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The Holy City of the New Jerusalem
Motto:
«Lift up to Me the cross of the holy faith, the Gospel of the kingdom, which is preached to
all the nations, so that it may come the end that I prophesied and for My coming and My kingdom to come for the righteous.»
(Excerpt from the Word of God, from 14.09.1998 - O.S. / 27.09.1998. - N.S.)
The image of the eternity of the New Jerusalem Holy Citadel
The human history, recorded through divine accomplishments, which overwhelm the human
ambitions, stays under the sign of prophesying, that work of God’s faithfulness in respect to His holy
dignity, by which He lets the man know on all the future things so that the man may not justify himself
by ignorance when he sins. Thousands of written pages stand as a testimony: The Old Testament, for the
preparation of the coming of Jesus Christ into the world; the New Testament, for His saving activity and
of the apostolic church; the writings of the saints, for the two millenniums of Christianity, in which they have been flowing like a river.
In the prophetic book, the Revelation, it is prophesied about the profound restoration,
from the inside, of the life of Christ’s Church and about its reaching to the apostolic holiness. It is
called the Holy Citadel of the New Jerusalem (see Revelation, 3/12; 21/10).
The prophet Isaiah reveals the image of eternity of the New Jerusalem Holy Citadel and the order, which God establishes over its inhabitants:
«I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem, and they shall never hold their
peace, day and night! You who remind the Lord of His promises take no rest! And give Him no rest until He
establishes Jerusalem again to make it a praise of the earth»
(Isaiah 62/6-7).
The saint Nile, the Athonite, locates precisely in time the moment of the
transfiguration of the church, in a context of a depressing Christian life: «this will be changed and it will be unrecognizable.
[...] The shepherds of the Christians, the bishops and the priests, will be people with an empty glory, with the exception
of a few people, completely not knowing the right way from the left way. [...] Then the customs and the traditions
of the Christians and of the Church will be changed. The cleanness will perish from the people and the iniquity
will rule». ”. Exposing the work of the antichrist into the world, the saint Nile, the Athonite, specifies the
moment in which «the recreation of the first state», will be, that is the regaining of the holiness of the
Church, in the year of 1992: «Woe, woe, oh, you parents! I weep and groan for the recreation of the first
condition of this mountain. Because after 1913, passing the age of 79 years, all the transgressions about the
coming of the antichrist will be done; 7500 years since the creation of the world».
The saint Niphon of Constantiana also prophesies about this year, 1992 (7500 from the creation of the world):
«The beginning of the seventh age means the end of the ages. [...] Its end is full of the stench
of the sin, of the human things, which all are false and dirty: envy, hatred,
lying, blasphemy, enmity, revelries, drunkenness, debaucheries, murders, abortions,
greed, love of silver, keeping the evil in mind. But, it is enough! I will cut it
into half! Let the rule of sin cease! And, saying these words of anger, the Lord gave
the signal for judgment to the archangel Michael».
The saint Calinic from Cernica is carried in his body onto the island
of the monastery Cernica by the saint hierarch Nicholas and by the great saint martyr,
Gheorghe, who shows him the Holy Trinity as in a painted icon, and beneath this, a parchment,
written with large letters: «7500 is the generation from Adam».
The saints, who were supporting him by his arm, said to him: «Do you see that the end of
the world is not in 1848? Have you not read about the eighth day, the half of this
century and about the half of the coming century and that the end of the visible world
will be when the 7500 years from Adam will be fulfilled?». Therefore, the end of the absolute
power of the devil into the world, for as long as he was released, was prophesied to be the year
of 1992 after Christ: «And then the lawless one will appear, whom the Lord,
Jesus Christ will kill by the breath of His mouth and He will destroy him with the brightness of His coming»
(2 Thessalonians 2/8).
The fulfilling of this Scripture is the descent of the word of God, for it is «the breath of His mouth»,
which destroys the lawlessness by the Lord’s coming, the word on the earth. However, as with the other
prophecies, the main condition of its fulfillment is the confidence, the faith of some
clean people that they need to be involved through their personal sacrifice to its fulfillment.
The biblical history has recorded similar fulfillments. The flood
could not bring about the salvation of the faith by its decadence without Noah’s
faith, who had build an ark on a top of a mountain in decades, being mocked by his
fellow men and who imposed upon his family a particular behavior: holiness
(see Genesis, 6/9).
The birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the creature, would have
not been translated into life, from the archangel Gabriel’s prophecy in the cave of
Bethlehem, without the Virgin’s humility and obedience:
«Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it to me according to your word»
(Luke 1/28), and without the sacrificing protection of the righteous Joseph.
The same way, the descent of the kingdom of the heavens on the earth
by the New Jerusalem Holy Citadel would have not come true without the insistent
faith of some Christians who fulfilled the prophecies of the saint Nile, of saint
Niphon, of saint Calinic, and, at their times, of the saint Virginia, the
apocalyptic trumpet of the Lord. But first, there was the preparation: the
day by day experiencing in their lives of all the Christian teachings, kept
within the ancestral church, but which, in the worldly church, have been
brought to formalism, superficiality and sometimes even to indifference.
Then, with an ardent love of God, they received God’s speaking with the man,
for they heard God’s voice, about which there was also prophesied into the Scriptures:
«A voice! A voice of tumult in the citadel! A voice from the temple!
A voice of the Lord that renders recompense to His enemies»
(Isaiah 66/6); «Most assuredly I tell you,
the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of
God; and those who will hear will live»
(John 5/25).
The voice of the Lord is that which called them, first by the saint
prophet Virginia and then in a wonderful and direct way, so that they
may raise the New Jerusalem Holy Citadel from its foundation, as a dwelling
of rest of the Lord’s holiness, in which the heaven comes down on earth, and
as a point of reference for God’s people, the one gathered with hard work by
the holy Virginia, starting with the year of 1955, so that it might be known
that «There the Lord is»
(Ezekiel 48/35).
Beginning with this year, 1955, the word of God was heard
and known by many Christians, but not all of them have kept the gift
of the faith and, thus, the power of testifying to the end. In the
communist time, the persecution was devilish, especially upon those that
fulfilled the word. Only after the year of 1989, the changes in the
world have allowed the emancipation including the precise fulfillments
of the prophecies, and precisely the beginning of
«new heaven and new earth»
(Isaiah 65/17),
in the holy gardens of the Lord and into the hearts of the believers.
The kingdom of the heavens on the earth
The Christians of the New Jerusalem Holy Citadel, led step by
step by the Word of God, fulfill His holy law; the kingdom of the heavens
on the earth. Those who really believe are those that are clean, and this
is the experience of those who believe. Having precisely fulfilled the prophecies
over the ages, they have built in only three months the New Jerusalem Church, in
the church year of 1992, fulfilling all the canonical orders necessary for its
sanctification as a place of Christian Orthodox worship. This church has come
into prominence as a single example of promotion of absolute purity in Christian
living and awareness, of precise observation of the canons of the ancestral
Church and exclusion of any compromises of the everyday life of its members. The Lord Himself calls it
«a foundation stone of the Church of the resurrection of God’s creature»,
«a holy mountain», in this way suggesting the spiritual death of those who
deceive themselves with a pseudo-Christian experience, serving simultaneously both God and Mammon.
The New Jerusalem Church is also called by God:
«Ark» (being interpreted as its likeness with the ark of salvation, built by Noah);
«Stone» (the little white stone of the prophet –
Revelation 2/17), «The mount of blessings»
(which overlooks the other lofty mountains – the works of the humans’ haughtiness).
«But in the latter days, it will happen that the mountain of the Lord’s temple
will be established on the top of the mountains and it will be exalted above the
hills and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will go and say:
„Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob,
and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths, for out of
Zion will go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem!“»
(Micah 4/1-2).
By the prophecies declared by the word of God, the New Jerusalem
Church has been surrounded by a «necklace of pearls» (other Christian buildings,
which accomplish the requirements of the monastery life for those who, by calling,
have been added to the Lord’s people, in accordance with God’s will and with His
plan for the salvation of the Christian people):
– - the house in the hill;
– - the house of meeting;
– - the garden of meeting, with an amphitheatre of Christian cultural festivities;
– - the tent of meeting;
– - ten fountains, under
the Lord’s protection, of the Lord’s Mother, of the saint Virginia, of the saint
Andrew, of the saint Elijah, of the saint Pantelimon, of the saint Mary, the Samaritan,
of the saint Ekaterina, of the saint Nicholas and of the saints archangels Michael and Gabriel.
