I write to say farewell and take care. I have enjoyed the conversations we have had, and I have learned much during my visiting and posting on this virtual Orthodox community. I hope you all continue to make this a place of testimony to the truth, and remain in loving, and encouraging, converse with one another. I ask forgiveness from whomever I have offended or confused, and if I have created any discord among the brethren of this online community. I pray that you all have a joyous and prayerful feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. May you all be steadfast, and unwavering in the days to come. I am a lowly, sinful man not fit to give you any advice, but I pray that the Lord may open my heart to his truth, so that I may leave you all with the following warning: Brothers and sisters in Christ, I feel that our earthly crossing is becoming more and more treacherous each day, sadly man is rapidly falling away from God, and the result of this is his turning into the epitome of all evils, losing even his most simple and vital morality. I pray for Gods most-wise creation, and it is truly painful to see the direction in which man, an honorable, upright, and virtuous creature restored by the divine blood of Christ is being lead, into the deepest abyss of hell. May we all be a living testimony of Orthodoxy in our everyday lives, and fight against the worldwide apostasy of our times. I will leave you with a prophecy from St. Nilus the Myrrhstreamer of Mt. Athos on the last times:
After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable. When the time of the advent of the antichrist approaches, people's minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions, and dishonour and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will grow unrecognizable.
People's appearances will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair. These people will be cruel and will be like wild animals because of the temptations of the antichrist.
There will be no respect for parents and elders, love will disappear, and Christian Pastors, Bishops, and Priests will become vile men, completely failing to distinguish the right-hand way from the left.
At that time the morals and traditions of Christians and of the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, and woe to those who pile up treasures. Lust, adultery, homosexuality, secret deeds, and murder will rule in society.
At that future time, due to the power of such great crimes and licentiousness, people will be deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which they received in Holy Baptism, and equally of remorse. The churches of God will be deprived of God-fearing and pious pastors, and woe to the Christians remaining in the world at that time; they will completely lose their faith because they will lack the opportunity of seeing the light of knowledge from anyone at all. They will separate themselves out of the world in holy refuges in search of a lightening of their spiritual sufferings, but everywhere they will meet obstacles and constraints.
And this will result from the fact that the antichrist wants to be lord over everything and become the ruler of the whole universe, and he will produce miracles and fantastic signs. He will also give depraved wisdom to an unhappy man so that he will discover a way by which one man can carry on a conversation from one end of the earth to the other. At that time, men will also fly through the air like birds and descend to the bottom of the sea like fishes. And when they have achieved all this, these unhappy people will spend their lives in comfort without knowing, poor souls, that it is the deceit of antichrist. And the impious one! -- he will so complete science with vanity, that it will go off the right path and lead people to lose faith in the existence of God.
Then God will see the downfall of the human race and will shorten the days for the sake of those few who are being saved, because the enemy wants to lead even the chosen into temptation, if that is possible ... then the sword of chastisement will suddenly appear to kill the perverter.
I will also leave you with a homily by St. John Maximovich on the last times:
Today is the Sunday of the Dread judgment, and it is natural for us to speak of the dread judgment and of signs of the end of the world. No one knows that day; only God the father knows; but the signs of its approach are given in the gospel and in revelation[apocalypse] of the holy apostle John the Theologian. Revelation speaks of the events at the end of the world and of the Dread Judgment principally in images and in concealed manner; but the holy fathers have explained it, and there is authentic Church tradition that speaks to us both about signs of the approach of the end of the world and about the dread judgment.
Before the end of life on earth there will be confusion, wars, civil strife, famine, and earthquakes. Men will suffer from fear; they will expire from expectation of calamities. There will be no life, no joy of life, but a tormenting state of falling away from life. There will be a falling away not only from life, but from faith as well: When the sun of man cometh, shall he find faith on earth? [luke 18:8] .
Men will become proud and ungrateful, denying divine law: together with a falling away from life there will also be a dearth of moral life. There will be an exhaustion of good, and a growth of evil. The holy Apostle John the Theologian, in his divinely-inspired work, the revelation , also speaks of this time. He himself says that he was in the spirit, which means that the Holy spirit Himself was in him when the fate of the Church and World were revealed to him in various images, and that is why it is Gods revelation.
