Author: orthodoxaustralia

We are going to begin by saying that our views are based entirely on Archimandrite Nektarios’ interpretation of the Apocalypse to which we subscribe entirely, and that this article is only intended to bring a little more clarification and understanding to what has already been said.

In his commentary, Archimandrite Nektarios talks about the beast (Rev 13:1) that has seven heads and ten horns with crowns.

Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy

About this, Archimandrite Nektarios says:

The beast’s heads doesn’t have crowns, but the crowns are on the horns instead of the heads, which means the heads do not lead any more – because they do not wear crowns – but the horns do. Horns are the 10 banks that are empowered to rule.

In our commentary we would like to focus our attention a little more on this beast and try to go into a little bit more detail to see if we can better understand what it is.

Rev 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

Here is what Archimandrite Nektarios tells us:

The beast that you saw “was” the devil and now it is not. Why not any longer? Because John sees the era after Christ’s resurrection when Satan was bound. Following the Crucifixion and Resurrection devil was bound. And what does the Scriptures say? It will be let free for a short period before the end, to appear again. Until then (the end) the beast will have no power over the Christians unless we, through our sins, will again give it again this power, by the appearance of Antichrist. Therefore, at some point “it will rise from the depths”, and then forever will “go to perdition”.

Besides this correct interpretation, we can also observe another one, a very striking similarity with the events that have taken place in the world from the beginning of the 20th century. The verse describes a beast that “was, and is not, and yet is”. From the teaching of our Holy Fathers (and which subject we covered extensively on our website) we also know that this “red beast of the apocalypse” is the Communism which started in Russia and was designed to destroy the Orthodox Church.

In Chapter 17, verses 3-4 we can read:

Rev 12:3-4 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

This is without any doubt referring to the same beast as in Chapter 13 and 17, as Archimandrite Nektarios also pointed out. This is the beast that was “cast down to Earth” and took the form of Communism which started to persecute the Church and Her saints:

Rev 12:13-14 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

Rev 13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

Our Holy Fathers say that the restraint holding Satan bound (having limited powers) for a thousand years (meaning for a long time, that is before the first and second coming of Christ) was taken away with the murdering of the last Orthodox Emperor (since Constantine the Great), Tsar Nicolai II, which happened around the time Communism took over in Russia.

This “red beast”, the Communism, started to persecute the Orthodox Church but She was “given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness” where she would be protected for a while. This, in the understanding of the Holy Fathers was, the establishing of ROCOR outside Russia and The Catacomb Church inside Russia as the true two Churches that would carry on the true faith, away from the reach of this beast, which had already devoured Moscow Patriarchate through Metropolitan Sergius’ betrayal – please see our previous article on this subject.

As a result of this war on the Church and the Saints, many Holy Martyrs, confessors of the true Church of Christ died in the Orthodox countries in Eastern Europe that fell under the rule of this beast.

The second clue we are going to use in our assertion is Elder’s Ignatius prophecy who said that what started in Russia will end in America, meaning Communism.

And now let us get back the original question: what is the beast that “was, and is not, and yet is”? We know that the Communism fell in 1989, that it ended in 1989. That means the beast that was, and now is not, it has disappeared. But according to the prophecy, the Communism will return into the world, in America, in the West. That now becomes the beast that was, and disappeared, and reappears – in fact it already has – look at what is happening in the West today!

In other world, the beast “disappeared” for a little while only to regroup and rethink its strategy, and then follow The Church where She sought refuge (in the West), in order to destroy Her. Verse 17 in Chapter 12 testifies for this:

Rev 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Let us now focus on the harlot of the Apocalypse …

Also, very important, who is the Dragon of the Apocalypse?

Orthodox Australia

An Orthodox Bishop in Syria has been beheaded.

It is not clear whether this is related to the 2 bishops that were kidnaped in April, nevertheless this atrocity is a clear indication of who those are in Syria that the West want to arm!

They seem to be in a rush, like trying to catch up some lost time …

America:

Landmark victory for gay rights activists clears the way for gay marriage
Carbon tax back on the Obama’s agenda – and it will be called “ObamaAir”

Australia:

Kevin Rudd replaces Julia Gillard and promises expedite implementation of 2 important agendas

1. Support gay marriage. He declared his support for same-sex marriage from the back bench when it seemed there would be a vote on it in the House of Representatives, and will be held to that during the election campaign.
2. Move to a floating carbon price by ending the fixed price before the 2015 schedule set by his predecessor. The Greens might object but Mr Rudd will be aiming for government without needing them, and will want to send a message to households who blame carbon pricing for extra expenses.

