THE CALLING
BY BROTHER ANDREW, WITH VERNE BECKER
1996 Nashville, TN: Moorings, 247 pages
NORTH YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 921 ANDREW
A Book Review by Joseph Ng
May 2003
History kinda stopped in 1989 for some of us who grew up reading about the smuggling of Bibles into the Soviet Union and other atheistic countries. Those were exciting days when people thought of using helium balloons, microfiche, and other 20th-century tricks and technologies to help their Christian brothers and sisters overcome the information roadblocks of their local governmental regimes. But what happened when the Berlin Wall fell and Eastern Bloc countries began their slide over to the EU and NATO? What role is left of those brave souls who used to breach barbwire borders to spread God’s Word, folks like Brother Andrew, who recounted his Bible-smuggling exploits in his famous God’s Smuggler?
The good news is that Brother Andrew is not winding down his days chewing a stalk of barley on some retirement ranch in Kansas. This book tells not only about what happened after the fall of European communism, but also piques the imagination on missions in the 21st century, especially in “closed door” countries, such as that behind the Bamboo Curtain. Optimistically, Brother Andrew calls his organization “Open Doors International”; but such should be our outlook of the world as we confront it as God’s rock-founded church, against which death itself shall not prevail.
DESCRIPTION
The Calling is organised in 11 chapters (my annotation follows the dash – ):
1. From the Inside Out – changing nations through the Scriptures
2. “You Can’t Do That!” – lessons in creative access
3. One Life to Give – two women bring God’s Word to Cuba, Brother Andrew’s back pains
4. Off the Hinges – A Jesus Red Book for China!
5. It Will Never Happen Here! -- Uganda, Angola, South Africa
6. Gabriella and Michael – Project “Hernia” Rainbow to Project Pearl for China
7. Twenty-one Teacups, Eighteen Bowls of Rice – Project Pearl and Chinese Pastor John
8. Children of the Revolution – Latin America
9. Winds of Change – Eastern Europe, Russia open up; 1 million Bibles officially
10. From Hammer and Sickle to Hammer and Chisel --
11. The Muslim Challenge – Iran, Pakistan, Palestine, more
Appendix A: Ten P’s – Ten Prayers
Appendix B: Open Doors International Vision Statement
So what happened when the borders opened up? From Uganda to Palestine to China, new opportunities continued to emerge. But Brother Andrew’s analysis of what happened to the East German church when persecution was lifted is penetrating, and sobering. In 1961,
Christians in East Germany were still operating quite freely, due in large part to the deaconess movement in the East German church. Like a Protestant order of nuns, the deaconesses carried on much of the evangelism, Bible instruction, and social service in the country. They showed Christ’s love by caring for people the system had no use for (p. 9).
When the wall finally fell, liberty was restored in East Germany. But do you know what else happened? Bible sales plummeted almost immediately, and the church’s influence in the society waned considerably. What could have been a time of mobilization for the East German church instead became a time of sitting back and congratulating itself (p. 15).
Churches and Christians living in freedom certainly need to “redeem the time,” making the best use of their liberty. Another observation of great value is one that is grossly overlooked in the area of missions: that of the Middle East and the Holy Land. Brother Andrew, unlike many Christian Zionist missionaries and preachers today, appreciates the plight of our Arab brethren:
I learned that there are many Christians among the Palestinians. When I took time to speak with these fellows believers, they poured out their pain to me – specifically the pain of not being recognized by the Western church as part of the body of Christ. Many Christians in the West, they told me, are so obsessed with Israel and its place in biblical prophecy that they completely ignore the church in Israel, which today is 85 percent Arab. As a result, the believers there feel lonely, abandoned, betrayed. ... Not only have Western Christians ignored the church in Israel, I was told, but they have also ignored the Israeli government’s often inhumane treatment of the Palestinians. There always seems to be an outpouring of sympathy for Israel – and rightly so – when they are the victims of a terrorist attack, but Israel’s acts of brutality toward the Palestinians tend to be excused or overlooked. Palestinian Christians sometimes get caught in this crossfire, but they have no one to stand up for them and support them (p. 227).
Perhaps what I enjoy the most about the book is its abundance of great sayings, which I hope to quote in our church bulletin:
· “If we do not go to the heathen with the gospel ... they will come to us as revolutionaries and occupation armies” (p. 7).
· “The power of the Bible is simple, but profound. Besides, when we fight repressive regimes politically and militarily, we set ourselves up as an enemy. We give them martyrs to rally around, we fuel their anger, and we intensify their resolve to advance their cause. The result is that we weaken our own” (p. 19).
