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Alice Offline OP
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On the End Times - An incredible prophesy by Saint Nilus of Holy Mount Athos

Saint Nilus lived in the 16th Century. He was born in a village near Tripolis in the Peloponnisos area in Greece. He became an ascetic on Mount Athos and died on the 12th November 1651. Fragrant myrrh was dripping out from his tomb and for this reason he is called Myrovlitis.

“As we move from 1900 towards the middle of the 8th Century (5.508 years since Adam + 2000 A.C.= 7.508 years) the people of those days will become unrecognizable. When the advent of Antichrist draws near, people’s reasoning will be obscured because of carnal passions while profanity and indecency will prevail. People will become unrecognizable; people’s faces will be disfigured; men will not be distinguishable from women because of their shameless garments and the hair on their heads. Then they will become wild and will resemble the beasts because they will be seduced by Antichrist.

Respect for the parents and elders will be no more; love will perish; the Christians’ shepherds, Archpriests and priests, will be conceited and will no longer recognize the right path from the left.

During those days the customs and the traditions of the Christians and the Church will change. Prudence will be lost and profanity will prevail. Lies and the love of money will reach epidemic proportions. Woe to those who stockpile monies.

Fornication, adultery, homosexuality, thefts and murders will be an everyday occurrence during those days. As a result of the heavy sins and the widespread debauchery, people will be deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit which they have received during their Baptism, as well as the compunction of their conscience.

The Lord’s Churches will be deprived of devout and pious shepherds. Woe to the Christians who will live those days because they will be faithless. They will have no opportunity to see the light of knowledge from anyone. Then they will leave the world and run to hide inside the holy catacombs in order to find solace for their souls’ tribulations but instead obstacles and hardship will be in their path. All these will take place because Antichrist will rule over everything and will be the leader of all humanity. He will perform imaginary signs and astonishing deeds; He will then dispense crafty wisdom to the wretched man so that he invents ways to speak to one another from one end of the earth to the other, fly in the air like birds and cross the bottom of the sea like fish.

The poor people will do all these and will live in comfort, not knowing that all are delusions by the Antichrist. The Evil one will enable science to achieve such huge imaginary advances so that people will be misled and no longer believe in the existence of the Triune God.

Then the Almighty God, seeing that mankind is heading for its demise, will shorten the days for the sake of those few who will be saved, since the Devil will try if possible to deceive even the chosen ones.

Then suddenly the two-edged sword will appear to destroy the deceiver and his followers…”


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Alice Offline OP
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Well friends, I am not going to try anymore. It is impossible to get any conversations on this forum going about spiritual matters these days.

Be well all,
Alice

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I just don't believe that Saint Nilus or any other Saints know anything about the "end times." Call me a skeptic.

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Sounds to me like he was onto something. Kinda spooky.

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Originally Posted by Alice
Well friends, I am not going to try anymore. It is impossible to get any conversations on this forum going about spiritual matters these days.

Be well all,
Alice
Alice,

I really appreciate your posts on spiritual topics, and usually make it a point to read them. For a couple of reasons, though, I rarely manage to post to the main forum. I would guess there are others like me who feel that the forum is enriched by such posts, so I hope you don't stop sharing them with us. I, for one, would really miss them.

Blessings,
Jaya

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I think some avoid spiritual matters, their conscience kicks in...

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The so-called prophecy of St. Nilus is a fraud according to most Orthodox sources:

http://orthodoxwiki.org/Prophecy_of_St._Nilus

Christians must remain watchful and must not be led astray by the glamour of false prophecy - something Our Lord warned us about.

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Certainly, there have been many end-time prophecies by many saints, eastern and western. Some have seemed uncanny in their prediction of events that actually happened. While some others may have been accurate prophecies, it's important to remember a merciful God who accepts genuine repentance and mitigates what could have happened if there had been no repentance.

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Do you agree or disagree with this excerpt (see below) from the Orthodoxwiki article on Prophecy?

The End of Prophecy - Orthodoxy teaches that John the Baptist (also known as John the Forerunner) was the last of the prophets, thus tightly linking the period of prophecy in the Old Testament with Jesus, who delivered the fullness or fulfillment of the law.

Some Protestant (and thus heretical) sects hold that prophecy continues to this day, including Pentecostals and Quakers. In doing so, they often manage to diminish the role of Holy Tradition by overemphasizing such new "revelations." Mormons also think that the current president of their "church" is a prophet. An early Christian heresy centering around continuing prophecy was Montanism, whose most notable adherent was Tertullian.

This, however, is not to say that the spirit of prophecy is dead in the Church; there are many instances of saints and other Orthodox receiving prophetic dreams or visions. The term "prophet" itself, though, is generally reserved for Old Testament figures.

Assessment of the prophet's authenticity and false prophets - According to Deuteronomy 18:21-22, one should judge a prophet by checking whether his predictions come true. Likewise, in the New Testament Christ warned against false prophets and said that one should judge a prophet by his fruits. From (Matthew 7):

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Sts. Peter and Paul also enjoin the faithful to beware of "false prophets" (i.e. heretics) repeatedly in their epistles. See 2 Peter 2 and Acts 20:28 in particular.


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As has been mentioned above, the "end-times" prophesies of St. Nilus have been discredited in recent years.