Do you think there are any similarities … ?

Anyway, some very disturbing news coming from Italy, where a major bank warns: Italy will need a bailout within 6 months.

The situation in Italy is deteriorating by the hour and we now hear that the same kind of hidden financial derivatives transactions that were used to mask the economic problems in Greece and fool everyone in the Eurozone, have been used in Italy as well … surprise surprise … As a result, an enormous scandal has erupted.

What seems to be the linchpin of the new wave of economic trouble seems to be the “unexpected” rise in interest rates as a result of FED’s announcement that it may tapper the amount of money being poured into economy each month (don’t believe it – it is a lie). In reality, it seems that this, again, has been just a precise and carefully crafted maneuver to hide even a bigger problem: the chaos that has broken out in the Chinese financial system that seems to be close to collapse. Apparently the Chinese have started dumping their huge load of treasury bills onto the market to get the much needed liquidity to postpone its banking system from collapsing, and it appears that this is the true reason why interest rates have risen. The whole FED story seems to be just a diversion to cover the real issue …

Here is a stark warning, published in a Bloomberg article:

The shockwaves caused by even modest attempts by China’s central bank to clamp down on credit show how profoundly this downshift will affect the globe. It will result in slower growth from Japan to Brazil and slam industries like autos, chemicals, heavy manufacturing, energy and steel.

If China needs to dump some of its $1.3 trillion of U.S. Treasuries to bail out state-owned banks, markets everywhere will quake.

No country is more vulnerable to the much-dreaded slowdown in China than resource-rich Australia. The mining boom that fueled nearly all of its recent growth is nearing a cliff of economic risk. “Australia is a leveraged time bomb waiting to blow,” says Albert Edwards, Societe Generale SA’s London-based global strategist. “It is not just a CDO, but a CDO squared. All we have in Australia is, at its simplest, a credit bubble built upon a commodity boom dependent for its sustenance on an even greater credit bubble in China.”

This article explains some aspects of the much talked about coming technological revolution (or google-zeitgeist).

We live in a world which is to go off: each individual or every normal group of people from any dwelling place of a town, land, country or continent is feeling this thing, while we speak. Whether or not one precisely identifies the development as such is another problem, because we all are caught up in this deceiving world, full of misinformation. The ‘new world order’ is preparing its advancement with trickeries of the greatest extent! Science and technology are some of the tools used to propagate the ‘grand’ future to come. We are used to look at future things as being better than the present ones, but this is a phony idea!!! Historically, this fakery ‘materialized’ during the period of the so-called ‘renaissance’ (that is the renaissance of paganism), when present time people started to think that they were better than their forefathers, therefore the future must have been even better than their time…

With such constant ‘progress and development’ in this realm of expectations, the growth in technological advancement became so apparent, in this Western civilization. According to our education system, any scientific ‘achievement’ must be clearly understood, described and used, before being presented to a new consumer or to a young person. We know that each age, as a step in time, has its own development and level of comprehension. In other words, no one would try to explain the mathematics of computer software to a primary student. In the same way, one would not make busy a fourteen years old student with a discipline that one does not perceive in a clear-cut manner. For the one who wants to understand, well, there is much, much more behind these ‘out-of-this-world’ technologies.

In educational institutions of our modern society, there are all kinds of activities for the purpose of attracting the young ones to the area of Science. Among these actions, there is a certain competition called “Science Talent Search”, which aims to engage students in many topics of this school subject. One of the topics for junior and intermediate students in 2013 is Nanotechnology. The students’ findings were to be presented in a poster form, according to some precise criteria. This exploit would be another attempt to ‘open’ the minds of the young ones to the ‘new’ and ‘great’ achievement of this era. On the other hand, it is to note that the same Western society dumped-down generations of students, so they are not any more capable to do the correct spelling. But the same society made these young ones to believe that they are ‘better’ and ‘smarter’ than their parents and teachers, because they become ‘the most advanced technology’ users.

