COMMUNIST
LIBERATION
OPPRESSORS
Communists uphold themselves as "liberators" and champions of
"justice," yet between 1917 and 1976:
|
*
|
60
Million people in the Soviet Union were killed. |
|
*
|
40%
of these were executed directly by Communist officials. |
|
*
|
A
further 66 million were incarcerated in Soviet prisons and concentration
camps. |
|
*
|
At
least half of both these totals were Christians. |
|
*
|
Even
as late as 1982, there were an estimated 10 million people in 1000
Soviet concentration camps and prisons in the USSR alone. (Christian
World Encyclopedia, OUP, 1982). |
|
*
|
According
to the International Red Cross, at least one million people were in
Soviet prisons for "religious" offences alone. |
|
*
|
There
were over 500 000 political and religious prisoners in 160 concentration
camps in Communist Vietnam. (Que Me, 1985). |
|
*
|
Over
1 million Afghans were killed by the Red Army in Afghanistan from
1979 to 1985 alone. (Helsinki Watch Committee, 1985). |
|
*
|
Over
3 million Cambodians (40% of the population) were killed by the Marxist
Khmer Rouge during Pol Pot's reign of terror. (Christian Anti-Communist
Crusade, 1983). |
|
*
|
1
800 Churches were closed by the Marxists in Ethiopia during early
1985. |
AGGRESSORS
Although Communists claim to be devoted to "world peace",
they have engaged in numerous acts of armed aggression. For example:-
|
*
|
The
unsuccessful 1920 invasion of Poland by the Red Army. |
|
*
|
The
successful 1921 invasion of Georgia in the Caucasian Mountains |
|
*
|
The
1939 invasion of Finland. |
|
*
|
The 1940 invasion of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. |
|
*
|
The
Hitler-Stalin pact which led to World War II. In 1940, The Red Army
invaded and conquered the Eastern half of Poland while the Nazi Army
conquered the Western half. |
|
*
|
The
invasion of Korea by Red China in 1950. |
|
*
|
The
invasion of Hungary in 1956. |
|
*
|
The
invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. |
|
*
|
The
1979 invasion of Afghanistan and the Soviet forces decade of war against
the Afghan people. |
COLONIALISTS:
Although avowed "anti-colonialists", the Soviet Union was the
last major colonial power on earth. Russians made up only half of the
Soviet Union's population. There were 63 major national groups and over
127 languages in the vast Soviet Empire, which included such nations as
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, Kirgizia and Turkmenistan. Large
sections of Poland, East Prussia, Finland and Romania were also annexed
to the Soviet Union.
IMPERIALISTS:
Although claiming to be "anti-imperialists", the Soviet Union
had the most extensive empire in the world, with "satellite states"
like Mongolia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany
and Afghanistan all firmly under Soviet military occupation and control.
Vietnam, Kampuchea, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Angola and Nicaragua also were
treated as vassal states by Soviet troops and "advisors."
MILITARISTS:
From 1975, billions of dollars of Communist arms flowed into Angola from
the Soviet bloc. The Soviet Union sold billions of Dollars of military
equipment to Third World countries which could barely even feed their
own people
In
the 1980's, there were 4000 Soviet troops, 2000 East Germans and 15 000
Cuban soldiers in Ethiopia. There were 2000 Soviets, 1500 East Germans,
2100 Cubans in Mozambique. There were 2000 Soviet military advisors, 5000
East Germans, 2500 North Koreans, 30 000 Cuban troops and 6000 Cuban civilians
in Angola. Moreover, Soviet warships operated from the ports of Luanda
and Mocademas in Angola, and Nacala and Maputo in Mozambique. (MSM Sentinel,
April 1985).
Cuban
troops were also stationed in 14 other African states, including Libya
(2000 Cuban troops), Congo Brazzaville (3000), Uganda (250), Zambia (200),
Tanzania (100), Säo Tombé (600), Malagasy (150), Guinea (750),
Benin (50), Lesotho (7), Nigeria (150), Algeria (35), the Cape Verde Islands
(15) and Sierra Leone (400). (Paratas, February 1985).
