Having entered the Christmas season, we ask those who find the work of the Mystagogy Resource Center beneficial to them to help us continue our work with a generous financial gift as you are able. As an incentive, we are offering the following booklet.

In 1909 the German philosopher Arthur Drews wrote a book called "The Myth of Christ", which New Testament scholar Bart D. Ehrman has called "arguably the most influential mythicist book ever produced," arguing that Jesus Christ never existed and was simply a myth influenced by more ancient myths. The reason this book was so influential was because Vladimir Lenin read it and was convinced that Jesus never existed, thus justifying his actions in promoting atheism and suppressing the Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union. Moreover, the ideologues of the Third Reich would go on to implement the views of Drews to create a new "Aryan religion," viewing Jesus as an Aryan figure fighting against Jewish materialism. 

Due to the tremendous influence of this book in his time, George Florovsky viewed the arguments presented therein as very weak and easily refutable, which led him to write a refutation of this text which was published in Russian by the YMCA Press in Paris in 1929. This apologetic brochure titled "Did Christ Live? Historical Evidence of Christ" was one of the first texts of his published to promote his Neopatristic Synthesis, bringing the patristic heritage to modern historical and cultural conditions. With the revival of these views among some in our time, this text is as relevant today as it was when it was written. 

Never before published in English, it is now available for anyone who donates at least $20 to the Mystagogy Resource Center upon request (please specify in your donation that you want the book). Thank you.



February 1, 2025

February: Day 2: Teaching 1: The Reception of the Lord


February: Day 2: Teaching 1:
The Reception of the Lord
 
(On Decent Behavior in the Temple)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. In the Old Testament Temple of Jerusalem, prayers and sacrifices were performed according to the precise instructions of the ritual law. Therefore, the elder Joseph and Mary the Mother of God, having come there and brought the infant Jesus, on the fortieth day after His birth, did everything there as was prescribed in the law of the Lord.

Instead of the Jewish temple, we have Christian temples; instead of the ritual law of the Old Testament, we have our own ecclesiastical law, liturgical law.

We, children of the Orthodox Church, are obliged to coordinate all our actions in the Church with this ecclesiastical law.

Our ecclesiastical law is the law of Jesus Christ. He established His Church and the hierarchy in it. He said to the Apostles and their successors: "He who hears you hears Me" (Luke 10:16); and so that they could rule and legislate in the Church, He granted them the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Synods and God-bearing Fathers “all having been enlightened by the same one Spirit, have legislated what is useful” (Seventh Ecumenical Synod, Canon 1). Under their leadership and in their direction, the Church authority still operates today.

Every society has its own charter and undertakes not to deviate from it.

We, as members of the Orthodox Church, do we strictly follow its regulations; when we gather in church, do we observe the decorum it requires in everything?

II. To judge this more closely, let us take several examples.

a) In church one should not only not laugh (even if something suddenly appears that provokes laughter), but also not talk. Here a reverent silence is required. The Apostle gave a rebuke to those who allowed disorder in sacred assemblies, or despise the church of God (1 Cor. 11:22). Having quoted these words, Saint Chrysostom continues: “Allow me to say to those who are talking here: do you not have houses for idle talk? Or do you despise the church of God, and corrupt those who wish to maintain peace? The church is not a place for conversation.”

b) In ancient times, men, women, girls and children were placed separately during the service (Apostolic Constitutions, Bk. 2, Ch. 57). Although this is not observed everywhere today, church order absolutely requires that everyone remain in their place and not move to another. Meanwhile, for some it seems boring to stand in one place.

c) Isn't it the same boredom that leads some people away from the church before the end of the service? Perhaps they don't consider leaving the church a sin.

And what a strict rule was given by the Holy Apostles: “The faithful who enter the church but do not remain in prayer until the end, as those who cause disorder in the church, must be excommunicated from fellowship” (Canon 9).

d) There are even pious actions, however, not in accordance with the church order. On great feasts, kneeling in the church is abolished (First Ecumenical Synod, Canon 20). Despite this, some worshipers, in a feeling of repentance, even at Easter services, fall down and remain on their knees. Or again: kissing icons is a holy custom, but anyone who wants to venerate the icons during the service is forbidden. This must be done either before or after the service.

III. Reverent people do not behave in this way in church; in their outward behavior they preserve complete decorum, not forgetting for a single moment where they are. Saint Gregory the Theologian says of his mother Nonna: “She honored the holy things with silence, never turned her back to the venerable altar, did not spit on the floor in God’s temple.” Let us also beware of everything by which we could violate church decorum. In sacred assemblies, according to the apostolic commandment, “everything must be decently and orderly” (1 Cor. 14:40). Amen. 
 
Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
 

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