| So if the mark of the beast in the Revelation is not the Coronavirus vaccine, nor credit cards nor microchips, what is it? Or what if it isn’t an IT at all? What if the mark of the beast refers to something much more pedestrian, much more in keeping with what the scriptures teach everywhere? The following in is an interpretation of the mark of the beast, based on the scripture. There is nothing exciting about this interpretation, which in my opinion gives it weight. It is an interpretation that has always applied throughout the ages because it is nothing more than one of the fundamental teachings of Christ and His Church. In the Revelation, there are two marks, or seals, placed on people’s foreheads. The first of these is called a seal and is found in Revelation 7. This is the seal put on the servants of God (v.3), those who worship before the Throne of God (v.9), those who “have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb”(v.14). The second is the mark of the beast and is referred to from chapter 13 onward. Every reference to people being sealed with the mark of the beast tells us that this mark is associated with worshiping the beast: 13:15,16; 14:9,11. So there are two marks/seals put on people’s foreheads in the book of Revelation, and both have to do with worship, specifically, who you worship. Those who worship God will be manifest clearly because the seal is on their forehead, those who worship the beast may be manifest or hidden. That is, the mark of their worship may be on their forehead (manifest clearly) or it may be on their right hand (revealed only by what they do). A further indicator of the mark of the beast is that it is tied somehow to commerce. One is reminded here of the verse from the Wisdom of Sirach 27:2, “Sin will be wedged between the buying and the selling.” For Jesus and the Apostles, money and how we relate to it is of primary importance. Jesus says that you cannot serve God and mammon. St. Paul tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil and that greed is idolatry. St. James has some very harsh things to say about worldly riches (5:1-5). |
| 4. Voice a single request, not a sequence of them. “Go, take something, then give it to me, wash your hands and sit down to dinner” is too complicated for a preschooler, they will miss one thing or “not hear” the whole request. 5. Remove sarcasm, metaphors, and other hyperboles from speech. “How much longer are you going to fiddle around?” does not push the child to hurry up. “Why don’t you sit in a puddle!” can be interpreted as a direct order. Try to make your request bluntly and kindly: we need to get ready faster, what can I help you with? Let’s go around the puddle so that you will be as beautiful at the celebration as you are now. 6. At the same time, pay attention to all sentence with the “not” particle. “Don’t run”, “don’t fool around”, “don’t scream” gives information about what you do not need to do but does not provide any conception what you need to do. I am not running, fooling around, or screaming: so, what is the point? Yet, if a parent says, “let’s go smoothly as ballerinas”, “let’s talk quietly as if we entered a space library”, then everything is clear: I am a ballerina now, and you are a book lover. 7. Give them more time. It is difficult for preschoolers to quickly switch from one activity to another, so we can help them learn this skill. Three more times down the hill, and then we should go home. One more chapter and we will go to bed. Look them in the eye, put your hand on their shoulder, and call them by their name. Then the chances that you will go home or go to bed increase exponentially. I understand perfectly well that we cannot change our behavior right away, because we had it for more than a decade. And children will not immediately accustom themselves to our world of sounds. However, we can move towards each other carefully, patiently, step by step. And believe that one day we will meet on this path. 3 ways to negotiate with a teenager Wow, wait a second you’ll say. What if our child is no longer a preschooler? What if they have already developed voluntary attention? What should I do about them? |
| (5) Be still. Set aside time each day to sit quietly in front of an icon of Christ, about 20-30 minutes. Light a candle, say a short prayer, and then simply wait in silence for the Lord to speak a word, or to bestow a deeper sense of His presence. Being silent is a way of saying to God, “I am here. And I wait on no other than You. Visit me in my smallness.” Stillness during Holy Week is a good practice for the experience of Great and Holy Friday and Saturday. The most eloquent word ever spoken is the silence of our dead Savior while hanging on the cross, and while lying in the tomb. His silence says everything. The stillness of His death is the great action that redeems and sanctifies all the world. His silence on the cross shouts down hell. His stillness in the tomb explodes the realm of the dead and bestows life on all. When we practice stillness and silence during Holy Week, we are preparing to unite our silence to Christ’s. We are preparing to die with our Savior … so that we too might be raised to new life! (6) Always be with Christ (as Fr +Tom Hopko reminds us). Occupy your mind as often as you can with a short prayer. If you do not already have the habit of praying the Jesus Prayer, Holy Week is a great time to begin: “O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” This prayer increases our awareness of the nearness of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It reminds us that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God. Christ is always with us, and through continual prayer, we work to do the same — to always be with our Lord who loves and strengthens us. (7) Read a Gospel. Set aside time each day to read several chapters from either Matthew, Mark, or Luke. (We save John for after Pascha!) And remember that in the Gospels, we do not find words about Christ, we find words from Christ. Each verse of Holy Scripture is a word spoken directly to you by the raised and glorified Lord. Each word is a word for now, each word is a new word that you have never received before. Enjoy the gift! Jesus wants to give it to you! |
