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Where does evil come from? Our spiritual father is Archpriest Vasily Ermakov

Yu. Novikov

Where did evil come from?

The question of the origin of evil is not central, main and absolutely necessary for man. Much more important is how a person relates to evil and good, what he chooses, what he considers most important for himself in this life. Much more important are questions about how to distinguish good from evil, how not to make a mistake in choosing between them, how the choice between good and evil affects our destiny. Even without knowing at all where evil comes from, it is quite possible to be a spiritually developed and virtuous person. After all, no matter where evil comes from, a person must actively fight it, and not help it. Nevertheless, the idea of the origin of evil occupies a prominent place in any more or less developed worldview, so it would be wrong to completely refuse to consider this issue.

To begin with, let us briefly formulate the ideas about the origin of evil proposed by some religions and try to evaluate them purely logically.

So, Christianity and Judaism say that evil (the devil) arose as a result of the rebellion against God of one of the angels. That is, evil arose after the beginning of the creation of the world, and its carrier, the devil, was initially generated by God as an angel, but then went against God.

True, it is not entirely clear why God did not immediately stop this rebellion, why other angels allowed the devil to gain such strength. It is also unclear whether the appearance of evil was planned at the beginning of Creation, or whether it was an unforeseen situation, a tragic accident.

Let's see what Zoroastrianism, the first religion to speak about the opposition of good and evil, says about the origin of evil.

Modern orthodox Zoroastrianism adheres to the point of view that evil (the devil) existed as an unmanifested, potential possibility of destruction even before the beginning of the Creation of the world. And as soon as the world began to incarnate, the devil invaded the world and began to destroy it.

But then the question arises whether in this case evil is not a fundamental principle commensurate with God, since its appearance is in no way connected with the beginning of Creation, with the existence of the world. The invasion of evil into the world in this case is declared inevitable, in no way connected with the will of the Creator. It turns out that evil is a certain absolutely independent principle, a certain force independent of anyone.

Zarvanism, an esoteric branch of Zoroastrianism, adheres to a slightly different position.

Even before the creation of the world, God decided to base the world on the principle of freedom of all his creations. He did not at all want to make his creations obedient puppets. Creations, and above all man, have the opportunity to develop, to approach the Creator more and more fully. And for such development they need absolute freedom, including freedom of choice against the will of God, towards the destruction of the world, that is, towards evil. Thus, the potential for evil is a consequence of the will of God. The existence of evil is consciously permitted from the very beginning by God, who cares about the freedom of development of creation. And the invasion of evil into the world, that is, the beginning of the destruction of the world, occurs precisely because of the wrong choice of creations.

It is easy to see that this position reconciles the positions of Christianity and orthodox Zoroastrianism. Evil is not a fundamental principle commensurate with the Creator, a force independent of anyone; its emergence is directly related to the will of the Creator. In this sense, we can consider that the primary source of the emergence of evil, the devil, the spirit of destruction is God (as in Christianity). However, evil was not created by the Creator in the form of an angel who then suddenly and inexplicably went against God. The Creator knew from the very beginning about the destructive essence of the devil (as in orthodox Zoroastrianism). However, God did not prevent the existence of evil, since a complete prohibition of evil would deprive a person of freedom of choice, the opportunity full development. And the fact that the devil subsequently gained such power was a consequence of the wrong choice of creatures, primarily people.

As for ideas about what the fate of evil will be in the future, here all light religions are united. At the end of time, evil will be completely defeated, and good will triumph in the world. The devil will be defeated and will never be able to manifest himself in the world. And this is also much more important than the question of the origin of evil.

I don’t remember exactly from the text, but this is what has been of interest for a long time: if before God there was nothing and there was only God, then where did evil come from??

Priest Afanasy Gumerov, resident of the Sretensky Monastery, answers:

God did not create evil. The world that came out of the hands of the Creator was perfect. “And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). Evil by its nature is nothing more than a violation of Divine order and harmony. It arose from the abuse of freedom that the Creator gave to His creations - angels and man. At first, some of the angels fell away from the will of God out of pride. They turned into demons. Their damaged nature became a constant source of evil. Then man could not resist goodness. By openly violating the commandment given to him, he opposed the will of the Creator. Having lost the blessed connection with the bearer of Life, man has lost his pristine perfection. His nature was damaged. Sin arose and entered the world. Its bitter fruits were illness, suffering and death. Man is no longer completely free (Rom. 7:15-21), but a slave to sin. To save people, the Incarnation took place. “For this purpose the Son of God appeared, to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). By His death on the cross and Resurrection, Jesus Christ spiritually and morally defeated evil, which no longer has complete power over man. But in reality, evil remains as long as the current world continues. Everyone is required to fight sin (primarily within themselves). With the help of God's grace, this struggle can bring victory to everyone. Evil will be finally defeated at the end of time by Jesus Christ. " He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:25-26).

And the Lord said: “Let there be light!” And there was light. And God realized that this was good. (c) Where did evil come from then? The 13th archangel became proud and was thrown into hell and so on... But God is omnipotent and he could not help but foresee this! It turns out that either the Almighty did this on purpose, or this whole story is nothing more than fiction! How then can you check this? Why are animals not evil? A predator, eating its prey, will never deliberately mock it! But the dog can be a “biter,” as the song says. Everything is very simple. The fact is that a dog is a humanized creature. Namely, it is in the human world that evil exists. Why? Yes, because people devote their entire lives to intentions. To be clothed and well-fed, desired and respected, the only one and loved. And what happens when an obstacle gets in the way? It gives rise to resentment, irritation, rage, hatred in a person... That is, the roots of evil. Everyone has failures, but nature is so wisely designed that when a wolf runs after a hare, but it eludes him, the wolf looks for new prey. He doesn't tear his claws out of anger. He doesn’t think that he had to catch the hare, he just acts. Why do animals do this? Yes, because none of them considers this world their property. The same cannot be said about a person. People constantly live as if someone owes them. If they set a goal for themselves, then take it out and put it down! Any obstacle immediately causes irritation. And if someone else got the tidbit - the hackneyed phrase: “How unfair the world is!” The problem is not that we don't get what we want, the problem is how we feel about it. So what should we do? - you ask. - Learn life from animals?
- Not at all. It is important to understand the main wisdom of nature: It is impossible to avoid all failures, it is impossible to subjugate the world to yourself, it is impossible to force everyone to dance to your tune! Just get from life what it gives and don't ask for more. Many religions and spiritual practices teach us this wisdom. We are not the masters of this world, we are its guests and components. We cannot change the Universe around us, but we can change ourselves.
And the more we are in harmony with our inner and surrounding world, the less we will create evil in ourselves and around us.

Reviews

You don’t know nature well. A wolf, breaking into a sheepfold, slaughters ALL the sheep, simply out of courage. Many animals devour their young if they do not have time to escape. Many predators kill and devour their relatives.
But the most bloodthirsty, evil and vile man is undoubtedly. Well, God made him that way. In his own image and likeness.

If God were evil, he would not have sent his son to save us! People have left God, and this is what causes all the troubles! The wolf kills sheep purely instinctively; the feeling of courage is not familiar to the animals. They also eat their young according to nature’s plan: so that there is no overpopulation. Wild animals they destroy their relatives solely at the call of instinct, apparently for the same reason. Nature is harmonious. And evil is generated exclusively by ignorance and selfishness! Only an unreadable gaze sees evil at the root of the world!

