i suffer in the west more than i did in communist lands. (wurmbrand speaking)
my suffering consists first of all
in the longing after the unspeakable beauties of the underground church,
the church that fulfills the old latin saying,
nudisnudum christi sequi
naked, follow the naked Christ.
in captive nations,
the Son of Man and those who are his
have nowhere to lay their heads.
many christians there don't build houses for themselves.
to what good?
they will be confiscated at their first arrest.
just the fact that you have a new house
can be a greater motive for you
to be imprisoned,
because the others wish to take your house.
there you don't bury your father,
neither do you say farewell to your family before following Christ.
..mother and brother are for you
only those who fulfill the will of God...
the underground church is a poor and suffering church,
but it has few lukewarm members.
a religious service in the underground church
is like one nineteen hundred years ago in the early church.
the preacher knows no elaborate theology.
he knows no homiletic...
the bible verses are no well known in many countries,
because bibles are not permitted.
besides, the preacher has most likely
been in prison for years without a bible.
when they express their faith in a Father,
it means much because there is a drama behind this assertion.
in prison they have daily asked this almighty Father
for bread and have received instead
cabbage with unmentionable filth.
nevertheless, they believe God to be the loving Father.
they are like job who said that he would believe in God
even if He would slay him.
they are like Jesus who called god 'Father',
even when He was seemingly forsaken on the cross....
..i see with my own eyes western civilization dying.
oswald spengler wrote in 'decline of the west',
you are dying.
i see in you all the characteristic stigma of decay.
i can prove that your great wealth
and your great poverty..
your wars ad your revolutions,
your atheism and your pessimism and your cynicism,
your immorality,
your broken down marriages,
your birth control,
(note: your millions of abortions spengler did not foresee)
that is bleeding you from the bottom
and killing you off..
this was written in 1926...much of the west sleeps.
but there is one force that does not sleep....
we christians are often half heartedly on the side of the whole truth.
they are wholeheartedly on the side of the lie...
to keep liberty for all denominations and all theologies,
and to regain it where it has been lost due to widespread religious persecution,
is more important than to insist upon one certain theological opinion.
'the truth shall make you free, said Jesus john 8.32
but, the same freedom, only freedom, can give the truth.
and instead of quarreling about non essentials,
we should unite in this fight for freedom against the tyrannies in this world.
...men who suffer often seek a scapegoat,
someone on whom to place the guilt.
to find such a one eases the burden much.
i cannot do it.
i cannot put the guilt on some of the church leaders of the west
who compromise with the haters of christians.
the evil comes not from them.
these leaders are themselves the victims of a much older evil.
they did not create the mess in the church;
they found it.
since being in the west, i have visited many theological seminaries.
there i heard lectures about the history of bells
and the history of liturgical songs,
about canonical laws long since disused
or about A CHURCH DISCIPLINE THAT NO LONGER EXISTS.
i have heard that some students of theology
learn that the biblical story of creation is not true,
nor that of adam,
nor the flood,
nor the miracles of moses.
some are taught that the prophecies were written after their fulfillment;
that the virgin birth is a myth;
likewise the resurrection of Jesus, that His bones have remained somewhere in a grave;
that the epistles are not genuine;
and that revelation is the book of a madman.
otherwise, the bible is a holy book!
(this leaves a holy book in which there are allegedly more lies
than in chinese communist newspapers.)
that is what some present western church leaders learned when they were in seminaries.
that is the atmosphere in which they live.
why should they be faithful to a master
about whom such strange things are said?
why should church leaders be faithful
to a church in which it can be freely taught that
God is dead.
some leaders of denominations are not of the bride of Christ.
they are leaders in a church in which many have long since
betrayed the master.
when they meet someone of the underground church,
a martyr,
they look at him strangely....
..another pain..even very close friends misunderstand me...accuse..of bitterness..resentment against..
communists..not true.
the mosaic writer claude motefiore said that
Jesus' attitude toward scribes and pharisees,
His public denunciation of them,
is contrary to His command to love our enemies
and bless those who curse us.
and dr. w. r. matthews, retired dean of st. paul's in london,
concluded that this is an
incoherence and inconsistency in Jesus.
he gives the excuse that Jesus was not an intellectual!
monte's impression of Jesus was wrong.
Jesus loved the pharisees,
although He denounced them publicly.
and i love the communist,
as well as their tools in the church.
although i denounce them.
constantly i am told,
'forget the communists!
work only in spiritual things!...
the underground church, if helped by christians in the free world,
will win the hearts of the communists
and will change the face of the world.
it will win them,
because it is unnatural to be a communist...
the hearts of communists rebel against the role they must play
and the absurdities they are forced to believe.
individual communists asserted that 'matter is everything' -
that we are a handful of chemicals organized in a certain fashion
and that after death we will again be salt and minerals.
it was therefore enough to ask them,
'how is it that communists in so many countries have given their lives for their belief?
does a 'handful of chemicals' have beliefs/
can 'minerals' sacrifice themselves for the good of others?
to this they have no answer.
and then there is the issue of brutality.
men were not created as brutes
and cannot bear to be brutes for long.
we have seen it in the collapse of nazi rulers,
some of whom committed suicide,
while some repented and confessed their crimes.
the enormous amount of drunkenness in communist countries
exposes the longing for a more meaningful life,
which communism cannot give.
the average russian is a
deep, big hearted, generous person.
communism is shallow and superficial.
he seeks the deep life and,
finding it nowhere else,
he seeks it in alcohol.
he expresses in alcoholism his horror about
the brutal and deceitful life he must live.
for a few moments alcohol sets him free,
as truth would set him free forever
if he could know it....
many communists commit suicide...
communists are unhappy. so are even their great dictators.
how unhappy stalin was!
after having killed nearly all of his old comrades,
he was constantly in fear of being poisoned or killed himself.
he had eight bedrooms that could be locked up
like safes in a bank.
no one ever knew in which of these bedrooms
he slept on any given night.
he never ate unless the cook tasted the food in his presence.
communism makes no one happy,
not even its dictators.
they need Christ.
by converting those who persecute christians,
we would free not only their victims,
but the persecutors themselves...
the underground church represents the deepest need of
enslaved peoples in captive nations.
help her!
the distinctive feature of the underground church
is its earnestness in faith.
the minister who disguises himself under the name of 'george'
tells in his book about God's underground the following incident:
a russian army captain came to a minister in hungary
and asked to see him alone.
the young captain was very brash,
and very conscious of his role as a conqueror.
when he had been led to a small conference room
and the door was closed,
he nodded toward the cross that hung on the wall.
you know that thing is a lie, he said to the minister.
it's just a piece of trickery you ministers use
to delude the poor people to make it easier for the rich
to keep them ignorant.
come now, we are alone.
admit to me that you never really believed that
Jesus Christ was the Son of god!
the minister smiled.
but, my poor young man,
of course i believe it.
it is true.
i won't have you play these tricks on me!,
cried the captain,
this is serious.
don't laugh at me!
he drew out his revolver and held it close to the body of the minister.
unless you admit to me that it is a lie, i'll fire!
i cannot admit that,
for it is not true.
our Lord is really and truly the son of God,
the captain flung his revolver on the floor
and embraced the man of God.
tears sprang to his eyes.
it is true! he cried. it is true.
i believe so, too,
but i could not be sure men would die for this belief
until i found it out for myself.
oh, thank you!
you have strengthened my faith.
now i too can die for Christ.
you have shown me how....
i speak on behalf of my brethren who lie in countless nameless graves.
i speak on behalf of my brethren who now meet
secretly in forests, basements, attics and other such places.
the message i bring from the underground church is;
don't abandon us!
don't forget us!
don't write us off!
give us the tools we need!
we will pay the price for using them!
this is the message i have been charged
to deliver to the free church.
i speak for the underground church,
the silenced church.
the 'dumb' church,
which has no voice to speak.
hear the crises of your brothers and sisters in captive nations!...
..help at once in the following ways.
atheists are men who do not acknowledge the invisible sources of their life.
they have no sense for what is mystery in the universe and in life.
christians can help them best by walking themselves not by sight,
but by faith,
leading a life of fellowship with the invisible God.
they can help us best by leading the lives of consistent christians,
lives of sacrifice.
they can help by protesting publicly
as often as christians are persecuted.
western christians can help us by praying for the persecutors
that they may be saved.
such a prayer may seem naive.
we prayed for the communists
and they tortured us the next day
even worse than before the prayer.
but the prayer of the Lord in jerusalem
was also 'naive'.
they crucified Him after this prayer.
but only a few days later,
they beat their breasts
and 5000 were converted in one day....
we must love our neighbors as ourselves.
communists and other persecutors are our neighbors
as much as anyone else.
they are the result of our not making known the words of Christ:
I have some that they may have life,
and that they may have it more abundantly. john 10.10
christians have no yet made this abundant life available to everyone.
they have left some on the fringe of everything valuable in life.
these individuals have rebelled and constituted
the communist party and other false beliefs.
often the victims of social injustice themselves,
they are now bitter and cruel.
we have to fight against them.
but christians, even if they fight against an enemy,
understand and love him.
we are not guiltless of the fact that some live in rebellion.
we are guilty at least by neglect of duty.
for this we have to atone by loving them-
which is something entirely different from liking them-
and praying for them.
i am not so naive as to believe that love alone can solve these problems.
i would not advise the authorities of a state
to solve the problem of gangsterism only by love.
there must be a police force, judges and prisons for gangsters-
not just pastors.
if gangsters do not repent, they must be jailed.
i would never use the christian phrase about 'love'
to counteract the appropriate political, economic, or cultural fight
against communists and other tyrants,
who are nothing but gangsters on an international scale.
gangsters steal a purse;
they steal whole countries.
but the pastor and the individual christian have to do their best
to bring to Christ rebellious nations-
whatever crimes they commit-
as well as their innocent victims.
we have to pray for them with understanding.
another way free christians can help is by sending bibles and bible portions...
,..they are desperately needed...
we also print and send special literature to counterattack
the atheist poison being given the youth from kindergarten to college.
in the soviet union, the communists prepared 'the atheist's guidebook,
which is the atheist's bible.
simple versions are taught to kindergarten children,
with more advanced versions of the same guidebook
taught as the children progress.
the evil 'bible' follows a child as he grows and advances-
poisoning him with atheism all the way.
we print and send 'the answer to the atheist's handbook'
as the christian answer to poisonous, atheistic teachings...
we also must 'join hands ' with members of the underground church
and give them the financial means o travel about with the gospel
in person to person evangelism.
so many..are chained to their homes for lack of funds..
afterword (this is from a copy of the 30th anniversary from the time of its first printing)
..within his first year in the united states,
pastor wurmbrand was detained twice for
'disrupting' pro communist rallies.
he was called to testify before the senate,
stripping to the waist to reveal
the scars of 18 embedded wounds from the frequent tortures.
some christian leaders called him a lunatic-
one who had lost his mind in the confines of a solitary prison cell.
to others he became the 'iron curtain paul
or the 'voice of the underground church'.
a reporter with the philadelphia herald said of wurmbrand,
he stood in the midst of lions, but they could not devour him...
although we are called to take every opportunity to help those in need,
we are to recognise that the 'rite of christians
is to be persecuted.
11 of the 12 disciples were murdered.
Jesus never said it would be any different for us,.
it is part of who we are in Christ.
not all of us are called to suffer persecution,
as pastor wurmbrand did.
but when trials do come,
we should not be surprised
but rather should rejoice
that we have been considered worthy to suffer for Christ.
for he has also stated,
blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. mathew 5.10
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Monday, January 7, 2013
1.7.2012 THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS by JOHN BUNYAN
this book is about a man, christian, who comes to realize that he is living in the CITY OF DESTRUCTION and that he and his family are in imminent danger thereof. after unsuccessfully trying to persuade his wife and children of the fact and in the face of their mockery/persuasion to stay, he finally, in desperation to escape, runs-with his family crying out for him to come back- from the city, with his fingers in his ears and crying out again and again,
'LIFE, ETERNAL LIFE!
the rest of the book is a description of his journey through many difficulties and fears which brings him finally into heaven. sometimes he travels alone, other times with another. the two longest fellow travelers are FAITHFUL and HOPEFUL. faithful is martyred. at one point. further on hopeful joins christian and they enter heaven together.
i read this book a long time ago. a friend recently shared that he had just read the book a second time. he had received nothing the first time and he still received nothing. i had been thinking to read again and this prompted it. i received such good and helpful spiritual impressions that i can see myself re-reading it AGAIN AND AGAIN, with benefit, as long as i may be here.
this book was criticized by some believers before it was printed. bunyan, feeling that God used the devise of allegory in the bible and sensing that it might be helpful to some who might read, went ahead with the plan to publish. i hear that only the bible has had more printed copies than this book and that many, many people have been helped spiritually. i can now heartily recommend it for it has been this second a real 'spiritual elixir' to my soul. (i was a church goer, religious and self righteous when i read the first as its only a little over 10 years since the time of what i now believe to be, by the grace of God, my true conversion...God certainly has not dealt with me according to a formulaic ' i-came-to-a-crisis-and-cried-out-to-God-to-save-me' i once held to be the only way God saves men...no, if I am now truly saved, God found me not me Him.)
the dialogue below between CHRISTIAN and HOPEFUL takes place just after christian talks to ATHEIST. it starts on page 150 of my copy...
christian - now, then, to prevent drowsiness in this place,
let us fall into good discourse.
(note: as much as i bemoan that God has not seen fit to cause me to meet up with living examples of what some divines of old called 'experimental christians', that is genuine, serious seekers of holiness who, dead to the world, openly witnessed to the Christ and His truth and suffer in an ongoing way for it (matthew 5.10-12.) this makes me sad for i do not yet see myself as one of the number of 'experimental christians' but as some kind of aspirant to such a blessed group. i occasionally hear of some that sound like such who are reported to boldly live for Christ in the face of threats and the possibility of death. i occasionally meet dead ones in books who draw out my spirit to them to be companion with them. but i am not one. oh, may
God have mercy and help me to give all for Him and be totally unashamed of the gospel....and possibly be given the gift of actually meeting another like minded.
sorry..back to the book.
if my above impression is generally true of the church as i have experienced it (ie.that it is dead spiritually),
yet thankfully this book, written in england of the 1600s, was written in a situation where there were actual 'experimental' christians and therefore portrays them along with all the counterfeit types.
i see the book as containing two continuous intermingled strains:
1. bunyan seems to portray genuine believers in a way that seems to almost 'say'
that any true believer
will not only seek out
but will find
ongoing dialogue about and comraderie in
both spiritual reality and experiences
(which often result in general temporal difficulty
and, what might be called repeated times of 'recovered spiritual decline')
in the hearts, conversation and acts of obedience to the word of God
of any other true believer they happen to come into contact with.
