However and whenever the Russian war on Ukraine ends — and, surveying Russia’s failures so far, it may end differently than analysts believed — there will still be the man Vladimir Putin, who has careened from a leader admired even by certain segments of free Christian nations to a name constantly attached to the word “evil” and even “anti-christ.”
Item (from Fox News): “A Ukrainian archbishop and spokesman for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin as the ‘anti-Christ of our current time’ as Russia invades Ukraine. While Putin appears to be portraying himself as a kind of messianic figure, seeking to reunite the Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches (which formally split in 2019), Yevstratiy Zoria put him on the other side of the Christian spectrum. ‘Putin is really not messiah, but really anti-Christ of our current time,’ Yevstratiy Zoria, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, told Harry Farley, religion and ethics producer for the BBC.”
Adds Associated Press: “Even though Russian President Vladimir Putin justified his invasion of Ukraine in part as a defense of the Moscow-oriented Orthodox church, leaders of both Ukrainian Orthodox factions are fiercely denouncing the Russian invasion, as is Ukraine’s significant Catholic minority. ‘With prayer on our lips, with love for God, for Ukraine, for our neighbors, we fight against evil – and we will see victory,’ vowed Metropolitan Epifany, head of the Kyiv-based Orthodox Church of Ukraine.”
This is of interest to us — use of the word “anti-christ” — due to the so-called “1990 prophecy,” an anonymous locution that mentioned precisely this part of the world as far as an anti-christ.
“As for the anti-christ, remember Europe, and especially Central Europe,” it said.
But it described a figure coming after great chastisements, and one who would not be a visible leader.
“Soon the world will not be the world you know,” it said. “I am not speaking of a barren world, or one depopulated, but of the end of your technological era. Many inventions of mankind will be broken down and there will be more of a peasant attitude and way of life everywhere. After this breakdown of false society will come persecution of Christians and also a new world order. The anti-christ will be on earth trying to affect the new world order. Hardly anyone will notice the extent of his influence until afterwards. He will not be of tremendous visibility until he is accomplished. That is to say, he will not rule, control, and be at all obvious to the world at the peak of his influence. He will not be unlike a figure such as Marx, except his ideas will be more immediate.”
The Associated Press says surveys estimate “a large majority of Ukraine’s population is Orthodox, with a significant minority of Ukrainian Catholics who worship with a Byzantine liturgy similar to that of the Orthodox but are loyal to the pope. The population includes smaller percentages of Protestants, Jews, and Muslims.
“Ukraine and Russia are divided by a common history, both religiously and politically.
“They trace their ancestry to the medieval kingdom of Kievan Rus, whose 10th century Prince Vladimir (Volodymyr in Ukrainian) rejected paganism, was baptized in Crimea and adopted Orthodoxy as the official religion.”
As for the name “Vladimir,” it means “of great power” (folk etymology: “ruler of the world”, “ruler of peace”); “famous power;” “bright and famous.”
It has a good side and a dark one. (In Scripture, Satan is described by Christ as “ruler of this world” John 12:31).
There have good Vladimirs and bad ones. Of the latter, “Vlad the Impaler” comes to mind. His father was Vlad the Dragon (or “Dracul”) and Vlad III’s nickname was Dracula.
[resources: 1990 prophecy is focus of Tower of Light]
