What Does Vladimir Putin Believe About God? Why Some Say He Thinks He's a 'Messianic Figure'

cbnnews/world ^ | 03/02/22 | illy Hallowell, Faithwire

[hapnHal]

What does Russian President Vladimir Putin believe about God? That’s a fascinating question the world can’t answer “with any certainty,” according to Mark Tooley, president of The Institute on Religion and Democracy.

After all, there’s a difference between what Putin says and what he does — and there’s strangely a great deal of uncertainty and confusion intermingled with both.

“He had a devoutly Christian mother and has worn a crucifix around his neck for most of his life,” Tooley told Faithwire. “Certainly, he has embraced the patronage of the Russian Orthodox Church and used it to advance his own political purposes domestically and internationally, but that is a centuries-long tradition for Russia.”

[BiglyCommentary]

“Putin is more godly and more religious than any president we’ve had since Ronald Regan.”

ROFLOL!!! Put down the bath salts and step away from the keyboard.

[Luke21]

No need to worship the guy. He’s bad news. We have two awful sides here.

[bramps]

He’s going to hell. You can’t just go and kill your political opponents and not pay for that

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Your actions or inactions have nothing to do with whether or not you go to hell. Only one thing matters. Have you trusted in Jesus Christ and accepted him as your lord and savior? Jesus’ words, not mine.
I would guess that Putin has not done this based on his behavior but I just felt compelled to point it out.

[daniel1212]

" We are being conditioned to hate Russia and want to go to war with them. Please don’t fall for it. It will result in the loss of what’s left of America. "

Rather, it is not about Russia nor sainting Ukraine but about opposing power-hungry oppressor Putin the dictator who threatens the loss of America, and only justifies the need for NATO. It is Putin who boasts of his power to destroy America, and helps its enemies, including seeking an alliance with China. Liberals oppose him due to his anti-LGBTQ stance and favoring Trump and being a threat to their dominance, while traditional conservatives - at least non-RO Christians who expressing of faith Putin outlawed - overall oppose Putin due to him being the actual threat to our values.

[daniel1212]

" Drivel. But I will say this. Putin is more godly and more religious than any president we’ve had since Ronald Regan. And I’ll stack Russia’s religious values over the USA anytime any day. "

That is what is drivel. Across all three waves of ISSP data, no more than about one-in-ten Russians said they attend religious services at least once a month. And it is Putin who boasts of his power to destroy America, and helps its enemies, including seeking an alliance with China. Liberals oppose him due to his anti-LGBTQ stance and favoring Trump and being a threat to their dominance, while traditional conservatives - at least non-RO Christians who expressing of faith Putin outlawed - overall oppose Putin due to him being the actual threat to our faith and freedoms.

Putin may be an instrument of Divine chastisement of America, and which should commend Putin's opposition to the LGBTQ agenda, but he is the dictator of corrupt government and which persecutes the most conservative Christians, evangelicals, even outlawing any evangelism by them at all.

Russia's Newest Law: No Evangelizing Outside of Church | News ...

Christians are Severely Persecuted in Putin's Russia – But That Could ...

Christian Persecution Increasing in Russia - Christian News Headlines

Report: Non-Orthodox Christians Face 'Strong Discrimination' in Russia

Russia, other former Soviet republics persecuting Christians, new ...

Moscow church destroyed in sign of new Russian repression Posted on Sep 26, 2012 | by Jill Nelson

MOSCOW (BP) -- It was in the early hours of the morning on Sept. 6 when Pastor Vasili Romanyuk's phone rang. A group of men backed by local police were demolishing his Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church, housed in a three-story building nestled in a Moscow suburb. As word spread, congregants arrived at the scene hoping to save the building, but their efforts were futile. By dawn the church was in ruins and some of its most valuable contents were missing.

An isolated incident? A misunderstanding? Analysts watching the current climate in the former Cold War country don't think so: "This destruction of the church is about as concrete of evidence as you can get that something very bad and very troubling is taking place," said Katrina Lantos Swett, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. "This could not have happened without the backing, support, and implicit blessing of the police."

The incident is just one sign of deteriorating freedoms in Russia, and behind the scenes a cozy relationship between the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church has raised more than a few eyebrows. As President Vladimir Putin digs into his third term, a number of Kremlin crackdowns involving vague interpretations of the country's extremism law and other human-rights abuses are troubling signs that the country has slipped into a familiar, repressive era.

"When you have unknown people backed by the police coming out at midnight to begin tearing down a church, you know something doesn't smell right," Lantos Swett said.

Officials evicted Holy Trinity Church from its original building in 1995 and relocated the church to the eastern Moscow suburb. The congregation used its own funds to construct a new building and repeatedly battled officials over permits. The church demolition and its history reflect an emerging pattern: Authorities confiscate land from non-favored religious communities and force the congregation to relocate to a remote suburb, the religious leaders apply for permits that are subsequently denied, and officials confiscate (once again) or demolish the relocated congregation, citing lack of proper documentation.

