The Kingdom of God is Within You

viction of Believers and Unbelievers Alike that they Understand it-The Meaning of Christianity Obscured for Believers by the Church-The First Appearance of Christ's Teaching-Its Essence and Difference

be Founded by Christ-Definitions of a Church According to the Catechisms-The Churches have Always been Several in Number and Hostile to One Another-What is Heresy-The Work of G. Arnold on Heresies-Heresies the Manifestations of Progress in the Churches-Churches Cause Dissension among Men, and are Always Hostile to Christianity-Account of the Work Done by t

ike, denied the possibility of taking Christ's teaching in its direct sense. All this convinced me that while on one hand the true understanding of this doctrine had never been lost to a minority, but had been established more and more clearly, on the ot

man consciousness; when, in the words of Christ, that which was spoken in the ear is proclaimed from the housetops; and when the Gospel is influencing every side of human life-domest

t so fully, indubitably, and conclusively that it can have no other significance than the one they attribute to it. And the reason of this conviction is that the false inter

idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if

which everyone has known so long and accepted so unhesitatingly in all its minute

egarded as an illustration of man's craving for a belief in the supernatural, which mankind has now outgrown, as an historical phenomenon which has received full expression in Catholicis

ppeared in the midst of the heathen Roman world a strange new doctri

ew to the Jewish world in which it originated, and still mo

of punishment which all the old laws of religions and governments alike laid down for non-fulfillment of their rules, instead of promises of rewards for fulfillment of them, this doctrine called men to it only because it was the truth. John vii. 17: "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." John viii. 46: "If I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? But ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Keep my sayings, and ye shall know of my sayings whether they be true." No proofs of this doctrine were offered except its truth, the correspondence of the doctrine with the truth. The whole teaching consisted i

sedness, according to this doctrine, than the stationary righteousness of the Pharisee. The lost sheep is dearer than ninety-nine that were not

nd outward perfection, and therefore has no significance of itself. Blessedness consists in progress

the kingdom of God." "Rejoice not that the spirits are subject to you, but seek rather that your names be written in heave

tainment of ever higher truth, toward establishing more and more firmly an ever greater lov

ority of men, who were living a life absolutely different from what was required by it. It is obvious, too, that even for those by w

of life has exerted an influence on the Jewish and heathen, and the heathen and Jewish view of life has, too, exerted an influence on the Christian. And Christianity, as the living force, has gained more and more upon the extinct Judaism and heat

rer became the meaning of Christianity, as mus

ery earliest times of Christianity. And so, too, from the earliest times of Christianity there were men who began to assert on their own authority that the meani

he misunderstanding of the doctrine, and a

its correspondence with the needs of the mind and the whole nature of man, but by the miraculous manner of its transmission, which was advanced as an irrefutable proof of t

scure it appeared and the more necessary were external proofs of its truth. The proposition that we ought not to do unto others as we would not they should do unto us, did not need to be proved by miracles and needed n

introduced into it, the more the doctrine was strained from its meaning and the more obscure it became; and the more it was strained from its

e earliest times the non-comprehension of the doctrine called fort

r in Jerusalem to decide the question which had arisen, whether to baptize o

nd sabbaths. It was plainly said, "Not that which goeth into a man's mouth, but that which cometh out of a man's mouth, defileth him," and therefore the question of baptizing the uncircumcised

it. And then to settle this question, the very asking of which proved their misunderstanding of the doctrine, there was uttered in this assembly, as is described in the A

ly Ghost precedes the assembly, but the book of Acts was written much later than both events.) But the descent of the Holy Ghost too had to be proved for those who had not seen the tongues of fire (though it is not easy to understand why a tongue of fire burning above a man's head should prove that what that man is going to say will be infallibly the truth). And so arose the necessity for still more miracles and changes, raisings of the dead to life, and strikings of

a book, as in Protestantism. The more widely Christianity was diffused, and the greater the number of people unprepared for it who were brought under its sway, the less it was understood, the more absolutely was its infallibility insisted on, and the less possible it became to understand the true meaning of the doctrine. In the times of Constantine the whole interpretation of the doctrine had been already reduced to a résumé-supported

o refute them. Nowhere nor in anything, except in the assertion of the Church, can we find that God or Christ founded anything like what Churchmen understand by the Church. In the Gospels there is a warning against the Church, as

n connection with the obscure utterance about a stone-Peter, and the gates of hell. From these two passages in which the w

