PROPHECIES OF REVELATION 3

PROPHECIES OF REVELATION 3

The Beast Coming From the Sea

“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 . . . and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his wounds as it were wounded to death; and his fatal wound was healed and all the world wondered after the beast.

And they adored the dragon who gave authority unto the beast. And they adored the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given to him a mouth to speak blasphemes and to continue forty and two months. 

And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given to him to make war against the saints and to overcome them, and authority was given to him over all kindred and languages and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall adore him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that lead into captivity shall go into captivity; he that kills with the sword must be killed by the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints” Rev. 13: 1-10).

  The beast described herein was Islam established by Mohammed in 622 AD.,  which in 1299 formed the Ottoman state and in1453 conquered Constantinople, ending the thousand year era of the Byzantine Empire. There are only two entities which continually wage war against the Orthodox Church of Christ, one is Islam and the other is the Papacy, described in Revelation. Orthodoxy is the woman clothed with the sun, the beast rising from the sea is Islam, and the beast rising from the earth is the papacy.

This beast has seven initiated its war against the Church with the first head, with the sacking of Jerusalem by its caliphates and ended it when the seventh head  sacked Constantinople.  It blasphemes the Lord demoting him to be one of the prophets, while he himself, Mohammed, claims to be the last and greatest of all the prophets. He reduces Christ to be a simple prophet, even though He is both God and man, and elevates himself to be greater than Christ the Godman, as the last and greatest of the Prophets.

The first caliphate of the beast sacked the city of Jerusalem. This caliphate was founded in Arabia by Mohammed founder of the new religion which attacked Jesus Christ the Godman, the religion of Christ and of the Gospel. Mohammed’s work goes back to 622 AD.

PROPHECIES OF REVELATION 2

PROPHECIES OF REVELATION 2

The Holy Orthodox Church is identified in the Book of Revelation as “the woman clothed with the sun” and she is shown to be pregnant and ready to give birth to her Son. The Devil called the dragon, seeks through his agents, the many heretics, to devour her son when he is born, or dogmatized by the Church, he seeks to destroy the important and divinely inspired true dogmas. The weapons used by the dragon are deception, lies and half-truths, being  the tools by which heretics attack seek to distort and thus destroy truth. 

“And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. He was cast out onto the earth and his angels with him. . .  and when the dragon saw that he was cast out to the earth, he persecuted the woman who had given birth to a man child . . . and the serpent cast out of his mouth water that he might cause her to be carried away and swallowed up by the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.”

What is the water that the serpent casts out of his mouth as a river after the woman?  It is the only thing that can come out of his mouth, falsehood, calumny and malevolence. During the heretical attacks of the iconoclasts the Devil’s agents cast insults against icons and branded their adoration as being idolatry.   

The woman clothed with the sun was given two wings of a great eagle to enable her to rise up and away from the attacks of the evil one. Satan soon found out that there was nothing he could do to the woman because of the two great wings, with which she continually evaded him. He cast out of his mouth water which falsehood and distortions in order to destroy truth.  But what was the great eagle and what was the nature of the two wings? The two wings of the great eagle are prayer and fasting and study of the word of God. The Church, during the period of great dragon’s authority, worshiped God in the wilderness in monasteries through prayer and fasting, and they looked forward to the future kingdom of God spurning the temporal and transient things enjoyed by men of authority and wealth and especially by those reigning with the Antichrist.     

Revelation depicts a battle between the evil one and the Church, during the period when it was doing battle with the Devil’s heretics by establishing firm and true dogmas which are held by Orthodoxy until this day.

