Persecution Under Communist Rule - Part 5

One morning, 1974, following my writing that Christian Manifesto and sending it to President Ceausescu, he sent seven policemen to my door. So one morning at about six, the doorbell rang. I looked down.

There were those seven men there. One of them said, police, come and open. I went and I opened.

I pushed in. And they showed me a house search order. They brought two witnesses from the neighbors.

And they started to turn my house upside down, searching. For what? I didn't know. But they searched all my house for seven hours.

For us, it was a very traumatic thing to see all that, shocked. Now, in my study, I had a huge library, Christian library, in English. There were books brought by friends, smuggled in.

So they looked and they decided they will confiscate that library. So they put the policemen to take books from the shelves, put them on my table. And I had to write on the first page.

Found that me at this date and sign. Give it to the other policemen on that side who would put it in a bag. And the bag was full.

They would take the bag out to the car. Do you imagine a heart of a preacher and teacher for whom the books are his best treasure, to sign each book away? I was looking, author, title, then sign it away. And shortly after this process started, a book with this title came.

Joy unspeakable and full of glory. Smaller letters. Is it yours now? Imagine.

Joy unspeakable and full of glory. That's 1 Peter 1.5. Is it yours now? I stopped. They whispered, Lord, if it's not mine now, it will never be.

So make it mine now. I think that was the moment when the sun rose and started to shine. But the sun was shining in me.

Joy unspeakable and full of glory. And all of a sudden I felt I was the host of seven men. I looked to my dear wife and said to her, Elizabeth, these people badly need a cup of coffee.

Will you please make a pot of coffee? She immediately said, yes. And she made a pot of coffee and served them. That was their shock.

Now at the end of the process, you see, I started to preach to them. How could I let them go without a little sermon? But one of them stopped me. Sir, we are going to have plenty of time for this.

Well, what happened was that about three days later, they confiscated my books, but they also confiscated my reels with, you know, tapes. The huge reels with tapes that we used at that time, the tape recorder. They confiscated the tapes.

They were all just my sermons. So the head officer took them, some of them, at his home three nights after the search. And he was listening that night, that evening, to a sermon, and he had a heart attack and died.

Well, I warn you, I killed a man with one of my sermons. So watch out when you listen to my sermons. They are dangerous.

In a bus, one of my deacons was listening to two secret police officers, one of them saying, you know that Baltag died? It was the name of the officer. What? Yeah, we buried him today. But what happened? Well, you heard on Radio Free Europe, didn't you? He was the head of the search at that man's house.

And the tension was so high, his heart gave up. Now listen, my heart would have had to give up, but it was his heart. The high tension was for him.

I was joyful. Now, you have to imagine something strange. I was placed under house arrest.

And I had to report every morning to the secret police headquarters for interrogation. As I told you before, I was charged with propaganda which endangers the security of the state. And being interrogated eight, ten hours every day.

Grueling experience from Monday to Friday night. Now, we lived in the building where the church, at the ground floor was the church, and our apartment was on top of the church. So, I was allowed to preach Friday night and Sunday in the church.

Go to interrogation from Monday to Friday. No books. They left two rugged books behind.

They were the two best that I really needed. And the Bible. But I had to preach three times Friday evening, Sunday morning, and Sunday evening.

So, two or three weeks after the beginning of the interrogation, I looked through the scriptures about joy. Nehemiah 8, 10. The joy of the Lord is your strength.

Wow. The joy of God. John 14 and something.

I tell you these things so that my joy be in you and your joy be full. The joy of Jesus. And then 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. You receive the gospel with the joy given to you by the Holy Spirit.

The joy of the Holy Spirit. So, I had the sermon with three points. The joy of God, the joy of Jesus, and the joy of the Holy Spirit.

And when you are full with all the Trinity, and you trepidate with joy, you are unbeatable. And that Sunday morning, I preached this sermon. In the evening, as I was shaking hands with people from the church and visitors, one of the visitors whispered to me, Joseph, I came here knowing where you were all the week.

I was expecting to find a very tired man. Maybe even a broken man. But Joseph, you came this morning thundering about joy.

