Христианский апологет Анатолий Юдэнко: Как формировались христианские конфессии

· Anatoly Yudenko, History, Church

HOW VARIOUS DENOMINATIONS OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES WERE FORMED
Many in our time, and not only in our time, have been troubled, and are still troubled, by this question: Why, in Christianity, with one single teaching set forth by four evangelists, have so many currents emerged—confessions and denominations—which, in their essence, instead of uniting as one force against the common enemy, the devil, have turned into mutually exclusive factions, mercilessly at odds with one another?
The answers can be entirely different and even, to some degree, correct. Moreover, many theologians are perfectly aware of this, and sometimes they themselves deliberately distort the meaning of Holy Scripture, giving rise to such factions, which not only do not cease to exist but even multiply with ever greater force.
It is about one such reason why this happens that I would like to talk a little.
God is one, faith is one, teaching is one, yet there are hundreds, if not thousands, of variants of Christianity. What is this?
Once, builders had an experience when, during construction, they could not precisely determine into which part of the building a certain stone was to be placed; and since they could not decide on this matter, they cast it aside for an indefinite time. And when Christ came, they rejected Him, because He was that very stone—and not just a stone, but the cornerstone, the foundation of the building. As a result, the builders suffered the greatest catastrophe in faith. This is one example.
You have probably often watched children who, from blocks with certain fragments of various little animals drawn on each of their sides, assembling them in a particular order, would get bunnies, bears, wolves, dogs, birds, fish, and many, many other inhabitants of the earth. This engaging activity with blocks was created for them with a specific purpose: to develop ingenuity in children, to cultivate resourcefulness and quick reaction in uncertain circumstances.
Why am I saying all this? To say that we adults sometimes, apparently, need to return to childhood—not to assemble whimsical little animals, but to arrange the priorities of Holy Scripture in a specific order. And to compose, from individually torn-out fragments of Holy Scripture, the overall picture of salvation, as it was laid down from the beginning by Christ and the apostles—and not as all of it has come to be today, chaotically and inconsistently, often erroneously and contradictorily.
Historically, we know that the Church of Christ, somewhere in the third century AD, almost ceased to exist. And what was called the church was completely deadened and drowned in traditions and dead rituals. Is that not so? It is so.
And the true church was reviled, banished, torn apart, trampled, and crucified. It was as though it went unnoticed and no one heard of it. Instead, a church adorned in gold, but dead inside, came to the fore, where everything was turned upside down, everything distorted and perverse. And from this, all the fragments of ministry became confused and scattered in chaotic disorder. Thus, what we inherited was essentially a false church—and, thank God, still with an undamaged Holy Scripture. And, of course, from this deadened church we took nothing for ourselves, and we had to begin everything practically from the beginning, because, as I have already said, the true apostolic church officially no longer existed. The true church was, in essence, hidden in the Gospel, in the teaching of the New Covenant during this dark period of the Middle Ages. And not only when darkness reigned on the earth. But, thank God, His Word, the word of the Gospel, remained on earth as the only light—the light of God, which the darkness did not overcome.
But Holy Scripture, however, was not opened to us all at once, but gradually, according to our capacity to receive; and in some places it was opened more, in others less, and so gradually, in fragments, to each according to his own measure. And our task was and is, with God’s help and through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, to distribute and arrange these fragments of revelations in such an order that what is clearly appointed by God for us might take shape from them. And from the chaotically scattered shreds of teaching, to restore it, in a strictly defined sequence, exactly as it was set forth from the beginning, so that one thing flows from another and complements it, nurturing us to the full stature of the knowledge of the Lord of Glory, Jesus Christ.
And for this purpose, God sought out people who were seeking and thirsting for the knowledge of the truth, and to such He began to open the meaning of Holy Scripture. These people were like the first pathfinders, the reformers, but even they did not understand everything correctly.
I have already reminded you that the word of God was opened in parts, and not to everyone, and not all at once. For example, to someone it was revealed that it is necessary to baptize a person at a mature age, when he can, in a conscious state, enter into covenant with God, understanding the profound responsibility he takes upon himself at that moment. That is one thing.
Someone, having read the text from the Gospel about the dialogue that took place between Nicodemus and Jesus when the former visited Him by night, understood—though not fully—that it is necessary to be born again; otherwise, one cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. That is another thing.
