Author Topic: Politics Today (Read 20975 times)

guest116 · « **Reply #780 on:** November 01, 2021, 01:31:26 am »

Personally I pray no one like trump or trump himself is ever allowed to run. That does not mean I do not like some of what was done but he was a very poor choice overall. However, if the Republicans have the foresight to put someone like Kinzinger up I am all in, it was when that Repubs moved away from candidates like him I left the party. Right now I do not think either party is worth voting for. All just my opinion thiugh.

patrick jane · « **Reply #781 on:** November 23, 2021, 11:23:38 pm »

guest17 · « **Reply #782 on:** November 24, 2021, 12:11:59 am »

CONTROL FREAKS: Allen West obliterates the Left for controlling us

guest17 · « **Reply #783 on:** November 24, 2021, 04:37:57 am »

During Psaki's daily press briefing, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked if Biden was planning on apologizing to Rittenhouse for linking him to white supremacy. Psaki responded saying President Joe Biden is standing by his previous remarks linking Kyle Rittenhouse to white supremacy.

guest17 · « **Reply #784 on:** December 15, 2021, 06:32:02 am »

The hypocrisy of CNN is just astounding. They actually have the nerve to criticize Fox News and Hannity and Ingraham about the texts to Meadows. At least they tried to stop what was happening on Jan. 6. CNN didn't and doesn't ever say anything about wanting BLM and Antifa to stop rioting, looting and burning things down including Federal court houses and police stations. All CNN does is race bait and fan the flames of racism and put targets on people's backs and cause hatred. I'm so sick and tired of CNN. They're disgusting.

patrick jane · « **Reply #785 on:** January 04, 2022, 11:39:56 pm »

https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/january/ukraine-russia-border-churches-donbas-luhansk-donetsk.html

On Ukraine-Russia Border, Evangelicals Endure as Invasion Looms

Baptists and Pentecostals assess activism, unity, and reregistration in the Donbas region’s occupied Luhansk and Donetsk.

Trying to help, Vitaly Vlasenko was labeled a spy.

Traveling 650 miles south from Moscow to Luhansk, Ukraine, at his own expense, the now–general secretary of the Russian Evangelical Alliance (REA) waded into a war zone. Russian-backed separatists have held control of the Donbas region of southeastern Ukraine since 2014, and by 2018 had crafted laws to re-register churches, ostensibly under the principle of freedom of conscience and assembly.

But two years prior, the rebel authorities in Luhansk declared Baptists and Pentecostals a security threat. Pastors had been murdered; churches were seized. In total the conflict has killed over 14,000 people and displaced 2 million of Donbas’s 5 million people.

And currently, tens of thousands of Russian troops are on the border, threatening a full invasion.

“Our brothers in Christ in Ukraine are crying out: ‘Why don’t you pressure Russia to stop this aggression?’” said Vlasenko. “We tell them we are a small minority with no standing and no clear information, and officially Russia is not a part of this conflict.”

It does not go over well, he admits. Relations between evangelicals in the neighboring nations have become strained, and some assumed the worst of his December 2018 trip to speak with rebel authorities about the registration process.

Only the KGB-connected could get access, Vlasenko heard.

In reality, the visit was arranged through prior connections with the Russian Orthodox Church metropolitan in Luhansk. Your church received registration, the REA leader told his Orthodox counterpart; where is our Christian solidarity?

Without registration, churches were disconnected from the gas and electricity grid. All remaining evangelical churches were operating illegally, but some still had use of their facilities. But now it was winter, and cold.

The metropolitan agreed the situation was wrong and facilitated contact with the religious affairs official. Vlasenko was told registration would be given to all who completed procedures. He passed on the information to Ukrainian colleagues. But today, he said, relations are at a standstill.

“I understand they are in a difficult situation,” Vlasenko said. “Most churches have their headquarters in Kyiv, so how can they accept registration and explain this to their brothers in the [Ukrainian] capital?”

