August, 1933
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T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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o/PROPHECY . . . B y L ouis S. B auman
saints who shall call for the return of the Lord for His own seems near at hand indeed, if world events mean anything. Just a few years ago, the world would have laughed to scorn the idea that the land o f Luther would ever again see the day when a man would not be allowed the possession o f his own soul. Yet, already, the German Chan cellor would deny any man the right to kneel before the cross un less the swastika, emblem o f Ger man Fascism, is nailed to its head. This spirit was expressed by the Nazi “ German Christian,” Pas tor Wieneke, of Soldin: “ The swastika and the cross o f Christ belong , together.” Naziism de thrones Christ as the head of the church, and places the pagan Hit ler there; for the first federal con gress of the “ German Christians”
Portents of the Advent of This World’s Politico-Ecclesiastical God M U an k ind must cooperate or perish.” So reads the leading ed itorial o f a prominent Oriental newspaper. But man naturally is self-centered. Six thousand years o f his history give abundant proof. The unregenerate man is con cerned chiefly with grasping after things belonging to others. Will such an one cooperate ? Only through a loss o f his liberty to in dividual action, only through the dictatorship of some one outside himself! This is the reason why all human government is a failure —why it is ending at last in its least desirable, yet most necessary form. Man can never attain per fect liberty until he becomes a “ new creation.” “ If the Son of
Used by permission of the Sunday School Times.
man shall make you freegiye shall be free indeed.” The modern world is just beginning to learn the mean ing o f dictatorship. And it is scarcely a benevolent insti tution. The mighty Caesarean nations of the past can tes tify. Russia and Italy, of the present hour, are shining examples. Now comes Germany, and the German Jew offers mute evidence— mute indeed! The German Aryan will also soon know the weight of the heel. Adolf Hitler already refuses to share his leadership in the slightest degree with the Aryan. On the eve o f publishing an edict, restoring the imperial eagles as the official banner of the Reich, he said to his lieutenants: “ I enjoin on you the strictest and blindest obedience. Henceforth all individual action must cease.” Carrying out the principles of his mas ter, Fritz Sauckel, Reich’s statthalter, or governor, for the state o f Thuringia, said to Nazi leaders, in an address on Naziism: I command you not to tolerate anything else. Dis cussion o f things touching on the life and existence of our people must cease. Those daring to doubt the rightness of Nazi principles ought to be branded as traitors. The most ominous thing about the specter o f dictator ship is the fact that it is prone to enter into the spiritual realm and to command the souls o f men to do its bidding. As dictatorship supplants democracy in the governments o f earth, it can only mean that the blood of martyrs is again about to cry unto God from the ground. It is not until the Antichrist on his “ white horse,” coun terfeit o f the true Christ who shall ride His great white charger from out the open heavens (Rev. 19)— not until this false Christ rides forth, “ bow” in hand, “ conquering and to conquer” (Rev. 6 :2 ), that we hear a great chorus o f martyrs, “ slain for the word of God and the testimony which they held,” crying to G od : “ How long, O Lord ?” And they are commanded “ that they should rest yet fo r a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be ful filled” (Rev. 6 :9-11 ). The hour for the martyrdom o f true
enunciated the principle: “ The State under Adolf Hitler calls to' the church, and the church must heed the call.” Hitler thus would make the church subservient to the State and attempt to combine pagan medievalism with the faith of Christ. In his hatred for the Jew, he demands that Ger man mythology shall be substituted for the Old Testament; and that a “ German Christ” shall be substituted for the Jew Christ. In his disgusting bigotry and his dense ignor ance o f things spiritual, he knows not that “ a German Christ” is no Christ at all. “ To Abraham and his seed were the promises made” (Gal. 3 :16). And the Master’s words still stand, whether a Gentile world likes it or n o t: “ Salva tion is o f the jew s” (John 4 :22 ). Germany, under Hitler, seems to have lost all, if not more than she gained under her famous monk from Wittenberg. Is the Shadow of the Coming Dictator Falling Upon America? And is our own America, boasted “ land o f religious lib erty,” immune from a dictatorship over the souls of men ? All the world knows that the greatest, most absolute, most inexorable dictator over the souls o f men this world has ever known is ecclesiastical Rome. Prophetically, John be held her Coming: “ And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of . . . the martyrs o f Jesus” (Rev. 17:6 ). To old- fashioned Americans, it is not altogether reassuring to see our President-crowned the world’s “ superdictator” and almost immediately walk into the greatest Roman Catholic university in America and receive from the Roman Catholic hierarchy, the gift— “ Doctor o f Laws.” This would not be quite so disconcerting had it not been for what he said on that occasion: I am happy to be here on the platform with some of my old friends. Here is my old friend and neighbor of New York, Patrick Cardinal Hayes, and my old friend of Washington, Archbishop Curley. Last, but not least, here is my new friend who has just come here and whom I hope to see much of in the next four years, the apostolic dele-
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