C4K said:
C4K said:
Richard Wurmbrand:*
On religion, [Patrascanu] said, "I passed through all that at school. I used to pray, but later I gave it up."
I asked him why.
"Your Jesus asks too much. Especially when one is young."
I said, "I've never thought myself that Jesus asks anything from men. When my son Mihai was small, I gave him money to buy me a birthday present. So Jesus gives the virtues he seems to ask for and makes us better characters. But perhaps you didn't have good religious teachers."
"Probably. They're not too common." Patrascanu sat up and yawned. "Besides, there's a lot in Christianity I can't swallow."
"For example?"
"Humility, and especially submission to tyranny. Take St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. It says all authority is from God, so we must behave ourselves, pay our taxes promptly and not kick against the pricks—this at a time when the ruler of the world was Nero!"
I said, "Read the Bible again and you'll find it full of revolutionary fire. It starts with the Jewish slaves revolting against Pharaoh. It goes on with Samuel, Jael, Jehu and many other rebels against tyranny. Before going further, ask yourself how the authority approved by God came to power. It's usually the result of an upheaval—so submission to authority means submission to those who have made a successful revolution. Washington became an authority by overthrowing the English."
"As Lenin overthrew the Tsars," Patrascanu put in.
"Only to introduce a worse terror.** The man will come who will end the Communist tyranny, too, and bring free government. Then he will build the authority from God. Then we should submit. The real teaching in this part of Scripture is not submission to tyrants, but avoidance of useless bloodshed in revolutions which have no chance."
Patrascanu said, "What about 'Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars? . . . "
"The first Caesar was a usurper," I said, "even in Rome. He was a general who had made himself dictator. His successors had no more right in Palestine, which became a Roman colony by force, than the Russians have here. So it's clear that Jesus meant, 'Give Caesar what we owe him, a boot in the backside, and pitch him out.'"
*Richard Wurmbrand suffered under Nazism and Communism. This quote is from the book In God's Underground.I asked him why.
"Your Jesus asks too much. Especially when one is young."
I said, "I've never thought myself that Jesus asks anything from men. When my son Mihai was small, I gave him money to buy me a birthday present. So Jesus gives the virtues he seems to ask for and makes us better characters. But perhaps you didn't have good religious teachers."
"Probably. They're not too common." Patrascanu sat up and yawned. "Besides, there's a lot in Christianity I can't swallow."
"For example?"
"Humility, and especially submission to tyranny. Take St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. It says all authority is from God, so we must behave ourselves, pay our taxes promptly and not kick against the pricks—this at a time when the ruler of the world was Nero!"
I said, "Read the Bible again and you'll find it full of revolutionary fire. It starts with the Jewish slaves revolting against Pharaoh. It goes on with Samuel, Jael, Jehu and many other rebels against tyranny. Before going further, ask yourself how the authority approved by God came to power. It's usually the result of an upheaval—so submission to authority means submission to those who have made a successful revolution. Washington became an authority by overthrowing the English."
"As Lenin overthrew the Tsars," Patrascanu put in.
"Only to introduce a worse terror.** The man will come who will end the Communist tyranny, too, and bring free government. Then he will build the authority from God. Then we should submit. The real teaching in this part of Scripture is not submission to tyrants, but avoidance of useless bloodshed in revolutions which have no chance."
Patrascanu said, "What about 'Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars? . . . "
"The first Caesar was a usurper," I said, "even in Rome. He was a general who had made himself dictator. His successors had no more right in Palestine, which became a Roman colony by force, than the Russians have here. So it's clear that Jesus meant, 'Give Caesar what we owe him, a boot in the backside, and pitch him out.'"
** . . . for rulers are not a terror, Romans 13
