The Last Judgment, by St. John Maximovich

St. John Maximovich

The Day Of the Last Judgment! That day no one knows -- only God the Father knows -- but its signs are given in the Gospel and in the Apocalypse of the holy Apostle John the Theologian. Revelation speaks of the events at the end of the world and of the Last Judgment primarily in images and in a veiled manner. However, the Holy Fathers have explained these images, and there is an authentic Church tradition that speaks clearly concerning the signs of the approach of the end, and concerning the Last Judgment. Before the end of life on earth there will be agitation, wars, civil war, hunger, earthquakes... Men will suffer from fear, will die from expectation of calamity. There will be no life, no joy of life but a tormented state of falling away from life. Nevertheless there will be a falling away not only from life, but from faith also, and "when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" (St. Luke 18:8). Men will become proud, ungrateful, rejecting Divine law. Together with the falling away from life will be a weakening of moral life. There will be an exhaustion of good and an increase of evil. 

Of these times, the holy Apostle John the Theologian speaks in his God-inspired work, the Apocalypse. He says that he "was in the Spirit" when he wrote it; this means that the Holy Spirit Himself was in him, when under the form of various images, the fate of the Church and the world was opened to him, and so this is a Divine Revelation. 

The Apocalypse represents the fate of the Church in the image of a woman who hides herself in the wilderness: she does not show herself in public life, as today in Russia. In public life, forces that prepare the possibility for the appearance of Antichrist will play the leading role. 

Antichrist will be a man, and not the devil incarnate. "Anti" means "old," and it also signifies "in place of" or "against." Antichrist is a man who desires to be in place of Christ, to occupy His place and possess what Christ should possess. He desires to possess the attraction of Christ and authority over the whole world. Moreover, Antichrist will receive that authority before his destruction and the destruction of the world. 

What is known of this man -- Antichrist? His precise ancestry is unknown: his father is completely unknown, and his mother a foul pretended virgin. He will be a Jew of the tribe of Dan. He will be very intelligent and endowed with skill in handling people. He will be fascinating and kind. The philosopher Vladimir Soloviev worked a long time at presenting the advent and person of Antichrist. He carefully made use of all material on this question, not only Patristic, but also Moslem, and he worked out a brilliant picture. 

Before the advent of Antichrist, there was a preparation in the world, the possibility of his appearance. The mystery of iniquity doth already work (II Thes. 2:7). The forces preparing for his appearance fight above all against the lawful Imperial authority. The holy Apostle Paul says that Antichrist cannot be manifested until what withholdest is taken away (II Thes. 2:6-7). St. John Chrysostom explains that the "withholding one" is the lawful pious authority: such an authority fights with evil. For this reason the "mystery," already at work in the world, fights with this authority; it desires a lawless authority. When the "mystery" decisively achieves that authority, nothing will hinder the appearance of Antichrist any longer. 

Fascinating, intelligent, kind, he will be merciful — he will act with mercy and goodness; but not for the sake of mercy and goodness, but for the strengthening of his own authority. When he will have strengthened it to the point where the whole world acknowledges him, then he will reveal his face. 

For his capital, he will choose Jerusalem, because it was here that the Savior revealed His Divine teaching and His person. It was here that the entire world was called to the blessedness of goodness and salvation. The world did not acknowledge Christ and crucified Him in Jerusalem; whereas, the whole world will acknowledge the Antichrist’s authority and Jerusalem will become the capital of the world. 

Having attained the pinnacle of authority, Antichrist will demand the acknowledgement that he has attained what no earthly power had ever attained or could attain and then demand the worship of himself as a higher being, as a god. 

V. Soloviev describes the character of his activity well, as "Supreme Ruler." He will do what is pleasing to all -- on the condition of being recognized as Supreme Authority. He will allow the Church to exist, permit her Divine services, promise to build magnificent churches…. on the condition, that all recognize him as "Supreme Being" and worship him. Antichrist will have a personal hatred for Christ; he will see Him as a rival and look upon Him as a personal enemy. He will live by this hatred and rejoice in men's apostasy from Christ. 

Under Antichrist, there will be an immense falling away from the faith. Many bishops will change in faith and in justification will point to the brilliant situation of the Church. The search for compromise will be the characteristic disposition of men. Straight-forwardness of confession will disappear. Men will cleverly justify their fall, and gracious evil will support such a general disposition. There will be the habit of apostasy from truth and the sweetness of compromise and sin in men. 