And I could not believe. And while listening, I said, if a man in that situation can preach about joy, it's real. They only say, Lord, give it to me also.

So, I told you that the Lord liberated me there. Now I tell you that the joy was given me there. Actually, I had everything there because I had the fullness of God, of Jesus, and of the Holy Spirit.

So, let's now remember a few important points of this meeting. We were here and we studied the Marxism in the United States. First, we defined Marxism itself.

Then, how Marxism conquered Russia through Lenin. And then, we also looked to how Marxism came to America. And let me remind you the first important point.

Marxism aims to produce socialism and then communism. Remember always that communism is two kinds. There is a communism of distribution.

And that's what people dream of and expect. Everything will be distributed. We take the richness, the rich things from the rich people and give them to the poor.

Everybody will have everything. Communism of distribution. But you consume those things very quickly.

And you need communism of production. You have to produce what you consume. You cannot be without that.

But that's where the problem comes. And I explained to you in detail what happens when things are no more my own. I work if I am watched.

And even then, I simulate that I work because they only simulate that they pay me. So, don't spend too much time on this. It's important to know that the production collapses very soon.

Communism of production doesn't work. It doesn't work. It produces poverty, ruin everywhere where it was tried.

Russia, China, Cuba, Cambodia, Eastern Europe. Everywhere it fails. Now, in 1996, communism was brought to America by a group of Jews from Frankfurt who settled at Columbia University.

And they came with the idea of making this country communist. But they added a very important thing. In order for communism to succeed, we have to destroy Christianity.

Destroy the family. Destroy the church. Destroy everything in order to empty everybody of everything.

So you produce desperate people. You cannot produce revolution, Marxist revolution, without producing first desperate people. In order to make them desperate, take Jesus from them.

Take God from them. Then, in the 60s, they added sex without limits. They added Freud to Marx.

And young students loved it. The sexual revolution. And, of course, that's further destruction of Christianity.

Now, again, without spending too much time, something else happened in the last few years. Remember, Marxism was about class struggle. Class struggle.

The struggle of the proletariat against the class of bourgeoisie. We have to destroy the exploitators. But recently, the movement called Black Lives Matter made a twist.

Instead of class hatred and class struggle, they introduced race hatred and race struggle. That's the newest thing in this Marxist development in the United States. So, let me first comment on this.

Hate never produces anything good. I will just tell my friends of color, with hate, you don't produce anything positive. You only ruin.

Starting with yourself, hate ruins you, first of all. Now, when it came to the solution, yesterday afternoon, like in a vision, I gave you God's solution. Love and goodness.

Don't be defeated by evil. Defeat or conquer evil by goodness and by love. And I had this vision of 300 million evangelicals and other Christians in America, loving the one million or so, the colored.

Not all the Afro-American embrace Black Lives Matter. They may be a million. What if we choke them in our love? And I launched this invitation to Christian America.

Start the war of love on the people who hate us. Now, I have to make a little correction. Romans chapter 12 and Romans chapter 13 are two very important chapters in the Bible.

Chapter 12 is a chapter on love. I think one of the most important chapters in the Bible, definitely one of the most beautiful chapters in the Bible. I advise you to learn it by heart.

It's about conquering by love. Now, very careful. Romans 13 is addressed to the government.

And the government is given the sword to punish the evildoers and to defend the righteous ones. Dear brethren, don't apply chapter 12 to the government as you don't apply chapter 13 to Christians. The government has a different function.

And because the government has to defend and to punish, the government is given the sword. And the sword is the police. The police is there to punish the evil and to defend the innocent.

Remember again, and for my beloved Afro-American Black Lives Matter people, don't you expect the police to love you? If they happen to be Christians, they will smile with love to you, but they will put the cuffs on you because you did some crime. That's their job. That's their God-given job.

God-given job. So if I say, let's start a war of love on them, I don't speak to the government, I don't speak to the police, because they have another job from our Creator. So this is a very important addition to what I said yesterday.

Now, let's come to a summary of all that I said these days as an ambassador of God, 2 Corinthians 5.19, we are God's ambassadors, and God speaks through us. The ambassador is there as the spokesperson of the one who sent him. And the message is, get reconciled with God.

