Recently, not only people associated with religion, but also ordinary people have begun to pay attention to the Antichrist. His personality became popular thanks to literature, cinema, print media and other media. Some present him as something terrible, some, on the contrary, try to idealize the image of the biblical adversary of Christ. In any case, there is a lot of information about him, but few can say with complete confidence who he is. Let's figure out who the Antichrist is and what his role is in the life of humanity.
General information
The Antichrist is usually called a being who is opposite to the Messiah. By his name it is customary to mean opponents of the teaching and the Christian Church as a whole. The very first mentions of it can be found in the Council of John, from where, in fact, it was taken in order to eventually make it a canonical definition. Based on information provided by John, the Antichrist can be characterized as a liar who denies the identity of Jesus and the existence of God, and also denies the possibility of the Son of God appearing on Earth in the flesh.
That is, Christ and Antichrist are two opposing forces representing Heaven and Hell. Analyzing the words of John, we can safely say that he had a specific person in mind, although he predicted the appearance of many Antichrists. Nevertheless, based on his words, we should expect one person, the most dangerous for the Church, who will have many followers. As for the time when the coming of the Antichrist will take place, the apostle indicates that he will appear in the “last time,” in other words, approximately before the existing world appears before the judgment of God. But according to the Orthodox theologian Belyaev, the Antichrist is a person who brings sin and destruction to people, who will appear and reign before the second coming of Christ. He states this in one of his eschatological works.
Based on this, it can be noted that all Antichrists who appear earlier in the person of apostates, schismatics and heretics are just predecessors of the true Antichrist. For the true adversary of Christ must have a strength commensurate with the strength of Jesus in order to enter into equal competition with him at the second coming. And even his name itself testifies to this, which can be deciphered as “opposing Christ” and the Church as a whole.
Antichrist and the number of the beast as a religious term
Antichrist can be considered not as a person, but as a term in religion, reflecting the attitude of parishioners of the Christian church towards a heretic and apostate, a person who went against the faith. Like Jesus, the Antichrist will have his own name. The Church believes that the name of the true Antichrist lies in such a concept as the number of the beast, the apocalyptic 666.
Many spiritual leaders and other ministers of the Church have attempted to decipher this number, but, unfortunately, they all had to admit the futility of this action. Apparently, the personal name of Christ’s adversary will be revealed only after his appearance.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Antichrist is the head of all the enemies of Christ, as it is said in the Encyclopedia Britannica, which emphasizes his leadership over the opponents of the Church. It is believed that he will be the ruler of the last kingdom on Earth.
It is taken into account that Jesus was symbolically a king, but not crowned. And his enemy will rule the entire universe. And the coming of the Antichrist can only happen if there is Christ, that is, the balance of the powers of Heaven and Hell is important here.
Opinion of the elders of Optina Hermitage
The elders believed that the Antichrist was a person who would be the complete opposite of Christ. His main difference from other opponents of the Church lies in his eschatological character, that is, he is more terrible than his predecessors, and after him opponents of the clergy will no longer come. And given that the world has become so evil that it will soon perish, the Antichrist will represent all the world's evil in one person. According to Belyaev, the Antichrist will personify all the evil of people at the peak of its development, and that is why it will disappear. After all, having reached the maximum of development, an evil society will be reset to zero, the evil in it will simply exhaust itself.
Christian eschatology
Considering the spiritual teaching about the end of the world, it is worth noting that the main goal of the coming of the Antichrist is to seduce the Church. That is, this person will manipulate the faith of Christians, turning everything around for his own benefit, namely, to take the place of Christ in the souls of believers. He will mislead believers, convincing them that he is the messenger of God. After which he will pervert faith, forcing people to believe in themselves. He requires complete trust, worship and submission, and everyone who submits to him will bear the mark of the Antichrist.
This is precisely the temptation that will become the final test of the Church, a test of strength. And due to the fact that the Church will resist him, the Antichrist will direct all his anger and rage towards her in order to become the most cruel and final persecutor of believers. It is believed that during these repressions, unprecedented cataclysms will begin, including drought and famine. Because of this, a large number of people will die, and those who are saved will not be happy about this, as the teaching says - they will envy the dead. The question of whether the Antichrist created these disasters or whether he is also their victim remains unknown, since there is no data on this matter in the teaching. It is worth noting that due to the fact that the rulers have a negative attitude towards chaos in their domains, Daniil Andreev moved the time of cataclysms forward, when the Antichrist will no longer reign.
Appearance of the Antichrist
In Christian literature there is a future rival of Christ. The most basic and prominent feature is the ugliness of this person. In the imagination of medieval artists, he will appear in the guise of an apocalyptic beast that will emerge from the abyss. It has four legs, huge protruding fangs and many horns. That is, the Antichrist is a beast-like monster with flames from his ears and nostrils, as well as a stench, according to Archpriest Avvakum. Daniel also describes this person in a not very pleasant way.
According to his apocrypha, the appearance of the Antichrist is approximately as follows: he is ten cubits tall, hair is long to his feet, he has three heads, large legs, luminous eyes like the morning star. In addition, he has steel cheeks and iron teeth, his left hand is made of copper, and his right hand is made of iron, and the size of his hands is three cubits. Of course, over time they stopped painting him as monstrous, but made him more humane. But one important property of him still remained - he was always portrayed as repulsive.
Church teaching
If we consider information from church teaching, then the Antichrist is a false messiah, a false Savior, in other words, posing as the real Christ. According to clergy, he will pose as the Savior, using information about the second coming, and will lead believers into the Kingdom of God, deceiving them and directing them in the opposite direction. People will be promised the same things, but the very concepts of bliss and well-being will be skillfully distorted. Eschatology suggests that when the Kingdom of Antichrist appears, there will be an abundance of material wealth. The very essence of his deception is not that he will not be able to fulfill his promise, but that it will not last forever.
That is, all the wealth and joy will turn into devastation and poverty. Once he comes to power, everyone will truly believe that they are in the Kingdom of God. The only way to save yourself from falling with him is to recognize him as an enemy. Religion itself arose on the basis of belief in miracles, in Christ, and therefore the Antichrist will also work miracles in order to prove to everyone that he is the son of God. But it is worth considering that all miracles will be imaginary and false, because they are contained in the devilish nature. According to him, the Beast will lead many peoples with him and tempt entire nations. Ephraim the Syrian also prophesies that many will believe in the chosenness of the Antichrist.
Antichrist and Russia
According to Seraphim of Sarov, all countries except Russia will bow to the Antichrist. It is believed that only the Slavic peoples can survive, and it is they who will give the most powerful rebuff to the Beast. It is he who will declare the Orthodox country the enemy of the world, since only in it there will still be true believers, and in other countries the religion will fall into desolation. But in Western religions the picture is completely different, for them it is the Slavic peoples who will become the first admirers of the Antichrist.
Church
Another interesting fact is that the Gospel of Matthew states: when the Beast comes to earth, there will be lawlessness and apostasy in the Church itself, and spiritual servants will submit to the slavery of material wealth. Considering what has been happening lately, and how many members of the Church are retreating from their faith, there is reason to believe that this is the real threshold of the coming of the Antichrist. But it is impossible to say this, since there were many harbingers of his appearance in history, but all the prophecies about the Antichrist never came true completely.
Channeling from 06/30/2016.
Q: Hello, Lucifer!
S: Hello, seeker. I'm glad to see you.
Q: Please answer other people's questions.
S: I'm ready.
Q: “If I correctly understood the example with the Mobius strip, then our development looks something like this: we are moving along the Mobius strip, the surface of which is colored black and white, corresponding to Darkness and Light. The ribbon is formed from a strip, one side of which is black (Darkness), the other is white (Light), the junction of the ends of the strip is the place of transition from Darkness to Light and vice versa. And, as I understand it, we are now in the place of such a transition from Darkness to Light?”
S: The comparison is figurative, only instead of a ribbon there is a multidimensional sphere. Let's imagine this multidimensionally. There is a Sphere of Light. You are the Sphere of Light, but at every point of this sphere there is an exit to the Sphere of Darkness. For example, if we imagine this in a linear version, then the inner surface of the sphere is Light, and the outer surface of the sphere is Darkness. The inner surface of the sphere tends to the center of the sphere, and these are your centripetal forces. And the outer surface of the sphere moves away from the center of the sphere, and these are your centrifugal forces. The balance of these two forces holds the sphere as a form. If one of the forces predominates, then, accordingly, the sphere either collapses into the center or flies away from the center. The center is your Divine I Am presence, and it is trying to hold the sphere as the form of its presence.
If you maintain your balance and maintain your shape, then at the same time you seem to be walking along both the inner and outer sides of the sphere. No one force dominates in you.
Q: “Our movement along the Mobius Strip seems to me as follows: the tape is divided into 12 tracks, each of which corresponds to a level of consciousness from 3 to 13. Movement along the tape and the numbering of tracks begins from the edge of the tape to the middle through one number. That is, the outermost track on the dark side corresponds to number 3, and the corresponding outermost track on the light side corresponds to number 4. The next second track on the dark side is number 5, the corresponding second track on the light side is number 6. And so on. The closer to the middle of the tape, the more contrast is lost and the tracks become grayer, and the central 11th track (13th level of consciousness) is generally devoid of transition, since here Light and Darkness are completely balanced - the track has a uniform gray color. Further movement from the center of the tape to the edge in our case does not make sense, since it will be a reverse movement into duality. It follows from this that only by reaching the 13th level of consciousness can we find a balance between Light and Darkness. What awaits us at level 13 and beyond?
S: Each level provides the development of certain qualities of the sphere. If you maintain balance, then both forces work simultaneously: centrifugal and centripetal. And this means that the more you strive for the center of the sphere, the stronger the forces of the opposite are in you, otherwise there will be no balance. Therefore, if you strive to the center of the sphere along the levels of Light, then at the same time you strive from the center of the sphere outward along the levels of Darkness. This balance of forces is very unstable, because at any moment one of the forces can prevail and shift your consciousness outside or inside the sphere. When you are involved in different events with your whole Soul, as you usually say, this means that the balance of forces is disturbed and one of the forces prevails, and your consciousness has shifted either inside the sphere or outside the sphere, because it is your consciousness that is subject to movement. When you are in the observer state, you maintain a balance of power. But such a state is very rare for humanity and individuals. Most of you are in various amplitudes of vibration between dark and light.
Q: For some reason the thought is spinning in my head that I have a double in the dark world.
S: Yes, that's true. But he's not exactly a double. This is your projection. You are what you are. Namely, I Am the Divine Presence, enclosed in the dual sphere. When you maintain balance, your consciousness is at the point of this Divine Presence, and this is the true you, this is the Divine you. It's you.
When your consciousness begins to shift towards the dark or light surface of the sphere, a projection of yours is formed there - a projection of the consciousness of the I Am Presence, a kind of your double is formed, your reflection, which is refracted in the dark or light sphere into bizarre outlines and forms, and your projection creates the projection of your surroundings.
Therefore, you are always balancing on the edge of Light and Darkness. Balancing on the edge of Light and Darkness, you color your Divine radiance in various shades of Light and Darkness, so to speak. That is, you emit a certain glow, energy refracted from the surface of a dark-light sphere. When centripetal forces prevail in you, you emit a glow of joy, love and compassion, and the world of Light accepts and consumes this glow of your joy, love and compassion.
Your luminosity fuels your light world, and within this world, within your dual sphere, is the World of Light. From there there is an entrance portal and an endless unfolding of levels of the World of Light through which you can move.
When centrifugal forces predominate in you, then you emit the luminosity of suffering, fear, aggression. The World of Darkness accepts and consumes your luminosity of suffering, fear and aggression. It feeds your Dark World, and outside your dual sphere there is an exit to the World of Darkness with its levels through which you can move.
You really are constantly balancing between Light and Darkness, between centripetal and centrifugal forces, and thus maintain your form.
Q: Who put these two powers in us?
S: Creator of your world. He divided your luminosity into two poles and placed in you an eternal desire from one pole to the other. That is why it is so difficult for you to make your choice, that is why it is so difficult to constantly strive for the Light, because this desire is held back by the antagonistic desire for Darkness.
Q: What happens to those who steadily choose the World of Light and the desire for Light, choose centripetal forces?
S: He begins to strive for the center of himself, and sooner or later these aspirations destroy his form, he collapses into his I Am Presence. In the physical world this is observed as spontaneous combustion. Such a person flares up with Light and dissolves his sphere.
Q: What happens to those who steadily choose the World of Darkness and the desire for Darkness, choose centrifugal forces?
S: The opposite. This striving from one’s I Am Divine Presence breaks the connection with the source of power and such a form disintegrates through suffering. But with the disintegration of the form in both cases, the Divine I Am Presence does not disappear anywhere, it always returns to its Source. That is why they say that any path leads to God. Through hell faster, through heaven more beautiful.
Q: What then is our transition to a new level? Everyone imagines this as a transition to bright worlds.
S: As long as you are in the zone of duality, you will always have two forces, two poles. The world of forms is a zone of duality. And while you remain in shape, this shape will be maintained by two forces: centripetal and centrifugal. Therefore, at any level, duality will be present, only in different variations. Your movement through the levels of consciousness development is simply an expansion of your sphere. The more the sphere expands, the more you need to have a balance between the light and dark sides.
Expanding from the level of human consciousness, you reach planetary consciousness, then stellar consciousness, then galactic consciousness, and so on. You become more powerful, you become a planet, a star or a galaxy, but at all levels your resilience is tested by two forces. That is why different processes take place on the planet, both light and dark, and it also develops in the zone of duality, and on your sun, because it is also in the zone of duality and so on. There are different forces in your galaxy: the forces of Light and Darkness. The galaxy is also in the zone of duality.
Your forces of Darkness and the forces of Light are the essence of your energy, your inner voices, your connection with the Cosmos of Light and the Cosmos of Darkness from within yourself. And you, as humanity, and other civilizations are representatives of the forces of Darkness and the forces of Light for the planetary and galactic logos.
Planetary and solar logos are part of the Galactic Logos, the same example with the nesting dolls, therefore the sphericity of the world of duality is multi-layered. That is, all human spheres are part of the planetary sphere and develop as parts of it. The spheres of all planets with their inner inhabitants are included in the solar spheres. All solar spheres are included in the galactic spheres and so on. Each of the spheres is held by two forces: centrifugal and centripetal.
Q: Previously, I was told, using the example of nesting dolls, that when I expand my consciousness, I simply dissolve my sphere and begin to feel like a planetary sphere, and then I dissolve my planetary sphere and begin to feel like a solar sphere. But the disintegration of the form of my sphere always occurs in the case of predominance of one of the forces. What happens then?
S: When your sphere as a form disintegrates under the influence of the forces of Light or the forces of Darkness, under the influence of the predominance of centripetal or centrifugal force, then your energy, colored by your choice, does not disappear anywhere. And your dark energy is attracted to the dark side of the Planetary Logos, the planetary sphere. and the light side is attracted to the light side of the planetary sphere of the Planetary Logos. Therefore, you must understand that it depends on you which path the planet will take, on the choice of all its inhabitants.
Q: But we are told that the planet has chosen the bright path.
S: Yes, this is her choice as a separate consciousness. But if the majority of humanity chooses the dark path and strengthens her dark side, she will have to heal for a long time from this dark side of herself that humanity will pass on to her.
Q: I don't understand. After all, if my sphere disintegrates, then my consciousness will unite with the consciousness of the planet. And you say that my I Am Divine presence will in any case return to the Source of Everything.
S: The Divine Presence does not even return, it is like a core, it is always there and in everything. You, as a form, and a planet, and a sun, and a galaxy, are held together by a single core, the I Am of the Divine Presence, as an axis of development, as an axis passing through all spheres, all forms. This axis is the same for everyone. It's hard for you to imagine this figuratively. But if you imagine matryoshka spheres, through the center of which the axis of the Divine I Am Presence passes, you will get an approximate picture.
Or you can imagine it differently. There is a point of potential, the point of Source of the I Am Divine Presence, from it the Rays of the Divine I Am Presence pass in different directions in all possible directions. The spheres of all things are strung on these rays. That is, from each point of the Ray, a kind of sets of spheres are formed, which are held by a single point of centripetality and centrifugality, which holds this shape. There are many such forms on the Rays and some of them intersect, touch, and interact.
All of them are connected by the Rays of the I Am of the Divine Presence with the United Center of Existence, with the Source of Everything. If the sphere develops along the path of expansion, then its personal refraction, that is, the boundaries of its form, simply expand and merge with the boundaries of the larger form of which it is a part. This fusion replenishes the boundaries of the greater form with the dark and light qualities of the expanded spheres.
If the collapse or rupture of the sphere occurs, in the case when it chooses only the path of Light or only the path of Darkness, then the consciousness of the I Am Presence remains at the point of action of the two forces, at the point that formed the sphere. Therefore, nothing returns anywhere, but simply becomes true, remains in its place, freeing itself from form. This is why you are all quantum connected, because the Ray of I Am Divine Presence is thus present in everyone.
Q: So, if a person chooses the path of Light and follows it steadily, then sooner or later he will ignite his form and return to his true state as the I Am Divine Presence. If a person chooses only the path of Darkness and follows it steadily, then sooner or later his sphere will burst, and he will again return to his I Am Divine Presence. If a person chooses the path of balance, then he will expand his consciousness more and more, and what next? What's the point of all this?
