About Fr. Michael Pomazansky

About Fr. Michael Pomazansky

Author of Orthodox Dogmatic Theology

-from 2nd edition, 3rd printing 1997

-translated and edited by Fr. Seraphim Rose

Dedicated to all those who have the desire and the determination to follow
the Royal Path

About the Author 

of

Orthodox Dogmatic Theology

by

Fr. Seraphim Rose

Theology In The Ancient Tradition

I.  Follower of the Royal Path

Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky is unique among contemporary Orthodox theologians.  At over 90 years of age [as of 1979] he is surely the oldest of those still writing theological articles; but more important, he received his theological formation not in any of the theological academies of the present day, all of which reflect to some degree the theological uncertainties and divisions of today's Orthodoxy, but in the pre-Revolutionary academies of Russia, when Orthodoxy was still rooted in the age-old theological tradition, and did not suffer from the "identity crisis" that plagues so much of Orthodox theological literature today.

Some Orthodox writers today seem to have so little awareness of the distinctiveness or Orthodoxy that they lead people into the false opinion that Orthodoxy is scarcely different from Western confessions at all, and if only a few more "joint theological committees" will work out a few more "agreed statements" about the faith, we can all be one again and even share the same Holy Mysteries; this is the aim of the various societies and activities of the "ecumenical movement."

The reaction to this movement,  on the other hand, even when it goes under the name of a "patristic revival,"  sometimes it produces a definition of Orthodoxy so narrow that it proclaims all but a small group of today's Orthodox to be without grace, or breaks off contact with its own Orthodox roots by declaring that only today are a few Orthodox theologians becoming free of the "Western captivity" [dominance by Roman Catholic or Protestant ideas] in which Orthodoxy has supposedly been held in recent centuries.

Both  of these extremes are perilously close to losing their identity as Orthodox.  Perhaps the crucial test for the extremists of either side is that of continuity:  Are they teaching the same teaching they received from their own fathers in the faith, who in turn received it from their Fathers, and so on in an unbroken line with the past?  More often than not, the extremists will have to admit that -- no, they themselves are correcting the mistakes of their fathers, that 19th century theology [for example] is too narrow and anti-Western or [in the opposite extreme] too scholastic and pro-Western; that some respected Orthodox theologians of earlier centuries are "out of date" and inapplicable to today's "ecumenical" Christianity, or [in the opposite extreme] are Westernizers who didn't understand the real Orthodox teaching" and should be rejected as Orthodox authorities.

Meanwhile, the genuine Orthodox tradition continues as it has always been trying to preserve its integrity in the midst of these conflicting currents.  Fortunately, this tradition has a way -- with the help of God, Who looks after His Church --- of preserving itself from the extremes that often try to deflect it from its course.  This self-preservation and self-continuity of the Orthodox tradition is not something that requires the assistance of "brilliant theologians;" it is the result  of the uninterrupted "catholic consciousness" of the Church which has guided the Church from the beginning of its existence.  It is this catholic consciousness which preserved the wholeness of Russian Orthodoxy in the 1920's when the extreme reforms of the "Living Church" seemed to have taken possession of the Church and many of its leading hierarchs and theologians; this same catholic consciousness is at work today and will continue to reserve Christ's Church through all the trials of the present day, just as it has for nearly 2000 years.  Those who speak for it are often not the "brilliant theologians," who can be led astray as easily as anyone else, but more often humble laborers in Christ's vineyard who would be surprised and even offended that anyone should make anything of their labors or even call them "theologians".

One of such humble laborers in the Russian Church today is Father Michael Pomazansky.

II. Biographical Data

Father Michael Pomazansky was born on November 7/19/1888, in the town of Koryst in the province of Volhynia in the west of Russia.  His father's family had been parish priests for generations, and the simple impressions from the churchly way of life of his childhood set their seal on Fr. Michael's whole life, influencing him more -- as he himself said -- than all the theological schools he attended.

