the King of kings and Lord of all. He is “the Legislator and Judge, able to save and destroy” (). And therefore, all attempts to turn Him into an “apparatus for the development of spiritual services” are doomed to failure. The Lord is free in His desires and no one can interfere with Him in His works, which He does only when He wants to.

God's providence extends not only to significant historical events, but to the life of every person - He has made the hearts of all of them, and looks into all their deeds. ()

Moreover, the Lord Jesus Himself assures us that even such an insignificant event as the fall of a small bird cannot take place without the will of God - Are not two sparrows sold for an assaria? And not one of them will fall to the ground without [the will of] your Father; ()

Both from a philosophical point of view and from the point of view of biblical Revelation in a theistic universe, one can only very conditionally speak of “natural” and, even more so, “necessary” consequences - as well as about “accidents”. Nothing happens and nothing can happen that God has not determined - either by allowing or actively acting.

That is precisely why it is not possible to combine the God of Scripture and Tradition, the God of the Church and the observable Universe with the fictitious god of the humanists. Here, a choice is needed between the reality about which Revelation tells us and the mental constructions of the humanists.

But when making this choice, it is important to remember one more fact. If we believe in a God who does not reward or punish, then we automatically lose the right to pray. If God only gives His love, but does not interfere in our lives in any way, then any prayer to Him is useless. This is especially true of prayers for forgiveness, for a good answer at the Last Judgment, and even ordinary prayers for the deceased. As Sergei Khudiev rightly remarked, “what will happen to our faith, our hope, our prayer life, if we still seriously accept the notion of retribution as “natural, necessary consequences”? We will consider some inevitable consequences - not possible, namely inevitable - consequences of such representations. Any pleading prayer - from “a good answer at the terrible judgment of Christ, we ask” to “a long and peaceful life, health and salvation, and good haste in everything, give me, Lord ..” - proceeds from the fact that our temporary and eternal fate is determined by God . It is pointless to ask God for anything if retribution is the “natural, necessary consequence” of our actions. Indeed, Mr. Sergius (Stargorodsky) writes: A person receives a reward for deeds, but this reward is in the deeds themselves, in the imprint they leave on a person’s soul. “If the mental eyes” of a person, as a result of a sinful life, are “too dark to see into the abode of joys,” if he has not developed them to that extent, then he will be forced to dwell in darkness and suffer, because everything in which only a person considered good life, all this will be taken away from him; and yet man still yearns for this, and only in this can he find food for his soul. He who has prepared himself for the spiritual life will enjoy it, and, moreover, to the extent that he has condemned himself.

If, within the framework of this doctrine, you have not "developed mental eyes," it is pointless for you to ask for God's mercy; any repentance on his deathbed is also meaningless, when a person clearly does not have time for “development of mental eyes” and “preparation for spiritual life”. Indeed, your posthumous fate is determined by your own condition, and not by the decision of God - what else is the point for you cry out to God? Professor A.I. Osipov says that “God is love and only love”, as if offering us a more gentle and loving God than the God-Judge of the Prophets and Apostles. But what does this lead to? If death threatens you by the judgment of the Judge, you can cry for mercy - and receive this mercy. But within the framework of those impersonal ideas about retribution, which are defended by Met. Sergiy (Stargorodtsev), prof. AI Osipov and those who are of one mind with them, no mercy, no acceptance into the Kingdom of God of a sinner who has not “developed mental eyes”, “has not prepared himself for spiritual life” is simply impossible. Not the judgment of God, but “necessary and natural consequences” doom you to Gehenna – and, therefore, pardon is excluded…

It is pointless to knock on the door, it is pointless to cry out for mercy - “communion with God is unacceptable for sinners,” and His decision to pardon or refuse mercy has nothing to do with it. Therefore, within the framework of faith in “natural, necessary consequences,” the apostolic proclamation of the forgiveness of sins also becomes meaningless.

To summarize all of the above, it must be said that the statement that "God is only love" actually leads to deism or even atheism. At best, in the view of such “Orthodox humanists”, the Lord will be some kind of good Power, like the Indian Manitou, which can be used, but which does not interfere in our lives in any way - neither by miracles, nor by judgment, nor by retribution. In short, “no one will give us deliverance, neither God, nor the king, and not a hero. We will achieve liberation with our own hand.

This is understandable psychologically. I would like to have some of my own place in the universe, in which no one, and even God, have the right to get into. In fact, that's what most people think in normal times. “Until the thunder breaks out, the peasant will not cross himself.” While everything is fine with me, why should I remind you of the Judgment, of death. I do what I want and don't touch me with your commandments. This is what Adam did when he tried to hide in the bushes from the Omnipresent God. But at the same time, we must remember that even when the thunder breaks out, it will be useless to be baptized. No one to turn to. That "God - Santa Claus", who DOES NOT PUNISH ANYONE, will not protect you when you are offended. After all, He cannot punish, for example, Hitler. After all, he is also His child, whom He warms, cares for and cherishes, despite his ugliness. So shout - do not shout, everything is one. Help is nowhere to be found.

I would like to put forward against the humanistic god "only love" the argument from a child's tear. How can one honor (it is clear that it is useless to pray to Him, but even honor) One who does not wish to avenge innocent blood?

I can’t help but quote S. Khudiev: “Sometimes people say, “I don’t believe in an angry God! I believe in the God of love!" But then they believe in a God who has nothing against moral evil; into a God who does not object to iniquity; into a God who benevolently looks at how the widow and the stranger are killed, and the orphans are put to death. Let's stop for five minutes and think - can we call a God who is not disturbed by lawlessness, a God who looks indifferently at how sin destroys the world He created, loving? Traditional Christian belief says that God is longsuffering, but His wrath is a reality, a blazing fire that will sweep away all evil. The notion of a "no-wrath" God says that from the very beginning God does not show anything resembling indignation or indignation towards sin, and the universe has no hope that God will end evil by actively intervening in the course of events.

From myself I will add that if such a creature existed, then it would not deserve the slightest respect, let alone reverence. How can you love someone who calmly looks at the offense of an innocent, pats the offender on the head and tells him “well, you didn’t do it in vain. Now your spiritual eyes are darkened. It will be difficult for you, the poor,"?

But if we turn to the teaching of the Fathers of the Church, we will see that for them such an attitude towards the Creator is tantamount to a complete denial of the existence of God.

But what about good people? Will they die?

This question is asked most often after hearing the words of the Lord: “whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, and whoever does not believe will be condemned” (). Indeed, if we have already decided that God is just, then will He really condemn the righteous and the wicked together? Will the Judge of all the earth do wrong? ()

This question is really serious. After all, the biblical statement that salvation is given regardless of works, only by faith in Christ () is often called unjust, dishonest, and even encouraging villainy.

Everything is easy for you: you have sinned and repented. And your God immediately forgave everything. It's not fair! And at the same time you declare that God will punish those people who lived righteously, but did not enter your Church.

These words can be heard from the atheists, and from the Muslims, and from the occultists. And this outrage is not accidental. In the depths of their hearts, those who do not want to accept Christ as the only Savior believe that they themselves, even without His help, can become good people and God will be obliged to give them bliss. They think that God owes them something, and they are indignant that the Creator does not give it to them.

S. Khudiev is right when he says that “we live in a universe engulfed in rebellion. We belong to a rebellious family. It is natural for us, as fallen and rebellious beings, to reject God's Sovereignty and His judgment. The furious, indomitable rebellion inherent in the fallen human heart will urge us to indignantly reject the truth of God. Therefore, the clearest arguments will fail to pierce man's conviction that God's justice is "fierce, self-centered, and sadistic." Here, in addition to intellectual conviction, something else is required - repentance. It is necessary to leave the camp of the rebels and surrender to the legitimate Sovereign.

And one of the most important elements of rebellion is the attempt to put your own righteousness in place of the righteousness of God. This has already happened to the people of Israel when “not understanding the righteousness of God and striving to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to the righteousness of God, because the end of the law is Christ, to the righteousness of everyone who believes” ().

As Chrysostom comments on these words, “but those who constantly resist the Holy Spirit and strive to be justified by the law are far from faith. But being far from faith and having not received the justification that faith gives, and equally not being able to be justified by the law, they lost everything. The end of the law Christ in truth to everyone who believes(). Note the prudence of Paul. Since he called both the truth, so that those who believed from the Jews would not think that they have one truth, but are deprived of another, and therefore are accused of iniquity (for they, as new converts, still had to be afraid), and so that the Jews would not again expect to fulfill and they did not say the truth: if we have not done it yet, then we will do it without a doubt - look what he is doing (the apostle). He proves that there is only one righteousness, that legal righteousness consists in righteousness by faith, and whoever has acquired righteousness by faith has also fulfilled legal righteousness, and whoever rejects the former has lost the latter. If Christ is the goal of the law, then he who does not have Christ, even though he thinks he has righteousness, yet does not have it, but he who has Christ, even though he has not fulfilled the law, has achieved everything. The goal of medicine is health. Just as the one who can make healthy, even though he did not know the art of medicine, has everything, but the one who does not know how to cure, even though he thinks that he follows the art, is deprived of everything, so it happens with regard to the law and faith: whoever has faith, he has achieved the goals of the law, and whoever is outside the faith, he is a stranger to both faith and the law. What exactly did the law want? Make a person righteous. But he was powerless, because no one fulfilled the law. Such was the purpose of the law, everything tended to this, everything was done for this - holidays, and commandments, and sacrifices, and everything else, so that a person would be justified. But this goal was more truly achieved by Christ through faith. So, do not be afraid, says (the apostle), that you break the law after you have come to faith: then you break the law when, because of the law, you do not believe in Christ; when you believe in Him, then you have fulfilled the law, even much more, because you have achieved a much greater righteousness.

The most amazing thing is that people are trying to achieve eternal life through the fulfillment of their standards. People fulfill (and often do not fulfill) their own instructions and at the same time for some reason believe that God is obliged to reward them for this. This can be compared to the fact that in a football competition one of the teams would allow itself to use both hands and a gun for the game, and then also demand from the referee that he count her the victory.