2. bunyan, on the other hand, portrays the genuine believer
as having little 'heart dialogue' with false 'believers'
(whose life contains only,
at the best, correct doctrine
and often a lot of words
but no obedient acts)
the genuine believer,
in my understanding of bunyan's portrayal of
what we call 'fellowship',
1. being a doer of the word by practice
quickly discerns the non-doer
2. and by words of truth he
a. seeks to gain the other to its practice
b. but inevitably seems to end up
unmasking the other,
who disappears from the scene.
when this happens the genuine believer is never portrayed as being saddened
...and sometimes positively relieved and gladdened, for
'evil company corrupts good morals' I corinthians 15.33
SUMMARY STATEMENT: it seems that the genuine believer is
1-obedient to the Lord
2-when disobedient or careless
turning from this and
learning from his mistake
3-very open in his speech with every other person:
believer, would be believer, false believer, unbeliever. etc
4-continuously desirous to talk with other genuine believers
not about what is 'correct doctrine',
but the experience in the pursuit of obedience
with the desire either to teach or to learn what
obedience involves
and pitfalls to its proper performance and fruit
5-very open about his faith in Jesus Christ
in words and actions...end of note... to dialogue again.)
hopeful.
with all my heart. (i want to discourse, or talk, with you)
ch.
where shall we begin?
ho.
where God began with us.
but do you begin, if you please.
ch.
i will ask you a question.
how came you to think at first
of so doing as you DO now.
ho.
do you mean,
how came i at first
to look after the good
of my soul?
ch.
yes, that is my meaning.
ho.
i continued a great while in the delight of those things which were seen and sold at our fair;
(note: vanity fair, an allegory of all the vain, empty things this world affords-
things, wealth, power, sex, fame etc.)
things which, i believe now,
would have,
had i continued in them still,
drowned me in perdition and destruction
ch.
what things are they?
ho.
all the treasures and riches of the world.
also i delighted much in
(note: the person who is familiar with the king james version, used in bunyan's day, will soon realize how much word for word bible is in the book.)
rioting, reveling, drinking,
swearing, lying, uncleanness, sabbath breaking,
and what not, that tended to destroy my soul.
but i found at last,
by hearing and considering of things that are divine,
which indeed i heard of you,
as also of beloved Faithful,
that was put to death for his faith and good living in vanity fair,
that the end of these things is death.
and that for these things' sake
cometh the wrath of god upon the children of disobedience.
ch.
and did you presently fall under the power of this conviction?
ho.
the causes were:
1. i was ignorant that this was the work of god upon me.
i never thought that,
by awakenings for sin,
God at first begins the conversion of the sinner.
2. sin was yet very sweet to my flesh,
and i was loath to leave it.
3. i could not tell how to part with mine old companions,
their presence and actions were so desirable unto me.
4. the hours in which convictions were upon me
were such troublesome and
such heart affrighting hours,
that i could not bear, no,
not so much as the remembrance of them upon my heart.
ch.
then, as it seems, sometimes you got rid of your trouble.
ho.
yes, verily,
but it would come into my mind again,
and then i should be as bad,
nay, worse than i was before.
ch.
and could you at any time,
with ease,
get off the guilt of sin,
when by any of these ways it came upon you?
ho.
no, not i,
for then they got faster hold of my conscience;
and then if i did but think of going back to sin
(though my mind was turned against it),
it would be double torment to me.
ch.
and how did you do then?
ho.
i thought i must endeavor to mind my life;
for else, thought i,
i am sure to be damned.
ch.
and did you endeavor to mend?
ho.
yes, for a while;
but at the last, my trouble came tumbling upon me again,
and that over the neck of all my reformations.
ch.
how came that about,
since you were now reformed?
ho.
there were several things brought it upon me,
especially such sayings as these:
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
when ye shall have done all those things, say,
we are unprofitable;
with many more like.
from whence i began to reason with myself thus:
if ALL my righteousnesses are filthy rags;
if, by the deeds of the law,
NO man can be justified;
and if, when we have done ALL,
we are yet unprofitable,
then it is but a folly to think of heaven by the law.
i further thought thus:
if a man runs a hundred pounds into the shopkeeper's debt,
and after that shall pay for all that he shall fetch;
yet, if this old debt stands still in the book uncrossed,
for that the shopkeeper may sue him,
and cast him into prison till he shall bay the debt.
ch.
how did you apply this to yourself?
ho.
why, i thought thus with myself:
i have,
by my sins,
run a great way into god's book,
and that my now reforming will not pay off that score:
therefore i should think still,
under my present amendments,
but how shall i be freed from that damnation
that i have brought myself in danger of,
by my former transgressions?
ch.
a very good application;
but pray, go on.
ho.
another thing that hath troubled me,
even since my late amendments,
is that
IF I LOOK NARROWLY
INTO THE BEST OF WHAT I DO NOW,
I STILL SEE SIN,
NEW SIN,
MIXING ITSELF
WITH THE BEST OF THAT I DO;
so that now i am forced to conclude,
that notwithstanding my former fond conceits of myself and duties,
I HAVE COMMITTED SIN ENOUGH IN ONE DAY
TO SEND ME TO HELL,
THOUGH MY FORMER LIFE HAD BEEN FAULTLESS.
ch.
and what did you do then?
ho.
Do!
i could not tell what to do
until i brake my mind to Faithful,
for he and i were well acquainted.
and he told me,
that unless i could obtain the righteousness
of a man that never had sinned,
neither mine own,
nor all the righteousness of the world,
could save me.
ch.
and did you think he spake true?
ho.
had he told me so
when i was pleased and satisfied
with mine own amendment (trying to do good instead of bad)
i had called him fool for his pains;
but now,
since i see mine own infirmity,
and the sin that cleaves to my best performance,
i have been forced to be of his opinion.
ch.
but did you think,
when at first he suggested it to you,
that there was such a man to be found,
of whom it might justly be said
that he never committed sin?
ho.
i must confess the words at first sounded strangely,
but after a little more talk and company with him,
i had a full conviction about it.
ch.
and did you ask him what man this was,
and how you must be justified by him?
ho.
yes, and he told me it was the Lord Jesus,
that dwelleth on the right hand of the Most High.
and thus, said he,
you must be justified by Him,
even by trusting to what He hath done by Himself,
in the days of His flesh,
and suffered when He did hang on the tree.
i asked him further,
how that man's righteousness could be of that efficacy
to justify another before god:
and he told me He was the mighty God,
and did what He did,
and died the death also,
not for Himself,
but for me;
to whom His doings,
and the worthiness of them,
should be imputed,
it i believed on Him.
ch.
and what did you then?
ho.
i made my objections against my believing,
for that i though He was not willing to save me.
ch.
and what said Faithful to you then?
ho.
he bid me go to Him and see.
then i said it was ;presumption;
but he said,
no, for i was invited to come.
then he gave me a book of Jesus,
His inditing,
(compose, write)
to encourage me the more freely to come;
and he said, concerning that book,
that every jot and tittle thereof stood firmer than heaven and earth.
then i asked him,
what i must to when i came;
and he told me,
I MUST ENTREAT
WITH ALL MY HEART AND SOUL,
THE RATHER TO REVEAL HIM TO ME.
then i asked him further,
how i must make my supplication to Him?
and he said,
go, and thou shall find Him upon a mercy seat,
where He sits all the year long,
to give pardon and forgiveness to them that come.
i told him that i knew not what to say when i came.
and he bid me say to this effect;
God be merciful to me a sinner,
and make me to know and believe in Jesus Christ;
for i see, that if His righteousness had not been,
or i have not faith in that righteousness,
i am utterly cast away.
Lord, i have ordained that Thy Son Jesus Christ
should be the Saviour of the world;
and moreover, that Thou art willing to bestow Him
upon such a poor sinner as i am
(and i am a sinner indeed);
Lord, take therefore this opportunity,
and magnify Thy grace in the salvation of my soul,
through thy Son Jesus Christ. amen.
ch.
and did you do as you were bidden?
ho.
yes; over, and over and over.
ch.
and did the Father reveal His Son to you?
ho.
not at the first nor second nor third nor fourth nor fifth;
no, nor at the sixth time neither.
ch.
what did you do then?
ho.
what! why i could not tell what to do.
ch.
had you not thoughts of leaving off praying?
ho.
yes; an hundred times twice told.
ch.
and what was the reason you did not?
ho.
i believed that that was true which had been told me,
to wit, that without the righteousness of this Christ
all the world could not save me;
and therefore, thought i with myself,
IF I LEAVE OFF I DIE,
AND I CAN DIE AT THE THRONE OF GRACE.
and withal, this came into my mind:
though it tarry, wait for it;
because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
so i continued praying until the Father showed me His Son.
ch.
and how was He revealed unto you?
ho.
i did not see Him with my bodily eyes,
but with the eyes of my understanding;
and thus it was:
one day i was very sad,
i think sadder than at any one time in my life,
and this sadness was through a fresh sight of the greatness and vileness of my sins.
and as i was then looking for nothing but hell,
and the everlasting damnation of my soul,
suddenly, as i thought,
i saw the Lord Jesus Christ, look down from heaven upon me,
and saying,
'beleive on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
but i replied,
Lord, i am a great, a very great sinner.
and He answered,
My grace is sufficient for thee.
then i said,
but, Lord, what is believing?
and then i saw from that saying,
'he that cometh to Me shall never hunger,
and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst',
that believing and coming was all one;
and that he that came,
that is, ran out in his heart and affections after salvation by Christ,
he indeed believed in Christ.
then the water stood in mine eyes,
and i asked further:
but Lord, may such a great sinner as i am
be indeed accepted of Thee,
and be saved by Thee?
and i heard Him say,
'and him that cometh to Me,
i will in no wise cast out.
then i said,
but how, Lord, must i consider of Thee in my coming to Thee,
that my faith may be placed aright upon Thee?
then He said,
'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
He is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
he died for our sins, and rose again for our justification.
He loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.
He is mediator betwixt God and us.
He ever liveth to make intercession for us.
from all which i gathered,
that i must look for righteousness in His person,
and for satisfaction for my sins by his blood;
that what he did in obedience to His Father's law,
and in submitting to the penalty thereof,
was not for Himself,
but for him that will accept it for his salvation,
and be thankful.
AND NOW WAS MY HEART FULL OF JOY
MINE EYES FULL OF TEARS,
AND MINE AFFECTIONS RUNNING OVER WITH LOVE
TO THE
NAME,
PEOPLE
AND WAYS
OF JESUS CHRIST.
ch.
this was a revelation of Christ to your soul indeed;
but tell me what effect this had upon your spirit.
ho. it made me see that all the world,
notwithstanding all the righteousness thereof,
is in a state of condemnation.
it made me greatly ashamed of the vileness of my former life,
and confounded me with the sense of mine own ignorance;
for there never came thought into my heart before now
that showed me so the beauty of Jesus Christ.
IT MADE ME LOVE A HOLY LIFE AND
LONG TO DO SOMETHING FOR THE HONOR AND GLORY
OF THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS;
yea, i thought that had i now a thousand gallons of blood in my body,
i could spill it all for the sake of the Lord Jesus.
'LIFE, ETERNAL LIFE!
the rest of the book is a description of his journey through many difficulties and fears which brings him finally into heaven. sometimes he travels alone, other times with another. the two longest fellow travelers are FAITHFUL and HOPEFUL. faithful is martyred. at one point. further on hopeful joins christian and they enter heaven together.
i read this book a long time ago. a friend recently shared that he had just read the book a second time. he had received nothing the first time and he still received nothing. i had been thinking to read again and this prompted it. i received such good and helpful spiritual impressions that i can see myself re-reading it AGAIN AND AGAIN, with benefit, as long as i may be here.
this book was criticized by some believers before it was printed. bunyan, feeling that God used the devise of allegory in the bible and sensing that it might be helpful to some who might read, went ahead with the plan to publish. i hear that only the bible has had more printed copies than this book and that many, many people have been helped spiritually. i can now heartily recommend it for it has been this second a real 'spiritual elixir' to my soul. (i was a church goer, religious and self righteous when i read the first as its only a little over 10 years since the time of what i now believe to be, by the grace of God, my true conversion...God certainly has not dealt with me according to a formulaic ' i-came-to-a-crisis-and-cried-out-to-God-to-save-me' i once held to be the only way God saves men...no, if I am now truly saved, God found me not me Him.)
the dialogue below between CHRISTIAN and HOPEFUL takes place just after christian talks to ATHEIST. it starts on page 150 of my copy...
christian - now, then, to prevent drowsiness in this place,
let us fall into good discourse.
(note: as much as i bemoan that God has not seen fit to cause me to meet up with living examples of what some divines of old called 'experimental christians', that is genuine, serious seekers of holiness who, dead to the world, openly witnessed to the Christ and His truth and suffer in an ongoing way for it (matthew 5.10-12.) this makes me sad for i do not yet see myself as one of the number of 'experimental christians' but as some kind of aspirant to such a blessed group. i occasionally hear of some that sound like such who are reported to boldly live for Christ in the face of threats and the possibility of death. i occasionally meet dead ones in books who draw out my spirit to them to be companion with them. but i am not one. oh, may
God have mercy and help me to give all for Him and be totally unashamed of the gospel....and possibly be given the gift of actually meeting another like minded.
sorry..back to the book.
if my above impression is generally true of the church as i have experienced it (ie.that it is dead spiritually),
yet thankfully this book, written in england of the 1600s, was written in a situation where there were actual 'experimental' christians and therefore portrays them along with all the counterfeit types.
i see the book as containing two continuous intermingled strains:
1. bunyan seems to portray genuine believers in a way that seems to almost 'say'
that any true believer
will not only seek out
but will find
ongoing dialogue about and comraderie in
both spiritual reality and experiences
(which often result in general temporal difficulty
and, what might be called repeated times of 'recovered spiritual decline')
in the hearts, conversation and acts of obedience to the word of God
of any other true believer they happen to come into contact with.
2. bunyan, on the other hand, portrays the genuine believer
as having little 'heart dialogue' with false 'believers'
(whose life contains only,
at the best, correct doctrine
and often a lot of words
but no obedient acts)
the genuine believer,
in my understanding of bunyan's portrayal of
what we call 'fellowship',
1. being a doer of the word by practice
quickly discerns the non-doer
2. and by words of truth he
a. seeks to gain the other to its practice
b. but inevitably seems to end up
unmasking the other,
who disappears from the scene.
when this happens the genuine believer is never portrayed as being saddened
...and sometimes positively relieved and gladdened, for
'evil company corrupts good morals' I corinthians 15.33
SUMMARY STATEMENT: it seems that the genuine believer is
1-obedient to the Lord
2-when disobedient or careless
turning from this and
learning from his mistake
3-very open in his speech with every other person:
believer, would be believer, false believer, unbeliever. etc
4-continuously desirous to talk with other genuine believers
not about what is 'correct doctrine',
but the experience in the pursuit of obedience
with the desire either to teach or to learn what
obedience involves
and pitfalls to its proper performance and fruit
5-very open about his faith in Jesus Christ
in words and actions...end of note... to dialogue again.)
hopeful.
with all my heart. (i want to discourse, or talk, with you)
ch.
where shall we begin?
ho.
where God began with us.
but do you begin, if you please.
ch.
i will ask you a question.
how came you to think at first
of so doing as you DO now.
ho.
do you mean,
how came i at first
to look after the good
of my soul?
ch.
yes, that is my meaning.
ho.
i continued a great while in the delight of those things which were seen and sold at our fair;
(note: vanity fair, an allegory of all the vain, empty things this world affords-
things, wealth, power, sex, fame etc.)
things which, i believe now,
would have,
had i continued in them still,
drowned me in perdition and destruction
ch.
what things are they?
ho.
all the treasures and riches of the world.
also i delighted much in
(note: the person who is familiar with the king james version, used in bunyan's day, will soon realize how much word for word bible is in the book.)
rioting, reveling, drinking,
swearing, lying, uncleanness, sabbath breaking,
and what not, that tended to destroy my soul.
but i found at last,
by hearing and considering of things that are divine,
which indeed i heard of you,
as also of beloved Faithful,
that was put to death for his faith and good living in vanity fair,
that the end of these things is death.
and that for these things' sake
cometh the wrath of god upon the children of disobedience.
ch.
and did you presently fall under the power of this conviction?
ho.
the causes were:
1. i was ignorant that this was the work of god upon me.
i never thought that,
by awakenings for sin,
God at first begins the conversion of the sinner.
2. sin was yet very sweet to my flesh,
and i was loath to leave it.
3. i could not tell how to part with mine old companions,
their presence and actions were so desirable unto me.