The foundation stone of the New Jerusalem Church was laid on July 22,
1991, and the sanctification of the Church was done on December 12,
of the same year, through the zeal of the bishop Irineu Pop of Bistriţa.
This holy establishment was built according to the commandment of
the plan sent by God by the word of the monastery dwellers, servants and carriers
of God, together with other Christian lovers of Christ.
The church has thirty-three
canopies, symbolizing the earthly years of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and it has
twelve doors, which symbolize the fulfillment of the prophecy of the coming back
to God of the twelve tribes of Israel
(see Revelation 21/12).
The house in the hill, built during 1998-1999,
is an establishment with a monastic living for male Christians and who
have had a calling to the completeness of the Lord’s people.
The house of meeting, built during 2000-2001, consists
of an exhibition hall and a creation workshop for Christian art works.
The garden of the meeting, mended in the period of
2000-2001, consists of an artistic space covered by a white tent, the
tent of meeting, sustained by a metallic structure with an amphitheatre
and a stage under it. Here, the Romanian Christianity Feasts are held,
dedicated biannually to the feasts of the Holy Spirit and to the Lord’s Mother
descent, meetings by which the work of the preaching of God’s Word is given to
all people.
The public activity of the New Jerusalem Holy Citadel unfolds
through the Holy Virginia Foundation, founded in 1995. Also this year,
the Foundation has finished the first edition of the book „The Word of God“,
which comprises selections from the Lord’s speaking, in the period of 1955-1995.
 
Subsequently, the Foundation has published monthly in the
form of the newspaper, freely distributed, the Word of God, heard by
the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem monastery.
Other activities of the Foundation Holy Virginia from Pucioasa consist of:
– sculptural and pictorial exhibitions with a
religious specific, accomplished in the Orthodox Christian creation workshop of the Foundation;
– exhibitions of rural establishments with an ancestral peasant interior,
of coming back to the ancestral springs of the Romanian culture and
tradition, of Romanian apparel and fabrics;
– artistic activities made by feasts, among which there are:
music, and Christian poetry and theatre.
The Charter - The word of testimony
At the entrance into the monastery, which shelters the church,
carved in stone, the text of the Charter is found, which shows the conditions
of moral behavior and Christian living of those that were to pass beyond the gates:
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This holy monastery was built in the year of salvation 1991,
according to the commandment of the plan sent by the Lord through His servants,
the prophets, by the spring of His Word, which flows into Romania and from which
all the nations will be watered. The holy place was erected now by God’s power
for His faithful ones and it will be a testimony tower, a strong pillar and a
resurrection stone for the every God’s creature. By this new beginning, all the
prophecies are fulfilled from the Book of Truth, as though Romania will be chosen
and blessed for the peoples; it will be a new Canaan, a new Eden and a new Jerusalem,
as the Scripture of John reads in the book of Revelation:
«And I saw the Holy Citadel, New Jerusalem, coming
down out of heaven from God. And He Who sits on the
throne said: „Behold, I am making all things new“.
And the wall of the citadel had twelve gates, and at the gates
twelve angels, and names written on them, which are the names
of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. And the wall of
the citadel had twelve foundation stones and on them twelve names
of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. And the citadel lies foursquare.
Its length, breadth, and height are equal. And the nations will
walk in its light. And nothing profane will enter into it or one
who causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written
into the Lamb’s book of life.».
The threefold country wake, which this temple has: «The Lord’s resurrection
and His second appearance», «The descent of the Holy Spirit» and «The memorial of the great holy prophet,
Virginia, the Lord’s trumpet», will be with a threefold power
of resurrection over God’s entire creature.
Because the
heavenly Father Himself, the Word, wants to dwell within this heavenly dwelling, He has ordered
a holy living and anyone, who will want to bring a spiritual sacrifice in himself, of doxology,
adoration and praying, has to keep the following order:
–
to keep and guard his bodily cleanness together with the purity of his feelings;
–
- to keep from any kind of food with meat, except fish, and from any kind of alcoholic
drink with the exception of wine from the vine grapes and from drugs of any kind;
–
to preserve the conduct of Christian clothing according to the order of the Holy Scripture;
–
to keep the order of the three days of fasting in a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday), except the periods
established by the church without oil and wine, with the exception of
the days for which there is remission;
–to
respect the churchly canonical law in the Romanian and ancestral Orthodox style;
–
to receive the holy communion as frequent as possible, according to the proper preparation;
In
order that the holy temple to be overshadowed by the heavenly brightness and for the
Lord to show the power of His perfection, I, the bishop Irineu, out of God’s mercy, a
witness of this work of salvation, bind under a curse anyone that might dare to step
on this holy place without keeping a strict order shown in this new covenant, descended
from God for this end of darkness. And he, who will come into this holy dwelling with
decent fear and strong faith, keeping those that have been ordered, will be protected
and blessed by our Father, Who is in heavens.
