Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

by Seraphim Rose

  Let all true Orthodox Christians strengthen themselves for the battle ahead, never forgetting that in Christ the victory is already ours. He has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against His Church (Matt. 16:18), and that for the sake of the elect He will cut short the days of the last great tribulation (Matt. 24:22). And in truth, If God be for us, who can be against us? (Rom. 8:31). Even in the midst of the cruelest temptations, we are commanded to be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John 16:33). Let us live, even as true Christians of all times have lived, in expectation of the end of all things and the coming of our dear Saviour; for He that giveth testimony of these things saith: Surely I come quickly. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus (Apoc. 22:20).

  Epilogue

  JONESTOWN AND THE 1980s

  THIS BOOK has been deliberately “understated.” Our intention has been to present as calm and objective a view as possible of the non-Christian religious attitudes which are preparing the way for the “religion of the future”; we have hardly touched on some of the “horror stories” that could be cited from some of the cults mentioned in this book: true stories that reveal what happens when one’s involvement with the unseen demonic powers becomes complete, and a man becomes the willing tool of their evil purposes.

  But then, on the eve of the publication of the new edition of this book, the whole world was suddenly made aware of one of these “horror stories”: the mass suicide of Jim Jones and over 900 of his followers in the Marxist-religious commune of “Jonestown” in the jungles of Guyana, South America.

  No more striking “sign of the times” could be imagined; Jonestown is a clear warning — and prophecy — of the future of mankind.

  The secular press, understandably, did not know quite what to make of this monstrous event. Some of the foreign press took it as merely another example of American violence and extremism; the American press portrayed Jim Jones as a “madman,” and the event itself as a result of the evil influence of “cults”; more honest and sensitive journalists admitted that the magnitude and grotesqueness of the whole phenomenon baffled them.

  Few observers saw Jonestown as an authentic sign of our times, a revelation of the state of contemporary humanity; but there are many indications that it was indeed such.

  Jim Jones himself was unquestionably in touch with the mainstream of today’s religious-political world. His religious background as a “prophet” and “healer” capable of fascinating and dominating a certain kind of unsettled, “searching” modern man (chiefly lower-class urban blacks), gave him a respected place in the American religious spectrum, rather more acceptable in our more tolerant times than his hero of an earlier generation, “Father Divine.” His innumerable “good deeds” and unexpectedly generous gifts to the needy made him a leading representative of “liberal” Christianity and drew the attention of the liberal political establishment in California, where his influence increased with every year. His personal admirers included the Mayor of San Francisco, the Governor of California, and the wife of the President of the United States. His Marxist political philosophy and commune in Guyana placed him in the respectable political avant-garde; the lieutenant governor of California personally inspected Jonestown and was favorably impressed by it, as were other outside observers. Although there were complaints, especially in the last year or two, against Jones’ sometimes violent way of dominating his followers, even this aspect of Jonestown was within the limits allowed by the liberal West for contemporary Communist governments, which are not looked on with too great disfavor even for liquidating some hundreds or thousands or millions of dissenters.

  Jonestown was a thoroughly “modern,” a thoroughly contemporary experiment; but what was the significance of its spectacular end?

  The contemporary phenomenon that is perhaps closest in spirit to the Jonestown tragedy is one that at first sight might not be associated with it: the swift and brutal liquidation by the Cambodian Communist government, in the name of humanity’s bright future, of perhaps two million innocent people — one-fourth or more of the total population of Cambodia. This “revolutionary genocide,” perhaps the most deliberate and ruthless case of it yet in the bloody 20th century, is an exact parallel to the “revolutionary suicide”1 in Jonestown: in both cases the sheer horror of mass death is justified as paving the way for the perfect future promised by Communism for a “purified” humanity. These two events mark a new stage in the history of the “Gulag Archipelago” — the chain of inhuman concentration camps which atheism has established in order to transform mankind and abolish Christianity.

