In this sermon, the pastor shares a personal experience of visiting a saloon with his wife. The owner of the saloon is grateful to the pastor for saving his life and offers them free drinks. The pastor takes this opportunity to share the story of Jesus Christ, his birth, life, crucifixion, resurrection, and his promise to return for those who love him. He then tells a symbolic story of a boy who is rejected by a girl but returns years later and is accepted. The pastor relates this story to the narrow gate of heaven and emphasizes the importance of being able to answer when asked, "Who is there?" by saying that we have been changed into the likeness of Christ and have become one with him.

It is an anniversary for me. Today I step in the eleventh year in the free world. It was yesterday that I fulfilled ten years since I could leave Romania. And I don't know how it happened that the pastor chose the church as one foundation. When I was put in prison, the second time, the police came to arrest me. They searched the house during hours, and then when they wished to take me away, I said, if you wish not to have scandal, to take me away peacefully, then you must allow me to sing, to read the word, and to pray with my family. They wondered, but they wished to help me. Why? And they allowed us, and the police sat around, and I sang with my family, just this thing, the church's one foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord. And the last word of my wife was, Richard, remember that it is written that you will be brought before rulers and governors to be a witness for them, to be a good witness for Christ before the commons. And now, my Bible verse is from Solomon's Song, chapter four, verse twelve. A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. A few days before going to prison, I walked towards home with my wife, and she asked me, Richard, I read in the Bible, I have read Dante too, I have listened to so many sermons, but you tell me how do you feel that hell is? And spontaneously an answer came from my heart, hell means to sit alone in the darkness and to remember. After a few days, I was in a subterranean prison, alone in a cell in darkness, and I remembered. It was terrible to remember all your past sins in prison. Under those circumstances it was like after death. I remembered that at the age of four, mother had wept because she had caught me lying. I remembered that at the age of five, I took candy without the knowledge of mother, and when she asked me, who has taken the candy? I said, my brother took them, and he got a spank. And I remembered all the little things, and then the bigger things, and the same happened with other men who were put in prison under those circumstances. I know from the witness of others, I know from my own experience, that it was almost unnecessary to wash the floor of the prison cells. They were washed by the many tears of repentance, of regrets for our sins. And how good it was in those times, dark for us, to remember that we have not only sins, we have also the forgiveness for sins. I remember an episode of my own life. The Soviet army had invaded my homeland, Romania. It is a program of communism to take over all countries. Australia is also on their program, I don't know when its turn will come. But they have taken over my homeland, Romania. We had over one million Russian soldiers in our country. I speak Russian, as well as Australians speak English. So I could communicate with them. One Sunday I had preached thrice. In the evening I was very tired, but I felt a strong impulse in my heart. Enter the saloon, the bar where they sell alcohol. Enter in the saloon, there was such a saloon just opposite my house. I wish you to be there, the voice of God told me. I said to my wife, I have to go to the saloon. I feel a strong impulse, I have to be there. My wife told me, you can't go to the saloon after having preached thrice against drinking. What will the people say around? Everybody knows that you are a pastor, they will see you in the evening entering the saloon. I said, all right, you come with me, so that if they slander, they will slander us both. And we entered in the saloon. When I entered, I understood why the Spirit had sent me there. In the midst of the saloon was a Russian captain playing around with a revolver, the finger on the trigger of the revolver, and threatening to shoot everybody. At that time Russian officers with us could shoot whomever they liked. He was drunk, the owner of the saloon had refused to give him more drink. And now he threatened to shoot people, and people had hidden themselves under the tables, behind the bar, wherever everybody could. They could not speak with him, the new Romanian, in Russian. I understood the situation, I went immediately to him, I spoke in Russian, just quietened him a little bit. I asked him what it is about, he said, I wish to drink more. I went to the owner of the saloon, I said, I know Russian, you give him a little bit to drink. I and my wife will sit with him, we will tell him a few words of peace, everything will quieten down. The owner of the saloon was so happy, he said, Pastor, you have saved my life, I will remain grateful forever. Henceforth in my saloon you can drink for free as much as you like. So I had the advantage, and now we sat down. The waiter served one bottle of wine after the other. There were three glasses, he was very polite, the Russian captain, he always filled all the three glasses. My wife did not drink, I did not drink, he was nice, he drank all the three glasses. And now I started to tell him the old, old story of the Son of God who has loved us, has came from heaven on earth, has been born in a stable, led a whole life of sorrows, and then allowed himself to be flogged and crucified in order to pay the punishment of our sins to save us. I told him how he resurrected, how he went to heaven, and that he will come back to take those who love him to be with him. He drank, but Russians are used to very strong drinking, they don't lose their minds when they drink. He listened very attentively, when I finished, he said, now I know who you are, I will tell you who I am. I am an orthodox priest. The orthodox religion is the strongest religion in the Soviet Union. I am an orthodox priest, and when under Stalin 80,000 priests were killed for their faith, I was overcome by fear. I feared that I will be jailed, tortured, shot, and I accepted a proposal of the communists. If you don't wish to be killed, become an atheist lecturer. We will take you around, and you will tell to people that there is no God, no Christ, no eternal life, that the Bible is a lie. And I feared, and I did it. I went from village to village, from town to town, dressed in a cassock, in a priest's robe, and I told people that I had lied to them, and that religion is not true. I have destroyed the faith of thousands of Christians. I have destroyed the faith even of my former parishioners. And my punishment from God has been that with this hand of mine, wherewith I baptized in times before, wherewith I gave sacraments in times before, I had to shoot Christians. I had to shoot even some of my former parishioners, those to whom I had imparted sacraments. And now I drink, I drink, and I drink to forget what I have done, but I can't forget. It is too terrible. You imagine how moved I was when I heard the story of this man. I asked him, do you still remember the Creed? He very vaguely remembered it. He had not said it since so many years. Then I began to recite to him the Creed in Russian. I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth. I believe in the one Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and so on. And I read to the words, I believe in the remission of sins. And I asked him, do you believe in the remission of sins? I said, I believe every word of the Creed. I never cease to believe. Everything which I have done, I have done because of fear, because of cowardice. So do you believe in the remission of sins? I have told you already, sir, I believe everything which is written in the Creed. I believe in the remission of sins. Captain, do you believe in the remission of your sins? He exploded, no, because my sins have been terrible. They have been crimes. I said, I am sorry, Captain, but those who have composed the Creed did not say, I believe in the remission of sins which are not horrible. They did not say, I believe in the remission of sins if they don't amount to crimes. They said simply, I believe in the remission of sins. Of all sins, of whatever kind. Do you believe in the remission of your sins? No, because there have been so many, and they have been endlessly repeated. I said, I am very sorry, Captain, but those who have composed the Creed did not say that I believe in the remission of a certain number of sins. And when this number has been attained, there will be no more remission. They have said simply, I believe in the remission of sins. The two most beautiful verses of the Bible are verses which are not in the Bible. It is not in the Bible that Jesus would ever have asked anybody, what sins did you commit, you rascals? How many sins did you commit? How great were your sins? With whom did you commit them? How often did you repeat them? Under what circumstances did you repeat them? He never asked anybody. The Bible would not be as beautiful a book as it is if there would be this question in the Bible. He just went from man to man and said, be of good cheer, son. Be of good cheer, daughter. Your sins are forgiven to you. A little bit I should tell you what sins I have done. I am not interested. Be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven. I die for your sins. And there exists a second splendid Bible verse in the Bible. Only that it is not written there. It is the very essence of the Bible. That during his whole earthly life, never did any man say to Jesus, please forgive me. I apologize. I am sorry for my sins. Nobody ever told him these words. On the last night, his disciples had fled, had forsaken him. One of them had denied him with curses, with oaths. Then they met the resurrected Lord. We would have found it nice if they would have said, we are sorry, Lord. Well, we have sinned. But you be so kind and forgive us. Not one of them said. Why? Because whosoever looked into the face of Jesus, saw in him so much love, so much goodness, so much understanding, they knew with Jesus forgiveness is self-understood. And I explained this to the captain. I told him about St. John the Baptist, who when he saw Jesus, said, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world. If you alone, captain, would have committed all the murders and adulteries and incest and lies and robberies, which have been committed by the whole of mankind during its whole history. Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world. You only repent of your sins and you are forgiven. Captain, do you believe in the remission of your sins? And now, tears ran down his cheek when he said, I believe the Good Shepherd has found not only a lost sheep, he has found a lost shepherd, what a Savior we have. And when we passed through this period of deep remorses in prison, I remembered myself what I have said to others, that there exists forgiveness of sins, I knew that my sins are forgiven too, and I found peace in my heart. But then, I must say, it may seem strange to you. Outwardly, prison was a hell. There was such torture, there was such beating, there was such a hunger. During years we never saw the sun, we never saw the moon, we never saw a grass, we never saw a plant, a tree. There were such terrible things, that sometimes I looked to the cup of water which I had in the cell, to be sure that it is not hell. I knew from the parable of the dives of poor Lazarus, that in hell there is no water, and I had to look to the cup of water to convince myself that it is not hell. Outwardly, it was hell. But something happened. And though outwardly we passed through such terrible suffering, I don't wish to burden you telling you what tortures are used, and so on. Inwardly, there was an unspeakable peace. We remember that to be isolated, to be shut up, as we were shut up, is the right thing for a Christian to be. I remember this Bible verse of Solomon's Song, chapter 4, A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse. Christians are not meant to be open-gardened. Whosoever wishes can enter into my mind and into my soul and bring his poison. If I am a Christian, I will not allow every comedian and every rascal from the television during hours to poison my mind and my heart with his stupidities. A Christian is an enclosed garden, and the second example is used here, the second symbol, she is like a spring shut up. In Genesis, chapter 7, verse 16, we read how Noah and his family entered into the ark, together with them different animals, as God had commanded him, and the Lord shut him in, in the ark. Noah was shut, if he would not have been shut, he might have drowned, he might have gone out to see how the weather is. We read in Matthew 25, about the wise virgins who had waited for the Lord, having their candles prepared, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. And we read again in John chapter 20, verse 19, that after Jesus had resurrected, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews. If for fear of the Jews, who could kill only the bodies of the disciples, they were behind shut doors, the soul of a Christian has to be behind shut doors, because of those who can kill body and soul, because of the evil spirits which wish to destroy our faith. A Christian leads always a retired life, somehow the life of a recluse, open only for his heavenly bridegroom, withdrawn from this world, we are here pilgrims and strangers. And therefore the prison life, even the life in solitary confinement, was not too difficult for us, it was the life which we had led before. We were not mixed with the world, with its amusement, with its fun, with its businesses, we had not been mixed with it before, we belonged to the Lord, and here again we were with the Lord. It is true, we did not see rivers, we did not see mountains, we saw no horizon, we saw no herbs, and no flowers, and no trees. But we had known before that all these things are only an illusion. If I tie with a wire, if I tie a burning coal with a wire, and then swing this burning coal around, what will I see? A circle of fire. The circle of fire is real, it is so real that I can photograph it. Only that the circle of fire does not exist, it is produced by the fact that a little bit of burning coal is swung around. I can photograph it. If I swing it very quickly, very very quickly, I can put even an object on the circle of fire, the circle of fire does not exist. If I swing it very quickly in different directions, I can have it swirl, something like our earth, but it does not exist, and all those who have passed through high schools know that this is the universe. A few, and nothing at all of electrons, of protons, of mesons, of nucleotides, just nothing at all, which swings very quickly, and gives us the impression of a solid world, of the sea, of the trees, of all these objects. We have lost the objects. We were together with the one who has created these objects, with God. Christ is a gentleman, has kept his word, he has said that he will be with us always, and he was with us in our prison cells, and we needed nothing more than that when we realized his presence. The walls, the grey walls, the mouldy walls of the cell, shone like diamonds, there was light in the darkness, the bride was in the embraces of the bridegroom, and we would not have changed with some Australian millionaire, unless that millionaire would also be a child of God, and know what it means to become one with him. One of the oldest stories, the oldest illustrations used in sermons from the first centuries, when the Christians gathered in catacombs, is the following. Please be very attentive, it is a story apart, it is pure only for those who have a pure mind, others will not even understand it. The story goes that a boy was enamoured to folly for a girl, and one evening he knocked at her door and said, allow me to enter, I can't be without you. She from inside asked, who is it? He answered, it is me. He was sure that she will recognize his voice. She said, I am sorry, my room is narrow, there is place only for one, go away. He left not understanding, it was a puzzle, he knew that she loves him too. During years he went straight through the world, thinking and pondering again and again what had happened on that evening. On one day he