But Where Are the Fruits?

A GRAPEVINE may appear to be flourishing and yet not be producing any fruit. In fact, its very barrenness may be due to its branches spreading out and not being pruned. In his illustration of the vine Jesus did not stress the number or the size of its branches and leaves but its bearing fruit: “Every branch in me not bearing fruit [my Father] takes away, and every one bearing fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”—John 15:2, margin.

Christendom’s religions in Soviet Russia may be likened to a vine professing to be Christian. In recent years violent attacks upon it have let up, and, as a result, this vine is spreading out on all sides. Thus one rector of a Russian Orthodox seminary stated: “It is getting easier to carry on religious teaching from year to year.” And again we are told: “The evidence is considerable that the influence of religion is on the increase throughout the Soviet Union.” “Just as many people go to church in Russia as in Britain.” And said a British clergyman who visited Russia: “I expected to find a church in the catacombs, but instead I found a church vividly and actively alive.”

In support of the foregoing are the claims of spokesmen for the Russian Orthodox Church that she has 25,000 churches in operation, 30,000 priests, some seventy monasteries and at least ten seminaries and academies. Today six times as many churches are being used as there were twenty years ago, although their number is still less than it was before the revolution of 1917.

As for its material prosperity, one news correspondent reported that “many priests had cars and lived well. Certainly, many of the priests were garbed in beautiful vestments.” Also, several of the patriarchs “have large cars of recent vintage.” “Either the church is wealthy or the government is paying a remarkable bill,” is the way British Methodist leader Dr. Soper expressed it.

Many other religious organizations also report remarkable increases in Russia, especially the Baptist Church, which claims to be the second largest there. Its local leaders say that it is faring better now than it did under the czars, having 5,400 congregations, 500,000 baptized members and some three million constituents in all. According to one Russian Baptist clergyman: “Our people are ‘hot’ Christians. We are reviving first-century Christianity in the twentieth century.” Obviously Christendom’s vine in Russia is prospering luxuriantly, but is it bearing fruit?

Nothing is made more plain in the Scriptures than that the true Christian vine must bear fruit that expresses itself in preaching, witnessing and bearing testimony. Jesus preached. His apostles preached. Others were commanded to preach. Salvation depended upon making public confession, all were told. But it is noteworthy that the constitution of Soviet Russia, while granting atheistic communism freedom to propagandize its beliefs, denies that right to religious organizations. Free to worship? Yes, but only so long as it is limited to religious ritual in religious edifices.

Thus, regarding a popular Orthodox Church monthly, we are told: “No direct attempt, however, is made to convert him [the reader] by challenging the spokesmen of the atheist State on their own chosen ground of natural science. This, presumably, would be ‘religious propaganda,’ a right not provided to the faithful by the Soviet Constitution.”

A group of United States clergymen who visited Russia in 1956 stated that the churches of Russia “are under the influence of the Russian government” and that “in return for freedom of worship” they have “apparently inclined to go along with Soviet Communist leadership in important areas,” such as the Communist peace propaganda. But is communism or is God’s kingdom the world’s hope for peace?

God’s Word requires Christians to bring forth the “fruitage of the spirit,” which “is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,” etc. That rules out all recourse to carnal weapons. (Gal. 5:22) Far from bearing such fruit, Christendom’s vine in Russia supports the militaristic schemes of the rulers.

Said Quaker Sidney A. Bailey in The Christian Century, March 12, 1958: “As a Quaker I was particularly interested in whether it is possible for a Russian Adventist to obey the sixth commandment. They replied that no one should kill a person who is guilty of no crime, but that it is legitimate to defend one’s family or nation from aggression.” He also asked the chairman of Affairs of Religious Cults “how the Soviet government deals with conscientious objection to military service. At first he said that there were no C.O.’s in Russia. . . . As the conversation progressed, however, it became clear to me that there are still some in Russia who refuse military service. Mr. Gostev was not precise, but . . . those who refuse all service, such as Jehovah’s witnesses, are apparently treated as deserters and are tried in military courts.”

Christendom’s vine in Russia may be large and growing ever larger, but is it bearing the fruit of Kingdom preaching and the fruitage of the spirit?