Antichrist will allow men everything, as long as they "fall down and worship him"; and the whole world will submit to him. Then there will appear the two righteous men, who will fearlessly preach the faith and accuse Antichrist. According to Church tradition, they are the two Prophets of the Old Testament, Elijah and Enoch, who did not taste of death, but will taste it now for three days, and in three days they must rise. Their death will call forth the great rejoicing of Antichrist and his servants. Their resurrection will plunge them into great confusion and terror. Then, the end of the world will come. 

The Apostle Peter said that the first world was made out of water — an image of the primordial chaos, and perished by water — in the Flood. Now the world is reserved unto fire. The earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up (II Peter 3:5-7, 10). All the elements will ignite. This present world will perish in a single instant. In an instant all will be changed. 

Moreover, the Sign of the Son of God, the Sign of the Cross, will appear. The whole world, having willingly submitted to Antichrist, will weep. Everything is finished forever: Antichrist killed, the end of his kingdom of warfare with Christ, the end, and one is held accountable; one must answer to the true God. 

"The end of the world" signifies not the annihilation of the world, but its transformation. Everything will be transformed suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye. The dead will rise in new bodies: their own, but renewed, just as the Savior rose in His own body and traces of wounds from the nails and spear were on it, yet it possessed new faculties, and in this sense it was a new body. It is not clear whether this new body will be the same as Adam was made, or whether it will be an entirely new body. 

Afterward, the Lord will appear in glory on the clouds. Trumpets will sound, loud, with power! They will sound in the soul and conscience! All will become clear to the human conscience. The Prophet Daniel, speaking of the Last Judgement, relates how the Ancient of Days, the Judge sits on His throne, and before Him is a fiery stream (Daniel 7:9-10). Fire is a purifying element; it burns sin. Woe to a man if sin has become a part of his nature: then the fire will burn the man, himself. 

This fire will be kindled within man: seeing the Cross, some will rejoice, but others will fall into confusion, terror and despair. Thus, men will be divided instantly. The very state of a man's soul casts him to one side or the other, to right or to left.

The more consciously and persistently man strives toward God in his life, the greater will be his joy when he hears: "Come unto Me, ye blessed." Conversely: the same words will call the fire of horror and torture to those who did not desire Him, who fled and fought or blasphemed Him during their lifetime! 

The Last Judgment knows of no witnesses or written protocols! Everything is inscribed in the souls of men and these records, these "books," are opened at the Judgment. Everything becomes clear to all and to oneself. 

Moreover, some will go to joy, while others — to horror. 

When "the books are opened," it will become clear that the roots of all vices lie in the human soul. Here is a drunkard or a lecher: when the body has died, some may think that sin is dead too. No! There was an inclination to sin in the soul, and that sin was sweet to the soul, and if the soul has not repented and has not freed itself of the sin, it will come to the Last Judgment with the same desire for sin. It will never satisfy that desire and in that soul there will be the suffering of hatred. It will accuse everyone and everything in its tortured condition; it will hate everyone and everything. "There will be gnashing of teeth" of powerless malice and the unquenchable fire of hatred. 

A "fiery gehenna" — such is the inner fire. "There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Such is the state of hell.

Originally published in the Orthodox Word, 1966, Vol. 2, No 5 (11). Nov - Dec. 

Last Days Great Revival? The Charismatic Experience and Orthodoxy, the perspective of one Orthodox Priest, part 3

This is a continuation of a series, the reader may find links to part 1 & 2 below:

Part 1: http://orthodoxpueblo.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-charismatic-experience-and-orthodox.html

Part 2: http://orthodoxpueblo.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-charismatic-movement-and-orthodox.html

As previously indicated (see part 1), the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement (P/C movement) is heavily premised upon a very particular doctrine: the Church (again using this word loosely) fell into darkness just after the year 300AD. Beginning with the Protestant Reformation in the 1500's the Church, it states, has been in the process of being rebuilt and restored; in the last days, there will be a great revival (move of God, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit with signs and wonders). The expectation is that this last times event may even surpass the events recorded in the book of Acts.

Between roughly 300 and 1500AD, sterile form and ritual became the substitute for the dynamic living experience of the early Church, so the teaching goes. Every group within the P/C movement, regardless, claims a unique reconstitution of the “Early Church.” A profound ignorance of Church history is manifested; moreover, a deep ignorance of the real intent and significance of Liturgical worship, priesthood, sacraments, and so forth is revealed. Purportedly, Liturgical worship is “dead religion;” priests “stand in our way of God,” and on their objections would go. They war against the very nature of Christianity while claiming to do so for the sake of Christianity. All such groups claim to be restoring the power of the Early Church, be they my former Bible school, Brownsville Revival School of Ministry, or The Last Reformation, Morning Star, Bethel, and so forth. All teach that the Church went astray and is/was in need of restoration. They all hold, in basic, to the previously outlined historical timeline. They all teach a “last days great revival," move of power, and a super-abundance of miracles. And they all claim to be the ones chosen to bring such a grand event to fruition. (Signs and wonders may be a broad term, in this article it is used as a synonym for miracles, events of a seemingly supernatural quality worked at the hands of a person.)