4. the hours in which convictions were upon me
were such troublesome and
such heart affrighting hours,
that i could not bear, no,
not so much as the remembrance of them upon my heart.
ch.
then, as it seems, sometimes you got rid of your trouble.
ho.
yes, verily,
but it would come into my mind again,
and then i should be as bad,
nay, worse than i was before.
ch.
and could you at any time,
with ease,
get off the guilt of sin,
when by any of these ways it came upon you?
ho.
no, not i,
for then they got faster hold of my conscience;
and then if i did but think of going back to sin
(though my mind was turned against it),
it would be double torment to me.
ch.
and how did you do then?
ho.
i thought i must endeavor to mind my life;
for else, thought i,
i am sure to be damned.
ch.
and did you endeavor to mend?
ho.
yes, for a while;
but at the last, my trouble came tumbling upon me again,
and that over the neck of all my reformations.
ch.
how came that about,
since you were now reformed?
ho.
there were several things brought it upon me,
especially such sayings as these:
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
when ye shall have done all those things, say,
we are unprofitable;
with many more like.
from whence i began to reason with myself thus:
if ALL my righteousnesses are filthy rags;
if, by the deeds of the law,
NO man can be justified;
and if, when we have done ALL,
we are yet unprofitable,
then it is but a folly to think of heaven by the law.
i further thought thus:
if a man runs a hundred pounds into the shopkeeper's debt,
and after that shall pay for all that he shall fetch;
yet, if this old debt stands still in the book uncrossed,
for that the shopkeeper may sue him,
and cast him into prison till he shall bay the debt.
ch.
how did you apply this to yourself?
ho.
why, i thought thus with myself:
i have,
by my sins,
run a great way into god's book,
and that my now reforming will not pay off that score:
therefore i should think still,
under my present amendments,
but how shall i be freed from that damnation
that i have brought myself in danger of,
by my former transgressions?
ch.
a very good application;
but pray, go on.
ho.
another thing that hath troubled me,
even since my late amendments,
is that
IF I LOOK NARROWLY
INTO THE BEST OF WHAT I DO NOW,
I STILL SEE SIN,
NEW SIN,
MIXING ITSELF
WITH THE BEST OF THAT I DO;
so that now i am forced to conclude,
that notwithstanding my former fond conceits of myself and duties,
I HAVE COMMITTED SIN ENOUGH IN ONE DAY
TO SEND ME TO HELL,
THOUGH MY FORMER LIFE HAD BEEN FAULTLESS.
ch.
and what did you do then?
ho.
Do!
i could not tell what to do
until i brake my mind to Faithful,
for he and i were well acquainted.
and he told me,
that unless i could obtain the righteousness
of a man that never had sinned,
neither mine own,
nor all the righteousness of the world,
could save me.
ch.
and did you think he spake true?
ho.
had he told me so
when i was pleased and satisfied
with mine own amendment (trying to do good instead of bad)
i had called him fool for his pains;
but now,
since i see mine own infirmity,
and the sin that cleaves to my best performance,
i have been forced to be of his opinion.
ch.
but did you think,
when at first he suggested it to you,
that there was such a man to be found,
of whom it might justly be said
that he never committed sin?
ho.
i must confess the words at first sounded strangely,
but after a little more talk and company with him,
i had a full conviction about it.
ch.
and did you ask him what man this was,
and how you must be justified by him?
ho.
yes, and he told me it was the Lord Jesus,
that dwelleth on the right hand of the Most High.
and thus, said he,
you must be justified by Him,
even by trusting to what He hath done by Himself,
in the days of His flesh,
and suffered when He did hang on the tree.
i asked him further,
how that man's righteousness could be of that efficacy
to justify another before god:
and he told me He was the mighty God,
and did what He did,
and died the death also,
not for Himself,
but for me;
to whom His doings,
and the worthiness of them,
should be imputed,
it i believed on Him.
ch.
and what did you then?
ho.
i made my objections against my believing,
for that i though He was not willing to save me.
ch.
and what said Faithful to you then?
ho.
he bid me go to Him and see.
then i said it was ;presumption;
but he said,
no, for i was invited to come.
then he gave me a book of Jesus,
His inditing,
(compose, write)
to encourage me the more freely to come;
and he said, concerning that book,
that every jot and tittle thereof stood firmer than heaven and earth.
then i asked him,
what i must to when i came;
and he told me,
I MUST ENTREAT
WITH ALL MY HEART AND SOUL,
THE RATHER TO REVEAL HIM TO ME.
then i asked him further,
how i must make my supplication to Him?
and he said,
go, and thou shall find Him upon a mercy seat,
where He sits all the year long,
to give pardon and forgiveness to them that come.
i told him that i knew not what to say when i came.
and he bid me say to this effect;
God be merciful to me a sinner,
and make me to know and believe in Jesus Christ;
for i see, that if His righteousness had not been,
or i have not faith in that righteousness,
i am utterly cast away.
Lord, i have ordained that Thy Son Jesus Christ
should be the Saviour of the world;
and moreover, that Thou art willing to bestow Him
upon such a poor sinner as i am
(and i am a sinner indeed);
Lord, take therefore this opportunity,
and magnify Thy grace in the salvation of my soul,
through thy Son Jesus Christ. amen.
ch.
and did you do as you were bidden?
ho.
yes; over, and over and over.
ch.
and did the Father reveal His Son to you?
ho.
not at the first nor second nor third nor fourth nor fifth;
no, nor at the sixth time neither.
ch.
what did you do then?
ho.
what! why i could not tell what to do.
ch.
had you not thoughts of leaving off praying?
ho.
yes; an hundred times twice told.
ch.
and what was the reason you did not?
ho.
i believed that that was true which had been told me,
to wit, that without the righteousness of this Christ
all the world could not save me;
and therefore, thought i with myself,
IF I LEAVE OFF I DIE,
AND I CAN DIE AT THE THRONE OF GRACE.
and withal, this came into my mind:
though it tarry, wait for it;
because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
so i continued praying until the Father showed me His Son.
ch.
and how was He revealed unto you?
ho.
i did not see Him with my bodily eyes,
but with the eyes of my understanding;
and thus it was:
one day i was very sad,
i think sadder than at any one time in my life,
and this sadness was through a fresh sight of the greatness and vileness of my sins.
and as i was then looking for nothing but hell,
and the everlasting damnation of my soul,
suddenly, as i thought,
i saw the Lord Jesus Christ, look down from heaven upon me,
and saying,
'beleive on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
but i replied,
Lord, i am a great, a very great sinner.
and He answered,
My grace is sufficient for thee.
then i said,
but, Lord, what is believing?
and then i saw from that saying,
'he that cometh to Me shall never hunger,
and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst',
that believing and coming was all one;
and that he that came,
that is, ran out in his heart and affections after salvation by Christ,
he indeed believed in Christ.
then the water stood in mine eyes,
and i asked further:
but Lord, may such a great sinner as i am
be indeed accepted of Thee,
and be saved by Thee?
and i heard Him say,
'and him that cometh to Me,
i will in no wise cast out.
then i said,
but how, Lord, must i consider of Thee in my coming to Thee,
that my faith may be placed aright upon Thee?
then He said,
'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
He is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
he died for our sins, and rose again for our justification.
He loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood.
He is mediator betwixt God and us.
He ever liveth to make intercession for us.
from all which i gathered,
that i must look for righteousness in His person,
and for satisfaction for my sins by his blood;
that what he did in obedience to His Father's law,
and in submitting to the penalty thereof,
was not for Himself,
but for him that will accept it for his salvation,
and be thankful.
AND NOW WAS MY HEART FULL OF JOY
MINE EYES FULL OF TEARS,
AND MINE AFFECTIONS RUNNING OVER WITH LOVE
TO THE
NAME,
PEOPLE
AND WAYS
OF JESUS CHRIST.
ch.
this was a revelation of Christ to your soul indeed;
but tell me what effect this had upon your spirit.
ho. it made me see that all the world,
notwithstanding all the righteousness thereof,
is in a state of condemnation.
it made me greatly ashamed of the vileness of my former life,
and confounded me with the sense of mine own ignorance;
for there never came thought into my heart before now
that showed me so the beauty of Jesus Christ.
IT MADE ME LOVE A HOLY LIFE AND
LONG TO DO SOMETHING FOR THE HONOR AND GLORY
OF THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS;
yea, i thought that had i now a thousand gallons of blood in my body,
i could spill it all for the sake of the Lord Jesus.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
1.2.2013 AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (1828) by NOAH WEBSTER I
1. DEDICATION to George Washington
after eight long years as commander in chief of the army of the republic, washington was ready to resign his commission. he wrote from his head quarters at newburgh, june 14,1783, in his circular letter to the states,
'i now make it my earnest prayer,
that God would have you, and the state over which you preside,
in His holy protection,
that He would incline the hearts of the citizens
to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government,
to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another,
for their fellow citizens of the united states at large,
and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field,
and finally, that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all,
to do justice,
to love mercy,
and demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind,
which were the characteristicks of the divine author of our blessed religion,
and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things,
we can never hope to be a happy nation'.
2. (note: on another page, after the dedication,
webster gives amazing facts about the sequoia tree
ending with the fact that many are from 3,000 to 4,000 years old...and concludes,)
'here they remained while the chain of christianity moved westward
with 'signs following'-
the liberty of the individual and of nations.
just yesterday, in the sequoia's life,
came the flowering of these bethlehem principles in government-
'we hold these truths to be self evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable
(not transferable to another or capable of being repudiated (to reject as having no authority or binding force)
that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness-
that to secure these rights,
governments are instituted among men....'
(note: compare this kind of liberty to what Jesus says in
JOHN 8.31f...'if you ABIDE IN MY WORD, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and YOU SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH and the truth shall make you FREE...
v34...'everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
and the slave does not remain in the house forever;
the son does remain forever.
if the SON SHALL MAKE YOU FREE you shall be FREE INDEED.
webster's word 'right' shows the difference between God's view of 'rights' and man's view..
definition 2
'in morals and religion,
just,
equitable,
ACCORDANT TO THE STANDARD OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE OR THE WILL OF GOD. that
ALONE IS RIGHT in the sight of God, which is consonant to His will or law;
this being the only perfect standard of truth and justice. (ie. john 8)
in social and political affairs, (the above view, God's has been changed by men...)
THAT IS RIGHT
WHICH IS CONSONANT TO THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF A COUNTRY,
( in a democracy, X OUT THIS LAST LINE) provided these laws and customs are not repugnant to the laws of God.'
reflecting on how far the founding fathers' view of the WORD 'liberty'
is from Jesus' view of freedom..i journaled,
the core WORDS of any human language are, ideally, to be granite like indicators of the reality, all created by God...never changing, revealing the way a man ought to live before God and in connection with unchanging truth. however the study of words, as actually used among men, show that
they are clear indicators of man's fallen nature, of his 'bent' away from God and His truth that started in the garden of eden.
...continuing...now when we read these words ('life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness') they kind of do something to us..maybe bring a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye..
as americans we tend to invest them with a mystical, a magical power.
but as christians we realize they are at best misleading
...and at worst, a lie.
following is some commentary that flowed into a journal after reading them:
men are created equal only in the sense
that every man is created in the image of God,
that every man is invited by God to call upon Him
for deliverance from and forgiveness of his sin.
aside from these
there equality ends
due to the fact that we live in a world which has become alienated from God.
human beings
do not see other human beings as equal
other than a public head nod to poetical expressions of the same.
the realities of life show this fact.
the day to day of man's inhumanity to man is a much truer picture of reality
than men treating those around them as they would like to be treated themselves.
secondly, men are created by God
for the exercise of His will
and have nary a right before Him
even though men may claim to create, out of thin air, the 'right' or 'rights' of men.
it is nothing more than a paltry human devise which creates a legal fiction
that does not square with reality before Him...
and exist objectively no where outside the dictionary.
(1. 'right', a just claim or title, whether legal, prescriptive, or moral. 2. sometimes, 'rights', that which is due to anyone by just claim, legal guarantees, moral principles)
finally,
LIFE and LIBERTY
are not rights.
they are gifts given
by certain men to certain men
in the providence of God.
further,
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
as viewed by God,
far from being a right,
is an evidence of departure
from the duty
God calls man to.
a person truly born of God is
HIS SLAVE FIRST, LAST AND ALWAYS.
where he lives is absolutely immaterial
if he is deciding how he will live
-continually breaking the first and foremost commandment of God
THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GOD BEFORE ME-
rather than doing what God commands.
every man,
having become alienated from his creator
through the sin of the first man, adam,
does what HE not God wants..
he pursues his own happiness.
(the source of this is happenings here..on earth.)
any man,
having become a child of God
through the sacrificial death of God's Son, Jesus,
increasingly over time,
comes to do
and love to do
what God commands.
(the source of this is the One who waits for us there..in His eternal kingdom in heaven)
Thou wilt show me the path of life:
in Thy presence is fullness of joy;
at Thy right hand there are pleasures for
evermore. psalm 16.11
3. another introductory page..
noah webster's famous 'blue-backed speller', his 'grammars' and 'readers' all contained biblical and patriotic themes and webster spearheaded the flood of educational volumes emphasizing christian, constitutional values for more than a century...the 1828 American Dictionary has the greatest number of biblical definitions given in any secular volume. he felt 'education useless without the bible'
'and while he cautioned against too extensive use of the bible in the schools as 'tending to irreverence' he reiterated
'in my view, the christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed. ..no truth is more evident to my mind than that the christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people'..
(note: whether he knew that only a true believer in Christ and the bible could be free is not stated..certainly the more generally accepted the values of christianity are in a society, the more that society can take on the appearance of freedom by the, say, cultural imitation of the ten commandments etc...maybe he was thinking the salt and light of true believers would cause the general increase of christians.)
'upon horace mann rests the blame for removing from the curriculum the study of an american philosophy of government. opposed to the fundamental conceptions of our american constitution namely, property, self government and voluntary union, horace mann,
'the father of progressive education', removed the spirit of constitutionalism and allowed only the letter to remain. the bible, which noah webster indicated as the source of 'the principles of republican government' was closed to its primary function'
namely to testify of God's redeeming grace for mankind through Jesus Christ. actually, it was mann in the 1840s who removed the bible and its sacred purpose from the schools, not the..supreme court in the 1960s.
through the european pilgrimages of horace mann and his contemporaries the alien seeds of foreign ideologies and philosophies of education were implanted in american soil. the independence from european 'maxims of government' which noah webster had worked so diligently to achieve was subverted during the early years when american education was made the ward of the state. 'a federal catechism', part of 'the american spelling book, had introduced civics into the curriculum in 1794, it gave a short explanation of the principles of the american constitutional form of government and defined america as 'a representative REPUBLIC
(note: rule by law (reflective of the bible) as opposed to, what we have had for the last 150 or so years, democracy, the rule of people)
is 'a better form of government'. the 'defects of democracy' were discussed and students learned distinctly why a 'federal representative republic' is 'a better form of government'. shortly after schools became organized under state systems the substitution of democracy for republic was made'.
after eight long years as commander in chief of the army of the republic, washington was ready to resign his commission. he wrote from his head quarters at newburgh, june 14,1783, in his circular letter to the states,
'i now make it my earnest prayer,
that God would have you, and the state over which you preside,
in His holy protection,
that He would incline the hearts of the citizens
to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government,
to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another,
for their fellow citizens of the united states at large,
and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field,
and finally, that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all,
to do justice,
to love mercy,
and demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind,
which were the characteristicks of the divine author of our blessed religion,
and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things,
we can never hope to be a happy nation'.
