“It is said: all power comes from God. Of course it's not true

From the editor : St. Petersburg church historian and public figure, with whom we have long had personal good relations, Nikolai Kuzmich Simakov, proposed publishing his article on church-state relations. As regular readers know well, I have a different point of view on this issue. However, we decided to publish this article. Not only out of respect for the author, but also because this point of view is widespread among Orthodox Russian people, which means we need to return to this problem again and again, to articulate the issues that divide us. Ch. editor A.D. Stepanov.

In the history of the Russian church of the twentieth century. attitude towards power has become one of the most difficult and painful problems. The phenomenon of servility has become widespread, i.e. servility and servility of the church hierarchy to state authorities. Servilism manifested itself especially painfully for the church in the 20th century, during the era of severe persecution of the faith. At this time, he received the specific name “Sergianism”, such a religious policy of the Metropolitan. Sergius (Stragorodsky), which gradually led to the enslavement of the Russian Church by the atheistic authorities. “Sergianism” committed a sin against the church, officially asserting more than once that “all power is from God.” Based on this, according to “Sergianism,” the Soviet government, in spite of everything, is “divinely established,” to which all Orthodox Christians must completely submit, not out of fear, but out of conscience. “I won’t remind you,” the Metropolitan wrote. Sergius (Stragorodsky) that our patriarchal church, starting with the late His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon and until now, invariably recognizes Soviet power as divinely established in the USSR.”

In their public speeches, the official hierarchy during the Soviet period constantly justified and praised the atheistic government before the whole world. At the same time, she completely denied the fact of the most severe persecution of faith in the USSR, believing that this “saves” the church. Although, as you know, it is not the hierarchy, but the Lord Jesus Christ himself and the Mother Church herself who save us.

It is obvious that it was not “church politicians” subservient to the atheistic authorities, but hundreds of thousands of holy New Martyrs and Confessors who ascended to Golgotha ​​in the twentieth century and defended the Orthodox faith and the Church in Russia with their blood.

Today, living in the era of the Orthodox revival, we all need to learn lessons from the Great Russian tragedy of the twentieth century. What should be the true Christian attitude towards state power? Is all power from God?

Christian attitude to power.“Power is the work of the Wisdom of God, and anarchy is evil and the cause of unrest,” wrote St. John Chrysostom. In this sense, power was established by God for the fallen world after the Fall with the goal of saving it from anarchy, chaos, anarchy and death. The source of power according to the Gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ himself: “And Jesus approached and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Matthew 28:18). Any power that opposes God, His commandments, that separates itself from God and rebels against Him, is not legal, but atheistic usurpation and tyranny. For according to the Gospel, there is no power if it is separated from God. It is in this sense that the words of St. ap. Paul: “Let every soul be subject to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God” (Rom. 13: 1).

The Christian attitude towards power is best evidenced in the New Testament by the very acts of the Apostles. They tell about the first persecution and clash of the Apostolic Church, preaching the Risen Christ, with the authority of the Jewish Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. “Having brought them in, they appointed them in the Sanhedrin; and the high priest asked them, saying: Have we not strictly forbidden you to teach about this name? and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and want to bring the blood of that Man upon us. Peter and the Apostles answered and said, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:27-29). This principle of “obeying God rather than men” will become the basic principle of the Christian attitude towards government authority. This will manifest itself especially clearly during the era of Roman persecution of the church for three centuries. It is well known that in the ancient, pre-Christian world, the state and power were deified. The religious cult of the Roman Empire and Roman emperors was created. Christianity brought a radically new attitude towards the state and secular power. It opposed the deification of earthly power and the cult of the “kingdom” of the Roman emperors and tyranny. From the moment of Baptism and Confirmation, Christians, as a royal priesthood, worshiped the Lord Jesus Christ as their only King and God. They rendered, as Christ taught: “To Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” and because of this they refused to recognize the Roman emperor as a “deity.” Christianity opposed tyranny and the state itself, deified by pagan religion. Christians contrasted the totalitarianism of the deified state with the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ commanded by the Gospel: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Christians were ready to endure suffering, torment and death, but refused to make ritual sacrifices to the tsar-god cult of emperors and the pagan Roman gods. Sebastian, military commander of the Roman Emperor Anthony, reports St. martyr to the warrior Victor around 150 A.D.: “We have received an order from the emperor in which he orders you, Christians, to make sacrifices to our gods; those who are disobedient will be subjected to severe torment.” Saint Victor replies: “I will not show any obedience to this godless command of a mortal king and will not fulfill his will, because I have “my Immortal King and Savior Jesus, His Kingdom is endless, and whoever does His will will receive eternal life; But a mortal king and your kingdom are temporary, and he who fulfills his godless will will perish forever.”

In the history of Christianity, the attitude of the church to power and the state was formulated by St. Augustine the Blessed in his famous work “On the City of God”. In it, he wrote that the nature of the church, the city of God, and the state, the city of the earth, are not only different, but also opposite. The state arose as a result of the Fall and the murder of Abel by Cain. From Cain (who built the first city) and the Cainites comes the history of a state based on violence, crime and conquest. The Roman Empire, as a state, arose as a result of the capture and enslavement of various countries and peoples by Rome. Unlike the state, the church is the city of God, it is based on sacrificial love for God and people, starting from Abel to Christ. Only that state and power, according to St. Augustine the Blessed can be recognized as legitimate, who serve God and do not violate the canons of the church. If the state and power separate themselves from God and oppose the church, then they become criminal and an instrument of the devil, who are no different from gangs of robbers. St. Augustine gives in his book “On the City of God” a story about how a captured pirate at the trial of Emperor Alexander the Great told him: “You are an emperor because you have a whole fleet, and I am a pirate because I have only one ship.” That’s the only difference between us.”

