Credit: Evgeny Feldman, Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
“From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matthew 11:12 ESV)
The death of two Christians over the past couple of weeks has caught the world’s attention, because both murders, perhaps just coincidentally, were connected to two powerful world leaders.
The first involves the death of Laken Riley, 22, a believer in Jesus who was brutally murdered after she went out for a morning jog in Augusta, Georgia.
Riley was studying to be a nurse at the University of Georgia. Police have charged an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, Jose Antonia Ibarra with the alleged murder, CBN reports.
In a statement released by the family, they described Laken as “an amazing daughter, sister, friend, and overall person in general. Her love for the Lord was exemplified in every aspect of her life. She will be missed every day, but we promise to honor her life moving forward in a very big way.”
What caused the uproar is that Ibarra, who illegally entered the US in 2022, had previously been arrested but released.
“He was previously apprehended by ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and New York Police Department officials for separate infractions but was released due to the Biden administration’s “catch and release” policy,” writes Talia Wise, in her article for CBN.
There has been such an uproar, blaming her murder on Joe Biden’s policies, that the White House was forced to issue a statement acknowledging her death.
- RELATED: Illegal immigrant who killed Laken Riley wielded such force he ‘disfigured her skull’: report
The second murder took place thousands of miles away in a dark Russian prison and involved the mysterious death of Alexey Navalny, 47, a Russian opposition leader and outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 16, 2024.
Most are convinced that Navalny was assassinated by pro-Putin supporters, probably on Putin’s orders.
It appears that Navalny came to faith in Jesus sometime after Putin’s agents tried to kill Navalyn with Novichok, a nerve agent poison, resulting in him needing six months to recover.
Navalny was on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow in August 2020, when he became sick and was immediately hospitalized when the plane arrived in Moscow. He was then put in a coma and airlifted to a hospital in Berlin, Germany two days later, where tests revealed he had been poisoned with Novichok.
He convalesced in Germany for six months before returning to Russia on Jan. 17, 2021, where he was immediately arrested.
It was during his trial, that Navalny’s newfound faith was displayed.
“Then Navalny revealed that he is no longer an atheist and believes in God now, finding truth in the Bible,” writes CBN News. “He told the court he believes the words from Matthew 5:16 in which Jesus says that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed.”
Navalny was sentenced to two and half years in jail for breaking the terms of his probation when he was sent to the hospital in Germany for care. He died while in prison.
He had previously been charged by the Putin government on trumped-up charges of money laundering.
We see similar situations taking place in the Bible when King Herod ordered the arrest (Matthew 14:3) and ultimate beheading of John the Baptist (Matthew 14:10) after he criticized Herod’s illicit marriage to his brother’s wife, Herodias.
It happened again in the early church, when King Herod’s grandson, Herod Antipas, was killed by an angel of God (Acts 12:23) after he ordered the arrests and assassinations of church leaders to appease the Jewish leaders (Acts 12:1-2).
OpentheWord.org 
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