Preface
It was God's mercy to make us
witnesses of a major historical moment when, after a 70-year yoke, without any
war or insurrection, the godless atheistic regime in Russia suddenly collapsed!
The many horrors of communism, its sudden end, and the subsequent spiritual
revival in Russia were predicted by several of the last elders of the Optina monastery
and by other righteous men of pre-Revolutionary Russia. (The Elder Anatoly
(Potapov, 1922), the monk-priest Aristokly of Moscow (1918), the Elder Alexis
(Zasimovsky), the Elder Nektary, and others. Another important detail in the
predictions of these Elders is that these events in Russia were to occur close
to the end of the world, although they did not specify any exact time frame for
these events. Nevertheless, many current world processes such as the
overpopulation of our planet, the catastrophic pollution of the environment,
the depletion of the earth's resources, and the fulfillment of many prophecies
of Holy Scripture hint that the last days of our world may truly be not so far
away.
About two thousand years ago, when our Lord Jesus Christ cast out evil
spirits, they often cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus the Son
of God? You came ahead of time to torment us!" Amazingly, nowadays during
attempts at exorcism, the evil spirits cry out quite different words, like,
"Leave us, for the Lord is coming soon anyway!" This hints at the
fact that they know about the end of the world better than we do! (We find a
reference to this by Dr. Kurt Koch, a Protestant scholar who wrote several
important books in the area of demonology, parapsychology and false miracles.
See, for example, his books Between Christ and Satan, Occult Bondage
and Deliverance, Demonology Past and Present. Kregel Publications,
Grand Rapids, Michigan.
In this article we will speak about the main characteristics of the approach
of the end of the world and some features of the Antichrist's personality, and
we will describe the Second Coming of Christ, the Resurrection of the Dead, the
Last (or Universal) Judgment and eternal life, as taught in the Scriptures. In
the conclusion we will stress the importance of being prepared to meet the
Lord. In the supplement we will show the inconsistency of the sectarian
teaching known as Chiliasm about the thousand-year kingdom.
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