I have come across many interpretations of Revelation and many books about the Antichrist. While still a student, I became acquainted with the interpretation, the author of which was Professor Adolf Schlatter, the most famous expert on the New Testament at that time. I used the Göttingen Bible as a source of information. Then, when I became a pastor, the Wuppertal Study Bible became a valuable reference tool for me. Someone gave me a two-volume book by Pastor Pfenzack, rector of the cathedral in Basel. Wim Malgot sent me his interpretation of Revelation with friendly wishes, and then his book “What Was and What Will Soon Be.” I love these interpretations; they are easy to read and have a strong biblical foundation.

Of course, there are differences in different interpretations on some issues. I do not mention Professor Hartenstein's interpretation because I consider his belief in universal reconciliation to be contrary to Holy Scripture.

One could compile a very long list of discrepancies between interpretations of prophetic texts. Just remember the “woman clothed with the sun” from the Book of Revelation (chapter 12). Catholics believe that this is Mary, the Queen of Heaven. Professor Brehme writes in a footnote to the Göttingen Bible: “This explanation does not correspond to the humble, human image of Mary that appears to us in the New Testament. It also does not fit into the context of the apocalyptic vision, in which the birth of Jesus is depicted at a level incomparably higher than the human, historical level.” My friend Professor Werner de Boor wrote: “...the reference to the converted Jewish people at the end of the age (before the Second Coming) is also excluded.” Schlatter, who emphasized the rejection of Israel much more than its restoration, believed that the “woman clothed with the sun” was the congregation of believers in Jesus. According to Wim Malgo, it symbolizes not only the faithful remnant of the Israelis, but also all of Israel. Such formulations lead to accusations that he conflated “Israel kata sarka” (“Israel in the flesh”) and “Israel kata pneuma” (“Israel in spirit”) too closely. Here we are not talking about how justified this is. I will quote just one verse from Romans 11:26:

“...all Israel will be saved.” But first, of course, there will be the judgments that are spoken of in the Book of Zechariah (12-14).

One single example of the “woman clothed with the sun” shows how the opinions of interpreters differ. The doctrine of the Antichrist causes even more controversy. The thirteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation has attracted the interest of many commentators. Interpretations vary from dogmatic theological constructions to comically naive assumptions.

Luther believed that the Antichrist was the Pope. In the treatise “On Rebaptism” (Von der Wiedertaufe), the reformer expresses the following thought: “The Pope is the Antichrist, because he persecutes us, curses, expels, expels, burns, strangles and treats poor Christians as a true Christian would treat Antichrist".

The last century was marked by persecution of Christianity by the communists. Therefore, many declared that as a result of the world communist revolution, the Antichrist would come to power. Every despot bears the mark of the Antichrist. The expression “antichrist” appears five times in the Epistles of John and the Book of Revelation (1 John 2:18; 2:22; 4:3; 2 John 7). The Apostle John also uses the expression: “And now many antichrists have appeared.” All the cruel persecutors of Christianity were Antichrists, including Stalin and Hitler. Bukharin, who eventually became a critic of the Soviet regime and a defendant in a show trial, said the following words: “Stalin is not a man, but a devil.” I remember well how the former foreign minister of the Soviet Union admitted that the Bolshevik revolution cost the lives of 51 million people. Mao Zedong, the organizer of the so-called “cultural revolution” in China, killed no less people.

Let us also give an example from the times of the Third Reich. I was a member of a small group at a local church. One of the group leaders had a mysterious book. It was called "The White Duke". They talked about it in whispers - supposedly it says that Hitler is the Antichrist predicted by the prophets. Immediately after the war, there were rumors that Hitler would soon rise from the dead because the Bible said, “The wound of death is healed” (Rev. 13:3). I responded to Hartmann, the leader of the group and the owner of the book: “I do not believe that Hitler is the Antichrist of the thirteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation, but I am convinced that he is the forerunner of a cruel ruler who will reign in the last days.”

Many other assumptions have also been made. Some even say that the Antichrist will be brought to power by the Baha'is, because their religion has a twelve-stage program for creating a single world state.

For 15 years, some believed that American Foreign Secretary Henry Kissinger would be the Antichrist. My friend, professor of medicine F.G. told me about this. I told him: “Kissinger is too old for this. There are still some events that must take place in world politics before the appearance of the last superman, who instills terror in everyone, and the establishment of his terrible regime.”

From time to time, such stories become popular even among Christians who are waiting for the Lord's return. Jane Dixon, the famous American clairvoyant and fortuneteller, announced that in 1962 a child would be born who, according to Indian teachings, would become the savior of the world. In 1980, he made his mark for the first time and would soon find himself at the helm of world politics. But the fulfillment of this prophecy by Jane Dixon has not yet been heard. Many of her predictions came true, but just as many, if not more, prophecies turned out to be false.

Another story, which involves a possible Antichrist, seems more plausible. In 1958, a child prodigy was born into a Jewish family. His name is Adi Abraham. He learned to read and write earlier than to run - at the age of one and a half years. At the age of four he was already playing the most complex sonatas on the piano, and at five he was reading books on atomic physics and medicine. When he was seven, he was allowed to attend the dissections of bodies in the anatomical theater. He passed the matriculation exam at the age of ten. At twelve, he majored in mathematics. At seventeen he defended his doctorate in medicine and became the youngest doctor in the world. In 1982, the Italian Minister of Culture invited Dr. Adi Abraham to the University of Milan. Adi is the great-grandson of Albert Einstein. He leads an ascetic lifestyle: he does not smoke, does not drink, does not chase skirts and does not waste time on entertainment. He now works at the Milan Cancer Research Center.

The incredible achievements of this young genius beg the question: “What if he is the Antichrist?”

You see: you can write stories about the Antichrist in the style of Herodotus, quoting one historian after another. Even 60 years ago, we were taught in the gymnasium that Thucydides was a reliable historian, unlike Herodotus, who peppered his chronicles with anecdotes. But I don't mind jokes if they are from real life. The only ones I don’t like are those where the author embellishes the story with lies.

Writing about the Antichrist is not easy. A new interpretation of the thirteenth chapter of Revelation can be written. But there are already too many of these interpretations. You can read numerous statements of different opinions and make an overview of them. But that's not my goal right now.

More than once I have seen how the Lord directly helps me find material for books. It was the same this time. On January 3, my bookshelf fell apart. While clearing out the resulting rubble, I came across Solovyov’s brochure. It was called “Superman and Antichrist.” I didn't even know I had it. The next day I attended a pastors' meeting in Guerrenalba. We were talking about George Orwell's book 1984.

Now, in January 1984, Orwell's name is on everyone's lips. One elderly sister told me: “This year the third world war will begin!” I asked: “Where does this information come from?” She replied: “Orwell predicted.” I dissuaded her of this opinion, although I was a little uncomfortable, since I myself was not yet familiar with his book. At a pastors' meeting I heard that the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine was publishing excerpts from this novel every day. And on the pages of illustrated magazines there appear photographs of Orwell sitting at a typewriter, and “comforting” comments that, fortunately, not all of Orwell’s prophecies came true. I was wary: in the newspapers the novel “1984” is called a world bestseller. How did it happen that I, such an amateur in literary criticism, know nothing about him except the name of the author? “I keep running into him,” I thought, and decided to buy the book on the way home from the pastor’s meeting. I found it right away in the Brownshan bookstore in Ettling.

I read the book in seven hours and realized why I was previously unfamiliar with this work. I don't have time to read novels. But the fact that I came across the books of Orwell and Solovyov at the same time and just when I began to write a chapter about the Antichrist seemed to me no coincidence. These three factors reminded me again that my good Heavenly Father is guiding me.

Soloviev and Orwell. Almost a century separates these writers. Solovyov's story about how the Antichrist comes to power and rules is close to the Bible. Orwell is a writer whose understanding of modern history and politics is combined with deep psychologism. But his book is completely devoid of biblical basis. In addition, to make it more interesting and fulfill the requirements for a novel, he did not skimp on details when describing scenes of violence. Soloviev not only preceded Orwell by a century, but completely surpassed him from both an ethical and theological point of view. If Herder's publishing house (located in Freiburg) sells me the copyright, I will publish “A Brief Tale of the Antichrist” as a separate edition and send it to all my friends.

Another difference between Solovyov and Orwell is that Solovyov has the Antichrist himself in the foreground, while Orwell writes primarily about the system. Both points of view are justified. But the Christian who wishes to gain a clearer understanding of the Antichrist's system of government needs a different interpretation. I really like the book by the author Borowski called “Christ and the World of the Antichrist.” This book is based on the Bible, which is not the case with Orwell's novel.

Soloviev

Let us now give the floor to the writers themselves. Let's start with Solovyov. His “Brief Tale of the Antichrist” is given in the above-mentioned book (pp. 100-136).

The introductory part of the story is not based on the Bible. Soloviev writes: “The twentieth century according to R. X. was the era of the last great wars.” In East Asia, Japan becomes the main force, which is trying to conquer all the Mongolian peoples in Korea, China, Mongolia, and Tibet. She succeeds, and the so-called “pan-Mongolism” is established. The multi-million hordes of Bogdykhan (“holy khan”) march west, first invading Eastern Russia, and then, having crossed the Urals, into the western part of the country. The slow Russian bear did not have time to prepare for real defense. And so three armies invade Germany. The Germans are already waiting for them, and one of the Mongol armies is killed. But suddenly the Germans receive a blow in the back: the French sided with Bogdykhan. But when he subjugates Germany, the yellow-faced horde destroys the French with Mongol thoroughness. Finding themselves in desperate straits, European countries realize they need to unite and create a union of European states after the East Asian hordes are victorious.

This fascinating narrative has virtually nothing to do with the Bible. However, there is some truth in it.

The Mongol hordes in Solovyov are huge hordes of locusts from Rev. 9:3. The same chapter (9:16) mentions two hundred million soldiers (dismyriades myriads) crossing the Euphrates River. Mao Zedong once boasted: “We are the only people in the world capable of putting 200 million soldiers under arms.”

Reading about the invasion of the Mongol hordes, one cannot help but recall the philosopher-historian Oswald Spengler and his two-volume work “The Decline of Europe”. Spengler, who lived forty years later than Solovyov, expressed similar thoughts. Kaiser Wilhelm II also spoke about the danger of invasion from Asia.

The Union of European States serves as the historical backdrop against which the Antichrist will rise. It is immediately felt that Soloviev is very close to the truth here. In the course of his narrative, it also turns out that after the creation of a united Europe (a union of ten states), a young man, whom many consider a superman, begins to attract attention.

One gets the impression that he is not only exceptionally brilliant, but also modest. Those around him believe that he strives in every possible way to benefit society. But they do not see that in his heart there is secret pride and a desire to become a religious and political ruler. Driven by delusions of grandeur, he tries to appropriate the role of Christ to himself, thinking like this: Christ brought the sword, I will bring peace; Christ was just the forerunner, but I will be the promised Messiah. He was already thirty, and no dizzying changes had occurred in his life. He begins to doubt: what if his calling is just self-conceit? The uncertainty torments him so much that he decides to commit suicide. He throws himself into the abyss. But then he is picked up and saved by some invisible force. And he hears a voice: “You are my beloved son. I don’t want to know the other one - the crucified one. I chose you."

After this, his career begins as a great man of the future - a superman. His talent as an orator attracts crowds to him. The whole world admires his versatile talents and considers him a born ruler.

The next stage in his dizzying career begins: he becomes president of a united Europe. He owed his election to the Freemasons, who by that time had managed to occupy all the leading government positions. The Masons skillfully prepared his rise to power, winning over the financial elite and senior military ranks to his side. Having reached this point in the story, Soloviev makes a small digression, which attracted my attention. The author mentions that this man’s mother was a dissolute woman, and no one knows who his father is.

I made an intermediate conclusion for myself that had nothing to do with Solovyov’s story. Professor Wim Malgo wrote in his commentary on the Book of Revelation that the Antichrist will strive to imitate Christ in everything. Wouldn't this also be true for his birth? Jesus is the Son of the eternal Father. Antichrist will be the son of Lucifer! I have heard this statement from Satanists more than once, most recently in South Africa. They claim that they know of creatures conceived by Satan. A hint of this can also be seen in the sixth chapter of the Book of Genesis. This topic is covered in more detail in my book, Counseling and the Occult, in the chapter on incubi and succubi.

It is also worth paying attention to Solovyov’s mention that the Freemasons will lead the Antichrist to world domination. A similar idea is developed in Borowski's book.

Then a congress meets, proclaiming the superman president for life of the union of European states. The peoples of the earth are grateful. The era of wars was left behind, and comprehensive social reforms led to universal prosperity. As a token of gratitude, at the third congress the ruler was given the title of Roman Caesar.

This part also contains an allusion to the biblical teaching about the revival of the Roman Empire.

Since all power over the world is concentrated in the hands of the superman, he takes on the solution of religious problems, trying to bring all the churches to a certain common denominator.

This new era begins with the appearance of the mysterious Bishop Apollonius, who uses witchcraft to bring down heavenly fire to the earth and perform other miracles. This is a false prophet who received his power from superman and Satan. He came to finally strengthen the religious power of the Antichrist.

