Tomorrow Orthodox Christian celebrate two events: the Presentation of our Lord and Meatfare Sunday also known as the Sunday of of Second Coming. What is interesting about this day is that this is the day when during the Matins service, after the 6th Ode of the Canon, the Synxarion of the day is read. A “synaxarion” is a short text discussing and analyzing of the person or event commemorated during that specific day. In the case of the “Sunday of the Second Coming” it is a short summary of the teachings of the Church about the Second Coming of Christ and the events preceding it, including the appearance and actions of the Antichrist.
In modernist parishes, this reading is entirely omitted and, when it is not, then it is severely censored to avoid raising “politically incorrect” issues and questions. I found it worthwhile to share with you the original text which was read during the many past centuries and which is still read in traditionalist Orthodox parishes and monasteries. Here it is in full:
SUNDAY of MEATFARE
On the same day, we commemorate the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and His impartial Judgment.
Verses: When Thou, O Judge of all, shalt sit to judge the earth, Mayest Thou judge me, too, worthy to hear Thee say, “Come hither.”
Synaxarion:
The most Divine Fathers placed this parable after the first two [those of the Publican and Pharisee and of the Prodigal Son], lest anyone, learning about God’s love for mankind in those parables, should live carelessly, saying: God loves mankind, and when I cease from sinning, I shall be ready to accomplish everything. They set this fearful day here, in order to instill fear, through death and the expectation of future torments, in those who are heedless, and to bring them back to virtue, not trusting in God’s loving-kindness alone, but taking into account that He is a just Judge, Who will render unto each man according to his deeds. Moreover, since the souls of those who have died stood in our midst yesterday, it was fitting that the Judge should come today. In a certain way, the present Feast is, as it were, the consummation of all the Feasts, just as it will be the final day for all of us. We should reflect that the Fathers will assign the beginning of the world and Adam’s fall from Paradise to the following Sunday, and that the present Feast is the end of all our lives and of this world. The Fathers assigned it to the Sunday of Meatfare, so as to curb greed and gluttony through the fear aroused by this Feast, and to summon us to show compassion to our neighbors. Furthermore, since, after reaping delight, we were exiled from Eden, and came under judgment and the curse, the present Feast is placed here, and also because, on the next Sunday, on which we commemorate the fall of Adam, we are going to be figuratively cast out of Eden, until Christ comes and brings us back to Paradise.
Christ’s coming is called the Second Coming, because whereas He first came to us in bodily form, quietly and without glory, He will now come from Heaven with wonders that transcend nature, with conspicuous radiance, and corporeally, so that He may be recognized by all as being He Who first came and delivered the human race, and Who is going to judge it, to see whether it has preserved what was given to it. When His Coming will take place, no one knows; for the Lord kept this hidden even from the Apostles. But until then, at any rate, He indicated that it will be preceded by certain signs, which some of the Saints explained in greater detail. It is said that the Second Coming will occur after seven millennia have passed. Before Christ comes, the Antichrist will come. He will be born, as Saint Hippolytos of Rome says, from a harlot, who will appear to be a virgin, but will be of the Hebrew race, of the tribe of Dan, the son of Jacob; and he will supposedly live as Christ did, and will perform as many miracles as Christ, and will raise the dead. But all of these things—his birth, his flesh, and everything else—will be an illusion, as the Apostle says; and he will then be revealed as the son of perdition, with all power, with signs and deceitful wonders. However, as Saint John of Damascus says, the Devil himself will not be transformed into flesh, but a man who is the offspring of fornication will receive all the energy of Satan, and will suddenly rise up. He will appear good and gentle to all, and then there will be a mighty famine. He will supposedly satisfy the people, will study the Holy Scriptures, will practise fasting, and, compelled by men, will be proclaimed king; he will show especial love to the Hebrew race, restoring them to Jerusalem and rebuilding their temple. Before seven years have passed, as Daniel says, Enoch and Elias will come, preaching to the people that they should not accept him. He will arrest and torment them, and will then behead them. Those who choose to remain pious will flee far away into the mountains; when he finds them, through the agency of demons, he will make trial of them. Those seven years will be cut short for the sake of the elect, and there will be a mighty famine, and all the elements will be transformed, so that everyone will all but disappear.
After this, the Lord will suddenly come from Heaven like lightning, preceded by His precious Cross, and a river of boiling fire will go before Him, cleansing the entire earth of pollution. The Antichrist will immediately be seized, and he and his minions will be handed over to the eternal fire. As the Angels sound their trumpets, the entire human race will be gathered together from the ends of the earth, and from all the elements, in Jerusalem, because this is the center of the world, and there are set thrones for judgment, but with their souls and bodies all transformed into incorruption and having a single form, the elements themselves having been transformed into a superior state, and by a single word the Lord will separate the righteous from the sinners; those who have done good will depart, gaining eternal life, whereas the sinners will go to eternal punishment, and never will there be an end to their torments.
It should be known that Christ will not be looking at that time for fasting, bodily hardships, or miracles, good though these things are, but for things that are far superior, namely, almsgiving and compassion. To the righteous and the sinners He will speak of six virtues: “For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me food; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in; naked, and ye clothed Me; I was sick, and ye visited Me; I was in prison, and ye came unto Me; for inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” Everyone can do these things according to his own ability. Then every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The torments which the Holy Gospel recounts are these: “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched; and cast him into the outer darkness.” Clearly accepting all these things, the Church of God believes that the abiding of the Saints with God and the perpetual effulgence of His light and their ascent to Him are the delight of Paradise and the Kingdom of Heaven, and that alienation from God and the consumption of souls by the awareness that, through carelessness and temporal pleasure, they have been deprived of Divine illumination are the torment, the darkness, and the like.
In Thine ineffable love for mankind, O Christ God, count us worthy to hear Thy desired voice, number us with those on Thy right hand, and have mercy on us. Amen
Please keep in mind that the above is an English translation of an original Greek text compiled on the basis of Patristic writings which have very specific definitions of words which are often hard to render in modern English. Furthermore, sentences such as “their souls and bodies all transformed into incorruption and having a single form, the elements themselves having been transformed into a superior state” assume that the reader has a solid understanding of dogmatic theology (attending and carefully studying the Orthodox church services provide that kind of knowledge both in an intellectual and on a noetic (spiritual) level). Finally, there are clearly elements of symbolism used here (such as the figures given) which should not be interpreted in a crude literalistic fashion.
Since we now live in what I call a “post-pseudo-Christian” society in which an original Orthodox synaxiarion in English has become a rarity, I though I would share this little “message form a distant past” with you.
A friend also emailed me today to let me know that Sheikh Imran Hosein (who is a supporter of this blog and with whom I are working on a rather detailed interview) has just released a lecture entitled “Muslim Alliance With Eastern Orthodox Christianity In The End Times” which I will watch tomorrow (when I will spend yet another full day on the road, alas) but which I already want to share with you today:
Here is a short bio of the Sheikh: Imran Nazar Hosein is a leading International Islamic Philosopher, Scholar and author, specialising in world politics, economy, eschatology , modern socio-economic/political issues and expert on international affairs. He is best- selling author of Jerusalem in the Qur’an. Imran Nazar Hosein was born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad in 1942 to parents whose ancestors had migrated from India as indentured labourers. He studied Islam, Philosophy and International Relations at several universities and institutions of higher learning. Among them are al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, the Institute of International Relations of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad, the University of Karachi in Pakistan, the Aleemiyah Institute of Islamic Studies in Karachi, Pakistan, and the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.
Finally, as a sign of the times I suppose, look at this google-translated news item from yandex also sent to me by a friend:
Interesting, no?
Kind regards to all,
The Saker
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A WORD ABOUT THE “SECOND COMING.”
