Blessed Fr Athanasios Mitilinaios

13A Pergamos The Throne of Satan.mp3

And to the angel of the church in Smyrna, Right. This thing says the first than the last who was dead and came to life. I know your works, tribulation and poverty, but you are rich. And I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things which are about to suffer. Indeed. The devil is about to throw some of you into prison, but you may be tested and you will have tribulation. Ten days. Be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear. Let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second. The. And we continue to ally France with the abyssal of our Lord to the bishop of the Church of Smyrna. And we saw that he prays as the bishop, that he does not find any spot or area of criticism, but only praises and he praises him because is poor according to the measure of the world, but which according to the measure of God, despite of all the wealth of that city. Now he enters a new subject after we took a close look at the subject of poverty. And now the Lord points out. I know that blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Initially, we need to pay attention to this language of the Lord, a language that we as Christians could not dare to use today. And if we were to use this tome, we would be labeled as harsh, polemic, fanatical, insensitive. And people hate loveless people. Unfortunately, this is the spirit of our times in our ever. So I'm dogmatic and hand holding. Times. Times of unions and unmissable mixtures. The tendency exists among these lovers of all who accuse and criticize those who speak harshly to want them to be godly rather than God, and to be more lenient than God and more polite than God. It's getting to the point where we need to remind our listeners whenever we are using this language, language of the gospel, that that is. By the way, I'm not saying this race, this God is speaking like this, not me. We find ourselves doing this quite often. Now, if price speaks like this, if the word of God wants to use this sort of language. I am one of his poor servants. One voice inside the centuries. What? Tens of thousands of voices spoke the word of God. Now, who am I to speak on a different tone than the one used by the Lord? Who am I? We must speak with the same language and the same tone of our Lord. And He labels these Jews of Smyrna a synagogue of Satan. A synagogue of the devil and that they blaspheme when they call themselves Jews. But let's see these things more closely. What is the synagogue of Satan? The synagogue of Satan is the synagogue of those Jews who did not believe in Christ, simply the unbelieving Jews. The title Jew is a title of honor and the Lord himself was a Jew in his human nature. And during his dialog with a Samaritan woman who told her that salvation will come from the Jews. However, this title of Honor to be a Jew, to be a member of the Tribe of Judah was more but more specific, not just a Hebrew or an Israelite, but a Jew, a descendant of the tribe of Judah, the Royal tribe from which Christ would come forth. And this is why Christ, while the Samaritan woman, that salvation is from the Jews. But now, my friends, this title is meaningless simply because the Jews did not believe in Christ, at least in their great majority. And by losing this place of honor, they now remain the fleshly descendants of Judah.

While the true Jews, those who believed in the prophets – they also believed in Christ – the Christ believing Jews became the Church. And this is the true synagogue, the church. But those Jews who did not believe in Christ, they remain the synagogue of the Jews. Now What? Didn't they believe in the Messiah because they failed to comprehend the true meaning of the message of the Prophets.
They were living in a very fleshly perception of things. They desired a very fleshly messiah that would shower them with wealth and provide them with their own national freedom.

Unfortunately, these Jews have maintained this mentality until this very day as we are speaking. So this synagogue of the Fleshly Jews who did not join the church are still in a state of expectation about the coming of the Messiah. Was a descendant of David specifically was the national leader and a ruler not of their country only, but of all the nations. However, since Christ is the true Messiah and the Messiah, the true Christ, the true Messiah has come. Consequently, their expectation is in vain. And to think that from the time of the prophets, if we go back to Abraham, 4000 years have gone by now. If we consider Moses, who spoke about the great Prophet, about the Messiah, and if anyone would fail to believe in this great prophet, he would be destroyed and be cut off from the people of God. And that was 3500 years ago. And what is significant up until the third century before Christ. We have a sequence of prophetic voices. From the third century B.C. until now. 2300 years have elapsed without a single prophetic voice heard, not a single prophetic voice in the camp of the Jews.

