Posted on 07/05/2016 7:26:07 AM PDT by Sam's Army
Christians in Russia won’t be allowed to email their friends an invitation to church or to evangelize in their own homes if Russia’s newest set of surveillance and anti-terrorism laws are enacted.
The proposed laws, considered the country’s most restrictive measures in post-Soviet history, place broad limitations on missionary work, including preaching, teaching, and engaging in any activity designed to recruit people into a religious group.
To share their faith, citizens must secure a government permit through a registered religious organization, and they cannot evangelize anywhere besides churches and other religious sites. The restrictions even apply to activity in private residences and online.
This week, Russia’s Protestant minority—estimated around 1 percent of the population—prayed, fasted, and sent petitions to President Vladimir Putin, who will have to approve the measures before they become official.
“Most evangelicals—leaders from all seven denominations—have expressed concerns,” Sergey Rakhuba, president of Mission Eurasia and a former Moscow church-planter, told CT. “They’re calling on the global Christian community to pray that Putin can intervene and God can miraculously work in this process.” Following a wave of Russian nationalist propaganda, the laws passed almost unanimously in the Duma, the upper house, on Friday and in the Federation Council, the lower house, today. “If this legislation is approved, the religious situation in the country will grow considerably more complicated and many believers will find themselves in exile and subjected to reprisals because of our faith,” wrote Oleg Goncharov, spokesman for the Seventh-day Adventists’ Euro-Asia division, in an open letter.
Proposed by United Russia party lawmaker Irina Yarovaya, the law appears to target religious groups outside the Russian Orthodox church.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
In MY 'local paper' (lapdog of the great GANNETT corporation) these are the same group!
:’)
And they don't like that.
What on Earth??
I should HOPE!!!
I was encouraged by the youthfulness of the congregation!
For a Russian Christian even referring to Lord Jesus Christ as simply 'Jesus', as it's done in the USA, is semi-blasphemous. They may refer to him as 'Christos' (Christ) but never as 'Jesus'.
A sermon for Russian must be more solemn than the usual American "Jesus loves you, wow!"
As for the bill itself: even the Russian Orthodox Church - de facto the established Church in Russia, opposes it.
HMMMmmm...
Matthew 1:21
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
This wasn't an instruction to the general public on how to address the Lord in communication.
On sharing this information I didn't try to assert the correct way to address Lord, but to show the Russian Christians' cultural habits. The British having met their Queen wouldn't tell her: 'How you doin' Betty?' for the same reason.
That's a reason why the direct translation of an American sermon can be received coldly in Russia.
Ah...
I see the difference.
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