Posted on 10/24/2018 5:01:01 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Let’s start with the basics.
If you are a Russian citizen in 2018, it is currently illegal for you to share the Gospel with a friend in your home. It’s illegal for you to invite others to your church. VKontakte— the Russian equivalent of Facebook—can’t be used to spread anything that might be considered “evangelism.” In fact, all religious dialogue has been banned outside of churches and other religious sites.
On the street. Online. Even in your own home.
How did we get here? How did a country that seemed to be bucking decades of Orwellian control slip back into authoritarianism, and why haven’t more churches in the West spoken up on behalf of their fellow Christians abroad?
The answers are twisted up in a murky web of politics, nationalism, Putin’s aforementioned knack for propaganda and a healthy dose of good, old-fashioned fake news...
This is not the most recent or even most brazen of Russia’s recent attempts to curtail religious freedom within its borders, but it is illustrative of the Kremlin’s new attitude toward religion. The Russian Orthodox Church is deeply intertwined with Russian identity, closely connected to national politics and given broad legal preference over minority religions in the country. While the Soviet Union famously attempted to stamp religion out completely, Russian President Vladimir Putin has embraced the Russian Orthodox Church and, critics say, trans- formed it into another arm of his infamous propaganda machine.
(Excerpt) Read more at relevantmagazine.com ...
A state church is simply not NT Scriptural, and thus it is unChristian, as is using the sword of men to prevent Christians from sharing the gospel, and which the anti evangelism law does, even from trying to convert Muslims.
Moreover, the people of Russia are mostly culturally Orthodox, and hardly any go to church. Russians Return to Religion, But Not to Church | Pew Research ... www.pewforum.org/2014/02/10/russians-return-to-religion-but-not-to-church/
Are you serious? The law at issue forbids any evangelization by anyone - including Russians - (except by the Russian Orthodox) of anyone, and based on one survey, over 50% of Russian profess no religious I.D.or are other than Orthodox or Islamic, with the latter making up 6.5%., leaving Russia to be 42.6% Orthodox*. Another survey reported Between 1991 and 2008, the share of Russian adults identifying as Orthodox Christian rose from 31% to 72%, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of three waves of data (1991, 1998 and 2008) from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP)
Meanwhile Russians O's are mostly nominally/culturally so (with the share of regular attenders - monthly or more often - being 2% in 1991, 9% in 1998 and 7% in 2008), while it is a false church which retains many Truths (thus some are saved within it.
And there simply would be hardly any Christianity in the world - and no America as you knew it - unless Christians went to other countries to convert
In August 2012 the first large-scale survey and mapping of religions in Russia based on self-identification was published in the Arena Atlas, an extension of the 2010 Census, with data on seventy-nine out of eighty-three of the federal subjects of Russia.[1][2] On a rounded total population of 142,800,000 the survey found that 66,840,000 people, or 47.1% of the total population, were Christians.[1] Among them, 58,800,000 or 41% of the population were believers in the Russian Orthodox Church, 5,900,000 or 4.1% were Christians without any denomination, 2,100,000 or 1.5% were believers in Orthodox Christianity without belonging to any church or (a smaller minority) belonging to non-Russian Orthodox churches (including Armenian and Georgian), 400,000 or 0.2% were Orthodox Old Believers, 300,000 or 0.2% were Protestants, and 140,000 (less than 0.1%) were Catholics.[1] Among the non-Christians, 9,400,000 or 6.5% of the population were Muslims (including Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, and a majority of unaffiliated Muslims), 1,700,000 or 1.2% were Pagans (including Rodnovery, Uatsdin, and other religions) or Tengrists (Turco-Mongol shamanic religions and new religions), 700,000 or 0.5% were Buddhists (mostly of the Tibetan schools), 140,000 or 0.1% were Hindus (including Krishnaites), and 140,000 were religious Jews.[1] Among the not religious population, 36,000,000 people or 25% declared to "believe in God (or in a higher power)" but to "not profess any particular religion", 18,600,000 or 13% were atheists, and 7,900,000 or 5.5% did not state any religious, spiritual or atheist belief.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Russia
She’s a neocon here on a mission
It’s pretty obvious
And you must be a Democrat to mount such a cowardly attack on another member this way.
Trump said Putin is probably involved in political assassinations. If you don’t like what Trump said, there’s always the DU.
Example: Russia has had a notoriously high abortion rate and women who have confessed their abortions to spiritual authority figures have often experienced shame/judgment as opposed to redemption and healing.
Under Putin's new laws, things like Evangelical prison ministries have halted and the Russian Orthodox Church has not picked up the slack etc...
