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Captives of Cyprus Learn of Liberty

IN THE first century of Christianity, and on the apostle Paul’s first missionary journey abroad, he and his companions stopped at the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. There, on the western coast of the island, they visited the important town of Paphos, where the worship of the sexy Greek goddess Aph·ro·diʹte, called Venus by the Romans, was centered. Immediately the proclamation of the gospel message encountered opposition from a fanatical religious sorcerer named Elymas. But by the power of God the apostle Paul denounced this fellow as a “child of the devil”, smote him with temporary blindness, and put him to open shame. As a result, honest-hearted people, including the deputy ruler of the island, were liberated from their pagan bondage and began to praise and worship the true God Jehovah and his beloved Son in the sweet liberty and freedom of Christianity. How their hearts must have rejoiced on that occasion!—Acts 13:1-13.

Today multitudes of sincere people in the vicinity of ancient Paphos are likewise rejoicing because of a similar deliverance from the snare of demon religion in the middle of this twentieth century. Last April hundreds of Jehovah’s witnesses moved into the captive town of Paphos for their semiannual circuit assembly and for three days these modern-day Christians beat down all opposition hurled at them by the Devil’s agents, and, by God’s grace, they too were able to open the religious prison-houses and free many captives of good will.

Special laws in Cyprus, presumably set up to curb the communists, prohibit the holding of any public meeting without first obtaining permission from the town council, who also charges a fee of 3 to 24 pounds tax. The place itself where the meeting is to be held must also be approved by the council. Because of such police-state regulations, Jehovah’s witnesses obtained permission to use the largest cinema in town only at the last minute. Their other sessions were held in a hall run by a coffee shop.

Though permission was granted, the council tried to force the witnesses to call off the assembly by limiting the number of people in the building to 150, and by slapping a heavy 15-pound tax on the witnesses. Both of these barriers failed. A large yard attached to the assembly hall provided plenty of room for the overflow, and the political racketeers were quickly paid their exorbitant fee.

PAPHOS HAS ITS MODERN “ELYMAS”

Like the ancient sorcerer of this town, the Orthodox bishop of Paphos, Kleopas, became excited over the presence of the Lord’s witnesses in his territory. So with all of his wonder-working ecclesiastical magic he sent out a leaflet “excommunicating” the two pioneer witnesses living in Paphos. This was quickly followed by another leaflet by the bishop, denouncing Jehovah’s witnesses as the “heresy known as Chiliasm”, which he said was “a Satanic invention of the unhealthy imagination of the last century”.

All of this shouting by the bishop only helped to awaken the sleepy people of Paphos. They began talking. The topic of the day was Jehovah’s witnesses. Then the situation became more exciting as transportation vehicles one after another halted in the main street to discharge happy-faced witnesses brought from other towns and villages on the island for this assembly. To the populace it seemed that something very strange had hit their normally quiet town.

Long before the opening session on Friday, April 28, the coffee shop was packed out, and both sides of the narrow street outside were filled with curious onlookers. This set the pace in attendance for all the other talks. The people of Paphos are noted for their curiosity, and this was particularly noticeable Saturday night. When a witness would give a comment all the strangers present would stand up to get a good look at the person commenting. It was indeed surprising how many strangers stayed to hear all the talks delivered.

But other things were happening at the coffee shop besides the scheduled program. Prominent people of the town were visiting the keeper and offering him large sums of money if he would but turn the witnesses out. However, he was an honest man, a freedom-loving individual, a believer in liberty for all, and he therefore refused to break his contract.

Paphos has a large Turkish population; hence the public talk was to be given in both Greek and Turkish. So Saturday morning the witnesses of Jehovah lined every street in the town, supplied with handbills and placards printed in both languages. Never had the people of this town seen such a spectacle! The ecclesiastics were frantic. Their two leaflets “exposing” the witnesses had proved a complete failure. The situation for them was desperate. Quickly they organized the young people’s association of the Orthodox Church and sent them out to do “street work” with still another leaflet.

There they were Saturday afternoon, standing side by side, a witness for Jehovah and a young child of Orthodoxy, the latter holding out a leaflet stating that Jehovah’s witnesses do not believe in the trinity, etc. Naturally, passers-by were intensely interested; so it was a common sight to see a group of 10 or 15 gathered around a Kingdom publisher asking questions and getting answers from the Book of Freedom, the Bible. Thus another attack of the enemy only resulted in a greater witness to the honor of Jehovah God!

PRESS EXPOSES ORTHODOX CHURCH

The big guns of the newspapers lined up with the Orthodox prison-keepers and hurled heavy salvos against Jehovah’s proclaimers of liberty. Bewailing the fact that the activity of the Orthodox youth “looked wretched” compared with that of Jehovah’s witnesses, and urging that something “should be done today and not tomorrow” to stop this prison-breaking work, the New Political Review newspaper of Paphos declared:

“The followers of Jehovah already number hundreds in our district, though even yesterday they could be counted on the fingers of the hand. They will grow to thousands by tomorrow and will endanger the very existence of our Church. For these reasons it is necessary for our Holy Synod and our bishops to get on the move and to investigate immediately and without postponement or delay this terrible matter.”

Another newspaper, Paphos, in the confusion and darkness, endeavored to expose the reason why so many captives were fleeing to the ranks of Jehovah’s witnesses, but their volley backfired and uncovered the miserable condition of the religious prison-houses and the ones responsible for it. Notice how the truth in the following excerpt exploded in their own face.

“The condition of poverty and misery that holds sway in some villages, as well as the extensive property owned by the monasteries and the Church, all these things have created the right climate for the growth of the Chiliastic religious belief [meaning the belief of Jehovah’s witnesses]. We mention for example one village, namely Episkopi, where almost all the land belongs to the Church and its inhabitants work as slaves renting land or entering into partnership. It so happens that for years they have not been gathering a single seed from the land which they rented of the Church, due to heavy losses which they sustain from wheat disease existing in this locality. And yet, in spite of this, they are forced to pay their rents to the full, without any discount. No wonder then, if half of the population of this village became Jehovah’s witnesses. . . .

“From the above the Cyprus Church should understand that it will not prevail with a paper fight. The Chiliasts have found the Achille’s heel of clericaldom . . . It is not sufficient to fight them with leaflets.”

CAPTIVES LEARN WAY OF ESCAPE

Sunday was the big day. Early in the morning 200 assembled and heard a discourse on the meaning and purpose of baptism. Then a busload went down to the sea at Lower Paphos, the ancient town where Paul preached salvation and liberty, and there 19 persons symbolized their consecration by total immersion. “Liberty to the Captives” was the title of the advertised public lecture. Now the hour for its delivery drew near. There was much concern over how many would attend. Would the poor captives of Paphos obey their prison-keepers and remain away? Or would they come and learn the way of escape? The public themselves gave the answer when a total of more than 500 filled the cinema and listened with intense interest to the explanation on how they might find everlasting freedom from the oppression of their religious captors, as well as life in a new world.

The three-day assembly came to a close, and the witnesses left Paphos with hearts filled with gratitude to Jehovah for all his wonderful blessings and for the privileges they had had in proclaiming liberty to the downtrodden people of this district. They must have thought of Paul and his companions, and observed that in these “last days” Jehovah God has multiplied his gospel-preachers many times in number and sent them back on this return visit to Paphos for the purpose of proclaiming liberty to the modern-day captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound, and the exposing to the sight of all the fact that their clerical sorcerers today are as blind as ancient Elymas. Surely Jehovah’s power and spirit in behalf of his witnesses on this occasion was as mighty as it was nineteen hundred years ago!

The spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the year of Jehovah’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.—Isa. 61:1, 2, AS.