It is natural for us to talk about the Last Judgment and the signs of the end of the world. No one knows that day, only God the Father knows, but signs of its approach are given both in the Gospel and in the Revelation of St. John the Theologian. 

Revelation speaks about the events of the end of the world and the Last Judgment primarily in images and in secret, but the holy fathers explained it, and there is a genuine church tradition that tells us both about the signs of the approaching end of the world and about the Last Judgment.

Before the end of earthly life there will be confusion, wars, civil strife, famine, and earthquakes.

 
People will suffer from fear, they will die from the anticipation of disasters. There will be no life, no joy of life, but a painful state of falling away from life. But there will be a falling away not only from life, but also from faith, and when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?

People will become proud and ungrateful, denying the Divine Law: along with the falling away from life there will be an impoverishment of moral life. There will be a depletion of good and an increase in evil.

St. John the Theologian speaks about this time in his inspired book of Revelation. He himself says that he “was in the Spirit,” which means that the Holy Spirit Himself was in him, when the destinies of the Church and the world were revealed to him in various images, and therefore it is God’s Revelation.

He represents the fate of the Church in the image of a woman who was hiding in the desert in those days: she does not appear in life, as now in Russia.

In life, those forces that are preparing the appearance of the Antichrist will have a guiding significance. The Antichrist will be a man, and not the devil incarnate. "Anti" is a word that means "old" or it means "instead of" or "against." That person wants to be instead of Christ, to take His place and have what Christ should have had. He wants to have the same charm and power over the whole world.

And he will receive that power before the destruction of himself and the whole world. He will have an assistant, the Magician, who, by the power of false miracles, will carry out his will and kill those who do not recognize the power of the Antichrist. Before the death of the Antichrist, two righteous people will appear who will denounce him. The magician will kill them, and for three days their bodies will lie unburied, and there will be extreme rejoicing of the Antichrist and all his servants, and suddenly those righteous will be resurrected, and the entire army of the Antichrist will be in confusion, horror, and the Antichrist himself will suddenly fall dead, killed by the power of the Spirit.

But what is known about the man Antichrist? His exact origin is unknown. He will be a Jew from the tribe of Dan. An indication of this is that Jacob, dying, said that he, in his descendants, “is a serpent by the way, which will smite the horse, and then the rider will fall backward.” This is a figurative indication that he will act with cunning and evil.

John the Theologian, in Revelation, speaks about the salvation of the sons of Israel, that before the end of the world many Jews will turn to Christ, but the tribe of Dan is not in the list of tribes being saved. The Antichrist will be very smart and gifted with the ability to deal with people. He will be charming and affectionate. The philosopher Vladimir Solovyov worked hard to imagine the coming and personality of the Antichrist. He carefully used all materials on this issue, not only patristic, but also Muslim, and developed such a vivid picture.

Before the coming of the Antichrist, the world is already preparing for his appearance. “The secret is already in action,” and the forces preparing its appearance are primarily fighting against legitimate royal power. St. John says that “the Antichrist cannot appear until He who restrains him is removed.” John Chrysostom explains that “he who restrains” is the legitimate godly authority.

Such [legitimate] power fights against evil. The “Mystery” operating in the world does not want this, does not want to fight evil with power: on the contrary, it wants the power of lawlessness, and when it achieves this, then nothing will prevent the appearance of the Antichrist. He will not only be smart and charming: he will be compassionate, will do mercy and goodness in order to strengthen his power. And when he strengthens it so much that the whole world recognizes him, then he will reveal his face.

He will choose Jerusalem as his capital, because it was here that the Savior revealed the Divine teaching and His Personality, and the whole world was called to the bliss of goodness and salvation. But the world did not accept Christ and crucified Him in Jerusalem, and under the Antichrist, Jerusalem will become the capital of the world, which recognized the power of the Antichrist.

Having reached the pinnacle of power, the Antichrist will demand from people recognition that he has achieved what no earthly power or anyone could achieve, and will demand worship of himself as a higher being, as a god.

V. Solovyov well describes the nature of his activities as the Supreme Ruler. He will do something pleasant for everyone, provided that his Supreme Power is recognized. He will provide the opportunity for the life of the Church, will allow it to worship, will promise the construction of beautiful temples, subject to recognition of him as the “Supreme Being” and worship of him. He will have a personal hatred of Christ. He will live by this hatred and rejoice in the apostasy of people from Christ and the Church. There will be a massive falling away from the faith, and many bishops will betray their faith and will point to the brilliant position of the Church as justification.

Seeking a compromise will be a characteristic mood of people. The directness of confession will disappear. People will subtly justify their fall, and gentle evil will support such a general mood, and people will have the skill of deviating from the truth and the sweetness of compromise and sin.