I would say that "prophethood" continues in the Church. However, many people often misunderstand the meaning of the title "prophet."

A prophet is one who speaks the Word of God. A prophet is one who speaks the truth of God without regard for the consequences. A prophet's words are directed primarily at the people of his or her age; while the prophet's words may have future implications, a prophet is not a fortune-teller or soothsayer.

The OT prophets uttered things that were fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah. Yet, the prophets were eminently concerned with how the people *in their time* were acting. Were people merciful and loving to the poor, orphans, widows? Were they being faithful to the true God? Were they keeping the Commandments? Prophetic warnings were not carved-in-stone predictions, but stating the outcome of living apart from God's Law. The predictions were a way to turn the hearts of people to God and His righteousness.

All this is fresh in my mind because I will be speaking about it tomorrow in my sermon. grin

Fr. David

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Alice Offline OP
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Is it not all true? shocked

I think it is interesting just because of its astounding depiction of where and who we are today...not because we should follow prophecies and worry about OR want to predict the future...No false glamour (as my friend Rybak likes to call it) here..

Do we not speak from one end of the world to the other through telephones and computers?

Do we fly through the air like birds? (Just think of how unbelievable the airplane travel we know today would be to someone born even a hundred years ago)Sometimes when I sit in a plane ready to fly half way around the globe, I think of this amazing machine that will transport me through the skies in a matter of hours, and it becomes almost mind boggling...)

Have we not abandoned modesty? Nudity and partial nudity is everywhere.

Is debauchery not great?

Is sexual sin not greater and more acceptable than ever?

Do we not live in greater luxury than ever? (Even the greatest emperors of history did not live as comfortable life as the average American--hot water and cold water at one's fingertips, heat in the winter, air condition in the summer, abundant food in all seasons, new clothing, indoor plumbing, television and radio entertainment, machines to wash clothes and dishes, light bulbs to light the darkness without fear of fire as in torches and candles of old, automobiles to transport us great distances in comfort, etc.

As for the 'anti-Christ', he or it can be anything.

Personally, I think he/it is here, and I view the internet and Google as the anti-Christ! LOL! grin

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Originally Posted by Chtec
As has been mentioned above, the "end-times" prophesies of St. Nilus have been discredited in recent years.

I would say that "prophethood" continues in the Church. However, many people often misunderstand the meaning of the title "prophet."

A prophet is one who speaks the Word of God. A prophet is one who speaks the truth of God without regard for the consequences. A prophet's words are directed primarily at the people of his or her age; while the prophet's words may have future implications, a prophet is not a fortune-teller or soothsayer.

The OT prophets uttered things that were fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah. Yet, the prophets were eminently concerned with how the people *in their time* were acting. Were people merciful and loving to the poor, orphans, widows? Were they being faithful to the true God? Were they keeping the Commandments? Prophetic warnings were not carved-in-stone predictions, but stating the outcome of living apart from God's Law. The predictions were a way to turn the hearts of people to God and His righteousness.

All this is fresh in my mind because I will be speaking about it tomorrow in my sermon. grin

Fr. David


Glory to Jesus Christ!
Excellent post, Father David...most people think of prophets as religious "fortune tellers" but this misconception is wrong. Think "exhortation"....."if you/society doesn't change your ways then ________ will happen."

We have prophets today...its just that no one pays attention to them because no one wants to change. If the prophet gets "in your face" then they are arrested for harassment. I guess that's better than the Old Testament prophets who were sent into exile or killed.

If one says that there are no prophets today then the person doesn't really believe in the Holy Spirit and His Gifts (1Cor 12:10) Sadly, there are many Orthodox and Catholics who don't believe that the Holy Spirit has given them gifts, even though they have been Chrismated.

Have you (each reader here) prayed to recognize your Gifts and how God wants you to use them?

There is currently another thread on Byzcath about evengelization. No one has listed using the gifts of the Holy Spirit as a means of evangelization. Could our lack of Faith be the reason Christianity is shrinking and timid?

Fr Deacon Paul

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Sounds much like the times described by the Epistle of Jude--the times described in Germany in the early 16th century by Luther at the occaision of the writing of his Small Catechism; and the times described by +John Vianney in early 18th century France at the occasion of the writing of his cathecism.

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The Prophecy of +Elder Joseph of Vatopedi, the Hesychist in his own voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s22R1TZx2bs&feature=player_embedded#!

He describes WWIII in which the Turks invade Greece, Russia comes to Greece's aid and the West attacks Russia and the West loses 700,000 men in 3 days in a battle near Tsargrad. It also deals with the restoration of the Orthodox Emperor.

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Regarding the prophecy of +Elder Joseph of Vatopedi, John Sanidopoulos says this:

"Some think these common Athonite prophecies are traditions of interpreting St Kosmas and even older prophecies dating back to the Fall of Constantinople. I dont think we have ever received a clear answer. I personally would have asked if this is something divinely revealed to him, or is it a tradition he received. I dont know. There are many apocalyptic traditions of Mount Athos, which would make for an interesting book I must say.

It could be in the next 50 years. It could be more.

Most Greeks certainly dont care nor have knowledge of such things, but they are aware that there is a tradition
."

Others have said this alleged prophecy merely repeats key parts of what is inscribed on the tomb of St. Constantine.

Tradition? or Prophecy? An interesting question.


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