The Soviets, like the Nazi Party, did not ban Christianity outright. They didn’t attempt to make enemies of the Christians in the countries they occupied. Instead, they both chose a slow and deliberate hijacking of the faith, to not only gain the favor of the people they had power over, but to make questioning this power akin to blasphemy. Christianity was never banned; it was rebranded. And as a result, the ways of Jesus were outlawed, and it happened slowly and subtly.

It is important to consider that borders do not come from God; they are man-made constructs. They are nothing less than the result of humanities struggle to get along. In short, borders are the direct result of our seemingly inability to love one another. If we acknowledge then that borders are the result of our own sinful nature then perhaps we might not cling to them so tightly.

2 Chronicles 7:14 is not God handing out a technique for managing public crisis. It is God speaking to a covenant people whose spiritual life has grown disordered. It is not mainly about controlling outcomes. It is about returning to the God they have drifted from. It is not about earning intervention. It is about becoming the kind of people who can receive healing from the inside out.