“And Jesus
answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall
come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew, 24:4-5).
“And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there;
believe him not: For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall
shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. But
take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things” (Mark, 13:21-23).
While reading these
lines we unwillingly start to analyze and think of some events happening in the
world and the Church, as well as to estimate our own role in these events.
The topic of the end of times was sharp and vital during the whole history
of Christianity. Apostles were waiting for the Second Coming of Christ, Saint
John the Chrysostom was sure he would eyewitness the end of the world and so
on. In each new era people are waiting for their Messiah and their anti-Christ,
but nothing happens.
Perhaps, we
should change our attitude to these words and think, of what Christ is warning us right now, regardless of time and era. While mulling it over, we may recall a
story written by a well-known philosopher of the 20th
century. Thanks to this story we can better conceive Christ and Christianity in
general. It is “The Story
about anti-Christ” by Vladimir Solovyev, which is included in his book “Three Conversations”.
It will be useful if we recall shortly the plot of this story, so that the artistic fantasy of the author can let us live
through the events described in the story.
Here is a short synopsis of the story: The anti-Christ
is depicted as a superhuman, who united all the states of the world into a
complete kingdom and became its emperor. He was preaching peace, freedom, humanity
and compromise for all the competing sides in order to organize the universal order and
Utopian stability. He would certainly manage to do this, if there was no
Christian Churches left. Unfortunately, they went through some deformations. The Orthodox
Christians joined together with the Old Believers and several cults. Their
spiritual leader was Elder John, a prototype of Saint John the Evangelist. The
Catholic Church lost its former power, the papacy has undergone several
transformations, and the Pope’s power was no more limitless. Peter II became
their leader. The third Church was the Anglican Church, which united
the whole protestant world and which was led by Professor Pauli.
These Churches
were the shards of the former Christian world, but they were strong enough to
interfere with the emperor’s plans, as the clergy preached about the end of the
world and coming of anti-Christ. To solve the conflict, anti-Christ gathered
the 8th Ecumenical council, and the representatives of all the
Churches came to take part in it. At the beginning of the solemn meeting
anti-Christ delivered his opening speech in which he insisted that all the
Christians should unite, and showed that he was ready to satisfy any interests
of each side, if they would acknowledge him as the new lord of the world. He
addressed the Christians: “Say what you cherish most in Christianity and I will
give this to you!” No answer followed his address, and then he began to offer
the terms of the deal himself. He started with the Catholics, offering them to
restore the Pope’s lost authority with all its benefits. Those who agreed had to raise the tribune where anti-Christ was standing. Then the majority of the Catholics stood up from their places and joined anti-Christ. Only Pope
Peter II remained on his place with a small group of believers.
Then
anti-Christ addressed the Orthodox Christians. He promised to foster the
study of the ancient Orthodox traditions, which were so vital to them, and to
open in Constantinople the center, specializing on studying and preserving of
the Church monuments and artifacts. What is more, he promised to order the life
of the Church according to the ancient canons and traditions. Then the largest
part of the Western hierarchy with their monks and laity went to anti-Christ.
Elder John rejected to take that offer and remained on his place. When the
crowd near him thinned, they joined the other group and Pope Peter II.
In conclusion
anti-Christ made a proposal to the Anglican Church. He drew the attention of
the representatives to the possibility of free study of the Holy Scripture.
That is why he promised them to organize a Bible Study and Analysis Museum,
which would deal with comprehensive study of the Bible. And again the majority
of theologians and laity joined anti-Christ on his tribune, while Professor
Pauli and a few believers joined Pope Peter II and Elder John. Then anti-Christ
asked them: “What do you want then? Why do you not acknowledge me as your lord and
patron?” Elder John answered him: “Dear ruler! What we cherish most in Christianity
is Christ Himself, as we know that everything comes from Him and He is the
essence of corporal Divinity. That is why all we need is that you accept Jesus Christ
as the true Lord”. After he said that, the anti-Christ’s face distorted and his
true self revealed.
This is not the
end of the story, but this episode seems to be the main one. The author managed
to demonstrate how the devil tempts people with something what is important for
them in Christianity. All these things are important, but secondary. They displace
Christ in people’s minds.
Thanks to this “proverb” one can begin to understand the dangers we are in. The things which seem to be the essence of Christianity, canin fact be a substitution for Christ. This is an important moment. We
should always keep this in our mind and analyze our spiritual condition. We
should remember that all our deeds should be in Christ’s honor, we should strive
to find Christ, and not waste our life for some false values.
It is quite
easy to lose Christ, because there is always a possibility
of fanaticism. A person can engage in the everyday side of Church life, or lose
oneself in Church science, or revere blindly the hierarchy and clergy.
Sometimes this is hard to be noticed, but in fact Christ is removed or is forgotten while the person indulges in all other aspects.
Now is the time
we should preserve ourselves from such mistakes. God tells us about this
Himself. Of course we should not reject any of the elements of Christian
life, but it is important to order our priorities and not to confuse the
methods of achieving our goal, with the goal itself. There is only one main goal
for us – Christ.
An article by Alexei Miller
An article by Alexei Miller
CONVERSATION