The Chairman of information Department of the Vladimir-Volyn diocese Archpriest Vladimir Rovinsky
If today you succeed in the spiritual life, it does not guarantee your salvation tomorrow, believes Archpriest Vladimir Rovinsky.
The sins of the individual members of the Church are evidence that it is alive and effective, he explained in an interview with the resource “Foma in Ukraine” the Chairman of information Department of the Vladimir-Volyn diocese Archpriest Vladimir Rovinsky.
Commenting on the heresy of the Nicolaitanes, the priest said that the Church Tradition connects it with the name of one of the first seven deacons – Nicholas Antiochia: “St. Irenaeus of Lyons in his book “Against heresies” writes: “the Nicolaitanes are the followers of that Nicolas who was one of the seven deacons by the apostles. They live dirty. Their properties are quite marked in the Apocalypse of John, which says that they teach that there is nothing zakonoproektnoj in neelamathi and eating things sacrificed to idols””.
According to him, “how could it happen that the deacon Nicholas – this man “of honest report, full of the Holy spirit and wisdom” fell so low, know one God.”
“We know from the Church about the sinful seed that tries to germinate in each of us. And if today you succeed in the spiritual life, it does not guarantee your salvation tomorrow. Stop, relax, enjoy yourself – will die,” – said father Vladimir.
“At the same time, the disease may only manifest in vivo. The dead don’t hurt. For us illness of individual members of the Church are another indirect indication that it is alive and effective”, he concluded.
The Church commemorates four of the first seven deacons August 10. While all seven were originally named “men of honest report, full of the Holy spirit and wisdom” (acts. 6:3), six of the now revered saints, and one – Nicholas Antiochian – founded a heretical movement.