Russian Patriarch says Orthodox faithful are holding back the antichrist

[pecksniff]

Meaning the West, apparently.

LONDON (Reuters) - The head of the Russian Orthodox faith was quoted as saying on Thursday that his church and its faithful were holding back the antichrist.
Patriarch Kirill was speaking six weeks into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has forced over 4 million people to flee, killed or injured thousands and left cities and towns destroyed.


While he was not quoted specifically referring to Ukraine, Kirill's comments backed the Kremlin line on the war by implying that Russia's actions there were a forced response to a foreign aggressor.

"Why did external forces rise up against the Russian lands? "Why do they strive to destroy, divide, set brother against brother?" Kirill was quoted by Russia's RIA news agency as saying.

The Kremlin says the invasion is a special operation to demilitarise and "denazify" Ukraine, arguments Ukraine and Western governments reject as a false pretext for an invasion.

Kirill, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, has defended Russia's actions and sees the war as a clash with a Western liberal culture he considers decadent, in particular in its acceptance of homosexuality.

That stance has angered some within the Orthodox Church and in affiliated churches abroad.

Referring to a New Testament text in which intensifying conflict between good and evil culminates in the second coming of Christ, Kirill said "the Book of Revelation mentions a certain force that holds back the coming into the world of the antichrist."

"Some thought it is the church that is holding this back, and that is correct," he was quoted as saying.

"The church keeps people from losing their bearings in life ... it is the Orthodox faith, living and acting in the Orthodox church – this is the force that holds back (the antichrist)."

Now, I suppose one could put a more innocuous, non-political construction on this, that the Patriarch literally means the faithful are holding back the Antichrist through their prayers and devotions.

 

[pecksniff]

BTW, click link to see pic -- Eastern Orthodox clerical vestments are interesting.

 

[oggbashan]

And that is why the Ukrainian Orthodox church split from the Russian version. The Russian Orthodox church is another mouthpiece of Putin's regime.

 

[LupusDei]

Russian church has always been state church. Even in Soviet times it was heavily infiltrated by KGB and denounced dissidents.

Now it openly bless the invasion and call for genocide styling its messaging as a crusade.

Interestingly (but not surprisingly) Kadirov announced a jihad as well.

Once, Ivan the Terrible the book burner, wore arab calligraphy on his crown. Some people (including the Chechen nationalist Dudayew whose battalion now is fighting for Ukraine) have implied Islamization would be salvation for Russia's soul, but this is doing it the wrong way.