A Hierarchical Word on End-Times Fanatics

I've discussed widespread, misplaced obsession with eschatology a bit on this blog in the past. But these words from Met. JOHN succinctly encapsulate the inner dynamic of many obsessed with "the end times" (and not just in Protestantism):

The real meaning of the English word "Gospel" is good news, but one can find those who are more attracted to the Bad News Gospel. You can find religious circles more interested in the anti-Christ than in Christ, more interested in the number 666 than the Holy Trinity. This is a fear-driven, bad news orientation. Where such a mentality thrives, the Christian contribution to society is meager. Where faith, hope and love flourish, transformation occurs. Faith changes life. If life doesn't change, clearly there is no faith. St. John Chrysostom, preaching to perhaps 400 people in Antioch, told them, "If all of you were Christians, there would be no more pagans in the world." If you want to understand how Christianity spread so rapidly in the early centuries, it was because Christians were Christian...This is our tragedy because more than ever the world needs the light of Christ, the genuine light.

— Metropolitan JOHN [Pelushi] of Korça, Albanian Orthodox Church.

Incidentally, if the Metropolitan's last name sounds similar to a certain group of comedic brothers, that's with reason: both John and James Belushi are Albanian Orthodox.

(Hat tip: Pious Fabrications)

What's Your Eschatology?

Good news here; looks like I score within historic Orthodoxy and not as a disciple of the modern chilialist revival. How'd you do? - BJ.

You scored as Amillenialist. Amillenialism believes that the 1,000 year reign is not literal but figurative, and that Christ began to reign at His Ascension. People take some prophetic scripture far too literally in your view. Amillenialist 100% Preterist 90% Moltmannian Eschatology 80% Postmillenialist 40% Premillenialist 35% Left Behind 5% Dispensationalist 0% What's your eschatology? created with QuizFarm.com

Orthodoxy on "666"

Following up on our earlier post about today's date, here are some Orthodox and patristic reflections on the number 666:

St. Hippolytus of Rome: "I have an opinion as to this number [666]...will give us the words, 'I deny.'"

St. Irenaeus of Lyons writes this number signifies the number of heresies from the foundation of the Church.

The Coptic priest Fr. Tadros Y. Malaty gives an interesting review of patristic thought on this number in his Commentary on Revelation: "Many of the Fathers think that he mentioned the number simply to confirm the truth, that he is in fact a man and has a name." He also relates St. John Climacus' view that "6" means "incomplete" and "inferior," two outstanding traits of this figure. Fr. Malaty concludes, "[I]t is enough for us to know that he will come denying and refuting faith in the Lord Jesus, appointing himself as a king."

Rassophore Monk Vsevolod follows the fathers in discouraging vain speculation -- particularly the kind rampant in the "end times" culture of today -- in his article "Count the Number of the Beast: '666,'" published in the ROCOR publication Orthodox America:

[T]he Apostle John the Theologian indicated specifically that in order to comprehend the name of the beast it was essential to have wisdom, i.e., Christian love of wisdom, and not simply an arithmetical formula...Many people think that the seal of the Antichrist will be something like a stamp or brand, or an electronic chip implanted under the skin. The basis for such thinking lies in the fantastically rapid development of science and technology in this direction. Most likely, however, this scientific development is designed to distract mankind's attention from the real mark of Antichrist, which will have nothing to do with the advances of science, technology or medicine. At a time when people's suspicions and anxieties are fixed upon some innovation of progress-the implantation of computer chips in humans, for example-the real seal of Antichrist will be imprinted quietly, without any particular commotion...even before the placing of the marks (or even before the coming of Antichrist), they will accuse the earthly part of Christ's Church with having accepted the mark of Antichrist, although in fact this will be simply some credit card or new type of personal document. Furthermore, such zealots "not according to knowledge" will proclaim that their group alone - which has rejected these "marks" (cards, documents, products with certain symbols, etc.) - is the true Church. Clearly, this will be nothing but a new schism or sect. Already now we find many sad examples of such splinter groups, and they will only increase in the last times.

