Apocalypse. Interpretation of the XXI century

The Church has been persecuted by the Red Dragon, Satan, from its inception. However, up until a certain time, he is held back; the Lord does not allow too much evil to happen, but…

…the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [Katechon] will let, until he be taken out of the way (2 Thess 2:7).

Katechon or The One who is holding back (2 Thess 2:7) refers to Michael the Archangel who is protecting the earth from evil spirits, demons.

With regard to the war between angels and demons unfolding in the air, there is a prophecy of Daniel, to whom the angel said:

Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia. Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days (Dan 10:12—14).

Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come. But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince (Dan 10:20—21).

After the establishment of the Christian monarchy, the Orthodox Christian monarch was assigned the status of the earthly incarnation of the “one who holds back”. About the same time, the belief in the coming of the Antichrist after the fall the Roman Empire became widespread.

St. John Chrysostom:

When the Roman state falls, he [the Antichrist] will come. And it makes perfect sense. As long as people fear the Roman state, no one will be quick to bow down before the Antichrist; but after its collapse, anarchy will ensue, and the Antichrist will seize all power – both human and divine.

Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem:

The predicted coming of the Antichrist will take place when the times of the Roman kingdom are over, and the end of the world draws near.

Elder Filofei in a letter to Pskov’s dyak Munekhin Misura:

…All the Christian kingdoms came to an end and are now gathered together under the one indivisible kingdom of our sovereign ruler, according to the prophetic books. This is the Russian kingdom: for the first two Romes fell, the third stands, and the fourth shall never be… All the Christian kingdoms are full of infidels, and only the kingdom of our sovereign ruler stands by the grace of Christ…

Sergei Nilus:

Hold on to the grace of the Holy Spirit (the One who holds back). Inextricably connected to it is the grace of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, bestowed upon the Orthodox sovereign in the ceremony of holy coronation. Hence, when faith in God is lost, the Holy Spirit departs from the godless and takes away from them the sovereign power of the tsar.

Friedrich Engels:

No revolution in Europe and in the whole world will succeed as long as the Russian state exists as it is today.

The doctrine of the One who is holding the Antichrist back is closely connected to the prophecy of Armageddon in the Apocalypse:

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared… And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great (Rev 16:12, 16—18).

Armageddon means “the battle of Megiddo”. This is an allusion to the battle between the Egyptian pharaoh Necho and King Josiah:

After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him. But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not. Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded. His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations (2 Chron 35:20—25; compare 1 Esd 1:25—32 [2 Ezra 1:25—32 rus]; 2 Kings 23:28—30).

Soon after the battle of Megiddo, the Jewish people were captured by the Babylonian army.

The symbolic significance of this battle is that it foreshadows the death of the righteous king, the One who holds back, which is the first step in the onslaught of the powers of darkness. In other words, the battle of Megiddo prophetically points to the death of the last Orthodox Christian monarch, the Russian Emperor Nicholas II.

In 1914, Russia entered the First World War. The consequences of this political decision were dire. The military operations extended over a long time and caused an economic crisis. Those who were hostile towards the Christian empire seized the opportunity to conspire against the emperor. In 1917, Nicholas II was dethroned, and in 1918, he and his whole family were executed by the Bolsheviks. The removal of the One who holds back opened the door for the iniquities of the Red Dragon.

The execution of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II was carried out without a trial or any legal grounds. That’s why in its symbolic significance it runs parallel to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ:

And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon (Zech 12:10—11).

When Jesus was crucified on the cross, and everything predicted in the ancient prophecies was fulfilled, he cried at the last moment: “It is finished!” (Jn 19:30; compare Jn 19:28; Jdt 9:5, 16:14). In the same way, after Armageddon, at the pouring of the seventh bowl, there came a loud voice from the temple of heaven as if from the throne, saying: “It is done!” (Rev 16:17; compare Rev 21:6).

Excursus 2:3. The Russian Apocalypse

At the beginning of the 20th century, the text referred to as “The Vision of John of Kronstadt” or “The Russian Apocalypse” was circulated in Russia.

God, grant me your blessing! I am a sinful slave John, the priest of Kronstadt, writing down this vision. What I have written with my own hand is what I saw, and I have conveyed it in writing.

On the night of January 1, 1908, after the evening prayer, I reclined at the table to rest a while. It was almost dark in my cell; there was a lamp burning in front of the icon of the Mother of God. In less than half an hour I heard some noise; someone touched my right shoulder, and a quiet, gentle, tender voice said to me: “Rise up, John, the servant of God, follow me”. I quickly rose to my feet.

There was a wondrous old man before me, pale, gray-haired, robed in a mantle, with a rosary in his left hand. He looked at me sternly, but his eyes were gentle and kind. I almost fell prostrate out of fear, but the old man supported me – my hands and feet were trembling, and I wanted to say something, but my tongue would not move. The man crossed me, and I immediately felt at ease and full of joy. I also crossed myself. Then, he pointed with his staff to the western side of the wall and drew something on it using that same staff: 1913, 1914, 1917, 1922, 1930, 1933, 1934. Suddenly, the wall disappeared. Now I am walking with this man across a green field, seeing a great number of crosses: thousands, millions, and they are different – small and big, made of wood, stone, iron, copper, silver, and gold. As I walked by the crosses, I crossed myself, and dared to ask the wondrous elder what these crosses were. He answered kindly, “They are those who suffered for the sake of Christ and the Word of God”.

