Calvin Synod Herald, 1975 (75. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1975-03-01 / 3-4. szám
REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA 3 Easter, 1975 A human life is lived between two points: birth and death. In spite of these limits, there are some who feel that because of their status, wealth, fame and power they are able to transcend death. There are some who have spent time in research in ways to evade mortality. Primitive religions also nurtured the belief of a life beyond. This dream, this hope and the urgent search for eternity became reality in the resurrection of Jesus. He, with His divine power and self-sacrifice broke the power of sin, death and a transitory life when on Easter mom: He Arose, He has risen from death and He lives eternally. The hope, dream and the yearning for life became reality: there is resurrection and there will be eternal life! This truth comes to us through Easter and Easter is the proof that life is extended to eternity. If we accept the possibility of resurrection and eternal life then this existentional question is raised: How can all this be mine? The answer is given through Easter: through Christ! He said: “I am the resurrection and the life...” There will be a resurrection and life eternal, but only through our Lord Jesus Christ! This knowledge and belief is a reality for a Christan, for you. Now is the time to put everything else aside and put your faith in our living Lord first. Rededicate yourself, your life, to the One who sacrificed Himself for you. Come and proclaim the truth and joy of Easter to your fellowmen. Do not put it off, now is the time: for now it is Easter. Francis Vitéz ♦ ♦ ♦ Confiscation of Hungarian Archives in Transylvania by the Rumanian Government The Neue Züricher Zeitung (Swiss newspaper) of February 2, 1975 gives a sad account of the Rumanian Government resolution of October 31, 1974. By this order, the Rumanian Government confiscates all Hungarian archives, and even privately owned older documents and relics, letters, maps, pictures, paintings, seals, drawings and even embroidery owned by people. This act first of all is directed against the Hungarians living in Rumania The government has already confiscated the archives of the churches in Arad, Szatmár and Nagybánya and who knows how many more. With this act, the Hungarians who number over three million, and are annexed to Rumania, are deprived of their national, church and privately owned documents. For more than five hundred years, Transylvania was the bulwark of national and religious freedom and now these Hungarians, who preserved this freedom are being brutally enslaved, robbed and on the verge of annihilation. All men of good will are urged to protest against this act of the Rumanian Government so that the confiscated materials would be returned to their rightful owners. A WITNESS TO THE WORD “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which l sent it.” Isaiah 55: 9-10. For 75 years our Reformed faith and tradition has been inextricably entwined with the life and history of the Reformátusok Lapfa. On its pages one finds the record of a people struggling for spiritual and cultural survival; a Christian concern for “the huddled masses” left frightened and lonely on the shores of a nation that was fust beginning to awaken from a deep and primeval slumber; an unleashing of long dormant creative powers that found form in the building of a new social and political structure in which future generations might grow and prosper both materially and spiritually. The founders of the Reformátusok Lapja knew well that a rocky and uncertain future lay ahead for the infant publication. They were not wrong. In crisis after crisis dedicated and inspired men shouldered responsibility for the paper. At the 75th milestone we pause to praise God for sending us His word in the Magyar tongue. The testimony of large and small congregations; the building of sanctuaries and other church buildings; the sacrificial giving and a wordwide mission all are a witness to the word that has not returned empty to God. In our times the Reformátusok Lapja has found a new dimension of God’s purpose as it speaks to a neiver generation in the common language of the American people. God reminds us that we still stand in the tradition of the “huddled masses”; that we still harvest the fruit from the seeds sown and nurtured along a hard and rocky way by the saints that lived and died for the hope of a better future. The hoe and the plough is now in our hands. It is now our task to remain obedient to the purpose for which God sent His word. It is now our time to be witnesses to the Word. The Calvin Synod Herald—Reformátusok Lapja, will continue to prosper only as we accept for ourselves the vision and purpose of God as our forefathers did. And the purpose is to bear “witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written therein; for the time is near”. (Rev. 1:2,3.) We extend to the Reverend Francis Vitéz, editor, the sincere best wishes and congratulations of the pastors and people of our Calvin Synod on the occasion of this historic anniversary. Arpad L. Beretz, Bishop of Calvin Synod