This makes an interesting contrast with this picture of the Greek Church in Cyprus from the year 2000:

The Greek Orthodox Church spoke out against the use of 666, prompting the government to announce that it will no longer issue its citizens identity cards that bear the creepy code. In fact, it went so far as to promise that the I.D.s will now feature six instead of three digits.

This should take care of any and all numeric disputes until a devout churchgoer ends up with 696969.

Finally, I see the phone number for Holy Virgin Mary Cathedral in L.A. (home of Bp. TIKHON) begins with -- wait for it! -- "666." Other Orthodox churches with this prefix include:

• the OCA's St. George Cathedral in Chicago;
• the Presentation of Our Lord Romanian Orthodox Church in Fairlawn, Ohio;
• St. Thomas Bulgarian Church in Fairlawn;
• St. George Antiochian of Akron; and
• Many more.

(My Russian friends tell me that's St. George Cathedral gets for leaving ROCOR.) :)

The Orthodox fathers, though perhaps non-plussed by having the number 666 plastered on a church, would draw attention not to the numbers on the outside of the Church but the Savior within Who beckons all to Himself in the hopes that where He is, we may be also.

666? Booga, booga, booga!

Today is June 6, 2006, or in numerical notation 6/6/06. Taking advantage of the date, Hollywood has released a remake of The Omen. (The first wasn't boring enough?) Credulous evangelicals are taking care not to walk under ladders or cross the path of black cats. This author thought a former boss -- a very evangelical-minded Methodist -- was going to run us off the road when we got behind a taxi with the number "666."

Why the heightened tension around this date? First of all, the date isn't "666" but "6606," which isn't the number of anything. Secondly, generations have "accepted" this date once a century (June 6, 1906; June 6, 1806, etc.) and will continue to do so until time shall be no more.

But most importantly, like blaspheming the Holy Spirit, the nervous view is informed by an overly literal interpretation of this number (as are worries about Social Security numbers, taxi tags, and the like). Accepting the "number of the Beast" will involve a rejection of Christ. It may be no more than offering a pinch of incense in front of the emperor's statue -- or the new false gods of the secular age, who are legion. The best preventative against this is a close relationship with God and membership in His Church. St. Augustine of Hippo noted, "evil is nothing but the removal of good until finally no good remains." Conversely, an unbroken stream of witnesses say overcoming evil involves some warfare against that passion...but also the acquisition of good (or rather, acquisition of The Good One) until evil is crowded out of our lives by the indwelling of God, drowned in the flow of the Holy Spirit. This will get any Christian much further than, say, skipping work today (which you will have to confess at some point, anyway).

The "Left Behind" Code

Our friend Huw quotes another blogger with an important point: not all harmful fiction is produced by non-Christians:

I don't think it has more harmful ideas in it than the Left Behind novels. And in a certain way, what the Left Behind novels do, the way they twist scripture toward a certain theological and political end, I think Brown is twisting scripture, just to other political ends.

This is worth pointing out: the Left Behind series promotes chiliaism, continuously condemned by the Church since ancient times.[1] From my perspective, both are doleful developments -- more impetus for traditional Christians to enter the arts. (Two, three, many Mel Gibsons!) However, TDC is much worse than LB. The Left Behind series has probably won few if any converts to this peculiar, innovative approach to "the end times" who didn't believe in it already. How many people had ever considered that Jesus married Mary Magdalene before reading TDC? As this author noted, this was not a new idea, but TDC revived this discredited thesis for a new generation and popularized it within an easily digested framework that appealed to the right brain (like Arius with his tunes).

Culturally, we've seen all a ridiculous idea needs is a nose-in-the-tent of American society. After all, who would have imagined where the early discussion of gay marriage would lead? (Anyone remember the picture of Phil Donahue wearing a wedding dress on his TV program a mere fifteen years ago?) Perhaps this is why St. Paul instructs, " For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret" (Eph. 5:12).

Certainly, Orthodox need to do a better job of challenging the premillenialist/rapture/kill-all-Russians-and-Arabs-and-Catholics view of eschatology dominating what's left of American Christian society. But it has waxed-and-waned over centuries; the heresy promoted by TDC is another magnitude of error.

1. A few early Fathers believed in chilialism, St. Irenaeus being perhaps the best-known.