The Antichrist
GARY...@delphi.com
Hi all,
Although this is not strictly about apparitions, I thought it was related
enough that it would be of interest here. It is the only thing I have ever
seen on the subject from an Orthodox perspective. It is forwarded from the
Philos Echo whose purpose is the discussion of Catholicism, Protestantism and
Orthodox Christianity. Participants are predominantly from the United States
and South Africa.
Pax et bonum
Gary J. Sibio, SFO
gary...@delphi.com
===== Begins here =====
Msg#:10702 *PHILOS*
02-24-95 08:41:16 (Read 1 Times)
From: STEVE HAYES
To: ALL
Subj: THE ANTICHRIST
Hi All!
This seems to be a popular subject among some Protestants. Here is an Orthodox
view.
Keep well,
Steve
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 1995 15:04:55 -0500
Sender: Orthodox Christianity <ORTH...@IUBVM.UCS.INDIANA.EDU>
From: "Fr. Jacob Myers" <frjm...@ATLANTA.COM>
Subject: Re: The Sunday of the Last Judgment (Matt. 25: 31-
46)
Archbishop John (Maximovitch)
Cheese-Fare Sunday 1956
The Sunday of the Dread Judgement
Today is the Sunday of the Dread Judgment and it is natural for us to speak of
the Dread Judgment and of the signs of the end of the world. No one knows that
day: only God knows it, but the signs of its approach are given in the Gospels
and the Revelation [Apocalypse] of St. John the Theologian. For the most part,
Revelation speaks symbolically and cryptically of the events of the end of the
world and of the Dread Judgment, but the Holy Fathers have explained them, and
there is the pure authentic tradition of the Church that also tells us the
signs of the approach of the end of the world and the Dread Judgment. Before
the end of life on earth there will be confusion, wars, civil strife, hunger,
and earthquakes. People will suffer from fear; their hearts will fail from
awaiting disasters. There will be neither spiritual life nor the joy of being
alive, but a tortuous state of falling away from life. The falling away will
not be from spiritual life only, but also from faith. The Son of Man, when He
comes -- will He find faith on the earth? People will become proud,
ungrateful, refuting the Law of God. Together with a falling away from
spiritual life there will also be a diminishing of moral life. Good will be
exhausted and evil will grow. It is about this time that the holy Apostle John
the Theologian speaks in his divinely-inspired work, the Apocalypse [the book
of Revelation]. He himself says that he was "in the spirit" - meaning that the
Holy Spirit Itself was in him - when the fate of the Church and the world was
revealed to him in various symbols. That is why this is a Divine Revelation.
He presents the fate of the Church in the image of a woman who hides in the
wilderness during these times. She is not obvious in life. This is happening
now in Russia.
In worldly life, those forces preparing for the appearance of the Antichrist
will be of leading significance. The Antichrist will be a man and not the
devil incarnate. "Anti" is a word meaning old or it means instead of or
against. That man will want to exist instead of Christ, to take His place and
to have that which Christ ought to have. He will want to have the same kind of
influence and power over the entire world. Indeed he will obtain that power
before he perishes and the entire world perishes. He will have a helper, a
magus who, through the power of false miracles, will do his will and kill
those that do not recognize the power of the Antichrist. Before the
destruction of the Anti-christ, two righteous men will appear to condemn him.
The magus will kill them, and for three days their bodies will lie unburied,
and the antichrist and his servants will rejoice to the utmost. Then suddenly
these righteous men will resurrect, and the entire army of the Antichrist will
suddenly fall down dead, killed by the force of the Holy Spirit.
But what is known about the person of the Antichrist? His exact origin is
unknown. His father is completely unknown and his mother a vile, false virgin.
He will be a Jew from the tribe of Dan. The indication of this is that Jacob,
when dying, prophesied about the future heirs of his children, and concerning
Dan, said that among his heirs "shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the
path that biteth the horses' heels so that his rider shall fall backwards."
This symbolizes that the Anti-christ shall act through cleverness and evil. In
Revelation, St. John the Theologian speaks of the salvation of the sons of
Israel, saying that before the end of the world many Jews will be converted to
Christ, but in the list of tribes that are saved, there is no tribe of Dan.
The Anti-christ will be very clever and gifted, with an ability to deal with
people.He will be charming and gentle. The appearance of the Antichrist is
already being prepared before his coming. "The mystery doth already work...."
