“Lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. —Hebrews 12:1a-2a

The Romanian Uprising Begins,
December 15, 1989

ictators have a long and storied history of leaving this mortal world well before their demographics might suggest, due to their unbridled tyranny. Nicolae Ceauşescu, “President” of Romania, is a good case in point. His downward mortality arc began with an evangelical pastor, László Tőkés of the Reformed Church of Romania, standing athwart history calling, Stop!

Ceauşescu had become General Secretary of the Communist Party of Romania in 1965, after many years in the communist youth movement and serving various posts in the Soviet-dominated Party. Within four years he established the most repressive totalitarian regime in Eastern Europe. His oppression of the large Hungarian and German minorities living within Romanian borders was especially egregious, bringing protests from other European nations. Living standards plummeted as his “cult of personality” and massive surveillance by the secret police increased exponentially. Food rationing and disastrous economic investment even brought criticism from the Russians in the 1980s.

The tipping point came with Ceauşescu’s decision to bury ancient towns and villages and erect concrete housing towers, symbolic of the new Soviet man. He relocated rural populations into city collectives and systematically suppressed the churches, often with extreme physical brutality. In the town of Timişoara, Pastor Tőkés had had enough.

Collage of various notable locations in the town of Timişoara, hometown of László Tőkés

A year later he ordered Tőkés to leave Timişoara by December 15 for a small out-of-the-way parish where he couldn’t be heard. Tőkés refused. Four thugs brandishing knives broke into his flat, and Securitate forces stepped aside while the pastor and his friends fought them off. As the deadline approached, several members of the parish church began a candlelight vigil outside the Tőkés home. They were soon joined by many church members and a few of the other local citizens. By the 15th of December, a solid cordon of people surrounded his home, keeping the eviction forces at bay in a peaceful manner. The mayor of Timişoara paid a visit, but stormed away when Tőkés remained in his apartment. Students from the local universities joined the protests as the Securitate set up water cannons lest the situation get out of hand.

Demonstrators in the streets of Timişoara, December 1989

Thousands of Hungarians and Romanians filled the streets singing hymns, and then “politically incorrect” patriotic songs which had been banned by the socialist state. The crowd surged to Communist headquarters, overwhelmed the militia, destroyed the water cannons and threw the pieces in the river. The army arrived and opened fire, killing dozens of demonstrators. On December 18, tens of thousands of workers in Timişoara took to the streets peacefully, and the city fell under control of the citizens.

Demonstrators face off against tanks and police forces in the streets of Bucharest

The news swept through Romania and the world as protests broke out in every city. Even some of the Securitate forces joined the people in the streets, till the “revolution” reached Bucharest, the capital. Ceauşescu and his wife fled in a helicopter. The armed forces of Romania switched sides. The tyrant was captured, put on trial and with his wife, and executed by firing squad on Christmas day, for “economic sabotage and genocide.” Of all the dominoes of the Soviet Empire which toppled, Romania was the one country where significant violence occurred, an outcome predictable for a narcissistic and bloodthirsty socialist dictator. It all began with a pastor who would not allow the state to dictate what should be said from the pulpit, and was willing to resist the state-controlled religious hierarchy who sought to muzzle him.

“Why do the wicked still live, continue on, also become very powerful? They spend their days in prosperity, and suddenly they go down to Hell.” —Job 21:7,13

Leslie Printice Leads Anti-Abortion Rally,
December 3, 1846

ew York City in the 19th Century probably surpassed all others in political corruption and depraved popular culture; often the two were bound up together. One aspect of that depravity related to the extent and popularity of abortion, especially among the wealthier inhabitants. According to New York law, abortion was legal prior to “quickening,” that is, before a woman’s awareness of fetal movement. Since 1828, after about the fourth month of pregnancy, a person found guilty of performing an abortion could be charged with second-degree manslaughter, which carried a hundred dollar fine or a year in jail. The queen of abortion providers was an English immigrant, Ann Trow Lohman, known professionally as Madame Restell. In the mid-1840s, one of her chief antagonists was a young widow named Leslie Printice.

Trading as Madame Restell, Lohman would provide the services for abortion at an “income-adjusted” fee; the wealthy paid a lot more for her services than did the poor. When the pills did not work (which was frequent), she used instruments to pierce the amniotic sac to induce miscarriage. She became a millionaire plying her death-dealing wares in six different clinics with branch agencies in Newark, Philadelphia and Boston.