2. (note: on another page, after the dedication,
webster gives amazing facts about the sequoia tree
ending with the fact that many are from 3,000 to 4,000 years old...and concludes,)
'here they remained while the chain of christianity moved westward
with 'signs following'-
the liberty of the individual and of nations.
just yesterday, in the sequoia's life,
came the flowering of these bethlehem principles in government-
'we hold these truths to be self evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable
(not transferable to another or capable of being repudiated (to reject as having no authority or binding force)
that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness-
that to secure these rights,
governments are instituted among men....'
(note: compare this kind of liberty to what Jesus says in
JOHN 8.31f...'if you ABIDE IN MY WORD, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and YOU SHALL KNOW THE TRUTH and the truth shall make you FREE...
v34...'everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.
and the slave does not remain in the house forever;
the son does remain forever.
if the SON SHALL MAKE YOU FREE you shall be FREE INDEED.
webster's word 'right' shows the difference between God's view of 'rights' and man's view..
definition 2
'in morals and religion,
just,
equitable,
ACCORDANT TO THE STANDARD OF TRUTH AND JUSTICE OR THE WILL OF GOD. that
ALONE IS RIGHT in the sight of God, which is consonant to His will or law;
this being the only perfect standard of truth and justice. (ie. john 8)
in social and political affairs, (the above view, God's has been changed by men...)
THAT IS RIGHT
WHICH IS CONSONANT TO THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF A COUNTRY,
( in a democracy, X OUT THIS LAST LINE) provided these laws and customs are not repugnant to the laws of God.'
reflecting on how far the founding fathers' view of the WORD 'liberty'
is from Jesus' view of freedom..i journaled,
the core WORDS of any human language are, ideally, to be granite like indicators of the reality, all created by God...never changing, revealing the way a man ought to live before God and in connection with unchanging truth. however the study of words, as actually used among men, show that
they are clear indicators of man's fallen nature, of his 'bent' away from God and His truth that started in the garden of eden.
...continuing...now when we read these words ('life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness') they kind of do something to us..maybe bring a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye..
as americans we tend to invest them with a mystical, a magical power.
but as christians we realize they are at best misleading
...and at worst, a lie.
following is some commentary that flowed into a journal after reading them:
men are created equal only in the sense
that every man is created in the image of God,
that every man is invited by God to call upon Him
for deliverance from and forgiveness of his sin.
aside from these
there equality ends
due to the fact that we live in a world which has become alienated from God.
human beings
do not see other human beings as equal
other than a public head nod to poetical expressions of the same.
the realities of life show this fact.
the day to day of man's inhumanity to man is a much truer picture of reality
than men treating those around them as they would like to be treated themselves.
secondly, men are created by God
for the exercise of His will
and have nary a right before Him
even though men may claim to create, out of thin air, the 'right' or 'rights' of men.
it is nothing more than a paltry human devise which creates a legal fiction
that does not square with reality before Him...
and exist objectively no where outside the dictionary.
(1. 'right', a just claim or title, whether legal, prescriptive, or moral. 2. sometimes, 'rights', that which is due to anyone by just claim, legal guarantees, moral principles)
finally,
LIFE and LIBERTY
are not rights.
they are gifts given
by certain men to certain men
in the providence of God.
further,
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS
as viewed by God,
far from being a right,
is an evidence of departure
from the duty
God calls man to.
a person truly born of God is
HIS SLAVE FIRST, LAST AND ALWAYS.
where he lives is absolutely immaterial
if he is deciding how he will live
-continually breaking the first and foremost commandment of God
THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GOD BEFORE ME-
rather than doing what God commands.
every man,
having become alienated from his creator
through the sin of the first man, adam,
does what HE not God wants..
he pursues his own happiness.
(the source of this is happenings here..on earth.)
any man,
having become a child of God
through the sacrificial death of God's Son, Jesus,
increasingly over time,
comes to do
and love to do
what God commands.
(the source of this is the One who waits for us there..in His eternal kingdom in heaven)
Thou wilt show me the path of life:
in Thy presence is fullness of joy;
at Thy right hand there are pleasures for
evermore. psalm 16.11
3. another introductory page..
noah webster's famous 'blue-backed speller', his 'grammars' and 'readers' all contained biblical and patriotic themes and webster spearheaded the flood of educational volumes emphasizing christian, constitutional values for more than a century...the 1828 American Dictionary has the greatest number of biblical definitions given in any secular volume. he felt 'education useless without the bible'
'and while he cautioned against too extensive use of the bible in the schools as 'tending to irreverence' he reiterated
'in my view, the christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed. ..no truth is more evident to my mind than that the christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people'..
(note: whether he knew that only a true believer in Christ and the bible could be free is not stated..certainly the more generally accepted the values of christianity are in a society, the more that society can take on the appearance of freedom by the, say, cultural imitation of the ten commandments etc...maybe he was thinking the salt and light of true believers would cause the general increase of christians.)
'upon horace mann rests the blame for removing from the curriculum the study of an american philosophy of government. opposed to the fundamental conceptions of our american constitution namely, property, self government and voluntary union, horace mann,
'the father of progressive education', removed the spirit of constitutionalism and allowed only the letter to remain. the bible, which noah webster indicated as the source of 'the principles of republican government' was closed to its primary function'
namely to testify of God's redeeming grace for mankind through Jesus Christ. actually, it was mann in the 1840s who removed the bible and its sacred purpose from the schools, not the..supreme court in the 1960s.
through the european pilgrimages of horace mann and his contemporaries the alien seeds of foreign ideologies and philosophies of education were implanted in american soil. the independence from european 'maxims of government' which noah webster had worked so diligently to achieve was subverted during the early years when american education was made the ward of the state. 'a federal catechism', part of 'the american spelling book, had introduced civics into the curriculum in 1794, it gave a short explanation of the principles of the american constitutional form of government and defined america as 'a representative REPUBLIC
(note: rule by law (reflective of the bible) as opposed to, what we have had for the last 150 or so years, democracy, the rule of people)
is 'a better form of government'. the 'defects of democracy' were discussed and students learned distinctly why a 'federal representative republic' is 'a better form of government'. shortly after schools became organized under state systems the substitution of democracy for republic was made'.
Monday, December 17, 2012
12.17.2012 ALLENDER V
CHAPTER 6 - GETTING CAUGHT BY YOUR CALLING
God acts in history and in your and my brief hsitories
not as a puppeteer who sets the scene and works the strings
but rather as the great director
who no matter what role fate casts us in
conveys to us somehow from the wings,
if we have our eyes, ears, hearts open
and sometimes even if we don't, how we can play those roles
in a way to enrich and ennoble and hallow the whole vast drma of things
including our own small but crucial parts in it. frederick buechner
the day had arrived and a decision had to b made:
would i accept a job offer to teach at a respected seminary,
or would i become part of the team that was starting a new graduate school in seattle?
my vife and i had spent weeks tossing around various options,
and it boiled down to a choice between safety and madness.
the established seminary offered security,
a good salary,
and the opportunity to teach the courses that i wanted.
the chance to start a new school was ridiculous.
we needed to raise three hundred thousand dollars just to fid out if we would fail.
i had reached the moment where a commitment needed to be finalized.
becky brought the discussion to a close when she said,
'you've never had a normal life. why start now?
in a matter of seconds, my mind flitted from
how we met, to how i was seduced to go to seminary,
to how i met larry crabb and went into counseling,
to how larry and i began a counseling program,
to the (current) events..
for whatever reason, my mind landed on the first sermon i heard after becoming a christian.
i was a troubled twenty year old
who had been involved in illicit pharmaceutical sales for a number of years.
the small cartel with whom i worked had arranged to sell drugs from a new supplier.
i learned after the fact that the drugs would be coming from sources connected with organized crime.
all of a sudden i had gone from the status of middle class, mom and pop drug czar
to the big time.
and the big time involved carrying guns, buying judges and police and threatening
undisciplined dealers.
i wanted out and i knew that could mean forfeiting my life.
i can't explain why i had the strength to slip the bonds of that world,
but i did. i knew that if i died i would go to hell.
more precisely,
i knew that if there was a hell,
i was certainly going there.
somewhere in the recesses of my soul i believed in God,
but the other 98 % of my being though the whole business of God was absurd.
death lay ahead eventually,
no matter what i decided to do,
so i said, 'fine', to God.
that was the entirety of my prayer:
'fine..
i knew the gospel well because my best friend, tremper, had discussed it with me many times.
i had watched people come to know Jesus
and had gone to a few bible conferences
and even to the campus of the seminary i eventually attended.
i knew the basic beliefs of christianity well, but it was not for me.
yet i was glad it was true for my best friend.
the night i cam to faith i had ingested a sizable dose of hallucinogens earlier in the day,
so i was fairly fried.
i felt profoundly uncomfortable walking into that small presbyterian church in the country.
people were friendly and warm.
tremper and i sat off to one side about midway between coming and going.
i felt relieved i was on the end of the row so that if i needed to run,
i'd have full access to an escape route.
the service began.
at certain times people would stand,
and i couldn't
t figure out what prompted the shift from sitting to standing.
they read and sole back to the dude up front.
they sang and then they would bow their heads and close their eyes
as if the whole thing had been choreographed.
was i missing some hand signals or a secret command from the front?
clearly some time would be required for me to figure out this scene.
then the guy in the robe began to talk.
we opened the black books in front of us,
and he read and then talked about what he had read.
i didn't bother to read,
nor did i listen.
but somehow i heard him mention balaam's ass.
my ears came alive with curiosity.
he talked about how balaam's ass had spoken to balaam.
i was freaked out.
i glanced around and noticed that no one seemed at all concerned about this bizarre revelation.
halfway through the sermon the preacher switched and started saying,
'balaam's donkey'.
i was so relieved i nearly fell out of my seat.
in fact, i was so relieved i though i would cry.
a talking animal was just fine.
under the influence of LSD, i had often heard animals talk,
but the thought of going through my religious life with talking body parts
seemed more than any human ought to bear.
somehow, as unlikely as it might sound,
i came to faith that night.
faith gradually became central to my life,
and years later my wife and i were faced with the decision to make a career move.
why would the scene in that rural presbyterian church come to mind as becky commented,
'you've never had a normal life. why start now?
stories inform story...
the future is meant to be written in light of the patterns of the past.
we can't predict the future,
but we can read the patterns of the past
to see how God has marked us for His purposes.
He uses the past to open our future.
as we learn to read patterns, we gain an understnding of our calling.
READING PATTERNS
becky and i and our friend christie were traveling together on a half day road trip.
our conversation was pleasant and free.
after talking about various matters, my wife asked us both:
'if you were a letter of the alphabet,what would it be?
her question struck me as a monumental waste of time,
a silly icebreaker for a threesome who had been through fire, storm and calamity together.
we didn't need to break any ice..
but christie, to my chagrin, jumped in with both feet.
she added,
'befkore we answer for ourselves,
why don't we say what letter we consider each other to be?
i was irked but outnumbered,
so i played along.
we made guesses about one another and then explained why we had made our choice.
it turned out to be a fascinating conversation,
but then it was my turn to be associated with a letter of the alphabet.
when my wife said X
christie began to laugh because she had chosen the same letter.
my wife chose it because of the word Xtreme.
christie chose it because she sees me as a person who lives on the border
at the crossroads,
always pressing limits
and calling others to cross to another side.
i laughed, but i felt caught and exposed.
i am often more extreme than others.
i live more in the drama of intensity and the crisis of decision than in reflective meditation.
I felt the blush of being known and honored,
albeit with the sense that both women were saying
i am enjoyed yet it is best to take me in small doses.
we will not read the patterns of our past unless we have data from the present.
and the data can't come with fullness and accuracy until they come from others.
WE SIMPLY CAN'T SEE OUR OWN FACE.
IF WE WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT OURSELVES,
WE MUST BE IN A RELATIONAL DIALOGUE.
that's how god has made us.
we must be avid, curious and open if we are to learn who we are.
we must listen to the wind that wafts through a conversation when someone asks,
'have you always been so intense?
'you seem so sure of yourself-don't you ever doubt?
how come you seem to always hand back and let others speak before offering your opinion>
throughout our lifetime, all sorts of people have named us...
stop now and think for a moment about the observations others have made about you.
what are they?
how do you react to these observations?
do you find truth there?
add to that data more intentional feedback-
input that you seek out.
IT IS IMPERATIVE TO HEAR FROM THOSE WHO KNOW, LOVE AND RESPECT YOU.
how do they see you, both at your best and at your worst?...
if you collect the data from a number of different observers, you will..notice..overlap...
once you own the pattern as at least somewhat true of who you are,
they it's wise to look at the past and ask,
'how did this pattern come to exist?...
but remember that some of the words, phrases and images used to describe you will be inconsistent.
...we are complex, inconsistent, contradictory beings...
we love and we hate. we sacrifice for others and we are self absorbed..
lets assume you have entered into significant conversations with a handful of friends, especially your spouse and children.
...you now have a stock of data,
and you've moved beyond defensiveness, doubt and dismissal.
you have collated the data and embraced much of it as likely being a true description of who you are.
what do you do now?
it is time to connect the dots and plunge into the gaps...
in reading your patterns-
both in terms of consistency and inconsistency-
you begin to get an inkling of your life them.
listen to your life....it will give words..
which will help you identify your character and your role in life.
listen to your stories . they will reveal a pattern of roles that you've played throughout your life.
...there will be discrepancies and mind-boggling contradictions.
there is evolution and transformation...
a coherent sense of self lasts over a lifetime,
and what is retained over a lifetime speaks to the unique role or character
you are to play out on god's stage.
what lasts, yet grows and matures to an even greater gory, reveals your thematic calling.
...a life theme is not our mission, moral or purpose.
it is the significance of our life
as seen by those who are close enough to sense how our life
either reveals or fails to make known the character of God.
...a life theme sets the trajectory of our life..
the truest themes have to do with what each of us uniquely reveals about God's character.
our calling is to reveal God
through the themes He has woven into our character. .
the questions that relate to where (place),
what brokenness to confront (problem),
with whom (population),
and how (process),
are largely left to our own choice and talents....
once we begin to read our life, then we are called by God to do more:
we are called to mess with our story.
we are called to write our destiny
and edit our writing in community with others
for the sake of an even better and truer story.
but first we must have some sense of the direction our story is meant to move.
we must at least catch a whisper of our calling.
God calls us, which means we must listen and respond.
God calls us to tasks and to service,
but most important,
He calls us into relationship with Him.(AMEN)...
God commanded His people to offer burnt offerings
and then He said,
'they make Me sick.
HE WANTS US TO LIVE WITH A HEART OF PASSION FOR JUSTICE-PERIOD.
religious deeds, be it prayer, fasting, giving, sacrifice, song..turn God's stomach when we do them without a hear for righteousness.
...we don't find our calling; it finds us.
