The Time to 'Walk the Walk' is Upon Us

This brief essay is a wake up call to faithful Orthodox Christians. Worthy of sharing widely. As another Orthodox writer said some few decades ago:

"Now one cannot be a half-hearted Christian, but only entirely or not at all." — Hieromonk Seraphim Rose (†1982)

Archangel Michael defeats Antichrist
at the End of the Age

Talk the Talk, Walk the Walk
by Archpriest John Moses - Pravmir

I knew that my question would cause some anxiety and concern, but by the look on the faces of the study group, I knew that I had hit a nerve. 

We were in a Bible study on the book of Revelation. I pointed out that one of the things that we learn is that evil imitates the Good. Christ is the light of the world, and so the devil is an angel of light. Since Christ was incarnate in the world, taking on the reality of our physical existence, evil also seeks to make itself real and tangible.

So, Revelation shows us that one of the ways evil likes to incarnate is in governments and political systems. The Bible teaches that just as the Holy Spirit is in the world, the spirit of anti-Christ is also in the world. This spirit had incarnated itself many times in the governments of the world. Each time, God brought these systems to an end.

Then I asked the question: “Many of you lived through the Great Depression. Many of you fought in World War II and the Korean and Vietnamese Wars. You have been good citizens and patriots. You have raised your children, paid your taxes, and attended church faithfully for many years. You say the Pledge of Allegiance with true pride and affection. Despite all of this, do you think that our country is becoming anti-Christ?”

The answer surprised me. “No, but we can begin to see signs of it.”  I responded, “And if the time comes when it is clear to you that this has happened, that the United States has become completely anti-Christ, what will you do? Can you still pledge allegiance to such a government?

This is when the room was filled with puzzled and anxious faces. The year was 1992.

Most of my life, I have listened to people proclaim that they would be faithful to Jesus until the end. So many hymns were sung about how we would follow Jesus and there would be no turning back. We would carry the Cross of Jesus, and when He asked us, we would assure him that we are able.

It was easy for us, you see, because at the time, we lived in the most secure and prosperous country in the world. We lived in peace behind the greatest and most powerful army in the world. Even more, we held on to the belief that America was fundamentally a Christian nation. At least our religious freedom was secure in the legal power of our founding documents. We came from a time when being a good Christian was synonymous with being a good citizen and we hope that this had remained the same.

How times have changed! Revisionist judges and courts have defined constitutional rights in ways that we could never have imagined. Under the dubious doctrine of the separation of Church and State, Christianity is being pushed out of the public realm. The government has grown to monstrous proportions, and now attempts to reach into every aspect of personal life. We learn that the right to privacy has not existed for many years. The IRS goes after conservative and Christian groups, and political opponents. The government ignores the Bill of Rights or finds a way to reinterpret it under the excuse that they are doing so to protect us.

We had the idea that we have inalienable rights and they are inalienable because they derive and are defined from a source outside of the state, God.  Now the state is the only authority capable of defining what our rights are. And what the state has the power to give, it has the power to take away. Marriage, a social and religious institution that existed long before the founding of the American political system, is now defined by the state. So, under the rubric of equality, marriage is now granted to same-sex couples. How it will be further applied is anyone’s guess.

There have always been Christian martyrs, but in America we were far removed from it. I remember the first time I read the writings of Rev. Richard Wurmbrand. I was a little shocked to realize that someone in the modern world would actually face death for his faith. People died in the past for the Faith, surely not in these modern and sophisticated days. Today, we hear regular accounts of beheading, torture, kidnapping, and oppression inflicted upon Christian communities and believers.

[Which is why I diligently try to report here at least some of the horrible acts of evil committed by Islam against Christians, abhorrent though it is.]

If we believe that we are beginning to witness the incarnation of the spirit of anti-Christ in our American government; if we believe that the process of secularization is removing God from the public realm so that Christians are being treated as bigots or as being irrelevant; and if we believe that we are beginning to see worldwide rejection of Christianity that results in physical death and a large part of the world rejoices in it, then we have a sobering reality to face.

We have talked the talk. It’s been easy. We proclaimed that being Orthodox was to be “not of this world.”  Of course, we proclaimed this while living comfortably in the world. Now, that comfort level is disappearing. The time is approaching when we will have to walk the walk. 

To say that our Faith teaches that the only true marriage acceptable to God is between a man and woman will immediately mark us as bigots. We will be accused of hate speech when we say that our Faith teaches that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to God. I am not a prophet, but I can see a day when to refuse the state will result in the loss of tax exemption, and jail time for priests or pastors who refuse to do gay weddings. If the trend continues in America, it is possible that to proclaim Christ will mean facing a literal and physical death. (I know this seems unimaginable to Americans). What else can happen? I don’t know if it will happen in my lifetime. I do wonder what our children and grandchildren will face. Only God knows the answer.

[Already those who criticize Islam are branded in the media as bigots guilty of hate speech. Already Christians who seek to share the Gospel with Muslims are being arrested in accordance with Sharia Law—right here in America.  To be a true Christian, that is, united with Christ, means to stand against the Evil One with one's very being. It is not for nothing that St John of Damascus identified the "superstition of the Ishmaelites... as a forerunner of the Antichrist."]

Whatever the present reality, whatever the pace of this ever-growing evil, it seems clear to me that the time to walk the walk is upon us. Let us pray with ever-greater urgency: “And keep us from the Evil One.”

Holy martyrs past, present, and to come, pray for us to have the courage and grace to walk the walk!