It is even stranger that, in opposition to this assertion of mine, the critic cites the same Gospel quotation ((the gates of hell shall not prevail against it), which in my book is included in the very first paragraph.

Sadly, however, this is not the case. It is sad that a clergyman does not know how to distinguish theology from politics. From the theological point of view, from the biblical point of view, there is no doubt that Christianity will be defeated in the space of world history.

The defeat will be that Christians will not be able to attract people of the last generations to Christ. Even if they strive for this, they will still not succeed. Moreover, the Antichrist's power will pass to the persecution of Christians with the approval of the pagan crowds (crowds, most of whom consist of people whose ancestors were still Christians). Even more bitter will be the defeat in that so many of those who profess to be Christians will not really believe in the real Christ, but in idols. "Christ in my understanding"; "The Gospel in our modern reading"; "Christianity transformed on the basis of modern tolerance and open-mindedness"... These idols will reign even in the Church. Even from the highest hierarchical and teaching pulpits, such sermons will be heard. And isn't this a defeat for the Church?

Is there not "our defeat" in the fact that church people and leaders will deviate into mystical fornication, mixing the Gospel with pagan myths and worldly ideologies? Will not the dominion of the Antichrist be allowed because even before his coming Christians will become strangers to Christ, and therefore what the prophet saw will come true: "The Lord in His wrath... cast down the beauty of Israel to the earth... destroyed in His fury the fortifications of the daughter of Judah... he rejected the kingdom and its princes as unclean; in the heat of wrath he broke all the horns of Israel... and killed everything that was desired by the eyes... The Lord became like an enemy... And He took away His hedge... He has laid waste His place of meeting... and in the indignation of His wrath did He reject the king and the priest" (Lamentations 2:1-6)? Will it not be so with us, for "the time has come for judgment to begin with the house of God" (1 Pet. 4:17)?877

This is the most bitter thing: we will not so much "retreat" as "yield". We will not so much be pushed back by external pressure, as we ourselves will open our souls to accept false shrines and false faith... "I will talk about this... I will walk and weep, I will walk like a robbed and naked man, howl like jackals, and weep like ostriches, because its defeat is painful... has reached even to the gates of my people, to Jerusalem" (Micah 1:8-9).

That is why I am not so much talking about "their victory" as about "our defeat". I understand that for Deacon Alexander, Archpriest Sergius Bulgakov is not an authority, but apart from all the sophiological disputes, is Fr. Sergius really wrong in these words of his, written in 1918: "It must be said frankly that all this truly mysterious power of nihilism is also a kind of impotence of the historical Church, just as the power of darkness and darkness consists only in the weakening of light. There is light, not darkness, which is only not light. How could soulless, stupid, stupid teachings overshadow the majestic, bright, joyful Orthodoxy in their hearts? How is such tastelessness and squalor possible? Of course, we know that the Russian soul was subjected to the action of someone else's poison here, became a victim of the falling away through which the entire Christian world is passing. However, why did it not find a bulwark for itself in the purity of Orthodoxy, but was poisoned by the poison of Judas more deeply than even non-Orthodox countries? Both nihilism and the "dark forces," as we put it, are only symptoms of Orthodoxy, signs of its impoverishment and crisis. The salt has become overwhelmed, and therefore the body it preserves has rotted."878

And so great will be this final and profound regeneration of the world, which was once "Christian," that even a few "saints" (in the language of the New Testament "saints" are "faithful" and not particularly grace-filled ascetics, as in today's church language) will not be able to turn that last crisis into just "another." And they will be crushed, thrown to the outskirts of life (into the "desert") or killed. Yes, they will win in the sense that they will save their souls. But the earthly Body of Christ here will be ground up and cast out of the lives of the last inhabitants879 on earth.

"God has so arranged that men should be corrected by men".880 But is it not a defeat for one who tries to correct people's lives according to the Gospel that his example and his words will remain fruitless? Is it not a defeat for the Church that the people to whom she is sent for Christ's witness "will not receive sound teaching, but... will turn to fables" (2 Tim. 4:3-4)?

Deacon Alexander is indignant: the Church is the Body of Christ, and therefore there can be no question that it can be "broken." Why, the Lord likened ancient Israel to the apple of His eye. The Lord is not only the Head of the New Testament Church. He was also the Head of the Church of the Old Testament. He was the invisible Ruler of Israel. But were there not catastrophes in the history of that Israel? Did not the prophets consider the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, the captivity of their people by pagan empires, to be defeats and failures? Did not the prophets call falls falls, and defeats defeats, and defeats defeats? Well, remember at least "Lamentations of Jeremiah"! "Lord... Look at our reproach. Our heritage has passed to strangers, our houses to foreigners... Mount Zion is desolate, and foxes walk upon it" (Lamentations 5:1-2:18).

What do you call what happened to a group of people who for centuries had power and respect in society, controlled school education and the main currents of culture, put troops and human enthusiasm at the service of their ideas, achieved complete unanimity in society and put signs of their ideology at all crossroads... And then we see that these same people have turned out to be an insignificant minority, that the majority hates and despises them with sincere enthusiasm, that the army, the police, the schools that once served them have now turned against them, that there is no place in culture for their ideas, and in cities and even houses for their symbols? Is the word "defeat" inappropriate to describe what happened?

Do we consider it a victory if a priest manages to enter a secular school and tell children about Christ there? And if a priest is expelled from school, is this not a defeat for the Church? In the same way, our entire Church will one day be expelled from "polite society"! And the fact that it will be considered "decent" not to associate oneself "with these Orthodox" will also be our defeat.

The "little flock", of course, will remain. And it will fulfill the words that the "gates of hell" (let me remind you, by the way, that the "gates" in biblical language are the meeting place of the council of elders, i.e. a kind of "think tank" of the city, and not the periphery, as it is today) will not prevail against the Church. But He Who desires the salvation of all, would like to see His children among the "more than the sand of the sea"... But people will not give the Lord this joy. And this is also our defeat.

This is an undoubted theological perspective. But how the current times relate to it is a completely different question. Perhaps even now, by our behavior, our silence or, on the contrary, by the obsessive intonation of our sermons, multiplied by helplessness in the selection of arguments, we are laying in the public consciousness that reserve of distrust and hostility towards us, which will soon explode the possibility of the normal life of the Church.881 Or perhaps God's Providence will postpone our final defeat for several generations or even millennia. After all, in the first place, not every disease is a disease that leads to death. And, secondly, it often happens that the patient feels better in the last hours before death.

But the position of Deacon Alexander is astonishing: since Orthodoxy is now being revived in Russia, it means that we are not afraid of the Antichrist (and the apocrypha is given that "the Russian Tsar will be feared by the Antichrist himself"). Well, yes – the "end of the world" will not happen in one, separate country...