Someone assimilated for himself that, before receiving forgiveness, deep repentance and even confession of one’s sins are necessary. That is a third thing.
Someone, having carefully read the passage in Holy Scripture where it speaks of the Holy Spirit descending upon the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, and having grasped the depth of this most important event, came to the conclusion that this is mandatory not only for the apostles, but for all who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Himself, while still with them, proclaimed it, saying: “Wait for what has been promised.” That is a fourth thing.
Someone, having read in the Old Testament about mandatory circumcision, decided that if you are not circumcised, you will not be saved. That is a fifth thing.
Thus we have come close to the question of how the varieties of Christianity came into being.
Here we should also mention what I wrote above about the children’s blocks. Only let us mentally imagine not pictures, but the texts from Holy Scripture that I have just cited.
And let us imagine, as it indeed happened in reality, that these revelations or illuminations upon the word of God were unveiled at different times, and not all at once and not sequentially, but as if in a scattered state. And as for who collected them and how much effort and humble prayer each applied—each did so separately, in his own way.
And as a result, this is what happened: the one to whom it was revealed that, before receiving salvation, repentance and water baptism are necessary did what was required. But since he went no further and did not press on zealously, he stopped there.
Then someone from the crowd shouted: “But what about the fact that Christ must live in our hearts?” They read it. They checked. Yes, He must; that is what is written. They passed a resolution to make a small addition: since the repentant and baptized person (in their opinion) is already saved and needs nothing more, so be it—let us also write down that Christ Himself already lives in him. Of course!
But does He live there…?
Again, someone from the crowd declared: “But what about the matter of being born again? It is written.” They checked. They agreed. Yes, it is written. Let us add another small correction. They added it. They corrected it, so that from now on every person baptized in water would also be called born again. They codified that as well.
And again someone from the crowd insists: “But what about baptism with the Holy Spirit? It is written. And all the apostles were baptized, and upon the other believers they laid hands, and they received the Holy Spirit, spoke in other tongues, and prophesied.” Again they looked into Holy Scripture; yes, it was exactly so with the disciples. And again they decided to make a small addition, which this time read as follows: “Well, if someone, besides salvation and besides being born again and besides receiving the Lord Jesus Christ into his heart, also desires to receive power, let him pray for that—for baptism with the Holy Spirit. We do not object. That is as each one wishes, at each one’s discretion. If you Pentecostals so desire it, let it be according to yours; we do not particularly object. But we, of course, will not change our established order for your sake.” They agreed on this as well. They wrote it down. They codified this too.
Here, however, a small discrepancy arose: how, after all, to reconcile one thing with another? For example, if a repentant person is already born again, and, what is more, Christ Himself already lives in him (in their opinion), then how can he still pray for receiving some kind of power? Does not Christ give this power? Has the Christ living in him become powerless?
That is the point: they patched it on, but did not think through to the end what would ultimately come of it. Here you get one of two things: either one must acknowledge that Christ already lives in the heart (though He is not yet there), and then remain in this deception and delusion; or one must acknowledge that Christ is not yet in the heart and He must be invited by being baptized with the Holy Spirit, with the sign of other tongues, as it was on the Day of Pentecost, on the birthday of Christ’s Church.
That, approximately, is the arrangement that resulted, where each arranged the texts of Holy Scripture according to his own view and taste, at his own discretion—however it turned out, however it came together.
And this happened most often because the texts of Scripture were scattered in disorder, and each one composed a mosaic from them however it happened, without any sequence and even without sense. I will mention later why without sense.
And if we also consider that the word of God was opened with great gaps in time, and a great distance between one revelation and another was observed—revelations that are spiritually connected, yet were severed through ignorance—then in such a case, by making gross rearrangements of events and swapping their places, people completely distorted the meaning of Holy Scripture.
Well, for example, the term “born again”—you all know it, you have all read it—first came from the dialogue of Christ with Nicodemus, a secret disciple of Christ. Before that, the concept of being born again simply did not exist, because it was a matter of the future. As it is written, John 7:38-39: “Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Do you hear what the Apostle John the Theologian says? The Holy Spirit was not yet upon them at that time; and why was He not yet there? He explains further: because Christ had not yet ascended the cross. He had not yet nailed the sins of the whole world; in a word, He was not yet glorified. This would take place soon, very soon, but for now He is with them, with His disciples, preparing them for this event.
