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AGAINST
FALSE UNION
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from chapter two
CHAPTER THREE
The commotion about union of the churches makes evident the ignorance existing as much among the circles of the simple faithful as among the theologians as to what the Church is.
They understand the catholicity of the Church as a legal cohesion, as an interdependence regulated by some code. For them the Church is an organization with laws and regulations like the organizations of nations. Bishops, like civil servants, are distinguished as superiors and subordinates: patriarchs, archbishops, metropolitans, bishops. For them, one diocese is not something complete, but a piece of a larger whole: the autocephalous church or the patriarchate. But the autocephalous church, also, feels the need to belong to a higher head. When external factors of politics, history, or geography prevent this, a vague feeling of weak unity and even separation circulates through the autocephalous churches.
Such a concept of the Church leads directly to the Papacy. If the catholicity of the Church has this kind of meaning, then Orthodoxy is worthy of tears, because up to now she has not been able to discipline herself under a Pope.
But this is not the truth of the matter. The catholic Church which we confess in the Symbol (Creed) of our Faith is not called catholic because it includes all the Christians of the earth, but because within her everyone of the faithful finds all the grace and gift of God. The meaning of catholicity has nothing to do with a universal organization the way the Papists and those who are influenced by the Papist mentality understand it.
Of course, the Church is intended for the extended to the whole world independent of lands, nations, races, and tongues; and it is not an error for one to name her catholic because of this also. But just as humanity becomes an abstract idea, there is a danger of the same thing happening to the Church when we see her as an abstract, universal idea. In order for one to understand humanity well, it is enough for him to know only one man, since the nature of that man is common to all men of the world.
Similarly, in order to understand what the catholic Church of Christ is, it suffices to know well only one local church. And as among men, it is not submission to a hierarchy which unites them but their common nature, so the local churches are not united by the Pope and the Papal hierarchy but by their common nature.
A local Orthodox church regardless of her size or the number of the faithful is by herself alone, independently of all the others, catholic. And this is so because she lacks nothing of the grace and gift of God. All the local churches of the whole world together do not contain anything more in divine grace than that small church with few members.
She has her presbyters and bishop; she has the Holy Mysteries; she has the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Within her any worthy soul can taste of the Holy Spirit’s presence. She has all the grace and truth. What is she lacking therefore in order to be catholic? She is the one flock, and the bishop is her shepherd, the image of Christ, the one Shepherd. She is the prefiguring on earth of the one flock with the one Shepherd, of the new Jerusalem. Within her, even in this life, pure hearts taste of the Kingdom of God, the betrothal of the Holy Spirit. Within her they find peace which “passeth all understanding”, the peace which has no relation with the peace of men: “My peace I give unto you”.
“Paul, called to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ... to the Church of God which is at Corinth...” Yes, it really was the Church of God, even if it was at Corinth, at one concrete and limited place.
This is the catholic Church, something concrete in space, time, and persons. This concrete entity can occur repeatedly in space and in time without ceasing to remain essentially the same.
Her relations with the other local churches are not relations of legal and jurisdictional interdependence, but relations of love and grace. One local church is united with all the other local Orthodox churches of the world by the bond of identity. Just as one is the Church of God, the other is the Church of God also, as well as all the others. They are not divided by boundaries of nations nor the political goals of the countries in which they live. They are not even divided by the fact that one might be ignorant of the other’s existence. It is the same Body of Christ which is partaken of by the Greeks, the Negroes of Uganda, the Eskimos of Alaska, and the Russians of Siberia. The same Blood of Christ circulates in their veins. The Holy Spirit enlightens their minds and leads them to the knowledge of the same truth.
There exist, of course, relations of interdependence between the local churches, and there are canons which govern them. This interdependence, though, is not a relation of legal necessity, but a bond of respect and love in complete freedom, the freedom of grace. And the canons are not laws of a code, but wise guides of centuries of experience.
The Church has no need of external bonds in order to be one. It is not a pope, or a patriarch, or an archbishop which unites the Church. The local church is something complete; it is not a piece of a larger whole.
Besides, the relations of the churches are relations of churches, and not relations which belong exclusively to their bishops. A bishop cannot be conceived of without a flock or independent of his flock. The Church is the bride of Christ. The Church is the body of Christ, not the bishop alone.