  In Jonestown once again the incredible accuracy of Dostoyevsky’s 19th-century diagnosis of the revolutionary mind is proved: a key figure in his novel The Possessed (more precisely, The Demons) is Kirillov, who believes that the ultimate act proving that he has become God is precisely suicide. “Normal” people, of course, cannot understand such a logic; but history is seldom made by “normal” people, and the 20th century has been par excellence the century of the triumph of a “revolutionary logic” which is put into execution by men who have become thoroughly “modern” and have consciously renounced the values of the past, and especially the truth of Christianity. To those who believe in this “logic,” the Jonestown suicides are a great revolutionary act that “proves” there is no God and point to the nearness of the world totalitarian government, whose “prophet” Jones himself wanted to be. The only regret over this act in such minds was expressed by one of the residents of Jonestown, whose last-minute note was found on Jones’ body: “Dad: I see no way out — I agree with your decision — I fear only that without you the world may not make it to communism.”2 All the assets of the Jonestown commune (some seven million dollars) were bequeathed to the Communist Party of the USSR (The New York Times, Dec. 18, 1978, p. 1).

  Jonestown was not the isolated act of a “madman”; it is something very close to all of us who live in these times. One journalist sensed this when he wrote of Jones (with whom he had some personal contact in San Francisco): “His almost religious and definitely mystical power, its evil well concealed, must somehow be construed as a clue to the mystery that is the 1970s” (Herb Caen, in The Suicide Cult, p. 192).

  The source of this “mystical power” is not far to seek. The religion of the “People’s Temple” was not even remotely Christian (even though Jim Jones, its founder, was an ordained minister of the “Disciples of Christ”); it owed much more to Jones’ spiritualist experience of the 1950s, when he was forming his worldview. He claimed not merely to be the “reincarnation” of Jesus, Buddha, and Lenin; he openly stated that he was an “oracle or medium for discarnate entities from another galaxy.”3 In other words, he gave himself over into the power of evil spirits, who doubtless inspired his final act of “logical” madness. Jonestown cannot be understood apart from the inspiration and activity of demons; this, indeed, is why secular journalists cannot understand it.

  It is all too likely that Jonestown is but the beginning of far worse things to come in the 1980s — things which only those with the profoundest and clearest Christian faith can even dare think about. It is not merely that politics is becoming “religious” (for the massacres in Cambodia were acts performed with “religious” — that is, demonic — fervor), or that religion is becoming “political” (in the case of Jonestown); such things have happened before. But it may well be that we are now beginning to see, in concrete historical acts, the particular blending of religion and politics that seems to be required for the zealots of antichrist, the religious-political leader of the last humanity. This spirit, to be sure, has already been present to some degree in the earlier totalitarian regimes of the 20th century; but the intensity of fervor and devotion required for mass suicide (as opposed to mass murder, which has been committed many times in our century) makes Jonestown a milestone on the path to the approaching culmination of modern times.

  Satan, it would seem, is now entering naked into human history. The years just ahead promise to
be more terrible than anyone can now easily conceive. This one outburst of satan-inspired energy led nearly 1,000 people to revolutionary suicide; what of the many other enclaves of satanic energy, some much more powerful than this small movement, that have not yet manifested themselves?

  A realistic view of the religious state of the contemporary world is enough to inspire any serious Orthodox Christian with fear and trembling over his own salvation. The temptations and trials ahead are immense: Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be (Matt. 24:21). Some of these trials will come from the side of pleasing deceptions, from the “signs and lying wonders” which we begin to see even now; others will come from the fierce and naked evil which is already visible in Jonestown, Cambodia, and the Gulag Archipelago. Those who wish to be true Christians in these frightful days had better begin to become serious about their Faith, learning what true Christianity is, learning to pray to God in spirit and in truth, learning to know Who Christ is, in Whom alone we have salvation.