S: The meaning is the study of all one’s sides and qualities, all the possibilities of the action of both energies. Developing along the path of Light, you bring information into the data bank of the universes, information about the luminosity of a given quality, you develop your personal qualities, the qualities of your Soul, you develop new colors of luminosity. The same thing happens when following the path of Darkness. If you develop in balance, then you also bring your luminosity to the data bank of the Universe. But on this path you learn to create in a state of duality.
Q: Don’t we create on the path of Light?
S: Create. But the closer you are to the center, the less personal freedom of creativity you have and you submit to the Hierarchy of the forces of Light and carry out its tasks. These are the warriors of light that you are told about, the Angelic Host is an example. They do not have freedom of choice; they perform tasks that are determined for them by the Hierarchs of Light.
Q: And along the path of Darkness?
S: Same thing. Only there the Hierarchs of Darkness come into action.
Q: What if we develop along the path of balance?
S: Then you can become independent creators, you do not obey anyone and you simply must follow your I Am Divine presence. Or rather, both forces in you should be equally correlated with the center of the sphere, with the center of the I Am of the Divine Presence. All creators of the Universe develop along this path.
Q: Is there Creation on the path of Darkness?
S: Yes, there is, but within a very limited framework.
Q: We are told that in the Hierarchy of Darkness there is no free will, but in the Hierarchy of Light there is such free choice.
S: It’s just that choosing Light is easier and more joyful. The choice exists between two poles - this is freedom of choice. When you choose, say, the path of Light, then you have already made a choice and are no longer free in the sense that you no longer have the choice of Darkness. You are moving along the path of Light towards your collapse into the center of the Divine I Am Presence. You can, of course, vary this path, but your direction of movement is already set and the deeper you go along this path, the less opportunities you have to turn back, because the centripetal force increases as you approach the center, these are the same magnetic properties. And vice versa, if you have chosen the path of Darkness, then you steadily strive from the center of the sphere, and the further you strive there, the more difficult it is for you to return back, the stronger the centrifugal forces, those same electrical properties.
If you are balancing between two forces, then you constantly, every second, make a choice in one direction or another, and electromagnetic forces act in you. Their balance gives birth to your path, and on this path you are free. The more you expand your consciousness, that is, your boundaries, relatively speaking, the larger the surface of the sphere becomes, the more degrees of freedom you have, but also the more strength you need to maintain the balance of your form. This eternal struggle between Light and Darkness is always with you.
Q: Why was all this invented?
S: Then, so that new unique creators appear who would have the potential of dark and light forces, and learn to create in their balance.
Q: So harmony is the balance of two forces?
S: Yes, exactly. The harmony of your world is the balance of two forces: Light and Darkness.
Q: So, all the stories about selling Souls to the Devil are luring the consciousness of people onto the path of Darkness and keeping them in the shackles of centrifugal forces?
S: Yes, you're right.
Q: But then it turns out that the Teachers of Light are also luring us onto the bright path. Each of both camps is fighting for the Souls of humanity. Why, if the path of balance is sought?
S: Because everyone does, as they say, their job. Everyone holds their own part of the power. Light forces, the Light Hierarchy are created in order to hold and direct the centripetal force of the Dual Universe. The Hierarchy of Darkness was created in order to hold back centrifugal forces. Between these forces is a crucified man, this is the meaning of the crucifixion, in which the man’s hands are crucified in two directions between Light and Darkness, but the axis of the cross maintains his connection with the Ray of the Divine I Am Presence.
Q: Then why did Jesus take the path of suffering? It turns out that he walked the path of Darkness?
S: No. He was going to follow the path of joy and light, but he was given no choice. He was not accepted, and he balanced the two forces within himself and submitted to the choice of the people. Remember the story about how he was in the desert for 40 days and there he was tempted by the Devil. This was his balancing. And on the cross there were still his fluctuations, but still he was able to balance himself, and thus expanded his consciousness to the galactic one. He took into himself the suffering of other people and balanced it with his light. He accepted the dark side of humanity of that era, which threatened destruction to humanity, and developed in himself the same amount of centripetal force, the force of Light, through communication with the Source of Everything. Thus, having accepted all human negativity, he, due to the development of light forces in himself to balance this negativity, expanded to galactic proportions. This is his feat. This is the meaning of the phrase that he took upon himself the sins of humanity.
Q: So, the statement that suffering purifies the Soul suggests that this is the path of hell. And through the path of hell lies also the path to God. And as a result of suffering, the form is torn apart by electrical centrifugal forces and the Divine I Am Presence is purged of form?
S: But it also means the path of Christ, which showed a new way of rapid expansion of consciousness through suffering. This was new. It turned out that the antagonism of forces can lead to such a rapid development of awareness, to a rapid expansion of one’s sphere of Divine Presence.
Q: But the consciousness of Christ was inhuman.
S: At first, at his birth, it was human, that is, on a human scale. But then, as you already know, the galactic consciousness connected to him to help him produce the necessary amount of Light to balance the dark side of humanity of that era. Of course, a small human consciousness could not cope with this, but it did not look like connecting anyone to it, the process was mutual. He opened his essence for the infusion of Divine Light, that is, he restored the connection with the Source of Everything and thus coped with his task.
It wasn't an easy journey. This is precisely the meaning of the phrase: thy will be done, Father. It was a connection to the Source of Everything, consent to connection, a call to connect. And there, on the cross, this happened at the maximum point of his suffering, for he suffered not only from the suffering of the flesh, but also from the suffering in him of the dark side of all humanity of that era. This was great suffering that needed to be balanced by the Great Light. And having descended into human form, he acquired the qualities of God. This is his great path that he showed to people. The fact that people have great powers and they can develop to the state of deity with a qualitative leap.
Q: But does this mean that the same thing can be done along the path of joy?
S: Yes, of course. But where do you find so much joyful energy? Humanity produces more energy of suffering and fear than of joy and love.
Therefore, if humanity produced as much joy as it produced suffering in the era of Christ, then it would be possible to follow the same path, only in reverse. To balance all the joy of humanity with dark power and thus expand into the state of deity from human form.
Q: Are you saying that this will be the path of the Antichrist?
S: Yes. Although this is a shock for you. You imagine the Antichrist as some kind of terrible person, but this, perhaps, will be a completely charming person.
Q: So will he?
S: It depends on you.
Q: So if we all choose the path of joy together, then the Antichrist will come?
S: Yes, to balance the forces. If there is a volunteer for this path. But, most likely, he will be found among the forces of Darkness.
Q: And then, as a result of such a mission of the Antichrist, a new dark god will be born at the level of Christ, at the galactic level?
S: Yes.
Q: Is that why the forces of Light protest so much against this?
S: Yes.
Q: But why? After all, they must understand that this is necessary for the balance of the world, that this is how everything works.
S: They fulfill their task of multiplying the light. This is their program, and beyond the program they do not act or think, as you think. They do not have freedom of choice, unlike humans.
Q: Wait, what happens next then? There is a Christ, suppose, and the Antichrist will be born and rise? They will both be like centers of holding forces, and what will happen then?
S: They will merge into one essence and will rule the world; they will, as you correctly put it, maintain the balance of the world of forms at a new level.
Q: Or they will start fighting with each other.
S: The Light Hierarchy presupposes exactly this. Therefore, they do everything to prevent such an event.
Q: But then, if the path of a qualitative leap is already known, then many people can follow it, that is, along these two paths.
S: Yes, that's the point. There will be a new civilization of gods. A civilization, each essence of which will combine Christ and Antichrist, will maintain this balance in balance by the civilization of galactic Logoi.
Q: So our entire world has three ways: to flare up into Light, to scatter into Darkness, or to develop into higher forms of balance between Light and Darkness?
S: Yes, you understand.
Q: But then it turns out that if humanity follows the path of Light, then sooner or later the Antichrist will still come and balance it with the power of Darkness? So, everything is inevitable? What is our choice? And how then can the world catch fire if the Antichrist comes anyway?
S: The world will burn into Light if the mission of the Antichrist does not succeed as much as the mission of Christ succeeded.
Q: It turns out that now the Light has the advantage. They have Christ, who holds back the forces of Darkness, and until the Antichrist appears, the advantages of the Light will remain and the Light Hierarchy will lead the world to collapse, to combustion into Light?
S: Yes, this is her mission.
Q: Is that why they spread scary stories about the Antichrist and his coming?
S: But this may be a truly terrible period for humanity, because to balance the Light of the Christ Consciousness, many forces of Darkness will be needed, which can plunge the world into chaos and suffering.
Q: And this is precisely what the forces of Light, the Hierarchy of Light, warn against?
S: Yes.
Q: Then it turns out that as long as humanity suffers and its suffering is balanced by Christ, then the Antichrist will not come?
S: This is another mission of the Christ Consciousness - to maintain balance and prevent the coming of the Antichrist.
Q: It is precisely because humanity suffers that the Antichrist cannot come, because there is still a balance of Light and Darkness.
S: There is a balance of Light and Darkness because there is Christ.
Q: But if humanity follows the path of joy, then the coming of the Antichrist is inevitable. It turns out that the path of suffering is good?
S: In the higher worlds there are no assessments and division into bad and good. There is a choice of expediency. It turns out that this path currently provides the maximum release of human Souls from their forms and their maximum development. The path of suffering leads to the breaking of forms and the release of the Soul, its joining to God and at the same time restrains the coming of the Antichrist. This is the strategy of the Hierarchy of Light.
Q: Yes, but on the path of suffering, as you said, the dark side accumulated by the suffering of humanity is released and joins the dark side of the planet.
S: Yes, however, at the galactic level, all this suffering and negativity is balanced by the Light of the Christ Consciousness, and again there is a balance, and the human form exists until its natural death as a form.
Q: That’s why they created a closed system in the world of suffering, when a person cannot get out of it until he suffers to the fullest?
S: You attach moral values to this. I understand you, because I know what suffering is. But on a galactic scale, all this is simply the properties of rotation of the energies of the Divine I Am Presence, work on new qualities of energy.
Q: Then why the karma mechanism? It turns out that they explain to the human Soul that it is necessary to choose the path of suffering and this will lead it to the highest development, but in fact they are dragging it onto the path of generating the energy of suffering so that the Antichrist does not come?
S: Try to leave grades aside. This situation is explained to every human Soul. No one has canceled freedom of choice. Without your choice, nothing can happen. In addition, the “knurled”, so to speak, path of suffering really leads to expansion. Each sufferer is connected to the Forces of Christ Consciousness at the moment of death and he experiences a balancing and thus a spasmodic development. Therefore, you are free to choose two paths before incarnation.
Will you seek the path of joy and maintain the necessary balance of joy and love on the planet, but then the increase in your luminosity in afterlife will be insignificant, to a lesser extent. This is the path through heaven - the path of numerous incarnations, beautiful, but slow. Many people choose this path. Or you will go through hell, through suffering, which is rewarded posthumously, will add to you as much Light as you suffered, and so you will go through the path of Christ, but on a smaller scale, and yet you will dramatically increase your awareness. Many choose this path.
Q: But then it turns out that if the majority of humanity chooses this path, then all of humanity should have already expanded its awareness very much?
S: That’s what happens, you make strong leaps compared to the embryonic form of humanity that existed at the dawn of human civilizations. But, unfortunately, the result is unstable.
Q: What about the Atlanteans who were destroyed?
S: They were not destroyed. They destroyed themselves. That's what I'm talking about. This was a leap in the development of awareness, but they misused their power gained from the development of the entire human race. Their actions, their experiments with their magical energy attracted them to the very cataclysms that happened on the planet. This was not retribution, it was the law of cause and effect.
They themselves accomplished their destiny, and the Forces of Light did not interfere with this accomplishment, because they understood that in such a state humanity could not exist, because it would lead to the collapse of the planetary form. They only tried to save those Souls who did not fall under the investigation of their magical abilities and erased the memory of these incarnations during future births. Everything had to start all over again. Again the human race was seeded from a humanoid state, which was to develop into the state of gods.
Q: So what should we do?
S: I can’t advise you. This is your choice, the choice of all humanity.
Q: But few people want the coming of the Antichrist. It turns out that you need to suffer and you don’t need to rejoice?
S: If we talk about you personally or about each specific person, then it is his free choice: to suffer or to rejoice. A balance of power is maintained in the world, otherwise the world of forms would have already disintegrated. If we talk about the fate of all humanity, then this is a complex multi-level process of choice. In this case, it is best to choose the path of balance, then the Antichrist will not be needed.
Q: If all of humanity chooses the path of balance and copes with it, then the coming of the Antichrist is not necessary? But what will become of Christ then?
S: He will complete his mission and make his choice in further development. In the meantime, he cannot do this, because like a colossus he maintains the balance of your world. Kudos to him for that.
Q: Which path do you choose?
S: Of course the path of balance. I am here to point it out.
Q: Thank you, Lightbringer! By the way, if they call you that, does that mean you are from the Hierarchy of Light?
S: I was from her, but now I represent both hierarchies.
Q: Then what is the Devil?
S: These are the forces that are held back by centrifugal forces.
Q: You said that you gave the teaching of balance to the Buddha. What's wrong with him now?
Q: Thank you for the information.
S: And I thank you, seeker, for searching for the truth!
Higher Powers: Lucifer
Contact: Selena
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Christ and Antichrists are a burning topic in our time! I would like to draw attention not so much to the apocalyptic as to the gospel and historical aspects. Who are the Antichrists, where do they come from? The Lord addresses the Jews: “I have come in the Name of My Father, and you do not receive Me; But if another comes in his own name, you will receive him.”(John 5:43). What means "in your name"? A person who does something in his own name is called an impostor. Such an impostor, says Christ, is what you will accept. Moreover, this impostor will not even hide behind the Name of the Heavenly Father. The Lord warns: “Then if anyone says to you, Behold, here is Christ, or there, do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I told you in advance. So, if they say to you, “Behold,[He] in the desert,” don’t go out; "Here,[He] in secret rooms,” don’t believe it; For just as lightning comes from the east and is visible even to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man» (Matt. 24:23–27).It is Great Tuesday of Holy Week, there is very little time left before Golgotha, and the Lord is talking on the Mount of Olives with His disciples, proclaiming to them the future. "False Christs and false prophets will rise"... A false prophet is a phenomenon more or less understandable to everyone - a person who has an unusual spirit in himself (but not God's) and with the help of this spirit broadcasts something, but who are false Christs? The Apostle John, who heard the Savior Himself, said: “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God, but it is the spirit of the Antichrist, about whom you heard that he would come, and is now already in the world.”(1 John 4:2–3). John the Theologian makes a kind of diagnosis: the Antichrist is a spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ who came in the flesh.
Even then, in the 1st century, the Antichrist was spoken of in the present tense, although they also spoke of the Antichrist who is coming. The spirit of Antichrist has always been there, and it still exists today. Many people do not confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. What does the word “antichrist” mean when translated into Russian? The Greek word “anti” has two meanings. The main meaning is “instead”, that is, replacing one thing with another, forgery, substitution. Another meaning of this word was formed among the Greeks, and then passed into other languages. This is “counteraction”, that is, “against”.
In this case, the word “antichrist” means “instead of Christ.” The ancient Romans, Jews, pagans, sometimes adherents of other religions, and finally communists opposed the Savior. But if you delve into these phenomena, it turns out that these speeches were never directed against Christ Himself.
Anyone who goes against the Lord is doomed to offer someone (or something) in His place. This is anti-Christianity, about which John the Theologian spoke: “The spirit of the Antichrist, about whom you heard that he would come, is now already in the world”.
To be the Antichrist means to impersonate Christ. What kind of person (or phenomenon) is this that offers itself in His place? In other words, how can one come to such a life as to offer oneself in place of Christ? Thinking about this, let's highlight four reasons. The first is insanity in the literal sense of the word. This really happens. People with deep mental damage often impersonate someone, for example, Julius Caesar or Napoleon. Of course, sick people are worthy of pity, but not only pity. Of course, there is brain damage, but why did this damage lead to this particular result, predetermine this particular sense of self? In psychiatry there is a term “delusions of grandeur”. But this “mania” begins long before admission to a psychiatric clinic. Insanity can also occur in an intelligent person who shows himself to be a talented leader.
The second reason is self-hypnosis. It’s hard to say how people get to this point, but in any case, once, somewhere a person allowed himself to cross a certain line, and this is always the line between truth and lies. Satan himself is called a liar and the father of lies. Once a person lied to himself, at least that he was talented, smart, strong or handsome. And he did it this way: “I’m smarter than that,” “I’m better than that,” and finally, “I’m holier than that”!
The third reason is possession by an unclean spirit (possession). If the first reason, one might say, is psychiatric, and the second is moral and psychological, then the third already belongs to the field of demonology. Such a person can also be smart, talented and capable of behaving quite adequately in all other life situations. Such people are found even among parishioners. This may be a very devoted and faithful Christian, but God has allowed an unclean spirit to remain in him, which manifests itself in a certain way. In this case, the Antichrist-false Christ turns out to be a messenger, a messenger of the unclean spirit, that is, the devil himself.
One can also point out a fourth reason – ordinary deception and quackery. The person is well aware that he is not who he claims to be, but at the same time, for some purpose, he continues to play his role. This is a swindler, a deceiver, a charlatan.