Those who consider themselves entitled to demand from God a reward for their actions, ignoring His direct command about Baptism (;), while still unlike the Jews, they do not even try to fulfill God's commandments. They fulfill (or do not fulfill, but pretend to fulfill) the norms of their own morality and at the same time are still indignant at God's indignation: “These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; but in vain they worship Me, teaching doctrines, the commandments of men.

Interestingly, at work they will also relate to subordinates who, instead of fulfilling the order, will say: “But we did a good job here, but your order is all nonsense, you don’t need to do it at all”? I don't think such arrogance deserves a reward. But for some reason, this is expected from God.

If we want to receive a reward from God, I think that we need to please Him. And in order to please Him, one must fulfill the commandments. And the main thing that the Lord requires of us is faith in the Son of God, and receiving forgiveness from Him in Baptism: “They said to Him: what should we do to do the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (). “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God” ().

It is no coincidence that Chrysostom said such terrible words: “If something happens, God forbid, that an unexpected death befalls us, and we leave here without Enlightenment, then even if we had thousands of blessings here, nothing else awaits us, like hell, a worm poisonous, unquenchable fire, and inextricable bonds.”

And how can one be righteous who directly violates the will of God? It is no longer necessary to say that even a formally unbaptized person hardly fulfilled at least the Ten Commandments of Moses, I am not talking about the 613 commandments of the Law, much less about the Gospel commands. After all, the one who did not receive the Sacrament does not honor God properly (1 commandment), but, on the contrary, made an idol for himself out of his imaginary rightness (2 commandment). It is no coincidence that o. He said that “one cannot simultaneously seek one's own truth and God's truth. They are not compatible. When you seek your own truth, you forget about God's and vice versa.

And the judgment of God's truth about each of us is this: “Both Jews and Greeks are all under sin, as it is written, There is none righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; no one is looking for God; all have turned aside from the path, they are useless to one; there is no one who does good, there is none. Their larynx is an open coffin; they deceive with their tongue; the poison of asps is on their lips. Their mouths are full of slander and bitterness. Their feet are quick to shed blood; destruction and ruin are in their way; they do not know the way of the world. There is no fear of God before their eyes. But we know that the law, if it says anything, speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth is stopped, and the whole world becomes guilty before God, because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified before Him; for by the law is the knowledge of sin."

And, to be honest, isn't that pure truth? Aren't even outwardly decent people full of vanity? Do they have the fear of God in their hearts? Are they looking for God? And therefore it is not surprising that often the most decent people fail in difficult times. After all, their hearts barricaded themselves from the Lord into the armor of their decency and imaginary honesty, behind which lies cold pride. These false fortifications will fall on the Day of Judgment. But it will be too late.

So it is better now to move away from that terrible arrogance that makes us rely on our imaginary achievements. It is better to stop the rebellion and surrender into the hands of the Merciful Lord. He offers us a new way of righteousness: “But now, regardless of the law, the righteousness of God has appeared, to which the law and the prophets testify, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all believers, for there is no difference, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, receiving justification freely, according to His grace, the redemption in Christ Jesus, whom God offered as a propitiation in His blood through faith, to show His righteousness in the forgiveness of sins committed before, in the [time] of God's patience, to show His righteousness at the present time, yes [it will appear ] He is righteous and justifies the one who believes in Jesus.” ()

Why should we die in our false righteousness, which still cannot bear the light of God's Face? Isn't it better to humble yourself before God and get saved?

Of course, you can console yourself with the fact that in the underworld there will be different punishment for maniacs and ordinary people. Yes, Christ speaks of different punishments for different sinners. But still, it is better to be saved and enter the Kingdom of God than to count on a slightly better fate in a place of rejection.

Did all the people of the Old Testament perish?

This question is put forward in various forms in order to reject the one-salvation work of Christ. They say that since in the Old Testament people could be saved without Christ and His Baptism, even now it is possible for different classes of people. In the description of the classes of the saved, opinions differ. Some argue that salvation is available to unbaptized babies, others to decent people, others to pagans living according to the laws of their religion, and others to Jews who have fulfilled the Law of Moses. But in all cases it is said that the statement “outside the Church there is no salvation” makes salvation more difficult for our contemporaries than it was in the Old Testament. One modern theologian generally developed the theory that all mankind, ignorant of Christ, is in the state of the Old Testament. All the dead unbaptized go to hell, where Christ meets them, preaches to them, and sends them to heaven. At the same time, this author argues that the descent into the underworld is timeless and therefore concerns all generations of people.

Here it is necessary to say the following. In the Old Testament, none of the dead could count on salvation at all. As pious King Hezekiah prayed: “I said in myself: in the middle of my days I must go to the gates of the underworld; I am deprived of the rest of my years. I said: I will not see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living; I will no longer see a person among those living in the world; my dwelling is removed from its place and carried away from me, like a shepherd's hut; I must cut like a weaver my life; He will cut me off from the base; day and night I waited for you to send me death ... Lord! so they live, and in all this is the life of my spirit; You heal me, give me life. Behold, for the good of me there was a strong sorrow, and You delivered my soul from the pit of perdition, threw all my sins over Your back. For Hell does not praise You, death does not praise You, those who do not descend into the grave hope in Your truth. Alive, only alive will glorify You, as I am now: the father will proclaim Your truth to the children. ()

And his royal ancestor, the prophet David, also said: “I have become equal to those descending into the grave; I became like a man without strength, thrown among the dead, like the slain, lying in the tomb, whom You no longer remember and who are rejected by Your hand. You put me in the pit of hell, in darkness, in the abyss. Your wrath has weighed down on me, and with all Your waves You have struck [me]. You removed my acquaintances from me, made me disgusting for them; I'm locked up and can't get out. My eye is weary of grief: all day long I have cried to Thee, O Lord; I have stretched out my hands to Thee. Will You work miracles on the dead? Will the dead rise up and praise You? Or will Thy mercy be proclaimed in the tomb, and Thy truth in the place of corruption? Will they know Your wonders in darkness, and in the land of forgetfulness Your righteousness? ().

This is the fate of all the people of antiquity without exception. They all descended into the dark abysses of Sheol. Yes, there was some difference in the position of the souls of the dead. The righteous were in the bosom of Abraham (), where the angels brought them and they felt some comfort (). They were separated from the sinners by an abyss that neither one nor the other could cross. And the sinners themselves were in various degrees of punishment. The rich man was tormented by an unquenched desire for pleasure (). The souls of the killers bore their shame, and their bloody weapons lay under their heads (). And in the very depths of hell, full of dirt, stench and worms, there were the souls of the proud (). But they were all in one terrible place, in the dungeon of souls (), in a country from which there is no return. The only difference was that some hoped that God Himself would intervene in their fate and deliver them from under the shadow of death, while others did not. “In the universal dungeon of hell from time immemorial dwelt the deceased, the righteous and the unrighteous. But the prophets and all the righteous continually prayed to the Lord from there to deliver them from sorrows and from the eternally gloomy night ... The all-merciful Lord Christ, having heard them, did not consider it fair to make partakers of his philanthropy only those who lived during His stay on earth and after it will live; but also those who were kept in hell before His coming, and sat in darkness and the shadow of death; Therefore, He visited people who were in the flesh with animated flesh, and to the souls separated from the bodies He appeared with a divine and most pure soul, which, separated from the body, was not separated from the Divine.

The reason for this difference was that some sought God during their lifetime, while others did not. Some believed Him, and others did not want it. This is what determined their eternal destiny. Salvation came to them not from their merits, but from God the Savior in whom they hoped. Sometimes one hears that even without faith in Christ the ancients were saved. But this is not so at all. Yes, the mystery of salvation was hidden from the ancient generations (), and even the angels only through the Church learned the manifold wisdom of God (). But it does not follow from this that the ancient people knew nothing about the Son of God, and that meeting with Him in hell was a surprise. No, Abraham and Moses, David and Isaiah not only knew about the Lord, but also personally communicated with Him.

According to St. Athanasius, “for the knowledge and exact understanding of the truth, we need no one else, but only ourselves. The path to God is not so far from us as God himself is above all; he is not outside of us, but in ourselves; and the beginning of it can be found by us, just as Moses taught, saying: The word is close to you, in your mouth and in your heart(; ). And the Savior, making it clear and confirming the same thing, said: The kingdom of God is within you(). Having faith and the kingdom of God within ourselves, we can soon see and comprehend the King of the universe - the Saving Word of the Father. Let the Hellenes who serve idols not make excuses, and in general, let no one else deceive himself, as if they do not have such a path, and therefore they have a pretext for their godlessness. We all have embarked on this path, and it is open to all, although not everyone follows it, but it is desirable for many to leave it, because worldly pleasures draw them from outside.

Thus, any person - both a Jew and a pagan, considering in himself the imprint of the image of God, could also consider the First Image of the Father Himself - the Son of God (), who said "he who saw Me, saw the Father" (). Also, considering the visible creation, any person could see His inherent power and Divinity (). And having seen His Creator, a person could put all his hope on Him, and it was through this that he would receive salvation when Christ found those who were looking for him in the darkness of the underworld. It is no coincidence that St. He says: “Does God, having descended into hell, save everyone indiscriminately? No. He also saves those who believe there.”

So, both in ancient times and now, salvation is accomplished in exactly the same way. People who seek Truth find it in God the Creator. They begin to fulfill His will either through the written Law or through the law of conscience. Fulfilling the law, they are convinced both of its justice and of their inability to follow it to the end. Convinced of this, they ask God Himself to save them. And their faith draws God's salvation to them. “And without faith it is impossible to please God; for it is necessary that he who comes to God believe that He exists, and rewards those who seek Him ”(). As impossible as it is now, so it was impossible in antiquity.

