Barbara wrote: ↑Mon 16 June 2025 3:27 pm
Oh, i see. Sorry, wrong elder !
I thoroughly agree that the prophecies that are bandied about - I think in most ALL cases - are faked ! Just passed down through generations.
We all need to be aware of these inadvertent deceptions that can twist one's mind into completely the wrong channels.
Like the one about St John Maximovitch supposedly having said that the Anti-... was born that minute. It's too wild to even put any stock in at all
This may well describe the root of the Orthodox Ethos problem. Followers mean well, but the leader of the sheep is faulty in this regard.
One flaw like this is enough to steer that entire flock into difficult shores.
Not all, but certainly many.
The “papal prophecy” is a classic example of how it works. Roman Catholics who wanted to campaign for a certain candidate in the upcoming papal election “found” a prophecy which seemed to “predict” (with allusions rather than clear words) all of the popes up to that point, establishing credibility, while also “predicting” the next one, which so happened to be one of the candidates and the one the author wanted to install, and on until Judgement Day. The guy the document promoted, lost. Now every pope since then, they have been coping and twisting words to make it fit. The problem they have just run into is that the last pope in the list is number 112, called “Peter the Roman” in the list and who was supposed to be sitting at the end of the world, but the 112th pope from the beginning of the list was Pope Francis. A few years ago Trad Catholics were still hopefully peddling the list. I guess by now everyone who used to swear by it are saying that they always thought it was a forgery.
We had a very interesting case in local Protestantism. Don't remember if I've talked about it. An illiterate man known as “Siener” (=Seer) van Rensburg who became somewhat famous for having a vision of the great General Koos de la Rey being dead. The Lion of the West Transvaal was shot by an over-eager cop thereafter, on his way to negotiations to prevent the Cape Rebellion. Van Rensburg never wrote anything. White nationalists have been inventing prophecies and attributing them to him for the past century. Each new book copies some prophecies from the older books, adds maybe a couple of new ones referring to recent events for credibility and adds a couple of other new ones alluding to future events which the author wants to influence. Only a few visions are probably his--an author talked to his sister after his death--and even those are the tales of a man who went out in the sun to seek visions from heat stroke. The old Calvinists churches are essentially dead but the delusion festers in unchurched post-Protestant weirdos and other nondenominational offshoots. Most people just think it's weird but I, too, have cousins like that.
I don't want to hate on Metropolitan Neophytos because I also looked at these prophecies initially and presumed that they must be Orthodox, but he's been involved much longer and still hasn't caught on. He is acting exactly like the apocalyptic white nationalists with their books on Oom Siener, only in an Orthodox flavour.
Regarding the one of St. John: Yes, you hit the nail on the head. There is no such thing as a confirmed prophecy of a saint unless we can definitely trace the history of the text to the saint. If e.g. Fr. Seraphim Rose wrote and published a book in Platina, we can check the provenance of the publication and know that what the first edition says is what he actually wrote. If anyone else, whether Fr. Damascene or his niece or Fr. Herman or whomever, publishes a book or even a reprint of the original book, then what it says Fr. Seraphim said, is second hand. One just has to keep doing further research and using one's God-given brain. And, to rely on God for guidance.
False prophecies could very easily lead the putative Orthodox to worship of Antichrist. Firstly, because they my think that Antichrist is their Marble King and get deeply involved in his service before they realise what he is. Secondly, because they may become so utterly convinced of a “prophesied” easy way out of persecution, that they apostatise when their expected salvation does not show up on cue.
A possible example of the latter is the story, supposedly by Elder Paisios, of how the Christians in the Great Tribulation will be immediately and spectacularly helped by God. It was very popular during the covid scamdemic. They say, in as many words, that when there will be no food the Christians will receive such help that even just a single leaf will keep them fed for months. We should be immediately suspicious because we know that there will be suffering. Help, yes, but suffering also and for so many it will be unto martyrdom. When people begin to starve and die, if they genuinely believed that they would not die and that Christ would have kept them filled with one leaf from last month, they will begin to believe that the Faith was all lies and many will abandon Christ. Thus it is to WO what rapture is to Protestants. That is why it is vital that we question such prophecies as these.
