I had heard years ago that Nikita Khrushchev had memorized the Bible, but still remained an Atheist. He is reported to have said these words after Yuri Garharin returned from space in 1961.
“Why are you clinging to God? Here Gagarin flew into space and didn’t see God.”
Here is a story about Nikita Khrushchev and his motive for learning Scripture.
As this anecdote illustrates, the “why” behind memorization is fully as important as the “what.” The same Nikita Khrushchev who nimbly mouthed God’s Word when a child, later declared God to be nonexistent — because his cosmonauts had not seen Him. Khrushchev memorized the Scriptures for the candy, the rewards, the bribes, rather than for the meaning it had for his life. Artificial motivation will produce artificial results.
At the village church in Kalonovka, Russia, attendance at Sunday school picked up after the priest started handing out candy to the peasant children. One of the most faithful was a pug-nosed, pugnacious lad who recited his Scriptures with proper piety, pocketed his reward, then fled into the fields to munch on it. The priest took a liking to the boy, persuaded him to attend church school. This was preferable to doing household chores from which his devout parents excused him. By offering other inducements, the priest managed to teach the boy the four Gospels. In fact, he won a special prize for learning all four by heart and reciting them nonstop in church. Now, 60 years later, he still likes to recite Scriptures, but in a context that would horrify the old priest. For the prize pupil, who memorized so much of the Bible, is Nikita Khrushchev, the former Communist czar.
The devil quotes Scripture and knows the One True God, yet we know that he will not be in heaven.
Jesus said many will say that they have done many things in His Name, yet they will not enter into Heaven.
Khrushchev said, “We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within.”
The church today is far removed from the church of the Book of Acts and looks very much like the church of Laodicea of John’s vision. Could it be that all the Hollywood marketing that is infiltrating the church enables people to memorize the correct theological statements, without experiencing the heartfelt change that Jesus desires? Maybe the church is helping to fulfill the words of Khrushchev?
