Stranniki

DON'T Vote

2010-11-01T01:29:00.000-07:00

Christ taught that we must all repent. And He spoke of a Kingdom, He did not speak of a democracy, where the majority rules, right or wrong. Nor did He speak of a republic with an elected leader at its head with elected leaders voting to govern all. We should have a King! He is Christ, the King of Glory. He said, If you love Me, you will do My commandments. Let us keep all of this in mind, if the laws of God mean nothing to the powerful men of this passing world, or to the masses, this should not deter us in the least from fearing to disobey even one of the Savior's commandments. Christians are to be not of this world.

From the standpoint of God there are far more important things to do than vote, but from a modern political position there are only less important things to do. To me the whole support of voting is something that is wrong if we want to be faithful.

If we vote in our current government elections that is proof-certain that we do not trust in God, for if we trusted God we would take Him at His Word and leave it at that. Everything, and I mean everything necessary for life and godliness has long ago been established by the authority of the Almighty. Any contrary opinion is the giver of all sufferings. How can we be so fool hardy as to think we can decide such things on ballots?

To participate in an election where ungodliness can result makes us part of that ungodly game. We ought not allow ourselves to be a part of such voting, either way. Just take the right position to start with. Do not believe the myth that we have no voice unless we vote, nothing could be further from the truth. Voting is not our only voice. We are able to take a stand wherever we find ourselves, by not participating in voting makes a loud stand for what is right all by itself. For those who vote today all their prayers, whether to bless their meals or anything else, are corrupted and do no good.

Voting only exploits the voters who participate. Every voted upon measure, or statute, or proposition, etc., etc., is part of each voters death. Cooperation with the political process, like voting, only gives more support to the evil Industrial/Military/Media Complex.

Everyone in politics are actually puppets of the hidden antichrist rulers of this world, like the bankers and others like them. A conspiracy is anything that goes against the will of God, something that the Devil and mankind are excelling at lately. Democratic voting is without a doubt an absolute conspiracy. Voting is nothing but a bunch of brainwashing at best.

In our modern political voting process all the options kill and harm people, every choice is wrong. A godly person cannot in good conscience vote. I do not vote because there is nothing that I am able to vote for. I also do not want the world to number me one way or the other, it is like a no win situation. Also, I think voting is rigged, I believe that the counts are not honest. In my lifetime there have been many elections that have gone through recounts, this leaves us with only a very large distrust of the whole system. Since I am not forced to vote it is something I must avoid, even if forced there are somethings worth dying for. The sea of voting only brings confusion, confirming that this world is nearing its end.

Voting is a violation of love towards God, so those who refuse to repent of such deeds will have eternal regret at the soon approaching dreadful judgment. My goal is to conform and fashion my conscience according to the mind of Christ, the Apostles, the Martyrs, and all the people of God. So I have not participated in voting for over ten years. If there is no good to choose from I simply choose to humbly abstain from choosing any evil, so that when I stand in front of the dreaded judgment seat of Christ, I will not be put to shame.

Just because something on the ballot closely represents christian thinking that is not good enough, especially when there is such great danger of compromise. I do not see the good in voting. Men may plot and intrigue to position their choices, or we may be deluded into thinking we are putting such and such in power by voting, but, ultimately, nothing is done without God allowing it to be. God gives nations the kind of leaders its people deserve. Even the Soviet government was given a kind of power by God to do what those godless people did, but in no way was it godly. Neither should have anyone accepted or gone along with that atheistic government. Even though our government has "In God We Trust" placed on our money do not think our nation is any better. How can we trust any of the underhanded politicians?

Genuine wholehearted repentance and fasting and mourning are the answers for persons and nations. We should teach our children and everyone about the facts of these things.

Fasting Our Way Back Paradise

2010-10-15T00:47:00.000-07:00

Because we did not fast,

we were chased out of Paradise;

let us fast now,

so that some day we return there.

St. Basil the Great

Obadiah 4

2010-09-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

Those people who believe they can jet here, or jet there, or otherwise fly around in any aircraft/spacecraft, these people all have another thing coming to them. For the Holy Prophet Obadiah at line 4 declares the testimony of God saying that He will bring all such people down.

"Though you ascend as high as the eagle, And though you set your nest among the stars, From there I will bring you down," says the LORD.

Anytime I see an aircraft or spacecraft my shout of reminder is

"Obadiah 4."

The Keys Of Heaven

2010-08-28T07:44:00.000-07:00

What has become lost is unreachable to most, the reason is union with this world.

The world does not know how to carry on without itself, so it is stuck in the rut.

Inevitably greater losses will occur, as the only real hope becomes more obscure.

It is all unquestionably suicidal, though most ignore the realities.

Honestly, we only hurt ourselves by avoiding the sufferings of common hardships.

Everywhere there are false notions of goodness, while truth is called a liar.

Solutions are totally missed because the inferior is embraced and accepted.

We should use the key to life of becoming separate, leaving the corpses alone.

In this way we can use other healing keys to solve problems outside paradise.

What we will find is the required peace, being helpful rather than harmful.

Evil is unable to bother those who have such mighty strength.

The real miraculous gifts are still available if we want the one thing needful.

Let us not forsake what is so easily accessible, even though it seems difficult.

Dangerous Apparel

2010-08-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

There are many ways in which apparel is unduly dangerous. Right away people might grasp a little bit about what is called being ecologically friendly, but we certainly should not stop there. Beware, even organic cotton can use dangerous pesticides and fertilizers. An exorbitantly large percentage of pesticides are used on cotton, even though cotton is a relatively small crop to start with. Just because something is made from what might seem a natural source, like hemp, there are still many ways in which unnatural products enter the appalling manufacturing processes.

Avoid anything with "poly" such as polyester, these automatically come from some industrialization. The word "poly" means made of more than one item, and this idea goes contrary to the way of clothing prescribed by God for His people. If you ask me, any clothing that is considered recycled, in the modern sense of the idea, uses antichrist ways. We most likely do not even know where such materials come from. Nobody should trust anything synthetic, the concept is all wrong to start with. Unfortunately these type of things have wrongly become associated with the idea of sustainability. It is a very confused notion to say the least. All synthetic clothing is coated with formaldehyde which constantly give off plastic vapors against the skin, causing many health problems. It is most harmful to young ones.

Machined items are problematical because they present industrial contaminants in the manufacturing process. At present I do not have the space to weave my own cloth, so I am working on wearing rags such as rough sackcloth . In this way I do not appear to have clothing that is so machined. The situation we are facing around the world is so dismal that I feel like putting ashes all over as well. Speaking for myself, I am happy to make a good point by all this. It makes me glad that no longer am I conforming as much to the ways and practices of this world. Hopefully others will get the hint as well. It may all seem like too much to do, but any long journey begins with the first step. For many people this might be too hard, but one step at a time and it is possible to overcome all wicked ways. Making things by hand is the way to go if you ask me, and it is a good way to pass the time given to each of us.

Toxic chemicals are everywhere, we should avoid them as much as we can. Especially ones that might come in contact with our skin, like carpeting and even bed sheets, or whatever covering that comes into contact with us. I do not even sleep on a mattress any more, boards or even a large rock is more than acceptable. Many things can be, and often are, deadly poisonous. Cosmetics, which are against the Christian rules anyway, contain terrible chemicals which can enter the blood. Petroleum based fragrances and perfumes are more than a little problematical as well.

An ancient painting of
the Mother of God
making thread by hand
with a drop spindle.

Modern fashion has become something way beyond any reason. It always seems to attempt the revealing of sensuality, or at the very least offer clothing that is immodest and contrary to godly principles. The textile industry uses things in their production processes which cause genetic mutations, cancer, abnormal hormone levels, etc. etc. It is a very dirty business that impacts both person and planet.

Many people take it for granted that babies should be soothed with petroleum jelly and mineral oil, washed and shampooed with chemical-based cleansers, fed from plastic bottles and canned foods, swaddled in disposable diapers, surrounded by harmfully scented products and put to sleep in pajamas treated with fire-retardant chemicals. But all these are well known to be very deadly.

If we are just starting to learn what is happening here are some of the more important things to avoid in clothing. Teflon trousers (like the non-iron type), the formaldehyde that is used to prevent shrinkage, petrochemical dyes used for color, chemical clothing softeners, dioxin-producing bleaches as they have volatile organic compounds, Nylon products because they create nitrous oxide, Rayon due to it being made with caustic soda and sulfuric acid, dye fixatives also known as color fast products since they come from heavy metals, Acrylic fabrics are polycrylonitriles and can cause cancer, also Acetate and Triacetate are bad news and are in no way to be considered clothing. Do not use conventional dryer sheets, I do not even us a machine dryer, clothes are much better having been dried in the open air after washing. Dry cleaning often uses harmful perchloroethylene.

Cheap clothing might be more costly than we know. Become aware of what is going on these days, it could save your life and those around you. We need to know these things unless we want to be absorbed by all the pollution around. It may seem impractical to throw out our entire wardrobe, but we should at least begin to have a more godly appearance and avoid deadly chemicals that are being thrown at us.

Is It Good To Be Normal?

2010-08-26T04:48:00.000-07:00

I have heard that it is good to be normal. But in this abnormal world it makes me wonder, what exactly is normal? We should reconsider what we are doing if being normal means going around parading in this make-believe, imaginary and unreal world. I think it is more normal to seek what is right before God. That too has many and various interpretations. Lord help us to be living a life of repentance.

Dry Times

2010-08-25T19:35:00.000-07:00

The drinking supply has rocket fuel in it. Less than one person regulates bottled water in the United States. Bottled water is not enough, synthetic chemical exposure happens simply by showering. Volatile pollutants enter through the skin. Water is now impossible to bathe in. Water causes itching and scratching.

About 40% of the stomach viruses, or flu's, come from water. Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics get into the water and are hurting us.

Agriculture uses 70% of the water.
Industry 20%
People 10%

Agriculture grows plants with toxic chemicals requiring 5 to 10 times the water in order to dissolve the pesticides. We should not have industry, nor agriculture, anywhere on earth. It is not a good mix. Birth defects increase near agriculture, cancer rates double.

In some rivers the fish are becoming only females due to hormones put directly into the water by mankind. There are no males. Fish are storing dangerous pharmaceuticals like suicidal Prozac. Industrial waste is now found in human breast milk. A fetus is constantly drinking its ambiotic fluid.

There are no good solutions. These chemicals were designed first for warfare. The corporate world is immoral, all water is being treated as just another salable good, being taken advantage of by pollution. Water is the third largest industrial commodity, behind electricity, oil being the first.

Many great rivers in the world no longer flow into the sea, this is contemptible. Organic matter is totally trapped behind huge dams and rots rather than feeding the oceans. During the 20th century dams have displaced ten's of millions of people, destroying old ways of life which had been held for generations. Sacred graves are submerged. Just who is the State to encroach on lands?

Since ancient times water has been a public source, not owned by anyone. Water is a birthright, like air. Water is not for sale. Water is not to be confused with property, it is a life resource, it should be illegal to so unnaturally contaminate it. We should conserve what is precious. Don't allow the evil government to takeover everything in this world.

Either we fight, or die. The future is at stake. Let's be a friend to the earth, instead of such an enemy. Let's not spoil our gifts.

Theft By Deception - Federal Income Tax

2010-08-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

VIDEO

Theft By Deception - Federal Income Tax

The misrepresentation and misapplication of the United States federal income tax constitutes the largest acquisition of wealth by way of deception in history. A handful of government lawyers fabricated an intricate maze of legalese which created a perfectly Constitutional tax (a tax on income derived from certain types of international and foreign commerce), but which at the same time could easily be misread to give the impression that the income of all Americans is subject to the tax. For decades, the American people have been "conditioned" to believe that the income tax applies to all income and trained to pay "their" taxes. All the while, however, hidden in a previously nearly universally misunderstood (therefore misapplied) section of the law known as Subchapter N, Section 861 was the truth that the income tax is NOT a direct tax on incomes but is an indirect tax imposed only on those individuals engaged in certain types of international and possessions commerce. Most Americans are engaged in purely domestic commerce (commerce that occurs entirely within and between the 50 states). Subchapter N proves that domestic income received by residents of the United States (most incomes) is not taxed, due to Constitutional restrictions on Congress' power to tax.

Bad Buildings

2010-08-22T20:48:00.000-07:00

Inside air can be more polluted than outside air. Engineering the problems will not really solve anything. Too often it is all about using mechanical ventilators which pose their own health hazards.

Cement has mercury in it and is a major modern building material.

Mold is a major issue, along with Radon and indoor dust, etc.

Fiberglass used for insulation is known to cause cancer, fibers are in Sheetrock and other items such as showers and sinks.

Plywood and cabinets are made with terrible chemicals that we should stay away from.

Kitchen sinks are one of the most dirty places. I do not know of a safe plumbing pipe to pass water through, perhaps if it were made out of wood, water itself is very contaminated, even after filtering.

Earthquakes are on the rise, most buildings will be unable to withstand the future, even if we are outside one might fall on us.

Practically all cleaning supplies, even many of the kinds thought of as natural, are unsafe.

Electricity presents many risks, not the least of which is Electromagnetic Fields.

Paints are generally made with many things that pose health risks.

Glass is another safety issue, even safety glass can cause a lot of harm, I call it witchcraft.

If we read the small print on products for buildings we will see that there are warnings telling us that practically all of them cause cancer and other problems.

There are so many toxic things it is not possible to give a complete list, I really do not know anything these days that is completely free from causing undue harm.

For all these reasons and more it is best just to remain homeless and not go into modern buildings more than we have to, I avoid them for days at a time and am glad.

Forbidden Food

2010-08-20T15:02:00.000-07:00

Petroleum chemicals are used in the production of most food today. Pesticides are a toxic time bomb, this type of food poisoning should be prevented. The result of uses like these is that everyone over 40 years old has cancer, even if they do not know it.

The added growth hormones in meat and dairy cause obesity. Fruits are now grafted together with other plants. These things disobey the natural law. Meat goes through chlorine and ammonia baths, the blood is also not drained properly. Plastic is in food, so now every cell in our bodies contains plastic. We are plastic people, which is an abnormality. Food has become poison. Why was food ever packaged in plastic?

USA food, for the most part, all starts from corn in Iowa. We might be surprised, but those ingredients on food packages that few people recognize are mostly corn products. These cause diabetes, liver disease and many other health issues. Nutrition is removed from the food, so we are starving to death. It is amazing we are still alive. We are truly half-dead, walking zombies, doing the will of the rulers of Babylon.

Manufacturing plants are unable to watch adequately all the processes, these processes themselves are flawed. People do not care or else the machine packed food would not exist or be willingly used. We really do not have agrarian food anymore, it is all mechanized. With animals that are raised for food it is like a mass production assembly line, it is not farming. The side-effects from all the antibiotics causes broad, immediate and long-term, consequences. Then slaughter comes sooner than ever, yet it is normal for sudden early deaths to take large numbers of them. If the animals were not harvested as quickly as they are the feed would shortly kill them anyway.

Food is no longer what it looks like. The food industry does not want us to know everything that is happening, if we did we would not accept it. Farmers are not allowed to talk about it, as it is illegal to criticize the international food producers. Farmers themselves are slaves. Food has been changed and the whole truth is hidden. The industrialized food system is controlled by a very few conglomerates. Almost everything is wrong with this. It is not right what is going on, something must be done.

Demand to know about the food you eat, ignorance is a cause of the current situation. Warehouse sized markets give an illusion of variety but that is not the case at all. A few items have been rearranged and packaged to make it all look different, but its not. This is government policy, that food be engineered. Fish are even being trained to eat corn.

E. coli is a product of corn. FDA safety inspections were down in the year 2006 to less than 20% of what they were in 1979. Bill Mollinson said, If we do not stop agriculture then we are all dead. By the 80s agriculture poisoned 40% of the water. Modern agriculture is an extension of World War II.

Technology is not making food safer. Precaution is increasingly being thrown out the window. Food is unhealthy, causing illness in epidemic proportions. The FDA Oversight Committee responsible for deciding not to label Genetically Modified foods have worked for the GM manufactures, so there is no wonder there.

What we eat is a choice that partly decides the larger picture as to the degree that the world relies on synthetic food. I hope we will all work towards wholesome and honest food. Blood is in the air and we ingest meat simply by breathing, but I avoid meat as much as possible. If God had intended us to eat animals He would not have made them out of meat. Most cannibals only eat strangers.

Even though all the air and water are poisoned I still think it is good to forage for wild plant food. We could save 95% of our food costs if we were to grow our own food at home. But that presents a whole set of other problems. Keep this in mind, the making of manicured lawns is pure destruction.

Starvation for the sake of Christ seems like a reasonable option, at the very least we should limit our use of foods. That is not easy with all the addicting properties of what passes as food today. Accepting food that is given out by others is not wrong, so long as it is not too much. The chance to explain to them in detail the concerns we all are facing about food would be worth the suffering.

Cities Are Unlivable

2010-08-19T07:34:00.000-07:00

The innovations of people have made all cities unlivable. Cities are causing the destruction of life. If Christ had to leave the cities and towns each night in order to recuperate from the dreadful experiences of His time, how much more should we keep our distance from such things. In an Epistle the Apostle teaches that the ways of people only get worse and worse, and indeed this is what we now have.

All Cities Are Horrid

A concerned person might suggest to move their family into the wilderness so as to keep most of the bad influences at bay. But people wrongly say that the wilderness is no place to raise children. Instead, we ought to say that the city is no place to raise children. Nobody should live in any city or town, certainly not in the modern world of today. All parts of every modern town or city are worse than slums, the endless stenches are of kinds of defilement never previously smelled. In the communities we see so much of these days everyone is destroying the natural open land with deadly lawn maintenance, concrete, asphalt and other ungodly items.

David Grann in searching for The Lost City of Z (a previously un-found people that are extremely isolated from the modern world) described his moment of insanity deep in the Amazon. He missed his one year old son after having lost his guide, having no food or water and not knowing where he was. His family should have been with him.

Some of the many other setbacks to show up are these:

- Lack of Practical Work (unemployment, etc.)

- Extraordinary Commutes Fray Nerves

- Overwork Causes Much Harm

- Bad Health From Industry Causing Death

The most harmful Metropolitan Centers are, Las Vegas (Sin City); Southern California (Angelinos or City of Angels ); Greater Houston, Texas; and then Florida.

We should not utilize any unduly lethal building materials, as practically everyone is doing all around. The only relief will be found in reconsidering the whole operation.

