As the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine rages on, a troubling trend is emerging among Russian Christians and church ministers (and we see it in the Collective Christian West, too). They pray for the end of the war, hoping that Ukraine will cease-fire, believing that this will conclude the war without calling on their own country and authorities to stop their military aggression.
These pastors’ public calls and prayers have led their partners to label them as peacemakers — just for their words and calls — but not their proper actions. Their actions reveal a disturbing lack of acknowledgment and repentance for the terrible reality unfolding in Ukraine.
While Russian Evangelicals may have the right words about peace, they fall short in their actions. They do not truly mourn the victims of the war in Ukraine; instead, they pity themselves for being hated for their silence and passive consent to the Kremlin’s propaganda and actions.
This self-centered approach fails to recognize the immense suffering experienced by Ukrainians that the Russian evangelicals have not and may never face themselves as the result of the full-scale military aggression and the war to get rid of your nation from the surface of the Earth…
Moreover, before calling on Ukrainians to forsake their identity for the sake of peace, Russian (and some Western) evangelicals should first set an example. Reconciliation based on conformism to the Russian world or ideologies like Trumpism is not true peace or reconciliation. Forced silencing of victims does not bring peace – it destroys the values of God’s Kingdom, where peace means justice, respect, and diversity.
Yes, you are right… as Christians, we are called to love and forgive our enemies… You may call us to love and forgive them day and night… from the peaceful places… However, the Bible does not clearly address you and us how to respond when our loved ones are systematically assaulted, raped, and murdered by those seeking our destruction… dozens of thousands of them…
Many who teach enemy love do so from a place of privilege, never having faced the trauma of full-scale war… and never having daily funerals for more than two years… They suggest we stay silent about our pain, implying peace will come not by changing perpetrators’ hearts, but by victims’ forced silence…
A significant challenge we face is the neutrality of so many in Russia and ’some’ in the West. Can God’s people remain neutral in the face of normalized crimes and aggression bolstered by ideologies claiming to protect traditional Christian values through violence and rape, and murder? Christ was not neutral in humanity’s conflict with God. His moral compass must guide us in discerning when neutrality is no longer an option.
Being peacemakers does not mean tolerating imperialist ideologies, even those some Western Christians find agreeable. Jesus is the Saviour… not Trump… Not Putin… It means actively preventing the causes of war from destroying the Community of Hope and the true peace of God’s Kingdom – one not equated with religious-ethnic dominance but with Heaven’s values on Earth…
True peace protects the oppressed from dehumanizing ideologies and imperialism masquerading as God’s Kingdom, either MAGA or MRGA… We must practice what we preach, only demanding from others what we are willing to do and do ourselves. The calls for Ukrainians to surrender ring hollow from those unwilling to surrender to their own enemies…
As Ukrainian Christians, we implore Russian Evangelicals and ’some’ in the West to examine their hearts, acknowledge the war’s impact on our nation, and work towards authentic reconciliation based on Kingdom values… not by forcing Ukrainian Christians to be silent… but inviting Russian evangelicals to raise their voice for the Kingdom of God… — You cannot compare the fear of being arrested with the fear of being murdered, raped, looted, and tortured by the Russians in the name of Christ and traditional Christian values… — Only then can we build lasting peace that honors all people’s dignity and brings Heaven’s light to our war-ravaged world.
The road is long, but if we follow in Christ’s footsteps, we can emerge from this crucible as a truer reflection of His love. Peace be with you, People of the Bridge.
—
Taras Dyatlik, Ukraine
773 days of the ongoing full-scale Russian war against Ukraine to protect so-called traditional Christian values and make Russia great again..
Taras Dyatlik
Vice-Rector for Development and International Cooperation
Th.M.
Main research interests: New Testament Greek, New Testament Exegesis, New Testament Textual Criticism, New Testament Theology, Existential Theology, Early Church Fathers, Homiletics, Educational Philosophy
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I received this text from Ukraine. It stopped me in my thoughts. What do YOU think about it? Give responce … We are open for a straight debate on these important questions.
We must work for peace together and use the right methods to reach it – to get peace with God and find the correct way for peace with each others. Let us break down the walls between East and West!
R. Lehtonen
Swedish
Lise och Åke
Så otroligt träffsäkert!
Stort, hjärtligt tack broder!
Shalomski!
Lise och Åke
Translation:
This is extremely accurate! A great and heartly thanks brother! Shalomskij!
Lise and Åke
Lars-Gunnar Olsson
Samma trista logik finns bland evangeliska kristna i USA där man verkar tro mer på Trump än det sanna evangeliet.
Liknelsen om trädet och frukten …..
