THE DREAD
JUDGMENT
St. John of
Shanghai
Today Is The Sunday of the Dread Judgment,
and it is natural for us to speak of the Dread Judgment and of the signs of the
end of the world. No one knows that day; only God the Father knows; but the
signs of its approach are given in the Gospel and in the Revelation
[Apocalypse] of the holy Apostle John the Theologian. Revelation speaks of the
events at the end of the world and of the Dread Judgment principally in images
and in a concealed manner; but the Holy Fathers have explained it, and there is
an authentic Church tradition that speaks to us both about the signs of the
approach of the end of the world and about the Dread Judgment.
Before the
end of life on earth there will be confusion, wars, civil strife, famine, and
earthquakes. Men will suffer from fear; they will expire from the expectation
of calamities. There will be no life, no joy of life, but a tormenting state of
falling away from life. There will be a falling away not only from life, but
from faith as well: when the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the
earth? (Luke 18:8).
Men will
become proud and ungrateful, denying the Divine Law: together with a falling
away from life there will be also a dearth of moral life.
There will be
an exhaustion of good, and a growth of evil. The holy Apostle John the
Theologian, in his divinely-inspired work, the Revelation, also speaks of this
time. He himself says that he "was in the Spirit," which means that
the Holy Spirit Himself was in him when the fate of the Church and the world
was revealed to him in various images, and that is why it is God's Revelation.
He represents
the fate of the Church in the image of a woman who, in those times, hides in
the wilderness: she does not show herself in public life, just as in Russia
today.
Those forces
that are preparing the appearance of Antichrist will have a leading
significance in public life. Antichrist will be a man and not the devil
incarnate. "Ann" is a word meaning "old," or it means
"in place of" or "against." That man wants to be in place
of Christ, to occupy His place and possess that which Christ ought to possess.
He wants to possess the same attraction and authority over the whole world.
And he will
receive that authority before his own destruction and that of the whole world.
He will have a helper, a Magus, who, by the power of false miracles, will
fulfill his will and kill those that do not recognize the authority of Antichrist.
Before the destruction of Antichrist, two righteous men will appear who will
denounce him. The Magus will kill them and their bodies will lie unburied for
three days, and Antichrist and all his servants will rejoice exceedingly. Then
suddenly, those righteous men will resurrect, and the whole army of Antichrist
will be in confusion and horror, and the Antichrist himself will suddenly fall
dead, slain by the power of the Spirit.
But what is
known about this man, Antichrist? His precise ancestry is unknown. His father
is completely unknown, while his mother is a defiled, pretended virgin. He will
be a Jew from the tribe of Dan. There is an indication of this, in that Jacob,
when dying, said that [Dan], in his posterity, would be a serpent by the way… biting
the heel of the horse (and the rider shall fall backward) (Gen. 49:17). This is
a figurative indication that he will act with craftiness and evil.
In
Revelation, John the Theologian speaks of the salvation of the sons of Israel,
that before the end of the world a multitude of Jews will be converted to
Christ; but the tribe of Dan is not included in the enumeration of the tribes
that are saved.
Antichrist
will be very intelligent and gifted with the ability to deal with people. He
will be charming and affectionate.
The
philosopher Vladimir Soloviev worked extensively on this subject in order to
present the advent and the personality of Antichrist. He made careful use of
all relevant materials, not only Patristic, but also Muslim, and produced a
very striking picture.
Before the
advent of Antichrist, his appearance is already being prepared in the world.
"The mystery is already at work" (cf. II Thess. 2:7), and the forces
preparing his appearance struggle above all against lawful royal authority. The
holy Apostle Paul says that Antichrist cannot appear until "he that
restrains" is removed. John Chrysostom explains that "he that
restrains" is the lawful, godly authority.
Such an
authority struggles with evil. The "mystery" working in the world
does not want this; it does not want an authority that wars against evil; on
the contrary, it wants an authority of iniquity, and when it succeeds in
bringing this about, then nothing will stand in the way of the coming of
Antichrist. He will be not only intelligent and charming: he will be
compassionate, he will be charitable and do good, for the sake of consolidating
his power. And when he will have strengthened it sufficiently, so that the
whole world acknowledges him, then he will show his real face.
He will choose
Jerusalem as his capital, because it was here that the Saviour revealed His
Divine teaching and His Person, and the whole world was called to the
blessedness of goodness and salvation. But the world did not accept Christ and
crucified Him in Jerusalem; while under Antichrist, Jerusalem will become the
capital of the world that has recognized the authority of Antichrist.
Once having
attained the summit of power, Antichrist will demand that men acknowledge his
attainment as something to which no other earthly power and no other man could
possibly attain, and he will demand that men bow down to him as to a superior
being, a god.
Soloviev
describes well the character of his activity as Supreme Ruler. He will do what
pleases men, on the condition that they recognize his Supreme Authority. He
will let the Church function, and allow her to hold Divine services, he will
promise to build magnificent temples—provided he is recognized as the
"Supreme Being" and that he is worshipped. He will have a personal
hatred for Christ. He will live by this hatred and will rejoice at seeing men
apostatize from Christ and the Church. There will be a mass falling away from
the faith; even many bishops will betray the faith, justifying themselves by
pointing to the splendid position of the Church.
