Before the second coming of Christ there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, the sea will roar and be troubled [104]. How can we distinguish these signs from the signs of the Antichrist? How can we distinguish these signs from the signs of the Antichrist, because he will also give signs in the sun, moon, stars, and air? [105] The first signs will be true, which will be quite different from the signs of the Antichrist, which will be made up of manifestations that deceive the senses. The performers of the signs of the Antichrist will be the Antichrist and his apostles; signs in the sun, moon, and stars, signs, heralds of Christ's coming, will appear of their own accord, without any intermediary. The heavenly bodies will fulfill their purpose, with which, by the command of the Creator, they shone in heaven [106]. They had already fulfilled this assignment at the Nativity of Christ with a wondrous star [107]; they performed it at the crucifixion of the God-Man, when the sun was covered with a dark veil of darkness at noon [108]. The holy Evangelist Matthew says that after the tribulation caused by the dominion of the Antichrist has passed, the coming of Christ will immediately come, and it will begin with the fact that the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven [109]. These luminaries will remain in their places, notes Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria; but they will be darkened and will appear to the eyes of man having disappeared from the firmament of heaven because of the abundance of heavenly light, which will illumine the world, which is being prepared to receive the Lord in His glory.

The teaching on miracles and signs proposed by us, we dare to call the teaching of the Holy Orthodox Church, the teaching of her holy fathers. The essential need for an accurate, if possible detailed exposition of this teaching is obvious. True signs were the companions of the true knowledge of God and the salvation it gives; false signs were accomplices of error and the destruction flowing from it. In particular, the effect of the signs that the Antichrist will perform will be extensive and powerful, and will lead unfortunate humanity to recognize the messenger of Satan as God. Edifying, comforting, soul-saving is the pious contemplation of the miracles wrought by our Lord, Jesus Christ. What holy simplicity there is in them! How by means of them the knowledge of God was made convenient for all men! What goodness in them, what humility, what irrefutable power of persuasion! The contemplation of the miracles of Christ leads us to the Word, which is God. God, in order to restore communion with mankind that had fallen away from Him, was pleased that His Word should be clothed in humanity, appear, circulate among men, enter into a close relationship with them, and, having assimilated them to Himself, ascend them to heaven. Having put on humanity, the Word remains the Word of God and acts as a word in accordance with His divine dignity. It sits at the right hand of the Father by accepted mankind and dwells everywhere as God. It is inscribed on paper, it is clothed in sounds, but being Spirit and life,[110] it enters minds and hearts, recreates those who are united with Him in spirit, drawing the body to spiritual life. From the contemplation of the miracles of Christ we ascend to the knowledge of the great significance which is contained in the Word of God, which alone is necessary for our salvation, in the Word which serves salvation and accomplishes salvation with all satisfaction. The knowledge of the Word of God from the Holy Scriptures, pronounced by the Holy Spirit and explained by the Holy Spirit, combined with the knowledge gleaned from activity directed according to the Word of God, overshadowed, finally, by the knowledge taught by Divine grace, gives the Christian purity of mind and heart.

In this purity the spiritual mind shines like the sun in a clear sky, free from clouds. At the onset of day after darkness, the nocturnal image of sensible objects changes: some of them, hitherto invisible, become visible; others, which were seen indistinctly and in confusion with other objects, are separated from them and designated definitely. This happens not because objects change, but because the relation of human vision to them changes when the darkness of the night is replaced by the light of day. Exactly the same thing happens with the attitude of the human mind to moral and spiritual things, when the mind is illumined with spiritual knowledge emanating from the Holy Spirit. Only in the light of the spiritual mind can the soul see the holy path to God! Only in the light of spiritual reason can the invisible procession of the mind and heart to God be infallibly accomplished! Only in the light of spiritual reason can we avoid error, wilderness, and abysses of perdition. Where this light is not present, there is no vision of the truth; Where this light is not present, there is no God-pleasing virtue that saves man, leading him into the abodes of paradise [112]. The light of the spiritual mind must be illumined by the view of the spiritual eye on signs and wonders, in order to avoid the calamities into which the view of carnal wisdom can lead us. We have seen the nature of the miracles of the God-man; we have seen what their purpose was. The Signs, having completed their ministry, left the field of service, leaving the essential worker to work, the Word, Who abides and will continue to be a worker until the end of the world, as He Himself declared Himself: Behold, I am with you to the end of the world. After the widespread performance of signs, which accompanied the sowing of Christianity by the preaching of the Apostles and Equal-to-the-Apostles men, ceased, signs were performed in places by chosen vessels of the Holy Spirit. In the course of time, with the gradual weakening of Christianity and the damage to morality, the banner-bearing men diminished [114]. Finally, they dried up completely. Meanwhile, men, having lost reverence and respect for all that is sacred, having lost humility, recognizing themselves unworthy not only to perform signs, but even to see them, thirst for miracles more than ever. People, in the intoxication of self-conceit, presumption, ignorance, strive indiscriminately, recklessly, boldly to everything miraculous, do not refuse to be participants in the performance of miracles, they decide to do this without the slightest hesitation. Such a direction is more dangerous than ever. We are gradually approaching the time when the vast disgrace of numerous and astounding false miracles is to be revealed, to draw into perdition those unfortunate pets of carnal wisdom who will be deceived and deceived by these miracles.