Both allies - the superman and the false prophet - achieve their goal using eloquence and propaganda, which leads to mass apostasy in the churches. Priests and pastors for the most part become obedient tools in the hands of those in power.

But not all the plans of the world ruler have yet come true. Israel stands in his way. The Antichrist acted cleverly, spreading the rumor that he was supposedly a Jew. Therefore, the gates of Jerusalem opened before him. And immediately the construction of a huge temple begins near the El-Aqsa Mosque. When construction is completed, representatives of all religions are invited to an ecumenical council in Jerusalem. Three thousand pilgrims flock to the city for lavish festivities designed to bring the Antichrist to his desired goal. His eloquence and generosity win over most church leaders, both Catholic and Protestant; they greet him with shouts of jubilation and worship him as if they were God. Only a few among them refuse to bow to the Antichrist. The false prophet sends lightning at them and they fall dead. These are the witnesses from the eleventh chapter of Revelation. After a few days they come to life. Since not everyone honored the Antichrist as a god, he orders the death of those who do not worship him. A terrible massacre begins.

During the council, the Jews begin to understand what is happening. Someone spread a rumor that the ruler was uncircumcised, that is, not a Jew at all and could not be the promised messiah. A mass uprising begins. The Jews all rise up as one, surround Jerusalem and lock the Antichrist in Haram el-Sherif. The witchcraft of the false prophet helps the Antichrist escape. Soon he gathers a huge army in Syria, the offensive of which is about to break the resistance.

And then an event occurs to which all world history has led. An earthquake of unprecedented strength shakes the Holy Land. Not far from the Dead Sea, the ground opens up, revealing a huge crater of an underground volcano. The fire erupting from there destroys the army of the Antichrist. Saved Jews and a small group of those who persevered in the faith see the Messiah descend on the Mount of Olives. At the same time, Jews and Christians killed for their faith are resurrected. They will reign with Christ for a thousand years.
This is the story of the Antichrist in a nutshell, which is indeed based on the Bible, which cannot be said about Orwell's novel.

Orwell

Now let's give the floor to Orwell. We will not analyze his book in detail, because, as has already been said, it does not have a biblical basis.

Some parallels can be drawn between Orwell's novel and Solovyov's story. Both books predict a coming world catastrophe. Soloviev shows how the image of the Antichrist emerges against the background of humanity. Orwell depicts a well-oiled state machine reminiscent of the Soviet Union, where the party is everything and the individual is nothing. The novel largely reflects Soviet realities. Let's give examples.

Children are turned against their parents. Those who report their parents to the secret police become heroes and are held up as an example to other children.

Young people are forced to participate in the anti-sex movement. However, one of the counselors of this organization described by Orwell prefers free love and changes partners like gloves.

Workers are encouraged to exceed the plan. Although these plans are not feasible, all published reports are subject to falsification.

Despite the fact that the plan is being implemented to two hundred percent, appalling poverty reigns everywhere. The dining room for lunch is a disgusting mess. Due to constant malnutrition and unhealthy food, people's health is completely compromised by the age of thirty. Everyone has unhappy, care-worn faces with sunken cheeks. Only the inner party lives in prosperity.
There is a shortage in all areas of life support. Propaganda trumpets that 165 million pairs of shoes were produced this year, but every second person walks barefoot. There is not enough clothing at the distribution points. Most people already go without underwear. Representatives of some professions wear cheap uniforms. Party members wear blue tracksuits when appearing in public.

And all these supply difficulties are overcome by the “Ministry of Plenty”.

All power is concentrated in the hands of the internal party, which, in turn, is subordinate to one person - “Big Brother”. He rules the party and the people through total surveillance and surveillance. A special form of control is carried out through a device called a telescreen. It works for both transmission and reception. At a higher monitoring station, they see everyone in the room and hear every word. All comrades from the inner and outer party are required to have a “telescreen” in the room. It is prohibited, and indeed impossible, to turn off the device. Only big party leaders are allowed to turn off the “telescreen”, and then only for no longer than half an hour, and only for important meetings. The entire course of life is determined by the “telescreen”. In the morning, at 7:15, he wakes him up to exercise. To those who perform the exercises without the proper enthusiasm, the instructor personally addresses them via telescreen and encourages them to try better.

Surveillance devices are placed everywhere - in public places, at train stations, in parks. They identify anyone who deviates in any word or deed from the party's directives. The control is so precise that it is impossible to escape from it. The so-called “thought police” play a special role. It employs experienced psychologists who can read the thoughts of employees and other people. There is no excuse for those who commit “thought crimes.” They are sentenced to death. Judges and executioners - of course, members of the inner party - do not like to kill outright. They subject the criminal to severe torture in order to rehabilitate him. Their goal is to make the victim fall in love with “Big Brother” and want to accept death as a fair punishment. Sometimes brainwashing and attempts to break a person's will continue for a whole year.

Orwell mentions the methods used in the Soviet Union. For example, in one episode, very hungry rats are set on a tied prisoner. Usually these animals first eat out the eyes of the victim.

What Orwell says in the book was told to me many years ago by a Christian believer who twice ended up in Soviet dungeons for such “re-education.” He also talked about things that even Orwell did not know about - otherwise they would have found mention in his novel. In one Soviet prison, the highest form of torture involved throwing a prisoner into a tank filled to the brim with rotting corpses. The victims, standing up to their necks in corpse rot, very soon went crazy. The brother who told me about this himself spent 8 hours in such a tank filled with dirt and pus. All this time he constantly cried out to Christ, and God protected him, preventing him from going crazy. Foreign organizations ensured that this brother, who was arrested four times, was released to the West. I heard all this directly from him.

There is another method to drive a person crazy: injections that turn an intelligent, free-thinking person into a mentally ill person. Orwell also mentions this in his book.

But the executioners from the secret police are not content with killing a person. Everything written by him or about him is destroyed. All records in registration documents are destroyed. This man never existed. What Orwell wrote about came true in Cambodia 20 years later. Almost half of the country's inhabitants were brutally killed. The survivors were given new names. All registration documents were burned, and no one had a birth certificate or any other papers. Only in the most remote provinces, in the mountains and forests, only a few representatives of the exhausted people managed to hide from the terror. This was written about in the press of that time.

Orwell in many ways predicted the coming era of disasters. But you don't need to be a prophet for this. Events currently taking place in the world clearly show what we should expect. Of course, it takes a writer's talent to collect all the observations in one book. The main theme of the novel “1984” can be formulated as follows: the all-powerful party completely subjugates a person, right down to his innermost thoughts. Everyone who does not obey this order is destroyed, “pulverized.” They simply disappear.

Let us now compare the ending of Solovyov's story and the ending of Orwell's novel. Soloviev describes how all the plans of the Antichrist collapse when Christ returns to earth.

Orwell took the communist atrocities as his starting point and projected them into the future. What effect does this book have on the reader? She reeks of pessimism, nihilism, and decadent moods. The writer was asked the question: what remains of human existence if the body is destroyed, the spirit is extinguished, and all human deeds are consigned to oblivion? The answer was: the human spirit will survive terror and ruthless tyranny. But this answer is not based on anything. Where and how will the spirit manifest itself if a person and all his deeds have sunk into oblivion? Orwell's opinion is in many ways consonant with the ideas of Ernst Junger, expressed in the works “On the Marble Cliffs” and “The Heart of the Adventurer”: the spirit is manifested in a heroic attitude towards death. This way out was suggested by the Stoics in ancient Athens: “Nil admirari, nil metuere” - admire nothing, fear nothing. Indifferently accept the inevitable. Remain internally detached and independent in all emotional experiences.

Orwell portrayed a man who has no hope, no future, no way out. Therefore, I will not recommend this book to believing Christians.

Antichrist number

The Book of Revelation 13:16-18 describes an apocalyptic financial and economic system: “And he will cause everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads.” , and that no one will be able to buy or sell except he who has this mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. He who has intelligence, count the number of the beast, for it is a human number; its number is six hundred and sixty-six.”

This passage says that when the Antichrist comes to power, every person will have a mark on their forehead or hand, giving access to all the necessary information about the person himself and his finances. The development of this system began more than ten years ago.

Various preliminary activities and experiments are already being carried out, the purpose of which is to prepare for the introduction of the Antichrist system.

Many large companies have been using clock clocks for years: employees insert cards into them, and thus the time is recorded when they start and end their working day. Their salaries are calculated by a computer. Old-style accountants are no longer needed.

The next step: salaries are not given in person. It is transferred directly to the employee's account. In California, this method was introduced several years ago.

A significant achievement at one time was the introduction of cashless payments. The era of checks has begun. But the check system did not solve all the problems because banks have to constantly process checks, which takes a lot of time. For example, in the US, banks process 40 billion checks per year. And then a new, even more improved payment system was conceived.

It was first tested in the town of Upper Arlington (Ohio) - I had a chance to visit there several years ago. An experiment was conducted with the participation of a bank and 31 entrepreneurs. 2 thousand clients received credit cards and had to pay only with them. While making purchases in a supermarket, the experiment participants approached the cash register, the seller inserted a credit card into a special slot in the modem connecting the supermarket computer to the bank computer. When the light turned green, it meant that the buyer's credit limit had not yet been reached. This also served as confirmation that the bank's computer had transferred funds from the customer's account directly to the supermarket's account. No collectors are needed and there is no risk of robbery. Credit cards are much more convenient than checks. They, unlike checks, cannot be counterfeited. The experiment carried out in Upper Arlington was so successful that the city experienced an invasion of entrepreneurs from all states of America, as well as bankers from Germany, Switzerland, Canada and Japan. Everyone wanted to see how credit cards worked.

The Antichrist will bring this technical system to perfection. Sometimes credit cards get lost or become the prey of thieves. Therefore, people will have “credit cards implanted on their forehead or arm.” Identification marks will begin with the number 666. Laser beams painlessly read the invisible sign. You can see it only with the help of a special device. American experts require that the number consist of 18 digits. Europeans believe that twelve categories are enough. But the same system will be introduced throughout the world. The sign gives access to all information about a person stored in a powerful computer. In Europe, this computer is already ready for use. It is installed in Brussels and is called Het Beest, that is, “The Beast”. This is the exact fulfillment of the prophecy from Rev. 13, which talks about the beast coming out of the abyss.

In America, such a computer is installed in the suburbs of Chicago. The creation of the third computer is nearing completion. The latest achievement in this area is a computer combined with a telephone and a TV. This project is also entering its final stage. Using this device, a businessman from Johannesburg will be able to negotiate with a partner in New York, while simultaneously displaying all the necessary data on a computer. This is not a utopia or fantasy. All of these projects have been testing for some time. Preparations for their implementation are in full swing. It is possible to carry out a general implantation on the forehead or on the arm in a few weeks. After World War II, the American military took fingerprints from the entire population of Germany, and this operation did not take much time.

The question is, how far have we gone in this accounting of the population of the entire civilized world or even the entire planet? In answer to this question, I will give an excerpt from the Christian magazine “The Bible for the World” for the first half of 1981. The article is called “Is the Antichrist preparing for his coming?”

In 1980, the IRS made a mistake by introducing Social Security checks for 1984 into circulation. On the back of the checks it was written that the payer was required to present not only a regular identification document, but also an identification mark on the forehead or right hand. These checks were presented at banks in Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Virginia. Banks refused to pay these strange government checks. As a result of numerous phone calls, the Internal Revenue Service (a government agency that handles social projects) reluctantly admitted that the checks were genuine and that they had been issued in error and were not due until 1984.

This story may seem like a tall tale to some, but it is true. The last days will come before we know it. There is other evidence for the number 666. It has been noted that this sign of the Antichrist is already used in product codes on products manufactured in China, the USA and Europe. Some banks use the number 666 at the beginning of customer personal account numbers. One of the credit cards with that number is right in front of me.

What is the significance of this number of the Antichrist being forced upon us all? The Bible says, “No one will be able to buy or sell except he who has this mark” (Rev. 13:17). The life of every person will depend on whether he accepts this sign of the Antichrist. A Christian who refuses to accept it will not be able to feed his family. The children will ask for bread, and the father, who did not accept this sign, will not be able to buy them anything. But those Christians who bow to the anti-Christian system will burn in fire and brimstone. This is what it says in Rev. 14:9-10.

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Prophecies of Rev. Seraphim of Sarov, St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) and other elders and Orthodox thinkers about the Antichrist and the fate of Russia

Continuing the discussion, we invite readers to familiarize themselves with a selection of prophecies and sayings of holy elders and Orthodox thinkers about the fate of Russia and the Antichrist.

Prophecies of St. Seraphim of Sarov

Text of prophecies by Rev. Seraphim, recorded from his words by “servant of the Mother of God and Seraphim” N.L. Motovilov and transferred to him by S.A. To Nilus (from the archives of Father Pavel Florensky):

“More than half a century will pass. Then the evildoers will raise their heads high. This will definitely happen. The Lord, seeing the unrepentant malice of their hearts, will allow their undertakings for a short time, but their illness will turn on their head, and the untruth of their destructive plans will descend to their top.

There will once be a Tsar who will glorify me, after which there will be great unrest in Rus', a lot of blood will flow for rebelling against this Tsar and Autocracy, but God will glorify the Tsar...