God acts in history and in your and my brief hsitories
not as a puppeteer who sets the scene and works the strings
but rather as the great director
who no matter what role fate casts us in
conveys to us somehow from the wings,
if we have our eyes, ears, hearts open
and sometimes even if we don't, how we can play those roles
in a way to enrich and ennoble and hallow the whole vast drma of things
including our own small but crucial parts in it. frederick buechner
the day had arrived and a decision had to b made:
would i accept a job offer to teach at a respected seminary,
or would i become part of the team that was starting a new graduate school in seattle?
my vife and i had spent weeks tossing around various options,
and it boiled down to a choice between safety and madness.
the established seminary offered security,
a good salary,
and the opportunity to teach the courses that i wanted.
the chance to start a new school was ridiculous.
we needed to raise three hundred thousand dollars just to fid out if we would fail.
i had reached the moment where a commitment needed to be finalized.
becky brought the discussion to a close when she said,
'you've never had a normal life. why start now?
in a matter of seconds, my mind flitted from
how we met, to how i was seduced to go to seminary,
to how i met larry crabb and went into counseling,
to how larry and i began a counseling program,
to the (current) events..
for whatever reason, my mind landed on the first sermon i heard after becoming a christian.
i was a troubled twenty year old
who had been involved in illicit pharmaceutical sales for a number of years.
the small cartel with whom i worked had arranged to sell drugs from a new supplier.
i learned after the fact that the drugs would be coming from sources connected with organized crime.
all of a sudden i had gone from the status of middle class, mom and pop drug czar
to the big time.
and the big time involved carrying guns, buying judges and police and threatening
undisciplined dealers.
i wanted out and i knew that could mean forfeiting my life.
i can't explain why i had the strength to slip the bonds of that world,
but i did. i knew that if i died i would go to hell.
more precisely,
i knew that if there was a hell,
i was certainly going there.
somewhere in the recesses of my soul i believed in God,
but the other 98 % of my being though the whole business of God was absurd.
death lay ahead eventually,
no matter what i decided to do,
so i said, 'fine', to God.
that was the entirety of my prayer:
'fine..
i knew the gospel well because my best friend, tremper, had discussed it with me many times.
i had watched people come to know Jesus
and had gone to a few bible conferences
and even to the campus of the seminary i eventually attended.
i knew the basic beliefs of christianity well, but it was not for me.
yet i was glad it was true for my best friend.
the night i cam to faith i had ingested a sizable dose of hallucinogens earlier in the day,
so i was fairly fried.
i felt profoundly uncomfortable walking into that small presbyterian church in the country.
people were friendly and warm.
tremper and i sat off to one side about midway between coming and going.
i felt relieved i was on the end of the row so that if i needed to run,
i'd have full access to an escape route.
the service began.
at certain times people would stand,
and i couldn't
t figure out what prompted the shift from sitting to standing.
they read and sole back to the dude up front.
they sang and then they would bow their heads and close their eyes
as if the whole thing had been choreographed.
was i missing some hand signals or a secret command from the front?
clearly some time would be required for me to figure out this scene.
then the guy in the robe began to talk.
we opened the black books in front of us,
and he read and then talked about what he had read.
i didn't bother to read,
nor did i listen.
but somehow i heard him mention balaam's ass.
my ears came alive with curiosity.
he talked about how balaam's ass had spoken to balaam.
i was freaked out.
i glanced around and noticed that no one seemed at all concerned about this bizarre revelation.
halfway through the sermon the preacher switched and started saying,
'balaam's donkey'.
i was so relieved i nearly fell out of my seat.
in fact, i was so relieved i though i would cry.
a talking animal was just fine.
under the influence of LSD, i had often heard animals talk,
but the thought of going through my religious life with talking body parts
seemed more than any human ought to bear.
somehow, as unlikely as it might sound,
i came to faith that night.
faith gradually became central to my life,
and years later my wife and i were faced with the decision to make a career move.
why would the scene in that rural presbyterian church come to mind as becky commented,
'you've never had a normal life. why start now?
stories inform story...
the future is meant to be written in light of the patterns of the past.
we can't predict the future,
but we can read the patterns of the past
to see how God has marked us for His purposes.
He uses the past to open our future.
as we learn to read patterns, we gain an understnding of our calling.
READING PATTERNS
becky and i and our friend christie were traveling together on a half day road trip.
our conversation was pleasant and free.
after talking about various matters, my wife asked us both:
'if you were a letter of the alphabet,what would it be?
her question struck me as a monumental waste of time,
a silly icebreaker for a threesome who had been through fire, storm and calamity together.
we didn't need to break any ice..
but christie, to my chagrin, jumped in with both feet.
she added,
'befkore we answer for ourselves,
why don't we say what letter we consider each other to be?
i was irked but outnumbered,
so i played along.
we made guesses about one another and then explained why we had made our choice.
it turned out to be a fascinating conversation,
but then it was my turn to be associated with a letter of the alphabet.
when my wife said X
christie began to laugh because she had chosen the same letter.
my wife chose it because of the word Xtreme.
christie chose it because she sees me as a person who lives on the border
at the crossroads,
always pressing limits
and calling others to cross to another side.
i laughed, but i felt caught and exposed.
i am often more extreme than others.
i live more in the drama of intensity and the crisis of decision than in reflective meditation.
I felt the blush of being known and honored,
albeit with the sense that both women were saying
i am enjoyed yet it is best to take me in small doses.
we will not read the patterns of our past unless we have data from the present.
and the data can't come with fullness and accuracy until they come from others.
WE SIMPLY CAN'T SEE OUR OWN FACE.
IF WE WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT OURSELVES,
WE MUST BE IN A RELATIONAL DIALOGUE.
that's how god has made us.
we must be avid, curious and open if we are to learn who we are.
we must listen to the wind that wafts through a conversation when someone asks,
'have you always been so intense?
'you seem so sure of yourself-don't you ever doubt?
how come you seem to always hand back and let others speak before offering your opinion>
throughout our lifetime, all sorts of people have named us...
stop now and think for a moment about the observations others have made about you.
what are they?
how do you react to these observations?
do you find truth there?
add to that data more intentional feedback-
input that you seek out.
IT IS IMPERATIVE TO HEAR FROM THOSE WHO KNOW, LOVE AND RESPECT YOU.
how do they see you, both at your best and at your worst?...
if you collect the data from a number of different observers, you will..notice..overlap...
once you own the pattern as at least somewhat true of who you are,
they it's wise to look at the past and ask,
'how did this pattern come to exist?...
but remember that some of the words, phrases and images used to describe you will be inconsistent.
...we are complex, inconsistent, contradictory beings...
we love and we hate. we sacrifice for others and we are self absorbed..
lets assume you have entered into significant conversations with a handful of friends, especially your spouse and children.
...you now have a stock of data,
and you've moved beyond defensiveness, doubt and dismissal.
you have collated the data and embraced much of it as likely being a true description of who you are.
what do you do now?
it is time to connect the dots and plunge into the gaps...
in reading your patterns-
both in terms of consistency and inconsistency-
you begin to get an inkling of your life them.
listen to your life....it will give words..
which will help you identify your character and your role in life.
listen to your stories . they will reveal a pattern of roles that you've played throughout your life.
...there will be discrepancies and mind-boggling contradictions.
there is evolution and transformation...
a coherent sense of self lasts over a lifetime,
and what is retained over a lifetime speaks to the unique role or character
you are to play out on god's stage.
what lasts, yet grows and matures to an even greater gory, reveals your thematic calling.
...a life theme is not our mission, moral or purpose.
it is the significance of our life
as seen by those who are close enough to sense how our life
either reveals or fails to make known the character of God.
...a life theme sets the trajectory of our life..
the truest themes have to do with what each of us uniquely reveals about God's character.
our calling is to reveal God
through the themes He has woven into our character. .
the questions that relate to where (place),
what brokenness to confront (problem),
with whom (population),
and how (process),
are largely left to our own choice and talents....
once we begin to read our life, then we are called by God to do more:
we are called to mess with our story.
we are called to write our destiny
and edit our writing in community with others
for the sake of an even better and truer story.
but first we must have some sense of the direction our story is meant to move.
we must at least catch a whisper of our calling.
God calls us, which means we must listen and respond.
God calls us to tasks and to service,
but most important,
He calls us into relationship with Him.(AMEN)...
God commanded His people to offer burnt offerings
and then He said,
'they make Me sick.
HE WANTS US TO LIVE WITH A HEART OF PASSION FOR JUSTICE-PERIOD.
religious deeds, be it prayer, fasting, giving, sacrifice, song..turn God's stomach when we do them without a hear for righteousness.
...we don't find our calling; it finds us.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
12.12.2012 TORTURED FOR CHRIST by RICHARD WURMBRAND
this book was published in 1967 a short while after richard wurmbrand and his family were brought to the united states. from romania. i would like to type the whole 100+ pages...probably will not get much. this first is his personal testimony.
i was orphaned from the first years of life.
being brought up in a family in which no religion was recognized,
i received no religious education as a child.
as the result of a bitter childhood,
which included knowing poverty in the difficult years of world war I,
at age 14 i was as convinced an atheist as the communists are today.
i had read atheistic books,
and it was not just that i did not believe in God of Christ-
i hated these notions, considering them harmful for the human mind.
so i grew up in bitterness toward religion.
but as i understood afterward,
i had the grace to be one of the chosen of God for reasons that i don't understand.
these reasons had nothing to do with my character,
because my character was very bad.
although i was an atheist,
something unreasonable always attracted me to churches.
i found it difficult to pass a church without entering it.
however, i never understood what was happening in these churches.
i listened to the sermons,
but they didn't appeal to my heart.
i had an image of God
as a master whom i should have to obey.
i hated this wrong image of god that i had in my mind,
but i would have liked very much to know that a loving heart existed
somewhere in the center of this universe.
since i had known few of the joys of childhood and youth,
i longed that there should be a loving heart beating for me too.
i convinced myself that there was no god,
but i was sad that such a God of love did not exist.
once, in my inner spiritual conflict,
i entered a catholic church.
i saw people kneeling and saying something.
i thought,
i will kneel near them so i can hear what they say
and repeat the prayers to see if something happens.
they said a prayer to the holy virgin,
'hail mary, full of grace.
i repeated the words after them again and again;
i looked at the statue of the virgin mary,
but nothing happened.
i was very sad about it.
one day, being a very convinced atheist,
i prayed to god.
my prayer was something like this:
'God, i know surely that You do not exist.
but if perchance You exist, which i contest,
it is not my duty to believe in You;
it is Your duty to reveal Yourself to me.
i was an atheist, but atheism did not give peace to my heart.
during this time of inner turmoil,
an old carpenter in a village high up in the mountains of romania prayed like this;
'my God, i have served You on earth
and i wish to have my reward on earth as well as in heaven.
and my reward should be that i should not die before i bring a jew to Christ,
because Jesus was from the jewish people.
but i am poor, old, and sick.
i cannot go around and seek a jew.
in my village theree are none.
bring a few into my village
and i will do my best to bring him to Christ.
something irresistible drew me to that village.
i had no reason to go there.
romania has twelve thousand villages,
but i went to that one.
seeing i was a jew, the carpenter courted me
as never a beautiful girl had been courted.
he saw in me the answer to his prayer and gave me a bible to read.
i had read the bible out of cultural interest many times before.
but the bible he gave me was another kind of bible.
as he told me some time later,
he and his wife prayed together for hours
for my conversion and that of my wife.
the bible he gave me was written not so much in words,
but in flames of love fired by his prayers.
i could barely read it.
i could only weep over it,
comparing my bad life with the life of Jesus;
my impurity with His righteousness;
my hatred with His love-
and He accepted me as one of His own.
...out of remorse for being an atheist, i longed from the first day of my conversion to be able to witnesses to the russians.
..it was a dramatic, moving work.
i will never forget my first encounter with a russian prisoner, an engineer.
i asked him if he believed in God.
if he had said 'no', i would not have minded it much.
..but when i asked him this, he lifted his eyes toward me without understanding and said,
'i have no such military order to believe. if i have an order i will believe.
tears ran down my cheeks.
i felt my heart torn in pieces.
here stood before me a man whose mind was dead,
a man who had lost a great gift God has given to mankind
-his individuality.
...this was a typical russian after all these years of communist domination!
after the shock of seeing what communism had done to human beings,
i promised God that i would dedicate my life to these men,
to give them back their personalities
and to give them faith in God and Christ.
....once the communists came to power, they skillfully used the means of
seduction toward the church.
the language of love
and the language of seduction are the same.
the one who wishes for a wife
and the one who wishes her for only a night
both say the words,k
'I love you.
Jesus has told us to discern between
the language of seduction and the language of love,
and to know the wolves clad in sheepskin
from the real sheep.
unfortunately, when the communists came to power,
thousands of priests, pastors and ministers
did not know how to discern between the two voices.
the communists convened a congress of
all christian bodies in our parliament building.
there were 4000 priests, pastors and ministers of all denominations-
and these men of god chose joseph stalin as honorary president of this congress.
at the same time he was president of the
World Movement of the Godless
and a mass murderer of christians.
one after another,
bishops and pastors arose and declared
that communism and christianity are
fundamentally the same and could coexist.
one minister after another said words of praise toward communism
and assured the new government of the loyalty of the church.
my wife and i were present at this congress.
sabina told me,
'Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ!
they are spitting in His face.
i said to her,
'if i do so, you lose your husband.
she replied,
'i don't wish to have a coward as a husband.
then i arose and spoke to this congress,
praising not the murderers of christians,
but Jesus Christ,
stating that our loyalty is due first to Him.
the speeches at this congress were broadcast
and the whole country could hear proclaimed
from the rostrum of the communist parliament
the message of Christ!
afterward i had to pay for this,
but it was worthwhile.
orthodox and protestant church leaders competed with each other
in yielding to communism.
and orthodox bishop but the hammer and sickle on his robes
and asked his priests to no longer call him
'Your Grace, but 'Comrade Bishop.
priest like patrascoiu and rosianu were more direct.
they became officers of the secret police.
rapp, deputy bishop of the lutheran church in romania,
began to teach in the theological seminary
that God had given three revelations;
one through moses,
one through Jesus,
and the third through stalin,
the last superseding the one before.
i attended the congress of the baptists in the town of resita-
a congress under the red flag,
where the anthem of the soviet union had been sung with everyone standing.
the president of the baptists praised stalin
as a great teacher of the bible
and proclaimed that stalin did nothing but fulfill
the commandments of God!
....together with others, i began an underground work.
outwardly i had a very respectable position-
pastor of the norwegian lutheran mission-
that served as a cove for my real underground work.
at the same time i represented the
world council of churches in romania.
(in romania we had not the slightest idea that this organization
would ever cooperate with the communists.
at that time in our country
it did nothing but relief work.)...
there were two aspects of this underground work.
the first was our secret ministry among russian soldiers.
the second aspect was our underground work with the enslaved peoples of romania.
for me to preach the gospel to the russians
is heaven on earth.
i have preached the gospel to men of many nations,
but i have never seen a people drink in the gospel like the russians .
they have such thirsty souls.
and orthodox priest,
a friend of mine,
telephoned me
and told me that a russian officer had come to him to confess.
my friend did not know russian...
i read (the man) the sermon on the mount and the parables of Jesus.
after hearing them,
he danced around the room in rapturous joy
proclaiming, 'what a wonderful beauty!
how could i live without knowing this Christ!
it was the first time that i saw someone
so joyful in Christ.
then i made a mistake.
i read to him the passion and crucifixion of Christ,
without having prepared him for this.
he had not expected it and,
when he heard how Christ was beaten,
how He was crucified and that in the end He died,
he fell into an armchair
and began to weep bitterly.
he had believed in a savior
and now his savior was dead!
i looked at him
and was ashamed.
i had called myself
a christian, a pastor and a teacher of others,
but i had never shared the sufferings of Christ
as this russian officer now shared them.
looking at him,
it was like seeing mary magdalene
weeping at the foot of the cross,
faithfully weeping when Jesus was a
corpse in the tomb.
then i read to him the story of the resurrection
and watched his expression change.
he had not known that his savior
arose from the tomb.
when he hear this wonderful news,
he beat his knees and swore-
using very dirty,
but very 'holy' profanity.
this was his crude manner of speech.
again he rejoiced,
shouting for joy,
'He is alive! He is alive!
he danced around the room once more,
overwhelmed with happiness!
i said to him,
'let us pray!
he did not know how to pray.
he did not know our 'holy'phrases.
he fell on his knees together with me
and his words of prayer were:
'Oh God,
what a fine chap you are!
if I were You
and You were me,
i would never have forgiven You of Your sins.
but You are really a very nice chap!
i love You with all of my heart.....
we worked among the russians not only by individual witnessing.
we were able to work in small group meetings as well.
the russians were very fond of watches.
they stole watches from everyone.
they would stop people on the street
and demand that they hand them over.
we would see russians with several watches on each arem,
and russian women officers with alarm clocks hanging around their necks.
they had never had watches before
and could not get enough of them.
romanians who wished to have a watch
had to go to the barracks of the soviet army to buy a stolen one,
often buying back their own watch.
so it was common for romanians to enter the russian barracks.
the underground church also used that pretext-\
of purchasing watches from them-
to give us entrance into their barracks.
the first time i ;preached in a russian barrack
was on the day of st. paul and st. peter, an orthodox feast.
i went onto the military base pretending to buy a watch.
i pretended that one was too expensive,
another was too small,
and another too big.
several soldiers crowded around me,
each offering me something to buy.
jokingly i asked them,
'are any of you named paul or peter?
