IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH
FOREWORD
What was the great theological error of the Roman governor of Jerusalem, Pontius Pilate, when he asked Jesus Christ during his cross-examination, “What is the Truth?”
The determination of all the theologians of the 2,000 year history of Christianity unanimously points to the word “what” as the error, and in correcting it, they prove that the Truth is not a specific object or an abstract idea as the question suggests. The Truth is Jesus Christ himself, the Son of the Living God. Therefore, essentially the question should have been posed as “Who is the Truth?” After all, this is testified with absolute clarity from Jesus Christ himself during a conversation with the apostle Thomas. He tells him, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” ( John 14:6)
Many times, however, our loving God allows some people’s search for Truth to be a painstaking and laborious struggle, lasting many years, through the plethora of contemporary heresies and all sorts of confessions created by the human intellect. A very moving case of such a man is the author of this book, Nicholas Mavromagoulos, who was born and, for the first 24 years of his life, raised inside the perimeters of the totalitarian religious falsehood known as “Jehovah’s witnesses.” This is the unfortunate case of a man who did not inherit his faith in Christ within the bosom of the Orthodox Church.
Nevertheless, if he was wronged by mankind in this regard, it was never the case with God. Because if all the gifts of God are given to all His creatures without exceptions and irreversibility, then this holds true for man, His perfect creation, who receives this inalienable gift, this unquenchable “thirst,” this unconquerable drive which He has planted in him, to search for the only true God and to be in ontological communion with Him.
Nicholas Mavromagoulos not only kept this gift, he cultivated it. The Lord, being most righteous, led Nicholas to the calm port of His Church after the long-term tempestuous adventure within the embrace of this deluded totalitarian organization which calls itself “Jehovah’s witnesses.” Nicholas reveals towards the end of his story, “Nothing was lost all these years. These are all useful experiences in the service of the true gospel for the deliverance of people, who were trapped in a cage and are searching for an exit.”(chapter 40, pg.271)
The Holy Monastery of Machaira, wishing to help all our Christian and non-Christian brothers and sisters who may be facing the danger of getting caught in the nets of the “Watchtower Society,” presents the circulation of this shocking and stirring biography for the proper orientation of all those who are seeking the Truth. This book is especially for those who may be searching within wide avenues which lead the soul to its fossilization with human passions instead of the sanctification of the entire man, something offered only by the Orthodox Church through the lively participation in its Holy mysteries.
Abbot of the Holy Royal Stravropegic Monastery of Machaira
Archim Arsenios along with my brotherhood in Christ
29th day of February 2004
Sunday of Orthodoxy