The system of forced labour camps was established in the first years of the communist regime in the Soviet Union. It became an essential part of the Soviet system of repression. The communist takeovers in Eastern and Central Europe during and after World War II led to mass arrests of non-communist politicians, religious leaders and other people identified as class enemies. Many of these were sentenced to forced labour camps. In 1952 the International League for the Rights of Man was able to document the existence of more than 400 forced labour camps in Central and Eastern Europe, and their number was to multiply greatly in the years that followed.
Imprisonment in labour camps was just one of the means used by communist regimes to restrict and persecute the Christian community. In what follows we will present some of these means and will discuss the attitude that God expects from us in the light of this grim reality.
1.5.1 Persecution as a Natural Expectation for Christians
The Lord Jesus Christ himself told us: ‘Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you’ (Matt. 5:12) and also ‘The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you’ (John 15:20).
The apostle Paul added: ‘all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution’ (2 Tim. 3:12). This is true not only in the east but also in the west, for all those who want to be faithful to the Lord in an ungodly society.
The verses quoted above tell us that we should not be surprised when the enemies of the church persecute the followers of Christ. This does not mean that persecution is normal and should be accepted as part of God’s original plan. On the contrary, it is because of the Fall and the conflict with the devil that there is a spiritual battle between the ‘children of God’ and ‘the children of the devil’. And this will continue until the Lord binds the devil and throws him in the lake of fire, at the Last Judgement.
Finally, God has prepared a special blessing for those who suffer for his name’s sake: ‘Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matt. 5:10). When the church comes before the judgement seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10), the Lord will reward those who have been persecuted for him.
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