Слово на Пришествие Господне, на скончание мира и на пришествие антихристово

Will I, the least sinful, sinful Ephraim, full of misdeeds, be able to pronounce what is beyond my strength? But since the Savior, in His goodness, taught wisdom to the unlearned, and through them illuminated the faithful everywhere, so will my tongue do the same. It will be clear (become) without deficiency and for the benefit and edification of both myself, who speaks it, and all listeners. 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, which will throw the whole of heaven into confusion, and will put fear, cowardice and terrible unbelief into human hearts, will produce miracles, signs and insurance, “as if it were possible to deceive even 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. Great is the feat, brothers, in those times, especially for the faithful, when the serpent himself will perform signs and wonders with great power, when in terrible ghosts he will show himself like God, will fly through the air, and all the demons, like Angels, will ascend before the tormentor. He will cry out with strength (power), changing his appearance and immensely frightening all people. Who then, brothers, will find himself protected, unshakable, having in his soul a sure sign - the holy coming of the Only Begotten Son, our God, when he sees that indescribable sorrow coming from everywhere to every soul? From absolutely nowhere she will have neither consolation nor peace, either on land or at sea. He will see that the whole world is in turmoil, that everyone is running to take refuge in the mountains, some are dying of hunger, others are melting away like wax from thirst, and there is no one who has mercy; He will see that every person sheds tears and asks with strong desire: “Is there anywhere on earth the Word of God?” - And he hears in response: “Nowhere.” Who will endure these days, who will endure the unbearable sorrow when he sees the confusion of nations who from the ends of the earth will come to see the tormentor, and many worship him, crying with trepidation: “Are you our savior?” “The sea is troubled, the earth is drying up, the heavens are not raining, the plants are withering, and all those living in the east of the earth are fleeing to the west out of great fear, and also those living in the west of the sun are running with trepidation to the east. The shameless one, having then assumed power, will send demons to all corners to boldly preach: “The great king has appeared in glory, come and see him.” Who will have such an adamantine soul to courageously endure all these temptations? Where, as I said, is such a person whom all the Angels would please? And I, Christ-loving and perfect brothers, am horrified at the mere memory of the serpent, thinking about the sorrow that will befall people in these times, thinking about how cruel that vile serpent will be to the human race; He will have even more malice towards the saints who can overcome his dreamy miracles. Then there will be many people who please God, who can be saved in the mountains and in desert places (only) by many prayers and unbearable crying. The Holy God, seeing their unspeakable tears and sincere faith, will have mercy on them like a tender father, and will protect them where they hide, although the all-foul serpent will not cease to look for saints both on earth and on the sea, reasoning that he has already reigned on earth, and everyone is subordinate to him. And, not realizing his weakness and the pride from which he fell, the unfortunate man will plan to resist at that terrible hour when the Lord comes from heaven. However, he will only throw the earth into confusion and frighten everyone with false magical signs. At the time when the serpent comes, there will be no peace on earth, but there will be great sorrow, confusion, confusion, death and famine in all ends. Our Lord Himself, through His Divine lips, said that there will be sorrow in “these days, which has not been such since the beginning of creation” (Mark 13:19). How can we, sinners, depict that excessive, even unspeakable sorrow, if that is what God called it? Let everyone fix his mind with attention on the holy sayings of the Lord and Savior, when He, in His compassion, for the sake of excessive need and sorrow, wanting to shorten the days of sorrow, exhorts us, saying: “Pray, so that your flight will not be in winter, nor on the Sabbath” (Matthew 24:20). And again: “Be vigilant at all times, praying, that you may be counted worthy to flee from all these who will be, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36) - for that time is near. We will all be subject to that disaster, but we do not believe. Let us continually ask in tears and prayers, falling to God day and night, so that we sinners may be saved. Whoever has tears and contrition, let him ask the Lord to free us from the sorrow that will come to earth, so as not to see that beast at all and not to hear his fears, for there will be “in the place of ironing and cowardice” (Matthew 24:7), and various deaths on earth. The soul must be courageous in order to preserve its life among temptations. If a person turns out to be even a little careless, he will easily be attacked and captured by the signs of the evil and cunning serpent. Such a person will not find mercy for himself at the Judgment; there it will be revealed that he voluntarily believed the tormentor. We need a lot of prayers and tears, beloved, so that at least one of us will prove firm in temptations; there will be many dreams (temptations) committed by the beast. He himself is a fighter against God, and he wants to destroy everyone. This method will be used by the tormentor, so that everyone will have to bear the mark of the beast on themselves, when in due time, that is, at the fulfillment of (the fullness of) times, he comes to deceive everyone with signs; (will make it so that) in this only case it will be possible for people to buy food and everything they need, and the serpent will appoint overseers to carry out his commands. Notice, my brothers, the excessive wickedness of the beast and the tricks of his wickedness: he begins from the belly in order to force a person, driven to extremes by lack of food, to accept the mark of the beast, that is, evil marks, and not on any member of the body, but on the right hand, as well as on the forehead, so that a person would no longer be able to imprint the sign of the cross with his right hand and mark the holy name on his