Hitler's Cross - Erwin Lutzer
Why and how did
Hitler ever come into power? Was it
because Satan had the upper hand over God? Was God powerless to stop it? As Mr. Lutzer asks, "Is God only
involved when righteous leaders are installed and uninvolved when a leader is
something less than distinctively Christian, or even evil?" Of course, the
answer to this is that God is always involved, otherwise He is not God. This is
something that I really like about Lutzer's book Hitler's Cross. He reminds us
that Hitler's ascension to power was not an accident, it was not outside of
God's power. Lutzer reminds us of Romans 13: "...there is no authority
except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God." Satan
himself is not outside the realm of God's sovereignty, every move he makes
works perfectly into God's plan.
Speaking of God's sovereignty in even evil things that take place, the
author comments: "Some prefer to call it His 'permissive will,' but it is His will
nevertheless. He directs all things to their appointed end." and
again: "Those Christians in Nazi Germany
who believed that evil was triumphing because God was too weak to stem the tide
could find no hope in their distress." This is comforting to we who are Christians,
nothing, even evil, is stronger than God, and nothing can take place without
His will!
It was fascinating
to me how Hitler used religion to gain over professing Christians in
Germany. Much of Germany was religious
at the time, the Lutheran church was connected with the state. Instead of wiping out the church, the plan
was to infiltrate Christianity, politicize it (more than it already was) and
change its doctrines bit by bit until true Christianity vanished altogether.
Christian Jews ended up being required
to worship separately from Christian Aryans, Pastors were eventually required
to swear an oath to Hitler, Nazis even planned that Hitler's Mein Kampf would
take the place of the Bible in the churches. The official church in Germany
became the 'Reich church' .
Lutzer points out
that there were Christians who were against
the Nazification of Christianity, even at the cost of being sent to
consecration camps and/or death. Refusing to take the oath of loyalty to Hitler
as the head of the Pastors, they declared that God's word was their authority,
and they also declaring that Jews and Christians are one in Christ, therefore
there should be no ethnic discrimination in the church of God. By separating
themselves from the official church(now the Reich church) and the so called
'German Christians' they were not apostatizing from the church, rather they
were declaring the political Reich church apostate.
Lutzer sees that
there are parallels between what led to Germanys being Nazified and things in
America today. After world war I the Germans had a short lived Republic, they
gave up this Republic for a dictator because the economy was very bad. Under
Hitler's regime "Workers now had job security, a health service, cheap
holiday schemes; if freedom meant starvation, then slavery was
preferable." They gave up freedom for temporary safety. Which is something
that America may be headed toward.
Lutzer makes us ask questions:
what will we do if things become like they were in Nazi Germany. What
are we doing now? What decisions are we making now in our Christian life, what
do we truly hold as valuable?
I've
read this book before, several years ago. I remembered having really
liked it at the time and recently decided that it would be nice to read it
again. My perspective has changed over the years, and though I still like
the book, I've noticed statements in the book that I don't seem to have noticed
before. For instance, Lutzer uses Matthew 25:35-36 (I was hungry, and you gave
Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink…etc.)to
say that when the Jews were persecuted, it was the Lord Jesus Christ who was
suffering and therefore Christians should have focused on helping them.
But I'm pretty sure that Lutzer is using that passage incorrectly, it clarifies
that " ..Verily I say unto you,
Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these MY BRETHREN, even these least, ye did
it unto me."(vs. 40 ASV - emphasis added by myself).
Who are Christ's brothers and sisters? Christ Himself says, "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he
stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, and said, Behold, my mother and
my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he
is my brother, and sister, and mother." (Mat 12:48-50 ASV) And
in Luke 8:21 He says, "But he answered
and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these that hear the word of
God, and do it (ASV). This would seem to indicate that
Christ's brethren are Christians, His followers. And Christ also says
that this is how the world will know that we are His disciples, "if you have love for one another".
