ON THE END TIMES
From a Letter of the Optina Elder [and New Martyr] St.
Anatoly the Younger (+1922).
Heresies will spread everywhere and deceive many
people. The enemy of the human race will act with cunning in order to draw into
heresy, if possible, even the elect.
He will not begin by crudely rejecting the dogmas of
the Holy Trinity, the divinity of Jesus Christ and the virtue of the Theotokos,
but he will begin imperceptibly to distort the teachings and statutes of the
Church and their very spirit, handed down to us by the Holy Fathers through the
Holy Spirit. Few will notice these wiles of the enemy, only those more
experienced in the spiritual life. Heretics will seize power over the Church
and will place their servants everywhere; the pious will be regarded with
contempt. He (the Lord) said, by theirfruits ye shall know them, and so, by
their fruits, as well as by the actions of the heretics, strive to distinguish
them from the true pastors. These are spiritual thieves, plundering the
spiritual flock, and they will enter the sheepfold (the Church), climbing up
some other way, using force and trampling upon the divine statutes.