  Epilogue to the Fifth Edition

  FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN THE FORMATION OF THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

  By Hieromonk Damascene

  1. The New Age Movement

  ONE READER of Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future has aptly observed: “Some years ago, when I read this book, it seemed very ‘far-out’ to me. I thought: These are just fringe movements Fr. Seraphim is describing — this kind of thing can’t really be taking over the world. Now, however, I see otherwise. All that Fr. Seraphim was saying is true.”

  Any thoughtful observer of the world today can see that the formation of a “new spirituality” has progressed precisely along the lines which Fr. Seraphim described. When Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future was first published in 1975, the form of neo-paganism in Western society was only beginning to be delineated. Today it has taken on a more definite shape, being seen most clearly in what has come to be known as “New Age” spirituality. In 1975 the term “New Age,” though indeed familiar in Masonic, esoteric, and countercultural groups, was not common parlance. Now it is a banner term for a whole worldwide movement — and a multi-billion dollar business.

  Unlike most formal religions, the New Age movement has no central organization, membership, geographic center, dogma or creed. Rather, it is a loose network of people who share similar ideas and practices, and who align themselves with the worldview of the “new religious consciousness.”1

  Because the New Age movement has no single set of beliefs, it is difficult to offer a blanket definition of it. New Agers can hold to any number of neo-pagan beliefs, from pantheism, panentheism, monism, reincarnation and karma, to a belief in a World-Soul and in Mother Earth (Gaia) as a goddess or living entity. Various psychotechnologies (e.g., guided imagery, possibility thinking, hypnosis, “dream work,” “past-life regression,” Yoga, Tantra, and hallucinogenic drugs), divination (tarot, astrology), and spiritistic practices (now usually referred to as “channeling”) are undertaken in order to raise practitioners to new levels of consciousness, to develop new “mind-body-spirit” potentials, to effect “inner healing,” or to attain psychic powers.

  Chiliastic at its core, the New Age movement is commonly associated with what popular author Joseph Campbell has called a “new planetary mythology”: a mythology which maintains that man is not fallen, that he is ultimately perfectible through the process of “evolution,” and that through leaps of consciousness he can realize that he is God and thus actualize the Kingdom of God on earth.

  According to New Age thinking, since man and everything else is God, only one reality exists; and therefore all religions are only different paths to that reality. There is no one correct path, for all paths reach the Divine. New Agers anticipate that a new universal religion which contains elements of all current faiths will evolve and become generally accepted worldwide.

  2. The Revival of Paganism

  As the New Age “religion of the future” takes shape, we see in our Western, post-Christian society the continued rise of neo-paganism in every possible form. The Eastern religions that Fr. Seraphim wrote about — especially Hinduism and Buddhism — continue to gain followers, receiving endorsements from high-profile celebrities and being publicized through television talk shows, news magazines, and other media outlets.

  Yoga, Ayurvedic medicine, and other such Hindu practices have now been accepted into mainstream society. New Age self-help gurus such as Deepak Chopra (formerly a spokesman for the TM movement) promote them exclusively as a means toward “mind-body” health. However, as Fr. Seraphim observed2 and as every true Hindu knows, these practices cannot be divorced from their religious context, for they were devised precisely in order to dispose the practitioner toward Hindu religious attitudes and experiences. This fact is now playing itself out in the Western Yoga community, which, having arisen largely out of a quest for “mind-body” health, is steadily introducing the ritual worship of Hindu deities, together with a study of the Hindu Vedas and Jyotish astrology.

  Tibetan Buddhism has also seen a considerable gain in popularity among Westerners; it is now much more visible than Zen, which was the leading form of Buddhism among Westerners during Fr. Seraphim’s time. Combining Buddhism with the form of shamanism indigenous to Tibet (the Bon religion), Tibetan Buddhism contains more overtly occult elements than does Zen, including temporary spirit-possession by Tibetan deities.