But Donbas churches face a choice: Continue to suffer, or continue in ministry. Vlasenko stays neutral, as he cannot advise them as a Russian.

Religious freedom problems in Donbas listed by the EEA include:

• Many churches are illegal and cannot meet, especially evangelical and Ukrainian Orthodox ones. Whole denominations are classed as extremist with no justification.

• Much Christian literature is banned, including the Russian Synodal translation of the Bible. Church buildings have been seized by force; the Christian University of Donetsk is occupied by soldiers.

• The registration system for faith communities is totally unfair. Churches have found their applications rejected or have been liquidated later for supposedly being extremist.

To date, only a few evangelical churches have been “legalized” in Luhansk. Bandura said the registration process is designed to be impossible. But in occupied Donetsk, the other half of the Donbas region and also operating under its own rebel laws and leadership, there has been more flexibility.

Luhansk officially designated the Baptist Union as a terrorist group, Bandura said, so the church there is underground. Overall in Donbas, only half of about 100 churches are still functional. Procedures are underway with the rebel authorities in Donetsk to unite three separate Baptist groups under one umbrella, in order to secure registration.

“If this is how you can preserve your churches and ministries, we are not against it,” Bandura said. “We do not encourage or recommend anything—and assume any arrangement is temporary.”

Other groups in Donetsk still find the requirements to be cumbersome. But Yuriy Kulakevych, foreign affairs director of the Ukrainian Pentecostal Church, thinks things may be moving forward.

“Russia likes to show it keeps to international standards of freedom of religion,” he said. “But for now, we are illegal, told to sit down and keep quiet.”

The situation is different in Crimea, he said, which in 2014 was also seized by Russian-backed separatists. Russia conducted a referendum on annexation soon after and formally—though illegally under international law—incorporated the Black Sea peninsula into its territory.

Pentecostals acquiesced to the new reality.

“We saw it as then the best possible means to survive,” said Kulakevych. “And Russian Pentecostal leadership are all Ukrainian missionaries from 30 years ago; we know them.”

But not all relations are good. What he called the second-largest Pentecostal group in Russia is headed by a leader “100 percent committed to the Kremlin agenda in Ukraine.”

Even within his own network, relations were difficult. Kulakevych spoke of Ukrainian Pentecostal frustration in 2014 and onward, when Russian counterparts failed to protest against their suffering. But later, they learned that as citizens, Russian evangelicals suffer even more.

In August, Russia declared Ukraine’s New Generation Pentecostal groups “undesirable,” effectively banning them from the country. And in October, regulations took effect to demand all foreign-trained clergy and missionaries take an official course on church-state relations and recertify their ministry.

The outrage has been felt in Ukraine, and Kulakevych has pleaded on behalf of his Russian brethren.

“I have to calm down our hotheads [in Ukraine], who demand [Russian evangelicals] speak out against Putin,” he said. “We are not in their shoes, and do not understand the risks they take for the gospel.”

Bandura reached a similar understanding two years ago, when the Baptist Union of Russia came to Ukraine. Disturbed by years of quiet acquiescence, coupled with prominent examples of public anti-Ukrainian sentiment, the Russian and Ukrainian Baptist leaders held face-to-face meetings that helped heal relationships, Bandura said. After two days of closed-door sessions with no public statements, the issues between them were solved.

“We understand the religious freedom situation in Russia is terrible and don’t expect them to speak out bravely for us,” Bandura said. “It is enough if they keep silent.”

Vlasenko, however, wants to speak—carefully. He believes in the independence of Ukraine. He wants evangelicals in both countries to communicate to their national leaders that war is not the answer to political problems. And as a pastor he believes he must pursue peace—and reconciliation.

But Russia is unnerved also. If Ukraine joins NATO, ballistic missiles could be minutes from Moscow. It is good for peace, said Vlasenko, that Russia can build natural gas pipelines to Europe. And he has spoken to Crimeans—they wanted annexation, he says, and Ukraine would never have permitted a referendum.

