A CASE STUDY ON THE DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND
By Olympia Barczynska
Geographically Poland lies in the very heart of Europe, but is considered part of Eastern Europe. It has a long history of war and conflict, victory and defeat. At one time it even disappeared from the world map for over 120 years, reappearing after the First World War.
Poland as a country is 25 percent larger than Great Britain, but has a population of only 40 million people. 93 percent of Polish people would consider themselves Roman Catholic, with a high percentage practising their religion. This means that Poland has 37 million people with a strong allegiance to the Roman Catholic religion, the Pope, the Virgin Mary, the Saints and a great variety of other idolatrous and misguided practices.
In the light of today it is indeed astounding to learn that around AD 1600, there were more Protestants than Catholics in Poland. The whole religious face of the country changed in a short space of time in an age where mass media was still unknown. What happened? There was a Counter-Reformation, and the Jesuits, under the guise of education, succeeded in bringing back the heart of the country to Rome. Winds of change are blowing strongly through the country again today.
Throughout the centuries records exist of groups of Christians who met totally separate from the Roman Catholic system of religion. Stories of persecutions of such
heretics are even more frequent. One can assume that many of these were true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
| What this writer tells about her native Poland applies to many Eastern European and third world countries, where the Faith Prosperity cult has infiltrated. Don't be deceived when speakers tell their grandiose stories of what is happening through their ministry overseas. Much of it is exaggerated and fails to take into account the nature of the message that is being preached. There are true missionaries around but they are few and far between. Sadly men are building their own empires under the guise of "church planting" and missionary endeavour and are creating more harm than good
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In later history, especially in the last 100 years many evangelical churches were established, formed of people saved OUT OF the Roman Catholic system. Until the last few decades no one in Poland would have considered it possible to be a follower of the Lord Jesus and to still associate with the Roman Catholic religion. The two ways were irreconcilable; their directions as diverse as light from darkness.
A subtle change has taken place in Poland where most in the evangelical community no longer see these things in black and white, but only in grey. An acceptance is taking place of what formerly would be unthinkable, a tolerance is growing, and a worldly wisdom is creeping into the churches of a pragmatic, expedient approach. Something is happening and it has come on the Polish churches unawares.
The way this change has come in is as Jude 4 says, "For certain men have crept in unnoticed". False brethren, impostors and wolves in sheeps' clothing have always been around, but the church has been slumbering too deeply to notice or care, until their influence has now penetrated everything and is too great to eradicate. Yes, a little leaven leavens the whole lump, and it is the same with a little error, which left unchecked quickly spreads and changes not only the physical composition of a lump of dough, but its very appearance. Very literally something contaminated with leaven becomes full of hot air with little substance.
When one looks at the professing church of Jesus Christ in Poland a confusing scene meets the eye, but what joy that the Lord knows His own, and His true church is pure and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. In this article I would like to trace some of the developments and changes that have come about on the Polish Christian scene in the last 15 or so years, and analyse how and why change in religious belief takes place.
Much can be said about the Polish church in the last century. Poland, although a Communist/Socialist country for many decades was soft towards evangelical Christianity in comparison to East Germany or Romania. The difficult years were in the early 1950s where a number of pastors were imprisoned. Afterwards all the evangelical denominations/churches were allowed to function together if jointly registered with the government. The Baptist Church had a separate registration, while the majority of bible-believing Christians were in the United Evangelical Church. Of course there were also those fellowships, which considered registration of any kind a compromise and met in the homes.
For several decades this situation continued and although the United Evangelical Church had those of both Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal persuasions, the Christians coexisted in relative harmony and the teaching in all the churches was pretty similar. Only a small number of Christian books in Polish were available and western visitors were few. The biggest foreign influence on the Christianity of Poland was from the daily broadcasts of the Voice of the Gospel from Trans World Radio in Monte Carlo, which helped a great many people find faith in the Lord. The big action of those years was perhaps Billy Graham's visit to Poland in 1978, which was a forerunner of large ecumenical events.
Everything began to change in the 1980s. Even the United Evangelical Church disbanded and the different groupings within it registered under their own names. The
political situation became unstable through the work of the Solidarity movement and its strong ties with the Vatican. Suddenly Poland from being a strongly Roman Catholic country became fanatically Roman Catholic. The Roman Catholic places of worship were full, masses were devoutly held, and, when the priest Father Popieluszko was killed, he became a national hero and a martyr. A Polish Pope added to the frenzy and on some days it was said that 90 percent of the population could be found attending mass. Martial Law was imposed, food shortages resulted and the country was in chaos. There was a real need in Poland and this practical need was generously helped by many Western Christian organisations that mobilised aid.
