Millennial Kingdom of Christ

The Millennial Kingdom of Christ, about which the Revelation of St. speaks. John, there is not only the Kingdom of Christ, but the kingdom of Christians (Apoc. 20:4) was and is attributed to different moments in the history of Christian humanity, each of which, indeed, covers a thousand years. There are three such periods in the history of Christian humanity, not counting the last one, which is described in the Apocalypse. The first such period is the time from the Apostolic Council (54th AD) until the separation of the Western Church in 1054. During this 1000th anniversary, the entire Christian Church, from Spain to Greece, constituted a single indivisible Kingdom of Christ, met at general ecumenical councils, clarified and established on them all the main dogmas of the Christian faith, compiled the Orthodox Creed, approved for everything times its Orthodox dogmatic self-consciousness. This period of time, in all fairness, deserves the name “1000-year Kingdom of Christ.” And although the Church in these years was subjected to especially severe persecution by pagans and was torn apart by heresies, it remained united and unshakable in its Orthodox Christian identity, which it established at seven Ecumenical Councils. There is another period in the history of the Orthodox Church, less defined, but worthy of the name “1000-year Kingdom of Christ on earth.” This is the era of the Byzantine Empire from Constantine the Great, the founder of Byzantium in 325 until the conquest of Constantinople by Mohammed II in 1453. This time period exceeds 1000 years by approximately 120 years. Finally, the third 1000-year Kingdom of Christ on earth, from the baptism of the Russian people (988) to the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917. It missed reaching 1000 years by almost 70 years. During all these periods of time, the ideology and life of entire Christian nations were sanctified and led by the name of Christ. The Lord fulfilled the apocalyptic prophecy on earth three times, as if thereby confirming the inviolability of God’s definitions. It cannot be said, however, that Christians pay due attention to these warnings. However, the old Russian scribes understood them, remembered them and said: “The First Rome is the Old Rome; second Rome - Byzantium; the third Rome is Moscow, and the fourth will never happen.” And so it happened. At present, with the fall of the Russian Orthodox Empire, there is not a single huge, self-conscious collective of Orthodoxy left on earth, such as the three previous ones. True, there are now Orthodox peoples and states - Greece, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, but not one of them considers itself, and cannot consider itself due to its insignificance, as an exponent of the pan-Church Orthodox self-consciousness, none of them claims such a significance and purpose. No one in the world will take their voices into account, no one will reckon with them. (Editor's note: now, after the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and the fragmentation of the country, on the one hand, the world is not inclined to take into account the opinion of Russia, as can be seen in the examples of Serbia and Iraq, on the other, the ruling elites of post-Soviet Russia, for all their apparent favor towards Orthodoxy, are in fact imbued with a completely different spirit, as can be seen in the examples of banning the lesson of the Law of God in schools, blocking the organization of an Orthodox national television channel and others like them, which are countless). The same groups whose voice is taken into account will not talk about Christ. Now we will not hear about Christ and Christ’s truth either from England or from America. If they all have their own words, then in any case they are not the words of Christ’s truth. The earth has lost not only its Orthodox, but also its simply Christian face. The most holy patriarchs and metropolitans remain silent. One cannot help but think that humanity has entered the hopeless darkness of the coming kingdom of the Antichrist. The bright and holy face of Christ, which shone in the world like the banner of eternal truth, faded in the consciousness of mankind. People began to live by different ideals. Humanity has entered the hopeless darkness of the coming kingdom of the Antichrist. It becomes creepy and scary to live on earth among this modern hell of anger, hatred, violence and mutual extermination of the so-called “cultural humanity.” May the Lord reward him according to his deeds. You might be interested in: