In his compelling book, A Letter to the American Church, Eric Metaxas notes the frightening similarities between the contemporary American Church and the German Church of the 1930s.
Of course, the German Church could not have imagined what was coming in the years ahead. Who would have imagined the Holocaust could have happened in an enlightened and advanced Western nation like theirs? Yet we in America today know what transpired and have no excuse if we fail to see the parallel warnings delivered by Dietrich Bonhoeffer to his fellow citizens.
As hard as it may be, all of us who claim the name of Christ need to speak courageously against the evils afflicting our culture, something most pastors of Nazi Germany failed to do. Metaxas encourages American Christians to speak out before it is too late and echoes Dietrich Bonhoeffer's prophetic call, "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak, and not to act is to act. God will not hold us guiltless.”
Jeff Lukens, The Church Must Speak Out
1 comment:
My daughter bought me an excellent biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer for a birthday a while ago. A fascinating, informative and challenging book.
I couldn't but draw some parallels with how Christians in Germany had to deal with Hitler and the direction many Western nations are currently heading in - but without exaggerating the threat. We are not yet facing what they had face, although it might come.
I was struck by Bonhoeffer's bravery, and principled opposition to Hitler from the beginning. This didn't change with the early victories. He picked his battles. The fact that by mid-1934 there was no hope of civilian opposition having the slightest chance of deposing Hitler; only the military could have done so, and were hardly likely to do so. The substantial (?) part of the population - especially Roman Catholics to be fair - who did not support the uncouth Hitler went into a kind of 'internal exile'. Tried to switch out the propaganda and ideology and carry on with as normal a life as possible.
This could be a very real temptation for Christians in the West to do - vacate the public squarew and carry on out of sight with worship and bible studies and hope to be left alone.
Bonhoeffer was murdered by Hitler's order out of pure spite right at the end of the war. He went straight into the presence of God, but Hitler will find he will have to give an account to a Jewish Messiah at the end of the age.
Ken B
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