Aid workers were allowed to enter the country and contacts were established with churches. The Christians gratefully received aid. Often they had a surplus of aid for distributions further a feld. In the general chaos and difficulty of life in those days a lack of discernment and wisdom caused many "rice" Christians to be baptised and accepted into church membership. Many of them fell away when the aid stopped, others remained and having never been born from above became those who very readily accepted the new teachings that started coming into Poland a little later.
Sometimes the reception of aid contained strings where those bringing the aid expected a platform from which to speak. Foreigners had visited Poland before these times, but a larger number of them started coming in the mid 1980s. By the end of the 1980s Poland was fast on the way to shedding its communist background, and when that finally happened in 1989 the floodgates were opened to any and every thing new. "West is best" was a common mindset in those days and the West indeed diffused into Polish life and culture in a very rapid way. As an example, within months of the borders opening a large pornographic supermarket was built on the German side of the Polish border at the main crossing point. Shops selling similar merchandise proliferate all over Poland with no censorship or blanked out windows at that stage.
The general mindset of the people changed. Suddenly they were being faced with so many new things, ideas, opportunities that many did not know what to try first. The Roman Catholic system obviously did not furnish the people with moral stature to withstand all these new enticements. The markets were flooded with literature, cheaply produced and poorly translated, which sold like hot cakes on every street corner and in every subway etc. These books were mostly trashy novels, New Age, esoteric or about eastern religions: voyages of discovery into territories yet unknown. Needless to say that the attendance at the Roman Catholic mass dropped quite drastically in the early 1990s, by 70 percent according to some estimates, especially in the cities which were undergoing an incredible transformation.
Change and instability were the norm in Poland in the 1980s and early 1990s. Many people sought to emigrate to the West and a noticeable proportion of pastors and their families did so, mainly to Germany. This created even more instability in the churches and left gaps in the leadership. At the same time with increased Western contacts and the country opening up to the outside world, it became the wish of most young people to learn this magical language of English, which was seen as a passport to a better life.
You may be wondering how all this fits in with the Christian situation in Poland today, well it does in a big way. As was mentioned earlier Polish people became exposed to new things, new ideas, not only in the world but also in the church. The same mentality carried over into spiritual things and an inferiority complex developed amongst many Christian leaders. Suddenly Polish Christians were comparing themselves to western ones, and asking, Why is our church so small? Why don't we have some better music? Why are we so grey and boring? Why do we keep hearing the same messages in the meetings? A growing desire for change set into the Christian communities. Doubtless there were things, which could have been beneficially learned from Western Christianity, but who amongst the Polish Christians had a big enough picture to know what was good and what was bad? Only the minority had the wisdom of God to assess everything new by the following criteria, "Where has this teaching or practice come from, and where will this lead us if we embrace it?" Also the gift of discerning of spirits was scarce.
What happened in Poland was repeated all over Eastern Europe to a lesser or greater degree. Those lands were like a sponge thirsty to drink in whatever was poured upon it or like a blank canvas ready to take any artist's impression. Communism had kept many developments at bay, but when Communism was replaced the doors opened to all. Churches had a choice to stay the way they were or to move with the times.
People living in those lands were changing so there was a genuine need for the churches to adapt or die. However, the Polish people were innocently unsuspecting, having been isolated so long they were vulnerable and not at all prepared for what was to come. Church leaders had battled through the years with customary problems like immorality, corruption, pride, personal grievances etc, perhaps a little with false doctrine as William Branham's literature has been in the Polish language for many decades, but they had no experience of handling a large-scale onslaught of new teaching. Indeed such a thing was not even expected.
Young people especially like all that is American and many left the older churches for those that were new. What the young people were not seeing was the shallowness of many in this new breed of Eastern European missionary. Westerners had the money to get in everywhere, but not the wisdom to build on the foundation that was already there in countries like Poland, which had been tested by time.
No, most of these new missionaries had to do something new. Few alarm cries were raised about some of the unethical methods and outright lying about soul-winning results, and few Polish people at that time realised that sometimes exaggerated, unreal reports were being used to raise money for support.
This new breed of missionary had no respect for culture and customs, and for the indigenous expression of Christianity in Eastern Europe that seemed to them old-fashioned and boring. The young people often loved these new found heroes and flocked around them.
A major drift away from sound bible-based teaching came with the start of the 1990s where national and regional conferences organised by western ministries for young people started taking place. In such extra-church events false teachings and prophecies were frequently given, while the local leaders of these young people remained unaware of what was happening for some time. Poland is a very hospitable nation. There is a common saying, "If a guest is in the house, God is there too". This mentality was carried over into the churches where all guests were greeted with open arms.