forehead The Lord's or the glorious and honorable Cross of Christ and our Savior. The unfortunate man knows that the sealed Cross of the Lord destroys all his strength, and therefore he puts his seal on a person’s right hand, for it seals all our members with the Cross! Likewise, the forehead, like a candlestick, carries on high a lamp of light - the sign of our Savior. Therefore, my brothers, a terrible feat lies before all Christ-loving people, so that until the hour of death they do not fall into fear and remain inactive, when the serpent will inscribe his seal instead of the Savior’s Cross. For this purpose, without a doubt, he will use such a method so that the name of the Lord and Savior is not even mentioned at that time; the powerless will do this, fearing and trembling at the holy power of our Savior. For if anyone is not sealed with the seal of the beast, he will not be captured by his dreamy signs. Moreover, the Lord will not retreat from such, but will enlighten and attract them to Himself. We, brothers, must understand with all accuracy the hostile, dreamy signs of the enemy. Our Lord will come to all of us in silence and will reflect for our sake the tricks of the beast. By keeping the unwavering faith of Christ in purity, let us make the power of the tormentor unsteady. Let us acquire an immutable and firm mind, and the powerless will retreat from us, unable to do anything to us. I beg you, brothers, I, the least of you, let us not be lazy, lovers of Christ, but let us become even more powerful with the power of the cross. The inevitable feat is at the door! Let us take everything on the shield of faith. Be prepared, then, as faithful slaves who will not accept anything else. The evil and cruel thief will come first, in due time, with the intention of stealing, slaughtering and destroying the chosen flock of the true Shepherd. Let us try to find out, O friends, in what form the shameless serpent will come to earth. 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 as a thief in such an image as to deceive everyone: he will come humble, meek, a hater, as he will say about himself, of untruth, 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 audience he will move 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; insurance at sea, insurance 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 that 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 within, trepidation without; Day and night there are corpses on the streets. The stench in the haystacks, 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 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. But before this happens, the Lord, in His mercy, will send Elijah the Thesbite and Enoch, so that they will proclaim godliness to the human race, boldly preach the good news to everyone, and teach them not to believe the tormentor out of fear, crying out and saying: “This is flattery, O people! Let no one believe her at all, let no one obey the atheist, let none of you be afraid, because he will soon be reduced to inaction. Behold, the holy Lord comes from heaven to judge all who have believed his signs.” However, few will then want to listen and believe this sermon of the prophets. The Savior will do this in order to show His inexpressible love for mankind, for even then he will not leave the human race without preaching, so that they will not all be unrequited at the Judgment. Many of the saints who will be found then, at the coming of the defiled, will shed tears in rivers to the Holy God in order to get rid of the serpent; with great haste they will flee into the desert, and with fear they will hide in mountains and caves, and they will sprinkle earth and ashes on their heads, praying in great humility day and night. And this will be granted to them by the Holy God; His grace will lead them to certain places, and they will be saved, hiding in abysses and caves, not seeing the signs and fears of the Antichrist, because those who have knowledge (knowledge) will easily become aware of the coming of the Antichrist. But whoever has a mind for worldly matters and loves earthly things will not be clear to him: he who is always attached to the affairs of life, although he hears, will not believe and will abhor those who say such things. And the saints will be strengthened because they have abandoned all care for earthly life. Then the whole earth and sea will cry, the air will cry, and together the wild animals and birds of the air will cry; the mountains and the hills and the trees of the plains will weep; The heavenly lights will also weep for the human race - because everyone has deviated from the Holy God and believed flattery, having taken upon themselves, instead of the Life-giving Savior's Cross, the mark of a foul and God-defeating one. The earth and the sea will cry, because the voice of psalm and prayer will suddenly cease in human lips; All the churches of Christ will cry with great lamentation, because there will be no sacred service and offerings. After the completion of three and a half years of power and the actions of the unclean, when the temptations of the whole earth are fulfilled, the Lord will finally come, like lightning flashing from heaven. Our Holy, Most Pure, Terrible and Glorious God will come, with incomparable glory, preceded by the glory of the ranks of Angels and Archangels. Yet they are a fiery flame and a river full of fire in terrible bubbling. There will be Cherubim here with drooping eyes and Seraphim flying and covering their faces and legs with fiery wings and tremblingly calling out: “Arise, you who have fallen asleep! Behold, the Bridegroom has come!” The tombs will be opened, and in the blink of an eye all the tribes will awaken and look at the holy beauty of the Bridegroom. And the darkness of those, and thousands of thousands of Angels and Archangels, countless armies will rejoice with great joy; the saints and the righteous, and all who have not received the seal of the serpent and the wicked, will rejoice. The tormentor with all the demons, bound by the Angels, as well as all who accepted his seal, all the wicked and sinners bound will be brought before the judgment seat. And the King will give them the sentence of eternal damnation into unquenchable fire. All those who did not accept the seal of the Antichrist and all those hiding in caves will rejoice with the Bridegroom in the eternal and heavenly palace with all the saints in the endless ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: