Alexadre Kalomiros
წინა პოსტში წარმოდგენილი სტატია "ცეცხლის მდინარე", წარმოადგენს ბერძენი თეოლოგის, ალექსანდრე კალომიროსის მიერ, 1980 წელს ქ. სიეტლში (აშშ), მართლმადიდებლურ კონფერენციაზე გაკეთებული მოხსენების რუსულ თარგმანს. ეხლა გთავაზობთ, ამ მოხსენების ინგლისურ ორიგინალს. ამ უაღსესად ღრმა და მნიშვნელოვანი სტატიის ქართული ვარიანტი, თარგმნის პროცესშია. იმედი გვაქვს, ღვთის შეწევნით, მასაც მალე შევთავაზებთ მკითხველს.
საშინელი სამსჯავრო. სინას მთა, XII საუკუნის ხატი.
A reply to the questions: (1) Is God really good? (2) Did God create hell?
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Reverend fathers, dear brothers and sisters:
There is no doubt that we are living in the age of apostasy predicted for the last days. In practice, most people are atheists, although many of them theoretically still believe. Indifference and the spirit of this world prevail everywhere.
What is the reason for this state?
The reason is the cooling of love. Love for God no more burns in human hearts, and in consequence, love between us is dead, too.
What is the cause of this waning of men's love for God? The answer, certainly, is sin. Sin is the dark cloud which does not permit God's light to reach our eyes.
But sin always did exist. So how did we arrive at the point of not simply ignoring God, but of actually hating Him? Man's attitude toward God today is not really ignorance, or really indifference. If you examine men carefully you will notice that their ignorance or indifference is tainted by a deep hate. But nobody hates anything that does not exist.
I have the suspicion that men today believe in God more than at any other time in human history. Men know the gospel, the teaching of the Church, and God's creation better than at any other time. They have a profound consciousness of His existence. Their atheism is not a real disbelief. It is rather an aversion toward somebody we know very well but whom we hate with all our heart, exactly as the demons do.
We hate God, that is why we ignore Him, overlooking Him as if we did not see Him, and pretending to be atheists. In reality we consider Him our enemy par excellence. Our negation is our vengeance, our atheism is our revenge.
But why do men hate God? They hate Him not only because their deeds are dark while God is light, but also because they consider Him as a menace, as an imminent and eternal danger, as an adversary in court, as an opponent at law, as a public prosecutor and an eternal persecutor. To them, God is no more the almighty physician who came to save them from illness and death, but rather a cruel judge and a vengeful inquisitor.
You see, the devil managed to make men believe that God does not really love us, that He really only loves Himself, and that He accepts us only if we behave as He wants us to behave; that He hates us if we do not behave as He ordered us to behave, and is offended by our insubordination to such a degree that we must pay for it by eternal tortures, created by Him for that purpose.
Who can love a torturer? Even those who try hard to save themselves from the wrath of God cannot really love Him. They love only themselves, trying to escape God's vengeance and to achieve eternal bliss by managing to please this fearsome and extremely dangerous Creator.
Do you perceive the devil's slander of our all loving, all kind, and absolutely good God? That is why in Greek the devil was given the name DIABOLOS, "the slanderer".
