{"id":1469,"date":"2011-10-05T05:31:46","date_gmt":"2011-10-05T09:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/?p=1469"},"modified":"2011-10-01T09:40:28","modified_gmt":"2011-10-01T13:40:28","slug":"how-christians-peacefully-toppled-the-stronghold-of-communism-in-poland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2011\/10\/how-christians-peacefully-toppled-the-stronghold-of-communism-in-poland.html","title":{"rendered":"How Christians Peacefully Toppled The Stronghold of Communism in Poland"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read\u00a0 a fascinating article about how Christ’s liberty, the Gospel, and the Four Spiritual Laws began the peaceful revolution against communion in Poland.\u00a0 This underground and peaceful revolution undermined the lies of socialism, communism, and Marxism.\u00a0 While the Gospel is always about and inside our CONVERSION bringing liberty, socialism
\nand its counterparts are always about COERCION and bring about tyranny. You can read this article in it’s fullness here. <\/a>\u00a0From this point on, I am quoting the article.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Communist\u00a0regime was demoralizing the\u00a0nation during the rest of the week. Propaganda, poverty and\u00a0intimidation formed people\u2019s attitudes\u00a0contradictory to the Gospel. It was known that petty theft was\u00a0socially acceptable. Stealing from the\u00a0state company, was labeled as \u201corganizing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Shop shelves were stocked only with vodka, cigarettes and the\u00a0Communist party daily newspaper. The\u00a0majority of families lived in a small confined space. Some were\u00a0allowed to built small villas (to succeed\u00a0they would steal part of the material from the workplace and the other\u00a0half were bought with bribes).\u00a0In the same time alcoholism was destroying families. Hundreds of\u00a0thousands of Polish babies were\u00a0killed by abortion. Atheist schools were programming children how to\u00a0think about the world, country\u00a0and family. The majority of Poles buried their hope for a change and\u00a0seemed to be content with life in a\u00a0cage. A Polish literary writer Tadeusz Konwicki observed that people\u00a0were satisfied having \u201ctheir own\u00a0small stabilization\u201d.<\/p>\n

The breakthrough came with influential Catholic renewal Light-Life\u00a0movement, supported by Campus\u00a0Crusade for Christ. Probably the most important organization that\u00a0helped bring real change. During\u00a0the summer retreats organized by the Light Life movement between 1970\u00a0and 1989, millions of Poles\u00a0received Jesus as their Personal Lord and Savior. They reflected on\u00a0four spiritual laws. Poles may\u00a0have heard the Gospel being nominal Catholics but they were not able\u00a0to learn about it in such an\u00a0easy-to-understand and personal way as spiritual laws: (1) God created\u00a0man to be with Him (2) but he\u00a0sinned and willfully rejected Him thus creating a chasm between God\u00a0and himself, so (3) God sent his\u00a0son and put cross as a bridge, (4) now man needs to accept Jesus\u2019s\u00a0sacrifice, confess sin and receive\u00a0Him as His Lord and Savior. God was touching peoples\u2019 lives. Many new\u00a0believers declared their\u00a0permanent abstinence from alcohol and cigarettes, to be an\u00a0encouragement for those who were\u00a0struggling with their addictions. (Alcoholism was the most serious
\nsocial plague during the 1980\u2019s in\u00a0Poland). Pro-life movements were formed mostly as prayer groups in\u00a0cities and villages around the\u00a0country. The Bible became the most read book among many Polish\u00a0families. Thanks to the cooperation\u00a0of Protestant churches with Catholic organizations, hundreds of\u00a0\u201cJesus\u201d movie screenings took place\u00a0in Poland. Every week in almost every city there were prayer groups\u00a0formed by youth, families and\u00a0singles to minister each other. These groups would meet together\u00a0monthly during \u201cagape\u201d (Christian\u00a0meals) to encourage each other with the testimonies of God\u2019s presence\u00a0in their life. As a consequence\u00a0of the Light-Life movement ministry the Soviet system of fragmentation\u00a0and isolation of people was\u00a0significantly limited. Dramatic physical healing from addictions,\u00a0restoration of marriages and spiritual\u00a0rebirth resulted in a complete change of the social atmosphere in\u00a0Poland. Former atheists and nominal\u00a0Christians stood hand in hand among new believers. Their hearts were\u00a0on fire for the Lord.\u00a0Polish people were helped by many missionaries from Christian\u00a0organizations including the Billy\u00a0Graham Association, Focus on the Family, Youth With A Mission and the\u00a0Bible Society. Bibles and\u00a0Christian literature smuggled through tightly controlled borders were\u00a0distributed in unusual places,\u00a0such as the Russian Orthodox Churches. Christian radio programs\u00a0sponsored by believers from the\u00a0West were beaming the Word of God, every Sunday, from transmitters in\u00a0Monte Carlo and Munich.<\/p>\n

This Christian revival, called sometimes \u201crevolution of conscience\u201d,\u00a0had a decisive role in the success of\u00a0peaceful negotiations between the Solidarity movement\u2019s representative\u00a0and Communist regime. For\u00a0various reasons, too complex to explain here, it was an unfinished revolution.\u00a0After thirty years it is however even more crucial to emphasize that\u00a0democratic changes were the fruits\u00a0of an invisible spiritual change. The fall of Berlin Wall preceded a\u00a0massive come-back of Polish people\u00a0to God\u2019s presence.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read\u00a0 a fascinating article about how Christ’s liberty, the Gospel, and the Four Spiritual Laws began the peaceful revolution against communion in Poland.\u00a0 This underground and peaceful revolution undermined the lies of socialism, communism, and Marxism.\u00a0 While the Gospel is always about and inside our CONVERSION bringing liberty, socialism and its counterparts are always…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":353,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,72,68,58],"tags":[233,424,188],"class_list":["post-1469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalismsocialism","category-gospel","category-governmentpolitics","category-liberty","tag-communism-and-the-bible","tag-gospel-communism","tag-socialism-and-capitalism"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Christians Peacefully Toppled The Stronghold of Communism in Poland - Godonomics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2011\/10\/how-christians-peacefully-toppled-the-stronghold-of-communism-in-poland.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Christians Peacefully Toppled The Stronghold of Communism in Poland - Godonomics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I read\u00a0 a fascinating article about how Christ’s liberty, the Gospel, and the Four Spiritual Laws began the peaceful revolution against communion in Poland.\u00a0 This underground and peaceful revolution undermined the lies of socialism, communism, and Marxism.\u00a0 While the Gospel is always about and inside our CONVERSION bringing liberty, socialism and its counterparts are always…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2011\/10\/how-christians-peacefully-toppled-the-stronghold-of-communism-in-poland.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Godonomics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-05T09:31:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-01T13:40:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"chadhovind\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Christians Peacefully Toppled The Stronghold of Communism in Poland - 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