“MEN HAVE FORGOTTEN GOD” – ALEKSANDR ISAYEVICH SOLZHENITSYN

The LORD, speaking through Paul, His apostle, has these words recorded in the Bible. Paul writing in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, talks about a time, which is now, when people, unashamedly display their evilness, and call it good, right and progressive freedom.
– “​1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” – 2 Timothy 3:1-5

Echoing the same, Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, a Russian author and dissident, who raised the awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union, has some profound words for Christians of today’s world. The following words are taken from Solzhenitsyn’s acceptance speech, of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, in London, on May 10, 1983.
– “More than half a century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: “MEN HAVE FORGOTTEN GOD; THAT’S WHY ALL THIS HAS HAPPENED.” Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our Revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous Revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.”

Describing the twentieth century, and the progress the entire world had made, Solzhenitsyn says…
– “And if I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire 20th century, here too, I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again: “Men have forgotten God.” The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the major crimes of this century. The first of these was World War I, and much of our present predicament can be traced back to it. It was a war (the memory of which seems to be fading) when Europe, bursting with health and abundance, fell into a rage of self-mutilation which could not but sap its strength for a century or more, and perhaps forever. The only possible explanation for this war is a mental eclipse among the leaders of Europe due to their lost awareness of a Supreme Power above them. Only a godless embitterment could have moved ostensibly Christian states to employ poison gas, a weapon so obviously beyond the limits of humanity.”

Talking further, Solzhenitsyn gives the background story, as to how the West have arrived here, despite having such rich Christian heritage and history.
– “Imperceptibly, through decades of gradual erosion, the meaning of life in the West has ceased to be seen as anything more lofty than the “pursuit of happiness, “a goal that has even been solemnly guaranteed by constitutions. The concepts of good and evil have been ridiculed for several centuries; banished from common use, they have been replaced by political or class considerations of short-lived value. It has become embarrassing to state that evil makes its home in the individual human heart before it enters a political system. Yet it is not considered shameful to make daily concessions to an integral evil. Judging by the continuing landslide of concessions made before the eyes of our very own generation, the West is ineluctably slipping toward the abyss. Western societies are losing more and more of their religious essence as they thoughtlessly yield up their younger generation to atheism. If a blasphemous film about Jesus is shown throughout the United States, reputedly one of the most religious countries in the world, or a major newspaper publishes a shameless caricature of the Virgin Mary, what further evidence of godlessness does one need? When external rights are completely unrestricted, why should one make an inner effort to restrain oneself from ignoble acts?”

Speaking about the futility of human solutions proposed, and the only true solution available for this human malady, Solzhenitsyn gently presents repentance, and our return to the God of the Bible, and His principles for life and living…
– “The social theories that promised so much have demonstrated their bankruptcy, leaving us at a dead end. The free people of the West could reasonably have been expected to realize that they are beset by numerous freely nurtured falsehoods, and not to allow lies to be foisted upon them so easily. All attempts to find a way out of the plight of today’s world are fruitless unless we redirect our consciousness, in repentance, to the Creator of all: without this, no exit will be illumined, and we shall seek it in vain. The resources we have set aside for ourselves are too impoverished for the task. We must first recognize the horror perpetrated not by some outside force, not by class or national enemies, but within each of us individually, and within every society. This is especially true of a free and highly developed society, for here in particular we have surely brought everything upon ourselves, of our own free will. We ourselves, in our daily unthinking selfishness, are pulling tight that noose.”

In conclusion Solzhenitsyn speaks very poignant words, which hopefully would help us Christians, awake from our spiritual slumber, and truly return to our God and our Creator.
– “To the ill-considered hopes of the last two centuries, which have reduced us to insignificance and brought us to the brink of nuclear and non-nuclear death, we can propose only a determined quest for the warm hand of God, which we have so rashly and self-confidently spurned. Only in this way can our eyes be opened to the errors of this unfortunate 20th century and our bands be directed to setting them right. There is nothing else to cling to in the landslide: the combined vision of all the thinkers of the Enlightenment amounts to nothing.”

To sum up what Solzhenitsyn was saying, in few short words, let me borrow the words of Sabrina Busch. They fit perfectly well.
– “We misrepresent God, when we wear his name, and not his character” – Sabrina Busch

Herein lies the predicament of us Christians, and herein also is the answer, to all our predicaments. We have forgotten God, and have deluded ourselves into believing that, merely wearing the name of God would suffice. What a tragedy. We put aside, wearing the character of God, because it is not only difficult, but more importantly, it constantly interferes with our choices, and our desires, and makes us feel guilty. Wearing just the name of Christ, would pacify our guilty conscience, sufficiently enough, to keep on doing, what we love the most. This wouldn’t be possible, if we were, also to wear, the character of God, along with His name.

May the LORD help us to wear the character of God, and not merely wear His name. If we don’t, then we will walk the same path that the founders of Soviet Union have walked, of which Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn had sufficiently warned about. Even so, the LORD help us, not to forget God, but to wear His name, and His character, all the days of our lives.