Orthodoxy and the apocalypse

Patristic theology, and traditional teachings of Orthodoxy from the Church fathers of apostolic times to the present. All forum Rules apply. No polemics. No heated discussions. No name-calling.


Logos
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Orthodoxy and the apocalypse

Post by Logos »

Here are some articles on the apocaypse. These are not happy writings and in fact are quite despairing(especially about what is said about the church at the end times).


Instructions

By St. Anatoly of Optina

My child, know that in the last days hard times will come, as the Apostle says, behold due to poverty in piety, in churches the heresies and schisms will appear", and as the Holy Fathers foretold, than on the thrones of hierarchs and in monasteries, there will be no men tested and experienced in the spiritual life. Wherefore, heresies will spread everywhere and deceive many. The enemy of the human kind will act skillfully, if possible, leading the chosen ones to heresy. He will not begin by discarding the dogmas on the Holy Trinity, divinity of Jesus Christ, on Theotokos, but will unnoticeably start to distort the Teachings of the Holy Fathers from the Holy Spirit - the Church teaching itself. Cunning of the enemy and his "tipics" will notice a very small number of those most experienced in spiritual life. Heretics will take over the Church, everywhere will appoint their servants, and the spirituality will be neglected. But the Lord will not leave His servants without protection, and in ignorance. He said "by the fruits you will recognize them". And strive to distinguish them from real pastors; those spiritual thieves who are snatching the spiritual flock, do not enter through the door into the sheepfold, but cross in the other place" as the Lord said it, that is, they will enter in illegal way, with force(violence) destroying God's order. The Lord calls them the criminals.

Truly, their real duty is persecution of true pastors, their imprisonment, for without that the spiritual flock may not become captured. Therefore, my son, when you see in the Church mocking of the Divine act, teaching of the Fathers, and God-established order, know that the heretics have already appeared, even though for some time they might hide their evil intensions, or will unnoticeably deform the divine faith, to better succeed by deceiving and tricking the inexperienced .

They will persecute not only the pastors, but also the servants of God, for the devil who is directing the heresy cannot bear living in Divine order. Like wolfs in sheep skin, they will be recognized by their vainglorious nature, love for lust, and lust for power - those will be betrayers causing hatred and malice everywhere; and therefore the Lord said that one will recognize them by their fruits. The true servants of God are - meek, brotherloving and obedient to the Church(order,traditions..).

At that time, monks will endure great pressures from heretics, and the monastic life will be mocked. The monastic families will be impoverished, the number of monks will reduce. The ones remaining, will endure violence.

These haters of the monastic life, who merely have the appearance of piety, will strive to draw monks on their side, promising them protection and worldly goods(comforts), but threatening with exile to those who do not submit. From these threats, the weak at heart will be very humiliated (tormented).

If you live to see that time, rejoice, for at that time the faithful, not possessing other virtues will receive wreaths merely for standing in faith, according to the Word of the Lord "everyone who confesses Me before men, I will confess before My Heavenly Father".

Fear the Lord, my son!, dont lose the received wreath, not to be rejected by Christ into the utter darkness and eternal suffering.

Bravely stand in faith, and if needed joyfully endure persecutions and other troubles, for than the Lord will stand by you...and holy Martyrs and Confessors with joyfully watch at your struggle.

But, in these days, woe be to monks tied to possessions and riches, and who for the sake of love of comfort agree to subjugate themselves to the heretics. They will lull their conscience saying: we will save the monastery, and the Lord will forgive us. Unfortunate and blinded, they are not even thinking that through heresies and heretics, the devil will enter the monastery, and than it will no longer be a holy monastery, but bare walls from which Grace will depart from forever.

But God is more powerful than devil, and will never abandon His servants. There will always be true Christians, till the end of time, but they will choose lonely and deserted places. Do not fear troubles, but fear pernicious heresy, for it drives out Grace, and separates from Christ, wherefore Christ commanded consider the heretic as let him be unto thee as a heathen man and publican.

And so, strenghten yourself, my son, in the Grace of Christ Jesus. With joy hasten to the confession and enduring the suffering, like Jesus Christ's good soldier who said: "BE FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH, AND I WILL GIVE YOU THE WREATH OF LIFE"

To Him, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, honor and glory unto ages of ages. Amen

Logos
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Post by Logos »

Here is another.


The Final Days

By St. Neilos of Mount Athos

Prophecy accredited to St. Neilos an ascetic of M. Athos who lived six hundred years ago, tells about coming of Antichrist and the people who will live in final days Around 1900 the world begins to be unrecognizable When the time draws near for the approach of the Antichrist, mans mind will be in darkness because of the passions of the flesh, and both disrespect and lawlessness will~ increase. Then we will not recognize the world. The appearances of people will change, and one will not be able to tell the difference between men and women because of their, shameful way of dressing and their hairstyles. People will be deceived by Antichrist, and they will be worse than wild beasts. Parents will not be respected, nor will the elderly. :~ Love will disappear. Christian leaders, archpriests and priests will be vain man {with only few exceptions} totally ignorant of what is right and what is wrong and then all the tradition of the Church and of the Christian people will change.