Fr. Michael's years of attending the theological preparatory school and seminary [1901-1908] coincided with the Russo-Japanese War and the first Russian Revolution of 1905, which threatened the end of the Orthodox way of life in Russia, but also made evident the need for faithfulness to Orthodox tradition in those who, like Fr. Michael, were church oriented.  During these same years a great hierarch of the Russian Church was transfered to the diocese of Volhynia -- Bishop [later Metropolitan] Anthony Khrapovitsky, a highly educated churchman, a flaming preacher, a devoted son of the Church and an ardent Russian patriot, but at the same time an enemy of mere routine and "taking for granted" in church life, a man of warm heart who had an especially close contact with and influence on young people, and especially future monks and clergy.  Bishop Anthony had a great influence on the soul of the young student Michael.

Fr. Michael entered the Kiev Theological Academy in 1908, graduating from it is 1912.  The Kiev Academy had long been a center for the defense of Orthodoxy in Western Russia, especially against the Latins, and had produced five Metropolitans who were numbered among the saints.  The emphasis in the Academy in Fr. Michael's time was on solid theological and historical knowledge, and none of the professors was noted for special eloquence or "popularity."  Fr. Michael's dissertation was on a technical historical subject:  "Particularities of the Divine Services in the Church of Western Russia According to Printed Service Books of the 17th Century."  Here he was able to study in detail the question of "Western influences" in the Russian Church.

After graduation, Fr. Michael spent two years in the south of Russia as a missionary among the sects that flourished there; this experience made him for life a zealous student of the New Testament which the sectarians distorted for their own ends, but which rightly understood contains the profound teaching of the Orthodox Church.  In 1914 he was appointed an instructor in the Kaluga seminary not too far from Moscow.  Here he remained for three years, until the outbreak of the Revolution.  With the closing of the seminary at that time, he returned with his small family to his homeland in the south; ha had married the daughter of a priest, Vera Theodorovna Shumskaya, and had several children.

By an agreement between the Polish and Soviet governments, Fr. Michael's native village fell within the boundaries of Poland [only ten miles from the Soviet border].   Fr. Michael received a teaching position in a Russian high school in Rovno, where he taught Russian language and literature, philosophy and Latin.  In this position he was able to send his children through high school, and once his responsibility was discharged he was able to receive ordination to the priesthood in 1936.

His first assignment as a priest was to the Warsaw cathedral of St. Mary Magdalen, where he served as a diocesan missionary; and when the main church in this cathedral was given over to Ukrainian services, he went with other clergy to the lower church, where Slavonic services were continued.  Near the end of the Second Wold War [1944], he was also to go with his family to Germany, where he entered the clergy of the Russian Church Outside of Russia under Metropolitan Anastassy.

While in Warsaw, Michael was the unofficial editor of the church newspaper, The Word, and after its closure he was official editor of the magazine Sunday Reading.  In these years [1936-1944] he also published articles in the Messenger of Orthodox Theologians in Poland.

In Germany he was entrusted with the organization of the official organ of the Russian Church Abroad, Church Life; he was in charge of this from 1947 until his departure for America in August, 1949.  Since that time he has lived at Holy Trinity Monastery at Jordanville, New York, teaching in the seminary there for many years, from the very beginning of its existence in 1950, and writing numerous articles for the monastery's periodicals, in addition to his major work Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, which for long has been the seminary's textbook for its course in dogmatic theology. [Fr. Michael reposed in 1989]

Fr. Michael's writings have been on various church subjects:  apologetics, defenses of the faith against modern errors 'Bulgakov's "Sophiology," the "ecumenic movement,"  "renovationism" in liturgical theology, etc.], on various feast days and church services, on aspects of the teachings of the Holy Fathers [in particular, two enlightening comparisons of ancient Fathers with St. John of Kronstadt:  St. Basil on the Six Days of Creation, and St. Symeon the New theologian on grace], and many other subjects.

III.  Teacher of the Royal Path 

Especially helpful to present-day Orthodox Christians who are surrounded by the non-Orthodox are his careful distinctions [especially in Orthodox Dogmatic Theology] between Orthodox beliefs and those of  Roman-Catholicism and Protestantism, even on some points which may seem outwardly identical.  This he does without any tone of irritation against the non-Orthodox -- something so common in polemic writings today --but, always after describing their views with fairness, he sets forth the Orthodox teaching in an objective manner that helps Orthodox Christians to understand their own faith much better.