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The
servants and bearers of God had contributed to the erection of this holy dwelling, together with
other lovers of Christ, with the world of their hands, and God’s anointed, Michael I, of Romania,
founded with his name.
In the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, it was laid down the foundation of this
Church in the year of 7499 from the creation of the world, and from the birth of God according
to the flesh, the Word, the year of 1991, the 22nd day of July, amen.
This word of testimony was buried under the foundation
stone, and from the consecration of the Church, the feast of the Saint Andrew,
the year 1991, was buried under a holy table as well.
†
Irineu Pop of Bistriţa
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This is the new covenant and also, the word
of testimony of the beginning of the genuine Christian life, having been led directly by God.
Priest
Nicodim
The catholicity of the New Jerusalem Church – a pneumatological dimension
Motto:
«The true church on the earth means sons of God, gathered together around the Lamb of God, Who
is broken as food for the forgiveness of the sins, committed and forgiven by repentance.»
(Excerpt from the Word of God, from 07.01.1997 - O.S. / 20.01.1997. - N.S.)
From the unity of the Holy Spirit in the unity of peace, to the Catholic-synodal schism
The visible foundation of the Church at Pentecost (see Acts, chapter 2)meant the
expression of the unity of the Holy Spirit of the first Christians as member of the body of Christ
in its wholeness, as it was prefigured in the Eucharistic community of the Lord’s Supper.
Even from the beginning, these attributes of perfection in fulfilling and wholeness in
covering for the church were expressed by the Greek term
„katholiki“ (catholic). This term was,
in its original meaning, very far from the „universal“, meaning, which is used today, denoting
instead „eschatological unity of everyone in Christ“
in a real local church.
Subsequently, the conceptual transformation to the „catholicity“ in the sense of
„universality“,had taken effect not only in the western church, growing to the ambition of a worldwide territorial and administrative expansion, but also in the Orthodox Church. In the
Russian theology of the 19 th century the term „sobornost“, comes into being, deriving from „sobornaia“, a word that translates „catholicity“ into the Slavonic Creed. Unfortunately in both
churches the initial significance of the „catholic“ or
„synodal“,attribute, ascribed to each local
church, had been darkened. From one eschatological reality, understood as the work and
communion of the local church, which makes the body of Christ objective through Eucharist, it
has been drifted in interpretation to the idea of division between local and universal.
It has been installed into the world the betrayal of the catholic perspective (in which
Christ was present wholly in each Eucharistic community) by the embracing of an exterior
administrative structure required by force with an authority that had the inclination to absorb or
even annihilate, by its universality, all the subordinate local churches. Once with the
generalization of the metropolises in the church - based on the structures of old Roman provinces
and then of the Byzantine one - and subsequently of the patriarchies, the center of gravity of the
local church has moved to wider territories incorporating the dioceses of a province under the
authority of one bishop, the metropolitan one. The metropolitan system represented a modality of
circumstance in the localization of the church. Subsequently, the modern doctrine of the nation
and of the independent state forced the generalization of another principle, the autocephalous
one, which emphasized the theological confusion from the Orthodoxy, calling „local churches“
all the autocephalous churches. Thus it was created the possibility that the Episcopal dioceses to
be absorbed and replaced either by a permanent synod, or by the bishop who is chosen „lifelong“ as the first standing one of the autocephalous church, without these really
representing all the dioceses or parishes, which are and remain the authentic local churches of
the territory which he theoretically controls it. That is why no metropolitan church, archdiocese
or patriarchy can bear the proper title of a church, but it can only be called so by generalization,
by the simple motive that it incorporates many local churches. These are the only organisms,
which can be called churches, because of their nature, revealed and understood in Episcopal
Eucharist, but also in the virtue of the apostolic exhortation of church founding in the cities: «I
left you in Crete for this reason, that you would set in order the things that were lacking, and
appoint elders in every city, as I directed you»
(Titus 1/5). However, were the churches
established by the saint apostle Titus really independent? The principle of the autocephaly
extended to the level of a diocese is officially instituted in the church history only on the 3 rd
Ecumenical Synod (431), and only as a riposte, as an imperious local necessity of the diocese
from Cyprus to counteract the greed of the bishop from Antioch, who was aspiring to extend his
jurisdiction upon the island of Cyprus as well. As a matter of fact, the calling to the judgment of
