By the thousand-year kingdom, Orthodox exegetes understand an indefinite but long period of time from the beginning of the grace-filled kingdom of the Church of Christ until the end of the world. Moreover, by the “first resurrection” we mean the spiritual rebirth of people into eternal life in Christ in the sacrament of baptism performed in the Church of Christ, which is also sometimes called the resurrection (see: Col.3:1; Eph.2:5-6, 5:14). The temporary release of the devil from prison for a short time means the appearance on earth of the Antichrist shortly before the end of the world, followed by the General and final judgment. The “second death” is the condemnation of sinners at the General Judgment, which will not affect those who have “participation in the first resurrection,” that is, spiritually reborn in Christ and purified by His grace in the Church. Such will not be condemned, but will enter the blessed life of the Kingdom of Christ.¹³⁷⁶

… The fact that the Revolution [in Russia] came out of the seminaries was said by St. Barsanuphius of Optina. … The idea is so serious that our seminaries are educating revolutionaries. … Seminaries were class-based educational institutions, … and therefore many went to seminary under duress simply because they were born into a priest's family.

And I ask you: Can 100% of children born in a priest's family be priests? No way. No way. They can be engineers, officers, and whoever you want. They are not obliged to be priests, but before the Revolution there was just such a stupid system.

… You know some of these sons of priests. All our 19th century poets, all our writers are there. Well, let's say, Chernyshevsky, the son of the famous archpriest Gavriil Chernyshevsky. When he started signing his trashy books there, everyone said: 'Oh, come on, it's no big deal, father will pray for his forgiveness'. Because father Gavril Chernyshevsky was a very respected archpriest. And everyone thought that he had a very strong prayer. But he did not pray away his son Nikolai Gavrilovich. Nikolai Gavrilovich graduated from both a theological school and a theological seminary, almost a theological academy.

… And what happens as a result, if a person who has no faith, or no desire to be a priest, is forced to finish college, seminary and the Academy. What will become of him in the end? A fierce atheist. It would be fine if he were an illiterate atheist, he turns out to be a highly educated atheist. He is a fierce, complete enemy of the church, if he was shoved there by force and forced to study. That's how it was before the Revolution.

And now it is sometimes like that, when the father is a venerable archpriest. He does not even allow the thought that his sons will not follow in his footsteps: 'Of course, my son will become a priest, and the second son will become a priest, … and where else, how else.' This is a crime, in fact. Because the exceptional happiness of being born into a priestly family does not make a person capable of the priesthood. It is a special calling, a special gift. If people do something that is not their business, then they grow up to be enemies of their business.

… How will you pray to God for people if you hate them? How will you pray for them if you don’t even think that you’re doing your job? How will you preach the Gospel to them if you don’t read it because you don’t like it? … Well, this kind of tragedy happens all the time. It’s just that before it was a tragedy of national proportions. And today it’s a tragedy of a small scale.

What is Written in the Revelation of John Regarding the Two Resurrections, and the Thousand Years, and What May Reasonably Be Held on These Points.

The evangelist John has spoken of these two resurrections in the book which is called the Apocalypse, but in such a way that some Christians do not understand the first of the two, and so construe the passage into ridiculous fancies. For the Apostle John says in the foresaid book, “And I saw an angel come down from heaven. … Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” Those who, on the strength of this passage, have suspected that the first resurrection is future and bodily, have been moved, among other things, specially by the number of a thousand years, as if it were a fit thing that the saints should thus enjoy a kind of Sabbath-rest during that period, a holy leisure after the labors of the six thousand years since man was created, and was on account of his great sin dismissed from the blessedness of paradise into the woes of this mortal life, so that thus, as it is written, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” 2 Peter 3:8 there should follow on the completion of six thousand years, as of six days, a kind of seventh-day Sabbath in the succeeding thousand years; and that it is for this purpose the saints rise, viz., to celebrate this Sabbath. And this opinion would not be objectionable, if it were believed that the joys of the saints in that Sabbath shall be spiritual, and consequent on the presence of God; for I myself, too, once held this opinion. But, as they assert that those who then rise again shall enjoy the leisure of immoderate carnal banquets, furnished with an amount of meat and drink such as not only to shock the feeling of the temperate, but even to surpass the measure of credulity itself, such assertions can be believed only by the carnal. They who do believe them are called by the spiritual Chiliasts, which we may literally reproduce by the name Millenarians. It were a tedious process to refute these opinions point by point: we prefer proceeding to show how that passage of Scripture should be understood.