In all his writings, Fr. Michael is not trying to discover anything "new" in Orthodox tradition, or to stand out for the sharpness of his criticisms -- common faults in today's academic theology.  Rather, he attempts to give only his own humble, serene reflections on the wealth of Orthodox teaching which he accepts as already established and experienced by centuries of theologians and simple Christians before him.  Even when, for the sake of truth, he does find it necessary to criticize a view, whether inside or outside the Orthodox Church, he does it with such gentleness and good intention that it is impossible for anyone to be offended by him.

Most of all, in Fr. Michael's writings one may see a characteristic of genuine Orthodox theology that is so often lost sight of in our cold, rationalistic age.  Theology is not primarily a matter or arguments, criticisms, proofs and disproofs; it is first of all men's word about God, in accordance with the Divinely-revealed teaching of Orthodoxy.  Therefore, its first purpose and intent is always to inspire, to warm the heart, to lift one above petty preoccupations of earth in order to glimpse the Divine beginning and end of all things and so to give one the energy and encouragement to struggle towards God and our heavenly homeland.  This is certainly the meaning and spirit of the theology of Orthodoxy's three pre-eminent "theologians":  St. John the Evangelist, St. Gregory Nazianzen, and St. Symeon the New Theologian; they one may, have set the tone for Orthodox theology, and this remains the tone and the task of theology even in our coldhearted analytic age.

Father Michael's theology is in this warm-hearted and inspiring tone. He is not the only one to write Orthodox theology with this intent today, but he is one of the few, in an older generation that is fast vanishing, who can serve as a link between us and the genuine theology of the Holy Fathers.  Fr. Michael himself would be offended to hear such words, or even to discover that we have written this much about him; but that itself is only another sign that he is someone totally penetrated with the true spirit of Orthodox theology.  May the younger generations learn from him!

Hieromonk Seraphim Rose

Author's Preface

to the

English Translation

of

Orthodox Dogmatic Theology

In the Church of Christ Truth is one, as indeed it should be.  Historically it is one, common to all the Church's faithful, and unchanging; it has been such from the great day of the Apostolic Pentecost, when the New Testament Church received its beginning, and after that for the course of two thousand years until our time, and it will remain such until the end of time.  This attribute of the Church is splendidly expressed in the church hymn -- the kontakion -- for the commemoration of the First Ecumenical Colunncil at Nicea, which we celebrate on the Sunday before the solemn day of Holy Pentecost. Here are the words of this church hymn:

The preaching of the Apostles and dogmas of the Fathers have sealed the one faith of the Church.  And wearing the garment of truth, woven of the theology from above, she rightly dispenses and glorifies the great mystery of piety.

Thus, the great mystery of Christian piety, that is, life in Christ, is built on an unchanging unity of faith in the one Truth.  Arbitrary attempts to introduce into our faith anything new -- even though they do occur, sometimes from the naive desire of private individuals to attract attention to the faith by this means, or to put freshness into church life -- are decisively rejected by the Orthodox Church.

The present book -- an exposition of Christian dogmas -- has for its subject what the Holy Apostles teach us in their epistles, what the great Holy Fathers kept in its power and authenticity in their self-sacrificing ministry against various heretical attacks [Sts. Athanasius the Great, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom], what the Church has preserved, guarded, defended, and confessed unaltered in our days.   There is no Orthodox theology that is in any particular way "Russian" or that belongs to any other nation, as is sometimes supposed by superficial observers.  By human nature "imperfection" is something that belongs to each of us and to everything we do.

However, since faith is active in life and is a living thing, the circumstances of various epochs cause dogmatic expositions to devote special attention to those points of faith which in that epoch it is desirable, profitable, important to make firm in the consciousness of readers.  Thus, in the present exposition of Orthodox theology a special place is alloted to the truoly close and inseparable bond between the Church on earth and the Heavenly Church -- our spiritual communion in the Church with "the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven" [Heb.12:22-23].  Here is to be found the authentic pleroma -- the fullness, the catholicity of the Church.  Special attention has been directed in the book to this attribute of the Church.  this truth has been forgotten, ignored, or completely rejected in the great part of what is called Christianity.