had an illumination, he ran back to the house of the girl, he knocked at the door and said, allow me to enter. She asked, who is it? And he answered, it is you. And when he said it is you, the door was opened, she said, since years I waited for you. Heaven is a very narrow place, there is place only for one. And when we knock at the gate of heaven, we must be able to answer when we are asked, who is there? We should say, we have been sinners, but we have been changed from glory to glory into your likeness. We have become one with you. We have become members of your body. You are the head and we are the members. It is you. Every one of us should become a Christ in miniature. And Christ has passed us through the suffering of prison in communist countries. He passes you through your sorrows, through your tribulations, through your sufferings, because he has this purpose to make us to become Christ in miniature, so that one day when we go to heaven, we might answer, it is not us, it is you. The communists have tried to kill this our endeavor, this our striving after Christ. They have used for this terrible terror. A friend of mine, an orthodox priest, Roman Braga, they kicked out his teeth one by one with a rod of iron. Now it is bad enough to go to the dentist to mix you a few injections, and when he pulls the tooth, he pulls it with the root, with all, and you have never more pain at that tooth. And still everybody hates to go to the dentist. I believe that no dentist is loved by anybody else than by his wife. Nobody likes you to go to the dentist. But here, when the tooth was kicked out, the root remained, and it remained tooth after tooth. The pain is indescribable. And he asked the communists, but why do you do this to me? Why don't you kill me? And they answered, we are not as stupid as that. We know that if we kill you, you have suffered so many years in prison for Christ, and now you would be hanged or shot by us. This would make you a crowned martyr in heaven. We don't wish you to be a crowned martyr. We wish you to arrive to curse Christ, and then to go to hell. You have to pass through such terrible things, and if you look to this priest Braga, I met him recently, his face shined, they could break teeth, they could break bones, they could kill Christians, they could not kill the faith of real Christians. Christianity is still shining in faith and in love. Where they did not use methods of breaking the Christians, they tried to bind them, to lube them. A Christian lady was in prison, she passed through all the things through which Christian ladies pass in communist prisons. One of the amusements of communists with ladies is to undress them, to tie their hands behind their back, and then to slip snakes into their underwears, so that snakes should creep on the bellies, on the thighs, on the breasts, on the hips, and so on. They tried on her everything. One day, the communist captain called her again, this time he was very polite, he invited her to sit down, and said, just be quiet, nothing bad will happen with you. They also got fed up with so much. They said, listen, I wish to talk with you business. Every human has a price at which he sells himself. Judas had been an idiot. He sold himself for 30 pieces of silver, if he would have asked, he would have gotten 300 pieces, he gave out of the treasure of the temple. But some sell themselves for 30 pieces of silver, some for hundreds, some to buy them, you must give them thousands or ten thousands, some would forsake the path of righteousness, but the girl must be very, very beautiful, or the man must be very handsome, or the wine must be of very good quality, or there is a fame to be obtained. But there is a certain price at which everyone sells himself. Now you lady, please tell us, what is your price? You know that we communists have the whole power. We can release you, we can release your husband, we can give good jobs to both of you, we can free about tuition for your children, we can give you a good apartment, and if you like it, as you are a Christian, we don't object, you can go into church as much as you like, to the underground church. We ask from you only one thing, twice a month, come and talk with us, and tell us who has been in church, who has preached, what he has preached, if you can find out where they print secretly their magazines or some leaflets, how they get the Bibles, how they distribute them, you just come and tell us a few things of these, be a school pigeon, be a Judas, and you can go to church as much as you like, and you inhabit well in this world. Now I appeal to you, let us talk business. What is your price? This lady, she was a Jewish Christian, and you know that Jews are very good businessmen, and she told the captain, your kind of talk I like, I myself am also business minded, and I am open for your offer, I have sold myself already once, a son of God has forsaken heaven for me, as a little child he was in a manger for me, he was hungry, he was spat upon and mocked for me, he bled for me under the whip, and when nails were driven into his hands and into his feet, this he did for me, his heart broke when he saw his Holy Mother weeping at the foot of the cross, he took this pain upon himself for me, he is eternal life laying a grave, a corpse for me, but he also resurrected, and he has prepared for me a beautiful mansion in heaven, an eternal abode in paradise, for this price I sold myself to Jesus Christ, but my mind has remained open, I am ready to sell myself to anybody else, if you captain can offer me a