MESSAGES OF WARNING
From The Loving Heart of God
THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY AT WORK
IN THE CHURCH
 The message this article proclaims is prophetic. It is not for the timid in heart who content themselves with a comfortable Orthodoxy. What follows is not simply personal speculation, but is rooted in the revealed Word of God. I intend to consider how “the mystery of iniquity” (2 Thessalonians 2:7) will ultimately disfigure the Bride of Christ, so progressively that the process will evade the notice of the casual church member. It is predicted in the Bible that she will emerge at the close of the age as the Bride of the Christ-Imposter. Dark threatening storm clouds are gathering on the horizon. Natural disasters of every description seem to be on the increase, not only in the world, but even in our own nation. Floods of biblical proportions, tornadoes, forest fires, famines and hurricanes create scenes of homeless people fleeing their homes for survival. Can we say that what Christ foretells in the Bible is now coming to pass? Listen to His predictions: “There shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:7).
In what is called the Olivet discourse our Lord Jesus Christ lays out a long list of events that are to take place just leading up to His Second Coming. It’s not going to be a pretty sight. If you think you have problems now, wait and see what is coming up in the near future. Even in a small country like Greece, it is heart-rending to see villagers where earthquakes have destroyed homes, livestock, crops, and orchards, and have left the populace homeless and deprived of everything they toiled all their lives to enjoy. What about the forest fires that have also destroyed the homes of countless Greeks? And then there are the farmlands ravaged either by floods or hailstorms? This might appear to be a tragic misfortune visited upon ordinary men and women, families, households and simply to be grieved over and lamented. However, what elicits greater grief and affliction is the fact no prophetic voices are heard following such large scale misfortunes. Apart from issuing instructions for taking up special offerings and collections for the victims of these natural disasters, our priests and members of the Church hierarchy stop their ears and fail to hear the voice from heaven. Their hearts are dull of hearing the voice of God. They have no spiritual antennas to catch what the Lord is trying to say to this “sinful and adulterous generation.” It’s very simple. Because too many of our shepherds generally fail to drink from the springs of living water, they cannot see God in the natural disasters around them. As far as they are concerned, God has nothing to do with these catastrophic outbreaks of the forces of nature. Nature is at work independently of its Creator. Once God creates the world He withdraws and leaves His creation to operate autonomously. God is looking for messengers to carry His word of warning to a world that has turned against Him in rebellion and disobedience on a global scale. But, again I say, “We see not our signs; there is no more any prophet” in the land (Psalms 74:9). There is no spokesman – no messenger - for the Lord of hosts.
God is trying to get our attention by permitting these natural disasters to happen. God is not simply connected with them. God is behind these disasters and in these disasters. He is shouting His warning especially to us who have been spared of these misfortunes. But no one is listening. Those who have been called to pastor His sheepfold cannot hear the message from heaven. They remain mute as fish, totally unresponsive and insensitive to the warnings thundered from heaven. When prophets do not appear on the firmament of the church following large scale human disasters, it’s time to worry. It is a sign of ultimate judgment. You could ask: Has God forsaken us His covenant people? Is it possible that God has withdrawn and turned His face away from the people He has redeemed in the precious blood of His Son Jesus Christ? The revealed word of God obviously does not indwell richly in the hearts of those ordained to be shepherds of His people. St. John Chrysostom teaches: “To be ignorant of the scriptures is the source of all evil.” There it is, crystal clear. Jesus revealed to us in His word once and for all generations that the reason for which God allows tragic disasters to occur is simply this... to call those who have survived or spared to turn to Him in repentance. The key word here is REPENTANCE. He made it emphatic to us who have been spared: “Unless ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” The moment it is announced to us in the public media that a natural disaster (tornadoes, massive flooding, an earthquake or a hurricane) has occurred in some particular location in our own country or abroad, the immediate reaction from the lips of the believer should be: “I repent, O Lord, of all my sins!” Let’s study the text of the related scripture. In chapter 13, verses 1-5 of the Gospel of St. Luke we read as follows:
“There were present at that season some that told Jesus of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
“And Jesus answering said unto them, Do you suppose that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
“I tell you, No. But, unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish.
“Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, do you think they were sinners above all man that dwelt in Jerusalem?
“I tell you, No. But, unless you repent you shall likewise perish”.
