Vladimir the Terrible

 “Man…does not do evil against his will, under pressure, as though he were taken by the scruff of the neck and dragged into it, like a thief…being dragged off against his will to punishment;               but he does it spontaneously and voluntarily.”  Martin Luther

   Do you remember the 2001 Pixar hit, Monsters, Inc.? The film centers on two monsters James P. “Sulley” Sullivan and his one-eyed partner and best friend Mike Wazowski who are employed at the titular energy-producing factory Monsters, Inc., which generates power by scaring children. The more the monsters make children scream, the more energy they collect. 

  One evening after work, scarer Sulley, discovers that an active door has been left. He inspects the door and accidentally lets a small toddler girl into the factory. The monsters in Monsters, Inc. are anything but monsters. They’re not evil or dangerous or even scary. They’re just misunderstood.

  But there really are monsters. Obviously, not the type found in Monsters, Inc. Our sixth president, John Quincy Adams, said, “America…goes not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” Inherent in his statement is the assumption that there really are monsters in this world.

  Yet, that’s the problem with our leaders in Western Civilization – they don’t really believe that there are monsters. There is a widespread belief that terrorists, tyrants, and demagogues are just misunderstood and if we could just sit down and talk with them, we could reason with them and come to some sort of middle ground. They’re not evil, they’re just trying to get their message out. That’s how Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri described September 11^th as a “message with no words” which is “the only language understood by the West.” Terrorism then as some political scientists describe it is only a “communication strategy.”

  It was that kind of naïve reasoning that led to then British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain to claim “Peace for our time” in his September 30, 1938 remarks in London concerning the Munich Agreement with Adolph Hitler. The phrase is forever remembered for its bitter ironic value since less than a year after the agreement, Hitler invaded Poland and World War II began after France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany following Hitler's refusal to withdraw from Polish territory.

  The leader of the independent Orthodox Christian Church, Metropolitan Epiphanius I of Ukraine, was more in line with Scripture when he recently likened Vladimir Putin to the Antichrist, “The spirit of the Antichrist operates in the leader of Russia, the signs of which the Scriptures reveal to us: pride, devotion to evil, ruthlessness, false religiosity…This was Hitler during World War II. This is what Putin has become today.”

  One of the most highly regarded books of the 20^th century was Ernest Becker’s “The Denial of Death.” It’s regarded as a classic for its analysis of how human beings deny their mortality. But there is something people deny more than mortality: evil. Yet, we are seeing evil unfold before our eyes in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. In spite of the denial of those who also deny the truth of Scripture, the last century has seen more glaring evil than at any other time in human history. The descendants of Hitler, Stalin and Mao are Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Iran, to name a few. The forces of evil in the world are now so powerful and so many and so difficult to corral.

  Iran continues to move ahead with its nuclear ambitions, which are a threat to both the United States and to Israel. North Korea has launched at least one hypersonic missile with nuclear weapons in the hands of an unstable, tyrannical, arguably insane regime.

  Consider the deceit and accusations of bigotry against any who dared to suggest that Covid-19 came from a Wuhan Lab. In spite of Communist China’s denials, the evidence seems undeniable. Yet, many Americans, especially the elite in the political class and media, immediately recoil in horror at anyone referring to China as an enemy because much of American foreign policy had been predicated for the last several generations on the opportunity of developing an unprecedented partnership with China that would basically create a new form of world stability. The United States now finds itself facing an evil world rival on an even greater scale than the Soviet Union through the entirety of the Cold War.

  It’s apparent that Putin is driven to be Vladimir the Terrible in his attempt to regain lost Russian glory. To understand Putin, one has to understand Russian history and the fact that what you have in Putin is a medieval mind with modern nuclear weapons. Putin’s understanding of Russia goes back to a ruler like Ivan the Terrible of the 16^th century.

  Historically, Russia has been led by despots, by tyrants, and there’s no national embarrassment for them in that. In fact, there is a sense of national glory tied to that kind of tyrannical leader and behavior.

  U.S. president after president, administration after administration watched Putin rebuilding Russia’s nuclear arsenal, even as the U.S. was spending less and less on defense. We’ve seen Putin not only build Russia's military but use it. Georgia, Crimea, Eastern Ukraine. No one should be surprised by what’s happening, yet most seem shocked, not just surprised.

  Understanding and knowing the Bible matters. Your worldview matters. As Christians, we must understand that. The Bible teaches, even when it allowed for kings, limited government. While the Bible does not provide support for one form of government over another, Scripture teaches a limited role of government.

  Due to our fallen human nature, God chooses to use government as a tool to uphold order, justice, and the rule of law. Thus, believers are to respect and pray for their leaders while submitting themselves to the authority provided by the government. Scripture makes clear that God has placed limits and expectations on the government. In the Old Testament, for instance, Israelite kings were expected to obey God’s laws as written in the Pentateuch. In the New Testament Romans 13:1-7 and 1 Peter 2:13-14 teach the same with the focus primarily on justice,  law and order.

  Because of the evil of the human heart, the government is to be limited, controlled, and held accountable. That’s the foundational problem with Putin and other diabolical leaders, there is no accountability or control.

  But there is a God in heaven (Daniel 2:28). The same God who allows evil men to rise can and will take them down. While we do not know the future of Ukraine, we do know the future of this world. The King of Kings is coming back and one day there truly will be “peace on earth.” As the Apostle John said, “Even so come Lord Jesus” (Revelation 2:20, KJV). 

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