In this article we will talk to you about an important topic today - adultery. Many people have heard that this kind of sin is considered a punishable crime, baseness, dishonor, contamination of the soul, etc. But if you ask: “Adultery - what is it?”, not everyone will be able to answer clearly. Therefore, in order for your knowledge in this area to become more extensive, below we will try to discuss the mentioned issue in as much detail as possible. However, first let us remember what acts the church considers sinful.

Deadly sins

The list of violations of religious commandments (and this is precisely the definition of the concept of “sin”) is very extensive, but not all are major, or mortal. The latter include those vices that give rise to other impartial actions. We will not describe them in detail, since the topic of our conversation is somewhat different, we will limit ourselves to simply listing them. So, what does the church mean by the phrase “deadly sins”? The list is represented by seven (in the eastern Christian tradition- eight) positions:

1. Pride.
2. Envy.
3. Anger.
4. Dejection.
5. Greed.
6. Gluttony.
7. Adultery (fornication).

It’s the latter that we’ll talk about in more detail.

Adultery: what is it?

Adultery is a great sin and is part of the 10 commandments. Typically associated with betrayal and infidelity. In the old days, anyone who committed such a sin was subject to the death penalty, because an act of this kind was regarded as an unholy and diabolical act. By succumbing to love and sexual attraction to the opposite sex, a person violates marital fidelity and destroys the family. In addition, extramarital intimate relations between a woman and a man are considered adultery. This issue is especially acute in Muslim countries. In the Holy Quran, Allah Almighty pronounces the following words: “Do not approach adultery, for it is an abomination and a bad way.” Also prohibited by this commandment are divorce, lust and lust towards other people's wives and husbands.

What exactly is adultery?

And yet, what do people mean when they talk about such a sin as adultery? What it is? Is it just extramarital intimate life, a relationship with someone else’s companion, or maybe something else? Many people today cannot distinguish sin from human relationships that are full of love and future plans for a happy life together. To help you understand this issue, here are a few examples that clearly characterize sinful sexual relationships:

1. Lonely unmarried guy entered into sexual intercourse with a married lady is a clear example of adultery, which will be punishable in the future.
2. A married man has sexual relations with a married lady - this also applies to the sin we are considering, for the woman’s heart belongs to another.
3. between relatives (brother and sister, niece and uncle, etc.) are also a mortal sin.

In addition to the above, any sexual fantasy in which there is a woman who belonged to another man can easily be classified as adultery. For example, Yeshua said: “...everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Now the question remains unresolved: what is not adultery, and is it possible to have sex with an unmarried woman? Let's look at this point in more detail:

1. A relationship between a single unmarried guy and an unmarried girl is not adultery only if the partners plan to enter into a marital union in the near future. If, after sexual intercourse, a guy does not dare to offer his hand and heart to a lady, this is called fornication.
2. A man who is already in a marital relationship, having slept with an unmarried single woman, is obliged to propose to her and invite her to his house in place of his second wife, only in this case the sexual relationship will not be considered adultery, otherwise this kind of intimate relationship is called fornication .

Punishment for adultery

We have more or less figured out what fornication and adultery are; now we need to talk about the consequences and punishments that anyone who commits this kind of sin can suffer. For demonstrated lust for the opposite sex, betrayal, dishonor, or any other similar sin, an unmarried man deserves one hundred strong lashes, in addition to which he is expelled from society for exactly a year. This is how adultery is punished in Islam. And, we dare to assure you, these are still flowers. Moreover, it does not matter who was convicted of an offense - a man or a woman, both will be punished. Although, of course, women are in greater demand. As for adulterers who are married, or were married before they committed a sin, they are treated as cruelly as possible, stoned until their last breath. It is believed that an adulterous person will definitely burn in hell, and his only salvation is atonement for sins and sincere repentance.

What exactly do Muslims consider adultery?

Adultery in Islam is considered a terrible crime. Let us note that the commandment dedicated to the sexual baseness of a person has the name “zina” among them. For Muslims, “zina” is intercourse with the female sex without a contract concluded in accordance with Sharia law. In their opinion, it is because of this sin that the world today is suffering terrible catastrophes and disasters. In addition, the sons of Allah believe that any intimate relationship with a woman who has given her innocence and heart to another man will sooner or later lead to collapse and the end of the world. The Prophet Muhammad also noted that all people who allow themselves to commit adultery are devoid of faith. If faith leaves a person, he weakens and becomes unprotected. Well, the question is: “Adultery. What does this mean for Muslims? can be considered closed. Let's summarize briefly:

1. Firstly, for Muslims, “zina” is an extramarital intimate relationship with another woman.
2. Secondly, it is a longing glance towards a woman.
3. Thirdly, even a lascivious word falls under this category.

The Messenger of Allah said about this sin: “The adultery of the eyes is the look, the adultery of the tongue is the words.” Allah Himself calls on all young people who today have the opportunity to get married to do so as quickly as possible, because the only chance to protect themselves from unnecessary glances, lewd words and zina is marriage. If this is not possible at the moment, fasting is the only salvation.

What is the retribution for sweet sin?

Today, for the sin of adultery, Muslims experience severe punishment - hadd. It implies physical torture. However, such punishment is possible only if the sinner resides in the territory of Islam, is mentally balanced and not retarded, and is aware of sinful adultery. As you can see, everything is quite serious. By the way, in the old days the punishment was no less severe. So, if the woman who entered into marriage was not a virgin, she was stoned to death, and if the husband made a false accusation, he had no right to divorce her and was obliged to pay her father 100 shekels. Also, the death penalty awaited the man who allowed himself to dishonor the betrothed bride. If a free woman was raped, only the perpetrator was killed, but if the unfortunate woman was a slave, both were punished.

Orthodoxy and adultery

What is adultery in Orthodoxy? First of all, this sin means adultery, an intimate relationship between an engaged person and a married person, as well as sexual intercourse between a free person and an engaged person. By exchanging rings during a wedding, husband and wife make a vow of fidelity and love before God, the Cross, and the Gospel. By breaking what they had previously promised, they thereby deceive their witnesses. The sin of adultery in Orthodoxy does not imply corporal punishment of the offender, but causes condemnation from God. In addition, it is believed that the guilty person is divided into two halves, as if torn between his wife and his mistress, or between his husband and his lover. Many believe that a divided body sooner or later dies, taking with it all the bonds of marriage. Therefore, we can conclude that a broken promise of fidelity and love for each other will always be considered a sin, which, one way or another, will affect the life of the traitor or traitor. And remember that a marriage made before God cannot be dissolved. Unless one of the spouses leaves for another world.

1 Cor. 7:39: “A wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies, she is free to marry whomever she wants, only in the Lord.”

What consequences await a person for adultery?

Like any sin, adultery is fraught with consequences that can play on a person cruel joke. We propose to examine this issue in more detail.

1. Many believers believe that a person who commits adultery steals a piece of flesh from a neighbor, thereby committing theft.
2. By committing a sin, a person automatically exists in this world along with animals.
3. It is believed that an adulterer is possessed by an unclean spirit; he is equated to the devil, who is unable to cleanse himself from sin. The Bible called this state a deep human abyss.
4. Muslim zina contributes to the destruction of human flesh. Sin destroys the health of the offender. It is believed that the sinner himself chooses the path that will ultimately lead him to death.
5. A person who commits adultery is deprived of his property. Anyone who lived richly and bathed in luxury before committing a sin will certainly become a beggar.
6. Having sinned, a person gives rise to gossip and gossip, brings shame upon himself, which directly harms his reputation. The saying “When a person dies, a bad reputation lives on!” is appropriate here!
7. Adultery carries the death penalty. “If anyone commits adultery with his married wife, if anyone commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.”
8. Without repenting of his sins, a person destroys his soul. As they say, lust accompanies the sinner and his soul to the flames of hell.
9. The adulterer destroys not only his own soul, but also the soul of the chosen one. In fact, this is one of the most terrible consequences of adultery, because, having sinned, the guilty person drags the soul of his partner to hell.
10. The Lord can be angry with an adulterer and deprive him of his reason and reason.
11. In a family where there is a place for adultery, there will never be love and mutual understanding.

Woman and adultery

One day, in order to embarrass Jesus in front of all the people, the religious leaders brought a harlot, who would later be called “the woman taken in adultery.” According to the law of Moses, she was to be killed by stoning. The leaders skillfully took advantage of the situation, offering to destroy the fallen female. In fact, their only goal was to tempt Jesus, to catch him in a crooked word, in order to have a reason for general condemnation. But all their efforts were in vain. The only thing Jesus said sounded something like this: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” Of course, the area where the crowd had gathered began to clear out, and eventually only the sinner and He remained on the street. Since then, everything has changed, the former adulteress repented and promised not to return to her previous lifestyle. The moral is this: it is never too late to repent of your sins, the main thing is to realize in time your desire to exist righteously in our world.