The daily audience of the Proza.ru portal is about 100 thousand visitors, who in total view more than half a million pages according to the traffic counter, which is located to the right of this text. Each column contains two numbers: the number of views and the number of visitors.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, cattle, and creeping things, and wild beasts of the earth, after their kinds: and it was so.
And God created the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and the cattle according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to their kinds.
And God saw that it was good.
And God said: Let us make man in our image and after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that moves on the earth.
And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.
And God saw everything that He had created, and it was very good.
And there was evening and there was morning: the sixth day.

According to the Making a Warrior methodology, Scripture and society are means of control. Considering control as an objective inevitability, the methodology formulates an optimal strategy for controlled behavior. The methodology answers the questions of how the best way behave under conditions of external control, how, being controlled, achieve one’s own goals without coming into conflict with the environment.

The “Becoming a Warrior” methodology has a number of features. In conditions of control, ensuring equal rights and opportunities seems to be a paramount task. The methodology does not operate with the concepts of “good” and “evil”, as well as concepts associated with them. In our opinion, the data evaluative concepts cannot serve as reliable criteria in the analysis of social actions, since they allow relativity in judgments, for example: “good for some turns out to be evil for others,” etc. At the same time, the methodology assumes good acquaintance with these concepts and the situation around them, which is why this article was written.

Every person knows about good and evil, and everyone without exception talks about it, and constantly. Conversations about politics, justice, economics, morality, the thieves' common fund are ultimately discussions around these categories. Everyone has their own opinion, an argument to justify their behavior. We all consider ourselves experts in the classification of good and evil. This is not about the relativity of good and evil. We have the Bible and New Testament, which, in case of emergency, can serve as a standard. By the way, most religions agree on the main thing. The list of basic virtues and sins of one religion differs little from the same list of another religion. This applies both to ancient, so-called “dead” religions, and to more recent “living” religions. In short, without judgments about good and evil we cannot take a single step. Why does this happen? In our opinion, it’s all about the intrigue of creation, which this work is dedicated to.

No one will object that the understanding of good and evil comes to us from religion. It is she who constantly reminds us of the Creator’s instructions, about heaven and hell, and condemns the Fall. The religious worldview is ineradicably embedded in all people without exception. Even a convinced atheist builds his denial of God on it.

Let's say a person doesn't care whether he goes to heaven or hell. You can abandon the traditional paradigm of good and evil and, as it were, stand on a par with the Creator and the Devil, which absolute freedom does not prohibit. Where will they put such a person, take him out of the game? The Creator created man and expects to receive his love in return. The devil accepts into his open arms all those who do not love the Creator. But what if a person does not show servile love to the Creator and at the same time does not want to serve the Devil? Is it possible to live without sin without God: if you show love for your neighbor without taking the next step - turning your love to God?

In all likelihood, a scholar of the Bible and the New Testament will say that without communion with God it is impossible to know the word of God. In other words, only through God can one come to true love.

But the word of God is just a book, and not a magical channel of communication with the Creator. Moreover, as we know, the Creator did not bring to us all of his plans and truths. And yet the word of God follows us relentlessly. No matter what we do, no matter how we think, we cannot escape the omnipresent control over our behavior.

Good and evil are instructions about what you can do and what you can’t do. Everyone knows how to behave, everyone in their brain has instructions for a certain line of behavior. Whether we like it or not, these attitudes will be added to our worldview, because there is no escape from them - the whole society tirelessly reproduces them at all its levels, in all its layers.

Our world is consistent in the sense that it does not fall apart before our eyes, does not turn into chaos. This means that there are laws in it that govern the course of world processes. The laws discovered in physics claim to describe these patterns. And this, in turn, means that physical laws must be consistent with the picture of the world we draw. In other words, the picture of the world must interpret the laws, and vice versa.

It is quite easy to reconcile the religious picture of the world with physical laws.

The material world did not arise by itself, it was created by an immaterial Creator - and this corresponds to the Law of Conservation of Energy (1st Law of Thermodynamics), according to which matter does not arise on its own from nothing. At the same time, the 1st Law records the absence of the emergence of matter (energy) from nothing at the present time, which also corresponds to the biblical statement that “in 6 days God finished his work and rested” - that is, that from then on God no longer creates new matter. The “curse” mentioned in the Bible, imposed by God on the material world, exactly corresponds to the action of the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. This law of thermodynamics can be likened to the forces of evil, i.e. To the devil. The Creator and the Devil create balance in the world.

Energy does not come from anywhere, does not go anywhere - it is eternally present and always turns into various shapes. Good is energy in itself. The Creator is the creator of stable perfect forms, the organizer of order. Evil is the destruction of stable forms of energy transformation. The Creator “plays” with energy, creating more and more perfect forms. But the Creator cannot (or does not want) to destroy his creations. To clear the way for new forms, he uses evil, which destroys his previous creations. Therefore, we cannot talk about the absolute destructiveness of evil. It seems to “clean up” after the Creator, clearing his further path.

If we recall the famous formula of A. Einstein E = mc2, where energy is associated with mass, with materiality, with that gross matter that we can feel, then we will understand that the second law of thermodynamics, which states that there is a process of deadening the energy of the world, also says and the disappearance of observable and measurable mass. And the expression “dematerialization of the world” takes on a physical meaning: there is less “living” mass in the world.

Energy (E) is proportional to mass. The more mass, the more energy. And vice versa. Since the background, scattered energy is constantly increasing, the amount of “living” energy capable of doing work, heating bodies or performing some other processes, accordingly, due to the law of conservation of energy, decreases. And if so, then the mass that is associated with this energy becomes smaller. This is truly the result of the catastrophic phenomenon of the curse of the Earth.

Is it possible to reduce entropy? If people give up their evil deeds and begin to go to God, does entropy decrease?

Religious man will answer these questions like this. Even if the consecration of the elements of the earth and the fruits of the earth, which occurs every year, were truly perceived by people with all their hearts, if the grace of baptism were not lost and after communion people would try to preserve it, which means they would abstain from sin, this would already help to reduce chaos . And if you imagine such an ideal situation that all of humanity would suddenly turn to the Creator, who is capable of surpassing everything natural laws, - heaven would come on earth. But this is a utopia. Why utopia? Because the forces of evil are not subject to the Creator, and they do not sleep.

Without the Bible, perhaps man would never have faced the dilemma of good and evil. But the Bible introduces us to the contradiction, and we make attempts to understand it. We have been programmed, as it were, in which direction to think, and we diligently go in this direction, coming up with all sorts of theories that explain why we follow the path shown to us. Thus, the understanding of dialectics came to us from the Creator, which is not surprising, since all the laws of the universe appeared according to the Creator’s plan. Contradiction was considered in Hegel's teaching as the driving principle of all development. We define that dialectical contradiction reflects a dual relationship within the whole: the unity of opposites and their “struggle.” This definition is fully consistent with the Holy Scriptures, and the scientific picture of the world is consistent with the religious picture. It couldn't have been any other way. Control is imposed on us from the moment of birth, we do not think outside of its framework, and therefore we act predictably. This is called a pattern. The pattern provides for the initial control of the object. If this were not so, there would be turmoil in the human camp, which is not observed.

Where did evil come from?

Where did evil come from? How did the omnipotent and good Lord allow evil into our world?

Augustine expresses a heretical thought (though only in an early treatise):

“God not only governs everything in order, but is even himself governed by order” (De ordine I, 10).

The origin of evil is one of the central problems in many religions - Buddhism, Islam, Christianity. For example, according to the Christian religion, God is the creator of the world. If he is good, the question arises - where did Evil come from in this world. This contradiction in the Middle Ages was one of the reasons for the emergence of sects that opposed the official church.

