Fr. George Metallinos is listed as a "Not Safe" author not just because he is a new-calendarist, which is enough reason not to trust his writings, but first because he teaches a heresy: the same heresy about heaven & hell that was taught by the evolutionist Kalomiros in his essay, "River of Fire." The heretical teaching is that heaven & hell are not places, but instead a subjective experience depending on an individual's spiritual condition.
Simplistically stated, the heretical teaching is this:
Those who like God's love experience it as heaven.
Those who don't like God's love experience it as hell.
Paradise & Hell: In The Orthodox Tradition: I'm finding Fr. George's offending essay all over the internet, in every renovationist nook and cranny [Orthodoxy Today Magazine, Clarion Journal, Preachers Institute]. That's not surprising. But to my horror I find also it is being distributed closer to home, by my Sister Church.
There is a good refutation here at this link below. It is written by Vladimir Moss, an author we can not trust in jurisdictional matters [super-correct], but he is right about this matter.
Here is an excerpt from Fr. Seraphim's Genesis, Creation & Early Man concerning heaven & hell as being semi-material, as having both a material aspect and a spiritual aspect:
...Paradise, while originally a reality of this earth, akin to the nature of the world before the fall of man, is of a "material" which is different from the material of the world we know today, placed between corruption and incorruption. This exactly corresponds to the nature of man before his fall – for the "coats of skins" which he put on when banished from Paradise symbolically indicate the cruder flesh which he then put on. From that time on, in his cruder state, man is no longer capable of even seeing Paradise unless his spiritual eyes are opened and he is "raised up" like St. Paul. The present "location" of Paradise, which has remained unchanged in its nature, is in the higher realm, which also seems to correspond to a literal "elevation" from the earth; indeed, some Holy Fathers state that even before the fall Paradise was in an elevated place, being "higher than all the rest of the earth" [St. John Damascene].
-from page 167 of the 1st Edition, also see pages 171,447-478, 495. And in the 2nd edition see pages 220-221, 224-229, 228n, 389.
related post:
Fr. John Romaides is buddy-buddy with Fr. George Metallinos. Birds of a feather and both new-calendarists, promoted by World Orthodoxy.
And why are these world orthodox writers even noticed by us, even presented to us? even a temptation for us? Look to were you learned about this author in the first place. Was it a world-orthodox source? If not, speak to me privately. joannahigginbotham@runbox.com
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