ng like the idea of the Church as we know it now, with its sacraments, miracles, and above all its cl

rd as Christ used for something totally different, does not give

clearly and definitely, and would have given the only true Church, besides tales of miracles, which are used to support every kind of superstition, some tokens so unmistakable that no

et soumise à l'authorité des pasteurs légitimes, principalement notre Saint Père le Pape,"[2] understanding by the words "pasteurs légi

by one divine doctrine and by sacraments, under the rule and guidance of a priesthood appointed by God," meaning by the "priesth

r head, to whom the Holy Ghost through the Gospels and sacraments promises, communicates, and administers heavenly s

ood and the Pope. For the Greek Orthodox believer the Church of

with a body of men who recognize the aut

ar, as though there were and had been only one church. But this is absolutely incorrect. The Church, as an institution which asserted

ng parties, renouncing one another, that it seemed necessary to each party to confirm their own truth by ascribing to themselves infallibility. The conception of one

receive the uncircumcised, it is only so because there was anothe

Greco-Russian, Old Orthodox, and Lutheran-each asserting its own infallibility and denying that of all other ch

s of men, each asserting that it is the one Church, founded by Christ, and

orld-wide influence-the Catholic, the Old Or

rétiques, les schismatiques."[4] The so-called Greek Orthodox are regarded as schismatics, the Lutheran

in accord with the Universal Church. As for the Roman Church and other sects (the Lutherans and the rest they do not even

s and Lutherans are outside the Church, a

ass in ihr das Wort Gottes lauter und rein ohne Menschenzus?tze geleh

hing of Christ and the apostles, as the Catholic and Greek churches have d

t as the churches in authority now). The Protestants of every kind-Lutherans, Reformed Church, Presbyterians, Methodists, Swedenborgians, Mormons-assert that the Holy Ghost is only present in their communities. If the Catholics assert that the Holy Ghost, at the time of the division of the Church into Arian and Greek,

ed that has been derived from Christ must have come down to the present generation through a certain transmission. But that doe

n the same miracles, in support of its authenticity, as every other. So that there is but one strict and exact definition of what is a church (not of something fantastic which we would wish it to be, but of what it is and has been in reality)-a church is a body of men who claim for themselves

ons consisted in the fact that those who accepted it strove ever more and more to comprehend and realize it

tempt for heresy, yet the fact is that only in what was called heresy was there any true movement, that is, true Christianity, and t

st presents itself for definition; since every theological work deals with the true doctrine of Christ as distinguished from th

ike a definition of what is understood by the word heresy. Here is what he says in his introduction (p. 3): "Je sais que l'on nous conteste le droit de qualifier ainsi [that is, to call heresies] les tendances qui furent si vivement combattues p

s, n'est-on pas en droit d'y voir non pas un système formulé et composé par les représentants d'une autorité d'école, mais la foi elle-même dans son instinct le plus s?r et sa manifestation la plus spontanée? Si cette même unanimité qui se révèle dans les croyances essentielles, se retrouve pour repousser telles ou telles tendances, ne serons-nous pas en droit de conclure que ces tendances étaient en désacord flagrant avec les principes fondamentaux du christianisme? Cette présomption ne se transformera-t-elle pas en certitude si nous reconnaissons dans la doctrine universellement repoussée par l'Eglise les traits caractéristiques de l'

eve in at a given time, is heresy. But of course at any given time and place men always believe in something

ubi Christus ibi Ecclesia, t

istory a series of illustrations of its own creed, can use all Pressensé's arguments on its own behalf, and ca

on which rejects a part of the Creed professed by that body. The more frequent meaning, more often ascribed to the w

ch deals with precisely this subject, and points out all the unlawfulness, the arbitrariness, the senselessness, and the cruelty of using t

eretics; (2) Of those whom they made heretics; (3) Of heretical subjects themselves; (4

eader to draw for himself the principal conclusion from the expositions in the whole book. As examples of these questions, in which the answers are to some e

rupt times of Christianity were not these very men cast out, denounced by the hypocrites and envious, who were endowed by God with great gifts and who would in the days of pure Christianity have been held in high honor? And, on the other hand, would not the men who, in the

hurch, and the departure from which was reckoned as heresy, could never fully cover the exact religious ideas of a believer, and

profound that he does not find corresponding words to express them, ought one to call him

e they had perfect liberty to express their ideas without the dread of being called heretics; was it not the easiest and most ordinary ecclesiastical proceeding, if the clergy wanted

farther on, "from the innumerable examples quoted here (i. e., in the history of the Church and of heresy), that there was not

ot fail to exist so long as the conception of a church exists. Heresy is the obverse side of the Church. Wherever there is a church, there must be the conception of heresy. A