| A more detailed description of the creation of man is given in the second chapter. We learn that God created Adam first, then Eve ( Gen.2:7 ). Man’s body is formed 4 out of the ground, and so in his body man is an earthly or carnal being, like the animals. In this text “the breath of life” is to be distinguished from “the living soul.” In Hebrew “breath” is neshamah, meaning breath, breathing, that which breathes (is alive), or, a rational spirit. The being or soul in Hebrew is nephesh. This word is also related to the idea of breath, but in biblical language it usually has the meaning of being, or the total of all man’s vital functions, and is therefore used as a synonym for the word “life.” Adam became a living being when he received from God the breath of life. In man the soul is the principle of life, but the soul itself is given life by the Spirit of God. The soul is not Divine and yet its life proceeds from God. 5 God prepared paradise that He might place man there to maintain and cultivate it ( Gen.2:8–15 ). Here for the first time we see the outlines of God’s paternal care for men, something which is dealt with again and again in later Scriptures. Before revealing Himself as the Father of His Divine Son, God reveals Himself as the Father of man... The keeping and tilling of paradise must be seen in terms of the general commandment to possess the earth and rule over it. Man’s creative activity is obviously connected with his likeness to God. Among the other trees of paradise God planted the tree of life ( Gen.3:22 ), and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ( Gen.2:16–17 ). The designation of these trees is clearly explained in the Genesis story. The first was able to give man immortality, something not regarded therefore, in the Old Testament, as an essential element of human nature. To taste the second tree meant the destruction of man’s moral nature, and at the same time of his life. The essential bond between life and morality or between death and immorality was established here with the utmost clarity, once and for all. This necessary connection between justice and existence is the foundation of our whole religion. |
| I also want to say something about why this particular passage was selected—not about the Nativity narrative, not about the babe in the manger, but what happened afterwards; just as on Pascha we do not read about the Resurrection. We read from the first chapter of St. John about the nature of God, Jesus Christ Who is eternally the Son, becoming man so that we could be one with Him. Why do we do this? Why do we look ahead? Well, first of all, in our services we have already read the Nativity narrative many times previous to today. In the same way, throughout the year, every Sunday we read the Resurrection narratives. But knowing the history is not what you need. What you need is to become what the purpose is of our Lord’s incarnation, death, and Resurrection. So, we read on the Nativity about the wise men, and how they went back another way—because the Nativity is so that you can live another way, a different way, not the way of human flesh without Christ, but the way of being a Christ-man, a deified creature. That is why we read it. It’s the same on Pascha, and the same thing also after Theophany. On the Sunday after the Theophany we read of Christ going into the wilderness, being tempted by the devil, because after baptism comes temptation. After baptism comes life, the living of your life with the power that God has given you, so that you can live differently from the rest of the world, differently from your own motivations; so that you can be changed, become a deified Christ-human creature. That is the purpose of the incarnation. St. Paul says it in clear language—for those who have ears to hear—in one of my favorites of all the epistles, where he speaks of the fullness of time, when God sent His Son, the Incarnation, and then he says to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His son into your hearts crying Abba, Father; wherefore ye are no more a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ (Gal.4:5-7) . Do you know what this means? This is possible because through the Incarnation, and then Baptism, and being filled with the Holy Spirit, we can become something that we are not. We can become, as the Scripture says, gods. It is not blasphemous to say that. The Psalm says ye are gods, and the Church understands that to mean that we will become God-like, full of righteousness, truth, mercy, and the knowledge of God—something that we do not have by nature. Jesus Christ is the Son of God by nature, eternally. But we are not sons of God by nature—we are adopted into sonship; and with this adoption we are treated entirely as sons. But this necessitates a change in the way we think, the way we live, the priorities we have, and how we spend our time. It means we must live a different way, another way. |
