History – Page 36 – Gregory Scott Blog

Byzantine Travel Journal: Day 11 (Nessebar)

Church of Christ Pantocrator — 2010 © Gregory Scott

It is said Nessebar, Bulgaria has more ancient churches per capita than any other place in the world. I believe it. And if, as I wrote yesterday, churches are the physical evidence of the kingdom of God, this place was once very much Kingdom territory, and perhaps still is today.

Nessebar is a strip of land, a peninsula really, jutting out into the Black Sea from mainland Bulgaria. The Greeks were settled here as early as the 6^th century B.C., followed by the Romans in the 1^st century B.C. and then the Byzantines.

The influence of the Byzantines is not only seen in the design of the churches but in the building materials. The churches have bricks with imprints denoting their manufacture in Constantinople.

New Metropolitan Church of St. Stephen — 2010 © Gregory Scott

Nessebar, known to the Byzantines as Mesembria, was apparently an important town to the Bulgars and the Byzantines, as it changed hands repeatedly. Nessebar was eventually conquered by the Ottomans in 1453.

Today, Nessebar is a village of tourist and antique shops, restaurants and ancient churches separated by narrow cobblestone streets. Its shops have all the standard tourist chachka, but there are also a number of antique shops, and they all seem to have Nazi antiques: passports, fountain pens, medals, rings, clocks, all with the Nazi insignia. I couldn’t get an adequate answer from anyone as to why all the Nazi stuff. It seemed an odd contrast on a small peninsula with so many ancient churches, the symbol of man at his worst surrounded by the symbol of man at his best. GS.

Byzantine Travel Journal: Day 10 (Odessa)

Port, Odessa, Ukraine — 2010 © Gregory Scott

Today was our second day in Odessa, but we stayed on board the ship. It was a time to read and relax and think and connect some of the dots before bidding farewell to the Ukraine.

The wife and I have had the opportunity to travel throughout Europe quite a bit over the last ten years, and one thing that impresses me wherever we go it is the reach and influence of the Roman Empire. We’ve seen the remains of Roman building and culture from Scotland to France to the banks of the Danube and as far away as Israel.

Along the northern coast of the Black Sea where we have been the last four days, the Greeks had settlements and left an imprint. The Romans assimilated Greek culture and added to it a practicality conducive to progress and prosperity. It has been said, “The Greeks had brains; the Romans had drains.”

The Romans had a unique approach to empire. Rather than conquer and destroy, they sought to assimilate. In the ancient world the most significant boast one could make was, “I am a Roman citizen.” The Apostle Paul claimed this privilege. (Acts 22:28).

The Romans thought their empire would last forever. In fact, Rome was referred to as “the Eternal City.” Romans thought they would never be conquered.

It is indeed an act of divine irony then that the Lord decided to plant the flag of the kingdom of God, a kingdom which will truly “never be destroyed” but will “endure forever” (Daniel 2:44), in the midst of the Roman Empire.

The kingdom of God did outlast the Roman Empire and continues to expand. If the physical evidence of the Roman Empire is its ruins, roads and aqueducts, then the physical evidence of the kingdom of God is its churches. And one sees churches just about everywhere one goes.

The reach of the kingdom of God is more extensive than the Romans could have ever imagined and the Kingdom will continue to expand, offering citizenship to those it touches, until it fills the earth. GS

Byzantine Travel Journal: Day 9 (Odessa)

Today we were in Odessa, Ukraine, a port city on the northeastern coast of the Black Sea. It’s a major city with a population of more than 1,000,000. Movie buffs know Odessa as the site of the famous Communist Era (1925) movie, Battleship Potemkin, and the Potemkin Steps where the massacre in the film takes place.

The actual massacre, a government response to the stirrings of revolution in the city, did not occur on the steps but down the street in the city. The uprising was aided by a Russian battleship (the Potemkin) that had been commandeered by its mutinous crew, unhappy with what was being served for dinner.

Odessa Archaeological Museum — 2010 © Gregory Scott

At the top of the Potemkin Steps, we got a look at the beautiful pre-Communist architecture that defines Odessa. My experience here is obviously limited, and I only saw part of the city, but it reminded me of what I had seen a few years before in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The beauty of St. Petersburg was found in pre-Communist design and architecture. The uninspiring, plain, purely functional buildings were by-and-large built during the Communist era, while the beautiful, ornate structures, pre-date it. I’m sure there are exceptions, but this seemed, at least based on what I saw there and here in Odessa, to be the general rule.