We atone for the sin of adultery

In the Qur'an, Allah says: “Verily, Allah's forgiveness is for those who commit a bad act out of ignorance and quickly repent. Allah forgives such people. Verily, Allah is Knowing, Wise!” Many people know how to repent for many misdeeds committed during life and not repeat them again. But repentance is half the battle. Redemption is coming for him. And here everything is much more complicated. adultery? A lot of people ask this question to a spiritual mentor or a priest in a church. The question is, of course, complex. As mentioned above, adultery is one of the deadly sins that destroys human lives. Nevertheless, as church ministers say, if you sincerely and truly repent with great faith and ask for forgiveness, the Almighty will forgive the sinner and give him a chance for further existence. To protect yourself from the temptation of sin in the future, there is one good remedy - prayer against adultery and fornication.

How to protect yourself and your soul?

Each person must answer this question independently. After all, someone, having read this article, will treat all of the above with disdain; someone has encountered adultery more than once in their life, but does not know how to deal with it, and therefore will not try; There are also those people who will draw the right conclusions and try to live their lives with dignity. How to protect yourself from temptation? Probably, you just need faith, faith in yourself and in your life partner. Sincere, pure love, respect and mutual understanding, reason and the ability to control yourself will do their job: you will definitely live a long and happy life, full of meaning, with your soulmate. And finally, we will advise only one thing: fill your life with good, kind, bright deeds, respect your relatives and loved ones, love your wives, husbands and children, pray for the health of yourself and those around you and, most importantly, never commit adultery!

Hegumen N

Why does a person who has violated the Divine law of chastity and at least once desecrated his body or only his thoughts with fornication, be irresistibly drawn to experience these sensations again? Supporters of “sex education” argue that it is human “nature” to extract “pleasure” from everything, and let, they say, teenagers also join in this “joy of natural feeling”, and they do not need to listen to parents who are “complex” with outdated views, erecting all sorts of prohibitions! Sex stormtroopers call this concern for the souls of children “sexual discrimination” against teenagers...

Molesters slyly keep silent (and many of them themselves do not understand, being deeply damaged people) why the “forbidden fruit,” ceasing to be forbidden, very soon entails a desire for a new “forbidden fruit.” That is, a person who has fallen into “ordinary” fornication soon becomes fed up and begins to gravitate towards various perversions. Fed up even with “non-traditional sexual orientation” (as the mortal sins of Sodom are now shamefully called), the sinner may desire “pleasures” with animals, with corpses, with my own daughter or son, fall into the abyss of ritual satanic depravity... IS THERE A LIMIT TO THIS FALL?!

Yes, if we stop and honestly analyze what is actually happening to many of our compatriots, why people who were normal yesterday begin to behave like regulars in brothels. Why does a person, even once falling into fornication, be subtly attracted by demons to new terrible falls, and if he does not resist, does not repent of his way of life, then he soon becomes an OBSESSED person, that is, an obedient slave of the demon who has taken possession of him, a weak-willed puppet in his hands. And the “extraordinary sensitivity” of homosexuals, which TV commentators are now shouting about when interviewing unfortunate sick people, is nothing more than a sign of demonic possession...

It’s scary to read about how this fall under the influence of a demon occurs, what power the forces of hell can have over us. But you need to know this. And this analysis is a merciless sentence to those who would like to turn our country from Holy Rus' into Sodomic Rus'.

The “spirits of evil in high places” () conduct their struggle competently: they start with small things, so that later they can quietly move on to bigger things - this is a strategy. Sleeping too much, intemperance in food and voluptuousness are just a person’s preparation for committing a more serious, this time “mortal” sin, which is fornication in all its manifestations.

In a well-fed and, especially, in an overly rested body, lustful passions will certainly seethe. While in this state, the body, like gunpowder, is ready to ignite from just one lustful thought, from one lustful vision in the mind or in reality, from a single lustful sensation caused in it by a demon. One might say that such a body is like a barrel of gunpowder, waiting only for a chance spark to be followed by a destructive explosion. It is quite clear that an explosion is more likely if a person has either not yet entered into marriage, or has consciously decided to devote himself to God by taking a monastic vow of chastity.

Why do we find it difficult to cope with lust?

Why is it that earlier (albeit to a much lesser extent), and especially now, people, even those who have come to know the True God and His commandments, do not always cope with lust? Why is it that the soul, which does not have the instinct and need for reproduction, since, as mentioned above, is not intended for reproduction, cannot control its body? Why our physical body, which, it would seem, should obey physiological restrictions and constants originally inherent in the named instinct (such as the cessation of sexual activity during gestation), does not obey them? In addition, the soul of a person, even if he does not know the commandments of God, for reasons of expediency alone, as well as on the basis of logic and experience, would have to restrain himself and his body from wrong actions in the sphere of sexual relations. But why are so many tragedies, so many sins and so many troubles caused by incorrect sexual behavior? Why is it so difficult for us to manage ourselves?

Truly, there would be nothing complicated here (and there are examples of this), if not for the intervention of an outside, demonic force, the purpose of which, hiding behind a natural instinct, like a screen, is to force a person to constantly violate both the spiritual and physiological laws established by God. Demons achieve this quite consciously, since they know much better than us that violating the laws of the Creator is main reason deviations from man of Divine grace. The latter, as mentioned above, is necessary for mastering the will of a person and subordinating him to the will of the demonic.

In addition, demons are well aware that it is in this purely intimate sphere of human relationships that people can inflict the most painful blows on each other, capable of destroying their lives and souls. The painfulness of the blow is due to the fact that only in this area of ​​people’s lives can the most monstrous, truly diabolical substitution of the highest of all concepts of happiness—the concept of LOVE—occur. Demons know that it is this substitution that gives rise to the most difficult emotional experiences, feelings of unbearable pain from deception, betrayal, frustration, etc.

Demons achieve their goals, as a rule, in two ways:

1) indirectly, by the method of suggestive-telepathic influence,

2) directly, by the method of sensory influence on the higher regulatory systems of the brain.

In the first case, that is, with suggestive-telepathic influence, demons introduce sexually charged thoughts into a person’s consciousness, reminiscent of the object of desire, and then, with the help of constant repetition, make these thoughts obsessive. Having become accustomed to them, a person himself will strive for the object indicated by them, an irresistible desire to see it and possess it will appear, regardless of any norms and laws.

At a deeper stage of mastering a person’s consciousness, demons can already transmit visual images into his consciousness, which, having the nature of pornographic pictures and “films,” using a special reflex mechanism, cause strong stimulation of the thalamic pleasure centers. The result of such an impact can be a form of sexopathology called “mental orgasm.” Demons most easily carry out this influence during sleep when consciousness and will are switched off, when, under the influence of erotic visions, both men and some women (Functional female sexopathology. V. Zdravomyslov et al., Alma-Ata, 1985) have wet dreams. But even in the waking state, demons force a person to fantasize about topics of an erotic nature that they set, thereby psychologically preparing him to commit sin: fornication, adultery, masturbation (synonyms: masturbation, malaria), as well as many severe sexual perversions.

In the second case (sensory stimulation method), demons, with directed energy impulses, excite orgiastic pleasure centers, covering the thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system, reticular formation of the brainstem and cerebral cortex. Such an effect can be simulated by implanting electrodes into the corresponding centers and exposing them to weak electric shock. In this case, the subjective sensations of a person, which are based on the reflex mechanism, will be the same as with ordinary mechanical excitation of receptor fields. When exposed to this effect, a person feels an exciting burning sensation, tickling and other specific sexual sensations (SENESTOPATHY) in the area of ​​the genital organs, which are peripheral formations of the reflex arc. Such long-term demonic influences on these centers turn people into sexual maniacs (EROTOMANIA).

The goal of demons is power over humanity

The main goal of the work of demons over the consciousness, will and body of every person is to achieve complete power over all of humanity, separating people from their Creator and making them like themselves. The demons set this goal for themselves because of their fierce and immeasurable hatred of God, from Whom they once fell away, wanting to take revenge on Him through those whom He loved so much that He voluntarily went to the Cross, atonement for their sins.

A passionate thirst for revenge in order to satisfy their boundless pride and lust for power forces demons to ensure that people fall away from God, whom they personally cannot harm. But in order to tear them away from the Heavenly Father, to distort the image of God in them, making people similar to themselves (i.e., demonic), demons must first deprive people of protection - those grace-filled uncreated Divine energies that do not allow demons to control their will and thoughts and the human body. The grace of God, the accumulation (acquisition) of which, according to the word of St. , should be the main work of a Christian on earth, growing in quantity within it, it also creates outside it, as it were, a protective “screen” that complicates the external influence of demons and prevents them from entering the human body. That is why the demons had a very pressing question: how to deprive a person of this blessed protective “screen”.

Universal bait: hypertrophy of the sexual instinct

As the fallen angels are well aware, a person has no other way to remain without the grace of God, except for one thing - to commit a sin by violating any Divine commandment. However, it is not so easy to persuade a person to sin, especially initially, since conscience, as a divine instrument given to every person to distinguish between good and evil, greatly interferes with the performance of this task. In order to facilitate it, the demons needed to find such a universal bait that could, firstly, reliably hide the hook under the guise of, for example, natural physiological attraction, and secondly, be equally attractive to all people. The instinct of reproduction with its inherent natural attraction of opposite sexes to each other was chosen by demons as precisely such a universal bait, trapping all of humanity in the net of sin. Thanks to special methods of influencing human consciousness and physiology, demons are able to immeasurably increase (hypertrophy) sexual desire.