According to some religious concepts, the material world by its nature is a product evil spirit, and the human body, as a part of it, is also evil and worthy of contempt. The union of body and soul is not a blessing for the latter, but, on the contrary, a punishment, a fetter. And if so, then Christ could not be incarnated as a man. From these principles followed the denial of the need for the church. In contrast to this theory, the following scholastic conclusion was put forward: “Since the reality of evil in the world is incompatible with the existence of God, and God exists, it means that there is “really” no evil, and apparent evil must be “explained” in such a way that it turns out to be true. not by evil, but by a direct revelation of the goodness and wisdom of God.”

Christianity and Judaism say that evil (the devil) arose as a result of the rebellion against God of one of the angels. That is, evil arose after the beginning of the creation of the world, and its carrier, the devil, was initially generated by God as an angel, but then went against God.

Let's see what Zoroastrianism, the first religion to speak about the opposition of good and evil, says about the origin of evil.

Modern orthodox Zoroastrianism adheres to the point of view that evil (the devil) existed as an unmanifested, potential possibility of destruction even before the Creation of the world. And as soon as the world began to incarnate, the devil invaded the world and began to destroy it.

Zarvanism, an esoteric branch of Zoroastrianism, adheres to a slightly different position.

Even before the creation of the world, God decided to base the world on the principle of freedom of all his creations. He did not at all want to make his creations obedient puppets. Creations, and above all man, have the opportunity to develop, to approach the Creator more and more fully. And for such development they need complete freedom, including the freedom to choose against the will of God, towards the destruction of the world, that is, towards evil. Thus, the potential for evil is a consequence of the will of God. The existence of evil is consciously permitted from the very beginning by God, who cares about the freedom of development of creation. And the invasion of evil into the world, that is, the beginning of the destruction of the world, occurs precisely because of the wrong choice of creations.

It is easy to see that this position reconciles the positions of Christianity and orthodox Zoroastrianism. Evil is not a fundamental principle commensurate with the Creator, a force independent of anyone; its emergence is directly related to the will of the Creator. In this sense, we can consider that the primary source of the emergence of evil, the devil, the spirit of destruction is God (as in Christianity). However, evil was not created by the Creator in the form of an angel who then suddenly and inexplicably went against God. The Creator knew from the very beginning about the destructive essence of the devil (as in orthodox Zoroastrianism). However, God did not prevent the existence of evil, since a complete prohibition of evil would deprive a person of freedom of choice and the possibility of full development. And the fact that the devil subsequently gained such power was a consequence of the wrong choice of creatures, primarily people.

According to the Avesta, there are four stages, four eras in the development of our world. The first era is called the Era of Creation. In the course of it, God created the world in an ideal, non-embodied form, determined its laws, and established the interconnections of individual parts. This ideal world was complete, harmonious, perfect, there was and could not be evil in it, since there was nothing yet to destroy, and there were no embodied entities with freedom of choice. In this world, Truth, Beauty, the integrity of the world order, called Arta or Asha, reigned supreme, a preserving and harmonizing force. By the way, this is exactly the beauty that, according to Dostoevsky, will save the world. But this ideal, perfect world was not embodied, it did not live full life, did not develop.

But then the third era will come - the Era of the Separation of Good and Evil. Its essence lies in the final victory of good, in the defeat of evil, in the creation of conditions in which evil can never again manifest itself. At the beginning of the Era of Separation there will be a trial of all beings who have the right to choose, which will determine for all of them the appropriate punishment or deserved reward. By the end of this era, evil will be finally separated from good, all people (and that is all) will be cleansed from evil and saved, and the forces of evil will be destroyed.

Then the fourth era will come, completing the cycle of development - the Era of Merger and the triumph of wisdom, when all parts of the world will merge in a single stream of harmony and love. We don’t know what will happen next, probably the world will switch to some kind of new level development.

The eras of the development of the world have a truly cosmic duration, each of them takes billions of years, so during our earthly life, our current incarnation, we, of course, do not notice their influence. But every person, according to Zoroastrianism, is eternal, his true life never ends, therefore, in reality, we go through all the listed eras, living through all stages of the development of the world. Let us also note that the listed four stages of development, according to the law of similarity, are observed in much more short cycles, although they have their own characteristic features.

The external teaching of Zoroastrianism says nothing about the cycle of reincarnation. But in the esoteric teaching, zervanism, the teaching about the plurality of human lives, about his karma (zarma), about the possibilities of breaking out of the circle is developed in the most detailed way. It is on this teaching that all Avestan astrology, which allows us to trace both the formation of a person’s destiny and the implementation of the accumulated destiny, both the paths of independent development of the individual, and the influence of external forces on it. Multiple incarnations of a person are more and more new lessons for him. Each earthly life gives us another chance to develop in new circumstances, another opportunity to realize our place in the world and our purpose, another attempt to start all over again and make right choice between good and evil. But all previous incarnations and all the years we have lived are not in vain; information about them accumulates in karma and sometimes has a decisive influence on fate. The time, place and conditions of each of our incarnations are determined by our entire past life. And any choice we make between good and evil brings us closer to God or moves us away from him, increases the power of the devil over us or decreases it. And sooner or later we will have to answer for every choice.

Unlike other religions, Zoroastrianism does not promise eternal torment to anyone. In the end, all people will be saved, regardless of the severity of their sins, since good will triumph everywhere and evil will be finally defeated. But God, the Creator, does not at all need his creatures, moreover, the most perfect creatures, to endure eternal torment. God is love, and love that does not depend on anything, is all-forgiving. However, before salvation, during the period of the Last Judgment, each person will be forced to pay for his sins, to suffer. And the measure of this suffering will correspond to the measure of sin, will be commensurate with the power that each of us has granted over ourselves to the forces of evil. During life, evil can infect a person, it can destroy his body, defile his soul, but in principle it is incapable of completely destroying him or making him like himself. The Divine principle is in us, our spirit is indestructible. This is why in the end all creation will be saved, purified, restored to their final body and will live forever.

An important place in Zoroastrianism is occupied by the doctrine of the trinity of the world and all its parts. There are three forms, three components of the world:

The world is ideal, non-embodied, spiritual - Menog;
The world is real, embodied, physical - Goethig;
The world that connects the ideal and real worlds and maintains balance between them is Ritag.

The actions of evil are always extremely primitive in essence (though they are extremely varied in form). As soon as the Creator creates something new, the devil immediately gives birth to the destroyer, a force of evil that specializes in desecrating and destroying this new creation. Therefore, each part of the world, each of its manifestations corresponds to its own demon, a demon, called deva or daiv in Zoroastrianism. In the same way, the three forms of the world are opposed by the three main faces of evil, the three main destructive forces with which the three primary sins of man are associated:

The ideal world, the world of Menog, is opposed by the devil Angra Mainyu himself, he seeks to desecrate the very idea, replace it with a pseudo-idea, deprive the Creator of his rightful place in the center of the universe, place himself there, or some idol, or person, etc. Of course, the complete victory of the devil in the world of Menog is impossible, but in certain parts of the world he succeeds in a lot.

The real world, the world of Goethig, is opposed by the demoness Aza, who destroys the physical, embodied world.

The connecting world, the world of Ritag, is opposed by the demoness Druj, who by any means seeks to confuse the true connections of the real and ideal worlds, to cause discord between them.

A person, on the one hand, by his wrong actions can help these three main forces of evil, and on the other hand, he himself can become their victim, receiving destruction of his body, his soul, his spirit. To avoid this, you must follow the basic life principle formulated by Zarathushtra: “Good Thought, Good Word, Good Deed.” That is, we should not bring evil into any of the three worlds; on the contrary, our duty is to restore the lost harmony in them, strengthen and develop them. Moreover, it is the trinity of good thoughts, words and deeds that is important, since it is useless to strengthen one part of the world while destroying another.

