Will the End of the World come in 2012 the
Orthodox Christian perspective
Nowdays, there is a lot of talk and discussions about the end of
the world.
The fear of the
End of the World in year 2012 is highly
proclaimed,
ancient mayan false "prophecies" are highly
buzzed about.
Many people are more interested into the of the world, as many of
the signs of the end times has been fulfilled.
Many people are turning back into occult and pagan beliefs to look
up for prophecies to backup their thesis of the mayan
prophecies.
A mess of false prophecies from different religions are usually
mixed in order to proof to ourselves that the end of the world is
at hand.
A number of apocalyptic movies has been produced until in the
making industries as the more the time is close to year to 2012 the
more sci-fi and all kind of movies on the apocalyptic theme are
being produced.
Many people live in a constant fear that they're gonna die in 2012
and start living even more irresponsible than before, asserting
that there is no reason to do anything valuable now as the world's
end is near.
I myself some few years ago have been among this
blind "false
prophets" and has confessed the same destructive
philosophy.
Yes it's true that the Apocalypsis is approaching and has been
approaching since the last 2011 years that passed since our Lord
Jesus Christ's birth on earth.
What is erronemous is the mistake that, we should live in fear
about the end and we should do belief like the pagans in their
shaky wrong beliefs based more on superstitiousness than on
prophetic facts or signs of the time.
Even a plenty of music bands Protestant Christian bands like
Saviour Machine are writting lyrics on the topic of the End
Times, spreading fear unto some degree even among Christian Metal
heads.
The situation outside the realm of the Christian secularity is even
worser, I've heard a whole bunch of people especially in (USA) are
preparing food and provisions to survive great cataclysm that they
say is expected to come over the earth.
You can judge how insane is that! The end of the world as my
spiritual father has told me some long time ago could be
individually for us in every further minute.
If I as an individual die then I will experience the end of the
world and when I will die is in God's hands, so there is no point
to worry about where the all world will end, if there is a high
probability that my personal end could occur every single
minute.
It's sad that the consequences of such an panical beliefs about
"the evils that are about to come on the world" are being falsely
interpreted among Christians, this kind of tendency is also spread
this days even among some practicing Orthodox Christians.
At many times studying of the Holy Bible
"Book of the
Apolapysis" are soul and mind destructive.
It's a well known fact that in the past the book of Apocalypsis has
been officially included in the Holy Bible, somewhere nearby the
5th century.
The reasons the holy church fathers decided to place
the book of
revelation in the bible so late is that, many of the things
written are hard to understand and can lead novice Christian astray
from the
true essence of our faith which is love for God and
love for the neighbor
Very pitily even I as an Orthodox Christians have suffered the
great consequences of attempting to interpret the prophecies among
the end of the world.
Therefore I found interesting that I share in this article what is
the position of the Orthodox Church on the Apocalypsis or the so
called End Times
First it should be said that Orthodox Christians positions is
mostly based on factological information and prophetic saying by
the Holy Fatherswhich by itself require a spiritual father to
interpret them properly.
In the Orthodox Church we're expecting the End Times, since the
beginning of the one Holy and Apostolic Church. However the
Apocalypsis is never being perceived as something that we should
concentrate about but as an information that it's good to have a
general awareness of in order to have understanding in the
spiritual times we're living and how close we're to the Second
coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
The Orthodox Christian belief on Apocalypsis is completely opposite
to the worldly belief which plants panic and fear in people's mind
and souls.
We belief that drawing near to the End Times, we're drawing near to
our second coming of our Lord and hence near to our eternal
Salvation therefore the end days to come are not to be a concern of
fear but on a contrary, they should accepted with humility and joy
that we're drawing near to our eternal salvation.
As a part of the topic of the End of the World, it's very common
nowdays in Christian and Non-Christian (heretical) groups (Mormons,
Jehova's Witnesses) to talk about the expected AntiChrist and to
propagate fear in their deceived deciples.
These heretical groups has the wrong idea that starts with the
definition of
AntiChrist in that groups they belief
AntiChrist means Against Christ, which is not very proper
definition of the word.
The Orthodox Christian understanding about the AntiChrist word
is Instead of Christ
Therefore the true meaning of AntiChrist in the original church was
always perceived as
Instead of Christ and not literally
Against Christ.