better price than Jesus Christ has given me, I immediately finish the bargain with him, and I pass on your side, now you imagine what a communist captain has to offer us, the terror has not broken the Christian Church in communist countries, neither this deceitful luring also did not succeed, and I came to plead with you, in the name of Christ, and in the name of these sufferers of the underground church, here your bones are not broken for your faith, and I don't know what, the Christians in communist countries give their liberties and their lives, and they remain faithful to Christ, let us learn from their example, the Christian mission to the communist world, whom I represent here, is a mission which helps the persecuted Christians in communist countries, we smuggle in Bibles and other Christian books into communist countries, sometimes there are objections, some ask us what kind of Christians are you if you smuggle, well we are a kind of Christians which smuggles, that is all, we smuggle Bibles and Christian books into communist countries, we broadcast the gospel in languages of communist countries, there are hundreds of thousands of Christians in prisons today, their children hunger, it is not right that they should hunger, and we help these children of Matthew, giving them a piece of bread, I will not tell you more about this mission, you have received, every one of you, I believe some leaflets of this mission, and if you will leave us, let me say just here, your name and address and postal code, then you will receive from us our information, our news bulletin, every month, and you will see the pictures of those who are in prison, you will know their stories, and you will know what we do to help them, but I believe that the important thing is not that you should help these persecuted Christians, you can help them to have a Bible, you can help them to have a piece of bread for the families of sufferers, I believe that they can help you much more than you can help them, they are in solitary cells, so many of them, I can show you an example of shut up life, my spouse, my beloved, is an enclosed garden, it is said in the Bible, a shut up spring, like a chaste virgin, I keep myself open, I am not open for everyone, all these winds of the world, and all these influences, and all kinds of currents, and every day there is another fashion, a political fashion, an economical fashion, a theological fashion, I am an enclosed garden, a shut up spring, my beloved is mine, and I am his, and there is no place in my heart, and if this world terrorizes you, and if this world lures you, remember that you have brethren, who don't allow themselves to be terrorized, not even when they have snakes creeping upon their bellies, and upon their backs, and that you have brethren and sisters, who prefer to make 20 years of prison, and do not accept the offers of this world, neither do you accept the offers of sin, the offers of the devil, but remain faithful to our beautiful brethren, Jesus Christ, and once we will be with him, in his beautiful paradise, nobody can offer us the price, which Jesus offers us, he pays for us, which is blood, he has prepared for every one of us, the paradise, only repent of your sins, believe that all sins are forgiven, he does not ask you what sins you have done, how many sins you have done, you don't have to ask him much to forgive you, he wishes to forgive you much more than you wish to be forgiven, he wishes your salvation much more than you wish to be saved, he wishes you to be in paradise much more than you wish to be in paradise, because he is loved himself, listen to his call, become a Christian if you are not, and if you are a Christian remember, there is always place for better, let us be changed from glory to glory, into his likeness, Amen. Is there any appreciable difference between Socialism and Communism? Are they related? I would not agree that the difference between Socialism and Communism is only appreciable, the difference between Socialism and Communism is huge, it is like the difference between an embryo and a child, Socialism is the preparation of Communism, now the preparation is not the same thing as Communism itself, but God beware you, even of the first steps of preparing Communism, you will regret it very much, with us in Romania there is a problem, that the new Communists beat their bread, and the old Communists beat their heads and said how stupid I have been to be a Communist, what has happened with the Socialists, I do not think it is in your politics, when my schedule has been fixed I did not know that there will be elections in Australia, and I do not wish to interfere with this, but when Communists came to power in Romania, Socialists have asked them to come to power, without the Socialists they would never have come to power, the Socialists prepared the way for them, take them to power, and they were rewarded, when the Communists came to power, they put the Socialists in prison, they put the Socialists in prison, and how much they have suffered in prison, they were in prison with me, they were in prison with my wife, so Janikin the renowned Nobel Prize winner, the Soviet writer, who has been expelled from the Soviet Union, he writes that in Soviet jails, Socialist girls were hung by their hair in the toilet of the prison, can you imagine what it means to see a girl hanging, she was a Socialist, she believed in the same Marx, in which Communists believed, but she believed a little bit otherwise, and for this she was hung on her hair, and I repeat again, I