Amidst the political turmoil amongst many nations in Europe including Greece which is struggling to form a government and may be headed back for more elections, and France where President Sarkozy has been given the chop, Israel’s on-again – off-again election and newly formed unity government that many fear will result in a strike against Iran, Russia has been awash with pomp and ceremony witnessing the swearing in of president Putin and the Russian Army’s Victory Day Parade.

Coronation of the President

The week began with Putin’s inauguration at the Kremlin in St. Andrew’s hall, the throne room of the Czars, and the place where they were crowned.

Outgoing president, and new Prime Minister in the game of musical chairs in the Kremlin, Dimitry Medvedev told the assembly:

The inauguration of a new president always marks a new stage in our country’s life and history. The President is the head of state, guarantor of the Constitution, of human rights and civil liberties, and he sets the main lines of our foreign and domestic policy…. To head our country and work for our people is a huge responsibility and a great honour. I am pleased that Vladimir Putin is taking this office today. He is an experienced and strong leader who has the support of the majority of our people.

Medvedev clearly outlines the fact that Putin, as a strong leader, will take Russia into a new stage setting the main lines of foreign and domestic policy. The Bible tells us where that policy will end up… with the subjugation of Europe and the invasion of the Middle East.

During his speech, Putin stated

“I consider serving the fatherland and our people to be the meaning of my whole life and my duty. I will do everything to justify the trust that millions of our citizens have placed in me….

The world has seen a Russia risen anew, and this is the result of our people’s hard work and our common effort, to which everyone has made their personal contribution….

We are now entering a new stage in our national development that requires us to resolve tasks at a principally new level, tasks of a different quality and scale. These coming years will be crucial for shaping Russia’s future in the decades to come….

We want to live and we will live in a democratic country where everyone has the freedom and opportunity to apply their talent and labour, their energy. We want to live and we will live in a successful Russia, which is respected in the world as a reliable, open, honest and predictable partner…

I believe in the strength of our common goals and ideals, our determination to transform our country, our people’s united efforts, and our common desire for freedom, truth and justice. We are ready for the tests and accomplishments ahead. Russia has a great past and just as great a future. We will work with faith in our hearts and sincere and pure intention. 

Putin looks past the failure of the cold war to a Russia who has “risen anew” and sees the stage being set as crucial for years to come.  He wants Russia to be seen as a respected partner on the international stage where it will preach its version of freedom, its version of truth and its version of justice.  He firmly believes that Russia has a great future. It will be this frog spirit doctrine of freedom and justice that will bring it down into the Middle East as predicted by the words of Revelation 16:15:

And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon (Russia), and out of the mouth of the beast (Europe), and out of the mouth of the false prophet (the Vatican). For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

Blessing by the Church

One very interesting comment in Putin’s speech is the stress placed on “faith”. AsiaNews reported what took place next:

After a dazzling inauguration ceremony for his new term as president of Russia, Vladimir Putin has received the blessing of Patriarch Kirill, strengthening the link between political power and orthodox religious authorities. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church held a special prayer service for the new president's "health" and "success in government", describing him as the "legitimate leader".

The "Moleben" (prayer service) was held in the Cathedral of the Assumption, a few steps from the throne room of St. Andrew, where the czars were crowned and where the inauguration of president took place. The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia expressed his "warmest congratulations to you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, for your election, given that the majority of our people, with wisdom and freedom, have elected you President of the Russian Federation". Kirill also recalled that the Kremlin is the place "where many of your pious predecessors have taken part in the rituals of prayer to give an ever greater service to their country."

At the inauguration - which many Russians call the "coronation" - all the bells of the Kremlin were rung for the entire ceremony which had been restored just before the occasion.

The previous day, Putin had presented the Patriarch with a gift of a 17^th Century painting of the Madonna and Child, removed during the 1920’s. During the prayer service Putin was seen crossing himself and kissing the golden cross held by the Patriarch.

The link between Church and state in Russia has been restored, resetting the course from the years of atheistic communist rule, to the picture shown in the Bible where Russia is to gather a company which is assembled against Israel, as described in Ezekiel 38:7:

“Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.”

The word company is the Hebrew word “qahal” meaning congregation or religious assembly, and is “synagogue” in the Greek Septuagint version. This great host has religious overtones and is “anti-Semitic” coming against “my people Israel.”

When the Gogian confederacy comes up to the land, it is to seize upon the “high places” as we read in Ezekiel 36:2-7:

“ Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession: Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the  Lord GOD; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen… Therefore… I have lifted up mine hand…”

The “high places” of this verse are defined by Strong’s Concordance as “the places of worship”. The Gogian confederacy is depicted as coveting the “places of worship” on the mountains of Israel and this is one of their goals in invading the land. This could hardly have been the case during the seventy years, when the Russian government was founded on “atheistic communism”, now it has renewed its ties to the church and is coming into line with the picture painted in both Revelation and the prophets of the Old Testament.

The Military Pride of Russia

Putin is pro-military, and longs to return to the glory days of the Soviet Union. The Digital Journal reported:

During his political campaign, Putin says he will spend billions to build up Russia’s military as a safeguard against the current international uncertainty. This one issue appears to find agreement among all Russians... Before his return to power, Putin laid out his ambitious plans for modernizing and strengthening Russia’s defense forces over the next decade to face a more threatening globe and the United States’ military power.

If these Kremlin ceremonies were not glitzy enough, this week also saw the annual the May Day military parade in Russia. This was a spectacular display of military pride and precision. Putin, as Comrade Supreme Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation had the following to say during his speech to the huge military force assembled in Red Square:

This holiday of triumph and glory of our peoples…

I’d like to stress today that strictly following international law, respecting sovereignty and free choice of every nationis one of the basic guarantees that the tragedy of this war will never happen again. Russia is consistently pursuing the policy of strengthening international security, and we have the moral right to insist on our position, because it was our country that suffered the most from Nazism.  It offered heroic resistance and went through extreme trials; we determined the outcome of the war! We defeated the enemy and brought liberation to the nations of the whole world.

This victory serves as an example for younger generations; they should remember that they have inherited this victory and freedom….

There is an awful lot of “we” in this speech – as though Russia was the only country that fought to defeat Nazism in the Second World War. The “moral right to insist in our position” of “strengthening international security” is premise on which Russia will eventually invade the Middle East.

Speaking the veterans he said,

“You have demonstrated that one can prevail not only through the force of weapons, but through great faith and inner strength… we will do all we need to make sure that our future is peaceful and secure. Glory to our victorious peoples! Congratulations of this great day of victory! Glory to Russia! Ura!

22:36 – URAH followed by national anthem….

This great show of human pride is prophetic, because the Proverbs tell us in chapter 16:18:

“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

A future peaceful and secure… the scriptures beg to differ. Consider 1 Thessalonians 5:3:

“When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”

Glory to Russia, Urah!? hmm. That’s not the end result depicted in the scriptures. Ezekiel explains the destruction in chapter 39:4–5 

Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

And in Ezekiel 39:21–22

And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.

So much for Ura! As we watch the great image rising up to stand on its feet we know the return of the Lord is nigh… “let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thes 5:6). This has been Jonathan Bowen, join us next week for Bible in the News!