October 7 in Christian History.

In the 1960s, Soviet East Germany's authorities ordered the construction of tall buildings in all the major cities. The goal was to create "socialist landmarks" and to replace church steeples as the defining features of city sky lines.

On October 7, 1969, the Fernsehturm tower in Berlin opened its doors for the first time. The 1,207-foot TV tower, whose pinnacle was designed in the shape of sputnik satellite, was part of a soviet program to celebrate the superiority and progressiveness of the communist system.

In order to raise this monument, the government had leveled numerous historic buildings in the city centre. Between World War II bombings and soviet Urban planning, five of the six medieval churches of Berlin had been completely destroyed.

The tower was a symbol of the communist regime that had outlawed Bibles, arrested Christian leaders, and had removed all crosses from Christian churches and institutions. By 1969, the East German church had effectively moved underground.

But as the tower reached its completion in the fall of 1969, Berliners from the east and the west noticed a strange glow reflecting from the stainless-steel tiles on the sphere of the tower. To the great surprise of its builders and architects, the shape of a cross could clearly be seen as the sun’s rays struck the Fernsehturm.

This was taken as a divine sign. Despite the government’s attempts to snuff it out, Christianity would not perish from the German people. What was intended to be a sign of government control and the Soviet humanist agenda became a symbol of freedom, faith, and a church that would refuse to die.

The embarrassed authorities tried to cover the symbol with dark paint to no avail. The cross was soon nick-named ”Rache des Papstes”, or ”The Pope’s Revenge”.

Ronald Raegan referred to it in his famous 1987 speech addressed from the steps of the Brandenburg gate:

When the Sun strikes that sphere – that sphere that towers over all Berlin – the light makes the sign of the cross. . .There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed.

29 Months later, the Berlin wall fell, and the city was reunited. The Fernsehturm Cross remains as a symbol of unity among Berliners to this day.

Verse of the day: Psalm 30:5
For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.