By Elder Makarios of Maroudas
(Holy Skete of the Nativity of the Theotokos "Maroudas", Mount Athos)
...Others come to Mount Athos running around to find prophets and futurists. The unfortunate ones see these things on television and the internet and they come to confirm it first hand, and they are victims of the exploitation of the terror they receive. They exploit even the words and writings of the late Elder Paisios. The Elder, as we came to know him, was a man full of peace, love and goodness. You went near to him, and your soul was calmed; he gave you hope and joy for life. Today there are distributed hundreds of photocopies of a manuscript of his about the Antichrist and 666, as if this was the primary message of the Elder.
I am anxious about these series of events. Someone translated from English for him a pamphlet of the many circulating in America by Protestants, and he took it to heart. All these things had already waned in America, and we told him this, because we read about them many years before he wrote his manuscript. But he persisted...he was a Karamanlis. He was even judged by Elder Porphyrios to discontinue dealing with those things. Eschatology is religious babble that brings dismay and indifference for the salvation of the soul.
Source: Excerpt from a talk given by Elder Makarios on April 1, 2012 titled "Man Shall Not Live By Bread Alone" (ουκ επ' άρτω μόνο ζήσεται ο άνθρωπος). Translated by John Sanidopoulos.