Questioning The Authorities

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Questioning The Authorities ~
A reconstructed email I sent out to the forums I frequent concerning the political conditions in Germany before the start of WWII, and the response of the Church at that time to the rising totalitarianism.

My mentor and friend, R.D. Conner's response to my commentary follows, again, a clear look at the spiritual conditions which prevailed and precluded the rise of the Nazi menace.

Questioning The Authorities

Dear Valued Friends and Peers,

A friend recently stated in an email response to a few other friends, in response to a critical statement by one friend concerning an errant law enforcement action:

"I do not condone the actions of these men, but it between the authorities that God has placed over us all, and with Him. Not for us to condemn."

I have been engaging in some research lately concerning the response of the Christian Church to the rise of the “National Socialist German Workers Party" (NAZIS) in Germany. We never hear about what the heck the Church was doing to oppose the horrors of that history. Pretty interesting. The attached .jpg is a picture of the Presidium of the "German Christians." The website, along with the original graphic (URL below) states this, concerning the mainstream church at that time:

"The "German Christians" desire to achieve absolute organizational and ideological conformity between the Protestant church and the National Socialist state. Following their triumphant success in the Protestant church elections in July 1933 and the election of Ludwig Müller to the office of Reich bishop, they feel they have reached the zenith of their power over church policy in the autumn of 1933. Yet the meeting of the Greater Berlin Gau of the "German Christians" in November 1933 marks a turning point in the church's internal conflict. The opponents of the "German Christians" band together in the Pastors' Emergency Council and the Confessional Church."

The 'German Christians' desire to achieve absolute organizational and ideological conformity between the Protestant church and the National Socialist state. Following their triumphant success in the Protestant church elections in July 1933 and the election of Ludwig Müller to the office of Reich bishop, they feel they have reached the zenith of their power over church policy in the autumn of 1933. Yet the meeting of the Greater Berlin Gau of the 'German Christians' in November 1933 marks a turning point in the church's internal conflict. The opponents of the 'German Christians' band together in the Pastors' Emergency Council and the Confessional Church.

German Resistance Memorial Center
Resisting on the Basis of Protestant Beliefs
[ http://www.gdw-berlin.de/b05/b05-1-e.php# ]
Topic - Resisting on the Basis of Christian Beliefs up to 1939

For various reasons, the majority of the Christian church in pre-WWII Germany caved in and sought to conform with the Nazi regime, not wanting to "condemn" it, but to conform to it. It's unfortunate, because history proves incontrovertibly what happens when His Church fails to be "the salt of the earth and the light of the world," by following the crowd and not the Lord. Satan exploits that compromise and lack of moral caliber and fiber, and millions of people end up dead (most after a lot of horrible torture and other bloody, gruesome nastiness).

A few courageous Christian people and Church leaders opposed this compromise and heresy. One site states:

"Conflict over the Principles of Faith

The opponents of the "German Christians" form the Pfarrernotbund (Pastors' Emergency Council) in 1933, and then the Bekennende Kirche (Confessional Church) in 1934. Their common goal is to reject the National Socialists' claim to authority over the Protestant Church, and to renounce the "Aryan Acts" in the church. Fundamental declarations are directed against transgressions of the "total state" against the church. These declarations affirm the "freedom" of belief and reject the application of the "Aryan Acts" to the church.

Reaction of the National Socialist State

The National Socialist regime feels itself challenged by the resistance in belief and ideology of Protestant Christians. Pastors are kept under surveillance, threatened, and driven out of the parishes. Under pressure from the Party and the media, many attempt to find a compromise with National Socialist ideology. Only a few pastors adhere unflinchingly to their fundamental rejection of the National Socialist state. Again and again, pastors are removed from their parishes and incarcerated. Some spend many years in concentration camps, a few are murdered by the Nazis. "

But by then, it was too few, too late.

So we're not to condemn the "powers that be?" Just say nothing? "Regardless of the circumstances?" And Church history, as laid out here, and the Bible teaches this?

Really.

I have said it before, and I will say it again. Oppose this, Christian people. Oppose it and condemn it with everything you have within you, and be just as brash, belligerent, and vocal as you have to be—and do it now. This same Socialism is the ideological basis, still alive and well, threaded throughout much of the American political world today, especially California. Just read your newspapers. And that preceded by the same gun control and confiscation schemes initiated by the Nazi Socialist regime at the time. Here's a few outstanding and eloquent legal reviews of gun control and genocide (yes, you bet it's a thorn in my side). I suggest you read them:

Washington University Law Quarterly: OF HOLOCAUSTS AND GUN CONTROL
[ http://lawreview.wustl.edu/inprint/75-3/753-4.html ]
Washington University Law Quarterly: OF HOLOCAUSTS AND GUN CONTROL

Nazi Firearms Law and the Disarming of the German Jews
[ http://www.stephenhalbrook.com/article-nazilaw.html ]
Nazi Firearms Law and the Disarming of the German Jews

Call us extremists, call us "paranoid" (run 'that' by the German people), call us malcontents and disobedient sinners who are rebelling against God Himself. Whatever! But someday those Christians in Germany will stand before the Throne and answer for their compromise and lack of courage to stand for the Truth. Millions--MILLIONS--died because of their impotence and lack of moral character.

