SUICIDAL ATTACK OF SAMSON

 

Nine months ago an era of peace during which the countries of Europe thought they were safe came to an end. Numerous units of the Russian army invaded Ukraine to secure the influence zone of that empire – to prevent this neighboring country from joining the European Union and NATO, lest the forces of a hostile alliance get too close to her borders. From that time a fierce war is going on, cities of Ukraine are turning into piles of ruins, civilians are dying in result of a hail of rockets, millions of people are fleeing from that invaded country to adjacent regions, and these who remain are forced to escape, over and again, to underground shelters and subway stations. The Ukrainian army is still doing well, being supported by the international community, which provides to it everything which it needs to continue this horrible war. Great determination and successes of these heroic defenders are weakening the morale of the assailants but also they are driving fury Russian leaders, who still throws new forces, a truly “cannon fodder,” into the fight. In this situation Ukraine is still being hit with the more and more perfect missiles, whereas this terrible invader holds entire world in check with a threat of using of the most dangerous deterrent measures – of nuclear forces which are on standby at his disposal.

Russia is being weakened with increasingly severe sanctions from the Western world, which are ruining her economy, paralyzing the functioning of the state and forcing the ordinary people to enduring great sacrifices. President Putin and a group of his closest advisers begin to blame the entire hostile West for the current, extremely difficult situation; and one of the most radical propagandists uttered the extremely ominous phrase: "Do we need a world in which there would be no Russia"?

The media, terrified by the events in Ukraine, describe the situation in there as the beginning of the third world war and the position of the world as a balancing on a precipice. People are seeing more and more clearly that the current conflict is incomparably more dangerous than local conflicts in the Balkans and Georgia or distant Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. There, it was somehow managed to stave off the danger, to calm the feuding parties, punish the guilty or even at the cost of suffering of many people and with violation of justice prevent their further escalation. They also did not directly threaten the destruction of our entire civilisation.

Now two forces armed to the teeth faced each other, two worlds, the West and the East, that hate each other, blame each other and they have been in a confrontational attitude for almost eight decades. And yet ordinary kind-hearted people thinked that with a little good will, these hostile powers could ultimately bring to societies of the world the peace and prosperity. Today, alas, the people saw that situation is just the opposite, that it may turn out that one move of a desperate man who sees his empire tottering on the brink of destruction may lead to the conflict spilling over the whole globe, and in result, in the worst-case scenario to lead to the destruction of this world.

 

How do the Bible Students see the situation today?
The Gospel of the Tribulation

 

"The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the year of Jehovah`s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God..." (Isaiah 61:1,2).

These beautiful words from the prophecy of Isaiah were quoted by the Lord Jesus in his native Nazareth, in the local synagogue, on the Sabbath, when he was allowed to read verses from the Word of God. Moments later, He concluded: "To-day hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4:21).

In this way our Lord announced the beginning of His mission as the Divine Anointed – the Messiah who came from the Heaven to break the reign of sin and death. The Hebrew word for Good News that Isaiah speaks of in his prophesy is rendered in Greek as euaggelion. For all of God's children, for the last 2,000 years, it word euaggelion has always meant the Good News of God's coming Kingdom. That Kingdom was to bring to mankind battered by sin a universal resurrection and the restoration of the human perfection lost in Eden.

The proclamation of the Gospel of Christ includes not only the teaching about the blessings of the future Kingdom on earth, the glorification and immortality of the Church of Christ, but also the teaching about the sufferings and death of our Lord. Although the Lord died a shameful death on the cross, and we are always deeply affected when we remember His mortal agony, we always consider the significance of this event as an Evangelical message, that is, a joyful one.

We, sinful people, condemned to death, without any hope of reversing a hopeless fate, rejoice that the Lord God sacrificed his only-begotten Son and gave us hope for salvation, by the fact that his Son, "a man, Christ Jesus, gave himself a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:6). We rejoice that our Lord, in spite of unimaginable torments, did not back off in the face of the shame of the cross, but suffered death, and thus sealed the Divine plan to introduce "times of restoration of all things" (Acts 3:21).

