One of the most fascinating yet often overlooked figures of the Cold War era has passed away. Anne van der Bijl, who smuggled Bibles behind the Iron Curtain and wrote his story in the book God’s Smuggler under the nickname “Brother Andrew,” died this week at the age of 94.
The man who would become “God’s Smuggler” didn’t start out as a giant of faith. He served in World War II and afterward in the Dutch army. As he was recovering from being shot in the line of duty in 1950, he began to read the Bible and soon devoted his life to ministry. He felt God speaking to him, urging him to minister to people in Communist countries.
“I promised God that as often as I could lay my hands on a Bible, I would bring it to these children of his behind the wall that men built to every … country where God opened the door long enough for me to slip through,” van der Bijl recalled.
Brother Andrew started out smuggling Bibles in the trunk of his Volkswagen Beetle across the border into Yugoslavia. He branched out to other Soviet Bloc countries, including Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union itself during the height of the Cold War.
In God’s Smuggler, van der Bijl related a prayer that he uttered, which he would later call “the Prayer of God’s Smuggler.”
“Lord,” he recalled praying, “in my luggage I have Scripture I want to take to Your children. When You were on earth, You made blind eyes see. Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind. Do not let the guards see those things You do not want them to see.”
God did protect him. Van der Bijl even peeled away from a tour sponsored by the Communist government of Poland to share the Gospel with Poles. While many mission organizations didn’t agree with his tactics, Brother Andrew and his fellow evangelists persisted.
There’s no specific accounting of how many Bibles van der Bijl smuggled across the Iron Curtain — even he wasn’t concerned with numbers — he and his friends brought so many Bibles to people in Communist countries that a Brother Andrew joke made the rounds in the ’60s: “What will the Russians find if they arrive first at the moon? Brother Andrew with a load of Bibles.”
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After the success of his book, van der Bijl became so famous that he couldn’t personally smuggle Bibles anymore, but his followers kept going. Brother Andrew turned his attention to ministering to persecuted people in countries where governments cracked down on Christian worship.
His organization, Open Doors, continues his legacy. We know it best for its annual World Watch List of nations that persecute Christians. Open Doors’ tribute calls Brother Andrew “a fearless follower of Jesus [who committed] his life to strengthen the body of Christ in places where faith costs the most.”
For more than 60 years, Open Doors' founder—Brother Andrew—visited over 125 countries in service to the global church. Today, we share his greatest journey yet. Our brother has gone home to be with the God he spent his life serving.
Celebrate his homecoming w/ us. pic.twitter.com/PTZZniUWWA
— Open Doors USA (@OpenDoors) September 28, 2022
Van der Bijl’s passing happened the same week as the general assembly of the World Evangelical Alliance’s (WEA) Arab world region, and pastors there paid tribute.
“This man is an example of a real Christian leader,” said David Rihani, president of the Jordan Evangelical Council. “He writes books, he shares knowledge, and he cares about everyone without discrimination.”
Maher Fouad, president of the General Society for Iraqi National Evangelical Churches, said that van der Bijl’s 1990 book And God Changed His Mind opened his eyes.
“It redirected me completely,” Fouad said. “He knew how to slowly enter the presence of God, and only then find answers to prayer.”
In his tribute to Brother Andrew, Dr. Albert Mohler reminded listeners that “the power of God’s word is such that, once it is in the hands and it is read with the eyes, the Holy Spirit does the work of taking that word read with the eyes into the heart and bringing about a transformation that only the word of God can bring.”
People of other faiths even recognize Brother Andrew’s incredible legacy, including U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Rashad Hussain, who is Muslim.
I extend my deepest condolences to the family and friends of Brother Andrew on his passing. He advocated tirelessly for religious freedom, a source of hope to persecuted Christian communities around the world. I'm grateful his legacy will live on in the work of @OpenDoors. pic.twitter.com/EANEnMUD6X
— U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Rashad Hussain (@IRF_Ambassador) September 28, 2022
Brother Andrew often said that he wasn’t exceptional, insisting that any believer in Jesus can do what he did with such courage.
“I am not an evangelical stuntman,” he once said. “I am just an ordinary guy. What I did, anyone can do.”
Now “Brother Andrew” van der Bijl is with Jesus, and I’m sure Jesus told him, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” May we approach others with even a fraction of the boldness and passion that Brother Andrew had.
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