As Chrysostom notes, speaking of the words of the Apostle Paul, “glory and honor, and peace to everyone who does good, first to the Jew, [then] and to the Greek!” (): “What Jew is the Apostle talking about here, and what Greeks are he talking about? About those who lived before the coming of Christ. It has not yet reached the times of grace, but for the time being the apostle dwells on earlier times, preparing from afar and gradually destroying the differences between the Jew and the Greek, so that when he does this in the reasoning of grace, it would not seem something new and difficult to understand. After all, if there was no difference in earlier times, when the grace of Christ did not yet shine, when the deeds of the Jews were honorable and brilliant for everyone, then what could be said about this when such great grace appeared? As a result, of course, the apostle reveals such a doctrine with great care. The hearer, having learned that it dominated in ancient times, will the sooner accept it now - after accepting the faith. And by the Greeks, the apostle does not mean here idolaters, but God-fearing people, obeying the natural law, who, with the exception of observance of the Jewish rites, performed everything related to piety. Such were Melchizedek and those who were with him, Job, the Ninevites, Cornelius.

Salvation itself is also accomplished in exactly the same way both in antiquity and now. The Son of God dies on the Cross for the sins of people, and with His blood washes away the crimes of those who believe. According to the beautiful words of St. “He is the door to the Father, through which enter Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the prophets and apostles, and the Church. All this is for unity with God.”

Those who believed before, He saves by His descent into hell. Thus were saved Adam and Eve, the prudent thief, and all who believed in Christ before His death. As the Synaxarion of Pascha says, “Having descended into hell, He did not restore everyone, but only those who desired to believe in Him; but the souls of the saints, forcibly detained by hell from eternity, He freed and opened the way to heaven for all of them.

And those who believe now also need the Blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse them from all sin (). And how can you get this cleansing now? Only through participation in the death and resurrection of Christ the Savior can one receive salvation. We participate in the passions of the Lord through Baptism and Communion:

“Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we are united with Him in the likeness of His death, then we must be [united] and [in the likeness] of the resurrection, knowing that our old man was crucified with Him, so that the sinful body would be abolished, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died has been freed from sin. If we died with Christ, then we believe that we will also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having risen from the dead, no longer dies: death no longer has power over Him. For that he died, he died once to sin; and what lives, lives for God. So you also reckon yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

“In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the sinful body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ; being buried with Him in baptism, in Him you were also raised with Him through faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead.

“For I received from the Lord [Himself] what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you. ; do this in remembrance of me. Also the cup after supper, and said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this whenever you drink, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.

“Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you. Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink. Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live by the Father, [so] the one who eats me will live by me.

So God really did not give us any other way of salvation, except through the atoning sacrifice of His Son, for the acceptance of which only faith and repentance are required from us. And the one who believes, the Son of God Himself frees from slavery to sin and Satan. So it was with the ancient righteous, whom the Son of God saved by His descent into hell, so it is with us, whom the same Christ Himself personally saves in Baptism. He "is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit" ().

Most of the problems with understanding why baptism is necessary for salvation is due to the fact that this ordinance of God's intervention is perceived as an exclusively human work. Then it really becomes incomprehensible why God needs to pay attention to whether one person bathed another in the font or not. Another thing is that in fact it is the Triune God who regenerates us in Baptism. And the rejection of the Sacrament or any other attempt at self-salvation is simply a rebellion against the Creator.

In connection with the dogma of the descent into hell, there is another peculiar teaching that tries to introduce the possibility of salvation without Baptism. It is argued that the underworld is outside of time and the descent of Christ into hell covers all times. Therefore, they say, every person who dies without Baptism after death descends into hell, where Christ meets him, and if a person believes in Him, He sends him to heaven. This doctrine also declares that Jesus Christ is the only Savior, but at the same time the Church becomes optional for salvation.

Here it should be noted that all the works of the Lord are unique and unrepeatable. Neither Scripture nor Tradition gives us the right to deny the uniqueness of the events of Passion Week. The Apostle Peter directly affirms the uniqueness and simultaneity of the descent into hell: "Christ to lead us to God, once suffered for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, having been put to death according to the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit, by which He descended and preached to the spirits in prison.

The Lord once died for our sins. His death was at 15:14 Nisan, and immediately after that, His deified Soul descended into hell. Throughout the remaining hours of Friday and Saturday, He preached to the souls of the dead, whom the Lord raised to paradise. And in the deep night of Sunday, Nisan 16, He rose from the dead. After that, the Lord did not descend into hell. On the contrary, He ascended to His Father, bringing Him the gift of glorified human nature (). And now, with His Humanity, He sits on the right side of God the Father (). It was there, in heaven, and not at all in hell, that His first martyr Stephen () and the apostle John () saw Him.

By the way, it must be said that the opinion that the underworld is outside of time or that the Son of God descended there outside of time is not based on anything. Angels and humans are limited by time and space. Scripture tells us that in hell the souls talk (; ), which suggests some time. Yes, and the Apocalypse says that there will be no time only after the end of the world (), which means that now it is in the underworld, as well as on Earth.

Likewise, the assertion that Christ's descent into hell was timeless would deny the existence of hellish torment altogether. After all, then it would turn out that the Lord was always in hell with His soul, even before the incarnation. And there was always the possibility of meeting with Him in the valley of the shadow of death. It is not clear then what new He gave people by His death.

No, Christ once descended into hell, saved those who were waiting for His coming, and now he is saving people already on Earth, through the Church, which is His Body (). Now we have a chance that we never had before. – A chance to meet God here on Earth and never see the gloomy valleys of the underworld.

Why does God punish those Gentiles who never had the opportunity to learn about Christ?

This question is often heard when we discuss the Church's single salvation. The answer is obvious enough. The heathen will be punished for nothing less than their idolatry. According to , "idolatry is the greatest crime of the world, the only reason for the Last Judgment." It is the worship of the creature instead of the Creator that is the cause of the eternal death of the pagans. And the Holy Spirit confirmed this, and not just a man. – I will not quote dozens of quotations from the Old Testament, where God angrily condemns idolatry and all other forms of paganism. I will quote only a few words of the apostles, which they show the criminality of paganism.

The Apostle Paul says this:

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor malakia, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor blasphemers, nor predators - will inherit the Kingdom of God ”().

“The works of the flesh are known; they are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, quarrels, envy, anger, strife, disagreements, (temptations), heresies, hatred, murders, drunkenness, outrageousness, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do so will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth with unrighteousness. For what can be known about God is clear to them, because God has shown them. For His invisible, His eternal power and Divinity, from the creation of the world through the consideration of creations are visible, so that they are unanswerable. But how, having known God, they did not glorify Him as God, and did not give thanks, but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and reptiles - then God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that they defiled their own bodies. They replaced the truth of God with a lie, and worshiped and served the creature instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever, amen. Therefore, God gave them up to shameful passions: their women replaced their natural use with an unnatural one; likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the female sex, were inflamed with lust against one another, men doing shame on men, and receiving in themselves the due retribution for their error. And as they did not care to have God in their minds, God gave them over to a perverse mind - to do indecency, so that they are filled with all kinds of unrighteousness, fornication, deceit, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malevolence, blasphemers, slanderers, God-haters, offenders, boasters, proud, inventive for evil, disobedient to parents, reckless, treacherous, unloving, irreconcilable, unmerciful. They know the righteous [judgment] of God, that those who do such [deeds] are worthy of death; however, not only [them] are made, but those who do are approved ”().

The holy apostle directly teaches that those who commit these crimes will not be able to enter the Kingdom, while modernists for some reason believe that they can. And which of the pagans did not commit these iniquities, if their whole life is permeated with these passions?

Just as the apostle Paul teaches the apostle of love, John the Theologian. God Himself revealed to him that< “The timid and unfaithful, and filthy, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, will have their fate in the lake burning with fire and brimstone. This is the second death "().

“And outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and everyone who loves and does unrighteousness” ().

And if God Himself says that the fate of the Gentiles is in the lake of fire, then who would dare to argue with Him? And it is clear that if the Apostle John, the same one who wrote that “God is love”, does not find in this sad fact a contradiction with the condemnation of sinners, then the mistake is only in the heads of modernists. Their ideas about God and His love are wrong. And if they love their untruth, then their fate will also be extremely sad.

Also, the supreme apostle Peter evaluates the life of “ordinary people of this world”: “It is enough that in the past time of your life you acted according to the will of the pagans, indulging in uncleanness, lusts (sodomy, bestiality, thoughts), drunkenness, excess in food and drink, and ridiculous idolatry; why they wonder that you do not share with them in the same debauchery, and slander you. They will give an answer to the One who will soon judge the living and the dead ”().

Indeed, people outside the Church do "works of the flesh" all the time. For so many people, life comes down to pleasing themselves.

Even if you think about the most exalted ideals of an ordinary person, then they are not much superior to the highest manifestations of animal life? Caring for the family is also characteristic of birds, the protection of the boundaries of the area of ​​\u200b\u200bresidence - for most mammals. Capercaillie also know aesthetic pleasure. Many people know how dogs sacrifice themselves for their owners, that cats are ready to nurse people after a stroke for days. All this is evidence that the Divine virtues are embedded in the very nature of man. But all these inclinations do not go beyond the boundaries of carnal life. Moreover, they will not be able to lead a person into heavenly life.

But the reality is far scarier than the rosy descriptions that modernists like to give. Yes, there are meek people, there are clean people, there are pleasant people in communication. But at the same time, the words of Scripture that there is no one righteous, not one () are a scientifically observed fact. There are no people who by themselves have become the executors of all the commandments of God. But without this, there is simply no need to talk about righteousness. And the more honest a person is, the more he tries to live according to his conscience, the more he feels his imperfection and sinfulness.

And even the wise pagans said the same. Horace testified: "I see the best way, but I go the worst."

But most people are so saturated with evil that they simply do not seek God. After all, "the pagans not only had a satanic teaching, but also a devilish life." And the reason for this is that false teachings strengthen self-love, voluptuousness and the love of money - these three main passions. And they, in turn, destroy both the human soul and society as a whole. What makes this evil incurable is that it becomes a tradition of the people. And only Divine intervention, destroying the cultural traditions of society, gives a chance to those who are looking for the Truth to find it. It is no coincidence that the Roman Empire, which destroyed the borders of nation-states, and the Orthodox Church appeared at the same time. This is the work of God.