More Killed At Work Than In War

2010-08-18T09:55:00.000-07:00

Each day 6,000 workers are killed (not counting deaths while commuting). Civilian work is more dangerous than military.

FACTS ON Safety at Work April 2005

For the last year construction unemployment was 17%, that is exactly the amount by which work related deaths declined for the same time. Many people are sad about the lack of work, but fewer people are dead because of it. Hopefully we will learn and not be doing such crazy things, most of us would not want to do things that cause death.

We are not told of all the deathly situations in the modern work place. A more appropriate way of thinking about the subject would be to honestly realize that nothing is healthy for us today. All we can do is attempt to minimize all the poisons, but that is more complex than we think, for what we might think is helpful so often times is worse. The best thing to do is learn how to live without work, for it is likely that most of the work available today, in one way or another, is an Antichrist government job. We really do not want to do such things. Weigh and see if there is any real benefit, or not, in our occupations. Going to work for a time might be alright if we are correcting and rebuking all the ungodliness that goes on in such places. But if we do I would not expect to last very long. It would not be long before a rebellion starts against you, so make sure you know your exits before starting. Ever since World War II anything connected to industrialism is related to war. It is good to step away from the slave labor camps as much as possible. We certainly do not want to be supporting all the bloodshed that is so rampant these days.

Just Doing Their Job

Work Related Deaths Chart

Half the world could be dead due to the Gulf Spill

Invention = Murder

2010-08-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

Civilization develops not from Abel, but from Cain the murderer. The very word "civilization" derives from the Latin word for city. It is the leisure time, community organization and specialization of labor in the first cities that permitted the emergence of the arts and technologies we think of as the hallmarks of civilizations. The first city, according to Genesis, was constructed by Cain, the inventor of agriculture-a technology that requires a fixed abode. And it is his descendants, the sons of Lamech, who invent both "artifices in brass and iron" and musical instruments. Metallurgy and music-technology and art-are in the line from Cain. And the passions that lead to murder do not abate: Lamech says, "For I have slain a man for wounding me, and a young man for bruising me; if Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold." The connection between murder and invention has been with us ever since. Both derive from agriculture and civilization. p.64 Dragons of Eden, Sagan

Money Is Not Money

2010-08-16T13:56:00.000-07:00

We all know money is not money. If we draw on a savings account the bank does not tell us "no" even though it has lent it to someone else.

The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled. - John Galbraith

Money is created out of thin air by the most ungodly people and is the greatest evil power in this world today. The more money we work with the more enslaved we are.

The Antichrist governments not only cooperate with the banks but make unjust laws requiring all of us to use fake money. The wicked courts enforce this great lie allowing robbery of the masses to continue non-stop.

The money world today is artificial. Banks do not have the money they give. This thievery is accepted by everyone using money.

The only way that governments, businesses and families can all be in such astronomical debt is by stealing everyone blind.

Today money does not really exist. It is the greatest con ever. How can workers ever truly be in debt to such an outrageously false representation of money?

See the short documentary Money As Debt there is a part2

Money is debt, that is, if we had no debt this money wouldn't even exist. The really big news is that as we pay debt it gets worse, because we are living on more synthetic money.

This cannot go on forever. If we do not face it our posterity will. Our situation is most incredible, if we do not quit it larger and more ruinous things will take place.

There is not even enough money for the interest, meanwhile the governments spend more than ever. It is so irrational. I see doom approaching swiftly, usury is the destruction of everything associated with it.

There would never be a lack of true and real money.

Why does all money begin as debt?

When will we realize that this is unsustainable greed and pride?

When will the crime of usury become intolerable?

Why are our governments so entirely wicked?

From any religious perspective this is forbidden. Only a parasite participates in pyramid schemes. We are all immoral and idiotic if we do not stop.

"Money is a new form of slavery" - Leo Tolstoy

"None are more enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." - Goethe

Making money out of nothing is as wicked as anything. We are paying the cost of our own slavery.

It all began in England, in 1694, with banking. It is now worldwide, providing a practically limitless source of outrageous avarice placing a chain on us that leads to a ball which is in the bottomless pit of hell. This is no accident. Something very big is at stake here. Inflation is another hidden tax and all taxes are theft by deception. The party-line media and educational systems have marshaled in these terrible offenses. We are truly not ready for how bad it will really get.

Money does not pay for anything, never has, never will. It is an economic axiom as old as the hills that goods and services are paid for only with goods and services. - Al Nock

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish caught will we realize that we cannot eat money. - Cree Indian Proverb

The Stock Market Is A Gambling Casino

It would be better called WOLF STREET

Ruin & Misery

2010-08-14T13:22:00.001-07:00

All modern buildings are toxic and ruined

So I'm homeless

I would like to build godly shelters

All manufactured clothing has harmful chemicals

It's so miserable I'm considering wearing rags

I would like to weave healthy clothing

All food is poisoned

So I go hungry often

I wish it were allowable to have good food

All water is contaminated

So I go thirsty and rarely bathe

I'd use good spring water if accessible

More illegal drugs are on fake USA money than others

So I took a vow of poverty years ago

If there was real and clean money I'd use it more

There is no honest or safe work anymore

So I have been unemployed for many years

If I found reasonable work for trade I would

Cities and towns have the most polluted air

So I avoid them, especially the low lying areas

I wander the countryside or mountain wilderness

All worldly government is Antichrist

So it is difficult for me to participate

If it were more peaceful I would accept it more

The same goes for the following, transportation, communication, education, religion, physicians, recycling, etc. etc. etc. basically anything having to do with industrialism.

Please email comments

Jeremiah 29

2010-07-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

You shall seek Me, and you shall find Me.

Because you seek Me with all your heart, I will let Myself be found,

Says the Lord.

I will bring you back from your captivity;

I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,

Says the Lord.

...

“The LORD has raised us up prophets in Babylon.”

How Can We Buy and Sell the Earth?

2010-07-10T23:33:00.000-07:00

In 1854, the United States government offered to buy two million acres of Indian land in the Northwest. This is a translation of part of Chief Sealth’s (Seattle) reply to President Franklin Pierce. It has been described as the most beautiful and prophetic statement on the environment ever made.

The Great Chief in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. This idea seems strange to us, for if we can not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, then how can we sell them? But we know if we do not sell the land, the white man will come with guns and take it from us.

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. We are part of the Earth and the Earth is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters, the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. So when the Great Chief sends word that he wishes to buy our land, he asks much of us.

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your grandfathers, so they will respect the land. Tell your children that the Earth is rich with the lives of our ancestors. Teach your children what we have taught our children - that the earth is our mother, and what ever befalls the Earth, befalls the sons of the Earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves. This we know. The Earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the Earth. This we know.

All things are connected. Man did not weave the web of life. He is merely a strand in it, and whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. So if we sell you our land, try to hold in your memory the land as it is when you take it. And with all your mind and with all your heart, preserve the land for your children, and love it as God loves us all. One thing we do know, our God is the same God and the Earth is precious to Him. Even the white man cannot be exempt from the common destiny. We may be brothers after all.

We shall see...

Sealth
Chief Seattle

The “Much-Wandering”

2010-06-19T15:01:00.000-07:00

Homer said of Odysseus that he was,

“Much-Suffering and Much-Wandering.”

Right and Wrong

2010-04-17T06:09:00.000-07:00

Everybody gets something right,
          but for most people those do not count.

Everyone these days gets something wrong,
          but for a few people those do not count.

The significant difference is that adherence to the love of God covers a multitude of sins.

Those who live and die at odds to God are as if they never did anything right, even though they might appear to have done many things right.

While a few who finally attain considerate attention to the Love of God are as if they never did anything wrong, even though they might appear to have done many things wrong.

There are many IF’s, AND’s, and BUT’s –

          for each of us.

Forgive,

Alone In The Wilderness

2010-02-07T14:09:00.000-08:00

Richard Proenneke lived alone in the Alaskan wilderness for more than 3 decades. He arrived at age 51 and built his log cabin without help. Many of the tools he made on the spot by himself. With a camera he filmed what became 3 very educational video documentaries of his experiences. Here are their titles:

Alone In The Wilderness
Silence and Solitude
The Frozen North

Here is their source.

The first film is available to watch online, Part 1 and Part 2.

There are a couple of books made from Richard’s handwritten journals while in the wilderness, they are titled One Man’s Wilderness and are available to be viewed online.

Forgive,

Geopolitical Consequences of Nikon’s Reforms

2010-01-31T15:48:00.000-08:00

Not many people realize the actual geopolitical consequences from the reforms of patriarch Nikon. Nonetheless the consequences of his reform are very significant and it continues to be shown in the Russian people more than ever. “Is there any Russian faith?”, “what is Russian orthodoxy?”, “what should be the spiritual mission of Russia in the world?”, “what represents the Russian people in world history and what is the reason of its existance?” - to these questions there seems to be no clear answers, but without them it is impossible to build and to determine a good future.

More than three centuries ago proto-priest Avvakum accurately explained the geopolitical sense of Nikons reforms which caused the schism: “Russia wanted German practices and customs!” This great thinker wonderfully realized that the Greeks in Western Europe, who survived the fall of Constantinople, proved to be under the influence of a forceful and infecting Roman Catholicism ([Latinism]). We should be made well aware that the Greeks brought western influence to Russia.

In the sixteenth century the first Jesuit to visit Moscow, Antony Possevino, explained his, “difficulty in introducing the Catholic religion in Muscovy.” It is well known that the direct aggression of the West against Russian during the beginning of the seventeenth century did not achieve its goal, being unable to subjugate Russia. The Jesuit Possevino said the only solution for such an endeavor would be through Russia’s own ruling class. So it was, with the assistance of the ruling class (due to economic reasons), the “robber” council of 1666-7 positioned itself to corrupt the entire way of Russian life along the way of a distorted river bed.

In the twentieth century Prince Nikolay Sergeyevich Trubetskoy recognized the truth of the pronouncements of proto-priest Avvakum, in particular the inaccuracies of the editors of Russia’s Holy Books from modern Greek models. After the reform Peter I abolished the patriarchate, councils were abolished creating a bureaucratic establishment to the church with the tsar as its head. This new device completely destroyed whatever might have remained of the Old-Russian canonical system of church life. Russia fell away depending on the West. Trubetskoy expressed how a representative of the Romanov dynasty (Grand Duke Alexander Mikhaylovich) was “antinational” and that inspired some of Dostoyevsky’s writings.

The noted twentieth century bishop Andrew Ukhtomsky said, “Why… are our dissenters incomparably steadier and stronger in cultural sense? Specifically, because the dissenters live by the parochial achievement and their self-determination as a community, while our village drags its existence only by the order of authorities. Dissentient communities unite in their chapel and our orthodox village unites by the wine bench…”

For more information see: http://pomor-otvet.ru/?page=nikon (in Russian)

Old Believers Found Hiding On This Island

2010-01-25T17:12:00.000-08:00

In 2008 the government of the Czech Republic helped make this 52 minute documentary film. These Old Believers are on the island Skitskoj in the north of Russia’s European part, in an inaccessible forestland on Pizma River, in the Pechora River basin. They are hiding from civilization and from the surrounding world that is buzzing with change. The film traces the progress of the transforming relationship between the Old Believers and the filmmakers during the first meeting. All the surprises and complications of this meeting, which was very important for us and told us a lot about all participating people, are commented on by the filmmakers straight away. It is a film about inner barriers, “islands” - isolation, fear and prejudice - on both banks. It is a story about the effort to build a common “bridge.”

Video Link

More Information

Movable Type Face

2010-01-20T02:57:00.000-08:00

Printing is the Dance of Death

An illustration (from 1499)

The printing press was first used by heretics and from the beginning people of good conscience have considered it evil and of the devil. Russia was the only Orthodox Christian Empire left, so when the printing press first arrived in Russia from the western heretical lands a good thing happened. The Russians in Moscow destroyed the printing press and the machine operators had to flee due to this unwelcoming happening. I have personally owned some of the first printed books made for Orthodox Christians and have found where entire pages had to be removed, in one way or another, because of the various types of unchristian content.

This traveler who took the photo above says, “The holy books of the Old Believers have to be copied by hand. This particular copy is from the 18th century if I remember correctly.”

Heretics spread a muddied Gospel by whatever means they choose, by unholy printing or other device, but that is not the authentic Faith of Christ in its entirety. Even the Apostle used examples from pagan religion to illustrate the Holy Gospel for those ears that would listen. But no whole Christian ever used printed material in a liturgical manner. If we study the Church Fathers we learn that things such as printed books are not to be used for worship in any way shape or form. Consider the following story.

Abba Pambo from the Nitran mountain was a contemporary of St. Anthony the Great and was himself a great monastic Egyptian ascetic. Born about A.D. 303 he was one of the first to join Amoun in Nitria. He was illiterate until he was taught the Scriptures as a monk and ordained a priest in 340. He had two characteristics by which he was especially known; by long training he sealed his lips so that no unnecessary word passed them, and he never ate any bread other than that which he gained by his own labor plaiting rushes.

He was like an angel of God and in old age his face shone as did the face of Moses in ancient times so that the monks could not look on it. He did not give a quick answer even to a simple question without prayer and pondering in his heart. This wonderful saint had clear discernment into the destiny of the living and the dead. He entered rest in the Lord from the year 374 A.D. This is something he said to one of his disciples:

“I will tell you this, my child, that the days will come when Christians will add to and will take away from, and will alter the books of the Holy Evangelists, and of the Holy Apostles, and of the Divine Prophets, and of the Holy Fathers. They will tone down the Holy Scriptures and will compose troparia, hymns, and writings technologically. Their nous will be spilled out among them, and will become alienated from its Heavenly Prototype. For this reason the Holy Fathers had previously encouraged the monks of the desert to write down the lives of the Fathers, not onto parchment, but onto paper, because the coming generation will change them to suit their own personal tastes. So you see, the evil that comes will be horrible.”

Then the disciple said: So then, Geronda, the traditions are the practices of the Christians are going to be changed? Maybe there will not exist enough priests in the Church when these unfortunate times come?

And the father continued: In these times the love for God in most souls will grow cold and a great sadness will fall upon the world. One nation shall oppose another. Peoples will move away from their own places. Rulers will be confused. The clergy will be thrown into anarchy, and the monks will be inclined more to negligence. The church leaders will consider useless anything concerned with salvation, as much for their own souls as for the souls of their flocks, and they will despise any such concern. All will show eagerness and zeal for every matter regarding their dining table and their appetites. They’ll be lazy in their prayers and casual in their criticisms. As for the lives and teachings of the Holy Fathers, they’ll not have any interest to imitate them, nor even to hear them. But rather they will complain, saying, “if we had lived in those times, then we would have lived like that.” And the bishops shall give way to the powerful of the world, giving answers on different matters only after taking gifts from everywhere and consulting the rational logic of the academics. The poor man’s rights will not be defended, they will afflict widows, and harass orphans. Debauchery will permeate these people. Most will not believe in God, they will hate each other and devour one another like beasts. The one will steal from the other, they will be drunk and will walk about as blind.

(Excerpts from the book Wilderness Monastery Fathers)

Printing is inherently wicked and worldly at best.

Forgive

Do Good Works Save Us?

2009-11-20T13:40:00.000-08:00

St. Mark the Ascetic

Even though knowledge is true, it is still not firmly established if unaccompanied by works. For everything is established by being put into practice. Often our knowledge becomes darkened because we fail to put things into practice. For when we have totally neglected the practice of something, our memory of it will gradually disappear. For this reason Scripture urges us to acquire the knowledge of God, so that through our works we may serve him rightly. When we fulfill the commandments in outward actions, we receive from the lord what is appropriate; that any real benefit we gain depends on our inward intention. If we want to do something but cannot then before God, Who knows our hearts, it is as if we have done it, this is true whether the intended action is good or bad.

The intellect does many good and bad things without the body, whereas the body can do neither good nor evil without the intellect. This is because the law of freedom applies to what happens before we act.

Similarly, those who pray are protected from despair... Do you see how every virtue that is performed to the point of death is nothing other than refraining from sin? Now to refrain from sin is from within our own natural powers, but not something that buys us the kingdom.

While men can scarcely keep what belongs to him by nature, Christ gives the gift of sonship through the cross.

There is no perfect prayer unless our mind evokes the Lord.

Prayer is the mother of all virtues.

Excerpted from The Philokalia, Vol. 1 pages 126, 7

‘Spiritual’ Marriage

2009-11-19T01:15:00.000-08:00

Harvard Theological Studies, X, Russian Dissenters,
The Bezpopovtsy, The Stranniki, Pages 160, 2-3

...the [Stranniki] initiates are under a vow themselves to adopt the wandering life before they die. In old age or in case of sickness felt to be mortal they retire into a wood, and there live till death overtakes them. The excuse for their disappearance from the ranks of society is usually that they have set off on a pilgrimage. ...The sick person is withal removed to a neighboring house or into a hiding place where he spends his time ‘in concealment and salutary fear,’ till presently he is received, baptized and installed a ‘perfect’ Stranniki. His vocation is then complete.

The dead are buried in obscure places, in a fest, a field; children often under ploughland or in kitchen-gardens. A Stranniki’s grave is unrecognizable, for no mound ever marks it...

Ivanovski [an untrustworthy New-Rite author] states, ...Beginning with Euthymius, everyone on of their leaders or elders kept a mistress... But it is possible that the ‘mistress’ of Eitheymius was a ‘spiritual’ wife, a relationship common though often reprobated in the Early Church from the time of St. Paul onwards for about four centuries. The Stranniki certainly regarded marriages contracted before a Nikonian or orthodox priest as mere fornication...

Such a relationship led to grave scandals in the Early Church: ...The institution was plainly incompatible with the idea of religious vagabondage, of inhabiting neither city nor village; and yet the conditions of human life had to be met, and in the sixties of the last century [that is the 19th century] the followers of Euthymius found themselves suddenly compelled to make their decision, whether or no a Strannik after initiation could or could not continue to lead a family life.

A convert, Nicholas Ignatiev Kosatkin in the Government of Novgorod, had fallen sick and sought ‘perfection’ ere death should overtake him. But in making his confession prior to being baptized he avowed no intention of parting from his wife, and even declared he would abandon the sect if its statues and if scripture were so interpreted. Nevertheless the prior or spiritual authority, deputed to ‘receive’ him, admitted him to baptism, because he was so grievously ill, and so he became a full member of the sect. Then he recovered after all, but refused to abandon his wife and children, nay, begat a new child. Thenceforth he began a propaganda in favor of marriage in the sect.