As for the aggression in Donbas, the popular understanding among locals was that Ukraine’s 2014 revolution installed a nationalistic government that wanted to kick out—even kill—Russian-speakers in their historic region.

“Maybe it was true, or maybe it was propaganda,” Vlasenko said. “But Russia denies they are fighting, and I cannot prove otherwise without official evidence.”

But still: “Obviously the weapons come from somewhere; you cannot buy a tank at a store.”

The situation, however, is straightforward for Ukrainians.

“Ukraine has always irritated Russia,” said Oleksandr Turchynov, former interim president of Ukraine and a lay preacher in his Baptist church in Kyiv [full interview below]. “Democracy, and even our very existence, is a threat to Putin’s regime.”

Kyiv was the ancient heart of medieval Rus, long before the modern Russian nation. Putin has written a 5,000-word essay on the “historical unity” of the two nations, which he often combines with Belarus under the concept of “one Russia.”

Turchynov, currently coordinator of Ukraine’s Conservative Movement (known as Sobor) uniting faith-based nonprofit organizations, is not pleased with the negotiation style of European nations that are trying to “reconcile” Russia and Ukraine as if they are equally at fault in this conflict. He sees Putin as using natural gas to win leverage and divide the continent. Yet the key ally of former president Petro Poroshenko said he is eager for Ukraine to join NATO and strengthen conservative values within the liberal European Union.

But Turchynov’s ultimate hope is elsewhere.

“The Lord will ruin all the wrongdoings of the evil one,” he said. “Truth is with us, and thus God is with us. And where God is, the victory is also.”

Even Christmas gets mixed up in the politics. Evangelicals largely celebrate both December 25—made an official Ukrainian holiday two years ago—and the Orthodox date of January 7. But while the metropolitan of the recently autocephalous (independent) Ukrainian Orthodox Church has announced his hope to unite all Christians under the Western calendar within 10 years, he is playing it slow to recruit parishes still loyal to the Moscow patriarch.

Cyril Hovorun, a Ukrainian priest in the Russian Orthodox Church, faults his patriarch in Moscow for aligning religion to the interests of the state. But he warns Ukrainian Christians also of the danger of nationalism. A “third way” is necessary, he said, for the church to support civil society and civic values: transparency, justice, and solidarity.

Can his evangelical brethren find at least the latter?

“We all say we are part of the kingdom of God together,” Vlasenko said. “But when it comes to politics, we immediately divide again.”

Oleksandr Turchynov, coordinator of Ukraine’s Conservative Movement:
(Conducted prior to Biden’s phone calls with Putin and Zelensky)

CT: How do you interpret Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions on the border, and how likely is a full invasion?

Turchynov: It is rather difficult to interpret, and it is even more difficult to treat him as someone whose actions can be explained with ordinary civilized values.

One aspect involves political and economic interests, such as the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. At the same time, Putin is raising the stakes as a tactic, issuing ultimatums. His approach serves to further polarization and undermines both NATO and the European Union (EU) concerning the expansion of membership.

It is kind of a game, growing worse for everyone. But if the West and Ukraine were to consolidate their actions, Putin wouldn’t be able to prevail. Full-scale invasion is an extremely dangerous project—mainly for Putin himself. But he is capable of making inadequate decisions.

CT: How have discussions with US President Joe Biden changed the situation, if at all? How do you view the response from the West?

Turchynov: One of Putin’s purposes was a glorious moment of triumph by sitting with President Biden as equals at the table of negotiations. But sometimes it is necessary to talk to a terrorist, to distract him from his acts of terror.

Some Ukrainians wanted to hear a different response from the White House, for example by setting a specific date for NATO membership. Others were expecting to receive defense systems from the Pentagon, to make attacking Ukraine extremely challenging. Perhaps even to host Western military forces in Ukraine.