The quickening of the soul by the Word of God produces a living faith in Christ. Living faith sees, as it were, Christ [115]. For her eyes, Christianity, remaining a mystery, is made open; remaining incomprehensible, it is clear, understandable, no longer covered by that thick, impenetrable veil with which it is closed from the dead faith. Living faith is spiritual reason [116]. It no longer needs signs, being completely satisfied with the signs of Christ and His greatest of signs, the crown of signs, His word. The desire to see signs is a sign of unbelief, and signs were given to unbelief in order to convert him to faith. Let us cling to the Word of God with all our souls, let us unite with Him in one spirit, and the signs of the Antichrist will not even attract our attention. With contempt and disgust for them, we will turn away our eyes from them, as from the shame of demons, as from the deeds of the frenzied enemies of God, as from a reproach to God, as from poison and deadly infection. Let us remember the following remark of particular importance, drawn from the experiences of ascetic activity. All demonic manifestations have the property that even insignificant attention to them is dangerous; from such attention alone, allowed without any sympathy for the phenomenon, one can be imprinted with the most harmful impression, subjected to a heavy temptation.

Humility is inseparable from spiritual reason. St. Isaac of Syria says: "Only he who has humility can be recognized as reasonable; he who does not have humility will never acquire understanding" [117]. Living faith opens the eyes of God's soul; The Word of God unites the soul with God. Whoever sees God in this way, who feels God in this way, sees his own insignificance, is filled with ineffable reverence for God, for all His works, for all His commandments, for all His teaching, and acquires humility. The humble-minded will not even dare to inquire about what is happening outside the will of God, which is opportunely condemned by the Word of God: the signs of the Antichrist will remain alien to the humble-minded, as having nothing to do with them. The vision of one's own insignificance and one's weakness, the vision of God, His majesty, omnipotence and infinite goodness arouses the soul to aspire to God in prayer. All the hope of such a soul is centered in God, and therefore there is no reason for it to be entertained by prayer; it prays, uniting its forces together and striving towards God with all its being; she often resorts to prayer as much as possible, she prays unceasingly. At the onset of great tribulations in the time of the Antichrist, all those who truly believe in God will cry out with fervent prayer to God [118]. They will cry out for help, for intercession, for the sending down of Divine grace to strengthen and guide them. The own strength of men, though faithful to God, is not sufficient to resist the combined forces of outcast angels and men, who will act with frenzy and despair, anticipating their imminent destruction. Divine grace, having overshadowed the elect of God, will invalidate for them the deceptions of the seducer, his threats unthreatened, and his miracles contemptible; it grants them to courageously confess the Savior who has accomplished the salvation of men and to denounce the false Messiah, Who came to destroy men; she will lead them to the scaffolds, as to royal thrones, as to a wedding feast. The feeling of love for God is sweeter than the sensation of life [120]. Just as the torments before death and those accompanying death constitute the beginning of eternal torment for the sinner, so the torment for Christ and violent death for Him constitute the beginning of the eternal joys of paradise. We see this clearly from the action of Divine grace in relation to the martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity: at first they were left to manifest their will; after they had received their first torments, help from Above descended upon them, making for them both torments and death for Christ desirable. The Lord, foretelling the sorrows that should precede the Second Coming, commanded His disciples to watch and pray: "Watch, watch and pray," He said to them, "For you do not know when the time will be" [122]. Prayer is always necessary and useful for man: it keeps him in communion with God and under the protection of God; it protects him from presumption, from the deception of vanity and pride, both his own, vegetating from his fallen nature, and brought in thoughts and dreams from the realm of fallen spirits. In times of sorrow and danger, visible and invisible, prayer is especially needed: as an expression of rejection of presumption, an expression of hope in God, it attracts God's help to us. Almighty God becomes the agent of the one who prays in difficult circumstances, and brings out of them His servant by His wondrous Providence.

Knowledge of God, living faith, grace-filled humility, pure prayer are the appurtenances of the spiritual mind; they are its constituent parts. Thus, on the contrary, ignorance of God, unbelief, blindness of spirit, pride, presumption, and self-conceit are the attributes of carnal wisdom. Not knowing God, not accepting and not understanding the means offered by God to receive the knowledge of God, it makes for itself an erroneous, soul-destroying way to acquire the knowledge of God, in accordance with its mood: it asks for a sign from heaven. Amen.

[1] Mk. 8:11

[2] Mk. 8:12

[3] Matt. 16:1

[4] Jn. 6:30-31

[5] Matt. 27:41-42

[6] Luke. 23:8

[7] 1 Cor. 1:24

[8] Mk. 8:12-13; Matthew 12:39