Translation:
The same and sad logical thinking is existing among Evangelical Christians in United States, where people believe more in Trump than in the gospel. The parabel about the tree and the fruit …
Teuvo Tikkanen
Diktaattorin alullepanemaa sotaa ei millään voi hyväksyä! Emme voi olla puolueettomia kun Ukrainan kansa kärsii Venäjän aloittaman brutaalin hyökkäyksen tähden. Suomen historia osoittaa kahden puolustussodan käyneenä kansakuntana pahantahtoisen valtion hyökkäyksen pienemmän kansakunnan kimppuun alistaakseen valtansa alle. Ukrainan on pakko puolustaa itseään Putinin alullepanemaa hyökkäystä vastaan itsenäistä kansakuntaa vastaan. Venäjän ortodoksisen kirkon johtaja Kiril tukee Putia tässä sodassa joka vastoin raamatun opetusta. Aleksei Navalnyi oli kristitty ja vastusti Putia. Näin meidänkin tulee tehdä ja rukoilla Ukrainan puolesta ja tukea sitä tavalla ja toisella, niin kuin monet kristilliset järjestön tekevätkin.
Translation:
A war started by a dictator can not be accepted by any means. We can not be neutral, when Ukraine is suffering, because of the brutal attack from Russia. The Finnish history shows, how it was for a smaller nation to defend themselves in two wars against an evil state, which had the goal to occupy and take over the power. Ukraine has no other choices, than to defend themselves against the offensive started by Putin against an independent state. The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, patriarch Kirill is supporting Putin, which is agianst the teaching of the Bible. Alexej Navalnyj, who was a Christian, was in opposition against Putin. So even we need to do and pray for Ukraine and support the country as many Christian organizations are already doing.
Håkan Karlsson
Vid ett besök i Pingstkyrkan i Skellefteå i slutet av år 2022, berättade Rauli Lehtonen om en profetia som hade cirkulerat i det ryskspråkiga Internet i 10-15 år av pappan till prästen Vladimir Fransiuk, som hette Viktor Fransiuk, men som nu är i himlen: att det skulle bli krig mellan Ryssland och Ukraina och att Ukraina skulle delas i floden Dniepr och allt land öster om Dniepr skulle tillfalla Ryssland. I profetians andra del stod det att när kriget i Ukraina blev slut då skulle Kina anfalla Ryssland.
Om Viktor Fransiuk har rätt så kommer kriget i Ukraina sluta med en ”frusen konflikt” där Ryssland behåller allt land öster om floden Dniepr och att det blir ett vapenstilleståndsavtal, men ingen fred ungefär som efter Koreakriget år 1953. Framtiden kommer att visa om Viktor Fransiuks profetia är sann eller inte??
Men så länge kriget fortsätter i Ukraina så orsakar kriget ett stort lidande och jag har sett alla TV-program om Putins krigsbrott i Ukraina på SVT play. Det har släpps loss så mycket ondska genom kriget i Ukraina. Östra Ukraina kanske blir ett nytt Nordkorea inom den Ryska Federationen?
Tack för ditt inlägg Rauli Lehtonen
Från Håkan Karlsson
Pascal Andréasson
Daer Bro. Rauli
Thanks for sharing brother Taras text. These matters are very difficult to discuss, and I write with a humble wish for softness in this dialogue.
First, dear bro. Taras write from a most painful position and express his thinking very emotionally. His writing is a longing and accusation in pain. I fully understand his position but have diverse thoughts on the matters themselves.
From day one I was against the war Putin started, but I don’t think Christians, or the church of Christ should accept taking arms against other people in the name of any nation. I take the same stand in all wars. If Russia would attack Sweden, I would not join the army. I don’t think any nation is worth to spill blood for. But I want to be active against all kinds of injustices and take the stand for justice and peace everywhere. As I write this I am just back from a trip to Ethiopia and the state of Tigray where perhaps more people have died in that armed conflict the last two years, than people have died in Ukraine, so please accept that I try to live my message.
Taras writes that “the Bible does not clearly address you and us how to respond when our loved ones are systematically assaulted, raped, and murdered by those seeking our destruction… dozens of thousands of them…”. But this is incorrect. Jesus lived under the tyranny of Rome where his people systematically were “assaulted, raped, and murdered”. Jesus did not live in a modern-day democracy when he preached about to love the enemy. Peter entered the home of his enemy, the Centurion (Acts 10), but not with sword of steel but the sword of the Spirit. Paul never took arms against Nero though he also experienced so very much of injustices and persecutions, and so forth.
Jesus spoke about the coming of wars (Math 24:6) as well as false teachings but told us to be sober at these moments (not act emotionally) and preach the gospel (Math 24:14). Jesus could have chosen to fight for Israel, but he did not and did also not encourage his disciples to do that (Acts 1:6-8). There is so much teaching in New Testament how to relate to wars, but we are steeped in secular thinking and nationalisms, that hinders us from seeing the truth in Jesus. His fight with evil was facing the heartless wolves by being the Lamb of God.
Taras urges us and especially “Russian evangelicals to raise their voice for the Kingdom of God”. Yes, I would, like him, hope that they (and we) may find the courage to do so, but here is one issue that always tend to become a bitterness for us, the reality and/or feeling of being deserted by our brothers. In the abandoned position we gnash out teeth in pain, but Jesus showed us that this happened to him as well. We must look upon Him!
I feel so much with bro. Taras and his pain. I will be praying for him and I pray for the peace of God to come reign both Ukraine and Russia.