But at that time, at the beginning of his preaching, our Lord did not speak of the sad experiences that He would encounter on his way as something joyful. He spoke about the joys of the future Kingdom and substantiated the necessity of establishing of it, and sought people willing to cooperate with Him in that future work. By miracles, which He did, He authenticated his teachings and thereby He laid the foundation for the faith of his future followers.

He However, our Lord, quoting Isaiah's prophecy, deliberately omitted a very important element of it – the Day of Vengeance of our God. Why did He do it? He did so, because He knew perfectly well that this part of Isaiah's prophecy would only be fulfilled in the last days, during his second advent. But, therefore, should the proclamation of the Day of Vengeance be included in the Gospel of Jesus Christ? We firmly believe that it should. For we believe that that Day will overthrow Satan's kingdom and lead his slaves "into the liberty of the glory of the children of God" (Roman 8:21).

The Bible Students Movement, headed by Pastor Russell, from the very beginning of its coming to being, preached the biblical teaching that the Kingdom of God on earth must be preceded by the Great Tribulation. It also consciously included this conviction into the evangelical preaching despite popular opposition and criticism of many clergy of the Christian world. Is it possible to reconcile war, revolution, terror and anarchy with intentions of merciful God who "so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life"? (John 3:16). Could it be that Jesus Christ, who at his first coming spoke so much about the blessing for peacemakers and whom the prophet Isaiah called the Prince of Peace (9:5), would He allow these horrors at his second coming?

Brother Russell, in his Studies in the Scriptures answers these questions in a way not only logical but first of all precisely based on the verses of God's Word. In his argument, he proved that the present order of things is the empire of the Most High God's adversary – Satan. It is his own devilish empire, which he began to build on earth right after he deceived our first parents in Paradise. The Lord God, as part of His controlled permitting for sin, allowed this kingdom of "the god of this world" built on sin, lies and injustice to arise (2 Corinthian 4:4).

This his kingdom Satan reinforced over millennia with wars and conquests. In the highest positions of it he has ordained even the most wicked people, as long as they obeyed his will. As a result of this state of affairs, the world has been divided into a small class of people holding power, often cruel tyrants and the wealthy men, and a huge masses of people poor and oppressed.

This first class included also clergy of false religions who permanently was justifying prevailing injustice with the will of heaven. By this attitude, the life of priests of nominal Christianity, contrary to life of Jesus of Nazareth, who "had not where to lay his head", was prosperous and comfortable, rich and lavish, idle and dissolute.

The best example such symbiosis between clergy and secular rulers seems to be the Christian countries of Europe and America, which their wealth and leadership role in the world owe the colonization of the Third World – the work of slaves and the plundering of its natural resources. The big churches have always supported these inhuman practices, justifying it even when the great feudal lords and later the capitalists imposed various forms of oppression on workers and peasants in their own countries.

The most infamous role in these wicked practices was played by the Roman Catholic Church, one of the greatest feudal lords and capitalists of the Christian world. With its false teachings, this church maintained for centuries the alliance of the Altar and the Throne and through secular authorities in a masterful way was nipping all signs of rebellion or dissatisfaction of the oppressed societies in the bud. Even when the supremacy of the papacy has been crushed (1799), this apostate system forbade the reading of the Bible and cursed the Bible Societies that printed and distributed it throughout the world, because it knew that the illuminating influence of God's Word would expose his sins and errors, and thus might lead it to its final fall.

From the moment the early Bible Students understood that our Lord had returned in 1874, they began to preach the "Good News of Tribulation" systematically and extensively. Referring to the prophecies of the Holy Scriptures they announced the fall of the old, so far stable world, controlled by Satan and by all obey him rulers, political, financial and religious. On ruins of that devilish order of thing, Jesus Christ was to set up his eternal and worldwide Kingdom. The Great Tribulation crushing Satan's empire is the only effective way to carry out God's purposes.

Satan, the greatest despot and usurper, will never give up his kingdom willingly. Meanwhile humanity is unable on its own to liberate itself from the misery of sin and injustice. The history of mankind shows that for millennia it has been sinking into degradation and the Christian world, the alleged heir to the Jesus’ teachings, instead of being the example of the piety, has brought about the greatest crimes and moral corruption.

