Dear brethren in Christ, about a year ago we had 2 articles about the Future of Russia and the End of the World. The first one was a direct reference to Blessed Seraphim Rose’s lecture on the subject.

http://orthodoxaustralia.org/2013/09/02/the-future-of-russia-and-the-end-of-the-world

Then shortly after we made a few comments around it:

http://orthodoxaustralia.org/2013/09/03/a-few-notes-on-blessed-seraphims-lecture-on-the-future-of-russia-and-the-end-of-the-world

Today, when the prophecies we highlighted seem to have been set in motion since earlier this year, please let us make a few more remarks on this extremely important subject, as Fr Seraphim clearly points out that “it all depends on each on of us: if we are awakening to true Orthodox life, then Holy Russia will be restored; if we are not, then God can withdraw His promises.”

The Orthodox revival in Russia has clearly started to take a more coherent form since our earlier articles. Clearly the battle for the very soul of Orthodoxy is now under way in Russia and there are clearly two distinct forces at work. On one hand there is one force, ecumenist in nature, that is trying to get Russia into some form of a “global Christianity”, charismatic in nature and which forces are clearly coming from the top (hierarchy). There is also another force, coming from the bottom up, from the people, who are without any doubt waking up to Orthodoxy once again. As Blessed Seraphim has pointed out, things can go either way, all depending on events that are yet to occur in the very near future.

If the movement of establishing of a “global Christianity” wins, and the “Holy Synod” scheduled for 2016 does indeed take place in its current form, then God may withdraw His promise, but if, as a prophecy says “a great miracle of God will be manifested” and Russia will turn away from this, and at the last minute withdraws from this unholy gathering that is being organized by cunning forces loyal to the West, then the miracle of God shall be manifested and a God anointed Tsar shall be reinstated to everyone’s surprise. It is not without significance that the prophecies say the reinstated Tsar will be from the Romanov family. The process of re-instating a Tsar is a complicated political process that must be initiated by the Russian Patriarch if the new Tsar is to come from a new family. Instead, if the Tsar comes from the last royal family as the prophecies suggest, then such a difficult process may be avoided. It will simply be a natural and perfectly legal continuation of the last lawful regime. This “little detail” is essential as it seems to indicate that the Tsar may indeed be reinstated with or without the participation of the official religious authority. We must fervently pray that in the end the common Traditional Orthodox sense will prevail. The West has already been deceived, but the coming antichrist will come to deceive the chosen ones – us, the Orthodox.

The danger of hijacking of Orthodoxy towards a charismatic end should not be underestimated. If we do become arrogant and let our guard down, then we will not go blameless before God. The situation is indeed critical, but for what we are concerned, we would rather put ourselves with one foot in Hell (but trust in God to deliver us as St Silouan the Athonite said), rather than falling victims to another attempt of spiritual deception. Our Holy Orthodox doctrine teaches that it is better for us to reject any vision even if it is from God, rather than accepting it and fall into deception, and this is equally true about the temptation of siding with the current official political and religious authorities in Russia, even if they seem to be doing really good things. There are still many elements that point to this not being a genuine repentance. We therefore are urging people to remain calm and contempt, and be mindful about the danger of falling into the trap of idolatry towards anyone who may appear as an “Orthodox hero”. It is not in the spirit of Orthodoxy to fall for heroes. Rather we should be sober and reject any such vision until it really happens in the context of the events described in Blessed Seraphim’s lecture.

If we are not careful, the antichrist may appear to deceive us sooner, but if we stand in the true faith, then God may delay indeed the end by another some 30 years as prophesied by some Holy Fathers.

The Orthodox prophecies on this subject are indeed split in two main streams: some of them (like that of St Lavrenti of Cernigov) seem to point to an imminent coming of the Antichrist, yet other Holy Fathers are indeed saying that there may be a period of peace of some 30 years between the last two wars of the apocalypse. This is not by chance, and there isn’t anything un-Orthodox in this apparent contradiction, but this is rather an indication that God may choose to go either way, and in this way Orthodoxy will not loose its divine meaning and inspiration. It all depends on us and what course the events will really turn to in Russia. If Russia does allow herself to partake in the coming unholy synod, and will partake in the heretical views that may be adopted, then the Antichrist may indeed come sooner rather than later.

With love in Christ,
Orthodox Australia.