Church. All effort after a living comprehension of the doctrine has been made by heretics. Tertullian, Ori

lment of it, in progress toward perfection, cannot, just because he is a follower of Christ, claim for himself or an

d fulfillment of it, and is always striving toward a fuller understanding and fulfillment. And therefore, to assert of one's self or of any body of me

ectly antagonistic to it. With good reason Voltaire calls the Church l'infame; with good reason have all or almost all so-called sects of Christians recognize

hurches, as bodies which assert their own infallibility, are institutions opposed to Christianity. There is not only nothing in common between the churches as such and Christianity, except the name, but they r

two masters; we have t

the churches never bound men together in unity; they have always been one of the principal causes of division between men, of their hatred of one another, of wars, battles, inquisitions, massacres of St. Bartholomew, and so on. And the churches have never served as mediators between men and God. Such mediation is not wanted, and was directly forbidden by Christ, who has revealed his teaching directly and immediately to each man. But the churches set up de

tler, and others professing the Christian faith, were antagonistic to Christianity." One is tempted to say, "The churches may have strayed away from Christianity, they may be in error, but they cannot be hostile to it." But we must look to the fruit to judge the tree, as Christ taught us. And if we see that their fruits were evil, that the results of their activity were antagonistic to Christianity, we cannot but admit that however good the men were-the work of the Church in which t

od by us? The churches, with their principles and their practice, are not a thing of the past. The churches are

t is done by the churches among us, among the Catholics and the Protestants of all denom

lain to all. It is an enormous fact which there is no poss

mense, intensely active institution, which consists of a regiment o

od, of Sacraments, of Grace, and so on, extinct conceptions, foreign to us, and having no kind of meaning for men of our times, forms only one part of the work of the Russian Church. Another part of its practice consists in the maintenance of idol-worship in the most literal meaning of the word; in the veneration of holy relics, and of ikons, the offering of sacrifices to them, and the expectation of their answers to prayer. I am not going t

that is, be dipped by the priest three times into the water, while certain words, understood by no one, are read aloud, and certain actions, still less understood, are performed; various parts of the body are rubbed with oil, and the hair is cut, while the sponsors blow and spit at an imaginary devil. All this is necessary to purify the child and to make him a Christian. Then it is instilled into the parents that they ought to administer the sacrament to the child, that is, give him, in the guise of bread and wine, a portion of Christ's body to eat, as a result of wh

cumcised, on which the Mother of God died, on which the cross was carried in procession, on which ikons have been set up, on which a lunatic saw a vision, and so on)-on holidays he must dress himself in his best clothes and go to church, and must buy candles and place them there before the images o

rifies him from them. And after that he must eat with a little spoon a morsel of bread with wine, which will purify him still more. Next it is instilled into him that if a man and woman want their physical union to be sanctified they m

o carry them slung on his shoulders through the fields and houses. It is instilled into him that on his death-bed a man must not fail to eat bread and wine with a spoon, and that it will be still better if he has time to be rubbed with sacred oil. This will guarantee his welfare in the future life. After his death it is insti

he salvation of the soul in the world is attained by offering money to the churches and monasteries, and engaging the holy men by this

to these objects, touching them, kissing them, putting candles before them, crawling under them while they are

l faith which, under the guise of Christianity, has been with all the forc

and nothing but this, is the faith taught through the whole of Russia by the whole of the Russian clergy, and of late years with especial zeal. There is nothing else taught. Something different may be talked of and written

he people in theory and in practice, using every resource of authority, solemnity, pomp, and violence to impress them. They compel the people

a disrespectful word about a hideous idol which is carried sacrilegiously about Moscow by drunken men under the name of the ikon of the Iversky virgin, and you will raise a groan of indignation from these same Churchmen. All that they preach is an external observance of the rites of idola

not ye after their works, for they say and do not," refer to their observance of ceremonies and their neglect of good works, and have exactly the opposite meaning to that which the Churchmen try to give to the passage, interpreting it a

