Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future Quotes

“doctrine, the normal Christian safeguards which protect one against the attacks of fallen spirits are removed or neutralized, and the passiveness and “openness” which characterize the new cults literally open one up to be used by demons. Studies of the experiences of many of the “consciousness cults” show that there is a regular progression in them from experiences which at first are “good” or “neutral” to experiences which become strange and frightening and in the end clearly demonic.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“We Hindus do not merely tolerate, we unite ourselves with every religion, praying in the mosque of the Mohammedan, worshipping before the fire of the Zoroastrian, and kneeling to the Cross of the Christian. We know that all religions alike, from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, are but so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realize the Infinite. So we gather all these flowers and, binding them together with the cords of love, make them into a wonderful bouquet of worship.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“Thomas Merton, of course, constitutes a special threat to Christians, because he presents himself as a contemplative Christian monk, and his work has already affected the vitals of Roman Catholicism, its monasticism. Shortly before his death, Father Merton wrote an appreciative introduction to a new translation of the Bhagavad Gita, which is the spiritual manual or “Bible” of all Hindus, and one of the foundation blocks of monism or Advaita Vedanta. The Gita, it must be remembered, opposes almost every important teaching of Christianity. His book on the Zen Masters, published posthumously, is also noteworthy, because the entire work is based on a treacherous mistake: the assumption that all the so-called “mystical experiences” in every religion are true. He should have known better.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“The physical world is morally neutral and may be known relatively well by an objective observer; but the invisible spiritual realm comprises beings both good and evil, and the “objective” observer has no means of distinguishing one from the other unless he accepts the revelation which the invisible God has made of them to man.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“For us Christians God is inconceivable, incomprehensible, indescribable, and immaterial, as St. Basil the Great says.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“In the face of all this, the Christian believer can hardly doubt Fr. Seraphim’s words that “satan now walks naked into human history.” Whitley Strieber is likewise correct when he observes that, with the decline of the “control mechanisms” of traditional Christian civilization, the “visitors” are attempting more and more to “break into the conscious world.” But instead of leading us to the New Age that Strieber envisions, these attempts will help to usher in precisely what he described of his first encounter with aliens: “hell on earth.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“Through the ministries of leaders such as Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Rodney Howard-Browne, Kenneth Hagin, Morris Cerullo, Paul Yonggi Cho, and Marilyn Hickey, the Faith Movement has spread its heresies and attendant charismatic phenomena throughout the world.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“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.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“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.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“The present-day “charismatic” movement and “Christian meditation,” and the “new religious consciousness” of which they are part, are forerunners of the religion of the future, the religion of the last humanity, the religion of antichrist, and their chief “spiritual” function is to make available to Christians the demonic initiation”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“How is the Orthodox Christian prepared to withstand deception? He has the whole body of God-inspired Patristic writings which, together with Holy Scripture, present the judgment of Christ’s Church for 1900 years with regard to virtually every conceivable spiritual and pseudo-spiritual experience.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“the ascetic, striving to kindle in his heart love for God while neglecting repentance, exerts himself to attain a feeling of delight, of ecstasy, and as a result he attains precisely the opposite: ‘he enters into communion with satan and becomes infected with hatred for the Holy Spirit’ (Bishop Ignatius).”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“the “tongues” movement is not at all a “revival,” for there is in it little repentance or conviction of sin, but chiefly the search for power and experience; the phenomenon of tongues is not the gift described in the Acts, nor is it (in most cases) actual demonic possession; rather, “it becomes more and more clear that perhaps over 95% of the whole tongues movement is mediumistic in character”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“And above all let us note that this new “outpouring of the Holy Spirit,” exactly like the Ecumenical Movement itself, arises outside the Orthodox Church; those few Orthodox parishes that are now taking it up are obviously following a fashion of the times that matured completely outside the bounds of the Church of Christ.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“In this way, the “new religious consciousness” becomes an enemy of Christianity that is much more powerful and dangerous than any of the heresies of the past. When experience is emphasized above doctrine, the normal Christian safeguards which protect one against the attacks of fallen spirits are removed or neutralized, and the passiveness and “openness” which characterize the new cults literally open one up to be used by demons.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“Let us be warned from this: the religion of the future will not be a mere cult or sect, but a powerful and profound religious orientation which will be absolutely convincing to the mind and heart of modern man.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“How many sincere, misguided false prophets there are in the world today, each thinking he is bringing benefit to his fellow men, instead of an invitation to psychic and spiritual disaster! Of this we shall speak more in the conclusion below.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“the Orthodox Church has always taught: that Orthodox Christians do not at all have the “same God” as the so-called “monotheists” who deny the Holy Trinity; that the gods of the pagans are in fact demons; and that the experiences and powers which the pagan “gods” can and do provide are satanic in nature.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“Will we have the Om”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“If you give up on the Living God, the throne is not going to remain empty”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

“Passivity: “A spirit’s activity is measured by the degree of passivity or submissiveness which he finds in the sensitive, or medium.” “Mediumship ... by diligent cultivation may be attained by anyone who deliberately yields up his body, with his free will, and sensitive and intellectual faculties, to an invading or controlling spirit.”
― Seraphim Rose, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future