After the death of the Russian Opposition Leader, Alexei Nalvany, I saw a number of press reports warning that there is no longer any hope for those who oppose Putin.

But with God there is always hope!

For what is impossible for humans is possible for God. (Genesis 18:13-15; Luke 18:27).

And God sees the wickedness of the Oppressor and comes to the rescue of the Oppressed.

We see this from the history of the Israelites.

A few years before the Exodus freed the Israelites from the oppression of Pharaoh, the LORD God spoke to Moses from the Burning Bush:

“I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them . . .. “ (Exodus 3:7-8).

“The cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:9-10).

We can also see from the history of the United States that God sees the wickedness of the Oppressor and comes to the rescue of the Oppressed.

A few years before the Civil War began, Harriett Beecher Stowe ended her anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with this prophesy of doom:

if America did not take the path of “repentance, justice, and mercy”, there was no doubt that the “injustice and cruelty” in America would bring “the wrath of Almighty God!” (see my book Visions of America, at pages 67-68).

And so, Harriett Beecher Stowe wrote:

Both North and South have been guilty before God; and the Christian Church has a heavy account to answer.

To update the thinking of Harriett Beecher Stowe to fit the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries, we can say:

Both the [United States] and [Russia] have been guilty before God; and the Christian Church has a heavy account to answer. (Emphasis by Harriett Beecher Stowe; see my book Visions of America, at pages 67-68).

Why does the Christian Church have a heavy account to answer?

Because in both the United States and Russia, the Christian Church has too often supported oppression and violence by supporting White Christian Nationalism in the United States and Russian Christian Nationalism in Russia.

Who will be a Harriett Beecher Stowe and a Moses in the 21st Century to speak the Truth to Oppressors in the United States and Russia, including to Putin?

Who will be a Harriett Beecher Stowe and a Moses in the 21st Century to speak the Truth to possessors of weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear weapons, biological weapons, and cyberwarfare, including in the United States, Russia, Israel, China, and North Korea?

It may well be someone who has been a “Saul”.

A “Saul” is someone who originally was a passionate supporter of the Oppressor and of the Violence.

For example, in the Book of Acts, we meet Saul at the stoning of the martyr, Stephen. The witnesses of the stoning “laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.” (Acts 7:58). “And Saul approved of their killing him” (Acts 8:1).

“Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.” (Acts 8:3).

Fortunately, that was not the end of the story. The rest of the story is that Saul became the Apostle Paul.

In God’s good time and in God’s good way, God changed Saul’s heart.

As Paul confessed years later in his letter to the church in Corinth and to “all those everywhere who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:2):

“I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:9-10).

And so, I hope and pray that God will change the hearts of those who imprisoned and killed Alexei Navalny, and who embrace the violence of murders, nuclear weapons, biological weapons, and cyberwarfare.

I hope and pray that, in God’s good time and in God’s good way, the Amazing Grace of God will change their hearts so that we can say of them what the people who Saul persecuted could say of him:

“The [violent person]  who formerly persecuted [people] is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” (Galatians 1:23).

Through the Amazing Grace of God, this 21st Century Paul will help to establish governments that secure God-Given human rights, including Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, and Freedom of Speech and Religion.

Through the Amazing Grace of God, this 21st Century Paul will help to establish the ideal America that was first discovered by the hearts of Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

This ideal America includes people who are citizens of ALL nations (including the United States, Russia, Israel, China, and North Korea).

This ideal America includes ALL people and ALL nations who want to:

—bless ALL people; (Genesis 12:3; Abraham):

—challenge ALL pharaohs to set ALL people free (Exodus 5:1; Moses); and

—heal ALL hurting people (Luke 10:25-37; Jesus).

Furthermore, in this ideal America, ALL means ALL! (Isaiah 2:2-4; Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 21:1-4).

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

When have you been an Oppressor? How? Why?

When have you been Oppressed? How? Why?

When have you been a Saul? How? Why?

When have you been a Paul? How? Why?

READ MORE

For related thoughts, please read my blogs “Houses Built on Rock: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”, “Jesus Climbs the Temple Mount”, “Nationalism Is Patriotism Gone Astray”, “A COMPLETELY New Heart”, and “Hiding In Plain Sight”

At the time I wrote this, we did not know the way Navalny died. Perhaps we never will. But, at the very least, Putin is responsible for his death because of his unjust exile to a brutal prison in northern Siberia. Furthermore, considering how many opponents of Putin have died in suspicious circumstances (such as by falling out of high windows or by flying in planes that blow up—on video!), it is not paranoia to believe that Putin is behaving in ways that he learned when he was a KGB agent—by resorting to lies and murder in the ways Stalin did.

The phrase “the rest of the story” was the signature line of famed radio personality, Paul Harvey.