He found an ally in one Miron Vasilev, and it was resolved by most of the society under their guidance that marriage was allowable, along with the two other sacraments of baptism and penance, until the second advent - a sensible conclusion. Forthwith members who were married before they joined the sect began to live together again, where they had not done so all along. There was a minority however that held out against marriage, and met the argument that the early Chrisitans allowed it with the counter agerment that these only fled into the desert to escape persecution and hoped to return when the persecution was ended, whereas they, the Stranniki, had fled into the desert for good and ever, never meaning to return and live in an unregenerate world. In view of Uzov’s account of the sect one suspects that Ivanovski somewhat over-generalizes and accepts as valid and significant for the entire sect of Stranniki events and quarrels and decision that only really concerned a section of it.

There were other questions also which led to dissensions in the society, for example the trivial one whether a Strannik should carry in his pocket coins that bore the stamp of Antichrist. Euthymius had avoided this problem but one of his stricter followers Vasili Petrov raised it, and an insignificant minority followed him in his objection to money, and were known as the ‘moneyless’ ones. They got over the practical inconvenience by getting novices to carry money for them and make their disbursements...

Stranniki Would Never Pay Taxes

2009-11-18T00:03:00.000-08:00

The Stranniki would have nothing to do with any aspect of Antichrist; they would not touch money, which bore the ruler’s portrait and the state coat of arms; they would not obtain a passport [identification], pay taxes, etc.

From the book, The Structure of Russian History, page 99

A “Padpolniki”

2009-11-17T23:50:00.000-08:00

In many villages there was reserved a place in a cellar, called “Padpolniki” for a chance strannik, or wanderer. A strannik must agonize himself even during sleep. Hence he would not rest in a lighted and airy room, or in a bed. Among the wanderers one sometimes met men of great intelligence who, seized by a religious mania, or plagued by an accusing conscience, would abandon their palatial homes, don rags for clothes, wrap their feet in straw, and wander, praying and crossing themselves as they trudged along.

From the book, Fakers Old and New, pages 50-1.

How To Completely Renounce The World

2009-11-10T23:06:00.000-08:00

A certain young monk asked an elder, “Father, now do I have to completely renounce the world?”

“Fear not,” answered the elder, “if you live a really Christian life, the world will immediately renounce you.”

If we obey God, God will obey us.

2009-11-09T00:52:00.000-08:00

The early desert father, Abba of Iliu, said, “Obedience begets obedience, if a man obeys God, God will obey him.” (Vol. 2, Paradise of the Desert Fathers, p. 55).

“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.”

St. Mark the Ascetic once asked a visitor if there were still people in the world able to command and say, “mountain be moved into the sea,” and as the ascetic spoke those words the mountain before him began to move and so he said, “I did not mean for you to move,” and it re-settled.

Worthless Gold

2009-11-08T00:11:00.000-08:00

The New-Rite Greeks have Kosmas Aitolos whom they call a holy prophet that spoke of the end times in this manner, “we would give thousands of gold coins but still will not find a little bread.”

Even the Protestant Larry Norman says a piece of bread will buy a bag of gold, so many believe gold is about worthless.

A Old Russian Proverb goes, “All that glitters is not gold.”

Visiting patriarchs to the 1666 Council of Moscow each received both 20,000 rubles in gold and furs for their participation (Zenkovskij S.A., 1995, 2006).

And silver is not much better, as Peter said, “May your silver perish with you...”

St Anthony of the Kiev Caves had no gold, but he built a monastery which became the first spiritual center of Rus.

The Teaching of the Apostles, Book I, Section II - Do not put a gold ring on your fingers, for all these ornaments are signs of lasciviousness and is solicitous in an indecent manner and does not become a good man.

Two negatives is a negative, “Riches will not profit in the Day of Wrath.”

It costs more than gold to redeem souls from destruction, if we would escape we must moderate our worldly attachments, renounce our sinful projects and hold ourselves in continual readiness to leave all and follow Christ. If we should be called to part with, not only our wealth, but every temporal comfort, the perfect freedom of his service will give a relish to our meanest provisions.

Sit loose from the world. Let not your hearts be overcharged with the cares of this life, nor filled with the love of the world, and that day take you unaware. The fashion of this world passes away, therefore live as strangers and sojourners. Lay up your treasure in heaven and get your affections set on things above. Be ready to suffer whatever the Lord calls you unto, patiently and in well doing, for in due time ye shall reap, be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because your labor shall not be in vain. Whatever afflictions ye suffer for Christ, they are light and momentary, but the glory which Christ will give is weighty and eternal.

Money will not help in the end, but it is possible that neither will poverty. If a man be wicked as well as poor (as great numbers of people are) their poverty will excite no pity.

Forgive

The Harsh Life of Renouncing the World

2009-11-07T00:41:00.000-08:00

Excerpted from The Philokalia, Vol. 1, page 202

St. Nilus Ascetic

The Apostles received this way of life from Christ and made it their own, renouncing the world in response to His call, disregarding fatherland, relatives and possessions. At once they adapted a harsh and strenuous way of life, facing every kind of adversity, afflicted, tormented, harassed, naked, lacking even necessities; and finally they met death boldly, imitating their Teacher faithfully in all things. Thus through their actions they left behind a true image of the highest way of life.

Although all Christians should have modeled their own life from this image, most of them either lacked the will to do so or made only feeble efforts. There were, however, a few who had the strength to rise above the turmoil of the world and to flee from the agitations of cities. Having escaped from this turbulence, they embraced the monastic life and reproduce in themselves the pattern of apostolic virtue.

They preferred voluntary poverty to possessions, because this freed them from distractions. So as to control the passions, they satisfied their bodily needs with food that was readily available and simply prepared, rather than with richly dressed dishes. Soft and unnecessary clothing they rejected as an invention of human luxury, and they wore only such plain garments as are required for the body. It seemed to them a betrayal of philosophy to turn their attention from heavenly things to earthly concern more appropriate to animals. They ignored the world, being above human passion.

They did not seek excessive gain by exploiting each other; nor did they bring lawsuits to one another, for each had his own conscience as an impartial judge.

a.k.a. Stowaways

2009-11-06T02:56:00.000-08:00

Harvard Theological Studies, X, Russian Dissenters,

The Bezpopovtsy, The Stranniki, Pages 156-9

An incipient reconciliation in the last quarter of the XVIIIth century of the Raskol with civil society explains the fact that there arose about that time among the Rigorists or followers of Philip [from Vyg], a teacher named Euthymius, a native of Pereyaslav in Poltava, who regarded any accommodation with normal society, with State or Church, as backsliding and impiety. Pressed into the army, he deserted and hid himself first in Moscow, then in the Philipovski sketes of Pomor, last of all in the forests of the Yaroslav Government. The time came when, repelled by the over-facile compliance of Philip’s sect with the Church and State, he set himself seriously both to write a book and to found a sect of his own. He got together in the village of Korovin in that Government a number of sympathizers; and, assuming for the gathering the dignity of a council, he solemnly condemned other Raskol groups, and embodied his complaint in a work called The Peroration. In it he condemned the act of inscribing their names in the registers as Raskolniks as tantamount to abjuring the name of Christian and as subservience to Antichrist. One who so registered himself and his family deified the Antichrist. His philippic against those who simulated orthodoxy was of the sternest, and brings before us in a lively manner the disabilities to which dissenters were subjected. They as good as admitted themselves, he says, to be adherents of a heretical body, and condemned themselves to go cadging for favors to the state priest, e.g. for the billets de confession, without which they could not obtain passports, they had to seek his permission to dig graves for their dead, to receive him into their houses on feastdays and give him alms. Such people, he writes, have made their confession to the Devil, have disavowed Christ, presented themselves at an unholy altar (trapeza), bowing and scraping before; they even invite the priest to enter their houses, when on festivals he comes rapping at their doors and widows and calling for the master of the house to give him something for church purposes, thanksgiving offerings, and the rest; they debase themselves by stuffing his bag with bread, pastries, cakes. What, he indignantly asks, is all this but to crucify Christ afresh, to pretend to love heretics and be at peace with them? Piety is extinguished, he laments, and impiety reigns everywhere. All the Old Believers had bowed the knee to Baal and no longer had the baptism of Christ.

He accordingly baptized himself a third time, for he had been first baptized in the Orthodox Church, next when he joined the Philipovtsy, and now in despair of finding any real baptism on the face of this earth he performed the rite first on himself and then on his followers; and he made it his principle to wander abroad on the earth, because we have here no abiding city. He must be literally an outcast and in an alien world break every tie with society. He has nowhere to lay his head, but is a wanderer (stannik), a fugitive (begun), a stowaway.

This sect has above all others distinguished itself by its fierce denunciations of the Tsars and Tsardom, and the orthodox priests as lying prophets of Antichrist. They have obstinately refused to register themselves, to pay taxes, to bear passports. Their doctrine is the last word of the Bezpopovtsy against the regime of the Antichrist. Certain of the sectaries of the Pomorians who pray for the Tsar were careful to justify their action by citing the precepts of St. Paul in favor of praying for Gentile or infidel sovereigns. So also the Thedosyevtsi or sect of Theodosius were careful to indicate that they only paid the Tsar's taxes, because the New Testament inculcates submission to the Powers which be. The ‘Wanderers’, however, were guilty of a very disrespectful comparison of the Tsar with the heathen rulers, obedience to whom was counseled by the Apostles. They were no better than servants of the Devil, but the Tsar is Satan himself. You can do nothing but make war on him.

No permanent community or society higher than gypsies can be founded on the mere precept to wander and hide. The early followers of Jesus soon found that it was not enough to wait for the Second Coming, and that even to keep the faith alive they must organize. Euthymius’ tenets excluded all idea of settlement; but presently, after his death, when the bond of his strong personality and preaching was removed, it became an urgent question how to assure to his Church any sort of stability or future. Continual vagabondage through ‘desirable deserts’ afforded no bond of union, nay render permanent ties between its members precarious. A number of poverty-stricken, homeless itinerant friars might attract to themselves fugitive criminals, but not people with settled notions of life and anything to lose. The members of the sect therefore met to consider whether in the future they should continue to wander or settle down in fixed homes. An elder named Yakov Yakovlev urged that no one could be regarded as a member who did not imitate the Master, but a lady named Irene, who had been Euthymius' companion in travel, as also the Elder or ‘director’ Krainev, proposed a compromise, by which they should only receive as members of the society those who took a vow to become Stranniki some day, even if for the present they kept their homes and went on living in them. After warm discussion the comprise was accepted, and a distinction was henceforth drawn between imperfect members who might live in town and village and only vow themselves to become adepts in the Christian faith later on, and those who pursued the original ideal of Euthymius in its entirety. It was stipulated however that those who lived in fixed abodes should maintain shelters or asylums of refuge for the true wanderers and extend their hospitality to them whenever they appeared.

The student of early Christianity will at once recognize the parallelism of the Strannik society with the earliest Church. Ivanovski describes in detail the life of concealment led by the Strannik missionaries with evident gusto, as if they reflected no discredit on the persecuting Church of which he is so distinguished an ornament. The refuges, he tells us, of these sectaries are furnished with secret ways in and out; they mostly consist of underground cellars or garrets constructed in courtyards, kitchen-gardens and so forth. There are also hiding places for the missionaries under staircases, in closets, in cupboards; sometimes they are concealed behind walls or under the roof, sometimes under the stove. Whole secret villages of Beguni have been discovered, in which each house communicated with the rest by secret passages, and the secret entrance of the last in the street opened into the garden or into a thicket or somewhere out on the highroad.

Skeptics Say Stranniki Are Authentic

2009-11-05T23:54:00.001-08:00

Russians held stranniki, Holy Fools and startsy in awe. Thought they often had the appearance of dirty, deranged outcasts, their clothing threadbare, their hair filthy and uncombed, their manner wild-eyed and intimidating, still they were believed to possess a rare holiness, to be, by their very nature, channels for the divine. Many cures were ascribed to them, and they were believed capable of foreseeing the future. The credulous gathered around stranniki and Holy Fools with unreasoning fervor, but even the skeptical, among them educated, sophisticated people who questioned the existence of God, conceded that these shabby, half-incoherent holy beggars possessed authentic and inexplicable powers.

So when Alix and Nicky welcomed holy Matrena, a wandering fortuneteller, and Vasya Tkachenko, another stranik, and Antony the Wanderer to the palace they were following an established Russian custom, which called for well-off people to provide charity to “God’s slaves,” as the wanderers were sometimes called. And when they took the Holy Fool Mitya Kozelsky, a mute simpleton with deformed legs who “talked” by means of hand gestures, they were seeking a blessing, a glimpse of God, a message of comfort.

Alexandra: The Last Tsarina, pages 122,3.

Love of Animals

2009-10-31T00:39:00.000-07:00

We see from the lives of the holy men and women printed in these volumes that the labors which they performed and their fastings and prayers made most of them kind and considerate to their fellow men, slow to anger, unwilling to judge others, and patient to bear silence, solitude, hunger, heat and cold, nakedness and poverty and the scorn and contempt of the world. One of their characteristics, which shows itself here and there in their histories, is the kindliness with which the great solitaries regarded animals.

One day a female hyena came and knocked with her head at the door of the court in which Macarius was sitting, and came and dropped a whelp at his feet. He took up the whelp, saw that it was blind, and when he had prayed and spit in its eyes, the little creature was able to see. Its mother suckled it, and then took it up and carried it off. On the following day the hyena reappeared carrying the skin of a sheep which it had no doubt killed and eaten, and left it for the old man (Vol. 1, p. 124), who accepted the gift and subsequently handed it on to the lady Melania.

In the account of the burial of Mar Paule we also have a pretty story of the two lions which came and dug his grave. As they stood before Anthony near the body of Paule, they wagged their tails, and rubbed their teeth together, and purred, and then they dug a hole in the ground with their paws; this done they drooped their heads and tails, and licked Anthony’s hands and feet. Having prayed over them he told them to depart, laying his hands on them as he did so (Vol. 1, p. 203). When they had gone Anthony buried his friend. Whatever the facts of the case may be in this instance, it is clear that Anthony was accustomed to be with lions, and that kindly hermits in all countries have lived on friendly terms with beasts of all kinds is so well known as scarcely to deserve mention.

Theon the monk was fond of animals, and loved the sight of buffaloes, goats and gazelle, and gave them water to drink (Vol. 1, p. 339).

From, The Garden of the Holy Fathers, Vol. 1, p. lxj, here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=D05GAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover

It also speaks of The Lives of Holy Women on page 65 (lxv).

We Do Not Have Freedom of Conscience

2009-10-30T02:07:00.000-07:00

In the book Provincial Landscapes, by Donald J. Raleigh, we can find these words on pages 187, 190-1.

...Old Believer nastavniki, nachetchiki, monks, nuns, and other active members of their communities were charged as wreckers, saboteurs, agitators, poisoners, and agents of foreign powers... Conspiratorial organizations such as the Brotherhood of Russian Truth (Bratstvo russkoi pravdy) or the League of Militant Christians were likely invented to facilitate collective trials during 1937-38.

The religious affiliation of arrested Old Believers was often represented as a motivation for their anti-Soviet activity. The NKVD often used holy books, crosses, religious paintings, and even outward expressions of piety as evidence of anti-Soviet activity. For example, a 1937 case against two brothers, both Old Believers, drew on the fact that they prayed before and after breakfast in the workers’ canteen...

Ten copies of a “holy letter” discovered by the NKVD in peasant houses in Cheliabinsk Region, read, “Do not come to the councils of the ungodly....do not get tempted by the satiated life (sytoi zhizn’iu) in the kolkhozes that is the work of the Antichrist....live in your own individual household.”

...According to official reports, the radical Beguny denounced Soviet power and its representatives as the Antichrist, refusing to join the collective farms, since they were of Satan's doing.

The intensity of apocalyptic sentiment among Old Believers peasants during collectivization, however, should not be exaggerated on the basis of the NKVD reports and charges of anti-Soviet agitation. Eschatology, an integral element of Old Believer religious identity, had a variety of meanings that are not to be reduced to the language of dissent. The position of the Beguny, for example, had much to do with their religious teaching, which had caused them in the past to refuse to join the tsarist army, carry passports, or possess money...

Chasovennye and other priestless Old Believers in the Urals believed that the Antichrist, understood as a distorted spirit of true Christianity, had ruled the world since the seventeenth-century schism. Priestly Old Believers, on the other hand, believed that the Antichrist was yet to come. Anna Ivanova’s father (b.1919), a member of the Belokrinitskie current, for example, maintained that the Antichrist would come after a world war, when the Jews from all over the world would father together in one state, which, according to him, was a matter far into the future.

[I would note that the terms priestless and priestly are both misnomers as they are commonly applied to the two Old Believer groups. Those called priestless have Christ as their Heavenly High-Priest, and those who are thought of as being priestly adopted heretical New-Rite clergy and therefore their priests are invalid. A last comment about the Antichrist, as the Lord Himself taught that there would be many Antichrists, it is no contradiction to say that Peter the Great was the Antichrist and yet there is still another one to come, or that might very well be before us now.]

A letter sent in 1938 by a group of Pomorian Old Believers from the village of Sepych in Perm Oblast articulated the bitterness that all Old Believers felt at the time: “Article 125 says there is freedom of conscience but as it is we do not have any. The Old Believer religion is driven underground.”

Copied from:
http://books.google.com/books?id=ppkzUUEm31UC&printsec=frontcover

Do Not Worry About The Past

2009-10-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

1. When the holy Abba Anthony lived in the desert he was beset by accidie, and attacked by many sinful thoughts. He said to God, ‘Lord, I want to be saved but these thoughts do not leave me alone; what shall I do in my affliction? How can I be saved?’ A short while afterwards, when he got up to go out, Anthony saw a man like himself sitting at his work, getting up from his work to pray, then sitting down and plaiting a rope, then getting up again to pray. It was an angel of the Lord sent to correct and reassure him. He heard the angel saying to him, ‘Do this and you will be saved.’ At these words, Anthony was filled with joy and courage. He did this, and he was saved.

2. When the same Abba Anthony thought about the depth of the judgments of God, he asked, ‘Lord, how is it that some die when they are young, while others drag on to extreme old age? Why are there those who are poor and those who are rich? Why do wicked men prosper and why are the just in need?’ He heard a voice answering him, ‘Anthony, keep your attention on yourself; these things are according to the judgment of God, and it is not to your advantage to know anything about them.’