One faithful Orthodox believer in St. Petersburg, Ilya Zabezhinsky noted that the hierarchy of the ROC has been 'serving the Kremlin rather than Christ.'
No one in the Moscow Patriarchate should be surprised that all are running away from it, the Christian churches in the former Soviet space, the Russian believers who put Christ ahead of Putin, and all those who care about the rights and freedoms they should have as citizens of a modern country.
Our church, he says, has spent the last 20 years promoting things that have nothing to do with Christianity and not promoting the things that are at the core of the faith. Its members should not be surprised that others are running away from us, as the Ukrainian Orthodox now are, and that unless we change, others will do the same.
Hi! Obama/Soros tampered in Ukraine and Hillary joined forces with Putin (for money) *and* the pseudo-opposition for money..
But in both countries: Russia 2011 and Ukraine 2014 — grassroots discontent was very, very real even without outside influence.
This message is for you too:
Obama/Soros tampered in Ukraine and Hillary joined forces with Putin (for money/Uranium sale stuff) *and* the pseudo-opposition for money..
But in both countries: Russia 2011 and Ukraine 2014 — grassroots discontent was very, very real even without outside influence.
Exodus 14:12
It's better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!'"
1 King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide,[a] and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. 2 He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image he had set up. 3 So the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they stood before it.
4 Then the herald loudly proclaimed, “Nations and peoples of every language, this is what you are commanded to do: 5 As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.”
7 Therefore, as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp and all kinds of music, all the nations and peoples of every language fell down and worshiped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
8 At this time some astrologers[b] came forward and denounced the Jews. 9 They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “May the king live forever! 10 Your Majesty has issued a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the image of gold, 11 and that whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a blazing furnace. 12 But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—who pay no attention to you, Your Majesty. They neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold you have set up.”
13 Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king, 14 and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? 15 Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?”
16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us[c] from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual 20 and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. 21 So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. 22 The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, 23 and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?”
They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.”
25 He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”
Oh Lordy the Catholic avenger speaks
I have no dog in this hunt tween you and your eastern kinfolks
Russia is theirs
I do know that
You mean anyone who attacks Putin is a neocon? Rather, https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/01/11/kgb-christians-putin-stalin-kgbs-history-manipulating-orthodox-church Not exposing anti-Christ Putin, and enemy of the US and the West, is either ignorant or anti-Christ, or a suspected troll for him.
No I mean a Catholic poster is butthurt over orthodox Russia
Condoleeza is a Neocon though no offense
Putin is the antiChrist
Who knew?
Better warn Donald
Which recourse to misrepresentation (unless it was an oversight) does not help your case. I did not say Putin is the antiChrist, but that he is anti-Christ as are some who defend him.
Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. (1 John 2:18)
And as Trump: Putin 'probably' involved in assassinations | TheHilland intends to build up the US nuclear arsenal to counter Russia and China, and warn others, then I hardly think he does not see Putin as an enemy of the US.
I have contended against Condoleeza as regards Roman Catholicism, yet which also has seen persecution by the RO's, and both have accumulated some false teachings and traditions that are not manifested in the only wholly inspired substantive authoritative record of what the NT church believed (including how they understood the OT and gospels), which is Scripture, especially Acts thru Revelation. But I come so short of the purity, power and passion of the prima NT church.
“I don’t believe this article. And I am tired of Christians going to Christian countries to convert Christians. The Russians support Putin, let them decide what is safest for their country,”
It is sadly true, as I know people who were affected.
There are no “Christian countries”.
There are only true believers and the unconverted... and not everyone who attends a church has come to saving faith, as Christ said.
True believers were commanded by Christ to go into all the world and reach all people groups on earth.
“”Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit...”
Should they not obey their Savior?
‘Better to be a slave in Egypt...’
Exactly. And it is the heart behind the nostalgia for the Soviet Union that Putin taps into.
I don’t quibble with Putin looking out for ethnic Russians
I sure don’t see Euromaiden Ukes as heroes or saints but some are def fascists
So putin took a Port on the Caspian which has historically been theirs more often than not
And I like how he appreciates his own culture a fellow nationalist
The fact he’s an autocrat doesn’t bother me either....it’s Russia....it’s what they want historically
He’s not our biggest threat by any means
You’re here for a reason ..not sure who put you here
It’s obvious
If I had to poke at Putin it’d be over Georgia
If Trump were President sooner, Putin would not have had the nerve to pull his Crimea antic. Plain and simple, Trump has said as much himself.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.