{"id":43065,"date":"2017-07-18T07:00:57","date_gmt":"2017-07-18T15:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/?p=43065"},"modified":"2017-07-19T14:29:59","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T22:29:59","slug":"eu-criticizes-russia-over-jehovahs-witnesses-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/religious-news\/eu-criticizes-russia-over-jehovahs-witnesses-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"‘EU Criticizes Russia Over Jehovah’s Witnesses Ban’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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COGwriter<\/a><\/p>\n

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The Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) just lost a major court matter in Russia:<\/p>\n

July 18, 2017<\/p>\n

EU Criticizes Russia Over Jehovah’s Witnesses Ban<\/h2>\n
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BRUSSELS \u2014\u00a0<\/span>The European Union is criticizing Russia over its nationwide ban on the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious denomination, saying all must be able to practice their religion without interference.<\/p>\n

Tuesday’s EU comment follows the ruling of the Russian Supreme Court, which rejected an appeal against the ban.<\/p>\n

The rejection of the religious group’s appeal allows Russia to liquidate the 395 Jehovah’s Witnesses congregations and seize their property. The group claims about 170,000 adherents in Russia.<\/p>\n

The EU said: \u201cJehovah’s Witnesses, like all other religious groups, must be able to peacefully enjoy freedom of assembly without interference.\u201d It added that Russia was bound by its constitution as well as its international commitments to provide such guarantees. https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/a\/russia-jehovah-witnesses-ban\/3948675.html<\/a><\/p>\n

18 July 2017<\/p>\n

A ban on Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses<\/a> is to come into full force in Russia after a court dismissed an appeal against the group\u2019s classification as an \u201cextremist\u201d organisation.<\/p>\n

The British and American governments were among those raising human rights concerns over the prohibition, which will liquidate the group\u2019s administrative centre near St Petersburg and 395 local religious organisations.<\/p>\n

Russia<\/a>\u2019s Supreme Court upheld the ruling on Monday, having previously decided in favour of the justice ministry\u2019s characterisation of the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses <\/a>as an \u201cextremist organisation\u201d whose members \u201cpose a threat to the rights of the citizens, public order and public security\u201d.<\/p>\n

Judges ordered the closure of the group’s Russian headquarters, local chapters and the seizure of its property by the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we were prepared for a negative ruling, it is still very disappointing,\u201d said David Semonian, international spokesman for the Jehovah’s Witnesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very concerning that despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, powerful elements within Russia continue to frame our organisation as extremist.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can only hope a fair evaluation of the facts will eventually prevail and our right to worship in Russia will be legally restored.\u201d http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/europe\/russia-jehovahs-witnesses-ban-supreme-court-dismisses-appeal-vladimir-putin-religion-freedom-a7846826.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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While I disagree with many practices and doctrines of the JWs, I agree with the EU, US, and Britain on this.<\/p>\n

I had hoped that Russia, using a law that was said to be created to deal with Islamic terror, would not be used against other religious groups in Russia.<\/p>\n

The Russian judges’ ruling reminds me of what Emperor Constantine and some of the Roman pontiffs have done over the years.<\/p>\n

Around 332, Constantine issued what is known as the Edict Against the Heretics<\/i>, <\/span><\/p>\n