Instead of Christ means, a substitute for Christ. Now if we think
deeply in the modern world we have a bunch of substitute of Christ
in the form of passions we have, disbelief inattendance of the
Holy Liturgy - the Ancient Church service in our Orthodox
Church.
In the number of Instead of Christ are a false belief to all kind
of transcendental philosophies buddhism, reincarnation, hinduism,
muslim beliefs, cult to public perons like let's say Madonna or
Marilyn Manson etc. etc.
If we as Christians have an example person for our life instead of
having our saviour Jesus Christ for an example to follow, then we
are definitely following an AntiChrist.
Don't get me wrong I don't say that Madonna or Michael Jackson or
whoever is an AntiChrist. They're definitely not, even though very
often their behaviour and public performance becomes the reason for
many people to be falsely leaded to false beliefs and false
teachings different from the teachings of Our Holy Orthodox
Church.
In that sense the danger of the mani AntiChrists is rooted in
following anything different from the real Lord Jesus Christ who
leads our Orthodox Church and who gives us grace by the 7 Church
established mysteries.
Now as I said a few words about the general perception of
Apocalypsis, the End of the World and the AntiChrist. Let me answer
the question is there a date when the world will end up?
The Church is definitive about that and the answer is NO! NO! and
NO!
It's even written in the Holy Bible, here is the exact quote that
clearly states, that we're not given to know the exact time and
date but only some general signs:
Mark 13:32:
"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in
heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
Having said that for us Christians it's more than clear that it's
almost impossible that the end of the world is in 2012, especially
if that kind of false belief is taken from a pagan religion like
the mayans.
Throughout the years before this year 2011, there were plenty of so
called "prophecies", each of which has claimed the end of the world
will be soon, some of the "new days end time prophets" even has
gave a specific date and time for the global cataclism expected to
occur..
For instance followers of William Miller (the founder of the deadly
end-times movement) has predicted the exact day on which the world
will end according to their calculations this was
Oct 22,
1844.
You can see by your own that this kind of deliberate fear creation
and massive panic is not something new and has been known to exist
for several decades.
Concerning the fear of the end of the world, I remember that one of
our Holy Fathers said I quote by memory: "Even if the World falls
apart and the sky falls over, I would not be afraid for I believe
in God".
Our Orthodox Christian perspective is not to focus on external
cataclysms and calamities but to focus on our internal spiritual
life.
Knowing when the world will come doesnt' worth a cent for us the
Christians, as it is not a goal of our living. Our Goal is to gain
an eternal salvation by faith in Christ and repentance for our bad
sinful lives.
Today many of the panical false beliefs and "warnings" from
Jehovah's witnesses and other sects a like are absolutely
deliberate, they use this as a tool to set fear and then gain
followers of their soul destructive satanic teachings.
We the Orthodox Christians, should not be afraid of the end but be
joyful as it's said in Thessalonians: "..Always be joyful.."
I personally belief that the end times fear that is being planted
nowdays from all medias and the internet is at many times done on
purpose, to even try to deceive us the Orthdox Christians.
This kind of end times and mystical interest into prophecies and
future things to come very often could mislead us and make us
belief many of the false beliefs the fortune-tellers has and
preach.
Unlimited interest into spirituality, definitely ends up in
spiritual blindness and spiritual disored, even often to a mind
inconsistencies.
The recent raise of
Neuro Lenguistic Programming is nothing
different, it's just another way to blind up and deceive people and
mislead them from the way of thuth that our Saviour Jesus Christ
has shown us..
Interest into broken-mysticism is very natural for our fallen
sinful state, but we should not let this to lead our lives, we
should not live in fear Christ has never given us a spirit of fear
right on the contrary.
Note that the above reasonings include a lot of my personal
reasonings and it might be that I'm wrong somewhere as I'm not a
father and I'm not 100% aware of all Church beliefs.
However I'm pretty sure that most that I said so far is truthful
and does correspondent to our Orthodox Church understanding about
Apocalypsis and End times.
There is much to be said on the topic of
End of the World
and our Orthodox position about it, but as my goal was simply to
answer the
Will the world over in 2012 and I believe
I
answered thoroughfully enoguh it will most probably not! Now to
close up this article, I do pray that God (The Holy Trinity) save
us and protect us from all evil and show us the true way in the
Orthodox Church and deliver us from false doctrines, false beliefs
and end times paranoias.