Ukrainian seer Josyp Terelya comments on the Anti-Christ

        One of the most remarkable experiences with Ukrainian mystic Josyp Terelya is a discussion of spiritual warfare. While he was in prison Terelya, who spent twenty years in the Soviet gulag because of his Christianity, had remarkable visions. One was described in a letter from prison to his wife Olena on July 17, 1983. Hungry and cold in solitary confinement, he had crouched in a corner and suddenly saw himself at an ancient shrine known as Zarvanystya.

         "It was night," he told us. "I saw myself in the center of a meadow and all of a sudden an intense light illuminated the meadow and I recognized a familiar aroma spreading around me. The odor was like apple blossoms.

         "A large white eagle came and settled on the field and told me I should not fear. In the distance I saw an old man dressed in white. I remember only his face. And he said to me: `Why are you so troubled? Suffer and do not give in because you are under the protection of the Mother of God and after your release from prison there is a bright road spreading before you.'

         "I asked who he was and he said he was a servant of the Lord. `I know you and you know me,' he said."

         Terelya explains that the voice continued and told him: "The Lord is now gathering the good men against the evil. The world would long ago have been destroyed but the soul of the world would not allow this."

         Terelya asked what he meant by the "soul of the world." The man in the vision replied that the soul of the world is composed of the Christians. The old man went on to give Terelya a long message. "He told me rebellion against God extended across the world and apostates were presenting themselves as prophets," said Terleya. Neo-paganism would creep into the Church, he was informed, but it would also be a time of great miracles. 

         "In the end God will punish the apostates because only through this punishment will God be able to bring man back to sound reason," said the mysterious old man in the vision. "And when the faith and love shall be reborn, Satan will begin a new persecution of the Christians. Times of persecution will begin. The world will be divided into the messengers of God and messengers of anti-Christ. After the great revelations of the Virgin Mary, renewal of love of Christ will begin."

         When asked, two decades later, his own feeling on the anti-Christ, Terelya speaks about it as a force. "You find the anti-Christ in every country where there is homosexuality, anti-Christian movements, satanic groups, occult," he says. "In France, Holland, Germany, Italy, there is no faith. It's my understanding that the anti-Christ keeps the world under his control but that day will come when the anti-Christ will lose everything, and we'll know when it happens. There is a very interesting phrase in the New Testament, when Jesus said, ask, and you will receive. Who wants God will get God -- and who wants the anti-Christ will get the anti-Christ." 

         In his book Witness, Terelya cited another vision and quoted the Virgin Mary as saying, "Lucifer is losing strength. To maintain himself on the throne of darkness he began to portray himself as repentant, but this is not true. Lucifer is cunning and clever. He is preparing a great deception for all of God's creation, and especially for the people of God. For a short time a godless kingdom shall maintain itself from one end of the earth to the other."

       But back to that vision in 1983 of the old man. 

        "I asked again, `Who are you?'" recalled Terelya. "'What is your name?' He said, `I'm a servant of God, the Archangel Michael.' Tears streamed down my face. When I came to I didn't know if I had dreamed it or really seen it. Meanwhile the guards smelled the aroma of apples and began searching the cells. But of course there were no apples to be found."