North
Korean military advisors were also based in 11 African countries, including
Angola, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Seychelles, Libya, Congo, Tanzania, Benin,
Uganda, Zambia and Malagasy.
PERSECUTORS:
For over 70 years the Communist Party attempted to eradicate Christianity
from Russia. Brainwashing, propaganda, infiltration of the Church, imprisonment,
torture, concentration camps and executions failed to destroy people's
faith in God and hunger for the Bible. Yet Communism continued to export
not only its ideology of Atheism, Materialism and Economic Determinism,
but its violent revolutionary methods, and its hatred of God, the Bible
and the Christian Church. In the 1980's, 224 million Christians lived
under severe state persecution, with another 70 million "Crypto-Christians",
who secretly worshipped God in "underground" churches. (World
Christian Encyclopedia, OUP, 1982).
In
Marxist Ethiopia, where hundreds of thousands of people died of hunger
in a man-made famine, severe persecution raged. In the first few months
of 1985, 1800 churches of the "Kale Heywet" (Word of Life) evangelical
denomination were forcibly closed by the Communists. Full Gospel, Baptist
and Mennonite Churches experienced similar persecution, forcing great
numbers of Christians to worship in secret. The "Mekane Jesus"
(Lutheran) Church had over 200 of its pastors in jail, and one third of
all their churches were closed by the Communist government. (Open Doors,
1985).
In
Angola, many eye-witness accounts were recorded of Communist troops massacring
evangelical congregations and threatening people to renounce their faith.
On 12 September 1977, Cuban troops shot 150 Christians in the Chilesso
Evangelical Church while they were worshipping God. They then desecrated
the church, put the heads of oxen on the pulpit and wrote a sign "These
are now your gods. Worship them.!"
Cuban
troops also attacked Cavungo Mission on 24 October 1976, where they killed
the pastor and 53 Christians, including 26 lepers, who were locked into
two huts and burned to death. In February 1976, Cubans attacked the Evangelical
Mission of Dondi, butchering many of the believers there and turning the
church into an ammunition depot. When the Cubans entered Chiumbo in 1978,
they told the people "From now on there is no longer a God; from
now on God is a gun", and they sought out all who continued to worship
God and killed them.
In
Mozambique, the Marxist dictator, Samora Machel, declared war on the Church
in 1977, calling on all Mozambiquans to unite in destroying the Church.
Four thousand seven hundred Churches were confiscated, closed or destroyed.
The Bible was banned. All missionaries were expelled. Evangelism was prohibited
and thousands of pastors and Christians were imprisoned or sent to "re-education
camps". Churches in Zambezia had an average of only one Bible for
every thousand believers, and cases of Christians disappearing or being
shot were commonplace.
Wherever
Communism has gone, the Church was persecuted, the economy collapsed,
brutal oppression, hunger and famine followed, thousands were imprisoned
in concentration camps and hundreds more were executed, while thousands
of refugees fled the country. The actions of the Communists speak clearly:
- Communism kills, oppresses, exploits and persecutes. We should not want
any of it here.
Marxist
ideology offers no God, no soul, no private life, no free choice, no eternal
life, no hope. We must choose Christianity. In the Bible we find the Word
of God the Truth that sets us free from atheistic deception. In Christ
we find forgiveness, freedom, strength, purpose and direction. In God
we find peace, love, justice and eternal life.
"See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.
For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways,
and to keep His commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase,
and the Lord your God will bless you in the land … But if your heart
turns away and you are not obedient, … I declare to you this day
that you will certainly be destroyed … This day I call Heaven and
earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death,
blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may
live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and
hold fast to Him." Deuteronomy 30:15 - 20
Peter Hammond
For
more information and resources contact:
Christian Action Network
PO Box 23632, Claremont 7735
Tel: (+27 21) 689-4480 Fax: (+27 21) 685-5884
E-mail: info@christianaction.org.za
|
