SLAVIC GOSPEL ASSOCIATION

Innercircle Perspective

Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12)

The International Herald Tribune front page headline is “A Kremlin Map for Religious Paths, Protestants Facing Official Antipathy.” The New York Times front-page headline reads, “Kremlin Rules, At Expense of All Others, Putin Picks a Church.” In the article featured by these two prominent newspapers, Clifford J. Levy writes, 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. This close alliance between the government and the Russian Orthodox Church has become a defining characteristic of Mr. Putin’s tenure, a mutually reinforcing choreography that is usually described here as working “in symphony.”

When the Lord raised up Peter Deyneka, Sr. to begin this ministry in 1934, the communist regime was bent upon eliminating all churches of every kind and all who believed in God. Untold thousands of churches were closed, their buildings torn down or converted into warehouses, factories, police stations, or government offices. Untold thousands of pastors, deacons, preachers, and faithful members were arrested. Some were shot, some were drowned, and some were the victims of staged accidents. Some were incarcerated for years in brutal prisons. Others were sent to harsh Siberian labor camps to be worked to death.

Then our sovereign Lord, whose Word makes abundantly clear His absolute reign over all the nations and their leaders, surprised the entire world and brought the barbaric atheistic regime crashing down. A ten-year era of unrestrained religious freedom followed. All religious prisoners were released and many of the confiscated church buildings were returned to their congregations. Public Gospel preaching was welcome. All the schools and universities, prisons, orphanages, and nursing homes were opened to evangelical church ministries.

Seizing the unprecedented opportunities, you and our other precious SGA partners have made tremendous eternal contributions. An excellent seminary has been established, 23 Strategic Bible Institute programs have been completed, and 21 regional-impact Antioch churches are being developed. More than 1,000 vibrant new Bible-preaching churches have been established in Russia. Through their SGA-assisted ministries, thousands of orphans, prisoners, and drug-addicted persons have been reached and discipled.

Then came the year 2000 and the election of Vladimir Putin as president of Russia. Through the development of oil and gas industries, he has made much economic progress, the principal effect of which is seen in the major cities. The collapse of the communist regime had left Russia with a national ideological vacuum. By forging a close working relationship with the 1,000 year-old Russian Orthodox Church and adopting Orthodox dogma as the new Russian ideology, President Putin has unified the country. Mass media campaigns and public school curriculum have been the key instruments in bringing about a renewed national identity. To be Russian is to be Orthodox. Everyone who has a different religious persuasion is encouraged to be viewed as an enemy of the state.

The opposition is being orchestrated by the national government through a nationalized religion. In spite of it all, by God’s marvelous grace, the training ministries continue, the church planters are continuing their labors of love, the Antioch Initiative ministries are developing, and the orphans and prisoners are still being visited. Nevertheless, the door to Russia is surely and steadily closing before our eyes. Pray that the Lord will intervene and reverse this trend. Much prayer, much power! There are still nearly 100,000 communities waiting for their first Gospel witness.

I am writing in Moscow with my heart filled to overflowing with gratitude to the Lord, and to you and our other faithful partners in the Gospel. All that He enables us to do for His glory He makes possible through your prayers and your material support.