Complicity with Angra Mainyu is expressed in pride, that is, in the belief in one’s exclusivity, omnipotence, superiority over all people and the unconditional priority of one’s own interests over the interests of the whole world. In essence, pride comes down to the denial of the universal unity of the world, to the denial of God. Moreover, pride can be both personal and collective, and even capture all of humanity. This does not change the essence: I (or we) are the main thing, and the rest can and even should be used to our advantage. Pride usually begins with a feeling of complete loneliness, isolation from everything around you, and melancholy. And it often leads to hatred of everything in the world, the desire to destroy everything in one’s path, contempt for everyone and everything. Pride, as a rule, clears the way for two other primary sins - fear and lies.

Aza's complicity consists in the physical destruction of the material world: people, animals, plants, surrounding nature. At the heart of this destruction is the fear of non-existence, the conviction that there will be nothing after death, the desire to get everything now and immediately, to sweep away all obstacles and destroy all enemies before they destroy you. This fear, which leads to violence, is the second most important sin. Aza is evil in its naked form, evil without a mask, arrogant and shameless. Its action is the most effective, but it is also the most vulnerable, since it is easier to recognize and easier to fight. Therefore, usually the periods of Aza’s triumph do not last long, although they bring a lot of troubles.

Druj's complicity is expressed in lies, deliberate distortion of the truth about the structure of the world, belittling good, exalting evil, confusing the concepts of good and evil. A lie deprives people of guidelines and directs their efforts in the wrong direction, sometimes directly opposite to their desires. Lies allow the forces of evil to exist quietly and increase their influence, affecting more and more parts of the world. Finally, a lie prevents us from fulfilling our purpose - to fight evil; moreover, it can imperceptibly, gradually make a person a servant of evil. Druj is a hidden form of evil that has thousands of different persons, quickly and easily changing their masks, leading the work of destroying the world quietly, secretly, gradually. She may not be as effective as Aza, but she is very difficult to recognize, expose, and limit. If Aza seems attractive to a few, then Druj is able to charm, bewitch, and captivate almost everyone. Druj's path is indirect, tortuous, long, but most often more reliable than Aza's frontal attack. Therefore, the periods of celebration of Druj can last much longer than Az.

Thus, these three sins (pride, lies and fear), associated with the desecration of the three worlds, are considered primary, from which all other sins flow, and without which other sins are impossible. That is, in order for a person to begin to sin, evil must strike either his spirit, or soul, or body (or better yet, all at once), introduce disharmony into the trinity of man, and create a conflict between his main parts. Then everything is simple: various character traits begin to work, distinctive features the personality of a particular person, and everyone chooses their own special, unlike anyone else’s path of serving evil. And the main thing for us is to realize in time the futility of this path, on which with every step we have less and less freedom, to stop before it is too late. It is important to break through the dark cocoon with which the forces of evil continually entangle us, and restore contact with the forces of good, to choose the light.

Don’t let pride, lies and fear take hold of you.
Then the evil darkness will recede, and the light will be able to break through to you.

In general, the concept of sin is developed very clearly in Zoroastrianism. Sin is not a violation of rules, regulations, instructions established by someone, which can change over time, contradict one another, determine different responsibilities for different people, make no sense at all. In reality, sin is a completely objective concept; it is any act that serves evil, that is, leading to the destruction of the world. Therefore, people can, of course, agree on whether or not to consider this or that action a sin, but this does not change the essence of the matter. The laws of the world apply everywhere and always. And every sin is a violation of these objective laws, for which sooner or later you will have to answer. Sins are not something incomprehensible, extremely complex, inexplicable, as many believe. A person not only can, but is also obliged to understand the essence of each sin, and not just blindly follow memorized rules, regulations and prohibitions, sometimes interpreting them at his own discretion. And the severity of each sin is determined once and for all and cannot be discussed or changed. Another thing is that there are situations when a person’s sins are written off, but this does not happen often.

However, one should not understand that God takes revenge on man for sin, that the evil that happens to us, misfortunes, blows of fate is a consequence of the Creator’s resentment and vindictiveness. No, God is love, this is good. By his very nature he cannot do evil. Neither vindictiveness, nor hatred, nor rage, nor malice have anything to do with God. Our misfortunes are a consequence of the fact that, thanks to our sins, we ourselves have moved away from God, fenced ourselves off from the forces of good, and at the same time automatically become more vulnerable to the forces of evil. And they will not hesitate to take advantage of the given opportunity to strike, unless they hope for some time to use this person as an instrument of destruction of the world. So it is wrong to hold God responsible for everything that happens in the world, including all abominations, all dirt and all evil. This will be slander against the Creator.

And if a person’s personal misfortunes are a consequence of his own sins, then collective, mass misfortunes, global catastrophes are a consequence of sins, mistakes, delusions, crimes against the world laws of entire peoples, countries, humanity as a whole. In addition to the fact that each of us is surrounded by our own dark cocoon of evil, the same cocoons, only larger, surround all kinds of groups of people, and our entire earthly world is also covered with a rather dense dark shell that prevents our communication with the forces of light. It depends on ourselves whether we can overcome our own evil and restore the unity and bright harmony of our world, breaking through and destroying all these dark partitions, returning the original transparency of the integral Creation.

The forces of evil have only as much power over us as we ourselves give them. And this power is most often expressed in the troubles that befall us. And if each subsequent sin increases this power, then each subsequent misfortune that happens to us, inevitably, at least a little, reduces this power and frees us. That is, with each subsequent misfortune we become purified, the number of troubles over our heads decreases. It is only important when misfortune comes not to be offended, not to become embittered at the whole world, not to hate everything around, not to take the path of revenge against any specific person or everything around you indiscriminately, so as not to start new round development of evil, do not increase the power of evil over yourself again, do not begin to accumulate new misfortunes over your head. Otherwise, of course, there can be no talk of any cleansing. The result will not be cleansing, but new contamination.

And since the total volume of misfortunes hanging over us is determined by our past life (in this and previous incarnations), since this entire volume will almost inevitably fall on us (exceptions happen, but quite rarely), it turns out that we must rejoice in our misfortunes, and especially – minor failures. And vice versa, if no misfortunes happen to a person for a very long time, it is quite possible that at this time an extremely unpleasant process of their accumulation, enlargement, unification and compaction takes place, and a real danger of soon receiving a serious blow increases.

For bad luck in small things, be grateful to fate:
Better dust on your boots than a brick to your head.

It is not difficult to understand that the ideal case for us would be to receive misfortune immediately after the sin that caused it, since this would not only not accumulate great danger over our heads, but would also clearly indicate to us our mistakes. But the accumulation of misfortunes greatly complicates our learning process. After all, it is sometimes difficult for us to understand what caused each of the misfortunes, and when exactly we committed the act that provoked it. Sometimes it even seems that we receive a blow in response to the most harmless action or to an obviously good deed that deserves only encouragement. And in the same way, gifts of fate sometimes follow obvious sins, and blessings remain unrewarded. Moreover, evil strives in every possible way to deliver its blows precisely when, it would seem, it’s time to receive a reward for good deeds. And then, succumbing to the temptation of the simplest explanation of the relationship of events: “after that - therefore as a result of that,” we can conclude that such our deeds are displeasing to God. Or the opposite situation: having intercepted a reward intended for us and coming from the forces of light, evil can hand it over to us precisely when we commit some kind of sin (usually it does not have to wait long). And we can draw from this a simple, but absolutely incorrect, conclusion that our sin is pleasing to God. In addition, the forces of evil are capable of intercepting the gifts of the forces of light and passing them on for purposes other than their intended purpose, thus encouraging their servants. And as a result, you can often hear that everyday experience refutes all religions, because some notorious scoundrels live very well, everything goes into their hands, everything works out for them, they are lucky in everything, and many decent people fight all their lives like fish ice, and all to no avail, but misfortunes rain down on them one after another. Such a reaction, delayed for a time, is a consequence of the desecration of our earthly world, the result of the machinations of the forces of evil, which in every possible way seek to confuse a person. Therefore, we should not make hasty conclusions about causes and consequences, about the connections between our behavior and what is happening to us. Not worth it just based on own experience try to derive some general patterns, predict some events just because they happened before in a similar situation.