The Church according to St. Augustine the Blessed, already now in history there is the kingdom of Christ and therefore royal and any worldly power must submit to it. As, for example, this happened in the 5th century in history with Emperor Theodosius the Great. St. Ambrose of Milan did not allow Emperor Theodosius into the temple because of the massacre committed on his orders in Thessalonica, where 7 thousand people were killed. For this St. Ambrose imposed penance on the emperor, excommunicating him from Holy Communion. Emperor Theodosius obeyed. For 8 months he was not present at church services, staying with the penitents. And only then, after public repentance, St. Ambrose into church communion. In history, wrote St. Augustine the Blessed, there is a constant struggle between the city of the earth - the state and the city of God - the church. The state and government often see spiritual power as their rival and therefore often seek to enslave the Church of Christ. The state and power by their nature gravitate toward absolutism and totalitarianism. It is no coincidence that in the pre-Christian world the totalitarian state was the ideal. Great thinkers of ancient times, such as Plato, wrote about such an “ideal state”. The victory won by Christianity in the 4th century over paganism also meant the victory of the Church of God over the deified state and imperial power. However, in history there have often been relapses of paganism, and attempts have been made to subordinate the church to the state and secular authorities. In the 8th century, the church was forced to fight the so-called “Caesaropapism” of the Byzantine iconoclast emperors. In 730, Emperor Leo III the Isaurian, as a “priest-king,” issued a decree against icon veneration. From that time on, persecution of Orthodoxy and the Church began, which would continue for many decades. The Church resolutely opposed the heresies of “Caesaropapism” and iconoclasm. On the week of Orthodoxy, she anathematized Leo III with the words: “To the first most evil iconoclast, and even more so to the Christ-fighter, to the evil beast, to the demonic servant, to the godless enemy of God’s Church, to the tormentor, and not to the king, to Leo Isavrenin and his false patriarch Anastasius, to the persecutor of Christ’s flock, and not to the shepherd , and from their secret place - Anathema!

The attitude of the Church to power in Russia. About the Christian attitude to power in Russia for the first time in the 16th century. wrote St. Joseph Volotsky in his book “The Enlightener.” “If a certain king reigns over people, but bad passions and sins reign over him: love of money and anger, wickedness and untruth, pride and rage, and most evil of all, unbelief and blasphemy - such a king is not God’s servant, but the devil, and not the king , but a tormentor,” and therefore he should not be obeyed... “After all, every king or prince who lives in negligence, does not care about his subjects and does not have the fear of God, becomes a servant of Satan, therefore the wrath of the Lord will inexorably and suddenly find him. I tell you this, kings and princes, wrote St. Joseph Volotsky, not from himself, but having received admonition from God...”

In practice, the Christian attitude to power in the history of Russia most clearly appeared in the 16th century. during the era of oprichnina terror of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. The Primate of the Russian Church, Metropolitan Philip, fearlessly denouncing the tyranny of the “tsardom” and terror, said: “I cannot obey your command any more than God’s.” “Most merciful king and great prince, how long do you want to shed the innocent blood of your faithful people and Christians? How long will untruth reign in the Russian kingdom? Tatars and pagans, the whole world says that all peoples have law and truth, but in Rus' they do not exist; all over the world, criminals who seek mercy from the authorities find it, but in Rus' there is no mercy for the innocent and the righteous. Think about the fact that although God has exalted you in the world, you are still a mortal man, and God will exact innocent blood from your hands. The stones under your feet, if not living souls, will cry out and accuse you and judge you; I must tell you this, by the command of God, even if death befalls me for it.”

In the twentieth century, after the fall of the monarchy in Russia, power in 1917 was seized by the Bolsheviks - the most godless and anti-Christian forces. Who immediately began the most severe persecution of the Orthodox Church and faith, unprecedented in the history of Russia. In this regard, Patriarch Tikhon (Bellavin), on behalf of the Local Council, at the beginning of 1918, issued an accusatory message in which he anathematized the atheistic government and everyone who followed its lead. “Come to your senses, madmen, stop your bloody reprisals. After all, what you are doing is not only a cruel deed: it is truly a satanic deed, for which you are subject to the fire of Gehenna in the future life - the afterlife and the terrible curse of posterity in the present - earthly life. By the authority given to us by God, we forbid you to approach the Mysteries of Christ, we anathematize you, if only you still bear Christian names and at least by birth belong to the Orthodox Church.”

