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1 Peter 1:1-5 (3)
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the Community Party of the Soviet Union died on November 10, 1982. During his reign Leonid Brezhnev put thousands of Christians in prison or mental institutions in his attempt to stamp out the remembrance of God. It is ironic that this leader fell symbolically and literally. When he was first put in his coffin he fell through the bottom. A lead-lined cedar coffin was then constructed. As the workers lowered the heavy coffin into the grave they lost their grip and it fell with a crash to the bottom. The one who had tried to silence the gospel finally fell before its Author.
Vice-President George H.W. Bush was deeply moved as he watched Brezhnev’s widow at the funeral. In accordance with Russian tradition his widow, Victoria, kissed Bezhnev. Then, just as the soldiers prepared to close the lid of the coffin, she reached out to make the sign of the cross of her husband’s chest. In an empire of infidelity and atheism the wife of a fallen God rejecting leader reached out in hope to the supreme leader of the universe, the risen Lord, for mercy. (Gary Thomas, Christian Times, October 3, 1994, p. 26.)
By Dr. Gayle Woods
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