By Pamela Rae Schuffert presenting investigative journalism from a Biblical Christian perspective-
Throughout my life, God has called me to minister to many diverse cultures and people groups. One group God specifically called me to so many years ago, was THE RUSSIANS. What a fascinating world of diverse cultures and history the Slavic people are composed of! Dramatic, flamboyant, expressive, romantic, passionate (either for GOOD or for EVIL purposes)...these are all terms that can be used to accurately portray many aspects of these intriguing people.
I want to remind my readers that "the enemy" is NEVER "nationality" or ethnic background. Rather, the REAL enemy can be DOCTRINE and IDEOLOGY. What people believe in, is what affects their behavior the most.
Therefore, "Russians" are not the enemy. It is the doctrine and ideology that fills every person, that can make someone into a wonderful saint...or a terrible sinner.
I have met with many kinds of Russians throughout the years. The Russian Christians who truly love Jesus, are among the finest and most loving and committed Christians you will ever hope to encounter.
My many years spent among the Russian Christians in New England, were among the best of my life. Their true-life accounts of Christians suffering in Russia under Communism and being sent to prisons or gulags for their faith played a major role in my Christian growth. I learned so much about Christians enduring under persecution and even martyrdom, through the beloved Slavic Believers.
Whether Russian Orthodox, or Russian Baptist or Pentecostal Christians, all suffered intensely under Communist persecutions for many decades, beginning with the Bolshevik Revolution. Churches were seized or burned, Christian leaders and their flocks arrested and sent to cruel prisons or exiled and imprisoned in the GULAG system of brutal labor camps (DEATH camps would be a more accurate description) in cold Siberia.
And yet, the Christian flames of faith could never be extinguished by such means They remain alive to this day throughout the former Soviet Union.
In my previous article, I wrote about the negative side of Russian soldiers. Now I want to share with you true accounts of Russian soldiers who were Christians.
My friend Kolya, whom I met in Washington DC at the Orthodox Church, shared with me an account from Afghanistan that I will never forget. And neither would he.
"I can never forget the Christians soldiers in my platoon, " he shared with me one day as we sat and talked together.
"There were ten men in my platoon that were Christians. One day, our commander had us surround an Afghani village. We were told to open fire on this village and kill every man, woman, and child. While we prepared to obey our commander, the ten Christian men spoke up. They said,
"Our commander was furious. He ordered them to be lined up and EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD for their refusal to obey orders. But they would not change their minds."
"We watched as all ten men were executed for their Christian faith. This is something I will never forget..." said Kolya.
His incredible words that day burned into my memories, and I never forgot this moving account either.
Rather than disobey the HIGHER commandments of God and His Son Jesus Christ regarding how to treat our fellow man, these committed Russian Christians gave their lives instead of slaughtering innocent people.
Men with Jesus Christ in their hearts, cannot be persuaded to break the higher laws of God to obey men instead. Peter the Apostle declared, that we as Christians must obey God rather than man.
There is another amazing account of a very special Russian soldier, whose testimony I will never forget. His name was VANYA MOISEYEV. His testimony is memorialized in the book, "VANYA" by Myrna Grant. I recommend that all my readers obtain this book, and read it. You can find this book and order it at www.Amazon.com under "Vanya, by Myrna Grant."
Vanya was born the same year as I was, in 1952. However, he died only one year after I became a born again Christian (1971) in 1972. Vanya died a martyr for Jesus Christ while serving in the Russian Red Army.
Amazingly, in 1979, only 7 years after his martyrdom, I was to later meet one of his pastors while training in the Slavic Gospel Institute in Wheaton, Illinois. That pastor's name was Stanislav Nasteka. I remember going up to him after one church service, expressing my feelings over Vanya's courageous Christian witness and martyrdom in the godless military in Russia.
"Yes, these things really do happen under Communism, " he admitted to me in Russian.
We as Christians in America, with our history of religious freedom from the beginning of this nation, often have a difficult time comprehending such events as Christians suffering and dying for their faith. It is hard to comprehend such cruelty and hardness of heart that Communism produces, capable of resulting in the torture and murder of the innocent.
But in today's world, sadly this happens all the time. And throughout the decades of godless Communism in Russia and the former Soviet Union, tens of millions of innocent Christians were brutally arrested, imprisoned and tortured and martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ. Murder of the Christians under Communism continues this very day in communist nations around the world.
Vanya's testimony is filled with healing miracles and divine angelic encounters, and with many soldiers receiving Jesus as Savior through his amazing witness in the Russian Army. Finally, disturbed that so many soldiers were discovering Jesus through his witness, his commanding officer, Malsin, ordered him to stop his Christian witness to the other soldiers.
But Vanya knew the commandment of Jesus Christ, to confess Jesus before men. And so he refused to be silent, and the testimony continued faithfully to many.