For some people (actually, for many people), one of the most comfortable things to do is to be quiet; to avoid controversy; to “let bygones be bygones”; to not ponder; to accept the existing dogmas, never questioning them, even if your GUT tells you that something ain’t right; that something doesn’t FEEL right; that, no matter what the dogma SAYS, there is something INSIDE of you that won’t accept the dogma.
That first began, for myself, in 7th grade, at Corpus Christi Grammar School, in Chicago, during the 1950s. From kindergarten, to 7th grade, I had accepted the doctrine of the “blood atonement” of the man whose Hebrew mamma gave him a Greek name (for some odd reason); the man known as “Jesus Christ.” I had also accepted the idea that this man was coming back, at some time in the future–the SAME man–to establish the Christian [Catholic, I suppose] Kingdom of God on earth (and this, despite the fact that, in Luke, he explicitly stated that the Kingdom of God was INSIDE OF US).
But, in the 7th grade, I was daydreaming, looking outside the classroom window at a state of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And, to this day, I cannot explain exactly why I was in such a meditative mood. But, after staring at the statue for a while, I raised my hand. The nun recognized me, and I said, “Something is missing.” She replied, “What do you mean?” I answered, “I don’t know. But something is missing, and I will find it.”
I had not been arguing about religion. In fact, I LOVED my Catholic-Christian religion.
After some years, it occurred to me what was bothering me: the idea of JUSTICE, an idea, I began to realized, that “Christianity” had utterly SLAUGHTERED by claiming that the Gracious God, because of “love” of humanity, FORCED his ONLY son to take on a human body, come down to earth, be spat upon, kicked, beaten, tortured, crucified, and killed, for MY sins. Really??
I realized that there could possibly be NOTHING more UNJUST than for someone to be murdered for the crimes of someone else. But, NOT ONLY murdered for ONE crime [“sin”]. But, murdered for the crimes of ALL HUMANITY, even those crimes [“sins”] that had been committed BEFORE “Jesus Christ” was born.
No longer did the idea of Christ dying for my sins have any appeal. No longer did that idea reflect, in my mind, the Existence of a LOVING God. In my mind, anyone that would force HIS OWN SON to be tortured and slaughtered for someone else was NOT a Loving God, nor was his son committing an act of Love. He was committing an act for an UNJUST God.
Well, I began my search. I began to look VERY CAREFULLY at the Bible, to see if there were any clues that I could find that would allow me to show somebody–ANYBODY–that this dogma was a lie. And I found it. Where was it? Did I go to Israel and dig up an old manuscript, from under the earth, that exposed something DIFFERENT than what the Bible had stated? Did I meet a priest that worked in the Vatican Library, who had “the secrets”? No.
I simply read PRECISELY WHAT THE BIBLE SAID, and there it was right in front of me:
“Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them.”
There it was, right in the Bible: HE HAD SURVIVED THE CRUCIFIXION. He had NOT died on the cross “for the sins of the world.” And that meant that, GOD WAS A JUST GOD.
Church-Christianity had tried to SPIRITUALIZE something that NOT spiritual. The good nuns “explained” that, “See, my son, this is a mystery. Jesus was both God and man.” No, no, NO. Jesus was a crucifixion victim–a PROPHET. And, like other crucifixions at that time [as is recorded by the ancient Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus], he was taken down from the cross, after a BRIEF period of time had lapsed, and because of that HE SURVIVED. Listen to what Flavius Josephus saw, with his own eyes:
“I was sent by Titus Caesar with Ceralius and a thousand riders to a certain town by the name of Thecoa to find out whether a camp could be set up at this place. On my return I saw many prisoners who had been crucified, and recognized three of them as my former companions. I was inwardly very sad about this and went with tears in my eyes to Titus and told him about them. He at once gave the order that they should be taken down and given the best treatment so they could get better. However two of them died while being attended to by the doctor; the third recovered.” (Flavius Josephus, Vita, IV, 75)
Jesus survived the crucifixion. He then escaped his homeland, travelled across Asia, made his way to India, where he continued preaching to some of the “Lost Tribes” that had been scattered to that area. There he married, had children, lived a normal life, and died at the age of 120. He is buried under the Rozabal tomb, which is located in the Kan Yar area of Srinagar, Kashmir, India. Here is that tomb:
http://scriptures.ru/india/kashmir/shrinagar/rozabal034.jpg
Jesus is not coming back. He’s DEAD. His body is under the Rozabal, inside a sarcophagus. His soul is with God. His work was finished, when he was here the first and ONLY time, and he is enjoying the next life, with His Lord God.