Due to the fact that in addition to the personal dark cocoons of each person, there are also cocoons of collective sins, there are times when quite clean people not only do they not receive remuneration, but they are also subjected to unbearable torment, suffering cruel suffering that clearly does not correspond to their personal sins. In this case, it turns out that they take on collective sins, and sometimes the sins of all humanity, and pay for the evil of others. But in doing so, they contribute to collective cleansing, punching holes in the dark shell that envelops groups of people (for example, a country, people), or the shell that covers our entire earthly world. That is, the idea that holy martyrs save other people with their feats is not just a beautiful metaphor. And the point is not at all whether anyone knows about their torment, not only that, having learned about this, we will sympathize with them and, as a result, be purified, not only that their life will become for someone an example and an object of worship. Undeserved own life the torment of the saints directly and quite realistically leads to the restoration (albeit partial) of connections with the forces of light, with God. Evil has to pay for this suffering at a very high price - weakening its strategic positions, leaving some key heights, reducing the severity of the systemic defeats of our world. But, of course, it is better for all of us to try not to bring the triumph of evil to such a level when only the feat of the holy martyrs can help us.

Much more often we come across directly opposite examples, when heavily polluted, sinning people live well, they succeed in everything, they do not suffer, do not pay for their sins, and do not receive any misfortunes (except, perhaps, for rare and weak remorse). Such examples seem to many to be a convincing refutation of everything that has been said and proof of the acceptability and safety of such a path. But it's not that simple. Sometimes in such cases there is a process of accumulation of misfortunes, which will lead to a big blow of fate in the future. And sometimes evil protects these deeply sinful people and does not touch them only because it prefers for now to use them for its own purposes, to destroy the world with their hands. But they should not be overly deluded by such “protection” from misfortunes: as soon as they are no longer needed by evil, as soon as their service ceases to fully satisfy evil, they will immediately receive everything accumulated in full. Evil will throw them away like a broken instrument and destroy them (after all, any person, even the lowest sinner, still remains part of the world, and, therefore, is hated by evil). Even if these servants of evil outwardly live out their earthly lives safely, retribution will still overtake them in hell, where they will go after death, or in the next incarnation, if they manage to escape hell. And even the most hardened servants of evil will not escape the suffering they have earned when the Last Judgment comes, when evil will no longer be powerless.

In general, our entire earthly life is considered by the ancient Aryan teachings as an opportunity to cleanse ourselves, correct past mistakes, naturally, without making new ones, and realize our potential, to become more perfect. That is, our earthly world is, one might say, purgatory. True, purgatory is not forced, but voluntary, in which, if desired, one can not only cleanse oneself, but become contaminated. And since we got here, there were certainly reasons for this, we had something to cleanse ourselves from. That is, everyone born on Earth bears the sins of a past life, past incarnations; we all have evil in us from birth.

The incarnation of initially pure entities (for example, Jesus Christ) is a rare event on a cosmic scale, a violation common law, the result of a special divine act. They necessarily carry out a special mission to restore humanity’s connections with God. And even they, in their earthly incarnation, have to go through temptations by the forces of evil, even they must make the right choice in order to remain ideal conductors of the will of the God who sent them, even they are in danger of contamination and fall.

At the same time, the incarnation on Earth of completely defiled people is practically impossible, since before incarnation they must serve their time in hell, must suffer what they have earned, purify themselves, and earn the right to a new incarnation in human form. So earthly life is not accessible to everyone.

The most important consequence of this is that no person ever represents evil in its pure form, he can only be an instrument in the hands of evil, a servant of evil. Moreover, complete servants of evil forces, thoughtless robots, zombies, mired in evil during a given incarnation, are rare; almost always the good beginning in a person is not only present, but also makes itself felt. Therefore, setting as your goal the destruction of any person means serving evil. At the same time, meeting a completely pure, ideally bright person is akin to a miracle. So you shouldn’t idealize any people, you shouldn’t mindlessly believe and worship someone who declares himself sinless, a saint, who has achieved the highest enlightenment, who has comprehended all the laws of the world, who understands how to remake earthly life.

But let's return to the structure of the world.

The next level of the world order is the Good Creations, that is, those primary world principles that were created at the very beginning of Creation and which lie at the basis of all things. There are seven Good Creations, and each of them has its own guardian, protector from destruction, patron. Their patrons are Ahura Mazda himself and the six immortal holy archangels (Amesha-Spenta), who represent the upper level of the hierarchy of light forces. Good Creations include:

Fire (or Light), which gives life and energy to all things. His patron is Asha-Vahishta.
Air (or Sky), which organizes connections and interchange of everything in the world. His patron is Kshatra-Varya.
Water that maintains the harmony of life and the continuity of its flow. Her patron is Khaurwat.
The earth, which gives form, a solid foundation to all creations, preventing their physical destruction. Her patroness is Spenta-Armaiti.
Plants. Their patron is Amertat.
Animals. Their patron is Vohu-Man.
Man (and similar entities). His patron is Ahura Mazda himself.

The first four Good creations (fire, air, water, earth) are called elements. However, we should not identify them with the physical bodies of the same name, with the natural elements familiar to us; this is just the simplest, crudest level of their manifestation. The elements are fundamental principles, elements from the most complex combinations of which all the diversity of the world is created. The elements can give rise to one another, transform into one another, but their distinctive feature is that each of them does not contain the other three elements.

In contrast, each of the following three Good Creations (plants, animals and humans) contains all four elements: the fiery principle, the air principle, the water principle, the earthly principle. In addition, each subsequent of these three Good Creations contains the previous ones, that is, animals contain a plant principle, and the most perfect person contains both plant and animal principles. By the way, it is in this sense that one can really talk about the simplicity and complexity of creations (but in principle, any of the Good Creations is completely incomprehensible, like, indeed, any other part of the world).

Another distinctive feature of the last three Good Creations is their level of freedom: plants have the least freedom of choice, animals have more freedom of choice, and humans are given the maximum freedom. Accordingly, plants have the least ability to develop (in this embodiment), animals have it noticeably higher, and humans have the greatest ability. However, it is humans who have the greatest opportunity to become desecrated, to take the path of serving evil, and to achieve success along this path; animals have fewer of them, and plants have even fewer.

The strategy of evil in relation to Good Creations remains just as simple. For each of them, it generates its own special demon-destroyer, defiler. In general, there are as many demons (devas, daivas) as there are all kinds of creations, their various parts and manifestations. But those who defile the seven Good Creations are the main, supreme demons (they are called mahadivas). Each of them seeks to destroy the original perfection of the corresponding Good Creation, while using an entire army of smaller demons subordinate to them. Mahadaivas can be compared with those diseases that affect the main systems of the human body: nervous, circulatory, musculoskeletal, etc., and the demons subordinate to them - with disorders of individual organs, cells and intracellular structures of these systems. The task of the Mahadaivas is to introduce an imbalance in the ratio of Good Creations, disrupt the harmony between them and disrupt their relationships in order to make it easier for the demons (daivas) to further destruction.