A search for
compromise will be the characteristic disposition of men. Straightforwardness
of confession will vanish. Men will cleverly justify their fall, and an
endearing evil will support such a general disposition. Men will grow
accustomed to apostasy from the truth and to the sweetness of compromise and
sin.
Antichrist
will allow men everything, if only they "fall down and worship him."
This is not something new. The Roman emperors were similarly prepared to grant
the Christians freedom, if only they recognized [the emperor's] divinity and
divine supreme authority; they martyred Christians only because they professed:
"Worship God Alone and serve Him Alone."
The whole
world will submit to him, and then he will reveal his hatred for Christ and
Christianity. Saint John the Theologian says that all who worship him will have
a mark on their forehead and right hand. It is not clear whether this will be
an actual mark on the body, or if this is a figurative expression of the fact
that men will acknowledge in their minds the necessity of worshipping
Antichrist, as well as submit their wills to him. And when the whole world
manifests such a complete submission—of both will and conscience—then the two
righteous men [already] mentioned will appear and will fearlessly preach the
faith and expose Antichrist.
Holy
Scripture says that before the coming of the Saviour two "lamps,"
will appear, two "burning olive trees," "two righteous
men." Antichrist will kill them by the power of the Magus. Who are these
men? According to Church tradition, these are the two righteous who never
tasted of death: the Prophet Elias and the Prophet Enoch. There is a prophecy
that these saints, who had not tasted of death, will taste it for three days;
but after three days they will resurrect.
Their death
will be a great joy for Antichrist and his servants. Their rising three days
later will bring them unspeakable horror, terror and confusion. And then will
come the end of the world.
The Apostle
Peter says that the first world was created out of water and perished by water.
"Out of water" is also an image of the chaos of the physical mass,
while "perished by water" is [an image] of the Rood. And now the
world is reserved unto fire.....The earth also and the works that are therein
shall be burned up (II Peter 3:7-10). All the elements will melt. This present
world will perish in a single instant. In an instant everything will change.
And the sign
of the Son of God will appear, that is, the sign of the Cross. The whole world,
having willingly submitted to Antichrist, "will break out in
lamentation," Everything is
finished.
Antichrist is slain. The end of his kingdom, the end of the war with Christ.
The end, and accountability for one's whole life, an account to the True God.
Then, from
the mountains of Palestine, the Ark of the Covenant will appear. The Prophet
Jeremiah hid the Ark and the Holy Fire in a deep well. When they took water
from that well, it burst into flame. But the Ark itself they did not find.
When we look
at life today, those able to see, see that everything foretold about the end of
the world is being fulfilled.
Who then is
this man — Antichrist? Saint John the Theologian figuratively gives him the
name 666; but all attempts to understand this designation have been futile.
The life of
the contemporary world gives us a fairly clear understanding of the possibility
of the world burning up, when all the elements shall melt with fervent heat.
Atomic fission gives us that understanding.
The end of
the world does not signify its annihilation, but its transformation. Everything
will be changed, suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye. The dead will resurrect
in new bodies — their own, but renewed — just as the Saviour arose in His Body,
and on it were the traces of the wounds from the nails and the spear; but it
possessed new properties, and in this respect it was a new body. It is unclear
whether this will be an altogether new body or that with which man was created.
And the Lord
will appear on the clouds with glory. How will we see Him? With our spiritual
eyes. Even now, at death, righteous people see that which other people around
them do not see.
The trumpets
will sound, loud and powerful. They will trumpet in men's souls, in their
conscience. Everything in the human conscience will become clear.
The Prophet
Daniel, speaking of the Dread Judgment, relates how the Ancient of Days, the
judge, is on His throne, and before Him is a river of fire. Fire is a purifying
element. Fire scorches sin, it burns it up, and woe also burns it up; if sin
has become natural to a man, then it burns up the man himself as well.
That fire
will flare up inside a man: on seeing the Cross, some will rejoice, while
others will fall into despair, confusion, terror. In this way, men will
immediately be separated. In the Gospel narrative, some stand to the right of
the Judge, some to the left — their inner consciousness separated them. The
very state of a man's soul casts him to one side or the other, to the right or
to the left.
The more
consciously and persistently a man strives toward God in his life, the greater
will be his joy when he hears the words: "Come unto Me, ye blessed";
and conversely, those same words will call forth the fire of horror and torment
on those who did not want Him, who fled or fought or blasphemed Him during
their life.
The Dread
Judgment knows no witnesses or charge-sheets. Everything is recorded in men's
souls, and these records, these "books" are open. Everything becomes
clear to all and to oneself, and the state of a man's soul assigns him to the
right or to the left.
Some go to
joy, others to horror.
When the
"books" are open, it will become clear to all that the roots of all
vices are in man's soul. Here is a drunkard, a fornicator; some may think that
when the body dies the sin dies as well. No; the inclination was in the soul,
and to the soul the sin was sweet.
And if [the
soul] has not repented of that sin and has not become free of it, it will come
to the Dread Judgment with the same desire for the sweetness of sin and will
never satisfy its desire. In it will be the suffering of hatred and malice.
This is the state of hell.
The
"fiery Gehenna" is the inner fire; this is the flame of vice, the
flame of weakness and malice; and there will be [the] wailing and gnashing of
teeth of impotent malice.
Fr. Alexander.org
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