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In History’s Bloodiest Persecution of Christians, the Russian Communists Murdered Millions
PatriotandLiberty ^ | 2018 | Jonathon Van Maren

Posted on 08/09/2023 1:48:34 AM PDT by spirited irish

The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 brought to power men who hated God and Christianity in all its forms. Lenin, who would end up being embalmed and put on display like a dead pope after his premature passing, once called the idea of God an “unutterable vileness.” The Russian Orthodox Church, as the chief repository of tradition and culture in Holy Mother Russia, had to be extinguished in order for the godless Soviet Union to rise from the ashes. The revolutionaries got to work as soon as they could—over 12,000 clergy were murdered outright–shot, beaten to death, hanged or drowned—and a secret 1930 police report put the number of Orthodox clergy who had died in prison camps at 42,800.

One day after taking power, the Communists passed their Decree on Land, seizing all church property and buildings on October 26, 1917. The following month, church weddings were declared invalid, along with the registration of births and funerals. In January of 1918, the Church was forced out of all the schools, and the state formally severed ties. The same month, Patriarch Tikhon pushed back, declaring the Bolsheviks anathema: “Recover your senses, madmen. Bring an end to your bloody strife. You are not merely committing the deeds of Satan, which are condemning you to Gehenna in the next world, and leave a dreadful curse upon your descendants in the present one.” The Bolsheviks responded by putting him under house arrest and ramping up their assaults—

(Excerpt) Read more at patriotandliberty.com ...


TOPICS: History; Moral Issues; Religion & Science
KEYWORDS: antichristian; communism; genocide; hatred; russia
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1 posted on 08/09/2023 1:48:34 AM PDT by spirited irish
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To: sphinx; Nervous Tick; reviled downesdad; sauropod; metmom; ViLaLuz; Roman_War_Criminal; ...

ping


2 posted on 08/09/2023 1:50:22 AM PDT by spirited irish ( )
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To: spirited irish

Chomo Biden and his demon democrats are just getting started. Now, it is a semi legit government bureaucracy. In a few months, Biden will order us just shot in the streets. k


3 posted on 08/09/2023 1:55:31 AM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
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To: spirited irish
The Russian communists killed many times more people than Hitler did—and Hitler was a mega butcher.

4 posted on 08/09/2023 2:12:56 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (LORD, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: spirited irish

Communism was an anti-Christian pogrom that killed tens of millions.


5 posted on 08/09/2023 2:15:17 AM PDT by Angelino97
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

True, yet if you point this out the western leftist media comes at you with a vengeance.


6 posted on 08/09/2023 2:24:46 AM PDT by MachIV
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To: spirited irish

So did the Roman Catholic Church.


7 posted on 08/09/2023 2:29:44 AM PDT by roving (👌⚓)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie
The Russian communists killed many times more people than Hitler did—and Hitler was a mega butcher.

Did they out do the Communist Chinese?

8 posted on 08/09/2023 2:35:37 AM PDT by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. Father of USAF Captain & pilot. Both bitten by the aviation bug)
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To: spirited irish
Oh, but that could never happen here....

/sarc

9 posted on 08/09/2023 2:38:21 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("You'll never hear surf music again" - J. Hendrix)
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To: spirited irish

Thx for the ping!


10 posted on 08/09/2023 2:40:25 AM PDT by sauropod (I will stand for truth even if I stand alone.)
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To: Mark17
#8: "Did they out do the Communist Chinese?"

I remember looking that up one time. As I recall, they were about on par with each other. Russian communists had from about 1917 until 1990, 70 years, which is about as long as the Chinese have had since 1949.

In any event, the Communists have been working on mass kilings far longer than Hitler (who had about a dozen years). Throw in some of the fellow travelers like Castro and Pol Pot, there is no question that the Communists are the greatest mass murders in history.

11 posted on 08/09/2023 3:16:06 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (LORD, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

What a great man:

“Patriarch Tikhon pushed back, declaring the Bolsheviks anathema: “Recover your senses, madmen. Bring an end to your bloody strife. You are not merely committing the deeds of Satan, which are condemning you to Gehenna in the next world, and leave a dreadful curse upon your descendants in the present one.””