One must understand that Protestantism is a movement with change in its DNA. Its whole original claim and premise were to restore authentic Christian practice. It has ever debated what precisely that is down to this day. Nevertheless, a founding idea of Protestantism is “Sola Scriptura:” the teaching that the Bible alone is the only genuine and reliable source for Christian doctrine (teaching). So, holding them to their own standards, the central doctrine, for a doctrine it is, of the P/C movement regarding the corruption of the Church and “last days great restoration revival” should be evident in the Bible. If not, according to Protestantism's own standards, it should be rejected. Of course, the Orthodox Church has never taught Sola Scriptura. Nevertheless, one may rightly expect that such a purportedly paramount happening as the corruption of the church, its downfall and subsequent restoration in a “last days revival” would be clearly revealed, if not plainly indicated, in the Scriptures. One would also expect Early Church Fathers to foresee such a catastrophic happening.

First, we must ask, did Christ Jesus ever indicate that His Church (Ekklesia)¹ would be overcome by the world? No. Rather we do have an indication (moreover a promise!) that the Lord will protect and keep His Church. "I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Mat. 16:18). We may safely deduce two things: 1) Christ is the source of the Church, 2) hell will not prevail against it. Hell is the very personification of corruption. It is safe to understand this to mean that the Church will never fail in Her essence. Clearly, Church history is full of ignominious and glorious events. She has welcomed the good and the evil in the hopes that all may repent and be saved. Because evil men have been a part, at least nominally, of the Church, does not mean that she is corrupt. This would be akin to insinuating that Jesus failed as a teacher because Judas failed to apply His teaching. The Church (using that word specifically) is always pure and true as is Her Lord.

Did St. Paul ever indicate the coming (from his perspective) fall of the Church? No. St. Paul tells us that Christ is the head and the Church is His body (cf. Eph. 1:21-23). This imagery is potent. Physically we understand that the head and the body are inseparable; a perfect union connects them. Separation of the head from the body is physically unnatural. One does not find a bodiless head, or vice versa, only if they are dead. But Christ is alive, as is His Church. Thus, to assume a failure of the body is to imply a failure of the Head. If the Church, the body, went corrupt, then one could plausibly lay blame on the head, Christ. This is madness, yet this is the madness that is insinuated in such teachings. We are further told that we have received an unshakable kingdom (cf. Heb. 12:28), it is no leap to understand this kingdom to be the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church is also called “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). Clearly, the Church shares in the virtue of Her Lord. More examples could be given, but these suffice to show that the Biblical vision is not that of the P/C movement. Christ is the foundation of the Church, which shares in His life as the body does with the head. She is unmovable, and a sure foundation. In fact, to say that the Church fails is to call the Lord Jesus a liar, for He clearly says that the “gates of hell shall never prevail,” that is, the Church will never fail. The doctrine that the Church went corrupt is clearly against all sound Christian teaching. (People may separate themselves from the Church, but this does no violence to the essential and physical unity of the Church; the Church is always One. We are either united to Her or not. History is full of people disuniting themselves from the Church and uniting themselves. Simply because there are a plethora of groups claiming to be "Church" does not indeed mean that the Church is broken or split. The Church is One as is Her Lord, cf. Eph 4:4-6.)

The claim that the Church went "corrupt" must be used by the P/C movement because otherwise, they could not claim any similarity to, or continuity with, the "Early" Church. Thus a twister game like approach to Church History must be adopted (or it is altogether ignored). The testimony of Church life during the time period that they claim was corrupt and dark is so contrary to their vision, and thus it must be disregarded and degraded. Having no living continuity they must claim an ephemeral "spiritual" unity. Rather than listen and learn from the life of the Church they choose to disregard it so as to justify their own way of life, but it is not the Life of the Church.  

Secondly, is a “last days revival” at least indicated in the Scriptures? Let's see. I will limit myself to the Words of our Lord Jesus regarding the Last days in, Mat. 24, Lk. 21, and Mk. 13. St. Paul's epistle of 2 Thessalonians, a spattering of other Pauline references, and the Book of the Apocalypse (Revelation). Clearly, since this is a short(ish) article, space does not allow an exhaustive study.