However, persecution of faith and the church in Russia continued throughout the Soviet period, starting in 1917 and almost until the end of the 1980s. During the times of persecution, at the end of the 20s, two different attitudes towards the atheistic authorities appeared in the Russian Church. One of them was called “Sergianism” after Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky). In the infamous “Declaration of 1927,” he recognized Soviet power for his church, despite the persecution. Subsequently, he repeatedly recognized it as “divinely established.” Another attitude to the atheistic government in the history of the Russian Church was “Josephiteism.” It was a broad movement of those bishops, priests, monastics and Orthodox people who, led by Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh), opposed the enslavement of the church by the atheistic authorities. “If all the churches are taken away from us, then we will pray in the basements secretly. During the persecution of the faith of Christ, imitating the Christians of the first centuries, we will gladly go to the stake and to prison, the Josephites wrote, but we will not voluntarily allow the Communist Tuchkov to be the owner of the Church of God. We are ready to die for the freedom of the Church.” Hundreds of thousands of holy New Martyrs and Confessors courageously ascended to Golgotha, shed their blood and thereby saved the Orthodox Faith and the Church in Russia. “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christianity,” wrote Tertullian. From 1917 to 1941 alone, as a result of bloody persecutions and two “five-year plans of godlessness,” 130 thousand representatives of the clergy alone were killed, not counting many hundreds of thousands of laity. In 1937 alone, more than 85 thousand clergy were shot. At the same time, many priests, monastics and laymen died in concentration camps through hard labor and from disease. It is impossible to count them all. By the end of the 30s, as a result of persecution, the church actually became a catacomb. Many priests and monks were forced due to persecution to go underground into the catacombs. By 1942, during the so-called “2nd Five-Year Plan of Godlessness,” the Soviet government planned to completely destroy the church as well as the Christian religion itself in the USSR. But the Great Patriotic War broke out, which prevented the plans of the atheistic authorities to completely destroy the church. From 1943 to 1948 a brief period of “peaceful respite” ensued. In the era of “building communism” new “Khrushchev persecutions” begin. During these years, 10 thousand churches were closed, as well as many monasteries and seminaries. The affairs of the church at this time were actually managed not by the patriarchy, but by the chairman of the “Council for Religious Affairs” V. A. Kuraedov. “The composition of the permanent members of the Synod, as well as episcopal appointments, now depend on the chairman of the “Council for Religious Affairs” to a much greater extent than they depended in tsarist Russia on the chief prosecutor of the Synod,” Archbishop of Kaluga wrote in his address to the hierarchy of the Moscow Patriarchate and Borovsky Ermogen (Golubev). Bishop Ermogen openly and courageously fought for the liberation of the church from enslavement by its atheistic state. In 1965, he drew up a statement addressed to Patriarch Alexei I (Simansky) with a proposal to change the “Regulations on the management of the Russian Orthodox Church,” adopted in 1961 under pressure from the authorities. In 1967, Bishop Ermogen sent another letter, in which he pointed out the difficult situation of the church, the arbitrariness of the civil authorities and the inaction of the leadership of the patriarchate. As a result, under pressure from the “Council for Religious Affairs,” Bishop Ermogen was retired and was actually imprisoned under strict supervision in the Zhirovitsky Monastery until his death in 1978.

In 1965, a group of priests issued an open letter to the patriarch in defense of the church from oppression by the authorities, as well as against servility, i.e. servility of the hierarchy to the atheistic authorities. “Today a situation has arisen in the Russian Church in which not a single aspect of church life is free from active administrative interference on the part of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church, its authorized and local authorities, interference aimed at destroying the Church... The deep guilt of the Church The management consists in the fact that it took the path of subordination to unofficial oral orders, which, in violation of clear Soviet legislation, the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church chose as a means of systematically and destructively destroying the life of the Church.” Boris Talantov wrote about the plight of the church in the Kirov region in an open letter in 1966. For which he, a sick pensioner, will be arrested and imprisoned, where he will die as a confessor of faith and defender of the church in 1971. The well-known “Lenten Letter” of A.I. Solzhenitsyn, sent to Patriarch Pimen in 1972, is permeated with pain for the future fate of the Russian Church, enslaved by the authorities. “All church administration,” he wrote, the installation of pastors and bishops, is also carried out secretly from the Council of Affairs. A church dictatorially led by atheists is a spectacle unseen in two millennia! What arguments can you convince yourself that the systematic destruction of the spirit and body of the Church under the leadership of atheists is the best way to preserve it? Conservation - for whom? After all, it’s not for Christ. Conservation - by what? Lies? But after the lie, with what hands should we celebrate the Eucharist? Holy Lord! Do not disdain my unworthy exclamations. It may not be within seven years that even this will reach your ears. Don’t let us assume, don’t make us think that for the archpastors of the Russian Church, earthly power is higher than heavenly, earthly responsibility is worse than responsibility before God.”

