Chapter 1
Chapter 1
The Russians’ Avid Thirst for Christ
An Atheist Finds Christ
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 fourteen 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 or 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 there are none. Bring a Jew 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.
Soon thereafter, my wife was converted. She brought other souls to Christ. Those other souls brought still more souls to Christ, and so a new Lutheran congregation arose in Romania.
Then came the Nazis under whom we suffered much. In Romania, Nazism took the form of a dictatorship of extreme orthodox elements that persecuted Protestant groups as well as the Jews.
Even before my formal ordination and before I was prepared for the ministry, I was the leader of this church, being the founder of it. I was responsible for it. My wife and I were arrested several times, beaten, and hauled before Nazi judges. The Nazi terror was great, but only a taste of what was to come under the Communists. My son, Mihai, had to assume a non-Jewish name to prevent his death.
But these Nazi times had one great advantage. They taught us that physical beatings could be endured, and that the human spirit with God’s help can survive horrible tortures. They taught us the technique of secret Christian work, which was a preparation for a far worse ordeal to come—an ordeal that was just before us.
My Ministry to the Russians
Out of remorse for having been an atheist, I longed from the first day of my conversion to be able to witness to the Russians. The Russians are a people raised from childhood in atheism. My desire to reach Russians has been fulfilled, and I did not have to go to Russia to reach them. Its fulfillment began in Nazi times, because we had in Romania many thousands of Russian war prisoners among whom we could do Christian work.
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. It is the choice of every man to believe or disbelieve. 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. He was a brainwashed tool in the hands of the Communists, ready to believe or not on an order. He could not think anymore on his own. 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.
Beginning August 23, 1944, one million Russian troops entered Romania and, very soon after this, the Communists came to power in our country. Then began a nightmare that made suffering under the Nazis seem easy.
At that time in Romania, which now has a population of about 24 million, the Communist party had only ten thousand members. But Vishinsky, the Foreign Secretary of the Soviet Union, stormed into the office of our much beloved King Michael I, pounded his fists on the table and said, “You must appoint Communists to the government.” Our army and police were disarmed and so, by violence and hated by almost all, the Communists came to power. It was not without the cooperation of the American and British rulers of that time.
Men are responsible before God not only for their personal sins, but also for their national sins. The tragedy of all the captive nations is a responsibility on the hearts of American and British Christians. Americans must know that they have at times unwittingly assisted the Russians in imposing upon us a regime of murder and terror. As a part of the Body of Christ, Americans must atone for this by helping the captive peoples come to the light of Christ.
The Seduction of the Church
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 a girl for a wife and the one who wishes her for only a night both say the words, “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 four thousand 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. An Orthodox bishop put the hammer and sickle on his robes and asked his priests to no longer call him “Your Grace,” but “Comrade Bishop.” Priests 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!
It must be understood that the true Baptists, whom I love very much, did not agree and were very faithful to Christ, suffering much. However, the Communists “elected” their leaders and the Baptists had no choice but to accept them. The same condition exists today in Communist nations among the very top religious leadership of the “official”1 church. Those who became servants of communism instead of Christ began to denounce the brethren who did not join them.
[footnote: 1 The official church is one registered with and controlled by the government. Membership of official churches in many totalitarian systems today usually numbers less than ten percent of the Christian population. The others prefer to worship “underground.”]
Just as Christians in Russia created an Underground Church after their revolution, the coming to power of communism and the betrayal by many official church leaders compelled us to likewise create in Romania an Underground Church: one faithful to evangelize, preach the gospel, and reach children for Christ. The Communists forbade all this and the official church complied.
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 cover 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.) These two titles gave me a very good standing before the authorities, who did not know of my underground 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.
Russians—A People With Such “Thirsty” Souls
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.
An 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. However, knowing that I speak Russian, he had given him my address. The next day this man came to see me. He longed for God, but he had never seen a Bible. He had no religious education and never attended religious services (churches in Russia then were very scarce). He loved God without the slightest knowledge of Him.
I read to him 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 heard 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.”
I think that all the angels in heaven stopped what they were doing to listen to this sublime prayer from a Russian officer. The man had been won for Christ!