In all the accounts of our Lord Jesus' instruction regarding the last days, the picture is not all that bright. Persecution. War. Betrayal. Godlessness, and so forth. Of interest for the topic at hand are the opening words of our Lord in Matthew, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray” (v. 4). “Christ” simply means “anointed one,” thus it is possible to understand that many will come claiming to be anointed ones. The Lord continues, “If anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (v. 23-24). In Christ Jesus' teaching concerning the last days the only signs and wonders spoken of are false ones. No other signs and wonders are mentioned. Christ clearly does not indicate a last days revival as described by the P/C movement. Rather the picture presented is one of an increase of sin and evil together with many false christs (anointed ones) moving with spiritual power; signs so great that even the elect could be seduced, if possible (but by God's grace the Church will stand even this!). The situation seems so dire that Christ Jesus tells His disciples, “Be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand” (Mk. 13:23). What did He tell us? In the Last days false anointed ones will abound and they will use signs and wonders to justify themselves, “See we are from God!” but, "Do not believe it" (Mat. 24:23).

St. Paul prophesies regarding the last days, “Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having an appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Tim. 2:1-5). Again, not a rosy picture. There will be an appearance of godliness, and this correlates to the many false christs of which the True Christ warned. In 2 Thessalonians St. Paul instructs that in the last days a rebellion will come, a rebellion against God and His Church. Lawlessness will be revealed (cf. 2 Thess. 2: 3-4). Again, the only signs and wonders referenced are false ones, “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thess. 2:9-10). Is it not significant that when speaking of the last days the only signs and wonders spoken of by both Christ and St. Paul are false ones? Clearly, they are telling us to be vigilant; there is no indication of a last days revival as taught by the P/C movement. The only last days revival is a revival of sin and evil, together with a “spirituality” free from the “constraint” of the Church. And what is the guard against deception? Love of the truth; St. Paul told us that the Church is the pillar and ground of truth, thus we may conclude that a love and holding to the Church as it has manifested for 2,000 years is a love and holding to truth.

In St. John the Theologian's revelation of the Apocalypse we see a general vision of the rise of sin and lawlessness, brutal persecution of the righteous, war, suffering, and so forth. Clearly, this book is cryptic and requires great wisdom. Of interest for this article is not the specific meaning of each character and image, but merely whether or not a great last days revival is evident. We see the two witness, who testify against the Antichrist and his system. They are given the power to work wonders (cf. Rev. 11). Besides this positive reference to signs and wonders, the other reference is to the Antichrist himself and the beast (cf. Rev. 13). They use great signs and wonders to deceive the multitudes. Yet there is no clear and explicit teaching that the Church will fail and be in need of a last days restoration. Indeed the Church is persecuted and attacked throughout Revelation (cf. Rev. 12:17). Signs and wonders are predominately used to lead the multitudes astray. The culmination of all things is the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, which will truly be glorious (cf. Rev. 19).

A Charismatic Meeting

Nowhere are Christians instructed to seek a last days “restoration” of power. Indeed, the Church has always taught that obsession (the P/C movement is obsessed with power) with signs and wonders will only act to predispose people to accept false christs and ultimately the Antichrist. The power of the P/C movement has great emotional charge, I know I have moved in it. “The willingness of our fallen human nature to mistake illusion for truth, emotional comfort for spiritual experience, is much greater than you think,” astutely observes Fr. Seraphim (Rose).² True Christianity has always had miracles and always will, but they are not an end-all indicator of truth. They may be mimicked, and thus the underlying principles of the one working the miracles must be weighed and tested. Is the source true and sound? Is the fruit true unity in Christ Jesus and His body the Church? Many times power flatters us into thinking that we are spiritual people and that we deserve to have the “Holy Spirit;” that we are “anointed” and even to a degree special. In Orthodoxy, this is called prelest. Let us remember the mandate to test the spirits to see if they are from God (1 Jn. 4:1-3). The chief appeal of the P/C movement is to emotional experience, and all “truths” are subject to this experience. Most of the time the experience is never tested by some greater and abiding Truth; untested experience simply justifies the experience. The assumption is, “I experienced power, thus it must be from God.” The “I” is set as the great discerner of truth, and the safety of the pillar and ground of the Church is cast aside. A great arrogant assumption is made: I am spiritual; therefore I can discern correctly! Moreover, the power in the P/C movement is fairly easy to attain, one need not be bothered by pesky ideas like a life of repentance, humility, and self-denial. No, Christ wants me to be super! I have been there. I have done this. My hope is that people will also, by the mercy of God, come out of this prelest into the eternal freedom and Truth of Holy Orthodoxy. 