Thus, the method of hypertrophy of the sexual instinct is for demons a ubiquitous, main and universal method of mastering the will and body of a person. He easily and imperceptibly allows demons to force a person to cross the limit of the use of this instinct permitted by God, limited to the sphere of legal marriage, and, thereby, to sin. At the same time, demons, at their own choice, can direct their hypertrophied sexual desire to any, the strangest, inappropriate, or even terrible and disgusting object that:

– or forbidden by God (for example: someone else’s wife, Small child, subject of the same sex, any animal, dead female body etc.),

– either explicitly, in their social, intellectual or moral qualities not suitable for further married life. In the latter case, the demons set themselves the goal of creating painfully difficult relationships between people who are alien in spirit, but who find themselves in a marriage union, whom the demons quite deliberately united with the help of a mutually directed fornication suggestion. Both spouses, and most importantly, their children, will suffer from this “failed love” (but, from the demons’ point of view, very successful).

But still, the main reason, in my opinion, that demons have completely taken control of the sexual instinct of any person is that it is this instinct in a hypertrophied form (with their help) that is the most powerful means by which they manage to provoke people are rebelling against God. The conflict artificially created by demons between what is desired (in the sexual sphere) and the commandment of God for many centuries among those who know God manifests itself, as a rule, in three main forms.

Three forms of rebellion against God

The first type of rebellion against God is personal rebellion. So, for example, in both of the above cases (see “inappropriate objects”), fueled by a passionate, uncontrollable attraction, a person, under the supervision and control of demons, tries to overcome all the obstacles that God’s commandments, parents, society and his own conscience place before him. An indomitable, truly insane desire to satisfy either sexual desire or romantic feelings of “love” inspired by demons forces a person to rebel against God and His prohibitions, not noticing that he is hooked and has become a puppet in the hands of fallen angels. It is precisely this obsession with prodigal passion, over which demons know how to throw an elegant romantic veil, that is “fed” to readers in almost all novels and poetic works called “love,” although true love this passion has nothing to do with it.

The second type of rebellion against God, which is based on hypertrophied sexuality, manifests itself in two forms: a) in the form of distortion Christian teaching and b) in the form of a transition from revealed teachings to paganism (i.e., to unrevealed religions).

Fornication as the basis of heresies

a) Distortion of Christian teaching.

An analysis of the biographies of the founders of various heresies and sects that departed from the original apostolic teaching leads to the conclusion that the main reason for the damage to the consciousness of almost all the founders of sects (heresiarchs) is the sin of fornication.

A conscience wounded by sin usually forces a person either to reject sin (which, in this case, he does not want at all), or to seek justification for it in Christianity “renewed” for this purpose, since they cannot find justification in the undistorted teaching of Christ. Thus, paradoxically, at the heart of almost all dogmatic distortions of sectarianism is the sin of fornication, which forged a new weapon for rebellion against God - heretical teaching. This conclusion, made speculatively on the basis of written sources, including the lives of many heresiarchs (including Arius, Apollinaria, Luther, Zwingli, L. Tolstoy, etc.), I can confirm with my own observations. So, for example, all ecumenists of any level that I personally know are, unfortunately, involved in this sin.

(Nevertheless, I admit, of course (as an exception), that a completely worthy person, who knows nothing about the tasks that the Luciferite Masons set for themselves when creating the WCC and similar organizations, can become an ecumenist through a misunderstanding. -childishly pure and naive people are not even able to believe in the reality of the existence among people of a single, powerful and centralized satanic organization, one of the prominent bodies of which is world Freemasonry).

As life itself has shown, the thinking abilities of heretics (as, indeed, of all other people) are damaged when grace departs from a person as a result of prodigal sin. This amazing relationship between seemingly distant phenomena was, however, noticed a very long time ago. Amazingly accurate (based on personal experience moral failures) at the end of his life the wise Solomon said about this: “Excitement of lust corrupts the mind” (). The existence of a relationship between the quality of mental abilities and sexual behavior can also be seen in the fact that the word chastity, which denotes whole, intact wisdom, otherwise - holistic understanding, three-dimensional vision (in Greek sojrosunh - prudence), has long been used to denote bodily purity and innocence , the loss of which, as it turned out, directly entails the loss of correct thinking, that is, that very whole, intact wisdom. The fragmentation of thinking that all humanity suffers today is the result of the loss of chastity, that is, bodily purity (I remind you that intimate relationships in a legal marriage are completely legal and do not violate chastity).

The Path to Idolatry

b) The transition from revealed religion to paganism.

This form of struggle with God is characterized by a retreat from the true revealed religion and a return to some ancient or modern pagan religions that do not restrict, but, on the contrary, in some cases even stimulate complete sexual freedom. Here are just a few of them: the cults of Astarte, Aphrodite, Isis, Thammuz, Adonis, Lucifer, as well as Tantrism, Shintoism, Mormonism, Dianetics and numerous other occult systems.

Provoked by demons, the desire for moral deliverance from a clear and precise limitation of sexual function, which was determined for people by God in the form of legal marriage, i.e., the desire for sexual “freedom”, or more precisely, for debauchery, was, it seems to me, the main reason the repeated deviation into idolatry of the ancient Israelites - the only people who possessed a revealed religion in the pre-Christian period. The Prophet Ezekiel, for example, in one of his revelations saw how at the northern gate of the Temple of the Lord “women were sitting, crying for Tammuz” (). The meaning of God's denunciation of this wickedness was... that the Israeli women seen by the prophet served the idol Tammuz (Tammuz), placed in the temple of the True God (!!) along with other pagan “gods” by the wicked king of Israel Joachim. This service was accompanied at first by crying for Tammuz (Tammuz), and then by unbridled joy, combined with the most vile and shameless debauchery (Biblical Encyclopedia, M., 1891, p. 686).

All Christians have been experiencing a similar demonic influence in the sexual sphere for many centuries, gradually falling away from the true teaching, and some from Christ. It is enough here, as an example, to cite the Roerich family that fell away from Orthodoxy and their numerous followers, who fell into the most primitive demon worship (paganism), clothed, however, in an elegant tinsel of pseudoscientific, as well as Hindu and Lamaistic concepts and terms.

“Human rights” to debauchery

c) The third type of rebellion against God and His Church is the direct revolutionary activity of Freemasonry and all other varieties of deeply religious Satanism, the task of which is the complete destruction of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, as well as Catholicism, which fell away from it in the 11th century, which most openly manifested itself in the French revolution of the late 18th century, and most importantly, in the three Russian revolutions of the 20th century. The deep motive of these uprisings for many of the revolutionaries (of course, not among the most dedicated) was, in my opinion, a sexual rebellion, a struggle for freedom for sin and, first of all, for the sin of prodigal.

By the way, the last Russian (this century is the fourth), the so-called Gorbachev revolution, which destroyed the economy (including industry and Agriculture), army, science, healthcare, school education and education, and most importantly - moral values ​​(still preserved in Russia from Orthodox ancestors), one of its main goals was the fight for “human rights”. These rights were discussed at Gorbachev’s meeting with the American president in the famous Masonic lair on the island of Malta. R. Reagan demanded from Gorbachev, of course, freedom and respect for human rights, and specifically sexual freedom, which, as it later turned out, was expressed in the “human rights” to homosexuality (i.e., the sin of sodomy), prostitution and pornography! And this freedom was granted to everyone who was possessed by a prodigal demon: articles that persecuted homosexuality, prostitution and pornography were removed from the USSR Criminal Code. “Yes,” you say, “but many churches have opened!” In fact, the Orthodox were simply thrown a distracting bone, and in the meantime, tens of millions of young souls were morally destroyed, irrevocably (for the most part) separated from God and from the Church by rampant sexual freedom, spiritually crippled by the “human rights” to fornication and sexual perversion. Again, one of the main goals of this revolution was the fight against God and Orthodoxy, based on the sexual instinct exaggerated by demons (not without the help of their servants in the media).

Prodigal sin opens the door to demons

I note that these consequences are most clearly revealed in those cases when young people commit these sins for the first time. This is explained by the fact that the picture of consequences is clearly revealed only as long as it is not “blurred” by other sins. My conclusion, unfortunately, is unpleasant and, I would even say, scary, but so far I have not been able to find a refutation of it. Here he is:

Prodigal sin deprives people of grace-filled protection to such a significant extent that demons IMMEDIATELY get the opportunity to ENTER THEIR BODIES, certainly captivating the will to one degree or another and binding the mind.

In other words, prodigal sin always leads people to one form or another of obsession and damage (to varying degrees) to the mind. Spiritually unenlightened and inexperienced people, as a rule, do not understand this, being surprised at the sudden and drastic change in the character of their son or daughter. Parents are literally amazed by the unexpected appearance of various bad habits in their children (alcohol, drugs, etc.), immensely increased pride, rudeness, and the disappearance of any kind of mutual understanding. Since the very fact of depopulation and the indicated degree of demonic possession of a person’s soul and body can actually lead him to spiritual death, then this very fact, in my opinion, is the reason that many St. the fathers call prodigal sins mortal.