When it comes to Europe, politically informed Ukrainians understand that the EU consists of many countries with different interests. There are friends of the Kremlin and there are friends of Ukraine. EU reaction by default cannot be instant; it is always an ongoing compromise.

For example, the reaction of Great Britain unquestionably inspires with its strictness and consistency. But when Germany and France sit at the table of negotiations with an agenda to “reconcile” Russia and Ukraine, it gives the impression as if Russia and Ukraine bear an equal level of responsibility. This benefits the Russian Federation that has attacked us.

And while Ukraine has many friends in Eastern Europe and the Baltic countries, these voices are rarely listened to.

CT: Do you favor membership for Ukraine in the EU and NATO? Can this be done while keeping peace and good relations with Russia?

Turchynov: Ukraine has always irritated Russia. Putin often questions Ukraine’s statehood, and unfortunately, many Americans know very little about our history, erroneously calling the whole Soviet Union “Russia.” This contributes to the propaganda that we became independent only 30 years ago. In reality, the medieval rulers of Kyiv were the ones who founded Moscow.

Democracy, and even the very existence of Ukraine, is a threat to Putin’s regime. We are a part of Europe, and our place is in the EU and NATO. In addition, Ukrainian membership would enhance the continent’s conservative values.

CT: How have the Conservative Movement and Ukrainian evangelicals responded to the conflict with Russia?

Turchynov: We always come alongside at the place of greatest need. There are many evangelicals among the volunteers since the very beginning of the war. The Conservative Movement (known as Sobor) draws together highly active citizens, including elected and appointed officials who have a share in key government decisions.

Our deep-rooted Christian values define what we do and how we do it. At the same time, we need to understand that the occupied territories are under full control of the Russian Federation, and thus our impact is extremely limited.

CT: What percentage of evangelicals are of Russian-speaking background? Do they have a different viewpoint toward Donbas?

Turchynov: This clash of worldviews is not an issue of linguistics. Many patriots in the Ukrainian army speak Russian on a daily basis. Dividing us by language is part of the Kremlin’s propaganda, which unfortunately has had some success.

CT: What is your opinion about churches in Crimea and Donbas re-registering with the rebel authorities?

Turchynov: Refusal to undergo this process means becoming an underground church. Not everyone is ready to function this way and risk their lives. The church needs to exist in these occupied areas as well. Even so, humanitarian aid and the maintenance of fellowship is possible with the mediation of pastors who remain there.

CT: This conflict takes place over Christmas. Is there a message in the holiday?

Turchynov: Christmas always brings hope for peace and victory. The Lord will ruin all the wrongdoings of the evil one. Truth is with us, and thus God is with us. And where God is, the victory is there also.

patrick jane · « **Reply #786 on:** January 15, 2022, 06:40:29 pm »

Hang On…. Have We All Been CONNED By Jan 6th?!

The events of January 6th have been used to further polarise the population – but in terms of being unitised to suit political agendas, is this another example how Republicans and Democrats have the same objective?

18 minutes

patrick jane · « **Reply #787 on:** February 11, 2022, 12:54:32 pm »

Wait...Have The Truckers Won?

With two Canadian provinces dropping vaccine passports and members of Justin Trudeau's own party starting to turn on him over Covid restrictions, we ask, has the Freedom Convoy won?
#FreedomConvoy #Truckers #Trudeau

12 minutes

patrick jane · « **Reply #788 on:** February 14, 2022, 10:21:13 am »

Trudeau and Doug Ford NWO puppets

2 minutes

patrick jane · « **Reply #789 on:** February 16, 2022, 08:01:52 am »

WW3! So THIS Is Why They Want Russia War

As we’re told daily by the government and corporate media, we are on the precipice of war – with military action between Russia and Ukraine seemingly inevitable. But how much of this escalation is being led by forces outside of those countries, and can we trust them?
#Tucker #war #Russia #Ukraine

15 minutes

patrick jane · « **Reply #790 on:** February 17, 2022, 10:36:25 am »