What is the reason why people fall into evil so easily and do good so hard? Why is it easier for a crime to become a tradition outside the Church than a virtue? How did cannibalism and sodomy and similar abominations become traditional in some societies? The reason is that all people are called to love. And to give up the ability to love is not in our power. But the whole trouble lies in the fact that either a person loves God to the point of forgetting himself, and in Him he learns to love his neighbors, or he loves himself to the point of contempt for God and his neighbor, and in this self-love he becomes the beloved of the devil, and learns from him hatred. to all. Outside the Church, people are under the tyranny of the Enemy, who does with them as he pleases. And only the Lord can pull us out from under his impure power.

The Apostle Paul clearly shows this terrible connection, this diabolical-human symbiosis, in which all the unbaptized are: “And you who were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you once lived, according to the course of this world, according to [the will of] the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived according to our fleshly lusts, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and thoughts, and were by nature the children of wrath, like the rest ”().

It is clear that man himself cannot escape from this darkness. But the trouble is that he does not want to break out. After all, his pleasure, peace of mind, national tradition, good relations in the family are more important to him. “These are all 'decent shells' for selfish comfort. Everything in the world is more important than truth and God. And so the wrath of God falls on his head. And therefore the fate of such a person is in eternal communion with Satan, whom he loved, and whom he does not want to change for any God. After all, the devil allows a person to live the way he wants, and not the way God wants it.

True, at the same time the devil devours the soul that has given itself up, but here self-deception comes into play and, according to the exact remark of St. , the sinner is like a dog that licks a saw, and, getting drunk on the taste of its own blood, begins to lick even harder. And the leech, before starting to drink blood, sprinkles an anesthetic into the blood so that the victim does not notice the loss of blood. So the whole variety of false religions and philosophies is a diabolical painkiller that prevents the deceived from coming to his senses and finding the only Path to salvation. That is why non-Christians are so vehement in their demands for the rejection of the Orthodox mission and for the expression of respect for their "traditional religions". After all, if you know the will of God, you will have to fundamentally change. And I don't want this one. Instead of a cozy narcotic dream, you will have to return to real life. And after this "devilish treatment" she is such that she will not seem a little. The soul is destroyed, ideas about the world will have to be radically changed, there is little strength left (after all, Satan has already had a good meal for the unfortunate). It remains to rely only on the unpredictable will of God, you will have to rush into the unknown, and this is so scary. That is why living faith is the main virtue of a Christian. Indeed, without it, an objective look at oneself and at the world will lead to endless despair. Without trust in a loving Father, only death remains. It is from this sad introspection, not supported by trust in the Creator, that the pessimistic religions of the East, such as Buddhism and Taoism, are born. But here, too, behind this imaginary objectivity stands the impudent grin of the Enemy, which he says, “There’s no need to twitch the lads - dive to the bottom.”

It is no coincidence that the Scriptures directly identify idolatry with demon worship.

“They offered sacrifices to demons, and not to God, to gods whom they did not know, new ones [who] came from neighbors and which your fathers did not think about” ()

“Mixed with the Gentiles and learned their deeds; served their idols, [which] were a snare for them, and offered their sons and their daughters as a sacrifice to demons; they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the earth was defiled with blood; defiled themselves by their deeds, committed fornication by their deeds. And the wrath of the Lord was kindled against his people, and he abhorred his inheritance.

“The pagans, when offering sacrifices, offer to demons, and not to God. But I don't want you to be in fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot be participants in the table of the Lord and in the table of demons. Shall we [decide] to irritate the Lord? Are we stronger than Him? ()

And this is no coincidence! Whoever is after a man's heart, he serves him. That is why pagans bow down to demons because they do their will. And if so, that no good fate in eternity awaits them. Indeed, according to the direct words of Scripture, such behavior is disgusting to the Lord.

But here it is worth separately considering the question of why not all tribes and peoples have still received the opportunity to choose. The Word of God clearly answers this question. God calls only those who are called to salvation.

“For whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And whom He predestined, them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom he justified, those he glorified ”().

But, as we see from these words of the Apostle Paul, predestination unto salvation is not accidental, but follows from God's foreknowledge. God initially sees the depths of the heart of each person.

“The Lord looks down from heaven, sees all the sons of men; from the throne on which he sits, He looks down on all who live on earth: He created the hearts of all of them and delves into all their deeds ”().

The very choice to seek truth or to adjust it to oneself is made in the depths of the human spirit. There, no one, and even God, does not influence the heart. And it is precisely in this secret choice that the reason for the pre-election or rejection of a person is rooted. God has opened the only way to salvation for all of us, and therefore He will not have mercy on those who did not seek Him. According to Chrysostom,

“He who knows secrets already clearly knows who is worthy of crowns, and who is punished and tormented. Wherefore, He exposed many who, according to the people, were good, punished, and crowned many who were considered vicious, and testified that they were not so. He pronounces the verdict not by the recall of the slaves, but by his own strict and impartial court and does not wait for the end of the case to recognize one as bad, and the other not.

The one who in the depths of his heart has decided to seek God is already among the chosen ones of God. And now, during the New Testament, the Lord will not leave him alone. He will certainly send a preacher to him, who will proclaim to him the way of salvation. This is what the Apostle Paul wrote about it.

This is how the above words are interpreted by the blessed. : " Moreover, we know that for those who love God, who are called according to His will, everything works together for good... To those who love God, he says, everything, even seemingly unpleasant and regrettable, contributes to the good. He did not say that no troubles happen to those who love God, but that although they happen, God uses disasters for the benefit of those who are subjected to them. Then, since it seemed unbelievable, he confirms it in the past, saying: called by His will. God, he says, called you when you were far away, and took you into His own hands: will He help the one who is called all the more? And a person becomes called at will, that is, according to his own will. For one rank is not enough (because in that case all would be saved, because all are called), but what is also needed is free will. For whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And whom He predestined, those He called. God knows in advance those worthy of the title, then predestinates. So, first foreknowledge, then predestination. By predestination, mean the unchanging good will of God. Thus He knew in advance that Paul was worthy of the gospel title, and thus predestined, that is, invariably determined, and therefore decided to call him. Of whom He knows in advance that they are worthy of the title, those He makes similar to the image of His Son. What the Only Begotten was by nature, they became by grace, becoming themselves sons of God. And He is the first-begotten among many brothers in dispensation, for in divinity He is the Only Begotten. He, having taken on the flesh, united it all and entirely with all of His nature, became our firstfruits, sanctifying our condemned nature in Himself, and therefore it is worthy to eat the firstborn, and we are called His brethren. And whom he called, those he justified, freed from sins and made righteous through the bath of rebirth. And whom he justified, those he glorified, honoring them with adoption and giving them other gifts.”

So the presence or absence of a sermon in one place or another is not at all accidental. Does the Almighty have accidents? Those who do not seek the Truth, they do not find it. And those who seek it, God will certainly lead them to it. Suffice it to recall the life of St. Barbarians or St. Joasaph, Prince of India, to understand that there are no “objective reasons” for God not to convey the word of salvation. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself said that “everything that the Father gives Me will come to Me; and whoever comes to Me I will not cast out.” I don't think anyone would be so crazy as to correct the Savior or say that He didn't have the strength or information to save everyone.

It is no coincidence that missionaries came to one place but did not go to another. Let me remind you that in the Acts of the Holy Apostles it is directly indicated how the Holy Spirit did not allow the apostles to go to one place, and ordered them to go to another. That is, before us is the free and powerful decision of God Himself. But does the Lord act unjustly? Of course not. We have already shown that the reason for calling this or that person does not depend on his place of residence, or language, or skin color, but only on whether he is looking for the Truth or not. That's why paganism is terrible, because it exposes crime as a norm, and it itself blocks people's love for the true God. The most terrible thing in this world is the “traditional religion”, when obvious devilry is considered among people as something normal, consecrated by the authority of ancestors. That is why God does not send missionaries to some nations until their "traditional system of values" is destroyed. After all, if they refuse to accept salvation (and the Omniscient Knower of Hearts knows this for sure), then not only will the efforts of the missionary be in vain, but the listeners themselves will be more punished by God as theomachists, and not just demon worshipers.

As our Lord said, “The servant who knew the will of his master, and was not ready, and did not do according to his will, there will be many beats; but who did not know, and did worthy of punishment, the bit will be less. And from everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required, and to whom much has been entrusted, more will be exacted from him ”().

That is why God specially prepares the pagan peoples for the adoption of Christianity. He first destroys their isolation, erodes the “traditional cultures” that are objectionable to Him with wars, cultural aggressions, conquests, and whatever. Only then does it become possible to find among those who are confused and who have lost their bearings in life those people who are looking for the Truth as a way out of the impasse into which paganism has led them. By the way, here it becomes clear why the Church approved of the Roman globalization and considered it providential. Thus Christians saw the good will of God behind the Roman legions and the destruction of nation-states.

And the same reason explains why God allows the death of unbaptized babies. He knows what some of them would grow up to be and how they would trample on the heavenly gift. However, here we are faced with the abyss of God's Providence, which is not yet possible for us to fully understand. But there are things we know. We know what happens, according to the teaching of the Church, with unbaptized children: “We also need to know that baptized babies are joined in enjoyment, while the unenlightened and the children of the pagans will not go either to enjoyment or to hell.”

But what about other religions? After all, their followers are convinced that only they will be saved

This statement is often heard from people who are sure that there are many different ways to God, who, although they are called differently, is essentially one. This opinion was preached by Freemasons of the XVIII-XIX centuries and Theosophists of all stripes. At the same time, adherents of such a doctrine are for some reason convinced that all religions of the world (well, at least the so-called "traditional") have an equally strong evidence base, and therefore the question of choosing a faith does not belong to the realm of logic, but only to areas of blind faith. And therefore Christ's assertion that without Baptism there is no salvation causes them some kind of subconscious disgust and indignation.