  As Eastern religions continue to grow in the West, we see today an equal if not greater interest in Western forms of paganism. Witchcraft, Druidical magic, gnosticism and Native American shamanism have gained enormous popularity among Westerners who find them closer to their own roots than Eastern religions. Kabbalah, the Jewish system of occultism developed after the time of Christ, has also attracted widespread interest; its adherents now include many celebrities from the movie and rock music industries.3

  While many people merely dabble in the various forms of paganism that are readily available in today’s spiritual supermarket, a growing number have entered deeply into their practice, thus taking part in the pagan “initiation experience” that Fr. Seraphim said would characterize the religion of the future.

  3. The Rise of Witchcraft

  In the youth culture of America and England, witchcraft has become an extremely popular theme. The phenomenal success of the Harry Potter books — with over 250 million copies sold around the world since 1997, and over half the children in the U.S. having read at least one of the books — has been a catalyst in this trend. Under the cloak of innocent fantasy, these books introduce the young to real occult practices and real figures in the history of witchcraft. The seven projected books in the series trace Harry Potter’s seven-year training in witchcraft, the curriculum of which closely resembles the seven-year program of the Ordo Anno Mundi, an occult group based in London. While author J. K. Rowling disavows any personal involvement in the occult, she admits to having done much research into witchcraft in order to make her books more realistic, and acknowledges that more than one third of her books are based on actual occult practices.4 Intentionally or not, her books — together with the movies and franchise based on them — are a portal into the occult for those wishing to take the next step.5

  The Harry Potter phenomenon represents only one of many vehicles by which witchcraft is being popularized in the youth culture. Movies (e.g., The Craft, Practical Magick) and television shows (e.g., Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Charmed) target young audiences with the allure of how powerful and “hip” one can be through occult practices, and a plethora of books (e.g., The Real Witch’s Handbook, Teen Witch) and websites offer detailed instruction and guidance in how one can become a witch.6

  The youth are taking the bait. Since the release of The Craft in 1996, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of young people contacting Neopagan groups and Web sites, such as Covenant of the Goddess (cog.com) and Witch’s Voice (witchvox.com). The Wi
tch’s Voice Web site, which claims to be “the busiest religious Web site in the world,” has had over 100 million hits since its inception in 1996; according to a survey conducted in 1999, 60 percent of the respondents have been under 30, and 62 percent have been female. In acknowledgment of this trend, the youth magazine Spin has ranked witchcraft as the top interest among teenage girls in America.7

  The same phenomenon is occurring in England as it is in America. In 2001, the Pagan Federation of England appointed its first youth officer to deal with the increased number of queries from young people. The Federation’s media officer, Andy Norfolk, attributed the youth’s increasing interest in witchcraft to the Harry Potter books and to the other books, articles and television shows that make witchcraft look attractive. He further stated that, after every article on witchcraft or paganism appears, “we have a huge surge of calls, mostly from young girls.”8 A survey in the year 2000 of secondary-school children in England found that over half were “interested” in the occult, and over a quarter were “very interested.”9

  Today in America, the most popular form of witchcraft is Wicca. Its founder, British occultist Gerald Gardner (1884–1964), was a personal friend of the notorious satanist Aleister Crowley, a member of Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientalis, and a member of the Fellowship of Crotona, a co-Masonic organization. In the Fellowship of Crotona, Gardner was supposedly initiated into a coven of witches who claimed to belong to a lineage going back hundreds of years, and who worshipped the “goddess” and the “horned god.” In 1951 the law against witchcraft was repealed in England, and shortly thereafter Gardner began to publicly promote witchcraft under the old British name “Wicca.” Gardnerian Wicca combined the practices and ideas of his coven together with those of the Ordo Templi Orientalis, Eastern philosophy and Freemasonry. Today, having been impacted by various spiritual and cultural trends, Wicca has become an amalgam of medieval witchcraft, feminism, goddess worship, pantheism, “deep ecology,” and worship of the earth.