Is it possible that God /has given up on us Orthodox? After all, we need to remember how many of his prophets have we rejected in the past and those sent by God have we persecuted and ostracized as villains and subversives of Orthodoxy. Theoretically the church represents the presence of Christ in the midst of His covenant people. But too often it appears in reality that the visible institutional church hardly reflects the character of Christ and his apostles. Tragically, however, the church lacks the awareness that – not the secular world – but she herself has come under divine judgment. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17) Some complain, saying, “Look at the courts! Look at the government and public education!” But the Lord is responding: “Look at the church! The salt has lost its savor!” One wonders whether or not she remains “subject to Christ,” as the Bride to her divine Spouse. Who is standing in the “holy place?” Christ or Satan? The Old Testament church teaches a lesson to the New Testament church. In Ezekiel 9: 4-6 we read: “And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of Jerusalem and smite…slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children, and women…and begin at my sanctuary”. Like Samson, is it possible that the church is totally unaware that the Holy Spirit might have departed from her? “And he knew not that the Lord was departed from him” (Judges 16:20). But, you might argue that the church teaches the Holy Spirit exercises dominion over everything she decrees and initiates. Well, of course, the institutional church is not expected to admit that the Holy Spirit might have departed from her. That’s all part of the “mystery of iniquity” that St. Paul reveals in 2 Thessalonians 2:7. Only those who are indwelt with the Holy Spirit can discern such end time realities. Only they have the inner vision to recognize such apocalyptic subtleties. All others who are devoid of the Spirit are unsettled and shaken religiously, labeling such statements as demonic, blasphemous, and wild religious speculation. However, I respond to this with the words of St. Paul:
“For what man knoweth the things of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
“But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged by no man.
“For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that He may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ” Everything that shines is not gold. Remember St. Paul’s warning: “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). So what appears as a spiritual light is not necessarily the true light of Christ. Ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit within you that will impart to you the supernatural ability of knowing the difference.
Is it possible for the genuine light of Christ to depart from the church? The very thought of this occurring can scare you, as it did me in my earlier years, even as a priest. But the answer comes right out of the mouth of our Lord. Remember the warning found in Revelation 2:5 against the church at Ephesus: “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent to do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place unless thou repent.” Jesus in Matthew 5:15 speaks of the “candlestick” (Gk. lychnia) upon which is placed the lighted “candle” that it may give “light unto all that are in the house.” The removal of the “light of the candle,” or the “candlestick,” is a direct reference to a church whose witness is no longer visible. It is a dead organism, despite the glitter and splendor of the Persian mitres worn by our hierarchy and the imperial vestments they don, borrowed from the emperor of Constantinople. When will some church prelate have the boldness to refuse this attire alien to a shepherd’s calling and get back to the original simple vestments worn by the clergy in the early church? God has given us ample warning in advance. However, the Lord made good His warning, when as recently as 1922, He unleashed the fury of the Turks against the Greek Christians in Asia Minor and allowed all seven churches of the Apocalypse to be wiped off the map. “Because ye have not heard my words…Remember from whence thou art fallen” (Revelation 2:5). When the church deteriorates into a dead organism, it is obvious that the “light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world” is no longer visible. It helps to call to mind the Lord’s indictment pronounced upon the church of Sardis: I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead” (Revelation 3:1).
It is no longer rare to hear of some wealthy church member donating millions of dollars to his local parish. Building programs absorb much of the church’s life. One parish tries to outdo another parish in the size and architectural splendor of the temples of worship they erect. It almost appears as if our churches don’t know what to do with the surplus in their coffers. God, however, is not impressed by the material wealth of the church. What did you say, Jesus? “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked. “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich…” (Revelation 3:17). If we are serious about the church on earth being truly the Church Militant, then she must be expected to be tried by fire. It is normal for her to be subjected to the attacks of adversaries and to be engaged in a spiritual conflict with the powers of darkness. The true church of Christ is never at peace with the world and the world system. Only a church that compromises the Gospel of Jesus Christ enjoys harmony and a peaceful coexistence with this world whose prince is Satan, as God’s word explicitly states (John 12:31). Those in the church who continue to sleep in the comfort of their religious cradles better wake up very soon. Some in the clergy would prefer they stay in the cradle, since, if they grow up and mature spiritually, they will be asking too many questions. Why invite problems? The pastors can preserve their comfort zone, while they secure that of their parishioners by rocking their cradle. Is it not time rather to rock the boat and stir the stagnant waters? We are living in a time of God’s preparation for the Last Day. God will no longer put up with the sins of the “great house” (2 Timothy 2:20). “The Lord knoweth them that are His”. Could the Bride of Christ “not having spot, or wrinkle, or any other such thing…holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27) be progressively turning into the Great Harlot? “Her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembered her iniquities” (Revelation 18:5). Are you ready, dear reader? God’s judgment is falling on the totality of the visible, institutional church!
go to the Archive Library of Pastoral Messages. 