But it starts in chapter 5, verse 15. We are put by love in a corner. We are constrained by love.

For here is what we consider. If he died for us, then we have no other choice but to be agents of love. All that was old is gone.

We are a new creation. A new creation of love. So let me remind you the main points, and I would start back in Daniel chapter 2. In Daniel chapter 2, the king Nebuchadnezzar has a dream.

And you know the story, only Daniel is able to tell the king both the dream and the interpretation. A series of kingdoms that are going to come. Different kind of kingdoms.

And then in verse 40. In the time of these kingdoms, God is going to raise his own kingdom. You listen carefully.

In the time of these kingdoms. Not at the end of the kingdoms. In the time of these kingdoms.

And then in chapter 7. Daniel speaks about one like the son of man. Going up to heaven. On the clouds.

The movement is from earth to heaven. And there he is made king. And his kingdom will never end.

When Jesus starts his ministry. He starts with this news. Law and the prophets have lasted till John the Baptist.

Now the kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of God is here. And three years, Jesus does only one thing.

Explaining the kingdom. He doesn't do anything else. He doesn't have any other subject.

But the kingdom of God. How are we going to be in this kingdom? Be very careful here. The sermon on the mount.

I also used yesterday the word. Is descriptive. It tells you.

How the people of God look. How they are in their makeup. Children of God.

And how they relate to each other. And how they create. This ideal society called the kingdom of God.

For three years. Very interesting. Then without any other explanation.

He just says now we go to Jerusalem. There I will be arrested. Tried.

Crucified. God forbid. Behind me satan.

Because you cannot think. The things of God. And Jesus.

Goes to the cross. And as he tells them. Third day he's up.

And read in Acts 1. Three. For forty days. Jesus met the disciples.

Talking them the things about the kingdom of God. Even after the resurrection. Crucifixion and resurrection.

Jesus still has only one subject. The kingdom of God. Now be very careful.

He tells them now. I go up. I will be enthroned.

Put on the throne of God. And you have to see that. And to be my witnesses that I have made it.

Stay in Jerusalem. Something strange will happen to you. And you will know.

He is there. He is on the throne. He was made king.

So what happened is that as he predicted. That huge tornado happened. Big noise as a tornado touches down.

And the flames of fire. And the power. It means.

That he made it. So Peter stands up and he says. Brothers.

You should know that. God just made Jesus. King and Messiah.

He is there. Enthroned. And we are his witnesses.

You see. A few days later when Peter is taken to. The Jewish Parliament.

Peter has only one thing to tell them. As I told you already at the Pentecost. Jesus.

Has been enthroned. Enthroned. And we are his witnesses.

Witnesses of what? Witnesses of the fact that he is enthroned. And he is the ruler of history. Now you go.

All over the world. Preach one thing. Only one thing.

Preach what I taught you to preach. Preach the kingdom. And now.

I am with you. Always. You see.

I started the spread of the kingdom. You continue the job. Now.

Don't be surprised. If you will be treated as I was treated. Because I send you as my father sent me.

I send you as sheep among the wolves. You go. First of all.

You baptize them in the name of the father and the son of the Holy Spirit. Somebody has translated it a little bit differently. Don't use the word baptize.

As you translated it. Keep the original meaning which is. Immerse them.

Immerse them in the father. In the son. And the Holy Spirit.

Make disciples. By immersing them in the father. The son.

And the Holy Spirit. That's keeping the original. And then.

Here is the teaching about the kingdom of God. Be like this. So.

I stop a little bit. I try to make the story shorter. So that I can go through all the steps.

Because our time is almost gone. There are a few very important points that I want to make. Dear fellow Christian workers.

Don't try to reduce the gospel. Some reduce it to believe Jesus. To go to heaven when you die.

That's the biggest reduction. But there are many other kinds of reduction. I want to underline a few points.

That are absolutely necessary. First is from Deuteronomy chapter 18. Verse 15 and verse 18.

God speaking. The God who spoke through Moses. He tells Moses.

Now Moses. One day I will raise one like you. Tell people to obey him.

It is the God who gave all the commandments to Moses. It is he who tells Moses that. And then Moses tells the people.

