ESCHATOLOGIA

Persian Drones and "Prophecies"

2026-03-09T05:29:00.002-04:00

By Metropolitan Nektarios of Hong Kong

The so-called “prophecies” that circulate from time to time in Orthodox circles — about great wars, the recapture of Constantinople, the “partition” of states, and spectacular geopolitical upheavals — have a strange endurance over time. They reappear almost inevitably whenever the world is afraid: during wars, in periods of national tension, in economic crises, and even whenever social media discovers a new “publication” with a heavy title and a dramatic promise.

The question, however, is not simply whether some of these “will come true.” The essential issue is whether this kind of discourse belongs to the mind of the Church or whether, on the contrary, it distorts the faith and turns it into a tool of fear and political fantasy.

After the Fall of Constantinople (1453) the subjugated Greek world lived through trauma, loss, and long humiliation. In such circumstances societies generate consoling narratives: “one day justice will come,” “God will restore everything,” “history will take its revenge.” This is not something unique to the Orthodox. History shows that apocalyptic scenarios and eschatological expectations flourish in times of crisis because they give meaning to chaos and transform fear into certainty.

Orthodox World	Catholic World
Neo-Patristic synthesis	Ressourcement movement
Florovsky, Lossky	de Lubac, Balthasar
Return to Cappadocians & Palamas	Return to early Fathers

ESCHATOLOGIA

Persian Drones and "Prophecies"

Timeline: Hell as the Experience of God’s Love

Timeline: Hell as the Experience of God’s Love

The Eschatological Iconography of the Preparation of the Throne

"Beware of False Prophets" (St. Theophan the Recluse)

Why Do We Consider It Normal Today For Someone To Go To a Monk and Ask To Know “the Future”?

The Ascension of the Lord is the Penultimate Event of the Second Coming

Metropolitan Meletios of Nikopolis and 666 as the Number of the Antichrist

Fear of the Antichrist

The Mystery of the Cross in Light of Orthodox Eschatology

Being Prepared for the Coming of the Lord (St. Theophan the Recluse)

"I Know He Didn't Say Any of It. Saint Paisios Was Not a Terrorist." (Metr. Athanasios of Limassol)

When Saint Porphyrios Visited the Cave of the Apocalypse in Patmos

A Byzantine Interpretation of the Dream of Nebuchadnezzar

"There Shall Be Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth" Depicted in a 14th Century Fresco

The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus About Life After Death

What Elder Ambrose Lazaris Taught About Judgment Day

God Is Fire (A Homily of St. John Maximovitch)

A Message to the Faithful from the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece: "The Gifts of the Holy Spirit and False Prophets"

Epiphanios of Salamis and the Doctrine of the Bodily Resurrection

Elder Eumenios Saridakis on How the Third World War Was Avoided By the Intervention of the Panagia

Chapel of the Second Coming of Christ in Sikinos

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Last Judgement (St. Luke of Simferopol)

Blessed Are The Peacemakers: Archimandrite Bartholomew of Esphigmenou Responds to Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou About the War in Ukraine

The Place of the Apocalypse in the Canon of St. Gregory Nazianzen

A Gift Greater Than Clairvoyance, Foresight and Prophecy