The Antichrist will allow people everything, as long as they “fall and bow down to him.” This is not a new attitude towards people: the Roman emperors were also ready to give freedom to Christians, if only they would recognize their divinity and divine sovereignty, and they tortured Christians only because they professed to “worship God alone and serve Him alone.”

The whole world will submit to him, and then he will reveal the face of his hatred of Christ and Christianity. St. John the Theologian says that all who worship him will have a sign on their forehead and right hand. It is unknown whether this will really be a mark on the body, or whether it is a figurative expression of the fact that with their minds people will recognize the need to worship the Antichrist and their will will be completely subordinated to him. During such a complete subjugation of the whole world – by will and consciousness – the previously mentioned two righteous men will appear and will fearlessly preach the faith and denounce the Antichrist.

Holy Scripture says that before the coming of the Savior two “lamps”, two “burning olive trees”, “two righteous people” will appear. They will be killed by the Antichrist with the forces of the Magician. Who are these righteous people? According to church tradition, there are two righteous people who did not taste death: the prophet Elijah and the prophet Enoch. There is a prophecy that these righteous people who have not tasted death will taste it for three days, and after three days they will be resurrected.

Their death will be the great joy of the Antichrist and his servants. Their resurrection in three days will lead them into unspeakable horror, fear, and confusion. That's when the world will end.

The Apostle Peter says that the first world was created from water and perished by water. “Out of the water” is also an image of the chaos of physical mass, but it died in the water of the flood. “And now the world is being preserved for fire.” “The earth and everything on it will burn up.” All the elements will ignite. This present world will perish in an instant. In an instant everything will change.

And the sign of the Son of God will appear — that is, the sign of the cross. The whole world, which freely submitted to the Antichrist, will “mourn.” Everything is over. Antichrist has been killed. The end of his kingdom, the struggle with Christ. The end and responsibility for all life, the answer to the True God.

Then the Ark of the Covenant will appear from the Palestinian mountains — the prophet Jeremiah hid the ark and the Holy Fire in a deep well. When water was taken from that well, it began to glow. But the Ark itself was not found.

When we now look at life, those who can see see that everything predicted about the end of the world is being fulfilled.

Who is this man Antichrist? St. John the Theologian figuratively gives his name 666, but all attempts to understand this designation were in vain.

The life of the modern world gives us a fairly clear concept of the possibility of the world burning, when “all the elements will ignite.” This concept is given to us by the decomposition of the atom.

The end of the world does not mean its destruction, but its change. Everything will change suddenly, in the blink of an eye. The dead will rise in new bodies — their own, but renewed, just as when the Savior was resurrected in His Body, it had traces of wounds from nails and spears, but it had new properties and in this sense was a new body.

It is unclear whether it will be a completely new body, or the way man was created.

And the Lord will appear with glory on a cloud. How will we see? Spiritual vision. And now, at death, righteous people see what other people around them do not see.

The trumpets will sound powerfully and loudly. They will sound the trumpet in souls and consciences. Everything will become clear in the human conscience.

The Prophet Daniel, speaking about the Last Judgment, says that the Elder Judge is on the throne, and in front of him is a river of fire. Fire is a purifying element. Fire consumes sin, burns it, and woe — if sin is natural to the person himself — then it burns the person himself.

That fire will ignite inside a person: seeing the Cross, some will rejoice, while others will fall into despair, confusion, and horror. So people will immediately be divided: in the Gospel narrative, before the Judge, some stand to the right, others to the left — they were divided by their inner consciousness.

The very state of a person’s soul throws him in one direction or another, to the right or to the left. The more consciously and persistently a person strived for God in his life, the greater his joy will be when he hears the word “come to Me, ye blessed,” and vice versa, the same words will cause a fire of horror and torment in those who did not want Him, avoided or fought and blasphemed during his lifetime.

The Last Judgment does not know witnesses or protocol records. Everything is written in human souls, and these records, these “books” are revealed. Everything becomes clear to everyone and to oneself, and the state of a person’s soul determines whether he goes to the right or to the left. Some go in joy, others in horror.

When the “books” are opened, it will become clear to everyone that the roots of all vices are in the human soul. Here is a drunkard, here is a fornicator. When the body has died, someone may think that sin has also died. No, there was an inclination in the soul, and sin was sweet to the soul.

And if the soul did not repent of that sin, did not free itself from it, it will come to the Last Judgment with the same desire for the sweetness of sin and will never satisfy its desire. It will contain the suffering of hatred and malice. This is a hellish state.

“Gehenna of fire” is an internal fire, a flame of vice, a flame of weakness and malice, and “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” of impotent malice.