the churches of the seven cities, led by their bishops (see Revelation, chapter 2), is illustrative,
and symbolically at the same time. The number seven symbolizes the fullness of the judicial act,
and the responsibility of the judged is preeminently local. The nationalistic and territorial
ambitions had theoretically conferred increased responsibilities to the ruler of the autocephalous
church, to the same extent in which they were dramatically diminished on the practical level. The
scandalously uncanonical institution of the vicar bishop was generalized by a forbidden easiness,
in satisfying of the taste to copy some innovations of the western church. It is an additional
motive for the churches, which consider themselves
„universal“ to review all the conceptions
that promote the idea of derived ministry and to accept that the Eucharistic structure of the
Church has priority over the institutional ones: in the Holy Communion, each local Church
reveals the entire Church, the whole Christ, passing from the position of institution to the one of
the „way of being“, as an earnest of the eternal life.
«Do this in memory of Me»
(Luke 22/19)
The way in which the first church approached this problem is really the only one that is
correct. At the Lord’s Supper, spent together with His disciples, the Savior, Christ, was not only
making a prophecy concerning His memorial over the ages, but also a living illustration of His
Kingdom. The old church has regained in the holy Eucharist the true image and structure of the
Kingdom of the heavens
(see Acts 2/42, 1 Cor. 10/16-17), in which God’s people consists of one
Church. The ministry of the Church, in various manners, reflects and fulfills Christ’s own
ministry, becoming a living projection of Christ’s presence into the world: «... and behold, I am
with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen»
(Matthew 28/20), and Christ has been
but always by His
presence and by the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit works wherever, however and whenever He wants («The wind blows
where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is
going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.» -
(John, 3/8)), And wherever He is present, the
Christians are called to come into communion with each other and with Christ at the same time,
in a churchly manner, continuing steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the
breaking of the bread and prayer: «And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and
fellowship, in the breaking of the bread and prayer»
(Acts 2/42). The external world is not
ignorant as well, but it is invited to repentance, to baptism and to the receiving of the gift of the
Holy Spirit: «...be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit»
(Acts 2/38).
The ministry in the church, therefore, becomes a gift of the Holy Spirit, Who proceeds
from the God Father. This gift is essentially relating to promises prepared by the God of His
creation for the last days:: «It will happen afterward, that I will pour our My Spirit on all flesh;
and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your
young men will see visions. And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I
will pour out My Spirit»
(Joel 3/28-29).
As „the mission“ involves the apostolic sending and
work to all the nations, „eshata“ involves the calling of the nations evangelized into one single
people, of those who are worthy to be called God’s sons
(See John 1/12), and to meet Him on
His second coming (See 1 Thess. 4/17).
The Saint Ignatius of Antioch perceives the apostolic and synodal permanence in a
conception of continuity, based not only on the apostolic succession from man to man, which is
implicit, but also on the systematic assembly of the whole Church in one place of judgment;
therefore, in a close connection with the Eucharistic community
(See Saint Ignatius, Magn. 6,1). In this case, the apostolic succession is consecutive to the continuity of churches and is
harmonized with the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, which calls the Church to systematically
consume the Eucharist Supper in the same place, the place where eternal life is imparted from
the Kingdom of God (see Revelation, 4/5).
Therefore, it is about one single Church invited to supper, in a prepared wedding hall. As
a matter of fact, it cannot subsist in the world but one single true Church. Any other alternative
demonstration is obligatory based on a sophism. However, the idea of uniqueness of the Church
does not confer it this right to be constituted into one pyramidal structure and to be placed above
the local churches. On the contrary, any ministering structure or work of the universal churchly
community has to start from one foundation, which is the local Church. It is what God imposes
through His Holy Spirit, Who introduces the realities of eschaton in history: «And also on the
servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out My Spirit»
(Joel 2/29; Acts 2/17-
21). Thus, the Holy Spirit works in the last days not by the visible head of the Church, or by its
administrative and synodal structures, but by its most humble and cleaner servants, of which
many – to emphasize that they are not even part of the clergy – will be female.
