On Why the World Has Not Ended

2 Pet. 3:11-12 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!

St. Nikolai Velimirovich 1880-1956

The Church’s craving for comfort is indeed her craving for death. Like a noble knight who descends into prison to liberate the enchained slaves, to whom the prison is painful and liberation still more painful, so is the Church’s position in this world. But how regrettable should it be if the noble knight accommodated himself in the prison among the slaves and forgot the light from which he descended and to which he ought to return! “He is one ourselves,” the slaves will say. So might today all the worldly institutions about the Christian Church in this valley of slavery: “She is one of ourselves.” She is destined to quicken the world end, and she is postponing it. One millennium past, another is nearby, yet the Church does not think of the world end: she loves this world; that is her curse. The world still exists because of the Church’s hesitation and fear. Were she not hesitating and fearing she had been dramatically struggling and suffering, and a new heaven and a new earth should be in sight. Why has the Church stopped being a drama? Why is she hesitating and fearing? Doubts and comfort have weakened the Church. The most tragical religion has climbed from Golgotha to Olympus and is now lying there comfortably, in the sunshine and forgetfulness, while Chronos, appeased, continues to measure time by thousands of years, as before. (The Works of Rev. Nikolai Velimirovich Chap. 2: The Drama of the Church)