The peculiarity of this worldview is that there is very little logic in it, and a lot of emotions. People who have not bothered not only to understand the essence of world religions, but at least to understand the basic provisions of Christianity, feel with some ninth feeling that everyone is really talking about the same thing. According to G. Chesterton's apt expression, they are convinced that "Christianity and Buddhism are very similar, especially Buddhism." For some reason, neither scientists of different scientific schools, nor representatives of different philosophical trends are reproached for their differences, no one claims that they are all talking about the same thing. And this diversity is even considered something good. But when it comes to Christianity, for some reason they demand that it recognize its equality with any religion. This forgets the most important thing. Truth is what really is. The question is not whether it is tolerant or totalitarian, but whether it is really so or not. Well noted on this occasion, St. “The ways of wickedness are many, but the way of truth is one, since error is something varied, many-looking, and mixed, but truth is one.”

With this in mind, the answer to this objection can be quite simple. Yes, we alone know the Truth! Yes, we know that we are from God and the whole world lies in evil ()! And this is not from us, but God's gift, not from our works, so that we cannot boast (). And it will be an extreme sin and pride if we reject this fact.

We did not create the Truth, but She Herself came to us and saved us. If we discovered God, we could boast about it. And so we have nothing to brag about. We, as Rev. , philanthropic beggars. The rich man gave us an undeserved gift, and we call everyone to the rich man so that they receive the same gift from him. We are simply witnesses to the fact that God sent the only Savior into the world. And if people refuse His salvation, then who is to blame for their death?

That is why the Bible and Christianity are incompatible with other faiths. If those who bow to other gods are right, then the Bible is lying; if the Bible and the Church are right, then everyone else is lying. Christ said: “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me" (). – Or He is right, and then the Church is right, and everyone should hasten to her in order to be united with Christ. Or He is wrong, which means that He is not only not the Son of God, but also not the moral Teacher of mankind. Then Christianity is just a particularly pernicious sect. So, by the way, both the pagans and the communists thought. And from their point of view, they acted logically. There is only a problem with the fact that Christ rose from the dead and until now His name has miraculous power, which is impossible for anyone except for God. Christianity itself is built not on mental constructions, but on the concrete fact of the intervention of God the Savior in this world. As the apostle Paul famously put it:

“I am not mad, but I speak words of truth and common sense. For the king knows this, before whom I speak boldly. I do not at all believe that any of this was hidden from him; because it didn't happen in the corner." ()

Blind faith is incompatible with Orthodox Christianity! We know God and God knows us!

And, what is very important, the very conscience of the atheists clearly testifies that the truth is in Christ. On the Day of Judgment, the human soul will convict itself. According to the true word of St. Theophan, “there is in the soul of everyone an intercessor for the truth of the gospel - a spirit with its inherent fear of God and conscience. These spiritual elements are of the same kind as the word of the gospel and are immediately recognized with it, if they are not stifled by the spirit of this age. The word of the gospel says that we are irresponsibly guilty before God, and our conscience is aware of this; the word of the gospel assures that every sinner will face an impartial judgment and condemnation, and the fear of God confirms this truth. If the word of the gospel had only stopped at this point, it would have plunged everyone into despair, without drawing anyone to itself, but it goes further and, with a constrained conscience and fear of judgment, offers a reliable outcome, saying: The Son of God came to earth, was incarnate, suffered on earth. cross and tore on it the handwriting of the sins of the whole world; believe in Him, and you will receive the remission of sins, and the grace of the Holy Spirit for a new sinless life, which, having kept pure to the end, at the end you will be accepted by heaven for eternal indescribable bliss. What spirit, not stifled, could resist the power of this gospel?!”

And we can be sure that if a person who has learned about Christ and the Gospel did not want to enter the Church, then the only reason is that his spirit is immersed in the abyss of evil. How wonderfully aptly Rev. : “if anything is contrary to the truth, then it is a dark invention of satanic delusion and an invention of the ill-fated mind.”

After all, where, in fact, do those similar features that exist in many religions come from? There are three reasons. First, the human spirit is involved in the knowledge of God. Our heart remembers the touch of the creative hand of Christ, who enlightens every person who comes into the world (). And therefore, what a person honestly considers right is the memory of God implanted in his soul. This is the reason why many commandments are common to people and even to animals.

Secondly, according to tradition, the memory of God and His judgment is kept in all nations. It is the traces of the ancient Revelation of God that explain such things as the coincidence of some teachings of false religions and Christianity.

And third, all religions are built on real spiritual experience. The only question is who gave this experience. The Bible and the Church state that outside of Christianity this experience comes from evil angels (). But at the same time, there will certainly be true elements in it. Indeed, in order to communicate with demons, it is necessary to recognize the presence of the spiritual world, and some experience of meeting with it. Therefore, it is natural that any religion includes both belief in the existence of the world of spirits, and recognition of the effectiveness of prayers, and (most often) the presence of an indestructible soul. Conscience tells a person that there will also be a reward for certain deeds. And most religions try to somehow alleviate the conscience of a person, and this is done with the unclean goal that a person calms down.

“I killed a man, and my conscience is bad,” the sinner thinks. “But to solve this problem, I will sacrifice a ram idol and everything will be fine.”

Thus, evil intensifies in the world under the influence of this diabolical anesthesia. Conscience falls asleep under the influence of self-deception, only to wake up after death and forever. At the same time, it should be noted that the devil acts with the pagans extremely insidiously. He never explicitly claims that their sins will be forgiven. None of the pagan deities promised to forgive iniquity, but at the same time they accept these offerings with pleasure. The logic here is the following.

“You wanted to make a sacrifice to me. You wanted to convey yourself to me in this way,” says the demon. - Well. Very well. Thank you very much. But did I promise you that your sins would be forgiven? You just misunderstood me. I did not promise you this, and therefore you will not accuse me before God. Now please come to hell with me. You have dedicated yourself to me!”

And at the same time, other religions are terrible because a person in them does not have a solid basis for his thoughts. Indeed, in none of them is there a proper authority on which the mind of a person could rely in order to build a right life for himself. They do not, therefore, have a clear system of moral values. And this is understandable. If the worldview is chaotic, then life is chaotic. “Since their mind became perverse, everything finally fell into disarray and confusion when the leader turned out to be damaged,” Chrysostom rightly remarks. And therefore, all those true teachings that are found in various false religions cannot save a person. One can give such an example. There are many good medicines in the pharmacy, but if they are used at the wrong time and in the wrong dosage, then the end of such treatment will be extremely sad. Similarly, the partial truths contained in different religions often do not help, but prevent a person from finding the absolute Truth. “I already know a lot,” says the unfortunate man. Why do I need Christ and the Church? So the devil turns even that good that is outside the Church to evil.

But at the same time, in the most important, false religions are opposed to Christianity. The church talks about what God has done for man, and other religions talk about what people need to do for the gods. The Church forbids relying on one's own strength, and other religions only offer this. There is forgiveness of sins in the Church, but not outside of it. The Church gives eternal hope for the Kingdom of God, while other religions bind a person to the created world. Indeed, the Church is quite different from any other human community. She is a guest from heaven, and Her very existence is a miracle.

It is important to understand that our very assertion that only we, Orthodox Christians, are from God, that only our faith is the only Truth and is a manifestation of true humility, entrusting itself into the hands of God. After all, the Ladder said: “In one who is united with humility, there is not a trace of hatred, not a kind of contradiction, not a stink of disobedience, except where it is a question of faith.”

On the contrary, persistence in false religion is the result of devilish pride. After all, “pride is the rejection of God, a demonic invention, the contempt of people, the mother of condemnation, the offspring of praise, the sign of the barrenness of the soul, the rejection of God’s help, the forerunner of insanity, the cause of falls, the cause of possession, the source of anger, the door of hypocrisy, the stronghold of demons, the repository of sins, the cause of unmercifulness , ignorance of compassion, cruel torturer, inhuman judge, opponent of God, the root of blasphemy. The beginning of pride is the root of vanity; middle - humiliation of one's neighbor, shameless preaching of one's works, self-praise in the heart, hatred of reproof; and the end is the rejection of God's help, relying on one's diligence, demonic disposition.

Only the proud can declare that everyone has their own truth, forgetting about God, the only Source of Truth, and that there is only one objective reality, which does not depend on him in any way.

There is another objection raised by those who do not want to hear the truth, but uphold the principle of equal respect for all faiths. They say that there are traditional religions. “They are good because they are ancient. And therefore they must coexist peacefully in the name of strengthening the state and society. And as for God, it is unlikely that He would have allowed them to exist for so long if they were destroying people.

Above, we have already partly answered this objection, showing that these traditional religions are not at all pleasing to God, and He Himself destroys them, giving people the opportunity to find Himself. At the same time, while the Almighty allows them to exist (and this happens because God respects the free will of people), and uses their followers to fulfill His plans.

But it is worthwhile to disassemble the argument "from traditionality". This idea was characteristic of the ancient pagans, who claimed that "the old means the true." The lives of the saints give examples of such arguments that the pagans used against the martyrs. Here is an example from the life of St. Karpa (October 13).

The ruler Valery, after being tortured, turns to the saints and tells them this: “If I did not consider you prudent, I would never give you good advice, but would incline you to our faith by torment, against your will. But since your prudence and good character indicate your ability to judge things soberly, which is characteristic of great people, I intended to be a good adviser to you. It is not unknown, I think, to you, that glory and honor have been given to the immortal gods since ancient times, and it remains so to this day not only among us who know the Greek and Roman languages, but also among the barbarians; for through such zeal for the gods cities are governed by good laws, victories are won over enemies, and peace is strengthened. Why did the kings and princes of Rome achieve such glory that they overthrew cities and peoples and subjugated all enemies to their power? - Is it not because they revered the gods and worshiped them? “Respect them, too. And if, through the words of ignorant people, you seduced by the unreasonable and only recently appeared Christian faith then come to your senses now and return to that which is better. Then the gods will have mercy on you, and you will enjoy the many blessings that we have; great favors await you from the king. But if you remain with the same stubbornness, then you will lose these benefits and we will be forced to deal with you with extreme cruelty.

