Christ is the sword that divides souls. Christ is the measure by which we can understand who is God and who is not. "Know the Spirit of God (and the spirit of error) in this way: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is from God" (1 John 4:2). In other words, whoever acknowledges and confesses the divine-human fullness of Christ is from God; and on the contrary, whoever does not recognize and confess Christ as God and Man is the Antichrist. He can believe in God and the Messiah, like Solovyov's Antichrist and like a multitude of representatives in the world; it can grant religion considerable rights and even greater assistance; he may even declare himself the guardian and leader of the Church; however, the non-recognition of Christ moves him into the ranks of the supporters of the beast, and all his efforts become only a cover for the struggle with the Lamb. To exclude Christ from Christianity means to exclude its ontological content, turning it into a purely moral relationship with the boundless Supreme Being. Every antichrist willingly acknowledges the moral values of Christianity. Moreover, every Antichrist considers him to be the most valuable religion in the maintenance of the morality of mankind, for the improvement of social relations, for the realization of peace and democracy, and for the enhancement of culture. However, no antichrist recognizes his ontological content, which is Jesus Christ. Not a single Antichrist confesses the supernatural content of Christianity.

This is the indicator that reveals what is hidden under the so-called earthly rights, gifts, privileges and aspirations of the Antichrist. Here is also the measure by which all the promises and deeds of Christians themselves are measured. It is not the theoretical recognition of God or the good that is the sign of the Lamb, nor the legal or material assistance of religion that is the manifestation of the Spirit of God, but Christ Himself: his recognition and confession, the affirmation of the supernatural character of Christianity, the veneration of Him as the Divine Messiah. In order to reveal the true face of earthly aspirations and deeds, they must be measured by Christ Himself. The attitude to Christ reveals the spirit of both an individual and an entire period of history.

That is why we ask now: how does the spirit of the Antichrist experience Christ? What is His relationship with His divine-human fullness? The answer to these questions will allow us to evaluate earthly life more clearly and at the same time to understand our age more deeply.

The historical existence of Christ is not rejected by the spirit of the Antichrist today. The storm raised by Rentn and Strauss ended in complete defeat: the historical figure of Christ was not only not destroyed, but was even more revealed, like the sky after a long rain. Solovyov's deep perspicacity could well characterize the Antichrist as the Antichrist, who "initially had no enmity towards Jesus. He recognized His messianic significance and virtues." Solovyov had a deep understanding that the denial of the historical existence of Christ is short-lived and that it will not leave deep traces in humanity. That is why he made his Antichrist a believer in Christ as a historical figure and even as a messenger of God. By this Solovyov meant that the denial of the historicity of Christ, characteristic of his time, cannot satisfy people of outstanding intellect; that this is only a naïve attempt, not worthy of attention, even a harmless attempt. His Antichrist, a man of outstanding ability and comprehensive education, could not join the ranks of the followers of Renan or Strauss. He had to be quite mature, even in his attitude toward Christ. And here Solovyov was not mistaken. Half a century passed, and the historicity of Christ was recognized by all. Therefore, today something else is denied, namely, that today Christ is denied as the First and the Last.

What is meant by this, Solovyov himself explains to us by a further characterization of his Antichrist. The Antichrist, as it was said, recognized Christ. He did not consider Him a legend, but considered Him a real historical man. "He sincerely saw in him only his greatest predecessor – the moral feat of Christ and His absolute uniqueness were incomprehensible to this mind darkened by self-love. He reasoned thus: "Christ came before me: I am the second; but that which is after in the order of time is essentially first. I come last, at the end of history, precisely because I am the perfect, ultimate savior. That Christ is my forerunner. His vocation was to anticipate and prepare my appearance." In other words, the spirit of Antichrist, even though it recognizes the historicity of Christ, tries to see in him only its forerunner. And here the question of whose forerunner Christ is considered to be is superfluous. Solovyov's Antichrist considered Him to be his forerunner; and since he was a man of great intellect and high morals, thanks to these qualities he convinced himself that he was "the only son of God." Our age is increasingly inclined to regard Christ as the forerunner of the moral order which laid the foundations of modern human morality, social order, democracy, and even world peace. What humanity has assimilated over two thousand years, what it has developed, educated, perfected, all this was begun by Christ. Christ is the forerunner of modern development.