Let's take a brief historical excursion. When we talk about the Antichrist, we mean that his appearance will happen in the future. There are known concerns regarding accepting the “seal of the Antichrist.” This fear arose twenty centuries ago. Often we are confident in the exceptionality of the current moment, in the extraordinary nature of the events taking place “here and now,” in the grandeur of what, in our opinion, should happen tomorrow or at least in our lifetime. That's why it's useful to know history. It warns and restrains us from certain impulses to which we are subject.
The history of antichrists, those who came “in place” of Christ, begins with Christ. Not everyone knows that in those days Christ was not alone. As in our time, many pretended to be Him. The references contained in the Acts of the Apostles are confirmed in the chronicle of Josephus.
This is what the book of Acts says about Judas the Galilean, or, as he was otherwise called, the Gaulonite: “During the census, Judas the Galilean appeared and carried away quite a crowd with him; but he perished, and all who obeyed him were scattered” (Acts 5:37). Josephus writes about him in the book “The Jewish War”: “Further in Sepphores in Galilee, Judas, the son of that Hezekiah, who once at the head of a band of robbers ravaged the country, but was defeated by King Herod, raised quite a large crowd to its feet, broke into the royal arsenals , armed his people, and attacked those who sought dominance."
This was the man who claimed to be the Messiah. He died, and his uprising ended in nothing. Judas the Galilean raised a war against the census: “Look, Jews, the Roman emperor wants to register us as if we were things!” But it was thanks to the participation of Joseph and Mary in the census that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, where he was supposed to be born according to biblical prophecies.
About Theudas in the book “The Acts of the Holy Apostles” it is said: “... Theudas appeared, posing as someone great, and about four hundred people attached themselves to him; but he was killed, and all who obeyed him were scattered and disappeared” (Acts 5:36). Here is what Josephus writes about this in the book “Jewish Antiquities”: “A certain Theudas, a deceiver, persuaded a large mass of people to take with them all their property and follow it to the Jordan River. He pretended to be a prophet and assured that he would order the river to part and let them through without difficulty. With these words he misled many. However, Fab, the governor, did not allow their madness. He sent a detachment of cavalry against them, which unexpectedly attacked them. Many of them were killed, many were captured alive. In a frenzy, the soldiers cut off Fevda’s own head and took it to Jerusalem.”
Another native of Samaria, brought up in Alexandria, who lived with Christ, but did not communicate with Him, is Simon Magus. After the Lord ascended to Heaven, Simon returns to the Holy Land: “Now there was in the city a certain man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic and astonished the people of Samaria, posing as someone great.”(Acts 8:9). At this time, Deacon Philip, one of the seventy apostles, was walking around Samaria. He preached, baptized and cast out demons from the possessed. Then the apostles Peter and John come, lay hands, and the Holy Spirit descends on those who believe. Seeing this, Simon felt a power greater than his, and wanted to receive this power by offering the Apostle Peter money, “saying: Give me this power, so that whoever I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him: Let your silver perish with you, because you thought to receive the gift of God with money. You have no part or lot in this, for your heart is not right before God. So repent of this sin of yours, and pray to God."(Acts 8:19–22). However, Simon did not repent and continued to present himself as the “power of God.” “Everyone listened to him, from the smallest to the greatest, saying: This is the great power of God.”(Acts 8:10).With him was a certain woman named Selene, who called herself “The Wisdom of God.” Simon and Selene traveled throughout the Empire, confusing people. This story ended ingloriously in Rome. Simon, in the presence of Emperor Nero, promises to ascend to heaven. Then the Apostle Peter preached in Rome. Simon actually took off from the ground and flew through the air. The Apostle Peter fervently prayed that the Lord would disgrace this demonic act and, by the power of the name of Christ, drive away the unclean spirit. Simon the Magus fell from a height to the ground, crashed and died in agony. Thus ended the grandiose scam of Simon the Magus, a sorcerer who performed many amazing miracles, seduced and confused many.
Further, the history of anti-Christianity follows different paths. One of them is Jewish anti-Christianity. The Jewish people did not accept Jesus of Nazareth as the true Christ. The promise that Christ will come is the core of the entire Jewish faith, its essence. It is often said that the Jewish faith is a law. But legalism is not its foundation. The heart of the Jewish faith is the expectation of the Messiah. Abraham lived with this expectation, Moses lived, these expectations were supported by the ancient biblical prophets among the Jewish people, and since Jesus of Nazareth was not accepted as the Messiah, the Jews lived with this expectation for another twenty centuries. Today's Judaism is faith in Christ, but not in the Christ who is spoken of in the Creed, but in Christ the Messiah, who must come, in whom all the promises of the prophets must be fulfilled, and who must establish the Kingdom of God on earth.
There is no need to exaggerate Jewish ideas about messianism. It is often said that the Jews dream of their own Jewish kingdom and strive to dominate other nations. But the true basis of their aspirations is the establishment of the Kingdom of God. The people of Israel are the firstborn of God, and all other nations must come to the Messiah and believe in God through Him. In this, Judaism is almost entirely consistent with the Christian faith.
The Messiah was also expected in the time of Jesus Christ. In the New Testament we see the expression several times: "He was one of those who sought the comfort of Israel". This is said, for example, about Anna, about Simon, about Simeon the God-Receiver. This tense anticipation is the essence of Judaism. It acquired its new form after the people rejected Christ. For this, the Jews lost Jerusalem, lost their Temple (since the purpose of the Old Testament temple was fulfilled), and lost their land. In the year 70, after the Roman emperors Titus and Vespasian sacked Jerusalem, the Jews were scattered throughout the world, and the expectation of the Messiah acquired a new, special meaning for them. It turned into a dream of returning to their homeland, of restoring their statehood, of reviving the desecrated Holy Land. When you really want something, when you look forward to something, then what you want, as a rule, comes, and you don’t have to wait long for it. Therefore, Jewish “messiahs” appeared more than once.
The beginning of the 2nd century was marked by the appearance of Simon Bar Kokhba (Son of the Star), called Bar Koziba (Son of Lies) in the Talmud. The attitude towards this man was ambiguous, but the most authoritative rabbi of that time, Rabbi Akiba, accepted him, believed, blessed and proclaimed him the Messiah. Declared the Messiah, Bar Kochba leads a second revolt against the Romans.
At that time, the Roman Emperor Hadrian begins the restoration of Jerusalem under the name Aelia Capitoli. On the site of Golgotha and the Temple of Solomon, he erects temples of Roman gods and goddesses. The Jews perceived this as the greatest desecration of their shrines. And so Bar Kochba, like the Messiah, raises an uprising and leads the Jews. His prayer, preserved in the Talmud, is interesting: “Lord, you don’t have to help, just don’t interfere!” These words are obviously imbued with the spirit of Antichrist. “I came in the name of the Father, and they did not accept Me. Another will come in his name, and accept him..." We didn't have to wait long; Only a hundred years have passed since the time of Christ. It all ended with the defeat of the uprising by the Roman army. Since then, the Jews have been scattered throughout the earth. The Jewish synagogue itself was forced to recognize Bar Kokhba as a false messiah.
Imagine the tragedy of the Emau travelers. We rarely think about it. After all, they believed in the living Christ, and now for the third day it turns out that Jesus of Nazareth, the Jesus who fed five thousand people with five loaves, the Jesus who preached the Sermon on the Mount, healed and cast out demons, is dead! Did He really turn out to be, it’s scary to say this word, a deceiver? It’s already the third day since He has been absent from earth, which means the prophecies have not come true!
Travelers tell the Risen Jesus about this, and, as we know, the Lord reveals himself to them in the breaking of bread. But what a test of faith! What a spiritual tragedy these people were destined to endure! The Jews also had to lose faith in Bar Kochba. But the anti-Christianity did not end there.
The history of Judaism knows another false messiah - Sabbatai (Shabtai) Zvi. It was the 17th century. This time was not kind to the Jews. The fires of the Inquisition were still burning, there were ghettos - Jewish quarters, beyond which Jews were forbidden to go, pogroms were systematically organized, causing retaliatory hatred of Jews towards Christians.In 1648, in the synagogue of the city of Smyrna, located on the territory of modern Turkey, Sabbateus Zevi aloud pronounced the sacred tetragram, that is, the Name of God, which was not allowed to be pronounced by anyone and which was pronounced only by the High Priest once a year on the holiday of purification (Yom Kippur), entering Holy of Holies. For sixteen centuries no Jew had heard this Name; it was transmitted secretly. And today we do not know exactly how to pronounce the Name of God, we only know its spelling. Among the Jews to this day, violators are punished with a curse for pronouncing this Name. The Jews believe that the Messiah, when he comes to Earth, will pronounce a Name that is known only to the high priests. Moreover, the Messiah will not be a high priest or a Levite, but he will pronounce this Name as a sacred password.
And so Sabbateus Zevi pronounces this Name. For this he is immediately excommunicated from the synagogue. However, he begins his sermon, and more than half of the Jews of the whole world accepted him and followed him. According to Jewish beliefs, the birthday of the Messiah should coincide with the day of the destruction of the first and second Jerusalem temples. The destruction occurred under Nebuchadnezzar and the Romans, seven centuries apart, but on the same day. Sabbateus Zvi was indeed born on this day, he turned thirty years old, and he correctly pronounced the Name of God.
He was a widower. Sabbateus married a girl who had a vision that she would marry the Messiah. When his wife died, he entered into holy marriage with the Torah (Pentateuch of Moses). Sabbateus Zvi had a unique prayer: “Praise be to You, O Lord, who allows the forbidden!” He began by beginning to violate all Jewish prohibitions. This led to the creation of a doctrine calling for doing what is forbidden. It’s not hard to guess where such “morality” will lead!
Sabbateus went to Istanbul in order to convert the Sultan, who was supposed to accept him as the Messiah. The Koran also says that Christ must come again. The Sultan offered Sabbateus Zevi a choice - either convert to Islam or face the death penalty. Of course, everyone expected that the Messiah would refuse to convert to Islam and would be killed, thereby fulfilling what the prophet Isaiah said. However, to the horror of the entire Jewish world, Sabbateus Zvi converted to Islam, explaining this with the intention of uniting all religions. Many Jews turned away from him. Sabbateus Zvi created his own sect, which existed until the beginning of the 20th century.
In the 18th century, a certain Jacob Frank announced that the spirit of Sabbateus Zevi had moved into him. He was impressed by the morality that allowed him to break prohibitions, and he said that you can fight evil only by tasting it. That is, by tasting sin, you eradicate this sin (heresy of the Nicolaitans). This inevitably led to outright outrages. Later, Jacob Frank and his followers converted to Catholicism.
Another phenomenon of false messianism arose in the depths of the Christian Church, where false Christs also appear from time to time. The Lord said that he would come a second time, and some of the mystery of the words about the Second Coming, present in both the Gospel and apostolic prophecies, and even more so in the Apocalypse, allows us to interpret this coming great event in different ways and even speculate on it.
However, this phenomenon is less typical for Christianity. The Jews had and will have this, since they are waiting for the Messiah, outwardly an ordinary person called to save them, restore the Temple, and lead the nations to the Kingdom of God. There is no such teaching in Christianity. The Second Coming of Christ is the Coming in glory. The Apocalypse says that Christ will come, bind Satan, and the thousand-year reign on earth will begin (chiliasm). Even some of the holy fathers of antiquity, such as Papias of Hierapolis (c. 70–155 or 165), Justin the philosopher († c. 165) and Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130–c. 202), accepted the doctrine that when the Lord will come a second time, finally, and not only internally (in the heart), but also externally, the Kingdom of God will be established on earth. In those days this was not considered heresy. By speculating on this teaching, false Christs appeared.
From history books we know about the peasant war that broke out in Germany in 1525. The basis of this uprising was not only social, but also religious reasons. Essentially it was anti-Christian. In 1517, Martin Luther began a reformation that quickly gained momentum. And the peasant uprising led by Thomas Münzer takes place under the slogan of “establishing the Kingdom of God on earth.” Luther himself was horrified to see this bloody uprising and called on the German electors to “crush the rebels like rabid dogs,” which is what ultimately happened. Yielding to this seduction, many people died.
No less tragic events unfolded in North German Munster, where John of Leiden, declaring himself “King of the New Israel,” proclaims the “Kingdom of Christ.” Troops sent by the bishop surrounded the city. For a long time he was under siege; A terrible famine began, leading to cannibalism. The city was taken, the false Christ and several of his “prophets” were executed after cruel torture, and their headless bodies were transported throughout Germany in metal cages, and then these cages were placed on the tower of the Church of St. Lambert as a warning to everyone. They remain there to this day.
Something similar happened in Russia, where there was such a phenomenon as “Khlystyism.” The members of this sect were, as a rule, illiterate commoners. They were also called “jumpers”, since the prayers were accompanied by characteristic dancing - “sacred dances”. This is how they tried to acquire the Holy Spirit.
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In 1645, under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a “miracle” happened in the Starodub volost of the Kovrov district of the Vladimir province. “Three angels ascended to heaven,” and the Lord of hosts incarnated into the “pure flesh” of a certain Danila Filippovich. The angels ascended, but the “Lord of Hosts,” that is, Danila Filippovich, remained. Soon he finds himself a “son of Christ.” He became a peasant from the Murom district, Ivan Timofeevich Suslov, who followed Danila. They said that he was crucified, and he was resurrected. Then they found a girl who became “Holy Mother of God.” These peasants gained followers. The time has come, and “Ivan-Christ” “ascended to heaven”, and “Danila-Savaoth” remained on earth “forever”.
Russian sectarians lived by such ideas. They were persecuted by rulers right up to Emperor Peter III - an unfortunate man who, by the will of fate, found himself on the Russian throne. His power-hungry wife, the future Catherine II, got tired of this, Peter “died suddenly,” and she ascended the throne. But the sovereign still managed to do a lot, including proclaiming the “Manifesto on the Freedom of the Nobility”, abolishing the Secret Chancellery, issuing a decree on freedom of foreign trade, which, among other things, contained a requirement for careful treatment of forests as one of the most important resources of Russia and a decree that qualified the murder of peasants by landowners as “tyrant torture” and provided for lifelong exile for this.
It was Peter III who lifted the persecution of the eunuchs and began to patronize them. Grateful eunuchs called the emperor a “white dove” and claimed that he had been castrated even before marriage, and therefore Catherine could not give birth to a child from him. It was even rumored that his mother, Princess Anna Petrovna, was the “immaculate Virgin”... Here are the poetic lines of that time describing the birth of Peter III: “She was blessed by the Holy Spirit, the womb dissolved, a good child was born, the walls of hell fell down.”
Peter III was declared the Christ, but since his death was announced and Catherine reigned, rumors began to circulate that he was supposedly saved. On November 22, 1772, a certain guest appeared in the house of the Ural resident Denis Pyanov, to whom Pyanov retold these rumors. The guest promised that he would lead all the dissatisfied to Turkish lands, where they would all have a good life. To the question: “How is this possible?”, the guest replied that he had enough money for this, and then leaned over and whispered: “I am Peter.” This mysterious guest was none other than Emelyan Pugachev. Following this, just as once in Germany, a great civil strife began in Russia. Pugachev’s uprising is not just a peasant war, in fact it is another attempt to establish the “Kingdom of God” on earth. Emelyan Pugachev - Peter III, aka “Christ” and “God”... It all ended, as usual, with the brutal suppression of the uprising, and Emelyan Pugachev was taken to St. Petersburg in a steel cage. So these adventures were repeated time after time and failed, for which thousands of people paid with their lives.
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In a more refined, philosophical, profound form, this is realized in the doctrine of avatars. Christ said: “All of them, no matter how many of them came before Me, are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not listen to them"(John 10:8). The Christian faith firmly holds that one day “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.”(John 1:14), one day“a great mystery of piety took place: God appeared in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16). This only happened one day, and will never happen again. All those who came before Christ are thieves and robbers, and those who come after Him are false Christs and false prophets. The Second Coming will certainly happen, but as Christ said: “As lightning comes from the east and is visible even to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”(Matt. 24:27). When they say: “...he is in this room,” or “in that room,” or “in the desert,” do not believe it. The Lord Himself taught us this.
One of the world famous avatars is Sri Sathya Sai Baba, who was born in India in 1926 and died in 2011. According to the beliefs of his followers, he was a reincarnation of the Sai Shirdi avatar. Indeed, a most unique phenomenon... Already as a child, he demonstrated his ability to materialize objects, opening empty bags and taking food out of them at the request of those present. This happened publicly, in front of many. Today millions of people are his followers. This is a worldwide movement. He is a living “deity”, he performed miracles, healed the sick. They say he even raised him from the dead...
Such an amazing case is described. One of the Indian governors was traveling on the train. Suddenly the electric motor caught fire, and disaster seemed imminent. Then the governor mentally called upon Sai Baba. Suddenly an electrician comes in, repairs the damage at full speed, and just as suddenly disappears. After arriving at his destination, the governor boards a plane whose landing gear fails. Another passenger, following some inner urge, rushes into the cockpit and pulls some lever (although he was not a pilot and did not understand anything about it). As a result, the landing gear is deployed and the plane lands safely. When the governor called Sai Baba to thank him for saving him from the plane crash, he replied: “Why didn’t you mention the electrician?” That is, miracles in the literal sense of the word... Physicists, chemists, biologists, psychologists and criminologists came to him to study these anomalous phenomena.
