Vilhelm Pedersen. Illustration of "The Emperor's New Clothes." Photo: Wikipedia
Christ is in our midst, my dear readers!
Today [Sunday, December 25, 2022] in the Epistle reading, amongst other teachings, we heard these words of the apostle Paul: Lie not one to another (Col. 3:9). A lie is an invisible sin that loves to hide, and it’s not easy to catch it red-handed. But nevertheless, with it began the whole tragedy of man’s life on earth. Our forefathers believed the liar-devil and by this placed the beginning of all our calamities. Lies and slander are the favorite weapons of the fallen angels. With the help of lies and slander they do all their evil. A lie was witness to when Caiaphas and Pilate condemned the Savior. The first Christian martyr, Stephen, also fell victim to slander. The world persecuted all the saints, righteous ones, and martyrs with lies. It does the same today.
For me, one of the eschatological presentiments of the end of the world is the aggressive lying that now penetrates our world. There have probably never been in the history of man such brazen, vile, and ubiquitous lies, which are ruling the modern world. Therefore I am not at all surprised at the propaganda being spread [in Ukraine]1 by our current “experts” of Church history, who will tell you on every streetcorner that “the whole world celebrates the Nativity of Christ on December 25”. How nice! They’ve included India and Pakistan in the list, where Christians are still killed for their faith! They might as well have added the populations of the North and South Poles. There are about as many Christians there. These “experts” will of course not tell you when they celebrate Christmas in the place where Jesus Christ was born.
The king of lies knows that people will believe him. That is how the majority of people are wired—they love lies, believe lies, and even deify them, because they provide them with the opportunity to live in lies—and that is very advantageous and comfortable. With the help of lies, politicians “change their shoes” on the fly, bureaucrats change their sympathies, and the mood of the crowd swings from “hosanna” to “crucify Him”.
A lie is the most sought-after fashion designer. Many come to its salon for their clothing. It dresses lust and depravity in the clothing of “human rights”, hatred in the clothing of “fighting for the truth”, it vests betrayal in “foresight”, cowardice in “good judgment”, and so on. That a person is arrayed in false clothing will in no way make it possible for him to enter the gates of Eternity. For us it is important, and we must never forget what will happen to the liars themselves. All liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone (Rev. 21:8). And believe me, their facial expressions will portray completely different emotions from what they are now showing us in all the media.
