Do Christian organizations exaggerate?

The last months, I have been closely following Russian media. I am often surprised by how lies gain space and how historical facts are distorted. At such times, the words of the Bible come to my mind: ’The truth will set you free.”

Through lies, nations can be misled. Concealing the truth often casts a shadow over the conveyed message, making it easier for tyrants to lead nations to war and destruction.

Russian school books for example still contain claims, how Finland started the war against Soviet Union 1939. (Is it realistic to assume, that a small country like Finland with 4 million inhabitants will start a war agaisnt a nation witha a population of more than 250 million people?) The official Russian version is however proclaiming, that Finnish soldiers in the village of Mainila started the war with shots, even though it has been testified by many sources, that Russian soldiers were firing their own army.

Did NATO and USA start the war in Ukraine?

Already 2022 information was spread out from Moscow, that Russia attacked Ukraine to prevent a planned genocide by NATO in Eastern Ukraine. Prior to the war about 8 million Russians lived in Ukraine, so it might have been quite a big challenge to fullfil such a plan. So the question appears, whether that really was the ultimate truth. All Western experts agree on the fact, that there were completely other reasons behind the start of Russia’s ”special military operation.”

There has also been religious arguments for the motive of starting the conflict with Ukraine. Russias historians claim, that the roots of the Russian Orthodox Church lead to Russian Kyiv and Kherson, where Prince Vladimir organized the first baptisms of believers in 987-988 after his conversion to christianity.

Russia sees the core of its national and religious identity as found precisely in ”Russian” Kyiv and Kherson, even though the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages and national states had not yet differentiated into their own languages and political structures at that time. Thus, this new truth crystallizes into a new lie that ’Kyiv has always been a part of the ethnic Russia’, even though Ukrainians easily can use the same arguments and link it with just their own Ukrainian history.

Are the Christian organizations lieing too?

Some mission organizations often celebrate years of successful work in their ministry among unreached people groups and persecuted Christians in East. Sometimes it happens just to confirm the ”holiness” of their activities and to get respect from the intercessors. What historical facts shape the identity of Christian missions working in the East?

A halo still hovers over the reputation of some mission organisations, which is connected with how millions of Bibles were smuggled by them into neighboring countries, or how they were able to reach the deepest corners of Eurasia by using media, helping the persecuted …

Prayers and spiritual crusades of the 1970s and 1980s are believed to have changed the whole Europe after glansost and perestrojka. But were the prayers really a decisive factor in the spiritual breakthrough? Did it really play the decisive role in opening up the Soviet Union for the gospel’, or is it just an exaggeration?

Excuse my question: Is this true, or have we just been molding our history to suit ourselves? This is something I have been pondering. I have travelled across the borders of East to check the details to evaluate the results – many times and sometimes even to often … in fact more than two hundred times.

Not long time ago I was even able to visit the front line at the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The most fascinating possibility was to participate at a tent meeting at the front and listen how the Gospel from the chaplan and testimonies from young Christians touched hearts of the soldiers, who were fighting for their homeland and for their lives. I will never forget how a samovar was puffing in the furthest corner of the tent – it looked exactly the same as the kettle, which I bought 50 years ago from a Berjozka in Vyborg to my mother. In another corner – goodness gracious – Bibles from a famous missions organisation in Finland!

After the meeting, a soldier showed us the underground tunnels, where they sleep and hide themselves. On a muddy ledge I saw a transistor radio, which was used for listening to the Christian programs from Radio M, supported by another Nordic mission – it was just at the front line, where the songs of bullets just played on …

Upon, returning home, I found in my archives a research by various mission organizations on the smuggling of Bibles into the countries behind the Iron Curtain during 1945-1990. In it, every confiscated and delivered Bible, New Testament and Gospel was counted and summarized: A total of 4.5 million. A large portion of these books were printed in Sweden. Then they were taken over the borders to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus via Finland, Poland, Romania and Baltic States. It was a historical document, which was made by couriers, who had risked their freedom only because they wanted to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ! It was not an exaggeraton. It was not a farytail. The books had reached their destination – 4,5 million testimonies, written on paper between covers of skinn, plastic or cardboard.

It is not a lie – it is true!

Some of the mission organizations even wrote in their magazines about suffering believers. Prayers were sent to heaven for them. From Christians in Russia I often got to see … I heard testimonies, stories. I heard how the prayers had helped and encouraged. It was like an extended arm, which gave hope. At least the witnesses, the victims, the widows of men who were sent to Siberia, confirmed it to me. I have met them, I have heard how they talked about Angels visiting them in loneliness, about heavenly dreams, miracles … I have seen the holy heroes of our time with my own eyes. The history is true – it is not a lie!

At least a handfull of pastors, who I have met in East, have tried to convince me, that the prayer crusade in Nordic coutries during 1973-1989 for different regions of Soviet Union opened up Russia for the Gospel. 700 churches in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland participated. The seeds were sown through sufferings and testimonies about God´s miracles. Now the seeds are sprouting. It gives us hope for the future and reminds us about the promised signs, which will happen before Christ comes back.

Some people in Russia and West is trying to conceal even this part of the history by using lies and exaggerate the work of the evil one. Therefore it is so important that we deliver the message as it was happened and done, because ”the truth will set us free” (Joh. 8:31-32).

Rauli Lehtonen