(some of the older russians knew it.)
so i asked,
'do you know who paul and peter were?
no one knew,
so i began to tell them about paul and peter.
one of the older russian soldiers interrupted me and said,
'you have not come to buy watches.
you have come to tell us about the faith.
sit down here with us and speak to us!
but be very careful!
we know about whom to beware.
these around me are all good men,
but when i put my hand on your knee,
you must talk only about watches.
when i remove my hand,
you may begin your message again.
quite a great crowd of men was gathered around me and i told them...
the underground church met secretly
in homes, in the woods, in basements-
wherever it could.
as is true in many captive nations today,
the underground church in romania
was only partially underground.
like an iceberg,
a small part of its work was in the open.
under the communists,
we devised a plan of street preaching,
which in time became very risky,
but by this means we reached many souls
we could not reach otherwise.
my wife was very active in this.
some christians would quietly gather on a street corner
and star to sing.
people crowded around them to hear the beautiful singing,
then my wife would deliver her message.
we left the spot before the secret police arrived.
one afternoon, while i was active elsewhere,
my wife delivered a message
before thousands of workers
at the entrance of the great MALAXA factory in the city of bucharest.
she spoke to the workers about God and salvation.
the next day,
many of the workers in this factory
were shot after rebelling against
the injustices of the communists.
they had heard the message just in time1
the secret police greatly persecuted the underground church,
because they recognized in it the only effective resistance left.
it was just the kind of resistance
(a spiritual resistance)
that, if left unhindered,
would undermine their atheistic power.
they recognized,
as only the devil can,
an immediate threat to them.
THEY KNEW THAT IF A MAN BELIEVED IN CHRIST,
HE WOULD NEVER BE A MINDLESS, WILLING SUBJECT.
THEY KNEW THEY COULD IMPRISON THE PHYSICAL BODY,
BUT THEY COULDN'T IMPRISON A MAN'S SPIRIT-
HIS FAITH IN GOD.
and so they fought very hard.
but the underground church also has its sympathizers or members
even in the communist governments
and in the secret police.
we instructed christian to join the secret police
and put on the most hated and despised uniform in our country,
so they could report the activities of the secret police
to the underground church.
several brethren of the..church did this,
keeping their faith hidden.
it was difficult for them
to be despised by family and friends
for wearing the communist uniform
and not reveal their true mission.
yet they did,
so great was their love for Christ....
i worked in both an official and underground manner until february 29, 1948.
on that beautiful sunday, on my way to church,
i was kidnapped from the street by the secret police....
christians were hung upside down on ropes
and beaten so severely that their bodies swung back and forth
under the blows.
christians were also placed in ice box 'refrigerator cells',
which were so cold that frost and ice covered the inside.
i was thrown into one while i had very little clothing on.
prison doctors would watch through an opening
until they saw symptoms of freezing to death,
then they would give a signal
and guards would rush in to take us out
and make us warm.
when we were finally warmed,
we would immediately be put back
into the ice box cells to freeze..
thawing out,
then freezing to within minutes of death,
then being thawed out-
over and over again!
even today there are times when i can't bear to open a refrigerator.
we christians were sometimes forced to stand
in wooden boxes only slightly larger than we were.
this left no room to move.
dozens of sharp nails were driven into every side of the box,
with their razor sharp points sticking through the wood.
while we stood perfectly still,
it was all right.
but we were forced to stand in these boxes for endless hours;
when we became fatigued and swayed with tiredness,
the nails would pierce our bodies.
if we moved or twitched a muscle-
there were the horrible nails....
..i have passed through brainwashing myself.
it is a most horrible torture.
we haqd to sit for 17 hours a day-
for weeks, months and years-
hearing
communism is good!
communism is good!
communism is good!
christianity is stupid!
christianity is stupid!
christianity is stupid!
give up!
give up!
give up!
several christians have asked me
how we could resist brainwashing.
there is only one method of resistance to brainwashing;
it is 'heart washing'.
if the heart is cleansed by the love of Jesus Christ,
and if the heart loves Him,
one can resist all tortures.
what would a loving bride not do for a loving bridegroom?
what would a loving mother not do for her child?
if you love Christ as mary did, who had Christ as a baby in her arms,
if you love Jesus as a bride loves her bridegoom,
then you can resist such tortures....
the year 1956 arrived.
i had been in prison eight and a half years.
i had lost much weight,
gained ugly scars,
been brutally beaten and kicked,
derided, starved, pressured, questioned
as nauseum,
threatened and neglected.
none of this had produced the results
my captors were seeking.
so, in discouragement-
and amid protests over my imprisonment-
they turned me loose.
i was allowed to return to my old position as pastor
for just one week.
i preached two sermons.
then they called me in and told me
that i could not preach anymore,
nor engage in any further religious activity.
what had i said?
i had counseled my parishioners to
have 'patience, patience and more patience.
'this means you are telling them to be patient
and the americans will come and deliver them,
the police shouted at me.
i had also said that the wheel turns and times change.
'you are telling them the communists will not continue to rule!
these are counterrevolutionary lies! hey screamed.
so that was the end of my public ministry.
probably the authorities believed that i would be afraid to defy them
and continue with underground witnessing.
that was where they were wrong.
secretly,
and with my family's support,
i returned to the work i had been doing before...
my second imprisonment...
it was strictly forbidden to preach to other prisoners,
as it is in captive nations today.
it was understood that whoever was caught doing this
received a severe eating.
a number of us decided to pay the price
for the privilege of preaching
and they beat us.
WE WERE HAPPY PREACHING;
THEY WERE HAPPY BEATING US-
SO EVERYONE WAS HAPPY.
the following scene happened more times than i can remember.
a brother was preaching to the other prisoners
when thee guards suddenly burst in,
surprising him halfway through a phrase.
they hauled him down the corridor to their 'beating room'.
after what seemed an endless beating,
they brought him back and threw him-
bloody and bruised-
on the prison floor.
slowly, he picked up his battered body
painfully straightened his clothing and said,
'now, brethren, where did i leave off when i was interrupted?
he continued his gospel message!
i have seen beautiful things !
sometimes the preachers were laymen,
simple men inspired by the holy spirit
who often preached beautifully.
all of their heart was in their words,
for to preach under such punitive circumstances
was no trifling matter.
then the guards would come
and take the preacher out
and beat him half to death....
a total of 14 years in prison passed for me.
during all this time i never saw a bible or any other book.
i had forgotten how to write.
because of the starvation, drugging and tortures,
i had forgotten the Holy Scriptures.
but on the day that i fulfilled 14 years,
out of oblivion came into my mind the verse;
'so jacob served 7 years for rachel,
and they seemed but a few days to him
because of the love he had for her genesis 29.20.
very soon after this i was released through a general amnesty given in our country,
very much under the influence of american public opinion.
i saw my wife again.
she had waited faithfully for me for 14 years.
we began our new life in poverty,
because those who are arrested have everything taken from them.
the priests and pastors who were released
were allowed to have small churches.
a church in the town of orsova was given to me.
the communist department of cults told me
it had 35 members in it
and warned that must never have 36!
i was also told that i must be their agent
and report to the secret police on every member
and keep all youth away.
this is how the communists use churches as their 'tool' of control....
because of the renewed work of the underground church, i was in very great danger of still another arrest. at this time, two christian organizations, the orwegian mission to the jews and the hebrew christian alliance, paid the communist government a ransom of $10,000 for me..i could now leave romania.
i would not have left romania, despite the dangers,
if the leaders of the underground church had not
commanded me to use this opportunity to leave the country,
to be a 'voice' of the underground church to the free world.
they wished me to speak to you of the western world on their behalf
about their sufferings and needs.
i came to the west, but my heart remained with them...
before leaving romania, i was called twice to the secret police.
they told me that the money had been received for me. ..
they told me,
'go to the west and preach Christ as much as you like,
but don't touch us!
don't speak a word against us!
we tell you frankly what we plan for you if you do tell what happened.
first of all, for $1000 we can find a gangster to kill you,
or we can kidnap you...
we can also destroy you morally by spreading a story about you
with a girl, theft or some sin of your youth.
the westerners-
especially americans-
are very easily deceived...
so in december 1965, my family and i were allowed to leave romania.
my last deed before leaving was to go to the grave of the colonel
who had given the order for my arrest
and who had ordered my years of torture.
i placed a flower on his grave.
by doing this i dedicated myself to bringing
the joys that i have
to the communists who are so empty spiritually.
i hate the communist system
but i love men.
i hate the sin
but i love the sinner.
i love the communists with all of my heart.
communists can kill christians
but they cannot kill their love toward even those who killed them.
i have not the slightest bitterness or resentment...
if i were asked,
'are you for the communists or against them?
my answer would be a complex one.
communism is one of the greatest menaces to mankind.
i am utterly opposed to it and wish to fight it until it is overthrown.
but, in the spirit,
i am seated in heavenly places with Jesus.
i am seated in the sphere of the 'no',
in which, notwithstanding all of their crimes,
the communists are understood and loved...
st macary said,
'if a man loves all men passionately,
but says only about one man that
him he cannot love,
the man who says this is no more a christian,
because his love is not all embracing.
st. augustine teaches,
'if all mankind had been righteous and only one man a sinner,
Christ would have come..He so loves every individual....
a great part of my family was murdered.
it was in my own house that their murderer was converted.
it was also the most suitable place.
so in communist prisons thee idea of a
christian mission to the communists was born.
strategic thought is needed in missionary work.
from the point of view of salvation,
all souls are equal;
from the point of view of missionary strategy,
they are not equal.
it is more important to win a man of great influence,
who can afterward win thousands,
than to speak to a savage in the jungle assuring salvation only for him.
(note: is this right?)
therefore, Jesus chose to end His ministry
not in some small village,
but in jerusalem, the spiritual headquarters of the world.
for this same reason,
paul strove so much to arrive in rome....
the early church worked secretly and illegally,
and it triumphed.
we must learn again to work in the same manner.
until the communist era, i never understood why so many persons of the new testament
are called by nicknames:
simeon who was called niger,
john called mark and so on.
we continue to use secret names in our work in captive nations....
A MAN REALLY BELIEVES NOT WHAT HE RECITES IN HIS CREED,
BUT ONLY THE THINGS HE IS READY TO DIE FOR.
the christians of the underground church have proved
that they are ready to die for their faith.
our international network of missions continues today
with a secret work in captive nations
that can mean for them
imprisonment, torture, and death
if caught in such a country...
but the worst thing communists do is not that they torture and kill the bodies of men.
they hopelessly falsify the thoughts of men and poison the youth and the children...
..many christians i the west have no love for those in captive nations..
many have no mission to captive nations,
claiming that such work is 'against the law'!...
..by their complacency,
by their neglect,
and sometimes by acting as actual accomplices,
some western church leaders strengthen the infidels in their infidelity.
they help the communists to intrude into western churches
and to win leadership in the churches of the world.
they help christians remain unaware of the danger of communism...
..they do not love their own flocks..
if they do not allow them to participate in
this spiritual battle around the world...
when i was reunited with my wife after my release from prison,
she asked me what my plans were for the future.
i answered,
'the ideal that i have before me is the life of a spiritual recluse.
my wife answered that she had had the same thought.
i had been a very dynamic type in my youth.
but prison, and especially the years of solitary confinement,
had transformed me into a meditative, contemplative man.
all the storms in the heart had been stilled.
i did not mind communism;
i did not even notice it.
i was in the embraces of the heavenly bridegoom.
i prayed for those who tormented us
and loved them with all of my heart.
i had very little hope of ever being released.
from time to time i wondered what i would do in case i were released.
i always considered that i would retire somewhere and continue the life
of sweet union in the desert with the heavenly bridegroom.
God is the Truth.
the bible is the truth about the Truth.
theology is the truth about the truth about the Truth.
christian people live in these many truths about the Truth,
and because of them, have not 'the Truth'.
hungry, beaten and drugged,
we had forgotten theology and the bible.
we had forgotten the truths about the Truth,
therefore we lived in 'the Truth'...
the desire to fight against somebody or something could not have been further from my mind.
i did not wish to fight any wars, even just wars...
but, from the very day of my release,
i was faced with aspects of communism more ugly
than all the tortures of my imprisonment had been.
one after the other i met great preachers and pastors of the different churches,
and even bishops,
who simply confessed with great sorrow
that they were informers for the secret police
against their own flocks.
i asked them if they were prepared to give up being informers,
even at the risk of being imprisoned themselves.
all answered 'no'.
and explained that it was not fear for their own persons that restrained them.
they told me of new developments in the churches,
things that did not exist before my arrest-
that to refuse to be an informer could mean the closing of a church....
..peasants from all over the country came to me,
and told me how the collectivization was being conducted.
they were now hungry slaves on their own former fields and vineyards.
they had no bread.
their children had no milk, no fruit-
and this in a country with natural riches that equal those of canaan of old.
brethren confessed to me that lenin's communist regime
had made thieves and liars of them all.
out of hunger they had to steal from what was originally their own field,
but now belonged to the collective.
then they had to lie to cover their theft.
workers spoke to me about the terror in the factories
and about an exploitation of work power..
intellectuals had to teach, against their inner convictions,
that there is no God.
the whole life and thought of one third of the world at that time
was destroyed or falsified,
as is still being done in restricted nations today...
everything was desperately false and ugly.
then i met the fighters of the underground church-
my comrades of long ago-
some of whom have remained uncaught
and others who have taken up the fight again
after having been released from prison.
they called on me to take up the fight with them.
i attended their secret meetings
at which they sang from hymnbooks written by hand.
i remembered st. anthony the great,
who had been in the desert for 39 years.
he had left the world altogether,
passing his whole life in fasting and prayer.
but when he heard about the fight
between st. athanasius and arius about the divinity of Christ,
he left the contemplative life and came to alexandria
to help the tuth to triumph.
i remembered st. bernard de clairvaux,
who was a monk high up in the mountains.
but he heart about the foolishness of the cursades,
about christians killing arabs and jews
and their brethren in faith of another confession,
to win an empty tomb.
he left his monastery
and stepped down from his heights
to preach against the crusades.
i decided to do what all christians have to do:
to follow the examples of Christ, the apostle paul, and the great saints,
to give up the thought of retiring and to take up the fight.
what kind of fight would it be? CONTINUED at II, 1.15.13
i was orphaned from the first years of life.
being brought up in a family in which no religion was recognized,
i received no religious education as a child.
as the result of a bitter childhood,
which included knowing poverty in the difficult years of world war I,
at age 14 i was as convinced an atheist as the communists are today.
i had read atheistic books,
and it was not just that i did not believe in God of Christ-
i hated these notions, considering them harmful for the human mind.
so i grew up in bitterness toward religion.
but as i understood afterward,
i had the grace to be one of the chosen of God for reasons that i don't understand.
these reasons had nothing to do with my character,
because my character was very bad.
although i was an atheist,
something unreasonable always attracted me to churches.
i found it difficult to pass a church without entering it.
however, i never understood what was happening in these churches.
i listened to the sermons,
but they didn't appeal to my heart.
i had an image of God
as a master whom i should have to obey.
i hated this wrong image of god that i had in my mind,
but i would have liked very much to know that a loving heart existed
somewhere in the center of this universe.
since i had known few of the joys of childhood and youth,
i longed that there should be a loving heart beating for me too.
i convinced myself that there was no god,
but i was sad that such a God of love did not exist.
once, in my inner spiritual conflict,
i entered a catholic church.
i saw people kneeling and saying something.
i thought,
i will kneel near them so i can hear what they say
and repeat the prayers to see if something happens.
they said a prayer to the holy virgin,
'hail mary, full of grace.
i repeated the words after them again and again;
i looked at the statue of the virgin mary,
but nothing happened.
i was very sad about it.
one day, being a very convinced atheist,
i prayed to god.
my prayer was something like this:
'God, i know surely that You do not exist.
but if perchance You exist, which i contest,
it is not my duty to believe in You;
it is Your duty to reveal Yourself to me.
i was an atheist, but atheism did not give peace to my heart.
during this time of inner turmoil,
an old carpenter in a village high up in the mountains of romania prayed like this;
'my God, i have served You on earth
and i wish to have my reward on earth as well as in heaven.
and my reward should be that i should not die before i bring a jew to Christ,
because Jesus was from the jewish people.
but i am poor, old, and sick.
i cannot go around and seek a jew.
in my village theree are none.
bring a few into my village
and i will do my best to bring him to Christ.
something irresistible drew me to that village.
i had no reason to go there.
romania has twelve thousand villages,
but i went to that one.
seeing i was a jew, the carpenter courted me
as never a beautiful girl had been courted.
he saw in me the answer to his prayer and gave me a bible to read.
i had read the bible out of cultural interest many times before.
but the bible he gave me was another kind of bible.
as he told me some time later,
he and his wife prayed together for hours
for my conversion and that of my wife.
the bible he gave me was written not so much in words,
but in flames of love fired by his prayers.
i could barely read it.
i could only weep over it,
comparing my bad life with the life of Jesus;
my impurity with His righteousness;
my hatred with His love-
and He accepted me as one of His own.