As his letters to his family back home revealed, Vanya knew he was going to die for his Christian witness eventually. Col. Malsin made this very clear to Vanya. Vanya's final letter to his family admitted that it would be the last letter they would ever receive from him.
Vanya was tortured to death by the military, because he refused to stop confessing Jesus to his fellow soldiers. His brutalized body was shipped home in a coffin, welded shut. Grieving church members pried open his coffin, to witness a man who had died under brutal torture methods. Even his commanding officer finally admitted to his parents, "I was with him when he died...he died a hard death, but he died A CHRISTIAN."
http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1901-2000/moiseyev-martyred-by-soviets-11630831.html
Throughout my life, God has called me to minister to many diverse cultures and people groups. One group God specifically called me to so many years ago, was THE RUSSIANS. What a fascinating world of diverse cultures and history the Slavic people are composed of! Dramatic, flamboyant, expressive, romantic, passionate (either for GOOD or for EVIL purposes)...these are all terms that can be used to accurately portray many aspects of these intriguing people.
I want to remind my readers that "the enemy" is NEVER "nationality" or ethnic background. Rather, the REAL enemy can be DOCTRINE and IDEOLOGY. What people believe in, is what affects their behavior the most.
Therefore, "Russians" are not the enemy. It is the doctrine and ideology that fills every person, that can make someone into a wonderful saint...or a terrible sinner.
I have met with many kinds of Russians throughout the years. The Russian Christians who truly love Jesus, are among the finest and most loving and committed Christians you will ever hope to encounter.
My many years spent among the Russian Christians in New England, were among the best of my life. Their true-life accounts of Christians suffering in Russia under Communism and being sent to prisons or gulags for their faith played a major role in my Christian growth. I learned so much about Christians enduring under persecution and even martyrdom, through the beloved Slavic Believers.
Whether Russian Orthodox, or Russian Baptist or Pentecostal Christians, all suffered intensely under Communist persecutions for many decades, beginning with the Bolshevik Revolution. Churches were seized or burned, Christian leaders and their flocks arrested and sent to cruel prisons or exiled and imprisoned in the GULAG system of brutal labor camps (DEATH camps would be a more accurate description) in cold Siberia.
And yet, the Christian flames of faith could never be extinguished by such means They remain alive to this day throughout the former Soviet Union.
In my previous article, I wrote about the negative side of Russian soldiers. Now I want to share with you true accounts of Russian soldiers who were Christians.
**********************
My friend Kolya, whom I met in Washington DC at the Orthodox Church, shared with me an account from Afghanistan that I will never forget. And neither would he.
"I can never forget the Christians soldiers in my platoon, " he shared with me one day as we sat and talked together.
Russian military sniper
"There were ten men in my platoon that were Christians. One day, our commander had us surround an Afghani village. We were told to open fire on this village and kill every man, woman, and child. While we prepared to obey our commander, the ten Christian men spoke up. They said,
'We are CHRISTIANS FIRST, and Russian soldiers SECOND, and what you have asked us to do,
WE AS CHRSTIANS CANNOT DO.'"
Russian Christian soldiers taking communion
"Our commander was furious. He ordered them to be lined up and EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD for their refusal to obey orders. But they would not change their minds."
"We watched as all ten men were executed for their Christian faith. This is something I will never forget..." said Kolya.
His incredible words that day burned into my memories, and I never forgot this moving account either.
Rather than disobey the HIGHER commandments of God and His Son Jesus Christ regarding how to treat our fellow man, these committed Russian Christians gave their lives instead of slaughtering innocent people.
Men with Jesus Christ in their hearts, cannot be persuaded to break the higher laws of God to obey men instead. Peter the Apostle declared, that we as Christians must obey God rather than man.
*********************************************
There is another amazing account of a very special Russian soldier, whose testimony I will never forget. His name was VANYA MOISEYEV. His testimony is memorialized in the book, "VANYA" by Myrna Grant. I recommend that all my readers obtain this book, and read it. You can find this book and order it at www.Amazon.com under "Vanya, by Myrna Grant."
Vanya was born the same year as I was, in 1952. However, he died only one year after I became a born again Christian (1971) in 1972. Vanya died a martyr for Jesus Christ while serving in the Russian Red Army.
Amazingly, in 1979, only 7 years after his martyrdom, I was to later meet one of his pastors while training in the Slavic Gospel Institute in Wheaton, Illinois. That pastor's name was Stanislav Nasteka. I remember going up to him after one church service, expressing my feelings over Vanya's courageous Christian witness and martyrdom in the godless military in Russia.
Vanya, 1952-1972
We as Christians in America, with our history of religious freedom from the beginning of this nation, often have a difficult time comprehending such events as Christians suffering and dying for their faith. It is hard to comprehend such cruelty and hardness of heart that Communism produces, capable of resulting in the torture and murder of the innocent.