A bishop is called a patriarch when the church of which he is the shepherd is a patriarchate, and an archbishop when the church is an archdiocese. In other words, the respect and honor belongs to the local church, and by extension it is rendered to its bishop. The Church of Athens is the largest and, today, most important local church of Greece. For this reason the greatest respect belongs to her, and she deserves more honor than any other church of Greece. Her opinion has a great bearing, and her role in the solution of common problems is the most significant. That is why she is justly called an archdiocese. Consequently, the bishop of that church, because he represents such an important church is a person equally important and justly called an archbishop. He himself is nothing more than an ordinary bishop. In the orders of priesthood - the deacon, the presbyter, and the bishop - there is no degree higher than the office of the bishop. The titles metropolitan, archbishop, patriarch, or pope do not indicate a greater degree of ecclesiastical charism, because there is no greater sacramental grace than that which is given to the bishop. They only indicate a difference in prominence of the churches of which they are shepherds.
This prominence of one church in relation to the others is not something permanent. It depends upon internal and external circumstances. In studying the history of the Church, we see the primacy of prominence and respect passing from church to church in a natural succession. In Apostolic times, the Church of Jerusalem, without any dispute, had the primacy of authority and importance. She had known Christ; she had heard His words; she saw Him being crucified and arising; and upon her did the Holy Spirit first descend. All who were in a communion of faith and life with her were certain that they walked the road of Christ. This is why Paul, when changed that the Gospel which he taught was not the Gospel of Christ, hastened to explain it before the Church of Jerusalem, so that the agreement of that church might silence his enemies (Gal. 2: 1-2).
Later, that primacy was taken by Rome, little by little. It was the capital of the Roman Empire. A multitude of tried Christians comprised that church. Two leading Apostles had lived and preached within its bounds. A multitude of Martyrs had dyed its soil with their blood. That is why her word was venerable, and her authority in the solution of common problems was prodigious. But it was the authority of the church and not of her bishop. When she was asked for her view in the solution of common problems, the bishop replied not in his own name as a Pope of today would do, but in the name of his church. In his epistle to the Corintians, St. Clement of Rome begins this way: “The Church of God which is in Rome, to the Church of God which is in Corinth”. He writes in an amicable and supplicatory manner in order to convey the witness and opinion of his church concerning whatever happened in the Church of Corinth. In his letter to the Church of Rome, St. Ignatius the God-bearer does not mention her bishop anywhere, although he writes as though he were addressing himself to the church which truly has primacy in the hierarchy of the churches of his time.
When St. Constantine transferred the capital of the Roman state to Byzantium, Rome began gradually to lose her old splendor. It became a provincial city. A new local church began to impose itself upon the consciousness of the Christian world: the Church of Constantinople. Rome tried jealously to preserve the splendor of the past, but because things were not conducive to it, it developed little by little its well-known Papal ecclesiology in order to secure theoretically that which circumstances would not offer. Thus it advanced from madness to madness, to the point where it declared that the Pope is infallible whenever he speaks on doctrine, even if because of sinfulness he does not have the enlightenment of sanctity the Fathers of the Church had.note3
The Church of Constantinople played the most significant role throughout the long period of great heresies and of the Ecumenical Councils, and in her turn she gave her share of blood with the martyrdom of thousands of her children during the period of the Iconoclasts.
Besides these churches which at different times had the primacy of authority, there were others which held the second of third place. They were the various patriarchates, old or new, and other important churches or metropolises. There exists, therefore, a hierarchy, but a hierarchy of churches and not a bishops. St. Irenaeus does not advice Christians to address themselves to important bishops in order to find the solution to their problem, but to the churches which have the oldest roots in the Apostles (Adv. Haer, III, 4, 1).
There are not, therefore, organizational, administrative, or legal bonds among the churches, but bonds of love and grace, the same bonds of love and grace which exist among the faithful of every church, clergy of lay. The relationship between presbyter and bishop is not a relationship of employee and employer, but a charismatic and sacramental relationship. The bishop is the one who gives the presbyter the grace of the priesthood. And the presbyter gives the layman the grace of the Holy Mysteries. The only thing which separates the bishop from the presbyter is the charism of ordination. The bishop excels in nothing else, even if he be the bishop of an important church and bears the title of patriarch of pope. “There is not much separating them [the presbyters] and the bishops. For they too are elevated for the teaching and protection of the Church... They [the bishops] surpass them only in the power of ordination, and in this alone they exceed the presbyters” (Chrysostom, Hom. XI. on I Tim).