So where are the prophets to keep preparing us for the Messiah? There are none. Why? Simply because the Messiah has come. These unfortunate people have realized that their Messiah is quite late and they thought that they must interpret the prophets a bit differently, something that they had already done to begin with. But now they are thinking that they should interpret the idea of the Messiah, not as one of a single person. But not of our nation. The Messiah is not a person, but in necessity, a group of people that will bear the role of the Messiah. So their idea of the Messiah is then nation of Israel. Who must take matters in its own hands to secure its political rights and to demand these rights from the nations which betrayed them and withheld their rights until today. Please pay attention, because these issues are not only important, but quite contemporary. And what I'm saying to you will be helpful to interpret a number of things about the events that are unfolding in front of us. And by the way, these are not my own interpretations. This interpretation of the Messiah being the secular state of Israel or simply the state of Israel. This interpretation is given by the synagogue itself. They publish these things in their own periodicals. Israel itself is interpreting in this fashion. I repeat, I'm not the one who interprets this way. Now since these people failed to believe in Christ and consequently being witnesses of the great advancement of the Christian nations, watching the Christian people overtake their lands while they seem to abide under a certain curse, they came to the point of extreme jealousy. They became extremely jealous and vindictive against the Christians and their nations. If you want, you may take a look at how the Lord prophesies this in the parable of the prodigal Son. It is the attitude or the psychology of the older son. Well, you know, when we preach about the parable of the prodigal son, we always seem to gravitate towards the younger son. And I don't know why his character is more sympathetic to us, and understandably so. We always seem to dwell on the actions of the prodigal son who came to his senses. He repented and it returned to the father and so on. And we do not analyze the psychology of the older son. This older son represents the Jews who became very jealous when he saw. The younger son walk, embraced and justified by the father, the prodigal son. Are there nations who distance themselves from a true God? And they were losing the salvation of their souls, the great inheritance. They were losing their souls through sin and idolatry. And now God calls the nations. Now, remember the historical evidence of this when St Paul spoke to the Jews in Jerusalem that God sent him to the nations. Now, up to this point, though, we're willing to listen. And when they heard the word nations, when they heard this word come out of his mouth, they were demonized. They were grabbing soil, dirt and they were throwing it towards the sky. And they were renting their clothes, ripping their clothes and yelling from the top of their lungs to the Roman centurion. Kill him. Get rid of him. Clean the earth of him. My friends, this parable of the Lord, this psychology of the older son towards the younger son continues to work itself out in history. We see this in the lives of the Apostles, and especially Saint Paul when he is attempting to preach in the synagogue, for example, in a synagogues of Antioch, of Syria, in the salonika in Corinth. Everywhere he went, the Jews were after him. They were out to do him in. They gave him no rest. Saint Paul could not arrest anywhere. They were always persecuting him. When he found himself in Corinth, at some point, he was forced to travel by land back to the Salmiya, Macedonia and then Syria, Antioch and possibly Jerusalem. Not possibly. He was going to go to Jerusalem because he had the responsibility of delivering the money that he collect there from the churches. They wanted to help the Church of Jerusalem because there was great poverty there at the time. So he was going to take this money to the poor of Jerusalem. He found out that the Jews were conspiring against him at the Port of Orion, and he was planning to go by boat, which would be the reasonable way to go. But he found out that a number of Jews were planning to sail along to force him to swim with the fish along the way. They were planning to throw him overboard during the dark of the night. These are the deeds of the unbelieving Jews, full of spite and murderous attempts, full of guile. St Paul had to come by land, walk all the way through Greek-Macedonian, who came to trailers, and he boarded a ship in trailers. And finally he made it to Jerusalem, where he was finally arrested. And there he had the adventure described in the Acts of the Apostles that you see the mind of the Jews back then, how they were chased in Saint Paul. In reality, they were demonized against the church. They were possessed by a murderous jealousy against the Christians. On one hand, having to deal with their prolonged frustrations that their messiah did not come. And on the other hand, deal with their jealousy. They are now finding themselves in a horrible state in order to deal with this frustration. They created the Zionist movement about 180 years ago, which is nothing more than an attempt to take back their rights to punish the nations under the foot of which they were humble was Hebrews of the dispersion, and to hold their heads over all the nations and to dominate these nations. This is a terrible reality and this is something very powerful, a very dark power with many tentacles which has spread out and embraces the entire world with a sole purpose to subdue and infiltrate the Christian nations. Mainly, my friends. These are not myths.