3. Someone asked Abba Anthony, ‘What must one do in order to please God?’ The old man replied, ‘Pay attention to what I tell you: whoever you may be, always have God before your eyes; whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, do not easily leave it. Keep these three precepts and you will be saved.’

4. Abba Anthony said to Abba Poemen, ‘this is the great work of a man: always to take the blame for his own sins before God and to expect temptation to his last breath.’

5. He also said, ‘Whoever has not experienced temptation cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.’ He even added, ‘Without temptations no-one can be saved.’

6. Abba Pambo asked Abba Anthony, ‘What ought I to do?’ and the old man said to him ‘Do not trust in your own righteousness, do not worry about the past, but control your tongue and your stomach.’

7. Abba Anthony said, ‘I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said groaning, “What can get through from such snares?” Then I heard a voice saying to me, “Humility.”’

8. He also said, ‘Some have afflicted their bodies by asceticism, but they lack discernment, and so they are far from God.’

9. He also said, ‘Our life and our death is with our neighbor. If we gain our brother, we have gained God, but if we scandalize our brother, we have sinned against Christ.’

10. He said also, ‘just as fish die if they stay too long out of water, so the monks who loiter outside their cells or pass their time with men of the world lose the intensity of inner peace. So like a fish going towards the sea, we must hurry to reach our cell, for fear that if we delay outside we will lose our interior watchfulness.’

11. He said also, ‘He who wishes to live in solitude in the desert is delivered from three conflicts: hearing, speech, and sight; there is only one conflict for him and that is with fornication.’

There is an Old English edition of the Paradise of the Holy Fathers, Vol. 2, which offers another way of expressing “do not worry about the past” on page 196, line 197, “regret not nor cogitate upon a matter which is past” here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=LBsQAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover

Chemistry Is Witchcraft

2009-10-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

Chemistry is really nothing less than an attempt to play God and change His design and purposes. Chemistry is practiced supposedly for the good of people, but the result is always the destruction of the earth. The use of chemicals, especially when they are corrupted on the molecular level, create poisons in ways that we may never completely understand. It is often wrongly believed that the harm caused by using flesh-inspired chemicals is outweighed by the good the do. God will destroy those who destroy the earth (Rev. 11:18).

We should not even be attempting to look at such microscopic elements as carbon, by doing so we have polluted and contaminated everything (water, air, food). It goes back to the practice alchemy and today it has grown into things like genetics or cloning. Dictionaries define alchemy as having sprung up after the dark ages with the greedy purpose of transforming crude metals into gold and magically offering eternal life akin to the Holy Grail. Such madness is very dark witchcraft.

The American Heritage Dictionary offers this on Alchemy:

1. a form of chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and concerned principally with discovering methods for transmuting baser metals into gold and with finding a universal solvent and an elixir of life.

2. any magical power or process of transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value.

We can see where the Periodic Table of Elements started.

Diderot’s Alchemical Chart of Affinities (1778).

Forgive

Us Against Them

2009-10-22T00:11:00.000-07:00

Peace and non-violence will only be found in the future, in eternity. It is unchristian to use any industrialist petroleum product (like gunpowder), but we should do all we can to protect those we care about. A rock thrown at the right place might just derail the track off a tank.

I know modern-minded Orthodox priests who go around in a militarized Hummer, so watch out for them or they just might get you. The world has been enticed into its present Artillerized Antichrist Army society.

If we think about it this has always been an us against them situation from the beginning. Fact, the worst terrorist group is the U.S. government, with the rest of the world following close behind.

Ultimately, and shortly, the Heavenly King Jesus Christ will end this temporary world. Now is the time when we should flee (alone, if no others are like-minded) into the wilderness. It is necessary that we totally hide and leave no trace. In this we will be purified, so that even if we are captured and dragged back to Antichrist our testimony remains true. No matter what happens remember nobody is really alone.

Those with the Antichrist will lose in the end. We do not fight against flesh and blood, but these days many people and things have become demonized. Demons have always taken on many forms.

Forgive

Three Forms Of Avarice

2009-10-21T00:08:00.000-07:00

St. John Cassian

Examples of avarice are...condemned in Holy Scripture. Gehazi wanted to acquire property which he did not previously possess, and therefore never received the prophetic grace which his teacher had wished to leave him in place of an inheritance. Because of the prophet’s curse he inherited incurable leprosy instead of a blessing (cf. 2 Kings 5:27). And Judas, who wished to acquire money which he had previously abandoned to follow Christ, not only lapsed so far as to betray the Master and loose his place in the circle of the Apostles; he also put an end to his life in the flesh through a violent death (cf. Matt. 27:5). Thirdly, Ananias and Sapphira were condemned to death by the apostle’s word when they kept back something of what they had acquired (cf. Acts 5:1-10). Again, in Deuteronomy Moses is indirectly exhorting those who promise to renounce the world, and who then retain their earthly possessions because of fear that comes from lack of faith, when he says: ‘What man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted? He shall not go out to do battle; let him return to his house, lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart’ (cf. Deut. 20:8). Could anything be more clearer or certain than this testimony? Should not we who have left the world learn from these examples to renounce it completely and in this state go forth to do battle? We should not turn others from the perfection taught in the Gospels and make them cowardly because of our own hesitant and feeble start.

Some, impelled by their own deceit and avarice, distort the meaning of the scriptural statement, ‘It is more blessed to give than receive’ (Acts 20:35). They do the same with the Lord’s words when He says, ‘If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and follow Me’ (Matt. 19:21). They judge that it is more blessed to have control over one’s personal wealth, and to give from this to those in need, than to possess nothing at all. They should know, however, that they have not yet renounced the world or achieved monastic perfection so long as they are ashamed to accept for Christ’s sake the poverty of the Apostle and to provide for themselves and the needy through the work of their hands (cf. Acts 20:34); for only in this way will they fulfill the monastic profession and be glorified with the Apostle. Having distributed their former wealth, let them fight the good fight with Paul ‘in hunger and thirst . . . in cold and nakedness’ (2 Cor. 11:27). Had the Apostle thought that the possession of one’s former wealth was more necessary for perfection, he would not have despised his former status a Roman citizen (cf. Acts 22:25). ...the apostle’s considered it more blessed to live off...the offerings of the Gentiles.

Philokalia, Vol. 1 - pages 80-1 (On the Eight Vices)

Sit Outside The City

2009-10-20T15:50:00.000-07:00

The man who has withdrawn from the world in order to shake off his own burden of sins should imitate those who sit outside the city among the tombs, and should not cease from his hot and fiery streams of tears and voiceless heartfelt groanings until he, too, sees that Jesus has come to him and rolled away the stone of hardness from his heart, and loosed Lazarus, that is to say, our mind, from the bands of sin, and ordered His attendant angels: Loose him from passions, and let him go to blessed dispassion. Otherwise he will have gained nothing.

Step 1.6 - On Renunciation of the World
The Ladder of Divine Ascent, HTM, 2001

Marriage, an alternative to the Orthodox Church

2009-10-19T22:44:00.000-07:00

Marriage makes it more difficult to be Stranniki, but not impossible. The Stranniki recommended against marriage. According to the Apostle serving Christ alone was better.

From the book: Old Believers, Religious Dissent and Gender in Russia, Chapter 4 The Sacrament of the heart: marriage, family and gender in Pomorian discourse. Here we find a subsection titled, Old Believer marriage as an alternative to the Orthodox Church - “...in the Orthodox Church from the seventeenth century there was a contradiction between the doctrinal view of marriage and canon law. According to doctrine, the sacrament of marriage, as one of the seven sacraments of the Church, had to be sanctified by the priest; while according to canon law, the Church ritual was one element but not the main condition of the sacrament.”

[From] “the second half of the eighteenth century, following the secularization of church properties by the state, the Orthodox Church focused on the ‘spiritualization’ of marriage. Putting more emphasis on the sacrament of matrimony, the Church [then] insisted on a Church wedding as the only condition for legitimate marriage.”

“However, as we can see, in the age of Enlightenment the priestless Old Believers also emphasized the spiritual and sacramental aspects of marriage. But in contrast to the official Orthodox writers such as Feofan Prokopovich, who believed that the Church sacrament was the essence of matrimony, Old Believer leaders played down the role of the ordained priesthood in the Church marriage, emphasizing mutual consent as the core of the sacrament...”

In a following subsection we read, “The Pomorian fathers instructed a newly married couple: ‘You my son, must love your wife but don’t be angry with her. If she does not obey you punish her slightly with a rod without anger.’ Taking into account the widely spread practice of wife beating among the lower classes in Russia, the elder’s advice to the husband to exercise his power with reason could be considered a tactical attempt to put limits on domestic violence.”

“...some women exercised public influence in communal affairs. As far as we can judge from the early twentieth century debates, there were two tendencies present in the community: one that encouraged women to take public roles and the other, more conservative, that resisted women’s participation. ...women were traditionally active members of the Old Believer community who carried out social, economic and religious duties...the 1911 conference resolved that women over the age of 18 could participate and vote in the communal assemblies.”

Do We Have A Conscience?

2009-10-18T07:16:00.000-07:00

The progress of technology is affecting the Old Believers, but a number of them still hide at a distance from the conveniences of the modern world. In these communities women dress modestly (in long sarafans) and men do not trim their beards. Maybe 15 to 20 miles from Odessa, Ukraine, along the shore of the Black Sea, are some of these people who struggle to keep a vestige of the Faith of their ancestors on the outskirts of a village named Gribovka.

Many of the people here do live a more rural life than most people, ignoring television, radio, they even shun telephones. At times they learn some of the more serious news from newspapers, but even that is considered a sin. For that worldliness they must ask for forgiveness.

In what would be considered severe and offensive deprivations to most people they live in all seriousness. Should anyone of them live in drunkenness, such a one would not receive a Christian burial. So only privately would their loved ones use Old Faith bridges in the hope of their finding mercy.

These people had no problem with an occasional lie in order to save themselves from socialist collective uprisings where almost nobody survived. They have had to live as recluses. There is a basic truth that we should not sin, and that we should live in agreement and accordance with such beliefs.

Our ordinary modern greetings of “Good morning” or “How are you” are not followed by Old Believers. They explain that there are no good mornings, except on Christ’s Resurrection, the first day of the week. The Old Believers instead begin conversation by offering, “Good health” and with passing comments they might say “Christ rescues” as only by Him are we protected. Goodbye’s are also very different, for they merely ask forgiveness, the customary final response being, “Amen, God will forgive.” (It might be the last opportunity to ask for forgiveness. Some people never really liked goodbyes anyway.) Outsiders may think it strange to always be asking forgiveness in this manner, but even the elderly practice this with their young. It is a good reminder that we should always be repenting and constantly and asking Christ to forgive us for our many sins.

Official Papers are the Mark of the Beast

2009-10-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

In the book Provincial Landscapes, Edited by Donald J. Raleigh, we can find these words on pages 172-3, 175-6, 179-80, 186.

The case study of Old Believers who, unlike Sectarians, formed a majority in many areas of the Urals region and Russia in general...

Stranniki, who emerged in the eighteenth century, refused to register with local authorities because they believed that the marks of the Antichrist were on official papers, such as passports and banknotes. Since they could not survive in Russia without “stamped papers,” however, Stranniki divided their communities into “elders,” who did not have passports and possessions, and the benefactors (strannopriimtsy), second-class members, who had to provide for the elders...

[The author offers misleading statements that Stranniki could not survive without papers, or that benefactors had to provide for elders. We all are able to take care of ourselves, but it is encouraging to help each other, as all Stranniki did.]

Staroobriadtsy reproduced their identity by means of traditional education, which focused on the reading of sacred books, the learning of church services, public disputes, oral and written historical tradition, and pilgrimage...

Father Pavel, was well know for welcoming everyone who visited him in his isolated forest cell - even robbers who had once broken into his house late at night. According to a local informant, “He offered them tea and supper and they felt ashamed to do their evil work.”

...Two interpretations of the Antichrist persisted from the seventeenth century: first, the representation of the Antichrist as “physical,” that is, incarnate as a man; and, second, as “spiritual,” that is, present in society as a spirit rather than a person. The Old Believers in the Urals accepted both these views and used them flexibly for different ends. The Old Believers in the industrial areas of the Central Urals had more moderate vies on the Antichrist.

...a local [communist] party member emphasized the predominance of well-off [Stranniki] members among the sect. It was said that 54.2 percent of sect members were kulaks and well off (zazhitochnye) and only 12.5 percent were poor peasants... He discovered that the kulaks used a system of secret tunnels, which had been dug by Stranniki to hide from tsarist authorities and to conceal grain from requisition squads... Staroobriadtsy in the Urals were particularly prone to be identified with antimodern forces, because in addition to the simplified Marxist view of religion as reactionary, Old Belief was perceived as the most antiquated, irrational, and even a primitive form of modern religion... Old Believer monophonic singing had neither rhythm nor beauty... Old Believers, who preferred spiritual healing to scientific medicine, were criticized for not believing in science and not trusting official medicine...

The secret police raided Old Believer forest skity, arresting religious itineraries in conformity with the new passport legislation of 1932-33. Between 1932 and 1936, NKVD forces destroyed dozens of forest hermitages in the area of Tiumen, Nizhnii Tagil, Verkhneivinsk, and Shalia. Skity inhabitants born between 1866 and 1901, plus some elders, were given sentences for parasitism, agitation against Soviet power, and counterrevolutionary activities.

Copied from this online source.

Today’s Churches Are Not Free

2009-10-15T00:15:00.000-07:00

Before 1954 churches were able to be free with their speech about critical issues of the day. Fire and brimstone types feared only God, not man. Today the IRS forbids such. Today’s churches are milquetoast, hiding behind their tax exempt status. They are concubines disguised as churches. The IRS has become a political and religious weapon. They control these heretical churches with tax exempt status, otherwise known as the 501(c)(3) trap or the kiss of death.

The 501(c)(3) is absolutely unnecessary for churches, as they are now tax-exempted by the IRS, see Code 508(c)(1)(A). But once under the 501(c)(3) regulations these non-profit organizations and their staff members are prohibited from identifying with a candidate, expressing their views on issues that might indirectly associate them with a candidate or political party, and speaking out against government agencies. The prohibitions even extend to individual members of congregations within 501(c)(3) churches.

Congress approved a law in 1954, signed by Sen. Lyndon Johnson, to prohibit 501(c)(3) organizations (including churches and charities) from engaging in political activity and speaking against the government. The 501(c)(3) legally makes these private organizations agencies of the government and allows them special exemption from taxes and IRS scrutiny. Also, this law puts severe limits on their lobbying capabilities and virtually renders them ineffective. Practically speaking, the churches and charities trade their First Amendment right of free speech and their right to lobby for protection from the IRS. In simpler terms it is “hush money.”

The U.S. Gov’t has so deprived the modern style “churches” that these false churches have decided it is better not to “upset the apple cart” than risk losing their 501(c)(3) status. It is apparently more important to please man than honor God. These 501(c)(3) churches do not balk at divorce, they turn their back on fornication, and refuse to confront habitual liars or thieves that are in their midst.

Social Security Numbers, Corporate numbers or other numbers of the government like Social Security checks all meet the criteria of the “mark of the beast.” These false churches wear the mark of the beast all over themselves. The goal of the IRS is to shut the mouths of as many people as possible. The IRS has an agenda to monitor churches and censor any speech they deem to be too political and they look for “secret code words” from pulpits like “pro-life” and “conservative.”

Even Jerry Falwell’s group was recently forced by the IRS to pay a stiff fine. Also Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition had to hobble through an IRS audit. The IRS threat is real, if we participate with them. My advice is to cease and desist immediately. Liberal churches and groups like Planned Parenthood, feminists organizations or homosexual groups seem to sidestep audits entirely.

The IRS has become a police-state agency. Texe Marrs presented a list of things (partially seen below) that the IRS contends are prohibited. These prohibitions demonstrate how the IRS and the federal government now control churches to insure politically and religiously “correct” behavior. False religions such as Hinduism, Witchcraft, and Scientology are not seen as being affected by these rules. Keep in mind that these IRS guidelines are not prohibited by law, but the IRS obviously considers itself above the law.

According to the IRS organizations with 501(c)(3) status may not:

Expose conspiracies.
Criticize the New World Order.
Say anything negative about politicians.
Criticize government agencies and bureaus.
Criticize institutions like the White House, Congress, Federal Reserve, or Supreme Court.
Criticize bills or legislations.
Make disparaging remarks about other religions.
Discourage abortion.
Identify homosexuality as an abomination before God.
Appealing to people by using methods such as “fire and brimstone” preaching.
Identify threats to Christianity.
Discuss subjects the IRS deems “sensationalist.”
Criticize well-known public figures or institutions the IRS deems “worthy”, such as the super-rich elite, international bankers, the Hollywood movie industry, etc.
Criticize the Pope or the Vatican.
Criticize the United Nations or other globalist groups such as the Council on Foreign Relations and Trilateral Commission.
Criticize the Masonic Lodge, the Order of Skull & Bones, or other secret societies.
Highlight or otherwise bring attention to immorality of public officials or corruption in government.
Support home schooling, home churches, or unregistered churches.
Promote or encourage alternative healthcare.
Support or encourage persecuted Christians suffering under anti-Christian regimes in Red China, Cuba, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and elsewhere.
Ordain a pastor whose training or qualifications are not approved by the IRS.

501(c)(3) corporate churches have given themselves over to mammon as can be seen in their articles of incorporation, they serve what passes for money rather than God. No true Christian will allow themselves to be “an arm of the Antichrist.” There is this double-true statement, “What fellowship hath light with darkness?” We should all see the writing on the wall.

Here is one old news article for reference.

Forgive

The Knowledgeable are Silent and Still

2009-10-14T03:12:00.000-07:00

Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart, p. 76

“To psalmodise much is good for those who follow active life, since they are ignorant of mental occupations and lead a life of labour.”

The Complete English Philokalia, p. 278

“To psalmodize often is appropriate for novices in the ascetic life, because of the toil it involves and the spiritual knowledge it confers.”

Angels Serve Food At Night

2009-10-13T07:50:00.000-07:00

St. Onuphrius spoke of his experience like this, “Now when God saw that I patiently endured in the good fight of fasting and that I devoted myself completely to ascetic practices, He had his holy angels serve me with my daily food; He gave it to me at night and strengthened my body...” Histories of the Monks of Upper Egypt, p.155. There are many such stories of receiving a miraculous “second wind” in the ancient Thebaid.