...out of remorse for being an atheist, i longed from the first day of my conversion to be able to witnesses to the russians.
..it was a dramatic, moving work.
i will never forget my first encounter with a russian prisoner, an engineer.
i asked him if he believed in God.
if he had said 'no', i would not have minded it much.
..but when i asked him this, he lifted his eyes toward me without understanding and said,
'i have no such military order to believe. if i have an order i will believe.
tears ran down my cheeks.
i felt my heart torn in pieces.
here stood before me a man whose mind was dead,
a man who had lost a great gift God has given to mankind
-his individuality.
...this was a typical russian after all these years of communist domination!
after the shock of seeing what communism had done to human beings,
i promised God that i would dedicate my life to these men,
to give them back their personalities
and to give them faith in God and Christ.
....once the communists came to power, they skillfully used the means of
seduction toward the church.
the language of love
and the language of seduction are the same.
the one who wishes for a wife
and the one who wishes her for only a night
both say the words,k
'I love you.
Jesus has told us to discern between
the language of seduction and the language of love,
and to know the wolves clad in sheepskin
from the real sheep.
unfortunately, when the communists came to power,
thousands of priests, pastors and ministers
did not know how to discern between the two voices.
the communists convened a congress of
all christian bodies in our parliament building.
there were 4000 priests, pastors and ministers of all denominations-
and these men of god chose joseph stalin as honorary president of this congress.
at the same time he was president of the
World Movement of the Godless
and a mass murderer of christians.
one after another,
bishops and pastors arose and declared
that communism and christianity are
fundamentally the same and could coexist.
one minister after another said words of praise toward communism
and assured the new government of the loyalty of the church.
my wife and i were present at this congress.
sabina told me,
'Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ!
they are spitting in His face.
i said to her,
'if i do so, you lose your husband.
she replied,
'i don't wish to have a coward as a husband.
then i arose and spoke to this congress,
praising not the murderers of christians,
but Jesus Christ,
stating that our loyalty is due first to Him.
the speeches at this congress were broadcast
and the whole country could hear proclaimed
from the rostrum of the communist parliament
the message of Christ!
afterward i had to pay for this,
but it was worthwhile.
orthodox and protestant church leaders competed with each other
in yielding to communism.
and orthodox bishop but the hammer and sickle on his robes
and asked his priests to no longer call him
'Your Grace, but 'Comrade Bishop.
priest like patrascoiu and rosianu were more direct.
they became officers of the secret police.
rapp, deputy bishop of the lutheran church in romania,
began to teach in the theological seminary
that God had given three revelations;
one through moses,
one through Jesus,
and the third through stalin,
the last superseding the one before.
i attended the congress of the baptists in the town of resita-
a congress under the red flag,
where the anthem of the soviet union had been sung with everyone standing.
the president of the baptists praised stalin
as a great teacher of the bible
and proclaimed that stalin did nothing but fulfill
the commandments of God!
....together with others, i began an underground work.
outwardly i had a very respectable position-
pastor of the norwegian lutheran mission-
that served as a cove for my real underground work.
at the same time i represented the
world council of churches in romania.
(in romania we had not the slightest idea that this organization
would ever cooperate with the communists.
at that time in our country
it did nothing but relief work.)...
there were two aspects of this underground work.
the first was our secret ministry among russian soldiers.
the second aspect was our underground work with the enslaved peoples of romania.
for me to preach the gospel to the russians
is heaven on earth.
i have preached the gospel to men of many nations,
but i have never seen a people drink in the gospel like the russians .
they have such thirsty souls.
and orthodox priest,
a friend of mine,
telephoned me
and told me that a russian officer had come to him to confess.
my friend did not know russian...
i read (the man) the sermon on the mount and the parables of Jesus.
after hearing them,
he danced around the room in rapturous joy
proclaiming, 'what a wonderful beauty!
how could i live without knowing this Christ!
it was the first time that i saw someone
so joyful in Christ.
then i made a mistake.
i read to him the passion and crucifixion of Christ,
without having prepared him for this.
he had not expected it and,
when he heard how Christ was beaten,
how He was crucified and that in the end He died,
he fell into an armchair
and began to weep bitterly.
he had believed in a savior
and now his savior was dead!
i looked at him
and was ashamed.
i had called myself
a christian, a pastor and a teacher of others,
but i had never shared the sufferings of Christ
as this russian officer now shared them.
looking at him,
it was like seeing mary magdalene
weeping at the foot of the cross,
faithfully weeping when Jesus was a
corpse in the tomb.
then i read to him the story of the resurrection
and watched his expression change.
he had not known that his savior
arose from the tomb.
when he hear this wonderful news,
he beat his knees and swore-
using very dirty,
but very 'holy' profanity.
this was his crude manner of speech.
again he rejoiced,
shouting for joy,
'He is alive! He is alive!
he danced around the room once more,
overwhelmed with happiness!
i said to him,
'let us pray!
he did not know how to pray.
he did not know our 'holy'phrases.
he fell on his knees together with me
and his words of prayer were:
'Oh God,
what a fine chap you are!
if I were You
and You were me,
i would never have forgiven You of Your sins.
but You are really a very nice chap!
i love You with all of my heart.....
we worked among the russians not only by individual witnessing.
we were able to work in small group meetings as well.
the russians were very fond of watches.
they stole watches from everyone.
they would stop people on the street
and demand that they hand them over.
we would see russians with several watches on each arem,
and russian women officers with alarm clocks hanging around their necks.
they had never had watches before
and could not get enough of them.
romanians who wished to have a watch
had to go to the barracks of the soviet army to buy a stolen one,
often buying back their own watch.
so it was common for romanians to enter the russian barracks.
the underground church also used that pretext-\
of purchasing watches from them-
to give us entrance into their barracks.
the first time i ;preached in a russian barrack
was on the day of st. paul and st. peter, an orthodox feast.
i went onto the military base pretending to buy a watch.
i pretended that one was too expensive,
another was too small,
and another too big.
several soldiers crowded around me,
each offering me something to buy.
jokingly i asked them,
'are any of you named paul or peter?
(some of the older russians knew it.)
so i asked,
'do you know who paul and peter were?
no one knew,
so i began to tell them about paul and peter.
one of the older russian soldiers interrupted me and said,
'you have not come to buy watches.
you have come to tell us about the faith.
sit down here with us and speak to us!
but be very careful!
we know about whom to beware.
these around me are all good men,
but when i put my hand on your knee,
you must talk only about watches.
when i remove my hand,
you may begin your message again.
quite a great crowd of men was gathered around me and i told them...
the underground church met secretly
in homes, in the woods, in basements-
wherever it could.
as is true in many captive nations today,
the underground church in romania
was only partially underground.
like an iceberg,
a small part of its work was in the open.
under the communists,
we devised a plan of street preaching,
which in time became very risky,
but by this means we reached many souls
we could not reach otherwise.
my wife was very active in this.
some christians would quietly gather on a street corner
and star to sing.
people crowded around them to hear the beautiful singing,
then my wife would deliver her message.
we left the spot before the secret police arrived.
one afternoon, while i was active elsewhere,
my wife delivered a message
before thousands of workers
at the entrance of the great MALAXA factory in the city of bucharest.
she spoke to the workers about God and salvation.
the next day,
many of the workers in this factory
were shot after rebelling against
the injustices of the communists.
they had heard the message just in time1
the secret police greatly persecuted the underground church,
because they recognized in it the only effective resistance left.
it was just the kind of resistance
(a spiritual resistance)
that, if left unhindered,
would undermine their atheistic power.
they recognized,
as only the devil can,
an immediate threat to them.
THEY KNEW THAT IF A MAN BELIEVED IN CHRIST,
HE WOULD NEVER BE A MINDLESS, WILLING SUBJECT.
THEY KNEW THEY COULD IMPRISON THE PHYSICAL BODY,
BUT THEY COULDN'T IMPRISON A MAN'S SPIRIT-
HIS FAITH IN GOD.
and so they fought very hard.
but the underground church also has its sympathizers or members
even in the communist governments
and in the secret police.
we instructed christian to join the secret police
and put on the most hated and despised uniform in our country,
so they could report the activities of the secret police
to the underground church.
several brethren of the..church did this,
keeping their faith hidden.
it was difficult for them
to be despised by family and friends
for wearing the communist uniform
and not reveal their true mission.
yet they did,
so great was their love for Christ....
i worked in both an official and underground manner until february 29, 1948.
on that beautiful sunday, on my way to church,
i was kidnapped from the street by the secret police....
christians were hung upside down on ropes
and beaten so severely that their bodies swung back and forth
under the blows.
christians were also placed in ice box 'refrigerator cells',
which were so cold that frost and ice covered the inside.
i was thrown into one while i had very little clothing on.
prison doctors would watch through an opening
until they saw symptoms of freezing to death,
then they would give a signal
and guards would rush in to take us out
and make us warm.
when we were finally warmed,
we would immediately be put back
into the ice box cells to freeze..
thawing out,
then freezing to within minutes of death,
then being thawed out-
over and over again!
even today there are times when i can't bear to open a refrigerator.
we christians were sometimes forced to stand
in wooden boxes only slightly larger than we were.
this left no room to move.
dozens of sharp nails were driven into every side of the box,
with their razor sharp points sticking through the wood.
while we stood perfectly still,
it was all right.
but we were forced to stand in these boxes for endless hours;
when we became fatigued and swayed with tiredness,
the nails would pierce our bodies.
if we moved or twitched a muscle-
there were the horrible nails....
..i have passed through brainwashing myself.
it is a most horrible torture.
we haqd to sit for 17 hours a day-
for weeks, months and years-
hearing
communism is good!
communism is good!
communism is good!
christianity is stupid!
christianity is stupid!
christianity is stupid!
give up!
give up!
give up!
several christians have asked me
how we could resist brainwashing.
there is only one method of resistance to brainwashing;
it is 'heart washing'.
if the heart is cleansed by the love of Jesus Christ,
and if the heart loves Him,
one can resist all tortures.
what would a loving bride not do for a loving bridegroom?
what would a loving mother not do for her child?
if you love Christ as mary did, who had Christ as a baby in her arms,
if you love Jesus as a bride loves her bridegoom,
then you can resist such tortures....
the year 1956 arrived.
i had been in prison eight and a half years.
i had lost much weight,
gained ugly scars,
been brutally beaten and kicked,
derided, starved, pressured, questioned
as nauseum,
threatened and neglected.
none of this had produced the results
my captors were seeking.
so, in discouragement-
and amid protests over my imprisonment-
they turned me loose.
i was allowed to return to my old position as pastor
for just one week.
i preached two sermons.
then they called me in and told me
that i could not preach anymore,
nor engage in any further religious activity.
what had i said?
i had counseled my parishioners to
have 'patience, patience and more patience.
'this means you are telling them to be patient
and the americans will come and deliver them,
the police shouted at me.
i had also said that the wheel turns and times change.
'you are telling them the communists will not continue to rule!
these are counterrevolutionary lies! hey screamed.
so that was the end of my public ministry.
probably the authorities believed that i would be afraid to defy them
and continue with underground witnessing.
that was where they were wrong.
secretly,
and with my family's support,
i returned to the work i had been doing before...
my second imprisonment...
it was strictly forbidden to preach to other prisoners,
as it is in captive nations today.
it was understood that whoever was caught doing this
received a severe eating.
a number of us decided to pay the price
for the privilege of preaching
and they beat us.
WE WERE HAPPY PREACHING;
THEY WERE HAPPY BEATING US-
SO EVERYONE WAS HAPPY.
the following scene happened more times than i can remember.
a brother was preaching to the other prisoners
when thee guards suddenly burst in,
surprising him halfway through a phrase.
they hauled him down the corridor to their 'beating room'.
after what seemed an endless beating,
they brought him back and threw him-
bloody and bruised-
on the prison floor.
slowly, he picked up his battered body
painfully straightened his clothing and said,
'now, brethren, where did i leave off when i was interrupted?
he continued his gospel message!
i have seen beautiful things !
sometimes the preachers were laymen,
simple men inspired by the holy spirit
who often preached beautifully.
all of their heart was in their words,
for to preach under such punitive circumstances
was no trifling matter.
then the guards would come
and take the preacher out
and beat him half to death....
a total of 14 years in prison passed for me.
during all this time i never saw a bible or any other book.
i had forgotten how to write.
because of the starvation, drugging and tortures,
i had forgotten the Holy Scriptures.
but on the day that i fulfilled 14 years,
out of oblivion came into my mind the verse;
'so jacob served 7 years for rachel,
and they seemed but a few days to him
because of the love he had for her genesis 29.20.
very soon after this i was released through a general amnesty given in our country,
very much under the influence of american public opinion.
i saw my wife again.
she had waited faithfully for me for 14 years.
we began our new life in poverty,
because those who are arrested have everything taken from them.
the priests and pastors who were released
were allowed to have small churches.
a church in the town of orsova was given to me.
the communist department of cults told me
it had 35 members in it
and warned that must never have 36!
i was also told that i must be their agent
and report to the secret police on every member
and keep all youth away.
this is how the communists use churches as their 'tool' of control....
because of the renewed work of the underground church, i was in very great danger of still another arrest. at this time, two christian organizations, the orwegian mission to the jews and the hebrew christian alliance, paid the communist government a ransom of $10,000 for me..i could now leave romania.
i would not have left romania, despite the dangers,
if the leaders of the underground church had not
commanded me to use this opportunity to leave the country,
to be a 'voice' of the underground church to the free world.
they wished me to speak to you of the western world on their behalf
about their sufferings and needs.
i came to the west, but my heart remained with them...
before leaving romania, i was called twice to the secret police.
they told me that the money had been received for me. ..
they told me,
'go to the west and preach Christ as much as you like,
but don't touch us!
don't speak a word against us!
we tell you frankly what we plan for you if you do tell what happened.
first of all, for $1000 we can find a gangster to kill you,
or we can kidnap you...
we can also destroy you morally by spreading a story about you
with a girl, theft or some sin of your youth.
the westerners-
especially americans-
are very easily deceived...
so in december 1965, my family and i were allowed to leave romania.
my last deed before leaving was to go to the grave of the colonel
who had given the order for my arrest
and who had ordered my years of torture.
i placed a flower on his grave.
by doing this i dedicated myself to bringing
the joys that i have
to the communists who are so empty spiritually.
i hate the communist system
but i love men.
i hate the sin
but i love the sinner.
i love the communists with all of my heart.
communists can kill christians
but they cannot kill their love toward even those who killed them.
i have not the slightest bitterness or resentment...
if i were asked,
'are you for the communists or against them?
my answer would be a complex one.
communism is one of the greatest menaces to mankind.
i am utterly opposed to it and wish to fight it until it is overthrown.
but, in the spirit,
i am seated in heavenly places with Jesus.
i am seated in the sphere of the 'no',
in which, notwithstanding all of their crimes,
the communists are understood and loved...
st macary said,
'if a man loves all men passionately,
but says only about one man that
him he cannot love,
the man who says this is no more a christian,
because his love is not all embracing.
st. augustine teaches,
'if all mankind had been righteous and only one man a sinner,
Christ would have come..He so loves every individual....
a great part of my family was murdered.
it was in my own house that their murderer was converted.
it was also the most suitable place.
so in communist prisons thee idea of a
christian mission to the communists was born.
strategic thought is needed in missionary work.
from the point of view of salvation,
all souls are equal;
from the point of view of missionary strategy,
they are not equal.
it is more important to win a man of great influence,
who can afterward win thousands,
than to speak to a savage in the jungle assuring salvation only for him.
