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End of history Category: Texts Kingdom of God will come

Homilies of hegumen Varsonofii (Khaibulin)

Compiled on the basis of homilies of hegumen Varsonofii (Khaibulin) to eschatological themes.

Jerusalem Temple and the Fulfillment of Times

In a conversation with local priests, who are accustomed to the traditional understanding of eschatological revelations, that since Israel had already captured all of Jerusalem, the prophecy was fulfilled, I was told that in fact this cannot be recognized, because Israel does not have the power to recreate Solomon's temple.

This objection comes from the conviction that there is such a dogma in the Orthodox Church that the Antichrist must sit in the restored Solomon's temple. For example, the American Seraphim Rose wrote about this as a self-evident, dogmatic proposition.

The strange “Christian” spirit of the “charismatic revival” is clearly identified in the Holy Scriptures and the Orthodox Patristic tradition. According to these sources, world history will culminate in an almost superhuman “Christian” figure, the false messiah or antichrist. He will be “Christian” in the sense that his whole function and his very being will center on Christ, Whom he will imitate in every respect possible, and he will be not merely the greatest enemy of Christ, but in order to deceive Christians will appear to be Christ, come to earth for a second time and ruling from the restored Temple in Jerusalem.

Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose)
Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future
VIII. Conclusion: B. The «New Christianity»

Meanwhile, this is not a dogma at all, it was the opinion of the early Christian saints of the Chiliasts, such as St. Irenaeus of Lyons.

But when this Antichrist shall have devastated all things in this world, he will reign for three years and six months, and sit in the temple at Jerusalem; and then the Lord will come from heaven in the clouds, in the glory of the Father, sending this man and those who follow him into the lake of fire; but bringing in for the righteous the times of the kingdom, that is, the rest, the hallowed seventh day; and restoring to Abraham the promised inheritance, in which kingdom the Lord declared, that “many coming from the east and from the west should sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” ((Mat 8:11).

St. Irenaeus of Lyons
Against Heresies. Bk.V. Ch.30

Moreover, such an authority as St. John Chrysostom. He said that the Antichrist would sit not only in the Temple of Jerusalem, but everywhere in churches, and not in synagogues, but in churches!

He will not lead to idolatry, but will be a God-opponent, will reject all gods and command to worship himself instead of God and will sit in the Temple of God — not only in Jerusalem — but everywhere in churches.

He sensed something here, some kind of crisis in Christianity.

Finally, Russian theologians of the second half of the 19th century, contemporary with the Optina elders, already guessed that we were not talking about man-made temples, but about taking possession of apostate Christians. According to their interpretation, since Christians, sanctified by the sacraments, become living temples, then, having departed from Christianity, they become the seats of the Antichrist. This comes even closer to the realization that the reign of the Antichrist is preceded by a very terrible crisis within Christianity itself.

Thus the traditional view of the matter is not a dogma, St. John Chrysostom could not oppose dogma. This is the opinion of the early Christian saints, and their exegesis was very immature. But for many modern Christians, their point of view is unshakable, especially for beginners, for whom it is even scary to have a different opinion than that of the holy fathers. It should be noted here that, firstly, there was not even unanimity among the holy fathers on this particular issue, and secondly, the conclusion is incorrectly drawn about the restoration of Solomon's temple.

If we were talking about Israel, the same Old Testament, which was the environment of the extraordinary God's presence, which gave birth to the prophets, where the temple was the place of the extraordinary God's presence, then it would really be so that the people of God returned to Jerusalem, but did not have a temple, i. e. it's like getting a body without a heart. But this is not at all about Israel, which was the environment of the extraordinary presence of God. We are talking about the people already being punished, and Solomon's temple ceased to be a place of extraordinary God's presence at the moment when the Savior pronounced his sentence: “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Matthew 23:38). “Your house is empty” — and from that time Solomon’s temple ceases to be the House of God. And the whole nation ceases to be the milieu of the extraordinary presence of God, and then it is already punished by being expelled from this city and scattered over all the languages ​​of the earth.