Pastor Romanyuk and a small group of the church's 550 congregants arrived on site around 3:30 a.m. as about 45 men claiming to be civil volunteers blocked them from the building and threw stones. "When I arrived, I just burst into tears," 25-year-old Natalya Cherevichinik told The Moscow Times as she surveyed the destruction. "I couldn't believe that something that had been built over several years could be destroyed in a few hours."

Russian Evangelicals Leery of Orthodox Church, Friday, December 30, 2011:

class="adjusted">MOSCOW, Russia -- For decades, the Russian Orthodox Church was persecuted under the Soviet Union's Communist Party.

Since the early 1990s, the church has grown in size and influence as its relationship with the Russian government has improved significantly.

However, that cozy relationship worries the country's evangelicals.

Threats Against Evangelicals

For eight years, Yuri Sipko ran one of the largest Baptist organizations in Russia. Now, 20 years after the fall of Communism, he worries about the growing threats against the country's evangelical movement.

"The collapse of Communism was supposed to usher in an era of greater religious freedom, but I'm concerned we are moving in the wrong direction," Sipko said.

What makes the Russian evangelicals very concerned is an emerging relationship between the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church.

"For example, the government recently introduced religious classes based on the principals of the Orthodox Church in public schools," Sipko said.

"Then late last year, the Russian president announced an initiative to appoint Orthodox chaplains to all army units," he said. "Our constitution clearly states no religion can be the state religion."

Russia Church-State Relations

Russia watchers credit two men, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev, for elevating the church's prominence. The state media has also played a key role, often showing the leaders attending church services.

Sergey Ryakhovski knows both men well. As head of Russia's Pentecostal Union, he meets regularly with top government and Orthodox Church leaders.

Ryakhovski worries that the Orthodox Church's influence is coming at the expense of religious freedom, especially for minority groups such as Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists.

"There are so many laws and by-laws that regulate religious life in Russia," Ryakhovski said. "For example, evangelical Christians just can't go out and buy a church building or buy a piece of land to build a church."

"Plus, criticizing or challenging the Orthodox Church is not a task for all," he added.

Orthodox Church Revival

The Russian Orthodox Church on the other hand has had it easy in recent times after decades of state persecution.

Church buildings that were destroyed during the Soviet era have been rebuilt with Russian taxpayer money. In the past 20 years, the government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars restoring some 23,000 churches.

Most Russians say they belong to the Orthodox Church. Yet CBN News found mixed reactions on the streets of Moscow to the growing bond between church and state

At Expense of All Others, Putin Picks a Church

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY Published: April 24, 2008

STARY OSKOL, Russia —

It was not long after a Methodist church put down roots here that the troubles began.

First came visits from agents of the F.S.B., a successor to the K.G.B., who evidently saw a threat in a few dozen searching souls who liked to huddle in cramped apartments to read the Bible and, perhaps, drink a little tea. Local officials then labeled the church a “sect.” Finally, last month, they shut it down.

There was a time after the fall of Communism when small Protestant congregations blossomed here in southwestern Russia, when a church was almost as easy to set up as a general store. Today, this industrial region has become emblematic of the suppression of religious freedom under President Vladimir V. Putin.

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.

Russia's De-Facto State Religion : Persecution : http://www ... www.persecution.org/?p=9350&upm...‎ International Christian Co... Putin frequently appears with the Orthodox head, Patriarch Aleksei II, ... Baptists, evangelicals, Pentecostals and many others who cut Christ's robes like bandits, ...

Government Returning Land to Religious Organizations to Favor Orthodox Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009: An ambitious draft law on the transfer of property of religious significance to religious organisations may reignite a process begun in 1993.

Pentecostal Seminary Targeted for Liquidation

Pentecostal Church Forced to Meet Outside in Moscow Winter

Russia: Governor Orders Church Land Grab

Council of Religious Experts threatens religious freedom

A new Inquisition ?

Russia “You have the law, we have orders ”

[JoSixChip]

Putin the dictator who threatens the loss of America, and only justifies the need for NATO.

Really??? That's circular logic. Russia went into Ukraine because NATO was encroaching on it's boarder. And you say that proved the need for NATO. Sorry, but you are an idiot!

[daniel1212]

"And how can you ‘love’ a regime that makes it illegal to even criticize it?"

I think the conservative Putin defenders are mainly libertarian types who want neither God or any government to restrain them from doing whatever they want, and since Putin is against the same government they oppose - and many dream of a day they can blow some away - and he can pretty much do whatever he wants, then they like his arrogant attitude and actions against the government. Many Putin defenders see him as a hero since he opposes the US government as they do.

On the other hand, as said, Liberals oppose him due to his anti-LGBTQ stance and favoring Trump and being a threat to their dominance, while traditional conservatives - at least non-RO Christians who expressing of faith Putin outlawed - overall oppose Putin due to him being the actual threat to our faith and freedoms. And the war is not so much as for Ukraine, aside from its sovereignty, but against Putin.

[daniel1212]

"Really??? That's circular logic. Russia went into Ukraine because NATO was encroaching on it's boarder. And you say that proved the need for NATO. Sorry, but you are an idiot! "

You premise behind your assertions is absurd. It is Putin that is a invasive threat to NATO nations as per Russian history and his own actions, and thus NATO should encroach his border. They are simply not any invasive threat to Russia but exist as Putin is one to them. You victim status propaganda is akin to those who justify Palestinian attacks on Israel when the latter is simply trying to defend its land against threats.

