This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program originally aired on 3/15/22. To listen to the program, please click HERE.
Sam Rohrer: Well, as I promised yesterday here on Stand in the Gap Today, today’s program will feature a Russian-Ukraine war update as we know it and know the details as of the time of this program. We’re going to provide an update on the status of the American Pastors Network, 10 Men Initiative, for the American church to assist the believers, specifically in Ukraine, as well as to help spread the good news in a time of great need there in that country. Now, in the past two weeks we’ve brought various perspectives on this war, all of which are coming to pass. The things that have been said have really been coming to pass, because we’ve been dealing with the truth and some of the best guests, I think, available on this entire issue. And many of these things I’m finding, I’m just kind of checking them off each day, are 24 hours or more ahead of what’s coming out in the controlled press, starting with a military and strategic perspective bounded by biblical prophecy that we did with JR McGee on Monday, February 28th, which was actually before the war began.
That program title then was, The Cornered Russian Bear: Danger Level Increasing. And we predicted what would happen. And it did. On March 1, we presented another strategic update, Israel In the Midst of the Russian Ukraine-War, with former White House correspondent, Bill Koenig. Then on March 2nd, we looked even deeper biblical at Russia’s Role in Biblical Prophecy, with Dr. Ed Hindson, Dean Emeritus of the School of Divinity at Liberty University. And then we took a dive into China’s role in this growing affair with special guest Frank Gaffney, national security expert. Our focus then was war with China, a current reality, not just a potential. And then in addition, we presented a focus on Iran and Israel, because we’ve been talking about all of these players for months, and then we pulled together all these players along with the globalist pushing them all, as we presented Under the Cover of War: The Beast System Advances. And I was with Leo Hohmann a week ago, March 7.
So I share these things just to highlight our effort here to provide continuing and accurate information on not just the Russia-Ukraine war, but what’s also happening with China, Iran, and Israel, as we’ve seen significant increases in activity with China, possibly as of today already providing military assistance to Russia. Iran firing missiles into the US embassy in Iraq two days ago. And then just last night, the Revolutionary Guard claiming credit for firing rockets into a secret Israeli facility. It all makes me think of Jesus’ prophecy to his disciples, who said that right prior to his second coming there would be great deception, and wars, and rumors of wars. But in the midst of these things that I’ve said before, Jesus told his disciples, “Be not troubled because all these things must come to pass.” So in addition, our obligation as Christians is to help other believers as we are able during times of need and to share the gospel with people yet without hope. That drives us on and certainly it pertains to what’s happening in Ukraine.
So today we’re going to do this. We’re going to update in just a minute, our APN International Director, Dale Armstrong, who will give us an update strategically, what’s happening in Ukraine right now. Next segment, we’re going to talk about the 10 Men Initiative in Ukraine and how you can help provide assistance to the believers there. And in segment three and four, I’m going to bring in a Ukraine pastor for 25 years in Crimea, when Russia first invaded eight years ago. We’ll look to that time and we’ll look ahead to right now. You do not want to miss this information that we will get from Alex Cherny. And then Dr. Joe Green is my co-host today. And so you’ll be hearing him and me as we go forward.
So with that, I welcome to the program right now, Dale Armstrong. You are traveling and you happen to be in an airport and calling in right now, but Dale, I got to ask you this. Let’s set it up this way. Now nearly 3 million Ukrainians are displaced. As I mentioned earlier, I saw a mention this morning that Russia may seek to close the borders. That’ll be interesting. I’ve seen reports that Russia’s bringing in battle-hardened troops from Syria, that the Syrian president is offering significant monthly pay for mercenary Syrian soldiers to go to Ukraine. And this morning, from the Biden White House, a spokesman said that China has perhaps already aided Russia militarily, so it doesn’t sound like Russia’s intending to walk away in defeat and humiliation. So give me your perspective. What’s happening there, Dale?
