From October 30 to November 3, 2023, an annual international pastoral retreat took place in Kyiv. We spoke with Bishop Valery Grigorash of the association of churches “House of bread” (Krivoy Rog, Ukraine). We talked about the spiritual parallels between the wars in Ukraine and Israel, the reasons for the enemy’s failure, the revival in the church and God’s miracles, as well as what believers should be especially careful about today.
– Valery Nikolaevich, let’s start by remembering February 24, 2022. What were your thoughts and experiences on that day? Where did Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine find you?
– I was at home, in Krivoy Rog. I woke up to the sound of a jet plane and immediately realized that a war had started, because no jet plane has flown over Krivoy Rog since 2014. I remember one explosion, then another…
Well, on the first day there were organizational questions: who to call, who to tell, what to do, etc. Throughout the day I reacted to various situations that arose. I think of course we all experienced stress that day – there were very dramatic experiences. I had the feeling that all of this was most likely inevitable, but I didn’t want to believe that it was going to happen.
After only a few days, we realized that the Russians were near Krivoy Rog, because they were then advancing very quickly in southern Ukraine, approaching Nikolaev, and had already advanced to Krivoy Rog. And according to certain reports, it was clear that nothing special was stopping them. Therefore, the clergy and I discussed our actions, what we should do with the churches – because there was a high probability that Russian troops would enter Krivoy Rog. But a miracle happened and they were unable to carry out their plans.
– Could you be a little more specific?
– Three columns marched to Krivoy Rog several days apart. The first – from Nikolaev, it consisted of about 700 units of equipment. Nothing stopped them. On YouTube, you can find an interview with Yuri Butusov, the mayor of Bashtanka, who tells how 13 military personnel and grandfather Vasyl were the main characters of the story! And this column was stopped.
And so the spies told us that this column was moving towards our city. And then we had three prayer meetings a day, over a hundred people at each service – people really didn’t want to leave, they said: “We feel safe here!” And these prayers were not like: “Well, let’s pray, brothers and sisters…” No! Everyone shouted at the top of their lungs, no one needed to be encouraged or motivated to pray. People were literally crying out to God, and then I understood what it meant: “Cry to Me and I will answer you!”
After that, there were two more attempts by the Russians to break through our city, and they also miraculously failed.
In general, at that time we understood that everything is possible, and different thoughts arose – what to do, stay or leave, what to do with the church… And on the second day of the war, we gathered with the church council which included the churches of Krivoy Rog – we have such a fellowship of pastors and priests – and made the following statement: “The Church stands with Ukraine. We pray and we conquer!”
– Today, looking back and reflecting on how Ukraine survived this very critical period and why Russia’s plans failed, share your thoughts on this topic.
– I think the main reason is spiritual. I am 100% convinced that God has a plan for Ukraine. And I think the reason for this war is spiritual. It is about stopping God’s plan. And when you fight God, as we know, it is hard to beat God, in fact it is impossible.
Another reason is certainly the church. It is the prayer of the church that stopped the enemy.
Third, I think that the eight years before the full-scale invasion prepared Ukraine, the Ukrainian people, for resistance. And the Russian leadership was very mistaken when they thought that they would be greeted with flowers here.
But all these, even the most natural causes, can be summed up in one word – miracle. God’s miracle.
– How did the war in Ukraine affect the Ukrainian church from your point of view? Can we talk about a positive effect?
– God can turn evil into good. I was pleased with the response of most Ukrainian churches to the war. Most of the time, the churches responded in a very dignified way – with prayer, supporting people, serving people – refugees who lost their homes, serving the army… It’s something unreal – the way the church rose… And all this is like oil for the heart… Still, the church was not in such a sad state as we sometimes thought. We saw that by this time God had done His work within the Church.
Many people were open to God. We prayed for revival even before the war, but we did not expect it to come in bomb shelters or destroyed villages. But this is reality! For example, when we arrived in the de-occupied villages of the Kherson region, we saw how people gathered in the village under a tree, as we once saw in Africa, to listen to the Word of God. And the people themselves told us: “You don’t have to bring us anything, just come and tell us the Word of God!”
We have already baptized a large number of people in the de-occupied territories. And there were villages in those regions where they had already tried to evangelize before the war, but there were no converts there. And now in these villages dozens of people repented and turned to God.
