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 Flood. 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.
St. John of Shanghai
Fr. Alexander.org
2/23/2014
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