V.P. Filimonov

But deliver us from the evil one

Remember that the earthly Fatherland with its Church is the threshold of the Heavenly Fatherland, therefore love it fervently and be ready to lay down your life for it. The Lord entrusted us, Russians, with the great saving talent of the Orthodox faith... Arise, Russian man! Stop being mad! Quite! It is enough to drink a bitter cup full of poison – both for you and for Russia.

The Holy Righteous Fr. John of KronstadtSIGNS OF THE TIMES

At the Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry, a group of Satanists who committed ritual murders and human sacrifices to the devil was examined. One of them told Professor F.V. Kondratiev about his first meeting with a demon: "One night, between two and three o'clock, I woke up to smoke. I feel someone standing in front of the bed... A man, and he has no eyes, a red fire burns instead. He called the numerical code... For the first time, I was scared. And then he summoned him to himself with the help of a ritual..." The Satanist proudly shows the tattoo "666" and explains: "The Antichrist will have the same sign. " 666" is the key to the gates of hell. The Antichrist has already been born of a fallen woman..." 1

During the examination, the Satanists were found to be absolutely mentally healthy. Therefore, the words quoted above are not an empty phrase, but a warning that Satan has entered the last battle. The enemy of the salvation of the human race wants to cast everyone into the abyss of hell...

In the prophecies of St. Seraphim of Vyritsa we read: "The time will come when not persecution, but money and the charms of this world will turn people away from God, and many more souls will perish than in the times of open theomachism. On the one hand, crosses will be erected and domes gilded, and on the other, the kingdom of lies and evil will come. The true Church will always be persecuted, and it will be possible to be saved only through sorrows and illnesses. Persecution will take on the most sophisticated, unpredictable character... At the same time, a procession of the cross will go from the Kazan Cathedral to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra" 2.

The words of the Spirit-bearing Elder of Vyritsa are consonant with the prophecies of another pillar of Orthodoxy, St. Lawrence of Chernigov: "The time is coming when inactive churches will be repaired, equipped not only outside, but also inside. The domes will gild both temples and bell towers. And when everything is finished, the time will come when the Antichrist will reign. Pray that the Lord will continue this time for us to strengthen, because a terrible time awaits us..." 3

The signs of the end of the world and the approach of the Dread Judgment of Christ are described in detail by the God-bearing St. Ignatius Brianchaninov: "The apostasy of the new Israel from the Saviour by the end of time will take on an extensive development, as the Apostle foretold: "The apostasy shall come first," and then, as the consequence and fruit of the apostasy, "the man of lawlessness will be revealed, the son of perdition," who will dare to call himself the promised Messiah, demand divine worship for himself and receive it from those who have prepared themselves to accept the Antichrist open and secret apostasy from Christ. The apostasy will be so extensive that, because of the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold (Matt. 24:12). This means that sinful temptations and examples will multiply so much that they will draw an innumerable multitude of people into a sinful life. Faith in Christ will hardly exist, as the Lord Himself declared: "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8). Material and temporal occupations and pleasures will attract the full attention of mankind: And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man: they ate, drank, married, and were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Just as it was in the days of Lot: they ate, drank, bought, sold, planted, built (Luke 17:26-28).

Abundant earthly prosperity and enormous earthly enterprises, as obvious to all, are set forth by the Word of God as a sign of the end times and the ripe sinfulness of mankind... Mankind never wants to declare itself a follower of evil, even if it drowns in evil..." 4

On the pages of this book, a number of prophecies about the end times will be cited, which are coming true before our eyes. At the same time, it is necessary to understand that the end of the world is not a one-time act, but a historical process. The more humanity moves away from God, the closer it comes to His eternal enemy. People are becoming more and more tolerant of everything that prepares and pushes the world to the catastrophe of mankind, to its destruction. Just as with age the human body decays and is filled with illnesses before its death, so humanity matures in its sinfulness. The Antichrist will be able to come only as a result of a worldwide apostasy, when the grace of God will depart from people. That is why St. Ignatius reveals the meaning of the apostolic words: "The apostasy will come first," and then, as the consequence and fruit of the apostasy, "the man of lawlessness will be revealed, the son of perdition." In one of his works, St. Ignatius notes: "By apostasy from Christ, humanity will prepare itself to accept the Antichrist. He will accept him in his spirit. In the very mood of the human spirit there will arise a demand for the invitation of the Antichrist, sympathy for him, just as in a state of severe illness there arises a thirst for a murderous drink..." 6

It is not given to us to know the times or the seasons (Acts 1:7), but to discern the signs of the times is commanded by the Lord Himself. It is not for nothing that the Spirit-bearing Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain notes with sorrow: "Unfortunately, we listen to the radio in order to know only about the weather. What will Christ tell us? Hypocrites! you know how to discern the face of heaven, but you cannot discern the signs of the times (Matt. 16:3)... It is necessary to inform the believers and put into their souls a good anxiety that will make them properly prepare..." 7

Another beacon of Orthodoxy of our time, St. Averky (Taushev), warned all zealots of the Truth as early as the 1960s: "The servants of Satan, or, what is the same thing, the servants of the coming Antichrist, take advantage of the spiritual blindness of the majority of modern people and stubbornly and persistently do their work with truly satanic energy. And by special efforts, and by all available means, with the help of those means that have come under their control, they attract followers who, consciously or unconsciously, whether they want it or not, cooperate with them, creating in the world conditions and circumstances suitable for the very near coming of the Antichrist, as the ruler of the whole world and the master of all mankind...

The main task of the servants of the coming Antichrist is to destroy the old world with all its ideas and "prejudices" in order to build in its place a new world capable of accepting its approaching "new master", who will take the place of Christ in the eyes of people... One must be completely blind spiritually, completely alien to true Christianity, not to understand all this!" 8