copyright by James R Carlson
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, left, talks to President Vladimir Putin, right, during the Easter service in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, Russia, in 2019. | Alexander Zemlianichenko/ AP Photo
Putin’s war against the People of the Ukraine is nothing more than a sanctioned murder of innocent civilians. The sanction for this war came from none other than the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill (‘Kill’ with an ’ir’ in the middle: ‘Kirill’). This Patriarch has become Putin’s Pope and has given sanction to a war against the Ukraine to secure a “Holy Russia” against western decadence. While one cannot dispute the many instances of decadent behavior in the West, one cannot dismiss the murderous activities of the Czar of the East – Putin, who’s behavior represents a false piety as an excuse for murder. The combination of throne and alter with Putin and Kirill is reflective of passages in the Bible about the Anti-Christ and his False Prophet.
Putin has had a long history with the institution of the Eastern Orthodox Church but should be excommunicated from it by none other than Russian Patriarch Kirill. This is unlikely to happen as Kirill ramps up his rhetoric to sanction the Russian war on the people of Ukraine, which suggests that he is anathema-maranatha. It remains for the larger Church body to excommunicate Putin and ultimately Kirill for his behavior in sanctioning murder (an abortion of the Ukrainian people).
Russia has had a very long history with the Eastern Orthodox Church. More recently with the Soviet Union, religious persecution became the norm and for a time after its fall, religious freedom seemed to grow. However, Kirill has ramped up his efforts to secure his authoritarian posture and religious freedom is not a staple in his own country of Mother Russia. Yet the Ukrainian people’s religious freedom has grown over the last decade and promises to continue to grow as the Ukrainian people reach out to God for assistance. But if the Russian invasion of Ukraine is ultimately successful (God Forbid) then we would see an end of religious freedom in that region as well as Russia.
Jesus told us that we will know the tree by its fruit. Either the tree is good or it is evil; either the fruit is good or it is evil. A good tree doesn’t bear bad fruit and a bad tree doesn’t bear good fruit. Simple truths that provide a parallel with the principles of God’s Kingdom (a parable) showing us how to discern who is good and who is evil. The deeds of both Putin and his false prophet are evil; thus, we may conclude that they are evil.
Simple truths are sometimes the hardest to hold on to as rationalizations persist to gas-light us into thinking that we can sanction evil actions, like abortion (murder), homosexuality (sexual perversion), or recreational drug abuse (called sorcery in the Bible). It takes a great deal of education from left-wing socio-religious institutions in the West to be so dumb as to agree with and support evil behavior. Similarly in the East, it takes a great deal of effort to burn one’s own conscience, to allow others to think for them instead of thinking for themselves, that the evil that persists in the Ukraine is born of nothing more then the evil that is in the hearts and minds of Putin and Kirill – the devil’s own.
Let’s Pray:
God in heaven, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is but one Church in the world and that is the Church born of Faith in Jesus Christ and led of your Holy Spirit. Please forgive the misguided support of the war against the Ukrainian people by the people of Russia, who are misguided by Putin and Kirill and those who support them. Please bring your Righteous and Holy judgement to the leadership of Russia for their evil deeds, which they have done without your counsel. Please bring to light their sins, which they have committed against you and the People of Ukraine and Russia. And please bring religious freedom to these people who desperately need you in the East as much as we do in the West. Thank you for your Love and your Counsel. Please guide us as we move forward as one body in Jesus Christ. Amen.
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