By Walt Garlington for the Saker blog
There should be no doubt that the current Western elite have a strong desire to eradicate the traditional Orthodox Faith from the world. Efforts by globalists to undermine Orthodoxy are well-documented, and on the second day of Russia's military operation in the Ukraine the head of the UK's MI-6 Richard Moore tweeted out this sparkling gem: 'With the tragedy and destruction unfolding so distressingly in Ukraine, we should remember the values and hard won freedoms that distinguish us from Putin, none more than LGBT+ rights. So let's resume our series of tweets to mark #LGBTHM2022'.
However, because of the West's aforementioned proxy war against Russia in the Ukraine, a momentous event in world history could be in the process of unfolding: the reconversion of Western Europe to the Orthodox Faith.
Consider what has transpired: Since February, when Russia entered the Ukraine to end the West's machinations there, several million Ukrainians have left their country, many of them ending up in Western European countries - 1.5 million in Poland, 1 million in Germany, 150k in the UK, etc.
In most of these places the remnants of post-Great Schism Christianity (Roman Catholicism and Protestantism) have been seeing rapid declines. The following is a report from Germany:
'The churches in Germany are having to contend with mass disertions again this year. In Munich alone, a total of 26 008 people left the Catholic and Protestant churches by December 15, according to a survey by the dpa news agency. That is almost 4 000 more than in 2021.
'According to the Berlin civil courts, 18 018 believers in the federal capital turned their backs on the churches in the first three quarters of 2022 alone. That is around 4 000 more exits than in the same period last year.
'In Hanover, too, the number of believers in the two major Christian denominations declined. By mid-December, 7 000 people had left the church. That's more than all of 2021, when the number was around 6 600.
'Last year, the Catholic Church had to cope with the departure of around 360 000 believers. That was a new negative record that could be surpassed in 2022. The Protestants lost around 280 000 members in 2021.
'As early as mid-December, the Bertelsmann Foundation's "Religion Monitor" showed that one in four church members in Germany was considering leaving.'
England and Wales have likewise seen a sharp fall in the number of Christians.
All of this no doubt has the Christless Baerbocks and Macrons of the West fiddling with glee, but it is precisely on this point that their Ukraine war may hurt them most noticeably, as the millions of Ukrainian refugees bring their Orthodox Faith to the spiritually starving peoples of Western Europe. To minister to the Ukrainian Christians who have fled the war, the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church has already established 32 parishes in 11 countries of Western Europe. It is conceivable that more could be added.
What is this but the Hand of God intervening in human affairs? The beloved missionary-minded bishop, St John the Wonderworker of Shanghai and San Francisco, saw in the Russian diaspora who fled the demonic rule of the Soviet communists something similar:
'However, in chastising, the Lord at the same time also shows the Russian people the way to salvation by making it a preacher of Orthodoxy in the whole world. The Russian Diaspora has made all the ends of the world familiar with Orthodoxy, for the mass of Russia, exiles for the most part, is unconsciously a preacher of Orthodox). Everywhere that Russians live there are built small exile churches, or even magnificent churches and often there are services in buildings which have been adapted for this purpose.'
Sadly, neither the Russians nor any other Orthodox Patriarchate have done very much to sow the good seed of Orthodoxy in the West. Now, perhaps, the Ukrainians have been sent abroad by God as ambassadors of the True Christ to a soulsick and despairing West, to turn her back to her roots in the Orthodox Church, to complete the missionary task that others have neglected.
It is an auspicious time, in the midst of the Christmas season. That remarkable hierarch, that new Golden Tongue and Martyr, St Hilarion Troitsky, contrasts the destructive pride of modern Western European atheism with the life-imparting power of unpretentious faith in the Incarnate Logos:
'Why is there such a relationship to the incarnation of the Son of God? It seems that the roots of this relationship are deeply seated in the moral self-awareness of modern man. This self-awareness is mainly proud. And what does it mean to believe in the incarnation? It means, first of all, merely to confess that earlier, human nature was very good. It came that way from the hands of the Creator. Human freedom brought sin, the breakdown of man's nature, and "a civil war began in human nature," as one holy father writes. By abusing his freedom, man so corrupted his nature that he could only exclaim, "I am an accursed, wretched man!" I cannot save myself. We need a new creation, we need an inpouring of new, grace-filled strength. This is what all mankind should say in order to believe in the incarnation of the Son of God. Such a humble awareness, such a humble confession of our weakness, our guilt before the work of God's hands-is this in the spirit of modern man? But the modern consciousness is penetrated with the idea of evolution, the idea of progress; that is, with the very ideas that can feed human pride.
'Christianity requires a humble awareness. My forefather, Adam, was perfect, but I, mankind, introduced only sin and corruption. The Church calls us to humility when it calls Adam our ancestor. But evolution? Descent from the ape? No matter how modestly we rate ourselves, it is impossible not to think with a certain pride: "After all, I am not an ape; after all, progress is manifest in me." Thus, by calling the ape our ancestor, evolution feeds human pride. If we compare ourselves to the ape we can be proud of our progress, but if we think of sinless Adam, outward progress losses its value. The progress is external, but it is also a sophisticated sin. If mankind is steadily progressing forward, then we can hope in ourselves. We create ourselves. But the Church says the opposite: "We could not become incorrupt and immortal had not the Incorrupt and Immortal One first become the same as we are." Believing in the incarnation means confessing that without God, all of mankind is nothing.
'Throughout the ages, the Church carries the ideal of deification. This ideal is very high, but it demands very much from man. It is unthinkable without the incarnation; it demands first of all that man be humble. Mankind is renouncing this high ideal, and has no need of the incarnation of the Son of God. An infinitely depreciated ideal of life allows man to talk of progress, and gives him the opportunity to be proud of his accomplishments. These two series of ideas make up two different worldviews: that of the Church, and that which is not of the Church. The worldview that is not of the Church-descent from the ape, progress, having no need of and denying the incarnation-is pride. Accepting the incarnation is inseparably bound with humility. Pride wars with the incarnation, as with something unneeded.
'Taking part in the triumphant Church celebration of the Nativity of Christ, we should shout aloud:
'Be humble, proud man, and believe in the incarnation of the Only Begotten Son of God!'
The longer the West drags out the war in the Ukraine, the more the Ukrainian refugees will have the opportunity to proclaim, knowingly or unknowingly, the incomparably radiant splendor of the truth of the Incarnation, of Orthodoxy, to the Western European countries where they have taken shelter:
'Prepare, O Bethlehem, for Eden has been opened to all! / Adorn yourself, O Ephratha, for the tree of life blossoms forth from the Virgin in the cave! / Her womb is a spiritual paradise planted with the Divine Fruit: / If we eat of it, we shall live forever and not die like Adam. / Christ comes to restore the image which He made in the beginning!'
And, therefore, very much contrary to their designs, the Antichrist Elite of Western Europe are hastening their own demise, answering the prayer of the Psalmist that the wicked fall into the snares they have laid for the innocent ( Ps. 35:6-8):
'Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them! For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my life. Let ruin come upon them unawares! And let the net which they hid ensnare them; let them fall therein to ruin!'
'This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes' ( Ps. 118:23).