However, this man is not unique. People similar to him were also found in Ancient Greece, forming the basis of ancient Greek mythology. Mythical characters are not just a figment of the wild human imagination, just like our epic heroes. There are always real prototypes behind them.
Finally, our contemporary, who does not perform miracles, does not do anything supernatural, but stubbornly repeats: “I am Christ.” He came “in his name” and also drew thousands of people with him. In the same row stands “White Brotherhood” by Marina Tsvigun - “Maiden Christ”...
All of these are false Christs, whose coming the Lord predicted, the forerunners of the final Antichrist spoken of in the Holy Scriptures. That Antichrist is unlikely to be significantly different from these, unless his role turns out to be universal. Possessed people are enslaved by unclean spirits, and Satan himself will control this. Everything else will proceed approximately according to the same scenario: this is the solution of political issues, and the onset of universal peace, abolishing wars on earth, and the resolution of economic problems, and the world kingdom, and “God on earth.” The same “Danilas” and “Ivans”, only on a different scale...
The coming of the “great” Antichrist, the “man of sin”, will end this stage of human history. He will be destroyed by Christ himself, who will come and kill the Antichrist with His Spirit. Not by human forces, but by the Second Coming of Christ himself, all this will be destroyed and destroyed.
Munzer Thomas (Thomas) (c. 1490–1525) - a radical preacher during the Reformation, the spiritual leader of a social movement that preached universal equality based on evangelical ideals and terror against the traditional Church and the nobility. The Münzer movement was associated with a powerful uprising of German peasants against the feudal lords (German Peasants' War of the 16th century).
John of Leiden (c. 1509–1536) - leader of the Münster Anabaptists.
Avatara, sometimes avatar (Sanskrit "अवतार" - "descent"), is a term in Hindu philosophy, usually used to denote the descent of God from the spiritual world to the lower realms of existence.
Without a doubt, the greatest man of the end times will be the one whom the Bible calls the Antichrist. He will play such an important role that we need to carefully examine everything that has been said about him.
I. Who is the Antichrist?
This is the last great leader who will rule the earth at the end of time and will lead mankind's final rebellion against God and Christ. Jesus was the perfect Man and the image of God on earth. But people loved darkness more than light, and rejected Him. Soon a superman will appear who will embody all the power of Satan. Using cunning to cover up his cruelty, this false Christ will deceive the nations, so that they will accept him as their savior. Paul calls him a man of sin because he will represent the sinner in the extreme. With his followers he will manifest the highest degree of evil that man can achieve, individually or collectively. “The sin of man must be fully manifested in the man of sin” (Mauro). The Antichrist, in fact, will be the greatest adversary of God who has ever appeared among people.
II. Will the Antichrist really be a person?
Some see in the Antichrist only a system, a kind of principle that has spread in the world and is corrupting it, a collective evil spirit that will be revealed in the last time. According to some commentators, we have no reason to expect the appearance of a person with flesh and blood who would embody all the prophecies concerning the Antichrist. We, on the basis of numerous passages in the Bible, are convinced that the Antichrist is a person. To avoid misunderstandings, let us first of all note that Scripture has four points in mind.
1. The spirit of the Antichrist.
“Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God, but it is the spirit of Antichrist, about whom you have heard that he would come and is now already in the world” (1 John 4:3). In essence, the spirit of Antichrist is the spirit of denial that rejects Jesus Christ and which the devil has implanted in the human heart since the Fall. Of course, this spirit is already in the world, but this does not mean that it will not one day become a person in the form of the man of sin.
It is very important that each of us beware of this spirit today. John says: “Whoever commits sin is of the devil.” We can say that there is something of the Antichrist in all of us: it is our nature to cherish within ourselves the spirit of pride, superiority over others, indignation and criticism towards God and at the same time condescension and admiration towards our “I”.
2. Predecessors of the Antichrist.
The final Antichrist will be just the pinnacle of sorts in a long line of enemies of God. Balak and Balaam - the wicked king and the unfaithful prophet - who tried to curse the people of God, are the predecessors of the Antichrist and the false prophet of the last time (Num. 22-24 ch.). We have already said that in the form of Antiochus Epiphanes, Daniel also shows us the future superman (Dan. 8:9-26; 11:21-45). In the time of the apostle John there were people who wore a mask of piety, but later became open enemies of God (see 1 John 2:18-19,22; 2 John 7). False apostles and false prophets were already known to the First Apostolic Church. The false Christ and the false prophet of the end times will be recognized by their hellish deceptive power and incredible depravity. In people who stood out in history for their hostility towards the Gospel, persecution of believers and self-exaltation, Christians at all times saw the forerunners of the Antichrist. Examples include Nero, certain popes and dictators of our time. It is clear that people like Hitler combined in themselves a number of characteristic signs of the Antichrist: the spirit of dictatorship, arrogance, persecution of the Jews, exceeding everything that had happened before, as well as Christians, exaltation of the cult of their personality, stunning conquests and almost complete subjugation of political power. economic and religious life. In these very recent years, it truly seemed as if we were present at the dress rehearsal of the great final drama that would soon be played out on the world stage.
Along with the names mentioned above, many others can be cited, for “now many antichrists have appeared” (1 John 2:18). But all those who appeared in the past or appear at the present time are only those who are preparing the way for the last, the greatest among them.
3. The identity of the Antichrist.
a) For John, the Antichrist is a person. The “Antichrists” of that time were false Christs and enemies of God who revealed themselves by leaving the church. And the apostle further says: “You have heard that the Antichrist will come...”, that is, a man similar to the first Antichrists, but more terrible (1 John 2:18-19).
b) Paul gives the Antichrist names that can only refer to a person (2 Thess. 2:4,8): man of sin; son of perdition (compare with the name given to Judas (John 17:12); adversary; he will demand worship of himself as God; evil.
c) Daniel speaks of him as a king who will blaspheme the Most High, oppress the saints and rule over them (7:24-26). He will cause amazing devastation, will have unheard-of success, and, until his sudden destruction, will exalt himself above others (8:23-25). He will deceive the Jews, create the abomination of desolation in the temple, and therefore will be called the desolator (9:27). This king will act according to his own will, “speak blasphemous things about the God of gods,” start a war and conquer Palestine, where he will finally be destroyed (11:36,38,41,45). The role and deeds that Daniel attributes to the Antichrist would not make sense if they were not performed by a person.
d) Revelation speaks in the same sense. It calls the Antichrist a beast, in contrast to Jesus Christ, who is called the Lamb. But the beast here represents a flesh-and-blood man: he accepts worship, blasphemes God, persecutes the saints, and dominates the whole world (13:4-7). As we have seen, the beast is later clearly identified as a king who will rule through ten dictators (17:11-12). Finally, this king will be thrown alive into the lake of fire; after a thousand years he is still there, tormented together with the devil and the false prophet “day and night forever and ever” (19:20; 20:10). All the creatures thrown into the lake of fire represent those whose names are not written in the book of life (20:15). It is clear that neither a “system” nor a “principle” can be thrown into hell and suffer there forever.
e) And finally, a strong basis for such a statement is given to us by the words of Jesus: “I have come in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me; But if another comes in his own name, you will receive him” (John 5:43). Jesus, the Messenger of the Father, was a perfect Man. The Antichrist, the instrument of the devil, will be a completely depraved man. Through a man completely possessed by him, Satan will make his final, terrible attack. When we look at the lives of past and modern predecessors of the Antichrist, it is not difficult for us to imagine the essence of the last, the Antichrist himself, coming in flesh and blood.
To this we add Lange’s words: “Every idea is ultimately embodied in one or more individuals who become its representatives. Even if the Bible had not told us about him, history would still bring to life the Antichrist, who at the end of time will bring rebellion against God to its extreme.”
III. How are Christ and Antichrist different?
Jesus is the Messiah, sent by the Father to save the world and establish His Kingdom. Antichrist is a false messiah; he was sent by the enemy to oppose the coming of Christ and destroy people.
Jesus is God made Man; Antichrist is a man who makes himself a god. Let's try to compare these two opposing personalities.
Antichrist
1. He is the image of Satan, who sent him. Revelation shows him as a beast with seven heads and ten horns, similar to the great red dragon that represents the devil himself (Rev. 12:3; 13:1; 17:3).
2. Antichrist is the second person of the devilish trinity: the dragon (devil), the beast and the false prophet (Rev. 16:13). Thus there is an anti-god, an anti-Christ and an anti-spirit.
3. Antichrist emerges from the abyss to do the will of the devil (Rev. 11:7; 17:8). He will come in his name (John 5:43).
1. Jesus says, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father also” (John 14:9). He is the image of the invisible God and a reflection of His essence (Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3).
2. Jesus is the second Person of the heavenly Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit (John 1:1; 2 Cor. 3:17).
3. Jesus comes down from heaven to do the will of God. He comes in the name of His Father (John 6:38; 5:43).
This comparison shows the extent to which Satan is able to imitate God. His false messiah is a disgusting caricature of the true Christ. And the fact that people reject Jesus to give themselves to the Antichrist shows the depths of depravity they can descend to.
IV. Seduction by the Antichrist
Through deception and cunning, Satan brought about the fall of our first parents (2 Cor. 11:3). And when he reveals his false savior, the Antichrist, then by the power of his unheard-of deception he will again lead all humanity to bow before him. “Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light, and therefore it is no great thing if his servants also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:14-15).
We have seen the Lord warn us again and again against this terrible deception (Matt. 24:4-5; 11:24-25). Obviously, these prophecies will most of all be fulfilled on the last false Christ and false prophet. Through deception, these figures will try to deceive the nations: finally, the world has been given a savior after their own hearts; Jews: the Messiah they had been waiting for so long is now before them; even Christians: the true Christ appeared in the form of a superman.
The success of this deception will be extraordinary. Jesus insistently repeats: “...and they will deceive many... so that they may deceive, if possible, even the elect.” And John announces that, under the influence of mass psychosis, all the inhabitants of the earth will worship the Antichrist; having been deceived by the miracles of the false prophet, they will make themselves the image of a beast and will honor him as God (Rev. 13:8,14-15).
How can humanity, proud of its intelligence, allow itself to be so deceived? Only Scripture gives us the answer to this:
“Then the lawless one will be revealed...whose coming, according to the working of Satan, will be with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception of those who are perishing, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, so that they will believe a lie, so that all those who did not believe the truth, but loved unrighteousness, will be condemned” (2 Thess. 2:9-12; see also 2 Cor. 4:3-4) . A very serious word! All the art of Satan could not lead souls astray if God Himself had not struck them blind! Six times Pharaoh hardened his heart, and then the Lord Himself hardened it (Ex. 7:13,22; 8:11,15,28; 9:7 and 9:12; 10:1,20,27; 11:10) . Likewise, to those who consciously reject the truth and love untruth, God will send “a powerful delusion, so that they will believe a lie.” This will be the greatest punishment for the rebellious people. Thinking that they have finally found their savior, people will blindly surrender to their greatest enemy. Only when it is too late will they see their mistake.
Believers need supernatural strength and wisdom to resist the deception of the Antichrist. We even affirm that even now Christians should be able to resist this deception, since it is everywhere manifested (1 John 4:1,3). From everywhere we see the advance of forces that are dragging humanity towards final destruction. Anyone who is now unwilling to repent and accept the Gospel will not be able to see clearly during the coming onslaught of the spirit of error. After the dictators who recently left the stage successfully deceived entire nations before our eyes, it is not difficult for us to imagine what will begin to happen all over the globe in the near future. Then woe will be to those who are not enlightened by the Holy Spirit and who, not possessing Divine knowledge, will not be able to distinguish truth from error! Being blind and led by the blind, they will all be captivated by a terrible deception.
V. Revelation of the Antichrist
“And then the wicked one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of His mouth” (2 Thess. 2:8). The original says that the wicked will be exposed. Before this, iniquity was a secret (v. 7). Sin was something hidden, secret, wearing a mask, hypocritical. But with the advent of the man of sin, evil appears without any mask.
Antichrist is called “the son of destruction” (2 Thess. 2:3). (This expression is also used in relation to Judas, see above.) In addition, he is called a “beast,” because human definitions are not enough to express his entire essence. He is the complete embodiment of the sin of fallen humanity.
Professor F. Gaudet writes: “The complete victory of good can only be achieved through the coming of the Lord, when the evil hidden in the human heart will be fully manifested in the appearance of the great enemy of the Kingdom of God, during the period of his short-term power, so that the highest victory of good will be at the same time time to mean the final defeat of evil at the moment of its greatest flourishing...” God leaves the wheat and the tares to ripen until the harvest, in order to then gather the wheat into the granary and burn the tares with unquenchable fire (Matthew 13:30). The harvest of the earth can only take place after it is fully ripe (Rev. 14:15).
VI. Will the Antichrist be a Jew?
Many interpreters share this opinion. So Irenaeus (180 AD) (based on Gen. 49:16-17) believed that the Antichrist would come from the tribe of Dan, especially since when listing the tribes in Rev. 7:4-8 this tribe is missing. Jerome (350-420) believed that the Antichrist would be one of the Jews who would achieve world domination. Personally, although we cannot say for sure, we would not be surprised if this person turned out to be a Jew, for the following reason.
The Antichrist will present himself to the Israelis as the Messiah they are waiting for, and they, deceived, will accept him. “And one week shall confirm the covenant with many” (Dan. 9:27). Until now, 64 false messiahs have appeared, who had greater or lesser success among the people of Israel (see, for example, D. Ap. 5:36-37). We have already mentioned Jesus' predictions that the Jews would receive the Antichrist: “...if another comes in his name, you will receive him” (John 5:43). It would be difficult to explain the fact that the Israelis would accept someone who is not a Jew as the Messiah.
VII. What does the number 666 mean?
“No one will be allowed to buy or sell except he who has the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. He who has intelligence, count the number of the beast, for it is a human number; his number is six hundred and sixty-six” (Rev. 13:17-18).
Much ink has been written about this passage and many contradictory interpretations have been expressed. We do not intend to add another one to them. However, some clarification may be helpful. John says: “He who has understanding, let him count the number of the beast...” In Greek, each letter of the alphabet corresponds to a certain number. Alpha means one, beta means two, etc. Thus, when writing a name, you can add up the numerical values of each letter, and the resulting sum will express the number of that name. The number of the name of the Antichrist will be 666.
The names of all those individuals in the history of mankind who seemed to be the Antichrist were subjected to such a calculation. Through a more or less skillful arrangement of the letters of the names and titles of these individuals, it was possible to obtain the number 666, for example, in relation to Nero, Muhammad, the Pope, Napoleon, Hitler and many others. In our opinion, these interpretations are premature, as they contradict each other. We are confident that true believers throughout the world will recognize this last great Antichrist when he comes. The Holy Spirit will give them enough light so that they can correctly and unambiguously calculate the number of his name. In the meantime, let's stay awake and sober!
But, in our opinion, there is another, also correct understanding of this famous number 666. We have already pointed to it, comparing Christ and the Antichrist. John calls the number 666 “a human number.” It is clear that there are symbolic numbers in Revelation. Thus, the number seven expresses completeness, perfection, and in most cases is used in relation to God and Jesus Christ: the slain Lamb has seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God (Rev. 5:6). The number six, on the contrary, refers to all human things: the twenty-four elders (Rev. 4:4), the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve thousand, the hundred and forty-four thousand (7:4-8), etc. Six is a number that expresses imperfection, as opposed to seven, which expresses perfection. The Antichrist may rise immeasurably in his arrogance, his dominion may extend to the ends of the earth, he may be worshiped as God, and yet all his deeds will bear the mark of imperfection and inner weakness: his number is the number of man in threefold repetition: 6-6 -6!
“But this number also contains the end of progress, the end of culture... it is the sum, the three-dimensionality - length, width and height - of human actions. No matter how you look at these dimensions, you always come to the number six... This number symbolizes the superiority of man who has made himself a god, who sits on the throne of his works and, possessed by delusions of grandeur, exclaims: “How high has man risen!” (Mauro).
And finally, the number 666 is also an expression of the inability of Satan to be like God, the Antichrist to be like Christ, and the false prophet to be like the Holy Spirit.
VIII. What power will the Antichrist have?
1. The power of the Antichrist will be of supernatural, diabolical origin.
Satan in vain offered Jesus Christ all the kingdoms of the world and their glory (Matthew 4:8-10). The man of sin, on the contrary, will accept this offer and, completely surrendering to the devil, will receive from him strength, a throne and great power; the beast “will come up out of the bottomless pit and go into destruction” (Rev. 13:2; 17:8; see also Dan. 8:24 and 2 Thess. 2:9-10). Only this can explain the amazing career of this man.
2. God himself will allow the Antichrist to erect his kingdom.
Even the evil ones (including Satan) contribute to the fulfillment of Divine purposes. Fallen humanity must reap what it has sown, and on the eve of judgment, people must show what they are capable of. Therefore, God will allow the coming of the Antichrist and use him as a scourge. That is why in Revelation we read about him four times: “And a mouth was given to him speaking proudly and blasphemously...”; “...and authority was given to him to continue for forty-two months...”; “...and it was given to him to make war with the saints...”; “And authority was given to him over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation” (13:5-7).
God once used the king of Assyria as the “rod of His wrath” to punish Israel, but later punished him severely (Isa. 10:5-7,12). So the Lord will one day crush the Antichrist, first giving him freedom of action for a short time. From the example of the judgment that the Antichrist and his allies will carry out on Babylon, we can see that these human individuals are unknowingly fulfilling the plan of God, laid on their hearts by God Himself (Rev. 17:16-17). Thus, even if it seems that a certain monster reigns, yet the Lord controls him and rules the world.
