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Judeu-Cristão Questiona Apoio da Associação Geral Aos Perseguidores Russos* (*Infelizmente, ainda não nos foi possível traduzir este texto. Se houver entre os leitores alguém que se disponha a fazê-lo, agradeceríamos.) A Persecuted Christian Writes to the General Conference About Their Attitude Over Persecuted Adventists in Russia, and Their Attitude to the Persecuters! Richard Wurmbrand is a Jew who had been converted to Christianity. He had been living in Russia at the time of the following letter (while the iron-curtain was still firmly in place). He had since formed a mission in the United States dedicated to helping persecuted Christians in Communist countries. Since he had been a persecuted Christian, he writes to the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists describing the persecution he saw Adventists were receiving and his astonishment at the attitude of the General Conference to the Communist authorities in Russia notwithstanding this persecution. In this letter, Mr. Wurmbrand comments about an article he saw in an official Seventh-day Adventist magazine: "Dear Brethren: Your article about depression was highly appreciated. I am a Jewish Christian pastor who have been persecuted since childhood for being a Jew. Almost our entire family perished in the Holocaust. After I became a Christian and a pastor, I was in Nazi prisons, and then in Communist jails for 14 years. Now in America, I lead a mission which helps the Christians persecuted in Communist countries. Every day I read reports about Christians who are imprisoned, tortured, and killed there. This does not depress me. What weighs upon me is the unloving attitude of American Christians toward their persecuted brethren. Your magazine is an example of this. In your article about Russia, you find 'similarity between Marx and God's promises.' How can one be a Christian teacher if he does not distinguish between what one says and what one does? I send you my book 'Was Karl Marx a Satanist?', with plenty of quotations from Marx. He says verbatimly that he wishes to ruin the world. To succeed in this and to catch naives, they speak about beautiful plans for the world. Are you not aware that the language of criminal seduction and that of love are the same? If I wish a girl for one night, to throw her away afterwards like a dirty rag, I will tell her, 'I love you.' I will say the same if I wish a girl for honest marriage. Before finding 'similarity between Marxism and God's promises,' you should have studied Marx and Lenin. The latter wrote in a letter to Gorki: 'Thousands of natural catastrophes and epidemics are preferable to the slightest notion of God.' Thus, cancer is preferable to faith.' This is the major difference between us and Marxists: love toward God and hatred toward Him. I sent to brother Hegstad of your Department of Religious Liberty a bunch of material about Adventists in prison for their faith in Russia. Where was the liberty for the Adventist preacher Shelkov who died in jail after 24 years of detention? The same for many others of the underground and of the official Adventist Church. It is simply a lie that the Adventist church lost its organization prior to World War II because of internal problems, as you assert. Did you not read 'the Gulag Archipelago'? [a work written by Solzhenitsyn] It is not permissible to write about Adventism without having read Ellen White. It is not permissible to write about Russia without having read Solzhenitsyn. Don't you know that Stalin killed millions of Orthodox, Protestants, Adventists, Jews and that he destroyed church buildings? Where are the buildings the Adventist churches owned before? The Adventist church in Moscow must gather now with the Baptists in a building which belonged formerly to the Reformed church. Its pastor and all the congregation simply disappeared under Stalin's terror. You praise the Russian Adventist leader Kulakov for urging cooperation with the government authorities. These are Marxists. Marx wrote in 'The Communist Manifesto' that his aim is to abolish all religion and morals. At what can Christians cooperate with them? It was not the endeavors of Kulakov which sparked the reunification of your church. It was the fact that the KGB put in jail every Adventist who dared to say, "we do not collaborate with God-hating Communists.' On which side would Ellen White, the author of 'The Great Controversy," have been? It is a shame that your General Conference supports the Russian Adventist preachers who had become stooges of Communists. The founder of Adventism, Ellen White, sided with Christians who worked underground against the Papacy. The story of betrayal of Adventists by its leadership is old. I remember the German Adventist leadership shouting, 'Heil Hitler!' The General Conference collaborated with them, while true Adventists filled jails under Hitler and some of them were beheaded. I attended an Adventist congress in Roumania in which the dictator King Charles II was praised. Many Adventists were in jail at that time. The Adventist leadership of Roumania today also praises the Communist government. I was at the same time in jail with many Adventists, offical and underground, beaten to the blood because they refused to work on Saturdays. In jail they ate almost nothing, fearing there might be some pork in the food. In times when we got one slice of bread a day, they gave tithe. They renounced to this bit of bread in favor of somebody who was older, sick, or weaker. Wherever you are, you are meant to seek Jesus. Jesus has given His address in Russia: 'I was in jail and you visited me not.' Ellen White prophesied there will be a great persecution of Sabbath keepers in the USA. Suppose this will happen, will you be on the side of the Adventist, loyal to their faith, who will worship underground, or will you collaborate withthe persecutors as your kin does in Russia?" -- Letter to the General Conference from Richard Wurmbrand Fonte: |
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