The Lord revealed to me, poor Seraphim, that there would be great disasters on the Russian land. The Orthodox faith will be trampled upon, the bishops of the Church of God and other clergy will depart from the purity of Orthodoxy, and for this the Lord will severely punish them. I, poor Seraphim, prayed to the Lord for three days and three nights that He would rather deprive me of the Kingdom of Heaven and have mercy on them. But the Lord answered, “I will not have mercy on them: for they teach the doctrines of men, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me”...

Any desire to make changes to the rules and teachings of the Holy Church is heresy... blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will never be forgiven. The bishops of the Russian land and the clergy will follow this path, and the wrath of God will strike them...

Before the birth of the Antichrist, there will be a great long war and a terrible revolution in Russia... There will be the death of many people faithful to the fatherland, the looting of church property and monasteries; desecration of the Lord's churches; destruction and plunder of the wealth of good people, rivers of Russian blood will be shed.

Then the time will come when, under the pretext of church and Christian progress, to please the demands of this world, they will change and distort the dogmas (teachings) and statutes of the Holy Church, forgetting that they originate from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who taught and gave instructions to His disciples, To the Holy Apostles, about the creation of the Church of Christ and its rules, and commanded them: “Go and teach all nations what I have commanded you.”

From here, the rules and traditions of the Holy Apostles that have reached us have been preserved to this day, which were explained and finally approved once and for all by their Holy Successors - the Holy Fathers, guided by the Holy Spirit at seven Ecumenical Councils.

Woe to him who subtracts or adds one word; our faith has no blemish; woe to the one who dares to make any changes to the Divine service and statutes of that Church, which is the “Pillar and foundation of the Truth” and about which the Savior Himself said that even the gates of hell will not prevail against it...

But the Lord will not be completely angry and will not allow the Russian land to be completely destroyed... I, poor Seraphim, am destined by the Lord God to live much more than a hundred years. But since by that time the Russian bishops will be so wicked that they will surpass the Greek bishops in their wickedness during the time of Theodosius the Younger, so that they will not even believe in the most important dogma of the Christian Faith - the Resurrection of Christ and the general resurrection, then therefore the Lord God is pleased until the time of me, the wretched one. Seraphim, to take from this premature life and then to resurrect the dogma of the Resurrection, and my resurrection will be like the resurrection of the seven youths in the Okhlonskaya cave during the time of Theodosius the Younger. After my resurrection, I will move from Sarov to Diveevo, where I will preach worldwide repentance...

This sermon will be officially announced to all people, not only Russians, but also universally, as a universal announcement...

Before the end of times, Russia will merge into one great sea with the other lands and Slavic tribes, it will form one sea or that huge universal ocean of the people, about which the Lord God spoke from ancient times through the mouth of all the saints: “The formidable and invincible kingdom, all-Russian, all-Slavic - Gog Magog, before by whom all nations will tremble.” And all this, all is true... When the Russian empire receives one hundred and eighty million into its possession, we must expect the appearance of the Antichrist.

The Antichrist will be born in Russia between St. Petersburg and Moscow in that great city, which, after the union of all Slavic tribes with Russia, will be the second capital of the Russian kingdom and will be called “Moscow-Petrograd”, or “The City of the End”, as the Lord Holy Spirit calls it, from afar everything providing.

Before the appearance of the Antichrist, the Eighth Ecumenical Council of all Churches must take place...

The spirit of darkness promises the establishment of paradise on earth... Among the Slavs and Russians, the true Antichrist-demon-man will be born, the son of the wife of the harlot of the Danish generation...

But one of the Russians, having lived to see the birth of the Antichrist, like Simeon the God-Receiver, who blessed the Child Jesus and announced His birth to the world, will curse the born Antichrist and announce to the world that he is the true Antichrist.

Venerable Seraphim of Sarov

A selection of quotes is published from the book: Prophecies about the Antichrist and the fate of Russia. - M., 1997. P. 35-36; Also see: Russia before the Second Coming. M., 1998. T. 2. P. 549-550; Antichrist and Russia // Literary Studies, book. 1. 1991, pp. 133-134.

It should be noted that Rev. Seraphim of Sarov identifies Russia in recent times with the biblical “Gog” and “Magogom,” the invasion of which will shake the world on the eve of the reign of the Antichrist. So in the book of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 38-39) “Gog from the land of Magog” is the “high prince” who is the leader of the peoples of Rosha (Rosa), Meshech (Mosha) and Tubal (Tubala) in the land of Magog - “the great gathering hordes” that “from the ends of the north” will invade the promised land “in the last days... like a storm” (Ezek. 39). And in the Apocalypse it is said about Gog and Magog: “When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations located at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, and gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea” (Rev. 20:7).

The names Meshech (Mosch) and Rosh (Ros) mentioned in the Holy Scriptures have long been attributed by some religious thinkers to Moscow and Russia, while Magog - to the Mongols and the yellow, Asian race. This interpretation became firmly established in Orthodox eschatological thought, especially after the Russian atheistic revolution of 1917. Many holy elders associated the anti-Christian communist state of the USSR, formed on the site of the former Orthodox Russia, with these apocalyptic names, the bearers of which will play an important role in preparing the accession of the Antichrist.

In addition to Rev. Seraphim of Sarov predicted the appearance of the Antichrist in Russia in the 19th century by the outstanding Russian theologian and ascetic, Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov). In the prophecy about the Antichrist dated October 26, 1861, the saint wrote: “Our people can and must become an instrument of the genius of the geniuses [of the Antichrist], who will finally realize the idea of ​​​​a world monarchy, the implementation of which many have already tried” [See: Prophecies about the Antichrist and the fate of Russia. - M., 1997. P. 45; Also: Collection of letters of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, Bishop of the Caucasus and Black Sea. M.-SPb, 1995. P. 27; Also: Complete collection of works of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. - M.: Pilgrim, 2002. T. 4. P. 536-537].

In other teachings, Saint Ignatius writes about the Antichrist: “The world, as if unanimously, rushed to meet some special person, a genius, to a magnificent, solemn meeting. It is obvious. The face will be so disguised that the masses will recognize him as the Messiah... A path is being prepared, a mental path for the influence of flattery to enter (see 2 Sol. 2:11) into the minds and hearts” [St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. Letters to monastics. Letter 41, May 18, 1861].

“Those who are led by the spirit of the Antichrist, reject Christ, accepted the Antichrist in their spirit, entered into fellowship with him, submitted and worshiped him in spirit, recognizing him as their god. For this reason, they will suffer, that is, God will allow them to act in flattery, so that they may believe a lie, so that all those who did not believe the truth, but were pleased with untruth, will receive judgment. In His permission, God is just. Permission will be satisfaction, at the same time conviction and judgment for the human spirit... In the very mood of the human spirit, a demand will arise, an invitation to the Antichrist, sympathy for him, just as in a state of severe illness a thirst for a deadly drink arises. The invitation is spoken! a calling voice is heard in human society, expressing the urgent need for a genius of geniuses, who would raise material development and prosperity to the highest degree, establish on earth that prosperity in which heaven and paradise become unnecessary for man. The Antichrist will be a logical, just, natural consequence of the general moral and spiritual direction of people" [Conversation on Monday of the 29th week. About signs and wonders // Complete collection of the works of St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. - M.: Pilgrim, 2002. T. 4. P. 299-300].

In addition to Rev. Seraphim of Sarov and Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) also predicted the appearance of the Antichrist in Russia at the end of the 19th century by the outstanding Russian Orthodox thinker K.N. Leontyev:

“In some half a century, no more, the Russian people, from being a people of “God-bearers,” will little by little, and without noticing it, become a “God-fighting people,” and even more likely than any other people, perhaps. For, indeed, he is capable of going to extremes in everything... The Jews were much more than us, in their time, the chosen people, for then they were the only ones in the whole world who believed in the One God, and yet they crucified Christ on the cross , the Son of God, when He descended to them on earth... ... Russian society, already quite egalitarian in habits, will rush even faster than anyone else along the mortal path of all confusion and - who knows? - like the Jews who did not expect that the Teacher of the New Faith would emerge from their depths, - and we, unexpectedly, in some 100 years, from our state bowels, first classless, and then churchless or already weakly churched, - we will give birth to that very same Antichrist, about whom Bishop Theophan speaks along with other spiritual writers" [Leontyev K.N. Above Pazukhin's grave. 1891. // K.N. Leontyev. East, Russia and Slavism. M., 1996. S. 678-685].

In this context, it is important to remember the warnings of Saint Averky (Taushev) that “The Antichrist will use the Gospel sayings in the cases necessary for him and even impose church canonical punishments on those who disobey him, classifying one or another of their actions as a crime, as a violation of certain other church canonical rules" [Archbishop Averky (Taushev). Modernity in the light of the Word of God. Words and speeches. T. 4. P. 289].

We should also remember the warnings of the last legitimate First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, Elder Metropolitan Vitaly (Ustinov, 1910-2006), of blessed memory about the supposed changes in modern Russia: “For some reason we here cannot understand that the Communist Party, having dressed itself in a toga democrats, the same communist party remains (like wolves in sheep's clothing), with which the Moscow Patriarchate goes hand in hand... It is impossible to negotiate with the godless government that holds a raised sword over your head. We must go either to the catacombs or to a glorious martyrdom! There is no other way out. Every agreement that is made under the raised sword is a fall. And there will certainly be a fall... This means colluding with Satan! You can’t negotiate with Satan, it’s hopeless” [Metropolitan Vitaly. About the Moscow Patriarchate].

It is also important to understand that the false prophecies spread over the last 20 years among the “harlot Church” - the Moscow Patriarchate - claim that the Antichrist allegedly will not be able to set foot on the territory of Russia until the Second Coming of Christ, since in Russia he will be opposed by the “Orthodox Tsar” ", do not correspond to patristic teaching and are of a chiliastic-heretical nature. Moreover, this kind of exalted forgery has been deliberately created in recent times in order to lull the vigilance of Orthodox Russian people, in order to deceive the elect (Matthew 24:24), i.e. Orthodox Christians. On this occasion, the Holy Scriptures unequivocally say: “Do not trust in princes, in the sons of men, for in them there is no salvation” (Ps. 145:3). That is why the statements that the modern Russian Federation (ranking first in the world in abortion, alcoholism, drug addiction, prostitution, as well as corruption and crime) and its neo-Soviet authorities (persecuting true Orthodox Christians, restoring the Soviet legacy of the godless USSR and for more than 20 years, robbing their own people) are “holding back the world’s evil” - there is nothing more than a heresy that contradicts the Orthodox patristic teaching about the end times and the Antichrist. As for the “Russian Kingdom,” which supposedly cannot be overcome by the “gates of hell,” Scripture clearly speaks not about state formation and not about an earthly king, but about the True Church of Christ, which even during the period of Antichrist persecution will be preserved in the catacombs by the Spirit To the saints: “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). We should also not forget that God-fighting Bolshevism was born and won precisely in Orthodox Russia, turning it into an atheistic USSR and spreading its pernicious anti-Christ influence over half of the globe, turning a God-bearing people into a God-fighting people, as predicted by Konstantin Leontyev. If such a degeneration could occur in the Orthodox Russian Empire, is it worth deceiving the modern Russian Federation, which considers itself the “legal successor of the USSR”? For those Orthodox Christians who in 2001-2007. did not accept union with the Soviet Church (MP), this should be obvious.

With regard to the chiliastic expectations of many modern Russian Orthodox patriotic figures, it will be useful to recall the words of the prominent theologian and hierarch of the ROCOR, Archbishop Averky (Taushev): “What is most terrible: those who are so inclined, contrary to the teachings of the Church (except for the leaders and leaders of this heresy, who understand perfectly well, what they do, where they go and lead others), sometimes they don’t even know that they are taking part not in the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth, but in the preparation of the Kingdom of Antichrist. After all, according to the predictions of a number of Holy Fathers, the idea of ​​​​establishing a prosperous and peaceful life on earth... will seduce Christians and attract their sympathy to himself, none other than the Antichrist. So, this is who these modern heretics—the neo-chiliasts—ultimately serve!”

Some Orthodox thinkers believed that the view of the Antichrist as an exclusively Israeli ruler seated physically in the restored temple in Jerusalem is not generally accepted in the Orthodox Church, and that the temple of God (2 Thess. 2:4) should be understood not only the material Jerusalem temple , but also, allegorically, the Christian Church as such - that part of it that will degenerate into the “Church of the Evil Ones.” In this regard, the prophecies of St. Seraphim of Sarov and St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) that the Antichrist can be born and come to power in Russia, which has renounced true Orthodoxy (more precisely, in the territory of the revived pre-apocalyptic red beast of the USSR - “Gog and Magog”) become especially relevant.

Archbishop Lazar (Zhurbenko), of blessed memory, bishop of the Catacomb Church persecuted in the USSR, warned his flock that “the Antichrist will not be able to come until the wounds of the beast are healed.” By this “beast,” following many of the holy New Martyrs, he meant the anti-Christian, God-fighting USSR, which arose on the site of the once Orthodox Holy Rus'. And under the “wounds of the beast” is the collapse of the USSR into parts (“wounds”), which the repainted atheists will certainly try to “heal”, and under the guise of a pseudo-Orthodox revival.

