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The story of how a village priest built a Christian planetarium and teaches the
Bible and astronomy in it.










And the heavens receded like a scroll






12 April 2022




Viktor Ivanovich Matyushin looks at the computer screen from which
the projection of the starry sky is launched.

Photo: Sergey Karpov / Pole



In the township of Krasnooktyabrsky near Maykop, the former Baptist presbyter
Viktor Ivanovich Matyushin, at the age of seventy, assembled the Christian
planetarium, right on his parcel. One and only in Russia. Before that, he had
never been in the planetarium in his life. Photographer Sergey Karpov and
anthropologist Denis Sivkov went to Krasnooktyabrsky to find out what a DIY
planetarium is for.

The Gospel




Viktor Ivanovich is ninety-two years old. “I am of late growth,” Matyushin
smiles and says that in his life everything happens later than in others. Born
into a Baptist family, but baptized only at the age of twenty-five. Trained
as a carpenter, traveled around the Soviet Union, married at forty-five, became
a pastor in the Maikop church. Viktor Ivanovich has three children
and thirteen grandchildren.




Baptist Christians believe that baptism should be the result of a free
and responsible decision, so they do not baptize children and are baptized as
adults. The local commune has autonomy and is not managed by any superior
religious organization. The Baptist presbyter usually is an authority
and respected person, but there’s no such power as in Orthodox and Catholic
churches. All decisions are made by the Council of Brothers.



Evangelism is an important part of the Christian life. Everyone, as far
as possible, should be a missionary, converting into Christianity, carrying
the Gospel. Viktor Ivanovich says that while he was a presbyter, “he was engaged
in missionary work in miniature — one or two drivers converted into
Christianity... But I, as a village priest or just as a peasant, do not know the
foundations of creed, but ad-lib-performed a simple duty for all twenty years.
As much as I could, in my own way, right or wrong, but I tried to fulfill.”




And when he retired, he listened to talks about evangelism in the local church,
he thought that perhaps he had been fulfilling his mission incorrectly all this
time and after death he would have to answer to those to whom he preached.




No one taught me, I didn't study anywhere. I just read, think about things,
I have my own worldview and the teachings of Christ ... I  was afraid that I
would stand before God and see those people to whom I said: “Here is God, and we
must be serious and believe seriously.” And I will meet them - those who were
not among the saved, and they will blame me: “You have brought us trouble. You
told us the wrong things." I will be blamed, and God will see it. And I will be
ashamed, how could I say such to a person. Yes, I am sincere, but wrong.
And this is what motivated me to correct my mistakes.




The former village priest decided that he would spread the Gospel
through astronomy.




The projector, which broadcasts a film about the starry sky, shines
on a spherical mirror. This technology allows you to display images from
an ordinary projecting device.

Photo: Sergey Karpov / Pole




Model of the solar system, Viktor Ivanovich Matyushin made.

Photo: Sergey Karpov / Pole



Science and religion




The Christian planetarium helps to compare Christianity with science, which are
difficult for believers to ignore. Concepts of evolution with dinosaurs and
great apes, ideas about the cosmos with the Big Bang and black holes somehow
need to be compared with the six days of creation of the Old Testament. Clear or
dissonant, combination of science and religion are called creationism. Those
arguments and descriptions are found in Orthodoxy and Catholicism, Islam
and Buddhism, but creationists are most active in Protestant communities.




For example, they find the remains of dinosaurs, exhibit them in a museum. They
agree with Darwin’s evolution theory, but not creation according to Moses (a
Jewish prophet, supposed author of the Book of Genesis, which describes
the process of creating the world, animals and man). But what to do with
dinosaurs and other scientific facts?




Anthropologist James Bielo researched the young earth creationists Ark Encounter
theme park in Williams Town, Kentucky. Youngearthers are called so because they
believe that our planet is not millions of years old, but much less. There is an
exhibition "Legends of Dragons' ', which should testify in favor of the young
age of our planet.