First of all, the forces preparing for his coming fight against lawful
monarchical rule. The holy Apostle Paul says that the Antichrist cannot appear
until "the one who restraineth" is put aside. John Chrysostom explains that
the "one who restraineth" refers to a lawful, pious regime. Such a power
struggles with evil. "The Mystery" working in the world does not want this,
does not want the struggle against evil by the power of a pious ruler - quite
the opposite. It wants the rule of lawlessness,and when it achieves this,
nothing more will stop the appearance of the Antichrist. He will not only be
clever and charming, he will be merciful and he will do works of charity for
the sake of bolstering his control.And when he strengthens his control to the
point where the entire world recognizes him, then he will reveal his face. He
will choose Jerusalem because it was precisely there that the Saviour revealed
His Divine teaching and His Person, and the whole world was called to the
blessedness of virtue and salvation. But the world did not accept Christ and
crucified Him in Jerusalem, and during the Antichrist's reign Jerusalem will
become the capital of the world that has accepted his rule.
Reaching the summit of power, the Antichrist will demand that people
acknowledge that he has achieved what no earthly power and no one has been
able to do, and will demand worship of himself as an exalted being - a god. He
will do only what pleases people, under the condition that they recognize him
as the Supreme Power. He will provide opportunities for Church life, will
allow her to hold services, and he will promise that wonderful temples will be
built, provided that he be recognized as "Supreme Being" and worshipped. He
will have a personal hatred for Christ. He will thrive on this hatred and will
rejoice in people's apostasy from Christ and the Church. There will be a mass
falling away from the faith during which many bishops will betray the faith,
and as justification will point to the wonderful position of the Church. A
search for compromise will be the characteristic state of the people's faith.
Directness of confession will vanish. People will subtly justify their fall,
and solicitous evil will support such a general state of mind. People will
grow used to apostatizing from the truth and will be accustomed to the
sweetness of com-promise and sin. The Antichrist will allow people anything as
long as they, falling down before him, worship him. This will not be a new
attitude toward people: the Roman Caesars also were prepared to grant the
Christians freedom if they would recognize the emperor's divinity and divine
supreme power. They martyred Christians only because they confessed "One God
do we worship and Him alone do we serve." The whole world will be conquered by
him, and then he will reveal his hatred for Christ and Christianity.
How will we see? With spiritual sight. Even now, at death righteous people see
that which other people around them do not see. The trumpets will sound in
souls and consciences. Everything will become clear in the human conscience.
The Prophet Daniel, speaking of the Dread Judgment, tells of the Ancient of
Days upon His throne, and before Him a river of fire. Fire is a purifying
element. Fire burns sin; sin is also burned up by sorrow. If sin has become
part of a man, then it burns the man himself. Then fire will flare up inside
man. Seeing the Cross, some will rejoice and others will fall into despair,
confusion, horror. Thus people will be separated instantly. In the Gospel
narrative, some stand on the right hand, others on the left hand of the Judge
they are separated by their inner consciousness. The very state of a person's
soul casts him to one or the other side, to the right or to the left. However
much more consciously and diligently a person strove toward God in his life,
so much the greater will be his joy when he hears the words: "Come, ye
blessed...," and on the other hand, the same words will kindle a fire of
horror and suffering in those that did not desire Him, or avoided or fought or
mocked Him in their lives. The Dread Judgment knows no witness or court
records. Everything is inscribed in the souls of men, and these inscriptions,
these "books," will be opened. Everything will become clear to all and to
oneself; the state of a person's soul sends him to the right or the left. Some
will go to the place of rejoicing, others to the place of horror. When the
books will be opened it will become clear to all that the root of all
transgressions is in a man's soul. Consider a drunkard or a fornicator: when
the body dies, some think the sin, too, has died. No; the inclination to sin
was in the soul, and to the soul the sin was sweet. And if the soul has not
repented of this sin, has not freed itself of it, it will come to the Dread
Judgment with the same desire for the sweetness of sin and will never sate
this desire. There will be the suffering of hatred and wrath in this soul.
This is the state of hell. "The fiery Gehenna" - this is the inner fire, the
fire of weakness and anger, and here will be the wailing and gnashing of teeth
of powerless wrath.
(Orthodox Life, Vol.2, 1985)
--- WtrGate 0.13.1214.p4 beta Unreg
* Origin: Unisa Editorial, Pretoria, Gauteng, RSA +27-12-429-8641 (8:79/42)
GARY...@delphi.com
Hi all,
Like the preceeding message, this is not strictly about apparitions. I thought
it that it also would be of interest here. It is forwarded from the Philos
Echo whose purpose is the discussion of Catholicism, Protestantism and
Orthodox Christianity. Participants are predominantly from the United States
and South Africa.