So let us repeat: for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
The Holy Spirit was not upon any of the believers, including the apostles themselves.
I think everyone—absolutely everyone—knows that the Holy Spirit is a Person, and not simply a Person, but the third Person of the Godhead, that is, God.
We say: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; and that is so. No one will dispute the fact that God is Spirit and, of course, the Holy Spirit.
Continuing, I want to remind you that our question concerns why so many Christian currents have appeared. And so they appeared precisely because all the fragments, like those on the children’s blocks, were assembled incorrectly and inconsistently. If they are assembled correctly, then repentance with deep humility will come first, followed by water baptism as a sign of entering into covenant with the Lord. This is the first step toward the Lord God. It may be accompanied by baptism with the Holy Spirit, or it may not; and if not, then one must by no means stop there, but must continue to move further, because such a person must still be baptized with the Holy Spirit in order to be truly born again and so that the words might be fulfilled over him: “Christ lives in me.”
It is essential to always remember that the term “born again” consists of two parts: being born of water and being born of the Holy Spirit. And this means that one must plunge not only into water, but also into the Holy Spirit. After this, such a person becomes born again. And only in this case can it be said with certainty: “Christ lives in me.”
And further: a distinctive feature of a person born again is that he has the sign of other tongues, which sets him apart from those who are merely near and from the carnal—those who are near, meaning those not yet baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Christ, once reproaching His disciples, said: “You do not know what spirit you are of.” This shows that, even at that time, the disciples were at the level of those merely near.
Here it is also necessary to note that not only among those merely near is there often a misunderstanding of the importance of other tongues, but even among those baptized with the Holy Spirit, very many do not fully understand why they needed to be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
They usually say this: “It is given in order to receive power, mainly for preaching the word of God.” Yes, that is true, but that is only the visible, superficial part of the Holy Spirit’s manifestation; the main, and perhaps the most important, part is that Christ Himself settles into the human heart by the Holy Spirit.
And since He is a Person, He needs communion with His Heavenly Father from His temple—from the human heart, or more precisely, from the human spirit (both are correct). And He communes with His Father through the human spirit; that is, He includes it in this intercession, for they have become one.
The Apostle Paul testifies to this as follows: “For one who speaks in an unknown tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the spirit.” From this it follows that speaking in other tongues is an integral and inseparable part of baptism with the Holy Spirit.
The other tongue, for us and even for outsiders, is essentially a sign that the one speaking in an unknown tongue is a person baptized with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave him another tongue on the one hand as a sign, and on the other hand because it is absolutely necessary for contact and constant communion with God. He speaks not to men, but to God; he utters mysteries in the spirit.
And if, as some assert, tongues are not necessary, then how, in that case, could the human spirit speak to God and declare mysteries on the level of the spirit, and not of the flesh?
The Apostle Paul, continuing this thought, says the following: “For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.” This means that the human mind does not participate in this; it does not form the phrases, requests, and praises—rather, the human spirit accomplishes this through the Holy Spirit dwelling in him and utters all this directly to God in a different language, inaccessible to the human understanding.
By the way, it is also said: “No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” In other words, in our human tongues, no one can confess Jesus as Lord more correctly, because they are often defiled, imperfect, imprecise, too human and carnal.
Returning to the term “born again,” which applies to people already prepared—who have undergone repentance and been sufficiently instructed in the elementary principles of Christ’s teaching—we can in no way place it before repentance, because the disciples-apostles themselves, though they were inseparable from Christ, constantly learned from Him, and did many things in His name, learned about being born again only on the eve of the Lord’s crucifixion, and received it only on the Day of Pentecost, after the resurrection, ascension, and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them.
In everything there must be a lawful, strict sequence, not a chaotic scattering of disconnected fragments of Holy Scripture. And the trouble comes from the fact, as I pointed out above, that each one patched together his own understanding at random and from whatever came to hand—clay, hay, straw—and herein lies the foolishness and the loss of all sense, which I also mentioned above.
So: first, the hearing of the word of God. Second, receiving it and repentance. Third, water baptism. Fourth, baptism with the Holy Spirit. And only after all this can it be said that a person is born again.
And one who is born must still grow and develop, but that is already a different section of the program of being born again.

April 12, 2011
Anatoly Yudenko

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