Bishops have no right to behave like rulers, not only towards the other churches but also towards the presbyters of laymen of the church of which they are bishop. They have a responsibility to oversee in a paternal way, to counsel, to guide, to battle against falsehood, to adjure transgressors with love and strictness, to preside in love. But these responsibilities they share with the presbyters. And the presbyters in turn look upon the bishops as their fathers in the priesthood and render them the same love.
All things in the Church are governed by love. Any distinctions are charismatic distinctions. They are not distinctions of a legal nature but of a spiritual authority. And among the laymen there are charisms and charisms.
The unity of the Church, therefore, is not a matter of obedience to a higher authority. It is not a matter of submission of subordinates to superiors. External relations do not make unity, neither do the common decisions of councils, even of Ecumenical Councils. The unity of the Church is given by the communion in the Body and Blood of Christ, the communion with the Holy Trinity. It is a liturgical unity, a mystical unity.
The common decisions of an Ecumenical Council are not the foundation but the result of unity. Besides, the decisions of either an ecumenical of local council are valid only when they are accepted by the consciousness of the Church and are in accord with the Tradition.
The Papacy is the distortion par excellence of Church unity. It made that bond of love and freedom a bond of constraint and tyranny. The Papacy is unbelief in the power and confidence in the power of human systems.
But let no one think that the Papacy is something which exists only in the West. In recent times it has started to appear among the Orthodox too. A few novel titles are characteristic of this spirit, for example, “Archbishop of all Greece”, “Archbishop of North and South America”. Many times we hear people say of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the “leader of Orthodoxy”, or we hear the Russians speaking of Moscow as the third Rome and its patriarch as holding the reins of the whole of Orthodoxy. In fact, many sharp rivalries have begun. All these are manifestations of the same worldly spirit, the same thirst for worldly power, and belong to the same tendencies which characterize the world today.
People cannot feel unity in multiplicity. Yet this is a deep mystery. Our weakness or inability to feel it originates from the condition of severance into which the human race has fallen. People have charged from persons into separated and hostile individuals, and it is impossible for them now to understand the deep unity of their nature. Man, however, is one and many; one in his nature, many in persons. This is the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and the mystery of the Church.
It is imperative that Christians realize that the Church has sacramental and not administrative foundations; then they will not suffer that which has happened to the Westerners who followed the Pope in his errors because they thought that if they did not follow him, they would automatically be outside the Church.
Today the various patriarchates and archdioceses undergo great pressures from political powers which seek to direct the Orthodox according to their own interests. It is known that the Patriarchate of Moscow accepts the influence of Soviet politics. But the Patriarchate of Constantinople also accepts the influence of American politics. It was under this influence that the contact of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the similarly American-influenced, Protestant, World Council of Churches was brought about, and its servile disposition toward the Pope started to take on dangerous dimensions and even to exert over-bearing pressure upon the other Orthodox churches.
America thinks that it will strengthen the Western faction against communism if, with these artificial conciliations, it unifies its spiritual forces. But in this way the Church becomes a toy of the political powers of the world, with unforeseeable consequences for Orthodoxy.
Are the Orthodox people obliged to follow such a servile patriarchate forever? The fact that this patriarchate for centuries held the primacy of importance and honor in the Christian world cannot justify those who will follow it to a unifying capitulation with heresy. Rome also once had the primacy of importance and honor in the Christian world, but that did not oblige Christians to follow it on the road of heresy. The communion with and respect for one church on the part of the other churches remains and continues only as long as that church remains in the Church, that is, as long as it lives and proceeds in spirit and truth. When a patriarchate ceases to be a church, admitting communion with heretics, then its recognition on the part of the other churches ceases also.
The Orthodox people must become conscious of the fact that they owe no obedience to a bishop, no matter how high a title he holds, when that bishop ceases being Orthodox and openly follows heretics with pretenses of union “on equal terms”. On the contrary, they are obliged to depart from him and confess their Faith, because the moment he ceases being Orthodox. The bishop is a consecrated person, and even if he is openly sinful, respect and honor is due him until synodically censured. But if he becomes openly heretical or is in communion with heretics, then the Christians should not await any synodical decision, but should draw away from him immediately.
Here is what the canons of the Church say on this: “... So that if any presbyter or bishop or metropolitan dares to secede from communion with his own patriarch and does not mention his name as is ordered and appointed in the divine mystagogy, but before a synodical arraignment and his [the patriarch’s] full condemnation, he creates a schism, the Holy Synod has decreed that this person be alienated from every priestly function, if only he be proven to have transgressed in this. These rules, therefore, have been sealed and ordered concerning those who on the pretext of some accusations against their own presidents stand apart, creating a schism and severing the unity of the Church. But as for those who on account of some heresy condemned by Holy Synods or Fathers sever themselves from communion with their president, that is, because he publicly preaches heresy and with bared head teaches it in the Church, for walling themselves off from communion with the so-called bishop before synodical clarication, but they shall be deemed bishops and false teachers have they condemned, and they have not fragmented the Church’s unity with schism, but from schisms and divisions have they earnestly sought to deliver the Church” (Canon XV of the so-called First and Second Council).
