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NOVEMBER
 

7, 1793 --France. Gobel, the Archbishop of Paris, reads a letter to the Convention beginning, "I am a priest, that is a 'Charlatan.'" He goes to the President's desk and lays his letter of appointment to the post upon the table, saying amidst great applause that the will of the people has been his first law, and that from this time on there could be no national worship except that of freedom and equality.
     In five months, he will ascend the scaffold on the charge of aiding in the destruction of morals.
     A Protestant minister, Julien of Toulouse, also will declare Protestantism has its charlatans and that from henceforth, he will have no sanctuary than that of the law, no god than freedom, and no Gospel than the Republican Constitution.
     In April next year, he will suffer death by the guillotine.

7, 1859 -- Japan. Guido Herman Fridolin Verbeck enters Nagasaki Harbor. As a missionary of the Dutch Reformed Church to Japan, he will so perfectly master the Japanese language that he will speak it better than most natives will. He will not be allowed to preach, because it is death for a Japanese to become a Christian. He will therefore infiltrate the field of education, becoming a principal of a school for foreign languages and sciences here in Nagasaki. When the Imperial University at Tokyo is established, he will be made the head of it. He will teach classes attended by Samurai and will bring them the knowledge of Christianity.

7, 1873 --Pennsylvania. John Christian Frederick Heyer emigrated from his home in Germany in 1807, and came to the city of Philadelphia. He is the first American Lutheran foreign missionary having served in South India, and has helped organize the first Lutheran synod in Minnesota. Today he dies in Philadelphia.

7, 1917 -- Russia. This morning, the Bolsheviks proclaim the overthrow of provisional government. This evening in a bloodless siege, the cabinet members will be captured in the winter palace. "For three things the earth is disquieted," said Solomon, "and for four which it cannot bear: for a servant when he reigneth…." Such is case with the Russian Revolution.
    Three violent outbursts of persecution against the people of God will result in 1923, 1931, and again in 1937. The original policy of the Bolsheviks will be formulated in January 1918 and will declare "freedom of conscience," but the religious instruction of youths under eighteen years of age, will be strictly forbidden, even in churches. All church property will be confiscated; thus leaving pastors to he supported by voluntary offerings. They will be further restricted to the area of ministry where their church is located. Ruthless persecution will reign.
     Famine will strike in 1922 and 1925, and the government will order the seizure and sale of all valuables in churches "not necessary to the cult." Patriarch Tikhon will forbid ministers to comply with the order. Consequently the government will take punitive action by arresting thousands of laymen, pastors, and other ecclesiastical officials. Hundreds will be sentenced to death or to long-term imprisonment, Metropolitan Benjamin, of Petrograd, along with three others will be executed. Archbishop Cieplak will be sentenced to ten years in prison, and Patriarch Tikhon himself will be imprisoned. However, after one year, he will be released after signing a declaration that he will recognize the Soviet government, and by promising obedience to it. In addition to the many churches that will be closed, many priests will be exiled or imprisoned. In 1930 alone, it will be reported that twenty carloads of religious articles, six thousand icons, and one thousand religious books will be destroyed.
     The Constitutional provision regarding "freedom of conscience" will be changed to read, “…freedom of religious worship and of anti-religious propaganda is recognized for all citizens.” Henceforth, all appeals to the "unchurched" will be branded as "propaganda" and will constitute a criminal offence. All publication of religious literature will cease.
     The school will then be utilized as an instrument of anti-religious propaganda. Systematic training in Communism and atheism will be incorporated into the curriculum, while religious services will be reduced to bare liturgy.
     To make Sunday worship more difficult, the week will be reduced at first to six days, then to five days. Christmas and Easter celebrations will be forbidden. Public demonstrations against religion will be encouraged. Many churches will be closed on account of the financial charges being so exorbitant, as to render the burden unbearable. From 1926, the training of ministers will have to be abandoned with the exception of secret centers. Thirteen anti-religious "universities" for the training of professional atheist propagandists will be established before 1930.
     In 1935, the leader of the anti-religious program, E. Yaroslavsky will triumphantly announce the church to be defeated and no longer a social force. As a result, the drive against religion will be slackened, but in 1937, a severe wave of fresh persecution will erupt resulting in the closing of ten thousand churches. Once again ministers will be subjected to imprisonment, exile and execution. Although the religious policy will change in 1939, and the mass persecutions will cease, the results will be seen in the frightful decrease in numbers of the churches and of the clergy. The Soviet press will report in 1940 that of the 55,175 churches and 29,595 chapels in 1914, only 4,225 churches will remain.
     The condition of the church will improve after 1959, but the church will by no means gain freedom, in fact, it will become a tool for the state's policies.


 
 

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