Dale Armstrong: Well, I think quite clearly, Sam. Russia is making no move whatsoever towards any form of de-escalation. As we know, they’ve even had missile strikes just 10 miles from Poland, a NATO border, which puts them in a very precarious position, should they overshoot and NATO become involved. You’re absolutely right concerning the bringing up further troops. That can be viewed in a negative light, but at the same time, we also want to be balanced. Ukrainians are doing amazingly well. And also keep in mind that the news is not going to give us a lot of insights coming out of Ukraine, because of the war, it is illegal to report on Ukrainian troop movements, that no one absentmindedly gives away positions, but we are seeing the Ukrainians hammer, the supply lines, the fuel trucks. So it’s not all negative.
Now, there are a lot of bad things coming in that reflect on Russia’s strategy. For example, they have been viciously targeting… Simply, we can just look at a niche. They’re viciously targeting the educational institutions, Sam. They have bombed more than 379 schools and universities. Can you imagine that?
Sam Rohrer: That unbelievable, Dale.
Dale Armstrong: 59 of which have been completely destroyed. And so, a lot of that just continues to increase and we need America and NATO to get involved.
Sam Rohrer: Okay. And with that, I’ll follow up real quickly. We’ve talked before when you’ve given updates that even in this case, the Biden administration said, “All right, we’ll provide some kind of substantive aid and we’ll let the other countries like Poland give some of the planes to Ukraine.” Then all of a sudden they come back and they reverse it. Does the world even believe anything that this administration or America is doing right now?
Dale Armstrong: Well, it is difficult. And there are many times I feel impressed to apologize for our country, which really hurts me to say that. But I think we’ve also seen coming from the pulpit, or the bully pulpit, so to speak, of the president, blaming inflation on this war, etc., etc. Politicizing this event is just completely out of place. It’s reprehensible. It has no business coming from the mouth of the president, so that bothers me. It bothers the world. But Sam, at the same time, just today, it was announced political representatives from Poland, Slovenia, and… Let’s see, what’s the third? Is it Slovakia? Are sending three political representatives into the battle, into Kyiv itself to meet with Zelenskyy.
Sam Rohrer: All right. That’s important. Dale, we’re out of time. Save that for the next segment. Ladies and gentlemen, when we come back, we’re going give you to just a bit of a history of American Pastors Network, and Dale Armstrong, and us involvement in Ukraine, which goes back eight years, and then bring up the date with what now God’s put before us to allow you to help the believers in Ukraine.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Sam Rorher: If you’re just joining us here on Stand In the Gap Today, we are giving this program a very detailed and insightful Ukraine update. Special guest, our international director, Pastor Dale Armstrong. Just talked with him about the latest kind of on the ground there from Ukraine. And we’re going to talk in just a moment about our 10 Men Initiative, whereby you and your church can help provide assistance to those, now over 3 million, Ukrainians that are out of their homes. It’s a big deal. So we’ll talk about that here in just a moment.
Now, my co-host today, Dr. Joe Green, is with me and then just so you don’t walk away at the bottom of the hour, we’re going to bring in pastor Alex Cherny. He is from Ukraine. 25 years he spent there on the ground in Crimea and you will not want to miss his input.
All right, this may be news to a lot of you listening here, but about 10 years ago, we mentioned for the first time that we at the American Pastors Network felt a duty in part because God had previously given us a unique opportunity back when the Ukrainians had risen up and forced from office the Russian imposed President Yanukovych there in 2014 at Maidan square. You may have heard about that. Our Pastor Dale Armstrong, who’s with me right now, and we’re back in just a second, had been a missionary to Russia and to Ukraine. He knew people there, he knew pastors. And through a series of divine engagements, a letter of invitation came from a certain top Ukrainian officials to the American Pastors Network to help that nation, Ukraine, develop the understanding of biblical principles that as they said, could permit them to move toward a nation with a constitution like the United States. Now get this, I recall it very vividly, so that they could become with God’s help, a nation not like the United States is, but like the United States was. Isn’t that profoundly convicting?
Then on May 5th, 2014, a letter from a leading pastor’s organization in Ukraine, sent us a letter of invitation, which read in part. Let me just read just a piece of this, so you get the flavor, because this is really critical to where we now are relative to assisting the fellow believers there in Ukraine.