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The Unthinkable in the Orthodox World
How touching! Have you heard the latest? The Greek government is ready to finance the construction of a huge Mosque in the heart of Athens. The European Union is not entirely unrelated to this decision. After all, the Orthodox Christian Greeks have to be sensitive to the religious needs of the Islamic refugees and immigrants who have found a permanent home in Greece. Besides, they don’t want to offend their Turkish neighbors. Forget about the countless Orthodox Churches they converted into Mosques, after expelling millions of Greek Orthodox from Asia Minor. The Greeks are learning to live with amnesia. It helps to be politically correct. And, of course, besieged Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, does his utmost to be politically correct. He was quick at bestowing his blessing upon the project with his public statement that appeared in the National Herald: “I pray that this Mosque in Athens will operate as soon as possible for the religious needs of our Moslem brothers. The report that Athens is the only capital city in Europe where there is no Mosque for the Muslims does not honor us Greek Orthodox.” The Muslims once again are ready for conquest, aiming at recovering the territory lost to the insurgent Greeks in 1821. But this time they won’t have to fire a shot. Now Greeks and all Europeans are spreading the welcome mat to them. After all, we have to keep up with the new age of globalization!
the Environment? We rejoice to see our Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew included by Time magazine in a list of 100 most influential people of 2008. What a wonderful honor! Rejoicing, however, is tempered by our awareness that this honor enjoyed by the patriarch was based on his concern for protecting the environment. True the church should champion the cause of saving the environment from pollution. We have a spiritual responsibility to preserve the physical world as God’s handiwork and as a potential Garden of Eden. But, how in the world, can the physical environment be saved from pollution in a world that is morally and spiritually polluted? The natural world around us will not only be spared pollution, but indeed be sanctified with a humanity that is free firstly from inner pollution, the pollution of the heart. Doesn’t it make sense? Only humans free from inner pollution can care for the physical pollution around them. If we don’t let Jesus Christ as Redeemer deal with the sinful condition of our human nature and allow Him to cleanse our soul from demonic pollution, it is an exercise in futility to expect any human to revere God’s creation around us. The church should stand out primarily for her focusing on the perils of moral pollution that is plaguing human society in all nations. Otherwise, we are simply putting the cart before the horse.
the Roman Church The customary theological dialogues between Orthodox and Roman Catholics betray a naivete on the part of the Orthodox participants. Too many of our bishops and theologians dwell under the illusion that the Roman Church of today is the same church of 50 years ago. The lack of awareness of the real post-Vatican II church is astonishing among Orthodox leaders. They have failed to recognize the doctrinal and disciplinary chaos that has gripped the church of Rome. The prominent Vatican insider, intelligence expert, Father Malachi Martin, states in his candid and provocative way the following: “The overall deterioration of the Roman Catholic institutional structure has now gone so far… that now three dreadful outcomes are possible. Any of them could entail the final disintegration of this Roman Catholic institutional organization as we have known it, and as men and women have known it for over five hundred years” (The Keys of This Blood, p. 677). Roman Catholic Ralph Martin writes in his prophetic book A Crisis of Truth a similar grim assessment of the current disarray in his church: “Among those exercising pastoral responsibilities in the Church, there are parents, priests, and bishops who are functioning as false prophets, giving assurance of innocence where there is in fact guilt; as false priests, who no longer truly teach the Word of God, no longer distinguishing between the clean and unclean, the sacred and the profane; as false shepherds, whose sin of negligence and passivity has left the flock scattered, a prey for wild beasts, who now roam at will through the dispersed flock, seeking whom they may devour” (p. 196). We Orthodox have enough problems without inviting additional ones. How could anyone of us seriously consider reuniting with the Roman Church in her present state of doctrinal relativism and liberalism? We very likely have more in common with the Evangelical and Pentecostal section of the Christian world. They adhere more faithfully to the fundamentals of the Gospel than the mainline churches today. Why not dialogue with them, rejoicing that among them Christ is unmistakably preached and multitudes saved. Our Naïve Impression of the Roman Church The customary theological dialogues between Orthodox and Roman Catholics betray a naivete on the part of the Orthodox participants. Too many of our bishops and theologians dwell under the illusion that the Roman Church of today is the same church of 50 years ago. The lack of awareness of the real post-Vatican II church is astonishing among Orthodox leaders. They have failed to recognize the doctrinal and disciplinary chaos that has gripped the church of Rome. The prominent Vatican insider, intelligence expert, Father Malachi Martin, states in his candid and provocative way the following: “The overall deterioration of the Roman Catholic institutional structure has now gone so far… that now three dreadful outcomes are possible. Any of them could entail the final disintegration of this Roman Catholic institutional organization as we have known it, and as men and women have known it for over five hundred years” (The Keys of This Blood, p. 677). Roman Catholic Ralph Martin writes in his prophetic book A Crisis of Truth a similar grim assessment of the current disarray in his church: “Among those exercising pastoral responsibilities in the Church, there are parents, priests, and bishops who are functioning as false prophets, giving assurance of innocence where there is in fact guilt; as false priests, who no longer truly teach the Word of God, no longer distinguishing between the clean and unclean, the sacred and the profane; as false shepherds, whose sin of negligence and passivity has left the flock scattered, a prey for wild beasts, who now roam at will through the dispersed flock, seeking whom they may devour” (p. 196). We Orthodox have enough problems without inviting additional ones. How could anyone of us seriously consider reuniting with the Roman Church in her present state of doctrinal relativism and liberalism? We very likely have more in common with the Evangelical and Pentecostal section of the Christian world. They adhere more faithfully to the fundamentals of the Gospel than the mainline churches today. Why not dialogue with them, rejoicing that among them Christ is unmistakably preached and multitudes saved. “Whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein rejoice, yea, and will rejoice” (Philippians 1:18). “Whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein rejoice, yea, and will rejoice” (Philippians 1:18).