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“And he cast him into the abyss,” — i.e., cast the devil into the abyss. By the abyss is meant the countless multitude of the wicked whose hearts are unfathomably deep in malignity against the Church of God; not that the devil was not there before, but he is said to be cast in there, because, when prevented from harming believers, he takes more complete possession of the ungodly. For that man is more abundantly possessed by the devil who is not only alienated from God, but also gratuitously hates those who serve God. “And shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled.” “Shut him up,” — i.e., prohibited him from going out, from doing what was forbidden. And the addition of "set a seal upon him” seems to me to mean that it was designed to keep it a secret who belonged to the devil's party and who did not. For in this world this is a secret, for we cannot tell whether even the man who seems to stand shall fall, or whether he who seems to lie shall rise again. But by the chain and prison-house of this interdict the devil is prohibited and restrained from seducing those nations which belong to Christ, but which he formerly seduced or held in subjection. For before the foundation of the world God chose to rescue these from the power of darkness, and to translate them into the kingdom of the Son of His love, as the apostle says. Colossians 1:13 For what Christian is not aware that he seduces nations even now, and draws them with himself to eternal punishment, but not those predestined to eternal life? And let no one be dismayed by the circumstance that the devil often seduces even those who have been regenerated in Christ, and begun to walk in God's way. For “the Lord knows them that are His,” 2 Timothy 2:19 and of these the devil seduces none to eternal damnation. For it is as God, from whom nothing is hid even of things future, that the Lord knows them; not as a man, who sees a man at the present time (if he can be said to see one whose heart he does not see), but does not see even himself so far as to be able to know what kind of person he is to be. The devil, then, is bound and shut up in the abyss that he may not seduce the nations from which the Church is gathered, and which he formerly seduced before the Church existed. For it is not said “that he should not seduce any man,” but “that he should not seduce the nations” — meaning, no doubt, those among which the Church exists — “till the thousand years should be fulfilled,” — i.e., either what remains of the sixth day which consists of a thousand years, or all the years which are to elapse till the end of the world.

He had already for long been deceived in this way by his own willfulness when, coming upon an angel of Satan, he bowed before him as if he were an angel of light. The angel commanded him to hurl himself, around midnight, into a very deep well so that he might then know by experience, because of his great virtue and ascetic efforts, that he would never again be subject to any danger. His darkened mind failed to discern who was suggesting this to him, and he hurled himself into the well during the night. Soon afterwards the brethren, discovering what had happened, were only just able to pull him up half dead. He lived for two more days and died on the third, plunging his brethren and the priest Paphnoutios into great grief. The latter, moved by feelings of compassion and remembering Hiron's numerous labors and the many years during which he had persevered in the desert, mentioned his name in the oblation for the dead so that he should not be numbered among those who have taken their own lives.

22. There are many differing methods of prayer. No method is harmful; if it were, it would be not prayer but the activity of Satan.

63. David teaches us to hate the demons ‘with perfect hatred’ (Ps. 139:22), inasmuch as they are the enemies of our salvation. This hatred is most necessary for the task of acquiring holiness. But who is the man who hates his enemies with perfect hatred? He who no longer sins either in act or in thought. Yet so long as the instruments of our friendship with them — that is to say, the things that provoke the passions — are still present in us, how shall we achieve such hatred against them? For a self-indulgent heart cannot nurture this hatred within itself.

14. One type of watchfulness consists in closely scrutinizmg every mental image or provocation: for only by means of a mental image can Satan fabricate an evil thought and insinuate this into the intellect in order to lead it astray.
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119. Do you see how the enemies of our salvation make us fell by means of their fantasies, deceits and empty promises? Satan himself was cast down like lightning from the heights because he fancied himself to be the equal of God (cf. Luke 10:18); and for he sundered crafty deceives all who fall into sin.