They said this, and quote, “It has been our honor to speak with Pastor Dale Armstrong of your network of pastors and we are excited about what the American Pastors Network can do to help our government and pastoral leaders at this time of great need in our nation. It is our hope and prayer that almighty God hears the prayers of his people in Ukraine and around the world, and permits us to govern ourselves, not in corruption, but through biblical principles. It is our great desire that the Lord permit us to lay down a new foundation of government built on biblical principles of freedom, of the sacredness of life, private property, and limited government that praises those who do well, practices and enforces biblical justice, decries bribery, and works to support the biblical role of the church and the family.”
“We know that the American Pastors Network is firmly grounded on the constitution and how civil government should work. It is for these reasons that we are extending to you the invitation to come to Ukraine with the intent of showing and teaching us the biblical principles for how to establish a righteous government and share practical insights on how to apply biblical principles to the challenges that face our nation at this time.”
Now, that was in May of 2014. Isn’t that a profound letter? Wow. Well, Dale, we then went. You set it up. We went there and by the grace of God, a lot was accomplished, yet now the nation of Ukraine is confronted with challenges that moved them from seeking freedom to actually resisting actual evil on the ground and literally survival. Last week, we first announced on this program an approach to helping the believers in Ukraine, and we’re calling it the 10 Men Initiative. Tell us about that initiative, how people can become involved, and where that sits right now. Can you do that please?
Dale Armstrong: Yes, absolutely, Sam. And thank you for reminding us of where and when all of this began. And not just our part in it, but what the part was of the word of God and Christian pastors in Ukraine when they were invaded by Russia in 2014. And I want to remind the listeners that this war is really nothing new. It did not start three weeks ago on February 24th. That simply was a further attack of what had begun in 2014. And at that time, what we saw, Sam, as you may well remember, is that the volunteers of Ukraine, just common men and women, rose up and stood up against an invading army and stopped them in their tracks. And the army was then supplied with humanitarian aid, with food, with everything from socks to dry clothing and sleeping bags in very inclement conditions by the pastors. And we saw minivan after minivan delivering supplies to these men along the front line until over 200 pastors actually became official chaplains and ministered the word of God in the trenches.
The reason I bring that up, Sam, is because what’s happening today isn’t new. These guys know what to do. They’ve already done it before. This is not a rehearsal. When these attacks began, pastors just went back into the delivery mode and we’ve got photos and reports from pastors all over the country, who have been taking the money out of their own pocket, the food out of their own gardens, and bringing it to the place of need, and crisis, and the tragedies and horrors of war. Some of these cities, as you know, have been encircled, some have been cordoned off, some they cannot escape. Humanitarian channels to allow citizens to evacuate have been opened and then when the citizens mashed up to leave, they were attacked and bombs were dropped on them. Tremendous war crimes have taken place.
And in the midst of all of this, the church has been the church. And what’s happening, one of our pastors in Odessa was sharing with me that they have food and they have supplies, but they need the money to buy it. So we’re doing what we can to help them there. But what he said to me is, “We have a window of about two to three weeks until all of those supplies will be gone and we need to be supplied from Romania or Poland.”
So Sam, as we’re looking at it, we have three phases to a crisis. You have a lot of supply, thank God for it, being brought to the borders of Romania, Moldova, Poland, and they’re being warehoused there. Great organizations like Samaritan’s Purse or Convoy of Hope, and we thank God for them. And then at that border, we have this refugee crisis that you mentioned with more than 3 million refugees lining up at the border, coming in and filling up Poland and Romania, moving on into Europe. And that in itself is a very unique crisis. And I thank God for those who are ministering to those people in need, but we cannot forget the third aspect of the humanitarian crisis, and that’s the people who are trapped. The people who cannot evacuate, the disabled, the elderly, the poor who have no cars. And the pastors are reaching out to them, but they’re running out of supply.
So very quickly, it came into my heart, Sam, that we just need 10 men with strong hands and strong bags that can fly over with me with $10,000 in their pocket. We can buy $100,000 of humanitarian aid in Romania. We can load the trucks, we can drive them in till the pastors can break them down. We can help break them down into many lands and put them in the trunks of cars, and let them, and empower them, to do what only they can do because of language and culture, and they know the roads, and they know their people. But we can be that life link between the supplies that exist in Poland and Romania and link that up with the distribution system, which is the pastor. What I love about that, Sam, is it’s pastor to pastor, it’s church to church. And in that level of trust, I believe we’re going to see the miracles of God.