In the 60-80s of the 20th century, a religious revival and a Christian dissident movement began among the intelligentsia. At this time, illegal religious and philosophical seminars, circles for studying the foundations of Orthodoxy, and religious and political societies appeared. A notable event in the history of the Christian dissident movement in Russia will be the creation in Leningrad in 1964 of the “All-Russian Social-Christian Union for the Liberation of the People.” VSKHSON was created with the goal of overthrowing communist power and building a Christian state in Russia. It included more than 60 people. Cells of the Union were located in addition to Leningrad, also in Moscow, Petrozavodsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk and other cities. A Charter and program were developed. It included the creation of a Christian social state, which was based on three main principles: the Christianization of politics, the Christianization of the economy and the Christianization of culture. In February 1967, VSKHSON was destroyed by the KGB. In the 70s, religious and philosophical quests among the intelligentsia intensified. Clandestine religious and philosophical seminars appeared, studying the heritage of Russian thinkers: A. Khomyakov, F. Dostoevsky, Vl. Solovyov, N. Berdyaev and others. Spiritual searches among the intelligentsia led part of it to the creation in 1974 of the “Christian Seminar on Problems of Religious Revival” . “Russia is now experiencing a religious revival,” predicted by holy ascetics and religious thinkers, wrote participants in the Christian seminar. “The sacrificial blood of the Church became the seed of our revival, and the conditions of persecution determined its forcedly hidden nature.” The seminar participants set their main goal to serve the cause of the spiritual revival of Russia. Similar Christian seminars arose in many places in the 70-80s. Their participants studied the Holy Scriptures, Patristic Theology, Church History, apologetics, and liturgy in the form of a series of lectures, reports and messages. These seminars and various religious societies prepared the Orthodox revival, which will begin in our country in 1988, the year of the millennium of the Baptism of Rus'.

Despite the most severe persecution that lasted almost the entire twentieth century, the Church in Russia won a victory over the atheistic state and the atheistic government. The gates of hell did not prevail against her! In 1991, the atheistic government fell in our country and the Russian Church gained its long-awaited Freedom.

In 2000, at the anniversary council of bishops in Moscow, the Orthodox Church glorified the Council of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, both revealed and unmanifested. This undoubtedly became the Triumph of Orthodoxy and the Victory of Faith over atheism. In the same year 2000, the social concept of the Russian Orthodox Church was first adopted. In it, in particular, in the section “Church and State,” it says: “At the same time, Christians must avoid the absolutization of power, from non-recognition of the boundaries of its purely earthly, temporary and transitory value, conditioned by the presence of sin in the world and the need to restrain it.” It also said: “If the government forces Orthodox believers to apostatize from Christ and His Church, as well as to commit sinful, harmful acts, the Church must refuse to obey the state.”

Today we live in the era of the Orthodox Renaissance, and we need to learn lessons from the tragic history of relations between the church and the authorities in Russia in the past century. And let us remember that the freedom of the Church was given to us by Christ the Savior with His blood: “Let us not lose little by little, imperceptibly, that freedom which our Lord Jesus Christ, the Liberator of all men, gave us through His Blood” (8th Rights of the Third Ecumenical Cathedral).

Hello to you in Christ, our Savior, Olga!

Let's first make sure once and for all that any power truly comes from God.

“And Daniel said, Blessed be the name of the Lord from everlasting to everlasting! For with Him is wisdom and power; He changes times and seasons, deposes kings and sets up kings; gives wisdom to the wise and understanding to the understanding..."()

"Praise the Lord of lords..."() In other words: glorify Him who rules over every master.

“It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in princes”().

“He tames the spirit of princes, He is terrible for the kings of the earth”().

“The Lord has set His throne in heaven, and His kingdom possesses all”()

Do you remember how Pontius Pilate boasted of his power? “Pilate says to Him: Do you not answer me? Don’t you know that I have the power to crucify You and the power to release You?”

What did Jesus answer him? “You would not have any power over Me if it had not been given to you from above” ()

Paul, who wrote: “There is no authority except from God, but the existing authorities are established by God”, knew the Pentateuch and the Prophets very well, so he was fully aware of what he was saying.

Yes, every king, every ruler received the opportunity to rule precisely from God. God ordained these people to be stewards over other people. The Bible provides us with many examples to prove this, as well as the fact that...

1) God has not ordained any authority to be higher than Him;

2) what people do with the power given to them is the choice of people, not God;

3) the fact that God gives power to someone does not mean at all that He approves of the actions of the authorities;

4) giving power to certain people, arranging the powers of those in power one way or another at His discretion, God pursues His goal, which is above any goal - the salvation for Eternity of those who can still be saved;

5) through the installed authorities, God does not provide people with laws, but only a way of governing in a society that does not want to recognize Him as the Only Lawful Ruler over everything and everyone.

Thus, we see the following picture...

God is above everyone and everything.

Everything that He does with His power on earth (including whom He appoints as rulers) is directed towards one point: to save as many people as possible for Eternity.

This may sound paradoxical to you, but please do not rush to dismiss this thought. Let's try to understand it. When is a person inclined to seek God: when he feels good and comfortable or when he feels bad and hard? Of course, I agree that, as a rule, people who find themselves in terrible situations tend to begin their search for Truth with accusations against the Creator: “Why did you bring me here? Why did you give power to an idiot who is torturing me and my entire country? You stupid and evil god! Because the wise and kind would never allow me, such a good person, and my such a beautiful country, to suffer. Why on earth would I calmly look at what this disgusting government is doing to me and my fellow citizens?”

Yes, the Almighty, who gives power to the Hitlers and Herods, knows well what he is doing, he understands perfectly well how much dirt will be poured on Him because of this, but He still does not stop. And glory to Him for this! Because it is in difficult times that people get the opportunity to test their life attitudes and see whether they are really as kind, fluffy and fair as they think about themselves. Only in times of difficult trials, when our flesh suffers, when we find ourselves in the face of death, do we begin to think about the meaning of life and the possible existence of One who knows exactly this meaning.

“In days of prosperity, take advantage of the good, and in days of adversity, reflect: God did both so that a person cannot say anything against Him» ().