Therefore, today more than one willingly returns to the Gospel and seeks in it all kinds of clues that would show humanity the way in the present. More than one says that the spirit of the Greeks, Romans and the spirit of Christ are hidden in the foundations of European culture and the cultures of other continents. The Greeks gave Europe philosophy, the Romans law, Christ morality and religion. And this amazing trinity has developed in the course of centuries into the modern amazing culture. Christ is an integral part of this culture. He is its forerunner: true, not the only one, but one of the main ones. And this thought of Christ as a forerunner is increasingly taking hold of consciousness today. Today, almost everyone, with the exception of the Communists, recognizes that Christ was the forerunner of moral, social, national, and even international relations. He pointed out that man should be for man. The "liberty, equality, fraternity" proclaimed by the French Revolution were only a real expression and a complete formulation of love for one's neighbor. Today, the law of love for one's neighbor is inscribed in all constitutions. The struggle for man begun by Christ has been realized. In this respect, Solovyov was indeed far-sighted, for he substantiated the relationship of his Antichrist to Christ by the idea of a forerunner. The spirit of the Antichrist from Christ as a legend came to Christ as a forerunner. The attitude of the Antichrist Solovyov in relation to Christ has become the attitude of our age.

However, what is this idea of the forerunner in essence? Why is it so readily accepted and proclaimed even by the rulers of the world? Has it really already understood that Christ is the First, as Revelation says of him (cf. Rev. 22:12)? To think so would be to be deceived by the antichrist's cover-up, under which lies one of the ways in which Christ is denied. The idea of the Forerunner is the refutation of Christ as the Final and thus as God. Who the Forerunner is and what his role is, St. John the Baptist reveals to us, defining his relationship with Christ: "He who is stronger than I am comes after me" (Mark 1:7), "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). In these words lies the essence of each forerunner. The Forerunner is the herald of future reality and its sign, but he himself is not this reality. He does not create it himself. He only declares, 37!

that it will be created by another, Stronger than he. He prepares the way for it, but he does not follow this path himself. He symbolizes it, but he really does not have it in himself. He baptizes only with water, that is, with the principle which he purifies, but which does not remain of its own accord. The forerunner is destined to disappear, merging into the reality proclaimed by him and the reality that follows him.

When Christ, baptized by John, began His mission as a messenger, the people immediately turned away from John and followed Him. And then John's disciples were saddened, seeing the end of the deeds of their teacher and not understanding the role of the forerunner. They came to John and said: "Rabbi! He who was with you at the Jordan, and of whom you testified, behold, He baptizes, and all come to Him" (John 3:26). Then John replied that this did not cause him sorrow, but joy, for in this way he saw that his destiny had been fulfilled. He was sent by God before Christ to pave the way for it. If people go to Jesus from Nazareth, then the way to Him has already been paved, and John's mission is finished. As the friend of the bridegroom rejoices in the happiness of the bridegroom, so the forerunner rejoices in the good fortune that came after him. "This is my joy fulfilled," said John to his disciples, adding: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:29-30). It is necessary that the Forerunner disappears, turns on, dissolves in the future proclaimed and indicated by him. This is its meaning and the end of its activity. The Forerunner is never independent. He lives the life of future reality and shines with its light.

It is precisely this experience that is contained in the understanding of Christ as a forerunner. If Christ is the forerunner of our culture, He is drowned in it and dissolved. True, He was its herald, but He Himself did not create it. He was only a sign and symbol of her. He proclaimed the coming of a new age. However, he himself was not this new century. He himself did not introduce Christian morality, nor a democratic system, nor social relations based on love. That is why He receives His light not from Himself, but from the heights of modern culture. Christ as the Forerunner can be understood and evaluated only in connection with the entire process of history. The historical process has overtaken Christ: he has grown, and Christ has diminished. In connection with modern culture, we remember Christ as much as we remember St. John the Baptist in connection with Christ. Christ is transformed into a mere cell of historical development.

