Written by J. Wesley Bush |
Friday, March 25, 2022
In the end, this war is the aging autocrat’s final attempt to rebuild the Russian Empire and correct the wrong turn history made in 1991. You might be tempted to ask why it matters to America. First, because America still stands for freedom and basic human rights. But more directly, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia are part of historic Russia. They’re also NATO members and America is treaty-bound to defend them. If we don’t stop Putin indirectly in Ukraine, we might well have to face him on the battlefield.

What’s really happening in Ukraine?” This question has hit my inbox ever since Russia moved troops to the Ukrainian border. Friends look to me because much of my career has centered on Ukraine: I was a U.S. Army Russian linguist, spent four years as an Evangelical missionary in Ukraine, studied Ukrainian history in graduate school, and served in U.S. Embassy Kyiv for two years. I was there for the Orange Revolution, the Revolution of Dignity, and Russia’s 2014 invasion.
So what’s really happening? Putin is a throwback to a bloodier era in Europe when autocrats settled historical grievances by force. Except for Milosevic trying to build Greater Serbia via ethnic cleansing, such wars have been extinct since 1945.
Extinct, anyway, until Vladimir Putin came to power. There is no real mystery here. Putin explained his motivations in his famed 2005 annual address — the breakup of the Soviet Union was a “major geopolitical disaster.” In 2021, he went further, saying the independence of Ukraine and the other Soviet republics was the breakup of “historical Russia.” By historical Russia he means the Russian Empire, with “Great Russians” ruling over Belarusians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and a host of other nations. As with most Russian nationalists, Putin cannot be happy with a country; Russia can only be great as an empire.
The alternative theory, that Putin is afraid of having NATO and the EU on his border, simply doesn’t fit the data. NATO members Latvia and Estonia already border Russia. No serious person thinks Europe has a military interest in Russia — Germany, the largest country, could not muster 44 tanks for NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force. It also fails to explain his aggression elsewhere on Russia’s borders.

He also weaponizes history, denying that Ukraine is a true nation. After Russia incorporated Ukrainian lands in the 17th century, it crafted an imperial ideology of three peoples in one — Great Russians, White Russians (Belarus), and condescendingly, Little Russians (Ukrainians). No one asked the “Little Russians” their opinion, and Putin is not interested in it now.
One of Putin’s talking points is that Ukrainian is just a dialect of Russian. In truth, it has the same overlap with Russian as Dutch does with English, so if you believe Putin, try reading an Amsterdam newspaper.
Ukrainians speak three languages — Ukrainian, Russian, and a mixture called Surzhyk. Many speak more than one. Putin tries a sleight of hand in which anyone who speaks Russian anywhere in the world is “Russian” and thus in need of his protection.

Written by Thomas R. Schreiner |
Saturday, January 29, 2022
When we are thankful, we praise our great God that “every good and perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17). We recognize that there is no reason to boast about anything because everything we have is a gift (1 Cor. 4:8), that He is the One who supplies our every need (Phil. 4:19). Whether we are talking about prayer, repentance, or thanksgiving, we are saying in every instance that we are children and that we are dependent on our kind Father for everything, and that is the heart and soul of humility.

C.S. Lewis famously said, “If you don’t think you are conceited, you are very conceited indeed.” Certainly that applies to humility: if you think you are humble, you are probably suffused with pride. In this article, we will consider briefly how prayer, repentance, and thanksgiving are related to humility.
How does prayer relate to humility? We can answer that question by considering the nature of prayer. When we pray, we express our complete dependence on God. Prayer acknowledges what Jesus said in John 15:5: “You can do nothing without me” (CSB translation throughout).
When we pray and ask God for help, we are admitting that we are not “competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God” (2 Cor. 3:5). Prayer testifies that we are “poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3), that we are not strong but weak, and that, as the hymn says, we “need thee every hour.” One of the most humble prayers in the world is “Help me, Lord.” We remember the simple prayer of the Canaanite woman when everything seemed to be against her. She cried out to Jesus, “Help me” (Matt. 15:25). Prayer is humble because when we pray, we are saying that God is merciful and mighty, that He is wise and sovereign, and that He knows far better than we do what is best for us.
Repentance and Humility
It isn’t difficult to understand that repentance—admitting that we were wrong and promising to live a new way—isn’t possible without humility. Pride rears its ugly head when we refuse to admit we are wrong, when we refuse to say we are sorry, when we refuse to repent. The best exemplar of this truth is the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector (Luke 18:9–14).
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Political leaders desperately need to know just how important this matter is, and that countless Australians—be they Christians or not—are greatly upset by this new medical discrimination taking place, and with a new group of health untouchables arising as a result.

We all need to get behind this vitally important Declaration:
A brand-new Declaration from Australia brings together biblical injunctions with modern-day concerns about medical apartheid. Addressed to the Australian Prime Minister, and written by three Queensland pastors, it speaks about the very real worry of vaccine passports and the damage they will do to a free society.
I have often addressed both aspects of what is found in this important Declaration. I have written about the need for watchmen which we read about in Ezekiel 3 and 33. Here is one of those pieces.
And I have written numerous articles warning against health fascism and the creation of a new medical underclass because of vaxx passports. See here for example.
The ever-helpful website Caldron Pool was the first to break the story, so let me quote from a new article Ben Davis has just produced on this important Declaration:
Timothy Grant of Mount Isa Baptist Church, Matthew Littlefield of New Beith Baptist Church, and Warren McKenzie of Biota Baptist Church said they penned the letter after it became clear there were few people resisting the developing medical two-tiered society.
“Part of me had been waiting for more experienced and more senior pastors or denominational leaders in Australia to speak up about what was happening,” co-author, Pastor Littlefield said. “But it was becoming clear this wasn’t going to happen any time soon.
“I knew many Christians were confused by this,” he said. “They want to know what pastors are thinking. So many people have heard Christians argue in apologetics that the Church has done much good for society, and now when so much is happening, the Church appears silent.”
Caldron Pool deserves a lot of credit for hosting this Declaration on its site and for making it widely known. And it is already going great guns, with over 450 church leaders having signed it, along with well over 3000 other Christians. But let me quote here from select parts of the actual Declaration:
The Ezekiel Declaration
Watchmen, It’s Time To Speak
To the Honourable Scott Morrison,As Christian leaders, you should be aware that in accordance with scripture we regularly pray for “and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Timothy 2:2).
We do write however, to you regarding a matter of significant concern. Namely, the proposed introduction of ‘vaccine passports’ into Australian society. For many Christian leaders and Christians, this is an untenable proposal that would inflict terrible consequences on our nation.
We should initially note that we are not the first generation that has been confronted with the question of ‘vaccine passports.’ Writing in 1880, aware of the challenges that a smallpox epidemic brought to society, the Christian theologian Abraham Kuyper wrote, “Vaccination certificates will therefore have to go… The form of tyranny hidden in these vaccination certificates is just as real a threat to the nation’s spiritual resources as a smallpox epidemic itself.” -Kuyper, A. 2015. Our Program: A Christian Political Manifesto. (p. 249). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press; Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty.
Between 1901 and 1905, Abraham Kuyper would hold the office of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands. He evidently understood that a ‘vaccine passport’ would represent a measure that was equal to if not worse than an epidemic itself through the oppressive control over people’s lives. As Christian ministers, we would also agree with Kuyper’s analysis on such a measure, and for several reasons.
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