| Thus, to live in the Church is an essential condition for a Christian " s moral development. The Church of Christ was founded by our Lord the Saviour and He showed us the path by which we must go to Him, and He showed us how to follow His teaching. He said, " I am the way, the truth, and the life " (John 14:6). Consequently, we must go by this path, pointed out to us by our Saviour. Every path and every action demands a podvighat is, an ascetic struggle. Therefore, our holy Orthodox Faith is an ascetic faith demanding ascetic labor in the struggle with our sinful passions and lusts. How must we live and struggle? Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself shows an example: " For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you " (John 13:15). The saints also provide us with an example. In His Sermon on the Mount our Lord Jesus Christ gives us the whole essence of Evangelical teaching. This is found in the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of the Gospel of St. Matthew. In the Beatitudes the Lord teaches us that we must be born again spiritually and thus prepare ourselves for the beatitude of eternal life in the heavenly man signs. The first step towards this is to recognize one " s spiritual emptiness, one " s sinfulness and worthlessness, to become humble. This is why " blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven " (Matt. 5:3). But only those who observe all the commandments will achieve this. " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven " (Matt. 7:21). In order to go by the path that our Lord pointed out in the holy Gospel, we have to take ourselves under control, we must check and test ourselves. Bishop Theophan the Recluse says: The true Christian tests himself every day. Daily testing to see whether we have become better or worse, is so essential for us that without it we cannot be called Christians. Constantly and persistently we must take ourselves in hand. |
| What praise, then, shall we give to Him, or what return shall we make for the things which we have received? 3 We were deficient 4 in understanding, worshipping stones and wood, and gold, and silver, and brass, the works of men " s hands; 5 and our whole life was nothing else than death. Involved in blindness, and with such darkness 6 before our eyes, we have received sight, and through His will have laid aside that cloud by which we were enveloped. For He had compassion on us, and mercifully saved us, observing the many errors in which we were entangled, as well as the destruction to which we were exposed, 7 and that we had no hope of salvation except it came to us from Him. For He called us when we were not, 8 and willed that out of nothing we should attain a real existence. 9 Chap. ii.–The church, formerly barren, is now fruitful. «Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for she that is desolate hath many more children than she that hath an husband.» 10 In that He said, «Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not,» He referred to us, for our church was barren before that children were given to her. But when He said, «Cry out, thou that travailest not,» He means this, that we should sincerely offer up our prayers to God, and should not, like women in travail, show signs of weakness. 11 And in that He said, «For she that is desolate hath many more children than she that hath an husband,» [He means] that our people seemed to be outcast from God, but now, through believing, have become more numerous than those who are reckoned to possess God. 12 And another Scripture saith, «I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.» 13 This means that those who are perishing must be saved. For it is indeed a great and admirable thing to establish not the things which are standing, but those that are falling. Thus also did Christ desire to save the things which were perishing, 14 and has saved many by coming and calling us when hastening to destruction. 15 Chap. iii.–The duty of confessing Christ Since, then, He has displayed so great mercy towards us, and especially in this respect, that we who are living should not offer sacrifices to gods that are dead, or pay them worship, but should attain through Him to the knowledge of the true Father, whereby shall we show that we do indeed know Him, 16 but by not denying Him through whom this knowledge has been attained? For He himself declares, «Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father.» 17 This, then, is our reward if we shall confess Him by whom we have been saved. But in what way shall we confess Him? By doing what He says, and not transgressing His commandments, and by honouring Him not with our lips only, but with all our heart and all our mind. 18 For He says in Isaiah, «This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.» 19 Chapter iv. True confession of Christ |