The fullness of actual life in the Church on earth is manifested in three aspects:

     [a] confession of faith

     [b] moral life

     [c] the Divine services

Therefore, each Christian is called:

     [a] to believe

     [b] to live and act according to faith and prayer

     [c] to glorify God and to pray

Although dogmatic theology occupies itself only with the one aspect of confession of faith, still it is from faith that the second and third aspects come -- life according to faith and prayer.  And so the present book is called to indicate likewise the principles on which are erected the Christian moral life and the Christian life bound up with the Divine services.

The present exposition of faith attempts to fulfill this obligation:   [a] it indicates what kind of moral life is directly dictated by the exploit of Christ on the Cross. This path is our personal struggle in the name of the Cross of the Lord.  The always expressive visible banner of the Cross serves for our gaze as a constant reminder of this.  The very concept of the spiritual Cross contains in itself not only the various forms of personal struggle, but also the involuntary sorrows of life which are accepted in humility before the Providence of God.

Finally, [b] the book indicates what forms and kinds of our prayer and glorification proceed from the fullness of our beliefs.  The general character of our worship of God is dictated by the words of the Psalm "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name" [Ps.102].  "All that is within me" means all the capacities of the soul.  Therefore, it is perfectly natural for them to be manifested to our holy feelings in various forms of noble human activity, the talents given us by God.  We call on nature itself to join us in the Church's glorification.

Such is the aim of the content of the present book.

Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky 

June 1981

∞ ∞ ∞

more about Fr. Michael from another source:

Great Theologian, Teacher, Pastor Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky

Holy Prophet Elias

Holy Prophet Elias

Orthodox Life, 1963

The Orthodox Church commemorates the Holy Prophet Elias, also "Elijah" in English, in Russian Ilia, the righteous man of God whose prayers opened and closed the heavens on July 20/August 2; and throughout the Orthodox world thousands of churches are dedicated to him, thus bearing witness to a profound veneration of the Holy Prophet among Orthodox Christians of all times and places.  But today, among many Orthodox, his Feast is almost unobserved.  through hardness of heart, lack of zeal, and increasing immersion in worldliness, many neglect the Holy Elias -- and at a time when we should be turning towards him with even greater fervor than our forefathers. 

In the whole of the Old Testament, there is no more extraordinary figure than "Elias the Theshbite," the "terrestrial angel and celestrial man."  Who does not stand in awe before this Holy Prophet to whom the soldiers of the idolatrous King Ochozias were sent?  "And the captain of the fifty spoke to him and said, O man of God, the King has called thee, come down.  And Elias answered and said to the captain of the fifty:  If I am a man of God, fire shall come down out of the heaven and devour thee and thy fifty.  And fire came down out of heaven and devoured him and his fifty."  4Kings1:9,10]  Who does not marvel at how singular a destiny was his?  For he was raised up alive in a fiery whirlwind into some hidden heavenly realm, there to await the Last Days alive and undying in eternity while thousands of years pass by upon the earth.  Let us ponder the magnitude of this miracle.

We know the Holy Prophet Elias both through Scriptures and Sacred Tradition as well as through actual spiritual contact with him.  Orthodox believers have indeed experienced for centuries his powerful intercession before the throne of God, and particularly his power over fire, lightening, and other elemental forces of nature.  For God gave to him a degree of control over the natural elements entrusted to no other man,  likewise, the Holy Elias possesses a great importance in Orthodox Christian spirituality as the prototype of ascetics and monastic solitaries, perfectly embodying the poverty, chastity, and obedience of monastic life.  The Scriptures tell us that this strange and wonderful hermit of Mount Horeb stood up "as a fire" [Eccles.48:1; he was a man of prayer, a holy ascetic filled with the fire of the spirit, a fierce avenger and obedient servant of God, an extraordinary prophet whose mission was to manifest the righteousness of God and reveal His Judgments in an ancient Israel which lay submerged in darkness, in idolatry, and soul-destroying passions. 

