![\"Finland](\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/images_news-2018_Finland-war-2.jpg\" "\\"Viktor")
<\/a>My great-uncle, V\u00e4in\u00f6 St\u00e5hlberg, decided to join the White troops on the Gulf of Finland island of Lavansaari (now Moshchny Island and part of Russia).<\/p>\nHis father \u2014 my great-grandfather Viktor St\u00e5hlberg had become an Adventist believer three years earlier and pleaded with his son to change his mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease my son, do not take off with your friends to join the army,\u201c he said quoting the words of Jesus: \u201cFor all who draw the sword will die by the sword.\u201c<\/p>\n
Sadly, the urge to fight for what they believed in was strong and the boys left their homes under the darkness of the night, some with a horse and sleigh and others on their cross-country skis. They met each other on the ice-covered sea early Easter Sunday morning. Tragically, they were also met there by some Red soldiers who arrested them and took them as prisoners to their headquarters in Hamina. Here they were interrogated on Easter Day, 1 April.<\/p>\n
It was later discovered that a housemaid who had fallen in love with V\u00e4in\u00f6 had revealed the boys\u2018 intentions to a Red sympathizer who has passed this information along. It was later said that during his captivity, V\u00e4in\u00f6 regretted his disobedience to his father and asked for God\u2019s forgiveness.<\/p>\n
The Reds threw the bodies of the killed young men into the hole in the ice. It is said that V\u00e4in\u00f6\u2019s dog followed his master\u2019s steps and for many nights the dog came to howl by the hole, until one night it dived in after his master and did not return.<\/p>\n Later the Whites re-conquered Hamina city and started to execute revenge on the Reds. One day Viktor St\u00e5hlberg heard that ten Red prisoners had been brought to a hill in order to kill them there as revenge for his son\u2019s murder. He took his Bible and hurried to the site. There he started preaching the Gospel, and he said: \u201cNow this slaughtering is enough; you cannot kill any Reds for my son\u2019s lost life, not one\u201c. Thus, the lives of the prisoners were saved.<\/p>\n The love of Christ had softened his heart and he wanted to honour one of the Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt not kill” [Exodus 20:13]. The cycle of revenge was broken. The love of God in his heart provoked forgiveness and save the lives of the Red prisoners.<\/p>\n<\/a>Later that night the boys were put on a horse-pulled sleigh with two armed Red soldiers and taken out onto a frozen sea. Some other soldiers had already cut a hole in the ice and ordered the boys to form a line in front of it. V\u00e4in\u00f6 resisted that command and was shot dead by a Red soldier. After that three more young people were killed, while two others made a run for it and were shot. One pretended he was dead and was left alone while the soldiers ran to shoot the other escapee. Taking his chance, he was able to run away and tell others what had happened. <\/p>\n