Bishop Lazarus repeatedly drew attention to the fact that Scripture does not say in which country the Antichrist will appear, but it does say that he will try to deceive the elect (Matthew 24:24). After all, the prefix “anti” in the word “Antichrist” is translated from Greek not only as “against”, but also as “instead”. That is, “substitution”. Therefore, according to the words of Schema-Archbishop Lazar, the Antichrist is a substitution, an external counterfeit of Christ. A counterfeit is now observed in the once Holy Rus': the True Church is being replaced by a False Church, the historical Orthodox statehood is being replaced by false statehood, the Orthodox monarchy is being replaced by a false monarchy... Considering that now the governments of all countries of the world, incl. and the Russian Federation are controlled by representatives of the “tribe of Dan,” then the appearance of the Antichrist can occur in any of these countries, especially where he will need to carry out a counterfeit in order to deceive the elect (Matthew 24: 24).

In our time, counterfeiting Orthodoxy is becoming more dangerous than outright heresy and atheism. It is difficult to seduce an Orthodox Christian with heresy (and even more so with atheism), but today, counterfeits and imitation of Orthodoxy not only seduce huge masses of people, but also lead them away from true Orthodoxy, and therefore from salvation.

According to the deep conviction of Schema-Archbishop Lazar of blessed memory, only a complete rejection of the Soviet atheistic heritage, its ideas, symbols, bearers and leaders, sincere repentance and the conversion of the Russian people to true Orthodoxy and the True Orthodox Church can prevent the fulfillment of the terrible prophecies about the appearance of the Antichrist in Russia, long ago ceased to be Orthodox.

On this occasion, the holy righteous Fr. John of Kronstadt warned: “If there is no repentance among the Russian people, the end of the world is near.”

Also, Archbishop Averky (Taushev) wrote: “As the Holy Church teaches, the time of the appearance of the Antichrist depends, in essence, on ourselves. If we have true repentance, correction of life and turning to God, it will be delayed by God. And our Holy Rus' may still rise and be reborn to a new life, but again, if there is such repentance among the Russian people, at least for an apocalyptic half hour...” [Archbishop. Averky (Taushev). Modernity in the light of the Word of God. T. III. P. 126].

But here is how Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) of blessed memory wrote regarding hopes for the revival of Orthodox Russia: “The entire future depends on ourselves: if we are reborn to the true Orthodox life, then Holy Rus' will be restored; if not, then the Lord can take back His promises... Just as after the people’s repentance Nineveh was pardoned, and Jonah’s prophecy about her destruction thus did not come true, so the prophecies about the restoration of Holy Rus' may not come true if the Russian people do not will repent... The Resurrection of Holy Rus' depends on the efforts of each individual soul; it cannot take place without the participation of Orthodox people - our common repentance and our internal, not just external feat" [Jerome. Seraphim (Rose). The future of Russia and the end of the world. 1981].

The Seal of the Antichrist in the Orthodox Tradition, Metropolitan Meletios of Nikopol

When will the Antichrist come?

When will the Antichrist come?

We do not know the exact time of his coming, for the Lord said:

(Acts 1:7). Anyone who tries to calculate the date of the end of the world will violate the command of the Lord and will be punished, as (1 Pet. 5:5). The proud and arrogant, who want to penetrate the secrets that the Lord forbade us to explore, become enemies of God.

We know that after the coming of the Antichrist there will come the second glorious coming of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thess. 2:8). Hieromartyr Hippolytus of Rome († 236), one of the earliest teachers of the Church, wrote that the history of mankind will end with the world domination of the Antichrist. But the Lord will not leave us and, out of His love, will take care of us and help us, reducing the time of the Antichrist’s stay on earth to one week, as the holy prophet Daniel says:

According to the interpretation of Saint Hippolytus, the word “week” has a symbolic meaning and should be understood not as our seven-day week, but as seven years; During this time, what the prophets wrote about regarding the last times (“About the end of the world”) will happen. Seven years are divided, according to Saint Hippolytus, into two equal periods, which follows from the Revelation of Saint John the Theologian, which says: And I will give to my two witnesses (Elijah and Enoch), and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days (Rev. 11:3 ). 1260 days equals three and a half years. Knowledge of these two periods is very important for understanding what follows.

Saint Hippolytus teaches that in the first period, which completes world history, two prophets, Elijah and Enoch, will appear to announce to the whole world the imminent coming of the Antichrist and the Judge Christ who will follow him. They will preach for 1260 days that the Lord Jesus Christ alone is Savior and God, saying: “Do not believe the enemy who will come and appear to you, for he is an adversary who is jealous of Christ, the son of perdition, who has come to deceive and deceive you.” Prophets will not perform signs and wonders, because they will be sent to preach repentance; they will dress in sackcloth in order to call people to repentance by their very appearance.

During these three and a half years, the Antichrist will try to gain popularity by bribing people with his imaginary kindness, justice and piety. The world will believe his virtue, but Elijah and Enoch will expose the true intentions of the Antichrist, which will be revealed later. The Antichrist has one goal - to seduce people so that they believe in him as the true God and worship him, that is, they voluntarily give themselves to him in obedience. His desire is to darken the human mind. And in order to succeed in the work of deception, he will call on his like-minded false prophet, who will perform great miracles in the name of the Antichrist so that people will worship him (Rev. 13:13). These two will become like Christ and Elijah. The false prophet will be given the power to bring down fire from heaven to earth - it is known that the prophet Elijah was taken on a chariot of fire from earth to heaven (2 Kings 2:11). Their words will be no less “wonderful”. In the first period, the Antichrist will show the world his fake virtue, and almost all of humanity will accept him as a morally perfect person.

Saint Hippolytus notes the main signs of the Antichrist: firstly, he will perform unheard-of miracles by the power of the devil, but they will turn out to be false, imaginary. He will heal lepers, the paralyzed, cast out demons, predict the future, raise the dead to deceive both his followers and, if possible, the chosen ones, so that they forget Christ and thereby become apostates and traitors. Secondly, he will temporarily put on the guise of a meek, humble, loving and peace-loving person, and will reconcile those at war with the words of the Apostle Paul:

(Eph. 4:26). He will gain popularity by fighting lies, corruption, idolatry; will be diligent in the study of the Holy Scriptures; will respect clergy, honor elders, abhor fornication, condemn adultery, and will not tolerate perjury and betrayal. Thirdly, the Antichrist will show himself hospitable, generous, compassionate, will help widows, orphans, and treat everyone with love. He will especially try to appear kind towards Christians, will provide them with patronage, and his attitude towards the clergy and monastics will be deliberately attentive and reverent.

As a result of such a cunning policy, in the first period the Antichrist will achieve significant success: the peoples of the earth, seduced by his imaginary virtues, talents and merits, will begin to offer him world domination, but he will pretend to be humble and refuse this offer, but then accept it “under the pressure of the requests of the majority "

At the very end of this period, some fanatical adherents of the Antichrist, obsessed with passionate love for their idol, will condemn Elijah and Enoch for their supposed opposition to world stabilization and prosperity and publicly execute them. This will happen not without the participation of the leader of the era himself. Saint Hippolytus calls the time of the murder of the prophets the showing of the little horn, while contemporaries, on the contrary, will consider it a golden age, a charismatic era of renewal and revival of culture and all spheres of human activity.

In the second period, immediately after the reign of the Antichrist, a sudden change will occur. Now he will show himself completely different from before, that is, a proud, ruthless, cruel, vindictive and blasphemous tyrant, and will soon begin to lay claim to eternal dominion over the world. At the same time, his policy will also change radically. He will drive out those who elected him to the kingdom - this will end the era of democracy - and will take demons in human form into the world government. Then the souls of many people will be defiled, that is, the majority of sane and respectable people will agree with the new state of affairs and begin to serve the new world order.

Then some will begin to see the light - after all, the one whom they are accustomed to seeing as kind and fair will in fact turn out to be fierce, rude, heartless and evil, will hate all of humanity and want to destroy it. However, the Antichrist will continue to do charity work, perform miracles, so that everyone will recognize him and serve him as a king and god. He will move mountains, walk on the sea, bring down fire from the sky, turn day into night, command the sun, and everyone will decide that nature is subject to him. The purpose of all this is to turn people away from faith in the true God, to make them forget about searching for the path to the Kingdom of Heaven. And people will glorify him and make him a god, they will exalt him and worship him as one who does great and glorious things. This will be the pinnacle of his success. “Who is the master greater than me? Who is the great God besides me?”

With his actions and words, the Antichrist will try to copy the Gospel events and church teaching, and just as Christ seals His servants with the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Confirmation, so the Antichrist will give his slaves, those who believe in him as God, a certain anointing, a seal - a visible sign of his patronage, evidence that he is pleased with his servant. This seal will protect against violence and need, and will be a kind of pass. The only condition for receiving it will be the voluntary recognition of the world ruler as a god. Anyone who does not recognize him as God and does not want to obey him, he will betray to cruel and unprecedented torture and torment.

Thus, before the Antichrist declares himself god, there will be no seal. It will appear only after his rule turns into a “theocracy.” Therefore, today, when the Antichrist has not yet appeared and declared himself to be god, we cannot talk about putting his seal on. Those who make a fuss about the number 666 are mistaken and misleading others.

So, from the writings of Saint Hippolytus of Rome it follows that the main event of recent times, the turning point of the reign of the Antichrist will be his “about O life."

But even after most people recognize the Antichrist as God, many Christians will not accept his religion. This will cause total persecution of other believers, much more cruel and terrible than all the persecutions that have happened in the history of the Church. Those Christians who testify to their faith and do not renounce it will be glorified more than the martyrs of the first centuries and will receive crowns in the Kingdom of God. But many, bound by the affairs of this world and the lust of this world, will not be able to stand it and will apostatize from the faith because of the extreme cruelty of torture and deprivation. Being spiritually fragile, tied to earthly things, they will come to the Antichrist and ask for his seal, and they will do this according to their personal desire and free choice.

The purpose of the persecution is to finally turn the remnant of believers away from true worship of God and instead of the sign of Honest O of the Cross to impose on Christians the seal of the Antichrist, that is, to force them with all their hearts, with all their souls and with all their minds to confess the new God, and to reject and forget the true one. Then everything will be completely distorted, and although religion and its attributes will remain, their essence will change - it will be service to another god. The very name of Christ will become forbidden, and the memory of Him will be eradicated. The abomination of desolation, predicted by the prophet Daniel, will come when the temples of God begin to be used for “other needs.” “At that time, Christ will be of the same value to people as garbage on the side of the road,” says Rev. Neil the Myrrh-Streaming.

The question arises: does this mean that bishops and priests - the spiritual leaders of the people of God - will allow all this and follow the Antichrist? Let this not happen! Obviously, some will be tempted, but not all, and those who remain faithful to Christ will courageously perform their service, make a bloodless sacrifice, for which they will be subjected to torture and torture. All the rage of the Antichrist will be directed at them, who will subject them to torment unprecedented in history.

The few remaining faithful to Christ will suffer a terrible tribulation, such as has not happened since the beginning of the world until now, and will not happen (Matthew 24:21). Christians will suffer from severe persecution, hide from persecution, and the merciful Lord, for the sake of the elect, will shorten the days of torment to 1260. The end of the second period of the reign of the Antichrist will coincide with the end of world history.

The disappointment of some adherents of the Antichrist in the merits of their idol will not be repentance in the Christian sense. They will try to hide from him, but they will not be able to do this, since by the outline of his name they will be easy to find.

The Antichrist will believe in his divine immortality and the infinity of his kingdom and rejoice in his power, but

(Matthew 24:27) - this is how the sign of the Holy Cross will appear in the sky, shining brighter than the sun, as a sign of the second glorious coming of the Judge and Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord, who came in His glory, will destroy the kingdom of the Antichrist by His appearance, and him himself (2 Thess. 2:8).

Thus, the Antichrist will act as a political figure and a charismatic, religious leader. This combination in itself is not new - for example, the Roman emperor Nero proclaimed himself a god and demanded sacrifices to his statue. And although the Apostle Paul calls the emperor the highest authority, he thereby renders only to Caesar what is Caesar's. Hieromartyr Polycarp of Smyrna categorically refused to render divine honors to the emperor, for which he was beheaded with a sword. Recognizing the existence of a supreme power and obeying the laws established by it is one thing, but accepting it with your heart and believing its religious doctrines is quite another.

Like Saint Polycarp, many thousands of Christian martyrs suffered in the Roman Empire. For example, George the Victorious, Demetrius of Thessalonica, Theodore, Andrew and Savva Stratelates were warriors, submitted to their commanders and were martyred for refusing to honor the statue of the emperor. They fought bravely under the Roman banners with the eagle depicted on them, but none of them, fighting under the pagan flag, ever renounced Christ.

We see the same thing during the times of Islamic rule over Christian peoples. The holy patriarchs Sophronius of Jerusalem and Gennady II Scholarius of Constantinople received firmans from the Muslim authorities - letters certifying their legitimacy and recognition by the state. These documents were issued in the name of Allah, they contained text from the Koran, and chronology was carried out according to the Muslim calendar. And these saints, although they had no intention of renouncing Christ, treated the firmans as official state documents regulating the rights of the Church in Islamic society. They perceived the quotations from the Koran and the name of Allah written in these letters only as an expression of the faith of the Sultan or Caliph ruling the state.

Saint Cosmas of Aetolia said that the one whom we have at our head, that is, the Sultan, is the Antichrist. And at the same time, he bowed to the ground to the Turkish officials who gave him the opportunity to legally preach Christ.