To the sinful and apostate King Achab, the Holy Prophet Elias revealed the Judgment of God -- "As the Lord liveth ... there shall not be a dew or rain these years, but according to the words of my mouth" [3Kings17:1].  Thus did the "fire" of Divine Judgment leave the earth parched and dry as evil passions burned within the people, obscuring and consuming the image of God in which man was created.   The inward state of man produces outward effects in nature, and the latter changes in accord with the former.  The "drought" of the soul, brought on by impiety and the fire of passions, must eventually bring down the "fire" of Divine Judgment upon the earth, as manifest in various forms of natural catastrophes -- in plagues, in famines, and in droughts.  "The word  of Elias was a torch" [Eccles.48:1], we are told, and for three years and six months not a single drop of rain fell on the Israelite Kingdom; the trees, the grains, the roots dried up and died; the streams stopped running, and all nature groaned under the Judgment of God upon the idolatry and sinfulness of man.

And the Holy Prophet Elias retired to a cave in the wilderness beyond the Jordan, and there the great ascetic was miraculously fed by ravens.  

Thus in Orthodox iconography, the Holy Prophet Elias is most frequently shown either with the raven at the mouth of his cave, or ascending into the heavens in his chariot of fire.

Through his righteous purity, and sanctity of person, not only the elements but also the wild animals were subject t him.  Such it was also with the Desert Fathers and with out great Russian Anchorites of the northern forests.  To them, also, the wild animals were subject and peaceable -- for righteousness and constant prayer in a holy man reestablish the harmony of paradise and reveal man's true sovereignty over nature.  To the holy man freed of all impurities and passions, even the lion becomes a friend and servant -- for the viciousness of the animals, even among themselves, is traceable to the sinfulness and Fall of man, and its infection of all creation.  But when man assumes once again that image in which he was made, the natural world itself responds accordingly.  And we should think long and deeply on these spiritual truths in the contemporary world wherein there exist naive yet Satanic plans for the "conquest" of space and the "control" of elemental forces of nature by means of the "genius," power, and contrivances of self-deified "Man."

From his cave, the Holy Prophet Elias was commanded by the Voice of God to "arise and go to Sarephta" [3Kings17:9], and there he was received by a devout widow, not of the "Chosen People" but a Sidonian gentile.  Yet she was worthy to receive this extraordinary and holy prophet under her roof.  In her suffering and poverty, she did not hesitate when he -- who, unknown to her, had closed the heavens and had the power to open them -- begged of her:  "Give me a little water in a vessel that I may drink"  [3Kings17:10].  And he assured her that if she gave him but a single cake of meal to eat, her pot of meal and cruse of oil would not diminish as long as the drought and famine lasted.  As the widow gave to the Holy Prophet Elias, may we give to those strangers who ask charity of us, and our Lord shall reward us with the very oil of mercy which we have dispensed to others.  Indeed, the smallest act of charity may bring to us a miracle no less great than the undiminishing flour and oil, for we know not who may be asking us.  Does not the Lord Himself sometimes descend among us?  Is not what we do unto the least of His brethren done unto Him?  Will not the Holy Elias himself ask bread and water of the unsuspecting when he appears on earth again in the "days of great tribulation"?

Foreshadowing Christ's raising of the dead Lazarus, the Holy Prophet Elias brought to life the son of the Sidonian widow.  Breathing into the face of the child and stretching himself out over him three times the Holy Prophet  pleaded for the life of the child, and "the Lord heard the voice of Elias and the soul of the child returned"  [3Kings17:21].  The great avenger of God, the righteous ascetic who brings down fire from heaven is no stranger  the Love of God; the tragedy of a dead child and a mourning mother move his heart profoundly.  And in his raising of the dead gentile child, he anticipates the Love which Christ was to bring into the world, the tender Mercy of God Who calls all men to Salvation in His Holy Orthodoxy.

