When Finnish parliamentarian Päivi Maria Räsänen tweeted a verse from Romans back in 2019, she had no idea that it would ignite a firestorm not only in her home country, but around the world. For today’s episode of Fearless, I’m bringing you into the room for this year’s BGEA European Congress on Evangelism, where I had the chance to talk with Päivi onstage all about her courageous stand for biblical truth in the face of ongoing cultural and legal pressure to take back her words. 

During our time together, Päivi walks me through how growing up next to a prison in eastern Finland shaped her early understanding of sin, grace, and redemption—and how those convictions would later sustain her through hours of police interrogation and years of public scrutiny. Despite enduring multiple trials—including one currently awaiting a verdict in Finland’s Supreme Court—Päivi has refused to recant. She talks about the surreal experience of being questioned by police and prosecutors about Scripture, the pressure to deny her faith, and the global impact of her story. Through it all, Päivi has stood firm, refusing to apologize for God’s Word. 

Päivi’s testimony is a call to courage for believers everywhere: to speak truth in love, to resist self-censorship, and to trust that God’s purposes are greater than any opposition. I pray this episode would be a wakeup call for believers everywhere, that our freedom to speak biblical truth is under attack, even in the West. Now is the time to hold to our Christ-given convictions and refuse to back down.