There is only one right team and it has nothing to do with country borders. Russia, and the US, are both awful countries when viewed from the lens of the political leaders and not the people in those countries. The wrong team is the side of death and destruction. Thou Shalt Not Kill! The west and NATO literally poked and have been poking the bear for a long time. What did you expect to happen. What do they, the evil elites of the world want? WAR! PROFITS! LESS PEOPLE! TOTAL CONTROL! The evil in the world is completely out of hand and God's righteous judgement should be coming any moment now. I have always felt that God will use Russia to punish the world and many mystics have said the same. It is estimated that from 1989 through 2019, 2,436,351 people have died in armed conflicts around the world (https://ucdp.uu.se/exploratory). Where do those arms come from? Well since 1950 $692,123 (in billions) from the US and $598,375 (in billions) from Russia. The UK and France have contributed $143,000 and $125,000 in billions respectively and Germany rounds out the top 5 at $85,000 in billions. By my math that is about 65% of the top 5 countries who sell arms around the world come from Nato countries. Russia is not innocent either. Millions of lives have been lost to these profits. I am all for country pride but can't say I am a proud American when our leaders have performed such atrocities around the world and what they have been doing to us, the citizens exponentially over the past 3 years. Don't even get me started on the number of abortions in the US. Evil is evil and we need to call it out as it is. It has nothing to do with the country we belong to. We belong to the Lord. We are of His Kingdom and His alone. Borders just separate us further as brothers and sisters in Christ.
In the Old Testament, nations were mentioned. I do believe that you are right about us belonging to the Kingdom of God. Didn’t Jesus say that His kingdom was not of this world? That being said, we were told in the past to pray for our leaders. I seem to remember a quote from the Psalms: the Lord will reveal to the nations his saving power.
Absolutely we must always pray for our leaders. I have to believe in the power of prayer and even in the 11th hour, hearts can change. All I am saying is I am not one to say I am proud to be an American. What does that even me? What am I proud of? Proud of my country versus others? Proud of the freedoms that we think we have? What freedoms? Sure we have it far better than others but are we free? I don't believe so. We are slaves to the financial system. Our freedoms were stripped in the pandemic. Churches were closed, businesses were closed, many lost their jobs because they refused to take jab that they didn't believe to be safe. Our freedoms can be gone in a blink of an eye. Our leaders are so corrupt. I pray for a miracle for sure but sadly I believe that miracle will only come after some very hard, just judgements for the atrocities this nation has done to its people and the world.
I agree. My point was that people always prayed more and we stood a chance. But actually the rot in the world's government set in even before the French Revolution. It deeply grieves me that it is so. I love the USA but not the way it is now. But the Lord loves the USA, just not the sin. I see your point and you have explained it well.
The problem is that 'democracy', a much better-seeming idea than the actual reality of it, is a dangerous idol. The Greeks invented it and almost immediately realised its dangers and abandoned it. I refer, again, to the books of that good Catholic Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn on the subject; 'Liberty or Equality' (both mutually exclusive) and 'The Menace of the Herd'. The United States fluked a couple of great centuries of 'democracy', due to the high moral qualities of her people and due to her relative downgrading of the infernally toxic quality of 'Equality', a direct challenge to the two Commandments forbidding Envy. Now, America is polluted by 'Social Justice',the perfect social solvent and putrifier.
Meanwhile, the latest news from the Front is a (not very) veiled threat from Zelensky, in an interview with the Economist, that all those Ukrainian refugees in various European countries might get a bit angsty if we don't keep providing him with more weapons with which he can send his people (?) to their deaths. The Ukrainian women whom he is intending to conscript need to die with weapons in their hands. On the other hand, Kusto Salm, an Estonian (Estonians are known not to be very fond of Russa) defense ministry official, estimates that Russia's current ammunition production is seven times greater than that of the entire West. Seven. You read that right.
By now Putin has probably realized that, contrary to his expectations, NATO and the US do not want peace and he will be forced to march west. It seems there is considerable pressure on him, who has shown considerable restraint, to “get this thing over with “ lest the west interpret his restraint as a sign of weakness.
