stuart james beall

In late 2021, I was enjoying a relaxing fast and testimony meeting at my church. It felt good to be allowed attendance in church, after being forced to worship at home over a year, for fear of a deadly virus. Some of the people in the chapel still wore face masks, as a precaution against random sneezing and coughing.

A strange man came to the pulpit, and made some comments that seemed a bit inappropriate for a Sunday worship service. Or maybe they were just what our Lord wanted us to hear.

Instead of hearing another testimony about Jesus, or the restoration of his church, we heard a prophecy. The man did not preface his statements with “Thus saith the Lord…” Yet this prophecy, or perhaps prediction, has proven true.

He said that Russia was unable or unwilling to feed its own people with the resources available in Russia, so they would try to take over Ukraine.

Some might describe these remarks as an educated guess. Russia has a long history of military conquest and land grabbing. And Ukraine has long been recognized as “the breadbasket of Europe.”

According to a book by Valentina Kuryliw, in 1932 and 1933, millions of Ukrainians were killed in the Holodomor, a man-made famine engineered by the Soviet government of Joseph Stalin.

Essentially, Russia confiscated most of Ukraine’s wheat and farming equipment, and forced the farmers and peasants to starve to death. That was in 1932. Russia’s propaganda ministers —extraordinary liars— to this day deny that it ever happened.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, they proceeded to repeat what their people had done in 1932: they confiscated Ukrainian wheat and caused a major disruption of European food supplies. And still, Russia’s propaganda ministers deny that Russia had anything to do with this. They also deny that Russian soldiers kidnapped Ukrainian children, or that Russian soldiers tortured and murdered Ukrainian citizens.

Wars always foster a lack of respect for human life, and now the dictator Putin seems to be devoid of respect for the human spirit. When his own countrymen speak out against him, he has them persecuted and imprisoned.

In the musical Camelot, King Arthur said, “Violence is not strength, and compassion is not weakness.” In the United States of America, most people agree with and practice this.

Putin practices the opposite. He is promoting the destruction of Ukrainian power plants, factories, schools and hospitals, and is lying about it. He wants to abolish Ukrainian language and culture. Russian armies have driven millions of Ukrainians from their homes, creating a humanitarian crisis for neighboring countries. Russian soldiers admit to using rape as a weapon of war. Hundreds of Ukrainian women have gone public with their personal rape experiences at the hands of Russian soldiers, even identifying names and faces of the perpetrators.

What about God’s commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”??

There are many other commandments, set aside by Russians who fancy themselves as Christians, including the one about coveting thy neighbor’s house, coveting thy neighbor’s wife… or anything that is thy neighbor’s.

There are plenty of lying scoundrels in all countries, and in all ages of mankind. And now the people of my country, The United States Of America, have elected a lying scoundrel. This lying scoundrel excluded Ukrainian representation at his “peace talks” with Putin and other Russian leaders. This lying scoundrel blames Ukraine for getting invaded and pummeled by Russia.

A prophet once wrote, “Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell.”

Yes, Donald Trump is a lying scoundrel. There I said it. Now don’t stereotype me, just because I’m not afraid to speak out against our liar-in-chief. There are lots of things about Trump I admire. I give the man credit when he does tell the truth.

It’s a sad sign of the times where lying is tolerated at all levels of leadership. And it’s reprehensible for a world leader like Trump to validate Russian land-grabbing aggression in Ukraine.