Last week in this column I referenced the US Vice-President, J D Vance’s speculation, that the Anti-Christ, foretold in the Bible’s final book Revelations, may already be walking the Earth amongst us. I suggested that get his Boss, President Trump to look in the mirror.
There are, of course, several other candidates.
There has been much speculation that President Putin will use his thumping victory in the Russian elections, in which his party triumphed in the Duma, will prompt another mobilisation of conscripts in the war against Ukraine and an intensification of sabotage, cyber-attacks, and misinformation campaigns against NATO member states which have assisted Ukraine.
It is estimated that Russia has already suffered 1.5 million battlefield casualties in Ukraine, some 500,000 of which have been fatalities. Fortunately for them, Patriarch Kirill of Mosco, head of the Russian Orthodox Church has decreed that anyone killed in battle fighting Ukraine will go straight to Heaven, avoiding any further due diligence checks by St Peter at the Pearly Gates.
The enthusiasm for warfare by the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate is very worrying. Kirill has stated that the attack on Ukraine is a Holy War against evil; That Putin’s rule is a miracle from God; His priests have been reprimanded for praying for peace; Earlier this year Kirill went to the closed nuclear city of Sarov to bless nuclear warheads as a sign of God’s Grace and Mercy. He has also pronounced similar sentiments at the Monastery of Saint Seraphim, close by. The Seraphim are traditionally angels closely associated with ‘Holy Fire’ to purge the Earth.
Gadzooks!
So, Putin is seeking to escalate conflict with NATO, whilst his chief spiritual advisor, Patriarch Kirill, seem unconcerned that God’s plan might involve the World ending in nuclear conflict.
To what extent does Putin share the Patriarch’s view of contemporary history?
Is his embrace of Orthodoxy a cynical strategy to recruit the Church as the moral component of his war against Ukraine (as Napoleon observed, the moral component of warfare is to the physical component “as three is to one”)
Surely, Putin, the hardened KGB officer, servant of a Communist state that was deeply hostile to religion wouldn’t be genuine this embrace.
Well, some think otherwise. Putin was secretly baptised as a child and continues to wear an icon that his mother gave him. Perhaps he does believe, in his distorted view of Christianity, that his is a war against the evil influence of western decadence.
Religious fervour combined with overwhelming military capability is a terrifying prospect.
Sir Desmond Swayne TD
