and The Wall Came Down: The Berlin Wall and The Fall of Communism [2 Versions]

Anyone over the age of forty grew up with the Berlin Wall, which the Soviets built almost overnight in 1961. It was the visible embodiment of what Churchill called “The Iron Curtain,” which descended over Eastern Europe in the wake of World War II. Many of us thought the wall was there to stay. Yet, in 1989 — fifteen years ago last week — the wall came tumbling down. East Germans were finally free, and the world rejoiced with them.

There was talk last week about the wall and freedom, but most observers failed to give due credit to the role Christianity played in bringing down communist governments across Eastern Europe.

For instance, in Romania, Laszlo Tokes, the pastor of a Reformed church in Timisoara, boldly preached the truth and exposed the lies of the Ceausescu regime. Alarmed, communist leaders decided in 1989 to send Tokes into exile. But when police arrived to hustle the pastor away, they were stopped by Christians who had gathered around the church to protect him. Two days later, police finally broke through the crowd and dragged Tokes away. Outraged, the people began demonstrating against the communist government. Troops fired on them, but their brave example inspired the entire country. Within days, Romanians had risen up — and the bloody dictator Ceausescu was gone.

A dynamic young pastor helped lead Poland to freedom. Father Jerzy Popieluszko delivered the dynamic messages that stirred Poles to overthrow their communist oppressors. His monthly masses, dedicated to the victims of communist persecution, attracted tens of thousands. Father Jerzy never preached revenge or revolution; he preached the power of good to overcome evil. In 1984, he was kidnapped by the secret police. In churches across Poland, people gathered to pray. Steelworkers demanded his release, threatening a national strike.

Then the blow fell: Father Jerzy’s body was found floating in the Vistula River. He had been brutally tortured. Yet the gentle pastor had taught his people well: After his funeral, hundreds of thousands of Poles marched through the streets of Warsaw carrying banners that read, “We forgive.” They were assaulting evil with good, and under the impact, the communist regime soon crumbled.

In Czechoslovakia, my friend Father Vaclav Maly proclaimed the truth against communist lies before half a million demonstrators. Pastors also helped lead East Germans to freedom. Johannes Richter, pastor of St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, put it this way: “We didn’t encourage disobedience [to the government]. What we did was encourage obedience to God.” Mass demonstrations erupted all over East Germany. Soon thereafter, the Berlin Wall was destroyed.

Today Christians often despair over culture war battles that we fear we are losing — like abortion, gay “marriage,” and stem-cell research. Some Christian leaders tell us to give up, stay in the churches, and focus on evangelism. But the brave example of East European Christians reminds us that we should never give up on the culture — no matter how ugly the battles become.

As we live as His body on earth, God will use us for His purposes, and walls will fall down. If there were ever a time for the Church to be the Church in the public square, it is now.

FOR FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION:

• Michal Kubicki, “Poland remembers Father Popieluszko — a hero of the Solidarity movement,” Radio Praha, 22 October 2004.

• William Horsley, “Romania’s bloody revolution,” BBC Online, 22 December 1999.

• William F. Buckley, Jr., “Tumbling Down,” National Review Online, 24 May 2004. (Part one of five; see parts two, three, four, and five.)

• Read the text of President Ronald Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate at http://www.nationalreview.com/document/reagan_berlin200406070934.asp

• “Bitterness mars Wall anniversary,” CNN, 9 November 2004.

• “Nearly half of young Germans unaware of Berlin Wall anniversary,” Expatica, 8 November 2004.

• Trudy Chun, “A Legacy of Light: Ronald Reagan’s ‘City on a Hill’,” BreakPoint WorldView, October 2004.

• Charles Colson and Ellen Vaughn, Being the Body (W Publishing, 2003).

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Copyright (c) 2004 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint with Chuck Colson” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

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A similar article from December 24, 2012

Breakpoint commentary: A Baby vs. the World: God’s Strategy for Overcoming Evil , by Charles Colson

A Christmas message came to my mind a few years ago as I stood shivering in the autumn chill at the graveside of Father Jerzy Popieluszko. Jerzy was a young pastor who once delivered the dynamic messages that stirred the Polish people to overthrow their Communist oppressors.

His theme was always the same: The Christian is called to defend the truth and overcome evil with good.

Father Jerzy was a young man, pale and gaunt, and his sermons were neither fiery nor eloquent. Yet his monthly masses, dedicated to the victims of Communist persecution, attracted tens of thousands of Polish people. He never preached revenge or revolution. He preached the power of good to overcome evil.

It was a passion that dominated his own life, as well. In 1980, martial law was declared in Poland. Tanks and troops clogged the streets until the entire country was one vast prison. Jerzy hated the occupation as much as his countrymen, but he fought it using God’s weapons of overcoming evil with good. On Christmas Eve, Jerzy slogged through the snow handing out Christmas cookies to the despised soldiers in the streets.

And even in his death, Jerzy was victorious. In 1984, he was kidnapped by the secret police. The nation was electrified. In churches and indeed in factories across Poland, people gathered to pray. Steelworkers demanded his release, threatening a national strike. Fifty thousand people gathered to hear a tape of his final sermon.

Then the blow fell: Jerzy’s body had been found floating in the Vistula River. He’d been brutally tortured, his eyes and tongue cut out, his bones smashed. Yet the gentle pastor had taught his people well. After his funeral, hundreds of thousands of Polish people marched through the streets of Warsaw right past the secret police headquarters carrying banners that read, “We forgive.”

They were assaulting evil with good. And under the impact, the Communist regime soon crumbled.

In 1993, I traveled to Poland for the chartering of Prison Fellowship Poland, a ceremony held outside the very church where Jerzy had preached. His grave is in the courtyard, and as I laid a wreath of flowers on the grave, I looked up at the balcony where the martyred pastor once preached his most powerful message: “Overcome evil with good.”

Suddenly, I felt a stab of conviction as though the Holy Spirit were saying to me, “Pick up the baton. Make that your message, too.” In that instant it was clear to me that the message Jerzy preached has always been God’s strategy for overcoming evil. The supreme example is the Incarnation itself, which we celebrate tomorrow–-the event when God Himself entered human history to overcome the evil of the world.

America is not in the grip of a Communist regime as Poland was, yet Christians are battling a hostile secular culture. And we often wonder how we can fight more effectively. The answer is that God’s people are to fight evil using God’s strategy and God’s weapons.

When God wanted to defeat sin, His ultimate weapon was the sacrifice of His own Son. On Christmas Day two thousand years ago, the birth of a tiny baby in an obscure village in the Middle East was God’s supreme triumph of good over evil.

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Copyright (c) 2012 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.