Word XIII. Earthly Kingdoms Are Shaken and Fall Through Unbelief and Lawlessness

May 6, 1907.

“«We, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken (the Church), let us keep the grace by which we shall serve God acceptably, with reverence and fear. For our God is a devouring fire» (Hebr 12:28-29).”

Russia and the Church solemnly celebrate today the birth of the Tsar crowned by God to the all-Russian throne, and pray to the King of kings for the prosperous reign, the victory—that is, the long life, peace, health, and salvation—of our earthly Tsar, and that the Lord would grant him good success and help him in all things and subdue under his feet every enemy and adversary.

We live not in a peaceful, but in a restless and seditious time, a time of lawlessness and godlessness, a time of the brazen trampling of the laws of God and man; a time of the senseless reeling of minds that have tasted a little worldly wisdom and have thought too highly of themselves—for knowledge puffs up, as the word of God says, but love builds up. It is plain to everyone that the Russian kingdom is shaken, is reeling, is close to falling.

Why, then, has the Russian kingdom, once so great, so firm, so mighty and glorious, now grown so feeble, so powerless, so undone, so shaken? Because it has departed from the firm and unshakeable foundation of the true faith, and the greater part of the intelligentsia has fallen away from God, who alone is the unshakeable power forever and ever, by whom heaven and earth have for so many ages been firmly held together in wondrous harmony. This is why our kingdom is shaken; and is the Russian kingdom, which occupies a sixth of the earth, the only one shaken by godlessness and anarchy? No—all the kingdoms of the earth that have forsaken the true faith are shaken and tremble; and some kingdoms and cities that existed before Christ and after Christ have vanished altogether from the stage of the world for their unbelief and lawlessness. And the longer this adulterous and sinful world exists and prospers in lawlessness, the more and more it weakens, grows decrepit, and is shaken, so that by the end of the world it will become altogether a corpse and a smoldering brand, which will be wholly consumed by the last, fearsome, universal fire: for the earth and all the works in it will be burned up, as the apostle says, and we look, according to the promise of God, for a new heaven and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells (2Pet 3:10,13).

We Russians, of the Orthodox faith, as children of the Christian Church, having received the Mystery of Baptism, have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling (the blood of Christ) that speaks better things than that of Abel.—See, says the Apostle in his epistle to the Hebrews, that you refuse not Him who speaks. For if (the ancient Jews, at the time of Moses) they escaped not who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape, if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth, and who has now given this promise: yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. The words yet once more signify the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we, receiving a heavenly kingdom, let us hold fast to the grace by which we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire (Hebr 12:22-26,29).

I have cited these words of Paul from the epistle to the Hebrews because they apply also to us, the Russian people, who have fallen away from God and from the New Zion, the Church of Christ, founded on the unbreakable Rock—Christ—on whom whoever falls will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder (Mt 21:44). Without doubt, all Russians who have fallen away from the faith and the Church will be broken like clay pots (vessels of earthenware, Ps 2:9), unless they turn back and repent; but the Church will remain unshaken even to the end of the age, and the Monarch of Russia, if he remains faithful to the Orthodox Church, will be established upon the throne of Russia until the end of the age.

Hold fast, then, O Russia, to your faith and your Church, and to your Orthodox Tsar, if you wish to remain unshaken by men of unbelief and lawlessness, and do not wish to be deprived of your kingdom and your Orthodox Tsar. But if you fall away from your faith, as many of the intelligentsia have already fallen away from it, then you will no longer be Russia, or holy Rus’, but a rabble of every kind of unbeliever, bent on destroying one another. Remember the words of Christ to the unbelieving Jews: the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation (a people) bringing forth its fruits (Mt 21:42-43). Amen.