3. First, the Antichrist will extend his power to the countries that are part of the fourth kingdom of Daniel.
a) The former, again restored Roman kingdom will see the Antichrist.
As we looked at the four world kingdoms depicted by Daniel, we saw that the great end-time dictator would emerge from the Roman kingdom (Dan. 7:7; 8:23-25). In reality, the Roman kingdom that crucified Jesus and scattered the Jews has long since disappeared. But John says this about the beast - the symbol of this reign: “The beast which you saw was, and is not, and will come out of the abyss and go to destruction; and those who dwell on the earth will be amazed... seeing that the beast was, and is not, and will appear... And the woman whom you saw is a great city, reigning over the kings of the earth” (Rev. 17:8-9,18). The city that ruled the world in the days of the apostle John was Rome, and the beast of Dan. 7 also means Rome. Thus, the peoples who were once under the Roman yoke will play a major role at the end of time. In fact, the Mediterranean countries were the first to be evangelized. They have received the most light and therefore bear the greatest responsibility before God. They have long occupied a dominant position in the fields of religion, thinking, art and technology. On their soil arose the modern, so-called “Christian”, or better yet, Western civilization. It was the peoples who emerged from these countries in recent centuries who fell to rule almost the entire earth. According to prophecies, these nations will serve as a kind of springboard for the spread of the power of the Antichrist, and they will be the first to suffer the terrible judgments of God along with him. However, by the peoples of the Roman kingdom, as we believe, we should understand not only those who live within its former borders, but also those who directly came from there and represent the same civilization. Without a doubt, North and South America, as well as Australia, inherited European culture and way of life. The Antichrist can, it seems to us, appear on both sides of the Atlantic without anything changing in the prophetic instructions.
b) Antichrist will lead the union of ten kingdoms. In recent times, as has already been said, the Roman kingdom will be restored in a new form. In the first centuries of its existence, it was one whole. Then, for a long time, it was divided into two parts (the two legs of the image, Dan. 2:33), one of which, the eastern one, existed until 1453.
Before the coming of Christ it must be restored in the form of a union of ten states (ten fingers of the image and ten horns of the beast, Dan. 7:24). The leaders of this union are described in Rev. 17:12-13:17.
What are these “kings who have not yet received the kingdom, but will take power with the beast as kings”? Today we call such people dictators. We have already pointed out that dictators appeared not only in the Mediterranean countries, but also much further, and this at a time when everyone was captured by such slogans as democracy and freedom.
But the prophecy does not speak of individual dictators, but of a union of ten kings subordinate to the Antichrist (Rev. 17:17). Haven't we become accustomed in recent years to hearing about the “United States of Europe”, or the “Western bloc” that covers the Mediterranean and Anglo-Saxon countries? V. Churchill even wrote that he saw no reason why not to create, under the auspices of a world organization, a union of the United States of Europe, which had not existed since the time of Rome.
Until 1953, negotiations regarding the unification of Western Europe had made great progress, although they had not yet taken tangible form. Many sober politicians, however, hope for quick success. We do not know how today's events will unfold, nor how long it will take for the prophecies to be fulfilled. However, it can be said with confidence that the state of the world in its main features miraculously reflects what is predicted in Scripture.
4. The Antichrist will expand his power through unrestrained conquests and make brute violence an object of worship.
Relying on the Western nations, the Antichrist will want to expand his kingdom. He will do this through a “lightning war”: “And behold, the fourth beast, terrible and terrible and very strong; he has large iron teeth; he devours and crushes, and tramples the remnants under his feet... A king will arise, insolent and skilled in deceit... he will cause amazing devastation and succeed, and act, and destroy the mighty and the holy people” (Dan. 7:7; 8:23-24; see also 11:36,40).
In horror and amazement, the whole earth will exclaim: “Who is like this beast and who can compare with him?” (Rev. 13:4).
Attributing these victories to himself, the Antichrist will honor brute force above all else: “He will give honor to the God of fortresses in his place, and this god, whom his fathers did not know, he will honor with gold and silver...” (Dan. 11:38-39 ). Thus he will fulfill the words of Habakkuk: “His strength is his God” (1:11). Have we not witnessed violence and war raging throughout Europe for many years? Yes, we saw him, the god of fortresses, who, like Moloch, was placed on a pedestal, and many proud, strong people worshiped him! Time and time again, the cult of power finds its adherents and defenders. The Antichrist will only accept all this and take it to the very last extreme.
5. The Antichrist will achieve world domination.
All the great conquerors tried to spread their influence over the entire earth, such as Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Hitler. For several years, happiness smiled on them, and they were able to occupy numerous countries. But suddenly the breath of God touched their house of cards, and everything collapsed. Never before has God allowed individuals to dominate the world. However, the Bible is very clear that one day, at the end of time, He will do this. For a very short time, the Antichrist will fulfill the ancient dream of world domination, which occupied the minds of all rulers: “... the fourth kingdom will... devour the whole earth, trample and crush it” (Dan. 7:23). “And authority was given to him over every tribe and people, tongue and nation. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him... And it is given to him... that everyone who does not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (Rev. 13:7-8:15).
It is not difficult to see that today we are on the eve of world domination. If Germany had managed to make an atomic bomb during the war, who could have stopped it from conquering the whole world? And if, unfortunately, a new war broke out between the great powers, then we would be talking about world domination. Such a war would end quickly. This is due to the great progress of humanity. They used to fight for a province, then for a country, then for a continent; Today the battlefield is the world. There is nowhere to go further, and therefore the end is near.
Marvelous! In the days when we wrote these lines, messages were heard on the radio: “The consequence of the invention of the atomic bomb is that world domination can be in the hands of one authoritative person: this would be the only means that can prevent the destruction of our world and the suicide of the entire human race " Who could have said such words just a few years ago?
Let's hear a few more opinions from the recent past:
“Until now, the world has been too large to be conquered by any single individual or single power... Only now, for the first time in human history, is the conquest of the world by a single power a geographical, technical, and military possibility... From a technical and military point of view, the United States could lead war in the Far East easier and faster than Caesar in England or Egypt... The crisis of the twentieth century means that our planet must, to a certain extent, be under unified control” (Emry Revesz “Anatomy of the World”).
Robert Hutchins, a professor at the University of Chicago, said: “In the near future we will have bombs more terrible than atomic bombs. What we have today is just the beginning; a much more terrible weapon is on the way... Military service loses its meaning, because it teaches the use of outdated weapons... Humanity is faced with a choice: peace or suicide; and the only way to prevent war is to establish a world government.”
“Scientists involved in atomic energy research quite seriously argue that only a world parliament can guarantee peace and security”2.
“It is clear that humanity must rise to a completely new level of understanding of international life, otherwise the world as we know it, due to a series of unimaginable catastrophes, will disappear. Humanity is faced with a dilemma: unite or perish?.. The only way out is to create a world government as soon as possible, to which states will transfer part of their power in order to preserve peace through control of atomic energy”3.
Burchard Baruch, a member of the United States Atomic Commission, said: “If we do not outlaw atomic war, the world will return to a state of dark darkness, nay, chaos... We must act quickly. Delay may mean a death sentence.”4
We conclude with a quote of a completely different kind, which speaks of how great powers constantly shift their center of gravity from east to west: “We have reached the shore of the last ocean. The star of the westward-moving world kingdom ends its journey around the world in America. There will be the last battle of the white race, and the human race in general... If America is defeated, then the human race is lost, and all that remains is to await the verdict of the Almighty, Who will destroy its memory from the face of the earth.”
6. The Antichrist will exercise a political, economic and religious dictatorship.
He will introduce a totalitarian regime in all areas.
a) In the political field, he will impose an iron law on the entire globe, and all people will tremble before him (Rev. 13:3-4:7).
b) In the economic area it will be as it is said in Revelation: “And he will cause everyone - small and great, rich and poor, free and slave - to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and that no one is allowed to He will neither buy nor sell except he who has the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (Rev. 13:16-17). We have recently seen something similar to this in some countries. Under today's totalitarian regimes, anyone who is not a party member and refuses to worship temporary idols has no right to exist. It happens that such a person’s food and work cards are taken away, and he has no choice but a concentration camp or death. The same will happen under the reign of the Antichrist. A kind of “worldwide boycott of Christians” will be organized (P. Hallo). This collectivism will embrace the entire world and establish the absolute monopoly of the deified state. All trade and any activity of each person will be under absolute control.
It is amazing that already in 1909, the inventor of the telephone A.G. Bell wrote: “In its industrial development, human society strives for the formation of an all-encompassing single system, a monstrous monopoly, the scope of which is the whole world and which will control the production, distribution and marketing of all goods and products.”
c) The same dictatorship will be felt in the religious area. Since the Antichrist will pretend to be God, he will demand that all people worship him; those who refuse this will be executed (2 Thess. 2:4; Rev. 13:8,15). Thus, it will give absolute totalitarianism what the National Socialists called “uniformity.”
It is clear to us that all the peoples of Western culture who have fallen into unbelief recognize the Antichrist. But how will other peoples, such as Muslims, who adhere to their faith fanatically, become involved in this movement? Surprisingly, Muslims are also expecting a mysterious figure who will one day appear as a Muslim messiah and bring truth to the earth and victory to Islam, subjugating all the infidels. Perhaps the Antichrist will be able to impersonate this messiah and thereby gather around him the followers of Muhammad (not to mention adherents of other religions). According to another legend, Muslims believe in the coming of a one-eyed man with the letters KFR on his forehead (Kafir - infidel). He will destroy everything except Mecca and Medina, and will be destroyed by the coming of Jesus Christ, who, after twenty-four months, will gather all Christians into the fold of Islam. We present these traditions only to show how deeply rooted in all hearts is the expectation of the true Messiah and the false Messiah.
7. The establishment of this regime will at first cause great admiration, but disaster will follow.
“At last, humanity has found the one it has been dreaming of for centuries. A superman whose greatness, in their opinion, eclipsed the Divine greatness. Finally, it can admire the one who corresponds to their deepest desire: after all, the great beast was created in the image of the animal instincts of their hearts... The great rebellion of the beast against God represents the result of the unbelief of all of them. Men admire the beast because by his proud power he has made them believe the old earthly gospel: man is strong; he can be master of himself; he is able to determine his own destiny and even resist death.”
End-time Babylon “will be governed by the commanding spirit and firm hand of one who unites in himself the various faculties of his race. He will be a warrior and a statesman, an orator and a financier, a scientist and a demagogue, a tyrant and a liberal; he will be honored and hated” (Haldeman). Let us add that he will be versed in the secret sciences so that, in the absence of other opportunities, he can act by force from the abyss.
Intoxicated by its hero, humanity will believe that the ancient promise of the seducer has finally been fulfilled: “You will be like gods...” (Gen. 3:5).
H.G. Wels, touching on this topic, writes: “In order to create and maintain an ideally structured social state, it is necessary to find a leader who can manage it and whose intelligence exceeds the highest human level.” Thinking that such a person has finally been found, people will uncontrollably indulge in their happiness. The masses will willingly submit to the rule of a strong hand: they will gladly bow before the greatest leader of all time.
For a long time, humanity has been blinded by military and national splendor; strong nations have always dreamed of world domination. They will all be proud to be citizens of a kingdom that spans the entire world.
After thousands of years of war dividing nations, the world yearns for peace and security. And when the Antichrist alone rules the world, everyone will believe that from now on conflicts are excluded and peace is established forever. Since a person most of all dreams of comfort, well-being and well-being, the Antichrist will probably do everything in order to ensure well-being (then it will be easier to subjugate souls to himself). Perhaps he will be a great social reformer and achieve what the so-called Christian society could not achieve. (Consider the remarkable achievements of the dictators of our time!) People by nature want to have something to worship; Having rejected the Lord, they will be seduced by the mystical brilliance of the superman and call him their savior.
Every religion would like to subjugate the entire human race. The religious world yearns for the visible unity that it has lost. When the true Church is raptured and the single cult of Antichrist is established, then an arrogant false unity will triumph over the earth: all false religions and churches will finally merge into a single religion, forming the so-called false ecumenium (for, just as there is a true ecumenism of the body of Christ, there will be her devilish caricature also exists). Then there will be only one people on earth, one kingdom, one ruler, one faith, one church (exactly what the National Socialists wanted). It is not difficult to imagine the slogans of this new regime. In wild delight the whole world will shout: “Unity, peace and security!”
However, the Word of God says: “...when they say, ‘Peace and safety,’ then destruction will suddenly come upon them, just as the pain of childbirth comes upon a woman with child, and they will not escape” (1 Thess. 5:3).
IX. What position will the Antichrist occupy in relation to God?
Being an instrument of the enemy of God on earth, the Antichrist will openly declare war on the Lord. “...He will utter words against the Most High... he will even dream of abolishing the holidays and the law... (God's law)” (Dan. 7:25). He will oppose God with the arrogance that is mentioned repeatedly (7:8,11,20). “And he ascended to the host of heaven, and cast down part of that host and the stars to the earth, and trampled them under foot. And he was even lifted up against the Captain of this army, and the daily sacrifice was taken away from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was desecrated” (Dan. 8:10-11). It is not easy to interpret this passage, which seems to refer to Satan's warfare in the heavenly realms, as well as to his instrument against the Lord's representatives on earth. The Antichrist will rush into a mad struggle against the Lord when pride takes away his reason (see, for example, Dan. 8:25; 11:36-37). His greatest sin will be that, not being satisfied with entering into a struggle with God, he will, according to the words of the Apostle Paul, exalt himself “... above everything that is called God or that is holy, so that in the temple of God he sits as God, showing himself to be God” (2 Thess. 2:4). No matter how incredible it may seem, we see that the Antichrist will be able to force all the inhabitants of the earth to worship him, except the true believers (Rev. 13:8). This, apparently, is the abomination of desolation that Daniel speaks of (9:27) and about which Jesus Himself warns His disciples (Matthew 24:15).
These places throw a bright light on recent facts of our history. People have always been religious. There has never been a shortage of various cults on earth; often they even became persecutors in the name of religion. But gradually unbelief grew on earth, which became more and more decisive and aggressive. At first people were content with declaring themselves “free from religion,” then they became “freethinkers,” then they became pronounced “atheists,” throwing all religions overboard. Then they waged open conflict with God. This movement first took its modern form during the great revolution in France. Anti-religious passions have been in full swing for a number of years. Forty thousand churches, chapels and houses of worship were desecrated, cathedrals turned into stables. Sunday was abolished and replaced with a “decade” (tenth day). The opera actress was placed on the altar of one of the Paris cathedrals as the goddess of reason. The end of the Christian religion and the cessation of all religious services were solemnly announced (Decree of 30 Brumaire1), 3rd year). Holy books were burned in large quantities: a bonfire of five to six thousand books was lit in Rohe Fort. In Lyon, one hundred and twenty priests were sentenced to death in one day. It was not until 1797 that the religion was recognized again.
We are witnessing an atheist movement in Russia. In 1928, 250 thousand people were trained to actively fight religion, and ten thousand anti-religious unions were formed. That same year, 700 anti-religious rallies and demonstrations were held in Leningrad. In three months, 900 churches were closed. The newspaper “Bezbozhnik”, anti-religious brochures and books were distributed in millions of copies. At first glance, the campaign appears to be on the wane. However, prophecies speak of the moment when it will again raise its head and burst across the entire earth. In the hands of the Antichrist, this campaign will be a means to prepare the ground for the worship of him alone.
The cult of the superman towards which humanity is moving is not new in itself. Great rulers, such as the Roman emperors, often demanded divine honors from their subjects. These days, 70 million Japanese (and even Christians among them) want to be forced to worship the Mikado and his ancestors. Undoubtedly, a dictator like Hitler (to speak only about him) also wanted to have a mystical-religious halo around his personality. A significant part of his followers were more devoted and believed more in him than many believers - in God.
A. A. Frey writes about the National Socialist worldview: “The myth of the twentieth century was embodied in the personality of the Fuhrer... The Fuhrer is not only a provisional Kaiser; he is the messiah, the prophet of the thousand-year Kingdom. He is at the same time God and Kaiser, and the famous expression “render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's” is outdated. He is a kind of metaphysical being... According to the National Socialist view, obedience to the Fuhrer should come from heartfelt affection for him, just like a Christian's obedience to God. It is more a religious than a political act, and the National Socialist state is more than a state; it is a kind of church” (p. 32). Professor Hauer, while celebrating the liturgy of the “new German faith” on the occasion of the baby’s baptism, expresses himself as follows: “The young mother thanks God and the Fuhrer for the gift of this child. Thank you, Fuhrer and friend! You brought us back to the right path when we were wandering. You saved our souls” (p. 42). In 1934, German Christians formulated the following thesis: “Thanks to Hitler, the era of the German people has arrived, for Christ, our God the Savior, has been exalted among us through Hitler” (p. 61). Here are the words of one of the leaders of this movement:
“In the days of March 1933, the German people experienced their Pentecost, which we will never forget. The God of love came to us in the form of the Holy Spirit to give us faith in the independence and glory of the German people, to give us the spirit of self-sacrifice that is necessary to serve the idea of the Third Reich. We are experiencing a glorious appearance of God among the Germans. The Kingdom of God, which for a long time had no power either in the state or in the church, found its vital energy in the essence of National Socialism... Adolf Hitler opened the doors of the German church... for he founded the German state; he is the force that brought life back to the German people, he led us to the Revelation of Christ” (p. 64). The reign of the Antichrist will be accompanied by even more sublime praise.
