God Wants The Whole Nation

Author: Katie Morris

We believe that we should bring together all Christians for one purpose – the preaching of the Gospel. The Bible says that it is the love which we have for one another which is the witness to unbelievers! John 17:23. Our greatest enemy is secularism and atheism. There is One who wants to unite us – Christ!

The truth is, every Christian believer, of whatever 'shape or size', needs to get back to the simple Gospel of faith in Christ! Even with our differences, we should be united by Jesus and His cross! It is His Kingdom that we preach, not ours! Less talk, more demonstration of the truth and the power of the Gospel! For it is the Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation! Romans 1:16. In Lithuania in 2009 a miracle happened: the nation is 1% evangelical, 80% catholic – yet the Catholics agreed to advertise our evangelism to their youth! – They said, 'They need Christ!' – The evangelical churches who had invited us into Lithuania did not think this could work. But after the evangelism, they were amazed at God's power! Following the Alpha Courses even the Catholics began an evangelical movement! And when in 2010, having seen what God did in 2009, the government and elite of the nation asked us to hold a 'private' event to celebrate Christ, with David as the speaker, the Catholics threw open their Katrina Cathedral, the most prestigious cultural venue in Lithuania!

Seven hundred attended on the Friday night, including the Representative of the President, members of the National and City Governments, the Heads of the Catholic, Orthodox and Evangelical Churches, and the cultural and business elite of the nation! Imagine that happening in Europe! God wants to touch not just the individual, not just the church, but wants the whole nation to honour Him!

The next day, David received a very special invitation to Sunday lunch with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Lithuania, Sigitas Tamkeviãius. So between the Sunday morning meeting in the arena – when all the churches sacrificed their own services and came together as one – and the 4 o'clock evangelism, David was whisked 100km from Vilnius to the archbishop's residence in Kaunas. An unpretentious prelate, we quickly learnt that Sigitas and David had much in common, much to talk about! In the very year in which David was miraculously released from a communist prison in Czechoslovakia (1973),

Sigitas was arrested and sentenced to the same 10 years in prison that David had been threatened with and should have served! The charge against Sigitas was that he had been a prime mover in the underground publication of a detailed – and accurate – record of the violation of human rights of Roman Catholics under the Soviet regime, including the letters of protest they had openly sent to the authorities.

Christians had 'rights' under Soviet law, but these rights were nonetheless violated! Also, two years before, in 1971, Sigitas had been the instigator in gathering 17,000 signatures to protest against these violations. – This document reached the General Secretary of the UN – who sent it to Brezhnev! As a result, Sigitas was deported from his home country and served 10 years, first in an extreme maximum security prison in the Perm region of Russia, then in Siberian labour camps – gulags. And after this he served another 5 years in exile in Soviet Moldova. But during these years his best friends and companions were Baptist believers and a 70-year old Pentecostal pastor who was serving his second prison sentence!

As we left, the Archbishop presented David with an English copy of the chronicles of the violation of human rights of Christians in Lithuania under communism. It is a shock to realise that in Europe today 'human rights' and 'equal opportunities' are being used to repress Christian faith and practice in the work place and in the media, in much the same way as under communism, especially in Britain!

The 'equal opportunities' act is only 'equal' for some; it infringes the rights of Christians to conduct their lives and businesses in accordance with Biblical standards, whilst the sins of the Bible are legalised by a minority through Parliament. But if the church only protests, forms pressure groups, goes to court, and does all these things – but does not evangelise, it loses its power! The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation!