The Creeping False Brothers... KGB
Firstly, I believe that the Word of God is accessible and understandable in all its fullness to every people in their own language, without the need for additional knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic. Moreover, the Word is understandable and accessible in its entirety to every person, regardless of their education, intellectual level, or even mental state. The Lord God is able to speak with every person at their own level and explain to them any depths through His Word.
Secondly, the Body of Christ as a whole, and each individual personally, nevertheless need constant growth in the Word—spiritually and intellectually—and for this purpose the Lord has placed in the church five main ministry gifts, as well as many auxiliary ones; moreover, the very concepts of “Church” and “Body of Christ” imply the assembling of believers, interaction, and deny “like-mindedness” as a unit of measurement.
Although these two statements seem mutually exclusive, in reality they are complementary, and every person, having come to Christ through other believers (as a rule), grows together with them and comes to know the Lord through His Word personally. Nevertheless—and I want to emphasize this—all academic knowledge merely clarifies “the Way of the Lord,” and does not radically change it. “He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately.” (Acts 18:25-26)
And here is another passage from the same Scripture: “Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery—to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—those, I say, who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised (for He who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles), and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.” (Galatians 2:1-9)
So Paul came to the Apostles of the Jewish Christian church, and his coming was focused on them. Perhaps he also spoke before the local church, but from the first to the ninth verse we constantly see the words—“those who seemed influential,” “those who seemed influential,” “influential,” “He who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry,” “James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars”—in my view, more than enough to see that Paul was directed to the Apostles and to the highest spiritual leadership. Moreover, he was directed to “defend the truth of the gospel,” and we know this vividly from the subsequent public conversation with Peter in Galatians 2:11-21, which we will not discuss in detail now.
Let us summarize our knowledge: Paul came by a revelation of the Lord to the Apostles in Jerusalem, and among other purposes, one of the tasks of his visit was the following—to defend the truth of the gospel. The very purpose of defense was, of course, multifaceted, including the danger of substituting Christianity with Judaism, circumcision, and the fulfillment of the letter of the Law, but that is not our focus now.
Now let us examine more closely these passages from Scripture: “Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery” (Gal. 2:4). I always thought that these were “religious people”—and most likely that is what they were—but it is surprising that already in the earliest years of the church there were:
a) people who said “Hallelujah,” “Glory to the Lord!”, “The Lord loves you!”, “Amen!”, “In His Word it is written!”—(you can continue the list yourself)—that is, they spoke like believers but were liars, that is, people who consciously deceived Christians;
b) these people acted skillfully, masterfully, professionally—“false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out”; Were these not like “Judases”?—his role, actions, and origin were known and visible from the very beginning, and Judas presents an example of an apostate minister, although later he was recruited/purchased by the highest religious leadership of the country.
c) their goal was—“so that they might bring us into slavery”—whatever that means, they were plotting evil.
d) the false brothers had at least access to the highest leadership of the Church—“to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment”—there definitely was a dispute that went on for a long time; this was not a general assembly, and the Apostle Paul personally defended the Gospel, which indicates the high level of authority of those arguing… Do not forget that the first church, especially the Jerusalem church, was built on the model of Judaism and was by no means a commune of hippie anarchists…, that is, even then there were people in the Body of Christ from whom the Apostle Paul had to defend the Gospel, and it is unlikely that the situation has improved after 2,000 years…
The church has always been of interest to authorities. As soon as the church gained people and began to exert influence—the authorities reacted. It is obvious that here in Europe attention is given only to churches that strongly influence society. It is also clear that in countries with totalitarian thinking, the church is given heightened priority. A well-known example is when Stalin asked about the Pope—“How many divisions does he have?” That is, worldly authorities have always viewed the church as an extension of someone’s politics. Protestants—the CIA, Orthodox—the FSB, Jews—the Mossad, Muslims—apparently the Arab world, and so on. One of the problems of Protestant churches in Russia is that they are considered “an arm of America.” Although we understand the naivety of such a view, it must be taken into account.
A question naturally arises — Who are these people? Though one can float in guesses and theoretical constructs, let us look at what has already happened in practice and taken place in the Church’s history in the recent past.
Interview excerpt: «I will tell you what one KGB officer told me. In 1977, with God’s help, I managed to outplay KGB Captain Klimov, who headed the recruitment department. He said that when he went to work for the KGB, he thought he would be dealing with the mafia and bandits. But when he ended up in the 5th Directorate, he began to notice that something was off here. He admitted that, when encountering believers, he sympathized with them and saw a somewhat different set of statistics, one that differed from the statistics of worldly people. What he did was — he gave up all the agent network from within our milieu. The 5th Directorate had eight career officers and another five employees.
They recruited prophets, planted their own people in churches who contributed, for example, to having someone expelled from the church. But all this was small-time stuff.
Captain Klimov told me about the main objectives set before them: “The main thing for us was to make Soviet believers out of you. In the 1950s–60s we didn’t let you study. We gave you such character references that with them you could only be accepted in the zone. Then we changed tactics, and in the 1970s it began to be preached among you that studying is a sin.
That’s our work! Your own pastors, your own ideologues now wouldn’t let you study — not us. We told you: learning is light, but among you it was preached that knowledge puffs up while love builds up. And what’s the result? You have neither love nor knowledge — just the way we need you!”
He gave another example: “The Adventists have a very powerful printing organ. They produce something, distribute it across the country; we catch them, put them in prison. Later they somehow publish again, we lock them up again. And what? In that literature they wage a struggle against the Pope, who will never see them and never hear them.
That too is our work, so that your own people look upon these underground workers as fools. And there were a great multitude of such examples.”»
So there you have it… The secret services worked in the Church, and they did it skillfully.
Who today sits on the Internet under anonymous “Christian” nicknames and for years brews “pots” of hatred, bitterness, slander, and gossip? Only apostates and lovers of truth? One could ask many interesting questions and get answers to them, but we will do that, God permitting, in the articles to come.
Timofey Medvedev
P.S. Much good has been said about Boris Perchatkin in the past year, and I believe the Lord has not brought us back to this topic in 2009 for nothing.
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