However, things are moving towards the point where not only individuals will be deified, but also the state itself. We have already experienced something similar, when millions of “civilized” people went so far as to worship their own people (i.e. themselves) and made a cult out of the power of the state. Under a totalitarian regime, the state becomes a true Moloch, absorbing all the vital forces of the people and destroying individuals. Hegel, the great German philosopher, could write more than a hundred years ago:
“The individual exists only through the state. The State is divine, it represents the absolute goal, the “true God,” who enjoys absolute power and unquestioned authority” (Frey, p. 18).
Mussolini also sought to establish a cult of his personality. In one of the addresses, the “Great Fascist Council” wrote: “We followed him, we follow him, and we will follow him both in life and in death!” One of the fascist newspapers wrote: “Our ideal cannot be the God-man (Jesus Christ), Who loves and suffers... He is the man-god who conquers all, the hero of Hellenistic legends, such as Mithra, the triumphant conqueror of the sun, such as Shiva, the terrible dancing god , cosmic being, powerful, shining... Let's throw away the Christian idea of sin! We live not according to Semitic traditions imported from Palestine, but according to the traditions of the Mediterranean countries.”
We have seen with our own eyes the consequences of such theories. However, the coming totalitarian state of the Antichrist will apparently be created on the basis of the same theories. This will be the logical conclusion of the path; which people have been following for a long time, as Paul made it very clear in his letter to the Romans: “...professing to be wise, they became fools and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man... They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature instead of the Creator Who is blessed forever, amen” (Rom. 1:22-25). A person is always punished by his own sin. Since people have made a god out of their great superman, they, abandoned by the true God, will be delivered into his hands.
X. How will the Antichrist treat the Jews?
1. At first he will be very favorable to them.
We said above that the Antichrist may well be a Jew and, according to the words of Jesus, will be accepted by the Jews as their messiah (John 5:43). Daniel says that he will make a covenant with many for the “week”, i.e. seven years (9:27). Without a doubt, he will present himself as the defender of Israel, perhaps taking all measures for their mass return to Palestine and restoring their national power. The question is: won’t he restore the temple and introduce worship again?..
2. After this, the Antichrist will fearfully persecute the Jews.
Daniel goes on to say that after three and a half years the Antichrist will break his covenant: “...at the half of the week the sacrifice and the offering shall cease, and the abomination that makes desolate shall be upon the wing of the sanctuary...” (9:27). Then, probably, the Antichrist will sit in the temple of God (rebuilt by the Jews) as God (2 Thess. 2:4). Thus, in fact, the abomination of desolation will be established in the holy place (see Matt. 24:15).
Then the Antichrist will initiate a terrible persecution of the Jews. Being Satan's instrument on earth, he will naturally attempt to destroy the people of God, whose restoration should be the signal of his own downfall. “I saw how this horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High... It will oppress the saints of the Most High (in the language of the Old Testament this means primarily the Jews); He will even dream of abolishing their holidays and the law (at least the Jewish law), and they will be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time” (Dan. 7:21,22,25; see also 8:24; 12:1,6,7). Having said that Israel will most shamefully reject its good Shepherd, Zechariah announces that one will come to this land (apparently Palestine) who will become an extremely bad shepherd: “I will set up in this land a shepherd who will not take care of the lost... but He will eat the flesh of the fat and tear off their hooves. Woe to the wicked shepherd who abandons his flock; the sword is on his hand and on his right eye!” (Zech. 11:16-17). And the same prophet a little later predicts that two-thirds of the Jews will be exterminated. After the terrible extermination of six million Jews in Europe under Hitler's regime, it is not difficult for us to believe in the fulfillment of this prophecy.
XI. What fate awaits Christians under the Antichrist?
Christians who take part in the great tribulation (after the rapture of the Church) will hardly face a better fate than the Jews. If it is written: “I saw how this horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them... they will be given into his hand...” (Dan. 7:21,25), then this applies not only to Israel, but to all those who at this time will do the work of God on earth. In fact, Revelation says the same thing again, primarily referring to Christians: “And it was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them.” We further read that anyone who does not worship the image of the beast will be killed (Rev. 13:7,15). Believers will also be persecuted because, by heralding the coming of the King of Kings, they thereby insult the greatness of the Antichrist by condemning his regime and predicting its end (like those under German occupation who spoke of the Allied landings and openly rejoiced at it). The “Holy Inquisition” burned and tormented love in the name of God. During the French Revolution, the worst of tyrannies was established in the name of freedom. (“Freedom! How many crimes have been committed in your name!”) The Antichrist, under the pretext of delivering man from a state of dependence on God, will suppress in the most terrible way all freedom of conscience. Then, more than ever in the past, we will need to fear not those who kill the body, but the One who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna (i.e. God, Matthew 10:28). However, during this tribulation the saints will receive help from God, Who sealed His own in advance.
XII. What position will the Antichrist take in relation to Babylon, this false earthly religion?
In the next chapter we will examine the significance of Babylon, the great harlot of Revelation, and we will see that the Antichrist, desiring to strengthen his dominion, first makes an alliance between the throne and the altar and uses all the forces of false religion for his own purposes. For his part, he will support the activities of the harlot; The Bible speaks of a beast on which sits a woman clothed in purple and scarlet (Rev. 17:3-7). Thus, the Antichrist will encourage the false church in its splendor and cruelty, provided that it also supports him. For this purpose, a mystical concert of praise and worship of the superman, the conqueror of nations, will be inspired. However, the Antichrist, having quickly become the undisputed ruler of the entire earth, will no longer need such support. Being a “murderer from the beginning,” he will look for new victims. After the destruction of many Jews and believers, he will turn his rage against false religion and its adherents, his former allies: “And the ten horns that you saw on the beast, these will hate the whore and will destroy her, and will make her naked, and will eat her flesh, and will burn her in fire” (Rev. 17:16). More than once in history, individual crowned monsters (Nero and others) have set an example in this regard. Arrogance that has risen to the very top does not tolerate any other influence, or opposition, or competition. The subjects are merely a mass of terrorized admirers who, if circumstances favored them, would become the murderers of their idols.
XIII. How long will the reign of the Antichrist last?
All great conquerors hoped that their kingdom would last for centuries. Hitler often spoke of his thousand-year Reich. How great will be the desire of a superman who has achieved world domination to forever establish his cause! However, Scripture is clear and convincing that his kingdom will last a very short time.
First of all, let us pay attention to the fact that the wicked actions of the Antichrist pursued a predetermined goal. “I saw how this horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High... Behold, I reveal to you what will happen in the last days of wrath; for this is for the end of the appointed time... and it will prosper until the wrath is fulfilled: for the things which are foreordained will be fulfilled... but it will come to its end, and no one will help it” (Dan. 7:21-22; 8:19 ; 11:36,45).
1. How much time is given to the Antichrist until his end?
The Bible answers this question by using four expressions in eight different places.
1) “A time, times and half a time” (Dan. 7:25; 12:7; Rev. 12:14). We see that we are talking about three and a half years, so we could say: “a time, two times and half a time.” (In Hebrew and Greek there is a special plural that means “two.”)
2) “Half a week” (Dan. 9:27). In Daniel's famous prophecy of the seventy weeks, each week is seven years long. So half a week is three and a half years. The Antichrist must make an alliance with the Jews for seven years, but in the middle of this period he will turn against them. Then the three and a half years of great tribulation will begin.
3) “Twenty-four months” (Rev. 11:2; 13:5). This period will be given to the beast for its actions. This is three and a half years.
4) “One thousand two hundred and sixty days” (Rev. 11:3; 12:6). The Jewish year length of 360 days gives exactly three and a half years.
Sometimes they ask whether this number - three and a half years - should be understood symbolically? Making up half of the number seven, i.e. number of perfection, it would mean that the Antichrist will be destroyed in the middle of his life career. But since the Bible eight times, and in four different places corresponding to each other, indicates three and a half years, we believe that, most likely, this should be understood literally. Otherwise it would be difficult to explain such a clear emphasis on this number and the presence of several ways to obtain it.
2. Why was God pleased to give such precise instructions?
For two reasons: first, He wants to testify that He is and remains Lord. He will allow the Antichrist to openly oppose Him, but only for a very short, predetermined time. Second, the Lord wants to strengthen the faith of those who will experience the great tribulation. Without this prophetic light, they would have thought that evil reigned forever on the earth. All these texts tell them: “Be courageous and patient: the reign of evil will last only three and a half years.” It must be added that three and a half years is a very short period of time for the world kingdom. Haven't we recently experienced something similar?
XIV. What will be the end and punishment of the Antichrist?
With the help of the Antichrist, Satan hoped to triumph. But he will not succeed, just as in the case of Joseph, who was sold into slavery, and with Jesus, who was crucified. The so-called triumph will, in reality, mean the defeat of the enemy. Having subjected everyone to his dominion and established visible peace and security, the Antichrist will soon be forced to take up arms again. At the end of three and a half years, his power will apparently collapse as a result of the powerful indignation of the peoples who intend to overthrow his yoke. Then, according to the prophecy, the final war will take place. It will be more all-encompassing than all other wars and will reach its climax during the Battle of Armageddon in Palestine. This battle will end in a supernatural way: Christ will appear on the Mount of Olives and destroy His enemies (Zech. 14:2-4). “...The Lord Jesus will kill (the wicked) with the breath of His mouth...” (2 Thess. 2:8). And further John says: “And the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet, who performed miracles before him, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image: both were thrown alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone” (Rev. 19:20). There they will be tormented forever and ever (Rev. 20:10). Such will be the tragic end of this terrible man, before whom the whole earth trembled.
XV. Conclusion.
Is it possible, reading all the above texts about the Antichrist, not to feel their topicality?
It is clear that we are rushing with giant steps towards this person. Let us not forget that Scripture warns us of the enormous seductive power emanating from him. Twice it adds: “…let him who reads understand” (Matt. 24:15; Rev. 13:9). Therefore, it is certainly necessary for believers to have a correct knowledge of everything that concerns the Antichrist. Then they will recognize him and will be careful to save, if not their body, then their soul. Even if during the three and a half years of his reign we will not be on earth, it is still important to see today what will happen during this period. Our inner state and our walk before God largely depend on this. It will also make us even more eager to warn our neighbors while there is time. Are we personally in the right position on this issue?
(7 votes: 5.0 out of 5)prot. Boris Molchanov
“You know the signs of the Antichrist, do not remember them yourself, but share them generously with everyone.”
The Lord Jesus Christ said: “I will create mine, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (). What do "gates of hell" mean?
“It was the custom of the Jews to gather under the chairmanship of elders at the gates of the city to discuss political, judicial and social issues. These meetings were the highest authority in all matters; here all the commandments of God were proclaimed. They had a certain authority among the people. This custom of the Jews to hold meetings at the city gates can be found in the book. Ruthie(). In the description of an active wife in the book. The parable () says that “her husband is always well dressed” and that “he is well known at the gates,” that is, he is invested with public trust and he takes an active part in important meetings (prof.).
Therefore, the “gates of hell” mean not just the forces of hell, but the “general headquarters” of the forces of hell - their most important meeting, dedicated to developing a plan for the general battle with the Church. and hell are represented as two warring forces. And in this war with hell, the Church, according to the word of Christ, will remain unconquered.
The hellish plan for the fight against the Church in Holy Scripture is called the “mystery of lawlessness” (), which has been in effect for centuries and will end with the appearance of the Antichrist ().
The Antichrist can only come as a result of worldwide apostasy, that is, the retreat of peoples from God and from the ways of God, when the grace of God recedes from people. “When the apostates have fulfilled the measure of their iniquities, a king will rise up, arrogant and skilled in deceit” (). “His is the coming according to the action of Satan” ().
The personality of the Antichrist will concentrate all the evil in all its fullness and strength that human nature can perceive and withstand. Just as to obtain the purest and most perfect Fruit on the human tree, in the person of the Blessed Virgin, it took a thousand years of development and perfection of the good human seed, so to obtain the most vile fruit, capable of containing all the evil of Satan, the effort of a number of generations is required human in relation to the greatest corruption and desecration of human nature on the basis of insane hatred of Christ and the struggle against His Church. “It’s possible,” says Prof. Belyaev, - that natural and acquired evil, gradually accumulating in the long series of ancestors of the Antichrist, transmitted with each new generation, in the Antichrist himself will reach such a degree of strength that human nature can contain, manifest and withstand. In it, the evil living in the human race will reach the utmost peak of its development" (“On Atheism and Antichrist,” vol. I, With. 193).
Of course, as a person’s evil will intensifies, the assistance he receives from the devil, who gains more and more access to his soul, also intensifies. Since in the Antichrist his own evil will and corruption of the will will reach the ultimate, highest development, then the devil’s attitude towards him will reach the utmost maximum closeness, which will be expressed in the fact that the devil himself will constantly act in the person of the Antichrist. “God,” says St. , - foreseeing the future corruption of his (the Antichrist’s) will, he will allow the devil to dwell in him” (“An Accurate Statement of the Orthodox Faith,” book 4, chapter 26). St. teaches the same. (“Catechetical Teaching”, XV, 14). The Archbishop says that the Antichrist “will emerge from the dark and deep regions of the earth into which the devil has been driven out” (Interpretation of the 1st chapter of the Apocalypse, chapter 30). And he writes: “Before the coming of Christ, the enemy of people and the adversary of God, the demon, the thief of God’s Name, will appear in the world, clothed in human nature, the demon, the thief of God’s Name” (“A Brief Exposition of Divine Dogmas”, Chapter 23 - “Christian Reading”, 1844, IV, With. 355). , Hesychius of Jerusalem and Blessed. Jerome calls the Antichrist the son of Satan.
According to this patristic teaching, not a single moment in the life of the Antichrist can be allowed to be free from satanic influence. It must manifest itself already in birth itself and even in the special and exceptional desecration of its conception. “From a defiled virgin his (the devil’s) instrument will indeed be born,” says St. . The same is confirmed by St. : “A man (Antichrist) will be born from fornication.”
The Holy Fathers - Irenaeus ("Against Heresies", book 5, chapter 30), Hippolytus ("The Tale of Christ and the Antichrist"), as well as Hilary, Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine - note that the Antichrist will be of the Jewish race, from tribe of Dan.
In the synaxarion, laid down on the Meat Week, we read: “The Antichrist will come and will be born, as the saint says, of an unclean woman, and a false virgin, of a Jew, of the tribe of Dan” (Lenten Triodion). There are some reasons for such an indication in the Word of God:
a) In the prophecy of Patriarch Jacob about each of his sons, who became the ancestors of the tribes of Israel, the fate of Dan’s descendants is depicted by such features that can only be attributed to the Antichrist: “Let Dan be the serpent on the way, he who sits on the crossroads” ().
b) In the prophecy of Jeremiah: “From Dan himself the snoring of horses is heard, and from the neighing of strong horses the whole earth trembles; they are coming to devour the earth and everything on it" ().
c) In the prophecy of the Apocalypse, listing the remnant of all the tribes of Israel, sealed by an Angel for salvation, the tribe of Dan is completely excluded ().
According to the teachings of St. fathers, the devil, raising up the Antichrist, will try to clothe his coming with all the signs of the coming of the Son of God to earth (see St. - “Catechetical Teaching” XV, St. – Sermon 39, blessed one. Theodoret - “A Brief Exposition of Divine Dogmas”, ch. 23, St. Hippolyta - “The Tale of Christ and the Antichrist”). Of course, some similarity between the Antichrist and Christ will be only external and essentially deceptive, for the whole life and all the deeds of the Antichrist will be a fierce and blasphemous rebellion against Christ and His Church. This false external resemblance to Christ will manifest itself already in the very birth of the Antichrist. Bearing in mind that Christ was born from a Virgin, the devil will make his weapon from a virgin, but not pure, but, on the contrary, full of all sorts of vices and satanic filth. Then, just as the Lord remained in obscurity until His 30th birthday, so the Antichrist, one must assume, will remain in hidden solitude and obscurity until the same age. Just as Christ began His saving ministry by preaching His Divine teaching and miracles, so the Antichrist will begin his all-destructive ministry by deceiving people with his false teaching and the great disgrace of his false miracles. Just as the Lord was pleased to publicly reveal Himself as the Messiah in His solemn entry into Jerusalem and entry into the Temple of Jerusalem, so the Antichrist will reveal himself as the Jewish false Messiah, the universal monarch - in his solemn ceremony of entering Jerusalem and sitting in the Temple of Jerusalem, which will be restored by that time . The entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, says the archbishop, was “for all Jews a nationwide announcement that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah. The indisputable proof of this is His own words, spoken by Him before the gates of Jerusalem: “Oh, if only you (appeal to the people) on this day would understand what serves for your salvation!” (). “On this day, with the rejection of the Messiah, the fate of the people of Israel was forever decided” (“The last days of the earthly life of Jesus Christ,” part 1, p. 153). So on the coming day of the entry into Jerusalem of the false messiah - the Antichrist - the fate of contemporary humanity will be forever and irrevocably decided. Blessed are those who, on that last day, given by God for the final self-determination of people, will be able to see in the Antichrist the servant of Satan and the inevitable death with him of all humanity who has recognized him. And, finally, just as the Lord revealed Himself to the world and performed His ministry as a Prophet, as a King and as a High Priest, so the Antichrist will concentrate in His hands all threefold power and perform His all-destroying service as a teacher of all mankind, as the monarch of a universal monarchy and as the supreme high priest of all religions, demanding to be worshiped as God.