The whole New Testament seems to emphasize focusing on Christians loving and
caring for other Christians and meeting their needs more than it does meeting
the material needs of unbelievers.
Perhaps
I sound absolutely horrible in saying that! I sound strange to myself! But I’m
NOT saying that Christian shouldn't have helped the Jews. What I'm
getting at is this: if they didn't go out and actively seek Jews to hide
or help, were they being disobedient to the Word of God? That is one of the
questions I'm struggling with. Yes they should have stood up to the law
that no Christian of Jewish descent could become a pastor, yes they should have
stood against the politicization of the church and establishment of Hitler as
its head. But what if, besides dealing with those issues that directly
affected their brethren, they did not focus on primarily helping unbelieving
Jews in need, but focused mainly on helping their fellow Christians in need
(both Jewish and non-Jewish believers in Christ as their Savior and
Messiah?). What if they mainly fed and clothed their fellow saints, took
them in and visited them in prison over and above helping non-believers? Would
they be sinning if they did this? Would they be turning their back on
Christ if they focused on serving their fellow Christians over and above
serving non-Christians? Will Christ say that He never knew people who
focused their lives on serving their spiritual brethren who do the will of God?
To
apply this to the present day: What if we Christians don't focus on ending
abortion (the killing of little babies in the womb)? Yes, we absolutely want it
stopped, but how much of our lives ought we to biblically devote to stopping
it? How far should we go? Should we kidnap any pregnant woman who
says that she will have an abortion and free her when her baby is born alive?
Are we sinning if we don't go out every year and picket abortion clinics? What
if we don't devote some of our lives to ending slavery in the world? Or ending
child abuse, spouse abuse or human trafficking? What if we focus the
majority of our lives on loving our fellow saints? Will Christ say that He
never knew us?
Of
course, we Christians will help unbelievers, if we have opportunities to help
them, materially and spiritually. We are to walk with wisdom and have
gracious speech toward "outsiders' (Col 4:5), keeping our behavior
pure, to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us, blessing those
who curse us, showing hospitality and are told, "as we have opportunity, let us do good to
everyone" and yet even that statement is qualified by the
next: "and especially to those who are
of the household of faith."(Gal 6:10 ASV). I just can't get
over the strong emphasis of the New Testament on helping one's fellow
believers.
Again,
I am not saying that the Christians in Germany should not have helped Jews who
came their way. I'm simply saying that I'm starting to think
that Lutzer goes too far in his implications that the church in our day needs
to focus on stopping the practical evils of our day: abortion, slavery, child
abuse…etc. And that it needs to focus more on helping the unbelieving
world. I think that biblically, the church in our day needs to focus more
on loving our fellow believers. Christ says " By this all people will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another." (Joh
13:35) And I'm not sure that that is the reputation of the church in our
day, which I suspect has more of a reputation for its love for unbelievers than
its love for believers.
I
don't want to sound nit-picky, I just felt like I needed to say something about
that. There were some other things as well, but I won't bring them up
here. But I still like the book overall.
it is a fascinating recounting of the heavy influence of Nazi Germany on the
'Christian' worldview of many of the Germans at that time, and how the churches
reacted or didn't react to it. Many
churches of that day proved that their focus was temporal, while others were
willing to suffer for the truth of the Gospel.
It really makes you think about how we would react in our day. Are we willing to suffer and lose everything
in this life for the sake of Christ? Will we panic if another 'Hitler' arises
in our day and becomes the President of the United States of America? Or will
we realize that God is still in perfect control and be willing to suffer
persecution for doing what is right? The
sovereignty of God over all the affairs of this world is something that we
Christians need to come to realize now, and then we won't have to wrestle later
with fears and doubts about His power and about whether or not all things are
working together for our good (Rom 8:28-29).
Many
thanks to the folks at MPNewsroom (Moody Publishers) for sending me a free
review copy of this book (My review did not have to be favorable)!
My Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars
****
This book may be purchased at places like Amazon and Christianbook.com
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