NEARLY FOUR YEARS AGO (some of you have been around long enough to remember this), I visited the Greek island of Patmos with the intention of possibly living there if it all worked out. I was already living in Athens and making it to Patmos on a kind of “pilgrimage” was supposed to be the highlight of my life. It seemed to be a fitting thing to be living just a stone’s throw away from the very cave where John had written the Book of Revelation — the cave of the Apokalypsis — and I could both write a commentary on that book as well as send out “Letters from Patmos”, which would be updates on the state of the world. However, I discovered that God had other plans when I was sexually accosted by the priest-in-charge of that cave after attending a communion service there, and I hotfooted it from the island as fast as I could on a high-speed ferry. You can read what I wrote about that experience and how I interpreted it at the time by clicking here: https://diakrisis-project.com/2019/11/20/predation-in-patmos-corruption-in-the-church-continued/ . That experience was a pivotal point in my spiritual life and put me on a trajectory which I had not anticipated. Furthermore, it galvanized me into writing the actual commentary, which I did between 2021 and 2022, initially in Switzerland and then the bulk of it in Cornwall, UK. (You can obtain that 650-page commentary at this free-to-download link: https://diakrisis-project.com/2022/06/10/the-essential-apocalypse-making-sense-of-the-book-of-revelation-is-ready-for-download/ ).

Why am I writing about this here? Well, yesterday, a friend drew my attention to a very similar recent occurrence with a priest on the Isle of Rhodes (see this link: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/16/greek-priest-arrested-rhodes-anointing-tourists-genitals/ ) which is in the same Dodecanese Islands as Patmos. What struck me upon reading the article is the number of similarities to my experience. First, it says that “the priest invited him into a small reception room in the monastery ‘in order to give him a special gift’”. That is exactly what happened to me. I too was invited into a side-room with the priest gesturing that he wanted to show me something of importance. Although this never reached the stage where I might have had my genitals “anointed” by the pervert priest, I too went along with the invitation to the side-room because I was not sure if what the priest was doing was some kind of local custom about which I was ignorant and did not want to offend him. The Rhodes articles states: “The tourist was reportedly confused and embarrassed, not knowing if the ritual might have some legitimacy”. In my case, the priest was holding my hand and stroking my wrist in a bizarre manner before I went into the room, and I wondered if this was some kind of local or priestly custom. However, on entering the room, which was barely lit, and seeing that the priest was breathing heavily and grimacing like an idiot, the “penny dropped” and, sensing some kind of disgusting darkness, I uttered an unmentionable expletive and dashed out of the room and away from the whole place and even from the island!

This was a very salutary lesson for me as it seemed to symbolize a tipping point of amorality in the stark realization that the actual priest-in-charge of the Cave of the Apokalypsis in the 21st century — the very spot where the Book of Revelation, which has numerous dire warnings about sexual immorality, was written some 1900+ years ago — is a pervert who picks up his prey at communion in the cave. It fits in so well with the rest of the obnoxious so-called “Pride” debacle which is sweeping the world and which so many professing “Christians” underestimate or do not even really acknowledge. The rest of the story and my analysis of it is in the article link I gave above.

The visible Church in general is now corrupt, perverse, and inept to such a degree that the faithful disciple of Christ has no choice but to be a renegade in exile. That should not be a surprise. Even in the middle of the first century AD Paul could say that disciples of Christ are regarded as “the scum of the earth, the wiped-off filth of the world” (First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 4,verse 13) — the ultimate in estrangement. Thus, alienated from both this fallen world and also from the corrupt world-church which despises them, genuine disciples of Christ are the true counterculture.

My friends, we are renegades in exile. But that is no excuse to feel depressed or upset. Instead, we should rejoice in it! Rejoice that you are not part of their vile jamboree of true filth, sodomy and sex-changes, and that you have had truth revealed to you and have been taken into the bosom of Christ.

We are going to need a huge amount of Spirit-strength in the coming years. So read the Letter to the Philippians, chapter 4, verse 13. Always remember, those who persevere to the end are those who are saved (Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, verse 13).