The entire life and activity of the Antichrist can be considered in the form of three periods.
THE FIRST PERIOD of the life of the Antichrist, from the day of his birth until the moment of his public appearance, will flow in hidden uncertainty. The saint says that “the Antichrist will be raised in secret” (“An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith,” book 4, chapter 26).
The SECOND PERIOD of the life of the Antichrist will open with his loud appearance in the role of a world teacher, or “prophet”. It is very possible that he will begin his activities in the conditions of a new world war unleashed by secret forces, when the peoples, enduring all its horrors, will not see any way out of the disastrous impasse, for all the secret levers for resolving it will be in the hands of the secret society assisting it. The Antichrist will offer a project for the most successful, from the point of view of political and social wisdom, resolution of the world crisis - in the establishment of a uniform political and social system throughout the world. And tired of the shocks of war, spiritually blind humanity not only does not see in this project an insidious trap for itself, luring it into the most hopeless and merciless slavery, but, on the contrary, recognizes it as a manifestation of learning and genius.
Worldwide advertising about the Antichrist as a brilliant thinker, a new leader and savior of nations will thunder in all countries in the shortest possible time. “Evil spirits, scattered throughout the universe, will arouse in people a general, lofty opinion of the Antichrist, a general delight and an irresistible attraction to him” (St., word 16).
During this period of his activity, the Antichrist will not use any violence and will try to win the trust and favor of people through deception and his hypocritical, ostentatious virtuous mask. He, in the words of Vladimir Solovyov, “will throw a brilliant cover of goodness and truth over the mystery of lawlessness.” He will come, says St. , “in such a form as to deceive everyone; He will come, humble, meek, hater (as he will say about himself) of unrighteousness, averse to idols, preferring piety, kind, poor-loving, highly virtuous, constant, kind to everyone, respecting especially the Jewish people, because the Jews will expect his coming... He will accept cunning measures to please everyone, so that the people will soon fall in love with him, he will not take gifts, speak angrily, show a gloomy appearance, but with a decorous appearance he will begin to deceive the world until he reigns” (ibid.). From the rich ascetic experience of our great ascetics, we know that when the black devil cannot overcome the ascetic, encountering persistent resistance on his part, then the strongest devil comes in the form of an “angel of light” (), trying to arouse the sympathy and trust of the ascetic. , easily dragging him to death. Therefore, we can imagine how easily and quickly, after the disgusting devil in the form of Bolshevism, the bright image of the Antichrist will be able to attract universal sympathy.
As a result of such deception, “in the very mood of the human spirit there will arise a demand, an invitation to the Antichrist. ...A calling voice is heard in human society, expressing the urgent need for a genius of geniuses, who would raise material development and prosperity to the highest degree, establish on earth... prosperity" (ep., vol. IV, With. 313).
The hypocrisy of the Antichrist in this period will reach the point that even in relation to Christians, he will not only not show himself to be their opponent, but will even come forward with the readiness of his patronage for them. In his external, ostentatious side of life, he will try to imitate Christ. The majority of Christians, guided not by the spiritual mind of the Church, but by carnal wisdom, will not see this deception and recognize the Antichrist as Christ who has come to earth a second time. The monks of the Solovetsky Monastery convey the answer of the Monk Zosima, given to his disciples who asked him how to recognize the Antichrist when he comes. The monk said: “When you hear that Christ came to earth or appeared on earth, then know that this is the Antichrist.” The answer is the most accurate. “The world, or humanity, will not recognize the Antichrist: it will recognize him as Christ, will proclaim him as Christ...” But “it will not be necessary and will be impossible for people to convey to each other the news of the coming of the Son of God. He will appear suddenly, He will appear, according to His omnipotence, to all people and the whole earth at one time” (ep., vol. IV, With. 275). The Savior Himself warned: “Then if anyone says to you: Here is Christ, or here; have no faith. ...If they say to you, “Behold, there is a place in the desert,” you will not come out; If it is in the treasures (i.e., in some secret compartment of the house), do not have faith. Just as lightning comes from the east and appears to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (; ).
To deceive people, the Antichrist will show many amazing miracles. His coming, says the Apostle Paul, will be “according to the work of Satan in all power and signs and lying wonders” (). “Being the father of lies, he will deceive the imagination through false actions, so that the people will imagine that he sees a dead man raised, while he is not resurrected, as if he sees the lame walking and the blind seeing, when there was no healing” (St., “Catechetical” teaching" XV, 14).
All these measures of the Antichrist - his teaching and the glory of a brilliant thinker, his false miracles and all his hypocritical, ostentatious virtuous life - will have one goal: to seize into his hands all world power over all nations. The first step on this path will be to achieve popularity among the Jews. The Antichrist will make every effort so that the Jews recognize him as their promised messiah. He will be able to complete the establishment of the Jewish state and begin to realize the thousand-year-old Jewish dream - the restoration of the Temple of Solomon. And then “the people will be compelled, and the king will preach, and will love the Jewish race in abundance, and will reach Jerusalem, and will build their temple” (Synaxarion on the Meat Week. - Lenten Triodion).
All these efforts of the Antichrist to present himself as the true Messiah will meet with unexpected and miraculous opposition in the person of two Old Testament prophets-accusers, who, by the will of God, without knowing death, were taken alive into heaven for a time and who must appear on earth before the end of the world, so that fulfill your mission and taste death. The names of these holy prophets are Enoch and Elijah. The Lord will send them to Jerusalem in order to give people a final and miraculous warning against the deception that engulfs them in these last earthly terms. For three and a half years they will unrestrainedly expose all the lies of the Antichrist throughout the entire second period, when he will prepare to seize all world power into his own hands. Without parting with his mask of meekness and goodwill even towards his opponents, the Antichrist at this time will not be able to interfere with the accusatory speeches of the prophets and use any violence against them.
In vain do some try to interpret this miraculous appearance of Enoch and Elijah allegorically. The Holy Scriptures and Tradition of the Church definitely speak about their actual coming to earth seven years before the end of the world, about their accusatory preaching, about their martyrdom, their resurrection and ascension to heaven.
In the Apocalypse we read: “And I will give to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days (1260 days is three and a half years), clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. And if anyone wants to offend them, fire will come out of their mouth and devour their enemies; if anyone wants to offend them, he must be killed. They have the power to shut the heavens so that no rain falls on the earth in the days of their prophecy, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to smite the earth with every plague they want. And when they finish their testimony, the beast that comes out of the poor will fight with them and defeat them and kill them” (11: 3-7).
In the book of the prophet Zechariah: “What do those two olive trees mean... what do the two olive branches mean, which pour out gold through two golden tubes... And he said: these are two anointed with oil, standing before the Lord of the whole earth” (4, 11-12, 14).
The Archbishop proves to us that by two olive trees the prophet Zechariah means the two prophets Elijah and Enoch, referring to the fact that in the Apocalypse they are also called “two olive trees” (Interpretation of the Apocalypse, ch. 30).
In the book of the prophet Malachi, one of the witnesses is directly called by name: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord” (4, 5).
The impressions from the acting behavior of the Antichrist, who reveals himself everywhere as the Divine messenger, the true Messiah, will be so strong that, even despite the formidable denunciations of him by the prophets Elijah and Enoch, the Jewish people, first of all, will proclaim him their king.
The Apocalypse mysteriously speaks about the royal power of the Antichrist in Israel, inviting each reader to decipher the name of the beast or the number of his name: “Here is wisdom. He who has intelligence, count the number of the beast, for it is a human number; its number is SIX HUNDRED SIXTY SIX" ().
Many interpreters of this mysterious number of the beast, without first establishing any principle for deciphering it, could not give a correct explanation. “By practicing the word (i.e., decoding), says the Archbishop, “you can find many names: both common nouns and proper names.” (Proper names were found as follows: Lamnetis, Titan, Venedikt... Common nouns - Thin Leader, Ancient Envy, Truly Harmful, Unrighteous Lamb, etc.). In the same spirit, Archpriest M. Polsky tried to decipher “666” by publishing his article “The Number of the Beast” in the magazine “Holy Land”, No. 1 for 1938. According to his explanation, the number 666 refers to the power of gold and power over human labor. The power of the beast is the power that “takes not only all your wealth, but also all your work, takes your hands” (p. 15).
But before coming up with any explanations, we will try to establish the only correct principle of decoding, which consists in the fact that the decoding of the number itself could simultaneously explain the reason that forced St. The Apostle resorted to code and did not say the name of the beast clearly and openly. So, if we ask: why St. The Apostle considered it necessary to encrypt such simple concepts as gold, or the power of gold over human labor, or such names as “The Thin Leader,” etc., then all these interpretations will disappear by themselves, for they, without giving an answer to this the question, the cipher itself, is made into empty and practically meaningless fun, something like modern cross-words, which, of course, is in no way compatible with either Divine inspiration or the seriousness of the holy writer.
The only serious and deep attempt to decipher the number of the beast, which could well explain the reason for the code itself, is the opinion of the Catholic priest Fr. Sloet, printed in the Revue Biblique of 1893, in a note to the Apocalypse of St. John, page 512:
“Regarding the name of the apocalyptic beast, we received the following letter, which, with the permission of the author, we consider it our duty to place here:
“Reverend Father! In the previous issue of the Biblical Review, on page 298, Rev. Father Semerius mentions the opinion of Mr. Godet, who identifies the apocalyptic beast with “the Jewish power reborn at the end of times.” Observing the ever-increasing strength of Jewry, it must be admitted that this opinion is confirmed in modern history. If so, then the Antichrist will be the Jewish king.
"St. John reveals to us<д. б. так:>“the number of his name”: 666 () – and invites to count the “number of the beast”. If the meaning of this is that the name of the Antichrist must be deduced from it (i.e., the number), and if this derivation is possible before the coming, then it seems unlikely that St. John meant his proper name: performing actions with proper names, we (invariably) end up with completely arbitrary operations.
Since the Antichrist will come under the guise of the Messiah, he will probably take upon himself the title of Jewish King; no doubt he will be called King par excellence in Israel. To express this pompous title in Hebrew, instead of using the genitive case, you need to place the prefix ל (lamed) before ישרא . Then the title of the Antichrist will be as follows: (read from right to left)
המלכ לישראל
HA-MELEK-LE-ISHRAH'EL
And the sum of the numbers of these Hebrew letters will be exactly 666.
Here's the calculation:
מ (meme) = 40
ל (lamed) = 30
ל(lamed) = 30
ש(tires) = 300
ר(dec) = 200
א(aleph) = 1
ל(lamed) = 30
Amount – 666
There is only a small stretch; it lies in the fact that the kaf in the word “melek” is not a final kaf, but an ordinary one (in the sense of counting). Please accept the assurances... etc. Oldenzaal. D.A.V.U. Slot. Holland. 18.V. 1893"
Here Father Slot makes a reservation, considering it a stretch that he took an ordinary cafe, but in this case the opposite would be incorrect. Account o. Slota is absolutely correct, since in the first times of Christianity, and in all later replacements of letters with numbers (according to Kabbalah), all actions were performed only on the 22 letters of the “sacred alphabet”. They have an exact numerical value corresponding to their serial number. And this serial number is the same for both ordinary and final kaph (as for all double letters).
This interpretation of the number of the beast simultaneously explains the practical need to use a code for it. After all, if St. the writer decided to write openly that the beast, or Antichrist, would be the king of Israel, whom the Jewish people so passionately awaited and who, according to the interpretations of his teachers, was first of all to free the Jews from the yoke of the Romans, and then to subjugate all nations and form one world power, then such a statement not only could not have the character of a strictly religious warning, but would be perceived by the Jews as an anti-patriotic speech and would cause an explosion of indignation against its author. In addition, an open announcement about the coming king of Israel, even regardless of his characteristics, could have been perceived by the Jews as a political betrayal, for the Jews carefully hid their plans about their king from the Roman authorities and tried to assure the Romans that they had no and they do not wish to have any other king than the Roman Caesar.
The THIRD PERIOD, and the last, of the Antichrist’s activity will open with his seizure of all world power into his own hands. This will be greatly facilitated by the situation of extreme devastation of peoples from the world war. In a single world government, concentrated in the hands of the universally glorified Antichrist, the majority will see the only guarantee against the possibility of new wars and the only way for the further peaceful prosperity of mankind.
The very coming to world power of the Antichrist is depicted by the Word of God as follows: on the body of a devastated and war-ravaged world, “ten kings will rise” (). Seven of them will have “the same thoughts” with the Antichrist: they will “transfer their strength and authority” to him (). The other three kings will defend their independence - the Antichrist will have to conquer them only by military force (). “When the peoples,” he wrote, “having excessively multiplied the army and abandoned arable farming - which is the beginning of ruin and defeat - they ruin, exhaust, and devour everything, then from the extreme limits of the northern country a powerful enemy will suddenly rise up against them. He will destroy three of them, and the others will make an alliance with him, and he will become the leader over them all. This will be the Antichrist” (“Divine Instructions”, Vol. VII, ch. 16).
Three kings who will be “thrown out” by the Antichrist, according to the interpretation of St. , are kings or rulers: “Egyptian”, “Libyan” and “Ethiopian” (Abyssinian).
After the victory of the Antichrist over three states and the elimination of their only obstacle to world dominion, Revelation depicts him (the Antichrist) in the form of a red beast with ten horns (i.e., having subjugated ten states) and seven heads (i.e. leaving seven rulers who voluntarily submitted to him as his plenipotentiary representatives in their countries). “Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems” (; see interpretation of the Holy Fathers: and).
Revelation speaks about the worldwide political power of the Antichrist: “And power was given to him over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation” (13:7). Although ordinary human efforts and means will be important in the process of the Antichrist seizing all world power, the main source of his success will not be in them. “And his strength will be strengthened, although not by his strength” (). The Antichrist will receive his power and strength from Satan. “And the dragon gave him his strength, and his throne, and great power” (). And only with this constant satanic assistance will it be possible to explain his unusual success in quickly seizing all power over the world and his exceptional strength, which no human force or authority can resist or interfere with. “Antichrist,” says Prof. Belyaev, “will act with the power of the devil and miracles, and this power is very great...”; then “he will have a great multitude of strong followers”; in addition, “with fast-flying routes of communication and methods of intercourse, it is possible to immediately carry out a revolution throughout the entire earth” (“On Atheism and Antichrist,” vol. 1, p. 765).
The universal recognition of the Antichrist as a world monarch will be simultaneously associated with the nationwide recognition of him and the single spiritual leader of all religions. Vladimir Solovyov, in his last work “Three Conversations” (1900), suggested that the Antichrist, having achieved power, would assemble an ecumenical Ecumenical Council from representatives of all religions. At this council (in Jerusalem), the Antichrist will invite everyone to unite into one flock under one shepherd. He will pay his main attention to Christians of all confessions, promising them all kinds of protection for recognizing him as their ruler. “He will trumpet himself,” writes St. , - as the forerunners trumpeted about him, he will call himself a preacher and restorer of the true knowledge of God; those who do not understand Christianity will see in him a representative and champion of the true religion and will join him. He will sound the trumpet and call himself the promised Messiah; the disciples of carnal wisdom will exclaim at his meeting, seeing his glory, power, genius abilities, extensive development in the elements of the world, they will proclaim him a god, they will become his followers” (word 106, part 2; see ep., vol. IV, With. 301).
By the way, it is very important to note that all St. The fathers consider the main reason for such a rapid and reckless infatuation of people with the Antichrist to be their lack of spiritual intelligence, their complete immersion in the carnal state. And since spiritual intelligence can be acquired and developed only in the conditions of correct spiritual life, taught by the true Orthodox Church, then at that moment only Orthodox Christians will be able to find themselves in full spiritual armor and recognize all the intrigues and deceits of the Antichrist, but not all, but only that small some of them will live a spiritual life according to the rules of the Church. Heretics and false believers, who either have no spiritual life at all, or practice it but in incorrect and perverted forms, will inevitably become victims of the deception of the Antichrist.
The Antichrist will subtly replace the cult of the God-Man with the cult of the Man-God and demand that he be worshiped as God. In Holy Scripture he is portrayed as exalting himself “above everything that is called God or that is holy” (), as speaking “proudly and blasphemously,” as blaspheming God and “His habitation and those who dwell in heaven” (Revelation, 13, 5-6).
Note: Here it is important to note that in the direction of spreading anti-Christian man-divine views, active propaganda is now being carried out by both supporters of Eastern religions and yoga, and their Western followers - theosophists. They all say that our human self is divine and consubstantial with God. “The spirit in the soul of a person is the true “I” of a person, in which he is truly consubstantial with the Father” (“Zhnani Yoga”, p. 100). “The true “I” of man is a manifestation of God, and in it (in the true “I”) lies the very essence of the Divine” (“Raja Yoga”, p. 50). “The Divine Being, which we “in ignorance” imagine as separate from us, is not at all distant from us, but is its own “I” contained within us” (Suomi Abedananda, “How to Become a Yogi,” p. 28) . The same author claims that revelation does not come from any special source, but that it (inspiration from above) is only the revelation of the higher “I” in man himself (p. 32).