We are contemporaneous with these exceptional events.
A people of sons, a remnant: the daughter of Zion.
On the day of Passover of the year 1955, the Holy Spirit released the spiritual springs of
the heaven, releasing God’s word to be poured out abundantly for the washing of the eyes and
ears of those who were following to come together in a spirit of Church and to born again: «Peace to you! Christ is risen! Christ is risen! Christ is risen! I am the Lord, Jesus Christ. I
am not in a body, but I am in Spirit. I have come down on earth in My Spirit to gather a
people together and to speak to it the mysteries for this time. I am the Word of God and I
have come to speak on earth, and to prepare the way of My second coming, as it is written
into My Book»
(Excerpt from the Word of God, 17.04.1995. – O.S. / 30.04.1995. – N.S.);
«Do not doubt of My voice and do believe into My word through this helpless
mouth, for I want to give you birth again, of the Spirit, [...] to raise a new people for Me, a
new Israel into the Romanian people, for the people chosen by Me in the past has
completely gone bad»
(Excerpt from the Word of God, 01.06.1955 – O.S. / 14.04.1955 –
N.S.)
What motivates this supernatural intervention? Nothing else but the visible inefficiency
of those almost two thousand years of preaching of the world churches to the world, interval in
which the world has been degraded exponentially, until «it has completely become corrupted». That is why God, in His great love for the people, personally comes to repair now what the man „has completely spoiled“.
When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?
The fact that God decided after such a long time to choose a people of sons, a remnant,
that He may proclaim it the daughter of Zion, suggests two complementary hypotheses:
1. The traditional churches with claims of universality (the „Catholic“
one and the „synodal“) one) have exhausted their chapter of credit, and God’s long endurance towards their
implacable decline has come to an end.
The Catholic Church has squandered away its energy in the territorial conquest. Having
practiced an aggressive missionarism, it has fulfilled the word of the Scriptures in letter but not
necessarily in Spirit: «Go and make disciples of all nations [...]» (Matt. 28/19).. In fact and in
substance, the nations evangelized by it have remained equally unfaithful and careless to their
salvation as before, engaging themselves into a visibly annoying dichotomy:
– a secular world engaged within a fierce struggle to get wealthy;
– a caste of the clerics who have extended over the ages a feeble struggle in preaching
Christ efficiently.
The Orthodox Church, a little bit more pragmatic, or perhaps more comfortable, has not
got tired to practice the missionarism at any price, pretending that it puts its own house in order,
but the so called convenience has soon proved to actually be a state of self-complacency, which
suggested its right to put on a gloss of empty glory from top to bottom. The effect was similar:
once with the passing of the ages, the faith has grown cold and diminished in formalism,
glamour and conservatism, two worlds detaching from her, which have developed in parallel:
– the vulgus, to a formal Orthodoxy, almost atheist, destitute of any authentic spiritual
living, being satisfied to cross the threshold of the church „once in a while“,or perhaps at the
main events of life (baptism, marriage or burial);
–
the church institution, against the blatant glamour, basilical, scornful, but deprived of
any charismatic efficiency, often proving unprincipled obedience to the atheist authorities and to
the political police and even collaborationism, arrogant and irresponsible with these.
With some punctual exceptions of whose merits go to the local saints, the churches have
gradually been deprived of charismata and have not known the living assistance of the Holy
Spirit, Who works in a supernatural manner that is, He is not separated from miracles. In this manner, of a painful actuality, the thinking of the Scripture has become: «When the Son of Man
comes will He really find faith on the earth?» (Luke 18/8).