All this indicates that in a ruler one should distinguish the sovereign from the propagator of a religious idea hostile to Christ. Give back

(Matt. 22:21). In this regard, the experience of the Orthodox in the Soviet Union is relevant and important. They had passports with symbols that were not at all Christian, they obeyed Soviet laws, served in the army, were obedient to government officials, but they never in any way accepted communist ideology: atheism, anti-Christianity, etc. - in a word, they did not renounce Christ.

We will do the same when the Antichrist comes. We will not be able to isolate ourselves from this world, but we will have to live by its realities, so we need to understand that the state and all its institutions, including passports, documents, securities, money, are one thing, but completely different - Christ and our confession of faith in true God. And when the time of the Antichrist comes, it will be necessary to follow the same principles that guided the Church in the conditions of a state hostile to it.

But until these times have come, the world is not ruled by the “lord of the universe” and no one demands from us that we serve him as a god - it is logical to conclude that neither the first nor the second periods of the end of the world have yet arrived.

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3. Strengthen your weak hands and strengthen your trembling knees; 4. Say to the timid at heart: be strong, do not be afraid; Behold your God, vengeance will come, God’s recompense; He will come and save you. 5. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. 6. Then the lame man will jump up like a deer, and his tongue

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11. And disaster will come upon you: you will not know where it will come from; and a misfortune will attack you that you will not be able to avert, and suddenly a destruction will come to you that you do not even think about. Relying on their magic and sorcery, the Babylonians were convinced that they,

From the book of the Bible. Modern translation (BTI, trans. Kulakova) author's Bible

40. So, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do with these vinedressers? (Mark 12:9; Luke 20:15). Matthew's speech is more complete than that of the other evangelists. “The Lord asks them not because he does not know what they will answer, but so that they will condemn themselves by their own answer.”

From the Book of Teachings author Kavsokalivit Porfiry

25. The woman said to Him: I know that the Messiah will come, that is, Christ; when He comes, He will tell us everything. The Samaritan woman does not dare to make any objections to Christ regarding His teaching about the advantages of the Jewish people and about the new worship of God: she sees in Him a prophet.

From the book Antichrist author Team of authors

25. Then some of the Jerusalemites said, “Isn’t this the one whom they are seeking to kill?” 26. Behold, He speaks openly, and they say nothing to Him: have not the rulers been convinced that He is truly the Christ? 27. But we know Him where He comes from; When Christ comes, no one will know where He comes from. Words

From the author's book

31. Many of the people believed in Him and said: When Christ comes, will He really do more signs than He has done? 32. The Pharisees heard such talk about Him among the people, and the Pharisees and the high priests sent servants to seize Him. In contrast

From the author's book

40. Many of the people, hearing these words, said: He is certainly a prophet. 41. Others said: This is Christ. And others said: Will Christ come from Galilee? 42. Does not the Scripture say that Christ will come from the seed of David and from Bethlehem, from the place where David was? 43. So

From the author's book

4. But I told you this so that when that time comes, you will remember what I told you about this; I didn’t tell you this at first, because I was with you. The Lord did not tell them about the suffering awaiting the apostles at the beginning of their following Christ. The reason for this was

From the author's book

From the author's book

When Jesus comes again 13 Now about those who have fallen asleep. We want you to know, brothers, what awaits them, and not to grieve like others who have no hope. 14 For we believe that just as Jesus died and rose again, so God will lead all those who have fallen asleep through Jesus to be with Him. 15 And this is what we assure

From the author's book

When Christ comes, then all our problems will go away. Geronda once told me: - When Christ comes and, having settled into the soul, fills all the pastures of our soul (olo to horo), then all our problems, all our delusions, all sorrows will go away. Then sin goes away... You see,

This book is about events that will happen at the end of human history. The mysterious prophecies of the Apocalypse about the Antichrist, the end of the world, the Second Coming of Christ and the Last Judgment are revealed to the reader. Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, directly and decisively exhorts Christians: “You know the signs of the Antichrist: do not remember them yourself, but share them generously with everyone.” The book is intended for a wide range of readers. Approved for distribution by the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church IS 13-303-0285

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The given introductory fragment of the book Signs of the Coming of the Antichrist. The secrets of biblical prophecies about events that will take place at the end of time (A.V. Fomin, 2007) provided by our book partner - the company liters.

Signs of the coming of the Antichrist

You know the signs of the Antichrist: do not remember them yourself, but communicate them generously to everyone.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem

Separation of signs of the coming of the Antichrist

Shortly before the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, the apostles asked Him: “Tell us, when will this be and what is the sign of Your coming?” He answered them: “No one knows about that same day and hour, not even the angels of heaven, but only My Father alone. For as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For as in the days before the flood they ate and drank, they married and were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they thought not until the flood came and destroyed them all: so will the coming of the Son of God be.”34

From the above words of the Savior, we see that no one knows or can find out the exact and specific time of the Second Coming. This is a secret hidden not only from people, but also from Angels.

While keeping the time of His glorious Coming in deep secrecy, Jesus Christ Himself indicated some, quite clear, signs of it. Jesus Christ, when asked by his disciples - what is the sign of the end of the world - answered: “Beware that no one deceives you, for many will come in My name, saying, I am the Christ, and they will deceive many. You will also hear about wars and war rumors<…>And many false prophets will arise and deceive many; and, due to the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold; he who endures to the end will be saved. And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come" 35.

Before the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, “the man of sin will be revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above everything that is called God or that is worshiped” (2 Thess. 2:3-4).

Usually a hidden thing is recognized from a sign, like a hidden fire from smoke, a burden on the human heart from groaning, from tears and sighs, and so on. Here we want to reveal all the signs associated with the coming of the Antichrist: the first are the signs that precede his coming; the second - coinciding with his coming; the third are those who follow his coming.

Signs preceding the coming of the Antichrist:

1. Bloody wars and natural disasters in nature.

2. Preaching the Gospel throughout the world.

3. The retreat in the last days of the world. Spiritual blindness of people.

There are many common signs:

1. Proclamation of the Antichrist as the ruler of all states.

2. The Antichrist’s construction of his throne in the Jerusalem Temple.

3. The discovery of the name of the Antichrist, which will be depicted by the number 666.

4. The Jews accepted the Antichrist as the Messiah.

5. The appearance of an accomplice of the Antichrist - a false prophet.

6. False miracles of the Antichrist.

7. Inscription of the name of the Antichrist on the right hand and on the forehead.

8. The appearance of Elijah and Enoch in the world and their killing by the Antichrist.

9. Persecution and torment of Christ's confessors.

10. Conversion of the Israeli people to Christ.

11. The short duration of the reign of the Antichrist (three and a half years) and his death.

Signs following the coming of the Antichrist:

1. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

2. The Last Judgment.

3. The end of this world.

Signs that precede the appearance of the Antichrist

Bloody wars and natural disasters

Bloody wars and various disasters in nature will take on catastrophic proportions. People will be exhausted from the severity of the disasters they are experiencing. They will not be able to overcome them through their own efforts, but they will not even think of seeking help from God because of their unbelief.

“You will also hear about wars and rumors of wars. See, do not be horrified, for all this must happen, but this is not the end yet: for nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there will be famines, pestilences and earthquakes in places; yet this is the beginning of disease.

Then they will hand you over to torture and kill you; and you will be hated by all nations because of my name; and then many will be offended, and will betray one another, and will hate one another; and many false prophets will arise and deceive many; and, due to the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold; but he who endures to the end will be saved.”36

Spreading the Gospel Everywhere

“This gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come" 37.

“But what does it mean: as a testimony to all nations? Since the Gospel was preached everywhere, notes Saint John Chrysostom, but not everyone believed in it, Christ says: it will be a testimony to those who did not believe, that is, a reproof, a condemnation; as a testimony: those who believe will testify against those who did not believe and will condemn them.”

“Then the end will come... Consequently, it has not come, but only, so to speak, has come closer. Thus, we have here a general sign of the end (of this order of things, the end of the present world), and not a direct one, so that the exact occurrence of the end of the world remains unknown. Blessed Augustine, when asked by Bishop Hesychius about the time of the end of the world, answered: “Then he will come...” means that he will not come first, but when he will come after, this is unknown to us. Therefore, even if we knew that the Gospel was being preached among all nations, we could not say how much time remained until the end” 38 .

“So, the Antichrist will come into the world only when the gospel sermon sweeps throughout the entire universe, when all tribes and peoples are illuminated with the light of Christian teaching. St. John of Damascus says: “Jesus Christ will come to convict the ungodly Jews after preaching the Gospel among all nations” 39 .

David also testifies to the worldwide spread of Christianity: All nations will serve Him 40. All the nations that You have made will come and worship You, O Lord, and glorify Your name 41 . I will give the nations for Your inheritance and the ends of the earth for Your possession 42 . Saint John the Theologian says that he saw the number of sealed servants of our God from all the tribes of Israel... and a great multitude of people from all tribes, peoples and languages ​​(Rev. 7: 4-9).

Everyone, meanwhile, knows that in almost all parts of the world there are many tribes and peoples who have no idea about the Christian religion. Years and whole centuries will pass until all peoples are enlightened by the true light.

Others may say that the apostles had already preached the Gospel to all nations: their voice went throughout the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the universe 43 . To such an objection I will answer the following: 1) Our Lord Jesus Christ, predicting to His disciples about the worldwide preaching of the Gospel, adds that immediately after this the end of the world will come. Many centuries have passed since the times of the apostles, but the world continues to this day through the long-suffering of God. This means that the Lord did not speak about the apostolic sermon, but about some other one, the conclusion of which would be the Last Judgment. 2) Christian scientists have identified with extreme precision all the places of preaching activity of the apostles. They preached in the Old World, but they not only did not know about the existence of the New World, discovered in the 15th century (1492), but did not even imagine it. Therefore, the apostolic preaching spread throughout the entire universe not with their personal participation, but only through glory and hearing” 44.

The spirit of antichrist and the forerunners of the antichrist

The doctrine of the Antichrist was part of the original apostolic gospel, which is clearly seen from the 2nd chapter of the Second Epistle of the Holy Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians.

Having given the characteristics of the Antichrist in verses 3-4 of this chapter, the holy apostle writes further to the Thessalonians: “Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I told you this?” (v. 5). One cannot but consider it very remarkable that during the short period of his stay in Thessaloniki, the holy Apostle Paul not only did not pass over in silence the teaching about the Antichrist, as secondary and unimportant, but considered it necessary to present this teaching in all detail. And in this Second Epistle of his, he only repeats what he said before about the Antichrist verbally.

Why is it so important to know this teaching? Because, as the holy fathers warn us, whoever neglects this teaching, considering it unimportant and insignificant in Christianity, will not recognize the Antichrist and will worship him.

Is it really possible not to recognize the Antichrist?

Yes, you can! This is how Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov), who collected together everything said about the Antichrist by the ancient holy fathers, speaks about this:

“The Antichrist will call himself a preacher and restorer of the true knowledge of God: those who do not understand Christianity will see in him a representative and champion of the true religion and will join him. The Antichrist will reveal himself meek, merciful, full of love, full of every virtue: those who recognize fallen human nature as truth will recognize him as such and submit to him because of his most sublime virtue... The Antichrist will offer humanity the creation of the highest earthly well-being and prosperity, will offer honors, wealth, splendor , carnal comforts and pleasures: seekers of earthly things will accept the Antichrist and call him their ruler. The Antichrist will open before humanity a disgrace of amazing miracles, similar to the cunning performances of the theater... He will instill fear with the thunder and wonder of his miracles, will satisfy with them reckless curiosity and gross ignorance, will satisfy human vanity and pride, will satisfy carnal wisdom, will satisfy superstition, will lead to bewilderment of human learning: all people , guided by the light of their fallen nature, alienated from the guidance of the light of God, will be carried away into obedience to the seducer” (vol. 4, p. 297). The Antichrist will be received with delight by apostates from Christianity, but it is worthy of deep attention and lamentation, as the holy fathers note, that the chosen ones themselves will be perplexed about the identity of the Antichrist, so skillfully will he be able to hide the satanic evil nesting in him from external eyes. “Opponents of the Antichrist will be considered troublemakers, enemies of the public good and order, will be subject to both covert and open persecution, will be subjected to torture and execution” (ibid.). All who refuse to bow to the Antichrist will find themselves in the most painful and difficult situation: “A small number of them will seem insignificant before all humanity, and their opinion will be given special weakness, general contempt, hatred, slander, oppression, violent death will be their lot” ( there).

Devout reader, don't you find that the picture painted above is somewhat reminiscent of what is already happening in the world?

Yes! But where is the Antichrist? Has he already arrived?