Leslie Printice, a recently widowed member of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City, pastored by the renowned Gardiner Spring, “was encouraged by his sermons on child-killing to take a bold and active stand.” She invited to her home lawyers, politicians, judges and community leaders and along with pro-life physicians, she laid out the facts of the abortion industry. Through her church, she set up the New York Parent and Child Committee to battle the abortion trade. They established prayer networks, sidewalk counseling shifts, and alternative care programs with Christian doctors. The Committee organized protests at the abortion clinics of Madame Restell. George Grant records that Leslie “led a rally outside Lohman’s lavish home on December 3, 1846, that was emotional, physical and fierce.” The next year when Restell again went to trial on manslaughter charges; she had been convicted five years earlier of minor infractions and the publicity had been a boon to her business. Wealthy politicians and businessmen were among the Madame’s best customers, and her payoffs were usually effective. Nonetheless, Leslie attended the trial with several children who had escaped the butcher. She remained steadfast in her testimony, despite death threats from gangsters on Restell’s payroll.

Blackwell Island Prison, New York

1. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, by Burrows and Wallace, Chapter 45.
2. https://www.kingsmeadow.com/wp/leslie-printice-pro-life-pioneer/

Image Credits: 1 Ann Trow Lohman (Wikipedia.org) 2 Blackwell’s Island Prison (Wikipedia.org) 3 Brick Presbyterian Church (Wikipedia.org) 4 Fardiner Spring (Wikipedia.org) 5 Theodore Roosevelt (Wikipedia.org)

“When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” —Luke 18:22

The Birth of Andrew Carnegie, November 25, 1835

he 19th Century Industrial Revolution changed the life and culture of the United Kingdom and the western world. Machines brought increased production of manufactured goods, demand for entrepreneurs, engineers, inventors, and financiers. The economic sea change that accompanied the “revolution” often resulted in unemployment among the farming and artisan ranks. People left the land for the cities and many emigrated, seeking economic improvement abroad, especially in the United States. Scotland, always known for its medical training and military expertise, joined in the manufacturing boom, especially in Glasgow, though the entire economy was affected. Andrew Carnegie was born into the maelstrom of change on November 25, 1835 in Dunfermline, 12 miles north of Edinburgh in Fifeshire. In the providence of God, he would begin life in poverty, come to America, and through his hard work and native genius, become a living symbol of the Industrial Revolution. He died in Lennox, Massachusetts in 1919 worth 372 billion dollars, the wealthiest man on earth.

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)

Keystone Bridge Company, founded in 1865 by Andrew Carnegie, is perhaps best remembered for the Eads Bridge in St. Louis, completed in 1874. Still standing today, it is the oldest surviving bridge spanning the Mississippi River.

Image Credits: 1 Andrew Carnegie (Wikipedia.org) 2 Carnegie Birthplace (Wikipedia.org) 3 Carnegie brothers (Wikipedia.org) 4 Carnegie, c. 1878 (Wikipedia.org) 5 Eads Bridge (Wikipedia.org) 6 Carnegie Hall (Wikipedia.org) 7 Carnegie philanthropist (Wikipedia.org)

“A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them.” —Proverbs 20:26

Gustavus Adolphus Killed in Battle, 1632

n 1593 the Swedish Church adopted the Lutheran Augsburg Confession as its statement of faith, bringing to culmination a half century of struggle over whether the Protestant Reformation would finally win popular support. According to one historian, the reign of King Charles IX, eleven years later, marked the “start of the final chapter of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.” The champion of the Protestant cause through the dynastic and religious wars that terminated only at the end of the Thirty Years War, was the son of Charles and his Danish wife Christina, Gustavus Adolphus, who would become universally known as “The Lion of the North.”

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (1594-1634)

Gustavus was born in December, 1594 in Stockholm. As a child he witnessed the dynastic struggles of his family and nation. Gustavus showed a keen interest in military affairs from a young age and at seven he accompanied his father on a military expedition against Polish Catholic invaders. Besides learning the strategies and tactics of combat, by the age of sixteen Gustavus had mastered six languages. His father also constantly taught him the doctrines of the faith and the principles of obedience to the Word of God, as well as the proper actions and attitude to serve as a wise king of his people. The young prince was taken by his father to listen at the councils of the Swedish nobles.

Gustavus Adolphus became king at the age of seventeen, deemed ready to rule, despite his youth. The enemies of Sweden sought to take advantage of the young king, and he led his armies into combat from the time of his accession till his death, but never in pursuit of conquest, always in defense of the nation and of the Christian faith. His prodigious physical strength and God’s merciful Providence enabled him to survive several battle wounds in desperate fighting.