We find the same religious anti-Christian views among the preachers of Theosophy. The President of the Theosophical Society A. Besant states: “The highest “I” of man is the very force that created the universe...; it is part of the life of the Logos and is inseparable from it” (“The Power of Thought”, 1912). “The highest “I” is the Divine Spirit,” says E. Blavatsky (“Occultism and Magical Art,” 1912). Theosophists recognize that the appearance of God on earth is not a unique phenomenon, but is repeated in the so-called “avatars.” The appearance on earth of “avatars,” or “saviors of the world,” according to their teaching, occurred many times. A. Besant claims that nine avatars have descended to earth so far. “The tenth must appear” (Lecture by A. Besant “The Ideas of Christ”, 1914). These avatars mean Buddha, Krishna, Jesus of Nazareth, etc. (A. Besant, “On World Teaching,” 1913).
Christian doctrine asserts that only the Son of God and the Holy Spirit are consubstantial with God the Father - the Holy Trinity, Consubstantial and Indivisible. The salvation of the world is accomplished once. The only Savior of people and Redeemer is the Son of God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ. There have never been and never will be other “saviors”.
The views of representatives of Eastern and Western occultism presented here testify to the preparation of the proclamation of the coming Antichrist as God and “savior of the world.”
According to the prediction of St. ap. Paul, the Antichrist “will sit in the temple of God... as God, showing himself to be God” (). Without a doubt, “the Antichrist will have neither the time, nor the desire, nor the opportunity to constantly sit in the temple. He will do this only on special, solemn and important occasions, for example, when declaring himself the king of the world and God. But he will not need to be in the temple all the time. Having once sat down in a temple and declared himself God, by this very action he will give a sign and at the same time give an order that his images (statues or icons) be placed in all Christian and non-Christian churches and that all people worship them as himself, as images of God. And indeed in churches the service of the Antichrist as God will begin” (Prof. Belyaev, “On atheism and the Antichrist”, vol. 1, p. 384).
This desecration of the shrine of the Christian temple and the Christian faith is mysteriously foreshadowed in Holy Scripture in the sayings about the placing of the “abomination of desolation” in a holy place:
a) ... “at half the week (after three and a half years of the second period and at the beginning of the third period, which is to last three and a half years, the activity of the Antichrist) sacrifice and offering will cease, and on the wing of the sanctuary there will be the abomination of desolation” ().
b) ... “and they will appoint part of the army, which will desecrate the sanctuary of power and stop the daily sacrifice and set up the abomination of desolation” ().
c) ... “from the time the daily sacrifice ceases and the abomination of desolation is set up, 1290 days will pass” ().
Here, in a prophetic perspective, three events are simultaneously depicted, although separated from each other by entire centuries, but having a deep inner affinity with each other. In reality, the first two events are only a prototype of the last, future one, to which the prophecy mainly refers.
a) The first event is the persecution of the faith of Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria. Antiochus reigned after his brother Seleucus IV in 137 of the Seleucid era, or in 176 BC. His terrible reign and his cruel persecution of the faith are spoken of in the first two books of Maccabees. “He entered the sanctuary with arrogance... and commanded that in his kingdom all should be one people, and that everyone should leave his own law”... and “they should mock the Sabbaths and holidays, and desecrate the sanctuary and the saints”... “And if anyone does not do according according to the word of the king, let him be put to death”… and “they set up on the altar the abomination that makes desolate”… “and the books of the law which they found, they tore to pieces and burned with fire; Whoever had the book of the covenant and who kept the law was put to death by order of the king... wives were killed, they circumcised their children, and babies were hanged by their necks, their houses were plundered... the temple was filled with fornication and outrage from the pagans" (1 book 1:2 book 6, 1-9). Christian theologians recognize Antiochus Epiphanes as the most striking prototype of the coming Antichrist.
b) The second event is the destruction of Jerusalem and the desecration of the Jerusalem Temple by Roman troops in 70 after the Nativity of Christ. “If the prophecy of Daniel applied only to Antiochus, then in this case Jesus Christ, repeating the abomination of desolation spoken through the prophet Daniel (;), could not speak of an event that would take place in the future, since for His time the era of Antiochus Epiphanes has long passed” (Prof. Belyaev, “On Atheism and Antichrist”, vol. 1, p. 230).
This event is described by the Jewish historian Josephus. According to him, the Romans, suppressing the uprising of the Jews, destroyed Jerusalem and “brought their standards into the sanctuary and placed them opposite the Eastern Gate; They made solemn sacrifices (pagan) in front of the banners and with loud shouts proclaimed Titus autocrat.” This is how the “abomination of desolation” became in the holy city and in the shrine of this city..., in the temple of Jerusalem. In this temple, sacrifice was now made to the pagan gods by the hands of the pagans; henceforth, sacrifices and prayers to the true God ceased in him forever” (Prof. Belyaev, ibid., p. 216).
c) But this prophecy about the abomination of desolation could only partially relate to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Mainly, it refers to another, future era, “when all the temples on earth will be desecrated and at the same time there will be devastation and desecration of the New Zion - the Church of Christ... throughout the entire earth. This will happen before the end of the world - with the Antichrist” (Prof. Belyaev, ibid., p. 219). Blessed Jerome attributes the entire prophecy of Daniel about the setting up of the “abomination of desolation” to the Antichrist and only some features to Antiochus.
2. The second temptation of Satan was manifested in the fact that he, taking the Lord to the holy city and placing Him on the wing of the temple, said to Him: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written: “He will command His angels concerning You, and in their hands they will bear You, lest You dash Your foot against a stone” (). This sentence from the devil meant the following: “Throw yourself down and appear surrounded and carried by a host of angels before the astonished people, so that the people, seeing this sign, will immediately recognize You as the Son of God.” And this temptation of Satan, under the pretext of plausible concern for arousing among the people faith in the Divine dignity of the Savior, was nothing more than a complete rejection of the Cross of Christ, a rejection of the Atonement, for it invited Christ to become a leader, drawing the crowd along with him with one empty effect and not requiring There is no moral achievement or self-sacrifice.
A similar demand for a sign from the Lord came repeatedly from the Pharisees. “The Pharisees, not satisfied with the miracles that the Lord performed, demanded a special miracle from Him - “a sign from heaven” ()…. The desire for a “sign from heaven” was sometimes expressed by the people. So, after the miraculous multiplication of the five loaves and the saturation of the crowded meeting with them, in which there were five thousand men, with the exception of wives and children, eyewitnesses of this miracle, the participants in this meal said to the Lord: “What sign have You done, so that we may see and have faith in You? Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it is written: “Give them bread from heaven to eat” (). For them, the wondrous multiplication of loaves in the hands of the Savior seemed insufficient: it took place with silence, with holy humility, with which all the actions of the God-Man were imbued, and they needed a spectacle, they needed an effect. They needed the sky to be covered with thick clouds, for thunder to roar and lightning to flash, for bread to fall from the air" (from heaven) (ep., vol. IV, With. 296-297).
It was a grave sin to demand such a sign from the God-man, for it came from the carnal mind, rejecting any lofty spiritual goal for the sake of external effect. The Lord, hearing this impudent, blasphemous demand for a sign, took a deep breath and said: “Why does this generation demand a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation. And leaving them... went to the other side" (). This demand for a sign from heaven was a demand for a miracle in the nature of Satan's miracles. The sign from heaven could not have any special reliability. Why could only a sign from heaven testify that it was from God? “The opposite is clear from the Divine Scripture... The Holy Scripture narrates that, through the action of the devil, “fire fell from heaven and consumed the sheep and shepherds” of righteous Job (; see “The Good News” on). It is obvious that this fire was formed in the air, just as lightning is formed in it. Simon the Magus surprised the blind people with miracles, who recognized in him the power of Satan “by the great power of God” (). Simon especially surprised the pagan Romans when, in a large gathering of them, declaring himself a god and his intention to ascend to heaven, he suddenly began to rise in the air; the blessed one tells about this, borrowing the story from the most ancient Christian writers (see Life of St. Apostle Peter, Chetya-Minea, June 29). Pinetti, who lived at the end XVIII centuries, performed similar miracles. Others have done and are doing them” (ep., vol. IV, With. 299-300).
What Christ refused to do, the Antichrist will do: he will give a sign from heaven, that is, a sign in the air, where Satan predominates (see St. Ephraim the Syrian, word 106, part 2;). St. John the Theologian says that the Antichrist will accomplish great deeds, “and will cause fire to descend from heaven to earth before men” (). “This sign is indicated by Scripture as the highest of the signs of the Antichrist, and the place of this sign is the air: it will be a magnificent and terrible sight.” It will “have the greatest effect on the sense of sight, charming and deceiving it” (ep., vol. IV, With. 302).
“A terrible test will come for the saints of God: the wickedness, hypocrisy, miracles of the persecutor will intensify to deceive and seduce them, refined, thoughtful and covered with the insidious ingenuity of persecution and oppression, the unlimited power of the tormentor will put them in the most difficult position; a small number of them will seem insignificant before all humanity... general contempt, hatred, slander, oppression, violent death will be their lot."... "Opponents of the Antichrist will be considered troublemakers, enemies of the public good and order, will be subjected to both covert and open persecution, will be subjected to torture and execution "... (ep., vol. IV, With. 302-303).
The first victims of the Antichrist will be his accusers - St. prophets Enoch and Elijah. “And when they finish their testimony, the beast coming out of the abyss (Antichrist) will fight with them and defeat them and kill them, and leave their corpses on the street of the great city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where our Lord was crucified (Jerusalem). And many of the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their corpses for three and a half days and will not allow their corpses to be placed in graves. And those who live on the earth will rejoice and be glad and will send gifts to each other, because these two prophets tormented those who live on the earth. But after three and a half days the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they both stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who looked at them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they ascended to heaven on a cloud; and their enemies looked at them. And at that same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell, and seven thousand names of men perished in the earthquake; and the others were overcome with fear, and gave glory to the God of Heaven” ().
After this, a remarkable event should occur, which can only be attributed to the action of the preaching of St. the prophets, their miraculous resurrection and ascension into heaven - the conversion to Christ of a significant part of the Jews contemporary with the Antichrist. The blessed one writes on this occasion: “Elijah will come... as the forerunner of the second coming, and will return to faith in Christ all the Jews who turn out to be obedient, bringing, as it were, to their fatherly inheritance those who have fallen away from Him. The basis for this statement is the following prophetic words in the Holy Scriptures:
a) “Behold, I will send Elijah the prophet to you (the Jews) before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I, when I come, will not strike the earth with a curse” ().
d) “And on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem I will pour out the spirit of grace and compunction, and they will look at Him, whom they have pierced, and will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only begotten son, and grieves, as one mourns for the firstborn. On this day the great lament of Hadadrimmon will rise in the valley of Megiddon” ().
e) “For if you (one of the pagans who turned to Christ) were cut off from the olive tree that was wild by nature, and were not grafted into the good olive tree by nature, then how much more will these natural ones (from the Jews) be grafted into their own olive tree... I do not want to leave you, brothers, in ignorance of this mystery - so that you dream about yourself - that hardening has happened in Israel in part, until the time when the full number of the pagans comes in" ().
Vladimir Solovyov, who tried to explain the entire prophecy about the appearance of the prophets Elijah and Enoch allegorically (see “Three Conversations”, chapter “The Tale of the Antichrist”), unwittingly had to make mistakes in explaining the conversion of the remnant of Israel to Christ, which is closely connected with the appearance of the prophets. In his opinion, the Jews, having learned that the person they thought was the Messiah would suddenly turn out to be uncircumcised, would be disappointed in him and accept Christianity. If this premise about the uncircumcision of the Antichrist turned out to be correct, then it could only prompt the fanatical Jews to move away from him and wait for another, more suitable candidate for the role of the Messiah, but it could not become the reason for their disappointment in their entire religious-national ideology and their acceptance of the Christian faith. The Jews had many unsuccessful claimants to the title of Messiah who led rebellious movements against Rome. And yet subsequent disappointments in them never led the Jews to the conviction of the truth of Christianity. This is Vl's explanation. Solovyov must be considered very unsuccessful. Only one testimony of Holy Scripture about the miraculous appearance of the prophets Elijah and Enoch, about their preaching and denunciation of the Antichrist, about their martyrdom and resurrection can fully explain the miraculous conversion of the remnant of Israel to Christ in the era of the Antichrist.
This conversion of the Jews to Christ will cause the Antichrist to become extremely angry towards Christians. Then for them there will come “a great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, and never will be” (). “And it was given to him (the Antichrist) to wage war with the saints (Christians) and defeat them” ().
Salvation for the small remnant of believers will only be in the short-term reign of the Antichrist. “And if those days had not been shortened, no flesh would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened” ().
The world dominion of the Antichrist will last three and a half years. “From the time of the cessation of the daily sacrifice (the beginning of the third period of the Antichrist’s activity when he opened his world monarchy) and the installation of the abomination of desolation, 1290 days will pass” (; see 12, 7). The same period of reign of the Antichrist is noted in Revelation: “And power was given to him (the Antichrist) to act for forty-two months” (13:5).
No human power can resist the Antichrist. Only the Lord Himself, coming a second time to earth in all His glory, will defeat him. Then the Last Judgment of Christ and the end of our world will come (;). And “the beast will be captured, and with him the false prophet, who performed miracles before him, with which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. Both will be thrown alive into the lake of fire, burning with brimstone; and the rest were killed by the sword of Him sitting on a horse, coming out of His mouth” (). “And the devil, who deceived them, (will) be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night and forever and ever” ().
The main disaster of the era before the worldwide reign of the Antichrist will lie in the exceptional spiritual blindness of people. Spiritual mind, i.e. that mind which alone can clearly see the light of Truth will become an extremely rare phenomenon. Humanity, guided by the carnal mind, not only does not recognize the Antichrist, does not see in him its insidious enemy, but, on the contrary, recognizes him as its benefactor. “Many will believe in him,” said one blessed monk, “and will glorify him as the mighty God. Those who have God always within themselves... will see the truth through pure faith and know Him. To all who have the vision of God and reason - then the coming of the tormentor will be reasonable. For those who always have a mind in the things of this life and love earthly things, this will not be clear: for they are attached to the things of this life. Even if they hear the word (warnings about the Antichrist), they do not have faith, but even more so will this saying disgust them” (“Letters, book 1, p. 62, 1850; see also Word 106 rev.). A constant warning for us is the word of Christ: “Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with excess and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and lest that day come upon you suddenly” (). For excessive immersion in the interests and concerns of material life contributes to the development of the carnal mind, which will always be in conflict with the teachings and revelation of the Divine.
To acquire spiritual intelligence, you must first of all obey the intelligence of the Universal Orthodox Church. You need to check all your reasoning with the Word of God and the patristic teachings. “We need, we urgently need, attention to the Word of God, justified by the very events of a time and mood hostile to it, lest we fall away” (ep., vol. IV, With. 227-228). “Don’t stop,” says Rev. , - test the Divine Scriptures, do not stop asking your Mother - the Church: when the desired Bridegroom comes, - ask and inquire about the sign of His coming, because the Judge will not budge. Don’t stop asking until you know for sure, don’t stop resorting to the help of those who know exactly about this” (Creations, 1850, vol. IV, With. 133). All St. the fathers recommend that we be constantly guided by Holy Scripture. At the same time, the advice of neighbors who themselves are guided by the Word of God and the works of St. fathers. “Such guidance of the mind of the Church will protect believers from being carried away by widely disseminated false teachings and views. The absence of this leadership and the habit of always following public opinion will inevitably lead to the wrong path. In addition, even if a person decided to go against established social views, against the generally accepted path, he would certainly be subjected to the following temptation - he would definitely hear: “Are you really the only one right, and all or most people are wrong?” Only for those who will be guided by Holy Scripture, such reasoning will have no value. Scripture will tell him that not the majority, but only a few, walk along the narrow path, but in the last days of the world this path will become extremely impoverished” (ep.). Holy Scripture will also inspire him with courage: he will not be embarrassed by the fact that the number of true believers will turn out to be a small island among a boundless ocean of lies and wickedness. He will remember the covenant of Christ: “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom” ().
Another disaster of the era of the Antichrist will be that then any organized resistance to his power will become impossible. Then “do not try to stop him with your weak hand. Stay away, protect yourself from him; and that’s enough for you” (Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov). “Be content,” says Elder Isaiah, “that salvation is given to people who want to be saved.” Therefore, we need to fight the approaching kingdom of darkness now, when the opportunity to fight has not yet been taken away from us. Any evasion from the fight now, any compromise with evil in the name of coexistence with it, made today, will only further increase the difficulty of fighting it tomorrow. You need to “do things... while it is day” before “night comes when no one can do” ().
Night is that satanic kingdom of spiritual darkness approaching us, which is preparing to embrace all of humanity. Then the life of believers will be so difficult that they, even despite their sinfulness, even forgetting the fear of the coming Judgment, will exclaim: “Hey, come, Lord Jesus!” ( In some publications the word “really” is missing.
In some publications, the text of the note is included in a footnote with an explanation - “Author's Note”.
In some publications - “from the sky”.
In some publications we read this: “Therefore, we need to resist the approaching kingdom of darkness now, when this opportunity has not yet been taken away from us. Any evasion from this now...”