Firstly, as you know from the Bible, the Creator, having created the first couple, blessed an exclusively monogamous heterosexual marriage with words spoken by Him through Adam, that is, prophetically, at the inspiration of God: “For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” (). God will repeat the same thing five and a half thousand years later, directly Himself, coming to earth: “... and the two will become one flesh” (). Note: in both cases we're talking about about one wife and one husband, who unite as if into one being. Thus, from the words of Christ Himself it clearly follows that not three or four people are united into a single being (as, for example, among Muslims), but precisely two and, moreover, of different sexes! Pay attention here to the fact that the word “flesh”, in the quotes I have given, does not mean a material body at all, but a certain single spiritual essence, consisting of two (if there are no children yet) souls, as if two hypostases that appear before God as one whole. Moreover, this single spiritual whole does not cease to be one even when the spouses are temporarily separated by the circumstances of their lives and are spatially separated from each other by a large distance.

The study of the essence of spiritual connections in married couples led me to the conviction that the connection of two people (spouses) is carried out, first of all, at the spiritual-energetic level. This means that in marriage there is a unification of two different potentials of uncreated energy (grace), which first belonged to each of their spouses separately. As a result, a kind of new spiritual essence is formed (one in two forms), which has its own special, averaged spiritual potential. Thus, now, when one of the spouses, sinning, is to some extent deprived of God’s grace for his sin, this instantly affects the other (and if there are children, then also on them), since the general level of grace-filled energies falls. More than once, for example, I heard confessions of this kind: “Once, when I cheated on my wife on a business trip, on the same day and hour she had a severe heart attack, from which she almost died, although she had never had a heart problem before.” ”, or, for example, “When I got together with one man at a resort, my husband got into a car accident on the same day, and my daughter, who was at the summer dacha, kindergarten, from then on epileptic seizures began, which continue to this day.”

Law of Parental Sin

In the latter case, for the mother’s mortal sin, as you may have noticed, the entire family lost the grace of God. The husband and daughter remained unprotected from the influence of demonic forces, and the child’s body was directly invaded by demons, which was expressed in the form of epilepsy, as one of the most severe forms of possession. Quite conventionally, all family members can thus be compared to communicating vessels in which the level of liquid simultaneously decreases, even if it is drawn out from only one vessel. In the two examples I gave above, which could be endlessly multiplied, we observe the action of one of the most important laws of God, regulating the life of man as a rational spiritual person, and therefore called spiritual laws, in contrast to the laws given by God to nature: physical laws, chemical, biological, etc. This law, let's call it the LAW OF PARENTAL SIN, explains the reason, incomprehensible to many, why children suffer for the sins of their parents. Let me try to formulate it now:

The sin of even one of the parents (especially “mortal”) necessarily reduces the common potential of uncreated Divine energy (grace) for the whole family, which to the greatest extent affects children as the weakest members of the single body of the family, depriving them and all other family members of grace-filled divine protection from negative impact demonic forces.

That the family can truly be considered as a single spiritual body, just as the Church, consisting of many members (people and local Churches), is the body of Christ, can be read in St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians (), as well as in 1 Corinthians (). Look how the apostle compares the husband to Christ, and the wife to the Church... This comparison contains an extraordinary depth and mystery, which we can only partially reveal.

Just like the Church, which “by water and the Spirit” gives birth to new children (in spirit) for eternal life and thereby grows itself, a wife gives birth to children (in the flesh) for this earthly life, thereby multiplying the body family, the head of which is the husband, just as Christ is the head of the Church. Just as all members of the body of the Church are “filled with one Spirit” (), that is, united into a single body by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the single body of the family is united by a single common potential of grace-filled energy, although each family member, I think, has some then your reserve of grace.

What is “prodigal marriage”

To understand why the Church considers prodigal sin so serious that it calls it “mortal,” we must remember another amazing pattern indicated by St. Paul, but hidden for many in the darkness of misunderstanding. It turns out that fornication has the same spiritual and energetic consequences as legal marriage, but only with a negative sign, since it is illegal and, like any illegal action that violates God’s commandment, has as its inevitable consequence the deprivation of grace to those who sin. The Apostle Paul writes: “...he who has sex with a harlot becomes one body with her, for it is said: “the two will become one flesh” (). Please note - this is the same formula, the same words that are used to celebrate the marriage of Adam and Eve in paradise! So, fornication actually formalizes a marriage, but a marriage that violates the purity of the true and complete union in love of the spouses, as was originally intended by the Creator. An illegal marriage, just like a real one, leads to the unification of the spiritual potentials of both sinners, which means that in addition to the enormous loss of grace-filled energy by both as a result of this sin, each of them is even more deprived of grace due to the fact that the consequences are transferred to him all the sins of the “partner”. Ultimately, the loss of grace in such an illegal union is so significant for both partners (sometimes falling almost to zero) that demons instantly move into their bodies (or join the ranks of those who have already moved in earlier), since, I repeat, only the grace of God protects a person not only from the introduction of demons into his body, but also from control of his thoughts and will from the outside.

How to get rid of “uninvited guests”

As a result of the “sexual revolution”, successfully launched by the World Satanic Church (WCC) (Not to be confused with the World Council of Churches, which, having the same abbreviation - WCC, is controlled by the leadership of the Satanic Church) in the 60s of this century in America and successfully distributed by Freemasons almost all over the world using the so-called popular culture, finding a person today who is not inhabited by demons (only their number and degree of influence are different) is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack. This, of course, is not a reason for despair, but only a reminder that, with God’s help, we must complete a very important task in our lives: get rid of uninvited guests (demons), having won freedom for our will from enslavement by the will of the demonic and, as a result, literally become ourselves.

Hegumen N.

How we emerge from our teenage years depends very much on how we enter them. The water falling from the cliff boils and swirls below, and then flows quietly through different channels. This is an image of youth into which everyone is thrown like water into a waterfall. Two orders of people emerge from it: some shine with kindness and nobility, others are darkened by wickedness and depravity; and the third - middle class, a mixture of good and evil, the likeness of which is a brand from the fire, which inclines now towards good, now towards evil, like a spoiled clock - sometimes it goes right, sometimes it runs or lags behind. He who has safely passed through his youthful years is as if he has swum across a stormy river and, looking back, blesses God. And another, with tears in his eyes, in repentance, turns back and condemns himself. You can never get back what you lose in your youth. Will he who has fallen still achieve what he who has not fallen has? The one who never falls is always young. The traits of his moral character reflect the feelings of a child before he becomes guilty before his father. In it, the fruits of the Spirit indicated by the Apostle are revealed in full force: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, mercy, faith, meekness, self-control. Then he is characterized by a certain insight and wisdom, seeing everything in himself and around himself and knowing how to manage himself and his affairs. All this together makes him both respectable and amiable. He involuntarily attracts you to himself. The existence of such persons in the world is the great grace of God.

The sin of fornication has the property that it unites two bodies, albeit illegal, into one body. For this reason, although he is forgiven immediately after repentance in confession under the indispensable condition that the repentant leaves him, the cleansing and sobering of the body and soul from prodigal sin requires a long time so that the connection and unity established between the bodies... and infecting the soul, dilapidated and destroyed.
.

About a girl's chastity

Although you did not say or utter those words of the harlot: “Come and let us wallow in lust,” you did not utter it with your tongue, but spoke with your appearance, did not utter it with your lips, but spoke with your gait, did not invite with your voice, but invited with your eyes clearer than your voice. Although by inviting, you did not betray yourself; but you are not free from sin either; for this too is a special type of adultery; you remained clean from corruption, but bodily, not mental.
St.

On the chastity of young men

Nothing beautifies a young age more than to enter into marriage free from all debauchery. And their wives will be kind to them when their soul does not know fornication in advance and will not be corrupted, when the young man knows only the woman with whom he entered into marriage. Then love becomes more ardent, and affection is sincere. And friendship is more reliable, and a wife is the sweetest of all, when young men marry in compliance with this rule... If the young man was corrupt before marriage, then after marriage he will again look at other people’s wives and run to his mistresses. He who was chaste before marriage will remain so even more so after marriage. On the contrary, whoever learned to commit fornication before marriage will do the same after marriage.”
St.

The material presented below is the original work of priest Maxim Kaskun (Moscow region), published on the Internet in the format of video lectures. Author of this project“ierei063”, in order to present information more concisely, optimized his lectures in such a way as to significantly reduce the volume of material without losing the main idea, allowing the reader to quickly and accurately grasp the main idea.

Father did serious, respectable work, from various sources, including the works of the Holy Fathers, collected information on the topic, clearly systematized and revealed it. He worked on the development of this material for a very long time, and I do not claim authorship, but in order to save my own time, seeing this worthy work, I dare to post a “shortened version” on my website. Those wishing to access the original material, please go to the Internet project of Priest Maxim Kaskun, who also needs support for his works.

Passion is a person’s perversion of his natural ability. But, in addition to passion, a person in fornication also sins the sin of death.

What is a mortal sin? The Apostle John the Theologian says that “there is sin leading to death, but there is sin not leading to death.” So the sin of death is the one that, firstly, kills a person’s soul. Secondly, this sin gives the demons the right to cry out to God so that He will take this person’s life for such a crime. This sin, first of all, includes fornication.

