Main news for 6 April 2026

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God addresses His word to the people of Israel. His indignation is caused by the fact that people who do not keep the commandments, and do not make much effort to keep them, come to the temple and think that everything is fine with them, because they belong to the people of God. God categorically rejects this idea of "collective salvation," in which everyone separately is a sinner, but together they are "saved."

It is hard to get rid of the feeling that this idea has not disappeared over the past two and a half thousand years. Does it not happen that we think the most important thing for our salvation is to get into the "right" church, to be in it "like everyone else," and then one can not only consider oneself a sinner, but go on being one? There is no need for personal faith, for personal relations with Christ, for deep repentance, and for striving toward holiness. There is no personal responsibility for one's deeds and thoughts, because salvation belongs to us by the fact of belonging to the church. But from God's point of view everything is the other way around: our belonging to the "right" Church, to the Body of Christ, is determined by our personal relations with Christ and our personal responsibility before Him.