The words of the Holy Prophet Elias were pointed and direct.  To king Achab, the worshipper of Baal, who insolently asks him, "Art thou he who has troubled Israel?"    The Holy Elias instantly replied, "I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house who have forsaken the commandments of the Lord"  [3Kings18:18].  Similarly, having had the people of the King Achab called together, he immediately inquired, "How long do you halt between two sides?  If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal be god, follow him" [3Kings 18:21].   In other words there can be no compromise, for in the words of Christ our God, "No man can serve two masters" [St.Matt.6:24].  Here the Holy Elias speaks to us also,in these days which are characterized by compromise -- compromise with Communism and the Soviet Power, compromise with heterodoxy and "ecumenism", compromise with worldliness.  If Christ is God and His Holy Orthodoxy is true, then to follow Him involves uncompromising opposition to the Communist Power, to "ecumenism," and to worldliness.  The Soviet Power is legitimate, "ecumenism" true, and worldliness to be condoned only if "Baal be god."  No one can serve Holy Orthodoxy and any of these at the same time; and those who think to do so, in fact serve but one master - the Deceiver and Father of lies.

The Holy Prophet Elias was a servant of God and so great a man of prayer that before the assembled people of Israel his prayers brought down fire from heaven which with a blinding flash descended and consumed not only the sacrifice of bullocks, but also the very stones around it.  The prayers of the idolaters had failed, the people fell on their faces before the true God, yet so great was the iniquitous power of the priests of Baal over the people that the Holy Prophet Elias was then commanded by God to slay them.*  How terrible and unpleasant a task for so holy a man.  Yet in perfect obedience to God and filled with Divine Power, he fulfilled the command, and then went up to the top of Mount Carmel and cast himself down upon the earth, and prayed.  And as he prayed that the drought might end,a cloud rose up out of the sea.  "And the heavens grew dark with clouds and wind, and there fell a great rain" [3Kings18:45].  He who had brought down fire from heaven, now brought down rain to the parched and suffering earth; the Love and Mercy of God were manifest.

*It may be noted here that certain Protestants erroneously hold that Christ's rebuke of Saints John and James, when they urged him to bring down fire from heaven to destroy the Samaritans, imputes culpability to the Holy Elias both in regard to his slaying the priests of Baal and his bringing down fire to consume a number of people.  But in the words of St. John Chrysostom, "Let no one imagine that we blame Elias as being imperfect.  We affirm nothing of the kind, for he was an extremely perfect man; but this was in his own times"  [Homily on St. Matt.LVII].  Similarly Theodoret writes, "They who accuse the prophet speak against God, for He it was Who sent down fire.  It is indeed an act of excessive audacity to be angry at the administration of God" [Inter.XV,4Kings].

Even the greatest of Saints, however, are but men, and so it was with the mighty Prophet Elias.  Knowing that his life was sought by the mighty Queen Jezebel, he fled into the desert, the shadows of her threats assuming unreal proportions to him -- "Then Elias was afraid" [3Kings19:3], for even he was still subject to despair.  And he fell exhausted upon the earth crying, "it is enough for me O Lord, take away my soul, for I am no better than my fathers" [3Kings 19:4].  Thus God allowed the Holy Elias, the great prophet and desert solitary to be humbled by fear and despondency, he whose words had brought fire and rain from heaven.  So great were the powers entrusted to him that it was necessary for him to be humbled to recognize his utter dependence on God.  Yet, with him as with everyone, the various trials and struggles he underwent were meant to bring him to greater perfection.  Of course, the Mercy of God never abandoned him, and on being awakened from a deep sleep by the touch of an angel, the Holy Elias found that the angel had brought him a cake of meal and a vessel of water. "And he arose and ate and drank, and he walked in the strength of that food for 40 days and 40 nights unto the Mount of God, Horeb"  [3Kings 19:8]  -- Mount Horeb, the site of the burning bush and the Revelation of the Law, a holy place of Divine manifestation.  Here the Holy Elias once again took up abode in a cave.

And there "the Lord passed by"  --  "Behold, a great and strong wind rending the mountains and crushing the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire.  And after the fire the voice of a gentle breeze.  And it came to pass when Elias heard, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went forth and stood in the cave.  [3Kings19:11].  The Lord was in the gentle breeze; His Mercy endures forever.  And symbolically, the gentle breeze represents the Heavenly Kingdom and the "New Earth" manifest after the terrible Judgment and catastrophic End of the world.  Nor is it without significance that this passage is read as a parable on the Feast of the Transfiguration.  