In this speech of the tyrant we see all the arguments put forward so far in favor of traditionalism. This is an argument from antiquity, and an argument from universality, and an argument from the state-forming role of traditional religions. All of these arguments are, in fact, misleading. It is not bad to be an ancient religion (and Christianity, which continued the Old Testament Church, is the most ancient religion in the world). It is good when religions are followed everywhere. Great to strengthen the state. But all these actions have nothing to do with the essence of religion – with the restoration of connection with the Creator. Religion exists not to strengthen morality, not to strengthen the state, but for communion with God. And it was from this side that the holy martyrs answered the tormentor-traditionalist: “We do not consider your faith to be respectable just because the faith is ancient, for not everything is necessarily honest that is ancient: after all, malice is ancient, but it is not yet worthy for its antiquity of reverence. It is not to be discussed whether it should be accepted. We decided to evade her and, as far as possible, expel her from our midst, as one who prepares a terrible hellish fire for those who love her.

This argument is really impressive. Evil and sin exist as long as mankind. But that doesn't make them any more worthy. But we must remember that from the Creator's point of view, following false gods and false religions is also the greatest sin, and therefore no reference to antiquity will save you from God's punishment.

The inconceivable seriousness of the choice

It seems to me that the main reason for all the indignation against God's words about the guaranteed death of the unbaptized is the subconscious fear of the finality of choice on Earth. I do not believe that "Orthodox humanists" are seriously concerned about the fate of the mythical righteous idolaters. Moreover, it is extremely difficult to find such ones in nature. It suffices to remind everyone who became a church adult what kind of reaction he had when he read the usual list of sins before confession. Usually they say: “what, it turns out that I am a sinner in everything?” I remember when before Easter I was printing out leaflets “how to prepare for confession” for distribution, and the same question was asked to me by an ordinary guy at the computer. I think that the characteristic Paul () objectively and accurately describes the world outside the Church. And the eternal death of the unbaptized is caused precisely by the fact that they do evil consciously, and at the same time they are not only not ashamed of this, but also approve of others who do it.

But in fact, the supporters of salvation without Christ and His Church often subconsciously think: “But maybe it will still be possible to redo after death? Maybe God will give you another chance? It is no coincidence that in the discussion I was asked about what then to answer to the relatives of the deceased unbaptized. I am convinced that it is impossible to lie, and even more so in such an important matter.

And the terrible reality of the Word of God says that the choice is made only now. “Now is the favorable time, behold, now is the day of salvation” (). Throughout Scripture there is not a single hint that God was joking about eternal torment, there is not even a hint that the story of the Last Judgment is a parable. No, I am convinced that this is an accurate description of reality. And the Judgment will be exactly as Christ says. There will be no repentance at the Judgment, no requests for mercy will be accepted, but real pure justice. Yes exactly. I am convinced that the idea that "God is only love" is both false and heretical (it is pure heresy of Marcion) and has nothing to do with reality. In fact, our real God is exactly as the entire Bible describes Him: He is both unthinkably righteous and unthinkably loving. And therefore He will indeed reward everyone according to his deeds ().

And what is important, Christ Himself answered the question of modern humanists: “Are there really so few who are saved?” He said: “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for I tell you, many will seek to enter, and will not be able. When the owner of the house gets up and shuts the door, then you, standing outside, will begin to knock on the door and say: Lord! God! open to us, but He will answer you: I do not know you, where you come from ”().

How unlike the benevolent agnosticism of the liberals! How far from these gospel words is the doctrine that God at the judgment will give everyone who wishes to be corrected!

And in general, is it possible to prove the doctrine of the possibility of cleansing from sins, liberation from hell, entry into living communion with God (and this is salvation) without the death of Christ on the Cross and His Baptism?! After all, for this we must rewrite the entire Bible, all the Fathers of the Church, all divine services, and actually rewrite our own conscience. And we are called to all this solely because we are afraid of the finality of the choice. But he is precisely the main reality of this world, which cannot be changed. As much as we would not like the opposite (and why be cunning, and I really want this not to happen), but we choose only here, and after death any repentance will be useless.

And wouldn’t it be better now, when there is still time, to listen with your heart and mind to the words of Christ: “Come, therefore, all the families of men who are stained with sins, and receive a remission of sins. I am your remission, I am the Passover of salvation, I am the Lamb slain for you, I am your redemption, I am your life, I am your resurrection, I am your light, I am your salvation, I am your King. I will take you to heavenly heights. I will show you the eternal Father. I will raise you up with My right hand."

Number of entries: 81

Hello. I just found out today that I'm unbaptized. I am a believer, I go to church, I pray at home. And today I just found out that I am not baptized, it hurts me so much. I was told that I was gone, and no one hears my prayers. It's real, right?

No, not like that, Olga. The Lord hears all prayers, do not believe what they tell you. And with baptism - if it has become known for certain that you are not baptized, then hurry up to be baptized: Easter is ahead, you will enter the Paschal joy as a baptized person!

hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Good afternoon, father! My child died during childbirth (there was an entanglement of the umbilical cord) due to asphyxia. Many years have passed, and most recently I heard that a mother who has buried her child cannot eat apples until the rescue. Is it true? And another question: do I need to order a service for my child? How should a child be remembered? Thank you.

Marina

No, Marina, about apples - complete nonsense, absolutely do not take into account! What a pity that among our people all sorts of stupid fantasies and absurd ideas hold on so steadfastly. All this comes only from extreme ignorance. Since your child has not yet been baptized, you can commemorate his soul at home prayer. But do not be too discouraged, the Lord, of course, accepted his soul in heavenly abodes, he is now very well, because he was sinless!

hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Good morning! For the past 4 years I have been tormented by one question. In fact, I made a big mistake. 4 years ago I got married, and my husband and I got married immediately after the painting, but I'm not baptized ... Am I guilty before the LORD GOD and my husband? And what have I done anyway? Is our wedding valid? I really believe in God.

Alexandra

I'm sorry, Alexandra, but you have sinned greatly. You must be baptized, and then perform the Sacrament of marriage again.

hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Hello. Please tell me, is it possible for an unbaptized person to wear a pectoral icon? I am sick, they brought him from Russia from the church (I live in a Muslim country, I myself am Russian). I want to be baptized, but there is no Orthodox church nearby.

Faith

Faith that you haven't been baptized for so long is bad. Go to another country or city, but you need to be baptized immediately. The fact that you live in a Muslim country does not justify you. When a person really needs something, he finds a way to get it, no matter what it costs him. And you have eternity at stake! Do not waste time, make every effort to save you. Pray at home that the Lord will vouchsafe you this great sacrament - baptism. You can wear a body swatch.

Hieromonk Viktorin (Aseev)

Is it possible to take children to communion if they are not baptized in an Orthodox church? Since the father is not a Christian, but the mother is. Thank you for your reply.

Faith

Hello Vera! Only Orthodox Christians can partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ; members of the Church. I would advise you to baptize the child and then you will be able to bring him to communion, and also pray for him in the temple.

Priest Vladimir Shlykov

Hello, father, is it possible to commemorate the unbaptized along with Orthodox relatives in a home prayer for the living and the dead, or should they be mentioned separately somehow? Save me, God!

Svetlana

Yes, Svetlana. At home prayer, it is possible to commemorate the unbaptized, and, I think, it is not necessary to single out their names in some special list at the end of the commemoration book. You can do it just for the sake of convenience.

hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

My man is unbaptized, we live in a civil marriage, I am baptized, a believer. We've been trying to conceive for a few years now, but it doesn't work. I did the operation, and was treated, but still nothing. I know what this punishment is for - I had an abortion, I repented of it a million times. They say that if you take an orphan into the house, then later you will have your own, probably not in our case. We have two teenage girls under guardianship (the children of my man's sister, she is fine, she just did not take care of them). Tell me, please, to whom to pray, how, from whom to ask for a baby? I live near Tikhvin, there is an opportunity sometimes to go to the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, maybe her? Sometimes it seems that there are not enough nerves, help, please.

Evgenia

Hello Evgeniya. First of all, enter into a legal marriage, in accordance with the legal regulations of the state in which you live. Taking a blessing and praying for the conception of a child in fornication is absurd and blasphemous. You must not now be admitted to any Sacraments, except in case of danger of death. Otherwise, the medicine will seem worse to you than the disease. Christ says that he is loved by those who fulfill His commandments, show your love for God by forcing yourself to live according to the commandments, and then already pray for the gift of a child to you. Take a step towards Christ, and He will take ten steps towards you.

Priest Alexander Beloslyudov

I began to become church only after I baptized my children. And that is why I was present at the christening of the children unbaptized, and yet I read the mother's prayer. Now I am very tormented and worried, I cannot force myself to go to the priest, to repent. Tell me, now it turns out that the baptism of children is wrong, and they are not considered baptized? Thank you.

Hope

Hope, Baptism is a sacrament. Baptism is performed by a priest, and the sacrament of baptism does not depend on you. The fact that you were not baptized at that time is that you only harmed yourself, and not your children. Your children are, without any doubt, considered baptized, and there is no need to worry. You were also baptized, and at baptism all sins are forgiven a person. So everything is all right with you, but if your conscience torments you, you can tell the priest this in confession. Now Great Lent is underway, so fast, confess, take communion and introduce your children to the church. Your children have been baptized correctly, and this baptism is valid.

Hieromonk Viktorin (Aseev)

Hello, father! Several questions plague me. I have a friend, or at least that's what I call him. But he has strong feelings for me that I don't. However, I enjoy spending time with him. True, a couple of times this communication went, it seems to me, too far ... I don’t know what to do, I don’t want to leave a person, but I also don’t want to give him any hope. Maybe you will advise how to be? How do you know if this is your person or not? A year ago, I already had a young man, and it seemed that this was for life! And then it was all over forever. And another question. This friend is not baptized himself, but he believes in God (it’s just that his parents have different religions - Orthodoxy and Muslimism, that’s why they didn’t baptize him). But he himself understood that there is a God, and now he is very drawn to Orthodoxy. We have already been to evening services twice. He really likes the temple and choral singing. True, he says, without me he would hardly have gone. Once he mentioned that he wanted to be baptized. I started reading the Bible myself. Perhaps you can advise where it is better to start, and is it possible for him to attend the Liturgy? Thanks a lot!

