Let the Pentecostals show us a spiritual personality similar to Elder Porphyrios in their area of activity. We will then admit that the Holy Spirit is present in their gatherings.
HOLY SPIRIT IS ALWAYS PRESENT
WITHIN THE CHURCH
The Free Apostolic Church of Pentecost boast about having the gift of speaking in tongues. They have not yet received the gift of healing. They are expecting to receive it. If they do so, let them notify us…
+Archimandrite Daniel Goubalis
A first fallacy is the idea they have about the activity of the Holy Spirit. We believe that since the day of the Pentecost the Holy Spirit has been constantly present and active within the Church. The Pentecostals say that the Holy Spirit was present in the Church in the beginning, during the Apostolic times and the first Christian period and that it then left and came back at the beginning of the twentieth century in the religious movement of the Pentecostals, that it is found at their gatherings. They even speak about the early and late rainfall of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit - meaning the Old Pentecost and the New Pentecost.
This doctrine is totally false and contrary to the very same word of Christ. During the Last Supper the Lord told His disciples that they should not be sad because of the fact that He would part from them. He told them that He would send the Holy Spirit in His Church, which would permanently remain in it. “and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; “Even the Spirit of truth…” (John, 14:16).
Comforter means consoler, helper. One Comforter is Jesus Christ. The other one is the Holy Spirit, which will have constant, eternal presence in the Church – “that he may abide with you for ever”.
Christ, as mentioned above (John 14:2-3), will depart for the house of His Father, will prepare spiritual places for all those who belong to Him and one day He will come to receive them and lead them there. During all this time, those who belong to Him will not be orphans, because He will send the Holy Spirit to them, the Comforter (John 16:7), who will constantly be with them to console and help them.
If, for example, thirty centuries pass until Christ’s Second Coming, the Holy Spirit will be present within the Church this entire time. We repeat: John. 14:16, “that he may abide with you for ever”.
It will remain within the Church eternally, forever, constantly, this is what we believe. The fresh rain of the Holy Spirit will constantly exist within the Church. This rain will eternally water the meadow of the Church. And it will give fruit unto all ages.
If only two rainfalls existed, the early one and the latter, then Christ would have spoken differently. The Pentecostals would then be right.
Some of the Holy Spirit’s gifts are the gift of teaching (1 Corinthians 12:28), the gift of the «word of wisdom» and the gift of the «word of knowledge» (1 Corinthians 12:8). Those who own these gifts comprehend the Holy Scripture in the right way and become wise teachers of the Church.
Therefore, throughout the twenty Christian centuries that have passed, the Holy Spirit always revealed wise teachers and theologians who interpreted the Holy Scripture correctly. Thus, during the first centuries we have Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Saint Clement of Rome, Saint Irinaeus, Saint Hippolytus. Then Saint Cyprian of Carthage, Saint Dionysius of Alexandria. Then, in the fourth century, the Three Holy Hierarchs and other wise teachers of the East and the West. Among them, Saint Hieronymus who spent his life studying and translating, word by word, the Holy Scripture and Saint Augustine, who, among others left us a wonderful rendering of John’s Gospel, as a heritage.
Later, Saint Cyril of Alexandria who also wonderfully rendered John’s Gospel in depth and in breadth.
Half a century later we have Saint Andrew, Archbishop of Caesarea who left us a great rendering of the book of the Apocalypse.
In the beginning of the sixth century Saint Anastasius of Sinai, writer of the so-called “Guide Along the Right Path”, shone. He was Holy Scripture literate and the heretic Monophysites, tremendously feared him.
During the first half of the seventh century shone an exquisite theological personality, Saint Maximus the Confessor, carrying in his mind the whole of the wisdom of the Holy Scripture. Let the Pentecostals read his writings and let them tell us if any “Holy Spirit rainfall” existed at that time.