"What doest thou here, Elias?" inquired the Lord as the Holy Prophet stood in the mouth of the cave.  To this inquiry, the great Elias plaintively cried unto God: "I have been zealous for the Lord of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant; they have torn down Thy altars; they have slain Thy prophets with the sword, and I alone am left, and they seek my life" [3Kings19:14.  And among other matters, God revealed to him that Eliseus was to be his disciple and that far from being the only faithful one left, at least 7,000 Israelites "had not bowed before Baal" [3Kings19:18].  His estimate of the situation had been overly pessimistic and not true to reality.  And we might well recall this example today when atheism and apostasy are so rampant in the world, when even many Orthodox hierarchs are falling away from the Truth and sliding into the abyss of the New False "Orthodoxy", when the holy Russian land lies in the cold grasp of the Soviet beast and the hierarchs of the Soviet "Patriarchate" support this beast.  Naturally enough all these factors combine sometimes to make us despair.  But as there were 7,000 Israelites who had not bowed before Baal, are there not many and many Orthodox believers throughout the world who have not in their hearts bowed before the Antichrist idol of "ecumenism" and have not been infected with the New False "Orthodoxy"?  Are there not many millions within the Soviet Satanocracy who have escaped the terrible pollution of Marxism, who preserve the Holy Faith undefiled and bow not before the blood-drenched idols of Marx, Lenin, and Khrushchev?  Of course, for Christ shall never abandon His Church and his faithful people, whose number may diminish, but who shall never altogether perish.

Seeking out Eliseus, who would work wonders through him and fulfill the commands of God, the Holy Prophet "cast his mantle upon him", and although Eliseus was working in the field and had never seen Holy Elias before, "he forthwith left the oxen and ran after Elias" [3Kings 19:20] to be his servant and disciple.  But Elias would not remain on earth much longer, and one day while he was speaking with Eliseus -- "Behold a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and it separated between them both; and Elias was taken up in a whirlwind into heaven.  And Eliseus saw and cried:  "Father, father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!  And he saw him no more" [4Kings2:11,12].  The Holy Elias had entered  into a secret heavenly abode.

We know that St. John the Forerunner, many centuries after the ascension of the Holy Elias, went forth "in the spirit and power of Elias" [St.Luke1:16], preparing and making way for the birth of Christ and His unfolding of the Salvation of the world.  But he was not Elias.  At the Transfiguration of our Savior on Mount Tabor, however, the Holy Elias himself appeared with Christ enshrouded in the Uncreated Light.  Here he was seen by all who were present, which is to sat Saints John, James, and Peter who heard him conversing with Christ --"There appeared to them Elias with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus" [St.Mark9:3].  Moses, of course is dead, and the nature of his appearance remains a mystery to us.  But Elias, like Christ, was surely present in his actual living body.  Thus through bringing the Holy Prophet Elias from his unknown heavenly abode and the Holy Moses from among the dead, Christ manifests His power over the living and the dead, and, as a testimony to the Jews, revealed these two Saints as His servants.

The Transfiguration, according to Saint Basil the Great, is "an anticipation of the Glorious Second Coming"  [St. Basil -- Homily on Ps.44,sec.5]; it conveys something of the future Kingdom beyond the terrible Judgment and catastrophic End of the World and of time.  At the Transfiguration, our Lord  appeared in His Heavenly aspect and Eternal Glory, in the very "brightness" with which He will destroy the Antichrist at His Second Coming [2Thess.2:8] And the Uncreated Light, the "Divine Brightness"is greater than the fire of Elias.  Like the fire of Elias, it conquers evil and reveals the terrible Majesty of God, yet unlike the fire of Elias, it also transfigures, for it proceeds from the Person of Christ our Heavenly Basilius, "the Lord and Lover of men"; and it reveals not only His Majesty but also His Love, bringing joy and peace to those of whom Christ said, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me" [St.John10:27].  To those who, like Antichrist, have aligned themselves with the rebellious powers of evil, however, we may assume that this same Light is a terrible and consuming "flame".