Joe Green: That’s great information, Dale. And I really appreciate you because we get so much in the news and it’s hard to determine what part we should listen to and what part might be biased reporting. So to have a boots on the ground assessment is so very important. My question for you, Dale, is working through the churches of the UA, led by pastors in the UA, but coordinated and assisted by the American Pastors Network is really a biblical model, isn’t it? And can you share why this approach is so important?
Dale Armstrong: Well, I think you already hit it. And that is the question of trust. Who do you trust? We live in such to an age of disinformation that we simply do not know who to trust. And when you get into the fog of war and you get into an environment where you have millions of dollars in deliberate media outlets targeting lies and propagating those lies, whether it be the lies that are circulating in the US right now, that Putin is a moral leader, that Putin is trying to free the Ukraine, or that Putin is trying to stop trafficking in women, or Putin is trying to uncover biological warfare labs. All of which are very, very well funded disinformation programs. Who can you trust? But the beautiful thing is in the kingdom of God, we know who to trust. Back in 2014, I said across [crosstalk 00:18:24].
Sam Rohrer: Dale, we’re out of time. I’m sorry, we’re out of time. Thank you for getting in here in your travels. And ladies and gentlemen, go to ukraineinitiative.com. ukraineinitiative.com. You can sign up to go, to give, or to ask for more information on that site. We’ll be back.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Sam Well, hopefully if you were listening to the first part of the program, you were informed about a number of things. The involvement that God has allowed us, American Pastors Network, to have in Ukraine, is not a well known thing. I wanted to share some of it though, because when that invitation came in 2014, that permitted an opportunity for Pastor Armstrong, and myself, and then some others, that we took along with us to actually go and teach pastors and those in office. And to do, and try to fulfill the request of what they asked for.
Really significant things occurred then, but in that early days, there was a pastor who’s with me right now on the program, pastor Alex Cherny. 25 years, a pastor in Ukraine, in the Crimea area, which is where Russia first invaded Ukraine eight years ago in 2014. And it’s been my privilege to be able to get to know Alex very well. And he’s… Actually probably hours, Alex, that you have interpreted for me when I have taught and you interpreted into the language which that people could understand there, so I’ve gotten to really respect you. And so I’m glad that you can spend a little bit of time with us right now, because I’d like to have a look back and then a look around with you. So with that, let me just welcome you into the program right now. Pastor Alex Cherny from Ukraine. Thanks for being with us.
Alex Cherny: Thank you, Sam. It’s privilege.
Sam Rohrer: Let’s go here first, Alex. As I said, you were a pastor in Ukraine, Crimea area, for about 25 years or so. You lived in that region as we’ve already talked about, where Russia first invaded nearly eight years ago. So this war, Dale said, didn’t just start, it’s been in process. What I’d like for you to do is take just a couple of minutes here and describe what happened then. And if you could a little bit, actually, don’t go too much into where we are right now, but you can compare, contrast a little bit, but what happened back then and how did the church and the people in that area respond at that point in 2014?
Alex Cherny: Well, Sam, first of all, I’m a native Crimean in the fourth generation. So it doesn’t get more Crimean than this. And living my whole life in Crimea. Being born, having parents, and grandparents, and friends. I was a pastor in church for 25 years. And for me, what happened was a crash of a worldview. And what happened. I mean, we are a peaceful sovereign nation, got attacked and invaded by our northern neighbor, which is Russia. And they’re all in their tanks and the troops. And what happened, you cannot attack a nation before you would demolish the basis upon which the nation stands. So what they did, they poured a lot of propaganda on the people.
