Arrested For Christ

 

      Let me begin with a story told by Kenneth Oster, the Seventh-Day Adventist In charge of mission work in Ethiopia during the time when the Communists invaded and overthrew the government.  They were determined to destroy Christianity.  Elder Oster tells how the native pastor of the church of Addis Ababa was faced with tremendous problems as he tried to shepherd his flock.

         Little did he realize the hatred of the Communist invaders to ward Christianity and their determination to crush every person’s belief in God.  One day as the pastor prepared to visit his members, he heard a loud knock.  As he opened the door he faced two soviet police who commanded him to go with them to the KGB Headquarters.  When they reached the building, he was locked in a room for some four hours.

               Then a KGB officer, together with a medical doctor who carried a small bag and was leading a dog, entered the room.  The doctor opened the bag and took out a Bible.  Then he asked the pastor, “Do you believe this to be God’s Book?”

        The pastor answered, “I surely do.”

      Then he was commanded to read the sixteenth chapter of Mark out loud.  When he got to verse 9, which reads, “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week…” the doctor said, “Stop!” He then asked the pastor, “Do you really believe that Jesus, who was crucified, who died and was buried, was resurrected and is alive today?”

            The pastor answered, "most assuredly, I do.”

      Then he was commanded to read on. When he reached verse 17 and 18, which read, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them….”

       “Stop,” cried the doctor, “Do you actually believe what you read?”

          “Yes, I do,” he replied.

 

           TEST OF FAITH

 

  Then the doctor opened the bag again and took out a small vial.  Calling the dog to him, he sprinkled several drops of the fluid from the bottle on the dog’s tongue.  Then he opened the door and told the dog to get out, but before the dog reached the door, it fell over dead.  Now the doctor turned to the pastor and continued: “Tell me, do you actually believe that your God can save you from this deadly poison that I just gave the dog?”

      “Yes,” the pastor replied, “if God wills.”

           Now the doctor took a teaspoon and filled it to the brim and commanded the pastor to open his mouth.  He thrust the spoon filled with the deadly poison into the pastor’s mouth, and he and the KGB officer watched to see the pastor die immediately.

 

      

VICTORY IN JESUS

 

      Five seconds passed, ten seconds, and then the doctor took out his watch. One minute. Two minutes.  Five minutes.  In amazement the doctor turned to the KGB officer, took out his Communist membership card, tore it to bits and said. “I no longer believe in Communism.  I now believe in Jesus Christ.”  Oh, what a victory in the power of Christ!

 

What a God we serve!

 

 

 

Lawrence Nelson