am not a politician, I don't care for who you will vote, and what you will do, it's not your business, I felt sad, when your government recognized the reign of the Bolshoi campaign by the Soviet Union, the Soviet army has just entered one day in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and just in one day they might enter into Australia, so they entered and they took three countries, not one civilized nation in the world except Australia has acknowledged this reign of the Baltic countries, Australia is the only one, now I would not have expected from your government, which is not constituted only of Christians, I would not have expected from them to inquire, before I acknowledge, I recognize your sovereignty upon the Baltic countries, I would like to know how the Christians fare there, the Christians there are in prison, I didn't expect them to ask how the Christians fare there, I would have expected them to ask, dear comrade Brezhnev, would you please tell me how the labor rights, the labor party in the Baltic countries, in the Baltic countries, how do they fare, how do the socialists in the Baltic countries fare, they hang by their hair, they have been hanged, and we should be very careful about these things, we might do, you know, if you might make just one wrong step, stepping out of a window, all the rest which you do might be alright, but if you make the wrong step you might be in trouble about the beginnings of communism in a country. Do you think that there is a link between Marxism and the women's liberation movement with its emphasis on premiscuity, perverted sexual behavior, abortion, and self fulfillment? I believe that the communists try to agitate wherever there is a possibility of agitation, one party against the other people, against the richer people, and one party against the other, and they infiltrated even the churches, through the World Council of Churches, and surely there exists also such a stupid movement as the women's liberation movement. Why should there be a women's liberation movement? Every woman is free to serve her husband with entire love, and what does a woman need more than to be a woman? They try everywhere to infiltrate it. Do you think many Christians are deceived by the outward platform? It's the same question about the women's movement. You said that it is difficult to understand how God can marvel at something when he created everything. You explained this, but I still do not understand. But in Christ, God has become man, and we don't do. We should marvel about the beauties of the creation and the beauties of the church, and because we don't marvel, he marvels in our place. Here is a question in Romania. Romania has sent two priests into Australia. I know that they have sent three. One to Sydney and one to Melbourne, and they give them money. I would like to ask you who these are. Well, I don't know these priests, but I know that no priest can leave Romania or another of these communist countries and lead a church in a country like Australia or USA or Britain without being a trustworthy servant of communism. They send their spies and their agents, these guys, so this is the general answer which I can give you. These men I don't know. Can you tell us of the persecution of the Ukrainian Catholic Church? It is huge. Six million Greek Catholics as they were called, the Union Church. The Union Church has been liquidated by the communists. Cardinal Skripke, whom I know personally, has been put in prison. He was 17 years in prison. There are many Catholic priests in prison in Ukraine even now. I have in my mind the name of the priest Romanchuk, but there are also many others. And we have the pictures of Catholic masses in the forest. They have to gather there in the forest and to see the masses. They are very persecuted. What is Vatican Radio and the Catholic Church like? I must say, sorry, but I will tell you just as it is. I don't know much about Australia, but I can tell you about America and I feel very much that the situation is the same in Australia. There are many individual Christians who help the persecuted church. There exist also many individual churches of one single denomination which would help the persecuted Christians. The Catholic Church of America, the Mormon Church of America, the Seventh-day Adventist Church of America, the Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Lutherans, they all, I can give you good news, they all have united in one voice not to help the persecuted Christians. There is not one single denomination which would help me to budget ten dollars for healthy families of Christian masses. So you better, instead of asking me, go to your priest and go to your pastor and ask them what they are doing about the persecuted Christians. It is a shame that so many children of martyrs hunger and the denominations don't care about them. The denominations which are in the World Council of Churches give money for communist guerillas and would not give one cent for families of Christian martyrs. How can we be 100% sure which church is 100% right? The registered or the underground church? I want to know for sure. Now what is really the big difference between the registered official church in Russia and the underground church? I will not keep you long but I know that some are interested. Russia, before the communists took over, had 56,000 churches. Fifty, sixty years since the communists have taken over and instead of 56,000 churches they have only 4,500. So practically they don't have churches where people should