Нравственное

The sin of disbelief.

The deviations from the Christian faith are expressed in the forms of superstition, coldness and indifference to faith (indifferentism), doubt (or skepticism), apostasy and disbelief (atheism).

The faith of a Christian must be reasonable and have a good basis. It can be higher than the mind, but it cannot be in contradiction with it. But if the man “became vain in imaginations… became fool” (Rom. 1:21-22), faith becomes a superstition, i.e., vain, unreasonable faith. Superstition appears, where they assign such power and expect such actions of the usual terrestrial things, which can be expected only from God; or they assign to God and expect from Him that, what should not be expected and what humiliates the name of God.

The first type of superstition is expressed in the following forms: the idolatry, when people, on the word of the apostle, changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator (Rom. 1:25); guess-work or sorcery, when instead of giving one’s life to the divine providence, they attempt to penetrate into the concealed future in order to arrange their matters; magic, when they call for the help of the evil spirits; the belief in ghosts and spiritism, when they think that the dead or some mysterious forces on the will of the man can enter the game or not depending of his will can disturb him. All these types of superstitions produce a very harmful effect on the moral life, dazzling the mind and heart, mixing up the high truths and rules of the Christian life with the human inventions, and frequently causing religious hatred and fanaticism. Therefore in the Old Testament all forms of sorcery were punished by death (Lev.20:27; Deut. 18:9; Mic.5:11; Zech. 10:2; Mal. 3:5; 1 Kings 28).

But the second type of superstition is expressed in the following forms: first, in the form of abuse in using of the name of God and of the sacred objects, when from their simple use they expect special signs and miracles, and, secondly, in the form of excessively sensual idea about the supernatural objects, when they want almost absolutely to enclose the spiritual into the physical and measure it with the categories of the latter (i.e. space, time, etc.). The third and first commandments of the ten are set, by the way, against these two types of superstition. The first means for elimination of superstitions consists in healthy education with the correct differentiation of the natural and supernatural worlds, which acquaints with the authentic properties and phenomena of one and the other world. But this alone is insufficient, and the educated people can also be superstitious. There is necessary benevolent love for God and devotion to His holy providence.

Indifference to faith — neither cold nor hot — according to the expression of the Revelation (3:15), is the moral state, in which the man does not listen to the voice of his conscience and the sincere law, does not plunge into their requirements, and therefore this voice, which guides our thoughts to God, does not make obvious influence on the human life. With such a state the determining element in life is not the thought about God, but the terrestrial interests. The religious indifference almost always is a sign of sinking of the man into the sensuality and sensual pleasures. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also, says the Lord Savior (Math. 6:21). As the type of this vice can serve the Evangelical rich person (this Epicurean and indifferentist), Pilates with his apathetic attitude to the Truth (what is the truth?), the people of the ultimate days of the world; the Lord Jesus Christ prophesies about them: For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be (Math. 24:38-39). Direction of the thoughts to the spiritual world and its questions and needs is the first and main means against the indifferentism.

If indifference composes the opposition to the living faith, then skepticism, or doubt, is the decisive opposition of faith. The Holy Scripture compares those wavering to a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed (James 1:6). That wavering has neither the basis nor stability. It is necessary to distinguish theoretical doubt, or that of the mind, and practical doubt, or of the heart. The first unavoidably is connected from time to time with the cognitive work, with searching of the truth, and therefore by itself it is not a sin. The sin begins when to the doubt of the mind gets combined with the doubt of the heart. In this state people do not search for the truth, but loved darkness, on the word of the Lord Savior, because their deeds were evil (John 3:19). The doubt about faith is, therefore, the consequence of the moral decline of the human soul. As an example it is possible to point at the Hebrew people of the times of the Lord Jesus Christ, who first declared and confessed the faith in the Savior, then immediately renounced this faith. The same way doubted Ap. Thomas, to whom the Lord said: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed (John 20:29). Especially in our time, when they want to base everything on the experience and to understand everything with the mind, when the knowledge puffeth up (1 Cor. 8:1), and the religious doubt finds its base in this. The sincerity of the heart, simplicity of the soul and authentic desire to possess the truth — here are the means against the doubt. Ap. Thomas possessed these qualities, and therefore his temporary doubt on the spot was converted into complete and firm faith, which was expressed in the exclamation: My LORD and my God! Otherwise the man even with the visual demonstrations of the truth of faith can doubt it, and his doubt can be finally transformed into disbelief.

In the state of disbelief the man denies the existence of personal God. But he calls impersonal and all-absorbing nature as deity, or the absolute. The disbelief is expressed in two forms: either in the form of the idealistic pantheism, or in the form of the materialist naturalism. But denying existence of personal God, the unbeliever as well denies the immortality of the soul, freedom, the moral responsibility, the sin. Selfishness becomes the main element of life and human actions. The human life is represented not more than the highest degree of the animal world. The Holy Scripture calls this state of disbelief of the man folly: The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God (Psalms13:1). Besides the pride of the mind, which does not want to subordinate itself to the simplicity of faith, the reason of disbelief in our time is frequently ill-upbringing and bad influences of the people and books. Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners…for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame, says Ap. Paul (1 Cor. 15:33-34). Therefore for averting of disbelief it is necessary to spread and strengthen the seed of faith and piety in the man from the early age; and when the disbelief already penetrated into the soul, then it is necessary to influence the whole person, the change of all his dispositions and customs. There are such cases, when an unbeliever immediately becomes a believer as a result of any extraordinary signs either miracles or staggering cases and revolutions in his life. In the Holy Scripture and in the lives of saints are described a lot of such cases and conversions. Nowadays in the press appears the news about such cases as well.

Among the number of sins against the faith let us name apostasy. It is, obviously, the special form of disbelief; specifically, such disbelief, which was preceded by faith and perhaps even sincere one, but it did not prove to be constant and unchangeable. Meanwhile there can be such disbelief, which was always alien to faith, or to which preceded only indifference or skepticism (doubt). So, apostasy is the betrayal of faith. As an example we can point at Julian the Recanter and those Christians, who in the times of persecutions renounced Christ from the fear of tortures, or because of the mundane benefits. But there are examples of deviation from faith in peacetimes as well. The gravity of this sin depicts Ap. Paul, when he speaks in the Epistle to Hebrews: For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame (6:4-6). The same apostle warns against the sin of apostasy, when he says: Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong (1 Cor. 16:13). Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life, says the Lord Himself in the book of Revelation (2:10).