This is not antisemitism. We are not being prejudice here. This is international news which does not make itself here in the United States. In the year 1970, the United Nations brought it to the surface, brought to the surface this phenomenon of Zionism. The United Nations one or two years ago exposed this subject. It is a terrible thing. Also, let's not forget that kill the ISM, the heresy of the devil Witnesses Freemasonry and Communism are works and children of Zionism there works of Zionism and they are on their way to grip the entire world by this simple game. They have succeeded to fight the Christians from within, to turn the Christians against each other, against their faith and their own country and cetera. When a person becomes a mason or Jehovah Witness, does he not turn against his faith, against his country, against his flag? When he says younger. Why younger? My dear sir. Where do you see the name Yahweh in the New Testament? Your way with Jehovah, as they say, is not written anywhere in the New Testament. Don't you understand that you are serving foreign and non-Christian interests and at this point the synagogue of the Jews is in its highest fury. But the important thing here is that the Lord himself classifies the Jews who maneuver by these schemes. He flat out calls them Synagogue of Satan. I don't believe there could be a more proper and more appropriate description, a more revealing description than the one given by the Lord. And we will see in the following why this happens to be the most revealing description. The fact is that these people infiltrate the political system, the political engine of every nation, every country, and they attempt to hold in their hands the economy of the nations, the stock markets, the government and, if you will, the press. Then mass communication. It is proven that they control the news media. The greatest newspapers of the world are in the hands of the Jews, and they offer the news exactly how they want to. They write exactly as they wish and whatever they want to. This is the way through, Lord, over the nations. And this can be seen very clearly in the Protocols of the Wise of Zion, a book published last century and now considered a myth in this country only. Do not be fooled. This book is heavily publicized in every language in the European nations. It is quite well known. However, here in the United States, it is very difficult to find. By reading the content of that book, someone can easily see that there are objectives and there are schemes against. The nations have been fully revealed and met. But why does the Lord describe them as the synagogue of Satan? He does this and this is a most revealing description because simply the one behind this synagogue of the Jews is Satan.

And also the Lord at some point called the Apostle Peter Satan simply because Satan's was behind Peter. And if someone goes along with the will of Satan, he becomes one with Satan. So when the Lord says, Get behind me, Satan, he was given two positions. The first that behind Apostle Peter was the devil. And the devil came now to tempt the Lord, because the first time he came to tempt him in a desert. The gospel scene says that he left him for a time. A certain period of time. And what do we say? The devil we mean Lucifer. Not a simple demon. Not a dark angel. But Satan. There's only one Satan. The others are demons. He's the first. The Lucifer, the leader of the demons. So Lucifer now comes to tap the Lord through peer. Naturally, he did not succeed because the Apostle Peter repented. He later denied Christ. But he recovered. He repented again. Judas, on the other hand, is the pitiful being who became the victim of the devil. However, the first position is the revelation that behind the Apostle Peter is Satan. And the second is that the Apostle Peter at that particular time was an organ of Satan. Therefore, by calling them a synagogue of Satan, he wants to reveal that behind the Jews we have the energy of the devil. But because they become servants of the devil, they become one with the devil and they become satanic beings. And this is why he calls them a synagogue of Satan. This is a terrible description, my friends. And I must remind you that I'm not saying this. The Lord uses this term. Let's be careful. But what can we say? Oh, please. Take a look at the second Psalm. When you get home there, it says that the nations turn against God and against this Christ. All these nations that become servants of the Zionists turn against God. And I guess this Christ, meaning God, the Father or the Holy Try and try and God and the creation of God. In other words, the God human person of Christ.

