I have been following a court case in Finland where government prosecutors have described quotations from the Bible as “hate speech.” I take personal interest in this case because I am of Finnish descent. After taking an ancestry test, my sister informed me that we are 98% Finnish. My roots are in the old Suomi Synod of the Lutheran church. I still remember the pastor of my home church preaching in Finnish. So, I take a special interest in what goes on in the “old country.”

The case involves two Christian leaders in Finland: longtime member of Parliament Paivi Rasanen and Lutheran Bishop Juhana Polhjola, who have been brought to trial for writing and publishing, respectively, a pamphlet explaining Christian teachings about sex and marriage.

Ms. Rasanen (the pamphlet’s author) explains, “My writings and statements under investigation are linked to the Bible’s teaching on marriage, living as a man and a woman, as well as the Apostle Paul’s teaching on homosexual acts. The teachings concerning marriage and sexuality in the Bible arise from love to one’s neighbor, not from hate towards a group of people.”

Paul Coleman, a human rights lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom International who is helping represent Rasanen and Polhjola at the trial, commented that “it was very surreal” to observe Rasanen and Pohjola being questioned about details of Christian theology. It gave the two Christians the opportunity to preach the gospel in court.

Coleman noted, “Finnish trial attorneys who had been in and out of court every day for years, said they didn’t think the Bible had ever been read out like that in prosecution.” Never has a Finnish court had to decide if quoting from Scripture could be a crime. He described the trial, “as a modern-day inquisition or heresy trial. And the heresy was that Paivi [Rasanen] and Bishop Juhana were on trial against the new sexual orthodoxy of the day.”

Human rights observers see this trial as an important marker as to whether Western governments’ persecution of citizens for their speech and beliefs will increase. U.S. House members said in a public letter that the Finnish government’s prosecutions of these Christians for their religious beliefs “raises serious questions regarding the extent of Finland’s commitment to protect religious freedom for its citizens.”

For me, this trial is a “wake up” call to take nothing for granted as the biblical worldview in Western culture steadily erodes. It is difficult for me to comprehend how quoting the Bible is now viewed as hate speech by some in a nation in which Christianity was foundational to its existence. It shows how far and deep opposition has grown to biblical Christianity throughout Western civilization.

This reminds me that all civilizations are like grass that can wither or flowers that will eventually fail. Isaiah tells us, “The grass withers and the flowers fail, but the word of our God stands forever” (Is 40:8). Remember Jesus told us, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Luke 21:33).

Western civilization may be withering and failing, but God’s word will remain and accomplish its purpose. The new orthodoxy of the post-Christian West is not God’s thoughts. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is. 55:9).

Take heart – and submit anew to God’s word revealed in Scripture: “So is my word that goes out from my mouth; it will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Is. 55:11).

I never thought I would find myself agreeing with Vladimir Putin.  In a speech on Oct. 22, 2021 in Sochi, Russia, Putin strongly criticized the “woke” social justice warriors in the United States and Europe. This former lieutenant colonel in the KGB argued that they behave just like the Bolshevik Communists did in the former Soviet Union. “We see with bemusement,” Putin noted, “the paralysis unfolding in countries that have grown accustomed to viewing themselves as the flagships of progress.” 

The West is ruled by a “dogmatism bordering on absurdity,” he asserted, noting that “cancel culture” is nothing more than “reverse discrimination,” and teaching children that sexuality is flexible as potentially “a crime against humanity.” Wow!  These are strong words coming from a dictator. Yet, in my opinion, he is holding up a mirror so we can see what we really are becoming.  

Putin noted further, “The advocates of so-called ‘social progress’ believe they are introducing humanity to some kind of new and better consciousness…their prescriptions are not new at all.  It may come as a surprise to some people, but Russia has been there already.”  Later in his speech he said, “I repeat, this is nothing new; in the 1920s, the Soviet couture [Rabindranath] Tagore came up with [was] the so-called ‘Newspeak,’ believing they were creating a new consciousness and coming up with new values.”

Putin even talked about spiritual values: “We have a different viewpoint, at least the overwhelming majority of Russian society… We believe that we must rely on our own spiritual values, our historical tradition and the culture of our multiethnic nation… Looking at what is happening in a number of Western countries” notes Putin, causes Russians to be amazed at certain destructive practices, “which we…have left, I hope, in the distant past.” 

Putin even quoted Martin Luther King as reflecting true values: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character.”  He then gave this warning: “The debate over men’s and women’s rights has turned into a phantasmagoria.  Look, beware of going where the Bolsheviks once planned to go – not only communalizing chickens, but also communalizing woman.  One more step and you will be there.”  

Men, this is an indictment of our culture coming from a dictator. Putin is calling us to “wake up.”  We are headed towards a soft, therapeutic form of totalitarianism, where we prefer personal pleasure over principles, including political liberties.  We are being deceived by our leaders and the elite media. When truth is missing and those in leadership completely disregard God, we are in trouble.

Before becoming Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla made this remarkable prediction: “We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through… We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine providence; it is trial which the whole Church…must take up.” 

Cardinal Wojtyla believed the church will come out of the confrontation much stronger and alive in the Spirit.  Men, are you ready for difficult days? Habakkuk knew judgment was coming.  So, he prayed: “I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.  Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us…I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my savior” (Hab. 3:16, 18).