Challenging God

Volume 2 1992

The first dictator of Angola, Agestino Neto, was described as a “drunken, psychotic, marxist poet.” He was also a vicious persecutor of the Church. In 1975, after being installed by Cuban troops, Neto made a wild threat that “Within 20 years there won’t be a Bible or a church left in Angola. I will have eradicated Christianity.”

In the following years there were incidents of Cuban troops bursting into Church services and forcing people to spit on their Bible or die. Churches were desecrated and congregations forced to bow in worship before Soviet Assault Rifles. “From now on - God is this AK47. The gun has power over life and death. So worship it.”

On 12 September 1977, Cuban troops interrupted a church service at Chilesso Evangelical Church. They desecrated the church with the heads of cattle and murdered pastor Aurelio Saunje in front of his congregation. As the church members fled they were shot in the back with Soviet machine guns. About 150 were killed. The Cubans then roasted the meat of the cattle using the church benches as firewood. They also burnt down the church building.

Yet as our Lord declared:

"I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18

You cannot destroy the Church by burning buildings. The Church is not buildings. The Church consists of people, people who love God, who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, and who have been changed by the power of the Holy Spirit. You cannot kill Christians by sending them to meet their Lord in heaven. Death for the Christian is not fatal, nor is it final. “Jesus is the resurrection and the life.” John 11:25

Now Chilesso Evangelical Church has been restored, and rededicated. It continues to be used for the worship of Jesus Christ. On the other hand it is the Marxist rule of Agestino Neto which has been eradicated. Neto died in mysterious circumstances on an operating table in Moscow.

“You shall break them with a rod of iron." Psalm 2:8

Another persecutor of the Church who challenged God was Samora Machel, the first dictator of Marxist Mozambique. Samora Machel was a cannibal who ate human flesh in witchcraft ceremonies in the 1960’s. He pledged his soul to Satan and vowed that he would destroy the Church and turn Mozambique into the first truly Marxist-Leninist state in Africa.

When the Portuguese government handed their colony into his blood soaked hands, Machel declared war on the Church. He called the priests “parrots “, the Christians “monkeys” and “apes”, and God he dismissed as “a pig”. Machel lashed out
at the Church, accusing it of being “a remnant of colonialism”, “a tool of fascism ‘, and an “instrument of division”.

Thousands of churches in Mozambique were closed, confiscated, “nationalised”, chained and padlocked, burnt down or boarded up. Missionaries were expelled, some being imprisoned first. Evangelism was forbidden. Bibles were ceremonially burnt and tens of thousands of Christians, including many pastors and elders, were shipped off to concentration camps - most were never seen again.

Shortly before his sudden death, Samora Machel (who incidently had been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II) challenged God to prove his existence by striking him dead in sixty seconds. Before a large audience in a stadium in Maputo, Machel cursed God, blasphemed the Name of Jesus and whipped out a gold stop-watch and dramatically counted off sixty seconds before the shocked crowd. Then shouting contemptuously, “Time’s up!”, Machel declared God dead and himself alive, amidst much applause. Of course, Machel was not original: Lenin and Mussolini both gave God the same sixty seconds stop-watch treatment.

Machel’s Soviet tupelov aircraft crashed on 19th October 1986, while churches were specifically interceding for God to stop the persecution in Mozambique. And the marxist Frelimo and Zimbabwe plans for overthrowing the pro-western, Christian-orientated government in Malawi were discovered amidst the wreckage and exposed. This undoubtedly preserved Malawi from communism. Not only had God judged a persecutor and a blasphemer, but He had also saved a country from persecution.

"You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel”. Psalm 2:9

Another dictator who challenged God was Nicolae Ceaucescu, who severely persecuted the Church in Romania. Ceausescu (who had also been knighted by the Queen of England), was overthrown in a popular revolution and was executed on Christmas day, 1989. Shortly after his demise I had the privilege to minister in Golgotha church, Arad, which had been confiscated, desecrated and turned into a bottling factory. Now, Golgotha is once again a dynamic centre of worship, fellowship and evangelism.

Richard Wurmbrand, who had suffered torture and 14 years imprisonment in communist Romania returned shortly after the Christmas revolution and purchased a now disused prison on the “Avenue of the Victory of Socialism.” Demonstrating to whom the real victory belongs, Richard Wurmbrand’s mission purchased a printing press (which used to be used to print marxist propaganda) from East Germany, moved the press to the old prison (which by now had become a warehouse for Bibles), and began to print Christian literature where once Christians were imprisoned for their faith.

“He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision." Psalm 2:4

Does the Lord God have a sense of humour? Most certainly yes!

The humanist philosopher Francois Marie Arounet - better known by his pen - name, Voltaire - was considered the father of the French Revolution. He boasted that he had destroyed the Bible. ‘In a hundred years you will have to go to a museum to see what a Bible looked like,” was his bold prediction.

Yet, in less than a hundred years the Bible Society bought his house and printing presses, and began to print Bibles from Voltaire’s home. And in 1913, on the same day that one ancient copy of a Bible manuscript was sold for 250 000 pounds, the complete leather bound works of Voltaire were sold for 11 cents!

“Then He shall speak to them in His wrath... Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling." Psalm 2:4,11

Mankind is in rebellion to God. Mankind is shaking his fist of rebellion at God, and is waging a war against God, His laws and His people. Yet God is sovereign and He is in control. Those who declare war against God will surely lose.

" The Lord God tolerates no rivals; He punishes those who oppose Him... The Lord never lets the guilty go unpunished... The Lord is good; He protects His people in time of trouble. He takes care of those who turn to Him. Like a great rushing flood He completely destroys His enemies; He sends to their death those who oppose Him." Nahum 1:2-8

The Creator and Eternal Judge is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. His ultimate victory is inevitable.

"Ask of Me, and I will give you the Nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession... Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” Psalm 2:8,12

 

Peter Hammond

top