To what do the Scriptures call Christians, most of all those living in these times? Our Lord Jesus Christ says, "In your patience possess your souls" (Lk. 21:19). "The one who endures to the end will be saved" (Mat. 24:13). Christ revealed the way, the Apostles preached it, and we must patiently endure in it holding fast; not being led astray by false shows of power. “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12). "Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering" (Heb. 10:23). "Stand firm and hold the traditions that you were taught by us (the Apostles), either by our spoken word or by our letter" (1 Thess. 2:15). "Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong" (1 Cor. 16:13). "Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). We constantly see in the Scriptures an exhortation to stand in what was given once for all and never do we see a teaching telling us to look for a coming "new" work and revelation. Christ Jesus is the only New and Eternal Revelation of God, the job of a Christian is to hold fast to that revelation. This is the Faith of Jesus. (How can one hold fast to a faith that is in constant change due to ever-evolving experiences and new "words" and teaching, many times contradicting former ones, as in the P/C movement? To what teaching should one hold fast? The conundrum multiplies from here.) The Church has been founded on Christ once for all. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost affirmed the revelation of Jesus Christ to and in His Church. The Orthodox Church has proven through Her faithful and long endurance to be that very Church founded by our Lord. All other “new” revelations are condemned in the Scripture. Jude goes on to tell us, "certain people have crept in unnoticed ... who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 4). This denial is not so much a verbal one (they continue to teach in the name of Jesus), as one wherein they preach their own message in the Name of Jesus. Woe to such ones. In this way, they deny Christ and preach rather their own selves (but it sounds much more authoritative if someone says "Jesus told me!"). St. Paul tells the Galatians, "Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed (anathema)" (1:8).

It is vital to note that the whole of Christian life and history for 2,000 years never expected a “last days revival.” To expound upon this would be very lengthy. Nevertheless, it is imperative to note that the teaching at hand is novel. The Christian Church, Orthodoxy, has never held it. In fact, all Her teachings regarding the last of the last days are in line with the Scriptures: they will be extremely difficult days, many will lose their faith, evil will abound as will false signs and wonders, but those faithful to the Revelation of Christ in His Church shall be saved.

In light of such testimony, one has but few choices: either accept them as true and proven by the True Church for over 2,000 years or throw them out and listen to what the new “spirit” is saying.

There is something indeed new at work, but it is neither from the wellspring of the Holy Spirit nor the pillar and ground of truth in the Church.

Let it be briefly noted that this is in no way a denial of signs and wonders per se, for truly they have been at work in the Church since the day of Pentecost. It is a refutation of a novel doctrine that asserts the “restoration” of the church which, so it alleges, was corrupted; the primary justification it provides for such a teaching is an emphasis on signs and wonders; power untested and accepted easily with the assumption that Christ is the source. As we have seen such a doctrine is not in Scripture nor the life and teaching of Christ's Church. Christianity has always understood that there exist false signs and wonders, and they are very deceptive; thus miracles are never the paramount ideal.

“How much, then, must Orthodox Christians walk in the fear of God, trembling lest they lose His grace, which by no means is given to everyone, but only to those who hold the true Faith, lead a life of Christian struggle, and treasure the grace of God which leads them heavenward. And how much more cautiously must Orthodox Christians walk today above all, when they are surrounded by a counterfeit Christianity that gives its own experiences of 'grace' and the 'Holy Spirit' and can abundantly quote the Scriptures and Holy Fathers to 'prove' it. Surely the last times are near, when there will come spiritual deception so persuasive as to deceive, if it were possible, even the elect (Mat. 24:24).” Fr. Seraphim (Rose).

Please keep in mind that this series is an examination of a system. While I cannot but reject what is a faulty system, I understand that there are persons within it. The persons I leave to God. May He grant them enlightenment, repentance, and salvation. This is an examination of a novel system and teaching that claims to be from God.

1 It is good to note that our English word church does not come etymologically from the Greek word ekklesia, but from the Greek word Kyriacon, “of the Lord” or loosely “the Lord's house.” In old English it was Cirice from the west German Kirka, which is the same in old Saxon, from these words we have our word “church.” The word ekklessia is more properly “the gathering, or the community” the Greek is a compound of ek – out, away from; and a derivative of kaleo – to call. Thus literally it means “to call out from.” I will use the word Church in its current common usage as the translation of ekklesia.