worship. Recently a Baptist delegation from Australia, at least five men, have been to Moscow. And they have come back, they have been, they have attended the service in the Baptist church in Moscow. Billy Graham has also been to the Baptist church in Moscow. I contest that they have been there. They have had hallucinations. There exists not one single Baptist church in Moscow. They have a town of seven million inhabitants. For seven million inhabitants they have one church which is called Baptist. It is not Baptist. It is Baptist, Breslin, Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostals, Lutherans, Mormons, whatever Protestants wish in a town of seven million inhabitants have one single church. That's all. All the Catholics have one church with one single priest. Now when does he baptize, when does he marry, when does he worship, when does he eat, when does he drink, when does he sleep? These are all only showcases. So the real church has to be underground. In the real church you are not allowed, they don't care about old ladies going to church, working among soldiers doesn't even come into consideration. They are not allowed to publish anything. Therefore the underground church has to make secret printing presses. And it's up to you. You have to think what would you do if Australia would be taken over by the Communists? Would you compromise with the Communists and would you hold up the Gospel only as much as the way of salvation? If you do it like this you will have to organize underground. We are told the Baptist church in Moscow services every Sunday morning. Does this not indicate that the Baptist Christians are free in the Soviet Union? No, surely not. All those who go to the Baptist church in Moscow since years, they say this church is packed, you are there like sardines. Well it is wrong that you have to go to church. And if there are too many who wish to go to church, why don't they make a second church? The fact that the church is packed since years proves that they don't have the liberty to have a second church. They have only this one short church for foreigners. Is there a means of sending direct financial help to the families of Christians in prison behind the iron or bamboo curtains? For an individual and secretly through some organization in which you have confidence. Where is Watchman Ni now? Is his faith still strong? Perhaps we will finish on this question. Watchman Ni is in heaven now. Not everyone of you might know who Watchman Ni is. He is a renowned Chinese evangelical writer. His books are translated into English and I would recommend very much that you should read them. There are many other questions. You will find them answered in the books and you will find them there. I don't mean that we should sing now but take out your hymn sheets. And you will find here on the bottom you will find a tear-up piece. So take out now your ballpoint pen and write there your name and address, write it clearly. Don't forget the postal code. Tear up this piece and leave it on the table which will tell you what happened in the underground church the pictures of the martyrs and so on. Now I wish to answer about Watchman Ni the news which we have about him. Watchman Ni died after some 25 years of prison. He was in prison and the Communists observed that the Christian church is growing. They asked themselves how is it growing so quickly. And then they found out that the leaders convert in prison their wardens and then these wardens they smuggle out letters of encouragement to the Christians. So the Communists said we know how to finish this. It was especially Watchman Ni who was a good writer who sent such letters of encouragement every 6 hours. And no warden will ever be twice on duty before the cell of Watchman Ni so we will not have the opportunity to convert them. Changing so frequently the wardens before the cell of Watchman Ni the result has been that more guardians have been converted and more letters have gone out. To the warden of Watchman Ni to hinder him to convert guardians. But when he could not speak anymore he wrote what he had to say on slips of paper and wardens were still converted they cut off his hands. And when his hands were cut off his eyes gleaming with joy with godliness they spoke. And we have the documentation about it. His eyes have been gouged out and after this he died. If Australia has 10% Christians and Russia has 72% should not Christians pray for Communism to come to Australia? First of all I do not say that 72% are Communists 72% are Christians 72% practice some Christian ritual not everyone who goes to a church service is a Christian. But God beware you that Communism should come to Australia. Would you like you ladies, would you like that it should happen to you what happens to our sisters in West China they are undressed their hands are tied behind their back so that they can't defend themselves and then snakes have slipped into their underwear would you like to have snakes creeping upon your belly upon your back upon your breast they open the mouth of Christians forcibly and shed a soul in the throat and then they keep you during hours without a little bit of water and then you have to do Communism in order to be converted why do you need Communism to be wholehearted Christians be wholehearted Christians is subject to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II you don't need the Communism to be good Christians Abraham has been a rich man George has been a rich man and well to do and they were very good believers and you don't wait for