When a nation forgets God

Some while ago, I read a short book by Edwin Lutzer entitled: ‘When a Nation Forgets God’.  It compares what is happening in the US today with the situation in Germany prior to the Second World War.  The points he makes are extremely challenging for us in the UK.  In a series of blogs I will look at some of the points he makes.  This blog is an introduction to the subject. 

No ideology arises in a vacuum, and Nazism is no exception.  The only prerequisite is a culture that is conducive to such an ideology.  Then it will gain wide acceptance by the popular culture with no real opposition.   An evil ideology like Nazism could only be accepted because the population had previously imbibed certain political and religious trends, which took root and caused the people to become part of an evil which was greater than that of any individual. 

The same values that destroyed Germany are, disturbingly, being taught in educational establishments here in the UK today.  They are propagated through the media.  Our politicians wax eloquent promoting them. 

Today, as it was in pre-war Germany, Christians increasingly have to choose between allegiance to Christ and allegiance to Caesar.  We discover we’re aliens and strangers in a foreign culture even in ‘England’s green and pleasant land’.  Our responsibility as citizens of earth and citizens of heaven is a continual challenge.   

Lutzer remarks that the Church has always been poised between two gods and two crosses.  On one side is Jesus Christ who was executed on a Roman cross for the sins of the world.  On the other are any number of lesser gods and other crosses that promise a false salvation.  These other gods are almost always embodied in the state; they most often come to us dressed in the garb of Caesar and in the end they are committed to crushing religious freedom.

There are cultural pressures today that are pressing us to combine Christ with other religions, or to combine Christ with a political or ideological agenda.  Nazi Germany reminds us that any kind of syncretism is futile.  Christ must always stand alone; he does not stand alongside the governmental leaders of this world, but as far above them.

Religious freedom is constantly in conflict with any number of ideologies and ‘isms’.  The stronger the power of the State, the more suppression of religious freedom there will be.  The role of the Church will be suppressed by more and more laws.  It’s imperative that we keep our physical and spiritual eyes wide open, for the changes which bring about this stripping of religious freedom are couched in the language of freedom and what is best for everyone. 

Here in the UK, equality, tolerance, political correctness and social justice are the current buzz words.  We either abide by ‘British values’ or face being accused of extremism, fundamentalism, being unpatriotic, and ultimately we will be seen as being a danger to the State.  Forces of secularism inevitably lead to a totalitarian state to which everyone is expected to submit.

In this day and age, in the UK, the situation has many parallels with Germany in the days of Hitler.  Being a Christian means we’ll have tough choices to make.  There is much we can learn from the situation in pre-war Germany, and since history has a habit of repeating itself, we do well to glean all we can.  We’re closer now, than Christians were then, to the return of Jesus Christ, and we know the Last Days will see unprecedented evil unleashed on the earth, so we need to be forewarned and forearmed.

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