We do not yet see the Antichrist himself, but his spirit is clearly taking root and beginning to dominate the world. Numerous forerunners of the Antichrist are preparing with enormous energy his coming, his triumph, his enthronement in humanity. In order for the Antichrist to be accepted among Christian humanity, of course, very long and intense preparation is needed. It has been and is being carried out since apostolic times, with more and more intensity. So, also St. The Apostle John the Theologian wrote in his first conciliar Epistle: “Every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ who has come in the flesh is not from God, but it is the spirit of the Antichrist, about whom you heard that he would come, and is now already in the world.” 45; “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist, denying the Father and the Son” 46, and finally: “You have heard that the Antichrist will come, and now many antichrists have appeared” 47. The learned interpreter of Holy Scripture, Bishop Michael, notes that in the Greek original the name “Antichrist” stands with a definite index member, completely separating this name as a known specific person, while other “Antichrists” do not stand with a definite member and, therefore, like “many” different from him. These “many antichrists” are only the forerunners of the antichrist, who will appear before the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world: they are, as it were, “prototypes” of their “prototype” - the coming individual antichrist. They are carriers of the spirit of the Antichrist, and their task is to prepare suitable soil for the coming of the Antichrist, to create conditions favorable to his appearance in the world.

These “forerunners” of the Antichrist are leading the world process that St. The Apostle Paul called it a “falling away” (2 Thess. 2:3). The essence of this process lies in the greater and greater departure of Christian humanity from the genuine, intact gospel teaching and in the replacement of the gospel covenants with other ideals. The destructiveness of these ideals, offered to humanity by the “forerunners” of the Antichrist, is that they sometimes seem acceptable to a Christian, compatible with Christianity, but in reality they are deeply disgusting to him as flattering human passions and lusts and confirming the fallen nature of man in its fall.

Is it possible to trace this process of “retreat” in history and in life?

And it can and should! It must be in order to protect yourself and your neighbors from being drawn into this process, in order to get away from it, in order to save yourself from being infected by the spirit of Antichrist that is increasingly establishing itself in the world.

The devil, of course, could not come to terms with the appearance of Christianity in the world, and therefore we see the “spirit of Antichrist” operating in Christian humanity already in apostolic times. The first “forerunners of the Antichrist” were Simon the Magus, Cerinthos, and the Nicolaitans, with whom the holy apostles had to fight. Then - the Gnostics and whole crowds of all kinds of heretics, with whom the holy fathers and teachers of the Church fought for a number of centuries. In the first ten centuries of the Christian era, the spirit of true faith and piety was, however, still so strong in Christians that each time it won a brilliant victory over the “spirit of Antichrist,” and the Church of Christ, despite all the difficult trials that befell it, triumphed over its enemies.

But by the middle of the 11th century, the “spirit of Antichrist” had become so entrenched in the West that it was able to completely tear away an entire half of Christian humanity from unity with the entire Universal Church. The result of this was the “papacy” with its various deviations from the true Christian teaching about faith and piety - with newly invented dogmas, with damaged morality, with indulgences, the “Holy Inquisition” and similar perversions.

This was the first decisive victory won by the “forerunners” of the Antichrist.

Others soon followed.

At the turn of the Middle Ages, in order to completely eradicate the remnants of Christianity, the same “spirit of Antichrist” gave birth in the bosom of the papacy, which had rejected the true Orthodox faith, to movements completely contrary to Christianity - uninhibited freethinking, humanism, which put man himself in the place of God, and, finally, atheism, or complete godlessness. Not without the strong influence of these movements, in the 16th century a split occurred within the papal church organization itself, which received the name “Protestantism,” which supposedly undertook to “reform” the Church, but in reality went even further along the path of retreat and rejected the very essence of the Church. Protestantism, in turn, began to fragment more and more into small parts - sects, many of which have now moved so far from Christianity that they rejected its most important dogmas and even faith in the Divinity of the founder of Christianity - the Lord Jesus Christ. This process of the emergence of more and more new sects, the most savage and absurd, does not stop even now. It is extremely characteristic how clearly the “spirit of Antichrist” reveals itself in all these sects. If not all of them, then most of them talk a lot about the Second Coming of Christ, await it with special impatience and fervor (for example, Adventists), but are silent about the preliminary coming of the Antichrist or claim that the Antichrist already exists in the person of... the Pope. Characteristic in this regard is the Evanston Conference, organized by Protestants and sectarians and held under the slogan: “Christ is the hope of the world.” Much, much was said at this conference about the “Second Coming of Christ” and what benefits this promises for humanity on earth (!?), but there was complete silence about the Antichrist! Doesn't this naturally lead to the idea that Protestants and sectarians are gradually being prepared by their leaders to accept the Antichrist, when he appears, as Christ himself?

At the same time, clearly anti-Christian teachings are appearing in the West and are being persistently propagated, and socio-political organizations with a secret cult of Satan are spreading their networks wider and wider, acting in exactly the same way as the Antichrist himself will act, “with hellish cunning and hypocrisy” (in the words of St. Ignatius), the leaders of these organizations, these true “foxes at heart and wolves at heart” (in the words of St. Nile the Myrrh-Streaming Athonite), are gradually taking over the leadership of not only the socio-political, but also the religious life of people throughout the world, directing everything to one goal - to prepare conditions favorable for humanity to accept the Antichrist and worship him as their king and god.

The most important obstacle to achieving this goal was Orthodox Russia - the only powerful stronghold of the true Christian Orthodox faith in the world - with its Sovereign, sovereign defender and patron of the entire Orthodox Church.

The spectacle in the world in general is very bleak, and there would be reason to lose heart and fall into despair if we did not know that “this is what is written” in the word of God and all this should be so.

What should we do and what should we do?

“The retreat is allowed by God,” one of the great mentors of the spiritual life of our time, Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov), instructs us. “Do not try to stop it with your weak hand. Get away, keep yourself from him, and that’s enough for you. Familiarize yourself with the spirit of the times, study it in order to avoid its influence if possible... The retreat began to take place for some time quickly, freely and openly. The consequences must be the most tragic. God's will be done! The matter of the Orthodox faith can be recognized as approaching a decisive denouement... One special mercy of God can stop the all-destroying moral epidemic, stop it for a while, because it is necessary to fulfill what was predicted by Scripture. Judging by the spirit of the times and the ferment of minds, it must be assumed that the building of the Church, which has been shaking for a long time, will shake terribly and quickly. There is no one to stop and resist. The measures of support being taken are borrowed from the elements of a world hostile to the Church, and are more likely to accelerate its fall than to stop it. There is no one to expect the restoration of Christianity. The vessels of the Holy Spirit have completely dried up everywhere, even in monasteries, these treasuries of piety and grace... Salt is taking over! Among the highest pastors of the Church there remains a weak, dark, confused, incorrect understanding of the letter, which is killing spiritual life in Christian society, destroying Christianity, which is a deed, not a letter. It is hard to see who is entrusted with the sheep of Christ, who is given their guidance and salvation. But this is God’s permission... God’s merciful patience prolongs and delays the decisive outcome for the small remnant of those who are being saved, while those who are rotting or rotten reach the fullness of corruption. Those who are being saved must understand this and use the time given for salvation... May the Merciful Lord cover the remnant of those who believe in Him! But this remnant is meager: it is becoming more and more meager... “He who saves, may he save his soul,” is said to the remnant of Christians by the Spirit of God” (from Volume IV and “Fatherland”).

Since St. wrote this. Ignatius, the situation in the world has not improved, but worsened. “As the Antichrist, his main task will be to distract everyone from Christ,” says another great spiritual mentor of our time, St. Theophan the Recluse - then he will not appear as long as the royal power is in force. She will not allow him to turn around, will prevent him from acting in his spirit. This is what “holds” 48. When the tsarist power falls and the people everywhere establish arbitrariness (republic, democracy), then the Antichrist will have room to act. It will not be difficult for Satan to prepare votes in favor of renouncing Christ, as experience showed during the French Revolution. There will be no one to say veto power. So, when such orders are established everywhere that are favorable to the revelation of Antichrist’s aspirations, then the Antichrist will appear” 49.

Foretold by St. Theophan fulfilled: the “forerunners” of the Antichrist have done their job - the “spirit of the Antichrist” has settled everywhere in order to establish everywhere “orders favorable to the revelation of the Antichrist’s aspirations.” Remembering the words of St. Ignatius that “the Antichrist will be a logical, just, natural consequence of the general moral and spiritual direction of people” (Volume IV), we leave it to readers who are attentive to the life around them to draw their own conclusions from all of the above, and for our part we can only repeat :

“He who saves may save his soul!”

“We won’t keep up with the times!”

“Know that we must serve not time, but God”

(from the letter of St. Athanasius the Great to Dracontius)

"Keep up with the times!" - this is the slogan of all those who in our time are trying so hard to divert the Church of Christ further and further from Christ, Orthodoxy - from the true confession of the Orthodox Christian faith. Even if this slogan does not always sound so loudly, clearly and openly for everyone, this may alienate some people! – what is important is the practical adherence to this slogan in life, the desire to one way or another, to a greater or lesser extent, to put it into practice.

We, the faithful children and representatives of our Church, cannot help but fight this fashionable, “modern” slogan, destructive for souls, no matter how it is proclaimed and no matter how it is put into practice, openly or covertly, the whole essence of which ideology, in the name by which it exists in the world is not to “keep up with the times,” but to remain unwaveringly faithful to Christ the Savior, the true Christian Orthodox faith and the Church.

Let us remember how His Beatitude Metropolitan Anthony, the founder and first head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, in his wonderful article “How does the Orthodox faith differ from Western confessions?” wrote about the deep difference between our faith and heterodoxy. He points out this profound difference in the fact that the Orthodox faith teaches how to build a life according to the demands of Christian perfection, while heterodoxy takes from Christianity that and to the extent that it is compatible with the conditions of modern cultural life. “Orthodoxy looks at Christianity as the eternal foundation of true life and requires everyone to break themselves and life until it enters this norm, and heterodoxy looks at the foundations of modern cultural life as an unshakable fact, and only in the field of existing private its varieties are indicated by those that are most approved from a Christian point of view. Orthodoxy demands moral heroism - feat, heterodoxy looks out for what of Christianity would be suitable for us in our current life structure? For an Orthodox person, called to an eternity beyond the grave, in which true life will begin, the historically established mechanism of modern life is an insignificant ghost; for a non-Orthodox person, the doctrine of a future life is a sublime, ennobling idea, an idea that helps us better and better organize real life here.” .

Golden words, pointing us clearly and brightly to that truly bottomless abyss that separates the true Christian faith - Orthodoxy from its distortion - heterodoxy!

There is a feat, aspiration to eternity, here is a strong attachment to the earth, faith in the progress of humanity on earth.

Further, just as clearly and rightly, Bishop Anthony establishes that “the Orthodox faith is an ascetic faith”, that “the prosperity that fans of the “superstition of progress” expect on earth (in the apt expression of S. A. Rachinsky) is promised by the Savior in the future life, but neither the Latins nor the Protestants want to put up with this for the simple reason, speaking frankly, that they have little faith in the Resurrection and strongly believe in the well-being of real life, which, on the contrary, the apostles call “disappearing vapor” (James 4:14). This is why the pseudo-Christian West does not want and cannot understand the denial of this life by Christianity, which tells us to strive, “putting off the old man with his works and putting on the new man, who is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created him” (Col. 3:9) .

“If we trace all the errors of the West,” Bishop Anthony further writes, “both those that were included in its beliefs and those inherent in its morals, we will see that they are all rooted in a misunderstanding of Christianity as a feat of gradual self-improvement of man.”

“Christianity is an ascetic religion,” this is how this beautiful, powerfully and intelligibly written article ends, “Christianity is a teaching about the gradual elimination of passions, about the means and conditions for the gradual assimilation of virtues: these conditions are internal, and externally presented, contained in our dogmatic beliefs and grace-filled sacred rites, which have a single purpose: to heal human sinfulness and raise us to perfection.”

We must not allow ourselves to be deceived and deceived, because we do not need such a “church”, or rather a “false church”! Even if we ourselves are weak and infirm, and often sin, we will not allow the church rules to be abolished, because then the very Gospel of Christ, according to which modern people do not want to live, will have to be recognized as “outdated,” “not in keeping with the spirit of the times,” and cancel it!

Both the Gospel of Christ, and all the rules of the Church, and church regulations outline for us the ideal of a Christian, to which we must strive if we wish for ourselves eternal salvation. We cannot allow the reduction of this ideal to please sinful passions and lusts, or the blasphemous desecration of the sacred.

Averky (Taushev), archbishop. Modernity in the light of the Word of God. Words and speeches. T. 1. – Jordanville: Holy Trinity Monastery, 1975.

On the eve of the Antichrist

Many Russian people and Orthodox Christians in general living abroad have long been advocating for us to introduce a new calendar and, thus, celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of Christ together with the Americans and with all non-Orthodox people who use the new style in their church life, without separating from them.

But they definitely don’t know, or rather, don’t want to know, that modern Westerners no longer have the Nativity of Christ, with a few isolated exceptions... The Nativity of Christ has been replaced with some kind of “seasonal holiday”, in which there is not even a mention of Christ the Savior, and the main character is a brave, ruddy old man with a gray beard, briskly distributing gifts to children, whose figures and images can be seen everywhere on these days of the “seasonal holiday” in all sorts of forms and poses. The great days of preparation for the greatest event of the appearance into the world of the incarnate Son of God are now turned into the days of the most intense noisy “business” - brisk trade, when enterprising people make millions. And they don’t even think about Christ the Savior here! His Most Holy Name is not even remembered!

How did it happen?

This, of course, is a huge “achievement” of the servants of the coming Antichrist, who will precisely strive to replace Christ the Savior for people, to replace Him with himself.

