The End of the World, the Resurrection and the Last Judgment

My beloved spiritual children in Our Risen Lord and Our Only True God,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN! ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! ΑΛΗΘΩΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ!

THE END OF THE WORLD, THE RESURRECTION, AND THE LAST JUDGMENT

The word of God reveals to us some signs of the approaching end of the world and the glorious Second Coming of Christ. Physical nature will then be characterized by famine, earthquakes, epidemics, and other particularly terrible manifestations of the powers of nature, as well as various signs in the sky (St. Matthew 24:7). The moral nature of men will be characterized by suffering and exhaustion resulting from fearful expectation of something terrible to happen (St. Matthew 24:21). Yet at the same time people will experience a strange carelessness about their own destiny, like a deep sleep at the dead of night (St. Matthew 24:37-39). Faith will become so scarce among men that when the Son of Man will come again, He will scarcely find any on earth (St. Luke 18:8). Mutual relations among men will continue changing for the worse: love will slacken and grow cold (St. Matthew 24:12); hate and treachery will increase (St. Matthew 24:10); and there will be cruel enmity among close relatives (St. Mark 13:12); and there will be terrible wars among whole nations and countries (St. Matthew 24:6-7).

Mankind, however, will be able to see its disastrous moral condition. On the contrary, men will proclaim that they have reached prosperity, will grow unable to see that they are doing well only as far as the temporal goods of this earth are concerned, and will have forgotten the Christian's desire to prosper in matters spiritual, which are important if one is mindful of eternity and of God (1 Thess. 5:2-8). Although men will be immoral, the Gospel will not yet have been preached to all the nations (St. Matthew 24:14). Finally, there will appear the forerunners of the antichrist, numerous false messiahs and teachers not appointed by God, who will , however, speak in God's name (St. Matthew 24:24). After them the antichrist himself will come. According to the testimony of the Holy Apostle Paul, Christ will not come before the antichrist will have appeared (2 Thess. 2:1-4). The antichrist will come for a short time only (Rev. 12:12), but during this short time his kingdom will spread throughout the earth (Revelation 13:8). Then the Lord Jesus Christ will break and destroy the antichrist and make him perish by the mere breath of His mouth and the view of His glory as God and Savior (1 Thess. 2:8; Titus 2:13).

When the kingdom of the antichrist will have ceased, the eternal Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ will begin. He, the Son of God--Who was incarnate for the salvation of mankind, lived on earth and died, was resurrected and has risen into heaven--will once again appear from heaven in the same way in which the holy Apostles saw him rising there (Acts 1:11). He will come with great glory and power, as He Himself predicted: "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (St. Matthew 24:30). His coming will be sudden, like the lightning which comes from the east and shines to the west (St. Matthew 24:27). It will also be unexpected for all: the Apostle says that "the day of the lord will come as a thief in the night (2 Peter 3:10).

As soon as the Lord Jesus Christ comes in glory, He will resurrect the dead (I Thess. 4:16). the resurrection of the dead is proven by the precedent of the resurrection of Christ and Savior Himself. The holy Apostle Paul says, "Now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians15:20). The Christian faith makes a close connection between the truth of the resurrection of the dead and the truth of the resurrection of Christ. There can be no doubt about either. To the doubter, the Apostle Paul gives advice to look at nature, which provides a visible sign of resurrection to us: "But someone will say, 'How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come? Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain--perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each see its own body" (1 Corinthians 15:35-38). A simple seed is thrown in the ground, but it is not destroyed. Instead, it prepares for a new birth, assumes a new body, and thus brings full fruit. If nature, which with time must end and disappear, contains such miracles testifying of resurrection, then our bodies, too, can rise. They will rise in order to live again; being worn out, they are buried in the earth in order to become new bodies and bring new fruit. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself has proven the resurrection of the dead. He resurrected the daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, and also resurrected, before the eyes of all, His friend Lazarus, who had died and been buried for three days. Lazarus was resurrected by only a word: "Lazarus, come forth!" (St. John 11:43). At the time of Christ's crucifixion and death there came to life a great number of the dead, who "coming out of the graves after His Resurrection, they went into the Holy City and appeared unto many" (Saint Matthew 27:53).

Thus, when the Lord will come in His Glory, the dead will all arise. There will be heard the terrible sound of the trumpet of the Archangel, announcing to all the Coming the Lord (I Thess. 4:16); the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and, having heard it, will come to life (St. John 5:25). By the action of the Almighty God, all the bodies of the dead will arise, assume a new guise, and be united with their souls. Those who will not yet have died by the time of the General Resurrection will not die at all but be changed. The Apostle says, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" (I Corinthians 15:51); that is, the bodies of such men will suddenly assume a new and different appearance and become like the bodies of the resurrected dead.

After the resurrection of the dead, the visible heaven and earth will also end. (Source: Eternal Mysteries: Beyond the Grave By Archimandrite Panteleimon)

(To be continued)

CHRIST IS RISEN  ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ!

+

_____________________

"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!"--Saint John Chrysostom

+++

With sincere agape in His Holy Resurrection,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George