The spiritual director must also possess knowledge of all the devices of the enemy, so that he can forewarn those under his charge about snares of which they are unaware, thus enabling them to gain victory without difficulty. Such a person is rare and not easily found. It is true that Paul says of himself: 'We are not ignorant of Satan's devices' (2 Cor. 2:11); but Job asks in perplexity: 'Who will reveal the face of his garment? And who can enter within the folds of his breastplate? Who will open the doors of his face?' (Job 41:13-14 [41:4-5. LXX]). What he means is something like this: Satan has no visible Face, for he conceals his cunning beneath many garments. He deceitfully entices men with his outward appearance, while lying in wait secretly and devising their destruction. And Job, to show that he himself is not ignorant of Satan's ways, speaks clearly about his sinister powers, saying: 'His eyes are like the morning star, but his inward parts are asps' (Job 41:18 [41:10,6. LXX]). All this he says to expose the devil's wickedness. For Satan entices men by simulating the beauty of the morning star, and when they draw near, he schemes to kill them with the asps inside him.

31. When our intellect begins to perceive the grace of the Holy Spirit, then Satan, too, importunes the soul with a sense of deceptive sweetness in the quiet times of the night, when we fall into a light kind of sleep. If the intellect at that time cleaves fervently to the remembrance of the glorious and holy name of the Lord Jesus and uses it as a weapon against Satan's deception, he gives up this trick and for the future will attack the soul directly and personally. As a result the intellect clearly discerns the deception of the evil one and advances even further in the art of discrimination.
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40. You should not doubt that the intellect, when it begins to be strongly energized by the divine light, becomes so completely translucent that it sees its own light vividly. This takes place when the power of the soul gains control over the passions. But when St Paul says that 'Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light' (2 Cor. 11:14), he definitely teaches us that everything which appears to the intellect, whether as light or as fire, if it has a shape, is the product of the evil artifice of the enemy. So we should not embark on the ascetic life in the hope of seeing visions clothed with form or shape; for if we do, Satan will find it easy to lead our soul astray. Our one purpose must be to reach the point when we perceive the love of God fully and consciously in our heart — that is, 'with all your heart and with all your soul … and with all your mind' (Luke 10:27). For the man who is energized by the grace of God to this point has already left this world, though still present in it.
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76. … Nevertheless, even after baptism Satan still acts on the soul, often, indeed, to a greater degree than before. This is not because he is present in the soul together with grace: on the contrary, it is because he uses the body's humors to befog the intellect with the delight of mindless pleasures. God allows him to do this, so that a man, after passing through a trial of storm and fire, may come in the end to the full enjoyment of divine blessings. For it is written: 'We went through fire and water, and Thou hast brought us out into a place where the soul is refreshed' (Ps. 66:12. LXX).
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79. … Furthermore, in those who are advancing in spiritual knowledge, grace brings an ineffable joy to their body through the perceptive faculty of the intellect. But the demons capture the soul by violence through the bodily senses, especially when they find us faint-hearted in pursuing the spiritual path. They are, indeed, murderers provoking the soul to what it does not want.
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87. … Yet we must realize that when there is a direct struggle between Satan and the soul — and I am speaking here of the struggle that takes place when God recedes in order to educate us — then grace conceals itself a little, as I have said, but nevertheless supports the soul in a hidden way, so that in the eyes of its enemies the victory appears to be due to the soul alone.

… You say: 'I feel infuriated when I see that those in the world are not tempted at all' But realize this: Satan has no need to tempt those who tempt themselves, and are continually dragged down by worldly affairs. And know this too: the prizes and crowns are given to those who are tested by temptation — not to those who care nothing about God, to the worldly who lie on their backs and snore.

78. … And he who is familiar with the tricks of the devil and experienced in the close combat of the unseen warfare, is likewise illuminated by the light of spiritual knowledge and becomes another lamp, saying with St Paul, 'We are not ignorant of Satan's devices' (2 Cor. 2:11).

59. We are sons of God or of Satan according to whether we conform to goodness or to evil.

It is those lacking such endurance who in their ignorance impetuously hurry on to seize what they have not yet been given, failing to realize that one day in the eyes of the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a single day (cf, Ps. 90:4). But he who by enduring patiently has gained experience of the devil's machinations will fight and strive forward with patience so as to reach the goal, as St. Paul puts it (cf. 1 Cor. 9:26; Phil. 3:12). He will be able to say, "We are not ignorant of Satan's devices" (2 Cor. 2:11), that is, of the devil's invisible ploys, unknown to most men. For St. Paul says, "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14); and there is nothing surprising in this, since the thoughts that he causes to appear in our heart seem to be righteous thoughts to those who lack experience.

42. If you keep these things indelibly in mind, your heart will never rebel when you are disciplined or admonished or criticized. But whoever falls victim to the evils of contentiousness and disbelief with respect to his spiritual father and teacher is while yet living dragged down pitifully into the depths of Hades. Being disobedient and a son of perdition he becomes the dwelling-place of Satan and all his unclean brood.

47. … Yet by virtue of my faith in God I hope that in His ineffable mercy He will give me salvation. Get behind me, Satan (cf. Matt. 4:10; 16:23). I worship the Lord my God (cf. Matt. 4:10; Luke 4:8) and serve Him from my youth; for He is able to save me simply through His mercy. Go away from me. The God who created me in His image and likeness will reduce you to impotence.'

59. Blasphemy is a frightful passion, difficult to combat, for its origin lies in the arrogant mind of Satan. It troubles all who live in virtue and in accord with God, but especially those advancing in prayer and in the contemplation of things divine. Hence we must guard the senses with great diligence, and reverence all the awe inspiring mysteries of God, the holy images and holy words, and watch out for the attacks of this spirit. For it lies in wait for us while we pray and chant, and when we are inattentive it discharges through our lips curses against ourselves and strange blasphemies against God the Most High, introducing them into the verses of the psalms and into the words of our prayers. When it brings some such thing to our lips or sows it in our minds, we should turn against it the words of Christ and say, 'Get behind me, Satan, full of every foul odor and condemned to eternal fire; may your blasphemy fall upon your own head' (cf. Luke 4:8; Matt. 25:41). Then, concentrating our thoughts, we should at once occupy our intellect with some other matter, either divine or human, and with tears raise it towards God; and so with God's assistance we will be relieved of the burden of blasphemy.

The most important task for an ascetic is to enter into his heart, to wage war against Satan, to hate him, and to battle with him by wrestling against the thoughts he provokes. …

70. … For even though Satan has fallen and is shattered, he is still stronger than we are and exults over us because of our sloth.
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132. … the delusion allowed by God for our correction, when we are handed over to Satan because of our sinfulness, God often permits to continue until our death, if this is needed to efface our sins. Sometimes God hands over even the guiltless to the torment of demons for the sake of their salvation. One should also know that the demon of self-conceit himself prophesies in those who are not scrupulously attentive to their hearts.

8. In every beginner two forms of energy are at work, each affecting the heart in a distinct way. The first comes from grace, the second from delusion. St Mark the Ascetic corroborates this when he says that there is a spiritual energy and a satanic energy, and that the beginner cannot distinguish between them. These energies in their turn generate three kinds of fervor, the first prompted by grace, the second by delusion or sin, and the third by an excess of blood. …

3. Isaiah the Solitary is one of many who affirm that when praying you have to restrain your breath. Another author says that you have to control your uncontrollable intellect, impelled and dispersed as it is by the satanic power which seizes hold of your lax soul because of your negligence after baptism, bringing with it other spirits even more evil than itself and thus making your soul's state worse than it was originally (cf Matt. 12:45). …

… For when the devil sees someone leading a penitent life, he retreats, frightened of the humility that such inward grief engenders. But if, with a longing that is satanic rather than authentic, you are presumptuous enough to imagine that you have attained a lofty state, the devil will easily trap you in his nets and make you his slave. …

Question: What should we do when the devil transforms himself into an angel of light (cf 2 Cor. 11:14) and tries to seduce us?

Answer: You need great discrimination in order to distinguish between good and evil. So do not readily or lightly put your trust in appearances, but weigh things well, and after testing everything carefully cleave to what is good and reject what is evil (cf. 1 Thess. 5:21-22). You must test and discriminate before you give credence to anything. You must also be aware that the effects of grace are self-evident, and that even if the devil does transform himself he cannot produce these effects: he cannot induce you to be gentle, or forbearing, or humble, or joyful, or serene, or stable in your thoughts; he cannot make you hate what is worldly, or cut off sensual indulgence and the working of the passions, as grace does. He produces vanity, haughtiness, cowardice and every kind of evil. Thus you can tell from its effects whether the light shining in your soul is from God or from Satan. The lettuce is similar in appearance to the endive, and vinegar, to wine; but when you taste them the palate discerns and recognizes the differences between each. In the same way the soul, if it possesses the power of discrimination, can distinguish with its noetic sense between the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the illusions of Satan.