What I experienced myself, not so much fear of the Russian troops, which was obviously the case, but what happens is people were brainwashed and I have seen the fulfillment of the scripture in what was going on when the father turned against his son and the children turned against his parents. My own father-in-law, I’m not ashamed to say that, he called in my kids and he told them straight in the face, “Do you know that your father is an American spy?” And he said that because I studied abroad, I went into the seminary in England, and I was a translator for a number of years, and I traveled the world. And because it was different, I was thinking different, I was anti-Putin, so he was justifying himself by tagging me, as the father, to my own kids, as an American spy. Then what happens next, all the churches were caught obviously by surprise. It was a shocking thing, but what was worse, church got a split in the middle. So some people were pro-Putin and some were against Putin.
But what it means, that those are pro-Putin, they justified the killings, the invasion, everything. And I, the pastor, the senior pastor, someone who was marrying, bearing, and you name it, I ate together out of the same plate, shared the food, and the life, and everything. So these are my people, turned their backs on me and they started threatening me. They were blackmail me black-texted me, so there was SMS message. I even still have those screenshots. So I had no any other choice, but to make a decision. We prayed and we asked God what to do. And God told us, “Pack and go immediately.” We left everything. And we just obeyed God.
But what happened is I realized the church was experiencing this split. So if I would’ve stayed, I would had to fight against what was going on, which probably going to cause more problems to the church, so I had to step down. And that was the case for the most churches. Churches didn’t know what to do. Some were in the support of Putin, but he lied about everything, he brainwashed people, and he made us enemies. And that’s what church was not able to recognize. They bought into this nationalistic bait and they totally forgot the Kingdom principles, they totally forgot the Gospel. And what we’re seeing right now, things have escalated, but there is a huge difference. Now, the church in Ukraine is ready.
So when you talk about helping Ukraine, we talk about the major structures that are helping Ukraine, like the Red Cross and all other things, this is a bureaucracy. If you want to donate, I mean, it goes somewhere that you don’t know where it goes, and we are experiencing a lot of dysfunction of what they’re doing. I’m sorry, but that’s the reality. So what happens now, private individuals, pastors who fled from the active battle zone areas, they are forming their personal initiatives and they are using their own money to get the people out, to evacuate them, to host them, to feed them, even to send food back to the occupied territories. So these are done by the Ukrainian church, which stands in a contrast to the Russian church, and if you want me to cover that…
Sam Rohrer: And hold that just a moment, Alex, because I want to go into that probably in the next segment, because that is dramatic. But Brother Joe Green, do you have a question here for Alex?
Joe Green: Yeah, I wanted to ask you, Alex. In the UA church and pastor response some eight years ago, do you think that the pastors led them because they were driven by a clear understanding of biblical principles regarding freedom and biblical duty, or more from their own experience, remembering the days of communist, persecution, under the Soviet Union? Because I’m sure that had to have a great influence on the decision making, even as a pastor. I mean, these experiences that they have, have to have some type of influence. What do you think was the primary motivation?
Alex Cherny: Well, a little bit of both. He goes by the contrast. Well, I’m the Crimean voice, someone who was raised under the Crimean sun on the beach, I’m a son of a fisherman. So for me, I was not prosecuted during the Soviet time, but it was clear for me, because God reshaped my worldview. I totally adapted the Kingdom mentality. So for me, it was not a moral issue. For me, if the intruder comes in, he’s the intruder. You called the intruder, the intruder, you called black, black, white, white.
What happened with them? They traded what they have. They called it, “Well, we just want to serve God,” by which they mean, “We want peace and stability and we are not going to pay the price.” So, some of them were motivated by that. Some of the good folks were motivated by yes, there were prosecutions and we are fighting against… Some of them were like myself. I knew the truth. I’m liberated by the truth. For me, it was not a moral issue. I knew what was going on. I knew what it was going to happen and I just made my choice based on my principles inside.
Sam Rohrer: Alex, that’s a significant thing. We got a couple minutes before we go into the break, but let’s make a little bit of a transition here now. You can start on this because compare, contrast the state of the church, and we’ll go to Russia and the next segment, but the state of the church again in Ukraine. Now, eight years later, having seen what happened in Crimea, having some pastors like you, who were there, who have now been in the main part of Ukraine, compare, contrast the state of the church, the true church in Ukraine now to what it was in 2014.