Yet , how fitting that the Holy Elias should appear at the Transfiguration, for this emphasizes the close connection of Elias with the Second Coming of Christ in His Glory, as foreshadowed on Mount Tabor.  For we know the Holy Elias is to be the Forerunner of the Second Coming.  "Behold, I will send you Elias the Prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord"  [Malachai4:6]; and his truth is affirmed by the words of Christ Himself -- "Elias indeed shall come and restore all things" [St.Matt.17:11].  Thus, according to Holy Orthodox teaching, Elias, together with Enoch,* in the Last Days will suddenly be manifest on earth where they will expound the Truth of Christ, urge men to penitence, denounce the Antichrist, and finally die Martyrs' deaths in Jerusalem, being slain by the Antichrist in the days which immediately precede the End [see: Apoc.11:3-12].

*Enoch who "walked with God" also was translated, while still living, into the heavenly world in very ancient times.  See Genesis V:22 and Hebrews XI:5

While Enoch is to "give repentance to the nations" [Eccles.44:16]], Elias is to give repentance to the Jews.  And according to St. John Chrysostom, Christ, by saying that Elias "shall restore all things", means precisely the "return of the Jews from their unbelief" [see Homily57 on St.Matthew].  And we may note here that on their part, many devout "orthodox" Jews indeed still look to the Holy Prophet Elias as the Forerunner of the Messiah, venerating his memory, asking his prayers, and awaiting his appearance.  Perhaps it is the testimony of the Holy Prophet Elias alone which will move them to accept Jesus Christ and His Holy Orthodoxy.  To those devout Jews who look beyond worldly values and still venerate the Holy Elias, he indeed shall come,and they shall follow him -- perhaps even to that Martyrdom for Christ which he shall undergo.

Let us be inspired by the knowledge of the future martyrdom of the Holy Prophet Elias,  Orthodox Christian people.  For in the Last Days. all faithful Orthodox believers shall be called to martyrdom.  Nor is the possibility of martyrdom ever entirely absent.  Circumstances can change with terrible swiftness, as we know from the events of 112-18.  In our times millions of faithful Orthodox believers have been martyred by the Communist beast.  Are you ready to die for Christ and His Holy Orthodoxy?

Holy Prophet Elias, pray to Christ our God for us!

Jon Gregerson

Orthodox Life, 1963

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For more information about the End Times and details about the return of Elias and Enoch, get the book Ray of Light available through SJKP.org

This is taken from Apostasy and Antichrist, Jordanville, 1978:

... The efforts of Antichrist to pass himself off as the true Messiah, however, will be met with an unexpected and miraculous counteraction in the persons of two Old Testament prophets.  The very two, who, by the will of God, not having tasted death, were taken into heaven until a certain time, will re-appear on earth before the end of the world in order to fulfill their mission and suffer death.  The names of these two holy prophets are Enoch and Elias.  The Lord will send them to Jerusalem in order to give people in those last days a final and miracuolous warning against the deception encompassing them.  Without hinderance they will convict all the falsehood of Antichrist for three and a half years, the duration of Antichrist's second period, when he will be preparing himself for the seizure of world power.  Not being able at that time to take leave of his appearance of meekness and benevolence even towards his enemies, Antichrist will not be able to hinder or take any sort of violent action against the prophets.  [Until the third period of Antichrist's duration when he has seized power, then he will have them murdered.  -jh]

It is in vain that some strive to interpret this miraculous appearance of Enoch and Elias allegorically.  Holy Scripture and the Tradition of the Church speak precisely of their actual coming on earth seven years before the end of the world, of their resurrection and translation into heaven.

In the book of Revelation it is written, "And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth.  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.  These have the power to shut the heavens that it will not rain during the days of their prophecy: and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will.  And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them"  [Rev.113-7].

..."But after three and a half days, the Spirit of life from God [will enter] into them and they [will stand] on their feet; ... [Rev11:7-13]