But what is this very present nanotechnology? Is ‘nanotechnology’ a specific method which deals with microscopic ‘things’ in order to ‘fix’ explicit problems? ‘Nanometre’ signifies one millionth of a millimetre, therefore measuring things of nano size must be something dealing with a virus (about 100 nanometres), or dealing with a gene or even with atomic particles. But what do we know about the order of things, in a hierarchical order? A certain technology always emerges out of a philosophical doctrine, which itself comes out of a spiritual state. It is a little bit like the invention of the airplane, which was not done out of an urgency to travel as quickly as possible to a holy site, or the invention of radio or television which was not done for the sake of transmitting religious events. Let us continue with this subject: why ‘nanotechnology’? What is behind this technology?
Trans-humanism is the ideology behind this meticulous ‘nanotechnology’. We could read the following explanation from Wikipedia: “Trans-humanism (abbreviated as H+ or h+) is an international cultural and intellectual movement with an eventual goal at fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities”. Among other triggers, ‘trans-humanism’ looks to be the strongest link and cause to nanotechnology and students should have been told about the major implications of this ‘great’ achievement of our century, before starting any school project! This partially scientific and partially philosophical matter is passed to students without being explained at all, actually for the sake of a full indoctrination, maybe with the participation of ignorant teachers… The clear objective is the formation of the ‘new’ human being who is to become increasingly separated from own Creator.

It is very interesting that the ‘father’ of Transhumanism is … the Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “Liberty: that is to say, the chance offered to every man (by removing obstacles and placing the appropriate means at his disposal) of ‘trans-humanizing’ himself by developing his potentialities to the fullest extent” (Wikipedia). Strange… Blessed Seraphim Rose wrote extensively about this man and his fallen ideas which led the heretical roman-catholics to accept even the Evolutionary ideology! But this demonic theory is for so many years part of the school curricula…

One must be aware of details embedded into the topic of Nanotechnology. Are year-eight students capable to understand such item and then growing capable to ‘picture’ it? Do students know that there is an idea to create a world with human beings as second-class ‘citizens’ in front of the advanced machines with ‘emotions’, or the idea to achieve ‘infinite’ longevity and transcending own life by molecular manufacturing, gene therapy and inject-able nano-particles ? We can witness different and strange things around: mega-scale engineering, cyborg soldiers and artificial intelligence linked to the so-called mind uploading, in the near future. All these things lead to one single delusional plan: to transform the (fallen!) man into the … Superman!!!

Once upon a time, man was aware of own fallen state, knowing much about reasons behind this, and also knowing that Salvation comes NOT of this deteriorating world, but from Out of this world, through Christ the Redeemer, who was Crucified and then Resurrected and Ascended into Heavens. We have now the Orthodox Church, and the True Believer, that is the one who was baptized in the Church, can make radioactive water as pure as spring water, with the sign of the Cross. The new production “Elysium” – a movie with the premiere in August 2013, deals to a great extent with this type of ‘futuristic’ issue: nanotechnology which can fix anything, if the person is the ‘right’ person… Based on worldly dimensions (nano-measurements being part of this world), any try to fix things around becomes a failure, because the declining life on earth is impossible to repair. Nevertheless, the propaganda is marching on with varieties of all sorts, including ‘great’ innovations like nanotechnology. Even greater improvements are found, explicitly, in their spiritual territory: ‘eternal’ life by mechanics! “Man of Steel”? May God forbid!

No further comment necessary …

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ago4tNZFVm0]

by Archpriest Alexander Rudakov
Published in 1890 in Saint Petersburg

Introductory Concepts

§ 1. Understanding of the Divine Services.

The Divine Services of the Orthodox Church are comprised of all those prayers and sacred rites, through which Orthodox Christians convey to God their feelings of faith, hope and love, and by means of which they approach Him in a mystical communion and by which they receive from Him grace-endowed power to live a holy life. There are particular Divine Services, which are served for one or several persons for some particular reason, and there are communal services which are served for all the peoples of the Church, for the requirements of all those people. The communal services may be further distinguished as those that are constant, which are served for all Christians at the appropriate times, such as: the Liturgy, Vespers, Mattins, etc; and those that are periodic , which are served at the request of, or for the requirements of, the separate members of the Church. These are called Needs, such as: the funeral service, blessing of waters, and so on.

§ 2. The Origin of the Divine Services.