(note: is this right?)
therefore, Jesus chose to end His ministry
not in some small village,
but in jerusalem, the spiritual headquarters of the world.
for this same reason,
paul strove so much to arrive in rome....
the early church worked secretly and illegally,
and it triumphed.
we must learn again to work in the same manner.
until the communist era, i never understood why so many persons of the new testament
are called by nicknames:
simeon who was called niger,
john called mark and so on.
we continue to use secret names in our work in captive nations....
A MAN REALLY BELIEVES NOT WHAT HE RECITES IN HIS CREED,
BUT ONLY THE THINGS HE IS READY TO DIE FOR.
the christians of the underground church have proved
that they are ready to die for their faith.
our international network of missions continues today
with a secret work in captive nations
that can mean for them
imprisonment, torture, and death
if caught in such a country...
but the worst thing communists do is not that they torture and kill the bodies of men.
they hopelessly falsify the thoughts of men and poison the youth and the children...
..many christians i the west have no love for those in captive nations..
many have no mission to captive nations,
claiming that such work is 'against the law'!...
..by their complacency,
by their neglect,
and sometimes by acting as actual accomplices,
some western church leaders strengthen the infidels in their infidelity.
they help the communists to intrude into western churches
and to win leadership in the churches of the world.
they help christians remain unaware of the danger of communism...
..they do not love their own flocks..
if they do not allow them to participate in
this spiritual battle around the world...
when i was reunited with my wife after my release from prison,
she asked me what my plans were for the future.
i answered,
'the ideal that i have before me is the life of a spiritual recluse.
my wife answered that she had had the same thought.
i had been a very dynamic type in my youth.
but prison, and especially the years of solitary confinement,
had transformed me into a meditative, contemplative man.
all the storms in the heart had been stilled.
i did not mind communism;
i did not even notice it.
i was in the embraces of the heavenly bridegoom.
i prayed for those who tormented us
and loved them with all of my heart.
i had very little hope of ever being released.
from time to time i wondered what i would do in case i were released.
i always considered that i would retire somewhere and continue the life
of sweet union in the desert with the heavenly bridegroom.
God is the Truth.
the bible is the truth about the Truth.
theology is the truth about the truth about the Truth.
christian people live in these many truths about the Truth,
and because of them, have not 'the Truth'.
hungry, beaten and drugged,
we had forgotten theology and the bible.
we had forgotten the truths about the Truth,
therefore we lived in 'the Truth'...
the desire to fight against somebody or something could not have been further from my mind.
i did not wish to fight any wars, even just wars...
but, from the very day of my release,
i was faced with aspects of communism more ugly
than all the tortures of my imprisonment had been.
one after the other i met great preachers and pastors of the different churches,
and even bishops,
who simply confessed with great sorrow
that they were informers for the secret police
against their own flocks.
i asked them if they were prepared to give up being informers,
even at the risk of being imprisoned themselves.
all answered 'no'.
and explained that it was not fear for their own persons that restrained them.
they told me of new developments in the churches,
things that did not exist before my arrest-
that to refuse to be an informer could mean the closing of a church....
..peasants from all over the country came to me,
and told me how the collectivization was being conducted.
they were now hungry slaves on their own former fields and vineyards.
they had no bread.
their children had no milk, no fruit-
and this in a country with natural riches that equal those of canaan of old.
brethren confessed to me that lenin's communist regime
had made thieves and liars of them all.
out of hunger they had to steal from what was originally their own field,
but now belonged to the collective.
then they had to lie to cover their theft.
workers spoke to me about the terror in the factories
and about an exploitation of work power..
intellectuals had to teach, against their inner convictions,
that there is no God.
the whole life and thought of one third of the world at that time
was destroyed or falsified,
as is still being done in restricted nations today...
everything was desperately false and ugly.
then i met the fighters of the underground church-
my comrades of long ago-
some of whom have remained uncaught
and others who have taken up the fight again
after having been released from prison.
they called on me to take up the fight with them.
i attended their secret meetings
at which they sang from hymnbooks written by hand.
i remembered st. anthony the great,
who had been in the desert for 39 years.
he had left the world altogether,
passing his whole life in fasting and prayer.
but when he heard about the fight
between st. athanasius and arius about the divinity of Christ,
he left the contemplative life and came to alexandria
to help the tuth to triumph.
i remembered st. bernard de clairvaux,
who was a monk high up in the mountains.
but he heart about the foolishness of the cursades,
about christians killing arabs and jews
and their brethren in faith of another confession,
to win an empty tomb.
he left his monastery
and stepped down from his heights
to preach against the crusades.
i decided to do what all christians have to do:
to follow the examples of Christ, the apostle paul, and the great saints,
to give up the thought of retiring and to take up the fight.
what kind of fight would it be? CONTINUED at II, 1.15.13
Friday, December 14, 2012
12.14.2012 PSALM 119.126-8
taken from spurgeon's treasury of david. the focus is most all on the first verse but i added the last two of this group of eight verses for i received such a blessing from this simple thought:
if when 'it is time for the lord to work
i myself set myself to
Love His commandments above all else in life
esteem everything He says to be right and
hate everything He says is wrong
can it not be said that maybe it is possible
for a sinner to, in this way, assist God in some small way in His work..
to slip into His easy yoke and as we work together to learn more sweetly of Him?
126 it is time for Thee, Lord, to work:
for they have made void Thy law.
127therefore i love Thy commandments above gold;
yea, above fine gold.
128 therefore i esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things
to be right;
and i hate every false way.
david was a servant, and therefore,
it was always his time to work;
but being oppressed by a sight of man's ungodly behavior,
he feels that his master's hand is wanted,
and therefore He appeals to Him to work
against the working of evil.
men make void the law of God by denying it to be His law,
by promulgating commands and doctrines in opposition to it,
by setting up tradition in its place,
or by utterly disregarding and scorning the authority of the lawgiver.
then sin becomes fashionable,
and a holy walk is regarded as contemptible puritanism;
vice is styled pleasure,
and vanity bears the bell.
then the saints sigh for the presence and power of their God;
o for an hour of the King upon the throne and the rod of iron!
oh for another pentecost with all its wonders,
to reveal the energy of god to gainsayers,
and to make them see that there is a God in Israel!
man's extremity, whether of need or sin, is God's opportunity.
when the earth was without form and void,
the Spirit came and moved upon the face of the waters;
should He not come when society is returning to a like chaos?
when israel in egypt were reduced to the lowest point,
and it seemed that the covenant would be void,
then moses appeared and wrought mighty miracles;
so, too, when the church of god is trampled down,
and her message is derided,
we may expect to see the hand of the lord
stretched out for revival of religion,
the defense of the truth,
and the glorifying of the divine name.
the Lord can work either by judgments which hurl down the ramparts of the foe;
or by revivals which build up the walls of his own jerusalem.
how heartily may we pray to the Lord to raise up new evangelists,
to quicken those we already have,
to set His whole church on fire
and to bring the whole world to His feet.
God's work is ever honourable and glorious;
as for our work, it is as nothing apart from Him. spurgeon
v126 'it is time for Thee, Lord, to work'
was ever vessel more hopelessly becalmed in mid ocean?
or did crew ever cry with more frenzy for some favouring breeze
than those should cry who man the church of the living God?
if God work not,
it is certain there is nothing before the church
but the prospect of utter discomfiture and overthrow.
greater is the world than the church
if God be not in her.
but if God be in her,
she shall not be moved.
may He help her and that right early!
when He arises to work we know not what may be the form and fashion of His operations.
He worketh according to the counsel of His own will;
and who knows but that when once he awakes,
and puts on His strength,
it may not be confined in its results to the
immediate and exclusive quickening of the spiritual life of the church.;
but may be associated with providential upheavals and convulsions
which will fill the heart of the world with astonishment and dismay.
His spiritual kingdom does not stand in isolation.
it has relations which closely involve it with the material universe,
and with human society and national life.
there have been times when God has worked,
and the signs of His presence have been seen,
in terrible shakings of the nations,
int the ploughing up from their foundations of hoary injustice,
in the smiting of grinding tyrannies,
and in the emancipation of peoples
whose life had been a long and hopeless moan.
there have been times, too, and many,
when He has worked through the elements of nature-
through blasting and mildew,
through floods and famine,
through locust, caterpillar and palmer worm;
through flagging commerce,
with its machinery rusting in the mill
and its ships rotting in the harbour.
all these things are His servants.
sometimes the sleep of the world and the church
is so profound that it can be broken only by agencies like
the wind,or fire, or earthquake,
which made the prophet shiver at the mouth of the cave
and without which the voice that followed,
so small and tender,
would have lost much of its melting and subduing power.
when society has become drugged with the circean cup of worldliness
and the voices that come from eternity are unheeded, if not unheard,
even terror has its merciful mission.
the frivolous and superficial hearts of men have to be made serious,
their idols have to be broken,
their nests have to be stoned
or tossed from the trees
where they have to be taught
that if this life be all,
it is but a phantom
and a mockery.
when the day of the Lord shall come,
in which He shall begin to work,
let us not marvel if it
'shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty,
and upon all the cedars of lebanon, that are high and lifted up,
and upon every high tower,
and upon every fenced wall,
and upon all the ships of tarshish,
and upon all pleasant pictures.
and the loftiness of man shall be bowed down,
and the haughtiness of men shall be made low;
and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
but this working of God will also take other shapes.
will it not be seen in the inspiration of the church with faith in its own creed,
so far as that creed has the warrant of the divine
if when 'it is time for the lord to work
i myself set myself to
Love His commandments above all else in life
esteem everything He says to be right and
hate everything He says is wrong
can it not be said that maybe it is possible
for a sinner to, in this way, assist God in some small way in His work..
to slip into His easy yoke and as we work together to learn more sweetly of Him?
126 it is time for Thee, Lord, to work:
for they have made void Thy law.
127therefore i love Thy commandments above gold;
yea, above fine gold.
128 therefore i esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things
to be right;
and i hate every false way.
david was a servant, and therefore,
it was always his time to work;
but being oppressed by a sight of man's ungodly behavior,
he feels that his master's hand is wanted,
and therefore He appeals to Him to work
against the working of evil.
men make void the law of God by denying it to be His law,
by promulgating commands and doctrines in opposition to it,
by setting up tradition in its place,
or by utterly disregarding and scorning the authority of the lawgiver.
then sin becomes fashionable,
and a holy walk is regarded as contemptible puritanism;
vice is styled pleasure,
and vanity bears the bell.
then the saints sigh for the presence and power of their God;
o for an hour of the King upon the throne and the rod of iron!
oh for another pentecost with all its wonders,
to reveal the energy of god to gainsayers,
and to make them see that there is a God in Israel!
man's extremity, whether of need or sin, is God's opportunity.
when the earth was without form and void,
the Spirit came and moved upon the face of the waters;
should He not come when society is returning to a like chaos?
when israel in egypt were reduced to the lowest point,
and it seemed that the covenant would be void,
then moses appeared and wrought mighty miracles;
so, too, when the church of god is trampled down,
and her message is derided,
we may expect to see the hand of the lord
stretched out for revival of religion,
the defense of the truth,
and the glorifying of the divine name.
the Lord can work either by judgments which hurl down the ramparts of the foe;
or by revivals which build up the walls of his own jerusalem.
how heartily may we pray to the Lord to raise up new evangelists,
to quicken those we already have,
to set His whole church on fire
and to bring the whole world to His feet.
God's work is ever honourable and glorious;
as for our work, it is as nothing apart from Him. spurgeon
v126 'it is time for Thee, Lord, to work'
was ever vessel more hopelessly becalmed in mid ocean?
or did crew ever cry with more frenzy for some favouring breeze
than those should cry who man the church of the living God?
if God work not,
it is certain there is nothing before the church
but the prospect of utter discomfiture and overthrow.
greater is the world than the church
if God be not in her.
but if God be in her,
she shall not be moved.
may He help her and that right early!
when He arises to work we know not what may be the form and fashion of His operations.
He worketh according to the counsel of His own will;
and who knows but that when once he awakes,
and puts on His strength,
it may not be confined in its results to the
immediate and exclusive quickening of the spiritual life of the church.;
but may be associated with providential upheavals and convulsions
which will fill the heart of the world with astonishment and dismay.
His spiritual kingdom does not stand in isolation.
it has relations which closely involve it with the material universe,
and with human society and national life.
there have been times when God has worked,
and the signs of His presence have been seen,
in terrible shakings of the nations,
int the ploughing up from their foundations of hoary injustice,
in the smiting of grinding tyrannies,
and in the emancipation of peoples
whose life had been a long and hopeless moan.
there have been times, too, and many,
when He has worked through the elements of nature-
through blasting and mildew,
through floods and famine,
through locust, caterpillar and palmer worm;
through flagging commerce,
with its machinery rusting in the mill
and its ships rotting in the harbour.
all these things are His servants.
sometimes the sleep of the world and the church
is so profound that it can be broken only by agencies like
the wind,or fire, or earthquake,
which made the prophet shiver at the mouth of the cave
and without which the voice that followed,
so small and tender,
would have lost much of its melting and subduing power.
when society has become drugged with the circean cup of worldliness
and the voices that come from eternity are unheeded, if not unheard,
even terror has its merciful mission.
the frivolous and superficial hearts of men have to be made serious,
their idols have to be broken,
their nests have to be stoned
or tossed from the trees
where they have to be taught
that if this life be all,
it is but a phantom
and a mockery.
when the day of the Lord shall come,
in which He shall begin to work,
let us not marvel if it
'shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty,
and upon all the cedars of lebanon, that are high and lifted up,
and upon every high tower,
and upon every fenced wall,
and upon all the ships of tarshish,
and upon all pleasant pictures.
and the loftiness of man shall be bowed down,
and the haughtiness of men shall be made low;
and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
but this working of God will also take other shapes.
will it not be seen in the inspiration of the church with faith in its own creed,
so far as that creed has the warrant of the divine
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