I also think it’s important to note that this war has awakened many people in the world. Humanity was in a kind of lethargic state of sleep: there is neither good nor evil, everything is normal for us… But this war – and God, using this war – seems to call out to people: “People, wake up! ”
I watched the reactions of Western politicians, how they resisted the adoption of this idea. They believe in humanism there and believe that it is possible to agree with everyone, that people are basically good, without fully understanding the nature of evil… And I think that now many people already understand that there is evil and good, and that it is impossible to agree with evil, that this is the reality of the world we live in and it needs to be taken into account and something must be done about it.
And I think this is all a prerequisite for repentance. Because it is impossible to repent unless you acknowledge the existence of evil and sinfulness. For example, for a Europe which is saturated with this post-modernity, how to bring Europe to repentance? You used to say: “You must repent” – “Of what? Everything is relative…”, “What is evil?” and “What is the truth?”…
But now many people are beginning to understand that evil, goodness and sin are not abstractions, but something that really exists.
– The war in Israel started recently and is still going on. Do you think this war also has spiritual reasons? Perhaps you can see the parallels with the war in Ukraine?
“It’s amazing that a country that was considered the most anti-Semitic in the world suddenly became one of Israel’s greatest friends.” There are Israeli flags everywhere on the streets, on billboards! In the biggest spire of Krivoy Rog, we have the flags of Israel and Ukraine together. This is a revelation about Ukraine…
But of course, Ukraine has a complicated history of relations with the Jewish people, there are many tragic moments, a lot of bloodshed… But there were also hundreds of years of living together, living hand in hand. For example, all my grandfather’s friends were Jews, even though he himself was Ukrainian. He was friends with the Jews and they always had good and neighborly relations. Therefore, we see that the light will win here in Ukraine!
And when this invasion of Israel began, we experienced déjà vu. We understand the Israelis very well, we have people from the church who made aliyah to Israel and we have fellowship with them – I understand what they are going through and we can sympathize and support them prayerfully, and not only…
And at this pastors’ retreat, one could already hear the idea that the same spirit is behind it all. We see its manifestations. This cruelty is visible, this lack of any moral restraints… Undisguised evil! Nothing can stop it… When heads are cut off, children are raped and killed – that’s it… it’s impossible to explain it logically. Demons, evil spirits, real spiritual entities are behind it, and they have the same manifestations in both Ukraine and Israel.
Therefore, we see that these wars are manifestations of such spiritual moments when evil is activated. And, of course, this is the fulfillment of Bible prophecies. I remember reading the Bible in the nineties and thinking, “Well, all this will happen someday…” And it seemed like something, almost romantic. But when all this starts to come true and you see that terrible evil grin, then of course there is nothing good about it.
And the other day (the interview was recorded at the beginning of November – editor’s note) both my wife and Boris Saulovich were talking about the anti-Semitic events in Makhachkala, Dagestan – it’s just surreal… A country where “grandfathers fought” and apparently liberated Auschwitz… and this is happening there?! And you realize that yes – World War II and it seems that mankind should have learned something, but no – man is sinful and mankind is sinful. If there is no Biblical perspective and Biblical worldview, humanity will not learn anything good, it cannot live in peace without the Lord. It is impossible.
– Valery Nikolayevich, a final question: what dangers do you see facing believers today, during the war? What should Christians fear? What to be careful about? How can a believer live today?
– I want to be understood correctly now. I think it is very important for a believer to decide which side of the truth he is on. Because the ability to judge righteously, to judge according to truth, is an ability that God gave us. We usually preach, “Judge not, judge not,” but Jesus actually says, “Judge not unjustly, but judge with righteous judgment.” And this is very important, because it depends on which direction you go: whether you follow God or you go the other way – and start beheading people “for Jesus”… believing that you are right and that by killing your brothers you are serving God…
And secondly, it is our hearts that are very important to preserve now so that they do not remain in a state of hatred on the inside. Specifically, “so that they don’t remain”. Because experiencing anger in these situations is normal. I think that a person who first heard the news about Bucha and saw all this could not remain indifferent. It’s just such a shock… And the first reaction you get inside of you is, of course, hate. And that’s okay. We are humans, not robots. But then we have to make a choice: do we stay in this hatred or do something about it? Hate is destructive, it never does anything good.
I’m not talking about saying to our enemies, “Well, everything’s fine, let’s move on and forget it!” No! There must be justice for these people and these people must be punished for their actions.
But this internal atmosphere is very important. And Jesus warned against it. Precisely because there is a lot of lawlessness, the love of the lowly grows cold… This means that the heart can become stony. It’s a scary thing. You may remain a Christian, but hatred becomes your religion. You are no different from those waging Jihad – only it is “Christian Jihad”…
Interviewer – Alex Fishman.
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