Maria

Hello Maria. Do not try to sit on two chairs, it will not end well. We must begin with catechesis. If there are such courses in the foreseeable space, you need to sign up for them and be like them together. If not, or the level is not high, then you can use audio lectures. In terms of initial education, AI Osipov's public lectures are very good, he explains everything literally on his fingers, with a large amount of life examples and patristic teachings. Here you can listen or download them: http://predanie.ru/audio/lekcii/osipov/. Pay attention to the records of recent years. And only after making sure that your friend really chose Christ as a goal, and Orthodoxy is the way to Him, you can think about marriage with him. God help you.

Priest Alexander Beloslyudov

Hello, father. I am 27 years old, I was baptized in a year. I recently learned that my godfather was not baptized at the time of my baptism, and he was baptized only 10 years after my baptism. What should I do? Is my baptism correct and valid? Thanks for the answer.

Katerina

Katerina, godparents must be baptized Orthodox Christians. Godparents must educate their godchildren in the Orthodox faith. Godparents are godparents from the font, and in no way affect the sacrament of Baptism itself. The priest baptizes and gives the baby to the godfather after the font for further education of the baby. Your baptism, without any doubt, is valid, because you were baptized in an Orthodox church by a priest, regardless of who your godfather is. Although, of course, usually before the Sacrament they always ask the godfather who he is and whether he is Orthodox. Do not worry, and thank God that you have honored you with such a great sacrament of baptism and that your godfather also found Orthodoxy, maybe even thanks to you. Go to church more often, confess and take communion. Great Lent is now underway - a favorable time for this.

Hieromonk Viktorin (Aseev)

Photinia

Photinia, of course, homemade preparations can also be brought to church for a memorial, people often do this, and I think this is good. Only meat is not supposed to be worn to the temple, and during the fast, of course, you need to bring lenten products. As for the baptism of your nephew, you need to find out everything to the end. Ask a brother who is 9 years old, then try to find a godmother or church where he could be baptized. If nothing can be found out, then you need to contact the nearest church and talk with the priest, he will tell you what needs to be done.

Hieromonk Viktorin (Aseev)

Good afternoon. My name is Natalya. I live in Kyrgyzstan. I have a friend Tatyana who has cancer. For almost a year now, she has been selflessly fighting this disease. She recently told me that this disease happened immediately after the death of her father (Papa Victor died in January 2012). She often dreams of him. And it seems to her that he will not let her go. Her dad was not baptized, and accordingly, he was not buried in the church. Tatyana is baptized. She believes and goes to church. She is a very good person. I really want to help her get out. Tell me, father, what can and should be done in her case? What else do I need to do, besides reading the canon for the sick? Please pray for her. Thank you in advance for your reply. Sincerely, Natalia.

Natalia

Natalya, your friend should be advised to go to confession more often: the fact is that such phenomena of relatives in most cases are an illusion, a deception, and have their own sinfulness at their root. And you try to submit notes for the Liturgy for her more often and also submit a commemoration to some monastery, where they read the "indestructible" Psalter around the clock.

hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Hello, father. On parental Saturday in the temple, when the priest prayed and listed the names of the deceased, I, in addition to my deceased relatives, mentally remembered the relatives of my husband (unbaptized brother), his grandfather, who died in the war, and several acquaintances who I don’t know if they were baptized, and in her thoughts for them she prayed to the Lord for repose; in the notes are the names of the souls of the departed, who, I don’t know if they were baptized, I didn’t write, I only mentally prayed for them. Now I’m thinking, but it was possible to do this, because they don’t pray for the unbaptized in the church, but I, it turned out, I remembered their names, somehow it happened by itself !?

Svetlana

Hello Svetlana! An unbaptized person is outside the Church and its sacraments, therefore the Church does not pray for such people. But there is no sin in the fact that you mentally commemorated unbaptized relatives.

Priest Vladimir Shlykov

Hello! On March 23, my husband will be 40 days old, he is unbaptized, I read a prayer at home, I received a blessing from the priest, but tell me, please, can I go to the cemetery on the 40th day, because there will be a fast? Since it will be Saturday and my children are not in kindergarten and school, when can they distribute candy (after or before 40 days)? Thank you very much, I'm sorry if my letter was a little incorrect.

Veronica

Veronica, as you already know that in the church they don't pray for unbaptized people. Those who are not baptized are not members of the church. No one forbids you to pray for them at home, and of course, you can go to the cemetery whenever you want. It is not customary to go to the cemetery on Sundays, on major church holidays and on Easter. The best day is Saturday. All parental commemorations are performed on Saturday. You can always give alms for the dead, but most of all it must be done up to 40 days.

Hieromonk Viktorin (Aseev)

Good afternoon, dear editor! In which church in Moscow can one submit a note about a person who has gone into eternal life without holy baptism? And is it possible at all?

Galina

No, Galina, alas, you cannot submit a note about an unbaptized person: the Church prays only for Its members, for people who have dedicated their lives to God and received Holy Baptism in the Name of the Holy Trinity. But you can pray for such a person at home, and put candles in the temple, trusting in the mercy of God to every God-created soul.

hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

The idea that the unbaptized have no chance of salvation is very common in the Orthodox Church. Its adherents have arguments in the Holy Scriptures and even more in the Holy Fathers.
Here is what the famous rock missionary Fr. Sergiy Rybko in the book "Spiritual life begins with repentance" in the chapter "Is it possible to pray for the dead unbaptized": "The unbaptized cannot be saved - this is how the Church has always taught! Unfortunately, now even some professors of theology are spreading the opposite opinion. But it is not Orthodox, this is the heresy of Origen, condemned by the Fifth Ecumenical Council..."
In my opinion. about. Sergiy is very distorted. The heresy of Origen is somewhat different - he did not teach that salvation is possible for the unbaptized. but that in general all will be saved. And St. Gregory of Nyssa even said that even demons would be saved.

The Holy Fathers often spoke harshly about this, but not all of them. It was a great discovery for me to know that St. Mark of Ephesus, a well-known fighter against the Union of Florence, the ecumenical idea of ​​that time, allowed salvation for the unbaptized dead. Someone else, but it is difficult to accuse him of origenism and ecumenism.
Here are his words: “Some of the saints, who prayed not only for the faithful, but also for the wicked, were heard and with their prayers snatched them away from eternal torment, such as, for example, the first martyr Thekla - Feklonila and the Divine Gregory the Dialogist, as the story goes - King Troyan " (1st Word of St. Mark of Ephesus "Refutation of Latin words regarding purgatory fire" http://lib.eparhia-saratov.ru/books/17s/serafim_rouz/afterdead/55.html)
Unfortunately, I was not able to find out about the story of the first martyr Thekla, but regarding St. Gregory is explained by Hieromonk Seraphim Rose, who is also not at all an ecumenist. In an appendix to his book Soul After Death, Fr. Seraphim made the following comment:
“The last incident is told in some of the early lives of St. Gregory, as, for example, in his English life of the eighth century: “Some of our people also tell the story told by the Romans about how the soul of the emperor Trojan was refreshed and even baptized by the tears of St. Gregory, a marvelous story for both the narrator and the listeners. Let no one be surprised when we say that he was baptized, for without baptism no one will see God, and the third kind of baptism is baptism with tears. , carefully studying him, that, being a pagan, Troyan nevertheless did a work of such great mercy that it seemed to be a work of a Christian rather than a pagan. the emperor of the whole world stopped. She said: "Mr. Trojan, here are the people who killed my son and do not want to pay me compensation." He replied: "Tell me about it when I return, and I will make them give you a refund." But she replied, "Sir, if you never return, I will not be helped." Then, standing in all his armor, he made the defendants immediately in his presence pay the compensation they owed. When Gregory learned about this story, he knew that this is what we read about in Scripture: "Defend the orphan, intercede for the widow. Then come, and let us reason, says the Lord ..." (Is. 1, 17, 18). Since Gregory did not know what to do to console the soul of this man who reminded him of these words, he went to the church of St. Peter and shed streams of tears, as was his custom, until at last he received, through Divine revelation, the assurance that his prayers were heard, seeing that he never undertook to ask this for any other pagan. Gregory the Great, compiled by an unknown monk from Whitby). Since the Church does not offer public prayers for dead unbelievers, it is clear that this deliverance from hell was the fruit of the personal prayer of St. Gregory. Although this is a rare case, it gives hope to those whose loved ones died outside the faith ”(The Offering of an Orthodox American. Collection of Works of Father Seraphim Platinsky. M., 2008. P. 196)
Rev. John of Damascus also mentions this: "Saint Gregory the Dialogist (whom, according to legend, during the liturgy was officiated by a heavenly angel) once brought an earnest prayer to the Lord, merciful for souls, for the remission of the sins of King Trajan; immediately the following voice came to him from God: "prayer I heeded yours and I grant Trajan the forgiveness of sins; but you no longer offer Me prayers for the wicked "(Trajan was the cause of the fierce death of many martyrs)" http://www.pravoslavie.ru/put/29711.htm (Sermon about the dead in the faith about the benefit they receive from the liturgies performed for them and the alms distributed). We see that the Lord, though heeded the prayer of St. Gregory, forbade him to pray for the wicked in the future. "Wicked" here does not mean unbaptized or simply sinners. Impiety in this case is what is placed in brackets - "Trajan was the cause of the fierce death of many martyrs." Indeed, under Emperor Trajan, Christians were severely persecuted, and he was fully involved in this. And so. these sins, according to St. John of Damascus, left to Trajan.

This event is also mentioned in the synaxar of the Meat-Feast Sabbath:
“They have great relief when you, father, pray for the departed.” (Macarius) the Great did this for a long time – he prayed to the Lord – and wanted to know if it was of any use to the departed before. And Gregory the Dialogist saved Tsar Trajan with his prayer, although he heard from God a command never to pray for the wicked again. Even the godless Theophilus, Queen Theodora delivered from torment and saved the prayers of holy men and confessors, as it is narrated" http://www.pravoslavie.ru/2113.html
It also mentions the "blasphemous Theophilus" - the emperor-iconoclast. But this one, probably baptized, is simply an enemy of the Church, which, I think, is worse.

