A thousand year rule?
Some will say that the “thousand year rule” of Christ shall soon begin. They will argue that satan is free today to do whatever destruction it desires, and argue that once Christ comes he will bind satan for a thousand years and establish his kingdom on Earth.
Orthodoxy says Christ has been ruling on Earth for a thousand years already, since He descended down to Hades and destroyed (severely limited) satan’s rule. Since then Christ has been ruling together with his saints through the establishment of the Orthodox Church. In this fallen world this is the maximum extent to which this earthly rule can be established. Paradise cannot exist in the world in its current state.
Yes, satan has been released from his bonds for a short while before the end, as the Apocalypse says, but that does not mean the rule of Christ has not already been going ever since the world has been reedemed through the death and resurrection of our Lord, and the subsequent decent of the Holy Spirit a few days later (the distinct sign of the establishment of the Church – the very kingdom of Heaven on Earth). The fact that the apocalypse states that satan shall be release for a short while before the end is proof he has in fact been bound for all this time.
The Holy Fathers say that satan’s temporary release was fulfilled with the murdering of the last royal family in Russia and the destruction of the Ortodox monarchy.
And you can tell the rule of satan started around the same time with two world wars having already occurred (and the third on its way). The money system has been destroyed as well, together with all the Christian values. Virtually nothing, absolutely nothing still stands …
The deception of the antichrist shall be that people will believe him when he will say “the bad times are behind us, the bad guys have been destroyed, and the good times shall now be around for a long time, nothing can stop it”. People will find it extremely difficult to not make their plans according to this false, worldly hope, when they will see that what seems to be heading for destruction shall turn to rebirth and prosperity (by simply ending wars, environmental destruction, sickness, financial inequality, poverty etc etc – these are all problems artificially created for this purpose, and they will also announce some medical and scientific breakthroughs that will stun the world).
Today the same false hope is also visible in the Church. Those who think that the situation is turning around (on a large scale) in the realm of official Ortodoxy do not really understand the situation. They are just hanging on the same thin thread, hoping that after a period of evident destruction of the faith (communism) things seem to be heading in the right direction.
They are not.
