The Modern Man and His Relationship with God: The Deception of FalseTruth

1. Introduction: The Man of Our Age and the Drama of Self-Deception

We live in an age that seems full of light — yet it is a light without life, artificial, devoid of the Spirit. The modern man lives amidst an abundance of information and a deficiency of truth. He believes he knows everything, yet he does not know himself; he speaks of freedom, yet he is a slave to his passions; he proclaims progress, yet his heart sinks into despair.

Saint Isaac the Syrian says:

“Knowledge without humility is a fall; and wisdom without the fear of God is madness.”

Modern man lives in the madness of enlightenment without God, of knowledge without grace, of truth without humility. He seeks to define the meaning of life by himself, forgetting that life does not belong to him — it is a gift. Thus, he builds a false paradise upon the sand of self-sufficiency.

2. The Theological Foundation of Human Existence

Man, according to the word of Scripture, was “created in the image and likeness of God” (Gen. 1:26). This means that the essence of his existence is not biological or psychological but theocentric. Man exists through God and toward God.

Saint Maximus the Confessor teaches that the “likeness” refers to man’s calling to deification — a perpetual movement from corruption toward the uncreated light. Yet when man cuts himself off from the Source of life, instead of journeying toward the light, he wanders in the darkness of delusion.

Saint Gregory Palamas affirms:

“Where God is, there is truth; and where there is truth, there is freedom.”

Without God, man can be neither free nor true. Truth is not an idea — it is a Person: Christ Himself — “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6).

Man’s relationship with God is the core of authentic existence; when that relationship is broken, everything collapses.

3. Autonomy as a Fall: Man’s Desire to Become God Without God

Even in Paradise, the devil did not tell Adam, “Deny God.” He said: “You will be like God” (Gen. 3:5) — that is, deification without God, salvation without the Cross, glory without humility.

This is precisely the spirit of modern humanity: man wants to be the creator of reality, the master of meaning, the maker of his own being. Today’s world promotes self-deification through technology, science, wealth, and power — all of which are merely forms of new idolatry.

Saint Symeon the New Theologian writes:

“Man was deceived when he stood upon himself and no longer upon God.”

Man believed the lie of self-sufficiency and lost his center. He no longer knows the Creator but worships creation; he no longer communes, but consumes; he no longer prays, but merely “connects.”

4. The Metaphysics of Deception: When Falsehood Appears as Truth

Christ warned us: “Many will come in My name and will deceive many” (Matt. 24:5). We live in

exactly that time, when deceit no longer hides; it presents itself as light. Falsehood wears the

garments of science and morality. The devil no longer attacks openly but through the illusion of “good.”

Modern civilization has built a secular religion: faith in humanity without God. It preaches that

man needs not repentance, but only “belief in himself.” Yet this is the very essence of the fall: the replacement of God by the self.

Saint John Chrysostom observed:

“There is nothing more dreadful than falsehood when it wears the face of truth.”

That is the lie of our age: falsehood pretending to be truth. Evil is presented as progress, sin as freedom, blasphemy as art, and corruption as a right. And man, unable to discern, loses his spiritual vision.

5. The Fathers on Delusion and Darkness

The Holy Fathers did not live in the age of the Internet, but they deeply understood the spiritual mechanics of deception. Saint Anthony the Great, seeing prophetically, said:

“A time will come when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is sane, they will say, ‘You are mad, for you are not like us.’”

This saying could not be more relevant. Today, sin has become normal, and holiness appears as abnormality. Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite calls this condition “spiritual madness.”

Saint Maximus writes:

“When the mind departs from God, it becomes either bestial or demonic.”

And that is precisely what we witness today: the man without God becomes either a slave of

passions or a victim of demonic deception.

6. The Spiritual Disease of Egocentrism

Egocentrism is the root of all spiritual illness. The egotist cannot see God because he sees only himself. Saint John of the Ladder writes:

“The proud man drives away grace; the humble one draws down mercy.”

The soul of modern man is filled with “I”: I think, I decide, I define my morality, my identity, my

truth. This self-worship is spiritual hell. The devil does not need open worship; it is enough that man worships himself.

Saint Silouan the Athonite says:

“He who keeps his soul in humility possesses within it the grace of God; but he who exalts himself falls from grace and is darkened.”

7. The Desert of the Soul: When God Is Silent

Modern man lives in a terrifying loneliness. Despite all means of communication, he has no

communion; despite the lights, he dwells in darkness. His heart is empty, for where God should dwell, vanity has taken His place.

Elder Sophrony of Essex describes this tragedy:

“Modern man has lost the sense of his personal relationship with God. He no longer knows how to stand before Him, face to Face.”

Without that relationship, life becomes absurd — everything has meaning, yet nothing has

purpose. The soul freezes. Man becomes a moving corpse, a being that exists without existing.

8. The Path of Rediscovery: Repentance and Light

The only path of return is repentance — not as remorse, but as a transformation of the mind. Man must change his mode of existence: he must cease to live without God and rediscover his heart.

Christ does not call us to recognize Him intellectually but to encounter Him personally. Saint

Symeon says:

“God is known only through the Spirit, and the Spirit is given only to the humble and pure in

heart.”

The Church remains the hospital of the soul — the place where the mind is healed, man is

illumined, and his relationship with God is restored. The Mysteries, prayer, fasting, and love are not mere duties but spiritual medicines for the sick soul of our time.

9. Conclusion: The Call to True Being

Modern man lives in a world where falsehood is presented as truth — yet Truth is not an idea; it is a Person. Christ does not teach us a theory but offers us His very life.

Saint Justin Popovich summarizes it perfectly:

“The God-Man Jesus Christ is the measure of all things. Whatever is not measured by Him is inhuman and false.”

Man today must learn once again how to weep — not from despair, but from awareness; to become again a humble disciple, not an autonomous judge; to seek the unchanging Truth in a world that constantly changes.

For only then will he hear within his soul the voice of the Lord saying:

“It is I; be not afraid” (Matt. 14:27).

And then, the man who once believed the lie will come to know the Truth that makes him free

(John 8:32).