Антихрист

With illness I will begin to speak and with sighs I will talk about the end of the present world and about that most shameless and terrible serpent [Antichrist], who will throw the whole under heaven into confusion, and will put fear, cowardice and terrible unbelief into the hearts of men, will perform miracles, signs and fears in order to deceive, if possible, the elect (Matthew 24:24), and will deceive everyone with lies. signs and signs of miracles performed by him. By the permission of the Holy God, he will receive the power to deceive the world, because the wickedness of the world has been filled and all kinds of horrors are being committed everywhere. That is why the Most Pure Lord, for the wickedness of people, allowed the world to be tempted by the spirit of flattery, for this is how people wanted - to depart from God and love the evil one. Since the Savior, intending to save the human race, was born of the Virgin and in human form trampled upon the enemy with the holy power of His Divinity, the Antichrist intended to take on the image of His coming and deceive us. Our Lord will come to earth on luminous clouds, like terrible lightning. But this is not how the enemy will come, because he is an apostate. An instrument of the devil will be born from a defiled virgin, but this does not mean that he will become incarnate. The all-foul one will come, like a thief 4, in such a way as to deceive everyone: he will come humble, meek, a hater, as he will say about himself, of unrighteousness, averse to idols, preferring piety, kind, poor-loving, highly handsome, constant, affectionate to everyone; respecting especially the Jewish people, because the Jews will expect his coming. And with all this, with great power he will perform signs, wonders and fears, and will take cunning measures to please everyone, so that his people will soon fall in love with him. He will not take gifts, speak angrily, show a gloomy appearance, but with a decorous appearance he will begin to deceive the world until he reigns. Therefore, when many classes and peoples see such virtues and strengths, everyone will suddenly have one thought and with great joy will proclaim him king, saying to each other: “Will there still be a man so kind and truthful?” And soon his kingdom will be established, and in anger he will defeat three great kings. Then this serpent will ascend in his heart and spew out his bitterness, crush the universe, move its ends, oppress everyone and begin to defile souls, not showing reverence in himself, but in any case acting like a stern, cruel, angry, irritable, impetuous, disorderly, terrible, disgusting, hateful, vile, cruel, destructive, shameless person who is trying to plunge the entire human race into the abyss of wickedness. He will perform numerous signs, but falsely and not truly. And in the presence of a crowded crowd, which will praise him for his dreamy miracles, he will utter a strong voice, from which the place where the crowds facing him are gathered will shake, and will say: “All nations, know my strength and authority!” In view of the spectators he will rearrange mountains and call islands from the sea - but all this is deception and dreamy, and not real. And, having deceived the world, he will deceive the eyes of everyone. Many will believe and glorify him as a mighty god. Then every soul will weep and sigh greatly, then everyone will see that unspeakable sorrow oppresses them day and night, and they will not find food anywhere to satisfy their hunger. The cruel guards will be put in their place, and whoever has the mark of the tormentor on his forehead or on his right hand will be allowed to buy whatever food is available. Then babies will die in the bosom of their mothers, the mother will die over her child, the father will also die with his wife and children in the middle of the marketplace, and there will be no one to bury them and put them in a coffin. From the many corpses thrown down in the streets, there will be a stench everywhere, greatly affecting the living. With illness and sighs, everyone will say in the morning: “When will evening come?” And then with the most bitter tears they will say to themselves: “Is the dawn soon to avoid the sorrow that has befallen us?” “But there is nowhere to run or hide, because everything is in turmoil: both the sea and the land. That is why the Lord told us: watch, constantly praying to avoid sorrow. The stench of the sea, the stench of the land; famines, earthquakes; confusion at sea, confusion on land; scary at sea, scary on land. A lot of gold and silver and silk clothes will not bring any benefit to anyone during that tribulation, but all people will call blessed the dead who were buried before this great tribulation came to earth. Both gold and silver are scattered on the streets, and no one will touch them, because everything is frozen. But everyone will rush to run and hide, and there is nowhere for them to hide from grief; on the contrary, in times of hunger, sorrow and fear, carnivorous animals and reptiles will bite. Fear inside, trepidation outside, corpses in the streets day and night. The stench on the haystacks 5, the stench in the houses; hunger and thirst in the fields, hunger and thirst in the houses; the voice of weeping in the haystacks, the voice of weeping in the houses; noise on haystacks, noise in houses. Everyone meets each other with sobs - father and son, son and father, mother and daughter. Friends on the streets, hugging friends, end their lives; brothers, hugging brothers, die. The beauty of the face of all flesh fades, and the appearance of people is like that of the dead. Women's beauty became disgusted and hateful. All flesh and human desire will fade away. All those who believed the fierce beast and took upon themselves its seal, the evil mark of the defiled, will suddenly approach it and say with illness: “Give us something to eat and drink, because we are all melting away, tormented by hunger, and drive away the poisonous beasts from us.” And this poor man, not having the means to do so, will answer with great cruelty, saying: “Where, people, will I give you food and drink? The sky does not want to give rain to the earth, and the earth also does not give any harvest or fruit at all.” The nations, hearing this, will cry and shed tears, having no consolation in grief; on the contrary, another unspeakable sorrow will be added to their sorrow, namely, that they so hastily believed the tormentor. If he, poor man, is unable to help himself, how will he show mercy to them? In those days there will be great need from much sorrow caused by the serpent, from fear and earthquakes, and the noise of the sea, from hunger and thirst, and the remorse of beasts. And all those who accepted the seal of the Antichrist and worshiped the Antichrist as a good God will not have any part in the Kingdom of Christ, but together with the serpent they will be cast into Gehenna. Blessed is the one who turns out to be completely holy and faithful, whose heart is undoubtedly devoted to God, because he will fearlessly reject all the proposals of the serpent, neglecting both his tortures and his dreams. Whoever has contrition and tears, let him ask the Lord in his prayers to avoid the great sorrow that will come to earth, so as not to see the beast [Antichrist] himself and not to hear what will happen in the places of insurance, earthquakes, famines and various deaths on earth. What is needed is a courageous soul, capable, so to speak, of managing one’s life amid these temptations. And if any person turns out to be even a little careless, he will be conveniently overcome and captured by the signs of the crafty and treacherous serpent. Such a person will be inexcusable at the Judgment, because he himself voluntarily believed the tormentor. We need a lot of prayers and tears, beloved, so that each of us can stand firm in temptations. The beast will bring many dreams, because he is a fighter against God and wants to destroy everyone. Stogna – square, streets in the city.