Meanwhile, 95% of “conservatives” have no problem ‘leaving a dreadful curse upon their descendants’ by flooding America with non-Christian peoples which their descendants will ahve to deal with. The communists de-Christianized Russia and most ‘conservatives’ are fully on board with de-Christianizing America because “muh diversity” and “muh labor shortages” for big corp.


12 posted on 08/09/2023 3:30:42 AM PDT by imabadboy99
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To: Angelino97

so is “diversity” and open borders. Both are communist anti-Christian plots to remove Christianity from society.


13 posted on 08/09/2023 3:32:23 AM PDT by imabadboy99
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To: spirited irish

Hey Lenin....how’s it feel to be burning in Hell???? Keep it up!


14 posted on 08/09/2023 3:41:22 AM PDT by high info voter (Delivery )
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To: Governor Dinwiddie
there is no question that the Communists are the greatest mass murders in history.

I have no doubt that is true, until the beast and false prophet arrive on the scene.

15 posted on 08/09/2023 3:46:43 AM PDT by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. Father of USAF Captain & pilot. Both bitten by the aviation bug)
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To: spirited irish; ConservativeMind; ealgeone; Mark17; BDParrish; fishtank; boatbums; Luircin; ...
The Russian Orthodox Church, as the chief repository of tradition and culture in Holy Mother Russia, had to be extinguished in order for the godless Soviet Union to rise from the ashes.

But if you can't extinguished religion, you use it to suppress true faith:

We cannot doubt that the Russian Orthodox Church is an arm of the government. It's infiltration and control by the KGB is quite well known, and its corruption is just as extreme as any other sector of the "post"-Communist society of Russia. For example: "Kirill, who was the Metropolitan of Smolensk, succeeds Alexei II who died in December after 18 years as head of the Russian Church. According to material from the Soviet archives, Kirill was a KGB agent (as was Alexei). This means he was more than just an informer, of whom there were millions in the Soviet Union. He was an active officer of the organization. Neither Kirill nor Alexei ever acknowledged or apologized for their ties with the security agencies. As head of the church’s department of foreign church relations, Kirill gained the reputation of a relatively enlightened church leader. He met with Pope Benedict, and he has been attacked by church conservatives for “ecumenism.”Snip... http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/20/putin-solzhenitsyn-kirill-russia-opinions-contributors_orthodox_church.html

Putin is an instrument of Divine chastisement of America, and which should commend Putin's opposition to the LGBTQ agenda, but the Left lusts for the power of Putin, who is the dictator of corrupt government and which persecutes the most conservative Christians, evangelicals, even outlawing any evangelism by them at all.

Russia's Newest Law: No Evangelizing Outside of Church | News ...

Christians are Severely Persecuted in Putin's Russia – But That Could ...

Christian Persecution Increasing in Russia - Christian News Headlines

Report: Non-Orthodox Christians Face 'Strong Discrimination' in Russia

Russia, other former Soviet republics persecuting Christians, new ...

Moscow church destroyed in sign of new Russian repression Posted on Sep 26, 2012 | by Jill Nelson

MOSCOW (BP) -- It was in the early hours of the morning on Sept. 6 when Pastor Vasili Romanyuk's phone rang. A group of men backed by local police were demolishing his Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church, housed in a three-story building nestled in a Moscow suburb. As word spread, congregants arrived at the scene hoping to save the building, but their efforts were futile. By dawn the church was in ruins and some of its most valuable contents were missing.

An isolated incident? A misunderstanding? Analysts watching the current climate in the former Cold War country don't think so: "This destruction of the church is about as concrete of evidence as you can get that something very bad and very troubling is taking place," said Katrina Lantos Swett, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. "This could not have happened without the backing, support, and implicit blessing of the police."