If a person does not repent and change his life, then, as a rule, he dies an unnatural death, that is, not his own death: violent or sudden, without preparation, without repentance and forgiveness.

The term “fornication” is translated as sexual immorality or debauchery. But in Russian transliteration the word “fornication” means to wander, to be mistaken. What shows that such a person has complete ignorance or delusion, lack of direction, that is, he is a person who does not have spiritual path. This is expressed in such a concept as “spiritual fornication.”

Physical fornication - it means sexual relations before marriage, that is, civil marriage and so on, which is very common among young people today. Young people argue that they want to get to know each other better, live together, and what if they don’t fit in or, on the contrary, they are convinced that they do. But, as far as I noticed, even since Soviet times, such couples, before registering with the registry office, lived very well and amicably, gave birth to children and the like. But as soon as they formalized their marriage, it did not last even five years. A civil marriage itself cannot give a person the full sensation of a legal marriage, when you want to check whether you will get along - it is simply impossible. It's like testing yourself to see if you can be a priest. There is no way to know this without the sacrament. Likewise, marriage is also a sacrament, it is God’s blessing on your life together, and without it it is simply fornication, a mortal sin and nothing more. As for the official position of the Church on civil marriage, She recognizes it, but as not perfect, since there is no God’s blessing on it. However, by civil marriage the Church does not mean cohabitation, but a registered marriage in the registry office. And such a marriage is no longer fornication, and the one who calls it a sin sins himself, since no priest has the right to perform the sacrament of marriage if the couple has not registered with the registry office.

Adultery is when one spouse cheats on the other. These also include the so-called “Swedish families” - this is when two men and one woman live together, or vice versa, or when two families come together for mutual infidelity - this is all adultery.

The next manifestation of prodigal passion is the nightly or non-existent flow of semen. This problem is familiar to those who abstain for a long time and are therefore subject to demonic attacks.

Handjob or malakia– a very common type of fornication. In Soviet times, doctors began to recommend this practice to men to relieve tension, stress or depression, arguing that it was good for the body. We hear all this now, but after trying at least once, it’s very difficult to stop, especially for young people, during a period of growth, both physical and emotional.

The most insidious type of fornication in humans manifests itself in same-sex attraction or sodomy, and among women. I would also include pedophilia in this category - this is the attraction of an adult to young children or minor teenagers. These phenomena have become very widespread, I would even say universal. People no longer understand what they are doing, they are so blinded by their base desires and instincts.

Bestiality is the extreme degree of fornication.

How the sin of fornication is born.

First of all, this is the will of the person himself. Without our consent, without our will, this is impossible.

Procreation is our natural desire, but when we make it a source of pleasure, it is already sin and lust. This sin is by no means the lot of adults only; one can often hear that prodigal or even perverted thoughts visited a person when he was 5-10 years old, that is, even before puberty. Sin is a mystery and a personal choice of each person. We can only pray for our children and educate them in morality, but this does not give us a 100% guarantee of their righteousness in the future. Here is the mystery, here is the Providence of God.

And we must remember the story of Noah and his son Ham, who saw his father's nakedness. What's going on now! For example, many take their children with them to wash in the bathhouse - they say, what’s wrong with that, they’re still small. And no one understands that by doing this we ourselves are corrupting our children.

“Like strives for like, so flesh desires flesh,” says St. John Climacus. Sin requires internal consent, after which a desire appears, which is expressed in lust, which pushes us to action, be it violence or crime.

Reasons why fornication occurs in a person

The depravity of human nature after the Fall - it rebelled against man, and we are doomed to wage a constant war with it. And we receive this body from our parents and pass it on to our children. Our nature is prone to sin and prone to vice, that is, we understand with our minds, but the body demands, rebels against the will. And who will win?

Evils of education. You know, there is famous saying: "The apple never falls far from the tree". Our personal example, the way we live, our behavior - all this is imprinted on the child’s soul, and then he imitates his parents.

The temptations of this world are a whole river of vice.

Spiritual causes of prodigal sin

Unbelief – after all, it is the main cause of sin. And this also applies to those who live church life. Unbelief is so ingrained in us that it has become a habit; we no longer even notice it. We fast, take communion, pray, go to services - but where is faith?! After all, we live with worldly dreams, amusements, and sins.

The next reason is gluttony. Fornication is based on the belly, when the belly is full, a person receives excess juices, as St. says. Theophan the Recluse, and excess juices excite human nature.

Immodesty of hands and eyes. A person should monitor his vision and not stare at people of the opposite sex. When we just look at a person, this is fine, but as soon as we have made our judgment about his attractiveness or beauty, then a wide path for sin opens up. Married people have it easier in this regard, since they have found their companions along the path of life, and they are already working to maintain their marriage and increase love. And single people who are still looking for their chosen ones are forced to look, evaluate, search. The main thing here is not to get used to this; the Lord, even before the creation of everything visible, chose collaborators for each of us on this path of life. If we allow God, if we believe in His providence, His love for us, then we will not miss our soul mate, since they were created for each other. Unfortunately, very often we do not allow God to do this, and we do everything in our own way, for which we often grieve.

Many Holy Fathers forbade people, especially single people, from going to public baths.

It is best to refrain from unnecessary temptations. Remember the life of St. Anthony the Great, when he and his disciple crossed the river, they separated so that no one could see the naked body of the other, and when they crossed, they got dressed and united again for the further journey. Because you cannot look at the naked body of another person without causing harm to your soul.

As for the hands, there are many dangers here. Many Holy Fathers, such as St. John Climacus and St. Ephraim Sirin, especially noted the fact that when a person washes, he should not examine his body, touch his private parts, or prolong this process. Because in this case, people who lead a chaste lifestyle can very easily become aroused by their own touches, and then sin cannot be avoided.

For married people this is not so important, but for single people it is very important.

People who have chosen the path of monasticism and asceticism have a very vulnerable place through which lustful passion can penetrate their soul - this is the love of sweet, tasty food or laryngeal rage. This happens at the beginning of the monastic path, and when the monk has already gained some spiritual experience, then fornication seeks another path - this is arrogance.

If a monk has not achieved humility, then the Lord sends him fornication temptations in order to humble him. The third reason for ascetics to experience fornication is if they condemn their neighbors. Abba Evagrius and other Holy Fathers write that by judging your neighbors, you yourself fall into this sin. Condemnation kills love in a person. Each of us loves our child, no matter what, even if he does something, gets into a fight, or anything else. We still love him, protect him, shield him, forgive him. And if someone else’s child does something, we are immediately indignant, we condemn him and we will touch upon his parents about how poorly they raise their child, etc. Condemnation in a person kills not only love, but also prayer and reverence - this is a very insidious passion and one must be on guard with it.

Signs of fornication

A full belly is the first sign that a person will be tempted by fornication.

dreamy dream, long sleep or, on the contrary, insomnia (when a person lies and dreams) - all this is a consequence of overeating.

Lack of sleep – when a person does not get enough sleep, there will also be a struggle of passion.

Exhaustion - a person who often indulges in lustful passion loses his strength, both physical and spiritual.

Resistance to Prayer. Sadness, despondency, hopeless darkness are a state of extreme despair, since a person’s soul dies. Dies from exhaustion of spiritual strength, God's grace. Fornication destroys us from the inside, and after that the demon of despair comes and fills everything with itself, pushing a person to commit suicide.

Free treatment of neighbors (especially the opposite sex) - when a person behaves casually with the people around him. Abba Dorotheos advised not to look at the face of his interlocutor at all, but to look at the ground, because he taught his disciples that when you talk to another person, you are talking to the image of God, that is, to God. Therefore, he taught reverence in communication between people. IN modern society You rarely hear respect in a voice anymore, let alone reverence.

Frequent nocturnal desecrations- that is, if something like this happens to a person more than once a month, then we can say with confidence that the lustful passion in him is progressing. And we urgently need to take up the fight against it.

Incontinence in family life- that is, not observing fasts.

Degrees of sin:

Suppression or perversion of conscience is necessary condition for the initial stage of fornication. At the beginning, she needs to expel the Holy Spirit from the human soul so that nothing prevents her from taking root;

Corruption by thoughts and deeds is practical side lustful passion. When a person moves from theory to practice;

And the last, extreme degree of fornication is when a person with just one thought can bring himself to the point of expiration of semen.

Derived sins of prodigal passion

Many of us are familiar with them, since they were taken from St. John of the Climacus, so I’ll just remind you of them: pleasing passion and peace in everything, relaxation, condemnation, blasphemy and blasphemous thoughts, pride, ridicule (causticism and untimely laughter) and so on.

The influence of fornication on the human body

“First of all,” as St. says. Theophan the Recluse, this is the loss of the body’s strength, and its exhaustion, and its weakness.” In ancient times, no warrior or athlete shared his bed with either his wife or woman before a battle or competition. since they already knew then that a person weakens after this by about 25%. And now we see what they show in modern historical films - they drink, eat, walk all night, and in the morning they go into battle. Only suicides behave this way. And there is victory, fanfare and a happy ending!