If there was ever a time when our Orthodox Church needed an outreach of revival and evangelism, it is now. The recent events regarding the Archdiocese and the sex scandals rocking our Church and the general disarray and confusion that have made headlines in the secular press come to confirm not simply the need, but the urgency for a spiritual reawakening in the Church! The attempted cover-up has shocked both the Orthodox and the non-Orthodox. The prestige of Orthodoxy has suffered a terrible blow. When we don’t let Christ govern the Church as her Head, only evil of every description can follow. When man usurps the position that belongs to Christ, then only Satan will take over and work out all his pernicious purposes. When we forget that the Church is the Body of Christ and not some kind of social institution, then we will end up polluting His Body. When man takes over, then the Church as the Bride of Christ is doomed to emerge as the Great Harlot Church of the Apocalypse! We are living, beloved partner, in an age of fulfillment and not only expectation. We are seeing in our own generation what is foretold in the Bible for the last days just before the close of the age. Jesus warned us that in the end times “iniquity will abound.” It is weighing upon my heart as a heavy burden that we must intensify our efforts to get the message of repentance and reconversion to Christ to all our people. There is no time left for complacency. Here at St. Symeon’s Renewal Center we are giving our all to the will of God for sounding the Wake Up call. But we need your financial help so we can do much more, for example, in terms of expanding our communications through the mail and updating our tape ministry. The Lord is calling us to rally around the Banner the Holy Spirit is raising up against Satan in this last hour. I will be expecting you at the FALL RENEWAL CONFERENCE in Destin, Florida on the weekend of October 10-12. Send in your Registration now! Save your nickels and dimes from now to make the rising gas prices.
Fervently in Christ,
The Lord said to the Archangel Michael: I will recompense the hirelings who are not shepherds, and I will give them up, for they have corrupted my Vineyard and they have scattered my sheep. They have been shepherds for gold and silver and have sought the priesthood for monetary gain. How much Hell will be for them! How much their wailing! In anger and wrath I shall confound them. They have acquired sheep and cattle (today: real estate and dollars!) which are corruptible, but they have not cared for my sheep, I shall surely visit them in their iniquities with a rod of iron and in their unrighteousness with a scourge. What shall I do with the priests who make light of holy things and those who feud in my holy churches? I shall crush them as a potter’s vessel, and I shall bring judgment upon them when I come. I am coming and whoever is able let him give a defense. Woe be unto him who, abiding in iniquity, shall fall into my hands, because such shall appear naked and bare before me. They shall all fear and shall be ashamed before the heavenly hosts. I shall deal with the monastics who live in much complacency and lie to God and to angels and before men for they have vowed one thing and they do another. These I shall hook and I shall shake like the wind from the clouds, and I shall consign them to the pit (abyss), because, as if their own perdition did not suffice, they became a scandal and offence to others for their perdition, also…I will recompense those who would not repent, and I shall surely judge them as a righteous judge. As the Lord uttered these saying to the Archangel Michael, fear gripped all the heavenly hosts. After going through the six books of the ages, He took the book of the seventh and He said: The beginning of the seventh age…the end of the age. Beginning of evil and wickedness. Moving forward and flipping the pages of the volume He said: The men of the seventh age will be evil, envious, liars, having a false love, ambitious, and enslaved to sodomite debauchery. Moving on in the book, He raised His eyes and striking His knee with His hand, and covering His forehead and His eyes, He stood a while, as if in deep thought and said: Truly the seventh age has exceeded the previous ages in wickedness and iniquity. When He came to the middle of the book, He said: The remainder of this book gives off much stench because of the multitude of sins. This suffices. For this cause I shall bring it to a close in the middle of the book. Following these utterances, the Lord directed Michael and his legions to appear at the judgment. Michael, the commander-in-chief, came forth and due to the vast numbers in the legion, the earth could not contain them. They cried out: Holy, Holy, Holy, Awesome, Great, the Highest, Wonderful, and Glorified unto the ages of ages…! (Taken from the book Discourses of St. Macarius the Egyptian, published in Paris in 1559. At the end of the book is found the life and the above vision of St. Niphon.)
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