2Fr. Seraphim (Rose). Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future. St. Herman Press, p. 141.

A prayer for Orthodox Christians of the Latter Times

For Daily Use

By St. Anatole (the Younger) of Optina

"Deliver me, O Lord, from the deceptions of the God-hating and evil antichrist, whose coming is at hand, and shelter me from his snares in the secret desert of Thy salvation. Grant me, O Lord, strength and courage to firmly confess Thy Most Holy Name, that I may not abandon Thee because of the devil's fear and that I may not deny Thee my Saviour and Redeemer, nor Thy Holy Church. But grant me, O Lord, cries and tears for my sins, and spare me in the hour of Thy dread judgment.    Amen"

True Christianity is an Apocalyptic Vision

“Little children, it is the last time” (1Jn. 2:18). True Christianity is a pronouncement of the end; not an end unto death but an end unto never ending Life. What then is ending? The corrupt system of sin and death that is proliferated and energized through human rebellion against truth in Christ Jesus. Christ our Lord came to put an end to this tyranny of destruction. The good creation that God Himself called into existence from nothing languishes under the evil yoke of sin that mankind has willingly subjected himself and creation to through rebellion and self-exaltation (cf. Rom 8:19-22). But not without hope, it awaits the refashioning of all things at the end, the restoration of incorruption and the victory of Life and Truth. Yet St. John the Theologian proclaims, “The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 Jn 2:17). The world, the system of rebellion against God, is passing away, it is ending, it is its last time. And its death throes are visible in rippling effects which are growing with every passing day. The world is passing because, as a system, it has rejected Christ. Only Christ is Eternal. Christ announces to the world: I have come (the first time) not to condemn but to save (Jn. 3:17, 12:31); I have come to bring you from death to life, so that you shall not perish (Jn 6:33,51); I am the light of the world (Jn 9:5); cease your rebellion and be healed. Essentially Christ announces: I have come to bring an end to the darkness and death that have bound you. The tragedy is:“Light came into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (Jn. 3:19). The world system was - and is - too in love with its own darkness and bondage, it fears the freedom proclaimed by Christ Jesus. What would we do without the bonds we have grown so use too, indeed that we have grown to love? Fear then turns to hatred, for the love of bondage can be nothing but hatred. The world system has turned against the very One Who has come to heal, save, and bring life to all. Thus our Lord Jesus said, “The world … hates Me” (Jn 7:7, 15:28), “I am not of this world” (Jn. 8:23), and He tells His disciples that the world will rejoice in His seeming destruction (cf. Jn. 16:20). Christ proclaimed the end of death and darkness and the beginning of Life and Light. He ratified this freedom with His own Blood, destroying death and sin, rising on the third day as the Victorious King. “Remembering the saving commandments, and all those things that have come to pass for us: the cross, the tomb, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension into heaven, the sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and the second glorious coming again”, in truth these are the events of the eschaton.

True Christianity is mandated with the same dramatic eschatological proclamation. For all those who have been truly born from above through water and in Spirit (Jn 3: 5) have begun to put on Christ (Gal 3:27, Rom 13:14), to acquire the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16), and thereby crucifying the flesh and its lusts (Gal. 5:24). The Body of Christ, the fulness of Him who fills all things (Eph. 1:23), continues Christ's proclamation to the world: Come, abandon death and darkness, throw off the totalitarian dictates of sin and the devil, they are passing away into the never ending destruction of Gehenna. Christ has come to set you free. But Christ Jesus soberly warns his Church, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of this world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of this world, therefore the world hates you ... If they kept My words, they will keep yours also” (Jn 15:18-20). The Theologian instructs, “Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life” (1 Jn 3:13-14). It is a difficult thing to endure hatred. But there seems to be only two general responses (most of all according to St. John) to this proclamation of end: Hatred or love, rejection or acceptance. Thus the world that continues in darkness seeks to stop up the mouths of those proclaiming its end.

