A few months ago, a TikTok craze started over the topic of the Roman Empire and the amount of time the average American man spends thinking about it. Apparently, men contemplate it a lot, or at least that’s the vibe of the conversation that transpired around the original post and its more than a billion views and shares.
I must admit that I don’t think about the Roman Empire that often. I do find myself, however, thinking about another era of history daily: the rise of the Nazis in Germany from 1920 to 1945. I want to understand how an entire nation, including most of the Christian church, came to embrace an ideology that so openly espoused racial hatred and ultimately murdered over six million Jews. One might assume that Germany’s population must have been in the dark about Nazi intentions, and certainly the full scale of their atrocities was not entirely revealed until after their defeat in World War II. But the historical record reveals that while Hitler’s party relied on deceptive propaganda to grow popular support, Hitler’s desire to exterminate Jews was explicit as early as his 1925 autobiography. Hitler and the Nazis were elected to power by popular vote in 1933.
While the well-known maxim that “history repeats itself” is certainly oversimplistic, history does reveal what’s possible among human beings seeking to live in relation to one another. The constant of human nature teaches us that if it happened once, something similar could certainly happen again. While the complex historical circumstances that brought the Nazis to power will never reemerge, the human tendency to follow political leaders and movements blindly and enthusiastically without regard to moral character or agenda persists.
I just finished a fascinating biography of Martin Niemoller, the German Protestant pastor who was imprisoned by Hitler for defying the Nazi takeover of Germany’s churches. Niemoller was a German U-boat commander during World War I and twice voted for the Nazi party. He was also the son of a Lutheran pastor who followed his father into Christian ministry, called to stand before his congregation and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ Sunday after Sunday. Yet, when Hitler came along, Niemoller initially celebrated him as the right leader to restore the humiliated nation. Niemoller was a proud veteran and a strong supporter of German nationalism. He willingly overlooked Nazi anti-Semitism, an abhorrent ideology for any Christian, because he hoped the party would make Germany great again.
In one fascinating passage Niemoller reflects on what motivated him to join the clergy after World War I: “I felt I could serve my people with an honest and open heart, helping them better in their present hopeless state than I could by withdrawing to a farm and living the life I had intended to live there.” His biographer concludes, “In short, he joined the ranks of the Lutheran Church for the same reason he had joined the Imperial German Navy: to advance the cause of the fatherland.”
Millions of German citizens joined Niemoller in making Germany’s return to greatness the ultimate goal of life and politics. Niemoller even joined the clergy for this very purpose. However, this order of priorities proved detrimental, for it opened the door to broad acceptance of Hitler and the Nazification of an entire nation. If Hitler could lead the nation to the ultimate goal of fulfilling its destiny of greatness, his defects could be easily overlooked and justified. And that’s a clear parallel for today. If a return to some imagined ideal of American greatness is your ultimate goal, you too may find yourself willing to overlook evil on the way to getting there. You too could subjugate Christ as a means to a greater end.
The question “What is ultimate?” has already been answered for those of us who follow Christ. It’s not the greatness of our nation or any nation, for Christ’s kingdom is not of this world (John 8:36). To be clear, we should all want to see our nation thrive, and we should work to form convictions about what needs to happen to get there and commit ourselves to working toward fulfillment of those convictions. But national greatness is never ultimate for people who will one day toss our earthly crowns at the feet of Christ (Revelation 4:10-11). When political interests become ultimate, Christ gets subjugated into something less than Lord and his church becomes compromised. In other words, when national greatness is our highest goal, we’re no longer following Christ and our values no longer match his. Subjugating the Lord of the universe to paltry political goals forfeits the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
Our ultimate goal is not to make America great again but to worship and proclaim the One whose greatness supersedes all competitors. When he is ultimate, we will be in better position to rightly discern the political happenings of our own day. Let’s focus on the greatness of Christ alone. Everything else flows from that starting point.
When considering our choices in this fall’s election, which party, which candidates, have a stated goal of the genocide of an entire class of unwanted, inconvenient humans? My choice is tied to God’s command “Thou shall not kill.” Also, read Leviticus chapter 18. The sins listed there bring His judgment and causes the land to “vomit out its inhabitants.” Which party fights for the free exercise of these sins? Put aside chants of “Make America great again.” God will bring judgment when His laws are ignored.