Man's egoism and lawlessness has led him so far away from God and his principles of justice and love that the all efforts of noble people to bring in an evolutionary way to the victory of good over evil proved to be completely unrealistic. In such situation only the Great Tribulation is able not only to overthrow the unjust order of the old world, but also will also to humiliate human pride. Only the tribulation will show man how deplorable it was to build happiness on your own, without God's participation and respecting of His law.

The memory of all experiences related to allowing sin will become the invaluable store of knowledge helping to people to change their thinking, to be able clearly distinguish good from evil. It will also help to them to appreciate the blessings of the Christ's Kingdom and it ultimately bind them forever to them Creator with bonds of love and devotion.

Brother Russell, foretelling impending "the day of vengeance of our God" (Isaiah 61:2) and the way of destruction of the old world, rejected the theories of many Christian teachers about literal fire destroying our planet and its literal heavens and earth. He rejected also the so common teaching that our Lord, returning in the clouds and riding a white horse, will make a terrible selection on the human race: He allegedly will take to heaven those few who will be reconciled to Him by then, whereas the rest, including the ignorant pagans, He will punish with eternal torment in hell; or, as the more humane of them say, He will destroy forever these countless masses with the fire of second death. The earth allegedly will remain empty and scorched for the next 1000 years. What a terrible theory defaming the character of God who is Love (1 John 4:8).

Drawing on the prophecies and pictures of Scripture, author of IV volume of Studies in the Scriptures, published in 1897, that is seventeen years before 1914, described the war of Armageddon of the "great day of God, the Almighty," (Revelation 16:14,16) as a clash of two armies.

On one side will stand the defenders of the old order – the political and financial rulers of the present world, the richest people with their corporations and power institutions, concentrating most of the current wealth in their hands. They will be supported in the war by religious leaders who have always been on their side and sanctified existing order of world with fabricated declarations of the Bible as if this order came from God.

 

 

 

On the other side will be the working world – people exploited and deceived, who for centuries have been forced by false religions to obey those whom God allegedly anointed to be kings, princes, popes or great industrialists and landowners, as it is also to-day. Pastor Russell called them the army of the Lord because the Bible verses indicate that God will use them to overthrow the old world order. Such situation is staying permanently to present time.

Below, as the example, we give two biblical evidence of the Lord’s army was to come to being and to act in his Day as the destroyer of devilish world.

1. "Set ye up an ensign upon the bare mountain, lift up the voice unto them, wave the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. I have commanded my consecrated ones, yes, I have called my mighty men for mine anger, even my proudly exulting ones. The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people! the noise of a tumult of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Jehovah of hosts is mustering the host for the battle. They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Jehovah, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land." (Isaiah 13:2-5).

2. "Come now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned, ye have killed the righteous [one]; he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord..." (James 5:1-7).

Brother Russell expected that the "wind" of war that blew up in 1914 would turn into the phase of "earthquake", that is a social revolution, and in aftermath of it the old world would symbolically burn out in the "fire" of anarchy. Up to 1918 at most. That's how he understood the meaning of the Elijah’s vision on Mount Horeb. The pastor's explanation contains the knowledge which God intended for the "Elijah class" or Church of Christ to inform it, ahead of time, what kind of destructive factors He intends to use to cause a complete overthrow of the power of "the Gentiles" when the their "Times" would expired and to pass. (1 Kings 19:9-12; Luke 21:24)

 

 

 

Brother Russell died in 1916 and was not allowed to see further development of the God's Plan. Meanwhile, to the surprise of the entire world and even the Bible Students themselves, the Great October Revolution ended in victory in 1917, and in 1922 the world's first worker-peasant state, the Soviet Union, was established. In such way came to power Bolsheviks party which began to carry revolutionary ideas around the world and in result of their destructive activity they "took peace from the earth" for the next several decades (Revelation 6:4).

Although the founder of the Bible Students movement did not live to see these events, he nevertheless, thanks the grace of the Lord, he left for his confreres a particularly important sign to observe: How to recognize in the avalanche of current events the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Holy Scriptures in order to be absolutely sure that the old world has entered the path of its final downfall?