Ambrose of Milan in the word "On the death of Valentinian the Younger" write about the deceased emperor:
“You regret, as I hear, that he was not honored with the sacrament of baptism. But tell me, what in this case can be more in us than one will and desire? He had long wanted to be baptized before arriving in Italy and this desire was recently repeated wishing to be baptized by me, and for this reason he especially decided to call me. So, did he not receive the grace that he desired and demanded? Of course, he did. For it is not in vain that it is written: .4.7). http://www.pravlib.ru/slovo_na_smert_valentiana.htm The emperor did not have time to be baptized, although he expressed a desire. And this desire, as St. Ambrose, was imputed to Valentinin and served to salvation.

About St. Gregory the Theologian, we read: “Like Origen, Gregory the Theologian further recognized the existence of a cleansing fire in the afterlife, which after a long period cleanses the sinner of his sins. The easiest and most painless cleansing from sins is given in baptism. after a long and painful temptation, after fasting, tears, self-abasement, which at that time constituted the essence of repentance: “Whoever has not cleansed himself by repentance in this life will undergo the last and most difficult baptism — by hellfire, which consumes the lightness of all sin.” Martyr John Popov (http://www.portal-slovo.ru/theology/37835.php?PRINT=Y)

The words of St. Gregory the Theologian: "And the latter will not be glorified or punished by the righteous Judge, because although they are not sealed,
however, they were not bad and suffered more than they did harm. "It is customary for us to speak of these words about infants who died without baptism, but in the text of St. Gregory, word 40, it is not only about infants. There he speaks of three categories , who have not received baptism, we rise higher in the text. What is the last category? We find: "Others do not even have the opportunity to accept the gift, or, perhaps, due to infancy, or due to some combination of circumstances completely independent of them, according to which they are not worthy grace, even if they themselves wished for it." That is, it is clearly not only about children. Then the question is: what does it mean, they are not glorified or punished? Some talk about the painless places of hell. But it’s still a punishment? such a state? There is not a word about it in the Gospel. From the words about the Last Judgment, only two states can be deduced - hell or life with God. Another thing is that the degrees of one or the other are different. I personally do not know anything about the intermediate state. Rev. Isaac Sirina:
"... what is more senseless or more unreasonable than such a speech: "It is enough for me to avoid Gehenna, but I do not care about the same thing in order to enter the Kingdom"? For avoiding Gehenna means this very thing - to enter the Kingdom; to Gehenna. The Scriptures did not show us three countries, but what does it say? When the Son of Man comes in His glory ... and He sets the sheep at His right hand, and the goats on the other (Matt. 25:31,33.). He named not three hosts, but two - one at the right hand, the other at the left. And he divided the boundaries of their various abodes, saying: And these, that is, sinners, go into eternal torment, but the righteous women into eternal life (Matt. 25:46); they will shine like the sun (Matt. 13: 43). fire. Have you not understood from this that the state opposite to the higher degree is the most painful hell?
http://pagez.ru/lsn/is/58.php
Supporters of that opinion. that the unbaptized can be saved, most often refer to the words of St. Paul: /// Sorrow and distress to every soul of a person who does evil, first, a Jew, [then] and a Greek!
10 On the contrary, glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, first to the Jews, [then] and to the Greeks!
11 For there is no partiality with God.
12 Those who, without [having] the law, have sinned, are outside the law and will perish; but those who have sinned under the law will be condemned under the law
13 (for it is not the hearers of the law that are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified,
14 For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what is lawful, then, having no law, they are their own law:
15 they show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as evidenced by their conscience and their thoughts, now accusing, now justifying one another)
16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secret [deeds] of people through Jesus Christ.
It is clearly stated here that the Gentiles will be judged according to the law of conscience. But I want to draw attention to the following - we are talking about the Day of Judgment. That is, apparently, the Amnesty will be proclaimed only at the Court, and before the Court, the unbaptized await a decision on their fate.

Opponents of the fact that God can save even non-Christians have a very convincing argument - the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself: / And he said to them: go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;
they will take snakes; and if they drink something deadly, it will not harm them; lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.
(Mark 16:15-18)
I will try to explain this apparent contradiction with the words of the Apostle Paul. It seems to me, firstly, that we are talking about the preaching of the apostles themselves, whose preaching was accompanied by miracles: the healing of the sick, the expulsion of demons even before the Resurrection of the Savior, and even more so after that. So even not only the apostles themselves, but also those who believed through their preaching, did such things. Do we see it now? Something not special. By the way, if we take a literal approach to the text of the Gospel. it turns out that there are so many believers. So. those who came across the preaching of the apostles and, in general, the true disciples of Christ, who witnessed obvious miracles, but still refused to accept Christ, those really have very few chances of being saved, since there is a conscious opposition to the Truth. There are words of Jesus Christ:
“Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven people. If anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, he will be forgiven; but if anyone speaks against the Holy Spirit, he will not be forgiven either in this age or in the next” (Matthew 12:31-32).
So, the church teaches. that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit - this is a conscious opposition to the truth.
About the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, Rev. Isidore Pelusiot, disciple of St. John Chrysostom:
/58. Gorgonia
How should the written be understood: if he speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him (Mt. 12:32)
You have proposed a very important and oft-repeated question, the study of which many have been engaged, but only inspired men have comprehended the truth. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be released to him; and whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven him either in this age or in the next. Why, you say, if the essence of the Divine Trinity is one, blasphemy against the Son is not punished, but only blasphemy against the Spirit is punished? So listen.
Whoever speaks a blasphemous word against the Son of Man, he, as the Lord said, is not subject to condemnation, because for those who have a painful eye of the mind, God, inexpressibly united with the poverty of visible flesh, is incomprehensibly incomprehensible until the hidden Deity is known. And in those with a pure mind, for whom the incarnate Divinity became obvious, there was no unbelief at all, and the Lord did not threaten them with the retribution of judgment. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is inexcusable, because the very deeds, having become obvious, convict those who blaspheme that they are unrecognizable and ungrateful. For when suffering was stopped by the power of the Godhead and demons were cast out, the murmurers of Judah slandered that Divine signs were being performed about Beelzebub (27). About this blasphemy, as clearly pronounced on God's essence, the Lord said that it is unforgivable.
http://azbyka.ru/?otechnik/Isidor_Pelusiot/pisma_1

Unconscious opposition to the truth, which can even be accompanied by persecution of Christianity (and the Apostle Paul was at first a persecutor, since he sincerely considered Christians to be God's enemies) is a blasphemy only against the Son of Man. not the Spirit. Therefore, it was possible that the emperor Trajan, who, by the way, was the persecutor of Christianity, was plundered from eternal hellish torments (through the prayer of St. Gregory the Dialogist).

One way or another, in Orthodox theology there were two opinions on this issue. Some, like St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. categorically rejected the possibility of saving the unbaptized, others still allowed it. For example,
St. Theophan the Recluse: “And children are all the Angels of God. — Those who are not baptized, like all those outside the faith, must be presented to God’s mercy. — They are not stepsons or stepdaughters of God. Therefore, He knows what and how — in relation to them — establish. - The ways of God are abyss!" http://azbyka.ru/deti/pisma-o-detyah-feofan-zatvornik.html . True, he further adds: Such issues should have been resolved if it were our duty to look after and accommodate everyone. As this is not entrusted to us, then let us leave the care of them to the One Who cares for everyone. You need to save your soul. - The enemy - the destroyer of souls - through zeal for the salvation of all, - leaves in destruction the soul of the one to whom he puts such thoughts. St. Anthony the Great once thought about the fate of people. An angel of the Lord appeared to him and said: “Anthony! Take care of yourself. Otherwise, it's none of your business "Well, it's reasonable. But this does not negate what was said above.

Archbishop Innokenty (Borisov) of Kherson is even brighter:
"But what was then, can be now. Then the Jews, resting on the law, thought that only salvation was in their hands (and so now the Church alone thinks of itself); it never occurred to them that the Messiah would be revealed to the Gentiles before the Jews. But the Gentiles came to Him and did their work, while the Jews only looked at it and nothing more. So even now some of the Christians think that outside of Christianity there is no salvation, that there is gloom and darkness, while God everywhere. As the sky stretches over the earth, so the Providence of God watches over the universe. And now there are pagans who can teach piety lessons to Christians, at least in some and in some virtues, if not in the dogmas of faith. History provides examples of this" http: //mystudies.narod.ru/library/b/borisov/before/8.html . (Reading the gospel stories about the circumstances of the earthly life of Jesus Christ, before His entry into the open ministry to the salvation of the human race, Chapter 9. Journey of the Magi and their worship of Jesus Christ)
Or St. Afanasy Sakharov:
"For me, Orthodoxy is dearest of all. I cannot even compare it with any other confession, with any other faith. But I do not dare to say that all non-Orthodox perished hopelessly. The Lord has many mercy, and He has much deliverance" http://pagez.ru/olb/180.php "http://pagez.ru/olb/180.php

Many opponents of such a view, and, in particular, hieromonk Sergius (Rybko) say - what is the point in Christianity then, if non-Christians can be saved? I will try to clarify the meaning with the following comparison. They say. that the Church is the army of Christ. But what is this army? I understand it as a rebel army, led by Jesus Christ, against the power of the prince of this world. This is a kind of liberation army. Who are the rebels liberating? Is it just yourself? Is it just those. who joined their army? But what about those. who did not join this army. because you have never heard of Christ? For example. some papuans. Yes, and those. who heard, did they hear the right message? Maybe. instead of the real Christian saving creed, they were taught a surrogate. which only pushed them away from Christianity? Do we not alienate many from Christ? modern Christians by their unworthy behavior?
I agree with the thought of the philosopher Aleksey Khomyakov that “The secret ties that connect the earthly Church with the rest of humanity are not open to us; therefore, we have neither the right nor the desire to assume a strict condemnation of all who are outside the visible Church, especially since such an assumption would be contrary to Divine mercy. Through the Church, future deification will occur. The Liberation Army brings liberation to all mankind.
Only those. who consciously accepted the power of the devil will not be released.

P.S. I have stated my TK, relying on the Holy Fathers, not at all claiming to be infallible.