Finnish Father’s Forgiveness

By Sakari Vehkavuori

Finland was mired in a bloody civil war in 1918. The Reds, mainly comprised of the working class, were locked in conflict with the Whites, mostly from the middle and upper classes.

Image © Pacific Press

My great-grandfather Viktor Ståhlberg pleaded with his son, my great-uncle Väinö Ståhlberg, not to join the White troops. Viktor, who had joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church three years earlier, quoted the words of Jesus in Matthew 26:52, “For all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (NKJV).

“Please, my son, do not take off with your friends to join the army”, he said.

But Väinö felt a strong urge to fight for what he believed, and he left home under the darkness of night. He met friends on the ice-covered Gulf of Finland early one Sunday morning.

Almost immediately, Red soldiers seized Väinö and the others. It later emerged that a housemaid who had fallen in love with Väinö had revealed his plans to a Red sympathizer, who, in turn, had tipped off the Red army.

That night, the young men were put on a horse-drawn sleigh, and two armed Red soldiers drove them back onto the frozen Gulf of Finland. The soldiers cut a hole in the ice and ordered the prisoners to stand in a row. Väinö refused and was shot dead on the spot. Then three more young men were killed. Two tried to escape and were shot dead.

After that, a second group of prisoners fled. As the two soldiers chased them, one of the prisoners, who had pretended to be dead near the ice hole, fled to freedom. He told others what had happened.

Back in the gulf, the Reds threw the bodies of the dead into the ice hole.

Väinö’s father, Viktor, and the rest of the family mourned for days.

After some time, the Whites gained the upper hand as the 1918-20 Civil War wound down. They captured 10 Red prisoners and decided to execute them in revenge for the death of Väinö and his friends.

Viktor grabbed his Bible and hurried to the hilltop execution site.

“Now this slaughtering is enough”, he declared. “You cannot kill any Reds for my son’s lost life, not one”.

As he preached on the hill, the cycle of revenge was broken, and the lives of the Red prisoners were spared. Among those 10 Reds were the two sons of a local blacksmith. Seeing his sons saved, the joyful blacksmith started to read the Bible and joined the Adventist Church.

God also has blessed the family of Viktor, pictured left. Eight family members have served as Adventist pastors, including me and Väinö’s brother Toivo Seljavaara, a public evangelist who baptized more than 1,500 people.

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Further Thought: 

Read Ellen G. White, “Dorcas—Her Ministry and Its Influence”, pages 66, 67, in Welfare Ministry; “A Liberal Church”, pages 335-345, in The Acts of the Apostles; “This Is Pure Religion”, pages 35-41, in Welfare Ministry.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

“The Saviour has given His precious life in order to establish a church capable of caring for sorrowful, tempted souls. A company of believers may be poor, uneducated, and unknown; yet in Christ they may do a work in the home, the neighborhood, the church, and even in ‘the regions beyond,’ whose results shall be as far-reaching as eternity”. – Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 640.

“Unselfish liberality threw the early church into a transport of joy; for the believers knew that their efforts were helping to send the gospel message to those in darkness. Their benevolence testified that they had not received the grace of God in vain. What could produce such liberality but the sanctification of the Spirit? In the eyes of believers and unbelievers it was a miracle of grace”. – Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 344.

Discussion Questions:

Summary: 

Spurred by Jesus’ commission and the power of the Holy Spirit, the disciples and the early believers set out to share the message and mission of Jesus as widely as possible. Drawing from the teachings of Jesus and the Hebrew Scriptures, the early church was a new kind of community, sharing what they had with those in need, both within and beyond their community. By their example and their teaching recorded in their letters to these churches, the first Christian leaders urged the believers to lives of faithfulness and service, particularly to those in need.

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Christian tradition suggests that James, the brother or stepbrother of Jesus, became a leader of the early church in Jerusalem and was the James who acted as chairman for the Jerusalem council (see Acts chapter 15, as well as Galatians chapters 1 and 2). If so, it is likely that he was the author of the letter preserved in the Bible as the book of James.

James

James was a common name at the time, but if these were the same person, he may also have been the church leader known as James “the Just”, which suggests a wise leader who properly prioritized his treatment of others and cared for those often forgotten or downtrodden. The book that bears his name has been described as “the New Testament’s book of Proverbs”, focused on practical godliness and living wisely as followers of God.

The author of James was anxious to remind his Christian readers to “not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22, NIV), and that the religion that matters—that is pure and lasting in God’s sight—is focused on caring for the needy and the oppressed and resisting the corrupting influences of the society around them (see James 1:27).

Read James 2:1-9 and James 5:1-5. How is James’s attitude to those who are rich different from that commonly held in most societies? What are his particular instructions regarding how rich and poor are to be treated within the church community?

James argues that wishing someone well—even wishing them God’s blessing—will be of little comfort if they are suffering from cold and hunger. The provision of real food and clothing will be far more useful in expressing and demonstrating our concern for them than all the noble sentiments and good wishes (see James 2:14-16). James uses this as an example of the interaction between faith and works in the context of our relationship with God. He also repeats (James 2:8) what Jesus taught about loving your neighbor as yourself, showing how this commandment is to be obeyed in daily life. It is lived out in service to God and to others, not to earn salvation but because it is the manifestation of true faith.

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