You are correct EricH. I'm tempted to ask, "What right team?" My focus now is to help direct others to Christ. But Russia infiltrated the USA clergy in the '30s and '40s. Meanwhile the socialistic model has for the most part displaced the Republic in the USA (think Deep State). There are a few Christian values remaining, but even the Republican party is now infested with warmongers. I'm not sure there is the right team. At this point, of the 50 States, I'd say maybe 20 of them are governed by Conservatives. But "the Land of the Free and the Brave" is a shadow of what it was one hundred years ago. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
“What are kingdoms without justice? They're just gangs of bandits.” ― Augustine of Hippo, City of God
http://thepathlesstaken7.blogspot.com/2022/04/padre-pio-russian-people-will-be.html?m=1 PADRE PIO: "THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE WILL BE CONVERTED...RUSSIA WILL TEACH THE UNITED STATES A LESSON IN CONVERSION"
Interesting he also said When Father Duggan asked Padre Pio about the future of the of America and Russia, Pio said plainly, "The Russian people will be converted. Their total conversion will happen very fast. The conversion of the United States will be slow but sure."
Nice, so both America and Russia are going to be converted in the end completely back to God. Good to know.
Good points. This thread has some superb posts. Sorry I haven't gotten around to liking them all. And I have a strong feeling, call it a prophecy if you like, at the risk of sounding "pro-Russian", that if Russia manages to bring North Korea into the Russian fold, persecution of Christians will become a thing of the past. Russia may even convert China ...
Well if Russia was able to export their "communism" to China, Vietnam, and North Korea in the past, why not Christianity also...
Today is The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. At Garabandal another escalation was prophesied: The Visionary Conchita declared on the that as the future great events draw near “ presumed and false manisfistations of the Blessed Virgin will increase considerably “. How she must weep at such callous deception. At least the church is now taking further steps to investigate apparitions. Over the centuries several devotions, and even orders, arose around meditation on Mary’s Sorrows in particular. The Servites developed the two most common devotions to Our Lady’s Sorrows, namely the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows and the Black Scapular of the Seven Dolours of Mary. The Black Scapular is a symbol of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Sorrows, which is associated with the Servite Order. Most devotional scapulars have requirements regarding ornamentation or design. The devotion of the Black Scapular requires only that it be made of black woollen cloth. Lady wept bitter tears at La Salette and Akita. In Akita she wept 101 times ending on 15 September. How she must be weeping today. And yet in Garabandal she promised that the Great Miracle would be for the conversion of the entire world. And yet the world will still be free to accept or reject this precious gift which Mary said was “the greatest miracle that Jesus has ever performed for the world.” In this regard the prayer of Padre Pio is especially apertain: “Let the most holy and most adorable will of God be done in me and all around me, at all times and in all things! This is what enables me to carry on. I know that He never acts except for most holy ends which are for our good.”
“So we are ambassadors for Christ” - 2 Cor 5:20 As Christians - we represent Christ and his “hone” is Heaven. Our “job” no matter where our earthly home, is to represent Jesus Christ as best we can. At the end I’m not American, Russian, whatever , I am a follower of Christ and my land is the heavenly Jerusalem. This is the target.
A little thought has come into my head about the motives for this conflict between the Ukraine and Russia. We are told that there are many neo-Nazis in the Ukraine with a pathological hatred of Russia. This might be due to bitterness over the Holodomor, because there appears to be little difference ethnically between Ukrainians and Western Russians. Those Ukrainian Nazis were infamous for their cruelty and brutality against the Jews, during the Holocaust, reportedly far moreso than the most extreme elements of the SS. Speaking of one genocide, is it not notable that not only Zelensky is Jewish, but so is his strongest US advocate, Victoria Nuland (or, at least, her father was). This war is increasingly amounting to a genocide of the Ukrainian people, with women being now proposed for conscription into what seems increasingly like little else than Zelensky's meat-grinder. To get to the point, are they conducting a revenge for the Holocaust, ironically with the enthusiastic support of those they might be expected to most dislike? This is not to discount other motives among the various parties.