Saint John Damascene shines during the first half of the eighth century. We will only say one thing about him. His writing “Source of knowledge” has been translated into Latin, Syrian, Armenian, Georgian, Old Church Slavonic and into many newer languages. Whoever reads it realizes that then, during the seventh century, the Holy Spirit’s rainfall poured on the meadow of the Church.
Saint Theodore the Studite, a great theologian and heroic fighter of the faith shines in the eighth century.
The ninth century boasts about Saint Photios the Great, great and unprecedented personality who had all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Who had the gift of teaching in greater strength than he? Let the heretics read some of his works, i.e. Amphilochia, where difficult issues of the Holy Scripture are interpreted and let them then tell us if the Holy Spirit was present in the Church at that time.
We must not go on, because this text will be too long. Just to note here that in the fourteenth century Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki, shone like a star. The Holy Spirit’s grace streams myrrh in his numerous writings.
And what a pity! The Pentecostals ignore and look down on all these excellent writings of the wise teachers of the Church! Their spiritual guides will never talk to them about these holy fathers. Thus, they disregard an invaluable spiritual wealth which is another gift of the Holy Spirit. In other words, they oppose the Holy Spirit.
If a benevolent Pentecostal studied these wonderful writings, he/she would understand that the Holy Spirit always watered the meadow of the Church. This way, the Pentecostals’ theory about old and new rainfall would collapse.
If an heretic has the good will to read, for example, the rendition of “Our Father who art in Heaven..”, or the writing of Saint Gregory of Nyssa “Life of Moses”, or the renderings of the Psalms and the ninety speeches of Saint John Chrysostom on Mathew’s Gospel, or Saint Basil’s writing “about the Holy Spirit” or the fifty “Spiritual Speeches” of Saint Macarius of Egypt, will be astonished by the beauty and wisdom of these texts and will comprehend that the Holy Spirit was always active within the Church and that it always presents wise teachers.
There is no way that the Holy Spirit may be absent from the Church. A monk from Mount Athos wrote: “the Holy Spirit is the landlord of the Church, who enlightens and inspires it throughout the centuries “.
Throughout all these Christian centuries, the Holy Spirit not only showed wise teachers, but also great Saints with the gifts of miracles, healing, prophecy and other gifts. We refer, only as an example among many, to the Saints of the Russian Church. Let the Pentecostals read for example the life of Saint Seraphim of Sarov and let them tell us if the Holy Spirit was present in the Orthodox Church during the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries.
The Free Apostolic Church of Pentecost boast about having the gift of speaking in tongues. They have not yet received the gift of healing. They are expecting to receive it. If they do so, let them notify us…
While here in Greece –there is no need to go further away- lived three miraculous elders, father Porphyrius, father Paisius and father Jakob, who did not only strongly have the gift of healing, but they also had the ones of prophecy and many others. Their biographies have been republished many times and are being translated into many languages. All three perform miracles after death.
Let the Pentecostals show us a similar spiritual personality in their area of activity. We will then admit that the Holy Spirit is present in their gatherings.
From all that I have mentioned the fact is derived that the doctrine of the Pentecostals -that the Holy Spirit has not always been present within the Church- is totally baseless.
Before ending this chapter we will say one last thing, observed by a brother who wandered around in this heretic sect for many years.
Christ founded the Church. According to Saint Paul’s teaching the Church is the body and Christ is the head (Ephesians 5:23). Wherever Christ is found, the Holy Spirit is also there. On the day He resurrected, He gave the Holy Spirit to His disciples, “he breathed on them and said, «Receive the Holy Spirit»“(John, 20:22).
If we say that the Holy Spirit did not exist within the Church at one point, it is as though we are saying that someone decapitated the body of Christ, that the body of Christ was therefore dead for a certain period of time. This is how whoever follows the “creed” of the Pentecostals ends up.
These people are deep into fallacy. Despite this fact, they believe that they are the only holders of the truth!
From the book:
WATERLESS CLOUDS – The side effects of the Pentecostal fallacies.
+Archimandrite Daniel Goubalis
ANTIHERETICAL HANDBOOK www.egolpion.com
2012-04-04
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