The world and the devil are leading the Church to such frightening trials that the day might come when all the bishops of the land will enter into communion with the heretics. What will the faithful do then? What will the few do who have the heroism not to follow the masses, not to follow their kin, their neighbors, and their fellow citizens?
All the faithful will have to understand that the Church is not there where it appears to be. Liturgies will continue to be performed and the churches will be filled with people, but the Church will have no relation with those churches or those clergy and those faithful. The Church is where the truth is. The faithful are those who continue the unbroken. Tradition of Orthodoxy, that work of the Holy Spirit. The real priests are those who think, live, and teach as the Fathers and the Saints of the Church did, or at least do not reject them in their teaching. Where that continuity of thought and life does not exist, it is a deception to speak of the Church, even if all the outward marks speak of it.
There will always be found a canonical priest, ordained by a canonical bishop, who will follow the Tradition. Around such priests will gather the small groups of the faithful who will remain until the last days. Each one of these small groups will be a local catholic Church of God. The faithful will find in them the entire fulness of the grace of God. They will have no need of administrative or other ties, for the communion that will exist among them will be the most perfect there can be. It will be communion in the Body and Blood of Christ, communion in the Holy Spirit. The golden links of the unalterable Orthodox Tradition will connect those churches among themselves as well as with the churches of the past, with the Church triumphant of heaven. In these small groups the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church will be preserved intact.
Of course, it is wonderful that order and coordination should exist in the outward functionings of the various churches, and that the less important churches should receive their direction and guidance from the more important churches, the way it is now between dioceses, metropolises, archdioceses, and patriarchates. But in the last days, such outward relations and contacts will be impossible most of the time. There will be such confusion in the world that one church will not be able to be certain of the orthodoxy of another because of the multitude of false prophets who will fill the world and who will be saying, “Here is Christ”, and “There is Christ”. There might even be misunderstandings among the really Orthodox churches because of the confusion of tongues which exists in the contemporary Babel. But none of that sever the essential unity of the Church.
A contemporary example of that condition is presented by the Russians of the dispersion who have been divided into three opposing factions. One group wishes to belong to the Patriarchate of Moscow. Another, in order to be free from Soviet political influence, belongs to the Patriarchate of Constantinople and is influenced by pro-Papal politics.note4 The third and most down-to-earth group, the Russian Synod Abroad, remains independent. And the three groups, at least up to the present, are Orthodox with full essential communion among them.note5 Formal intercommunion and external contacts, however, they do not have, and this because they have been lost in the web of legalistic concepts and debates about which patriarchate should govern them. Such a mentality is wrong in its very basis since there is no essential need for dependence on a patriarchate, particularly at a time when immense distance and frontiers of nations separate them from these patriarchates. Nothing impedes an Orthodox church in Paris, for example, from being in essential communion with the Patriarchate of Moscow or with the Church of Constantinople, even though it has no jurisdictional dependence upon them. The notion that the interruption of jurisdictional dependence of a local church from a patriarchate cuts this church off from the Orthodox Church is not Orthodox but Papal. Besides, even the existence of jurisdictional dependence of churches upon one patriarch is of Papal inspiration. An Orthodox patriarch is a president, a coordinator of efforts, an adviser of great importance, but he is not a despot, not a sovereign. He can do nothing beyond the bounds of his diocese without the agreement of all the other bishops (XXXIV Apostolic Canon).
It is possible, then, in the last days when the various churches and religions will have been united and will appear as single whole, that the genuine Orthodox Church will appear disintegrated, fragmented into small, scattered, sparse parishes, so that it is even possible that one will suspect the other from lack of confidence, just as soldiers suspect each other when it is learned that the enemy is wearing the same uniform.