FULL SPEECH: Former President Donald Trump speaks at 'Save America' rally in Conroe, Texas

patrick jane · « **Reply #791 on:** February 20, 2022, 04:51:31 pm »

It’s Hard To Believe This Is Happening

As Joe Biden escalates tensions over Ukraine, is this latest potential war being used to divert American public attention from government corruption and incompetence?
#War #WW3 #Russia

17 minutes

patrick jane · « **Reply #792 on:** February 28, 2022, 10:58:24 pm »

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/february-web-only/russia-ukraine-war-demons-angels-present-global-darkness.html

This Present Global Darkness

The “angels of nations” described in Scripture remind us that cosmic evil shapes the politics of earthly warfare. Let’s pray accordingly.

War is terrible. My wife and her family were in her home country of Congo-Brazzaville for eighteen months, and the sociopolitical forces that took tens of thousands of lives there can only be described as evil. The Great Lakes War that claimed millions of lives in neighboring Congo-Kinshasa enlarges the evil to another scale. The darkness of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich dwarfs comprehension.

Now in 2022, the war in Ukraine brings violent evil to the fore once again and threatens to reshape our global future in ways we can only imagine.

Human selfishness and greed are among the sins that spawn wars: “Where do wars and conflicts come from? Isn’t it from your desires that wage war in the members of your bodies?” (James 4:1). Collectively, however, the scale of human suffering at the hands of others also seems to presume a dimension of cosmic evil that defies even our recognition of human depravity.

There are reasons for that. The book of Daniel speaks not just of a succession of world empires but of the spiritual forces behind them. The angelic prince of Persia delayed an answer to Daniel’s prayers until Michael, Israel’s prince, intervened; the angelic prince of Alexander’s empire would follow (Dan. 10:13, 20-21; 12:1). God had sovereignly allotted times in history for various angels and their empires, but his angelic and human servants continued to work for his purposes until he caused them to prevail.

The Greek translation of Deuteronomy mentions that God appointed angels over the various nations, and Jewish thought increasingly recognized such heavenly rulers and authorities—what later rabbis called angels over the nations. These beings were typically hostile toward God’s people, but in the end, God would give the kingdom to his persevering people.

Because our king, Jesus, has already come, Satan has been defeated. Jesus’ exaltation corresponds with the angel Michael’s heavenly triumph over the dragon (Rev. 12:7–8).

In explaining this story, scholars often invoke the World War II analogy between D-Day and V-Day. In D-Day, the success of the Normandy invasion decided the outcome of the war, and the defeat of the Nazi regime and its allies was merely a matter of time. Yet until V-Day—the final surrender of the Axis powers—battles continued and casualties mounted.

In the same way, all enemies—including the final one, death itself—will be subdued when Jesus returns (Ps. 110:1; 1 Cor. 15:25–26), but his servants face continuing battles until then.

In Ephesians, Paul emphasizes that Jesus is already enthroned above heavenly rulers and authorities (Eph. 1:20–22) and we are spiritually enthroned with him (1:22-23; 2:6). In a letter that heavily underscores the unity between Jews and Gentiles in Christ’s body, this enthronement above angels of nations and empires means that our unity in Christ is greater than all the ethnic and national divisions fomented by such angels. Believers are no longer subject to the prince of this world (Eph. 2:1–3).

For Paul, this triumph over divisions has spiritual warfare ramifications, even for the interpersonal dimensions of our lives. In Ephesians 4, for example, denying the devil an opportunity means having integrity and controlling our anger (v. 25–27). In Ephesians 6:10–20, it means taking hold of the defensive armor of truth, faith, and righteousness, plus a weapon for invading hostile territory: the mission of the gospel.