St. Maximus the Confessor

2009-10-12T00:18:00.000-07:00

“A man whose mind cleaves to God with love

holds as nought all visible things,

even his own body.”

Let Us Avoid Staying in Towns

2009-10-03T00:08:00.000-07:00

St. Neilos the Ascetic

Philokalia, Vol. 1 - pages 214-5

We are apt to say that in sickness the body needs some relief. But is it not much better to die rather than to do something unworthy of our vocation. In any case, if God wishes us to go on living, either He will give our body enough strength to bear the pain of the illness, and will reward us for our courage; or else He will find some way to relieve the pain, for the Fountain of Wisdom never lacks a remedy.

...Let us avoid staying in towns or villages; it is better for their inhabitants to come and visit us. Let us seek the wilderness and so draw after us the people who now shun us. For scripture praises those who ‘leave the cities and dwell in the rocks, and are like the dove’ (cf. Jer. 48:28). John the Baptist lived in the wilderness and the population of entire towns came out to him. Men dressed in garments of silk hastened to see his leather girdle; those who lived in houses with gilded ceilings chose to endure hardship in the open air; and rather than sleep on beds adorned with jewels they preferred to lie on the sand. All this they endured, although it was contrary to their usual habits; for in their desire to see John the Baptist and in their wonder at his holiness they did not notice the hardships and discomfort...

Let us give up our flocks and herds, and so become real shepherds. Let us abandon sordid commerce, and so acquire the ‘pearl of great price’ (Matt. 13:46). Let us stop tilling the earth which ‘brings forth thorns and thistles’ (Gen. 3:18), and so become cultivators and keepers of paradise. Let us give up everything and choose the life of stillness, and so put to silence those who now reproach us for owning possessions. The best way to abash our critics is discretely to correct in ourselves the faults for which they revile us; for such a change in those reproached puts their reproachers to shame.

...men must first be purified from old defilements, and then with close attention must learn about holiness...

To master any art requires time and much instruction... The only art which the uninstructed dare to practice, because they think it is the simplest of all, is that of the spiritual way. What is difficult the majority regard as easy; and what Paul says he has not yet apprehended (cf. Phil. 3:12), they claim to know through and through, although they do not know even this: that they are totally ignorant.

(From the section subtitled, Ascetic Discourse)

Insults

2009-10-02T02:13:00.000-07:00

“When harmed, insulted or persecuted by someone, do not think of the present but wait for the future, and you will find he has brought you much good, not only in this life but also in the life to come.” - St. Mark the Ascetic

The Earth and its Inhabitants

2009-10-01T00:03:00.000-07:00

The Stranniki

In the book, The Earth and its Inhabitants, it mentions on page 465 that in Siberia not only are there “vagabonds” who have escaped from prison, but that due to its great and limitless area Siberia attracts other types of people:

‘The sect of Stranniki, or “Wanderers,” has many representatives in Siberia, where they are ceaselessly roaming over the woodlands and highlands in search of that, “White Water” which cleanses from all sin, and at the same time insures them everlasting bliss. In most of the towns and villages they find friends, who, though really members of the sect, lend a sedentary life, and outwardly conform to the orthodox religion. Their sole mission is to give hospitality to their “wandering” brethren, and screen them from the police. When they are discovered and thrown into prison, the Stranniki thank the Lord for the trial which has overtaken them, and which must purify their faith. But as a rule the “raskol,” or “desent,” finds a less propitious soil in Siberia than in European Russia, and the indifference of the Sibiryaks in religious matters has ended be reacting on the Raskolinks themselves.’

The Holy Cross - Святой Крест

2009-09-30T05:58:00.000-07:00

Here is an Old Believer wooden carving about the “Life-giving Cross” <<Животворящего Креста>>.

Спаси Христос!

Save Christ!

Who are the Runners?

2009-09-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

A metaphor for the modern traveler. The name ‘Bieguni’ comes from a sect of Russian Orthodox Old Believers, who treated movement as a sacred state. Permanently moving and crossing borders meant for them not belonging to anything, as an escape from evil. Evil tries to take away their freedom.

Are you a Runner?

A Runner is a nomad. Maybe it’s the case that we all have within us, the memory of our ancestors who were nomadic. It is the settled civilization, within which people build their nests, that oppresses people.

25% of the World Lives Without Electricity

2009-09-28T00:02:00.000-07:00

For world leaders it is a real problem that 1.6 billion people worldwide now live without electricity. I saw it as good news that so many people do not use electricity. They say up to 3 billion people (almost half the worlds population) use electricity in a primitive way that is very damaging to health.

In actuality all electronics are harmful in many various ways. Let’s all work to reverse the trend before it is too late. Make it so nobody uses man-made electricity, and therefore nobody will be hurt by such things. Even though world leaders do not know what is good for them, we should be bold enough to stand up against them and say it straight for once. Do not let them electrify everyone.

Here is a link to a report that quotes Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate physicist based at the University of California, Berkeley, saying, “It’s sad that 1.6 billion people live without electricity and 2-3 billion use energy in a primitive way very damaging to health.”

Birth Certificates & Social Security Data

2009-09-27T07:11:00.000-07:00

As can be seen in the photo of an old Social Security Card above, they were not to be used for identification. Now that the birth certificates are inextricably tied to the Social Security Card System we are all deeper into the Antichrist than ever before.

All legal birth certificates are a bond, a piece of paper that represents the value of something. Your Birth Certificate Bond represents the value of your life’s labor. You can easily earn $1,000,000.00 during our lifetime. The bankers who control the world invest that Birth Certificate bond into the Financial Markets, and its value increases everyday. Follow these instructions to follow exactly what your account is up to.

1. Take the tracking (routing) numbers from the back of your Social Security Card, they start with a letter and end with numbers, example - F12345678 (these are either red or blue in color).

2. Go to https://fidelity.com.

3. Select the green tab called Research.

4. Select the sub-tab called Quotes.

5. Where it says “Enter your Ticker (Stock) Symbol,” enter yours. Do you know yours? … Neither do I. So you need to select the link Find Symbol to look up your personal Stock Symbol on the International Market.

6. To do this you need to search for a “Mutual Fund,” so in the “Search For” box make that selection.

7. In the “by” box, to the right of the “Search For” box, select “Fund Number.”

8. The Fund Number is the year you were born, forward slash, and the tracking numbers on the back of your Social Security Card. So, in the Search Value box type in your Fund Number, example - 1960/F12345678 (the letter is case sensitive, so it is critical you enter it just as seen on the back of your Social Security Card).

9. When the Fund Number is entered select the “Search” button and your personal Stock Symbol will appear below the search. It should be FTIX = FIDELITY TOTAL INT’LEQUITY FUND. This is a pooled account so everyone will have the same symbol, but where it will differ is in the CUSIP, Fund Number and Tracking Numbers. That is what separates all the individual Bonds in the account.

10. Now click on your Stock Symbol, it should be in blue as a link. This will take you to your Bond’s information, they even show a YTD (Year To Date) which could be in the tens of millions of dollars that the world bank rulers have earned on your individual personal Bond. You can track the whole thing. Anyone can invest in you, even you, not that we should want to. To break it down even more click on the blue links called Chart and Research.

On a legally valid birth certificate, which is issued with the specially colored “Securities Paper,” it will have the Fund Number (which corresponds to a SSN) on the right hand corner. Please pass this information on to anyone and everyone. There is much more to all this than some might think, let’s stick together and hold on tight.

We should be keeping on always seeking what is true and telling those around us what is right, we need also to be doers of what God wants us all to do. Everything is in the balance, we can make it right. Each of us needs to live as Stranniki who renounced all government papers. There are still 2 or 3 Christians left or this world would not be here.

Forgive

Wine-Bibbers

2009-09-26T00:05:00.000-07:00

There is an article about the Old Believer Settlements and it mentions that they discouraged the use of alcohol [the more strict ones forbid hard liquor entirely].

On Page 15 of Alcohol and Temperance it mentions that Old Believers were either abstainers or very temperate drinkers.

Fast days (which take up more than half the year) require complete abstention from alcohol.

There is a word with a negative connotation in the Old Slavonic Language, “Vinopiica” which means “wine-bibber” and we see it twice in the holy writings at Mt. 11.19 and Proverbs 23:20. This unique word would apply to beer as well.

In the book Old Believers in Modern Russia we find on page 111 these words.

‘some Old Believer concords banned the use of spirits’

The book goes on to say that in the Belokrinitsy publication, Zlatostrui, there was an article in issue no. 4 from 1910 on page 65 titled, “Vino” which offers this:

“Liquor is the cause of enormous evil to the Russian person. There is no stronger evil than wine. War, plague, and cholera could not affect a person without wine’s pernicious strength. Wine does not only kill a person’s physical health, but ruinously destroys the strength of the spirit in him, undermining development and economic prosperity as well as agriculture. Crime, poverty and sickness are all from wine and through wine...”

The book continues to say that Zlatostrui, ‘was supported by Old Believer conferences from all those concords that either banned vodka and heavy drinking outright or had at least begun to study ways to eradicate the evil from among the Old Believers themselves.’

Again, ‘Bishops Inokentii of Nizhni and Meletii of Saratov led the Belokrinitsa episcopal fight against alcohol use by comparing Russians to the dead Lazarus, killed by the “demon of drunkenness” yet waiting to be resurrected through faith. “Religion,” explained the bishop, “is the most important factor in the question of counteracting the expansion of heavy drinking. A pious Russian person would most likely yield to the influence of religion [rather than alcohol].” Not content to stop drinking just among Old Believers, the bishops hoped to eradicate it from all Russia...’

On page 112 of this book is an almost full page image of Znamenny Chant Hook Notation verse which censures drunkenness, it is found in a referenced document of ritual prohibitions titled, Russkaia kniga. Below is a photo of the manuscript. The image is not that clear in the book either, but I think the fullsize photo is mostly readable, if you know Znammeny Hook Notation.

Forgive

Being Weighed Down With Material Fetters

2009-09-25T00:02:00.000-07:00

Why do we attach such value to material things, seeing that we have been taught to despise them? Why do we cling to money and possessions, and disperse our intellect among a host of useless cares? Our preoccupation with such things diverts us from what is more important and makes us neglect the well-being of the soul, leading us to perdition...

For the true philosopher possessions are superfluous, since he detaches himself from bodily concerns for the sake of the souls purity... Indeed, is it ever right to engage in disputes in order to protect our property?

...Why do we try to make other people’s property our own, weighing ourselves down with material fetters, and paying no attention to the prophet’s imprecation: ‘Woe to him who gathers what is not his own, and heavily loads his yoke’ (cf. Hab. 2:6. LXX). Those who pursue us are, as Jeremiah says, ‘swifter than the eagles of heaven’ (Lam. 4:19); but we weigh ourselves down with worldly things, move slowly along the road and so are easily overtaken by our pursuer, covetousness, which Paul taught us to flee (cf. Col. 3:5)...

Attachment to worldly things is a great obstacle to those who are striving after holiness, and often brings ruin to both soul and body...

So possessions arouse feelings of jealousy against their owners, cut off their owners from men better than themselves, divide families, and make friends hate one another. Possessions, moreover, have no place in the life to come, and even in this present life have no great use... Human efforts inevitably fail unless God helps us; while God in His providence bestows every blessing without man’s assistance.

Philokalia, Vol. 1 - pages 206-7

Ambitious Militarist/Industrial Expectations

2009-09-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

The Pied Piper of the Earth

Industrialism is really just a prideful invention of the Military. Before the U.S. Civil War everything that could be made out of wood was. Then the need for cannons caused manufacturing to be brought to a new level. When the war was over these engineering feats were made into the great iron works which transformed society into what we see today.

It is true that practically all modern conveniences are the results of mans greedy desire to control and rule, if need be murder, the rest of the world by military force. It really does not matter what it is, whether it is the wheel or deadly electronics. They are all a catch 22 which will be our undoing if we do not find a way to escape from the clutch of the primary force behind it all.

It is all truly devilish; these concepts which man has no business being involved with in the first place. It is nothing less than intentional murder. Even the mixture and concoction of glass is something best left alone, or discarded. The many unnecessary hazards are innumerable. The sooner we all let go of these traps the better off we shall all be.

Petroleum use, gunpowder to plastics and pesticides, has always been deadly. May we separate from such practices immediately, before it is too late. Mankind will not be content until they destroy themselves. More soldiers die from suicide than in combat. Police commit suicide three times more often than the general public.

Look at what we have done and are doing to ourselves. We need to erase ourselves and break away ASAP. The more witchcraft and scientific involvement we do, like all the pharmacia, cloning and genetics,’ the more difficult it will be to stop. As it is we are all bent on mass suicide. Don’t follow the masses to their graves.

The term “Iron Triangle” more than easily applies to this topic. What we are facing is truly bigger than this if we consider it all, not only is it a Military-Industrial Complex, but also an Engery, Congressional, Media and Medical Complex infiltrating every aspect of our existence.

The only answer I know of is to find an inaccessible mountainous area and hide out from the insane society around us. Bad company corrupts good morals, and being anywhere near worldly-minded people is a snare which we ought to avoid at all costs. Learn to get along without the hallucination of money, it is an idol. Time is more than short now.

Forgive

They Refuse Electricity and Pensions

2009-09-23T00:08:00.000-07:00

On page 234, ff., the book linked below says that the Fugitives (Stranniki) refuse electricity, and it says that these stern Old Believers also refuse pensions.

Excerpts below are from this linked online preview:

Siberia, Siberia - 1997

Chapter 5 - The Gorno-Altay Region

Nikolay Karamzin, one of Russia’s most remarkable penetrators, demanded, “Give us feelings, not theory.”

Speaking of the Altay Mountains Aleksandr Novosyolov wrote, “I feel like praying to this grandeur, to this genuine beauty... The very best description would be nothing but lifeless words.”

...we can either add fire to our language or close our eyes.

...hydroelectric plants should not be built...they would do irreparable harm to the river and the region. Not that this required any special proof: wherever dams are put up and reservoirs swell, a river ceases to be a river and becomes a disfigured beast of burden with the life squeezed out of it. After that, the river contains no fish, no water, no beauty. Energy will begin to draw industry, industry will demand new energy, then more industry will move in, and so on until... its banks, and the land far around will simply vanish into thin air.

In 1791 the Fugitives were granted exemption from military service by Catherine.

Altaian Old Believers stood by their rules like rocks... They do not acknowledge radio or television, and with respect to television they certainly aren’t far from the truth in believing that the devil is the guiding force behind it... There are homes that refuse electricity and old folks who refuse pensions... Everything that exists in the common people, even in a portion of them, exists in us, too; we are the repositories of all their synods and schisms...

...One legend has it that a shepherd found a nugget of gold during a lean and difficult year and tried to trade it for food. But he couldn’t; such poverty prevailed that gold was viewed as an ordinary stone incapable of satisfying hunger...

Old Believers Characterized by their Severity

2009-09-22T00:08:00.000-07:00

The Old Believers of the Ukraine Danube Delta, near the town of Vilkovo, “Venice of the Ukraine,” moved to this place where the streets are water channels. The Turks who occupied this region in the 18th century allowed the Old Believers to live there tax free. The Old Believers are characterized by their severity, by their manners, work and devotion to community. Idleness and drunkenness have always been considered great sins. Living conditions are spartan: no electricity, or running water, nor gas.

From: http://portedorvoyages.com/index.php?id=54&L=1&L=0

Estonian Old Believers Don’t Use Electricity

2009-09-21T00:30:00.000-07:00

There are Old Believers in the Lake Peipsi area of Estonia that “do not believe in shaving, electricity, smoking or drinking coffee.” There are about 15,000 members located there around the Lake Peipsi area.
from: http://www.visitestonia.com/en/destinations/cultural-treasures

Old Faith Chapel near Lake Peipsi

a series of Redstone caves along the Peipsi shore

This page says, “electricity is not allowed”

Forgive

Road Christians Refuse Birth Certificates

2009-09-20T00:02:00.000-07:00

In Chapter 22 of The Russians’ Secret we read about the “road” Christians (STRANNIKI). Here are some excerpts:

...with easier travel, more telephones and amateur radios, FAX machines, email, the net . . . we Christians around the world find it easier than ever to know about and learn from one another.

But do we?

My feeling is that we have all been eager to teach but slow to learn...

We must flee from the world, not from sorrow and pain.

...the more I learn about Russia’s believers, the more I have come to see that they did not flee to save their bodies. They fled to save their souls. Many times that flight did not involve geography at all...

“Things” are traps...

Give up owning a car—You must be crazy! Give up a television set, a computer, a trip to Yellowstone, electricity in the house . . . If I would go on like this someone might throw this book away.

...the “road Christians,” and others like them even gave up their lives for Christ, and the church survived!

The way of the world, not the way of Christ, is crazy.

…What is crazy, Old Believers sitting to fish through the ice near the Arctic Circle for refusing to get a birth certificate, or two hundred million Americans sitting—with the end of time and creation upon them—watching Donald Duck on TV?

Nil Sorsky already knew that we become detached from the world’s things to the degree that we attach ourselves to Christ...

http://www.gw.org/Trs/Trs22.htm

Paradise Is Without Man-Made Electricity

2009-09-19T06:55:00.000-07:00

Writer Neil McGowan mentions his travels stopping on the Trans-Siberian Railway at Ulan-Ude, Buryatiya (Buryat Republic), near Baikal (Swan) Lake, the ‘longest’, ‘deepest’, ‘most voluminous’ lake in the world, located in southern Siberia bordering Mongolia. On the eastern side of the lake is the Selenga River. Neil says that in this paradise without man-made electricity there are Old Believers who refuse to use modern machinery. They live in clinker-built wooden houses of villages along the road from Ulan-Ude to Tarbagatay. The Tarbagatay church was build by Father Andrei with his own hands. The idea that organic produce in Western Europe can’t keep pace with demand is clearly some kind of private victory for him. Simple food rules, his lunches consist of soups, stews, boiled meats and mashed potatoes – not a single thing comes out of a packet. Neil tried to offer Father Andrei a donation for his Old Believer ‘museum’, but he politely folded the money back into his hand saying, “Do me this favor instead. Tell people in your country WE ARE HERE, we are alive, and we welcome you.”