· “The only way to change an evil system in a lasting way is from the inside – by building up the church through prayer, encouragement, and especially the Scriptures. It does not require a special calling. To the contrary, it is what being a Christian is all about” (p. 19).
· “Put another way, we are prophetic when we meet three conditions:
1. We know God and his character as taught in the Bible.
2. We have a message that will affect people’s lives.
3. We have somewhere to say it.” (p. 22)
· “Everyone is a fool for somebody – be it Marx, Mao, Muhammad, or simply Myself. So why not be a fool for Christ?” (p. 24)
· “Iron, Bamboo, and Sugarcane Curtains, closed borders, dictators, terrorists – these are not the real obstacles that keep us from serving our suffering sisters and brothers. The biggest obstacles lie in our own hearts – fear, doubt, selfishness, materialism, complacency, the unwillingness to risk suffering, and a host of other excuses” (p. 55).
· East Berlin pastor laments church nearly empty: “They now go to the supermarket instead of coming to our Super-God who delivered us” (p. 201).
· “We need the suffering church as much as they need us. We have as much to learn from them (perhaps even more!) as they do from us” (p. 204).
· Brother Mehdi Dibaj, Iranian Christian after nine years in jail and facing his trial for apostasy (from Islam), says to the court in his Polycarplike “defense”: “It is now forty-five years that I am walking with the God of miracles, and his kindness upon me is like a shadow. I owe him much for his fatherly love and concern. ... Life for me is an opportunity to serve him, and death is a better opportunity to be with Christ. Therefore I am not only satisfied to be in prison for the honor of his holy name, but am ready to give my life for the sake of Jesus my Lord and enter his kingdom sooner” (p. 223). Though sentenced to death, Dibaj was miraculously released after much prayer and protest but martyred a few months after.
· “We must also avoid taking sides politically in the various conflicts involving Muslims. We’re easily tempted to label the ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys,’ but anyone who has spent time studying the problems of the Middle East can tell you that every issue, every situation, is much more complex than it appears. Every side has both good and bad motives; every side has committed some good deeds and some atrocities. So instead of always looking for the enemy or taking a side, we should go to all sides with the love of Jesus” (p. 226).
CRITIQUE
Brother Andrew’s honest recounting of various incidents in his life is the strength of this book. He records even the stuff that presents him as vulnerable—perhaps even error-prone—in decision making.
Project Pearl, to smuggle a ton of Bibles into China, suffered when he arguably gave too much credence to his dream. He delayed the whole operation due to a dream he had on Palm Sunday, 1981 (p. 121f.), in which he saw a truck careening dangerously down the Alps. Because of the delay in Bible delivery, Chinese brothers and sisters were stood up on a Swatow beach, and when the delivery finally happened, it was amidst dangerous circumstances, with several people paying the price for it. As for Brother Andrew, he was faced with a damage control campaign over charges of trying to pull off a stunt.
There were also a couple of examples of dodgy exegesis, such as the following:
Dr. Samuel Moffat, a missionary in Korea at the time, echoed some of my thoughts. He quoted Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:20: ‘ Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.’ Then he said to us, ‘The Chinese communists have outdisciplined us, outworked us, and outcommitted us. Unless we are willing to match their commitment in our service for the Lord, we are never going to make a difference there (p. 73).
In then-Communist Albania, he conducted what seems to be a primitive version of Charismatic purging of territorial spirits:
Later on, the door opened for a very restricted form of tourism. So we at Open Doors decided to organize prayer teams that would simply drive around the country and pray. No witnessing, no Bibles, no literature, just praying over the cities and towns. It’s a thoroughly biblical concept. In the Old Testament God told Joshua, “I will give you every place where you set your foot” (Joshua 1:3). So the teams walked and prayed (p. 38).
Regarding Eastern Orthodoxy, Brother Andrew betrayed little discernment of its doctrinal departures from biblical Christianity apart from his misconstruing of the Psalms:
Why not offer the Russian Orthodox Church an official gift of one million Bibles? After all, I had been pondering a passage in the Psalms that said, ‘Forever, O LORD, your word is settled in heaven.’ If that is indeed the case, then it occurred to me that the Bible must also be forever available on earth (p. 177).
We also find him dancing with Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics (Jesuit priest, p. 177).
In an age of triumphalist evangelism, it is refreshing to hear from one who (in the words of a former boss of mine) “does real work” and doesn’t forget his real brothers and sisters in suffering. This book will open your eyes and help you pray better for missions today.
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES
Andrew, Brother. 2001. God’s Smuggler. Chosen Books.
International Christian Concern: http://persecution.org/
Open Doors International: http://www.opendoorsca.org/