He represents the fate of the church in the image of a woman who, in those times, hides in the wilderness: Just as in Russia today. Those forces which are preparing the appearance of Anti-Christ will have a leading significance in public life. Anti-Christ will be a man not the devil incarnate. Anti is a word meaning old, or it means in place of or against. That man wants to be in place of Christ, to occupy his place and posses that which Christ ought to posses. He wants to posses the same attraction and authority over the whole world.
And he will receive that authority his own destruction and that of the whole world. He will have a helper, a magus, who, by the power of false miracles, will fulfill his will and kill those who do not recognize the authority of antichrist. Before the destruction of antichrist, two righteous men will appear who will denounce him. The magus will kill them and their bodies will lie unburied for three days, and antichrist and all his servants will rejoice exceedingly. Then suddenly, those righteous men will resurrect, and the whole army of antichrist will be in confusion and horror, and the antichrist himself will suddenly fall dead, slain by the power of the Holy Spirit. But what is known about this man, antichrist? His precise ancestry is unknown. His father is completely unknown while his mother is a defiled, pretended virgin. He will be a Jew from the tribe of Dan. In revelation, John the theologian speaks about the salvation of the sons of Israel, that before the end of the world a multitude of Jews will be converted to Christ; but the tribe of Dan is not included in the enumeration of the tribes saved.
Antichrist will be very intelligent and gifted with ability to deal with people. He will be charming and affectionate. The philosopher Vladamir Soloviev worked extensively on this subject in order to present the advent and the personality of antichrist. He made careful use of all relevant materials, not only Patristic, but also Muslim, and produced a very striking picture. Before the advent of antichrist, his appearance is already being prepared in the world. The mystery is already at work [ Thess. 2:7], and the forces preparing his appearance struggle against lawful royal authority. Apostle Paul says that antichrist cannot appear until he that restrains is removed. John Chrysostom explains that he who restains is the lawful, godly authority. Once having attained the summit of power, antichrist will demand that men acknowledge his attainment as something to which no other earthly power and no other man could possibly attain, and he will demand that men bow down to him as to a superior being, a god.
Antichrist will do what pleases men, on the condition they recognize his supreme authority. He will let the church function, and allow her to hold divine services, he will promise to build magnificent temples provided he is recognized as supreme being and that he is worshipped. He will have a personal hate for Christ. He will live by hatred and rejoice at seeing men apostatize from Christ and the Church. There Will be a mass falling away from faith; even many bishops will betray the faith, justifying themselves by pointing to the splendid condition of the church. I will finish this shortly, once again Farwell beloved and take care.
After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people of that time will become unrecognizable. When the time of the advent of the antichrist approaches, people's minds will grow cloudy from carnal passions, and dishonour and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world will grow unrecognizable.
People's appearances will change, and it will be impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness in dress and style of hair. These people will be cruel and will be like wild animals because of the temptations of the antichrist.
There will be no respect for parents and elders, love will disappear, and Christian Pastors, Bishops, and Priests will become vile men, completely failing to distinguish the right-hand way from the left.
At that time the morals and traditions of Christians and of the Church will change. People will abandon modesty, and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions, and woe to those who pile up treasures. Lust, adultery, homosexuality, secret deeds, and murder will rule in society.
At that future time, due to the power of such great crimes and licentiousness, people will be deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which they received in Holy Baptism, and equally of remorse. The churches of God will be deprived of God-fearing and pious pastors, and woe to the Christians remaining in the world at that time; they will completely lose their faith because they will lack the opportunity of seeing the light of knowledge from anyone at all. They will separate themselves out of the world in holy refuges in search of a lightening of their spiritual sufferings, but everywhere they will meet obstacles and constraints.
And this will result from the fact that the antichrist wants to be lord over everything and become the ruler of the whole universe, and he will produce miracles and fantastic signs. He will also give depraved wisdom to an unhappy man so that he will discover a way by which one man can carry on a conversation from one end of the earth to the other. At that time, men will also fly through the air like birds and descend to the bottom of the sea like fishes. And when they have achieved all this, these unhappy people will spend their lives in comfort without knowing, poor souls, that it is the deceit of antichrist. And the impious one! -- he will so complete science with vanity, that it will go off the right path and lead people to lose faith in the existence of God.
