WHEN JUSTICE FAILS TO ROLL: from the true story of Aida Mikhailovna Skripnikova

"But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!" - Amos 5:24

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In a courtroom in Soviet Russia, a 28-year-old indicted girl stood without an attorney, carrying her own case, and clinging to truth.  She was charged with having lived illegally in Leningrad, having associated with an illegal religious group, having distributed illegal Christian literature, and having spreading “false” information about religious persecution behind the Iron Curtain.  In reality, each of these charges were nearly accurate and she even admitted to them.  But in truth, there was nothing illegal or false according to Russian law that forbade her to do them.  The difference between the Christian girl and the rogue court was that to her, truth was more important than life, and to them, truth was no longer popular.  In their quest for an atheist society, it seemed beneficial for them to let justice fail to roll.  They were leaving written law and defining truth and justice in their own terms, while the girl was bowing to God’s.

Her name was Aida Mikhailovna Skripnikova.  Her father was a martyr, her mom died when she was 11, and her youth was marked by confusion and rejection of God in a nation that blatantly denied His existence.  But by grace, through the testimony of her dying brother and through searching the Scriptures, Aida came to a point of conviction, repentance and confession before God and her life was transformed.  Not only did she begin to spend herself in spreading the Gospel to the lost hoards of Russia, but she stood in the gap for her Christian brothers and sisters and at great risk, spread information about the persecuted Soviet Church to fellow-believers in Europe and beyond.  She courageously wrote in defense of the persecuted, publishing the Herald of Salvation and Fraternal Leaflets.  Her name became well known to Christians globally, and also to the secret police who were gathering “evidence” to condemn her.

In the courtroom, the judge asked, “Do you plead guilty?”

The girl responded – in the face of serious charges, in the face of warped justice, and in the face of abandoned law – “No.”

Unbeknownst to the Court, Christians were scribbling down a record of her defense on pieces of fabric, which were soon smuggled out of Russia and distributed around the world.  First, she admitted to most of the charges.  Then, she proceeded to defend herself saying:

“All the facts about me distributing the literature are correct.  But this literature does not contain ‘deliberately false statements slandering the Soviet state and social order’; that is, it does not constitute a crime under Article 190/1, and the distribution of literature in itself is not a crime.”  Every word she had written about religious persecution was true.  Further, she quoted Lenin and told the court, “Lenin himself called the prohibition on the propagation of the faith unjust and shameful.”  Regarding her communication with Christians outside of Russia, she said, “I don’t know of any law forbidding Soviet citizens from corresponding with friends abroad.”  She also accused the government of denying registration to the supposed illegal “religious group” or “church”, which apparently did not match up to the government regulations.  “Tell me, please, which laws have we broken that would cause us to be refused registration?” she asked.  The court refused to acknowledge that she was being tried for her faith, but Aida insisted, “If I am being tried for an expired residency permit [which made her residence in Leningrad illegal], and not because of my Christian activities, then why was I under investigation before the residency permit even expired?”

The prosecutor’s final speech concluded with, “In one of [Aida’s] articles, [she] quotes a man named Kryuchokov saying, at his trial in Moscow, ‘Those brothers and sisters who are in prisons and camps do not suffer because they have broken Soviet laws; they suffer because they have remained faithful to their Lord.’  All this is a deliberately false statement that slanders the Soviet state and social order.  In the Soviet Union there are various faiths, churches are open, and no one is persecuted for his faith.  The state does not interfere in the activities of religious bodies if they do not break the legislation on cults.  The defendant Skripnikova’s guilt of systematically distributing false statements that slander the Soviet state and social order is fully prove[n].  These actions are rightly covered by articles 190/1 of the Criminal Code.  Therefore I request that the court sentence the defendant, Aida Skripnikova, to two and a half years’ imprisonment.”

The prosecutor was wrong, and probably everyone who cared about justice would have known it.  At least Aida did.   She rose and said, “Believers can’t keep a law that forces them to deny Christ.  So when we’re tried for breaking such laws, we’re quite justified in saying we’re being tried for our faith…At one time, people realized that it was unjust to forbid the propagation of a faith; now they don’t understand this.  Now they say, ‘Believe yourself and pray, but don’t dare talk about God to anyone.’  To silence one’s ideological opponent by force is no ideological victory.  This has always been called barbarism,” she concluded.  And finally, the girl said, “The Christian can’t be anything but confrontational.  Once you know the truth, this means following it, upholding it, and if necessary suffering for it,” even if unjustly according to God’s law, or unjustly according to Soviet law.

After that, she was sentenced to three years in prison.

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It was technically true, as the prosecutor insisted, that Christianity was “legal” in the U.S.S.R., but only so long as Christians kept their religion to themselves.  As in Aida’s case, the government maintained that the trials and indictments and prison sentences had nothing to do with religion.  Christians were sentenced on charges of “treason”, of “mental instability” and desperate “need for reeducation in Soviet-ology”.  Though 12 million of them would be killed and thousands more would be fired from their jobs, kicked out of their homes and imprisoned before the Soviet rule was over, they weren’t charged with “being Christian”.  The line was drawn here: like in America, religious “freedom” existed behind the Iron Curtain.  What didn’t exist was freedom to exercise religion.  And this is no religious freedom at all.

This is really the story of religious persecution all over the world.  Persecution hardly ever begins with a law that says: “Thou shall not be a Christian.”  It nearly always begins with “You can be a Christian – you simply cannot live like one.”  The amazing thing is that in almost every place, somewhere in the law, the exercise of religious freedom is protected.  It was protected in Soviet Russia, across Communist Asia, even in the bloody fields of Ethiopia – because there is no law apart from God, the Author of all law, whose fingerprints are undeniable on every aspect of morality, justice and authority, no matter how hard people try to wipe them away.  Persecution exists when the wicked rise to power, reject God, and become a “god” to themselves.  It exists when they twist the law to match the evil of their hearts, and they consequently and blindly condemn the innocent and condone the guilty.  Persecution happens when there is no fear of God before the eyes of those in authority.  It never happens lawfully; it happens through law-twisting.  And, it never happens to Christians who are content to let their Christianity “shine” in a pew on Sunday and vanish for the rest of the week.  It never happens to the feeble “saints” whom C.T. Studd called “chocolate soldiers” – champions at promptly melting in the day of adversity.  It only happens to Christians who “know the truth”, follow it, uphold it, and if necessary, suffer for it.  It only happens to the ones who fear God more than man, and who are willing to face unprincipled, unjust courts, knowing they will be unlawfully condemned, and yet say: “To silence one’s ideological opponent by force is no ideological victory.  This has always been called barbarism,” and then go to jail in victory, having done justly, loved mercy, and walked humbly with their God.

Persecution will not come to America through people saying, “It is now illegal to be a Christian.”  It must come through judges saying, “It’s now illegal to do what Christians do.”  And as a result, God’s purposes to purify His church will be accomplished.  “Chocolate soldiers” will no longer claim the Name of Christ.  The Church will be purified, and a pure Bride is a shameless Bride – bold as a lion.  She is one who will be unashamed to obediently follow in the footsteps of Christ, holding unswervingly to the Scriptures.  She is one who will value the approval of God over the praise of man.  She is one who will speak the truth and not be silent.  She is one who can fearlessly defy evil courts, godless tyrants, heretical popes, and all the idols and lies of mortal man and let the world know that there is a greater throne in heaven, a higher Judge in eternity, and a real justice that will roll forever.

(quotes taken from "Hearts of Fire", published by VOM.)