This entire idea may be wrong, as I now know (not as I assumed) that Stalin was against dividing Germany. Sorry for this possibly offensive blog post. But I will keep it for “history”.
Russia is blocked by the devil. Most Russian people don’t accept the truth of Gospel, their minds are blocked from freedom. Integration with the West is hindered.
What exactly “blocks” Russians’ minds? I think this is a “composite” stronghold:
- Russian Orthodoxy
- “religion of victory”
- stalinism
- monuments
- “frontline” 100 gram
“Russian Orthodoxy” is a religion similar to Catholicism (with only minor differences, if not to take as a difference that Russian priests do marry). It is little related with Christianity. One thing Russian Orthodoxy has in common with Christianity is that we both believe in Holy Trinity and resurrection of Christ. But that is the end of similarity. All other aspects of Russian Orthodoxy are unrelated with Christianity. Well, they “have” Bible, but don’t believe it is errorless. They pray to dead people just like shamans, they think that salvation of a man depends on whether he does good deals, rather than wholly accepting the sacrifice of Christ who saves us sinners. (See here the true theory of salvation.)
“Religion of victory” is Russian quasi-cult where they proudly celebrate victory over fascist Germany in 1945. No doubt it is good that fascists were defeated, but Russians converted this to a pride cult. Russians feel “we have already achieved success” (considering that victory) and for this reason the desire of Russians to reach success is hindered (“we already reached a success”).
So the problem is that Russian are too proud of their victory. But in fact the problem is worse: It was Stalin who attacked Hitler not vice versa. Thus Russians are proud of an aggressive war. It is just like to make a robbery and then be proud “I have overcome that other gangster which I’ve robbed!” Clearly this puts a serious curse on Russia, because God is against robbery.
It is curious to know how I revealed that Stalin attacked Hitler, not vice versa. Like most Russians I took for granted that Hitler aggressively attacked Russia. But once I’ve read in Bible (Joel 3):
1 “For, behold, in those days,
and in that time,
when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will gather all nations,
and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat;
and I will execute judgment on them there for my people,
and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations.
They have divided my land,
3 and have cast lots for my people,
and have given a boy for a prostitute,
and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.
4 “Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre, and Sidon,
and all the regions of Philistia?
Will you repay me?
And if you repay me,
I will swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head.
5 Because you have taken my silver and my gold,
and have carried my finest treasures into your temples,
6 and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks,
that you may remove them far from their border.
7 Behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them,
and will return your repayment on your own head;
8 and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah,
and they will sell them to the men of Sheba,
to a faraway nation,
for Yahweh has spoken it.”
9 Proclaim this among the nations:
“Prepare for war!
Stir up the mighty men.
Let all the warriors draw near.
Let them come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords,
and your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’
11 Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations,
and gather yourselves together.”
Cause your mighty ones to come down there, Yahweh.
12 “Let the nations arouse themselves,
and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat;
for there will I sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
13 Put in the sickle;
for the harvest is ripe.
Come, tread, for the wine press is full,
the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!
For the day of Yahweh is near, in the valley of decision.
It is clear the similarity of the situation: They divided Israel, got money, and Stalin also divided Germany into two parts and got the reparation. I’ve concluded that there should be also similarity of the result: a curse on the one who have done this. Well, in my more recent interpretation of Bible I do not suppose that similar situations always cause a similar result, but that time it worked:
I told to God: “God, everybody says that Germany attacked Russia but you say that Russia attacked Germany, I believe you. Show me how has this happened”. A few months after God has replied to my question: A Russian journalist Yevgeny Kiselyov explained on TV: Russia lost about a half of its military airplanes after the first German attack, because the airplanes were staying near the border, ready for an attack but not ready for defense. Stalin was sure that Hitler will be afraid to attack USSR, but was going to attack first. But Hitler “got wind” that Stalin is going to attack and got defensive measures. Hitler was afraid to attack USSR, but just started to protect himself. So it is clear: Essentially Stalin attacked first, Hitler just defended.
So Stalin’s propaganda is not yet crushed completely: his main myth that Germany attacked USSR continues to be promoted by Russian propaganda. In a sense they are stalinists yet. No doubt we must liquidate all remainders of stalinism. To crash stalinism we need to crash the religion of victory, which is intimately related with stalinism.
Russian Orthodoxy is also linked with this: The war was proclaimed “holy war” by Russian church. To crush the Russian Orthodoxy cult and replace it with true Christianity it is necessary to crush also religion of victory.
Another source of trouble are monuments. I’d dare to say that the topic of half of Old Testament is that when they built monuments, they lose God’s blessing and when they destroyed monuments they received God’s blessing. The main source of Russian monuments is the “religion of victory”. You see, all this is related.
Someone may say: Monuments are not idols. To know whether monuments are idols, we need to hear what the partisans of monuments themselves think and themselves say. They consider them as something holy. After we hear them, it is quite clear: They are! They are treated like idols and thus they are idols, because real idols is what is treated as an idol. Monuments are idols, they are worshiping to deads, what is forbidden by Bible (just like worshiping to dead saints, which is also connected to this).
And finally, yet one Russian problem, drunkenness. It does not work if we fight the symptom, we need to fight the source of the problem: (Eph. 6:12) “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” The real reason of Russian drunkenness is sorcery! Russians often not just drink, they drink “for” something: For example they often “drink for health”. It is nothing other as sorcery, using vodka as a magical aid. The proper way to fight drunkenness is to fight sorcery, and thus to fight religion of victory and Russian Orthodoxy. And one reason for Russian drunkenness are well remembered so called “frontline 100 grams” (of vodka). You see drunkenness is directly related with religion of victory.
Yet another stronghold is Synodal Bible translation (widely used in Russia even by Protestants). In this Bible version there are more sentences with translation errors than sentences without errors (I have checked it myself using Hebrew and Greek dictionaries.) To Russian apply words of Christ (Rev. 3:17) “Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked”, as they are separated from true word of God with a wrong translation and mind for themselves than they are better than for example Americans. Well, nothing wonderful with this as this Bible version is adequately named after “holy” Synod, which was even not under control of Russian Church but even worse a government entity created to control over the church by Russian czar.
Two religions cannot be in one place. There cannot be both monuments of “religion of victory” and true Gospel filling Russia. We need to make war with monuments and all other remnants of stalinism.
Don’t take me wrong, I am not an enemy of Russia. I want Russian to be prosperous. I just point the problem why Russia fails to prosper. I want Russia to stand up and get rid of the curse.
The author of this article Victor Porton is the author of two Christian books:
The same in Russian language.