It is my belief that someone else has come as a SPIRITUAL equivalent of Jesus. He was born a human being, with his OWN SOUL, not the soul of Jesus.
In the Bible, the Disciples asked Jesus if he was Elias. Jesus motioned to John the Baptist, pointing out that John the Baptist was Elias. What Jesus was teaching, by doing that, was the PRINCIPLE that, a Prophet DOES NOT physically come back. SOMEONE ELSE is born that has that Prophet’s QUALITIES; that has that prophet’s particular spiritual qualities.
The man who has come back as The Promised Messiah is Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of The Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam.
You may study everything you’d like to know about him, his Movement, and many, many other things, at this website:
http://www.alislam.org .
The majority Muslim belief, that Jesus is coming back to establish Islam for once and for all, is a fairy tale. it is untrue. If Allah were going to let any human being come back to establish Islam, it would have been Prophet Muhammad, sallalaho alaihe wa salaam, NOT a Jewish prophet that HIMSELF had stated that he had been sent for the ISRAELITES, and no one else.
I mean no offense to anyone. But, this is what I believe to be the truth. You’ll be waiting FOREVER for “Jesus Christ” to return to this earth. It will not happen. He has “returned,” but only in the sense that someone that had his spiritual qualities was born, and taught the same message of peace, love, humility, etc., as Jesus taught when he was alive on this earth, over 2000 years ago.
Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, The Promised Messiah & Mahdi, is the “return” of “Jesus Christ.” He is also the world reformer that was mentioned in all of the various scriptures of the various religions. It would not have made sense that different reformers would come, in these End Times.
The gathering of humanity is occurring within Ahmadiyyat, which was founded in 1889. We are blessed be led by the 5th Successor to Hazrat Ahmad, whose name is Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih III (“Khalifatul Masih” means, Successor of the Messiah).
Jesus is dead.
CORRECTION. Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih V, is the FIFTH Successor to Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, The Promised Messiah & Mahdi.
Hi
i’m an arab and more muslim than u and i say that your Mirza ghulam has nothing with Islam and it just one antichrist who came before the coming Antichrist
I encourage you to read the totality of the Bible and see the accounts where Jesus was buried in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimethea ( a secret religious follower) and was resurrected on the third day. The scriptures are replete with this reality, even Peter states that Jesus went to hell and preached to the disobedient souls. Yes, Jesus died, was in the grave before corruption set in, then He was resurrected in a glorified body. As far as your dilemma why a righteous God would have His Son die for the sins of the unjust, Jesus was the beginning of God’s new creation, humanity had to be redeemed by His blood, following God’s pattern of atoning sins in the OT, a just creature (animal) had to die to atone for the sins of the guilty. The animal blood could not impart any renewing qualities to a human being born in sin, therefore the Son of God willingly chose to do that. True Christians are born again, renewed by His blood and become conformed to His image.
Thank you for the synaxiarion. I believe that this is quite consistent with what I know of the Church of God and its teachings and departures over 2000 years. The end of 7,000 years is most interesting. I have a Chronology, worked out over 20 years, which gets us to 2016 from -5589 (some say 5,589 BC). The General Cosmic Year 1 date is -4915 to -4914. 7,000 plus gives 2087 (some say AD). The 6,000 years sometimes attributed to Irenaeus – I believe, this could be checked – therefore starts with the conversion of Enoch in -3914.