In the last days we shall see the spirits of devils working miracles. The Holy Scriptures and Orthodox Fathers clearly tell us that the character of the last times will not be at all one of a great spiritual revival, of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but rather one of almost universal apostasy, of spiritual deception so subtle that the very elect if that were possible will be deceived, of the virtual disappearance of Christianity from the face of the earth. “When the Son of Man comes will He find faith on the earth?” It is precisely in the last times that Satan is to be loosed in order to produce the final and greatest outpouring of evil upon the earth.
+Fr. Seraphim Rose in Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future
As we have been living in the End Times since Christ's Holy Ascension, we must be prepared at all times to meet Christ when He comes again. Thus I have placed this thread in Praxis rather than in Theology as a place to share quotes and discuss the writings of Orthodox Christian Priests, Monastics, and Saints who are warning us to be alert, sober, and faithful "for the devil like a roaring lion roams about the world seeking those whom he may devour; resist him firm in the faith" (1 Peter 5:8).
By our lives, not only are we to be witnesses to Christ, but also we need to be aware of the presence of demonic evil, the presence of demons, who will increasingly tempt us by their miracles as the Second Coming of Christ nears.
This universal apostasy will deceive many as they want to believe in the fairytale of Ecumenism and the "Religion of Love" which asks us to be tolerant of evil in our midst.