In the last days all will claim to be Orthodox Christians, and that Orthodoxy is as they understand it to be. But in spite of all this, those who have a pure heart and a mind enlightened by divine grace will recognize the Orthodox Church despite the apparent divisions and utter lack of external splendor. They will gather around the true priests, and they will become the pillars of the Church. Let the people of the world do whatever they will. Let there be ecumenical conferences; let the churches be united; let Christianity be adulterated; let the Tradition and life be changed; let the religions be united. The Church of Christ will remain unaltered, as Chrysostom says, because if even of her pillars remains standing, the Church will not fall. “Nothing is stronger than the Church. She is higher than the heavens and broader than the earth. She never grows old; she always flourishes”.
A pillar of the Church is every true believer who adheres to the Tradition of the Fathers in spite of all the frighful currents of the world which attempt to pull him away. Such pillars will exist until the end of the world, whatever might happen. Besides, when these things come to pass, the coming of the Lord will not be far off. That state of affairs will be the most fearful sign that His coming is approaching. Precisely then will the end come.
Sugary, or unsalted and sentimental Christians regard the above as extreme and repulsive pessimism. As allies of the world, they cannot see the seal of the devil on that witch they approve. Neither can they estimate the horrendous gulf which separates the world from God, for then they would be required to admit that the same gulf separates them too from God.
They cannot, therefore, tolerate anyone being pessimistic about the contemporary Babel. They are that content with their era. They see such a bright future. Christianity for them is very much in step with the world, and they are so pleased with this that they will never forgive you if you show them that they are deceived.
They visualize in the future a united world-church with all men united by the bond of love. The heretics of the various sects are to them their Christian brothers from whom they were separated by the egotisms and narrow-mindedness of bygone eras. They admit that there are dogmanical differences, but these differences shall be overcome by love, or to speak more openly, they shall be forgotten by love.
But what relation does that sniveling love have to the love of God? How can they shamelessly claim that they have more love in their hearts than did the Saints who were not able with their love to overcome the barriers which divided them from heresy, but on the contrary, they made these barriers higher so they could protect the sheep from the wolves?
But that which they take for love of men is in its essence nothing but love of the world. It is a coming to terms with falsehood by men who cannot bear the hardships of the war with the powers of darkness.
And their dream, that idyllic image of good and kindly people who make Christ reign on this earth - that temptation of the desert - is a dream condemned by the Lord Himself.
Let the super-optimists cast a glance at the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew - to see how the Lord prophesies concerning the last days.
And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, “See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be throw down”.
And as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world?” And Jesus answered and said unto them, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in My name, saying, “I am Christ”, and shall deceive many: And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places: all these are the beginnings of sorrows.
“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you; and ye shall be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise and deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
“When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (whoso readeth let him understand), then let them who be in Judea flee unto the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house; neither let him who is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in winter, neither on the sabbath day. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
Then if any man shall say unto you, “Lo, here is Christ”, or “There”, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders insomuch that, if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, “Behold he is in the desert”, go not forth; “Behold, he is in the secret chambers”, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken and the other left. Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh”.
The disciples ask the Lord to tell them what will be the sign of His coming and the end of the world; and Christ, answering, begins with the words: “Take heed that no man deceive you”. The danger of deception, then, shall be frightening in the last days; and that because “many shall come in My name, saying, “I am Christ”, and shall deceive many”. Many will come saying that they are Christ, or that they are His representatives or have been sent by Him, or are teachers of Christianity - people who will claim to be Christians without really being so. And they will not remain without evoking a response in men’s hearts, but they will lead many into dception.
Christ, then, is not speaking of God’s obvious enemies; He is not speaking of the materialists, of he communists, of the atheists, but of those who appear as friends of God, as Christians without being so in thuth. It is from them that Christ wishes to save the faithful, because they are His great enemies, the hypocrites, “those able to deceive”.
Then Christ describes a few signs which shall be the beginning of sorrows: wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes. All these shall not yet be the end, but the beginning of the end. “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you”, and the whole world shall hate you for My name’s sake. Then many of the Christians shall be scandalized, and they shall begin to betray and hate one another. And many false prophets shall go among them and lead many astray. And as iniquity abounds, the love of many for God and for neighbor shall grow cold. The only one who shall be saved is he who shall bear all those temptations with patience and fortitude until the end.
In that chaos of apostasy and coldness, the preaching of the Gospel to the whole world shall be completed in order that all men may know it, in order that all men might hear the call of God. However, because “many are called, but few are chosen”, people shall hear that Gospel, but they shall not accept it; they shall learn it, but they shall not live it. It shall remain “for a witness unto all nations”, a fearful testimony that people know the truth, and that if they do not follow it, this cannot be attributed to ignorance but to an aversion for the light. Then “shall the end come”. When these things come to pass and deliberate apostasy has reached its height, then the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ shall come.
