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Chapter 58. That the Evangelist saw Christ on the field with the forces of Angels Rev. 19:11–12. “And I saw the heavens opened, and behold a white horse, and the one riding on him was faithful and true, and just and warlike. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many crowns: whose name is written, which no one knows but He Himself.” The opening of the sky means that the coming of the seen Judge is coming, just as here the lifting of the veils means among earthly judges condemnation and judgment on the guilty. The white horse is the future lordship of the saints, sitting on which he will judge tongues, emitting from his eyes (flaming and fiery), i.e. from His all-seeing power a flame of fire illuminates the righteous, but does not burn, and burns sinners, but does not enlighten. Many crowns point either to His royal power in heaven and on earth - no matter how many ranks of angels there are in heaven and sceptres on earth and councils of holy people - or to victory over sinners through long-suffering in all our stewardship, as David says: conquer, never judge (Ps. 50:6). “He who has (the names are written and) the name is written, no one knows except He Himself.” The unknown of the name means the incomprehensibility of His being. According to the economy, He has many names, such as: good, shepherd, sun, light, life, truth, sanctification, redemption; equally in terms of negations, such as: incorruptible, immortal, unchanging; in essence, He is incomprehensible and has no name, but is known only to Himself with the Father and the Spirit. Rev.19:13. “And he was clothed in a robe of scarlet blood, and his name was called the Word of God.” The clothing of God the Word here is His most pure and incorruptible flesh, stained with His blood in His voluntary suffering. This confirms what was said before. How is he who has no name and is unknown to anyone here called the Word? Either to show His filial hypostasis and impassive birth from the Father, just as our word comes from our mind, or because the word (mind) of everything that exists is carried in Himself, or that He is the herald of the Father’s wisdom and power. Rev.19:14. “And the host of heaven followed him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.” The heavenly army accompanying Him means the heavenly powers, shining with the subtlety of their being and the height of their thoughts and the lightness of their virtues and the indissolubility of their thorough unity with God. Rev. 19:15. “And out of his mouth came a sharp weapon, so that he could pierce the tongues: and I will punish her with a rod of iron; and she, too, sharpened the wine of the wrath and wrath of God Almighty.” This weapon (sword) means punishment that is to be sent to the wicked and sinners, according to righteous judgment and command coming from the mouth of God; They will be grazed by them with an indestructible rod of endless torment, to stop the many forms of evil; The saints will not test it, because the Lord will not leave the rod of sinners on them, according to the Psalm. He tramples the winepress of wrath, because the Father judges no one, but He, as a man, gave judgment, which from the beginning He had by nature, as the Son. Rev. 19:16. “And to have on his robe and on his shoulder the name written: King of the king and Lord of the lord.” The name: King by king means the inseparability of the Divine Incarnation, according to which, being God, he suffered in the flesh, and, being a man, he is the King of kings reigning over the passions, and the Lord of lords, who through the assistance of Christ acquired dominion and dominion over sin, and who will reign with Him in the next century. Chapter 59. About the Antichrist and those who were thrown into Gehenna with him Rev. 19:17. “And I saw one angel standing in the sun: and he cried with a great voice, saying to all the birds that soared in the midst of heaven.” And we consider this Angel to be one of the highest, as one who commands the other Angels to rejoice at the punishment of sinners and the cessation of sin. He named the Angels birds because of the speed and height of their flight for our teaching. For them, Christ-like food is the fulfillment of the Divine will. They are in the middle of heaven, so that the sunrise into it and the predicted joy will be available to people who are equal to the angels, and through them they serve as a guide to the ascent for those below; with them the saints will be raptured at the meeting of the Lord. Rev. 19:17–18. “Come and gather together to the great supper of God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of thousands, and the flesh of horses and those who sit on them, and the flesh of all free men and slaves, both small and great.” The primary desire of God, which is called favor, and the desired supper for Him is that all people would be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, and be converted and live. Another is that those who brought punishment upon themselves should be punished. That is why Christ called the will of the Father His meal (John 4:34). Here it is called supper, since people will receive what each one wanted for his deeds - the kingdom or punishment. The consumption of flesh means the destruction of everything carnal and the cessation of the names of rulers on earth. He mentions horses not because they were resurrected and judged, but by them meaning either sexist, or subject to wickedness, or both, and those sitting on them - those who excelled in evil, which he explained below, saying: free and slaves, great and small, by free and great he means those who sin much and arbitrarily, and by slaves and small - those who sin less and according to understanding, or by age or infirmity. Rev. 19:19. “And when I saw the beast, the kings of the earth and their armies were gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse, and against his army.” He called those who were militant together with the