Against Those Who Decry Holy Images

But say those who do not enter into the mind of Scripture, God said, through Moses the law-giver: "Thou shalt not make to thyself the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath"; (Ex. 20.4) and through the prophet David: "Let them be all confounded that adore graven things, and that glory in their idols," (Ps. 97.7) and many similar passages. Whatever they have quoted from Holy Scripture and the fathers is to the same intent.

Now, what shall we say to these things? What, if not that which God spoke to the Jews, "Search the Scriptures." (Jn. 5.39)

It is good to examine the Scriptures, but let your mind be enlightened from the search. It is impossible, Beloved, that God should not speak truth. (Heb. 6.18) There is one God, one Lawgiver of the old and new dispensation, who "spoke of old in many ways to the patriarchs through the prophets, and in these latter times through His only begotten Son." (Heb. 1.1) Apply your mind with discernment. It is not I who am speaking. The Holy Ghost declared by the holy apostle St Paul that God spoke of old in many different ways to the patriarchs through the prophets. Note, in many different ways. A skilful doctor does not invariably prescribe for all alike, but for each according to his state, taking into consideration climate and complaint, season and age, giving one remedy to a child, another to a grown man, according to his age; one thing to a weak patient, another to a strong; and to each sufferer the right thing for his state and malady: one thing in the summer, another in the winter, another in the spring or autumn, and in each place according to its requirements. So in the same way the good Physician of souls prescribed for those who were still children and inclined to the sickness of idolatry, holding idols to be gods, and worshipping them as such, neglecting the worship of God, and preferring the creature to His glory. He charged them not to do this.

It is impossible to make an image of God, who is a pure spirit, invisible, boundless, having neither form nor circumscription. How can we make an image of what is invisible? "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." (Jn. 1.18) And again, "No one shall see My face and live, saith the Lord." (Ex. 33.20)

That they did worship idols there is no doubt from what the Scripture says about the going out of the children of Israel, when Moses went up to Mount Sinai, and persevered in prayer to God. Whilst receiving the law, the ungrateful people rose against Aaron, the priest of God, saying: "Make us gods who may go before us. For as to Moses, we know not what has befallen him." (Ex. 32.1ff) Then, when they had looked over the trinkets of their wives, and brought them together, they ate and drank, and were inebriated with wine and madness, and began to make merry, saying in their foolishness, "These are thy gods, O Israel." Do you see that they made gods of idols who were demons, and that they worshipped the creature instead of the Creator? As the holy apostle says: "They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things, and served the creature rather than the Creator." (Rom. 1.23, 25) On this account God forbade them to make any graven image, as Moses says in Deuteronomy: "And the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the voice of His words, but you saw not any form at all." (Deut. 4.12) And a little further on: "Keep therefore your souls carefully; you saw not any similitude in the day that the Lord God spoke to you in Horeb, from the midst of the fire, lest perhaps being deceived you might make you a graven similitude or image of male or female, the similitude of any beasts that are upon the earth, or of birds that fly under heaven." (Deut. 4.9, 15-17) And again: "Lest perhaps lifting up thy eyes to heaven, thou see the sun and the moon, and all the stars of heaven, and being deceived by error, thou adore and serve them." (Deut. 4.19) You see the one object in view is that the creature should not be worshipped instead of the Creator, and that the worship of latreia should be given to God alone. Thus in every case when he speaks of worship he means latreia. Again "Thou shalt not have strange gods in my sight; thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing nor any likeness." (Deut. 5.7) Again: "Thou shalt not make to thyself gods of metal." (Ex. 34.17) You see that He forbids image-making on account of idolatry, and that it is impossible to make an image of God, who is a Spirit, invisible, and uncircumscribed. "You have not seen His likeness," (Deut. 4.15) He says; and St Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, says: "Being therefore the offspring of God, we must not suppose the divinity to be like unto gold, or silver, or stone, the graving of art, a device of man." (Acts 17.29)

