“To God be the Glory” So Says Ted Cruz – Not so Fast says Vladimir Putin – The Surprising Rise of Christianity In Russia

By Stephen Ryan

HOLY WARS?

Whose side is God on?  After his victory in Iowa, Ted Cruz declared “To God be the glory”. Vladimir Putin believes he is protecting Christians in the Middle East while USA ignores their plight.

Pope Francis recently declared, after Turkey downed a Russia fighter jet – the first  hostile attack by a Western nation against Russia in 50 years  that a  “Piecemeal” World War III was starting to unfold. What the heck is going on?

Before Cruz thanked God, Vladimir Putin late last year  shared  his own thoughts on God and America.  Putin declared:

 “In many countries today, moral and ethical norms are being reconsidered. They’re now requiring not only the proper acknowledgment of freedom of conscience, political views and private life, but also the mandatory acknowledgment of the equality of good and evil.” Putin believes in sin and that morality is not a relative moving target that is determined by the dominate culture of the time. In Putin’s world – his Christian world – there are consequences to moral behavior – there is a right and a wrong.

American Thinker writes: “For those of us who grew up in America being told that the godless communist atheists in Russia were our enemies, the idea that America might give up on God and Christianity while Russia embraces religion might once have been difficult to accept. But by 2015, the everyday signs in America show a growing contempt for Christianity, under the first president whose very claims of being a Christian are questionable. The exact opposite trend is happening in Russia and its leaders—a return to Christian roots.”

Putin’s words on faith have surprised the world. Media, including conservative religious magazines, find it hard to believe that  Russian society is transforming into a Christian nation.

Perhaps the great untold story about the crisis in Syria is how American foreign policy actually puts the minority Christians in harms way. The Catholic Herald writes:

“There’s something especially sinister about the way our governments have followed a Wahhabi-led scheme to overthrow a secular dictatorship, a revolution that would almost certainly endanger Christians in the land of St Paul.” The demonized Assad regime has  actually been the protector of the Christian minority for decades.

The Catholic Herald asks “Will Putin’s Holy War Save Syrian Christians.”

MUST WATCH VIDEO OF DESTRUCTION IN SYRIA

While Russian leaders were attending Church services, halfway around the world Obama regularly struggles to find a church for his family.

Hillary Clinton, Chris Christy, John McCain and others want to create a no-fly zone in Syria and shoot down Russia planes if they violate the zone.  Russia, mind you, has a stated objective of protecting the Christian minorities in Syria. It is a reason they are in Syria (please watch the video)

While religious freedoms are under attack in the USA, Russia is investing $100 million to rebuild churches throughout the country. Money to rebuild these houses of worship is coming from Russian taxpayers. Such a thing is unthinkable in the US.  Imagine US media reaction if President Obama were to decide to invest $100 million US taxpayer dollars in such projects.

Russia’s turn to Christianity is virtually unknown in the US. Many of our presidential candidates and Christian leaders are oblivious to what is happening in Russia. Many of our leaders still believe Russia is an atheist, Communist country and these prominent End-Times Christian pastors presidential candidates  are raising money and rattling their sabers to go to war against the Godless state.

Further to the surprise of many Americans, Vladimir Putin carries a Christian cross with him at all times. Vladimir Putin has frequently praised the Russian Orthodox Church for “educating citizens in a spirit of patriotism and love of country, passing on love for spiritual values and history.” For his part, Russian Patriarch Kirill said that he hoped that the Lord would help Putin “in performing the high task God gave him.” Kirill also praised the prime minister for the way Putin managed the economic crisis, which has had a greater impact in Russia than elsewhere in the world.

Christian influence penetrates the Russian Military

Online News Magazine “Vocative” writes “For all the talk about how Soviet-style repression has returned to Russia under President Vladimir Putin, one thing that’s decidedly not a throwback is the role of the Russian Orthodox Church. To the dismay of critics, the church’s power has grown immensely over the past few years as Putin has reached out to Russia’s conservative heartland for support. In the Soviet era, publicly saying that you believe in God was a surefire way to ruin your career, or at worst, earn a one-way ticket to the Gulag. But today, priests regularly sprinkle Russian space rockets with holy water ahead of liftoff, while the Orthodox Church has even held a religious service in honor of the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons.”