NATO countries like the map they have now better than an older one.

https://countrymapss.blogspot.com/2014/01/nato-countries-map-1949.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_occupations_by_the_Soviet_Union

Russia has a history of repeated invasions of other countries as well as military assistance against the West, and not in order to liberate and rebuild them as with the US. Thus NATO is warranted, and Putin - who longs for Soviet glory - has simply provided more evidence as to why, while insolently playing victim.

Countries invaded [including interventions or military assistance like Vietnam] by Soviet Russia, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation

Estonia 1917

Latvia 1918

Lithuania 1918

Finland 1918

Poland 1918

Belarus 1918

Ukraine 1918

Georgia 1920

Azerbaijan 1920

Armenia 1920

Moldova 1918

Central Asia 1918

Mongolia 1921

Georgia 1924

Estonia 1924

Afghanistan 1929

China 1929

Japan 1938

Poland 1939

Finland 1939

Estonia 1940

Latvia 1940

Lithuania 1940

Romania 1940

Iran 1942 (Joint Soviet-British invasion)

Ukraine and Belarus 1944

Bulgaria 1944

Hungary 1944

Yugoslavia 1944

Albania 1944

Poland 1944

The Baltic States 1944

Germany 1944 [with the West]

Tuva 1944

Japan 1945

China 1945

Korea 1950

East Germany 1953

Hungary 1956

Vietnam 1960

Czechoslovakia 1968

China 1969

Israel 1969

Ethiopia 1974

Angola 1975

Afghanistan 1979 Georgia 1989

Baltic States 1990

Georgia 1991

Azerbaijan 1991

Moldova 1992

Tajikistan 1992 Northern Caucasus 1992 [Chechnya, etc.]

War of Dagestan 1999 Second Chechen War 1999–2009

Georgia 2008

Insurgency in the North Caucasus 2009–2017

Ukraine 2014

Syria 2015

Central African Republic Civil War 2018–present

Ukraine 2022

Sources: https://www.numbers-stations.com/articles/soviet-and-russian-invasions-since-1917/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Russia

[Novichok]

Many Americans have hated Russia for most of their lives.

[patriotfury]

No, even if unread, many Americans used to hate the anti-God/anti-Liberty hard left ideologies found within Humanist Manifestos I and II, and their direCD t political manifestations in Communist Manifesto’s I and II.

Same humanist beliefs have underpinned every socialist stripe since the French Revolution, which was also related to these beliefs.

I love Russian and Ukrainian people, but will fight with my life against any color of humanism and its necessary political networking of socialism, which is also engulfing America - PERIOD !

And true conservatives I have spent my life with across America, and in Russia and Ukraine, and across Eastern Europe are more militant against humanism and socialism than those I have spent my life with across America!

And for very good reason.

[patriotfury]

I know you and most FR’s won’t take the time to look at either actual history, or the following, but the ROC has been an ongoing and powerful organ of the Communist CCCP, and now the hard core Corporatist CIS controlled by RUSFED since 1991 —

please take a look at this Open Source info -

http://www.analysis-review.com/catholic-pope-kgb-patriarch-get-together/

https://traditioninaction.org/RevolutionPhotos/A956-Sch.htm

https://www.catholicamericanthinker.com/Red-Pope.html

https://www.aim.org/aim-column/pope-francis-jihad-and-moscows-espionage-church/

https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/liberation-theology-activist-pope-francis-is-one-of-us

https://www.traditioninaction.org/HotTopics/i99ht_104_Kirill.html

And the 20th Century to present ROC (Russian Orthodox Church) is a powerful state controlled instrument of the KGB/FSB

https://fitzinfo.net/2021/09/19/the-kgb-and-the-russian-orthodox-church/amp/

https://www.traditioninaction.org/History/F_009_Kyrill_2.html

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/01/11/kgb-christians-putin-stalin-kgbs-history-manipulating-orthodox-church/

https://www.forbes.com/2009/02/20/putin-solzhenitsyn-kirill-russia-opinions-contributors_orthodox_church.html?sh=1c9e32673bf9

http://www.celticorthodoxchurch.com/kirill_KGB.html

https://lorddreadnought.livejournal.com/35504.html

https://thenewamerican.com/putin-defender-of-christian-faith-and-morality/

https://risu.ua/en/calling-patriarch-kirill-a-kgb-agent-is-not-an-insult-—bulgarian-court-decision_n117656

http://forums.orthodoxchristianity.net/threads/kgb-spy-and-russian-orthodox-church.21963/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/feb/12/1

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Putin Rewrites Church History to Justify Taking Ukraine

https://www.godreports.com/2022/02/putin-with-russian-orthodox-church-promoted-re-write-of-church-history-to-justify-invasion-of-ukraine/

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Here is one of several sources -

https://www.academia.edu/37152767/The_Mikhailov_Files_Patriarch_Kirill_and_the_KGB

[StayoutdaBushesWay]

Where? I haven’t seen anyone defending Putin.