A Moment With Pastor Fred

In June 2019 Sue and I were invited to do a marriage seminar in Ukraine by our dear friends, Jerry and Kelly Benge. The Benges served 12 years at Kyiv Theological Seminary and are now ministering in Roseville, MI.

Have you heard the narrative that Ukrainian government leaders are National Fascists; that they’ve outlawed the Russian language; Russians living there are being treated as Jews in WWII and that Putin is coming in to rescue persecuted Russians? Such allegations are serious. I will summarize  Jerry’s response to these.

After living there – interacting with 100s of Ukrainians, both believers and unbelievers, Jerry said he witnessed NOTHING (his emphasis) that would support such a narrative. It is true the official language is Ukrainian – but to say the Russian language has been outlawed is untrue. Jerry spoke Russian – conversed in it. His students mainly spoke it as well. Is there a nationalistic impetus there?  Likely so – just as there is in the USA. Does that make us neo-Nazis? What an odd accusation of fascism to a nation who democratically elected a Jew as its president. Putin is an evil dictator who seeks to bring Russia back into the glory day of the USSR. He is doing this for a nano-second of self-glory. Let us pray that does not happen.

Satan is the father of lies. Many narratives contain a segment of truth. He always inserts enough truth into a lie to make it sound plausible. May we pray that what was intended for evil God will use for good in advancing the Gospel to a sin-broken world.