Bruce Michael
Well-Known Member
Dear All,
How could Solovyov have known of the rise of China as we see it today?
A tale we shouldn't forget: From "Three Conversations" by Vladimir Solovyov.
Pan-Mongolism! The name is wild,
Yet it pleases my ear greatly,
As if it were full of forebodings
Of the glorious providence of God.
-Br.Bruce
How could Solovyov have known of the rise of China as we see it today?
A tale we shouldn't forget: From "Three Conversations" by Vladimir Solovyov.
Pan-Mongolism! The name is wild,
Yet it pleases my ear greatly,
As if it were full of forebodings
Of the glorious providence of God.
"At that time, there was among the few believing spiritualists a
remarkable person -- many called him a superman -- who was equally
far from both, intellect and childlike heart. He was still young, but
owing to his great genius, by the age of thirty-three he had already
become famous as a great thinker, writer, and public figure.
Conscious of the great power of spirit in himself, he was always a
confirmed spiritualist, and his clear intellect always showed him the
truth of what one should believe in: the good, God, and the Messiah.
"In these he believed, but he loved only himself. He believed in God,
but in the depths of his soul he involuntarily and unconsciously
preferred himself. He believed in Good, but the All Seeing Eye of the
Eternal knew that this man would bow down before the power of Evil as
soon as it would offer him a bribe -- not by deception of the senses
and the lower passions, not even by the superior bait of power, but
only by his own immeasurable self-love."
"Thinking thus, the superman of the twenty-first century applied to
himself everything that was said in the Gospels about the second
coming, explaining the latter not as a return of the same Christ, but
as a replacing of the preliminary Christ by the final one -- that is,
by himself.
The Anti-Christ is set to fool many. Thank God we already have some descriptions- such as the above book by Solovyov. Who ever thought that the Anti Christ would be unappealing?"At this stage, the coming man presented few original characteristics
or features. His attitude toward Christ resembled, for instance, that
of Mohammed, a truthful man, against whom no charge of harboring evil
designs can be brought.
"This man justified his selfish preference of himself before Christ
in yet another way. 'Christ,' he said, "who preached and practiced
moral good in life, was a reformer of humanity, whereas I am called
to be the benefactor of that same humanity, partly reformed and
partly incapable of being reformed. I will give everyone what they
require. As a moralist, Christ divided humanity by the notion of good
and evil. I shall unite it by benefits which are as much needed by
good as by evil people. I shall be the true representative of that
God who makes his sun to shine upon the good and the evil alike, and
who makes the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust. Christ
brought the sword; I shall bring peace. Christ threatened the earth
with the Day of Judgment. But I shall be the last judge, and my
judgment will be not only that of justice but also that of mercy. The
justice that will be meted out in my sentences will not be a
retributive justice but a distributive one. I shall judge each person
according to his deserts, and shall give everybody what he needs."
-Br.Bruce