As for the Good Creations, it is very important to understand that we can desecrate them not only, so to speak, directly, for example, by littering the earth with all sorts of waste, turning it into a desert or poisoning it with pesticides, polluting and drying up water bodies, creating smoke and dust in the air, destroying forests and entire species of animals, killing and maiming people. All these are also crimes, sins, violations of universal laws, but these are destructions of only the most obvious, most gross manifestations of Good Creations. By the way, in Lately the danger of all such obvious sins has probably become clear to everyone, since it is already generally accepted that environmental catastrophe threatens us now no less than nuclear war. In this sense, we were “luckier” than the people of the past, who thought that the world was inexhaustible, invulnerable, eternal, and that our activities did not affect it in any way. The situation is much more complicated with more subtle, implicit, hidden manifestations of Good Creations, the desecration of which is no less a sin than direct and obvious destruction.

In particular, sins in human relationships seem to have no relation to the world as a whole, to its basic elements, Good Creations. But this is only at first glance. In every person, all the principles of the world, all the Good Creations, are closely intertwined, and any crime against a person necessarily defiles one of them.

Eg:

selfishness, humiliation of other people is a desecration of the actual human principle in a person;
the destruction of faith, the desecration of traditions, the fragmentation of the integral world is the desecration of the animal nature;
theft, appropriation of other people's property, the spread of diseases - this is the desecration of the plant principle;
lust, sexual perversion, gluttony - this is the desecration of the earthly principle;
meanness, betrayal, uncleanliness - this is the desecration of the water principle;
rage, malice, enmity, anger - desecration of the air principle;
greed, stinginess, materialism - desecration of the fiery principle.

Understand it all to modern man, who has lost a holistic perception of the world, it is quite difficult, just as it is not easy to understand that all the components of our personality, all character traits are manifestations of these same world principles, Good Creations. Thus, will, creative dedication is a manifestation of the fiery principle; emotions, feelings - a manifestation of the water principle; the desire for comfort, the inner core is a manifestation of the earthly principle; intelligence, logic are a manifestation of the air principle.

The most important place in ancient Aryan teaching is occupied by the principle of the middle, or, as it is commonly called now, the principle of the golden mean. This is not an invention at all ancient Greek philosophers, as is now commonly believed, but the fundamental law of the world. Its essence is extremely simple and consists of the following. Integrity and harmony from the beginning perfect world can be destroyed in a variety of ways, including those that seem to us directly opposite to each other. In particular, it is possible to shake and break harmony, to increase the amount of evil in the world, either by increasing this or that quality beyond measure, or by decreasing it.

Excess, like deficiency, is a distortion of the world order.
Any departure from the middle always leads to destruction.

The principle of the middle calls precisely to adhere to the original ideal, to preserve that primary world order, that beauty of the world that was established by the Creator. He does not seek to narrow the diversity of the world, level out the differences between people, bringing them all to a dull uniformity, or make our lives boring and dreary, as some believe. No, the rejection of extremes, of excesses, of shying from side to side makes us more resistant to the machinations of the forces of evil, narrows the field of their activity, while giving us the opportunity to calmly develop our individuality, our creativity.

You should not assume that the rule of the golden mean is so strict that the slightest deviation from the mean is already an undoubted evil. No, small deviations from the center are not only acceptable, but also mandatory, as they ensure the diversity of the world and its development. Evil is only an excessive departure from the original harmony and, first of all, such a departure that makes it impossible or extremely difficult to return to the middle. This is especially true for a person who is given the freedom to choose his place in the world, his behavior, his path. The main thing is that this freedom does not intoxicate us so much that we do not distinguish between good and evil, do not see the boundaries between them, do not feel those limits where our freedom turns into the destruction of the world. This situation can be compared to a flexible rod, which can be bent in all directions without any damage. harmful consequences, but which still breaks if excessively bent in any direction. That is, the principle of the golden mean does not force us to stand motionless on a pointed rock, where any of our movements threatens to fall and die, but provides us with the opportunity to walk along the top of a certain hemisphere, where only a large distance from the top is dangerous, no matter in which direction.

But the full concept of the golden mean is much broader than such a static picture. The balance he proclaims does not at all imply the absence of any movement, development, growth, nor does it imply obligatory constant immobility. If we talk about dynamics, then the equilibrium of the golden mean can be compared with the equilibrium of a moving bicycle, for which vertical position– an indispensable condition for correct movement. In this case, small deviations from the vertical are even necessary (for example, when turning), with medium deviations the bicycle begins to wobble from side to side, greatly slowing down and risking going astray and falling into a ditch, and large deviations inevitably cause a fall or even breakage of the bicycle .

That is, the principle of the golden mean, on the one hand, helps to preserve what is available, not to lose what was accumulated earlier, and on the other hand, warns against what interferes with moving along the chosen path, calls not to stray onto the path of destruction of oneself and the world. For example, unbelief and fanaticism, excessive activity and excessive passivity, thoughtless impulsiveness and sluggish indecision, flashy luxury and enslaving poverty, deadening stagnation and bloody revolutions, ugly exhaustion and no less ugly obesity, isolation in the past and fixation on the future, complacent stupidity are equally unacceptable. and feverish obsession with acquiring knowledge, cold insensibility and fiery recklessness, narcissism and self-abasement, drought and flood. Examples from the most various areas can be multiplied and multiplied.

How to reconcile the presence of evil in the world with the existence of the Almighty and Good God?

This problem has existed at all times, but it is especially acute in our days, when we have already experienced Nazism with its death camps, atomic weapons, Stalinist and post-Stalinist gulags, disasters in third world countries. The problem, or better said, the temptation of evil is one of the sources of modern atheism.

At the turn of the 4th century. Christian writer Lactantius formulated this problem in words that have not lost their power and relevance to this day: “Either the Lord wants to eradicate evil, but cannot [do it]. Or He can [do it], but He doesn’t want to. Or He cannot and does not want to do this. If He wants, but cannot, then He is powerless, and this is contrary to His nature. If He can, but does not want to, then He is angry, which is also contrary to His nature. If He is both unwilling and unable, He is both evil and weak and, thus, cannot be God. But if He wants and can, which is the only thing consistent with what He is, then where does evil come from and why doesn’t He eradicate it?” .

Philosophers who wanted to explain how God controls the world have emphasized two arguments. First, God is not the creator of evil. He is not endowed with evil for the simple reason that evil does not exist as an independent reality. Evil does not stand among other created things. It is a negation, an absence, a loss of what reality must have in order to be completely such. Second, God allows evil as an inevitable condition for the existence of a greater good in the created universe. On the one hand, God allows physical evil (suffering, various disasters, catastrophes and destruction), because it is inevitable in such a created universe, which is imperfect and consists of many beings, whose personal good cannot always coincide with the good of others, but itself the existence of this universe and its universal harmony prevail over the evil that the universe includes. On the other hand, God allows moral evil for the sake of preserving the freedom that He has endowed on rational creatures.

Such reasoning seems fair and the only possible one if we look at it exclusively from a rational point of view, without taking into account what God has revealed to us about His plan for man and the universe. But from a point of view closer to philosophy, Divine revelation provides us with a dynamic, historical vision that reveals incomparably wider horizons to us.