Yes, God gives us Husseins and Stalins as well as those who are like Solomon in their rule, and He does this so that when each of us appears before the Great Judge, we will not have the opportunity to exclaim: “Why didn’t you knock?” to me? Why didn’t you punish me, why didn’t you try to draw my attention to the fact that You are the power, and You are the Chief in everything?”

On the Day of Judgment, not a single person will even have such a thought, because God always does everything to reach our stony hearts, our pride-filled brains. Even if for this He needs to put Robespierre or Beria in command, even knowing that this His action will give rise to rivers and seas of curses addressed to Him, He does this because people, with very rare exceptions (if exceptions exist at all), do not are able to understand their absolute weakness and the worthlessness of their godless life when everything is fine with them.

Any institution of God, any of His actions, no matter how terrible it may seem to our carnal consciousness, is always aimed at only one target: to help at least some turn to Him and begin to seek saving answers from Him, the One who has absolute and infinite power and wisdom .

Now, remembering all of the above and realizing that in the letter to the Romans the Apostle is addressing Christians, and not to authorities and leaders, let's read the words of Paul: “Let every soul be subject to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God; the existing authorities have been established by God. Therefore, he who resists authority resists God's institution. And those who resist will bring condemnation upon themselves” ().

Dear friends who call themselves followers of the teachings of Christ, i.e. Christians, keep in mind that if you blaspheme the government under which you live, if you try to rebel against it, to replace it with your own efforts, if you plot and sow dissatisfaction with the government in other people, then you are thereby opposing the plan, in fulfilling which God is trying save your fellow citizens from sins and for Eternity. By speaking out against the authorities, you bring upon yourself their wrath and, what is more terrible, the condemnation of God.

Let us understand that Paul's words are not addressed to every person, but to someone who considers himself a Christian, i.e. those who have once and for all chosen to be under the lordship of Christ.

Paul's words do not assert the rightness of this or that government or this or that law issued by the government, but only the idea that Christians should not try to overthrow the established government, should not rebel against it, because when God fulfills everything planned for the salvation of each individual for Eternity man, He will completely calmly replace all the rulers Himself, in the order, at the time and in the manner that will be best for the work of the plan of salvation ().

A true Christian has no reason to fear secular authorities, be they led by Hitler or Solomon. Anyone who really lives according to the Law of the Most High, who is guided by His will and love, will never find himself in a situation where secular authorities will have the right to fairly condemn him. But if "if you do evil, be afraid, for he(*authority representative) He does not bear the sword in vain: he is God’s servant, an avenger to punish those who do evil.”

Yes, often avengers either neglect their duties or usurp them, but that is not what Paul is talking about now. He simply asserts that all power is for the purpose of punishing people for evil. If you, calling yourself a Christian, do evil (hiding taxes, stealing, spreading slander, etc.), then be afraid of the authorities ().

And if you do Good, as you breathe, living according to the commandments of God, then you have absolutely nothing to fear from secular power, because if it comes to ruin and kill you, if it imposes conditions on you that are incompatible with your faith, you know for sure that everything is its actions are directed, in fact, not against you, but against the One Whom you serve. And you suffer not because you committed some kind of evil against the established authority, but because those who were appointed to rule over you surrendered to Satan so much that they began to persecute Christ in each of His disciples: “As long as none of you suffers as a murderer, or a thief, or a villain, or as someone who encroaches on someone else’s property; and if you are a Christian, then do not be ashamed, but glorify God for such a fate”().

Sorry that it turned out so long, and forgive me for only now getting to the essence of your question, but I am sure that without those preliminary explanations, in principle, I would not be able to even try to tell you what I am about to say.

So Paul writes: . It seems to us that here Paul requires Christians to fulfill everything prescribed by secular authorities, even if it contradicts the Higher Law. However, Paul calls us to be submissive to the authorities and not to the ungodly laws they may impose.

Any government that sets laws here on earth tells people: “if you don’t obey, I will punish you.” Do you see two possibilities here to submit to power?

First opportunity. Begin to submit, doing everything she demands, even if her laws are evil and contrary to God.

Second possibility. Accept the punishment that she has provided for those who do not want to comply with her regulations. Don’t start a rebellion against her, but accept punishment from her. Submission? Undoubtedly.

For example, the authorities say: “if you do not report on your neighbor when he scolds the government, then, having discovered this disgrace, I will punish you with several years of camp labor in Siberia.” A true Christian understands that he cannot fulfill this command of the authorities and continues to live according to the Law of the Almighty, ready at any moment to submit to punishment from those in power... and in fact submits to the authorities. “Let every soul be subject to the higher authorities...”

Or this example from slave-owning times in America. There was a law then that required every person to make every effort to return runaway slaves to their masters. At the same time, the word of God unequivocally states: “Do not hand over a slave to his master when he comes running to you from his master”() Accordingly, the punishment for violating this law was thought out. Those who followed the Bible, submitting to the Power of God as the Only True Lawgiver, simultaneously submitted to secular power, meekly accepting punishment from it if it discovered their “illegal”, from its point of view, actions.

