https://pravoslavljepzv.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/8586/
Reverend Anatoly of The Optina Pustyn wrote to his spiritual son:
„My son! You should know that the last days, according to the Apostles, will be very hard. Due to the impoverishment of piety there will be heresies and schisms in the Church. And as Holy Fathers predicted, there won’t be anymore abbots who are experienced and skilled in the spiritual life. Because of this the heresies will spread everywhere and attract many people. The Enemy of the Humankind will act sneaky to have a possibility to persuade the chosen ones to accept the heresy. He won’t blatantly deny the dogma of the Holy Trinity, the deity Jesus Christ and the dignity of Our Lady, but will discreetly distort the Church doctrine which was given to Holy Fathers by the Holy Spirit, including the core of the doctrine and its rules. These tricks of the Enemy will be noticed only by very few, the most skilled in the spiritual life people. The heretics will take the power over the Church.“
more from the letter:
„The God said: „You shall know them by their fruits.“ And you too, my son, by judging them by their fruits (actions), try to distinguish the heretics from the true shepherds. These Spiritual Thieves, stealing the spiritual herds, will enter the God’s Home (the Church) and they will do it illegally, using force and violating the God’s rules. The Lord names them the Raiders. Indeed, the first thing they do will be the persecution of the true shepherds, the imprisoning and expulsions, because without such actions it will be impossible for the Raiders to steal the sheep from the spiritual herds. That’s why, my son, as soon as you see the violation of the God’s ceremonies and rules in the Church, you should know the heretics are already there, although they will most likely try to hide their wickedness from time to time, or they will try to distort the God’s Belief discreetly in order to lure more ingenuous and inexperienced people into their nets. Not only shepherds will be persecuted, but also all the servants of God, because The Devil who is ruling the heresy, won’t tolerate the piety. You can recognize these wolves in the sheep skin by their arrogance and their lust for power. There will be slanderers, traitors, people sowing hatred and wickedness everywhere, and that is why the God said „you shall know them by their fruits“. The true servants of God are humble, love their brothers and obey the Church. The monks will be persecuted especially, the monastic life will be disparaged and monasteries will get empty, very few monks will remain and they will suffer from violence. However, these haters of the monastic life who only pretend to be righteous, will try to persuade remaining monks to come to their side, promising them protectorship and welfare, and will threaten to exile the disobedient monks. Due to these threats the fainthearted ones will fall into despair, but you, my son, be cheerful when you see these times have come, because at these times even those believers who have no other virtues apart from being believers, will get crowns (rewards from the God) just for following the Faith. Fear the God, my son, fear to lose the crown prepared for you, fear to be separated from Christ and placed into pitch darkness and eternal torment. Bravely stand by the Faith, and if necessary, joyfully accept exile and other sorrows, for the Lord will be with you, and holy martyrs, and confessors: they will joyfully look at your deeds. But those monks, who choose comfort and peace over love, and obey the heretics, will regret it. They’ll try to deal with their conscience, saying „we will save our monasteries from destruction and God will forgive us“. These poor blind monks have no idea that demons will enter monasteries along with heresies. So the holy abode will become noting but the walls where will be no God’s grace any longer. But the God is stronger than the Enemy and he will never abandon his Servants, and the True Christians will remain until the end of time, but they will choose solitary, empty places to live. Don’t be afraid of sorrows, but fear the harmful heresy, for it leaves you without God’s grace and separates you from Christ. That’s why the Lord said to consider a heretic a pagan and a tax collector. So, strengthen yourself with Christ’s grace, my son, be ready to accept future suffering joyfully, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, who said „Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.“ (Revelation 2:10)