Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a Russian novelist, philosopher, historian, short story writer and political prisoner. Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union and Communism and helped to raise global awareness of the Soviet Gulag forced-labour camp system. Re-counting his experience he said,

“Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia… ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.’ Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible …the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.’” — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, (Edward E. Ericson, Jr., “Solzhenitsyn – Voice from the Gulag,” Eternity, October 1985, pp. 23-4)

Both China and North Korea are evangelical atheists who are zealous for their creed with a missionary zeal. They require everyone to accept their view of things because their way of viewing things is right for everybody! At the same time, they demonise religion. North Korea has eradicated an estimated 2 million people of faith and China 65 million. The paradox of china is that when Christianity became outlawed and persecuted, just after World War II, there were an estimated 100,000 Christians in China. The western church lost contact with its Chinese counterpart for 50 years. In the meantime, the Chinese church went ‘underground’ and became a house church meeting in small groups. In that time Christianity mushroomed at a rate greater than the first Pentecost 2,000yrs earlier. It is now estimated that there are up to 100 million Christians in China. (Stats from Nik Rifkens book ‘The Insanity of God.’)