Rebels for Christ

An unjust law is no law at all, and the more that injustice becomes the law of the land, the more likely that chaos comes, too.  Why?  Because injustice begets more injustice.  Most humans have an antenna that can distinguish right from wrong, but most humans also ignore this antenna to their detriment.  It is far easier to accept the world as it is — even when it is drenched in depravity — than to rebel against majority opinion.  It is far safer to stay silent in the sight of outrageous sin than to stand alone and say, “This is wrong.”

As everyday wrongs pile up high, though, human antennae — even ones that have gone unused for too long — begin to twitch uncontrollably.  Why are so many people today afflicted by sadness?  Because sins are a heavy burden to carry.  The mountains of evil rising in our world torment every soul.  And only by actively fighting the resulting chaos can we hope to one day find salvation.

That idea — that the struggle against evil is worth any cost — is easier said than done.  How can the actions of any one person make any meaningful difference?  As Christians all over the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, it seems more logical to ask: how can any person dedicated to making a difference ultimately not succeed?  Christ came to Earth to seed a message of hope and redemption and died for our sins.  His disciples spread that message across the world, suffering torture and death, so that we might live.  Christians have been persecuted, imprisoned, and slaughtered ever since, so that we might be saved.  Next to their sacrifices, our hardships pale.

I admit that there is a rebellious streak in me.  I am fond of rule-breakers who stand unafraid against evil.  Rebellion for rebellion’s sake can be just as detrimental as injustice.  Yet rebellion against injustice so that one may remain obedient to God is surely righteous.  And when you say it out loud in that way — will you choose man’s laws or God’s? — the answer is obvious.  So, I have always had a soft spot in my heart for God’s devout and indefatigable troublemakers.

As evidence that any one of us can make a difference in the fight against evil, I want to recognize the efforts of Bible smugglers around the world.  Did you know that men and women routinely risk imprisonment and execution by secretly delivering God’s Word to populations forbidden from receiving Christ’s message?

Just as the apostles did two thousand years ago, followers of Christ still risk life and limb to spread His message today.  In fact, the last century has been a busy one for God’s smugglers.  They have navigated the Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain, the Chinese Communist Party, and Islamic supremacists intent on Christianity’s eradication.  Yet God’s smugglers have persevered.

For decades, two Finnish men named Antti and Esko smuggled Bibles into the Soviet Union and throughout the Eastern Bloc.  They moved through Finnish forests in the dead of night, hid Bibles in secret compartments within their vehicles’ gas tanks, and eventually began manufacturing prefabricated housing components that allowed them to move tens of thousands of Bibles through Leningrad, Moscow, Tula, Oryol, Kiev, Kishinev, Romania, and Bulgaria.  They survived many security checks and many “impossible situations,” and several of their collaborators were imprisoned.  Through all those years of danger, though, Antti and Esko found strength through Scripture: The Lord will protect your going and your coming, now and forevermore.

In an ongoing operation today, there are Christians printing and smuggling Bibles into Middle Eastern countries that torture followers of Jesus Christ.  “[T]hey tried to kill me five times,” one smuggler recounted, who shared the story of a Believer so thankful for their covert operations that the man embraced his new Bible as the “most important book on Earth.”  A supporter of these perilous missions takes inspiration from the Book of Joshua: Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Perhaps the most well-known Bible smuggler was Andrew van der Bijl (known by most as Brother Andrew, he died just last year), a fearless Christian from the Netherlands who risked his life on innumerable occasions to bring light into the darkness of totalitarian regimes.  As he operated a kind of Christian spy ring with clandestine missions to deliver God’s Word, he developed a prayer: “Lord, in my luggage I have Scripture I want to take to your children.  When you were on earth, You made blind eyes see.  Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind.  Do not let the guards see those things You do not want them to see.”

That prayer saw him through nerve-racking encounters with Cold War border guards, Chinese communists, and Islamic security services.  In an operation codenamed Project Pearl, he helped coordinate the delivery of a million Bibles for a Chinese Christian woman known as Mama Kwang and her small team of rebels to unload from a barge off the Southern coast in a single night.  That “night of miracles” forty years ago has been credited with the explosion of Christian fellowship in China today.

As Brother Andrew was fond of noting, “The Bible is full of ordinary people who went to impossible places and did wondrous things simply because they decided to follow Jesus.”  Inspiring others with his courage, he “was always on the hunt for new rebels and radicals willing to go to the darkest places on earth, at the risk of death, to change the world.”

You do not have to become an international spy in order to be one of Brother Andrew’s “rebels and radicals” for Christ.  God blessed us each with special talents, and with these talents, we each have special obligations.  It is up to each one of us to do what we can when we can with steadfast determination.  Rebelling against the evils of this world requires no additional invitation.

Among his many sermons on the importance of sacrifice and hard work, English greengrocer and lay preacher Alfred Roberts attested: “There is no promise of ease for the faithful servant of the Cross, and there is no bypass round Calvary.  You will have to be a man of humble heart and paradoxically also a man of authority.  God wants no faint hearts for his ambassadors.  He wants man, who having communed with heaven, can never be intimidated by the world.”

That’s invaluable advice.  No matter how small we may feel, when we act with God in our hearts, we have nothing to fear.  We become the rock around which those with no resolve must move.  Roberts knew that humanity’s salvation depends on humanity’s character and, therefore, he spent a great deal of time forging in others indestructible souls filled with virtue, tenacity, and perseverance.  By many measures, he was successful, but he is remembered most for the moral strength of his daughter — known all over the world simply as the Iron Lady.

You never know when your seemingly mundane words or actions might light a flame of courage in someone else.  You do not know how your good example might affect another’s future.  So speak bravely and live your life as if curious eyes are constantly watching.  Be a person of both gentleness and authority.  Be one of God’s valiant ambassadors.  Be fearless, while others quiver.  Be rebellious against injustice and defiant against evil.  And remember this: no matter what tyrant rises or what iniquity spreads, God’s faithful children have nothing to dread.

Merry Christmas, friends.