In a shop, I met a Russian captain with a lady officer. They were buying all kinds of things and had difficulty speaking to the salesman, who did not understand Russian. I offered to translate for them and we became acquainted. I invited them to lunch at our house. Before beginning to eat, I told them, “You are in a Christian house and we have the habit of praying.” I said the prayer in Russian. They put down their forks and knives and were no longer interested in food. Instead, they asked question after question about God, Christ, and the Bible. They knew nothing.
It was not easy to talk to them. I told them the parable of the man who had a hundred sheep and lost one. They did not understand, as they were brainwashed with the Communist ideology. They asked, “How is it that he has a hundred sheep? Has not the Communist collective farm taken them away?” Then I said that Jesus is a king. They answered, “All the kings have been bad men who controlled the people, so Jesus must also be a dictator.” When I told them the parable of the workers in the vineyard, they said, “Well, these did very well to rebel against the owner of the vineyard. The vineyard has to belong to the collective.” Everything was new for them. When I told them about the birth of Jesus, they asked what would seem blasphemous to a Westerner, “Was Mary the wife of God?” In talking with them and many others, I learned that to preach the gospel to the Russians, after so many years of communism, we had to use an entirely new approach.
This truth applies in many different cultures. The missionaries who went to Central Africa had difficulty translating the words of Isaiah: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). No one in Central Africa had ever seen snow, so they had no word for it. The missionaries had to translate, “Your sins will become white as the kernel of the coconut.”
So we had to translate the gospel into the “Marxist language” in order for them to identify with it. It was something we could not do by ourselves, but the Holy Spirit did His work through us.
The captain and the lady officer were converted on that day. Later, they helped us much in our underground ministry to the Russians.
We secretly printed and distributed among Russians many thousands of Gospels and other Christian literature. Through the converted Russian soldiers, we smuggled Bibles and Bible portions into Russia. We also used another technique to get copies of God’s Word into the hands of Russians. The Russian soldiers had been fighting for several years and many of them had children back home whom they had not seen for all this time. (The Russians have a great fondness for children.) My son, Mihai, and other children under ten years of age would go to the Russian soldiers on the streets and in the parks, carrying Bibles, Gospels, and other literature in their pockets. The Russian soldiers would pat them on the head, talk to them lovingly, thinking of their own children whom they had not seen in years. The soldiers would give them chocolate or candy, and the children, in turn, would give the soldiers something—Bibles and Gospels, which they eagerly accepted. Often what was too dangerous for us to do openly our children did in complete safety. They were “young missionaries” to the Russians. The results were excellent. Many Russian soldiers received the gospel this way when there was no other way to give it to them.
Preaching in Russian Army Barracks
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 arm, 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 were. Then I said, “Do you know that today is the day when your Orthodox church honors St. Paul and St. 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 about Paul and Peter, about the Christ for whom Paul and Peter died. From time to time, someone would approach in whom they had no confidence. The soldier would put his hand on my knee and I would talk about watches. When that man went away, I resumed preaching about Christ. This visit was repeated numerous times with the help of Russian Christian soldiers. Many of their comrades found Christ and thousands of Gospels were given out secretly.
A number of our brothers and sisters in the Underground Church were caught and heavily beaten for this, but they didn’t betray our organization.
During this work we had the joy of meeting brethren from the Underground Church in Russia and hearing about their experiences. First of all, we saw in them the makings of great saints. They had passed through so many years of Communist indoctrination. But just as a fish lives in the salty waters and keeps its meat sweet, they passed through the Communist schools and universities but had kept their souls clean and pure in Christ.
These Russian Christians had such beautiful souls! They said, “We know that the star with the hammer and sickle, which we wear on our caps, is the star of the anti-Christ.” They said this with great sorrow. They helped us greatly to spread the gospel among other Russian soldiers.
I can say that they had all the Christian virtues, except the virtue of joy. This they had only at conversion, then it disappeared. I thought about this a lot. Once I asked a Baptist, “How is it that you know no joy?” He answered, “How can I be joyful when I have to hide from the pastor of my church that I am an earnest Christian, that I lead a life of prayer, that I try to win souls? The pastor of the church is an informer of the secret police. We are spied on one after another and the shepherds are those who betray the flock. There exists very deep in our heart the joy of salvation, but this external gladness that you have—we do not have it anymore.”