Then Christ begins talking about something outwardly unrelated to the end of the world: the destruction of Jerusalem. But that destruction which happened forty years later is in reality a prefiguring of the end of the world. When Israel’s apostasy was complete, when they knew Christ and instead of accepting Him they crucified Him and persecuted His disciples, then the end of Jerusalem came. Then, as Daniel prophesied, the abomination of desolation came and stood in the holy place of the temple, and there was not left “one stone upon another”, and everything holy and sacred of the Israelites was scattered and lost. The same thing shall happen to the new Israel, the Christian world. Just like the old Israel it too was called to become a child of God, but just like the old Israel it too spurned its benevolent Father, and instead of seeking the kingdom of God it sought the kingdom of man. Therefore when its apostasy can progress no further, the prophecy of Daniel shall be fulfilled for it also. There shall be an abomination of desolation for it too, which shall stand in the holy place of God, in His Church and in His temples. The Antichrist shall come, who shall sit in the place of God and ask men to worship him instead of God. Then the sacred and holy things of the new Israel, the true Church of Christ, shall be scattered, hunted to the ends of the earth, and, as happened then when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, as many as remained faithful to God and followed His Christ passed into the new Israel, so it shall happen at the end of the world, the true and eternal Israel, the true children of God, shall pass into the new Jerusalem, the city which is eternal and not made with human hands, and which the love of God has prepared.
Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place of God, let as many as are really faithful leave for the mountains; let them raise their minds to the peaks of the spiritual life; let them cut off their ties with the dead people of the world. Whoever has ascended to the high chambers of prayer, let him not descend from that heavenly conversation to the vain cares of this world; and he “who is in the field, who puts his hand to the plow”, who does the works of God, let him not turn back to the vain works of men. But woe unto those souls which will still have the child in their belly and will not have borne any spiritual fruit, and woe unto as many as are still nourished on milk and have not tasted the solid food of the Spirit. Pray, therefore, that the end of the world may not find you under difficult conditions with your heart frozen and the feet of your spirit bound. For in that time great tribulation shall come to the faithful such as there never was from the beginning of the world. And if those days were not made short, no soul would be saved, but those days shall be shortened for the sake of the elect, so that they might not be deceived and lost.
Then if anyone tells you that Christ has come and that He is here of there, do not believe him, because there shall appear false Christs and false prophets who shall do signs and wonders in order to deceive, if they can, even the elect. And the Lord continues, “Behold, I have foretold it to you”. So then, I have told you everything beforehand. If they tell you that Christ has come and is in some desert or some sity, do not believe them; because when Christ comes He shall not come secretly, but His light shall appear to men like the light of a flash of lightning from east to west, and before Him shall be drawn up, against their will, all mankind.
Immediately after the tribulation which the faithful will suffer in those last days of the world, the sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall fall from the sky. And then the Cross shall appear in the heavens, “the sign of the Son of man”, and then shall weep all the races of the earth, and they shall see the Son of man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And His angels shall gather up all the elect of God from the four corners of heaven and the earth.
When you see the fig tree bring forth leaves, you know from this sign that summer is coming. In the same way when you see all the things happening which I have foretold to you, you will know that the end is approaching. I speak truly in saying that before this generation of men passes, Jerusalem shall be destroyed, and before the generation of Christians passes away, before the evils which shall find them blot out their generation, all that I have told you shall happen. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.
Do not ask Me which day or after how much time all these things will happen, for of that day not even the angels of heaven know. Only be always ready for that day, so that it will not come like a thief and find you unprepared. The days when the Son of man comes again shall be like the days of Noe. Just as in the days a little before the deluge men carefreely ate, drank, and married as though nothing were to happen, until the day when Noe entered the ark and the flood began which drowned them before they could understand what was happening, so shall the days be when the Son of man comes. At that time men shall be working together, and from them one shall be taken up near to God by the angels and the other shall be left far away from Him.
Remain, therefore, vigilant, because you do not know at what hour your Lord is coming.
Where, then, is the optimism for the last days? When the Lord foretells that deception shall cover the whole earth so that even the chosen shall be in danger of being deceived at their every step by the false Christians and false Christs who shall be everywhere, how can we be optimistic about the future? How can we be optimistic when the Lord foretells the multiplying of iniquity and the chilling of men’s love?