There are 9 Old Believer groups in the area.
Beyond Baikal
http://www.wanderlust.co.uk/article.php?page_id=2382

What About Food?

2009-09-18T00:07:00.000-07:00

Good health to everyone!

I would reiterate what I try to say all the time, that this life is not about survival, that we are not to follow animal instincts. The Gospel message is about giving your life away so that you can find it. Honestly, everything is poisoned and spiritually defiled since long before we were born. All the air, all the water and all the edible things are in fact ruined. Now we have genetically altered or cloned foods that are not labeled, the only way to tell is to look at them on the molecular level.

These abominations are spread by such things as birds and are now practically everywhere and almost untraceable. Everything is most likely corripted in multiple ways, or at least in one way or another. Starvation for the sake of Christ is looking more and more reasonable all the time. I want to stay away from all uncleanness, so there appears to be little alternative.

But there are plenty of works about what can be eaten in the wild, if we choose to simply try and keep our distance from corrupt society as much as possible. I am not able to list all the pros and cons here in this post, but I wanted to offer something.

My childhood memories recall that Euell Gibbons (I have all of his books) was a spokesperson for Grape Nuts Cereal and did a commercial saying that “every bit of a pine tree is edible.” The pine nuts are good, the needles can be soaked so that the vitamin C seeps out and then simply drink the water. Soak any part of the tree and it should eventually become soft to chew. Yew was used as a poison on arrows and might be thought of as a pine because of its evergreen needles.

Cedar, Arborvitae or Juniper is good right off the tree — it freshens the breath (almost like mint, or probably more like a menthol taste). A word of caution, it has the same chemical as Sage, Mistletoe, Rosemary and Wormwood, so to much can be bad. Just nibble on it. The bluish grey berries are medicinal and are good for the urinary tract. Basically, there are no poisonous conifers, but too much of anything might kill you.

National Geographic did an article in 1920 about which mushrooms were edible or not. Here is a 2.2MB zip file which has some color plates for identification.

Edible leaves are always a nice alternative. There are Pot Herbs; as well as perennial leaf crops; a list of edible leaves and this informative page from The Sustainability Wiki.

Here in there desert many cactus are edible, I have ate every part of the Prickly Pear Cactus before, minus the pricks (thorns).

The plant known as ‘Cattail’ is one of the best wild edible plants.

It is amazing how long the body can really live without food, some people say they have gone 45 days without food and remained in good health. Fasting is actually very healthy. The strict Old Believers fast for over half the year anyway.

The area known as the Adirondacks in the state of New York is named after the American Indians who lived off of eating bark from the trees in that area. The name means ‘bark eaters.’

The less we put into our body the less defiled things will come out, so there can be benefits to consuming less.

It is said that before the Great Flood, at the time of Noah, mankind was entirely vegetarian. We should take note of that.

If we must eat, raw foods are best. Fish is acceptable to eat raw, except on prescribed fast days when fish is allowed to be eaten dried for a holy day. There is the problem of more and more mercury being found in fish, so perhaps one serving a week is all we should take. Even farm raised fish are more than a little bit questionable, if you ask me. Mercury is spewed out of all the concrete manufacturing plants like a bunch of volcanoes.

God commanded that bread be made from certain mixed grains, whole grains was the idea, which is to be cooked (baked). This is how the Fathers ate. It is very simple to make a clay stove like the old Russians did.

King Nebuchadnezzar went into the wilderness a mad man, ate only grass for seven years, and returned sane.

Almost everything is edible, but things may not be very palatable. Just because we can eat something does not mean it wont kill us. Non-poisonous berries are good for various uses, even to make wine or beer. Even things which would normally be edible can become corrupted by something getting into it from outside, that is why keeping food (and water) covered is important. Oleanders contain a toxin, so be mindful of that. The poison is in the sticky sap and will cause harm, even death. Fumes from burning Olenanders’ are likewise poisonous. All parts of Azaleas, Rhododendrons, and Mountain Laurel (Kalmia) are toxic, as well as honey made from the flowers.

If you ask me it is not such a good time to be keeping animals, especially for food.

We can even eat clean dirt, there are many Christian references to ascetics doing so. A Russian named Mishechka was famous for his habit of eating clay.

Our body can absorb nutrients (or poisons) through the skin, or even through the lungs, so that is something to think about.

Something else to realize is that it is a fact that food can be mind control, or how certain foods can control your brain:
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE58E0W320090915

This is one reason to abstain from meat, that meat tends to make us more aggressive, so it is far better to be humble and eat veggies.

Remember, the Lord had food that His disciples did not know of, so can we.

Forgive

St. Mark the Ascetic

2009-09-17T00:02:00.000-07:00

Philokalia, Vol. 1, pp. 140-1

He who chooses maltreatment and dishonor for the sake of truth is walking on the apostolic path; he has taken up the cross and is bound in chains (cf. Matt. 16:24; Acts 28:20). But when he tries to concentrate his attention on the heart without accepting these two, his intellect wanders from the path and he falls into the temptations and snares of the devil.

In our ascetic warfare we can neither rid ourselves of evil thoughts apart from their causes, nor of their causes without ridding ourselves of the thoughts. For if we reject the one without the other, before long the other will involve us in both at once.

…He who wishes to be spared all misfortunes should associate God with everything through prayer; with his intellect he should set his hope in Him, putting aside, as far as possible, all concern about things of the senses.

…Knowledge of created things helps a man at a time of temptations and listlessness; but at a time of pure prayer it is usually harmful.

…What is said without explicit reference to individuals is helpful to all, for each applies it to himself according to his own conscience.

…If you give way when someone who is under obedience to you wrongly contradicts you, you lead him astray over the point at issue and also encourage him to repudiate his promise of obedience.

He who with fear of God admonishes or corrects a man who has sinned, gains the virtue that is opposite to that sin. But he who reproaches him out of rancor and ill will becomes subject to a similar passion, according to the spiritual law.

He who has learned the law properly fears the Lawgiver and, fearing Him, he turns away from every evil.

…One man speaks the truth and is hated for it by the foolish; another speaks hypocritically and for this reason is loved. But in both cases their reward is not long delayed, for at the appropriate moment the Lord renders to each his due.

He who wishes to avoid future troubles should endure his present troubles gladly. For in this way, balancing the one against the other, through small sufferings he will avoid those which are great.

(From the Section Subtitled: No Righteousness By Works)

World Renouncers Reject Technology

2009-09-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

[There are] “...estimates of Old Believer membership at...20 million in 1922, ...Bespopvotsy...far outnumbered Popovotsy...”

“The Pomortsy are the most worldly and accommodative to political power among the Bespopovtsy.”

“There is disagreement among Soviet writers as to whether the Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers [Bieguni, Beguny] are just two different names for the one group, or whether they are two distinctly different groups.”

“Stranniki divided into ‘worldly’ and ‘true’ Wanderers. While the ‘true’ Stranniki completely broke with the world and led an ascetic and devout wandering life, the ‘worldly’ group stayed in society providing sustenance, shelter and permanent organization for their wandering brethren and vowing to become ‘true’ Wanderers at a later stage in their lives. Naturally only the ‘true’ Stranniki were a spiritual elite, keeping themselves ‘clean’ from the corrupting influence of the world in which Antichrist ruled. Some Stranniki perceived Antichrist in concrete terms, seeing the Tsars, especially Peter the Great, as impersonation of him. Others thought of Antichrist as a spiritual force, an unclean power, permeating all aspects of worldly society. In the years after the Revolution, they were only called Stranniki and were mainly of the ‘worldly’ kind. They maintained their traditional dogma, equating Antichrist now with Soviet power. In the 1920s, the ‘true’ Stranniki became prominent by gaining recruits from among those opposing the new political regime, especially during the collectivization period... They have cut themselves off completely from economic, social and cultural life of Soviet society. Their settlements are connected with the outside world only by narrow footpaths through the taiga. They maintain themselves by a combination of gathering and cottage industry and gardening. In the old communities of the ‘worldly’ Stranniki, minorities withdrew into hermitage and became known as Mirootrechniki (Engl. World Renouncers).

In the postwar years groups with the same characteristics appeared under the name True Orthodox Christian Wanderers. The differences between the two branches of Old Belief, if the one available description of a group of True Orthodox Christian Wanders is, as its author implies, typical of the other, are of the following kind. While the ‘true’ Stranniki cut themselves off from civilized society, both physically and spiritually, by withdrawing into the natural wilderness, the True Orthodox Chhristians Wanderers stayed in the inhabited world but withdrew from spiritual contact with it into artificially constructed hideouts...”

“The political disloyalty of the Stranniki today appears to be a frozen gesture and does not manifest itself in any spontaneous expressions of political hostility. The continuation of their isolation is more the maintenance of an old tradition than a gesture based on strong political sentiment. As most of them have had no contact with Soviet society since the early twenties they no longer know the enemy they are continuing to fight. The suggestion by one author, that their intransigent stance no longer expresses a social protest, therefore carries conviction.

The True Orthodox Christian Wanderers, however, are a different case. Unlike the Stranniki they know the society and political order they are fighting, and their equation of Soviet power with Antichrist is based on strong sentiments which periodically find expression in anti-Soviet actions. The schools for young sectarians not only foster a nostalgia for Tsarist Russia and a hate of Soviet society but also acquaint students with practical details about the present social order so that they are better equipped to fight it. Thus the syllabus of the Yani-Yul school contained lessons of Marxism and the Communist Party. A search of the hideout of one group of True Orthodox Christian Wanderers produced much anti-Soviet material...”

“There is an uncanny similarity between the political hostility of the sect of True Orthodox Christians and the Old Believer branches of Stranniki and, even more so, of the True Orthodox Christian Wanderers...

[There isn’t] “any significant difference in socieal characteristics between Bespopovtsy of the larger branches and Popovtsy... It is also true to say, as many Soviet writers do, that Old Believers do not differ much socially from the Orthodox. Like Orthodox, Old Believers are predominantly elderly and old, female and poorly educated, but the proportion of members over 50 years of age and of women is consistently a little lower among Old Believers, particularly among the Baltic Old Believers. This difference also comes out in the representation of the sexes on the church council: a far higher percentage of male Old believers than Orthodox men are involved in church administration. As among Orthodox, younger people (under 40 years of age) are said to be extremely rare in Old Believer congregations...”

“...Old Belief is now based on family life and Old Believer families are very patriarchal and strict...

Among Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers a different picture prevails. Unfortunately no systematic data have been collected on members of either branch but the qualitative information on their communities are based on family units and that members are totally insulated from the secularizing effect of Soviet society must mean that the social composition of these groups roughly corresponds to that of society at large in terms of sex and age. All we can say about social characteristics of True Orthodox Christian Wanderers is what we know about members of one group which has been studied. Of the eight people mentioned, all, except the regional leader who was middle-aged, were very young people. The group consisted of a young student from a technical college, a young woman with technical education, three schoolgirls, and two you skilled workers, one of them being the ‘benefactor.’ Thus the group differs entirely from other Old Believers groups, but whether it is typical is difficult to know. The fact that the sect has organized several schools expressly to equip young people for proselytizing work indicates that there must be a fair number of young people in the sect...”

“Individual beliefs [of Old Believers] correspond more to the official religious system than is common among Orthodox, and they are less vague and uncertain. Old Believers are more likely to adhere to literal interpretation of the Bible and primitively concrete ideological notions...

...It is generally implied in the Soviet sociological literature that saliency of belief is stronger among Old Believers than among Orthodox [Church members]...

...The lack of dependence on professional spiritual leaders and fixed houses of worship among the Bespopovtsy has rendered them flexible and less vulnerable to the impact of anti-religious ideas than has been possible in the ‘church’-type organizations [Popovotsy]...

...belief has both more width and more depth among Bespopovtsy than Popovtsy... Among the Bespopovtsy there is a distinct continuum in these two respects from the large Pomortsy branch upward to the small branches of the Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers. Among the latter, the old eschatological notions have been maintained with almost undiminished force, and interpretations of dogma have, in increasingly losing authority among believers. It is also indicative of truly ‘religious’ motivations for these acts rather than of a yielding to pressure from religious leaders or to a desire for a ‘beautiful occasion’.”

“...an unbaptised child is at the mercy of Antichrist...”

“...Among the Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers there is no strict division between public and private worship and the hours devoted to worship in general are high among both. Thus, among the Siberian Stranniki discovered in the taiga in 1965, the peasant log hut was both a homestead and a church and every hermit both a priest and a worshipper. On ordinary days these sectarians would spend up to ten out of twenty-four hours on prayer services and on holidays, even more. The members of the Alma-Ata group of True Orthodox Christian Wanderers spent virtually all their time on religious matters leaving even the housework mainly to their ‘benefactor’.”

“...Old Believers have always considered fast a necessary means for the attainment of salvation, and fast has been understood widely as a time ‘during which the soul renews itself, is raised or even prepared for its heavenly domicile’. It thus means a lot more than the mere abstinence from food and refers to a total spiritual state. Prayer is an integral part of fasting. Prayer among Old Believers is carried out according to set rules and occupies a great deal of their time. Those who pray regularly spend up to five out of every twenty-four hours in prayer. The World Renouncers prayed up to eight hours per day.

...[Fasting] among the True Orthodox Christian Wanderers in the Alma-Ata group was consistently observed, or probably carried even further than Old Believer faith prescribes. Members lived extremely ascetically, eating fast-type food regularly or often going without any food at all. Extra fasting was also imposed as punishment for transgressions. Information about Old Believers’ attitude toward icons is rarely offered in the literature, and it is not even clear whether all branches venerate icons. One study of the ‘Family’ Old Believers in two villages of the Zabaikal area showed that nearly all houses had icons and eight-ended crosses.”

“The religious practice of Old Believers is most clearly distinguished from that of adherents of other Christian faiths by the inclusion of ‘avoidance’ ritual. The great courage, spiritual steadfastness and close community of Old Believers developed during the centuries of fierce persecution by state and church fostered in them a sense of being a spiritual elite which must set itself apart from the world where Antichrist rules. To safeguard their exclusivity and to avoid any contamination from contact with the world which would prejudice their chances of salvation they established avoidance ritual. This permeates the everyday life of believers and regulates their relation with heretics and their world. Avoidance ritual flows from the complex of anti-Christological beliefs prominent in Old Believer ideology, especially that of Bespopovtsy.

According to these notions, all those who have not adopted Old belief live in a world ruled by the spirit o Antichrist. The rule of Antichrist began, of course, with the Nikonian reforms in 1666. Not only people are considered spiritually unclean but, by association, all material good, practices and institutions adopted since the rule of Antichrist are also thought to be polluted in this way. Like adherents of many primitive religions, Old Believers therefore have traditionally distinguished between people and life-style which are spiritually pure and those which are unclean, and they have to avoid ritual pollution...

Traditional Old Believer avoidance ritual may be separated into those practices regulating contact with heretics themselves and those taboos forbidding contact with various aspects of the material and intellectual culture. Avoidance of contact with heretics and their world has been developed to varying degrees in different branches. At one extreme the really ‘pure’ Old Believers in the small branches have avoided all contact whatsoever with the outside world, while members of other branches have only regulated the degree and manner of that contact. Marriage out of he community therefore has been taboo in all branches. Medical care by heretics has also been rejected. When social contact could not be avoided, Old Believer practices have been aimed at minimizing physical contact, such as upholding a strict separation of eating and drinking utensils. Visitors from outside their community have been given ‘the worldly dish’, and on visits to heretics Old Believers have brought their own spoon and cup. Post-Nikonian introductions to Russian material and intellectual culture, which are rejected as spiritually polluted, are various foodstuffs and provisions (such as tea, sugar, potatoes, sweets, matches, soap), technological inventions (e.g. electricity, piped water and modern transport), social customs (e.g. smoking, shaving and modern clothing) and even new expressions or words. All such avoidance practices are extremely difficult to maintain in any advanced industrial society with a socialist ethos where collective endeavor is being continually counterpoised to aspiration for exclusivity. Seen in this societal context, Old Believer avoidance practices, although rapidly declining, have been remarkably persistent.

Complete separation from ‘the world’, as we have shown above, was still current in the sixties among some Stranniki and True Orthodox Christian Wanderers. In some Stranniki communities in the Siberian taiga and northern Urals separation from the world is said to be enforced occasionally by devious means. If it is noted that a member is weakening in his religious commitment other members will dare him to prove himself by some illegal exploit which is then later used for preventing his departure into the world.

In recent years there has been left little of the hostility to outsiders that Old Believers were once known for, but they have still been keeping themselves aloof from the surrounding population. Religious endogamy has remanded the norm among Old Believers from which departures have caused severe conflict between the generations. But in recent years this norm has been increasingly disregarded by the younger generation of some branches.

...Practices which were considered terrible sins not so long ago, such as potatoes and sugar or smoking, shaving and listening to the radio or using the medical service, have become widely accepted [among compromised communities]... Avoidance rituals and various taboos were still being preserved by a relatively large section of believers in the smaller branches in the Siberian areas, or in areas where compact groups of one Bespopovtsy branch from a village or figure prominently in the population. Thus some Pomortsy in compact communities of Ryazan region still kept ‘worldly’ eating utensils, and in the village exclusively settled by Pomortsy the middle-age and elderly men neither smoked nor shaved... In the Udmurt ASSR some Bespopotsy still abstained from the use of electricity, piped water and modern transport. In two settlements of he Tuvin ASSR, too, the more committed believers still declined the use of electricity, and children were not given sweets or toys.

An especially good picture of adherence to these avoidance rituals is given for the compact Bespopovtsy communities in the Komi ASSR. Although here, too, many believers have given up these practices, a very sizable minority continued to observe some or all of them...”

Copied entirely from this book preview online pp. 114, 117, 118, 121-32

Mammas, Patron Saint of Tax Evaders

2009-09-15T08:09:00.000-07:00

Remembering this day a young martyr.
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Mamas parents lived in the late third century. They were arrested for being Christian. While in prison his mother gave birth to Mamas who was soon orphaned. Mamas followed the teachings of Christianity and was raised by a widow-lady named Ammia, who later died. Then an angel told him to live as a monk in a Cappadocian cave and gave him a staff with which he preached to animals.

He was then torturously arrested for not paying taxes. As they walked to court St. Mamas saw a lion chasing after a sheep. He called to the lion which came to him and St. Mamas rode on its back with the sheep in his arm. St. Mamas gave the sheep as a gift to the judge, but due to the unusual event with the lion the governor ordered his release and granted him exclusion from taxation.

