Today, the mass consciousness perceives the transition to the new millennium as a way to escape from the present, but not into the past, but into the future. But this is also a form of a completely religious perception of history. It manifests itself in the hope of a certain "sacrament" of the calendar, a sacrament that will magically change us, change us without our own participation.

The first task of this book, then, is to explain why Christians do not share the optimistic enthusiasm of believers in His Majesty Progress. This unbelief of ours is almost universally known today. In the church milieu, they like to talk about the "end of the world" and the "times of the Antichrist." These conversations of ours can be heard outside the churches as well. But Christian "pessimism" is surprising. The surprise is inevitable, because the pessimism of Christians contrasts sharply with the optimistic expectations of the mass media. All the more necessary is it to explain yourself.

The second task of this book is to intervene in the gossip within the Church just mentioned and to try to reduce the degree of its intensity. The enthusiasm that seized non-church people on the threshold of entering the "Age of Aquarius" partly captivates believers as well. For them, however, this enthusiasm turns out to be gloomy. Reckless faith in any rumors, any "prophecies" is inherent in many church people today. And with the same ease and thoughtlessness with which the secular mass consciousness accepts any innovations, with the same ease and thoughtlessness, many church people (and church publications) are ready to see in any innovation the "antichrist's trick" and call for a struggle against it. And this is also drunkenness.

So, let's try to calmly figure out: is it true that the expanses of the opening third millennium can nowhere hide the "kingdom of the Antichrist"? And in general, what kind of "kingdom" is this?.. But at the same time, let us remember: "To the informant - the first whip." The one who raised the false alarm is no less guilty than the one who overslept the time of the real alarm. Constant false alarms can be no less dangerous than preaching serenity. People get used to it: "Ah, these Christians always and everywhere see the horns of the Antichrist!" Let's try to walk between thoughtless fear and problem-free optimism.

***

The first article of this book was already published as a separate edition in 1996 – as a brochure "On Our Defeat" (and as a chapter in the book "Satanism for the Intelligentsia"). For the new edition, it has been significantly revised and supplemented, becoming almost three times larger.

Since it was part of my anti-Roerich book, it is understandable that it also appeared in the occult press. Therefore, the article "Roerich's Reading (On Our Defeat)" was written. It has not been published before.

Since, strange as it may seem, it caused misunderstanding among some Orthodox readers, I had to write an article entitled "And Defeat and Victory Are Not Given to Us to Distinguish."

I must say right away that the chapter "In Search of the Golden Age" was partially (by one quarter) already published earlier: several of its pages were in one of my first books "Tradition, Dogma, Ritual" (Moscow, 1994). I would recommend this chapter primarily to those who are preparing to enter the seminary, that is, to live for the Church.

The article "Is the Seal of the Antichrist Given Today?" was published as a separate book quite recently, in the summer of 2001. But it has also been updated for this edition by a third. Tax "identification codes" introduced in Russia and other post-Soviet countries have caused embarrassment among many Orthodox people. And this gave rise to discussions on the topic of what the "seal of the Antichrist" is. This is what my article is about.

In addition, a conversation about the impact of modern computer technologies on people's lives required the formulation of several fundamental theses about our attitude to the computer world. This is what the article "In Defense of the Computer" is about.

ABOUT OUR DEFEAT