devil in the plural as armies, due to the diversity of sin, its division, and much self-will, although they constitute a smaller part in comparison with the Angelic forces and equal-angelic people, and those who followed Christ were called in the singular number as armies, for the individual desire of the will, striving to please God the Word. Rev. 19:20. “And he became a beast, and with him a lying prophet, who performed signs before him, in the image of deception receiving the mark of the beast and worshiping his icon.” Although they, together with the kings and rulers who submitted to them, resisted Christ the Savior, but having been defeated, both the Antichrist and the false prophet, who with signs and wonders disposed to accept the deceiver, were comprehended by the wrath of God. “Both of them were quickly thrown alive into the lake of fire, burning like a bogey.” It may be that these will not die a common death, but those killed in the twinkling of an eye will be condemned to a second death in the lake of fire, as the Apostle said about others that they will not die, but will change in the twinkling of an eye, and those, of course, will go to judgment, and these two, as the wicked and opponents of God, will not go to judgment, but to condemnation. If this does not seem so to some, because the Apostle said that the Antichrist will be killed by the spirit of the command of God, and one of the teachers said that even after the killing of the Antichrist, some will still remain alive, but we will say that these living ones are blessed by Daniel, and these two, after God destroys their dominion, in an incorruptible body will be consigned to the fire of Gehenna, which will be for them death and killing by the Divine command of Christ. Rev.19:21. “And the rest of the slaying was with the weapon of him that sat on the horse, which came out of his mouth: and all the birds were filled with their flesh.” There are two deaths: the first is the separation of soul and body, the second is sending to Gehenna. As for those fighting with the Antichrist, there is reason to think that with the sword of God, i.e. by His command, the first death will be inflicted on them according to the flesh, and that a second will follow, and this is correct. If you don’t think so, then it is clear that they, together with those who deceived them, will be participants in the second death. And that the birds were satisfied with their flesh, we understand this here too, as stated before. About this, as God said to some through Isaiah, let me be full (Is. 1:14), so for the saints, every movement of the flesh is satiety, heaviness and abomination. Chapter 60. About the fact that Satan is connected with the crucifixion of Christ to the end, and about a thousand years Rev. 20:1–3. “And I saw an angel descending from heaven, having the key of the abyss, and was already great in her hand. And I eat the serpent, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan: and he is bound for a thousand years. And shut him into the abyss, and imprison him and seal him over him, so that no one will deceive the tongues until the end of a thousand years: and even now it is fitting for him to be set aside for a short time.” Here the story is told about the overthrow of the devil, which took place in the suffering of the Lord. Then he, who seemed to be strong, stronger than him, Christ our God bound us, his prey, and freed us from his hands, condemning him to be cast into the abyss. This is evident from the fact that the demons begged Him not to send them into the abyss. And that he was bound, proof of this is the destruction of idolatry and the destruction of idolatrous churches, and the scarcity of blood on the altars, and throughout the world the knowledge and fulfillment of the Divine will. And the great Irenaeus said that at the coming of Christ the devil learned for the first time that he was condemned to the abyss and to fiery hell (Iren. against heresy, book 5, chapter 26:2). Therefore, what has been said above can be understood as Christ’s condemnation of the devil. He says that the Angel served this condemnation in order to show that the devil was less powerful than his official forces and was vainly daring against the power of the Almighty. For our understanding, the snake called the action that binds its power. It is prudent to understand a thousand years not as such as just the number of years, for like those about which David said: a word of commandment for a thousand generations (Ps. 104:8), we cannot count by tenfold hundreds, but generally by many in number, so here we think that the number of thousands means either many years, or a perfect number. For this may mean many years, so that the Gospel may be preached throughout the whole world, and the seeds of piety may take root in it; can also mean a perfect number, because in them, having left the childish life under the law, we are called into a perfect man according to the age of the fulfillment of Christ. So, a thousand years is the time from the incarnation of the Lord until the coming of the Antichrist. Whether this is so, as we accept, or whether the said thousand years are ten hundred years, as some believe, or less, this is known only to God, who knows how long His patience and use of this life are useful to us. Afterwards, the Antichrist will disturb the entire universe, containing within himself the action of the chief of evil Belial, and pouring out the scum of his poisonous malice on people, since he knows about the inevitability of his punishment. May the all-merciful God save us from his deeds and deliver us from the torment prepared for him and his angels; May He show us to be partakers of the eternal blessings prepared for those who resisted the devil to the point of shedding blood, for He has mercy on those who trust in Him, and from all the holy Angelic powers and from earthly people thanksgiving and worship together with the Father and the Life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.