 

Prophecy of 1897:

"Rulers, capitalists and clergymen, with few exceptions, will seize upon the first extremes of Socialism to assault it and brand it with infamy, and temporarily throttle it, encouraging themselves with specious arguments which self-interest and fear will suggest (...) the movement [that is socialism] will be crushed under the combined power of Church, State and Capital and later lead to the great explosion of anarchy, in which, as indicated in the Scriptures, all present institutions will be wrecked – 'a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation.'" (Studies in the Scriptures, volume IV, The Battle of Armageddon p. 486)

We greatly appreciate the accute mind of Brother Russell, and whom God used as his instrument and who even before the communist movement developed into a well-organized power able to face the whole capitalist world, not only foresaw the increasing popularity of this movement and its subsequent fall, but first of all he foresaw devastating impact the Bolsheviks on the structures of the old world.

 

Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, and in the face of intensifying war in the East we can paraphrase Brother Russell's words as follows: If God's people, eagerly waiting for the Kingdom of God, see the fall of communism, let them read it event as a obvious sign of the times and information that the old world has entered the path of its inevitable fall; that henceforth all further political processes initiated by post-communist forces will be pushing that world towards of worldwide anarchy. Only on ruins of that world Jesus Christ will establish his everlasting Kingdom of justice and peace.

 

On what was above prophetic phrase based?

 

The Old Testament tells the story of Samson, an Israeli hero who single-handedly defied the power of the Philistine occupiers to free his people from the yoke of slaves. The unequal struggle of a lone warrior with enemies armed to the teeth would not be possible if it were not for the supernatural strength that God himself gave him. The Book of Judges records all his struggles with which he made life difficult for the Philistines, often by deception and provocation. One of the skirmishes between the Philistines and Samson aroused their special respect and fear when he, armed with a primitive weapon – only the jaw of an ass – killed among them a thousand chosen soldiers. Samson constantly sought to face the Philistines, and he was always victorious because the secret of supernatural strength lay in his long hair, which God forbade him to cut.

Samson's defeat had its "small beginning" when he began an affair with Delilah, the beautiful Philistine woman. It was she who first extracted from Samson his secret and then she organized an attempt to overpower this mighty man. When Samson fell asleep on her knee, the Philistines cut off his long hair – the source of his strength – and next blinded him, shackled and forced him to slave labor in the mill. Henceforth, they not spared to him contempt and ridicule. During the feasts he was brought to please the eyes of the victors with the sight of the hated and being defeated enemy.

The Philistines did not think of two things, namely, that when Samson's hair grew back, his extraordinary strength could return, and moreover, they had not foreseen that this defeated mighty man would be think of one thing only – to avenge all the humiliation he had suffered. As soon as the first opportunity arose, the blinded and shackled strongman, in a surge of terrible force, broke the pillars of the building in which the entire Philistine elite was playing. They died under a rubble of palace, and as the Bible says were more in there dead people than those whom Samson killed during his twenty years of judging in Israel. For him, this attack was suicide, whereas the same attack brought the longed-for freedom for his people.

 

Conclusions from the above story

 

1. The Apostle Paul teaches us that all the trials and experiences through which the Lord God led the Israel according to the flesh "were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come." Therefore, spiritual Israel must consider the significant story of Samson, not only as a lesson, but also as a prophetic picture of the events of the end of the present evil age, the end of Satan's rule, the terrible tyrant who has kept all mankind in a slave yoke for more than six thousand years.

2. Samson, one of judges of Israel, was endowed by God with supernatural power to be able to deliver his people from the yoke of slavery. It is an illustration of the era of liberation, the time of Christ's second presence, during which God brought into existence factors capable of crushing all systems Satan’s power rests upon. The modern strongman is the communist movement led by the Bolshevik Party (symbolic locusts and its king Abaddon; Revelation 8). The Philistines represent all systems and rulers supporting the despotic rule over the world. Oppressed Israel represents "whole creation who groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” and which "shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God." (Romans 8:21,22).