Whiteness of the body - a person becomes less able to control his body, as it becomes disobedient.

The development of a habit of sin and dependence on it, when a person can no longer live without it. This is especially evident among those who have taken monastic vows. It’s good if a person came to the monastery as a virgin, but those who have known sin are tormented by memories and dreams.

Fornication produces gloom and spiritual stench in the human body - and this is the real truth. The demons of fornication are stinking, and a person seduced by them takes on this stench, and his body becomes stinking and unclean.

Impact on the human soul

Dullness and insensibility of the soul, and, as a result, torture and death. After prodigal sin, the soul suffers and suffers greatly. It’s hard for her, she’s devastated, she’s wounded, and prodigal sin greatly defiles the soul and shakes the mind. One who has sinned by fornication is a completely demoralized person, prone to despair, since the mind cannot comprehend the full depth of its fall. Precisely falls, since this word is used only for prodigal sins and not for any others. Even if a person sinned by fornication only in his mind, he still fell, just as fornication immediately brings down the entire spiritual building of a person to the ground. In his works, St. John Climacus more than once makes this comparison: when a repentant heretic is accepted into the Church, he is accepted through repentance and even in his existing rank (if he is a priest) and that’s it, no penances. And for fornication they were excommunicated from Communion for up to 10 years. That is, how much more terrible is the sin of fornication compared to heresy!

Inflammation of the soul by passions - a person can completely lose control over himself and become simply an animal, a slave of his passions.

Paralysis of all spiritual movements in a person - after sin, a person cannot find the strength and will to pray, fast sincerely, with all his soul.

Frustration, anxiety, tossing and reeling of the soul is when the soul cannot find peace. She flutters like a flag in the wind, finding no shelter.

Suppression of joy about God in a person’s soul - this happens when a person begins to enjoy lustful thoughts and sin. Such a Person can no longer rejoice: he jokes, smiles, he is affable and friendly, he is the life of the party, but inside there is melancholy and despondency, and there is no place for joy in his soul - passion has destroyed everything.

Impact on the human mind

Immersion of the mind in darkness and clouding it - it becomes insensitive to everything spiritual.

Obeseness and mental disorder– when a person thinks and philosophizes only in a worldly way, there is no longer a spiritual component. This happens when a person is completely enslaved by vice. He can't imagine himself without it. He talks, thinks, jokes and lives only by this. Look at modern television and there you will find only fornication and womb. And nothing more.

Impact on the human spirit

Landing of the spirit. After prayer, a person’s spirit burns towards God, burns with a thirst for grace, love, joy, but when prodigal passion possesses a person, it does not allow the spirit to burn with God, but returns it to earthly affairs and pleasures.

Fornication drives away the Holy Spirit, and a person loses boldness before God.

Being possessed by a person is what a person comes to when he is obsessed with the passion for fornication. He is likened to Satan, since this sin is one of his favorite ones.

The general influence of fornication on a person

“Fornication is a carnal passion, it is a denial of Christianity within us” (St. Theophan the Recluse). When a person commits prodigal sin, he renounces Christ and drives Him away, becoming a pagan and atheist. Fornication is one of the most terrible passions.

The complete enslavement of a person to sin occurs through fornication. And it also destroys everything good that is in a person. He destroys and plunders everything that a person has created in his soul, leaving not a stone unturned.

Punishment of a person for the sin of fornication

Taking away God's blessings in life.

Sorrow. Trouble. Adversity. Diseases. And even death.

Church punishments follow in the following order:

masturbation and fornication – ban on communion for 7 years;

adultery, sodomy, bestiality - excommunication from St. Secrets for 15 years;

night desecration - if a person did not inflame himself before this, and this happened simply for physiological reasons, then he can take communion.

This is stated in the rules of St. Athanasius the Great, Dionysius of Alexandria and Timothy of Alexandria.

Fighting passion. General methods

First of all – the fight against gluttony, fasting, abstinence. In the fight against them, it is very important to pay attention to the quality of food - this means removing meat, fatty foods, and spicy foods. Get used to getting up from the table a little hungry, eating not often so that there is no constant state of satiety.

Bodily labor to the point of exhaustion and fatigue. You know yourself, when you get tired, you just have to get to bed, what kind of fornication there is.

Jealousy about the feat. Faith in God. Prayer is all an assistant in the fight against passion.

Humility. Obedience. Mercy – drives away fornication from a person.

Modesty in dress and behavior. Panache should be completely eliminated. Because the one who flaunts himself tempts not only himself, but also others. Provokes you to look at yourself and experience feelings. This has become so close to our nature that even some older women cannot give up perfumes and cosmetics. And when you tell them about it, they get offended and don’t understand the true nature of their habit.

Avoidance of the spectacle of another's body - these are films, television, magazines, etc. All these images then emerge in our memory and inflame our passion. Again, let me remind you about the baths - under no circumstances should children see their parents naked. If you want to go to the sauna with your son, please put on your swimming trunks and go.

Creating a family. According to Ap. Paul, “But to avoid fornication, let each one have his own wife” (1 Cor. 7:2). This helps in the fight against passion, in achieving chastity through family life, since it is blessed by God - this is already the law. No one will judge this person for this, since everything is by love, by law, by grace.

Private methods.

During temptations, it is necessary to cut off thoughts at the root, that is, as soon as an image or inspiration appears in the soul, one must resort to prayer in order to expel this filth from the soul or replace this thought with a good one - this is what St. recommends. Theophan the Recluse. Calling on the name of God, the Jesus Prayer or some other prayer, since without God’s help no one will ever be able to overcome this passion. According to the Holy Fathers, before defeating it, a person must admit his weakness and his inability to fight this sin with his own strength. Until this moment, God cannot help us without destroying our soul, but as soon as we admit our weakness, from that moment our true struggle with the sin of fornication begins.

Memories of shame after the Fall. Remembrance of the punishment for sin in this life and the next. Many Holy Fathers resorted to this method - constant remembrance of death.

Reading Holy Scripture and Lives of Saints. This helps to drive out lustful thoughts, and then the place of Satan in our soul is taken by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Alternatively, you can occupy yourself with your favorite activity or hobby, which will also help distract yourself from sin.

Fornication and family relationships.

Can fornication be present in family life? Fornication may be unclean, but fornication is not! Because fornication is the unlawful use of each other, but in marriage everything is according to the law. When a family man cannot abstain during fasting, this shows that he is weak and sick with fornication.

Prodigal uncleanness in family life is expressed in perversions and unnatural use of the other sex. This is all a mortal sin, and it must be eradicated. I will not talk about them in detail, but I will note one of them, since many may not know that this is a sin - this is mutual masturbation. Some people think that this is not a sin, but it is not. This practice came to us from family psychology. Many have read such manuals to revitalize family life and began to practice it, not knowing that this is desecration.

Of course, we need to remember about decency, about natural shame. One day I was walking my dog ​​and decided to go see some newlyweds I knew. His wife opens the door for me - dressed only in a shirt and that’s it! I was so dumbfounded. They invited me to tea, but I, citing business, hurried to leave. I come to the priest, I say this, they say, and so, and he answers me: “Oh, what are you talking about - this is everyday life.” It’s one thing when they are alone in the house, but greeting guests in this manner is, at the very least, disrespectful and tempting.

Such little things have become so firmly established in our lives that we began to perceive them as the norm. We began to forget that the Lord constantly calls us to purity, to holiness, to prayer. We must strive for this with all our soul. Nobody says that we are saints, but the desire for holiness should become our need, like in the air. We need to remind people of their sleep, to wake them up, and not to brush aside sin with worldly wisdom.

Relationships before marriage should be without sin. There is a proverb: “As you begin, so will you end.” That is, he began with his sin family life, well, continue with sin. Whoever is able should better abstain from fornication.

Demons love nothing more than fornication, because through fornication they most quickly achieve our destruction. Therefore, every Christian should fear it, fight it and not indulge in sin, but call white white and black black.

[fornication], 1. Sin against chastity (in everyday life it is often any violation of morality in the sphere of sexual relations); one of the passions in the ascetic teaching of the Church. 2. In a religious-metaphorical sense - any deviation of a person from God’s Providence for him; idolatry, unbelief.

In the Synodal translation of St. The Scriptures use the terms “B.,” “harlotry,” and “fornication” to be conveyed to Heb. . . . Greek πορνεία, - containing as the first (Gen 38.24; Lev 19.29; Hos 4.10-11; Acts 15.20, 29; 21.25; Rom 1.29; 1 Cor 6.13, 18; 7. 2; Gal 5. 19; Eph 5. 3; etc.), and the second (Ex 34. 16; Num 14. 33; Jer 2. 20; 3. 2, 9; Eze 16. 15, 20 , 34, 36; 23. 11, 27, 29; 43. 7, 9; Os 2. 4; 4. 12, 18; 5. 3, 4; 6. 10; Nahum 3. 4; etc.) meanings concept "B." In Jer 3.8, 9 the word “fornication” is conveyed, meaning adultery, i.e. adultery. In Russian in B.'s language there are synonyms: fornication, debauchery, debauchery.