A purely natural universe, which God does not change by introducing His uncreated energies into it, inevitably contains suffering and death. This is the only thing that the human mind can comprehend, relying only on its own strength.

Meanwhile, God has revealed to us through His Word that He did not create the world to merely remain confined within the framework of nature. She exists only in order to be transformed through the communion with the uncreated energies of the Divine given to her and to shine with Divine glory. The goal of God's creative act is a transformed world, in which there will no longer be disasters, suffering, or death, but where God will be All in all. This will be the final state of the universe, the completion of God’s plan, described in the 21st chapter of the Apocalypse: And I saw a new sky and new land, for the former heaven and the former earth have passed away, and the sea is no more. And I<…>I saw the holy city Jerusalem, new, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying: Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them; they will be His people, and God Himself with them will be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death; There will be no more crying, no crying, no pain, for the former things have passed away. And He who sat on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new.(Rev 21:1-5).

But why didn't God initially create the universe in such a final, deified state, in which all forms of evil are absent?

The answer is that the deification of creatures endowed with reason - angels and people, through whom the Divine glory will shine on creatures that do not have reason - is a union of love, the interpenetration of the uncreated Divine will and created wills in the personal mutual love.

This presupposes a free response on the part of creatures - angels and people, the coordination of their freedom with the grace of God. In order for the deification of creatures to be accomplished, so that it truly becomes a universal unity in mutual love, it is necessary that this creation be able to freely surrender itself to love or refuse it.

The current state of the world is temporary; according to Divine design, it represents a space in which human freedom can manifest itself in the form of a choice between God and selfishness, self-sufficiency and human creatureliness.

This present state of creation can be specifically characterized in two ways. On the one hand, material and animal world subject to what the Fathers call corruption, that is, suffering and death. This world has not yet been transformed by Divine energies, since man has not been transformed, and is in an intermediate state, which will end with the Second Coming. This state is not only a consequence of the sin of rational creatures: before the creation of Adam and before his sin, the material world was not transformed. But it is obvious that the sin of the angels, and then of our first parents and all their descendants, strengthened this corruptible state of the material and animal world. On the other hand, creations endowed with freedom (specifically, some of the angels who followed Lucifer, and all people - at the instigation of the devil and following their forefather Adam) used their freedom to their detriment and sinned, thus removing themselves from God - source of life.

The fallen angels, by virtue of their nature, irrevocably established themselves in hatred of God and His plan of love - and became demons.

Man, the image of God, whom the Creator did not intend for death and suffering and who could have avoided them if he had preserved the unity of his will and God's, separated from God and, thus, became on an equal basis with animals, becoming, like them, corruptible subject to suffering and death. Chapter 3 of Genesis tells us about this: To the woman [God] said: By multiplying I will multiply your sorrow in your pregnancy; in illness you will give birth to children; and your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. And he said to Adam: Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying: You shall not eat from it; cursed is the ground because of you; you will eat from it in sorrow all the days of your life; She will bring forth thorns and thistles for you; and you will eat the grass of the field; By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground from which you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you will return. And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, for she became the mother of all living. And the Lord God made garments of skins for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said: Behold, Adam has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and also take from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. And the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he had been taken. And he drove out Adam, and placed in the east by the garden of Eden Cherubim and a flaming sword that turned to guard the way to the tree of life.(Genesis 3:16–24)

And in chapter 2 of the Book of Wisdom of Solomon we read: God created man for incorruptibility and made him the image of His eternal existence; but through the envy of the devil death entered the world(Wis 2:23–24).

And the Apostle Paul also says in the 5th chapter of Romans: Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned.(Rom 5:12).

So, the state of suffering and death to which a person is subject is a consequence of sin. This does not mean that every illness that befalls a person is caused by his personal sins - it is a consequence of the participation of the entire human race in fallen nature. And every individual mistake, instead of affecting only the person who committed it, causes, in some way, a universal resonance. The French writer Leon Bloy expressed this with all the genius of a poet and prophet: “Our freedom is interdependent with the balance of the world... Every person who commits a voluntary act projects his personality into infinity. If he gives a beggar a penny from an unclean heart, then this penny burns through the beggar’s hand, falls, pierces the earth, passes through the planets, crosses the vault of heaven and creates a threat in the universe. If a person commits an unclean act, then perhaps he darkens thousands of hearts that he does not know and which mysteriously relate to him and need the purity of this person, just as, according to the word of the Gospel, a traveler dying of thirst needs a cup of water. An act of mercy, a spiritual movement of true compassion, sings Divine praise to him from the time of Adam until the end of time; he heals the sick, comforts the despairing, calms storms, rescues captives, converts the faithful and protects the human race.

All Christian philosophy is based on the indescribable importance of free will and on the concept of comprehensive and indestructible solidarity.”

Of course, everyone is responsible for themselves personally. But every personal action entails an increase in good or evil in the world.

As the Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyons explained, illness and death are not lawless punishments imposed by God on a guilty person, but a logical consequence that organically follows from sin: “Union with God is life, light and the enjoyment of the benefits that come from Him. On the contrary, to all those who voluntarily separate themselves from Him, He imposes [as punishment] the separation they themselves chose. So, falling away from God is death, separation from light is darkness, falling away from God is the loss of all the good things that come from Him. Those who, because of their falling away, have lost what we have just said, being deprived of all blessings, are subject to all kinds of punishments: it is not that God is ahead of time to punish them, but the punishment that pursues them is already that they are deprived of all benefits.”

As for creatures without reason, their corruptible state - such as it is at the present moment - is indisputably connected with the sin of angels and men. Angels, of course, have a connection with the material world. J. G. Newman, who knew the theology of the Church Fathers well and at the same time had a keen sense of the reality of the invisible world, saw in angels “not only messengers used by the Creator to communicate with people,” but also ministers who maintain order in visible world. “I believed,” says Newman, “that angels have real causes of motion, of emission of light, of life, in those fundamental principles of the material universe, which, when their presence is quite obvious to us, force us to think about the concept of cause and effect, and also about the what are called the laws of nature.” In a conversation on the feast of the Archangel Michael, Newman speaks of the angels: “Every movement of air, every ray of light and heat, every manifestation of beauty is, so to speak, the fringe of their clothes, the folds of the dress of those who contemplate God face to face...”

If this is the role of angels in relation to the created world and its very laws, then it becomes clear to us that the fall of the prince of this world with his angels could bring great upheaval to the world. Sometimes I ask myself if there is a connection between this falling away and the wicked, devilish properties of some insects, viruses and other creatures, which, however, are not inherently bad and do not sin in themselves.

Be that as it may, it is obvious that Satan has transformed harmless creatures into instruments of temptation for man, and he, using them to satisfy his selfishness and thirst for pleasure, has mastered them, further aggravating the corruption that characterizes his current state. This contradicts the hidden dynamism that animates every creation, for, according to the words of the Apostle Paul, creation awaits with hope the revelation of the sons of God, because creation submitted to vanity not voluntarily, but by the will of the one who conquered it, in the hope that creation itself will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now(Rom 8:19–22).

Thus, the evil from which we suffer here on earth is a consequence of sin. And God is not its creator. He could not eradicate evil without taking away our freedom of choice, and this is our most valuable good and the condition of our deification.

Can we say that this evil is beyond the control of God and His providence? Definitely not. He puts limits on those types of evil that God does not want and turns them into the service of the real good of people, proportioning His gracious help to the severity of the test. Thus, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians: No temptation has befallen you other than that of man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but when you are tempted, He will also give you the way of escape, so that you may be able to bear it.(1 Cor 10:13). And in at least one version of the text of the Epistle to the Romans it reads: Moreover, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.(Rom 8:28).