Today many of those people would not be admitted, but then the believers trusted nearly everyone. It was thought that if the persons said they were Christians then they were brothers indeed and were bringing the Word of God. Only later did eyes begin to open at how many wolves were actually allowed in. However, not by any means can all the problems be blamed on foreign visitors to Poland. The Polish Roman Catholic religion was undergoing a great change. Hundreds of thousands came into the charismatic renewal movement where spiritual phenomena and spiritual experiences were commonplace. Litanies were written to the Holy Spirit, liturgical prayers to the Holy Spirit were taught as well as praying on the rosary to the Holy Spirit. Prayers in tongues to Mary, and the saints for good measure, were commonplace.
Simply because of the spiritual manifestations people from the charismatic renewal in the Roman Catholic religion were often accepted into Pentecostal churches. Some were truly born again and left all the mishmash of idolatry behind, while many others continued to operate in the gifting of another spirit and their influence proved strong. So much so that with time many have got into positions of leadership in the Pentecostal/charismatic-type churches.
Often the popularity of western culture was used to draw people to meetings; the enticement was something secondary like music or drama and not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Things which were little known in Polish churches, suddenly became high profile: theatres, plays, concerts, bands, videos, records, recording studios, CDs, interdenominational events of every kind, dance, clowning, flag waving, mission ships, mime artists, rock concerts, music companies, Christian TV [currently TBN is being broadcast into Poland by satellite and many people have it in their homes, now this is real poison in the pot], Christian holidays, Christian dating agencies, magazines, prayer letters, fund raising, and marches to name a few. All these programmes depend on large sums of money, and most need much electricity. Yet the Church of Jesus Christ can function in beauty and simplicity without any of these things, but few will believe this fact.
For some reason many in Poland have been conned into believing that modern man is more complex than the Bible caters for and are turning to Christian psychology. Books on the subjects of relationships, emotions, temperaments etc have proliferated in Poland by such authors as James Dobson, Joyce Huggett, Larry Crabb, Tim LaHaye, Neil Anderson, Richard Bennet etc. Some of what they write may be helpful, but all that they write is tainted by psychology. Psychology and the gospel of Jesus Christ are incompatible, yet this is not being seen. In 1995 an Association of Christian Psychologists was even formed there and an Institute of Christian Counselling exists. The people do not need psychologists. They need the pure Word of God that they may grow, mature and put off the old man and his deeds. Psychologists, Christian Counsellors, inner-healing ministries often enmesh the people even deeper in their problems, instead of pointing them to the Cross, where the old life dies and the new begins.
But unfortunately an increasing number of people who have not come through the cross are making up the ranks of the Christian churches there and their lives continue full of problems, and for them the Lord Jesus does not satisfy. The departure from the absolute truth and authority of scripture can be traced in many other ways, and some of the blame lies at the feet of many Polish church leaders for allowing mammon to dull their discernment. For many reasons all manner of false teachers were welcomed into the country mostly by the Pentecostal and Baptist churches.
Refer also to M Cerullo Court case
One of the key turning points came in 1991 when John Wimber came to hold a strategic conference for Christian leaders in Warsaw. Pastors from all over the country were invited to this event on an all expenses paid trip. For many it was a rare chance to come to the capital city, so they came in large numbers. Many liked what they saw and heard, it was attractive and it promised results. That event led to the embrace of new ideas by dozens of leaders, which have since produced fruit after their kind. It was as if the floodgates were finally open to embrace new things, not just by the youth but also by key leaders.
Independently came the teachings of Paul Yonggi Cho, a flood of Kenneth Hagin books, Derek Prince's teachings on demons and March for Jesus. Morris Cerullo and T.L. Osborne visited the country. Benny Hinn has been promoted big time, Kansas City Prophets, Frank Peretti, Prosperity Gospel, Name it and Claim it, Kingdom Dominion teachings, Latter Rain teaching with a new face to them, Pensacola, Alpha Courses, gold teeth, cell churches etc, etc have all been well represented too. You name it and in one form or another everything that can be found in the West has had some effect on the Polish Christian scene and has its Polish counterpart.
Many pseudo-evangelists came with the same message, one of whom blatantly quotes in scripture form on his publicity literature from Isaiah 48:6b-7a: "From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you. They are created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today". Now if this is not taking a scripture out of context I do not know what is, yet many in the Polish churches have swallowed the bait and now believe that the Lord is doing a new thing, that He is speaking a new thing and all expectation rises.
Suddenly the Bible becomes an old thing like Tommy Tenney has written, the future promises of scripture irrelevant and all the desires become for the here and now. The old eschatology has been largely thrown out and the new belief is not just for an end time revival but also for a transformed earth brought about by the Christians.
This direction could already be seen as early as 1992 with the first March for Jesus. In 1993 with the holding of a national youth event called, The Lord will revive our country, and even more so later with conferences called, Poland for Jesus and such like. This belief has increasingly taken hold of the Polish churches, helped by the release of the Polish version of the Transformations video in 1999 and positively fuelled by the influence of C Peter Wagner.