God will raise one like me. Obey him. And these words are repeated by God.

In Matthew 17. 5. On the Mount of Transfiguration. This is my beloved son.

Obey him. What is God's will for us today? Obey him. That's all that God says.

My will is obey my son. What does that mean? The Lord blessed me with a few great men. To be my friends here in America.

And one of them was Bill Gothard. Great Bible teacher. And we didn't see each other for quite a few years.

And then I went to record something for him. And I said, Bill. What's new in your own private life? Nobody asked him such a direct question.

Joseph, if you ask me like that. There is something new. One day I was reading my Bible.

And I read Jesus' words. Obey my commandments. And I said, which are they? And I didn't know any of the commandments of Jesus.

Now I say I love Jesus. But he says in John 14. 15.

If you love me, you keep my commandments. But I don't know which are his commandments. So I started to read the Gospels.

And I counted all Jesus' commandments. I found that there are 49. So I divided them in seven.

Groups of seven. And I wrote seven booklets. Obeying the commandments of Jesus.

Bill Gother is structured like that. He is with commandments and with structure. For me, the shock was.

That this man who was teaching young people. But teaching always from Proverbs and from Psalms. Never from the Gospels.

Got the shock of his life when he realized. That God told him obey the commandments of my son. Think about this.

It took this great man of God so many years. Almost at the end of his life. He came to the discovery of the commandments of Jesus.

Obey him. Now again, the will of God. Is for me to obey Jesus.

How can I obey Jesus if I don't know his teaching? So at least learn by heart the Sermon on the Mount. How can I live the commandments of Jesus if they are not active in my mind? And they are active in my mind only if I know them by heart. Feed your mind with the teaching of Jesus.

Paul tells us that in Colossians 3.16. The word of God may dwell richly. The word of Christ dwell richly in you. But I think the one neglected verse is.

First, second John verse 8. He who doesn't obey. Will somebody read to me in English? Second John chapter 8, verse 8. So, no it's not that one that I. Doesn't abide in the word of Christ. Somebody translated there as the doctrine.

If you don't obey the teaching of Christ. The words of Christ. You don't have God.

So. Again. I would say the most important message.

I bring you is this. Fall in love with Christ. And fall in love with the teaching of Christ.

You cannot say I love you Jesus. But I don't care of what you taught. Doesn't make sense, does it? I love you Christ.

My Lord. And I am in love with your teaching. You are a fantastic teacher.

I cannot. Get over the beauty of your teaching. So the first thing is that.

Christ is my teacher. I love his teaching. I learned it by heart.

I remember. About 30 years ago or so. I spoke like this in Romania.

And. A few years later. An old lady came to me.

She was about 70. And she said brother Joseph. I learned by heart.

The sermon on the mount as you taught me. Now when I don't sleep in the night. I recite the sermon.

And it's so good. It's so wonderful. Learn by heart the teaching of Jesus.

And then meditate on it. And all the time say I must live. As my teacher taught me.

So. The first important point is. That Jesus is teacher.

My teacher. And as teacher. He gives me his teaching.

And God the Father says. That's my will. What's God's will for you today? The teaching of Jesus.

And always. So. The second.

Jesus. Jesus. Came and looked to me.

You are a sinner. I love you. I take.

All your dirt on me. You are worthy of dying. I die your death.

I die in your stead. Jesus loved me. And gave himself.

For me. I look at that. Image.

As I was there. At the judgment seat of God. Condemned.

And somebody came. And pushed me aside. I love you.

And he took my place. And he died. On that cross.

On which I was supposed to die. I never go over this. He bought me.

I am. He can do whatever he wants with me. Then.

I remember. He was lifted up. He is there near the throne of God.

The right side of God. And he is the king. The ruler of the world.

He conducts the history. Literally. All history is guided by him.

So. Whatever happens in America. It happens.

Because. Christ orchestrates. Permits.

I don't know how long and how far. But. The one who is on the throne.

Is the one who died for me. And now. Another point.

When he came. He made himself one with me. When he died, I died.

When he rose, I rose. He was lifted up. And I am with him there.

We are one. This is. The most important, the most beautiful thing.

Union with Christ. And. I am in the process of being transformed.