The incident is just one sign of deteriorating freedoms in Russia, and behind the scenes a cozy relationship between the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church has raised more than a few eyebrows. As President Vladimir Putin digs into his third term, a number of Kremlin crackdowns involving vague interpretations of the country's extremism law and other human-rights abuses are troubling signs that the country has slipped into a familiar, repressive era.

"When you have unknown people backed by the police coming out at midnight to begin tearing down a church, you know something doesn't smell right," Lantos Swett said.

Officials evicted Holy Trinity Church from its original building in 1995 and relocated the church to the eastern Moscow suburb. The congregation used its own funds to construct a new building and repeatedly battled officials over permits. The church demolition and its history reflect an emerging pattern: Authorities confiscate land from non-favored religious communities and force the congregation to relocate to a remote suburb, the religious leaders apply for permits that are subsequently denied, and officials confiscate (once again) or demolish the relocated congregation, citing lack of proper documentation.

Pastor Romanyuk and a small group of the church's 550 congregants arrived on site around 3:30 a.m. as about 45 men claiming to be civil volunteers blocked them from the building and threw stones. "When I arrived, I just burst into tears," 25-year-old Natalya Cherevichinik told The Moscow Times as she surveyed the destruction. "I couldn't believe that something that had been built over several years could be destroyed in a few hours."

Russian Evangelicals Leery of Orthodox Church, Friday, December 30, 2011:

class="adjusted">MOSCOW, Russia -- For decades, the Russian Orthodox Church was persecuted under the Soviet Union's Communist Party.

Since the early 1990s, the church has grown in size and influence as its relationship with the Russian government has improved significantly.

However, that cozy relationship worries the country's evangelicals.

Threats Against Evangelicals

For eight years, Yuri Sipko ran one of the largest Baptist organizations in Russia. Now, 20 years after the fall of Communism, he worries about the growing threats against the country's evangelical movement.

"The collapse of Communism was supposed to usher in an era of greater religious freedom, but I'm concerned we are moving in the wrong direction," Sipko said.

What makes the Russian evangelicals very concerned is an emerging relationship between the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church.

"For example, the government recently introduced religious classes based on the principals of the Orthodox Church in public schools," Sipko said.

"Then late last year, the Russian president announced an initiative to appoint Orthodox chaplains to all army units," he said. "Our constitution clearly states no religion can be the state religion."

Russia Church-State Relations

Russia watchers credit two men, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, for elevating the church's prominence. The state media has also played a key role, often showing the leaders attending church services.

Sergey Ryakhovski knows both men well. As head of Russia's Pentecostal Union, he meets regularly with top government and Orthodox Church leaders.

Ryakhovski worries that the Orthodox Church's influence is coming at the expense of religious freedom, especially for minority groups such as Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists.

"There are so many laws and by-laws that regulate religious life in Russia," Ryakhovski said. "For example, evangelical Christians just can't go out and buy a church building or buy a piece of land to build a church."

"Plus, criticizing or challenging the Orthodox Church is not a task for all," he added.

Orthodox Church Revival

The Russian Orthodox Church on the other hand has had it easy in recent times after decades of state persecution.

Church buildings that were destroyed during the Soviet era have been rebuilt with Russian taxpayer money. In the past 20 years, the government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars restoring some 23,000 churches.

Most Russians say they belong to the Orthodox Church. Yet CBN News found mixed reactions on the streets of Moscow to the growing bond between church and state

At Expense of All Others, Putin Picks a Church

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY Published: April 24, 2008

STARY OSKOL, Russia —

It was not long after a Methodist church put down roots here that the troubles began.

First came visits from agents of the F.S.B., a successor to the K.G.B., who evidently saw a threat in a few dozen searching souls who liked to huddle in cramped apartments to read the Bible and, perhaps, drink a little tea. Local officials then labeled the church a “sect.” Finally, last month, they shut it down.

There was a time after the fall of Communism when small Protestant congregations blossomed here in southwestern Russia, when a church was almost as easy to set up as a general store. Today, this industrial region has become emblematic of the suppression of religious freedom under President Vladimir V. Putin.