Pax et bonum
Gary J. Sibio, SFO
gary...@delphi.com
===== Begins here =====
Msg#: 9198 *PHILOS*
02-17-95 08:29:26 (Read 2 Times)
From: STEVE HAYES
To: ALL
Subj: ANTICHRIST
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 1995 17:13:18 -0700
From: "Fr. David Moser" <mos...@PRIMENET.COM>
Subject: End of the World conference
Comments: To: orth...@iubvm.ucs.indiana.edu
Fr Mark,
As I know your are aware, there was no lack of seriousness and sobriety at
this conference. It was more properly entitled "The World at the Threshold of
the Coming of the Antichrist". The conference was sponsored by and on the
grounds of The Convent of Our Lady of Vladimir, the ROCA convent in San
Francisco. It was organized by Sr Lukia under the guidance of Fr Stefan
Pavlenko and the speakers were myself, Fr John Ocana and Fr Paul Volmensky. Fr
Mark Gomez served as moderator for the conference and Vladyka Kyrill was in
attendance.
The talks were all quite good, Fr John gave what amounted to a history of
Western Philosophy and the process explained the development of western
thinking and cultural assumptions about the world and how that affects our
ability to perceive and understand the Truth presented to us in Holy
Tradition. I followed that with a talk about the societal precursors to the
coming of the Antichrist based on Matt 24. The basic assumption is that Satan
is not stupid and has been shaping world society since the garden of Eden to
accept the Antichrist. Conclusion was - don't spend time trying to know who
the Antichrist is, you'll just be deceived. Rather learn to know Christ and
then you will recognize who He is not.
Following a molieben to St Seraphim, the next day Fr Paul spoke on the example
of the Holy Martyrs, drawing from their lives a description of how we
ourselves will be tempted in the last times and I followed with a talk about
preparing for martyrdom. Then Frs Mark, John, Paul and myself were joined by
Bp Kyrill for a Q&A period in the afternoon which was pretty wide ranging.
That evening we celebrated Vigil at which there were numerous confessions (I
started hearing confessions at the Lauds in Matins and even with taking a
break for my own confession, I heard about 5 or 6 that night and then another
5 the next morning before liturgy - Frs Paul and John started before me and
heard many more. The next morning we finished the conference with a hierarchal
Divine Liturgy and trapeza. The tone was sober and there were not a lot of
wide-eyed, wild faced crazies running around proclaiming doom and survialist
tactics.
The rumor that I mentioned earlier - which does not seem to have any
foundation, given the responses from listmembers both public and private -came
up during the Q&A session, and of course being so withdrawn from the world,
even for that short of a time, there was no way in which to guage its relative
accuracy. Therefore I brought here, knowing that if there was any real basis,
someone would have heard of it. Many thanks to all of you who responded to my
request for information, both seriously and with levity. Thanks to your input,
I think I can safely proclaim that *this* rumor was nothing more than an
unsupported statement that deserves no further attention. To those who
question why we Orthodox would fear such a union, I would say that we do not
fear true union with the Orthodox Church - many of us as converts after all
and have already achieved that union - however we do fear that based on some
of the past actions and leanings of some hierarchs, they may, like the
hierarchs of the false union of Florence, betray their Faith in favor of a
false union.
Fr David
Father David Moser
St Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Church
872 N 29th St
Boise ID
+++ NEW EMAIL ADDRESS <mos...@primenet.com> +++
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ATTENTION
a toute l'humanité, une nouvelle réligion creer par l'anticrist a vu le jour depûis quelques années . elle se propages depuis l'Amerique. en faite c'est une réligion satanique dont le but et de demolir la vrai croyance en Dieu en amalguant des differents postules de tous es relegion afin d'atirer plus et de tous terre des sympatisant. en apparance elle a pour but le bonheur de l'homme mais en réalité sa doctrune ne fait que eloigner l'homme de Dieu. Donc ceux qui la suive vont attirer sa colere et sa maledection.
voila vous trouverais cette doctrune sous l'organisation " humanity healing " faite de recherche sur ses createur l'un deux est le ANTICHRIST.
essalam alikom
ATTENTION
to all mankind, create a new religion by Anticrist has emerged in recent years. she propages from America. it is done in a satanic religion whose aim and demolish the true belief in God amalguant of different postules're all relegion to atirer more and all land sympathizer. in appearance it is intended for the happiness of man, but in reality its only doctrune stay strictly the man of God. So those who follow will attract his anger and his maledection.
voila you would find this doctrune under the organization "humanity healing" done research on its creator one of them is the ANTICHRIST.