Is the American Church Making the Same Mistake the German Church Did Right Before WWI?
This week marks the anniversary of the beginning of the first world war.
There were many blunders and missed opportunities for peace leading up to the outbreak of the war, but most historians blame the Germans for the start of hostilities. The lesson for Christians today is how the home for Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation could have fallen so far as to start the first world war and then loose Adolph Hitler on his bloody march through history. The concern of Christians is that America seems to be on the same path.
By the 1880s, Germany had become the richest and most powerful country on the European continent. However, as the Germans prospered, they became complacent and lost their religious zeal. German theologians began teaching the documentary hypothesis, denying the truth of the Bible and destroying the faith of many. The government stepped into the spiritual void, substituting the state for God and marginalizing the church.
Spiritually weak and desensitized to the Scriptures, the Christians made no outcry when Kaiser Wilhelm I brought the altar of Zeus from Pergamum to Berlin. This altar is widely believed to have been the throne of Satan described in Revelation 2:13. The curse that accompanies such an object, setting the owner apart for destruction (Deut. 7:26), caught the Germans by surprise.
The curse first worked on the Kaiser’s family. His son, Frederick, would have been a good king but never ruled because he died of cancer three months after the Kaiser died in 1888. Wilhelm’s grandson, Wilhelm II, an immature, blustering, arrogant man who was unfit to rule, became Kaiser instead. Under Wilhelm II, Germany became more militant and belligerent. He started a naval arms race with Britain and led his nation and Europe into World War I in 1914. The lost war drove Wilhelm II from Germany in 1918 and brought the curse to all of Germany.
The defeat of the Germans in World War I did not bring repentance or an end to their suffering. Financial depression wrecked the nation, and social order began to break down. By 1932, fear of a communist revolution wracked the German elites, and they looked for a strongman to restore order. They turned to Adolph Hitler, who quickly assumed dictatorial powers and created a ruthless police state to retain power. By 1932, much of the German Protestant Church had become a faithless, powerless institution. Christ was viewed as simply a good man and sin considered a psychological problem. Hitler became sure he could control a Christless church, and for the most part, he was correct.
As a result of German church’s failure to repent and return to God, Hitler marched unopposed into World War II. Millions died in the war, and millions more Jews and others were killed in the Holocaust. The victorious Allies devastated and divided Germany. The church and the nation that birthed the Protestant Reformation experienced a tragic fall.
Like Germany once was, America has been a beacon of light in a dark world. Like Germany, we became prosperous and complacent, allowing our universities to rob the faith of millions. As with Germany, the government has taken over many functions of the church, and many are trying to drive the church out of the public square. Our curse and our holocaust is the abomination of abortion, which has killed over 60 million American babies. America stands on the edge of disaster, blinded by its power and prosperity, like Germany was in 1880’s.
In 1887 God sent a warning to the Germans, a great eclipse which ran across the country on the first day of Teshuvah, the 40-day Jewish repentance season. The Church ignored God’s invitation to return to Him and avoid judgment before it was too late, with tragic consequences.
Now, God is sending a warning to America like the warning He sent to Germany, the great American eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017 on the first day of Teshuvah. God is giving us another chance to avoid the fate of Germany. For more information see our newly released book, Teshuvah Eclipses or our website at teshuvah2017.com.
Join us in praying through Teshuvah for repentance, church unity and healing our land.
Before it is too late. {eoa}
Ron Allen is a Christian businessman, CPA and author who serves in local, national and international ministries, spreading a message of reconciliation to God, to men and between believers. He is founder of the International Star Bible Society, telling how the heavens declare the glory of God; the Emancipation Network, which helps people escape from financial bondage; and co-founder with his wife, Pat, of Corporate Prayer Resources, dedicated to helping intercessors.
