Guo Kang thought about it and felt that what he said made sense.

To not admit that the good deeds of the pagans are the same as the good deeds of the believers is to think that there is more than one source of good, and that there is more than one master. For monotheistic believers, this is even more unacceptable.

Therefore, even if the other party believes in other gods, or even believes in polytheism and does not recognize the basic rules of monotheism, the believer himself must adhere to this belief and recognize the other party's contributions. Otherwise, the doctrine itself is faulty.

Historically, Orthodoxy has been more tolerant – even too tolerant – in this regard. They even bring atheists as saints and praise them for their merits......

"And what if someone doesn't recognize a saint?" Guo Kang thought for a while and asked, "If you don't admit that you can 'transfer' divine grace like this, can you not thank others?" ”

"What kind of heresy is that...... said Father Mikhail in astonishment.

"Uh......" Guo Kang thought about it and felt that this was indeed the case.

He had heard that some Christians did not want to thank those who helped them, so they gave credit to God as a way to relieve themselves of the moral burden. In such cases, it is necessary to educate and prevent them in advance, so as not to cause conflicts and delay the support policies that follow.

But now that we analyze it, this kind of behavior is also immoral in the eyes of the church—if you really don't want to admit it, there are excuses. Just admit that you don't have quality, don't move out of the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother and cause others to suffer.

Guo Kang couldn't remember for a while where he had seen the example to have this kind of worry.

If you think about it carefully, the Heavenly Fang Sect is also trying its best to avoid this kind of problem.

According to the biography of Ghazan Khan, the Persian priests repeatedly reported to him that they wanted him to supervise his generals. Because these nomadic generals were very unreligious: when they fought in battle, if they won, they would boast of their bravery and strategy; And if you lose, you will start to blame Hu Da for not bless everyone.

In this regard, there is nothing Ghazan Khan can do.

This attitude of self-interest and responsibility to God can easily undermine the authority of religion. Serious clergy want to manage it, but they can't control it.

It is estimated that the "Protestant" movement of God worship and Tianfang Sect that really let go of this behavior in theory is the worship of God and the Heavenly Sect.

Taking the situation in Europe as an example, Martin Luther's theory can be summarized as "three sola": faith alone, Scripture alone, and grace alone. These three are the origins of all kinds of Protestantism, and they are the most obvious central features.

Faith alone means not acknowledging the "good works" advocated by Roman Catholicism. The Catholic Church believes that people's faith and good deeds are the key to becoming righteous and redeemed, while Protestantism only recognizes faith and does not recognize the role of good deeds.

The fundamental disagreement here is the understanding of original sin.

Roman Catholicism believed that it was possible to do good. Heavenly Father will pour "righteousness," a sacred, conceptual gift, into the doer of good so that he can be redeemed. If the person persists in righteous deeds throughout his life and is appreciated by the Father, then he will enter heaven. Whether or not to do righteousness is a free choice for the individual, and it is up to mortals to decide for themselves whether or not to cooperate with the Father.

But Protestantism places more emphasis on original sin, denying the meaning of good deeds and arguing that faith alone is the determining factor. Later, Calvin further argued this and concluded the theory of "total depravity of man", that is, evil is omnipresent and has penetrated into the foundation and nature of man, and it is impossible for man to do good on his own.

The scope of this theory extends far beyond the realm of religion. Until hundreds of years later, when Guo Kang lived in an era, there were still many people in the secular realm who still liked to use the term "human nature corruption" everywhere, and everything could be attributed to this dark "human nature". In fact, this is the typical Protestant idea, and it is likely that the more radical Calvinist discourse was introduced.

For Orthodoxy, this theory is even more uncomfortable. Compared with the Catholic Church, original sin theory is less important to the Orthodox Church. This kind of deliberate emphasis is incompatible from a theoretical basis.

Moreover, to deny good deeds and to deny that people have the autonomous will to pursue goodness is tantamount to denying the feasibility of "education" in its entirety. If people themselves have the foundation for doing good, then the church can enlighten and awaken the "righteousness" inherent in people's hearts through education, so that they can embark on the path of goodness and justice and gain the favor of the Father. But without acknowledging the existence of this basis, the role of religion in exhorting good deeds and encouraging morality will be completely meaningless......

And the Purple Horde's theory of demon reform and worship of God is full of oriental education and spiritual concepts, and even more incompatible with ordinary orthodox religion. If we run into it in the future, I guess we will have to fight.

And, as a complement, there is the principle of "grace alone" in Protestantism to explain it plainly.

According to Roman Catholicism, there are three parts to salvation: the direct grace of the Father, the merit accumulated by oneself, and the merit provided by the saints. Therefore, it is worth affirming one's own efforts to do good deeds and actively pray to Heavenly Father or saints.

But the Protestant side does not recognize saints, nor does it believe that people can rely on their own choices to do good. Even if a believer does a good deed, it is the work of God, not man. Therefore, only God's grace can save people, and all other actions are meaningless.

For the Orthodox Church, and especially for the Rus' Church, this is simply fatal, because it denies the saints, but also the meaning of the Law and moral precepts, making the ascetic tradition a joke.

Guo Kang always felt that even if there was no Rome, the Protestants and these Rus' who admired holy foolishness would have to do it sooner or later. The rules on both sides are almost entirely-for-tat......

Of course, in this world, the most contradictory thing is the doctrine of the Purple Horde. To emphasize the particularity of charisma, Calvin proposed that charisma is unconditional and irresistible. In short, who Heavenly Father favors has nothing to do with his performance, nor does it have anything to do with his subjective will, and it is not something that people themselves can speculate. Even if the behavior does not conform to the rules, and there is no will to practice, as long as the Heavenly Father is willing, he can forcibly infuse the divine grace and make him the chosen one.

This theory is said to have originated from Moses' account of telling others that his heavenly Father had shown him that He would have mercy on whomever he pleased, and that He would be gracious to whomever he pleased. The Purple Horde Church directly denied Moses' deeds, believing that these words were an old barbarian shaman who was mad and nonsense. Obviously, they are the kind of people who are the greatest doctrinal enemies.

(End of chapter)