 

 

 

The prophecies of the Old Testament called this future liberation movement the Lord's army. When prophet Joel (2:11) describes destructive work of that army he emphases that it is the Lord himself who "utters his voice before his army; for his camp is very great; for he is strong that executed his word; for the day of Jehovah is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?"

3. When 6,000 years had passed since sin entered into the world (see biblical chronology in volume II of Study of the Scriptures) then had began the second invisible presence of Jesus Christ – en era of liberation. It is therefore no coincidence that with beginning of this presence has been called into existence, in Russia, a revolutionary communist movement.

In 1875, in Odessa, the Southern Russian Workers' Union was founded, the nucleus of the future Bolshevik party, which in 1917 led to the victory of the Great October Revolution. The ultimate goal of the Bolsheviks was defined in the text of the International, which they adopted as their anthem. Here is excerpt:

 

 

 

 

This ultimate goal seemed to be brought closer by the outbreak of World War II. As a result of the war, a third of the world's population came under communism (Reveletion 9:15-19) and its expansion went on... by the time...

4. There is a rule in the army that the commander is not responsible for the morale of his soldiers. A good soldier is characterized by bravery on the battlefield and absolute obedience in carrying out the orders. God used various armies as the tool and their chiefs to flogging His chosen people, Israel. One such tool was the founder of the Chaldean empire, Nebuchadnezzar. The prophet Daniel compares that empire to a terrible beast. The Israelis certainly suffered greatly from the bestiality of the Babylonian invaders. The flogging that awaited Jews was foretold by the prophet Jeremiah (25:9): "I will send unto Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my SERVANT, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations."

A similar tool of God turned out to be Roman Empire, the fourth beast from Daniel's prophecy. Roman soldiers, known for their iron discipline, knew no mercy and shed blood like water. They suppressed both Jewish uprisings, burned the temple of the God in Jerusalem, killed over 1.5 million Jews and scattered the rest of the inhabitants of the Holy Land throughout the world.

The pagan "servant of the Lord," the ruler of ancient Chaldea, was "accomplishing of the desolation of Jerusalem" (Daniel 9:2) – the nominal house of natural Israel for 70 years (606 to 536 B.C.). As soon as the Times of the Gentiles (1914) expired, today's Chaldeans began to harass nominal spiritual Israel, or apostate Christianity. It turned out that the servants of the Lord in the execution of his judgments were the atheistic propagators of communism, the Bolsheviks. These are the Chaldeans of our time, those who unscrupulously began to destroy Christianity and did so as ruthlessly as their ancient prototype did also for 70 years. The Bolsheviks set themselves the lofty goal of completely destroying the existing world order, which they considered to be very unjust and oppressive towards poor people. Its place was to be supplant by a new world, with a society brought up under the dictation of the proletariat in the spirit of socialism. It was a vision of a happy world, with a just distribution of wealth, universal prosperity and fraternity.

 

The Bolsheviks challenged the whole world, although their forces were negligible compared to the military power of those they intended to defeat. They fought alone like God's mighty man, Samson. So like him in this ruthless struggle they were forced to use all the methods leading to the goal: disinformation, deception and surprise. During exporting the social revolution into the world communists all the time incited wars, supported guerrilla warfare, falsified elections, commit numerous barbarities, justifying its tactics by having to defend the oppressed and liberate them from the power of their capitalist oppressors. The fact that for so long their struggle, like Samson's, was a series of victories testifies to God's support for this movement.

5. The omen of Samson's defeat was his affair with a Philistine woman, Delilah. Dangerous protests of Polish society, resulting from economic difficulties, forced the socialist authorities to take conciliatory steps towards the Catholic Church and pretend friendship. The capitalist world immediately took advantage of this situation. A conspiracy illustrated in the story of Samson was created. The joint behind-the-scenes activities of the Roman Catholic Church (Dalilah), Western governments, and international capital (the Philistines) led to the lulling of "Samson's" vigilance, to depriving him of the support of the working masses (cutting his hair), and finally to defeating him.

 

 

 

In such way, at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, communism in Poland has been overthrow and in aftermath of the event it collapsed also in Soviet Union and other countries of the socialist bloc. In the following years communistic system and its ideas were finally discredited in the eyes of the world and became the object of ridicule.