Man began to serve God from the very moment that he recognized Him. And he recognized God even when God appeared to him in Paradise and gave him the commandment not to eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and that of resting on the seventh day, and when He blessed his marital union with Eve. The Divine worship of the first people in Paradise was in no way essentially different from present-day church services, in that it was the free outpouring of their reverent feelings before God. Furthermore, the Divine commandment about the seventh day and the forbidden tree already laid the foundation for the appointed ordinances regarding the Divine services. After the fall of man, a new institution was added, that of offering sacrifice. These were made on all festive occasions, when it was fitting to thank God for the benefactions received from Him, or in order to ask Him for help, or to be merciful for sins that had been committed. The joining of sacrifice with prayers suggested to the people that God could only accept their prayers because of the sacrifice, which indeed in time to come the promised Seed of the woman (see Gen.3:15, i.e.Christ) would offer. During the time of the Patriarchs, from Adam to Moses, when the Church consisted of just one or several families, the Divine services were led by the heads of those families, that is the Patriarchs, where and when they determined. At the time of Moses, however, when the descendents of Israel had become a whole people, the Divine services began to be conducted by persons from among the whole race, and then too their celebration was set in order and was conducted at designated places and times by consecrated persons, and it took on its own form. Jesus Christ, in commanding the Apostles to celebrate the Mysteries instituted by Him, to preach the Gospel to the whole world, and to lead the particular and community prayers, thus laid the foundation of the New Testament Divine services. Its composition and character were more fully determined by the Apostles. Already during their time, as is evident from the book of the Acts of the Apostles, there were special places for the assembly of the faithful, which we now call churches; the Divine services were conducted by Bishops, presbyters and deacons who had been appointed by them through ordination; the day of the Resurrection was the time for the Divine services; the Divine services were made up of prayer, chanting, reading the word of God, preaching and celebration of the Mysteries (sacraments), and particularly the Mysterion of the Eucharist. The final composition of the Christian Divine service was achieved by the successors of the Apostles, in accordance with the precept given them: Let all things be done decently and in order. (1 Cor. 14:40)

… to be continued

1. FISA Courts – There is a secret courts system in US, that operates outside the normal judiciary system, that has powers beyond belief
2. Richard Clarke: Hastings Accident “Consistent with a Car Cyber Attack”
3. Bank of International Settlements (The Central Bank of Central Banks) issues fresh global bank crisis alert
4. Ever wondered how all those lap dogs in Congress are so impotent to do anything to stop what is coming? NSA has been blackmailing Supreme Court judges, members of Congress and more …

If just a few years ago things like this would had happened in the west it would had been considered unimaginable. How much things have changed! The entire West is on the verge of falling under the most brutal communist regime the world has ever seen. Watch what is currently happening in Australia:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhRJPZxeTlw]

Of course this is not an isolated incident, but it is an effort that can be observed throughout the entire western world.

http://www.naturalnews.com/039652_USDA_agriculture_census_government_surveillance.html

The devil is doing everything it can to ensure nobody will stand a chance, nobody gets prepared. Every saved soul is a victory against the gates of hell that the devil cannot stand, cannot endure. Watch what happened in Romania, just last week, to a possessed person during the funeral of Fr Iustin Parvu, which testifies again for the Holiness of this Great Saint. The person can be seen screaming: “he is a Saint, he is a Saint”!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYc5DvWR3A0]

The bail-in of troubled banks in the Eurozone is now in effect after the finance ministers agreed to adopting the measures over the weekend. This now ensures that what happened in Cyprus is the norm when it comes to future financial bailouts, and effectively ensures that now the entire western world is ready for the final collapse.

From BBC:

The terms now agreed by finance ministers will still leave individual national governments on the hook for much of the risk of future bank rescues. In addition, the bank’s shareholders, bondholders, lenders and even large depositors, may also have to contribute ahead of any funds from the ESM, a process known as a bail-in.

And in other news we learn that UK and China have just signed a direct currency swap agreement putting another nail the US dollar’s coffin.

PREPARE !

In what could be an encouraging sign, it appears the Obama administration is interested about finding out more about true Orthodoxy by following our orthodoxaustralia.org blog.

Over the last 2 days we had visitors to our blog from unexpected places like South Africa (4 visits yesterday on June 22nd), and 2 visits today from Tanzania, 2 of the few countries Obama is currently visiting in Africa.

This of course could be just a coincidence, but if it happens to be the case, we hope the information posted here is of real help to the administration in understanding the world events from an Orthodox point of view.

It is worth mentioning we have never had any visitors from the African continent before and we are therefore glad to see the message of Orthodoxy we are trying to convey is reaching such remote parts of the world.