A Christian will not resist the existing government, which wants to take away his home, destroy his family, and rot him in a concentration camp just because he cannot fulfill its demands, which are contrary to the Law of God. Yes, a Christian must and even is obliged to help people, government officials understand that they are acting contrary to the Higher Law, that they are committing unrighteous actions and thereby heaping burning coals on their heads on the Day of Judgment, a Christian must, to the best of his ability and the capabilities given to him, help those in power , like all other people, turn to God in order to be saved for Eternity, but he has no right to rebel against the existing government with the aim of overthrowing it. He did not establish it, so it is not for him to rebel against it and not for him to overthrow it.

I am aware that the previous paragraph could again cause a wave of disagreement in you, because our carnal being so wants to live comfortably and calmly, so wants everyone who encroaches on its well-being to be punished and well-being restored. But again I ask you to try to push this wave away from yourself and remember the example of the One Who, always remaining faithful only to the Law of Heaven, was at the same time submissive to the existing secular power, from which He accepted His betrayal and death, submitting its actions to the judgment of the One Who said: “Vengeance is mine, and I will repay!”()

Christ suffered unjustly and yet showed no resistance! “He was tortured, but He suffered voluntarily, without opening His mouth; He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before His shearers, silent, so He did not open His mouth."

Sincerely,

Read more on the topic “Interpretation of Scripture”:

Report by Ksenia Bogdanova

Church and government

Lecture by Archimandrite Iannuariy (Ivliev)
“New Testament teaching on the relationship to freedom and the state”

AUDIO
Professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archimandrite Iannuariy (Ivliev), gave a lecture on the Gospel understanding of the relationship of the Church to the state, to secular power.

“How should we treat the state? As a rule, they refer to the words of the Apostle Paul from the 13th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. “Let every soul be submissive to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, but the existing authorities were established by God. He who resists the authorities resists God’s institution.” This passage is usually relied upon and referred to, as a rule, by the authorities themselves, who often do evil (after all, not all authorities do only good; there are often evil laws and inhuman authorities). And they say to Christians: “The Holy Scripture tells you that you should be submissive to us. And if you are not obedient, then you are resisting God’s ordinance.” Some Khan Batu begins to exterminate the Christian race: “Be submissive, because it is said in the Holy Scripture...” Of course, this is not so. Well, of course, this is a misunderstanding of the words of the Apostle Paul and underreading of them.”

What exactly is said in the text of the New Testament about the correct attitude of Christians towards authorities, how to correctly understand these words of the apostle “there is no authority except from God”, if you understand the Greek text, listen in our report, which almost completely includes a lecture by Professor of St. Petersburg Theological Academy of Archimandrite Iannuarius (Ivliev). The lecture was given on November 25, 2015 at the Feodorovsky Educational Center.

“Power – not specifically the emperor, but power in general – was considered divine by the Romans. Power is not only “from God,” but it is itself divine. And power is not divine, it is a servant of God (says the Apostle Paul to the Romans). She is “under God.” We have translated: “from God” - this is “all authority under God.” And further in the Greek text: “For power is God’s servant for your good.” And further it is indicated what the divine good consists of, which God requires from power (after all, power is His slave, it must obey God): that there be order, justice, love - above all. That is why, if the government copes well with its duties given to it by God, then taxes must be paid and it must be respected. But what if the government is a bad slave? If she does evil instead of good?

Excerpt from the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans:

“Let every soul be subject to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God; the existing authorities have been established by God. Therefore, he who resists authority resists God's institution. And those who resist will bring condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good deeds, but to evil deeds. Do you want to not be afraid of power? Do good, and you will receive praise from her, for the ruler is God's servant, for your good. If you do evil, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain: he is God’s servant, an avenger to punish those who do evil. And therefore one must obey not only out of fear of punishment, but also out of conscience. This is why you pay taxes, for they are God’s servants, constantly busy with this. So give everyone their due: give to whom, give; to whom quitrent, quitrent; to whom fear, fear; to whom honor, honor. Do not owe anyone anything except mutual love; For he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments: do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not covet someone else’s, and all the others are contained in this word: love your neighbor as yourself. Love does not harm one's neighbor; So love is the fulfillment of the law. Do this, knowing the time that the hour has already come for us to awaken from sleep. For salvation is closer to us now than when we believed. The night is past, and the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the weapons of light. As during the day, let us behave decently, not indulging in feasting and drunkenness, nor in sensuality and debauchery, nor in quarrels and envy; But put on our Lord Jesus Christ, and do not turn the cares of the flesh into lusts” (Rom. 13:1-14).

see also

Andrey Desnitsky

“Let every soul be subject to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God; the existing authorities have been established by God. Therefore, he who resists authority resists God’s ordinance.”- this quote from the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans (13:1-2) and some others like it became very popular in December last year. The conclusion from them is quite clear: it is unacceptable for a Christian to oppose or even object to the legitimate authorities of his country in any way, for example, to go to rallies. But, on the other hand, doesn’t it happen that the existing authorities demand from a Christian something that is contrary to his conscience? We find many such examples in history.

Early Christian martyrs were officially persecuted for state crimes: they refused to make sacrifices to the gods, including the emperor. No one forbade them to believe in Christ, nor did they even force them to seriously believe in Jupiter or Zeus; they just had to take part in the cult obligatory for all subjects of the empire, at least purely symbolically. They went to their death, not wanting to be a hypocrite.