The servants of the churches have felt attracted by the „joys of life“and gradually they
have come to catch up with them little by little from the world, proclaiming them
„the man’s
rights“. It is known, for example, the debate among the western clerics concerning the
renunciation to the „yoke“ of celibacy. Thus renouncing the idea of bodily cleanness, they are
very close to generalize the mixture of the churches with the world, forgetting the warning of the
Holy Scripture: «Friendship with the world is enmity to God» (James 4/4). In this way, the
Churches head inexorably for secularization, putting off its power and formal right to spiritually
control the Christians. These, in their turn, take advantage in justifying their actions, including
their stealthily turning back and without any remorse to paganism. Shallow „official“ resistance
of the churches is regarded with amusement by the secular social structures, which blatantly push
the people towards an immoral living, impregnated with a gross materialism, which completely
separates man from God.
2. The time has come short (see 1 Cor. 7/29) and the day of the Lord has come near
(see
2 Thess. 2/3), for the denial of faith has come true and «God’s adversary, the man, who had
been hiding under a church robe and clothed with empty glory, setting himself up as God» (Excerpt from the Word of God, from 06.08.1997. – O.S. / 19.08.1997. – O.S.), «was brought
into the open» (2 Thess. 2/4).
«Behold! The bridegroom is coming! Come out to meet Him!» (Matt. 25/6)
The calling, which God has been doing tirelessly from 1955 on, is the fulfilling of the
parable of the virgins (see Matt. 25/1-13). The ten virgins are the Churches. Therefore, it is about
the local churches, Eucharistic, and not about the two church institutes, each one of them
considering to be „universal“,
even though one calls itself „Catholic“, and the other
„synodal“, din dorinţa de a se ascunde sub cuvânt, ca să nu li se
with the desire to hide under the word, so that their nakedness and their weirdness of pomposity
may not be brought into the open. Thus, the local churches are the virgins (those who managed
to hold on to their virgin, apostolic purity) and have the candles in their hands (those who keep
unspoiled the treasure of faith entrusted by the apostles). The fact that the parable divides them
into wise and unwise virgins shows us the impartiality of the One Who calls them: He offers
them all equal chances with the condition that in the time of calling, the one who is received to
have the wedding garment, the oil burning in the candle and the fruit of the entrusted talents.
However, can the churches of today come to meet Him as the wise virgins did, as Christ’s
brides? The parable is challenging. It suggests that at least half of the local churches could have
got the spirit of discretion and the zeal of preparation. Unfortunately, the oil has been poured out
in time and out of the vessels of those who had prepared once. The parable is equally prophetic.
If all the girls fell asleep, then this is the state of things in which all the churches were found
upon the calling: «Behold! The Bridegroom is coming! ...» (Matt. 25/6).
One single local church – the Romanian one, born Christian and grown through martyr
sacrifices – was somewhat complying with. However, she had to be woken up, shaken, washed,
combed out, brushed and adorned, and then undressed of her unfitted garment of the red times in
which she had fell asleep and then dressed in the whiteness of righteousness: «Oh, country,
country! The red time had got into you and you had not known its face. You had not
known that red is the chlamys of shame. Have you forgotten what it happened to Me under
the cover of the red chlamys? The time of Edom had come upon you» (Excerpt from the
Word of God, from 08.11.1995. - O.S. / 21.11.1995. - N.S.).
However, the church does not wake up but it rather stays in lethargy: «Your priests
serve the pleasures and their spirit and name and they have no power to impart
resurrection over you» (Excerpt from the Word of God, from 08.11.1995. - O.S. / 21.11.1995. - N.S.).
Then God makes His word come down over Romania and reveals the mystery for it is the
country of brightness (see Daniel 11/41-45), prophesying again and strengthening the prophecy
made for it from eternity: «It will be that this chosen people will come to life little by little» (Excerpt from the Word of God, from 04.01.1992. - O.S. / 17.01.1992. - N.S.).
How did the churchly institution of Romania, once woken up from its sleep, respond?
Obviously having been troubled by the fact that its state of self-complacency and sweet lethargy
were disturbed, it did not hurry to light its candle and to come out to meet the Bridegroom. Even
more, it struck God’s hand and did not want to put on the white garment and thus to enter the
glory of the New Jerusalem, prophesied in the Scriptures. Because it did not receive the renewal
in the spirit, its „synodal character“
has lost the Spirit’s assistance, for the Spirit works
wherever He wants and how He wants
(John 3/8). Therefore, will the Synod of the Church be
able to declaim «For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us...» (Acts 15/28),, when it turned
its back at the Spirit’s calling? For the Bridegroom has actually come with His calling, to this
church. As «In the beginning was the Word» (John 1/1), the same in the end, the Word of God
has come down on earth, fulfilling the commandment of the Scripture, which proves it to be the
new name of Jesus Christ: «... and His name is called “The Word of God”»
(Rev. 19/13).