| While most Orthodox Christians are perhaps aware of the general rule of fasting for Great Lent and the Dormition Fast (wine and oil allowed only on Saturdays and Sundays, except for a few feast days and vigils), many are probably not familiar with the precise rule governing the less severe fast of the Nativity and Apostles " Fast. Therefore, we shall quote this rule, from Chapter 33 of the Typicon: " It should be noted that in the Fast of the Holy Apostles and of the Nativity of Christ, on Tuesday and Thursday we do not eat fish, but only oil and wine. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we eat neither oil nor wine... On Saturday and Sunday we eat fish. If there occurs on Tuesday or Thursday a saint who has a Doxology, we eat fish; if on Monday, the same; but if on Wednesday or Friday, we allow only oil and wine. If it be a saint who has a Vigil on Wednesday or Friday, or the saint whose temple it is, we allow oil and wine and fish... But from the 20th of December until the 25th, even if it be Saturday or Sunday, we do not allow fish. " In these two fasts, the fast for laymen is the same as that of many Orthodox monasteries, where Monday throughout the year is kept as a fast day in honor of the fleshless ones, the Angels. This rule of fasting, to be sure, is not intended to be a " straight-jacket " for Orthodox believers, nor a source of pharisaical pride for anyone who keeps the letter of the Church " s law. It is rather the rule, the standard, against which each is to measure his own practice, and towards which one must always strive, according to one " s strength and circumstances. Whenever, for sickness or any other reason, one falls short of the rule, he applies to himself the spiritual medicine of self-reproach and strives to enter more fully into the spirit and discipline of fasting, which is indeed of great spiritual benefit to those who sincerely strive to follow it. Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) 27 февраля 2014 г. Рейтинг: 6.6 Голосов: 25 Оценка: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Подпишитесь на рассылку Православие.Ru Рассылка выходит два раза в неделю: |
| • Turn off the television, radio, and stereo for the entire lenten season, except for news and serious or educational programs. • Do not visit or engage in outside activities for their own sake. Keep useless talking to a minimum. Do only necessary business, good works, and acts of charity. • Examine and measure every aspect of your life—family, work, society, politics, economics, values, and desires—against the model set forth by the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. • Question yourself in regard to love, truth, honest, purity, humility, peace, forgiveness, justice, mercy, hungering, and thirsting for God, wisdom, and knowledge. • In the name of Jesus Christ, forgive all who have offended you and seek forgiveness from those whom you have offended. If it will not be embarrassing or misinterpreted as an act of self-righteousness, express yourself as concretely as possible. Visit, make a phone call, and so forth. • Set aside and give a sizeable portion of your resources to others; the parish, the poor, a social or educational agency. Tell no one what you have done. Ask no gratitude and forgo requesting a receipt. Do not advertise what you are doing. • Fast strictly at all times. Eat no meat, as the basic minimum. Suit your fast to your work, but avoid luxury. Again, tell no one. Do not advertise or discuss your fasting with anyone and avoid judging others who may not be fasting with you. • Pray at home at least at one fixed time each day. Choose a brief rule of prayer, but keep it faithfully. • Read the scriptures in the same brief, yet regular way. You may wish to follow the Church’s calendar, read a chapter of a given book on a daily basis, or simply read and reflect upon passages which you happen upon. In addition, meditate upon these: 1 John; Romans 12-14; Matthew 5 – 7, and John 14-17. • Be faithful to Christ’s gospel in every word, action, and thought—even the smallest or most insignificant. • Participate in all of the weekly lenten services, especially the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, Saturday evening Great Vespers, and the Sunday Divine Liturgy, confessing seriously and receiving Holy Communion frequently. |
| And all this anguish is sometimes forestalled by one stroke of the body or sudden flitting of the soul, the swiftness of which prevents it from being felt. But whatever that may be in the dying which with violently painful sensation robs of all sensation, yet, when it is piously and faithfully borne, it increases the merit of patience, but does not make the name of punishment inapplicable. Death, proceeding by ordinary generation from the first man, is the punishment of all who are born of him, yet, if it be endured for righteousness» sake, it becomes the glory of those who are born again; and though death be the award of sin, it sometimes secures that nothing be awarded to sin. Chapter 7.– Of the Death Which the Unbaptized Suffer for the Confession of Christ. For whatever unbaptized persons die confessing Christ, this confession is of the same efficacy for the remission of sins as if they were washed in the sacred font of baptism. For He who said, Unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God, John 3:5 made also an exception in their favor, in that other sentence where He no less absolutely said, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven; Matthew 10:32 and in another place, Whosoever will lose his life for my sake, shall find it. Matthew 16:25 And this explains the verse, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. For what is more precious than a death by which a man " s sins are all forgiven, and his merits increased an hundredfold? For those who have been baptized when they could no longer escape death, and have departed this life with all their sins blotted out have not equal merit with those who did not defer death, though it was in their power to do so, but preferred to end their life by confessing Christ, rather than by denying Him to secure an opportunity of baptism. And even had they denied Him under pressure of the fearof death, this too would have been forgiven them in that baptism, in which was remitted even the enormous wickedness of those who had slain Christ. |
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