The hallmarks of a false doctrine are obscurity, vagueness, opinion 21 , and the dreamy, bloody, and nervous pleasure it engenders. It is achieved through the subtle effects of vanity and lust.
Fallen humanity approaches holy truth by faith; there is no other way to it. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" ( Rom. 10:17 ), the Apostle teaches us.
The word of God is truth ( John 17:17 ); the commandments of the Gospel are truth ( Psalm 119:86 ); every man is a liar ( Psalm 116:2 ). All this is attested to by Divine Scripture. How then can you expect to hear the voice of holy truth from one who is a liar?
Do you want to hear it—to hear the spiritual voice of holy truth? Learn to read the Gospel: from it you will hear the truth, in it you will see the truth. The truth will reveal to you your fall and the bonds of falsehood, the bonds of self-deception, which invisibly bind the soul of every person not renewed by the Holy Spirit.
You are ashamed to admit, fallen prideful one, proud in your very fall, that you must seek truth outside yourself, that its entrance into your soul is through hearing and other bodily senses! But this is the undeniable truth, revealing how deep our fall is. So deep, so terrible is our fall, that to rescue us from the perilous abyss, God the Word took upon Himself humanity, so that from disciples of the devil and falsehood, men might become disciples of God and Truth, freed by the Word and the Spirit of Truth from sinful slavery and taught all truth .
We are so crude, so sensual, that it was necessary for the Holy Truth to be exposed to our physical senses; we needed not only the sounds of words, but also healings of the sick, tangible signs in waters, trees, and loaves of bread, so that we, convinced by our physical eyes, could discern the Truth. So darkened have our spiritual eyes become!
“Unless you see signs and wonders, you cannot believe” ( John 4:48 ), the Lord reproached the sensual people who asked Him for healing for their bodies, and who did not even suspect that their souls were in an incomparably more terrible illness, and therefore needed healing and the heavenly Physician incomparably more than their bodies.
And the man confessed before the Lord that the signs seen by his physical eyes had led him to faith, to vision with his mind. "I know ," he said to the Lord, " that you have come as a teacher from God: for no one can do these signs... unless God is with him" ( John 3:2 ). And this man had earthly learning.
Many saw the Savior with their own eyes, witnessed His divine power over all creation in the miracles He performed; many heard His holy teachings with their own ears, heard the very demons testifying of Him; but they did not recognize Him, hated Him, and attempted the most terrible crime—deicide. So deep, so terrible is our fall, our darkening.
It seems that it is enough to read one chapter of the Gospel to know the God speaking in it. "You have the words of eternal life ," our Lord and God, who appeared to us in the humble form of a man, "and we have believed and are sure that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" ( John 6:68–69 ).
Truth itself speaks: "If you continue in My word, you will truly be My disciples. And you will understand the truth, and the truth will set you free" ( John 8:31–32 ). Study the Gospel, and from it will speak to you the genuine, holy truth.
Truth can also speak within a person. But when does this happen? When, in the words of the Savior, a person is clothed with "power from on high" ( Luke 24:49 ): "When He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth" ( John 16:13 ).
If, before the manifest coming of the Holy Spirit—the prerogative of God's saints—anyone imagines he hears the truth within himself, he is only flattering his pride and deceiving himself; he rather hears the voice of the one who said in Paradise: "You will be like gods" ( Gen. 3:5 ). And this voice seems to him to be the voice of truth!
To learn the truth from the Gospel and the Holy Fathers, and through reading to partake of the Holy Spirit who lives in the Gospel and the Holy Fathers is a great happiness.
I am not worthy of the highest happiness—the happiness of hearing the truth from the Holy Spirit Himself! I am incapable of it! I am incapable of enduring it, of preserving it: my vessel is unprepared, unfinished, and unstrengthened. The wine of the Spirit, if poured into it, would burst it and spill itself ( Matthew 9:17 ), and therefore my all-good Lord, sparing my weakness, is longsuffering toward me ( Luke 18:7 ), and does not provide me with strong spiritual food for food ( 1 Corinthians 3:2 ).
The centurion acknowledged his unworthiness to receive the Lord into his home, but instead prayed for the Lord's almighty word to come to the house and heal the boy. It came; the sign occurred, the boy was healed. The Lord commended the centurion's faith and humility ( Matthew 8:8–13 ).
The sons of Israel spoke to their holy leader and lawgiver, speaking from a true understanding of the greatness of the Deity, from a concept that gives birth in man to the consciousness and knowledge of human nothingness: "Speak thou with us, and let not God speak to us, lest we die" ( Exodus 20:19 ). These humble and saving words are characteristic of every true Christian: a Christian is protected by such a heartfelt pledge from spiritual death, which strikes down the pride and insolence of the self-deluded. In contrast to the true Christian, this spiritual Israelite, the self-deluded one cries out in frenzy: "The sons of Israel once said to Moses, 'Speak thou to us, and we will hear; but let not the Lord speak to us, lest we die. Not so, Lord, not so, I pray!'" Let not Moses, or any other prophet, speak to me: Speak You, Lord God, who gives inspiration to all the prophets. You alone, without them, can teach me completely” .
Unworthy of the Lord, unworthy of imitation is he who is all in filth and impurity, but with a stupid, proud, dreamy opinion thinks of being in the arms of the Most Pure, Most Holy Lord, thinks of having Him within himself and conversing with Him as with a friend 24 .
"God is glorified in the company of the saints; He is great and terrible above all His neighbors" ( Psalm 89:8 ), says Scripture; He is terrifying to the highest heavenly Powers. Six-winged Seraphim hover around His throne, uttering unceasing praises in ecstasy and terror at the majesty of God, covering their fiery faces with fiery wings: Isaiah, the seer of mysteries, saw this ( Isaiah 6 ). Man! reverently cover yourself with humility.
It is enough, it is enough if the Word of God, the truth, enters into the house of the soul through hearing or reading, and heals the child, that is, you, who are still in infancy in relation to Christ, although by carnal age you may already be adorned with gray hairs.
There is no other access to the Truth! "How shall they believe ," says the Apostle, " whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without someone preaching? ... Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" ( Rom. 10:14, 17 ). The living organs of the Holy Spirit have become silent: the Scriptures—the utterances of the Holy Spirit—preach the truth.
Faithful son of the Eastern Church! (Orthodox) Listen to friendly advice, to saving advice. Do you wish to thoroughly understand God's path, to follow this path to eternal salvation? Study the holy truth in Holy Scripture, especially in the New Testament and in the writings of the Holy Fathers. Purity of life is absolutely necessary for this exercise, for only the pure in heart can see God. Then, in due time, you will become, to the extent known and pleasing to God, a disciple and confidant of holy Truth, a partaker of the Holy Spirit, inseparable from It and imparted by It. Amen.
Source: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ignatij_Brjanchaninov/tom1_asketicheskie_opyty/8