Victor Constantinus, Maximus Augustus, to the heretics. \u201cUnderstand now, by this present statute, ye Novatians, Valentinians, Marcionites, Paulians, ye who are called Cataphrygians, and all ye who devise and support heresies by means of your private assemblies, with what a tissue of falsehood and vanity, with what destructive and venomous errors, your doctrines are inseparably interwoven; so that through you the healthy soul is stricken with disease, and the living becomes the prey of everlasting death. Ye haters and enemies of truth and life, in league with destruction! All your counsels are opposed to the truth, but familiar with deeds of baseness; full of absurdities and fictions: and by these ye frame falsehoods, oppress the innocent, and withhold the light from them that believe. Ever trespassing under the mask of godliness, ye fill all things with defilement: ye pierce the pure and guileless conscience with deadly wounds, while ye withdraw, one may almost say, the very light of day from the eyes of men. But why should I particularize, when to speak of your criminality as it deserves demands more time and leisure than I can give? For so long and unmeasured is the catalogue of your offenses, so hateful and altogether atrocious are they, that a single day would not suffice to recount them all. And, indeed, it is well to turn one\u2019s ears and eyes from such a subject, lest by a description of each particular evil, the pure sincerity and freshness of one\u2019s own faith be impaired. Why then do I still bear with such abounding evil; especially since this protracted clemency is the cause that some who were sound are become tainted with this pestilent disease? Why not at once strike, as it were, at the root of so great a mischief by a public manifestation of displeasure? (Chapter LXIV.\u2014Constantine\u2019s Edict against the Heretics. This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College<\/i>).<\/p>\n

\u201cForasmuch, then, as it is no longer possible to bear with your pernicious errors, we give warning by this present statute that none of you henceforth presume to assemble yourselves together. We have directed, accordingly, that you be deprived of all the houses in which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies: and our care in this respect extends so far as to forbid the holding of your superstitious and senseless meetings, not in public merely, but in any private house or place whatsoever. Let those of you, therefore, who are desirous of embracing the true and pure religion, take the far better course of entering the catholic Church, and uniting with it in holy fellowship, whereby you will be enabled to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. In any case, the delusions of your perverted understandings must entirely cease to mingle with and mar the felicity of our present times: I mean the impious and wretched double-mindedness of heretics and schismatics. For it is an object worthy of that prosperity which we enjoy through the favor of God, to endeavor to bring back those who in time past were living in the hope of future blessing, from all irregularity and error to the right path, from darkness to light, from vanity to truth, from death to salvation. And in order that this remedy may be applied with effectual power, we have commanded, as before said, that you be positively deprived of every gathering point for your superstitious meetings, I mean all the houses of prayer, if such be worthy of the name, which belong to 540 heretics, and that these be made over without delay to the catholic Church; that any other places be confiscated to the public service, and no facility whatever be left for any future gathering; in order that from this day forward none of your unlawful assemblies may presume to appear in any public or private place. Let this edict be made public.\u201d (Chapter LXV.\u2014Constantine\u2019s Edict against the Heretics. This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College<\/i>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some of those referred to as Paulians (Paulicians) and Cataphrygians were part of the true Church of God and thus they would have rejected various\u00a0doctrines that Emperor Constantine endorsed. And like some other persecutions, the Edict<\/em> included those truly in the Church of God and those not in the true church. Herod, when he tried to kill Jesus, persecuted an entire nation and killed many babies, but Jesus’ family fled the persecution and He survived. Constantine’s tactics seem similar. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Christianity under Constantine becomes a form of imperial Roman culture. One Christian denomination is favored with his patronage. They get tax breaks. They get big, beautiful Bible codices copied at public expense. They can use the imperial post for free. They ask Constantine to kick out the leaders of the other Christian denominations in town. So the people who get the worst treatment after Constantine becomes a patron of this one church are other Christians. More Christians are persecuted after<\/em>\u00a0the conversion of Constantine than before, because they\u2019re targeted by one particular branch of the church<\/strong> (Hulme, David. Interviews Paula Fredriksen Paul and Paula. Vision magazine, Fall 2005).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Of course, no branch of the actual true church would be persecuting–it was an apostate ‘branch’ that Constantine favored that did so.<\/p>\n

The Third Lateran Council in 1179 also went against religions other than the Roman-approved one:<\/p>\n