In the same image. One of my. Dearest scriptures is second Corinthians.

Three. Eighteen. With an open face.

I look to his face. And I am being transformed. From one step of glory to another step of glory.

In his image. That is. The most important.

Thing in my union with him. I am being transformed in the same image. And this is fact.

This is reality. This next thing. I think this is a point number six.

First Corinthians three nine. Now I want you to write down this. First Corinthians three nine.

And I. Tell it in the Greek in two words. Scenar goi. They will.

Scenar goi. They will. Ergos is work.

Scenar goi. Workers together. With God.

Scenar goi. Or scenar goi. They will.

Workers together with Christ. I am. A partner of God.

We are partners. In the business of this world. And the last word.

I think the seventh. Is. Communion.

The other word for this is fellowship. First John chapter one. The great.

The essence of the great news. As is that we have fellowship. With the father.

And with the son. It is like that. The father and the son.

Are over there. And we are in fellowship. And the Holy Spirit is in me.

And John speaks immediately about. That anointing. They are.

Together workers with me. The Holy Spirit is in me. Looking.

Helping me to see them. To hear them. And be enabled.

To obey them. Communion with God. Fellowship with God.

And if you want fellowship with God. He demands purity. You have to live like Jesus.

That's a chapter two verse two or three. Let me put them again. First.

He is my teacher. I love him and I love his teaching. The work on the cross.

The second. He loved me. And he died my death.

Point three is resurrection. And glorification. And I was raised with him and glorified with him.

I put that in number four. Union with him. Fifth.

Transformation. Put there 2 Corinthians 3.18. And if you want add Galatians 4.19. Beloved. For whom I am in birth pains until Christ is being formed in you.

Six. Synergy. Coworkers with God.

And seven. Communion. Fellowship.

Living in love. With each other. Please.

Make these seven points. The essence of your life. Make them define you.

And your thinking. And your living. And your ministry.

Study them. Develop them in your own way. Memorize them.

And make them the engine of your life. Now. The job.

Our country. Has been invaded. By Marxism.

Shall we run away? I was. Taken by the Lord out of Romania. But then he said you go back.

Go back to Ceausescu. Confront yourself with him. Confront him with my teaching.

But. He may kill you. Yes.

He may. The Lord tells me that he tells me to the wolves. And he the wolf may tear me to pieces.

Or. I will. See that the wolves become lambs.

Either the wolves devour me. Or I help. Make them.

Lambs. But how can they become lambs. If I not go there.

So I went there. I you heard some of my stories. They are my life.

They are. The most glorious aspects. Of my encounter.

With the wolves. So. Don't run away.

Convert. The Marxist. Who tells you.

Because you are white skinned. You have to perish. Or.

Love me until I become a wolf. Or until I become like you. We are.

In a war. In which our only weapon is. The seven that I just gave you.

That's my weapons. We. Conquer.

Even. By dying. We are still conquerors.

Now. That's my message. That's why I came.

Here. And. I hope.

You sense. The presence. Of the Lord here.

He's here. Is he in you. There may be some people.

Here. Who say. I don't believe so.

Will you all bow your heads right now. Please bow your heads. If there is anybody here.

Who is not sure. That Jesus. Lives in them.

Don't go from here. Without him. It's very simple.

A simple invitation. That you. Make to him.

Jesus. Jesus. I heard all these things about you.

It's very difficult to believe them. They are so great things. Jesus.

Jesus. You seem to be so wonderful. I want you in.

In me. Jesus. Please come in my life.

I want you to be my teacher. I want you to be my savior. I may want you to be my model.

I want you to be my Lord. My owner. I want you all these.

Glorious things. Which you actually. Offer to me.

I receive them. They are all your offer. How could I. Leave from here.

Without this treasure. The greatest treasure that there is. I found the treasure.

I am ready to sell everything. To lose everything. To have the treasure.

So Jesus. The treasure. I found you.

You found me. You pursued me. Now I recognize.

You found me. I bow before you. Thank you.

Thank you for. Pursuing me like this. Thank you.

For not giving up. Thank you. For convincing me that you are the treasure.

The only treasure. Worth living for and with.