Just as the government has tightened control over political life, so, too, has it intruded in matters of faith. The Kremlin’s surrogates in many areas have turned the Russian Orthodox Church into a de facto official religion, warding off other Christian denominations that seem to offer the most significant competition for worshipers. They have all but banned proselytizing by Protestants and discouraged Protestant worship through a variety of harassing measures, according to dozens of interviews with government officials and religious leaders across Russia.

Russia's De-Facto State Religion : Persecution : http://www ... www.persecution.org/?p=9350&upm...‎ International Christian Co... Putin frequently appears with the Orthodox head, Patriarch Aleksei II, ... Baptists, evangelicals, Pentecostals and many others who cut Christ's robes like bandits, ...

Government Returning Land to Religious Organizations to Favor Orthodox Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009: An ambitious draft law on the transfer of property of religious significance to religious organisations may reignite a process begun in 1993.

Pentecostal Seminary Targeted for Liquidation

Pentecostal Church Forced to Meet Outside in Moscow Winter

Russia: Governor Orders Church Land Grab

Council of Religious Experts threatens religious freedom

A new Inquisition ?

Russia “You have the law, we have orders

In addition,

"63% of Russians consider themselves Orthodox believers" and 66% of Russians – the population as a whole, without reference to one’s faith – trust the Russian Orthodox Church." - https://www.pravmir.com/over-65-of-russians-trust-the-russian-orthodox-church-poll/

More findings from that same source are that,

For many people, however, “Orthodox” is basically a cultural identification label and does not necessarily imply adherence to specific religious doctrines—a Levada poll found that 30 percent of those who saw themselves as “Orthodox” did not even believe in the existence of God. To single out the believers from the “culturally Orthodox,” we started by asking whether respondents considered themselves as belonging to any religion at all. Slightly more than half, 55 percent, answered in the affirmative. Of these, 81 percent indicated Russian Orthodoxy. This means that altogether 45 percent of our respondents considered themselves Orthodox believers.
Moreover...we found that Orthodox Christians, despite the ROC’s strong stance on abortions, were only marginally more opposed (48 percent) than the non-Orthodox/nonbelievers (46 percent) (see Table 2).
On whether certain other behavior could be justified, 55% of self-declared Orthodox believers affirmed fornication could be, which is actually just slightly less than non-Orthodox/nonbelievers (57%)

Pew research finds that in Russia,

just 6% of Orthodox Christian adults say they attend church at least weekly, 15% say religion is “very important” in their lives, and 18% say they pray daily. Other former Soviet republics display similarly low levels of religious observance. Together, these countries are home to a majority of the world’s Orthodox Christians.

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/11/08/orthodox-take-socially-conservative-views-on-gender-issues-homosexuality/
Across all three waves of ISSP data, no more than about one-in-ten Russians said they attend religious services at least once a month.

Meanwhile,

America has incurred the wrath of God, being more blessed and accountable than others. To which applies:

Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him. They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off. (Hosea 8:3-4) I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing. (Hosea 8:12) For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof. (Hosea 8:14)

Yet,

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (1 Peter 4:17-18)

16 posted on 08/09/2023 4:05:47 AM PDT by daniel1212 (As a damned+destitute sinner turn 2 the Lord Jesus who saves souls on His acct + b baptized 2 obey)
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To: daniel1212
Hebrews 11 NIV - Faith in Action - Now faith is - Bible Gateway
 
 
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 

17 posted on 08/09/2023 5:29:43 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: daniel1212
... but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.



18 posted on 08/09/2023 5:34:04 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: spirited irish

2nd amendment ping article. Never give up your weapons and buy more instead.


19 posted on 08/09/2023 5:41:40 AM PDT by joma89 (Buy weapons and ammo, folks, and have the will to use them.)
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To: Angelino97

Was Hitler’s hatred of the Jews fueled by the Jewish Bolshevik leadership in Russia who certainly approved of the Christian pogrom?


20 posted on 08/09/2023 5:41:50 AM PDT by Bookshelf
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