According to the youngearthers, legends about dragons among different nations
prove that dinosaurs are not ancient lizards that lived millions of years ago,
but contemporaries of people. The monsters Behemoth and Leviathan from The
Scripture are definitely dinosaurs. Lizards and humans lived together, just as
in the "Jurassic Park" movie.



When Viktor Ivanovich and I looked at the Moon in the courtyard of the
planetarium through a telescope he bought in America, I saw a large crater and
said: “Probably, it is as big as that crater in the Yucatan that was formed due
to the fall of a meteorite, through the fault of which apparently killed
the dinosaurs on Earth.




Viktor Ivanovich believes that dinosaurs are not mentioned in the Bible because
they existed before the Six-days of Creation.




These dinosaurs, it's my guess, that this was the lifeform before the Six-days
of Creation. Because there were no conditions for dinosaurs. It is impossible!
Possibly, but with a great reserve. Very artificial... Life [was] perfect -
great apes... Historical fossils do not conflict [the Bible] at all.




Unlike the youngearthers, the village priest's version, on the way round,
lengthens the history of the Earth, assigning the Bible to a description
of the human world only. The other evolution processes are out of bounds
of the Six-days of Creation.




Same way in outer space, the Christianity describes only what happened
in the solar system. The rest is not mentioned in the Bible. Viktor Ivanovich
says that the Big Bang is God, And God created the Closed Universe exactly
the same, as Einstein taught.







External of the Christian Planetarium built by Viktor Ivanovich Matyushin.

Photo: Sergey Karpov / Pole




Viktor Ivanovich Matyushin ajustes the telescope to observe the Moon.

Photo: Sergey Karpov / Pole




Lunar sky model, made by Viktor Ivanovich Matyushin.

Photo: Sergey Karpov / Pole



The power of the stars







Dinosaurs and stars attract both — children and adults. These objects,
on the one hand, are mysterious and unexplored, on the other hand, they still
can be explored, interpreted, classified and learn something new about them.




Ordinary planetariums only show and talk about observing the stars, the causes
of the origin of the Universe, the search for signs of life on other planets,
and human flights into vacuum space. The village priest from Krasnooktyabrsky
does not criticize the scientific data, he more uses astronomy as a language
understandable to the majority, through which the Baptist version
of Christianity can be "dragged".




Stars surprise and give off emotions. And the conception of evolution allows you
to connect almost anything in the space of the planetarium. Everything that was
on Earth — in nature or human history — to recognize as parts of one process and
plan. In Christian creationism, this plan is declared as Divine.



Together with Viktor Ivanovich, we are going to visit the ethnographer Igor
Petrovich Ogay. He guided tours to the dolmens, even bought a plot next to them
and built a small museum of ammonites (these cephalopods lived 300 million years
ago; their fossilized specimens are found in the Caucasus). Now Igor Petrovich
is also building a planetarium on his site, and Viktor Ivanovich is helping with
advice. The ethnographer shows us the shelves on the walls, under the dome.
There will be a projection of the starry sky on the dome, and a collection of
ammonites on the shelves. Igor Petrovich talks about the power of the stars,
which connects everything under one dome.




Right now I'm doing archeology... Fossils... People all over the world have
always looked at the stars. Let's say Ancient Greece, Rome — everyone worshiped.
It is interesting, they read the same constellations differently, you know it
... All in all, I want to connect the Universe (never-ending) with history,
archeology and minerals, which are also almost eternal.



Stars unite ammonites, dolmens, people. The village priest Viktor Ivanovich
believes that astronomy in the Christian planetarium can push ecumenism
forward — unite all Protestant communities, not only Baptists, but also
Adventists, Lutherans, Calvinists and other Christians.




“Everything came from one,” says Viktor Ivanovich. — From one person — the whole
human race. And evolution, as Einstein said, makes sense in astronomy ... My
idea “from one” means that ideas should be brought together ... So this idea has
a right to exist, because it’s divine from the point of view of astronomy.






RU








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