So the nations turn against God and His Christ and God will laugh at them and He will crush them the way up. Potter dashes in pieces his unwanted vessels of pottery with our Radovan. It is very easy to smash a vase of bits of pottery with a hammer. Well, that's how easily the law will crush these disobedient nations. And he will laugh at their expense. Laugh at them. And this is tragic to hear God laughing at your foolishness, your pitiful being, your lecture muscles to fight against God, to curse God, to tell him that you don't need him. But it does not exist. Now he will laugh at your expense. He sees these demonic ploys of the Jews. He sees them. He sees them in this most prophetic psalm, which refers to all these things that we are discussing. And please read this Psalm. But do not be afraid of those things which are about to suffer. The law continues to instruct the Bishop of Smyrna. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison. But you may be tested and you will have tribulation ten days. Behold, the devil will put some of you in jail for ten days so you can be tried. So you can be tested. And you will face tribulation and distress for ten days. Here he is referring to a new tribulation. Different than the want of poverty. Where he says, I see your distress, your poverty and your patients. A new tribulation in a form of persecution, which is foretold to the Church of Smyrna. It is noteworthy here that this persecution is being brewed by the devil. But his immediate audience will be the Jews. And this is not surprising because here they are characterized as synagogue of Satan. But if you prefer an empty synagogue of God in line with Antichrist and take Synagogue or take Church of God, but by the figurative number ten. What's obvious here is that this persecution will be of rather short duration, not very long. This is a figurative number. Please pay attention to this because I want to slowly introduce you to the area of the figurative numbers of the Book of Revelation and the Scriptures in general. Christ says Ten virgins in the parable of the virgins, five foolish and five wise. And why ten and why five and five? So you do not begin to play with numbers and percentages. It is a figurative number. They? Yes. Christ, At some point, Lord, are many people going to be saved? And the Lord answer I want is this. There is something keeps struggling to enter. He didn't say that many or few. He just said keep struggling to enter through the narrow gate. He did not say how many will be saved. So when he states in this parable that the wise. Enter while the foolish are not saved, they do not enter the Kingdom of God. He uses five and five. So people do not begin to apply these numbers to percentages of those being saved and lost. So he uses the number 1010 convergence figuratively, which means you cannot extract any theories from this number. So here it says ten days does not mean ten actual days, but ten is figurative. By ten. He wants to point out that this duration will not be very long. On the contrary, when he says Christ will reign on the earth for 1000 years, which is taken literally by the kill. Yes. And a great number of Protestants, that price will come and live on Earth for a thousand years after the resurrection of the dead. Then number 1000 is figurative or allegorical, and it does not stand for 1000 years. But it stands for the time of the church, the time of God's kingdom on Earth. Remember the beginning of our Divine Liturgy. Blessed is the Kingdom. So more specifically, the 1000 years represent the time between the first coming of Christ up until the second coming. These are the 1000 years. Now, if you would ask when would Christ come back on Earth? We don't know. So the 1000 years is the time between the two appearances of Christ. A figurative number, ten days here for the Church's Mariner, because it is something very short. Well, 1000 shows. It would be a lengthy time, many hundreds of years. And truly, up to now, 20 centuries have gone by. I would like you to fully digest the subject of FIG. number so you are not deceived by the ungodly heretics.

In reality, this persecution against the Church of Smyrna took place at 155 a day during which Saint Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna, was martyred. Of course, Saint Polycarp was not the first Bishop Smyrna, but this persecution broke out during the time of Saint Polycarp. Please take into account that when the Book of Revelation was being written, his age was quite advanced. But forget that he was a very old age when he martyred. So if Apocalypse was written in 95 A.D. and his martyrdom took place around 155, we have a lapse of six years. Now, Saint Polycarp lived more than 80 years. If we go by his statement when he was asked to deny Christ, Polycarp said, I'm starving Christ for 80 years, and he treated me fairly in everything. Now, how are we to understand these 80 years, whether they are the years of his service as a cleric or the years of his life? Being born from Christian parents. The fact remains that he was a man of great age and consequently in his person we find the reality of the persecution. His execution took place February 23rd, 155 a day, and his material No yong or the record of his martyrdom is the oldest material, all young and preserved, even until today. The fact is that this persecution took place according to the description given by our Lord in this epistle. Now, let's hear how the biographer of Saint Polycarp puts all these things in ink. He writes in his mouth, General Augean. The entire crowd of idolaters and Jews living in the area of Smyrna, overtaken by great anger, was crying out with a great voice, wanting Polycarp to be burned alive. And all of these were orchestrated and energized by the Jews. And then biography further down adds, When Polycarp was killed, he was beheaded because the flames had no permission to burn him. The holy body of Saint Polycarp was a minyan. To the fire, to the flames. His body was not touched by the flames. Remember the three youths in the fire in Mesopotamia? Babylonia. So they were forced to kill him by the sword and his blood extinguished the fire. The Jews advised the idolaters do not allow the Christians to take his body. For they may create a new Christ. So they requested from the idolaters the body of Polycarp. So they could somehow burn it. And at this point of his biography, the Holy Biographer reports was it is usually the style of the Jews to want to stand first in line in these atrocious works. This is their characteristic. However, my friends, let's understand one thing. The persecution is the constant loss of the church in the world. A church under persecution gives clear proof that it stands well, and it is and raised by God, A church that bypasses persecution by forming an alliance with a world with powers has already been proved by Christ.