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Glory be to Jesus Christ!
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There were two readings today, one of which was in honour of St. Gregory the Theologian.
A revealing word of speech against false teachers was read from the daily Apostle. The entire message is related to the topic, I will not dwell today on important details, but on the general understanding.
Before that, Peter wrote about the state of the non-Christian pagan world, about being in lusts. and here he continues and describes more strongly the condition of those who renounced the faith of Christ after they had really come to know it. They are even worse. Someone will say, Are ex-Christians really that bad?
— but why the former? – I ask – because sin completely took over, defeated them, and then what can save them from decay and degradation?
I will add that you can renounce Christ even without making a direct renunciation, a complete conscious break with the faith, but by surrendering to anti-Christian elements, lust, despair, hatred, contempt, etc. To the extent of such a fall, even if it is not a real renunciation of Christ, but in its consequences it can bring a person quite close to what Peter describes here. And of course, the Lord through Peter warns us against all this in such harsh words.
I will add that in order to avoid false teachers, you need to search for the truth yourself. Remember that Pilate asked Jesus at the judgement: What is truth?
— and the Lord said: Whoever seeks the truth comes to Me
(I am paraphrasing). Pontius did not search.
A continuation of the signs of the approaching end of the world was read from the daily Gospel. First, about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, many historians note that these words of Jesus saved many Christians who, seeing them in the war with the Romans, really left Jerusalem early and avoided extermination. Many also associate the abomination of desolation
with the coming of the Antichrist, who will sit in the temple and pretend to be God.
The Lord speaks of the determination with which one must resist evil. And again about the fact that the Second Coming will be obvious to everyone. I think, and I will repeat again, that if for somebody there is any doubt that this is exactly it, then it is not it …
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!