That is why Solovyov's Antichrist rightly believes that if Christ is the forerunner, then His meaning lies in preparatory work. He does not complete the historical process, but only rejects it. The consummation is never in the hands of the forerunner. To complete the story, other forces appear, more powerful than the forces of the forerunner. Solovyov's Antichrist considers himself such a consummator. With it, the modern world supports the development of culture, which increasingly sharpens the moral consciousness of mankind, increasingly strengthens the need for unity in the world, and more and more authoritatively directs the earth towards universal harmony. But in any case, the end of the world is not in the hands of Christ. Christ was only a forerunner. The developing history has outstripped Him and left Him far behind, in two thousand years, as it left Roman law, Hippocratic medicine, Arabic mathematics, and Hannibal's strategy. True, the ideas of all these forerunners live on today. But they have already been absorbed into a higher reality, into a higher totality, which is the fruit of all historical development, and not of the forerunners. The ideas of Christ are also alive today. Yet they too are already included in higher unities, in more powerful realities than He Himself proclaimed and perhaps believed. If Christ is the forerunner of modern history, then this history was precisely the more powerful beginning that was to come. Therefore, history increased, and Christ decreased.

These are the conclusions that necessarily follow if Christ is to be considered the forerunner. And they follow because in the understanding of Christ as the forerunner, Christ is excluded as the Last, as the end of all things, as the Omega (cf. Rev. 22:13). Christ is not the forerunner, but the First and the Last, the beginning and the end. He is not a herald or an omen of a new reality, but this reality itself, its beginning, its development and its end. His feat spreads in history. He himself proclaimed this, comparing his Kingdom to a mustard seed, "which, though it is the least of all seeds," yet "becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air fly and take refuge in its branches" (Matt. 13:22). But this spread does not take place according to the law of historical development, but by the power of Christ Himself through the Holy Spirit. As a seed sown in the ground grows and lives not the life of the earth, but of its own, so is the Church of Christ. The earth gives the grain only the substances, only the conditions for the action of that inner force of the grain. So it is with history in connection with the Church. History is only the stage on which the drama of Christ takes place. The world is only the soil of the Church. It can be fruitful and stony. The seed of Christ can fall on stony places, by the wayside, or on fertilized ground (cf. Matt. 13:4-7). However, in any case, this seed falls from above. In any case, this seed is not a product of roads, not rocks, not rosehips and not fertilized soil. In each case, it contains the entire future tree. The seed is not the forerunner of the tree. The seed is the tree itself: its beginning and its end. The one who waters and fertilizes it is not higher than him. He is not that future reality for which the seed is only a herald and a stimulator. The seed is that reality, the whole reality, higher than the water with which it is watered, and higher than the fertilizer that nourishes it.

Christ did not compare his kingdom with the Roman Empire, the beginning of which was laid by Romulus, who erected a city, which in the course of centuries developed into a huge complex state. He compared his feat to a mustard seed, to leaven, that is, to such principles that develop due to their own inner strength. This is the law of natural development. Works of culture do not grow like seeds, for each of them is complete in itself. Works of culture are constantly being recreated. Those created earlier serve as a model that is transgressed in the process of culture, and what was created earlier is preserved as a historical rarity. There is no ontological identity in the process of culture. It exists only in nature, in supernature. That is why the Kingdom of Christ does not grow as a culture, that is, it is not recreated anew in the process of history, but naturally, as a seed under the constant action of that same inner force. The Kingdom of Christ is inseparable from Christ, just as the Roman Empire is inseparable from Romulus, as it is inseparable from Caesar, Augustus, and Julian, who developed it, made it mature, and defended it. The Kingdom of Christ is Christ Himself. It does not come to maturity under the sun of world history, but in the warmth of the Holy Spirit. It is not continued by Peter, nor Paul, nor Titus, nor Pius, but by Christ Himself. True, popes and bishops are the representatives of Christ on earth. But they are representatives, not new actors; they are conscious and voluntary instruments, but not creators in their own right. The whole religion of Christ is filled with His own existence: full in its hierarchy, in its sacraments, and in its teaching. Christ teaches, Christ rules, Christ initiates.

This is precisely the main difference between the Church and any other earthly creation, in which there is no personal presence of the author and cannot be. Each creation expresses its creator only symbolically, in the form of a sign. A work of culture only designates a creator, but it is not this creator. Meanwhile, the Church is the reality of Christ. The Church is not a symbol of Christ, not a figure, not an external form, as, say, Noah's Arch is a form of Baptism. The Church is the existence of Christ in history. Therefore, no one can develop this existence without Himself. No one can be higher than it, cannot take it in and immerse it. Christ Himself begins the Church, leads it, and completes it. He is not its forerunner, but He Himself is the Church, the Church's historical reality itself, the Cosmos itself, united with God and redeeming. There is no difference between Christ and the Church, just as there is no difference between the life of a seed and a tree. Christ is the Church centered in personal reality, and the Church is Christ revealed in historical reality.