We live in confusing times. Sometimes we don’t know who or what to believe. Jesus warned us that false messiahs and false prophets would appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect.
Words and actions that violate the Great Commandment of loving God and neighbors (including enemies)
From the United States to Russia, the rise of politicians who preach hatred and division while claiming to champion Christian values and peace is polarizing families, churches, and communities far beyond their own countries. Driven by self-aggrandizement, self-enrichment, and revenge, their words and actions violate truth, human rights, the rule of law, and freedom of speech and conscience, and they violate the Great Commandment to love God and our neighbors (including our enemies).
It is both sobering and instructive to look back at the experience of German Christians in the 1930s, when strongmen emerged who promised “stability, dignity, and order” in a time of turmoil and chaos.
The humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I, the economic chaos and hyperinflation of the Depression, the moral and social upheaval of the Weimar Republic, and the horrors of Communist revolution all conspired to prepare the German people for a savior who promised to make the nation great again.
They never imagined in 1933 that they were celebrating tyranny.
They never imagined in 1933 that they were celebrating tyranny. They believed they were protecting their faith, family, and nation from chaos. This man’s promises sounded almost Biblical. It is about unity, strength, regeneration, faith in providence – the restoration of morality. He spoke of an “active Christianity” that would protect German souls from atheism and moral decadence.
Militant atheism and revolutionary socialism are under threat from the East. To many, Bolshevism seemed like the Antichrist. Many Christians welcomed this strongman who would rebuild the nation and silence the enemies of the order. National Socialism was presented as a moral bulwark against communism, a defense of “Christian civilization.”
The years 1930 to 1933 were a time of hope and enthusiasm. In 1932, a pro-Nazi faction was formed within the Lutheran Church and called itself Deutsche Christen (German Christians). They enthusiastically supported this man, calling him a man sent from God. They rejected the Old Testament as too Jewish, promoted a so-called “Aryan Jesus,” and embraced the racial interpretation of Christianity and the slogan “swastika on the chest, cross on the heart.”
fear and intimidation
Fear and intimidation influenced many clergymen into submission.
These German Christians controlled many churches from 1933 to 1934. Fear and intimidation influenced many clergymen into submission. Nazi ideology baptized the nation. The Aryan race was treated as sacred. “Blood and soil” became the creed.
In January 1933, this “fuhrer” became prime minister. Two months later, the Reichstag fire gave him the pretext to take command of dictatorial power. When the Fuhrer later made an agreement with the Vatican, Protestants were convinced that the regime still supported Christianity.
In September, the German Evangelical (Lutheran) Church was formally “adjusted” to the Nazi regime, and its supporter Ludwig Müller was appointed imperial bishop. Thanksgiving was celebrated in this new era. Only a few lone voices, including Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, warned that “the Church cannot have another Fuhrer beside Christ.”
“We reject the false doctrine that the Church can recognize any lordship other than Jesus Christ.”
From 1934 to 1936 there was division and denial within the church. Barth drafted the Barmen Declaration, which was subsequently adopted by pastors opposed to state control who founded the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche): “We reject the false doctrine that the Church can recognize any sovereignty other than that of Jesus Christ.”
In 1935, the Imperial Church under Müller collapsed in chaos. The Führer began to grow impatient with church politics. Because Barth refused to swear allegiance to the Führer, he was dismissed from his professorship at Bonn and exiled to Switzerland. Martin Niemöller founded the Emergency Union of Pastors to protect the independence of the church.
After the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs was established to manage religion, many began to realize that this regime was not Christian but pagan, racist, and totalitarian. When the Confessing Church protested against racist ideology and violations of Christian freedom, the Führer ordered a Gestapo raid and the closure of the seminary.
expensive discipleship training
Bonhoeffer founded an underground seminary in Finkenwalde to train ministers for “expensive discipleship.” A small number of Christian leaders mounted resistance, but most remained silent or submissive.
In 1937-1938, the Confessing Church was declared illegal. Persecution and fear increased. Niemöller was arrested and imprisoned along with many other pastors.
The church “must not only bandage the victims, but also set the wheels in motion.”
Then, on the night of November 9, 1938, the infamous Kristallnacht occurred, when Jewish synagogues and shops were looted and destroyed. This pogrom was the Führer’s declaration of war against the Jews. Almost all church leaders remained silent out of fear of reprisals or sharing anti-Semitic attitudes. Again, Bonhoeffer was one of the few to speak out, saying the church “must move the wheels, not just bandage the victims.”
Even when war broke out in September 1939, the church initially supported the troops, offering blessings and prayers of victory. Even as persecution of the Jews intensified, pastors preached submission to state authority (Romans 13). By 1941, when the Final Solution was underway, church protests were few and far between. Silence spread. Less than 1 percent actively resisted the regime, risking imprisonment or death.
(After 1945, many church leaders realized that they had confused nationalism with Christianity and expressed deep repentance for their silence and complicity.) A long and painful process of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (“coming to terms with the past”) began within the German church.
Important questions remain. How would we react if we were in their shoes?Are we in their shoes (as in 1933)? If so, how are we responding now?
First published in Weekly Word. Republished with permission.
Jeff Fountain and his wife Romkie are the founders of the Schumann Center for European Studies. They moved to Amsterdam in December 2017 after living in the Dutch countryside for over 40 years working at the YWAM Heidebeek Training Center. Mr. Lomkie is the founder of YWAM Netherlands and chaired the national board until 2013. Jeff served on the board of YWAM Europe for 20 years until 2009. Jeff chaired the annual European Hope Roundtable until 2015, and Lomkier most recently chaired the Women’s Leadership Network. Jeff is the author of several books including Living as People of Hope and Deeply Rooted, as well as a weekly column on European issues called Weekly Word.
Weekly Word is an initiative of the Schumann Center for European Studies. Geoff Fountain is a New Zealander with a Dutch passport and currently the Director of the Schumann Center for European Studies (www.shumancentre.eu), living in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Geoff graduated with a degree in History from the University of Auckland in 1972 and worked as a journalist for the New Zealand Herald from 1972 to 1973 and as a traveling secretary for the Senior Students Christian Fellowship (TSCF) in 1973. He has lived in the Netherlands since 1975 and has traveled and lectured in almost every country in Europe. For 20 years after the fall of communism, he served as the European director of Youth with a Mission, an international and non-denominational missionary organization. He is president of the international non-denominational movement Hope for Europe, which organized two pan-European conferences in Budapest in 2002 and 2011. In 2010, we established the Schumann Center for European Studies (www.shumancentre.eu) to promote a biblical perspective on Europe’s past, present and future and to encourage effective engagement with the issues facing Europe today.
