And they told them, “But you know,” they said, “the saint had humor and would tell us one eleventh of what he saw, obviously because we could not endure hearing the whole truth.”
And what did the saint say? "Well, children,” he said, “so many millions of Chinese soldiers will come to fight Israel. Well, the people will become thirsty on the way. So, if one million Chinese each drink one glass of water, what are one million Chinese to the Chinese? Nothing. So if each one drinks one glass,” he says, “the Euphrates will dry up.”
So, he was trying to ease our fear a little.
And now what shall we say? They show us these things on YouTube now… Yes, even the Euphrates—you can practically walk through it. A fearful thing indeed.
And why has the Euphrates dried up — or rather, why is it drying up? That is the correct phrase. An atheist, a rationalist, will tell you: “The Turks built enormous dams further up in Turkey, and they hold back the waters of the Euphrates and do not allow them to flow down into the Middle East to irrigate the land.”
And this region, which for centuries has been watered by the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers… well, this is a logical explanation.
Therefore, that is why I say these are dangerous matters. If I now sit and tell you, “Ah, you see? The Euphrates dried up. Therefore, wherever you are, Armageddon has come”… but what is Armageddon? It is not simply the Third World War. It is the final war, through which everything will be shaken. “The powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” The final war that will happen shortly before the Second Coming of the Lord.
So, any interpretation—especially from those who base themselves on the internet—listen carefully to this, because the internet causes great damage, though to be fair, it also performs great missionary work. It depends on how much discernment you have and whether you go ask a proper spiritual person, as the doctor I mentioned earlier did.
So yes, there is danger of delusion if this brief prophecy of the saint—and of whom, please? Of the beloved disciple of the Lord, John the Theologian—if we try to interpret it only according to what is happening today in the Euphrates River, there is danger we will fall into delusion.
And how do I know that tomorrow the Kurds, who apparently may form a state, will not take control of those dams the Turks built? What if they break the dams and the water begins flowing again and the river fills once more? Do you understand what I mean?
Could uncontrolled obsession with prophecies insult the memory of the saints because of contradictory and conflicting prophecies that everyone claims they read or heard from modern saints and insists are true?
Already we are seeing how the memory of a great saint like Άγιος Παΐσιος is being abused because everyone attributes various prophecies to him that the man never actually said.
And then someone may reach the other extreme and say, “They are all lies.”
Well, no, my bishop, not everything is lies—God forbid. Glory to God. The disciples of Saint Paisios are alive: Father Euthymios, Father Gregory, Father Paisios the mathematician, the nuns of Souroti, and the nuns of the Transfiguration monastery—serious people. We have the books of Saint Paisios; we read them, and they contain what he himself actually said.
So you see, we end up going to the other extreme: “Everything is false.” No, not like that.
We offend the memory of the saints. Of course, we ourselves may cause this offense when we deal with prophecies with excessive zeal. Everything needs discernment.
And you know something? It is not you laypeople who are responsible. Nor only the priests. The bishops are responsible too. All bishops should have occupied themselves with Saint Paisios. All bishops should have occupied themselves with Saint Sophia of Kleisoura, who uttered terrifying prophecies, and with all the saints who prophesied.
Because what do some people do now? Some bishops speak only about miracles. “Ah yes, Saint Iakovos stopped an airplane with his foot…” Real miracles indeed. I even had painted the miracle Saint Iakovos performed, and you will see it when you come to the feast of Saint Iakovos at the mansion we built at Empa, Akaki. You will see a huge icon showing him holding the airplane and thus saving 250 people who were in danger.
But we should not concern ourselves only with the miracles of the saints. One of the miracles among our saints is also the prophetic word. That is why when you open the Gospel you constantly hear about the gift of prophecy.
“First apostles, second prophets, then teachers,” says Apostle Paul. He also speaks of gifts: administrations, tongues… and says, “Desire earnestly the greater gifts.” Seek the higher gifts. Meaning the apostolic gift is bringing people to the Orthodox faith.
Have you thought about what it means for someone to walk around crazy Limassol bringing people to confession? That is a great thing in such an age full of madness and atheism. That is an apostolic gift.
And after that comes the gift of prophecy. Yet many bishops locked this gift away in a closet. Some even reached the terrible delusion of saying that prophets existed only in the Old Testament.
Excuse me—is not Ιωάννης ο Πρόδρομος the greatest of the prophets? And what prophecy did he say? Only one. And it was not even about the future. It was about his own time. He said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” He declared that Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary, was the Messiah.
That was all. And he told his disciples, “Leave me. I must decrease and He must increase. I am not worthy even to untie the strap of His sandals.”
And the disciples of John the Baptist—Apostle Andrew and young Άγιος Ιωάννης ο Θεολόγος—left John and followed Christ in obedience to the Forerunner. And this man is the greatest among the saints.
As for the other prophets, some lived 400 years before Christ, Isaiah 800 years before Christ, Jeremiah 600 years before Christ, and Daniel 300 years before Christ. Do you know that many prophecies of the Old Testament are still yet to be fulfilled?
There is a prophecy saying that Damascus, the capital of Syria, when this worldwide war comes—what we call the Third World War—nothing will remain. Nothing. One of the oldest cities in the world, and it is written in the prophets of the Old Testament.
So what I want to say is that in our days, bishops, priests, and the people of God have been led into ignorance and superficiality. The same would have happened to me had I not gone on pilgrimages to Syria, Lebanon, and the Holy Land in 2009, 2010, and 2011. And if two or three people of God had not told me that great confusion is coming upon the world and that I, being bold and loud, should concern myself with the prophetic word. I did not begin this on my own. It was not my hobby.
And especially after I met Saint Galaktia in 2016—Saint Galaktia, who reached very high measures of holiness, a female Porphyrios—and do you remember what she told me? She told me what the spiritual causes of the world war would be: abortions without repentance; unnatural acts that would become laws, both within and outside marriage; and then also magic and satanism.
So you see, the true saints are concerned and possess a complete picture both of the world and of the Church.
And do not forget the beautiful saying of the Gospel: “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward.”
And I, too, must be careful. Not every prophecy I read or hear do I immediately repeat here. Usually, I speak only of those prophecies that are either in the Revelation of Άγιος Ιωάννης ο Θεολόγος or among the newer saints, only after I verify that not just one but two or three saints repeated them. For does not the Gospel say, "By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established"?