A strong intercessors movement started in Poland about 3 years ago and has grown
considerably. With a Centre of Intercession called Gethsemane, this is part of a wider world movement officially linked to the World Prayer Centre in Colorado Springs, which is led by C Peter Wagner. The aim of this Polish Intercessors' movement is said to be to mobilise Poland to pray for revival. Their literature states, "We await such a time in Poland when in every location thousands of people will be calling to God day and night in prayer and adoration". Sounds good at first. Even many non-Charismatic Christians are being pulled into this Intercessors movement because they naïvely reason "What can be wrong with prayer?"
This Intercessory Prayer Movement called for 40 days of prayer and fasting starting with the New Year 2001. Numerous Christians from different denominations took part in this intercession and about 1800 people gathered for the final all night prayer event in the capital. There they were asked to take part in a declaration with each other that included clauses on the theme of uncritical commitment to each other regardless of differences, an acknowledgement of diversity in the body of Christ and the importance of each grouping and individual.
In these blanket statements people were basically committing themselves not to question the practices or beliefs of other groups and to accept them all as bona-fide Christians. The whole spectrum of Christian denominations was represented there from Roman Catholics, to Baptists, to Pente-costals, to Evangelicals and also the whole range of charismatic groups. Even the Lord's Commandos were there who have recently appeared marching around cities dressed in military gear doing spiritual warfare.
There is increasing talk these days in Poland about spiritual warfare. It is being seen by many as the key to the transformation of their cities. Courses are even being run in how to do spiritual mapping. In fact many have been busy already with marching around their cities at night with candles, rebuking the
local demons, putting stakes in the ground to mark out claimed territory and burying
Bibles at strategic locations. Joel's army is a mobilising force in Poland and unfortunately such antics have given a bad name to true Christians.
Catholics have not let such mad behaviour go unnoticed and this has brought shame and disgrace to the name of Christ. The term Pentecostal has become a byword in many places so that some Pentecostal churches are thinking of changing their name.
Perhaps the most surprising development in the Poland church scene is the tie that has developed with South America, which is looked on as a desirable model. Living in the West we still think of South America as the Third World and perhaps backward and may not be aware how things on the religious scene there have dramatically changed. Some charismatic churches have tens of thousands of members, and practices within many churches can be a mixture of spiritism, voodoo, and superstition under a pseudo Christian cover. Great emphasis is placed on the prophetic and supernatural. Big money preachers thrive there too on the gullibility of others.
Many hundreds of South Americans have come to Poland as missionaries, pastors, apostles, prophets, as visiting speakers, as Christian short-term workers etc, and most have had a big influence on the people. Many of them have operated in the power of the occult. Some of them have gone back to their own countries having gathered vast offerings from the Polish people. There is ignorance about where these South Americans are coming from that is neatly summarised in a recently heard comment: "They are not from any wrong denomination as they started their own". The typical prophecy they bring is that Poland is the key to the revival of Europe and it seems that many Polish Christians are falling for this flattery. Not just are they bringing the message of revival but also they have successfully introduced the practices of magic and shamanism into many churches.
Transference of power has already been mentioned, but this is now being done not only by the laying on of hands but by anointing with oil, passing of prayer cloths and other objects supposedly endowed with spiritual power. All this and more is being done in the name of the new move of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is being treated as a substance, a force that can be controlled, activated, commanded and transferred at will. The fact that He is God is being denied. His name becomes just a pawn in a power game. This is gross unfaithfulness to the Lord that without doubt has led to the reception of another spirit into the meetings where such things are practised, if not into individuals' lives too. The high point of meetings becomes worship and ministry, while the Word is neglected to the extent that few understand its message now, and take cafeteria style from whatever picks their fancy in the Christian scene.
Many Polish churches have gone back to the Samaritan condition in John 4:22 where they worship what they do not know and this trend is increasing as people are throwing out sound doctrine considering it as old restraints. It has been rightly said that 500 years ago the Roman Catholic religion was the worldwide expression of Christianity, but now another expression is gaining prominence — a worldwide, universal charismatic Christianity. It may become as ubiquitous and unforgiving as the Roman Catholic religion was in its most intolerant history. All this has not happened overnight, neither has it been through the influence of just a few teachings, but is the product of a spiritual onslaught that is still going on. That there still are believers faithful to the Lord Jesus, respecting His Word and walking in the Spirit of God in Poland is a wonder, but they are there indeed! The Lord always has His remnant and beautiful are His words in Luke 12:32, "Do not fear little flock, for it is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom".
Yes, the Father will have His pleasure indeed. "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have the grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear" (Hebrews 12:28). And His grace, in Greek charis, shall be sufficient for all our needs!
—Philip Powell
Appeared in Issue CETF 7.1 June 2001
"...contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" -- Jude v3 |
