Why Do We Consider It Normal Today For Someone To Go To a Monk and Ask To Know “the Future”?

By Metropolitan Nektarios of Hong Kong

I read that some people write that they visit some Elders and ask them “when will the events happen”?

What does “the events” mean?

About world wars, the taking of Constantinople, and the like?

I believe you understand how foolish this is, if it really happens…

Does someone go to a place of monastic asceticism, meet a monk, and the questions he asks are whether there will be wars and when will they begin?

The Ascension of the Lord is the Penultimate Event of the Second Coming

By Demetrios Panagopoulos,
Preacher (1916-1982)

Someone will say:

"On the day of the Ascension, the season for swimming begins..."

This is what man sees... Beyond his flesh, beyond his pleasures, etc. He DOES NOT see.

What is the Ascension? Why is it celebrated? Why is it remembered? These people do not know these things. And the fact that they do not know gives them a little credit, but the fact that they do not want to know nullifies them.

The Ascension of the Lord is the penultimate event of the Second Coming. Because one more event is missing from this whole event in which God came into the world for man. What event?

The "He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead." With this the whole event of the Incarnate Economy ends.

Metropolitan Meletios of Nikopolis and 666 as the Number of the Antichrist

Until 1981, no matter how much one looked, no matter where one turned to in their research, one would not find a single hint in the Orthodox world, not even a possibility of whether 666 is the mark of the antichrist. Orthodox tradition completely ignores such a theory.

From 1981, however, opinions diametrically opposed to the Orthodox began to circulate. It has been claimed that 666 is the antichrist's mark, that those who accept it, even in the form of a barcode, are transformed into demonic personalities, that 666 as a code on identity cards is a lifelong and indelible seal of the antichrist by the energy of Satan, etc. These views started in the United States of America from Mary Stewart Relfe's writings, which became bestsellers, but they also reached Greece. They were supported, in fact, to such an extent that theologians, monasteries, hieromonks, etc. fought against the barcode, considering it the antichrist's mark, and preached with all their might that anyone who accepts it is transformed into a demonic personality and takes upon himself the seal of Satan.

Fear of the Antichrist

A nun asked Saint Paisios the Athonite:

"Elder, when I hear about the Antichrist, I feel a fear inside me."

He replied:

"What are you afraid of? Will he be more terrible than the devil? He is a man. Why Saint Marina beat up the devil and Saint Justina dispersed so many demons. All in all, we did not come to be comfortable in this world."

Source: Elder Paisios of Mount Athos: Spiritual Counsels II: Spiritual Awakening. 

The Mystery of the Cross in Light of Orthodox Eschatology

 

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

This article was written in January 1992, 32 years ago, and was published in my book "Interventions in Modern Society". It is published here, because it has timeless validity, because we are saved by participating in the mystery of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ. The Cross is not separated from the Resurrection, nor is the Resurrection separated from the Cross, nor is the mystery of the Cross separated from Orthodox eschatology.

Participating in the mystery of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ is the precondition and experience of all the Mysteries of the Church and of spiritual life, it expresses Neptic theology, its hesychastic tradition, as formulated by the Apostle Paul: "Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Gal. 5:24) - "God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14) - "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20).

That's why the Apostle Paul writes: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." And because the Jews ask for proof by miracles and the gentiles by human wisdom, "we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness" (1 Cor. 1:18-24).