We are very far from the daring idea of ​​predicting the exact timing of the appearance of the Antichrist, for the word of God through the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself clearly testifies that none of the people can know this. “But about that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but only My Father alone” (Matthew 24:36) - this is what the Lord said, meaning His Second Coming and the end of this world, before which the Antichrist must appear .

But at the same time, the Lord indicated many signs of the proximity of His Second Coming and the end of the world, and ended it with the following admonition: “Take the likeness of a fig tree: when its branches become soft and put out leaves, then you know that summer is near; So, when you see all these things, know that it is near at the door” (Matthew 24:32-33).

Likewise, in the apostolic epistles we have many indications of what signs will characterize the era of the appearance of the Antichrist and what the Antichrist himself will be like.

And the great father of the Church, St. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, in his “Catechetical Teachings”, remarkable in their importance and depth of content, directly and decisively exhorts Christians: “You know the signs of the Antichrist: do not remember them alone, but communicate them generously to everyone” (Lecture 15).

Based on all of the above, we have not only the right, but also the sacred duty to find in the events currently taking place in the world the fulfillment of everything that was predicted by the word of God and the holy fathers of the Church about the Antichrist and the last times, and to fraternally warn all believers against unreasonable carelessness and frivolous indifference to obvious “signs of the times.”

And so many of these increasingly multiplying, truly terrible “signs of the times” have already accumulated that even those who recently condemned us for writing too much about the Antichrist are beginning to see the light and admit that we were right in starting to sound the alarm when the majority remained in a kind of indifferent good-heartedness, as if not noticing where the modern world was going.

Was there ever a time in the past to which this saint would be so suited? Apostle Paul's description of the “last days”?

“In the last days,” we draw attention to the fact that the holy apostle emphasizes this as a distinctive feature of the last days, “difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, proud, arrogant, slanderous, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unfriendly, unforgiving, slanderers, intemperate, cruel, not loving what is good, traitors, insolent, pompous; more lovers of pleasure than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof” (2 Tim. 3:1-5).

Especially pride and self-love now dominate the world as never before, and this is, according to the teachings of the holy ascetic fathers, the root and beginning of all other passions, everything that the holy apostle lists below.

All of the above phenomena and features were typical of our Russian life before the revolution, which is why they led to the triumph of Bolshevism, which finally unbridled all these passions, flooded the entire Russian land with blood and caused indescribable, unheard of suffering to the entire Russian people.

Unfortunately for us, many of these destructive traits, despite the suffering and hardships we have endured, have not been eliminated to this day. This is the main reason for all our internal discord and divisions, all the strife, quarrels and mutual enmity, instead of the fraternal unanimity and Christian love and mutual assistance that seems natural to us. Pride and pride are eating away! Everyone wants to rule, but no one wants to submit humbly.

We see the same sad picture in the West, where the last remnants of Christianity are finally drying up, where self-love, love of money, pride and arrogance cynically raise their heads, where, just like in Russia before the revolution, all respect and obedience to parents and elders is lost, where debauchery, betrayal and insolence are already reaching extreme limits, wickedness clearly predominates, and piety is only external, feigned, hypocritical, devoid of power.

This is such a frank picture of modern life that one already suggests the onset of the “last days”!

And here is another very characteristic feature of our time:

“All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil people and deceivers will prosper in evil, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:12-13).

Such persecution of those who want to live a truly pious life in Jesus Christ, and indeed of Christianity itself, has never really happened before, except for the era of the first three centuries of Christianity, but then Christianity was something completely new and still unknown to humanity immersed in the darkness of paganism , and now Christianity is being persecuted by apostates who know it very well, conscious servants of the coming Antichrist. One can, without fear of being mistaken, say that now only “evil people” and “deceivers” are prospering in the world, having seized everything into their hands - even state power - and therefore, at their own selfish discretion, dispose of all the blessings of the earth. Honest people suffer, while scammers and crooks prosper. And this is a very characteristic feature of the onset of the pre-Antichrist era.

But especially characteristic of our time is the “action of flattery”, about which St. writes. the Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Thessalonians, when people “will believe lies” (2 Thessalonians 2:11). Truth and lies in our time are so mixed up, so intertwined with each other that even the most reasonable and honest person sometimes finds it difficult, almost impossible, to discern where the truth is and where the lie is. Lies so cynically and brazenly present themselves as truth that many succumb to this seduction, moving away from the truth and following lies, sometimes the most destructive. And it can be very difficult to expose this lie, which skillfully uses for its confirmation all the means of this world, which is at its complete disposal, right up to enormous financial resources and state power.

And this is especially because, as the apostle warned, and which we already see being fulfilled, The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires they will heap up for themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they will turn away their ears from the truth and turn to fables(2 Tim. 4, 3–4).

How many self-proclaimed teachers have sprung up now, truly “tickling ears”, how many different sects, political parties of the most varied persuasions and trends! You can literally lose your head for those who do not have firm fundamental foundations in a truly Christian worldview, who are ready to waver and be carried away “by every wind of teaching, by the craftiness of men, by the cunning art of deception,” in the words of the holy Apostle (Eph. 4:14)! How easy it is to get lost in the jungle of all these various intricacies of lies and completely stray from the right path of a truly Christian life!

And all these sowers of lies are conscious or unconscious servants of the coming Antichrist, who diligently serve him for money or simply out of stupidity, preparing his temporary triumph on earth, which is now becoming his fiefdom before our eyes. They are the ones who attack us most of all in all the ways available to them, angry that we expose them and their master, whom they serve so faithfully, and warn all true believers from their machinations.

“Therefore, watch yourself, man,” this is how the great Father of the Church, St. Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, and guard your soul. The Church testifies to you before the living God and speaks in advance about the Antichrist before his coming. We don’t know whether it will be with you; or after you, we also don’t know. But it is good for you to know this and beware” (Lemon 15).

From numerous patristic predictions from the first centuries of Christianity, we know that the majority of Christians of recent times, extinguished in spirit, careless and lukewarm, will not recognize the Antichrist when he comes, and will willingly worship him as their spiritual leader, lord and master. And at first he will hypocritically reveal himself as the greatest zealot and patron of all good and even Christianity, but only without Christ, and for many who are zealous about the canonical system of the Church and about church discipline, especially about obedience and submission to church authorities, he will appear as a strict canonist, severely punishing everyone who does not want to obey him and honor him, based on the letter of the church canons.

This is the reason why we, following the above instructions of St. Kirill, we often return to this topic about the Antichrist - the most pressing one these days.

After all, all of us, perhaps, very soon will face a decisive question: with whom are we: with Christ or with the Antichrist? And very, very many will then crawl, be tempted and follow the Antichrist, deceiving themselves and dragging others along with them.

This is what we need to be afraid of and from which may the All-Merciful Lord protect us!

And this can happen very easily and imperceptibly if we are careless and frivolous about everything that is happening in the world today, and we lull ourselves and others into thinking that there is nothing special, and everything is going along the normal path and quite well.

That is why now it is especially necessary for us to remember the instruction and consolation of our Lord and Savior about constant spiritual vigilance:

Watch and pray so that you do not fall into temptation!(Matt. 26:41)

Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour at which the Son of Man will come(Matt. 25:13).

But what I say to you, I say to everyone: stay awake!(Mark 13:37).

Will the Antichrist come? Many people currently doubt this and do not want to hear about it. Among these, oddly enough, there are even clergymen who, in their worldview and practical life, have taken the path of liberalism and modernism. So much the worse for them. Whether they want it or not, the Antichrist will still come sooner or later, as the Church quite clearly teaches, and woe to them if they do not recognize him, but worship him. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself warns against this, when He told the Jews: I have come in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me; and if another comes in his own name, you will receive him(John 5:43). By this “other” the Church has always understood the Antichrist, teaching that “Antichrist” means not only “the adversary of Christ,” but also “instead of Christ” (the preposition “anti” in Greek means both “against” and “instead of” ).

We find the teaching about the Antichrist as one specific person, a man, in many places in Holy Scripture. And the ancient Ecumenical Church, through the mouth of many great fathers and teachers, professed the doctrine of the Antichrist as a single person, and this doctrine at that time was so firmly and undoubtedly recognized by everyone that even none of the heretics of that time deviated from it, and no one even thought of it came to reject this teaching or doubt its truth. Only now they began to doubt the coming of the Antichrist. Isn't this a particularly clear sign of the proximity of his arrival? And aren’t these “doubters” preparing, consciously or unconsciously, to accept the Antichrist and worship him?

The doctrine of the Antichrist is revealed with sufficient completeness and clarity in the book of the prophet Daniel (chapters 7, 11 and 12), in the Gospels (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 17 and 21, John 5, 43 ), in the 1st Council Epistle of St. John (2, 18 and 4, 3), in the 2nd letter of St. Apostle Paul to the Thessalonians (2, 1–11) and in the Apocalypse (chap. 12, 13, 17 and 20). From the instructions of these sacred books it is clear that the Antichrist will appear immediately before the Second Coming and the end of the world. He will try to distract Christians from Christ and entice them with flattery and false miracles, posing as Christ, and then, having become a world ruler and seizing power over all humanity, he will begin a terrible persecution of Christianity and everyone who has remained faithful to Christ the Savior . His dominion will cease with the Second Coming of Christ the Savior, Who will defeat the Antichrist, killing him with the spirit of His mouth (2 Thess. 2:8).

St. gives a vivid description of the Antichrist. Apostle Paul in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians (2, 3-10). He says there will be an Antichrist a man of lawlessness, a son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is holy. He will be an overwhelmingly proud man, filled with devilish malice and exaltation, he will be an open and shameless insolent man, so that in the temple of God he will sit as God, showing himself to be God. He will be a deceiver, familiar with all kinds of magic and sorcery, so that he will perform false wonders and signs in order to capture the imagination of people and attract them to his side. It is remarkable that having given this characteristic of the Antichrist, the holy Apostle Paul says to the Thessalonians: Don’t you remember that while I was still with you, I told you this?– This shows that the doctrine of the Antichrist, along with other most important dogmas of Christianity, was part of the original apostolic gospel and, thus, constituted an urgent subject of the first belief of Christianity, and was by no means considered something unimportant, insignificant, as many people look at it modern modernists, even among clergy, do not like the slightest mention of the Antichrist and are ready to consider him almost a prejudice or a play of a sick imagination.

Wanting to note the rage and cruelty of the Antichrist, the Lord, as we see from the Apocalypse, represents him in a vision of St. John under the image of a beast emerging from the sea or the abyss (chapters 13 and 17). By this “sea,” interpreters understand the “sea of ​​life,” that is, the human race, which is agitated like the sea, and by the “abyss,” the abyss of human sins. Consequently, the Antichrist will appear as a product of human sinfulness, and in this sense he will be the “son of sin.”

The Holy Tradition also gives us important and valuable information about the personality of the Antichrist in the narrations of the holy fathers that agree with each other. Thus, they first of all emphasize that the Antichrist will not be Satan incarnate, but a man who has completely succumbed to the action of Satan. Satan will give him his strength, his throne, and great power(Rev. 13:2), and he will become an instrument of Satan, which is why his power and strength will be extremely great and filled with evil to the highest degree. Yes, St. John Chrysostom asks: “Who will he be?” and answers: “Really Satan? No, but there is a certain man who will receive all his power” (Conversation 3 on 2 Thessalonians). In his “Accurate Exposition of the Orthodox Faith,” Rev. John of Damascus says: “It is not the devil himself who will become a man, but a man will be born from fornication and will take upon himself all the influence of Satan. For God, foreseeing the future corruption of his will, will allow the devil to dwell in him” (Book 4, chapter 26). St. Hippolytus of Rome conveys the widespread opinion of antiquity that the Antichrist will be of Jewish origin from the tribe of Dan. St. Irenaeus says that in the Antichrist there will be “the head of all wickedness and all deceit... apostasy, untruth, false prophecy and deception... he will head in himself all the devil’s delusion, all the devil’s apostasy from God” (Against heresies. Book 5, chapters 25 and 29 ). The instruction of the holy fathers is extremely important that it will not be easy for many to recognize the Antichrist because he will first hide his devilish essence, but will show himself to be a virtuous, meek, humane person, cunningly and feignedly will do a lot of imaginary good in order to present himself as a benefactor of humanity and this deceive, if possible, even the elect(Matt. 24:24). “First, as a learned and wise man,” says St. Cyril of Jerusalem - he will pretend to show modesty, chastity and love for mankind: with signs and wonders, falsely performed with the help of magical charm, deceiving the Jews, as if the expected Christ, will subsequently seal this with all kinds of inglorious and lawless atrocities, so that he will surpass all the unrighteous people before him and wicked people, to everyone, especially to us Christians, having a bloodthirsty, cruel, merciless heart, filled with all deceit” (15th catechetical word). Likewise, St. Hippolytus of Rome says that at first the Antichrist will be “meek, quiet, amiable, poor-loving; seeing such his virtues, people will make him their king, saying: “You will hardly find such a good and righteous man in our generation.” The Jews will hope that he will restore their kingdom. And after this he will ascend in heart and will already be cruel, merciless and inhuman.”

End of introductory fragment.