For now, I would vote for President Trump as the lesser of the two evils. The President doesn’t have to be a Christian to be used by God. The Democratic platform is far too evil to ignore. It’s a culture of death. I agree we should never put our National greatness as our first priority. But you cannot have a country without secure borders. God will hold anyone to account who is looking to our Nation as an idol. In the meantime, I have to vote for the one who will encourage the value human life, is in favor of freedom of speech and of law and order.
Not everyone who will vote Republican in November is a MAGA fanatic. Some of us will hold our nose and vote for a platform that values the unborn, among other conservative values. I am well aware of the unmentioned candidate’s many moral failures, seeming lack of self-control, and abrasive personality. I just can’t vote for a platform that promotes abortion up to the time of birth. Sometimes it is really is a matter of the lesser of two evils.
I agree with mark! We desire to see America return to the values that once made her great, beginning with the fear of God and honor of His Son. Forfeiting the “fundamental” change we were promised by Obama and his successor.
Considering my duty as a Christian and what our Constitution says, I sadly find I can vote for neither of the leading candidates this year. This is after serving our country for 27 years in its Navy.
Which candidate calls for a massive round up and desportation of illegal immigrants. While the Bible is not explicit about abortion, although it is explicit that we are to treat the immigrant (or foreigner” like we are immigrants. The Bible says1.EXODUS 22:21
“Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”
2.LEVITICUS 19:10
“Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.”
3.LEVITICUS 19:34
“The foreigners residing among you must be treated as native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
4.DEUTERONOMY 10:18
“He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.”
5.PSALM 146:9
“The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.”
6.ZECHARIAH 7:10
“Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.”
7.MATTHEW 25:35
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”
8.JOHN 15:12
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
9.EPHESIANS 2:19
“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.”
10.HEBREWS 13:1-2
“Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that some have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”
May we remember today that the world’s refugees are our brothers and sisters in Christ. May we be compelled to care for them, to pray for them, to leave our doors open to them. May we be reminded that the Lord is their refuge as well, and that he is ever present with them, just as he is us.
We should treat the foreigner like the native born?
How should native born criminals be treated. I think they should be caught and punished with any gain taken from them.
So what should we do with the illegal immigrant? So what should we do with the illegal immigrant? Catch him, punish him and deport him.
The Bible is certainly explicit regarding abortion: “YOU MUST NOT MURDER” (Ex. 20:13, NLT). Murder is the taking of an innocent life; abortion takes an innocent life; therefore, abortion is murder.
While I am not wildly a fan of the MAGA movement I am a Christian. I must vote for one person or the other. Some have said here they will just not vote for either candidate that is certainly the desire of the left, if Christians do not vote at all it assures their domination of the rules we live by.
While the scriptures do not use the term “abortion” it cursed many nations who passed their children “though the Fire” (an ancient way to get rid of unwanted babies) don’t is clear that infanticide should be outlawed in the life of a Christian nation.
I am not a Christian Nationalist and I reject this philosophy. Having said this I also reject the wholesale of open borders. Yea we need to welcome the foriener and the outcast. Our country has had many legal ways this can happen. Those coming to commit crimes and to live only on the free healthcare and assistance the US provides should be excluded. There needs to be a pathway to citizenship however many immigrants do not was to assimilate into being a citizen but want to live with the freedoms we provide but still want live as though they did where they are from. While Christians are to care for the immigrant, how many can the US handle?
I spent many years in the armed forces protecting both sides of this argument may we prayerfully seek God’s wisdom in these matters. I also have traveled all over the world and found no other country of which I want to reside.
I agree Christ did not come to make any nation great but as Christians are we to sit by and do nothing as we fall further into the dark hole of immorality and decadence?
As Peter explains in his first epistle we are not immigrants, visitors, vacationers in this world we are Exiles. This is not our country this is not our home, we are ambassadors for the King of Kings let us act accordingly.
“The constant of human nature teaches us that if it happened once, something similar could certainly happen again. ”
As in the saying ‘History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.’
It seems we pick and choose the sins of leaders that we will tolerate. The problem is not so much who we will vote for, it’s what we have to say about those brethren on the other side. Have we allowed Biden/Trump to become a dividing point among brethren?
We might reasonably ask how we can to be in this political predicament but I have to wonder where we would be if we spent less time on CNN/Fox and more in the Bible.