Secrets of the Apocalypse
Hegumen Varsonofii (Khaibulin)

[2:00 sec.] From its very inception, the Church possesses an eschatological consummation—a pinnacle in which the life of the age to come already reigns. This pinnacle is called “The Bride, The Lamb's Wife” (Rev 21:9). The center and culmination of this Trinity-like unity-in-plurality is the person of the Virgin Mary, who, at the moment of the descent of the Holy Spirit, receives the full measure of the Holy Spirit’s grace.

— What does "the fullness" signify? Is it theosis (divinization)? Can it be said that the Mother of God possesses the same qualities that God possesses?

She attained perfect godlikeness—a complete, total godlikeness. She is the bearer of all divine perfections.

— In other words: omniscience, invincibility, knowledge of the truth, knowledge of all events — of what is to come…

Naturally, this also encompasses charisms—all those gifts that, from the very dawn of Christianity, spread throughout the entire people, thanks to their union with Her—this focal point, this center. As a result, the whole people became the bearer of these charisms; in a certain sense, every member was a charismatic. Why did this come to be? Because of an interior unity forged by the Spirit of God. And at the very heart of this—serving as the unifying center—dwelt Her [the Mother of God’s] heart, filled with the fullness of grace-given gifts.

— In other words, when Christ established the Church, He created it already complete…

Yes, the conclusion has already been provided—right from the very beginning. And we will never understand eschatology if we lose sight of this.

And, by the way—looking ahead once more—I would like to note right away: since the end of this age (Eph 6:12) signifies that the wheat has reached its peak maturity (Mark 4:28), this will come to pass only when we attain a union—resembling the Trinity itself—with this pinnacle; only in this way shall we reach a state of full, perfect maturity. And only then will we truly understand the Apocalypse. For now, we understand it only very dimly—as “through a glass, darkly” (1 Cor 13:12).

— And what is the modern definition of the Church—how is it phrased?

It belongs to the earthly periphery. According to the Orthodox catechism of Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov), “The Church is a society of people established by God, united by the Orthodox faith, the law of God, the hierarchy, and the sacraments.” 

This is a kind of catechistic definition. It suffers from sociomorphism—that is, it likens the Church to human society. Indeed, how many societies are there on earth? According to this approach, the Church is a society united by faith, submission to a hierarchy, and the sacraments. But here lies a crucial distinction: the Church in this sense—as the "People of God"—consists of those who receive the grace of the sacraments (which is good and right). However, The Bride, The Lamb's Wife (Rev 21:9)—these are those who have acquired the Spirit of God, such that the Spirit has become their own possession. One might assume that since we understand the Apocalypse, we ought also to have acquired the Spirit of God. Yet the experience of all the centuries past shows that the distance between them—between those who have acquired the Spirit and those who have not—is vast, and throughout history, it has only continued to grow.

Symeon the New Theologian, a Byzantine saint of the 10th–11th centuries, states that the Christian mystery—hidden since the beginning of time—is the acquisition of the Spirit of God; yet most baptized people do not know what this is

Let us make a brief digression here [from their conversation] and present some similar reflections by St. Seraphim of Sarov:

— When was that — a thousand years ago?

A thousand years ago, Symeon the New Theologian observed that most baptized people are unaware of the central mystery of Christianity: the acquisition of the Spirit of God.

Thus, The Bride, The Lamb's Wife, consists of those who have acquired the Spirit of God. At the same time, the people of God—the community of believers, as defined by the Catechism—are those who receive grace through the sacraments. However, receiving grace through the sacraments is one thing, while the acquisition of it [the grace of the Holy Spirit] is something else entirely. The grace bestowed in the sacraments provides the strength to strive toward the acquisition of grace [of the Holy Spirit]. And while the grace of the sacraments is imparted within the Church at specific moments, the struggle to acquire grace [of the Holy Spirit] is a continuous, moment-by-moment labor.

— But why only in a church? Consider, for example, Saint Mary of Egypt: she received Communion in a church, then attained grace [of the Holy Spirit], and subsequently received Communion once again.

I am expressing myself somewhat imprecisely, perhaps even carelessly. But is not the sacrament of Holy Communion itself—even when celebrated outside a church building—bound to a specific time and place? The struggle to acquire the Spirit of God, however, is continuous. In this struggle, we generally suffer defeat more often than we achieve victory. Yet the Lord permits this so that we may come to know ourselves—to understand who we truly are in this state of autonomy, in this separation from God.

This struggle is ongoing. It is a struggle for humility, a struggle against the passions—a struggle so intense that the Holy Fathers say: "Give blood and receive the Spirit." It is a bloody, formidable battle.

And as it unfolds, the distance—between those who have already attained the Spirit of God and those who are merely on the path toward receiving grace—gradually increases.

— So, if we are to speak of the “heavenly Church” and the “earthly Church”…

Well, some people like to use such terms, but they do not sit well with me, for the true Church is a union of God and humanity, a union of heaven and earth, a union of the uncreated and the created. It would be more accurate to say that the Church, by its very essence, must be both heavenly and earthly. To call the Church “merely earthly” is to distort its nature; it is simply not that. At its deepest core, the Church is a God-human, heavenly-earthly, uncreated-created unity—a kind of union. Therefore, when people speak of a “heavenly Church” as something separate from an “earthly Church,” it implies a rift—and that contradicts the very nature of the Church.

— There is also talk of the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant.

It turns out that we—those who dwell on earth—are the ones waging spiritual warfare, while they—those who dwell in heaven—are already celebrating their triumph. In reality, however, it is they who are the primary participants in this conflict; our own participation is exceedingly feeble—we have all but forgotten what such a struggle even entails. We have grown weak and slothful; in truth, we suffered defeat a long time ago. And yet, we carry on as if we were some sort of warriors! Certainly, there are monks who have dedicated themselves entirely to prayer. But the vast majority of God’s people—ourselves included—remain in a state of appalling spiritual lethargy. It is “The Bride, The Lamb's Wife” who stands in constant opposition to the Serpent. The saints, through their prayers and intercession for us, are the ones truly leading the offensive against him; it is they who are genuinely pressing the attack, they who are truly at enmity with him. As for us, our participation in this battle is negligible—it is practically non-existent.

— It is noteworthy that the modern definition of the Church lacks any explicit reference to it as a heavenly reality—a reality centered upon the Mother of God, who stands as a bulwark of invincibility and a vessel containing the fullness of spiritual gifts and saints.

Incidentally, the Bible never speaks of a "heavenly Church"; instead, it mentions the Heavenly Jerusalem—which the visionary beholds as continuously descending. Its very nature is to descend, and it is in a state of constant descent. It descends to engage in battle against the prince of this world—for the sake of the spiritual quickening, rebirth, and healing of God’s people, that is, the earthly Church.

— In other words, the incompleteness of the modern (catechetical) definition of the Church lies in the fact that it can be interpreted as referring only to the earthly Church. And the earthly Church is the People of God. The People of God must become the Church—but whether it will become so or not…

Therefore, it would be more accurate to speak of it as an environment undergoing the process of becoming part of the Church. We even sense this in our interactions with others, noting that one person is more “churchly,” while another is “less churchly.” Indeed, we ourselves are individuals who, to one degree or another, are becoming part of the Church. Yet the Church herself, in her very essence, is The Bride, The Lamb's Wife—with the Mother of God at the heart of this union. This includes not only the Mother of God—though she is, above all, the Mother of God—but also all the saints who have acquired the Spirit of God and attained union with Christ.

— And which of the theologians or philosophers took note of this?

From the very beginning, the Russian thinker Khomyakov pointed out that this definition overlooks the fact that the Church is a unity in the Holy Spirit. It is not merely a profession of faith or the reception of sacraments, but a union with God and with one another in the Holy Spirit.

Contemporary theologians—for example, Professor Osipov—also maintain that the Church is a union with the Holy Spirit:

Just think about how we manage to forget this.

— Were there, in the past—apart from this—other definitions of the Church?

Among the Church Fathers, one can certainly find a wide variety of descriptions and judgments concerning the Church; among them, however, there appears one—originating from Augustine and rather incautious—which asserts that the Church is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Approach this correctly: the The Bride, The Lamb's Wife is, without a doubt, the Kingdom of Heaven; yet the people of God, in and of themselves, are not yet the Kingdom of Heaven. Within them, through the sacraments, divine powers become accessible—but there is still a long way to go before these powers are truly attained, and their acquisition requires a struggle.

Lossky asserts that heresies are typically associated with the confusion of concepts, whereas dogmas are associated with their differentiation.

In Augustine’s thought, there is a blending of the aspect of completion—fullness—and the aspect of the historical unfolding of life. The historical and the complete—these become intermingled. For him, the Church is the Kingdom of Heaven. Are we—patriarchs, hierarchs, clergy—supposed to be the Kingdom of Heaven? It seems to me that we are all very far from that.

Here is what I meant to say: the people of God form an earthly periphery around this heavenly center. And the centuries spanning the time from the birth of the Church to the coming of the Antichrist are centuries of a gradual drifting away of this periphery from its heavenly center. This distancing goes so far that the periphery forgets its unifying pinnacle—it simply forgets about it.

[1:46 сек.] This is an important and relevant topic for dogmatics. Today, we all recognize that the definition provided in the catechism is unsatisfactory. Thinkers such as Khomyakov and the Slavophiles argued against it. In it, the Church is described as a society established by God, united by faith, the law of God, a sacred hierarchy, and the sacraments. Incidentally, if one were to replace "sacraments" with "sacred rites," this same definition could just as easily be applied to ancient Israel: it was established by God, possessed its own hierarchy (also divinely instituted), featured sacred rites, and was united by a common faith. Yet, this is a very weak definition; it refers only to what the Bible calls the "people of God," the "people of the saints," or simply the "saints."

The fact is that, with such an approach, many other facets of this exceedingly complex reality remain overlooked. To attempt an exhaustive definition of the Church, one would have to bring together all the images and biblical designations that pertain to it. There would be a great multitude of them. Among these are images drawn from parables—for instance, the image of wheat: it is sown, it grows, passes through various stages of development, and, by the end of the age, must reach the full maturity required for the harvest.

I would like to focus on this truth: an Orthodox understanding of the Church is possible only when the eschatological consummation of the Church stands at its center. And the Church attained this consummation on the very day of its birth. On the day of Pentecost, the Church came into being not merely as a community of believers—the "people of God"—shepherded by a hierarchy and sanctified by the sacraments. On the very day of its birth, the Church revealed itself as a manifold unity of persons—a state which, in essence, no longer requires a hierarchy. These are those who have become irrevocably united with God. Collectively, they bear the name: “The Bride, The Lamb's Wife” (Rev 21:9).

To this manifold unity belong all the perfections that Christ promised to the Church—for instance, its invulnerability to the gates of hell; perfections that find expression in such designations as "the House of God" (Heb. 3:6) and "the Pillar and Ground of the Truth" (1 Tim. 3:15).

— In other words, the modern definition concerns only a part of the Church.

A terrestrial stratum is a historical terrestrial stratum, and nothing more. However, the definition must speak of that unity which, according to God’s design…

— But when we formulate a definition of the Church, we rely on the modern Catechism, don’t we? Although the Church Fathers had other definitions as well.

While various Church Fathers offer different characterizations of the Church, finding an exhaustive definition is no easy task—largely because each author approached the subject from the perspective of a specific issue relevant to his own time, often within the context of combating heresies.

To be honest, it’s difficult for me to single out just one specific example—take, for instance, the concept of the “fullness of Him who fills all in all.” The Body of Christ is the Church, isn’t it? There are many such “sacred-topographical” terms: the Holy Land, the “good land,” the Jerusalem above, the New Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem. All of these refer to the Church. What else? Ah, yes—Mount Zion, the mountain of the house of the Lord. These, too, refer to the Church. Naturally, the Jews understood all of this literally—in the most direct sense—but for us, all of this is ecclesiology.

It is extremely difficult to synthesize all of this. For this reason, in the latest textbooks on dogmatic theology published by the Tikhvin Institute, Father Oleg Davydenkov notes that providing a practical definition of the Church is virtually impossible—it is an exceptionally challenging task. And yet, it seems to me that if one were to attempt to describe the Church in a way that encompasses and unites all these diverse aspects, one could say that the Church is the mystery of our union with God and our union with one another in God—in the Holy Spirit.

Something similar was expressed in the definition proposed by Khomyakov. Even today, Professor Alexei Osipov speaks of this as a union in the Holy Spirit. Thus, the ultimate goal—the very reason for the Church’s existence—is for the human race, having fallen away from the Kingdom of God, to enter into union with God, to enter the Kingdom of God, and to be united with Christ; this is precisely what the ultimate goal consists of.

It is of great importance that the pinnacle of the Church—its core and all its perfections—is not, from the outset, concentrated within the People of God; rather, for the People of God, this is set forth as a goal…

— In other words, our contemporary Church—including the Patriarch, bishops, clergy, and laity—is merely a part of a whole, and it would be more accurate to call this part the People of God.

The People of God and the hierarchy—one could put it that way. However, the fact is that the prophets reveal a bitter truth regarding the People of God. They addressed their own contemporaries directly—their own people. Isaiah, for instance, called them a “brood of evildoers” (Isa 1:4)—and this, even though he was speaking to God’s chosen people.

As for New Testament Israel, one of the designations for the Church is "the Israel of God" (though the qualifier "New Testament" is often added here). In a sense, we too are Israelites—by faith, for through faith we are the spiritual children of Abraham. Recall the prayer for the departed: "Receive him into the bosom of Abraham." After all, Abraham is the father of the Jewish people, and in this sense, we are all Israelites.

From the very moment of her birth, the Church receives a heavenly center—a center that serves to unite. The People of God constitute the earthly periphery of the Church, for the Church directly connects heaven and earth. The Lamb's Wife is the queen of heaven and earth; she is the queen of the angels. This is, undoubtedly, the Pillar and Ground of the Truth (1 Tim. 3:15).

However, the people of God are overcome by beasts (as described in the Book of Daniel and in the Apocalypse — Dan. 7:21, Rev. 13:7). These beasts are the seed of the serpent, the seed of the father of lies. And a certain seed of the father of lies—according to the 13th chapter of the Apocalypse—prevails over the people of God. It follows from this: since the seed of the father of lies has defeated the people of God, the people of God no longer serve as the Pillar and Ground of the Truth.

Some form of falsehood infiltrates his religious consciousness—for the struggle is, in fact, directed against religious consciousness—and he himself ceases to be a Pillar and Ground of the Truth. He may cease to be the house of God, for the Apostle Paul says: “And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory, until the end” (Heb. 3:6). To what does this refer? It refers to the fact that faith in the Church is, above all, faith in that which constitutes its pinnacle, its core, its perfections.

The Bride, The Lamb's Wife, is glory—the ultimate beauty; the Church is, in fact, She. Our faith in Her forms our religious bond with Her—a communion with Her. This bond—a living, organic connection to Her, to this pinnacle—bestows upon us certain perfections; union with Her grants us a special power.

If, however, we find ourselves severed from Her—and the devil strives to tear us away; all of them—the seed of the serpent, the beasts of the Apocalypse—they tear us away—then the people of God cease to be the house of God, according to the Apostle Paul.

Само определение Церкви должно непременно указывать на то, что с момента своего рождения она состоит прежде всего из тех, кто уже необратимо соединен с Богом; и, в конечном счете, она — это та личность, которая необратимо соединена с Богом.

The Bride, The Lamb's Wife, is not only the Virgin Mary, but—above all—is the Virgin Mary. Within this manifold unity, the Virgin Mary occupies a place that can be likened to the Throne of the Father within the Trinity. It is precisely this that ensures the perfect, intrinsic union of the three Hypostases—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—by virtue of which They become the Trinity. The Trinity is, at the same time, the One. According to Orthodox doctrine, God is as much the Trinity as He is the One.

И монада, и триада. Так и здесь: Жена, Невеста Агнца, — это множество, но оно единица; и оно не терпит множественного числа. Так же и Бог: нельзя говорить о трёх ипостасях, что это Боги. Так и Жена, Невеста Агнца — это единица. Спрашивают, как же объяснить множество и в то же время единица?

See also

• Fatima. Our Lady of Fatima
• Zeitun. Our Lady of Zeitun
• Zeitun. Eyewitness Accounts
• Zeitun. Jerusalem Day. Varsonofy Khaibulin
• Zeitun. Official Approval
• Zeitun. Patriarchate Report On the Apparition of Saint Mary
• Zeitun. Personalities. Cyril VI, Pope of Alexandria
• Texts. Varsonofii Khaibulin. About the problem of chiliasm
• Texts. Varsonofii Khaibulin. On the Chiliasm of the Holy Fathers
• Texts. Varsonofii Khaibulin. From the 1st letter to A.I. Osipov (2011)
• Texts. Varsonofii Khaibulin. From the 4th letter to A.I. Osipov (2014)
• Texts. Varsonofii Khaibulin. Homily. Beasts of the Apocalypse

Links

• Wikipedia: Aleksey Khomyakov
• Wikipedia: Alexei Osipov
• Wikipedia: Augustine of Hippo
• Wikipedia: Our Lady of Zeitoun
• Wikipedia: Zeitoun, Cairo
• Vladimir Lossky, Panagia

Bibliography

• "Vladimir Lossky" on Google Books
• "Varsonofy Khaibulin" on Google Books