Elder Ephraim of Arizona: “Faith will be shaken to the foundations. The coming years will be the last and glorious…”

Elder Ephraim of Arizona: After my death, Mount Athos will be on the verge of schism, and a revealing war will follow.

“Those who say the Jesus Prayer (‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me’) will overcome what is coming with the help of God…” — Elder Ephraim of Arizona

“The years of tribulation are approaching.

When we see wars, earthquakes, and various events, the end is near.

We expect many things to happen according to the saints’ prophecies; in the last times, great events will occur.

And the word of God and of the saints is true.

The struggle we are called to undertake is for faith in the God-Man Jesus, believing that Christ was God, became man, descended to Earth, brought salvation, and drove away the darkness of unbelief and atheism.

And we, as soldiers of Christ, since we are part of Christ’s army, must prepare and arm ourselves.

Just as a state, when it realizes that another state is preparing an attack, begins preparing defense and counterattack, so must we.

And the preparation is known:

First, we must believe that if we have faith and humility, we will draw Grace — that great power of Christ — to bear witness.

We must never think or dare to believe that we possess this power on our own. We must say:

‘I am weak, incapable, sinful, nothing, zero, the most useless person’…

Only humility draws the power of Christ and will lead to victory.

Wherever Christ descends with His supernatural power, He does things beyond nature.

Do not think that with personal or human strength we can face any action or intervention of the devil and his collaborators. Never.

Man is weak; he has no power to face all these tribulations except through the power of God.

We must believe that when God calls us to this martyrdom, He will provide “along with the temptation the outcome also” (1 Corinthians 10:13), and that when we accept to bear this witness with humility, we will receive God’s Grace to overcome the evil one and be crowned.

Next, we must correct our lives, make them Orthodox in virtues and struggles, to truly experience, taste, and believe in God.

When we believe that Christ, in the time of martyrdom, performed miracles for the saints and strengthened them in the struggle, we will feel His living presence within us, just as the Martyrs did.

We see in the martyrdom of the saints that both the Martyrs and Ascetics received divine visitation, martyr-like experiences, visions, and interventions of Grace, without those around them perceiving it, and thus they gained strength. All this helped them overcome the suffering of martyrdom and be perfected in the Lord.

The Apostle Paul, in one of his letters, says:

“By faith the saints conquered kingdoms… obtained promises… shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, were strengthened out of weakness…” (Hebrews 11:33-40) and so much more they endured.

Through faith, the Martyrs accomplished all these great feats. They fought against kings, tyrants, tortures, fire, and many other trials, triumphed, were crowned, and became holy.

But we ask: Since now we do not see virtue, we have deep darkness of sin and unbelief, especially in these countries, where all religions, all peoples, all colors, the Satanists with great power, and so many other heresies and blasphemies overwhelm us, how will Saints emerge today?

Since all virtue has disappeared, and we no longer have ascetics as in ancient times, who became holy in the deserts, since faith will be shaken to the foundations, who will be the Saints of the last times?

And yet the Saints will not disappear until the end of the ages.

Until the Second Coming, the Church will continue to produce Saints.

And because these years are very near, and we are called to give this great testimony, we must all prepare and continually strengthen our children, even with the little we know, and cultivate Orthodox faith and readiness for martyrdom.

Whoever is granted to give this testimony of faith in the coming years — which will be the last and glorious — this Martyr will be ten times more radiant in the Kingdom of Heaven than previous Martyrs celebrated by our Church.”