Not me. If God wills it, I will stand, in the Power of the Holy Spirit, with those few who had the audacity and guts to stand for what was 'right.'

<snip>

And R.D. Conner's Response:

————————————————————————

Author and Scholar R. David ConnerExactly as outlined in my book, of which you all have a copy. Here is an excerpt from chapter 10:

"Some may recall that in the days before Adolf Hitler, German "higher critics" (and others) brought a major assault against the Bible and Christianity, removing Jesus Christ (the Living Word and Fullness of The Godhead) from their doctrine in the churches of Germany. They said that only God the Father and God the Holy Spirit could be included in the service, because Jesus Christ wasn't visibly available, but the Father and Holy Spirit didn't matter, as They were not visible anyway. This theology was called "existentialism," which is a sophisticated way of saying, "What you see is all you have." The German churches fell for the old serpent's trick in Gen. 3:1, "Yea hath God said?"

"The occult practices of Hitler brought in the evil powers of darkness, which gained easy access to the Spiritually disabled churches and thence to the people. The inevitable result of that "scholarly" maneuver was soon evident to all. People of "higher discernment" discovered the hard way where that dread mistake led. Meanwhile, American dirt farmers, who held fast to the Word of God, rose above the German "elite". Note: The Supreme Commander, Allied Forces, Europe, and later, President of the United States, came from an impoverished Christian family in Abilene, Kansas. His name was Dwight David Eisenhower."

______________________________________________________________

The problem with the churches of Germany wasn't that enough people didn't oppose the NAZI party, but that people didn't oppose the removal of Jesus Christ from the worship services before the NAZI malady ever set in in the first place! This is the area we all should be concerned with, at the source, and not after the churches have already compromised the Word of God, Which, unlike the "scholarly" doctrine of the "Existentialists," doesn't allow for anyone they couldn't see in person! All they had to do was to check the Word of God Which, allows that there is a "Jesus Christ!"

That's my point—do all you can to read, study and prepare ourselves with proper knowledge of God's Word and let the fight be in the spiritual arena and not in the physical one. In other words, preach, teach and spread God's Word as much as you can. However, we have a group of couch potato Christians today who spend hours watching TV and a few minutes (if that) in Bible study.....then they wonder why things go so wrong. I say this: If German church members had known enough Bible, or cared enough for God's Word over man's dogma, Hitler could never have risen to power in the first place!

Has no one read the many times in the Old Testament where God purposely set up an evil government over Israel due to their negligence of His Word? It may come as a surprise to some, but that's how Israel lost the Kingdom to Gentiles in the first place! And God's Word clearly teaches Israelites that if they do one tiny thing against the evil power that God set up, He Himself will punish them!!!

Read it for yourself in Jeremiah 27:4: "And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;

5: I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.

6: And now have I given all these lands unto the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.

7: And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.

8: And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

9: Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:

10: For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.

11: But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell therein."

12: "I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.

13: Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

14: Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.

15: For I have not sent them, saith the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you.

16: Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD's house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.

17: Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?"

STRONG WORDS from God's Own Word. However, some Jews thought they'd outsmart God and flee to Egypt! Here's the outcome of that maneuver:

Jer:42:14: "Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:

Jer:42:15: And now therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;

Jer:42:16: Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die."

Don't you all know that this is the same situation when Rome destroyed Jerusalem in 68- 70 AD? The Jews had sinned terribly, then rebelled against God's punishment, so He took the whole operation down!!! The lesson we should learn from this is that we should seek God's Will from His Word and "let all things be done decently and in order." 1 Cor. 14:40 If not, expect to be severely disciplined by God Himself!! The problem isn't outside the church, it's INSIDE! Get it right inside and the rest will take care of itself, but we are so lazy as to fail to study God's Word enough to show ourselves approved and then throw rocks at our adversaries, when their actions are our own fault! Israel was placed under evil, Gentile control because they didn't keep God's Word.......it's that simple, God even says so!

So, why rebel when our just deserts come? No, the time and place to rebel is up front, BEFORE it gets too bad, or, in some cases, we can regroup and halt it, but NEVER by disobeying Romans 13! {PS: Romans 13 IS part of God's Word] Think of Daniel in the Queen City of all evil.......Babylon. Did he rebel against the King or did he try to help? Note that he was elevated to Third Ruler in the Kingdom, while other Jews, who complained, became, as they say, "history." [Throats cut] Have it your way, guys, but I would recommend obedience to Romans 13 and the many other kindred verses.

Grace to all..........

R.D. Conner



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