 |
|
VoL 5, No 1 |
|
|
|
VoL 5, No 1 |
|
St. Nilus the Myrrhstreamer (1651) |
|
"After the year 1900, toward the middle of the 20th century, the people
of that time will become unrecognizable. When the time of the advent of
the antichrist approaches, people's minds will grow cloudy from carnal
passions, and dishonour and lawlessness will grow stronger. Then the world
will grow unrecognizable. People's appearances will change, and it will
be impossible to distinguish men from women due to their shamelessness
in dress and style of hair. These people will be cruel and will be like
wild animals because of the temptations of the antichrist. There will be
no respect for parents and elders, love will disappear, and CHRISTIAN PASTORS,
BISHOPS, AND PRIESTS WILL BECOME VIAL MEN, COMPLETELY FAILING TO DISTINGUISH
THE RIGHT-HAND WAY FROM THE LEFT. At that time the morals and traditions
of Christians and of the Church will change. People will abandon modesty,
and dissipation will reign. Falsehood and greed will attain great proportions,
and woe to those who pile up treasures. Lust, adultery, homosexuality,
secret deeds, and murder will rule in society.
At that future time, due to the power of such great crimes and licentiousness, people will be deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which they received in Holy Baptism, and equally of remorse.
THE CHURCHES OF GOD WILL BE DEPRIVED OF GOD-FEARING AND PIOUS PASTORS,
and woe to the Christians remaining in the world at that time; they will
completely lose their faith because they will lack the opportunity of seeing
the light of knowledge from anyone at all. They will separate themselves
out of the world in holy refuges in search of a lightening of their spiritual
sufferings, but everywhere they will meet obstacles and constraints. And
this will result from the fact that the antichrist want to be lord over
everything and becomes the ruler of the whole universe, and he will produce
miracles and fantastic signs. He will also give depraved wisdom to an unhappy
man so that he will discover a way by which one man can carry on a conversation
from one end of the earth to the other. At that time, men will also fly
through the air like birds and descend to the bottom of the sea like fish.
And when they have achieved all this, these unhappy people will spend their
lives in comfort without knowing, poor souls, that it is the deceit of
antichrist. And the impious one! - he will so complete science with vanity,
that it will go off the right path and lead people to lose faith in the
existence of God. Then God will see the downfall of the human race and
will shorten the days for the sake of those few who are being saved, because
the enemy wants to lead even the chosen into temptation, if that is possible
... then the sword of chastisement will suddenly appear to kill the perverter."
Canon Nine of the Holy Apostles says:
"All the faithful who enter and listen to the scriptures, but who do not remain for prayer and the partaking of the Holy Mysteries must be excommunicated." According to the explanation of the canon in THE RUDDER, this means that all who remain after the exclamation of "Catechumens depart" must receive Holy Communion. Our holy and GODFEARING Fathers, who gathered in the Holy Spirit at Antioch have directed us: "And those persons who enter the church and listen to the Sacred Scripture, but shun the participation of the Eucharist, we decree that these people be separated from the Church until they confess and exhibit the fruit of repentance." (Canon 2 of Antioch).
|