At midnight the barriers were taken down. The borders of Hungary, tightly closed since the Berlin Wall was built in 1961, were thrown open to refugees from East Germany, refugees who had waited for weeks in growing anxiety to continue their journey to the West.
Now they poured across the border in carloads—45 cars in the first three hours—cheering, shouting, laughing, crying, whistling and blowing their horns as they crossed.
Later buses began rolling in, filled with refugees, to be followed in a few hours by the first trainful. Even taxis came to the border and stopped to let their passengers walk across the border.
They were following a dream, a dream of freedom and a better life. Long oppressed by an authoritarian government, they were willing to leave everything — jobs, homes, even families—to be free.
Will crossing a border to another country make them really free? Many people think that they are free, that living in the "free world" constitutes freedom. In another sense, a very real sense, they are still captives. As in the East, so in the West, whether East Germany or West Germany, Russia or Canada or the United States, there are laws that transcend all national boundaries.
One law is, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Ezek. 18:20. Also: it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Heb. 9:27.
The gate of heaven would have been forever closed, had not the Lord Jesus come to earth "that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death... and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Heb. 2:14, 15. There is now "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" which makes us "free from the law of sin and death." Rom. 8:2.
This freedom is open to anyone, anywhere, East or West.
Those refugees crowding through the gates were people in a hurry. Hungary said that its action was "provisional" — that is, temporary. At any time the order could be rescinded, the borders closed and the bars in place again. Clearly understanding this, the refugees clear the checkpoints as rapidly as possible.
One day the door to heaven will close. It could be today. The last one will say "yes" to the Lord Jesus and the day of grace—the time we are now living in—will be ended. Then the Bible tells us that some will come saying, "Lord, Lord, open to us!" and IT WILL BE TOO LATE.
Hurry! Hurry through the open door of salvation! "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John 8:36.