Man is a creature gravitating towards mysticism. Even if he considers himself an atheist. If an individual does not believe in anything, he still comes up with some kind of religious surrogates - the higher mind, astrology, the theory of evolution (with all due respect, but the attitude to Darwin's legacy from some pundits often acquires signs of religious fanaticism). Prophecies and predictions are especially popular with both believers and non-believers, the passion for which has noticeably intensified in recent years.
Opinion leader
The best representatives of the human race have been working in the field of predictions since time immemorial - remember the prophetic Cassandra, who predicted the death of Troy. If we analyze the popularity of the prophets, to whom our contemporaries treat with the greatest reverence, at least in the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet, then the opinion leaders will be the Bulgarian soothsayer Vanga, the medieval doctor Nostradamus and, oddly enough, the apostle and beloved disciple of Christ - John the Theologian … The latter belongs to the most mysterious book of the New Testament - Revelation or the Apocalypse, interest in which is only growing every year.
And this interest is not accidental, since the creation of John tells about the end of the world, and what is happening in quite real life sometimes even makes optimists think about the finiteness of life: endless wars, earthquakes, tsunamis, the fight against traditions, cloning, epidemics, climate change. All of the above leads many to seek parallels with modernity in Revelation.
The special love of many for this particular book is due to the fact that the creation of the apostle is included in the Bible, which was and remains the unconditional authority for billions of people. The revelation was written by a disciple of Christ already at the end of his life, when he was imprisoned on the island of Patmos. As the Theologian himself writes, the events indicated in the book were revealed to him when he was “in the spirit,” that is, in a particularly prayerful state. Christ appeared to John and told about what should be before his second coming to earth: about cataclysms and miracles, heavenly punishments, the resurrection of the dead, the appearance of angels and, most importantly, the appearance of Heavenly Jerusalem, called to replace the existing human civilization with a new one. The latter, according to the apostle, will live under the direct control of Christ, after her there will be no other civilizations. Over time, the word "apocalypse" has become a household word.
Despite the fact that the ending of Revelation is very optimistic, the events preceding it at all times aroused humanity's just fears. Even over the past couple of decades, there have been several cases when the public began to loudly talk about the fact that the prophecy of John is beginning to be fulfilled.
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Star from the sky
A great ferment of minds was associated with the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. The reason was verses 10 and 11 of the eighth chapter of Revelation, which says: “The third Angel sounded his trumpet, and a large star fell from heaven, burning like a lamp, and fell on a third of the rivers and on the sources of waters. The name of this star is "wormwood"; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many of the people died from the waters, because they became bitter. "The parallel was quite unambiguous, since" Chernobyl "is precisely" wormwood. " what began to happen after the catastrophe at a nuclear reactor, was quite suitable for the description of the consequences of the fall of a star described by John.
Fallen babylon
A similar reaction among mystical citizens was noted to the sad event - the terrorist attack on New York's Twin Towers in September 2001. In all honesty, I must say that this event could not but touch people's minds: the picture shown live, which looked like shots from a stereotypical American action movie, actually happened and made a stunning impression. Immediately after these events, people appeared who said that before us is the embodiment of the 18th chapter of the Apocalypse, which describes the fall of Babylon (in this case, the name has a symbolic, not actual meaning).
John describes how everyone in the world related to trade "wept" as they watched the city die, which actually subjugated the rest of the world due to the fact that the main financial flows were concentrated in it. The Theologian then lists the losses incurred by trading in commodities that suspiciously match the list of futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange. At the same time, it also says that punishment befell the city for the fact that: "your merchants were nobles of the land, and all peoples were deceived by your magic." Why not a description of the American oligarchy led by the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers?
Of course, such parallels could not go unnoticed. But, fortunately, New York was not completely destroyed, after all, and the exchange trade is still flourishing.
Armageddon
On today's day, if they begin to remember Revelation, they associate it with the field of the last battle - Armageddon. The etymology of this word comes from the place name in Hebrew - Mount Meggido. This is the name of a hill 10 km from the city of Afula in northern Israel. According to a number of interpretations, the choice of this hill for the last battle of humanity as the site of the final battle in which the forces of good (Christ) and evil (Antichrist) will collide is due to the fact that it was here that the first documented battle took place. It was in this place in the 15th century BC that the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III defeated the Canaanite kings. Accordingly, where the first battle took place, the last one must also take place.
Well, what is happening now in the Middle East, I think, does not need to be described in detail. During the period when Russia had not yet participated in the conflict in Syria and the troops of the "Islamic State" (a terrorist group banned on the territory of the Russian Federation) were quite briskly moving towards Israel, in the marginal part of the Internet they talked quite actively about the approach of Armageddon.
Nothing new
However, panic has always been inherent in humanity. So, for example, all over the Christian world with great fear awaited the end of the world when the year 666 A. D. was approaching. The second strong outbreak was at the moment when Paschalia (the system of calculating the date of the celebration of Christian Easter) ended in the 15th century. At the end of the 17th century, the thoughts of the end of the world were prompted by the reforms of Patriarch Nikon, which ended with the split of the Russian Orthodox Church, and then the innovations of Emperor Peter the Great. The latter, by the way, was not called by many other than "Antichrist". A similar epithet was applied to Napoleon I Bonaparte. At the end of the 19th century, if you read Russian literature, apocalyptic expectations simply hung in the air. The end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century were also marked by panic expectations. Nowadays, numerous sects and self-styled "gods" love to spread them. Moreover, both in Russia and abroad. In any case, when in fact what John the Theologian prophesied will happen, we are apparently not given to know. However, you should not be afraid of all of the above, since the Apocalypse is an optimistic book and it ends well!
Archpriest Andrei Rechitsky, rector of the Church of Elijah the Prophet in Kitay-Gorod:
Eschatological expectations have always been characteristic of humanity, both in the Middle Ages and in our time. So, for example, in 1492, many began to prepare themselves for the coming of Christ, since Easter was ending and the same year was the 7000th from the day of the creation of the world. The people of the Middle Ages saw in this a secret sign indicating the end of time. In 2007, a whole group of sectarians in Penza walled themselves underground in anticipation of the end of the world. This is due to the fact that, unfortunately, we tend to pay more attention to external signs, and not to internal ones. However, Christ spoke directly: "It is not your business to know the times and dates." And as a sign of His second coming, he pointed precisely to the inner structure of a person, which should change in the last times: "And, due to the increase in lawlessness, love will grow cold in many (Mt 24: 9)." Thus,no matter how similar to the images given to us in the Revelation of John the Theologian, the events taking place around us should not be treated as proof that the prophecy is being fulfilled right now. Otherwise, you can become hostages of your own fears.