The death of Gustavus Adolphus in the Battle of Lützen

Gustavus Adolphus’ body in Wolgast, on transfer to Sweden, 1633

1. Gustavus Adolphus: A Hero of the Reformation, by C.A. LaCroix (trans. from French)
2. The Lion of the North, by G.A. Henty

Image Credits: 1 Gustavus Adolphus (Wikipedia.org) 2 Charles IX of Sweden (Wikipedia.org) 3 Christina of Holstein-Gottorp (Wikipedia.org) 4 Adolphus at the Battle at Breitenfeld (Wikipedia.org) 5 Battle of Lützen (Wikipedia.org) 6 Albrecht von Wallenstein (Wikipedia.org) 7 Body of Gustavus Adolphus (Wikipedia.org)

“From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war…” —James 4:1-2

The End of the Great War,
November 11, 1918

he leaders of the nations and armies of the First World War called for an Armistice at the 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month in 1918. After four years of unprecedented industrial-scale slaughter, resulting in the deaths of about eight million soldiers, the Central Powers had had enough and agreed on the cease fire. The Allied leaders met at Versailles in France to determine the particulars of the post-war world. The United States had mobilized more than four million men after declaring war on Germany in April, 1917. About 110,000 Americans died in the conflict, including 40,000 from influenza.

Depiction of the armistice signing aboard the private train of
French General Ferdinand Jean Marie Foch

One of the important books on the coming of the war was entitled The Long Fuse, a reference to the fact that this war, like most, was the consequence of a long series of events with a mixture of ideologies, national pride, greed for land, and other factors, used by Providence to bring about the fatal collision. The consolidation of the German states into one nation dominated by Prussia, and their rapid defeat of France in the war of 1870, had caused an unbridgeable animosity and distrust between those two nations; they both prepared for future conflict. The decline of the vigor of the Hapsburg Empire in Austria, yet its continued overlordship of the Balkan states, already known as the “powder keg of Europe,” presaged another war. A Pan-Slavic nationalism guaranteed that Russia would be involved if ever a major kerfuffle occurred in southern Europe. The weakness of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, “the sick man of Europe,” also set up international power plays in Europe and the Middle East.

A German trench occupied by British Soldiers during the Battle of the Somme, 1916

France and England held the line in 1914 and both sides settled into trench warfare—dug-in multiple layers of lines stretching from the North Sea to the Alps. The war lurched from one stalemate to the next across Europe, with hundreds of thousands of casualties mowed down in “no-man’s land” by machine guns and artillery. The war extended to the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey and into the mountains of Italy. They fought in the Middle East, Africa, and the through the oceans of the world. It consumed entire armies of Russians, British Commonwealth soldiers (Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, and Indians), and Europeans of every nation. Unrestricted submarine warfare drew the United States into the war, with President Woodrow Wilson calling it the war to preserve democracy and civilization, after totally opposing U.S. entry since the beginning of the conflict, and being reelected on the slogan “he kept us out of war.” It was declared “the war to end all war.”

Men of the Wiltshire Regiment cross “No Man’s Land” during an attack near Thiepval, August 7, 1916 during the Battle of the Somme

On the very day of the armistice, soldiers still went over the top of their trenches a minute before the truce went into effect on that November day in 1918, killing a few hundred more to no purpose. The Armistice was followed by the Treaty of Versailles, in which the Allies redistributed German lands around the world and demanded punitive damages. The Germans faced revolution at home from Communist subversives and starvation of the civilian population by British blockade. The Kaiser went into exile and the great monarchies of Europe collapsed — Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Germany — and the Allies re-drew the map of the world. The First World War proved to be the greatest catastrophe since the Black Death of the Middle Ages, and laid the groundwork for the coming of an Austrian corporal named Adolph Hitler, to create a new party in the decade following, that would lead the world, once again, into a second world war; some would say, merely the extension of the First.

The Treaty of Versailles, signed June 28, 1919

1. 11th Month, 11th Day, 11th Hour, by Joseph Persico
2. The Great War in Modern Memory, by Paul Fussell

Image Credits: 1 Armistice Signing (Wikipedia.org) 2 Ferdinand Foch (Wikipedia.org) 3 After signing (Wikipedia.org) 4 Trench, Battle of the Somme (Wikipedia.org) 5 British attacking (Wikipedia.org) 6 Treaty of Versailles (Wikipedia.org)