Therefore, only in this sense can the suffering and trials that befall us be regarded as coming from God, sent by Him, and should be accepted with confidential ease. Sufferings allowed by God, granted by Him in the same measure as the strength to overcome them, and sent down for our own good, according to the expression of St. John Chrysostom, are not real evil, they are nothing more than painful procedures prescribed by a doctor.

Real evil is only the sin we commit. "Evil? This word is ambiguous, and I want to explain to you its two meanings for fear that you, having confused the nature of things due to the ambiguity of this expression, may reach the point of blasphemy.

Evil, real evil, is fornication, adultery, stinginess and all other countless sins that deserve condemnation and the most severe punishment. Secondly, evil - in the improper sense of the word - is hunger, plague, death, illness and all other disasters in the same spirit. But in fact, this is not real evil; all these phenomena are only given such a name. So why isn't it evil? If they were evil, they would not be the cause of so many benefits for us - but they reduce pride, free [us] from indifference, invest [in us] strength, revive attention and zeal. When He killed them, says the prophet David, they sought Him and were converted, and from early morning they resorted to God (Ps 77:34). So, here we are talking about evil that corrects, making us at the same time more pure and zealous, about evil that teaches us Divine philosophy, and not at all about what deserves blasphemy and condemnation. The latter, of course, was not created by God, but stems from our own will, which the former seeks to cut off. If Scripture understands by the name of evil our sorrow, which is caused by suffering, this does not mean that sorrow is inevitably evil: it is such only in the opinion of people. In reality, evil is not only theft and adultery, it is also the misfortune called evil in our language, and it is with this usage that the sacred author conforms. This is what the Prophet means when he says: Is there a disaster in a city that the Lord would not allow? (Amos 3:6). The prophet Isaiah, speaking on behalf of the Lord, said the same thing: I, [Lord]<…>I make peace and cause disasters (Isaiah 45:7); disasters mean misfortunes. This is the same kind of evil that Christ refers to in the Gospel, expressing His sorrow and suffering as follows: Enough for every day of your care(Matthew 6:34). It is obvious that by this Christ means those hardships and sufferings to which He subjects us, and which, I repeat, most reveal His providence and kindness.

The doctor deserves praise, not only when he takes his patient out into the garden or into the meadow, when he allows him to enjoy the bath, but also - and especially - when he obliges the patient to fast, when he torments him with hunger and thirst, when he puts him to bed into bed and makes his location a prison, when he deprives him of light and surrounds him with thick curtains, when he invades his body with iron and fire, when he gives him bitter drinks - for he is still a doctor. So, if so much torment to which he subjects us does not prevent him from continuing to bear the name of a doctor, is not [our] mind indignant at the sight of how they blaspheme against God, how they no longer recognize the benefits of His universal Providence - while Does he prescribe similar misfortunes for us: hunger, for example, and even death? Meanwhile, God is the only true Doctor of souls and bodies. Often, when He notices that our nature takes pleasure in prosperity and boasts of it, and allows vicious pride to prevail over itself, He uses want, hunger, death, and all other sufferings as means known to Him to free our nature from disease, devouring her."

So, Saint John Chrysostom asserts universal principle. But, nevertheless, he does not pretend that a person in every case can recognize the grounds and motives of the test. The Word of God convinces us that everything allowed by God serves for the good of man and is, as it were, a sacrament of His boundless love. “Everything that God allows is as worthy of honor as what He grants,” says Leon Blois. But this does not reveal the secret of God’s ways and His economy. And it is not for us to find out why God allowed this or that.

In his treatise “On Divine Providence,” St. John Chrysostom asks the question: “Why are the actions of evil people, demons and devils allowed in this world?” - and he himself answers: “If you wonder why these things happen, if you do not rely on the deep and inexplicable reasons for His plans, but only do what you ask indiscreet questions, moving further and further in this, you will begin to ask yourself about many other things, such as: why is there still room for heresies to arise, why is the devil, demons, evil people, who have fallen into numerous heresies, and - most importantly - the Antichrist must take place, being endowed with such power to mislead that their actions, according to the word of Christ, will be able to confuse, if only it were possible, even the elect themselves ? So, one should not seek [an explanation] for all this, but one must be content with the inexplicability of Divine wisdom.”

Chrysostom already said a little higher in the same work:

“When you see the Seraphim hovering around the exalted and majestic throne, protecting their eyes with the cover of their wings, covering their legs, back and face and emitting cries full of amazement... Will you not run to hide yourself, will you not hide underground - you who want with such audacity to penetrate into the mystery of the providence of God, whose power is unspeakable, inexpressible, incomprehensible even by the powers of heaven?.. After all, everything that concerns this is known for certain to the Son and the Holy Spirit, but to no one else.”

But God was not content to subject the trials and sufferings that befall us to His Divine guidance. He did not limit himself to controlling them by His Providence and thus placing them at the service of our salvation.

In addition to all this, the Father sent the Son to take upon Himself our nature with all the consequences of sin, with suffering and death. And the Lord Jesus Christ, being God and man, managed, by taking them upon Himself, to radically change their meaning. Suffering and death were the consequence and sign of man’s falling away from God as a result of his sin. And so, accepted by Christ to fulfill the will of the Father and out of love for people - not excluding his own executioners - they became a sign and expression of His filial love for the Father and His Divine love for mankind. And thus He conquered suffering and death. And by sending His Spirit into our hearts, He also provided us with the opportunity to make our suffering and death the most favorable condition for our renunciation of all selfishness, for our love for God and for all people, our forgiveness of all enemies and opponents.

Christ did not come to abolish the suffering and evil present on earth, but by His death and Resurrection he gave us the opportunity to conquer death by death in anticipation of the day of His Second Coming in glory, when death will be finally swallowed up in victory.

As a modern interpreter of the book of Job has written, “in order to accept the mystery of suffering, it is necessary certain state soul, without which the most beautiful reasoning would not have an impact on us, or at least would not calm us down completely. Such a spiritual disposition is similar to the humility of a child who admits that he does not fully know any thing and, in particular, his own existence, as a result resigning himself to the fact that he was created, and henceforth not surprised that he is involved in events whose participants only the Author of his existence knows. The only one who can endure suffering in the world is the one who stops trying to understand life in its deepest depths and resorts, in spite of everything, to the thought that this life, sometimes so cruelly broken [by misfortunes], is nevertheless the work of an omnipotent and infinitely good God. So, returning once again [to the riddle of suffering], [let’s say] that all other answers, except those consistent with the last one, have no value.”

For a Christian, submission to the ways of God, to His way of guiding our lives, takes on a very specific form - acceptance of the Cross as an instrument of salvation, acceptance of the Cross of Christ and our cross, united with the Lord. Reading the Gospel, we see how difficult it was for Christ to convince the apostles of the necessity of suffering on the Cross. The same problem is with us. It is not enough to believe purely theoretically that Christ accomplished salvation through the Cross. We also need, turning our gaze to our heart, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, to understand quite concretely and realistically that for each of us the Cross and the suffering we endure are the only road to the Resurrection, that the Cross itself contains the power of the Resurrection.

In a conversation with the Monk Gregory of Sinaite, transmitted in the Philokalia, the Monk Maxim Kavsokalivit says that when the Holy Spirit fills the spirit of a person, he begins to see the things around him completely differently than people usually see them. So is not the Christian, par excellence, a person who, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, sees in suffering, death, in everything that places the cross on us, something completely different from the simple man - namely, the glory of the Resurrection?

Translation from French by Y. Kazachkova

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