SermonIndex Audio Sermons
SermonIndex - Promoting Revival to this Generation
Give To SermonIndex
Discussion Forum : News and Current Events : schizophrenia in the Ukraine

Print Thread (PDF)

PosterThread
philologos
Member



Joined: 2003/7/18
Posts: 6566
Reading, UK

 schizophrenia in the Ukraine

Quote:
Ukraine's outgoing President, Leonid Kuchma, raised the spectre of civil war engulfing the country after election officials declared yesterday that the Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovych, had won the bitterly fought presidential contest. - The Independent UK - 25 November 2004



The history of the Ukraine indicates that the present unrest is another evidence of nationalistic identity arising. The Ukraine might have been a melting pot but in fact the nation is the fault line between Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Catholicism. For those wanting more detailed information may I suggest Catholicism in the Ukraine. I cannot vouch for the underlying theology of this site (or even for my own;-)) but there are some valuable insights here.

The Orthodox burial caves and the outwardly beautiful shrines of the Monastery of the Caves are said to be the ‘mother’ of Russian Orthodoxy. I discerned the same spirits within them as previously encountered in Buddhist temples in NE India; dark and murderous. The monks in the tourist kiosks had just begun to re-sell the “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion” in Russian. This virulent anti-Jewish ‘document’ was the cause of much of the Jewish pogroms in the early 20th century in Russia. (If you have seen ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ -still my favourite film - you know the mood. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it. Take your hanky.)

There is a phenomenon unique to the Ukraine in the Ukrainian Catholic Church, also known as Greek Catholic or Uniate Church. It was a unique compromise following Orthodox rituals, but recognizing the Pope in Rome. It is primarily in Western Ukraine; Uniate priests can marry. There has been extreme bitterness between the Uniate Church and the Orthodox Church. The Uniate Church was forced underground in 1946 but reappeared in the 1980s.

The consequence of this is that eastern half of the Ukraine is instinctively eastward facing and hence towards Russia, while the western half is instinctively westward facing towards Europe. The Ukrainian language is highly prized in the western half while in the eastern half many only speak Russian.

There are signs that Russia would welcome a return to some aspects of the USSR and the prime candidates would be Belarus and next, Ukraine. Political leaders in both of the countries would also favour some re-establishment of the older bloc. Many older Pentecostals in Russia have always believed that Communism was the beast whose deadly head wound would recover. (Rev 13:12) and fear its revival. But there are older and, to my mind, more dangerous forces at work in the old domains of Eastern Orthodoxy.

I was in Kiev when Ukraine declared its independence from the USSR. A giant statue of Lenin which dominated the main square had been pulled down leaving just the plinth. It was a poignant sight and spoke to me of a nation which had deposed its god but had nothing to replace it. Into the vacuum flooded pornography and the occult. I recall the first ‘free enterprise’ subway book sellers where almost their whole stock was one or the other. Into the vacuum flooded the oddest representatives of ‘western christianity’; anything weird and wonderful was guaranteed to flourish in Kiev.

Economically, the black market took over. Train tickets were not available in the stations because the black-marketeers had bought the whole month’s supply and were selling them in the streets with a 400% markup.

The Ukraine is a nuclear power straddling the fault lines between East and West and there are tectonic shifts taking place among the nations in these days. Pray for the Ukraine.


_________________
Ron Bailey

 2004/11/25 5:19Profile
Nasher
Member



Joined: 2003/7/28
Posts: 404
Watford, UK

 Re: schizophrenia in the Ukraine

Quote:
a giant statue of Lenin which dominated the main square had been pulled down leaving just the plinth. It was a poignant sight and spoke to me of a nation which had deposed its god but had nothing to replace it. Into the vacuum flooded pornography and the occult.



This reminds me of Matthew 12:

43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.


_________________
Mark Nash

 2004/11/25 8:22Profile
Nasher
Member



Joined: 2003/7/28
Posts: 404
Watford, UK

 Re: schizophrenia in the Ukraine

Quote:
a giant statue of Lenin which dominated the main square had been pulled down leaving just the plinth. It was a poignant sight and spoke to me of a nation which had deposed its god but had nothing to replace it. Into the vacuum flooded pornography and the occult.



This reminds me of Matthew 12:

43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.


_________________
Mark Nash

 2004/11/25 10:07Profile





©2002-2024 SermonIndex.net
Promoting Revival to this Generation.
Privacy Policy