As we go on I see rivers of blood flowing into the sea, and the sea is red with blood. I was stricken with fear and asked the old man again, “Why is there so much blood?” He looked at me again and said, “This is the blood of Christians”.

Then he pointed to the clouds, and I saw many lamps burning brightly. They began falling to the ground – one, two, three, five, ten, twenty. Then hundreds began to fall, more and more, and each was still burning. I was very sad when I saw them not burning brightly but falling down and immediately dying out, turning into dust and ashes. The old man said, “Look”. And I then saw only seven lamps in the clouds and asked the man: “What is the meaning of this?” He bowed his head and said, “The falling lamps you see are the churches that will fall into heresy; and the seven burning lamps are those seven Apostolic Orthodox Churches that will endure to the end of the age”.

Then, the elder said to me, “Watch”. And lo, I see and hear a wondrous sign. The angels sang: “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts”. And there was a great multitude of people walking with candles in their hands, having joyful and radiant faces; they were kings, princes, patriarchs, metropolitans, bishops, archimandrites, hegumen, schemamonks, priests, deacons, catechumens, wanderers for Christ’s sake, lay people, lads, young men, babies. The cherubim and seraphim were accompanying them to their heavenly abode. I asked the elder, “Who are these people?” He answered as if he knew my thoughts, “They are the servants of Christ who suffered for the Holy Orthodox Apostolic Church of our Lord”. Again I dared to ask, “May I join them?” The old man replied, “No, it’s too early for you, be patient”. Again I asked, “Tell me, father, what about the babies?” The old man replied, “They are those who have also suffered for Christ at the hand of King Herod, and those babies who received their crowns from the King of Heaven for being exterminated in the wombs of their mothers, unnamed”. I crossed myself, “What a great and terrible sin this mother will bear – unforgivable”.

As we continued on our way, we saw a big temple. Entering inside, I wanted to cross myself but the elder said to me, “This is the abomination of desolation”. I saw a very dark and shadowy temple with a dark and gloomy altar. There was no iconostasis in the midst of it. Instead of icons, there were strange-looking portraits with bestial faces and sharp hoods, and there was no cross on the altar but a big star and a Gospel, marked with a star. There were resin candles burning, crackling like firewood. And there was a cup with a strong stench coming out of it. All kinds of reptiles, toads, scorpions, spiders were crawling out of it, horrible to look at. The prosphora was also marked with a star. There was a priest in front of the altar in a bright red robe, and green toads and spiders are crawling up and down it. His face was terrible to look at and black as coal, his eyes were red, and the smoke comes out of his mouth. His fingers were black as if covered with soot.

Oh Lord, I am terrified at this sight! An ugly-looking, filthy, deformed black woman jumped onto the altar, all in red, with a star on her forehead. She started spinning around the altar, then hooted like a night owl to the whole church in an awful voice, “Freedom!” Then she stopped, and all the people, as if caught up in a frenzy, began to run around the altar, rejoicing, shouting, whistling, and clapping their hands. Then they began singing a song, first quietly, then louder and louder, howling like dogs, and, finally, their voices turned into a beastly growl and then to a roar. A bolt of sudden bright lightning flashed across the temple, and there was a deafening thunderbolt; the earth shook, the temple collapsed, and the earth swallowed it up. The altar, the priest, the red woman all plummeted into the abyss in one great heap. “Have mercy on me, Lord! So scary!” I crossed myself. There was a cold sweat on my forehead. I looked around, and the elder smiled. “Have you seen all that?” he asked me. “Yes, Father. Tell me what it means. It was so scary and terrible”. The man answered, “The temple, the priests, and the people are the heretics, the apostates, the atheists who rejected the faith and the Holy Orthodox Apostolic Church and have accepted the heretical renovationist church which has no grace of God. One should not fast, go to confession, take Communion, or receive anointing in this church”. “Lord, save me, a sinner, and grant me the due repentance – a Christian death”, I whispered, but the elder reassured me by saying, “Do not be troubled, pray to God”.

We went on. Then I saw a multitude of people, terribly exhausted, each with a star on his forehead. When they saw us, they cried, “Pray for us, o holy fathers, for we are in great anguish and cannot pray. Our fathers and mothers did not teach us the law of God, and we haven’t been given a Christian name. We have not received the seal of the Holy Spirit”.

I wept and followed the elder. “Look”, the old man said and pointed with his hand, “Do you see?” “I see mountains”. “No, this is a pile of human corpses soaked in blood”. I crossed myself and asked the man: “What does this mean? What are these corpses?” “They are the monks and nuns, wanderers and pilgrims for the sake of the Holy, Orthodox, and Apostolic Church who were put to death, and yet did not accept the seal of the Antichrist, but would rather suffer martyrdom for Jesus”. I prayed, “Save us, oh Lord, and have mercy on the servants of God and all the Christians”. But suddenly the old man turned to the north and raised his hand, “Look”. I looked and I saw: the royal palace was surrounded by all kinds of animals and beasts of various sizes, reptiles, dragons, all hissing, roaring and crawling inside, and some had already clambered on the throne of the Anointed One, Nicholas II. His face was pale but resolute as he was praying the Jesus prayer. Suddenly the throne shook, and the crown fell off of his brow. The beasts roared and raged as they jumped on the Anointed One. They tore him to pieces, trampled him underfoot like demons of hell, and then the vision disappeared.