ption, by sacraments, and by praye

od-who has cursed the human race and devoted his own Son to sacrifice, and a part of mankind to eternal torment-cannot believe in the God of love. The man who believes in a God, in a Christ coming again in glory to judge and to punish the quick and the dead, cannot believe in the Christ who bade us turn the left cheek, judge not, forgive those that wrong us, and love our enemies. The man who believes in the inspiration of the Old Testament and t

on through faith in the redemption or the sacraments, cannot devo

saved by his own powers, but that there is another means of salvation, will infallibly rely

ments, excludes the teaching of Christ; most of all the tea

s with wreaths of birch leaves, there has still always been in the people a profound moral and living understanding of Christianity, which there has never been in the Church as a whole, and which is only met with in its best representatives. But the people, notwithstanding all the prejudices instilled into them by the government and the Church, have in their best representatives long outgrown that crude stage of understanding, a fact which is proved by the springing up eve

re perfect form," say the Churchmen. This is just what the man did who tied u

consequences were not so awful, by observing how men shut one

them? Hundreds of thousands of men put this question to themselves, and their principal difficulty in answering it is the fact that bishops, metropolitans, and all men in positions of authority kiss the relics and wo

journals, and their sermons, the practical work of the Russian Church consists of nothing more than keeping the people in their present condition of coarse and savage idolatry, and wors

ead. A monk pressed on him accounts of relics, holidays, miraculous ikons, a psalter, etc. I asked the old man, "Has he the Gospel?" "No." "Give h

ve. And such an observation is just, but only so far as it refers to the governme

. And therefore the share of the temporal power in the corruption of the people is greatest in Russia. But it is

or the Lutheran Church has not at hand a government as compliant as the R

t as the Russian Church. That object is to conceal the real meaning of Christ's teaching and to replace it by their own, which lays no obligation on them, excludes t

practice, the same supporting of the present idolatry. And is not the same thing done in Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and every denomination of Protestantism which has been formed into a church? There is the same duty laid on their congregations to believe in the dogmas expressed in the fourth century, which have lost all meaning for men of our times, and the same duty of idolatrous worship, if not of relics and ikons, then of the Sabbath Day and the letter of the Bible. There is alway

ches to the teaching of Christ, whose n

hem with the articles of belief instilled into him in childhood, and maintained by the churches-that God created the world in six days, and light before the sun; that Noah shut up all the animals in his ark, and so on; that Jesus is also God the Son, who created all before time was; that this God came down upon earth to atone for Adam's sin; that he rose again, ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father, and will come in the clouds to judge the world, and so on. All these

ens opened, that Christ ascended into heaven, but for us all these phrases have no sense whatever. Men of the present can only

all Churchmen are not agreed about it, but, on the contrary, the majority stick to understanding the Holy Scripture in its

taught to him, the universal diffusion of education and of the Gospel and of communication between

onvinced that the Church pastors, who call themselves teachers in opposition to Christ's precept, and dispute among themselves, constitute no kind of authority, and that what the Churchmen teach us is not Christianity. Less even than that is necessary. Even if a man nowadays did continue to believe in miracles and did not read the Gospel, mere association with people of different forms of religion and faith, which happens so easily in these days, compels him to doubt of the truth of his own faith. It was all very well when a

hese priests, pastors, incumbents, superintendents, abbots, archdeacons, bishops, and archbishops. They need special supernatural efforts. And the churches do, with ever-increasing intensity and zeal, make such efforts. With us in Russia, besides other means, they employ simple br

ithout exception avail themselves of every means for the purpose-o

ect is constantly produced. This use of hypnotizing influence on men to bring them to a state of stupefaction is especially apparent in the proceedings of the Sa

old practices in churches essentially the same, with their special lightin

y first awakening of the consciousness of the child they begin to deceive him, to instill into him with the utmost solemnity what they do not themselves believe in, and they continue to instill it into him till the deception has by habit grown into the child's nature. They studiously deceive the child on the most important subject

the perplexity of two opposing theories of life which had been instilled into him from childhood, one could not

eves in the Sermon on the Mount, the Nicene Creed must inevitably lose all meaning and significance for him, and the Church and its representatives together with it. If a man believes in the Nicene Creed, that is, in the Church, that is, in those who call themselves its representatives, the Sermon on the M

g will be the end of the churches and all their influence. And therefore the churches will not for an instant relax their zeal in the business of hypnotizing grown-up people and deceiving child