Piety will not exist among men, only licentiousness will prevail. Lies and Love of money will increase to the utmost, and woe to those who gather wealth. Prostitution, adultery, homosexual sins, thefts and murders will be at the highest level. Men will be deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit received in baptism, and will lose the remorse of conscience. There will be no pious Leaders of the Church, and how sad for those Christians living during this time, who will lose their faith completely, for there will be no one to guide them. Then they will leave the world to go to holy places to seek spiritual comfort for their sorrows, and everywhere there will be difficulties and discomforts. And all those things will take place because Antichrist will control the whole world, giving false signs to deceive everyone. Satan will give such perverted wisdom for the invention of things that people will be able to speak to each other from one end of the earth to the other. Also men will fly like birds in the air and travel under the sea like fish. With these things, men will abide in comfort without realizing that Antichrist is misleading them, making them think that because they have all scientific knowledge, they do not need to believe in God the Holy Trinity

At that time the all-merciful God, seeing the destruction of the human race, will cut time short in order to save the few faithful who remain, whom the Antichrist has not managed to mislead. And suddenly the two-edged sword will faIl, to kill the deceiver and his followers. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

*** one ascetic elder said about the final times and the Antichrist: he has begun his work. The 666 has arrived. They Will try everything to make all receive the number. These things will take place gradually


Church in the End Times

By Alexander Kalomiros

The world and the devil are leading the Church to such frightening trials that the day might come when all the bishops of the land will enter into communion with the heretics. What will the faithful do then? What will the few do who have the heroism not to follow the masses, not to follow their kin, their neighbors, and their fellow citizens?

All the faithful will have to understand that the Church is not there where it appears to be. Liturgies will continue to be performed, and the churches will be filled with people, but the Church will have no relation with those churches or those clergy and those faithful. The Church is where the truth is. The faithful are those who continue the unbroken tradition of Orthodoxy, that work of the Holy Spirit. Those real priests are those who think, live, and teach as the Fathers and the Saints of the Church did, or at least do not reject them in their teaching. Where that continuity of thought and life does not exist, it is a deception to speak of the Church, even if all the outward marks speak of it.

There will always be found a canonical priest, ordained by a canonical bishop, who will follow the Tradition. Around such priests will gather the small groups of the faithful who will remain until the last days. Each one of these small groups will be a local catholic Church of God. The faithful will find in them the entire fullness of the grace of God. They will have no need of administrative or other ties, for the communion that will exist among them will be the most perfect there can be. It will be communion in the Body and Blood of Christ, communion in the Holy Spirit. The golden links of the unalterable Orthodox Tradition will connect those Churches among themselves as well as with the Churches of the past, with the Church triumphant of heaven. In these small groups the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church will be preserved intact.

Of course, it is wonderful that order and coordination should exist in the outward functionings of the various churches, and that the less important churches should receive their direction and guidance from the more important churches, the way it is now between dioceses, metropolises, archdioceses, and patriarchates, but in the last days, such outward relations and contacts will be impossible most of the time. When the age of the Antichrist aproaches, even the Ark of the Church will be difficult to discern. There will be such confusion in the world that one Church will not be able to be certain of the orthodoxy of another because of the multitude of false prophets who will fill the world and who will be saying, "here is Christ", and "there is Christ". Whatever will be accepted officially as the Church, having little by little already betrayed the treasures of the Faith, will have been assimilated by the indescribable, unifying marmalade which will retain most of the outward signs of the Church with satanic cleverness. Here and there small groups of faithful with some priest will still preserve the true Tradition alive. However, there might even be misunderstandings among the really Orthodox churches because of the confusion of tongues which exists in the contemporary Babel. But none of that will ever sever the essential unity of the Church.

But who will be able to recognize the Church of Christ in those small, scorned groups of faithful that lack all worldly splendor? Yet at the end of time, the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church will be just those forgotten and outwardly disunited little parishes which may even be ignorant of the others' existence, but will be united among themselves by the mystical bonds of the Body and Blood of the Lord, in the Holy Spirit, with the common Faith and Tradition which will remain undefiled.

"Against False Union", Alexander Kalomiros

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Great post!

Post by 尼古拉前执事 »

Scary, but not that different from modern times in some respects. Thank you for posting those, I think they are good to read.

I've recently just ordered The Apocalypse: In the Teachings of Ancient Christianity by Archbishop Averky Taushev. Can anyone reccomend any other books or writings? Has anyone else read this one before?

Justin Kissel

Post by Justin Kissel »

I've read that book, and thought it was ok. I'm sure someone interested in eschatology would think it a very good book, but since I have a dislike of eschatological discussion, such books don't go over well with me. I got this book because I thought it my duty--even if I hated eschatology--to at least know the basic Orthodox position on the subject (or, in this case, to know a bit about the wide range of tenable positions). I'd say that the book does a good job at doing that (ie. explaining the various Orthodox positions), though the book tends to focus on the interpretation of Andrew of Caesarea. According to the book, there were 90 commentaries on Revelation in Russian by the end of the 19th century (p. 39), though I'm not exactly sure how key a source these modern sources were in guiding Archbishop Averky. The book also has a few appendices, including one on "Neo-Chiliasm," which of course is a favorite topic of the translator (Fr. Seraphim Rose). Suprisingly, it's only about 4 1/2 pages long though.

Well, now with that said, I need to get off and let the wife use the computer! I look forward to reading the supplied articles later tonight, however. (thanks for posting them logos)

Logos
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Post by Logos »

Please forgive me, but can anyone tell if the quote by St. Neilos is true? Someone told me that it is a fake, and I don't want to post untrue information if that is the case.

Justin Kissel

Post by Justin Kissel »

Logos,

This topic was briefly discussed on a Catholic list I was participating on last August, and we couldn't find the answer. The "prophecy" (in varying translations) appears on a number of websites, but we couldn't get anything close to confirmation as to it's authenticity. I wouldn't post it, but that's only me :)

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*bump!*

Post by 尼古拉前执事 »

bumped up for Lucian

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