Afterward he was arrested again and Emperor Alexander had Saint Mammes thrown to the lions which naturally became docile with him. This infuriated Alexander who commanded him killed by a trident (like a pitchfork). Holy Mamas died in the theater from wounds to his side at the age of 15, not unlike his parents.

Old or New Calendar?

2009-09-08T01:45:00.000-07:00

Good health to everyone!

For all those who believe they use the Old (Julian) Calendar please consider the reference work quoted below. This explanation shows how the Old Calendar was actually changed by Tsar Peter I several centuries ago.

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Russia on the eve of modernity, p.71

The Sredniki (Wednesdayers) illustrate the disorientation evoked by Peter’s calendar reforms. The Old Belief as a whole thought that Peter had “stolen eight years from God” when he subtracted 5508, and not 5500, from the year since the creation to derive the Anno Domini. Numbering was connected with several grave issues, including the Easter cycle, and, more important, predictions of the end of the world. If Peter were the Antichrist and could obscure the real date, he could delude the faithful and lower their guard. The Sredniki took this suspicion even further, and concluded that Peter (or, in another variant, Nikon) had shifted the days of the week, and that which the majority considered to be Wednesday was in fact Sunday. Therefore everyone’s cycle of fasts, holidays, and above all Sunday services was hopelessly and fatally off.

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Didn’t the Holy Prophet Daniel condemn the changing of signs and seasons (7:25)? This tells me, in simple and no uncertain terms, that it is very wrong and evil to change the calendar.

Due to many things like this it would appear that the changing of the calendar in the Orthodoxy Church goes back further than a lot of us might have previously heard. There is a devilish saying that says time heals all wounds and that some things are best forgotten. But these type of referenced are available. So it can be said that many who pridefully claim they are on the Old Calendar are actually New Calendar after all. It is best not to bury our head in the sand these facts.

As for me, I long for real and pure Old Orthodox Christianity and see no hope without it.

It is encouraging to learn that there was an outcry so long ago when things began going downhill so much and so quickly. I see no good reason to change the calendar.

Forgive

No Longer Numbered Among the Nations

2009-09-07T00:03:00.000-07:00

Resistance to the Census

...behold, the people shall dwell alone, and shall

not be reckoned among the nations. Numbers 23:9

We should no longer be numbered among the nations of this world.

My understanding is that the liberal group ACORN (in trouble over voter registration) now is given Census authority. If I recall correctly it was suggested that there was some mishandling from the side of President Obama with regard to ACORN. It all sounds like a big mess, truly antichrist. This photo below has been passed around in a disapproving manner of ACORN.

The U.S. Census Bureau has now abandoned ACORN

Census Bureau severs ties with ACORN in 2010 count

The KJV Bible contradicts itself in the two census accounts of King David.
2 Sam 24:1 says God was the inspiration, 1 Chr 21:1 says Satan was.
There is no contradiction in the Septuagint (the version Jesus read from in the Temple), as both its references say that Satan instigated it. So I side with the Septuagint reading, because of its agreement.
Note that after David was deceived by Satan to take the census a plague was sent by God.

According to census figures the world population hit 6,666,666,666 in May, 2008.

There are other types of censuses too, like the Federal-State Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, which all tell their own sad stories.

Here are some responses that can be offered to Census Agents questions:
“No such Persons at this location.”
(They are looking for State and Federal Residents and we should not be counted among such people.)
[Being called a Resident is an Office we do not want to fall into.]
Tell them you renounce being a U.S. Citizen.
(We should often be renouncing even any implied earthly national citizenship’s.)
Tell any ‘would be’ census takers that no person’s here take part in their worldly census.
(The word “person” has been brought down to use from the idea of an actors persona, and we ought not to be going around acting, that is, being a hypocrite.)

Should a Census form find its way through the mail to you, don’t open it. If you opened it, reseal it. On the front, write, “No residents at this address.” Then send it back.

If the Census Bureau telephones you, simply say, “Nobody is here to answer your questions.” If questions persist just repeat the idea over, “I’m sorry, there is no one here to answer your questions.”

The government considers us all criminals until we accept their contract (papers and/or plastic), because without such things they have no justification for abusing/persecuting us. If we accept the governments requirements then we are abusing ourselves. So if it makes the government feel better let them Try us for our Faith to see if our Faith is True, for it is better to be abused for Righteousness sake than as Sinners.

If we are to take a stand for what is right we must renounce the desire to be a Subject Citizen of worldly nations, we ought to seek the protection that comes from Above.

May we practice good things so that we are ready the next time we are faced with such a situation.

I did find this Diary of a Census Resister.

Lying is inherently evil, but Rahab the Arab protected the men of God from capture by deception for a good cause. This noble act saved her and her family, nobody would fault her for it. She repented and never needed to be deceptive ever again, once they all were able to join and live with God’s people. So there are indeed exceptions. It is just like how Israel spoiled Egypt before fleeing, it is wrong to steal, but not from the enemies of God. There are numerous other good examples of this illustrated for us throughout all time, if we take a look at it.

The government is greatly lying with money, taxes and other fictions of law and are worse than any white lie to save our lives. Sometimes even a limited lie cannot be used to save our own skin. Being led of God is what I am talking about.

So it is best not to go along with wickedness, we are guilty by participation if we assist and agree to be and rest with such things. It is better to ruin the whole show than to be a part of it.

Pro 23:1-3 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.

There is such a thing as pious fraud or moral lying. The Lord Jesus Christ told a parable in Lk 16:1-9 that advocates shrewd and deceptive business practices for the sake of the Kingdom.

Luke 16
1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.
2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.
3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.
4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
5 So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?
6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.
7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.
8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

There was a Wall Street Journal article from August 8, 1989 by James Bouvard that headlined,
“HONESTY MAY NOT BE YOUR BEST CENSUS POLICY”

Here is the U.S. Census Law, if anyone is interested, it looks like there are fines of $100 to $500 for violating this law:
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode13/usc_sec_13_00000221----000-.html.
Man’s laws are arbitrary and are becoming more oppressive, so be mindful of that.

In 1960 two people were prosecuted for resisting the census, one person in 1970, I am not certain about the other censuses. In 1980 it was 83% of households that voluntarily mailed back their census forms, in 1990 only 78%. The more intrusive government becomes, the less information it will get. It is said that if you do not fill out the form the officials will fill it out themselves by asking your neighbors.

I know of some Old Believers who live in a rather distant location and were visited by a Census worker doing work in advance. The worker said there was this mail box out at the highway and that they needed information about it. The response the Old Believer gave was that they do not do the Census, saying further that they did not believe in it. The worker walked away saying they would be back. So now the Old Believer has decided to simply remove the mail box so as not to attract anything further. There are other ways to get postal items. I believe it was the Post Office who had been given charge to keep track of people and where they go. In my many talks with the Old Believers at this location with the mail box I mentioned how the Postal System was not good , and they completely agree. Be encouraged by these things, knowing that there are some Old Believers who do in fact reject the idea of the Census. For centuries governments have had difficult times counting the Old Believers, now is no different. I would refer to the this chapter of The Russians’ Secret, Nonconformity.

There are Old Believers in the USA that do not have running water, all the water I use here is carried by hand and I do not use much. The chemicals so often used with flush toilets are contaminating and destroying this world. The Fifth Amendment is supposed to assure that those in the USA can be secure in their homes, they do not have to answer the door if they do not want to.

Here is the latest edition of the Census form from the official government web site, this replaces previous questionnaires. One of the questions asks if you have a flush toilet.
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/SQuest09.pdf

Here is a letter from the government that we might get if we chose not to answer the above questionnaire which is required by law.
http://mymartyrdom.com/censusletter.pdf

The Doomsday Book

William the Conqueror ordered a great survey which spared no one and there was no appeal from it. William wanted to insure that he was getting all his taxes from everyone. It was completed in 1086. It was called The Doomsday Book (or Domesday Book) and recorded how much land everyone owned and how many people worked there. The numbering of animals, pastures, mills and fish ponds were also included.

Holy Foolishness - page 64

2009-09-06T00:04:00.000-07:00

Flight from Justice

The Beguny (those who flee) believe that tsardom became the devil’s rule, they were closely associated with the Stranniki (wanderers) who believe the Antichrist has already appeared and “visibly rules on earth.” Therefore, obedience to any form of earthly power, be it secular or clerical, is stamped with his seal. Since struggle against the earthly powers is impossible, the only remaining opportunity for salvation is flight (begstvo) and wandering (stranstvovanie) - from which the Beguny and Stranniki get their names.

Flight from all forms of official culture is one response to the Antichrist; other responses include lying and deception. Lawrence Trefalev, in a study of the Stranniki (Published in the journal The Russian Archive in 1866), wrote that lying and deception during periods of official investigation were considered obligatory... “someone spoke the truth and perished, another lied and was made a saint.” ...among the Stranniki lying is especially important because it is a way of abusing the “Antichrist and his servants.”

[Speaking of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment the above words apply to an innocent man who admitted to murder.]

It is a way of taking on suffering and also as a judgment against those who judge him. This is a kind of holy foolishness in which self-abasement and deliberate provocation are both part of the performance. The historical holy fool abused those who mocked him.

There is the idea of “suffering,” not for the sake of gain, or even on behalf of someone else, but simply because “it is necessary.”

[for many Russians to think, feel, suffer and understand are one and the same thing]

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It is also mentioned that a microbe (a “new trichina”) previously unknown to modern medicine, would be responsible for a new epidemic. The trichinae infect the world with insanity that masquerades as wisdom. Those infected went mad but believed themselves to be sane, and became even more convinced as to the rightness of their moral convictions and their “scientific conclusions.” No one could agree, and a period of war, famine, and fire ensued. Those chosen to save the world could not deliver their message; “no one heard their voices.”

Types of Stranniki

2009-09-05T00:56:00.000-07:00

Men, Women and Children. All Types of People.

Page 257, Russia in Europe and Asia, 1912

(Russia is so big that it is in two continents)

Is There Any Safe Water?

2009-09-04T00:09:00.000-07:00

Federal data says 20% of water treatment systems violate the Safe Drinking Water Act. About 5% of violators were punished and the violations are in every state. More than 25% of violators are never even contacted by regulators. The responsible party, the EPA, does little to enforce regulations. About 20 million people a year become ill from contaminated water. Radioactive drinking water has been 2,000% higher than the limit. Even with Federal assistance many drinking water systems did not comply. Even when water is within legal limits there is still risk of cancer and perhaps other problems. No improvement can be seen for the near future.

All the poisonous and toxic methods used today to handle and “purify” water are truly barbaric. All the man engineered processes that deliver water use products of toxic petroleum, like man-made electricity. All of these are known to cause cancer and unthinkable harm, like birth defects, etc. The chlorine and other hazardous materials which are put into city water to make it “drinkable” and are likewise a contamination. All the water is polluted these days simply by being exposed to the poisoned air. There is nowhere we can go to get away from the acid rain. It is really a catch 22 if we think that we can find pure water any more. With all the constant defilement everywhere in the world safe water may not be plausible. If we are willing to suffer, we should do the best we can.

Even if you want to use the wicked machines of men to filter or distill the water it still is not pure, even with double distilled water. Every type of treated water I have tasted does not taste right. There are old Christian rules against using distilled products.

Then we have to think about what we store water in. Cans and plastic are out of the question as they are made by industrial enterprise. Only the Lord knows what is involved with all that wickedness. We could keep things in something like approved wine skins, or non-toxic pottery (though most of the glazes used on pottery today are toxic). There are a great number of things which are problematical, it is up to each one of us to be on guard against it all. This blog is not able to cover entirely all the antichrist issues pertaining to this topic (or any topic for that matter). I just want to offer some general considerations. Basically, anything that has association with modern man is unacceptable. The best thing to hold water would be a wooden bucket (with a cover), if you can make it from birch. They can be made by hand. Other woods that are not poisonous are usable as well. Of course some people are unaffected by poisons. Distilled liquids should be avoided at all costs as they are forbidden.

The best water might be glacier water, so living up in the mountains along a stream that is fed by a glacier just might be the ideal place. There are some glaciers here in California. Try not bring anything worldly with you, if you go. The outside world will try to encroach on us, but that is not our fault. God only expects from us what we can do. If we go above the 2,000 foot level the smog concentration, which is so heavy and settles in lower areas, will have less of an affect. Smog does go around the world though.

I was told as a child that a roaring river or stream (what might be called ‘living water’) purifies itself every 300 feet. So it is possible to drink right out of such a source. I have done so before. A waterfall also creates a purifying effect in the water. An added benefit to waterfalls is that they often create a cave behind them, it is an excellent hiding place and the air is cleaned by it as well. If a person is thirsty it is possible to relieve the thirst by simply submersing ourselves in water. The water can be absorbed through the skin and before too long the mouth no longer will be dry. This might offer some filtration, though not from all toxins. Soaking in water might be an alternative to going through the gastro-intestinal upset of drinking bad water.

Starting on page 152 of the book, “in the shadow of Antichrist” is an interesting account of the Old Believer position on water. These are some of the particulars. All the water in the world is blessed on Epiphany (or Theophany), the day Christ was baptized and began His ministry. In the morning water that is taken from a river becomes great (velikaya) holy water (sviatynia) when it is mixed with the small (malaya) waters already taken in the evening. Part of the smaller holy water is kept for cleansing external objects, while the greater holy water is kept for cleansing us internally at times like the beginning and end of the great fast, or in times of serious illness. Water previously sanctified by clergy in ages past might be added, connecting it with the more powerful type of long ago.

I have heard of some Old Believers, who live near lakes. They paddle out to the center of the lake to draw the water from that cleaner point. Most Old Believers prefer to live along rivers. God sends two angels every morning to rivers where Christians are to rid the water of any poison. Only river water can be brought directly into the home or worship without the need for spiritual and ritual cleansing.

The water from wells and springs is in slightly lower position than water from rivers. They are understood as being from underground rivers. Even though they are not entirely stagnant they must be prayed over and incensed before being used for people. That kind is not for use in ritual.

Stagnant water in lakes, ponds, etc. are impure. Water that does not move keeps dirty things to itself. This kind of water is the favorite squatters place of demons (biesy) and their stench emanates from such places. This water is one of the ways demons try to gain entrance to a person. Demon possession is a poisoning, a kind of mental illness. We can fast and pray to rid them, but not everyone is willing.

Animals can use pond water, but not the people of God. People can wash animals with it, but sacred objects like icons cannot be nearby or they will need to be specially cleansed. Blood is the most unclean liquid, but blood which is bled from the right side of a clean animal may be used to treat anemia. All other types of blood is a contaminate.

Animal meat today is improperly bled which is a contaminate and great sin if eaten, it contains the soul of animals. Consuming blood brings a Christian down to the position of an animal, a pagan. River water is an example of purity and raises a person towards heaven, it is both a natural and ritual purity.

I would say that thinking too much about survival is an animal instinct, we are not animals. We should be mindful of the Gospel which teaches that if we give our live away we will find it. I presently bide my time as long as possible. Perhaps there is someplace to hide and escape to. Give me a forest with a stream or river, and maybe an axe. I can take care of the rest. Remember, rivers are protected by angels. We must first gain Faith and Practice though. Proverbs 21:31 - Safety is of the LORD. If we eat the right kinds of food we do not need to drink any water. Christians are noted for eating poison and not being affected, this can also be mimicked by anti-Christians.

This link is to a video on my YouTube channel about The Last Christians are the Old Believers.

Do Not Stay In A Town At All

2009-09-03T00:42:00.000-07:00

Philokalia Vol. 1

Evangrios the Solitary
On Asceticism and Stillness (p. 34-35)

Indeed, I urge you to welcome exile. It frees you from all the entanglements of your own locality, and allows you to enjoy the blessings of stillness undistracted. Do not stay in a town, but persevere in the wilderness. ‘Lo,’ says the Psalm, ‘then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness’ (Ps. 55:7). If possible do not visit a town at all. For you will find there nothing of benefit, nothing useful, nothing profitable for your way of life. To quote the Psalm again, ‘I have seen violence and strife in the city’ (Ps. 55:9). So seek out places that are free from distraction, and solitary. Do not be afraid of the noises you may hear. Even if you should see some demonic fantasy, do not be terrified or flee from the training ground so apt for your progress. Endure fearlessly, and you will see the great things of God, His help, His care, and all the other assurances of salvation. For the Psalm says, ‘I waited for Him who delivers me from distress of spirit and the tempest’ (Ps. 55:8 LXX).

Do not let restless desire overcome your resolution, for ‘restlessness of desire perverts the guileless intellect’ (Wisd. 4:12)...

Avoid association with crafty or aggressive people, and do not live with anyone of that kind but shun their evil purposes; for they do not dwell close to God or abide with Him… Do not pass your time with people engaged in worldly affairs or share their table, in case they involve you in their illusions and draw you away from the silence of stillness... Let the labor and longing of your heart be for the faithful of the earth, to become like them in mourning...

Do not hanker after fine foods and deceitful pleasures… Do not have relationships with too many people, lest your intellect become distracted and so disturb the way of stillness...

When buying or selling you can hardly avoid sin. So, in either case, be sure you lose a little in the transaction. Do not haggle about the price from love of gain, and so indulge in actions harmful to the soul - quarreling, lying, shifting your ground and so on - thus bringing our way of life to disrepute... If possible it is best to place such business in the hands of someone you trust, so that, being thus relieved of the worry, you can pursue your calling with joy and hope.

Modernization As Apocalypse

2009-09-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

“...the Beguny (escapers, fleers) or Stranniki (wanderers) determined that flight from Antichrist’s authorities and constant movement (to prevent being bogged down in the corruption of the present world) as the only possibility for salvation. The Beguny, or, to use their twentieth-century self-designation ‘Istinnio-pravoslavnye Khristiane-Stranstvuiusshchie’ (IPKhS - Truly-Orthodox Christians - Wanderers) were (and are) composed of a monastic core of wanderers supported by a network of settled supporters, who, in theory, will themselves take up the spiritual heroism of wandering when they are ready. The Stranniki avoid any contact with the personnel or accoutrements (passports, etc.) of the state power (whether Imperial or Soviet), which they identify as being that of Antichrist, and the most principled of them refuse to even touch money, since it bears the “mark of the beast” (double-eagle or sickle-and-hammer). However, it is important to note that the Beguny never made the ideological leap into true anarchism - although they denied the legitimacy of the present state power, they never reject the past ideal of the Orthodox Tsardom. The fact that this group extreme de facto anti-state thrust never took this theoretical step reveals, yet again the great vitality of the Tsarist idea in Russia.