Listen again that it is so. Thou shalt not make to thyself any brazen thing nor any likeness. These things, he says, they made by God's commandment a hanging of violet, purple, scarlet, and fine twisted linen in the entrance of the tabernacle, and the cherubim in woven work. (Ex. 26.31) And they made also the propitiatory, that is, the oracle of the purest gold, and the two cherubim. (Ex 37.6-7) What will you say to this, O Moses? You say, thou shalt not make to thyself any graven thing nor any likeness, and you yourself fashion cherubim of woven work, and two cherubim of pure gold. Listen to the answer of God's servant Moses: "You blind and foolish people, mark the force of what is said, and keep your souls carefully. I said that you had seen no likeness on the day when the Lord spoke to you on Mount Horeb, in the midst of the fire, lest you should sin against the law and make for yourselves a brazen likeness: thou shalt not make any image or gods of metal. I never said thou shalt not make the image of cherubim in adoration before the propitiatory. What I said was: Thou shalt not make to thyself gods of metal, and thou shalt not make any likeness as of God, nor shalt thou adore the creature instead of the Creator, nor any creature whatsoever as God, nor have I served the creature rather than the Creator."

Note how the object of Scripture becomes clear to those who really search it. You must know, Beloved, that in every business truth and falsehood are distinguished, and the object of the doer, whether it be good or bad. In the gospel we find all things good and evil. God, the angels, man, the heavens, the earth, water and fire and air, the sun and moon and stars, light and darkness, Satan and the devils, the serpent and scorpions, death and hell, virtues and vices. And because everything told about them is true, and the object in view is the glory of God and the saints whom He has honoured, our salvation, and the shame of the devil, we worship and embrace and love these utterances, and receive them with our whole heart as we do the whole of the old and new dispensation, and all the spoken testimony of the holy fathers. Now, we reject the evil, abominable writings of heathens and Manicheans and all other heretics, as containing foolishness and lies, promoting the advantage of Satan and his demons, and giving them pleasure, although they contain the name of God. So with regard to images we must manifest the truth, and take into account the intention of those who make them. If it be in very deed for the glory of God and of His saints to promote goodness, to avoid evil, and save souls, we should receive and honour and worship them as images, and remembrances, likenesses, and the books of the illiterate. We should love and embrace them with hand and heart as reminders of the incarnate God, or His Mother, or of the saints, the participators in the sufferings and the glory of Christ, the conquerors and overthrowers of Satan, and diabolical fraud. If any one should dare to make an image of Almighty God, who is pure Spirit, invisible, uncircumscribed, we reject it as a falsehood. If any one make images for the honour and worship of the Devil and his angels, we abhor them and deliver them to the flames. Or if any one give divine honours to the statues of men, or birds, or reptiles, or any other created thing, we anathematise him. As our forefathers in the faith pulled down the temples of demons, and erected on the same spot churches dedicated to saints whom we honour, so they overturned the statues of demons, and set up instead the images of Christ, of His holy Mother, and the saints. Even in the old dispensation, Israel neither raised temples to human beings, nor held sacred the memory of man. At that time Adam's race was under a curse, and death was a penalty, therefore a mourning. A corpse was looked upon as unclean, and the man who touched it as contaminated. But since the Godhead has taken to Himself our nature, it has become glorified as a vivifying and efficacious remedy, and has been transformed unto immortality. Thus the death of the saints is a rejoicing, and churches are raised to them, and their images are set up. Be assured that any one wishing to pull down an image erected out of pure zeal for the glory and enduring memory of Christ, or of His holy Mother, or any of the saints, to put the devil and his satellites to shame,--anyone, I say, refusing to honour and worship this image as sacred--it is not to be worshipped as God--is an enemy of Christ, of His blessed Mother, and of the saints, and is an advocate of the devil and his crew, showing grief by his conduct that the saints are honoured and glorified, and the devil put to shame. The image is a hymn of praise, a manifestation, a lasting token of those who have fought and conquered, and of demons humbled and put to flight.

Excerpt from:
APOLOGIA OF ST JOHN DAMASCENE

Sayings of the Holy Fathers

"A man full of self-esteem suffers torture when he sees a humble person weeping and being doubly compensated: by God, who is moved to pity because of his tears, and by men, who are moved to give him praise that he never sought."