Of course, there are forecasts of the union of churches, of the union of all those who come in His name to deceive many. But “take heed that no man deceive you; behold, I have foretold it to you”. The union which the false Christians of our times seek is one of the most perfect machinations of falsehood, a snare of hypocritical piety from which the Lord wants to save us by making us cautious. If the unity and worldwide expansion of Christianity is the final destiny of mankind as they teach, why then does Christ foretell tribulation for His elect in those days? If the Gospel will be accepted and lived by all the nations of the earth, why does Christ say that the days at the end of the world will be like the days of Noe, when apostasy had covered the earth, and only a handful of people were found faithful to God and entered the ark, which symbolizes the Church?
If the last days of the earth are characterized by the idyllic image of which the sentimental, the “spiritual” Christians dream, how does the Apostle Paul write these words to Timothy? “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, slanderers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof” (II Tim. 3:1-5).
Where, then, is the optimism of the Apostle Paul when he writes to the Thessalonians, who where awaiting from minute to minute the coming of Christ? “Let no man deceive you by any means [that is, that Christ is coming right now], for except there come apostasy first and that man of sin [the Antichrist] be revealed, the son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God”, Christ shall not come. “Remember ye not that when I was yet with you I told you these things?” And later he continues about the Antichrist: “And then shall the wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of His mouth and shall destroy with the brighness of His coming, even him whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and false worders, and with all deception of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them a working of delusion that they should believe a lie, so that they all may be judged who have believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (II Thess. 2:3-5, 8-12).
The future then is not a beautiful as “they who perish” imagine, they who “receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved”. It will be characterized by apostasy, the worst falling away the world has ever known. Because it will not be a clean and honest denial of God, but a hypocrisy, a falsification of the Faith and of the truth.
Did not the Fathers of the desert and the great cloud of Saints of our Church prophesy the same things about the last days? Here is a conversation between a desciple and his spiritual father taken from the Evergetinos (1958 edition, Vol. II, p. 114): And the brother said to him, “What then? Shall the customs and Traditions of the Christians change, and shall there be no priests in the Church so that such things happen?” And the elder said, “In times such as those, the love of many shall grow cold, and there shall be not a little tribulation: overrunning of nations and movement of peoples, apostasy of kings, prodigality of priests, negligence of those in monastic life; and there shall be superiors disdaining their own salvation and that of their flock, all of them eager and outstanding at banquets, contentious, indolent in prayers, and eager to slander, ready to condemn the lives of the Elders and their sayings, neither imitating nor hearing them, but rather reviling them and saying, “If we lived days shall be respecters of powerful persons, making decisions according to gifts, not defending the poor under judgement, oppressing widows, abusing orphans; and unbelief shall enter into the people, depravity, hatred, enmity, jealousy, rivalries, thievery, drunkenness.” And the brother said, “What then is one to do in those times and years?” And the elder said, “Child, in such days as those, he who can save, let him save his own soul, and he shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven”.
From these prophecies which in great part have already been fulfilled, one can easily come to a conclusion about where man-kind is headed. Its future is a spiritual bankruptcy, where love for God and neighbor will have grown cold, and men will have become to the extreme limit agotists, covetous, boasters, blasphemers, lovers of pleasure.
But that spiritual bankruptcy will not appear bare and monstrous as it is, but will be covered by an amazing appearance of religiosity. These people with their many spiritual ulcers will have none the less an appearance of piety. There will be many who will preach in the name of Christ and will deceive with their false piety and religiosity those “who perish”, all those who do not have in their hearts the love of the truth in order to be able to discern the wolves in sheep’s clothing. And furthermore, the false Christs and false prophets in the last days will accompany their message with signs and great wonders which they shall effect through the power of Satan (spiritualism, magic, fakirism, etc.).
Finally, when the faith of the great masses of humanity has been corroded by these false prophets and their souls have been prepared, then he whom the Jews awaited and still await will be revealed; it is he whose way mankind has been preparing now for centuries, he who will become the symbol and god of the entire lost generation of the last people, “the man of sin” - the great Satanic sin of the spirit - the son of perdition, the adversary, who like Lucifer exalts himself above everything which men have honored until then. He will sit in the temple of God as God, and by means of fearful powers and signs and wonders which he will perform with the power of Satan, he will prove to the darkened and shortsighted minds of men that he and no one else is God.
He will make the desired union of the sentimentalists a reality. Before his throne people of all the religions and spiritual currents will bow to worship as brothers. He will unite all the nations of the earth under his scepter because “power has been given to him over every race and people and tongue and nation. And all who dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:7-8).
