Avoiding Antichrist

Forum discussions about how Christians should respond to social and political pressures to comform with the norms and values of modern society that are fundamentally antichristian led to the unresolved question:

What Can Be Done?

Antichrist will come! Nothing can be done in Heaven and on Earth to stop him coming. So do we resign ourselves to that fact and live life on the basis that we can do nothing about it, thereby justifying political pacifism? Even though we cannot prevent antichrist’s eventual appearance, we can certainly affect the timing of that event.

However, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the struggle. Just to get a feel of how far the world has drifted from God, and hence towards antichrist, the cost of the Iraq war is $100 billion per annum [quoted by former president of the World Bank on ABC TV, Lateline, 24 Nov 2006]; the number of civilian deaths since the US invasion has reached 650,000 (conveniently referred to as collateral damage) and climbing at the rate of thousands per month. The Washington Post [24 Nov 2006] wrote:

A report Wednesday by the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq said the number of Iraqi civilians killed in October reached 3,709, a monthly high.

The U.N.'s High Commissioner for Refugees said earlier this month that up to 2,000 Iraqis a day are going to Syria and an additional 1,000 a day to Jordan. Overall, the High Commissioner estimates that since the war began in March 2003, 1.6 million Iraqis have been displaced internally and up to 1.8 million are living outside the country.

Confronted with such figures (which are a miniscule example of a far greater reality), and realising that they reflect corrupt political regimes, giant industrial and financial corporations, international power brokers and criminal organisations, one can be excused for not even bothering to struggle with the ‘system,’ thinking: what’s the point; I may as well bang my head against the brick wall. So for the sake of my own sanity, and internal peace, I will simply ignore the unpleasant news and focus on those things that interest me – so the logic goes.

Antichrist’s forerunners may have formed powerful partnerships, but it so happens that our partnership cannot be matched – we have God, and through Him we can achieve a great deal. It is for this reason that the miserable demons want to discourage us from participating in the struggle. What can we do? From the spiritual perspective, Elder Porphyrios gives us a clue [ref: Wounded by Love] he states:

Man has such powers that he can transmit good or evil to his environment. These matters are very delicate. Great care is needed. We need to see everything in a positive frame of mind. We mustn’t think anything evil about others. Even a simple glance or a sigh influences those around us. And even the slightest anger or indignation does harm. We need to have goodness and love in our soul and to transmit these things.

The noise of our soul is transmitted mysteriously and affects the other, even if we don’t say a word. Even without speaking we can transmit good or evil, irrespective of the distance which separates us from our neighbour. What is not expressed generally has greater power than words.

We can also do much in our day to day actions. The important thing is not to do nothing (this is not a complicated double negative).

Just like in times of conventional warfare, where Christians are obliged to defend their country and their faith, even if that means taking lives of others and sacrificing their own, even more so are we obliged to fight antichrist. Conventional warfare is justified when defending one’s country and church. In the war against antichrist we are fighting (jointly with Heaven) for the whole world and for all future generations till the end of time. As such we do not have the luxury of choosing only those battles that suit our personal comfort zone, and ignoring issues that do not interest us, or are emotionally inconvenient. Christianity happens to be one continuous battle from cradle to grave, fought on multiple fronts and with multiple foes. The Lord Himself tells us [Matt 10:34-38]:

34 - Think not that I came to send peace on the earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

35 - For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law:

36 - and a man's foes (shall be) they of his own household.

Christians must make a choice: do they follow Christ into battle, or do they reject Him in preference for the easier, less demanding path trodden by the faint-hearted and the materialists. Choosing the easy route has a high price tag.

37 - He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

38 - And he that doth not take his cross and follow after me, is not worthy of me.

How Do We Follow Christ?

The following is a brief summary of some suggestions made during forum discussions by B.O.G. members.

- G20 summit may look at making poverty history next time it meets
- Serve moleben asking God to send us rain
- We need holy people in the world to make it better, or at least people who are willing to try to progress spiritually
- The best way to help others is through prayer
- Sponsor a child
- Indifferent acceptance of bad things is really akin to some kind of participation of same; so the only possible change that is logical for us to consider is change in ourselves, not change in society
- Writing letters to politicians, companies with unethical dealings (and other miscreants), although responses, if any, are preconceived, bland and disinterested

As one would expect, every one of these comments is valid and correct, yet something is missing. These prescriptions lack totality or completeness; or they are too broad for practical applicability. For example, no one could ever argue that the best way to help others is through prayer, but how do you define and quantify this in a meaningful way, since prayer is something that Orthodox Christians already do on a daily basis?

Doing specific good deeds, such as sponsoring a child, or serving a moleben, or writing letters are, without question, excellent things in their own right, but essentially they are one off events, whereas the struggle, as mentioned above is continuous. So the change must be within ourselves. What change are we talking about? In a word: KNOWLEDGE.

In this era, more than at any other time in history, we must be aware of what the enemy is doing. This has actually been standard Orthodox practice for the past two thousand years; the holy fathers studied, for example, comparative theology and apologetics, as well as participating in spiritual warfare. Now that we have entered the post-Christian pre-antichrist epoch, it is a non-negotiable requirement that we, as soldiers of Christ, be alert to the dangers and threats to ourselves, to our children, and to subsequent generations. The comment listed above, that: “indifferent acceptance of bad things is really akin to some kind of participation of same,” is absolutely correct.

Whether we like it or not, our children will be subjected to non-Orthodox modes of thinking at each stage of their life from the moment they enter primary school. If parents are not able to counter the threat posed by modern society by providing appropriate answers and guidance, they will see their children spiral into oblivion.

In practical terms, it is by no means imperative that we become experts in all forms of anti-Orthodox terrorism. That is not expected from us, nor could we do that if we tried. However, we can have a good idea of what is going on, both on the home front, and internationally, with not too much effort or disruption to our normal routine. Watching current affairs on commercial television is worse that a waste of time; but SBS TV has documentary programs that are worth seeing. Likewise programs such as Lateline on ABC TV often raise issues that we cannot be oblivious to.

One of the benefits of our own Home Page is that it contains a wide variety of material that we can read at our own pace and thereby be informed reasonably in-depth without the need to do our own time-consuming research.

In a nutshell, it is vital that we do two things, broadly speaking:

i - Have a quality spiritual life (emphasis here is not on quantity)

ii – Have a disciplined approach to seeking knowledge (eg scan the weekly TV program guide to identify in advance what is worth seeing). Reading is the best source of information – it also contributes to development of the mind and brain function, more than other forms of sensory input. If you do not understand something, ask. Do NOT say, I will ignore something merely because it does not interest me (typically politics scores highly here), because in so doing, you can be literally contributing to the downfall of God’s society, as described by Elder Porphyrios. Silence on immoral and anti-Christian issues will be taken as your seal of approval.

Once we have a general understanding of potential threats to our Christian way of life (and this understanding is kept up to date), then we can implement specific responses, as and when required.

Orthodox Life

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