What about the new martyrs in our country? They also avoided fulfilling any decrees of the Council of People's Commissars that abolished Christianity on the territory of the Republic of Soviets. And there is nothing new in this; in the New Testament, before the Epistle to the Romans there are the Acts of the Apostles, and this is the answer the apostles gave to the Sanhedrin, a completely legitimate authority, to the demand to stop their preaching: “one must obey God rather than men” (5:29).

Then, perhaps, the principle here is this: completely obey any command of the authorities, except in those cases when they personally demand from you something contrary to faith and God’s will?

But let's open the Gospel, it comes at the very beginning of the New Testament, and the first one mentioned in it... Everyone remembers that he was executed by King Herod, but for what exactly? For denouncing his wicked marriage: Herod stole his own brother’s wife. Why did John interfere in this private matter, since the king did not demand anything from him, and, moreover, “Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and took care of him; I did a lot listening to him, and listened to him with pleasure.”(Mark 6:20). Wouldn't it be better to use this location to influence the king himself, and through him, life throughout the country? Why was it necessary to follow the principle, to aggravate relations, so much so that the matter ended in execution? Maybe John the Baptist was a religious extremist?

But let's look at the history of Byzantium, where a “symphony of powers” ​​existed, or at least was proclaimed, secular and spiritual. Its ideal was first expressed in the introduction to the 6th novella of Justinian (IV century):

“The greatest gifts of God, given to people by the highest love for mankind, are the priesthood and the kingdom. The first serves divine affairs, the second takes care of human affairs. Both come from the same source and adorn human life. Therefore, if the first is truly blameless and adorned with fidelity to God, and the second is adorned with a correct and decent state system, there will be good agreement between them.”

Let us pay attention to the condition: the priesthood must be blameless, and the kingdom must be correct and orderly, otherwise there can be no agreement.

In Byzantine history, there was agreement between these two authorities, but it also happened differently. How kindly and benevolently the imperial couple, Arcadius and Eudoxius, received the famous preacher in Constantinople, and with what fervor he brought down his sermons on their heads! And when they asked him to calm down, when they threatened him with punishment, he answered directly from the pulpit: “Herodias is raging again, again indignant, dancing again, again demanding the head of John on a platter.” This is directly said about the empress.

And why, I wonder, did the conflict escalate? Yes, for the most insignificant thing: a silver statue of the empress was installed at the hippodrome to amuse the mother empress by paying honor to her.

And this is far from the only example... Emperor Leo VI, violating church customs and the civil law issued by his father Vasily I, entered into a fourth marriage. As in the case of Herod, and with Eudoxia - it would seem that this was his private matter. But when the emperor, at the head of a solemn procession on Christmas Day 906, went to Hagia Sophia, Patriarch Nicholas the Mystic slammed the doors of the temple in front of him and exposed his sin in front of all the people.

Another similar episode is associated with the name of Michael Palaeologus, who in 1261 blinded his formal co-ruler and the only legal heir to the throne, John IV, then still a child. This was not only an atrocity, but also a crime of oath, because Mikhail had previously sworn not to harm the boy-heir. The Church could not agree with such an act; the emperor, not wanting to accept accusations, after long disputes, deposed first the legitimate patriarch Arseny (1265), then his own protege Germany (1266), but still in 1267 he had to publicly repent of his sin before the third patriarch, Joseph.

Where does such intransigence and integrity come from? Well, it was worth keeping silent, and even justifying your silence with a quote from the apostle... And how can these protests be combined with that very quote? How can you argue with the authorities if they are from God?

The same Saint John Chrysostom quite clearly resolved these perplexities in his commentary on this Epistle:

“Is every ruler really appointed by God? That’s not what I’m saying, the apostle answers. Now I am talking not about each boss individually, but about power itself. The existence of authorities, whereby some are in charge and others are subordinate, and the fact that everything does not happen by chance and arbitrarily, so that people rush here and there like waves - I call all this the work of God’s Wisdom.”

In other words, Christians are not called to support any existing authority in all its actions, they are obliged to respect its legal requirements, and nothing more. But how can this very principle of power established by God, as Chrysostom interprets it, be correlated with a specific state structure, clearly imperfect, and with specific rulers, clearly not without sin. Well, should we say that only the general principle is important to us, and that people and institutions are indifferent to us?

Not at all. John the Baptist, John Chrysostom, Nicholas the Mystic and many others denounced the rulers precisely because they were not indifferent to them. Let us note that they did not organize palace coups or revolutions.

Likewise in Russia, but refused to explicitly support the White movement: a civil war cannot receive a Christian blessing.

Likewise, the apostles did not try to overthrow the Sanhedrin, and the martyrs did not rebel against Roman rule. Their weapon was the word, not the sword.

The forms of government are changeable, and in these very changes we see the manifestation of God's will. The Church testifies to this in the Christmas stichera of the nun-poet Cassia:

“To Augustus the one-man ruler of the earth, the plurality of men has ceased; and You will become human from the Pure One, the polytheism of idols will be abolished. Under a single kingdom of the world there was a city, and the pagans believed in one dominion of the Divine. Having written to the people by the command of Caesar, we have written in faithfulness to the name of the Divinity, to You, our God made man. Great is Your mercy, O Lord, glory to You.”