For worldly people, that preview of a universal state and universal religion is something very pleasant. It is the same today with those who desire the union of the churches and do not care about the truth. For the latter, dogmatical subjects are futile Byzantinologies. But “for this cause, God shall send them a working of delusion that they should believe a lie, so that they all may be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness”.
In that society of the Antichrist, the few who will remain genuine Orthodox Christians will be a rock of scandal, the only dissonance in all that diabolical harmony. For them, these days will be days of great tribulation: “And you shall be hated by all nations for My name’s sake”. It will be a new period of martyrdom, a martyrdom more of the soul than of the body. In that vast, universal state, the Orthodox Christians will be the outcasts of society. “And [he shall] cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark on their hand, or on their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell he that had the mark, or the name of the best, or the number of his name” (Rev. 13:15-17). Yes, “then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and they shall kill you”. “For the devil is come down unto you having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time” (Rev. 12:12). “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved”. “But for the elect’s sake, those days shall be shortened”. Because “immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, ... and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, ... and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”.
Let the faithless mock, and let them pity us. The Christians do not live for this world. They have never accepted this world of exile as their fatherland, neither have they wished to adorn it as if they were to live in it forever. They live on this earth as refugees with a nostalgia, a nostalgia for the Paradise which they lost, a nostalgia for the fatherland. They may have been born on this earth, but the fatherland lives in their hearts, and in their every step they hear it calling them. They long for that moment, the moment of the trumpet, the moment when they will stand before the “serene eye” of their Lord, the moment when His gladsome counterance will face their counterance.
Christians are strangers in this world (St. Macarius the Egyptian). They are estranged, disdained, having a contrite heart and a sorrowful mind, living in a manner different from that of other people (St. Isaac the Syrian). They are as people holding their blood in their hands, not having confidence in themselves or thinking that they are something, but being despised and rejected more than all other men (St. Macarius the Egyptian).
You say that our religion is an opiate; you are correct. For you who have not experienced the presence of God, and whose heart has never leaped from the whisperings of divine grace, and whose eyes have never shed tears of divine love, for you who have never seen anything beyond the horizon of this earth, it is natural that our religion which denies the world should appear as an opiate. Truly, “if Christ be not risen, we are of all men most miserable”. But Christ is risen, and every risen soul has lived this resurrection. It is natural for those who have not lived that resurrection to laugh at the Christians.
Many times Christians with irrefutable reason have shown the world how ridiculous are those who ridicule their Faith. But what of it? Did reason prevent them from believing? It is the mists from the mire in their hearts which do not permit them to see. Reason alone never enabled man to understand anything. So let them laugh. Their laughter brings faithful souls closer to the Lord.
We will allow you therefore to laugh. But what we will not allow you to do is to change the Gospel, to distort our religion and make it a servant of your own ends. We will never allow you to attribute worldly utility and expediency to our religion. “The Gospels do not speak of earthly things, but of heavenly things, teaching us a different life and polity, new riches and poverty, unprecedented freedom and bondage, another kind of life and death, a different world and other - not like Plato, who contrived that ridiculous Republic of his, nor like Zeno and the other politicians, philosophers, and lawmakers. For all of them had the following common attribute: they revealed that the evil spirit secretly inspired their souls. Our own conscience which protests proves that all their ideas were demonic devices, and all their teachings contrary to nature” (St. John Chrysostom, Homily I on the Gospel According to St. Matthew).
Christianity does not, therefore, prepare any earthly kingdom, any earthly city. It has nothing in common with civilizations and worldly systems. It has nothing in common with the caesars and the caesaro-papists. All the things which the people of the world pursue are on the level of corruptibility. The Christian thinks, lives, and moves in the world of incorruption.
Those who want to unite the so-called Christian churches do not believe in the Church, do not believe in the religion of Christ. They simply use it. They use it for their own purposes. Their goal is the earthly city to which they wish to subjugate all men.
In reality, there is no question of union of the Christians. True Christians were, are, and always will be united. They were, are, and will be one flock with one Shepherd. Men, regardless of what name they have or to what religion they belong, have one destiny: to find the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Christ, and to drink from the water “springing up unto everlasting life”. The Church is one. People are many, and few of them are her children.
The city which is destined for the friends of God has nothing from this world. It is eternal, not made with hands, the existence of another earth, another world: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth... And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven... And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, “Behond, God’s tabernacle with men (The tabernacle in which God will live together with men.), and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away”. And He that sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new... I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely”... And they shall see His face; and His name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no lamp, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. 21, 22).
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