When a Nation Forgets God-Part 1

Disclaimer: I need to start off by reiterating that America and Britain or any other Western nation is not Nazi Germany.

Image description: Hitler arriving at a Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg in 1934. This photo was prominently displayed at the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem for many years. One person commented that it looked to him like “Satan rising from Hell.”

The Bible says prophecies should be constructive, up-building, stimulating and encouraging (1 Corinthians 14:3). But this is not a prophecy or a warning, and it’s not a way for the writer to gain some sort of recognition. I believe we can only advance our knowledge and understanding of the world we live in by studying and learning some valuable lessons from history.

Many people rightly condemn the Nazis because their brutal extermination of millions of Jews and others they considered undesirables, but the spirit of Nazism was much more than killing Jews. It was because men had forgotten God, His commandments and the Church forgot to preach the whole truth of the Gospel message which opened the Church to spiritual deception.

Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul warned that the last days will be of great deception. It was this spirit of deception and delusion that affected the German Church in the 1930s as the National Socialists came to power. That is why these things happened in Germany.

What worries many observers today are the growing parallels between the West and Nazi Germany. Many historians are concluding that there are similarities to what happened in Nazi Germany and what is happening in the West today.

They are warning that every day the West is moving closer to Nazi-style totalitarianism. For instance, Von Campe an ex-Hitler youth’s says that “every day brings the American nation closer to Nazi-style totalitarian abyss.” He is seeing spiritual parallels among Americans and his childhood Germany. He further explains that:

The silence from our pulpits regarding the moral collapse of American society from within is not very different from the silence that echoed from the pulpits in Germany toward Nazi policies.

Our family lived through the Nazi years in Germany, an experience typical of millions of Europeans regardless of what side they were on. We paid a high price for the moral perversions of a German government, which excluded God and His Commandments from their policies. America must not continue following the same path to destruction, but instead heed the lessons of history and the warning I am giving…. Christians don’t understand their mission.

There are many other examples of what prophets have been saying to America or the West in general but I would point you to two sources in particular. One is a book entitled “Storm Warning, The Coming Persecution of Christians and Traditionalists, in America” published in 1999 and its authored by Don McAlvany. The second is an outstanding book authored by Dr Erwin W. Lutzer that was published in 2010. It is titled, “When a Nation Forgets God: 7 Lessons We Must Learn From Nazi Germany.”

In this article, we’ll skimp through McAlvans’ book and see what history might be teaching us. During his years of research, McAlvany has uncovered a number of ominous parallels between Nazi Germany and the West (America) which should be contemplated.

But before we look at his research; I need to make this very clear, I am not saying that the American government or other Western governments have become like Hitler and I am not comparing any institution in America or Britain with the Third Reich and I am not “anti-government.” In fact, I believe that you don’t have a right to criticize the government if you cannot pray for it. The apostle Paul admonishes us to:

First of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savoir (1Timothy 2:1-3).

History proves again and again that once a country is in a moral, cultural, and spiritual decline as Germany was in the 1930s, that country loses its freedom. This has happened on all the great empires of old. Where is the mighty and splendour of Babylon, Egypt, Assyria, Persia, or ancient Greece? What could the Roman Empire do when its time came to fall? My conclusion is that some of these parallels between the West and Nazi Germany are happening and some are not.

In my opinion, the real problem is that we have forgotten God and His commandments that is why these things are happening. Of course, I don’t have space to list all the comparisons between what happened in Nazi Germany and now, those who are interested can read the books of many credible writers and publishers and draw their own conclusions. But, here are some of the emerging similarities that Don McAlvany and a few others have noted:

The Economy, Inflation and debt: Someone was absolutely right when he said that “there are two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by the sword, the other is by debt.” In the 1920s and early 1930s, German’s Weimar Republic saw rampant inflation and debt accumulation, monetary, economic, social, political, moral and spiritual decline on a scale unprecedented in Germany history. The West since 1980 has experienced quite the same thing.

German was the most populated country with the Jews in any country in Western Europe when Hitler came to power. In fact, a small part of them were architects of its Constitution, a fact that Hitler exploited. The German republic had just come from a severe economic hardship it experienced after World War 1.

The massive inflation in 1923 and the depression of 1929 worsened Germany’s problems. The eyes of the angry people wanted a saviour from their economic problems. Hitler’s success in the first few years rested not only on his foreign policy, which brought so many bloodless conquests but on German’s economic recovery, which brought admiration from even among economists abroad.

Unemployment was reduced by putting the unemployed back to work by means of greatly improved public works and giving stimulus packages to private corporations. Government credit was furnished by the creation of special unemployment bills, and tax reliefs were given to firms which raised their capital expenditures and increased employment.

He made Germans feel important and made sure they were well cared for by the state. He gave them huge tax breaks and introduced social benefits and made sure that even in the last days of the war not a single German went hungry. During his 12 years of constant warfare, he never once raised taxes for working class people. The German soldiers were also offered more than double the salaries and benefits to what the Americans and British received.

Another example that has been widely circulated on the Internet was given by an elderly woman named Kitty Werthmann. She told audiences what life was like in Austria during the late 1930s:

In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25 percent inflation and 25 percent bank loan interest rates…. Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs…. The Austrian people were really hurting and they were desperate for answers. When Hitler came to them with “solutions,” they were ready to embrace him with open arms…. We looked to our neighbour on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933.

We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living. Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group—Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone in Germany was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria. We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family.

Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back. Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler. We were overjoyed and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed.

Preoccupation with death. Abortion and euthanasia were rampant in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. Many old sick, crippled, retarded were killed. This finally led to the extermination of Jews and Christians and unfortunately, most Germans barely took note of it. Why? Because it was a natural progression of this preoccupation with death in Germany. Today in the West we kill babies via abortion and violent murders are increasing at a fast rate.

We are being exposed to human beings created in the image of God killing fellow human beings all around the world. In fact, in times of war or call it terrorism if you want, the whole effort of the mainstream media becomes one of filling people’s hearts with hate and murder. There seems no place for the spirit of the gospel of love and brotherhood. People will be expected to do all they can to hate, curse, or kill their enemies in wartime, certainly not to love them.

The truth is that the gospel is just the same in peace or in war. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever and every life is eternally precious in His sight (see Hebrews 13:8).

In fact, you cannot put any monetary value on any human life, for God loved the entire world so much that He gave His only Son Jesus Christ to die on our behalf. But we are still killing each other to the point that the film which glorifies death was named the highest-earning movie ever.

Other ominous parallels will be pondered in Part 2