The day and hour of his arrival is unknown, just as the day and hour of the Second Coming of Christ is unknown. But Holy Scripture shows us signs that will precede his arrival. The coming of the Antichrist will be gradually prepared over a very long time. This is because the Antichrist will appear from the sea, or from the abyss of human sins - in him, as it were, all the evil that has accumulated over the centuries in the human race will be concentrated and will reach the maximum strength of its tension. This is the gradual preparation of St. The Apostle Paul calls “the mystery of iniquity,” already at work, and “apostasy” (from the Greek “apostasia”; 2 Thess. 2:7-3).

By this “apostasy,” as can be seen from the last speeches of the Lord (Matthew 24, etc.) and from the epistles of the Apostles (2 Peter 3:1, Jude 18-19, etc.), we must understand a retreat from the true faith in God, the impoverishment of love, the multiplication of vices, the decline of morality, which, intensifying more and more, by the time of the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world, will bring humanity to the extreme degree of godlessness and wickedness. In particular, the preparers for the coming of the Antichrist will be his predecessors - people who are especially wicked and anti-God. These are precisely the “antichrists” in the broad sense of the word that St. speaks about in his conciliar letter. John the Theologian (1 John 2:18).

An important sign of the imminence of the coming of the Antichrist will be, according to St. Apostle Paul, taking from the environment “the one who holds back” and “the one who holds” (2 Thess. 2:6-7). The Holy Fathers understood the Roman Empire by “holding”, and the Roman emperors by “holding”; in the broadest sense of the word, these expressions meant the legitimate state legal order on earth and its representatives - legitimate sovereigns, as curbing the manifestations of evil on earth. The great fathers and saints of God of our Russian Church understood by this the Russian State and the Russian Sovereigns as the legal successors of the Roman and then the Byzantine Empire. If we take into account that after the fall of Byzantium Russia remained on earth the only powerful state that was the true stronghold of the one true Orthodox faith on earth, and the Russian Sovereigns were the patrons and defenders of the Orthodox Church throughout the world, then such an interpretation seems quite reasonable and natural.

This is exactly what the great righteous man, prayer book and wonderworker of our time, St. John of Kronstadt. Many of his inspired, fiery sermons, especially in the last years of his life, are devoted to the theme of the “apostasy,” which was so clearly taking place before the eyes of the righteous here in Russia, which was rapidly sliding into the abyss of godlessness and wickedness. He did not say that “nothing special is happening,” that “this is how it has always been before,” as some say even now, after all the horrors that befell our Motherland, but he warmly warned the Russian people, warning about the inevitable impending him of God's punishment for apostasy and predicting the coming of the Antichrist shortly afterwards. Now, when the whole world is faced with the fact, unheard of in history, of the existence of a huge multimillion-dollar state, which has set itself the task of an open struggle with God and the destruction of Christianity - a state armed with terrible, also never heard of before, destructive weapons and projectiles, such as atomic and hydrogen bombs , it is timely to bring to mind the authentic words of our great righteous man and seer.

“We are going through terrible times, apparently the last ones,” he said in a sermon on February 13, 1907, “and although the day and hour of the future Last Judgment are unknown to any people, however, there are already signs of its approach indicated in the Gospel. Therefore, everyone must be prepared for universal judgment and live in repentance, love and good deeds”... “Strive earnestly, brothers, for your salvation, so that the last day does not find you sleeping!”

But here is how clearly he speaks about the Antichrist and about the one who must be meant by “the restrainer”:

“Through the medium of sovereign persons, the Lord guards the good of the kingdoms of the earth and especially the good of the world of His Church, not allowing godless teachings, heresies and schisms to overwhelm it, and the greatest villain of the world who will appear in recent times - the Antichrist cannot appear among us, due to autocratic power , restraining the disorderly vacillation and absurd teaching of the atheists. The Apostle says that the Antichrist will not appear on earth as long as autocratic power continues to exist. “For the mystery of iniquity is already done,” but it will not be completed until the one who restrains us is taken from us: until the one who now restrains is taken out of the way, and then the wicked one will appear, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of His mouth” (2 Thess. 2:7-8 ). ("New Words Spoken in 1902, 1903 ed., p. 47). And in another sermon delivered the same year, Fr. John decisively says: “When the one who holds back (the autocrat) is taken from the earth, then the Antichrist will come..”

What else can you add to this?

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Let us be clear about the terrible times we live in. And let us not madly indulge in frivolity, closing our eyes to the obvious signs that are multiplying every day and vividly testify that we are on the threshold of eternity opening up before us.

Unforgivable frivolity - or..?

Be prepared, for at an hour you do not think the Son of Man will come... If that servant, being angry, says in his heart: “My master will not come soon,” and begins to beat his companions and eat and drink with drunkards, - then the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect, and at an hour when he does not think, and will cut him in pieces, and will subject him to the same fate as the hypocrites: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 24:42-51) .

It has long been known that a book published back in 1912 on Athos, translated into Russian, entitled “The Posthumous Broadcasts of the Venerable Nile the Myrrh-Streaming Athos,” which contains, in addition to spiritual instructions and warnings to monastics, the predictions of this great ascetic about the last times, about the universal accession the Antichrist and about the disasters that will befall the world after the reign of the Antichrist. Now we have received a translation into Russian of the predictions of this wondrous Athonite hermit, specifically relating to the twentieth century, which until now remained untranslated from the Greek language, and therefore unknown to us. These predictions are amazing, which, in essence, only complement and clarify those previously known to us. Here is their verbatim text:

“Around 1900, towards the middle of the twentieth century, the people of that time will begin to become unrecognizable. When the time approaches the coming of the Antichrist, the minds of people will be darkened by carnal passions, and wickedness and lawlessness will increase more and more. The world will then become unrecognizable, the appearance of people will change, and it will be impossible to clearly distinguish men from women, thanks to the shamelessness in clothing and the shape of the hair. These people will become wild and cruel, like beasts, because of the temptations of the Antichrist. There will be no respect for parents and elders, love will disappear. Christian shepherds, bishops and priests will become vain men, completely unable to distinguish between the right path and the left. Then the morals and traditions of Christians and the Church will change. Modesty and chastity will disappear from people, and fornication and licentiousness will reign. Lies and love of money will reach their highest limit, and woe to those who hoard treasures. Fornication, adultery, sodomy, secret affairs, theft and murder will dominate society.

At that time, thanks to the power of the greatest crime and debauchery, people will be deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which they received in holy Baptism, and will also lose remorse.

The Churches of God will be deprived of God-fearing and pious shepherds, and then the trouble will be for the Christians remaining in the world, who will completely lose faith, because they will be deprived of the opportunity to see the light of knowledge from anyone. Then they will withdraw from the world to holy refuges in search of relief from mental suffering, but everywhere they will encounter obstacles and constraints. And all this will be a consequence of the fact that the Antichrist will want to dominate everything and become the ruler of the entire universe and will perform miracles and fantastic signs. He will also give wicked wisdom to the unfortunate man, so that he will make such discoveries that one person to another can carry on a conversation from one end of the earth to the other. Also then they will fly through the air like birds and cut through the bottom of the sea like fish. And having achieved all this, unfortunate people will spend their lives in comfort, not knowing, poor things, that this is a deception of the Antichrist. And, the wicked one, he will improve science with vanity in such a way that it will lead people astray to disbelief in the existence of the Trinitarian God.

Then the All-Good God, seeing the death of the human race, will shorten the days for the sake of those few who are being saved, because he wanted to lead into temptation, if possible, even the elect... Then the punishing sword will suddenly appear and kill the seducer and his servants.”

Is it really still unclear to anyone that what we have in front of us in this amazing prophecy is a vivid, living picture of everything that is happening in the world today?

It is completely in vain and not at all reasonable that some try to assure us that “it has always been like this” and that “there is nothing new now.” Of course, sin and iniquity have always existed, but never before in the history of Christian humanity has all this taken on such truly monstrous proportions as in the times we are experiencing - people have always sinned, but never before have they sinned so brazenly, so clearly, openly and boldly, without any shadow of repentance, as in our days.

It is also significant that everything that is spoken of in this prophecy has assumed such unusually grandiose proportions all over the world only over the last half century - just from the time when our Orthodox Russia collapsed with that “Holder” at its head, who according to in the words of our spirit-bearing lamps St. Theophan of Vyshensky and St. righteous John of Kronstadt, “restrained the disorderly vacillation and absurd teaching of the atheists” and did not allow the Antichrist to appear.

Now there is no one else to counteract the appearance of the Antichrist, and therefore it is quite natural to expect his coming and reign in a world completely mired in all kinds of sins and iniquities. And not only is no one now opposing the coming of the Antichrist, but on the contrary - many have already joined in the most intense work to prepare for his speedy accession, not excluding - it’s scary to say! - and some Christian clergy, right up to the highest hierarchs of the Church, collaborating with atheists and open and secret enemies of our Lord and Savior, conducting all sorts of negotiations with them, entering into various compromises and concluding all kinds of agreements, often bordering on betrayal of our holy faith and the Church .

“Apostasy,” or “retreat,” which was predicted by the Word of God in the person of St. The Apostle Paul (see 2 Thess. 2 ch.), is now in full swing, and woe to those who do not see this, or, more accurately, do not want to see, through unforgivable frivolity, closing their eyes to everything that happens in the world and calming yourself and others, that “there is nothing special,” that “all this is normal and natural.” But is this just unforgivable frivolity? Isn’t there something else hidden behind this, the thought of which suggests itself when you hear such naive assurances? After all, the Antichrist and his servants are not at all interested in having too much talked about and openly disclosed about his coming and accession to the throne: after all, he will come as the greatest benefactor of humanity, a benefactor and even patron of the faith and the Church, and will expect universal recognition and popular worship for himself. And from the patristic predictions we know that the Antichrist will be accepted and worshiped not only by completely unbelievers, but also by people seduced by him, as if they were believers, and even Christian clergy, even those of the highest rank.

So has the time for the appearance of the Antichrist really already arrived?

We do not claim this. We are only saying that the breath of the spirit of Antichrist in the world is now so clearly felt, as if his appearance was already “near the door,” in the words of Christ the Savior, who gave us many signs that the end is near.

And besides, and most importantly, we want to warn everyone against being deceived by this spirit of the Antichrist. After all, he is already now, in the person of his servants preparing his coming, very cunningly and skillfully recruiting supporters and followers, attracting them to himself with various tempting slogans, seductive promises and simple handouts. And many, many are already falling for his bait and into his cunningly placed nets...

To drive away the thought of the coming of the Antichrist is precisely in his interests, and it is very dangerous. This one is already half in his hands, and, of course, will bow to him when he comes, finding himself among his faithful servants.

But what about the predictions about the coming resurrection of Russia and the triumph of Orthodoxy in it and supposedly even throughout the world?

We would all, of course, really like to see our unfortunate Motherland Russia resurrected to a new life and participate in the worldwide triumph of our holy faith - needless to say! But such unspeakable mercy of God must be earned. So, it won’t happen either way, and hoping for it without any sufficient grounds is an idle dream.

In addition, you need to know that all predictions are always relative, and not at all unconditional. After all, the prophet Jonah, at the command of God Himself, predicted the death and destruction of the great city of Nineveh, but this prophecy was not fulfilled: Nineveh was not destroyed - God spared it for the popular repentance of its inhabitants, starting with the king himself.

This is how we need to look at the current state of the world: the punishing sword of God has already been raised over the world, but it can also be withdrawn by the gracious right hand of God if there is in the world “that universal moral cleansing, nationwide deep repentance and a change in pagan morals to Christian ones,” to which - alas! - our wondrous shepherd-miracle-worker St. in his time called in vain on the Russian people. Righteous John of Kronstadt.

“Without repentance there is no salvation” is a well-known holy truth for every genuine Christian, and therefore hoping for some kind of “delay” for the salvation of the world without repentance is more than naive, completely fantastic and unreasonable, for it cannot be justified by anything.

St. Righteous John of Kronstadt, in his words in 1906/1907, literally said this: “Apparently, the day of the Second Coming of Christ will soon come, for the apostasy from faith predicted in Scripture has come... What to expect ahead if such unbelief continues , such depravity of morals, such lack of leadership? Will Christ come to earth again? Shall we die for us again? No! It is complete to mock God, complete to trample His holy laws. He will come soon, but he will come to judge the world and reward everyone according to their deeds... Perhaps we will soon hear the terrible news: “Behold, the Bridegroom is coming at midnight, and blessed is the servant, for he will be found watching.”... “If there is no repentance in Russian people, the end of the world will be near.”

That is why we all must now think first of all about repentance, putting everything else far aside - all our vain worries, plans and considerations.

Is there, however, in the modern world such repentance, such a universal turning to God, which alone is able to divert the punishing right hand of God from the sinking deeper into the abyss of the moral decline of humanity?

This is not yet visible, and therefore there is no need to talk about it.

Under the circumstances of modern life we ​​are experiencing, the above-mentioned prophecy of St. Nile the Myrrh-Streaming remains in full force with all the consequences that flow from it, and in particular, of course, for all of us, the equally obligatory warnings and warnings of Christ about His Second Coming and about the unconditional necessity of constantly prepare yourself for it.

“Watch out! - Christ the Savior commanded us, “for at an hour you do not think, the Son of Man will come” (Matthew 24:44).

It is precisely this attitude that is the law for us, unless we are truly Christians and have not sold ourselves to the servants of the coming Antichrist.