But in today's world, sadly this happens all the time. And throughout the decades of godless Communism in Russia and the former Soviet Union, tens of millions of innocent Christians were brutally arrested, imprisoned and tortured and martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ. Murder of the Christians under Communism continues this very day in communist nations around the world.
Vanya's testimony is filled with healing miracles and divine angelic encounters, and with many soldiers receiving Jesus as Savior through his amazing witness in the Russian Army. Finally, disturbed that so many soldiers were discovering Jesus through his witness, his commanding officer, Malsin, ordered him to stop his Christian witness to the other soldiers.
But Vanya knew the commandment of Jesus Christ, to confess Jesus before men. And so he refused to be silent, and the testimony continued faithfully to many.
As his letters to his family back home revealed, Vanya knew he was going to die for his Christian witness eventually. Col. Malsin made this very clear to Vanya. Vanya's final letter to his family admitted that it would be the last letter they would ever receive from him.
Vanya was tortured to death by the military, because he refused to stop confessing Jesus to his fellow soldiers. His brutalized body was shipped home in a coffin, welded shut. Grieving church members pried open his coffin, to witness a man who had died under brutal torture methods. Even his commanding officer finally admitted to his parents, "I was with him when he died...he died a hard death, but he died A CHRISTIAN."
http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1901-2000/moiseyev-martyred-by-soviets-11630831.html
***********************************************************
I am sharing these true accounts of Russian soldiers who knew Jesus as their Savior, so that you may understand the importance of praying for and sharing Jesus with "the enemy" in America someday.
I was informed years ago that Russian troops would someday be patrolling the streets of America, under martial law. And just as the German troops admitted to me in Alamogordo, NM, the Russian military will also be doing the "dirty work" that the American troops don't really want to do to their fellow Americans under martial law.
Russian military will be used to arrest Americans, to seize their weapons, to fire upon them when they refuse to cooperate, and to march them to prisoner boxcars or buses to be taken to camps to be killed as NWO resisters under martial law. And undoubtedly they will be used to help behead the Christian NWO resisters with the military guillotines as well.
Recent news articles coming out have clearly confirmed this plan by DHS to use Russian military to help patrol America in the future.
Let me ask you: would you rather have CHRISTIAN Russian soldiers patrolling America someday, or brutal godless Russian military patrolling our streets???
I ask this, because your prayers and Christian witness can MAKE THE DIFFERENCE.
If Christians are not in the world to make a difference, then WHY ARE WE HERE AT ALL???
If Christians are not in the world to make a difference, then WHY ARE WE HERE AT ALL???
For years I have ministered among Russians, including Russian soldiers and even KGB. I have personally observed the power of God come into their lives and transform them through their receiving Jesus Christ.
A Russian soldier with the life-transforming experience of receiving Jesus Christ as their savior, cannot readily obey his superiors to commit crimes against humanity under martial law in America.
This is one reason WHY Jesus commanded to PRAY FOR OUR ENEMIES. Of course, the most important reason is that He died for ALL men to be saved...including our enemies. They can only be our enemies, because they do not know God through Jesus Christ.
I have given away many Russian Bibles throughout the years, and I have personally witnessed Jesus and salvation to many Russians as well.
This is what famed Pastor RICHARD WURMBRAND did when the Communists and Russian soldiers took over ROMANIA. He provided Russian Bibles for them and witnessed Jesus Christ to them. And some soldiers did accept Jesus and were transformed, as he shared in his writings.
For my Christian readers in North America, it behooves all of us to pray for the salvation of the Russian soldiers now stationed throughout North America.
For they will be OUR FUTURE PERSECUTORS someday. Never forget this.
For they will be OUR FUTURE PERSECUTORS someday. Never forget this.
While most foreign troops presently remain concealed in underground military bases and remote covert outposts until the hour of their manifestation under martial law, they are here nevertheless.
I also recommend ordering RUSSIAN BIBLES and other Russian Christian literature to distribute to these Russians as they manifest someday. And unfortunately, someday you WILL see them! Below is an excellent link to order RUSSIAN BIBLES for distribution:
Russian Bible
What satan means for evil, may God instead use for His glory and for the salvation of many someday in America.
And may His mercy prevail throughout
the future of America.
God have mercy on us all.
"Be not overcome by evil,
but overcome evil
with GOOD."
~Romans 12:21~
-Pamela Rae Schuffert-
**************************
Please remember this work in your prayers.
Your support enables me to continue my
Christian witness to our nation, and to wake up
Americans in this critical hour of America's destiny.
**************************
Please remember this work in your prayers.
Your support enables me to continue my
Christian witness to our nation, and to wake up
Americans in this critical hour of America's destiny.
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