Indeed, Christian preaching was able to spread throughout the Mediterranean only because it was the territory of a single state with a developed infrastructure. If, instead of Rome, many small kingdoms had remained in this territory, warring with each other, this would have been much more difficult to do. The Apostle Paul himself ended up in Rome, taking advantage of his right as a Roman citizen to ask the emperor for trial - by the way, he did not hesitate to remind the authorities of his legal rights when it helped the cause of preaching.

Undoubtedly, there was God's hand in that Byzantine state structure, which we associate today with the concept of a symphony, and it was also in the fact that this structure ceased. And revolutions, and persecutions, and disasters - they also do not happen without God’s will, although here we are rather used to talking about “permission”: God allowed the evil that people planned to happen. It is difficult not to see the will of God in the fact that today our country, like most of its neighbors, lives under a democratic constitution, whether we like it or not.

What is the general Christian principle of attitude towards authority? If she opposes Christianity, Christians must remain themselves, fulfilling her demands to the extent that does not contradict their Christian conscience. Evil and violence are overcome by good, and not by retaliatory violence, Christ taught in the Sermon on the Mount. This is difficult to do, but quite easy to understand.

But what to do in cases where the government considers itself Christian or at least sympathizes with Christianity? Cooperate with her, but strictly remind her of the laws if she breaks them, even where it does not affect us personally.

What do we, it would seem, care about the illegal marriages of King Herod or Emperor Leo? Isn’t it better to remain silent in such cases? But the sharpest rebuke from Christ in the Gospel was religious hypocrisy: you live for your own pleasure, but pretend that you follow all the laws. So, of course, it is possible to act according to the principle “they don’t bother us, so we don’t stick our neck out,” but there is nothing from the apostolic commandment in this. In the same way, the revolutionary pathos of “destroying the whole world of violence, and then” building a world of even more terrible violence has nothing to do with Christianity.

Peacefully but firmly reminding the rulers of those norms and laws that they themselves acknowledge in words, but are in no hurry to implement in practice - this is quite Christian.

I am greatly troubled by Romans (13:1-7). It is clear that you need to pay taxes, etc. But is all power really from God? Should I really bless Hitler, who burned Jews, or Stalin, who killed thousands of priests?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:

In this place St. The Apostle Paul, in relation to society, expresses the truth that runs through all of Holy Scripture. In the world created by God, all power comes from God: the power of man over nature (Gen. 1.28), husband over wife (Gen. 3.16), parents over children (Lev. 19.3), king over his subjects. Lord from the beginning appearancelessness And emptiness(Gen.1:2) arranged the order: And God saw everything that He had created, and behold, it was very good(Gen.1:31). After the days of creation, God did not leave the world to its own devices. To maintain order in all areas of existence, God established various types of authority. In this sense, all power is from God. She protects the world from destructive disorder. Experience shows that the most difficult periods for the people are always times of anarchy - the so-called troubled times. “Multiple powers give rise to parties, and parties are the cause of division and decay” (St. Theodore the Studite. Ascetic instructions to monks. Homily 41).

The Lord gives not only the leaders and rulers of the chosen people the authority to govern their subjects, but also pagan monarchs. So, for example, Nebuchadnezzar was placed by the will of God over the entire Middle East (Jeremiah 27:6; Dan.2:37). However, it does not follow from this that all the actions of those in power are pleasing to God. “Hear therefore, O kings, and understand, learn, O judges of the ends of the earth! Listen, you who possess multitudes and who are proud before the nations! Dominion has been given to you from the Lord, and strength from the Most High, who will examine your deeds and test your intentions. For you, being servants of His kingdom, did not judge justly, did not keep the law, and did not walk according to the will of God. He will appear to you fearfully and quickly, and the judgment will be severe on those in authority” (Wis. Thess. 6:1-5).

When asserting that there is no power not from God(Rom. 13:1) one must accurately distinguish between the power directly established by God and the power allowed by Him. “Therefore we have the right to say that the very matter, I mean the authority, that is, the leadership and the royal power, was established by God so that society does not fall into disorder. But if some villain has unlawfully seized this power, then we do not claim that he was appointed by God, but we say that he was allowed ... to vomit all his wickedness, like Pharaoh, and in this case suffer extreme punishment" (Venerable Isidore Pelusiot. Letters, ch .2. To Dionysius). Even anointing to the kingdom does not exclude serious mistakes and crimes that are not pleasing to God. Suffice it to recall the biblical story. Examples are also known from the history of Byzantium and Russia. Everyone who had and has power over people (God’s creation) will give an answer to God for their deeds at the Last Judgment and will be either acquitted or condemned.

Holy Scripture speaks not only about submission to authorities, but also indicates the limits of obedience to them. They are determined by the highest laws of Divine Truth. Submission to authorities has limits: in cases where authority prevents a person from showing obedience to God, one should not submit to such authority: must obey God rather than men(Acts 5:29). This idea is clearly expressed in the patristic works. “We must obey the powers that be, unless this is prevented by the commandment of God” (St. Basil the Great. Moral rules. 79.1). His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, during his testimony at the trial of 54 priests on May 5, 1922, was asked a question by the chairman of the court: “Do you consider the laws existing in the state to be binding for yourself or not?” Saint Tikhon replied: “Yes, I admit, since they do not contradict the rules of piety” (Investigative file of Patriarch Tikhon. M., 2000, p. 134).