For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will
be saved (Is. 10/20)
The Lord has kept for Himself a faithful remnant to which He came down in counsel of
word and which received Him with joy. In this counsel that joins the heaven with the earth it is
the synodal character in Spirit of the Church of the New Jerusalem. «She is made ready like a
bride adorned for her husband» (Rev. 21/2),
for it lighted its lamp and had kept it burning from
the moment of the calling of the daughter of its people, the holy Virginia, the sixth apocalyptic
trumpet, an incarnated angel, who had brought a voice from heaven on earth: «And sixth angel
sounded. And I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God» (Revelation 9/13).
But the people from the world did not repent even when they heard that God spoke to
them from heaven, but rather they became stiff-necked: «And they did not repent of their
murders or of their sexual immorality and nor of their thefts» (Rev. 9/21).
«Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!» (Matt. 23/13-29)
The rejection of Christ, the Word, by the church institute from the world has had similar
overtones with the rejection of Messiah by the scribes and Pharisees. The work of togetherness
of the local churches from the world, which has brought the body of Christ as a sacrifice through
Eucharist, has gone dark by the quenching of the Holy Spirit and by the despising of the
prophecies, despite the warning made by the Saint apostle Paul: «Don’t quench the Spirit. Don’t
despise prophecies» (1 Thess. 5/19-20). The church of the world loses its universal character
choosing between God and the world to remain alone with the world and tragically forgetting
that ministering in a church is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Referring to the Pharisees and scribes, who speak in an academic language, but totally
lost their faith and keeping silent tacitly when the word of God brings their shameful works into
the open, the Saint Theodore, the Studite, says: «Then when the Ark is in danger, the Lord’s
commandment is not to keep silent. If it is about faith, no one has the right to say: „But who am
I? Am I really a priest? I have nothing to do with these. Or, am I a ruler? This does not want to
have any kind of interference either. Or, a poor man, who hardly is able to earn one’s living?
[...] I have no right or any interest in this matter“. If you keep silent and remain reckless,
then the stones will cry out» (Epistle II, 81). Unfortunately, the priests of the official church, in case they do not preach openly against God’s word and against the New Jerusalem, they keep a
guilty and infamous silence, which they have learned well at the Faculty of Theology, as a
typical strategy of
„academic theology“: „No sword cuts off a bowed head“.
The Lord has chosen the poor to put to shame those that are strong
Because those who were invited, priests and bishops, did not come to supper (Luke
14/18-24), the New Jerusalem Church remains the only wise bride that shows the Bridegroom
the light of her lamp: faith and love, obedience and submission. As a remnant, chosen by grace,
she stays in the bathroom of her birth from above and does not go dry from the flowing of the
spring of word. She gives birth to a people of saints, brothers in Christ, who have got caught up
into the work of the word; they give themselves over to the work of disciples and apostles and
spread the seed of the word over those who want to meet Christ. They live within a spirit of
church, a true synodal church, in which it is not the man that works but the Holy Spirit, as He
wills, giving to the Church of Christ the pneumatological dimension, which the worldly church
has knowingly denied as many times as it has ignored the canons of the Holy Fathers, which
should have remained steadfast, and, again, when it has ignored this word of God. They
faithfully sit at the Lord’s word table and clothe themselves with this word and with the Holy
Spirit, and they will receive the reward of disciples. They become a living parable for every
Romanian people, for every Christian people, in such a way that he might turn back to God with
his whole body, soul and spirit, and so that God may call him New Israel and to sanctify him,
forgiving its wrongdoings, in such a way that the Son of God may visibly come down on earth,
fulfilling the promises made over the ages: «Our Father Who are in heaven, make Israel holy
and may Your name be hallowed in Israel by forgiving his trespasses, Father. Father, make
a living kingdom from You over Your people and teach him to give himself over to Your
will, to the will of Your word, Father, so that it may also be in Israel as in heavens, Father» (Excerpt from the Word of God, the speaking of the Lord’s mother, from 08.09.1996. - O.S. /
21.09.1996 - N.S.).
Priest Nicodim
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