Odessa Opera House — 2010 © Gregory Scott

I guess this shouldn’t be surprising. I can’t think of a single atheist renaissance in history. I can think of a number of Christian renaissances. The 9^th century Carolingian Renaissance (Charlemagne), the 12^th century Byzantine Renaissance and the 13^th century French Renaissance (Saint Louis) all come to mind. In fact, many believe the Italian Renaissance was the result of the influx of the Byzantines into Italy after the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Perhaps the moral to this story is that the glorification of fallen man is an inferior inspiration for creative genius. GS

Byzantine Travel Journal: Day 8 (Sevastopol)

This is what I saw when I pulled back the curtains this morning. Sevastopol. The former home of the feared Soviet Black Sea Fleet, a port so important militarily in a nation with so little freedom even Ukrainian citizens had to have permission to enter and leave the city.

I think back to when I was in college and we were in the midst of the Cold War, if you had said that within just a few years the Soviet Union would collapse, Communism would be discarded or that in 2010 a cruise ship full of Americans tourists would be docking in Sevastopol next to its navy, no one would have believed you.

Such is history, fluid and full of twists and turns. It is malleable to those with the vision and initiative to shape it. To those with neither, it’s as inflexible as granite. Citizens of the kingdom of God are to be the former. Unfortunately, so many Christians have a philosophy of history that makes any attempt at change seem to them futile.

Vladimir's Baptism — 2010 © Gregory Scott

After a short visit to the monument commemorating the site of the scuttling of the Russian fleet at the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, we drove to Chersonesos, one of the largest remains of an Ancient Greek settlement in the world. Chersonesos was founded by the Greeks in the 6^th century B.C. and was subsequently inhabited by the Romans, Byzantines and Russians.

Most interesting here was not the ruins, but seeing the place where Vladimir I was baptized. A gazebo has now been erected over the spot. As I’ve previously blogged, Vladimir’s conversion to Christianity led to Christianization of Russia. From the perspective of the history of Russia this spot was the most important treasure of Chersonesos, but our guide glossed over it. In fact, I had to break away from the rest of the group to see it.

I don’t blame her. I’ve noticed this in other guides we’ve had from the former USSR. A few years back we were in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and our guide showed us Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son. Her explanation on the meaning of the parable was so off it could only have resulted from a guess birthed out of an ignorance of Christianity. This ignorance is not stupidity but a lack of knowledge that is the result of Communism’s atheistic indoctrination of its people.

Our last stop at Chersonesos was the newly renovated and rededicated St. Vladimir Cathedral. The cathedral is a symbol of the rebirth of Christianity in the Ukraine, setting as it does, just yards away from where Vladimir was baptized. The inside was beautiful and ornate, but no photographs were allowed, so you will have to take my word for it.

The people of Ukraine are, for all practical purposes, a blank canvas religiously. From what I’ve seen in St. Petersburg, I suspect this is true of much of the former USSR as well.

Until tomorrow… GS

Byzantine Travel Journal: Day 7 (Yalta)

One of the cool things about a cruise is waking up in a different port every day. Each morning one goes to the window curious as to what new experience waits behind the curtains. This day, Yalta awaited, with her slumbering slopes slipping casually down to the Black Sea.

Yalta is a summer destination for Ukrainians. It was also a summer destination for Russian czars and Russian premiers.

Our first stop was Massandra Palace, Joseph Stalin’s dacha (summer home). This was a place where Uncle Joe could unwind and relieve some of the stress associated with murdering 30 million people. Mass murder has proven to be one of the fruits of political atheism; just ask Pol Pot and Mao Tse-Tung.

Next was Livadia Palace, the place where Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin carved up post-WWII Europe. It was also the summer home of Czar Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia. Nicholas II, along with his wife, four children, domestic staff and dog, were executed by the Communists during the Bolshevik Revolution.

It has been reported that Nicholas II read his Bible regularly and even underlined his favorite Scriptures. Notwithstanding that, he made some serious errors in judgment and did not follow the counsel of his advisors that could have helped Russia avoid revolution.

It’s not enough to simply love God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but it’s just the beginning. If the kingdom of God is going to fill the earth, Christians will need to be more than lovers of God, though that is a necessity; they must also be competent, compassionate, excellent and ethical in the exercise of authority.

Lenin Statue, Yalta — 2010 © Gregory Scott

Strolling the promenade along the beach at Yalta, we saw two other sights worth noting. One was Ukrainian men sauntering along the promenade in nothing but Speedos and flip-flops. It was warm in Yalta, but it was not that warm. The other was a huge statue of Vladimir Lenin (see picture).

The two most important Vladimirs in Russian history are Vladimir I and Vladimir Lenin. Vladimir I converted to Christianity in 988 A.D. and facilitated the spread of the Gospel, helping make Russia a Christian nation. I previously blogged on Vladimir I here in the Kingdom Hero series.

Vladimir Lenin initiated the Bolshevik Revolution, which installed state-imposed atheism in Russia and the surrounding nations. The rotten fruit of the bad Vladimir is still seen throughout the former Soviet Republics.

Atheism has no virtue to offer the world. Even Greek and Roman paganism initially inspired some virtue in its followers. Atheism yields only hedonism and selfishness. What a man believes affects how he acts, and how he acts affects the world around him. Faith has consequences. GS