23. Об антихристе

To what has been said, it is also necessary to add that before the Lord’s coming, taking on human nature, the destroyer of men, the godless demon, the thief of God’s name will come. And just as in ancient times he appropriated the name of God, stolen by him, to himself and to the accomplices of his wickedness and inspired people to give him Divine honor in hand-made idols, so, having appropriated to himself the name of the Lord Christ, he will deceive, one might say, everyone, and will lead into the deception of many who bear the venerable name, saying that he is that Christ, whose coming the divine Prophets predicted in their broadcasts; and he will catch those who are elusive, using for this purpose certain miracles performed by deception. And many of the Prophets foretold this in the Old Testament in secret, but the divine Daniel proclaimed it more fully and clearly. If any of this requires clarification, then we have already revealed it in advance, having interpreted the entire prophecy from word to word. Yes, and what the divine Paul wrote to the Thessalonians was interpreted with his other epistles, when they considered the passage about the Antichrist, contrary to custom, they spoke about this at greater length. And since others assumed that the time of the Lord’s coming was near, the divine Apostle, of necessity, taught the doctrine that the universe must first be illuminated by the rays of the knowledge of God, made manifest to the disciples of faith and those who disobey separated from those who believed, and then appear before the artist of lies to expose those who have not accepted the preaching of the truth. The Lord also spoke this to the Jews: “I came in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me: if anyone comes in his name, him you receive” (John 5:43). And the divine Apostle said this very thing: “Because of love, they did not accept the truth, so that they could be saved; that all who have not believed the truth, but have taken pleasure in unrighteousness, may receive judgment as conviction (2 Thess. 2:10-12). Therefore, for the sake of those who did not believe the preaching of truth, the father and teacher of wickedness will come. since the Jews, clearly opposing God, nailed the Lord to the Cross as the enemy of God, then the greatest denunciation of their wickedness will be the coming of the Antichrist. The Lord Christ, the true God and the Son of the true God, borrowing names from visible nature, called Himself the son of man and man, but was rarely called the Son of God; and the all-evil demon calls himself a great god. For this is what the holy Angel taught the prophet Daniel. “He does not understand the gods of his fathers,” said the Angel, ... and he will glorify the god Maozim in his place” (Dan. 11, 37–38), that is, he will call himself a strong and strong god. However, those who crucified the Master because he called himself the Son of God, when this one appears, will believe in him, thereby proving that they are enemies of the truth and workers of lies. That is why, of course, the All-Wise will allow the wicked to appear. For it is obvious that he would not have appeared if it had not been pleasing to God. But we do not call God’s will an action, because, according to the teaching of the external sages, God is not the author of evil. It was not He who made Cain a murderer when He did not prevent him from intending to kill his brother. It was not He who set up the children of Jacob to sell Joseph when He did not restrain them from this intention. It must be admitted that they themselves used their free will for evil, and the All-Wise Lord through their cunning proved the truth of dreams. So he will allow the Antichrist to appear, to reveal his wickedness and expose the evil of the Jews. But in a very short time the Lord will plunge him into final destruction, and will give medicine to the Jews, because he will send Elijah the Tishbite, who will expose the deception of the Antichrists and herald the saving coming of Christ. The enemy of truth will in every possible way imitate what happened at the Lord’s coming, and, having chosen a human vessel worthy of his action, and performing false miracles, he will use people for evil. And this the divine Apostle clearly taught in his Epistle to the Thessalonians: “We pray, brethren, for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and for us to gather together for Him, that you will not soon strive out of your mind, nor be dismayed, nor be inferior in spirit, nor inferior in word, nor in epistle, as sent from us, as if the day of Christ has already come” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2). And by this he made it clear that some were deceiving them, claiming that the Apostle was saying that the coming of the Lord was drawing near. That is why he forbade deception, not only by word and scripture, but also by the so-called prophetic foreshadowing. For he expressed this by saying: “low in spirit.” Then he adds: “Let no one deceive you in any way: for unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, the adversary, and exalt yourself more than any spoken god or worshiper, as if he should sit in the church of God as if he were God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4). The Apostle calls the very coming of the Antichrist “apostasy,” because many, deceived by the miracles that will happen then, will depart from the truth and love lies. He called the Antichrist “the man of lawlessness” and “the son of perdition,” thereby showing his visible nature and revealing the varied effectiveness of sin. He also allowed us to see his autocracy, his arrogance, and his arrogance, calling him “the adversary” and “the one who exalts himself” and showing that he not only calls himself superior to the false gods, but how God will sit in God’s church; He calls churches the church of God. Then he reminds the Thessalonians of what he taught many times, and says: “Do you not remember that you still have these words among you who are alive? and now the one who holds back knows that it will appear to him in his own time" (2 Thess. 2.5, 6); that is, he would have already appeared if the grace of God had not prevented him and had not appointed his coming at a suitable time. “The mystery of iniquity is already being done” (2 Thessalonians 2:7). And this makes clear the heresies that were revived then. “Keep it this way until Wednesday,” that is, God’s decree forbids him to appear. For, according to divine prophecy, the Gospel must be preached among all nations and then appear to the Antichrist. “And then the wicked one will appear, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of His mouth, and will bring to naught by the appearance of His coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:8). The Apostle clearly showed that the Lord, immediately “appearing,” will render the destroyer inactive and deliver him up to eternal torment. “This is the coming of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all the deceit of unrighteousness among those who are perishing” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10), because he will not catch everyone into destruction, but only those whose hearts are fickle and capable of being deceived. The Apostle taught that the Antichrist will accept the effectiveness of Satan the devil. For just as the Only Begotten Son of God bestows upon the holy Prophets, holy Apostles and other saints the gifts of the All-Holy Spirit, and having become human He gave not any particular grace to the assumed nature, but, according to the Apostolic word, “in him He was pleased to allow all the fulfillment” of the Divinity to “dwell” (Col. 1:19), so the devil in other people whom he only convinced to become workers wickedness, introduced new types of vice, and having united himself completely with the Antichrist, he will show in him all kinds of tricks of wickedness. Then the Apostle tells the reason for the permission. “And for this reason God will send upon them the power of flattery, because they believed lies: so that all who did not believe the truth, but were pleased with unrighteousness, may receive judgment” (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12). We have been taught this about the Antichrist by Divine Scripture; They wrote about this briefly, because, explaining the prophet Daniel and the Apostle, they spoke at length about the coming of the Antichrist, and it is not difficult for anyone who wants to turn to other instructions, and if something is missing here, find it there. From God-bearing men, I mean the Prophets, Apostles and their successors, the Church borrowed these dogmas, not composing evil fables, not following human speculation, but believing the words of God. Since the vile heretics have damaged moral teaching and come up with paths that are opposite to one another (some called marriage fornication, while others loved all illegal and impermissible lewdness), we will show how the Church is wise in its teaching about morality. You might be interested in: