The War of the End Times against Christian Virtues

Bishop Sofronie of Suceava | October 28, 2025

 

 

Reading in the Acts of the Apostles, we can easily learn that those chosen from among men, the Disciples of the Lord, did everything in their power to spread the Word of the Gospel to the entire known world of that time: they visited countries, according to their lots, they established communities of Christians, they ordained priests and bishops, they wrote epistles, they endured torments, and, in the end, they also received martyrdom in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

All these things must resound even today, at least in our hearts, of us bishops, the successors of the Holy Apostles. I say “at least” because our deeds, of all Christians, should be like those of the Disciples of the Lord.

Among those deeds I have also enumerated “they wrote epistles.” If in their days it was quite difficult to write, as many people were unlearned, today, besides the fact that almost the entire civilized world knows how to read and write, the means of disseminating written materials are much easier and more complex. In another vein, a hierarch is bound to watch over “the entrusted flock,” this obligation stemming from the very name of bishop (Gr. ἐπίσκοπος – “overseer”). Accordingly, our duty is to oversee the flock, including through the writing of epistles, teachings, counsels, and spiritual advice, all with the purpose of guiding the flock on the path that leads to salvation. Moreover, a worthy example to follow is the exhortation of the Holy Apostle Paul to Timothy, his disciple, in which he instructs him on this path of episcopacy: “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” (II Timothy 4:2)

Therefore, having this list of worthy examples to follow, I will try to write you a few lines, in order to guide you, to exhort you, and perhaps also to rebuke you, doing all this because I desire that we may all be able to see each other beyond the gates of Paradise, unto the glory of God.

My beloved,

Nowadays, technology allows us to have almost unlimited access to information. It is a wonderful thing to receive an answer to nearly any question in a matter of seconds, to be able to simulate things before putting them into practice, to study any science, to operate vehicles remotely, and so on. We are all convinced that God has permitted these devices in our time to ease our lives and to benefit us in our daily activities.

Why do we write these lines?

The answer is simple: on various media platforms (Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, the X Network), all sorts of “priests,” monks, and other individuals who claim to be Orthodox appear, analyzing passages from Holy Scripture or from certain writings of the Holy Fathers. It makes no sense to name them individually, as these “influencer fathers” are quite viral on the aforementioned networks, having hundreds or thousands of followers—people from different parts of the world and, why not, from different religions. Unfortunately, in the vast majority of their “counsels,” these monks or priests plant seeds of sins against the three great virtues of Christianity: faith, hope, and love. Therefore, we will try to exhort you to remain faithful to the teachings of the Church and not to lend your ear to interpretations coming from various characters who appear on the screens of your devices. We will thus divide this material into three main parts, each part corresponding to one of the three great theological virtues.

I. The Fight Against Faith

Regarding faith, we can say that it is the acceptance by us, as true, based on trust in God and on an inner spiritual vision, of all the truths we have through the Revelation that is above nature, for the purpose of our salvation. (Cf. The Teaching of the Orthodox Christian Faith, Ed. of the Biblical and Missionary Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, 1992, p. 47)

The devil never wanted man to remain in the truth, but continually drew him into falsehood and intrigue, making use, of course, of human beings as well. Thus, at the beginning of Christianity, the Jews led a fight against the faith, then came the pagan Roman emperors with persecutions, later the heresies, then the Muslims, and so on. Today, although Orthodoxy seems to be untroubled, another type of danger has appeared: ecumenism — the heresy of all heresies.

In this regard, a multitude of “fathers” preach through various media about how much faith must be united, how good it would be to celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord on the same Sunday (Orthodox and [Roman] Catholics), that it is necessary to abandon matters of dogma, that we should no longer be so strict, that we ought to think about the vacations of those working abroad, and so forth. Let us remember how the Holy Fathers defended the Christian faith against all internal and external dangers. Let us not forget the Canons of the Church, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Let us not forget that the “feast of feasts” — the Resurrection of the Lord — is regulated by strict rules, and whoever violates them is accursed. In a preliminary conclusion, let us not heed those who seek to draw us toward the West, toward the Catholic, heretical faith.

Faith is also being attacked through the online broadcasting of church services, a practice with which we do not agree. There are, however, a number of persons who live in areas isolated in terms of access to church services. For these individuals, indeed, listening to a service from the parish to which they belonged is a blessing. But for those who have a church just a few meters away and prefer to listen to the service on the radio or television, this online transmission is a trap. Moreover, some services are carried out merely as a formality, with nothing being done correctly from a spiritual point of view. In reality, some services are filmed for the sake of ratings, not to serve the Lord with all the heart.

Searching through the lives of the Saints, we revisited the life of Venerable Saint Pambo:

“The venerable Pambo once sent his disciple to sell his handiwork. Staying sixteen days in the city, at night he slept on the porch of the church of the Holy Apostle Mark; and, witnessing the church service and learning a few troparia, he returned to the elder. Then the elder said to him: ‘I see you, my son, troubled. Did some temptation befall you in the city?’ The brother replied: ‘Truly, father, we spend our days in this desert in idleness, and we do not sing canons nor troparia. Going to Alexandria, I saw those in the church singing, and I was saddened that we do not also sing canons and troparia.’ The elder said to him: ‘Woe to us, my son, for the days have come in which monks will abandon the solid food, that spoken by the Holy Spirit, and will follow after chants and voices. For what compunction and what tears are born from the troparia when one stands in a cell or in church and lifts up his voice like the weak? For if we stand before God, we are bound to do so with great humility and not with distraction; for monks did not go out into the desert to stand before God and become scattered, singing songs and arranging voices with art, but we are bound, with the fear of God and with trembling, with tears and sighs, with a pious, humble, measured, and lowly voice, to offer prayer to the Lord.’”

Behold, then, what is good and what is beautiful for the monastic life. To be photographed, filmed, recorded, and set forth as an example on the internet is contrary to the monastic rules and order. Unfortunately, many Christians who are less fervent in faith come to believe more in the words of these monks than in the authentic ecclesiastical order. And I will give you another example: a priest widely circulated on the internet said that a woman, in her forbidden days of entering the church, may do so with the priest's blessing. If we are to generalize, it would mean that the priest could override any canon and ordinance simply by granting a dispensation / blessing. Where then is the rule established by the Holy Fathers?

Continuing the reading from the life of Saint Pambo, we find the following:

“Behold, I say to you, my son, days will come when Christians will corrupt (distort) the books of the Holy Gospels, and of the Holy Apostles, and of the divine Prophets, erasing the Holy Scriptures and writing troparia and Hellenistic words. And the mind will be poured out upon these, and will turn away from the others. […]”

And the elder continued:

“In such times the love of many will grow cold and there will be much tribulation: invasions of the pagans and the uprisings of peoples, unrest among kings, the indulgence of priests, the sloth of monks. There will be abbots heedless of the salvation of themselves and their flocks, all zealous and eager for feasting and quarrelsome; slothful in prayer and diligent in slander, quick to condemn the lives of the elders and their words, neither following them nor listening to them, but rather reviling them and saying: ‘If we had lived in their days, we too would have struggled.’ And the bishops in those days will be ashamed before the faces of the powerful, rendering judgments for bribes, not defending the poor in judgment, afflicting widows, and not helping the destitute. Moreover, among the people there will be unbelief, heresy, fornication, abomination, strife, envy, provocations, thefts, and drunkenness.”

And the brother asked: “And what shall one do in those times and years?” The elder replied: “My son, in those days, he who saves his soul shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

May the Good God protect us from such things! Yet we see, little by little, that the prophecy of this Saint of the Lord is being fulfilled. Interpretations and reinterpretations of the Church’s canons appear, in accordance with ways of thinking such as: “the canons must be adapted to our present-day situation,” or “the Church canons are outdated.” Has God changed, then? Or have the Mysteries of the Church changed? Certainly not. Therefore, the hymns, the canons, and the order must remain unaltered.

“The right faith and pious works are the signs of the true Christian. The Christian is a true house of Christ, made up of good deeds and sound teachings. And true faith is revealed through deeds. Faith without works is dead, just as works without faith are also dead.” (Prologues)

The devil does not know whether or not the Lord Christ is in your mind. But if he sees you becoming angry, or quarreling, or speaking impure words, or swearing, or slandering, or hating someone, or being prideful, or laughing excessively, or jesting, or not praying often, nor remembering death—then he knows that the One who guards you is not in your soul. And so, like a thief, the cunning devil enters, because the light of God is not in your heart, and he steals the house of your soul.

II. The Fight Against Hope

Hope is “on the one hand a longing, the yearning of the soul in expectation of a promised good, and on the other hand, the unwavering trust in the fulfillment of the promise given to us by God.” (The Teaching of the Orthodox Christian Faith, op. cit.) And because persistent prayer is the most suitable means for strengthening and renewing hope, we bring forth some arguments from Holy Scripture and from the lives of the saints, in order to counter the teachings of these “new monks,” monks who think according to the modernism of this world.

The easiest subject to address in sermons is that of the coming of the Apocalypse—a frightening subject in itself, by the very notion of the end of man, the end of humanity. Indeed, given the spiritual decay of the world, we can speak of the beginning of the end. The greater problem arises from those who, in their sermons, proclaim an end in which the Christian appears helpless, bewildered, devoid of God's Providence. We hear all sorts of topics: vaccination, chips, nanoparticles, conspiracy theories, globalism, surveillance, etc. We are told to beware of bank cards, property, to flee from wars, and so forth. Little by little, these priests/monks/bishops paint a desolate picture, devoid of hope in God.

The Savior Jesus Christ says repeatedly in His Gospel that we must be courageous:

“Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” (John 14:1)

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)

“And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:20)

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” (Matthew 24:6)

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21:28)

How beautifully does the true God speak to us. He has given us support from the very beginning, speaking to us about the things of the end. He has made us wise through the word of His Gospel. He foretold to us the things that are to come, so that we, following the Gospel, might be prepared. We do not know when it will come, but the end shall come. These ought to be the words of a priest or bishop, encouraging the people and telling them what they must do. I heard of a case, a teenager who, after listening to one of these frightful sermons, began to tremble, falling into despair. We must be, as shepherds of the flock, its protectors, healing every (spiritual) disease and every spiritual infirmity.

As a conclusion concerning hope: follow what the Church teaches you, through the very Savior Jesus Christ. Behold what we find in Luke:

“And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.” (Luke 18:1–8)

How beautifully the Lord Jesus Christ Himself teaches us: if we pray without ceasing, the help and justice of God will come upon us, in whatever affliction we may find ourselves and wherever we may be in this world.

III. The Fight Against Love

“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16) This is how we ought to begin a paragraph about the greatest theological virtue that man can possess—love. Today, however, there are two great dangers that can cloud the mind of man: reckless love toward other religions (ecumenism); and a lack of love and compassion for one’s neighbor (hardness of heart.)

If we analyze these two separately, we discover many things that can guide us on our path toward salvation. First and foremost, love must be directed toward God, as the Savior teaches us in His Gospel: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Matthew 22:37) This love should spring forth from our very being, and it is the greatest duty we owe to the Maker of heaven and earth. Further on in the Gospel, we read: “And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:39)

This should be understood in the following way: if we desire salvation for ourselves, it is only natural to wish the same for our neighbor. But where is salvation to be found? Is it not, indeed, only in the Orthodox Church? Is it not written: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not [and by implication, is not baptized] shall be damned.” (Mark 16:16)? Where is true baptism to be found? Certainly, in the Church founded at Pentecost through the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Disciples of the Lord, and which, through the Holy Fathers and the Holy Councils, has been defended from the scourge of heresies. Therefore, any other manner of accepting a “promised” salvation from other Christian denominations or other religions is a thought that does not conform to the Gospel of the Savior. Thus, if we desire salvation for our neighbor, we must first of all wish for him to become a part of the True Church, and we must make efforts to show him the correct path. Not the other way around.

The entire internet is, unfortunately, full of priests who trumpet ecumenism: that we should unite into one faith, that we must reach a common denominator. But here arises the question: what common denominator can there be between, for example, a [Roman] Catholic and a Buddhist? Or between a Muslim and a Hindu? Well, from this type of “shepherds” you must flee. Flee from them as from a serpent, lest in a moment of carelessness you slip into unbelief. We say once again—unfortunately—because this type of love is being forced through all kinds of “inter-confessional” gatherings, various services each more bizarre than the other, the appearance of Orthodox bishops at Protestant assemblies, the appearance of imams at services held in “Orthodox” cathedrals, and so on. Let us renounce this kind of teaching and strive, as we have already said, to bring such persons to the light of Christ—and not fall ourselves into the trap of the evil one.

In contrast with what has been mentioned above, we discover another misuse of love—or more precisely, the absence of love altogether: the hardening of the heart, which gives rise to another condition contrary to Christian teaching—fanaticism. To think that only you are righteous, and that others cannot be saved at all (even at the end of their lives); to correct everyone without the slightest compassion—these are things the Church does not teach. Even during the times of great heresies, the right-believing hierarchs first had love for God and for His Church, fulfilling the first commandment of the Savior. And only afterwards did they show love toward those who preached falsehood, trying—so far as it was given to them—to bring them back to the right path.

And here again, we see several fathers—some even from the Holy Mountain—preaching about all kinds of matters from this world, especially from the Orthodox world, labeling churches, speaking about Christians, yet all of this without a trace of compassion. Indeed, Orthodoxy is the path. But how does one bring others to Orthodoxy? By reviling them? By judging them? Look at what the Holy Apostle Paul did: “And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, though I myself am not under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law.” (1 Corinthians 9:20) In other words, the Apostle of the nations made use of the understanding of those nations in order to present to them the true faith in Christ. What if he had gone among the peoples cursing and insulting them? Would he have gained anyone? Certainly not!

These priests ought to promote love among people, because, as we can easily see, the love that existed some 15–20 years ago has begun to fade. Even brothers no longer speak with each other. We no longer call our parents. We no longer answer our children, and so on. Later, while reading in the Lives of the Saints, a passage from the life of the Venerable Saint Paisios caught my attention. The Savior appeared to this Saint and told him that the wilderness in which he lived would be filled with venerable ones. Asking the Lord from what those people would live and from where they would have what they needed, the Savior replied: “Believe Me, that if I find them having love among themselves—the mother of all good deeds—and if they keep My commandments, I will take care of them in all things, so that they will lack nothing of what is needful to them!”

How easy it is to be with Christ! Love, the greatest virtue, must always dwell in our hearts. Yet some of those online, regrettably, do not follow this virtue. For we hear them say: those ones are good, others are bad. These are heretics, those are schismatics. Some are “Old Calendarists,” others are deluded. And thus, judgment arises in people’s hearts instead of love.

Of course, it must be love directed toward correcting those who have fallen and restoring them to the foundations of the Holy Fathers—not that kind of love increasingly promoted in the ecumenist movement, the kind where, for the sake of love, heresy and dogmatic error are overlooked. The Savior says to His disciples: “By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:35)

In this sense—meaning the manner in which we ought to work the deeds of love—we read the following in the account of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite about Saint Apostle Carpos:

The great Dionysius the Areopagite, writing a letter to the monk Demophilus, who had expelled a priest from the church for teaching the faithful meekness and kindness, reminded him of the following: While I was in Crete, I was received in his house by the blessed Carpos, disciple of the Holy Apostle Paul, a man of much kindness, who, because of the great illumination of his mind, was very easily granted divine visions. He would never begin the celebration of the most pure and life-giving Mysteries without first seeing some divine vision revealed from heaven.

This holy man (as he himself told me) was troubled by one of the unbelievers, and the cause of the trouble was this: that unbeliever turned a faithful man away from the Church and led him into his own paganism. Because of this, the blessed Carpos was greatly grieved. He was in need of being patient with those who had fallen from the faith and of teaching them constantly with profitable words, and of overcoming the unbelievers through his kindness. And for both of them he prayed with all zeal to God—that the one who had strayed from the true faith might be brought back again to His holy Church, and that the one blinded by unbelief might be enlightened with the light of faith. Yet, I do not know how, at that time (for before this he had never shown impatience), he became very bitter in his soul.

For late in the evening, as midnight approached, he rose to pray, for he had the habit of always rising at midnight to pray. Standing in prayer, he was deeply grieved for those two men mentioned above, and said within himself that it was not just for lawless men to live on the earth—men who rebel against the ways of the Lord, which are righteous—and he prayed to God that fire might fall from heaven upon them and consume the lives of them both.

As he prayed with great fervor, suddenly the house in which he stood trembled and split in two from the top, so that it seemed to him as if he were standing outside. And a luminous flame of fire descended from heaven before him, and, looking upward, he saw the heavens opened and Jesus sitting, and before Him stood an innumerable multitude of angels in human form. And the blessed Carpos marveled at these wonders which he saw in heaven. Then, lowering his gaze to the earth, he saw it split open and a deep, dark abyss opened before him, and at the mouth of that abyss stood the two men against whom he had been angry and for whose destruction he had prayed. And those men stood there in humility, with great fear and trembling, for they were now ready to fall into the abyss. And in the depths of the abyss there was a serpent who, waking, gnashed its teeth.

There were also some men there who were beating them, pushing them, and dragging the two toward that dreadful serpent. And Carpos, seeing those who had grieved him about to fall into the abyss and be devoured by the serpent, took comfort in it, and desired less to gaze at the opened heavens and at Jesus, who was seated there, and more to look upon the destruction of the two sinners. But again he was grieved and distressed that they had not yet fallen, and once more he prayed to God that they might fall and perish.

Then, barely lifting his eyes again toward heaven, as before, he saw Jesus rising from His heavenly throne and coming to those men who stood at the edge of the abyss, and He stretched forth His hand to help them. And the angels, taking those men, supported them on both sides and strengthened them, in order to lift them out of that abyss. And Jesus said to Carpos: “Strike Me instead, from now on, for I am ready to be crucified again for the salvation of men; for this is what I love—that men would but hate their sins. But tell Me, is it more pleasing to dwell with the dragon in the abyss than with God and His angels who love mankind?”

This account was included by Saint Dionysius in his letter to the aforementioned monk Demophilus, and it teaches not only him, but also us, that we should not show harshness toward those who sin, but rather desire their return, not their punishment. Then, we must instruct them with love and with patience, and wait for their repentance. We must pray with all fervor to God for such people, He who does not will the death of the sinner, that He, in His goodness, may turn and have mercy on them—for the Lord loves the righteous and has mercy on sinners. To Him be glory unto the ages. Amen.

Therefore, let us be attentive to this great virtue, heeding the beautiful teachings of the Savior, of the Holy Apostles, and of the Holy Fathers. We have everything we need for our salvation.

We may add here another word of instruction from Saint Basil the Great:

“The law of Christ and the commandments of His Apostles were not given only to monks, but also to laypeople. And the proof is that, when Paul says: ‘Watching with all perseverance and prayer, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof,’ it is clear that he wrote not to monks, nor to those living the hermit or quiet life, but especially to all those living in cities and villages, with wives and children. Should the layman then be granted greater license than the monk? Certainly not. The only concession the layman has is that he may live together with his wife. Other than that, he has no further allowance, but all that the monk is bound to do, so too is the layman required. And it will not be without great danger for the layman who transgresses the commandments.”

Keeping the commandments guarantees for us both what is necessary and also salvation, just as the Lord’s word shows us in His conversation with the rich young man: “Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him: Why callest thou Me good? None is good, save one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honour thy father and thy mother. And he said: All these have I kept from my youth up.” (Luke 18:18–21)

In conclusion, my beloved, you have every blessing to search the Scriptures, making use, of course, of what has been revealed by the Holy Fathers. Do not let yourselves be misled by those who, through various programs and televised appearances, seek to interpret the word of the Gospel according to the fashion of the times—so as to gain ratings, to gather followers, or to generate views, with the aim of filling their pockets or, why not, acquiring fame.

Follow instead what the Saints have left written—Saints who, through their authentic life in the Spirit of God, received the revelation of divine mysteries, Saints who lived in continual fasting, Saints who prayed unceasingly, often with tears in their eyes and their faces to the ground, Saints who were tortured and beaten because they gave their lives for the defense of the faith. Let us be followers of their teachings.

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8)

 

Romanian source: https://manastireasfantulglicherie.ro/razboiul-vremurilor-de-pe-urma-contra-virtutilor-crestine/