A Stalking-Horse

It seems the churches in the center of Moscow have received warnings that they are targeted for terrorism. Have the Islamists decided on new targets? If churches are attacked will the media interpret the actions of militant Islam as the religious war it has always been?

The Rev. Aleksandr Borisov, a Russian Orthodox priest, told his worshipers at the Church of SS. Cosmas and Damian in the heart of the Russian capital on Sunday morning September 5th, “We received a warning yesterday that terrorist acts are planned in churches in the center of Moscow.”

This is not a man who is afraid to face difficult times or someone who scares easily. In the attempted coup following Boris Yeltsin’s ascendancy, he and other members of the one-year-old Bible Society of the Soviet Union went among the tanks and secret police surrounding the Russian Parliment, carrying bundles of New Testaments. When the soldiers wouldn’t listen they threw the bibles through the open hatches. During the seige, which ultimately failed, they gave out over 2,000 New Testaments to the soldiers and secret police who were supporting the coup.

However, on this Sunday following the horrible acts of slaughter in Beslan, he told his congregation during his sermon

“We ride on the subway and think it is for the last time.”

“We gather in a church and think it is our last liturgy.”

“World War III has begun.”

Has World War III really begun? Will we never again be safe, not even in the midst of simple Sunday worship? None of this has yet happened, but when contemplating how far all of this Islamic terrorism will go, I am reminded of the passage in 1 Thessalonians 2:6-7

And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.

It is the Holy Spirit that restrains the power of evil from reaching its fullest expression, from allowing the Evil One to and those who serve him to have free reign in their execution of evil. I pray that He will continue to do so in this dangerous time and the reactions of men like Father Borisov are just the understandable hyperbole following such a heart wrenching event.

Hat Tip: GetReligion