AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE RUSSIAN EDITION

I have always admired the Russian people – their faith, holiness, patience, love and steadfastness in Orthodoxy. So I felt unbearable pain to see his severe torment, which began in 1917 and lasted seven decades – as well as the exile of ancient Israel in Babylon!

The Lord, Whose destinies are a great abyss (Psalm 35:7), allowed the great red dragon (Rev. 12:3), that is, the Antichrist, to persecute and torment the Russian Church "for the time being." Perhaps in order to manifest the martyrs, and to drink the Russian land with their blood, which once became the seed for the growth of the Church. As the Christian apologist Tertullian said, "semen est sanguis Christianorum," that is, the seed by which the Church is multiplied, is the shed blood of Christian martyrs.

The great red dragon literally rushed at Russia in a great rage, knowing that he had little time left (Rev. 12:12). And since his power is temporary, he set about his dirty work with all his might and using all the means at his disposal. He imagined that he could bury the Church of Christ!

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However, the Russian people of God, armed with the Cross, strength in faith and love for the Most Holy Trinity, courageously accepted spiritual and physical torments and endured. And not only did he survive, but by the power of Christ he overthrew the dragon! Once again, the sheep, the Christians, defeated the wolves – the Antichrist and his servants! It could not be otherwise!

And now the Cross of Christ shines in the blessed land of Russia, which the gracious Lord plucked out like a brand out of the fire (Zech. 3:2). He plucked it out suddenly, at a time when no one expected it, and restored it again in the light of the resurrection.

For me, it was a very pleasant surprise that the famous ancient monastery – the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius – should translate my book into Russian. Therefore, the Orthodox monastic theological brotherhood "Savior", of which I have the honor and blessing of God to be a member, readily granted the monastery the right to translate this book in the hope that it would help the revival of Orthodoxy in Russia. Members of our brotherhood – clergy and laity – lift up a prayer with all their hearts that this book would strengthen in our brothers of the same faith faith in the Conqueror of death and the omnipotent and all-wise Helmsman of history and human affairs.

For us Orthodox, the words of the Apostle Paul: "Christ, having risen from the dead, dies no more: death has no more power over Him" (Romans 6:9) – does not allow our hope for eternal life with God to fade, no matter how many enemies and difficulties we encounter in this temporal world. Therefore, the focus of our entire life is in the victorious hymn of our Church:

"Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!"

Nikolaos P. Vasiliadis

St. Easter 1995 Athens

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