1. Christianity recognizes two forms of human life in the sphere of gender: marriage and celibacy. B. as a distortion of the relationship between the sexes and the Divine purpose inherent in them is a sin, for it only involves the achievement of sensual self- or mutual enjoyment. Manifesting itself in the form of thoughts, passion, corrupting words, spectacles, books, looking at obscene pictures, touching one’s own body or the body of another person, caresses and actual sexual relations, B. encroaches on the purity and chastity of a person. B. also includes prostitution, homosexual relations (see Sin of Sodom), incest, and masturbation (masturbation, malakia).

In the OT, the 7th commandment of the Mosaic Decalogue - “thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exodus 20.14; Deut. 5.18) - does not draw a clear boundary between the concepts of adultery and sex, therefore this commandment applies to all cases of violation of sexual morality. At the same time, it coexisted with the ancient institution of polygamy and concubines. Punishment for violations in the area of ​​sexual relations depended on the degree of the offense. In the case of violence against an unmarried girl, the offender was obliged to give a significant ransom to her father and take the girl as his wife, never having the right to divorce her (Deut. 22.28-29). Committing a crime against any wife or concubine of the father was punishable by death as a desecration of the “holiness” of the father’s bed (Lev 18.7-8; 20.11; Deut. 22.30; 27.20). An equally harsh fate threatened brides who did not observe virginity (Deut. 22.20-21), priests’ daughters who defiled themselves through fornication (Lev. 21.9), and even spouses who came together during the period of wives. purification (Lev 20:18). The death penalty expected people in cases of adultery (Deut. 22.22-27), incest, sodomy, bestiality (Lev. 18.22-29; 20.11-16). The main reason for the strictness towards perversions in the sphere of sexual relations was the sacred concern for the offspring of the people of Israel.

In the OT, prodigal sin was viewed not so much as a violation of public morality, but as a defilement that offends the shrine of God - the people of Israel. Therefore, for a Jew, the custom of “providing” daughters, common among pagans, is unacceptable: “Do not defile your daughter by allowing her to commit fornication, lest the land commit fornication and be filled with depravity” (Lev 19:29), although no formal punishment was provided for this. Human violation of the Divine Law causes bitter consequences - a change in the entire universe: the extermination of man, livestock, reptiles and birds “from the face of the earth” (Gen. 6. 2-7, 13); the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19.1-25); extermination of 24 thousand people. (Numbers 25. 1-9) and others (about God’s punishment for B. cf.: Isaac Syr. Sermo 62).

In the NT there are much stricter concepts about marriage (Matt 19:8-9; 1 Cor 7:10-11), chastity, about the attitude towards the human body, corresponding to the revealed highest purpose of man - unity with God: “the body is not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (1 Cor 6:13). Ap. Paul calls the body the temple of the Holy Spirit living in Christians (1 Cor 6:19) and contrasts the lifestyle of a sinner, who becomes one body with a harlot, to the union of the believer with the Body of Christ - His Church (1 Cor 6:15-17).

Christ draws attention to the fact that adultery (like B.) is committed primarily in the heart of a person, that is, in thought and feeling: “Whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5. 28). Fornication is indicated by Christ among the evil thoughts that come from the heart and defile a person (Matthew 15.19; Mark 7.21), while chastity is the ap. Paul calls God's sanctification of Christians (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5). Therefore, B. and all uncleanness “should not even be named” among Christians, “as is fitting for saints” (Eph 5.3). In this regard, the fate of fornicators and adulterers is determined, who “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6.9-10; cf. Rev. 22.15), for B. corrupts the soul and body, and cools a person in his desire to God, separates from God (John of Kronstadt, p. 24). The fornicator “is torn away from the body of the Church, destroyed by daily rot - sinful pleasures...” (Greg. Nyss. Adv. fornic.), desecrates the image of God in himself: “ "(4th Troparion of the 2nd Song of Monday of the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete).

At the same time, having come to call “sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13), giving every person the opportunity to be cleansed of sins, the Lord sets an example of a merciful attitude towards fallen man. Denouncing the pride and hypocrisy of his accusers, Christ says to the harlot brought to Him: “Go and sin no more” (John 8:3-11). The repentant harlots, whom the Lord promises a better fate than the high priests (Matthew 21:31), became His faithful disciples, and one of them, Mary Magdalene, was the first to see Him risen.

B. appears as one of the main passions in the ascetic teaching of the Church. Along with gluttony, B. refers to carnal passions, that is, passions associated with the needs of the body. Ap. Paul and St. the fathers especially emphasize that every sin is committed outside the body, “but the fornicator sins against his own body” (1 Cor 6.18), “not like a murderer, who sins against someone else’s body, keeping his own unhurt, not like a covetous man who harms to another, being careful not to harm his own body, the fornicator harms himself, pierces himself with the arrow of dishonor... cares about the robbery of his own flesh” (Greg. Nyss. Adversus fornic.). Lustful passion is the result of a constant agreement with lustful thoughts and the development of the skill for fornication, the psychophysical need for it.

Teaching that it is not useful for the inexperienced to reason about the movements of the passions and consider it better to remain in blissful simplicity regarding this (Ioan. Climacus. Scala paradisi. 15.75), St. John Climacus speaks about the immediate causes of fornication and its close connection with other passions: “With beginners, physical falls usually occur from enjoying food; with averages they happen from arrogance and for the same reason as with beginners; but with those approaching perfection, they happen only from the condemnation of their neighbors” (Ibid. 15. 20; cf.: Isaac Syr. Sermones. 43, 70, 77). St. Isaac the Syrian adds to the causes of fornication “ridiculousness and daring soaring of thoughts,” which “are the work of a prodigal demon” (Isaac Syr. Sermo 68).

The beginning of the development of prodigal passion is a thought, and a Christian must direct the most ascetic efforts towards the fight against it in order to gain the ability to control his mind. “Some,” writes Rev. John Climacus, - they please eunuchs by nature; and I please the everyday eunuchs, who have learned to emasculate themselves with reason, like a knife” (Ioan. Climacus. Scala paradisi. 15. 21). In order to prevent an unclean thought from entering the heart, the inner temple of the soul, it is important to prevent agreement with the thought (Ioan. Cassian. De inst. coenob. VI 13). In connection with this, St. Theophan the Recluse advises not to allow yourself to indiscriminately see everything, hear everything and touch everything; rush to erase confusing impressions; avoid encounters with the subject of past temptations; be able to interpret everything you encounter for yourself into spiritual sense(Theophan (Govorov), St. What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it. L., 19916. P. 222-224).

Asceticism closely connects B. with lust. Lust does not mean sexual desire as such, for it is given to a person in marriage, as the force of attraction between those who unite, but a distortion of gender relations as a result of the Fall, associated with selfishness, a thirst for power: seeing in another person only an object for satisfaction. A Christian in marriage faces the struggle against sin. Herculean task separation of sexual feeling from “lust”, for lust in marriage distorts its purpose and, therefore, is B. A monk (and a Christian who has renounced marriage) faces the task of fighting sin through the complete mortification of sexual feeling with the aim of transforming it into a new one , spiritual, person.

Prodigal passion can take unusual shapes: overly passionate denunciation of B. in other people with relishing various details or - a type of spiritual self-deception, when relationships with the Lord, prayer, experience of His presence are clearly intertwined with an unhealthy state of the neuro-genital system (see: Varnava (Belyaev), ep. pp. 159-160). B. easily gets along with love for his neighbor (Ibid. P. 321): “Those inclined to voluptuousness are often compassionate and merciful, quick to tears and affectionate” (Ioan. Climacus. Scala paradisi. 15.46); at the same time, lustful passion can flow into Pharisaic pride and dislike for people as an apparent way of protection from B.

B., like any other passion, is overcome by humility, a virtuous life according to God’s commandments, and opening oneself to the action of God’s grace through the sacraments of the Church. “... Just as chastity is higher than human nature, so the final victory over fornication does not depend on us, but is a gift from God,” which “can only be found in the humble, therefore, without humility it is impossible to get rid of fornication” ( Varnava (Belyaev), ep. P. 166). The Holy Fathers admit that warfare with lustful passion is “longer than others, constant, cruel” (Ioan. Cassian. De inst. coenob. VI 1), for “chastity is the comprehensive name of all virtues” (Ioan. Climacus. Scala paradisi. 15.4), and “how great is the heavenly reward for chastity, the greater is it subject to the slander of enemies” (Ioan. Cassian. De inst. coenob. VI 17). The mental-physical nature of B. requires special means of practical combat against it. “Don’t think of putting down the demon of fornication with objections and evidence,” says St. John Climacus, - for he has many convincing justifications for fighting against us with the help of our nature”; “present to the Lord the weakness of your nature, realizing your powerlessness in everything, and in an imperceptible way you will receive the gifts of chastity” (Ioan. Climacus. Scala paradisi. 15. 24, 26; cf.: Ioan. Cassian. De inst. coenob. VI 5, 6 ). According to St. John Cassian the Roman, since the attack of the passion of fornication is twofold, on the body and on the soul, it is impossible to win victory except under the condition of a joint struggle of body and soul. “Bodily fasting alone is not enough to acquire or maintain purity of chastity,” even if it is supported by physical labor, unless it is “preceded by contrition of spirit, constant prayer... prolonged meditation on the Holy Scriptures,” combined with spiritual understanding, “and above all unless true humility is laid at the foundation” (Ibid. VI 1). For the victory over fornication, abstinence, solitude, silence are useful (Ibid. VI 3; Idem. Collat. V 4; Ioan. Climacus. Scala paradisi. 15. 44).

The Lord gives the sinner time to repent. Church disciplinary practice combined Old Testament intolerance towards B. (1 Cor 5. 1-11) with pastoral loving care for the sinner: “In every kind of crime, one must first of all look at the disposition of the one being healed ... by repentance” (Grig. Nis. 8) . Canon law distinguishes adultery from adultery (Grig. Nis. 4), the punishment for which is twice as severe as for adultery: “Let there be... a difference in the manner of repentance for sins of voluptuousness” (Ibid.). In ancient church institutions, under the influence of the then prevailing public morality, which had not completely outlived the legacy of pagan morality, in addition to carnal relations between unmarried people, B. was understood as the satisfaction of lust between a married man and an unmarried woman (Basil. 21), i.e. . sin married man in practice, it was not equated with adultery (it was seen only as a violation of the husband’s conjugal rights). “It is not easy to name the reason for this,” writes St. Basil the Great, - this is the custom” (Ibid.).

A layman for B. is excommunicated from Communion for 7 years according to Vasil. 59 or 9 according to Grieg. Nis. 4, but for those “zealously undergoing repentance” the period of penance can be shortened. A monk for B. is subjected to penance as for adultery - he is excommunicated from Communion for 15 years (Vasil. 60). Clerics who fall into B. are defrocked (Ap. 25; Basil. 3), but are not deprived of Communion, since double punishment is not imposed for one crime. Anyone who rapes an unengaged maiden is excommunicated and forced to take the maiden as his wife (Ap. 67). A harlot was considered a young woman who married without the consent of her father (Basil. 38), a slave - without the consent of her master (Basil. 40), therefore marriages against the “will of those who possess” were equated with fornication (Basil. 42). For the sin of masturbation, a layman is subjected to a 40-day penance, which he must spend in dry eating, making 100 bows daily (John 10); mutual fornication is punished twice as severely (John 11); For the same sin, a woman is also subject to penance (John 13). In practice, when applying the canons, the Church takes into account the specific spiritual and historical situation.

In the “Fundamentals of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church,” a document adopted by the Bishops’ Jubilee Council in 2000, in the section devoted to morality, the state of modern. society is characterized as a spiritual crisis (X 6), the manifestations of which include: mass rejection of God, propaganda of the idea of ​​​​a “sexual revolution”, which led to the loss of the meaning of marriage and the feeling of sinfulness of B., secularization of many. churches that bless sinful forms of gender relations. In these conditions, the Church is called upon to openly name sins, reveal their essence and show a person the path to healing.

The Church respects marriage entered into in accordance with current legislation state, not counting him B., but in the absence of a church wedding recognizes him as spiritually imperfect.

2. The theme of the “spiritual” B. of humanity is one of the main ones in the OT. God, who entered into a Covenant with His people, seemed to take His only love as a wife - the bride of Israel. But the prophets Hosea, Jeremiah. Ezekiel, in the name of God, declares that this bride turned out to be a traitor and a harlot: “...She is not My wife, and I am not her husband; let her put away fornication from her face and adultery from her breasts, lest I strip her naked... and I will not have mercy on her children, because they are the children of fornication. For their mother committed adultery... for she said: “I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water... oil and drink”” (Hosea 2.2-5; cf.: Ezek. 16.15, 20, 34, 36). The expressions “to commit fornication after the gods [of the pagans]” (Exodus 34.15-16), “to go fornication after Moloch” (Lev. 20.5), “to commit fornication with the daughters of [other] people” (Numbers 25.1), “to commit fornication with kingdoms of the earth" (Isaiah 23:17), "this land commits fornication" (Hosea 1:2) - mean the loss of the people of Israel of their Divine calling. The Lord in the Gospel, following the prophets, calls Israeli people“evil and adulterous” (Mt 12:39; 16:4).

A person who fell away from God in paradise, who lost Him in history, has lost the true meaning of life, “got lost.” Church tradition calls a man who has fallen away from God a prodigal son (cf. Lk 15:11-32). Image prodigal son is given in liturgical hymns of penitential content: “” (prayer on “Lord, I cried” on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son). The actions of people are prodigal, testifying to their godlessness, the symbol of which was “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth” (Rev 17.5; cf. 18.2-3). The world itself, lying in evil, lives in this sense in B. To fornicate also means to fall into schism or heresy. B. manifests itself in the form of fornication (verbalism, vanity) and in the form of fornication (superstitiousness): “Whoever is in soul and body,” says St. Isaac the Syrian, always devoted to vanity and wanderings of the mind, is a fornicator” (Isaac Syr. Sermo 8).

Lit.: John of Kronstadt, St. The path to God // PSS. St. Petersburg, 1905 R. T. 6. P. 12-14, 17, 22-24, 27-28, 37; Varnava (Belyaev), bishop. Fundamentals of the Art of Holiness. N. Novg., 1996. T. 2. P. 148-181, 258; Zarin S. M. Asceticism according to Orthodox Christian teaching. M., 1996. S. 258-267; Cyprian (Kern), archimandrite. Anthropology of St. Gregory Palamas. M., 1996. S. 409-412; Shikhlyarov L., priest. Christianity and the “sexual question” // Continent. 1996. No. 91. P. 275-305; Zenkovsky V., prot. On the threshold of maturity: Conversations with youth on gender issues. Klin, 2001; Sveshnikov V., prot. Essays on Christian Ethics. M., 20012. P. 75-76; Nil of Sorsky, St. Charter about skete life. Ekaterinburg, 2002. pp. 44-47.

Priest Lev Shikhlyarov

Question: Fornication is when neither partner is married. Is this really such a serious sin? Is this a sin at all or just a physiological need of the body?

Boris Grisenko: There are many places in Scripture that speak of the dangers of this sin.

Leviticus 19:29: “Do not defile your daughter by allowing her to commit sexual immorality, lest the land become sexually immoral, and the land be filled with depravity.”

It turns out that you can defile not only yourself by engaging in fornication, but also the one for whom you are responsible, who is under your authority, by allowing this person to commit fornication.

And this is especially said to believers, because it is the fornication of believers that defiles the land on which they live.

That is, the fornication of believers brings a curse:

1. On themselves
2. On parents and the spiritual authority that allows this
3. To the land in which they live

Leviticus 21:7, 9, 14 instructs God's priests to:

“They must not take for themselves a harlot and a defamed woman, nor should they take a wife rejected by their husband, for they are holy to their God...

… If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by fornication, then she dishonors her father; fire must burn it.

… He must not take a widow, or an outcast, or a defamed woman, or a harlot, but he must take a maiden from his people to wife.”

Let us remember what the fornication of Israel in the desert led to? More than 23 thousand Jews died!

Fornication brings a curse not only on the sinner himself, but also on those with whom the sinner is connected by spiritual ties. And the spiritual authorities are obliged to stop this sin in all possible ways.

Deuteronomy 23:17 says: “There shall be no harlot among the daughters of Israel, and there shall be no fornicator among the sons of Israel.”

Deuteronomy 23:2: “The son of a harlot cannot enter into the congregation of the Lord, and his tenth generation cannot enter into the congregation of the Lord.”. The curse for fornication extended 11 generations ahead! More than anything else under Torah law.

So, fornication is not neutral physiology. This is a desecration of the name of the Lord by those who bear His name! This is a very serious sin.

You can say that we live in the New Testament, and all that is quoted is the Torah. Thank God, no one needs to be burned with fire now. And thank God that the past prodigal life in the New Testament can be completely washed away by the blood of Yeshua if a person sincerely repents.

We see that if a believer falls into fornication, it greatly affects him!

1 Corinthians 5:9-13:

“I wrote to you in a letter - do not associate with fornicators; however, not generally with the fornicators of this world, or the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, for otherwise you would have to come out of this world, but I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who, while calling himself a brother, remains a fornicator, or a covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or a predator; You can’t even eat with someone like that.

For why should I judge those who are external? Are you not judging the internal ones? God judges those who are outside. Therefore, cast out the wicked from among you.”

If we know that a person, part of our spiritual family, is in fornication, and he behaves like a normal believer and is not going to repent, and, at the same time, we turn a blind eye to this, then we violate the commandment of God. This is exactly the same defilement that is written about in the Torah.

Also important point: in fornication, demons can move from one participant in fornication to another.

Is there a way out of this? There is: deepest repentance, a change in life and a complete exit from everything that leads to fornication.

It happens that a person living in a civil marriage comes to a community or church from the world, and he is just beginning to understand what is holy and what is sinful. There is no need to abruptly break off relationships and cut from the shoulder. It is better, however, to pray for such a person and carefully let him understand what is right according to Scripture in relationships and family.

Marriage is a matter of Covenant that is made once and for all. The same is true when it comes to your own purity. Therefore, fornication is paganism expressed in bodily relationships.