As St. Leo says, though the discipline of the church should be satisfied with the judgment of the priest and should not cause the shedding of blood, yet it is helped by the laws of catholic princes so that people often seek a salutary remedy when they fear that a corporal punishment will overtake them. For this reason, since in Gascony and the regions of Albi and Toulouse and in other places the loathsome heresy of those whom some call the Cathars<\/b>, others the Patarenes<\/b>, others the Publicani<\/b>, and others by different names, has grown so strong that they no longer practise their wickedness in secret, as others do, but proclaim their error publicly and draw the simple and weak to join them, we declare that they and their defenders and those who receive them are under anathema, and we forbid under pain of anathema that anyone should keep or support them in their houses or lands or should trade with them. If anyone dies in this sin, then neither under cover of our privileges granted to anyone, nor for any other reason, is mass to be offered for them or are they to receive burial among Christians. With regard to the Brabanters, Aragonese, Navarrese, Basques, Coterelli and Triaverdini<\/b> {17 }, who practise such cruelty upon Christians that they respect neither churches nor monasteries, and spare neither widows, orphans, old or young nor any age or sex, but like pagans destroy and lay everything waste, we likewise decree that those who hire, keep or support them, in the districts where they rage around, should be denounced publicly on Sundays and other solemn days in the churches, that they should be subject in every way to the same sentence and penalty as the above-mentioned heretics and that they should not be received into the communion of the church, unless they abjure their pernicious society and heresy(Third Lateran Council, Canon 27. 1179 A.D. Translation taken from Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, ed. Norman P. Tanner).<\/p>\n

The Third Lateran Council took place under Pope Alexander III, Frederick I being emperor. There were 302 bishops present. It condemned the Albigenses and Waldenses (The 21 Ecumenical Councils. Source: The Catholic Encyclopedia, http:\/\/www.newadvent.org\/library\/almanac_14388a.htm 02\/12\/06).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, killing, the Spanish Inquisition, and other forms of persecution came as well.<\/p>\n

It is my hope and prayer that the government in Russia will somehow change the law and overrule what has happened to the Jehovah’s Witnesses.<\/p>\n

If the Jehovah’s Witnesses can be outlawed and their assets confiscated, so can other religious groups.<\/p>\n

The Bible warns of a coming ‘famine of the word’ (Amos 8:11-12). And while I do NOT believe that the Jehovah’s Witnesses were preaching the true word, what has happened to them seems to be a prelude of restrictions that will come in the future.<\/p>\n

However, there is some good news still as Jesus taught:<\/p>\n

14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But notice that the END (meaning the start of the “Great Tribulation<\/a>” per Matthew 24:21) comes right after God has determined that the proclamation of the\u00a0Gospel of the Kingdom of God<\/a> in Matthew 24:14 has been fulfilled.<\/p>\n

We in the Continuing<\/em> Church of God<\/a> are focused on working on fulfilling Matthew 24:14 as well as Matthew 28:19-20. That job will be successful.<\/p>\n