Alex Cherny: In 2014, the church, we never had an experience. Once you’ve gone beyond that, you’ve gained something valuable. So let me illustrate my answer by this particular thing that I was a witness, personal witness a couple days ago. A very good man, educated and we’re working together on a project to help Ukraine. So he’s an Orthodox believer, which is kind of opposite to the Protestant. So he told me, I didn’t even ask him, but he told me, “I know that you are the Protestant. I just want to confess one thing. Back there in 2014, I never had a respect for the Protestant because I was raised in Orthodox, but by watching you guys operate on the ground, on the main Ukraine, helping people and doing what you were doing, you won my heart and you convert me. And I just want to express my respect to you as someone who represents the Protestant world.”
Once again, I never asked him for it, but I’m praising God. The unity comes based on the Kingdom values and not on the differences. So that’s probably the [crosstalk 00:28:30].
Sam Rohrer: Well, that is interesting. And again, you did say that the church in Ukraine right now, you would say they learned from the Crimean experience and they are more broadly engaged in Ukraine now, not waiting to see what happens, but they are engaged more so right now? Is that what you say?
Alex Cherny: Absolutely. Not just that, it goes beyond what you said. I mean, this is the church who is involved, but because of the private initiatives, even though, and I’m reading all the public comments, and the news, and threads, and Facebook. So I’m even noticing that secular media are broadcasting the thoughts that, “Okay, here’s the Christian group did that. Here’s the group of Christians, they can [crosstalk 00:29:20].”
Sam Rohrer: Okay, hold that. We’re out of time. We’re going to go into that further. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to go back. We’re talking to pastor Alex Cherny from Ukraine, 25-year pastor there. And we’re going to talk a little bit more now about the church in Ukraine versus the church in Russia. You don’t want to miss this.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Sam Rohrer: Well, before I go back to our special guest today, Pastor Alex Cherny, who 25 years as a pastor in Crimea, he is Ukrainian and it’s been my privilege to be able to get to know him over the years. And he’s providing us a very unique perspective. What actually things are like there in Ukraine. And as I’ve said so many times, the amount of propaganda and deception that we face on both sides of what’s happening there is incredible. So if you just heard some of what he said, some of that would be contrary to what we are hearing, but let me just take this one second here and just thank those of you who are responding. I think about 20-some different donors in the last few days from about a dozen different states, have stepped up to the plate assisting in our 10 Men Initiative that we talked about with Pastor Dale Armstrong in segment two.
And I encourage all of you to go too. If you want to assist in any part, you can give all, you can give a lot, you can give a little, but if you want to help Ukraine in any way, you can do it on our website at ukraineinitiative.com. Now you can give on our regular site as well. And if you want to give some for the Ukraine effort, you can. Don’t forget to give to us because what is designated there is for this project. So we need all, but I’m so glad to see and read many of the comments from people, new people participating here. But this is quite an effort that is underway and as you’ve heard from Alex and Dale, being focused in working through the churches and the pastors is far more accountable. And able to get things done now, when it’s really needed, when a lot of these big organizations are just whether or not getting the job done. So we’ll just go there.
Let’s go back here, Alex, at this point. You brought up the suggestion and I ask you about the state of the church in Ukraine. You’re saying now more unified acting in more concert, having learned a lot, I would say, from the invasion of Russia into Crimea, where you were from, eight years ago, but you start to go down the road of saying Russia, because I’ve thought a lot about this as well. There are believers in Russia. There is a church in Russia. Where is the church in Russia compared to the church in Ukraine? And you may define it a little bit because people may not be aware that there are differences, but compare, contrast what’s happening in this area, because I thought what you shared with me a while ago was just amazing.
Alex Cherny: Yes, Sam. Absolutely. As I already mentioned, the Ukrainian church in Crimea were divided, divided based on the propaganda. When they taught people, they kind of sparked artificial moral conflict and issue, so they turned us against each other. That was Crimea, but now the case is totally different. In Ukraine, even in Orthodox, Russian Orthodox Church, that’s another branch, they are anti-Putin, anti-invasion, including all the Protestant. And before I go to the Russian church, let me, first of all, I’m going to thank everyone, every church, every pastor in Russia. And I know there are many who are resisting this current madness, but there’s a big difference between many and the majority. So the majority of the Russian church is actually justifying the war. They’re calling it a sacred war against, so they’re fighting against the west.