Although small in number, the Beguny are worthy of note for several reasons. First, they were disseminators of apocalyptic ideas and interpretations, mobile missionaries of such views. They took their message not only to the settlements which they visited but also injected it into the pilgrim culture which was such a major part of Russian folk piety, thereby spreading these ideas among the most devout elements of the majority population. Also, they serve as an extreme and dramatic illustration of the alienation caused in traditional Russian society by the modernizing program of the Empire.

Another group, despairing of finding any reliable spiritual authority amidst the competing and mutually exclusive claims of various factions, took up the practice of auto-baptism (hence their name - the Samokreshchentsy, self-baptizers). One eighteenth-century Self-Baptizer gave an especially eloquent expression of the radical Old Believer theme on the defilement of the present world when he explained why he gathered rain water to carry out the sacrament on himself:

In the time of Antichrist there will be nothing clean on the earth; and therefore today not only all people, livestock and wild animals, but even the elements themselves are infected by the arrival of Antichrist. Therefore, there are no rivers, springs, or wells that have not been defiled by contact with the servants of Antichrist; the seas and lakes are full of the ships and other vessels of Antichrist; in a word, there is no water in which one could baptize oneself.

The mention of ships might be a reflection of Peter’s role in building the navy.”

Russia on the eve of modernity, p.70-1

Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep...

2009-09-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

The Holy Prophet Jeremiah says, "Flee ye, turn back, hide in deep caves..."

Jeremiah 49:8

And verse 30 says, "Flee, get you far off..."

Back in 48:28 he says: "Oh ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth."

In chapter 51:7, "the nations have drunk of her [Babylon's] wine; therefore the nations are mad."

"Oh thou that dwelleth upon MANY WATERS abundant in treasures, thine end is come..." vs 13

These words are from the prophet Jeremiah regarding the fall of Babylon. it coincides with the prophecy of the Apocalypse and that of Daniel.

Please take some time to ruminate these, hide them in your heart.

Some thoughts from a hidden one.

2-Headed Snake Destroys Towns & Cities

2009-08-30T16:06:00.000-07:00

There is this American Indian prophecy about the Double-Headed Snake (representative of Freemasonry's two-headed eagle) which went to all the towns and cities destroying them. My family tells me there is some paperwork saying we are part American Indian, I do have some inclinations to their way of thinking.

Learn what is really happening today and compare, then prepare. The Swine Flu, and the vaccine for it, are said to be bio-weapons.

Here is a version of the new Universal Medicine symbol

Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius beside the two-heads.

She spoke about the imposing Swine Flue vaccine.

Something else to think about is the symbol of the United States Army Medical Command seen below.

Forgive

On Bathing

2009-08-24T09:53:00.001-07:00

St. Clement of Alexandria had some things to say about the bath and bathing.

Here is a link:

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf02.vi.iii.iii.ix.html

It is sinful to be unclean. But it is alright to simply wash with a clean cloth, if we have one. Water can be helpful too, but all water has now been poisoned by chemicals, etc.

God does not expect from us more than we can reasonably do, it is not reasonable for us to pollute ourselves with cleaning products that are actually toxic in the first place. People do not realize the condition we are all really living in.

Just using a natural type cloth might not satisfy the more modern-minded kind of people who in their misguided understanding feel that everything must constantly be physically sanitized. Science has shown that attempting to live in a completely sterile environment makes a person weaker and more susceptible to the effects of germs. Sometimes cleanliness, at least from a modern perspective, can backfire. Basically all the soaps today are made with toxic chemicals or are packaged in unclean petroleum products like plastic or cardboard paper. We are all more ill from such things than we realize.

We should not always go along with the crowd or accept what we were taught about cleanliness, etc.

Forgive

Rev 6:12 ...great river Euphrates will dry up

2009-08-20T06:32:00.000-07:00

Redeem the time!

As we were told in the book of Revelation the Euphrates River is now drying up.

Here is a link to a photo and report.

Forgive

Agafia Lykov is Still Alive in the Taiga

2009-08-19T07:10:00.001-07:00

The governor (who once ran for president of Russia) of the province where 64 year old Agafia is still living sent people to trying and convince her to move out of her isolation, they do not want anyone living in the area because it is now a nature preserve. Humans harm the environment, they falsely say. That did not stop them from giving Agafia an unnecessary gasoline powered saw and cement, all bad news. It is truly the industrialized world which is harmful. The visitors did gather food for the animals, cleared the food cellar and made some repairs to the toxic and poisonous roof of the cabin.

http://solovei.info/topnews/13989.html

You might also want to see my other post here.

Forgive,

Moneygrubbers

2009-08-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

A moneygrubber is a person who is intent on or preoccupied with accumulating money. The picture below is from page 29 of the book, Archpriest Avvakum, The Life Written By Himself - English translation by Michigan Slavic Publications 1979. The lower caption says, “A monk’s vision of the hellish punishments awaiting moneygrubbers (lixoimcy); a tree rises from the bowels of Judas, that great lover of silver, and on it hang in hellfire both men and women whose lives were ruined by this sinful obsession.”

In truth our money today is not real money, they print it out of thin air. We should not have anything to do with it. The link below from CNN News tells us that 90% of U.S. bills are contaminated with cocaine, though not enough to cause health problems. I do not want to have anything to do with money, even if they (falsely) claim that the drug levels on it are healthy.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/14/cocaine.traces.money/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

Rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem

2009-08-17T12:06:00.000-07:00

The Temple Institute in Jerusalem is rebuilding the Altar for the Jewish Temple. Here is a thorough Blog report.

The next link is a two minute news video from Russia (and in Russian) where rebuilding of the Temple in happening in the Jerusalem suburbs. A place is made to burn the sacrifice of turtledoves (pigeons). The Jews want to transfer part of this, which is about a 5 meters square stone plate, to the Temple mountain. The journalist, of course, says this would bring a loud uproar from the Muslims. But the Jews hope that part of it will be enough for a beginning. Maybe only the chair of the rabbi (teacher) mentioned in Leviticus. This is the 60th year of the beginning of Israel. As we see more and more of these types of things happening what manner of people ought we to be?

One more link for all around coverage of this significant event is the Israel National News report about Sacrificial Altar being built on Tisha B’av.

Forgive

An American Woman Wanderer

2009-08-11T07:37:00.000-07:00

The link below is to a one hour film documentary about a woman in America who was a moneyless wanderer and walked tens of thousands of miles. The film begins with her telling of herself, “I am a pilgrim, a wanderer.”

I would just mention a few more points.

She took a vow to walk penniless until mankind had learned peace.

"This is a real pilgrimage...on foot, I do not hitchhike, I walk in spite of all the rides that are offered...I took a vow at the beginning that I would remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace. Walking until I am given shelter, and fasting until I am given food, and though I have never asked for anything, I can truthfully say that I have been supplied.”

She called herself, “Peace Pilgrim.”

Her message was not new, “Overcome evil with good, and falsehood with truth, and hatred with love.”

She went on to say, “I took my vow of simplicity. I shall not accept more than I need...the need level for a pilgrim is about rock bottom.”

She was married, her husband divorced her. Her husband was drafted into the military and told him that as long as he was in the Service, she would not go to visit him and would not have anything to do with him.

I am certain that the interpretation she takes on certian ideas are different than the Old Russian Stranniki, but she certainly did many things right that most people today do not bother with at all.

Another comment of hers was this, “...if I am killed, it destroys merely the body, which is transient anyway.”

She died when riding in a car, going to a church. Another car crossed the line and hit head on, killing both her and her driver. She died on the road.

“PEACE PILGRIM” video
http://www.peacepilgrim.org/htmfiles/sagevideo.htm

And the Wikipedia article here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Pilgrim

The Age of the Fathers

2009-08-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

The Aeon (or Age) of the Fathers of the Church is practically and technically long gone, for most intents and purposes. The linage of the Greek Fathers went into oblivion with the downfall of Constantinople, perhaps even sooner with the sacks on Constantinople by the Crusaders. I see the Greeks as having a steady downhill trend for the total of the last 1,000 years. We do see some Russians who certainly qualify as Church Fathers, until the 17th century. If you can accept it, the strong Stranniki are the last of the Fathers. Now the culmination of the world is upon us. The days we are in today are like the days of Noah and worse than the days of Sodom. So do not expect very much lately in the way of the Church Fathers. For at least 500 years we really do not find much of a record for anything like a Church Father. Be watchful, and take ever so much care out there.

Forgive!

The USA is Killing Old Believer Culture

2009-08-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

In a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article dated Aug 9, 1978 titled The Old Believers in the New World it says:

“...they fear that American freedoms are luring some youngsters away from a faith the Old Believers religious sect has preserved through three centuries... Old Believers in this area have approached American life cautiously... ‘I’d like to bring up my children the way I have been,’ said Fedor Frolov, a 37-year-old father of five, ‘I wont give up easy... The main problem is the kids get 16 years old and want cars.’ ... ‘The Russian parents want more discipline in the schools,’ says Jens Robinson, Woodburn’s superintendent. ‘They say “hit the kid,” but that’s not kosher in American public schools... One Old Believer who has lived all over the world told me that the United States...is killing them, eroding the culture.’ Mrs. Schay says the Old Believers were wary of doctors and hospitals when they first arrived... ‘they feel they can accept some things without giving up their own basic way of life.’ she says, ‘But when you give up what is dear to you, how do you replace the empty holes? People who are really worried and dedicated will probably move out of here’.”

A young member of the Old Believers religious sect takes a break from work in the vineyards near Woodburn, Ore. The Old Believers are a breakaway group of the Russian Orthodox Church. This community strives like others scattered around the world to preserve its way of life.

The news article says that the hair of women is erotic and must be hidden.

It also says School officials in Oregon agreed to excuse children from sex education and evolution classes. I know of another report saying that Physical Education and Music classes were also not required. Old Believer children were allowed to eat lunch at separate tables, with separate plates, utensils and food. Even with all those omissions the situation was grim, today (so many years later) it is far, far gone.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Q-INAAAAIBAJ&sjid=O20DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4857,1332434

Flee From Society and You Will Be Saved

2009-08-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

Arsenius the Great (4th century) was a tutor to princes and one of the most revered of the early Christians... A voice came to him saying, “Arsenius, flee from men and you will be saved.” St. Arsenius gave up his position and wealth in order to live out the rest of his days as a monk (as one alone without anything). Since this was true so long ago, how much more so is it applicable to us today.

Holy Arsenius the Great

Rejecting Naturalization Antichrist Seal

2009-08-02T06:37:00.000-07:00

The 1953 New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. X we see on page 123 the following:

“From the Filipovtzi [Old Believers], toward the end of the eighteenth century, arose the ‘Pilgrims’ (Stranniki) or ‘Fugitives’ (Bye-guny), who, in conformity with Matt. x. 37-38, forsook their homes and families, rejected legal [that is State sponsored] marriage and the certificate of naturalization with the seal of the ‘Antichrist,’ and ate no food from the vessels of strangers. A sub-sect of the Pilgrims intentionally postponed their vow of wandering until toward the end of their lives, but occupied a less honored position.”

The Beginning of the End of Old Believers

2009-07-19T10:23:00.000-07:00

On January 13, 1968 the St. Petersburg Times in Florida ran an article titled Old Believers Find A Home:

“But something is bothering the elders of the Old Believer community - something they really didn’t figure on when they moved to Woodburn. This unexpected factor is the influence of the American way of life upon their children. How can Old Believer parents rear their youngsters in the atmosphere of a centuries-old religion when the children are exposed to a world of rock ‘n’ roll, hot rods, drinking and other accouterments of teen-age America?…Semen Fefelov, 33, the father of three children, recognizes the problem of the influence of American life upon the old ways, but he is reluctant to talk about it… Fefelov’s 13-year-old son, Paul, is typical of the younger generation whose contacts with the America of the 1960’s and 1970’s might mean the beginning of the end of the Old Believer tradition”

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5xsMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=oloDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6078,1892144&dq=old+believers

It is difficult to truly convert to Old Belief, there has always been one way to do it, strictness. Any compromise at all brings dangerous happenings. We all need to live a life of good repentance from all the ways of this world, the ways of our flesh and the ways of the devil. Worldliness is a mixture of all the wicked things. Holiness is distinct from worldliness.

No Blessing for Travel at the End of Time

2009-07-19T04:40:00.000-07:00

In what is now called chapter 8 of Amos the Lord told the prophet that during the end of time any travel would not be blessed. Here it is:

“They shall wander from sea to sea, And from north to east; They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the LORD, But shall not find it.”

Everything we do must have the priorities in order, first things first. Anything we do without the right understanding and purpose backfires.

Destroying the Destroyers

2009-07-19T03:31:00.000-07:00

The book of Revelation clearly reveals to us that God will destroy those who destroy the earth (Rev. 11:18). It is also important to remember the Prophet Isaiah who said this world would wear out like a garment (at 51:6). It is all the petroleum use (modern transport, electrical power, plastics and the like which are doing us in here. The people somehow think that we cannot live without them, but in truth they are our very undoing.

Jerusalem, the Antichrist, and the Temple

2009-07-19T03:03:00.000-07:00

Antichrist Freemasons said they would pay for the Israeli Court House in Jerusalem if they were allowed to design it. This, no doubt, is where the saint martyrs at the end of time will be tried. The building complex has many satanic Freemason pagan symbols incorporated into it, such as the all-seeing eye. Here is one report The Roots of Evil in Jerusalem.

Every year the Jews set the corner stone of the new Temple in Jerusalem. Each time the corner stone is ultimately removed. Many people do expect to succeed at rebuilding the temple in this manner. St. John Chrysostom taught in his sermon on 2 Thes. 2:3,4 that the Antichrist would be seated in the temple of Jerusalem. Here is another report Temple Corner Stone to be Presented.

The words of Christ are forever true. I am thinking here of the fact that there are many antichrists. Many antichrists have already come and gone, but there also will be an ultimate Antichrist. It is a bit troublesome to think about, but perhaps he is with us even now. What manner of people ought we be if we see such things happening?

The New World Money

2009-07-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

Ahead of the G8 Summit that happened earlier this month the Pope (leader of the nation of the Vatican and previous Nazi youth) declared the necessity to unite all mankind, nations, religions and to reform the world economy.

At the Summit the Russian president presented a test dollar coin for the whole world, he said we can touch and feel it, here it is.

Also at the Summit the Canadian PM said that the control over the lives of people must leap from the national level to the world level. As for me I certainly have no desire to participate or believe in any such antichrist ideas.

Pomorsky Nuns

2009-07-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

Separated from society and far away in the Siberian wilderness it is still possible to find strong Pomrosky nuns such as these.

Some say there are strong Old Believers living in every nation.

Living Beyond Money

2009-07-11T21:53:00.000-07:00

Here is somebody who gets at least one or two things right.

If you are wondering how we can live without money look at this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0GZgkpn9ck

It is about eight minutes in length. Thanks Alex for the good thoughts.

Hideout

2009-06-16T10:49:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple photos from Poland in 1940 showing

the entrance to a Russian Old Believer hideout and the family.

http://samstar-arhiv.ucoz.ru/load/24-1-0-175

Good Health To Everyone!

2009-06-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

The Epistle to the Ephesians at 5:16 explains to us that “the days are evil” and even at the time of the Lord Jesus Christ we had a “faithless and perverse generation” as we see in the Holy Gospel’s of Matthew and Luke. The ways of men only get “worse and worse” says the 2nd Epistle to Timothy at 3:13. So I do not go around saying good morning, good evening or good day. I would rather follow the example of the strong Old Believers and greet others with “Good heath to you” or some other more realistic and honest statement that pertains to eternity, like our spiritual heath and our salvation. It is true that all man-made electronics, such as computers that view this page, indiscriminately kill and harm people. Ever since the industrial age all the air, all the water and all the food has become more and more poisonous. So hoping for good health is practically a bad a joke these days. May the Lord some how have mercy on us and heal us. If that is to happen we have a responsibility to runaway and truly repent from all the evil, wicked and devilish things such as computer use. Forgive, brother John

The Church

2009-06-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

In the copy of the Pomorsky Answers published in 1911, on page 4, we read the quote from St. John Chrysostom, “The Church is not walls and roof, but Faith and Life.”

Stranniki Types

2009-06-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

There are two types of Stranniki Old Believers. There are the perfect Christians who live separate lives from the antichrist society at large, and then there are the beginning Christians who desire to live as perfect Christians but still presently live in some ways with society. The beginning Christians help the perfect Christians with food, clothing and other needs, while the perfect Christians lead the worship services and teach Christianity to the children of the families of the beginning Christians. There are other aspects of these relationships, but for now I will just add that should a beginning Christian have some serious illness they would be baptized. If an ill person should later recover they would be expected to live the remainder of their lives as a strong perfect Christian.

No Drivers License & No Social Secrurity Card

2009-06-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

Many people are wise to what the governments of this world are doing with all the Identification and other tracking numbers. The Stranniki are not the only people who forsake all governmet papers, including money. There is a film called “Into the Wild” based on a true story, and in the theatrical trailer in the first link below it shows how this young man destroyed his license, social security, bank cards and money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LAuzT_x8Ek
Or see the full movie here.

There is one other online video to mention, a supressed Disney cartoon that explains how the Nazi trained their children in death, starting by giving them an antichrist birth certificate and other government papers. Nobody I have talked to remembers this cartoon being shown at all, no doubt it was seen as being exactly like the USA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASW3UCc17AI

Naked Into The Wilderness

2009-05-15T20:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILIZ6nmGeaE&feature=channel_page

Running Away to the Wilderness

2009-05-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

These are some places where people have

runaway into the wilderness in Russia.

Old Faith Women’s Skete along a small river in 1989

http://samstar.ucoz.ru/news/2009-01-14-1562

Old Faith Men’s Skete, lower reaches of the Yenisey River, 2005

http://samstar.ucoz.ru/news/2009-01-16-1567

The photos are from the book, Tree of Avvakum

The 2nd Kathisma, from the Psalter

2009-04-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

As times continue to only get worse and worse, with the worst right around the corner, it is helpful to be reciting the Psalter. In the second Kathisma we have an encouraging line which goes something like this.

The Lord is a refuge for the poor

and a source of strength in times of trouble.

Westerners reference the line at Psalm 9:9

Forgive