Christianity has become dramatic with us. When Christians in free countries win a soul for Christ, the new believer may become a member of a quietly living church. But when those in captive nations win someone, we know that he may have to go to prison and that his children may become orphans. The joy of having brought someone to Christ is always mixed with this feeling that there is a price that must be paid. We had met an entirely new type of Christian—the Christian of the Underground Church.
Here we had many surprises.
As there are many who believe they are Christians and in reality are not, we found that among the Russians there are many who believe they are atheists, but in reality they are not.
On a train, a Russian officer sat in front of me. I had spoken to him about Christ for only a few minutes when he broke out with a torrent of atheistic arguments. Quotations from Marx, Stalin, Voltaire, Darwin, and others against the Bible just flew from his mouth. He gave me no opportunity to contradict him. He spoke for nearly an hour to convince me that there is no God. When he had finished, I asked him, “If there is no God, why do you pray when you are in trouble?” Like a thief surprised while stealing, he replied, “How do you know that I pray?” I did not allow him to escape. “I asked my question first. I asked why you pray. Please answer!” He bowed his head and acknowledged, “On the front, when we were encircled by the Germans, we all prayed! We did not know how to do it. So we said, ‘God and spirit of mother’”—which is surely a very good prayer in the sight of the One who looks to the heart.
I met a Russian couple, both sculptors. When I spoke to them about God, they answered, “No, God does not exist. We are bezboshniki—godless. But we will tell you something interesting that happened to us.
“Once we worked on a statue of Stalin. During the work, my wife asked me, ‘How about the thumb? If we did not have an opposing thumb—if our fingers were like our toes—we could not hold a hammer, mallet, tool, book, or piece of bread. Human life would be impossible without this little thumb. Now, who made the thumb? We both learned Marxism in school and know that heaven and earth exist by themselves. They are not created by God. So I have learned and so I believe. But if God did not create heaven and earth, if He created only the thumb, He would be praiseworthy for this little thing.
“‘We praise Edison and Bell and Stephenson who have invented the electric bulb, telephone, railway, and other things. But why should we not praise the One who has invented the thumb? If Edison had not had a thumb, he would have invented nothing. It is only right to worship God who made the thumb.’”
The husband became very angry, as husbands very often do when their wives tell them wise things. “Don’t speak stupidities! You have learned that there is no God. You do not know if the house is bugged. We can get into trouble. Get into your mind once and for all that there is no God. In heaven there is nobody!”
She replied, “This is an even greater wonder. If in heaven there is an Almighty God, in whom in stupidity our forefathers believed, it would then be only natural that we should have thumbs. An Almighty God can do everything, so He can make a thumb, too. But if in heaven there is nobody, I will worship with all of my heart the ‘Nobody’ who has made the thumb.”
So they became worshippers of the “Nobody”! Their faith in this “Nobody” increased with time, believing Him to be the creator not only of the thumb, but also of the stars, flowers, children, and everything beautiful in life. It was just as in Athens in earlier times, when Paul met worshippers of the “unknown God” (Acts 17:23).
This couple was unspeakably happy to hear from me that they had believed rightly, that in heaven there is really a “No-body”—God who is Spirit. He is a Spirit of love, wisdom, truth, and power, who so loved them that He sent His only begotten Son to sacrifice Himself for them on the cross.
They had been believers in God not knowing that they were so. I had the great privilege of taking them one step further—to the experience of salvation and redemption.
Once I saw a Russian lady officer on the street. I approached her and apologized, “I know that it is impolite to approach an unknown lady on the street, but I am a pastor and my intentions are earnest. I wish to speak to you about Christ.”
She asked me, “Do you love Christ?” I said, “Yes! With all of my heart.” She fell into my arms and kissed me again and again. It was a very embarrassing situation for a pastor, so I kissed her back, hoping people would think we were relatives. She exclaimed to me, “I love Christ, too!” I took her to our home and discovered to my amazement that she knew nothing about Christ—absolutely nothing—except the name. And yet she loved Him. She did not know that He is the Savior, nor what salvation means. She did not know where and how He lived and died. She did not know His teachings, His life or ministry. She was for me a psychological curiosity: how can you love someone if you know only his name?
When I inquired, she explained, “As a child, I was taught to read by pictures. For an ‘a’ there was an apple, for ‘b’ there was a bell, for ‘c’ a cat, and so on.
“When I went to high school, I was taught that it was my holy duty to defend the Communist fatherland. I was taught about Communist morals. But I did not know what a ‘holy duty’ or a ‘moral’ looked like. I needed a picture for these. Now, I knew that our forefathers had a picture for everything beautiful, praiseworthy, and truthful in life. My grandmother always bowed before this picture, saying that it was the picture of one called Cristos (Christ). And I loved this name by itself. This name became so real to me! Just to say this name gave me such joy.”
Listening to her, I remembered what is written in Philippians 2:10, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Perhaps the anti-Christ will be able for a time to erase from the world the knowledge of God. But there is power in the simple name of Christ, and this will lead one to the light.
She joyously found Christ in my home and now the One whose name she loved lived in her heart.
Every moment I lived with Russians was full of poetry and deep meaning. A sister who spread the gospel in railway stations gave an interested officer my address. One evening he entered my house—a tall, handsome Russian lieutenant.
I asked him, “How can I serve you?”
He answered, “I have come for light.”
I began to read him the most essential parts of Scripture. He put his hand upon mine and said, “I ask you with all of my heart, don’t lead me astray. I belong to a people kept in the dark. Tell me, please, is this the true Word of God?” I assured him that it was. He listened for hours—and accepted Christ.
Russians are rarely superficial or shallow in religious matters. Whether they fought against religion or were for it and sought Christ, they put their whole soul into it. That is why under communism in Russia, Christians were soul-winning missionaries. Russians are also historically a religious people. Countries such as this are ripe and fruitful for gospel work, and the course of the world is being changed as we aggressively share the gospel with them. It is such a tragedy that Russia and its peoples are very hungry for the Word of God, yet many have seemingly written them off.
Our ministry to the Russians has borne much fruit.
I remember Piotr (Peter). No one knows in what Russian prison he disappeared. He was so young—perhaps twenty. He had come to Romania with the Russian army. He was converted in an underground meeting and asked me to baptize him.
After his baptism, I asked him to tell us what verse of the Bible had impressed him most and had influenced him to come to Christ.
He said that at one of our secret meetings, I had read Luke 24, the story of Jesus meeting the two disciples who went toward Emmaus. When they drew near the village, “He [Jesus] indicated that He would have gone farther” (Luke 24:28). Piotr said, “I wondered why Jesus said this. He surely wanted to stay with His disciples. Why then did He say that He wished to go further?” My explanation was that Jesus is polite. He wished to be very sure that He was desired. When He saw that He was welcomed, He gladly entered the house with them. The Communists are impolite. They enter by violence into our hearts and minds. They force us to listen to them from morning to late in the night. They do it through their schools, radio, newspapers, posters, movies, atheistic meetings, and everywhere we turn. We have to listen continuously to their godless propaganda whether we like it or not. Jesus respects our freedom. He gently knocks at the door of our heart.
“Jesus has won me by His politeness,” said Piotr. This stark contrast between communism and Christ had convinced him. He was not the only Russian to have been impressed by this feature in Jesus’ character. (As a pastor, I had never thought about it this way.)
After his conversion, Piotr repeatedly risked his liberty and life to smuggle Christian literature and help for the Underground Church in Romania to Russia. In the end he was caught. The last I heard of him, he was still in prison. Did he die? Is he already in heaven or is he continuing the good fight on earth? I don’t know. Only God knows where he is today.
Like Piotr, many others were not just converted. We should never stop at having won a soul for Christ. By this, we have done only half the work. Every soul won for Christ must be made to be a soul-winner. The Russians were not only converted, but became “missionaries” in the Underground Church. They were reckless and daring for Christ, always saying that it was the least they could do for Christ who died for them.
Our Underground Ministry to an Enslaved Nation
The second aspect of our ministry was our underground missionary work among Romanians.
Initially, the Communists used seduction to win church leaders to their side, but very soon they dropped their masks. Then the terror began and thousands were arrested. To win a soul for Christ began to be a dramatic thing for us, too, as it had long been for the Russians.
For example, I was later in prison together with souls whom God had helped me to win for Christ. I was in the same cell with one who had left behind six children and who was now in prison for his Christian faith. His wife and children were starving. He might never see them again. I asked him, “Have you any resentment against me that I brought you to Christ and because of this your family is in such misery?” He answered, “I have no words to express my thankfulness that you have brought me to the wonderful Savior. I would never have it any other way.”
Preaching in these new conditions was not easy. Our people were very oppressed. The Communists took possessions from everyone. From the farmer they took fields and sheep. From a barber or tailor, they took his little shop. It was not only the capitalists who were expropriated; very poor men also suffered much. Nearly every family had a member in prison, and the poverty was great. Men asked, “How is it that a God of love permits the triumph of evil?”
It likewise would not have been easy for the apostles to preach Christ on Good Friday, as Jesus died on the cross crying, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” But the fact that the work continued to bear fruit proves that it was from God and not from us. The Christian faith has an answer to such questions. For instance, Jesus told us about Lazarus, a poor beggar, oppressed as we were oppressed—dying, hungry, his wounds being licked by dogs—but in the end, angels took him to Abraham’s bosom.
How the Underground Church Worked Partly in the Open
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 having 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 start 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 workers in this factory were shot after rebelling against the injustices of the Communists. They had heard the message just in time!
We were an Underground Church but, like John the Baptist, we spoke openly to men and rulers about Christ. Once, on the steps of one of our government buildings, two Christian brethren pushed their way to our Prime Minister, Gheorghiu Dej. In the few moments they had, they witnessed to him about Christ, urging him to turn from his sins and persecution. He had them thrown into prison for their daring witness. Years later, when Prime Minister Dej was very sick, the seed of the gospel, which they had planted years ago and for which they had suffered greatly, bore fruit. In his hour of need, the Prime Minister remembered the words that had been spoken to him. Those words were, as the Bible says, “living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). They cut through the hardness of his heart and he surrendered his life to Christ. He confessed his sins, accepted the Savior, and began to serve Him in his sickness. Not long afterward he died, but went to his newfound Savior all because two Christians were willing to pay the price. And they are typical of the courageous Christians in captive nations today.
Sharing the gospel became more difficult under the Communist oppression, but we succeeded in printing several Christian pamphlets, passing them through the severe censorship of the Communists. We presented to the censor booklets that had on the front page a picture of Karl Marx, the founder of communism, and titles such as Religion is the Opium of the People. He considered them to be Communist publications and put the seal of approval on them. In these booklets, after a few pages full of quotations from Marx, Lenin, and Stalin—which pleased the censor—we gave our message about Christ.
We then went to the Communist demonstrations and distributed these “Communist” booklets. The Communists, seeing the picture of Marx, competed with each other to buy them. By the time they reached page ten and discovered that they were all about God and Jesus, we were far away.
Thus, the Underground Church worked not only in the secret meetings and clandestine activities, but boldly in the open proclaiming the gospel on the Communist streets and to Communist leaders. There was a price, but we were prepared to pay it. And the Underground Church is still prepared to pay it today.
Working Undercover
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 Christians 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 Underground 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.
When I was kidnapped by police and kept imprisoned for years in strictest secrecy, a Christian doctor actually became a member of the secret police to learn my whereabouts! As a secret police doctor, he had access to the cells of all prisoners and hoped to find me. All of his friends shunned him, thinking he had become a Communist. To go around dressed in the uniform of the torturers is a much greater sacrifice than to wear the uniform of a prisoner.
The doctor found me in a deep, dark cell and sent word that I was alive. He was the first friend to discover me during my initial eight-and-a-half years in prison! Due to him, word was spread that I was alive and, when prisoners were released during the Eisenhower-Khrushchev “thaw” in 1956, Christians clamored for my release and I was freed for a short time. If it had not been for this doctor, who joined the secret police specifically to find me, I would never have been released. I would still be in prison—or in a grave—today.
Using their position in the secret police, these members of the Underground Church warned us many times and were of tremendous help. The Underground Church in Communist countries has men in the secret police today who protect and warn Christians of impending danger. Some are high up in government circles, keeping their faith in Christ secret and helping us greatly. One day in heaven they can publicly proclaim Christ, whom they serve secretly now.
Nevertheless, many members of the Underground Church were discovered and imprisoned. We had our “Judases,” too, who reported our activities to the secret police. Using beatings, druggings, threats, and blackmail, the Communists tried to find ministers and laymen who would report on their brethren.