St. Symeon the New Theologian.

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"If our thoughts suggest something to us to be done we must handle it with utmost scrupulosity. It must be placed on the scales of the heart and weighed with the most exacting care. Is it filled with what is good for all? Is it heavy with the fear of God? Is it genuine in the feelings which underlie it? Is it lightweight because of human show or because of some thrust toward novelty? Has the burden of vainglory lessened its merit or diminished its luster? This prompt testing will be done as something public. That is, it is measured against the acts and the witness of the apostles. If it looks to be whole, complete, and in conformity with these latter, then let us hold on to it. Or if it seems defective, dangerous, and not of equal weight with these, let us cautiously and carefully reject it."

St. John Cassian.

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"Faith is the key of God's treasury. She dwells in simple, kind, loving hearts. `All things are possible to him that believeth.' Faith is a spiritual mouth, the more freely it opens the greater the stream by which the Divine springs enter into it; let this mouth freely open, as your bodily one does; do not let your lips be compressed by doubt and unbelief: if you compress them by doubt and unbelief, the treasury of God's blessings will be closed to you. The more openly, the more heartily you believe in God's omnipotence, the more bountifully will God's heart be opened to you. `What things soever ye desire, when ye pray believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them.'"

St. John of Kronstadt.

Greek Government to try Monks for Heresy

Imposter brotherhood seizes monastery land

Mt Athos, Greece, August 14, 2006 – The monks of the holy and sacred monastery of Esphigmenou of Mt. Athos have been served papers to appear in Greek Court in Thessaloniki , to be tried for Schism and Heresy. The trial date has been set for September 29, 2006, in the Greek Government Criminal Court in Thessaloniki.

The charge of schism and heresy by a government against its own citizens, has not been seen in modern European history. That chapter of European history, where the Church accuses someone and then demands that the State apparatus move against them and confiscate their property unless they "repent", is coming back to life today in Greece.

The patriarch in Istanbul has leveled this baseless charge against the monks in order to confiscate their property and make an example to other Orthodox clergy who dare to question him. The monks have a spiritual disagreement with the patriarch and have sought dialogue with him to clarify the Patriarch's departure from Orthodox teachings. Unlike western tradition, the Patriarch in the Orthodox Church is not infallible, and 23 Patriarchs have been deposed for heresy, some of them posthumously.

The Patriarch has refused any dialogue with the monks and has demanded their unconditional repentance rather than address their legitimate concerns regarding his teachings and practices which are in conflict with the teachings of the Orthodox Church. Instead he has moved to evict the monks from the only home they know.

The Greek Government has shamefully acquiesced to pressure by the Patriarch to use force to blockade and evict the monks. Greek Foreign Minister Ms. Dora Bakoyiannis, under whose ultimate authority Mt Athos resides, controls the apparatus of the Greek State in Mt. Athos , and it is under her ultimate authority that the blockade of food, medicine, heating oil, and medical care has been denied to the monks. The Inquisition that the Greek Church was spared in the Middle Ages, is now being lived by the monks in modern day Greece .

In an attempt to hide these actions against Esphigmenou monastery from public view, the Patriarch and his accomplices in the Greek government have established an imposter brotherhood, using the same name "Esphigmenou" and have begun to divert all mail, bank accounts and real estate belonging to the monastery to the new imposter brotherhood which they control. This is done while the true brotherhood is blockaded in their monastery and prohibited by the Greek police and coast guard from receiving deliveries of food, heating oil, or visits from doctors to care for sick and elderly monks. The monastery's tractor has been seized by the police to prevent the monks from growing their own food, and their telephone lines have been cut to prevent communication to the outside world. Five monks have died without having received medical attention, as the police have physically prohibited doctors from entering the monastery to provide care.

Recently, monks of the impostor brotherhood have seized land belonging to the besieged Monastery of Esphigmenou and have begun clearing the area to set foundations for building, thereby attempting to gain legitimacy for their brotherhood, claiming that they are on Esphigmenou Monastery land and that their false abbot, Chrysostomos Katsoulieries, can claim to be abbot.