Thus, the Soviet Union, the mainstay of communism, being disintegrated irretrievably it remained in the defeated field as post-communist Russia, as a strongman aware of his defeat and impotence, full of bitterness and desire for revenge. Its leaders did attempts to regain the role of a world superpower, but quickly found these efforts to be unrealistic. So they embarked on a policy of increasing radicalization, swearing revenge on the West for all the defeats suffered.

6. For the next several decades, the capitalist West "celebrated" the overthrow of communism. Just as Samson, blinded and shackled, became a laughing stock for the Philistines, similarly today both communist ideology and its propagators are mocked by enemies as factors absolutely useless in the functioning of the modern world. The defeat of communism as a defender of the world of labor has brought great benefit to capitalist employers. They could henceforth exploit their workers with impunity.

However, the greatest beneficiary of the victory over communism became the Roman Catholic Church in Poland. The government in this country has been formed by people obedient to the Vatican and together with the clergy began to transform Poland into a religious state. The result of this state of affairs was the enfranchisement of the Church with material goods in a way that exceeded all limits of decency.

 

 

 

7. The process of gradual mobilization of the Russian forces for retaliation was shown in the prophetic history as the regrowth of Samson's hair: "Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven." How this process could have been noticed?

– The initial symptom of the strength returning to "Samson" was an attempt to assassinate the pope (attributed to the East), and then forcing silence those who would like to know who is behind it.

– It is no coincidence that pedophile and corruption scandals in the Roman Catholic Church began to come to light in the early 1980s. As soon as the ten leaders of the socialist bloc ("Samson") discovered the betrayal of the great harlot ("Delilah"), they hated the Catholic Church, parted ways with her, began to strip and eat it symbolically, and finally burn her with the fire of anarchy (Revelation 17:16). Their action emboldened all reasonable and honest people in the world who, although they perfectly saw the hypocrisy of this Church and its criminal past, did not have the courage to speak about it universally. The courageous unmasking action initiated by the defeated communism caused a snowball effect. The widespread bringing to light of the filth of the Catholic Church swept under the carpet has begun; first in the USA (newspaper "Boston Globe", movie "Spotlight"), and then in Australia and European countries.

– The resurgent power of post-communist Russia is also manifested in information technology. Russian computer scientists are increasingly adept at fighting the West in cyberspace. As hackers, they ravage and spoil whatever they can and wherever they can they can. They spread fear and disinformation in societies, paralyze various sectors of the economy and social life.

– A demonstration of post-communist Russia's power against to the Western world was for example the driving the U.S. out of the Middle East and keeping in power in Syria its cruel leader. As a result of merciless bombing of the Russian air force, half a million people died there and almost half of the country's population (about 13 million) lost their homes and means of subsistence. These unfortunate people have become refugees, and their increasing waves are storming the borders of Europe, where they are creating more and more problems. Russia has apparently recognized such barbarism as an effective weapon in the fight against the West and is using it on a large scale both in African and Asian countries, as well as today, in Ukraine.

– An alarming sign of Russia's growing power was the bloody crushing of Chechnya's separatist aspirations, the invasion of Georgia and the taking of Crimea from Ukraine. All these actions shook the Western world so much that he did not dare to react. It apparently decided he had too much to lose. Russia, emboldened by this lack of reaction, attacked Ukraine. This country is relatively large territorially and populously, but Russia was sure of the invincibility of its army (alleged the second army of the world), with its numerous divisions of land forces, navy, modern aviation, and finally an arsenal of terrible nuclear weapons, so it assumed that it would easily defeat its southern neighbor, while the countries of the West this time would also remain indifferent. This conviction was reinforced by the awareness of Europe's great dependence on its gas and oil resources and the possibility of blocking grain exports through the Black Sea to many countries of the world.

 

The reasons for Russia's failures in Ukraine

 

This time the Russians were absolutely wrong in their calculations. Valiant Ukrainians, supported by mass supplies of modern weapons from the West, inflicted such heavy losses on their attackers that both the Russians themselves and observers of the whole world are coming to the conclusion that the alleged power of Russia is a mere myth. However, those who recognize Samson's story as a biblical picture look at the fact of defeats suffering by the Russians in Ukraine differently than the secular people.

