there is a serious warning to those who fail in this time of trial. And it is significant that this is the most terrible warning of all.

Of all the condemnations, according to the Apocalypse, the worst is that of apostates, that is, those who deny or abandon faith in Jesus Christ. When the apostle John wrote these lines, inspired by the Holy Spirit, around 95 AD, the Church was struggling for its own existence. If it were to continue its expansion, the individual Christian must be better prepared to face suffering, persecution, imprisonment and death. The Christian could not surrender, or the Church died.

In our time, the Christian, as an individual, as a person, also has a capital importance. Although its function now is not to "protect the faith" by facing persecution, death and martyrdom, at least in Western countries, the current challenge faced by the Christian is to present the Gospel to others, willing to live it daily.

The condemnation of the apostate is presented here with the gloomiest colors of the most terrible judgment that ever fell upon the earth - that of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah: "The smoke ascended from the earth like the smoke of a furnace" (Genesis 19). : 28).