PROPHECIES OF ABBA AMBO

PROPHECIES OF ABBA AMBO

Speaking to one of his disciples

     An Egyptian ascetic on the Neutron mountain, Abba Ambo, was a contemporary of St. Anthony the Great and was himself great in monastic asceticism.  Born about AD 303, he was one of the first to join Amoun in Nitria. He was illiterate until he was taught the Scriptures as a monk and ordained a Priest in 340. He had two characteristics by which he was especially known; by long training, he sealed his lips, so that no unnecessary word passed through them, and he never ate any bread other than that which he gained by his own labor, plaiting rushes. He was living like an angel of God and, in old age, his face shone as did the face of Moses in ancient times, so that the monks could not look upon it. He did not give a quick answer even to a simple question, without prayer and pondering in his heart.

     This wonderful Saint had clear discernment into the destiny of the living and the dead.  He entered reward in the Lord in the year 374.

      He said to his disciple: I will tell you this, my child, that the days will come when the Christians will add to and will take away, and will alter the books of the Holy Evangelists, and of the Holy Apostles, and of the Divine Prophets, and of the Holy Fathers.  They’ll tone down the Holy Scriptures and will compose troparia, hymns, and writings technologically.  Their minds will be spilled among them, and they will become alienated from its Heavenly Prototype.  For this reason the Holy Father previously encouraged the monks of the desert to write down the lives of the Fathers not onto parchment, but onto paper, because the coming generation will change them to suit their own personal tastes. So you see. The evil that comes will be terrible.

       Then the disciple said: So then, Geronda, the traditions are going to be changed and the practices of Christians?  Maybe there won’t exist enough   priests in the Church when these unfortunate times come?

And the father continued: In those times the love for God in most souls will grow cold and a great sadness will fall onto the world.  One nation shall face-off against another.  People will move away from their own places. Rulers will be confused. The clergy will be thrown into anarchy, and the monks will be inclined to negligence. The Church leaders will consider useless anything concerned with salvation, as much for their own souls as for the souls of their flocks, and they will despise any such concern.  All will show eagerness and energy for every matter regarding their dining table and their appetites.   They will be lazy in their prayers and casual in their criticisms. 

     As for the lives and teachings of the Holy Fathers, they’ll not have any interest to imitate them, nor even to hear them.   But rather they will complain and say that “if we had lived in those times, we’d have behaved like that.” And the bishops shall give way to the powerful in this world, giving answers on different matters only after taking gifts from everywhere and consulting the rational logic of the academics.  The poor man’s rights will not be defended, they’ll afflict widows, and harass orphans. Debauchery will permeate these people.  Most will not believe in God, they’ll hate each other and devour one another like beasts.  The one will steal from the other, they’ll be drunk and will walk about as blind.

The disciple again asked: What can we do, in such a state?

     And Elder AMBO answered: My child, in these time whoever will save his soul and prompt others to be saved will be called great in the Kingdom of heaven.

CHRISTMAS 2015

CHRISTMAS 2015

Christ is born!  Glorify Him!

Christ is on earth! Be exalted!

     Each year we joyfully celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary. The celebration is not simply a commemoration of His birth but is even much more beautiful than this.   His birth of the Virgin Mary without seed is of great importance for through His birth He   was in the process of accomplishing our salvation. No other birth could accomplish what His birth did. For by his Virgin birth, He, being God himself was now in the flesh starting a real battle against our enemy the Devil and the dominion of death. He accomplished this of course and on every Pascha we sing this beautiful hymn: “Christ is risen from the dead trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!” Christ having conquered our enemies did not abandon us and return to heaven, because He is God and is everywhere present at all times, and his battle with evil directly concerns each and every one of us. Yes, He ascended into heaven but not by leaving earth, for He also said: I am with you to the close of the age, until the end of time. 

     Jesus not leaving earth, guides His faithful co-workers and helps them to bring into His holy Church all who desire to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth and how to share in eternal life. And we remember that He is the God man, both God and man and is therefore without limitations ore any form of restriction. We must understand that there are no restrictions in the work of God except those put forth by misled free persons.  Also the fact that God will not force a free person to accept and follow Him against their will. But that constitutes a limitation of the free person and it was God who willingly gives freedom to whom He so wills.