“A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, ‘You are mad; you are not like us.’”  ~ St. Anthony the Great

During Orthodox Christian Holy Week before we celebrated Pascha (Easter for other/Western Christians), my church’s bishop came to speak to us on Holy Tuesday evening, as he usually does every year during Holy Week.

In the midst of his homily, he stated (with a bit of paraphrasing), “In 2020, we entered the Last Days.”

This was chilling to hear but not too surprising, as our bishop speaks eschatologically often.

However, it was still sobering to hear him say this. Now, this may be his personal belief, meaning he was not speaking for the Church in a doctrinal or dogmatic manner. Still, it was both sobering and informative.

He uttered the words “Last Days”, not “The End Times”.

We have been in the End Times for nearly 2000 years. But the Last Days is the era that eventually includes the appearance of the antichrist and at some point (we don’t speculate on when this is), our Lord and Savior’s Second Coming.

Having said that, we have no idea how long the Last Days are to be. Days, years, centuries. They could last another 2000 or more years.

However, the state of the world tells us we are in the midst of a spiritual darkness spreading like poisonous tentacles all over the world.

For the past few years, I’ve seen and experienced how the culture and geo-political issues have become alarming.

From flat out denial of scientific biological facts to any sense of sanity or concern regarding our leaders stepping off the cliff into a third world war where mutual nuclear annihilation is certain to occur.

What happened to the leaders that used to understand mutual destruction and made every effort to not take that reckless path but worked for some type of diplomatic solution to world problems?

There is a war on Nature and therefore God, too, and it has been going on for several years now. But all of these issues have culminated quickly in the past two to three years.

Many people, who are blinded with pride, have no problem destroying the environment around them to further their supposed advanced technological discoveries. Nor do they care about the citizens of the globe that do not have the power to stop any of this, who are the main ones paying the price.

Saint Paul said, “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial.” (Corinthians 6:12 NIV)

Because we live in a country that promotes never ending oneupmanship that is led by a need to make the most money, there is no off ramp, no halt to examine what we are doing before we take the risk or leap with no return, such as we are learning through AI executives of Google and Apple who are now asking for a moratorium.

Unfortunately, the video I saw on an interview with an ex-Google top official, he had said that if that person doesn’t take the next irreversible step, another person will.

While we are on the precipice of WWIII, we are grappling with this impending AI disaster, as well as no one being permitted to speak the absolute truth that there are two sexes. Science and biology have shown this for millions of years.

I personally think our political and economic systems are broken and need a true overhaul that actually centers on the whole of humanity and not just those who have the power and money to decide what the rest of us are to live with.

The nonsensical rhetoric from radical movements and some political figures regarding the cultural and geo-political situations tells us that we’re at a time in human history that Saint Anthony the Great warned us about.

Throughout the history of man via the Old Testament, we see humanity degrades to evil behaviors, and pride is usually at the root. God had to come in and clean up these messes by us humans, which is done by purging humanity, such as the flood did, giving humanity another chance to make efforts to be selfless and love one another.

Because none of us have the power to stop all of the destruction and evil that is taking place, this purging will take place again, via Orthodox Christian prophecies I’ve read, but this will be the last one where God helps us to walk a righteous path.

The suffering that will increase in the coming days, months, years, that my bishop mentioned, and WWIII being part of it, I’m working to cling to Christ and am struggling to follow Him and His teachings, which include confession and repentance.

I’m praying my focus stays on this:

John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

I felt compelled to write this, as I do not want to be lukewarm for which God spits me out, but a good servant and follower of God.

Praying for all. Love to all. God bless.

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