Then God will see the downfall of the human race and will shorten the days for the sake of those few who are being saved, because the enemy wants to lead even the chosen into temptation, if that is possible ... then the sword of chastisement will suddenly appear to kill the perverter.
I will also leave you with a homily by St. John Maximovich on the last times:
Today is the Sunday of the Dread judgment, and it is natural for us to speak of the dread judgment and of signs of the end of the world. No one knows that day; only God the father knows; but the signs of its approach are given in the gospel and in revelation[apocalypse] of the holy apostle John the Theologian. Revelation speaks of the events at the end of the world and of the Dread Judgment principally in images and in concealed manner; but the holy fathers have explained it, and there is authentic Church tradition that speaks to us both about signs of the approach of the end of the world and about the dread judgment.
Before the end of life on earth there will be confusion, wars, civil strife, famine, and earthquakes. Men will suffer from fear; they will expire from expectation of calamities. There will be no life, no joy of life, but a tormenting state of falling away from life. There will be a falling away not only from life, but from faith as well: When the sun of man cometh, shall he find faith on earth? [luke 18:8] .
Men will become proud and ungrateful, denying divine law: together with a falling away from life there will also be a dearth of moral life. There will be an exhaustion of good, and a growth of evil. The holy Apostle John the Theologian, in his divinely-inspired work, the revelation , also speaks of this time. He himself says that he was in the spirit, which means that the Holy spirit Himself was in him when the fate of the Church and World were revealed to him in various images, and that is why it is Gods revelation.
He represents the fate of the church in the image of a woman who, in those times, hides in the wilderness: Just as in Russia today. Those forces which are preparing the appearance of Anti-Christ will have a leading significance in public life. Anti-Christ will be a man not the devil incarnate. Anti is a word meaning old, or it means in place of or against. That man wants to be in place of Christ, to occupy his place and posses that which Christ ought to posses. He wants to posses the same attraction and authority over the whole world.
And he will receive that authority his own destruction and that of the whole world. He will have a helper, a magus, who, by the power of false miracles, will fulfill his will and kill those who do not recognize the authority of antichrist. Before the destruction of antichrist, two righteous men will appear who will denounce him. The magus will kill them and their bodies will lie unburied for three days, and antichrist and all his servants will rejoice exceedingly. Then suddenly, those righteous men will resurrect, and the whole army of antichrist will be in confusion and horror, and the antichrist himself will suddenly fall dead, slain by the power of the Holy Spirit. But what is known about this man, antichrist? His precise ancestry is unknown. His father is completely unknown while his mother is a defiled, pretended virgin. He will be a Jew from the tribe of Dan. In revelation, John the theologian speaks about the salvation of the sons of Israel, that before the end of the world a multitude of Jews will be converted to Christ; but the tribe of Dan is not included in the enumeration of the tribes saved.
Antichrist will be very intelligent and gifted with ability to deal with people. He will be charming and affectionate. The philosopher Vladamir Soloviev worked extensively on this subject in order to present the advent and the personality of antichrist. He made careful use of all relevant materials, not only Patristic, but also Muslim, and produced a very striking picture. Before the advent of antichrist, his appearance is already being prepared in the world. The mystery is already at work [ Thess. 2:7], and the forces preparing his appearance struggle against lawful royal authority. Apostle Paul says that antichrist cannot appear until he that restrains is removed. John Chrysostom explains that he who restains is the lawful, godly authority. Once having attained the summit of power, antichrist will demand that men acknowledge his attainment as something to which no other earthly power and no other man could possibly attain, and he will demand that men bow down to him as to a superior being, a god.
Antichrist will do what pleases men, on the condition they recognize his supreme authority. He will let the church function, and allow her to hold divine services, he will promise to build magnificent temples provided he is recognized as supreme being and that he is worshipped. He will have a personal hate for Christ. He will live by hatred and rejoice at seeing men apostatize from Christ and the Church. There Will be a mass falling away from faith; even many bishops will betray the faith, justifying themselves by pointing to the splendid condition of the church. I will finish this shortly, once again Farwell beloved and take care.
Gospod s toboyu