True Christianity in its essence is eschatological. Indeed it must be. Christ calls His followers out of the world, which insists on grasping relentlessly to its bonds. Why? Because these bonds will destroy true Life, they will burden the soul and keep it in bondage to death. “Where your treasure is there your heart shall be also,” Christ the Lord reveals (Mat. 6:21). From the very beginning of this proclamation of the end, the consciousness of the Church has been that She is no longer part of this phantom reality of the world. She has become the ambassador of the World without end. Thus She warns those who call Her their home and mother, “Many lose their true home because they have greater love for the road that leads them there. Let us not love the road rather than our home, in case we should lose our eternal home … Let us keep to this principle, therefore, that we should live as travelers and pilgrims on the road … free of lusts and earthly desires, but let us fill our mind with heavenly and spiritual forms” (St. Columbanus). St. Peter calls us to remember, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1 Pet. 2:11). Elder Sophrony warns, "The tragedy of our times lies in our almost complete unawareness, or unmindfulness, that there are two kingdoms, the temporal and the eternal. We would build the Kingdom of heaven on earth, rejecting all idea of resurrection or eternity." Normalizing and acceptance of sin reveals a complete lack of true love, it betrays a cancer like infiltration by this world system. When Christianity becomes an integral institution of this fallen world something is dreadfully wrong. When it emulates the fashions and mentalities of mutable fallenness as standards of governing principles it has completely failed and lost its way. Indeed it is no longer by any means Christian. Not that the Church can ever be corrupted in Her essence, there She will remain pure and spotless to the end, and we as believers are called to enter into and conform our lives to that realm of purity. But those who would call themselves Christians and yet refuse to heed the pure call of Christ in the bosom of the Church are but building permanent structures on the road; and shall share in its destiny. When eschatological vision fails, Christianity becomes a hallow ringing of nicety, an empty gonging of ritual, a sterile structure, it becomes temporal institution using an eternal message for passing gain. Then every woe spoken by Christ to the pharisees aptly applies in fulness (cf. Mat 23:13-36). Therefore it is written, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of this world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 5:4).

True Christianity is always an apocalyptic vision of the eschaton. Thus the book of the age is the book known as Revelation, or the Apocalypse. It is the record of this vision of the Church. The revelation of the struggle of this dying age with the coming Eternal One. It is the great and final Exodus, the last journey of the Children of God from the midst of Egypt and Babylon, which was inaugurated by Christ Himself and will be consummated by Him. “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord” (2 Cor. 6:17). St. Ignatius of Antioch radically councils, “Do not talk about Jesus Christ while you desire the world.” It may be that one of the reasons the book of Revelation is not read liturgically in the Church is because the Church Herself is the book of Revelation. In Her, as in Her Bridegroom, the proclamation of the end continues as the existent reality. Thus we see reflected in the very structure of the Church and Her worship the Apocalypse. The Church is not simply a reflection of the coming age, She is the unfolding revelation and reality of that eternal age in this withering one. The message is clear: this world is ending and those who cling to it will share the same fate. Thus all believers are constantly reminded by every means possible to lift their hearts and eyes unto the heavens, and by doing so afford the world the only true hope and help possible. This vital eschatological experience must never cease to be the heart of the true Christian proclamation to the world, could it ever truly not be? If those claiming Christ lose this message they simply become members of this world system but with "Jesus" tags, salt which has become insipid. Those who are Christians are throwing off this world and its hegemony of lusts and passions, they have left behind this decrepit land of bondage and have transferred their “citizenship (to) heaven, from which we also eagerly await the Savior, the Lord Jesus” (Phil. 3:20). Yet Christ extends His mercy to all, compassionately delaying the culmination of the end so that humanity may repent (cf. 1 Pet. 3:1-9). He has not left the world without testimony, nor will He until that great and Final Day. Therefore the Church longs for Her Savior, and Her unending cry is the culmination of the age, the exclamation of the end, the eschaton: “And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the waters of life freely … Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:17, 20).

Globalism is like a huge mill that grinds everything

“We must speak with children about the dangers of temptation. Toward the end of the 1950's a new epoch dawned in Europe, and two misfortunes came quickly upon us: the post-christian era and globalism, along with the erosion of faith and the crumbling of morality.

Now that I have reached old age I have begun to understand that in this time the last attack of the devil has begun, and it is directed against the treasures of the Orthodox faith and Christian life.

Globalism is like a huge mill that grinds everything; the result is an unrecognizable mixture in which no one will retain his personhood, and self-knowledge is lost. Now everything will be easy, everything will be allowed – total freedom, for the Church has stood as a hindrance and barrier (to these things).

Fr. Gregory of Mt. Athos

Translated from Russian. Athonite Elders, Moscow, 2011.

True Christianity and The Fundamental Task of the "New" World

By Archbishop Averky of blessed memory, +1976

The fundamental task of the servants of the coming Antichrist is to destroy the old world with all its former concepts and "prejudices" in order to built in its place a new world suitable for receiving its approaching "new owner" who will take the place of Christ for people and give them on earth that which Christ did not give them ....

One must be completely blind spiritually, completely alien to true Christianity not to understand all this!