From this situation, the following conclusion follows: God did allow a certain revival of the power of defeated socialism, but not so that it would to dream imperial fantasies, to attack weaker nations and brutally rape, to rob and murder their inhabitants, but in order to complete the work of liberation and to destroy the extremely unjust and oppressive world in which we live. Therefore, Divine Providence so directs the course of world events that the leaders of the post-communist regime have a similar awareness of their situation as that of the blinded and shackled Samson.

 

Desperate Samson vs. the Philistine victors

 

The Samson who buried the Philistine elite under the rubble of their temple was a different man from the one who had started the successful struggle for the freedom of his people twenty years earlier. Though his physical strength had returned, he was only a blind man in shackles, a victim of a deceitful woman and of his own credulity. He was aware that he will never achieve anything in life and will remain for his vanquishers the target of ridicule and humiliation for the rest of his life. All that remained for him was the desire for revenge at the first opportunity.

During the second presence of Christ, the communist movement played a huge role in His work of initial liberating humanity from the shackles of ignorance, backwardness and the humiliating dependence of the lower social classes on the ruling elites. In its victorious march, he resembled the biblical Samson, the heroic liberator. As soon as the communists began to doubt the feasibility of their ideological plans, they lost their vigilance and were easily deceived and defeated by the leaders of the capitalist world. This defeat has become irreversible, as today's socialist heirs seem to be convinced. They rush aimlessly like a blind man, who knows no way.

The misguided attempt to regain their former significance as the superpower in a bloody and bestial way not only alienated the nations of the world from them, but also convinced Russia of its own impotence. It is about conventional weapons, because it would be a real madness to exchange nuclear strikes with each other, destroying life on our globe. Experts who watched the Russian soldiers and their conventional weapons in their fight with Ukrainians armed with Western weapons ironically referred to military power of invaders as the army made of chaff.

The biblical picture shows that Solomon's retaliation struck the princes, that is, the Philistine elite. There is no doubt that Russia is still a power: it has an army, it has means of intimidation and blackmail, it has its agents who have infiltrated all the structures of the West. Thus it still has a powerful strike potential, capable of ultimately upsetting the balance of the world and surprisingly leading to the complete overthrow of the secular and religious systems of Christian civilization. However, the Kremlin's leaders are aware that such a step would be suicide.

The Philistines did not think at all of Samson's regrowing hair, and they could not imagine that this shackled blind man could harm them in any way, even as he approached the pillars of the temple where they were feasting, stood among them, and rested his hands on them. When they heard the thud of the crumbling building, it was too late.

The joyful feast, so unfortunate for the Philistine rulers, was organized by them in honor of their god Dagon, who they believed had given them victory over Samson. If their god were the true God, they certainly would not have suffered such a terrible defeat. The same is true of today's Philistines, or rulers of nominal Christianity. They believe that behind them stands Jehovah God, represented by supposedly Christian churches. They are still convinced that it was this God who gave them the victory over communism. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, their Dagon are earthly idols: fabulous wealth, power, science, civil and military technology, and many other earthly things. This predetermined that they ultimately would suffer a total defeat.

The temporary success of the Philistine conspiracy, involving Dalilah, and decisive result of Samson's suicide marked a turning point in the history of his nation. The occupiers were routed and the Israelites regained their freedom. In this biblical picture Israel represents humanity from the entry of sin into the world being enslaved by Satan and oppressed by all the effects of sin. The Philistines, on the other hand, represent the rulers of nominal Christendom, the blinded servants of Satan, who in favor of his methods of supporting despots and oppressing the weak.

The chief deliverer of mankind from Satan's dominion, the bondage of the sin and death, is our Lord, Jesus Christ. Since the beginning of the seventh thousand years of human history (1874), his second invisible presence has continued. This period, defined by the Greek word parousia (Matthew 24:27), was to last a thousand years, and its purpose is to completely deliver mankind from the dominion of Satan, the bondage of sin, and death "to the liberty of the glory of the children of God" (Romans 8:21). This deliverance includes all of Adam's descendants, both the living and those who have "fallen asleep in Jesus" and will awaken by the power of the resurrection (1 Thessalonians 4:14; John 5:28).

