Czar Ivan IV was ambitious, unpredictable, and cruel. He waged ceaseless and unjust wars against neighboring countries, endorsed the Cossack conquest of Serbia, executed the wives and children of his opponents, and confiscated lands, forcing families into exile. When he heard that a document had been discovered in Novgorod pledging the city's co-operation with Poland in overthrowing him, he pounced (without waiting to determine if the document was genuine): Shops were burned, merchants' homes destroyed, farmhouses torn down, monasteries sacked, and thousands massacred.
No one dared to oppose Ivan the Terrible.
Except maybe a fool.
And a fool did. Whereas most of Russia quaked in fear before Ivan, Nicholas of Pskov walked up and rebuked him by slapping a piece of raw and bloody meat into Ivan's hands, vividly symbolizing Ivan's sinful butcheries.
Nicholas of Pskov was one of those men known by the Russians as the yourodivyje, the fools in Christ (the word is derived from the word yourod, meaning "something strange"). Fools in Christ were fairly frequent in the 16th-century Russia of Ivan the Terrible. But the phenomenon is well-known throughout the wider Greek Orthodox Church, which venerates six saints as fools in Christ going back at least to St. Simeon of Ernesa. (The West, too, has had fools in Christ, such as St. Benedict Joseph Labre in the 18th century.)
The fool in Christ was a person who carried the ideal of self-stripping and humiliation to the limit. He practiced absolute poverty. He had no possessions whatever, wearing rags even in the savage Russian winters, sleeping outdoors in sheds and church porches. Detached and self-forgetting, he expected and anticipated nothing for himself. Most significantly, he renounced possession even of his intellectual gifts, content to be thought deranged by normal society, voluntarily taking up even what has been called "the Cross of madness."
What about you? Are you willing to go to the point of being considered "mad?"
There are so many people today, good meaning people, who take advantage of a new paradigm in todays society. That paradigm is shown by the Obama administration.
These guys take a new initiative such as health care, then create a base idea that is well to the left of Marxism and roll it out. This in turn generates outrage from the middle and right. Now the administration will respond with "giveaways" to the right that are platitudinous and worthless but give the impression that the administration is responding to the desires of the right. But the core idea that was introduced is still so far to the left that everyone is upset. Now the administration can claim that they are "bipartisian" and the right is simply "partisian."
People do this also.They start with a sweeping statement....
"There is a group of people that are 'evil.' " Now I know that you belong to that group but I did not call YOU evil. I called the GROUP evil. "Why are you so angry? And if you are angry why can't you tell me in private?"
Question...are you willing to stand up for what you deem is important? Even if you are being told that your outspoken comments are embarassing?
I want an answer to this question..."When did the vocal bomb throwers get the free pass to state what they want without response?"
I have seen people burn to death because of their politics, religion. I have seen people stoned because they spoke out against those in power. But I have been strengthened by the ones who took their place. Will you step up?
If you want to say something offensive, that is your God given right. But do not expect the world to respect your ideas. I and many others will slap bloody meat in your hands.
Recent events in my life and in the lives of countless others has roused a sleeping giant. People are being shamed into staying silent. Shouts of "Racist" and "Tea Bagger" are now the norm all in an attempt to keep the lid on the arguement. And Christians are falling for it.
A general was fired for the comment,"I knew that my God was bigger than his," the general said of the Somali warlord, a hijacker of the Islamic faith who had boasted that he could not be defeated by American soldiers. "I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol." The writer goes on to say "
The message here is plain enough: The enlightened elites must stamp out the Christian faith, lest it anger the hijackers of Islam."
We are told by the loud voices "Stay silent." Worship God and ignore wordly lies."
Ask yourself...does your silence help or dismay God?
Authors edit...It just occured to me what this new paradigm is called. It is actually a very old idea...Gnosticism. Gnostics believe that they have secret knowledge about God, humanity and the rest of the universe of which the general population was unaware.
Don't fall victime to the idea that your belief is "wrong" because they self imposed leaders tell you you are unaware of the information they have.
They do not know the bible better then you. They do not have the yard stick of "Who is going to heaven." They are not better people, more tolerant then you. They are people who are simply gnostics.