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Zeal for God, zeal for the Truth is not "phariseeism," just as "humility" before the enemies of God, the enemies of the Church, before diabolical Evil, is not the true and saving humility of the Publican, but just destructive self-deception, leading to the depths of hell.

In our times, when there are such strong doubts about even the existence of Truth, when every "truth" is considered relative and it is considered proper for each person to hold to "his own truth," the struggle for the Truth acquires a particularly important meaning. And the person who does not sympathize with this struggle, who sees in it only a manifestation of "phariseeism" and suggests "humbling oneself" before Falsehood by falling away from the Truth, should naturally be recognized as a betrayer of the Truth, whoever he might be, whatever he might call or consider himself.

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Thus we evidently have lived to see this "terrible and quick collapse of the structure of the Church!" The enemy of the human race is employing all his efforts and all his means to pull it down, and he is widely supported in this by open and secret apostates from the true faith and Church, including even those who have betrayed their high vocations and oaths as clergymen and even as hierarchs heading certain individual churches.

In truth, we are experiencing a terrible time, a time such as has never before been seen in the history of Christianity, in the history of mankind! A time of almost total instability!

And insofar as we wish to remain faithful to true Orthodoxy, many obligations are placed upon us. We must, as Bishop Ignatius instructs us, avoid and protect ourselves from the Apostasy which is growing so rapidly in the world. We must defend ourselves against the corrupting spirit of the times to avoid its influence.

And to this end we must first of all understand and never forget: that at the present time not everything that bears the most holy and most dear name of Orthodoxy really is Orthodoxy. There now also exists pseudo-Orthodoxy, which we must fear and from which we must flee as from fire; that true Orthodoxy is only that which does not accept and does not permit in anything, either in teaching or in church practices, any sort of innovations opposed to the Word of God and the decrees of the Universal Church; that true Orthodoxy does not bless and does not indulge modern fashion- the morality and customs of the modern, corrupt world, which, even more than in Apostolic times, is lying in evil, for it is a world which has abandoned God; that true Orthodoxy considers only pleasing God and saving souls, not arrangements for temporary, earthly happiness, a career, and earthly advantages and possessions; that true Orthodoxy is spiritual, not natural and carnal, not attached to the earth-to earthly feelings and experiences.

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As salt preserves food from decay and makes it healthful and pleasant to the taste, so too true Christians preserve the world from moral decay and facilitate its return to health. But if the salt "loses its savor," as the Gospel says, i.e. "loses its strength" (in the East there actually is a kind of salt which can lose its taste), then it becomes good for nothing except to be "thrown out to be trodden under foot of men" (cf. the Gospel reading for the third day of the feast of Pentecost, Matt. 5:313).

How terrible this is! And we find ourselves living in such times when the tendency dominating the world is directed toward making all Christians such "salt which has lost its savor," once it has abolished the true Church of Christ derived from the Holy Apostles and thus has deprived Christians of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

This is the so very fashionable, so-called "ecumenical movement," which is based in the position that supposedly the true Church of Christ does not presently exist on earth and it is necessary to create it anew...through the unification of all Christians belonging to various "churches" and confessional associations and organizations; this will be done by various mutual concessions in matters of doctrine and the development of a new, common system of doctrine acceptable to all and, along with it, of course, a new world view.

And the opinion, extremely popular in our times, that "it's all the same which church you go to; after all, God

The Ark of Salvation

is one" is in agreement with this tendency. Yes! God is one, but, you know, He also gave us one faith; He created one Church for us, not many different faiths and "churches." This is confirmed by the holy Apostle Paul when he says, "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all," and so we Christians should form "one body and one spirit," as we are called to "in one hope of our calling" (Eph. 4:4-6).

If there is only one true faith and only one true Church, then as a consequence all other faiths and "churches" are false, not true. How then can anyone say that all faiths and "churches" are of equal value and that "it is all the same which church you go to." Therefore one can and must speak not of the ecumenical unification of everyone for the creation of some new Church, but only of the restoration of union between all who have fallen away and the one true Church of Christ to which Christ the Savior Himself gave the great and sure promise that "the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18).

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While struggling resolutely against the most minute manifestations of evil and sin in our own souls, let us not fear to uncover and point out evil everywhere where it is to be found in modern life-not from pride and self-love, but only out of love for the truth. Our chief task in this evil time of lying shamelessness is to remain totally faithful and devoted to the genuine truth of the Gospel and to the author of our salvation, Christ, the Giver of life Who rose on the third day from the tomb, the Conqueror of hell and death.

Excerpts from Various Writings of Archbishop Averky