We are getting close to the time when Matthew 24:14 will be finally fulfilled, but also closer to the time of the coming Famine of the Word<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite Amos 8:11-12, hopefully, Russia will now reconsider its law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Some items of possibly related interest may include:<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Similarities and Differences Between the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Continuing<\/em> Church of God<\/a> Both groups claim to represent the original Christian faith.\u00a0 Do you know much about them? Both groups have some interesting similarities, but many major differences. Would you like information on how to deal with Jehovah’s Witnesses? A related sermon is also available: Jehovah’s Witnesses: Right and Wrong Teachings?<\/a>
\nDid the Archangel Michael become Jesus?<\/a> The Jehovah’s Witnesses<\/a> teach this, but does the Bible allow for this?
\nWas Unitarianism the Teaching of the Bible or Early Church?<\/a> Many, including Jehovah’s Witnesses<\/a>, claim it was, but was it?
\nPersecutions by Church and State<\/a> This article documents some that have occurred against those associated with the COGs and some prophesied to occur. Will those with the cross be the persecutors or the persecuted–this article has the shocking answer. There is also a YouTube video sermon you can watch: The Coming Persecution of the Church<\/a>. Here is information in the Spanish language: Persecuciones de la Iglesia y el Estado<\/a>.
\nThe Spanish Inquisition and Early Protestant Persecutions<\/a><\/span> Was the Church of Rome really responsible for this? What happened? A video of related interest is titled: The Past and Future Inquisition<\/a>.
\nPreparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word<\/a> What is the ‘short work’ of Romans 9:28? Who is preparing for it? Here is a link to a related video sermon titled: The Short Work<\/a>.
\nThe Final Phase of the Work<\/a> What is the final phase of the work? Who will lead it? Do you have the courage to support it? Here is a related YouTube video titled The Final Phase of the Work. <\/a> The written article has been translated into Spanish La Fase Final de la Obra<\/a>.
\nShould the Church Still Try to Place its Top Priority on Proclaiming the Gospel or Did Herbert W. Armstrong Change that Priority for the Work?<\/a> Some say the Church should mainly feed the flock now as that is what Herbert W. Armstrong reportedly said. Is that what he said? Is that what the Bible says? What did Paul<\/a> and Herbert W. Armstrong<\/a> expect from lower level leaders? A related sermon is available titled Priority of the Philadelphia Work<\/a>.
\nSome Similarities and Differences Between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Continuing<\/em> Church of God<\/a> Both groups claim to be the original church, but both groups have differing ways to claim it. Both groups have some amazing similarities and some major differences. Do you know what they are?
\nWhere is the True Christian Church Today?<\/a> This free online pdf booklet answers that question and includes 18 proofs, clues, and signs to identify the true vs. false Christian church. Plus 7 proofs, clues, and signs to help identify Laodicean churches. A related sermon is also available: Where is the True Christian Church?<\/a>
\n<\/strong>Continuing History of the Church of God<\/a> This pdf booklet is a historical overview of the true Church of God and some of its main opponents from c. 31 A.D. to 2014. A related sermon link would be Continuing History of the Church of God: c. 31 to c. 300 A.D<\/a>. Marque aqu\u00ed para ver el pdf folleto: Continuaci\u00f3n de la Historia de la Iglesia de Dios<\/a>.
\n<\/strong>Russia and Ukraine: Their Origins and Prophesied Future<\/a> Russia in prophecy. Where do the Russians come from? What about those in the Ukraine? What is prophesied for Russia and its allies? What will they do to the Europeans that supported the Beast in the end? There is also a video sermon available: Russia in the Bible and in Prophecy <\/span><\/a>and a video sermonette available: Ukraine in Prophecy?<\/a>
\nIs Russia the King of the North?<\/a> Some claim it is. But what does the Bible teach? Here is a link to a video, also titled Is Russia the King of the North? <\/a>
\nEzekiel 38: For Russia & Iran in Our Day?<\/a> Is Ezekiel 38 about to be fulfilled? A related video is available titled Ezekiel 38: For Russia, Ukraine, & Iran Now?<\/a> Another could be Russia, Iran, Syria, & the Bible (Code)<\/a>.
\nWhen Will the Great Tribulation Begin? 2017, 2018, or 2019?<\/a> Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before the Great Tribulation in the “beginning of sorrows”? What happens in the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? Is this the time of the Gentiles? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord? Who are the 144,000? Here is a version of the article in the Spanish language: \u00bfPuede comenzar la Gran Tribulaci\u00f3n en 2016 o 2017? \u00bfEs el Tiempo de los Gentiles?<\/a> You can also see the English language sermon videos: The Great Tribulation from the Mount of Olives<\/a> and Can the Great Tribulation begin before 2020?<\/a> A shorter video is: Will the Great Tribulation Start in 2017?<\/a>
\nThe Gospel of the Kingdom of God<\/a> This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. Here are links to three related sermons: The World\u2019s False Gospel<\/a>, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments<\/a>, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COGwriter The Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) just lost a major court matter in Russia: July 18, 2017 EU Criticizes Russia Over Jehovah’s Witnesses Ban BRUSSELS \u2014\u00a0The European Union is criticizing Russia over its nationwide ban on the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious denomination, saying all must be able to practice their religion without interference. Tuesday’s EU comment follows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religious-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43065"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43090,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43065\/revisions\/43090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}