As mentioned above, the period of this presence has a preliminary phase, during which Christ, using the earthly instruments shown in Samson, destroys the devilish order of the world. The transition from the initial to the basic phase is defined by two Greek words: epiphany (brightening) and apokalupsis (discovery). Biblical numerology marks the date of this breakthrough – the year 1980 (1981-spring):

 

 

 

The first of these words describing the breakthrough of the parousia that is epiphany speaks of the manifestation of divine power through human and divine wrath (Revelation 11:18), or the events of the Great Tribulation. The second term that is parousia speaks of an avalanche of revealing to the public opinion things hitherto unknown. In the first place, it will be the coming to light of all vices, immorality, and wrongdoing that have been shamefully by people concealed (Luke 12:3). It is knowledge which will arouse common anger and anarchist fury. Next, the apocalypse of the Lord's presence will reveal to men the "mystery of God" (Revelation 10:7), or the magnificence of the Divine Plan – the fact of the election of the Church of Christ and the beginning of "the times of the restitution of all things."

 

 

 

 

Such a interconnectedness of the above Greek words is also supported by the expression used by the Apostle Paul, who prophesies that "then shall be revealed (apokaluphtheesetai) the Lawless One, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the manifestation of his presence (tee epiphaneia tees parousias)." (2 Thessalonians 2:8).

This "wicked man," also called "the man of lawlessness" and "the son of perdition" (2:3), is what the apostle John calls the Antichrist and the great harlot (1 John 2:18; Revelation 17:1). All these names refer to the apostate system of the Roman Catholic Church.

 

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In his epistle, the Apostle Paul prophesies that at the time of Christ's parousia, this apostate system will be gradually unmasking and weakening (killing with the spirit of the mouth of the Lord) and then annihilated in the epiphany (2 Thessalonians 2:8). John the Revelator also speaks of the unmasking of this Church from the dawn of the Lord's presence as a habitation of demons (18:1,2).

The circumstances leading to the final process of destructing of the great harlot of Rome since the time of the epiphany of Christ (1981-spring) are illustrated by the victorious operation of the Philistines against Samson. The Catholic Church, or the great harlot, was presented in this biblical picture as the harlot Dalilah. This woman played a major role in defeating Samson. Similarly, the Roman Church joined the conspiracy of Western countries against Communism and became the mastermind of the whole operation.

 

 

 

 

The euphoria of Western leaders because of their victory as well as the phenomenal triumph of the papacy in the 70s of the last century was suddenly overshadowed by the shots of the assassin in St. Peter's Square (13.05.1981). As a result of both these events, that is, the crushing of communism and the removal of John Paul II from the political scene as the alleged hope of the world, the world lost its balance and began to slide into the abyss of world anarchy.

 

In the spring of 1981, the communist movement (Bolshevick's party – king of locusts; Revelation 9:11) shown in Samson turned out to be a mighty man, utterly defeated. As long as "Samson" was the protector and liberator of the oppressed ones he acted according to God's Plan. The same "Samson", blinded, shackled, mocked and practically defenseless, has ceased to be a liberator and henceforth thinks only of revenge. In such way this defeated communist system ceased transformed into a bitter imperialistic Gog that will see the possibility of retaliation against his conquerors in the Middle East by invasion Israel.

 

 

 

 

By planning an attack on the chosen people, Gog becomes a great enemy of Almighty God. Through the defeats suffered in Ukraine, God "turns Gog back" (Ezechiel 39:2) from his imperialist plans and allows him to take a course of doom. Gog's suicide action is to take place on the mountains of Israel, where God will prepare a place for his grave (Ezechiel 39:11).

 

 

Blessed indeed are the hearts of those who thus look at the future. They are not afraid of the storm of increasingly terrible events of the Great Tribulation, because their eyes of faith see clearly that from behind the dark clouds the sun of Christ's Kingdom on earth is emerging. This sun of righteousness will soon warm all sin-afflicted mankind with God's mercy, heal them, make them happy, and give all people of good will eternal life (Malachi 4:2; Revelation 21:4).