By David Lane
Striker Summary: The failure of a significant part of the German Church to speak up against Hitler as he was ascending to power led to his eventual election … and ultimately to World War 2. In America, today, the body of Christ must speak out the truth against the crucial issues of our time or disaster will once more follow.
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by David Lane
Prior to the start of World War II, Czechoslovakia was forced to surrender its border region Sudetenland to Nazi Germany on Friday, September 30, 1938, in the Munich Agreement, signed by German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, French Premier Edouard Daladier, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
Six months later, on March 15, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia in the remaining rump of Czechoslovakia, in flagrant violation of the Munich pact. History records the invasion as the concluding act leading to World War II.
On Friday, September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland, marking the official launch of World War II. That evening, hours following the invasion, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain [1869-1940] addressed the House of Commons:
“I do not propose to say many words tonight. The time has come when action rather than speech is required. Eighteen months ago in this House, I prayed that the responsibility might not fall upon me to ask this country to accept the awful arbitrament of war. I fear that I may not be able to avoid that responsibility.
“No man can say that the Government could have done more to try to keep open the way for an honorable and equitable settlement of the dispute between Germany and Poland. Nor have we neglected any means of making it crystal clear to the German Government that if they insisted on using force again in the manner in which they had used it in the past we were resolved to oppose them by force.”1
Following WW II, the global hegemonic power of the British Empire [Pax Britannica, between 1815 and 1914] would begin to dim. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the British controlled most of the key maritime trade routes and enjoyed unchallenged sea power. Alongside its formal control exerted over its colonies, Britain’s dominant position in world trade meant that it effectively controlled access to many regions, such as Asia, North America, Oceania, and Africa.
Former British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill [1874-1965] began his war memoirs in 1946. Six volumes were produced between 1948 and 1954:
- The Gathering Storm [Volume I/1948].
- Their Finest Hour [Volume II/1949].
- The Grand Alliance [Volume III/1950].
- The Hinge of Fate [Volume IV/1950].
- Closing the Ring [Volume V/1951].
- Triumph and Tragedy [Volume VI/1953].
Sir Winston was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II on April 24, 1953. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature on October 16, 1953, in recognition of his contributions.
In The Gathering Storm, Churchill observed, “If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”
In the Greek New Testament, two words were translated into the English word ‘time’. Chronos refers to the time of the day and Kairos alludes to “the appointed time in the purpose of God.” America has reached her Kairos.
Pastor Dennis J. Cummins of Experience Church in Puyallup, WA, recently noted that “18,000 churches were in existence during Nazi Germany’s reign; 18,000 churches in Germany, and 3,000 churches were ‘for’ Hitler, 3,000 churches were ‘against’ Hitler. 12,000 churches [inferred by their absence, said]: ‘We don’t want to get involved.’
“Because of their indifference, you want to know what happened? The moment that Hitler was voted into office, remember he was elected into his place, which could have been changed and stopped had the 12,000 churches actually taken their place and been the light that God had called them to be.
“But because of their cowardness and their being ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, what happened? The power of God was nullified and that demonic creature raised his head and killed millions of people. [Hitler] was human, filled with demons, but the moment Hitler came to power he took the 3,000 churches that stood against him and he killed them; killed the pastors, incarcerated them, and killed them.
“And then guess what? The 12,000 stood up and said, ‘Well wait, this isn’t right.’ He went after them next. You better stand when there’s time to stand, you better be a voice when there’s time to be a voice, you better rise when you can still stand, you better shine while there’s an opportunity for you to shine the light of Jesus Christ.” www.instagram.com/reel/C2SxZ0UuBsd/?igsh=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==
Due to their great importance, let’s once again assess the three Biblical principles we have previously called attention to:
• 1. “The serpent’s final defeat under Messiah’s heel [Gen. 3:15] is delayed to effect God’s program of redemption through the promised offspring,” writes Dr. Bruce K. Waltke in his Genesis Commentary, the 2002 Christian Book of the Year. “In the interim, God leaves Satan to test the fidelity of each succeeding generation of the covenant people [Judg. 2:22] and to teach them to ‘fight’ against untruth [Judg. 3:2].”
• 2. We learn from A.W. Pink’s Gleanings From Joshua that “It would indeed be strange if we apprehended how that on the one hand Canaan was a free gift unto Israel, which they entered by grace alone; and on the other that they had to fight for every inch of it!”
• 3. And in the same Gleanings From Joshua, it says: “Nowhere in the Epistles is there a single exhortation for the saints as such to engage in public evangelism, nor even to do ‘personal work’ and seek to be ‘soul winners’. Rather are they required to ‘witness for Christ’ by their daily conduct in business and in the home. They are to ‘show forth’ God’s praises, rather than tell them forth. They are to let their light shine. The testimony of the life is far more effectual than glib utterances of the lips. Actions speak louder than words.”
We have come to our Kairos.
Gideons and Rahabs have started entering America’s public square, in faithful obedience to 1 Kings 18:44: “Behold, a cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising out of the sea!”
David Lane
American Renewal Project
1. avalon.law.yale.edu/wwii/gb1.aspQ
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Image: By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R69173 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5368502;
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