I have sometimes seen brothers and sisters trying to engage in spiritual warfare by rebuking and commanding the heavenly rulers. However, this activity misunderstands our role. We are enthroned with Christ, and yes, someday we will judge angels, but we can’t confuse D-Day with V-Day. Scripture expressly warns against reviling angelic authorities (2 Pet. 2:10), pointing out that even their fellow angels can confront them only by divine authorization (2 Pet. 2:11; Jude 9).

Trying to cast down heavenly powers is different from casting demons out of those they afflict on earth. We are the ground forces, not the air force. This doesn’t mean we don’t have a vital role in cosmic-level spiritual warfare. It just means our modern taste for instant results won’t be met.

In the Book of Daniel, God’s answer was immediate (Dan. 10:12). But Daniel persevered in prayer for three weeks before he received his answer (10:2–3). God showed him that empires would rise and fall but the future did not belong to them.

The Book of Revelation offers the same picture: Satan stands behind the beast of a world empire, Babylon the Great. But the future belongs not to Babylon, the prostitute, but to New Jerusalem, the bride.

The Bible reminds us that not all spiritual forces are the bad guys. God is at work even in the present world, and Scripture leads us to expect that prayers can make a difference in times of war and conflict.

Before Jacob would have to confront his brother Esau’s armed band, he wrestled all night with an angel. Although later rabbis thought it was Edom’s guardian angel, it was the Lord himself (Hos. 12:3–5). But the rabbis were right, at least, that winning the spiritual battle first made the difference for the imminent earthly conflict.

The same lesson appears when Moses’ uplifted hands determined the battle against the Amalekites (Ex. 17:11–13). Our earthly actions have heavenly consequences. (See Ephesians 6:12 in the context of 6:10-20, and the likely meaning of Luke 10:17-18.)

Indeed, on the cosmic level, God’s forces easily outnumber the hostile ones. Elisha’s apprentice learned that lesson when God opened his eyes to see the mountain full of chariots of fire (2 Kings 6:16–17). On that occasion, the Lord miraculously blinded an entire army to allow a peaceful resolution instead of a costly human battle (6:18–23).

In another war story, God gave David victory in battle once he heard the Lord’s heavenly hosts marching for him (2 Sam. 5:24; 1 Chron. 14:15). Joshua likewise achieved victory after meeting the captain of the Lord’s army (Josh. 5:13–15).

In other words, God hears us when we pray. In the Book of Daniel, arrogant nations appear as nothing more than pawns in God’s larger plan for history. By contrast, the angel announces that Daniel, the man of prayer, is precious to God (Dan. 10:11).

Here’s why this common theme matters: The final outcome is already decided, but in the meantime, earthly battles continue, and individual lives remain in the balance. The prayers of a righteous person count more before God than the plans of arrogant powers in heaven or on earth.

I confess that, were it not for my faith in Scripture, these claims would sound pretty hollow to me in times of mass suffering. But because I do believe the Bible, I take courage for the future. Likewise, it was my wife’s faith in Christ and God’s Word that nourished her hope and enabled her survival in the face of war in the Congo.

In the current war in Ukraine and other conflicts around the world, we do not yet see all of Jesus’ enemies visibly under his feet, and casualties remain high. But Jesus’ exaltation over angels and authorities and powers (1 Pet. 3:22) has already decided the final outcome of the cosmic war of the ages. We can rest in that truth.

Craig Keener is professor of biblical studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. He is the author of Christobiography: Memories, History, and the Reliability of the Gospels.

patrick jane forums

News:

User

Stats ezBlock

Author Topic: Politics Today (Read 20975 times)

guest116

Re: Politics Today

patrick jane

Re: Politics Today

guest17

Re: Politics Today

guest17

Re: Politics Today

guest17

Re: Politics Today

patrick jane

Re: Politics Today

patrick jane

Re: Politics Today

patrick jane

Re: Politics Today

patrick jane

Re: Politics Today

patrick jane

Re: Politics Today

patrick jane

Re: Politics Today

patrick jane

Re: Politics Today

patrick jane

Re: Politics Today

Related Topics

Recent Topics