Think about it. It’s a collusion of a mind. They are fighting against Western civilization, their value system, which is clearly has its roots in the Bible. It’s biblical worldview. So they justify, and I would say the state of the majority of the church in Russia, apathetic, they are in bed with the government and they’re broadcasting what the government tells them. So they’re justifying the killings, the murdering, and the evasion, and everything. And here are their basis. Well, they are voting for peace in the whole world. What does that mean, peace in the whole world? I am being killed. Someone comes to my home to murder me and they are suggesting this narrative. So, “Why are you being killed? Don’t raise your voice, just die peacefully and slowly.” That’s what they want us to do. And if you try to scream, and if you try to resist, they are blaming you for being anti-God, anti-everything, so that’s their piece in the world… I mean, concept looks like.
They also pitch the idea, “Okay, this is the great Russia. And we’re going to put back [inaudible 00:34:14].” This is what they do. I mean, this is absolute anti-God concept. And yet they go in the same churches. In fact, it took me a while to figure it out. I thought, “How can you justify such a thing?” Because we are witnessing the state of the church in Russia as exactly, they’re mirroring the state of the church in Germany during the Hitler. It’s identical. It’s just identical. They keep their blind eye on everything goes on, but they gather in their churches, they sing the song like nothing really exists and they pray, “Oh, let there be peace.” But the peace comes by effort, by someone doing actually.
And here’s what brought me to the solution. I believe, and this is a very hard, it’s going to sound very harsh, but this is the only thing I can think of. If I think about my God, so my God loved the world. This is the God I believed in. My God loved the world, so he gave his one and only son. So his love was so big, so he decided to do something. He sacrificed his own son who came down, became one of us, and lived the life and then offered himself as a sacrifice. That is my God. And then my God takes it further and he says, “You have to care for the widow, for the orphan. You have to save those who are predestined for death.” That’s what my Bible says. Apparently, what they’re reading is something else. Brings me to a conclusion, we have different God.
What they believe is something different from what I’m believing. My God is someone else, has different moral value system. Their God is the God of comfort, is the God of superiority, is the God of nationalism. You name it. I’m not an expert in this, but I’m just stating the fact. What I’m seeing these words in my Bible, that God love the world, that’s what I want to imitate, that’s what I want to do. Apparently, they have other thoughts about it. They have other avenue. And this has scared me. We have different gods and value system, and this is the saddest thing for me to learn and to share with you.
Joe Green: Wow, that’s some great information. I think about the early church in the Book of Acts and other parts in the Bible, and how the church expanded and grew in the midst of persecution. And I wonder if a similar thing is happening. Can you say firsthand about people coming to faith in Jesus Christ as a result of this hardship? Is it happening? How is the church growing, or if it’s growing at all? Can you speak to that for us?
Alex Cherny: Yes, absolutely. But in order to explain the church growth, we have to understand the church is on the run now. I mean, most of the churches, they have to evacuate. And they try to evacuate their own people. But here’s the best part, and we know it. When we go through troubles and trials, your faith is soaring above all of that. You are keeping a faith up. And this is what’s stake in place right now. The church in Ukraine, they are the doers of everything. Some of the churches in the areas that are not affected yet by this conflict, they are hosting people from other churches. They are hosting people from other regions. They are providing them with food and everything. And this is the great testimony and people see that. People see what the church do. I mean, the church does. They see the action. They don’t really believe any words, but they are watching and they’re walking alongside. So the church actually is with the nation and that’s the best part. Church is the part of a society and we are walking this valley together and…
Sam Rohrer: And Pastor Alex Cherny, oh boy, I wish we had another hour to continue this discussion. Thank you so much for being with. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that the passion that you hear in Pastor Cherny’s voice and the information brings you into partnership in more fervent prayer and assistance. And if you want to help in our effort to help those who are in Ukraine, go to ukraineinitiative.com and then you can assist. But Alex, thank you so much for being with. God bless you. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll see you back tomorrow, lord willing, right here.
Recent Comments