And now this people, already punished people, which became the environment of a dark, mystical force, returns to this city, to this Jerusalem of the New Testament, which continues to be a place of extraordinary God's presence, but not according to the Old Testament, but due to the fact that a service was held here Jesus Christ. Here is the Holy Sepulcher, where the Lord regularly, by the descent of the Holy Fire on Great Saturday, shows, signs to everyone, and especially to the Jewish people, that now here is a place of extraordinary God's presence here, where the Tomb of Jesus Christ.

This doxophany is related to those that were in the Old Testament, when the Tabernacle was being built, when Solomon's temple was being built. Naturally, there the Lord manifested His special presence, His Glory. Here the same Glory appears over the Tomb of Jesus Christ. The Jewish people have full access to this temple, and have the opportunity to contemplate this doxophany of the descent of the Holy Fire. In the video about the descent of the Holy Fire on Holy Saturday, it can be seen that the order in the temple is guarded by Jewish policemen, so they see this phenomenon well.

Thus, the Jewish people capture the city, in which the special presence of God is no longer associated with the temple of Solomon, but is associated with the service and redemptive feat of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they rejected and became His murderer. So the conditions here are completely different: they really captured the city, but not at all in the way the fathers thought. The Fathers thought that either the Jewish people would never receive Jerusalem, or they would receive it by accepting the Antichrist. This is all not justified.

I.(6). ‹…› When he came into Jerusalem and saw the temple, he said: “Jerusalem will be trodden down by many nations, until the times of many nations be fulfilled” (Luk 21:24).

By this he meant the years to come until the consummation of the world. And again, speaking to his disciples about the temple, he nude the threat that a stone would not remain upon a stone in that place until the time when it be destroyed. His threat was a prediction that the temple would come to a final devastation and completely disappear.

‹…›

III.(15). Suppose a mere ten, twenty, thirty, or fifty years were to have passed since the capture of Jerusalem. Even then you would have absolutely no right to show your impudence by rejecting his prediction, but if you wished to be obstinate, you might have had some pretext for protest left to you. But not only fifty years but many more than one, two, or three centuries have passed since Jerusalem was captured. And never has there been seen a single trace or shadow of the change for which you are waiting. Why, then, are you so rash and foolish as to keep up your shameless objections?

IV. (1). ‹…› And from the words of the prophets I shall make it clear that the Jews will recover neither their city nor their temple in days to come (ὅτι οὔτε τὴν πόλιν, οὔτε τὸν ναὸν λοιπὸν ἀπολήψονται).

St. John Chrysostom
Against the Jews. Homily 5
Migne, PG, Iohannes Chrysostomus, Adversus Judaeos [pdf]

6. ‹…› The Saviour raised up and showed His holy flesh like a temple, and he [Antichrist] will raise a temple of stone in Jerusalem.

Therefore, we must state that, after all, Jerusalem is in the power of the Jews. But while they still continue to be in this hardened state, which is especially revealed in the light of the fact that they see this heavenly fire descending on the Tomb of Jesus Christ and do not turn to Him.

There must be some accomplishments, changes in the Gentile Christianity, about which the apostle Paul speaks in the 11th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, that the fullness of Gentiles must enter, and only after that the Ancient Israel will turn to Christ. This means that some changes in the state of Gentile Christianity must follow here. Only then will the Jewish people turn to Christ.

25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

That is, the prophecy was still fulfilled. But only it was fulfilled in a completely different sense: that this return of the people to Jerusalem is a sign that the times are coming of these extraordinary descents of Heavenly Jerusalem, which should revive, first of all, New Testament Israel, so that the fullness of grace reigns again in it, as it was in the beginning under the apostles. Only after this apocatastasis, the restoration of New Testament Israel, will Old Testament Israel turn to Christ.

That's all I wanted to say about the objection that, allegedly, since the Old Testament Israel, having returned to Jerusalem, does not have the opportunity to restore Solomon's temple, they do not yet own Jerusalem. So this is the mercy of God, because the restoration of that temple would be audacious opposition to the will of God. And the Lord, having created such conditions that do not allow them to do this work, protects them from this extreme audacity, this extreme opposition to the will of God. The Lord still leads them to salvation, to conversion, but for this, these events are also needed — grace-filled changes in the very Gentile Christianity.

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