June, 1942
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was igriorant, iniquitous, ineffective. Instead of standing for and with the people, it j o i n e d hands with the tyrants to oppress, depress, and repress all of the com monalty who , dissatis fied with, their terrible, poverty a n d illiteracy, were seeking a way out. 'The Bolsheviki c a m e along, essentially atheis tic. They were of the people and, in t h e o r j ^ at l e a s t , for the peo
Is Using H itler . . . t (And How the Democracies Must Win) By HYMAN APPELMAN, Fort Worth, Texas
over London? Why gutted Warsaw? Why ravaged Rotterdam? Why Pearl Harbor? Why tens of millions under arms? Why the shadow of death cov ering an entire earth? Why hunger, nakedness, pestilence, concentration camps, confiscation of honestly accu mulated property, why Chekas, Ges- tapos? History firmly, inexorably, un- k equivocally, definitely, inescapably, answers these questions. At the end of our own Revolutionary War, or a little time after, about 1790, France was in the throes of its Revo lution. The leaders there, not content' with guillotining the king and over throwing the government, defied God by outlawing religion. For the first time in modern history, a nation, went on record against God. Going to the streets of Paris, they borrowed a gild ed courtezan, enthroned her in Notre Dame, and adored her as the Goddess of Beauty. Infidelity swept the luckless nation. Immorality followed in its train. > France became the nauseous cesspool from which vomited forth all that was evil, all that was degrading, all that was defiling in styles, in amusements, in stage, in literature. In the wake of this immorality, growing out of this godlessness, Gaul succumbed to the ravages of the most unmentionable social diseases. The penalty continued even to recent years. France lost the present war in the dens of Mont martre. God is using1Hitler to bring France to its knees in bitter penitence over its infidelity and immorality. What happened in Germany? His tory will tell you that Lutheran Ger many was ‘ a thrifty, clekn-living, moral, sober, homp-loving nation. A change came with the introduction of rationalism, the school of thought which we here call modernism. About 150 years ago, there arose in German
universities a group of rationalizing, so-called Christian philosophers, who denied the divine inspiration of the Bible, the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the efficacy of the atone ment, the resurrection from the dead, the judgment, hell, and heaven. The foundations of faith and the fear of God were banished from the hearts of too many Germans. French indecency, hitherto stemmed by re ligious barriers, swept into this land also. Family and community religion began to die out. Cruelty, greed, bes tiality, dreams of world conquest pos sessed the minds of the rulers. The swaggering, arrogant, sword-rattling Junker became the symbol of Ger mania. The loss of the last war rankled in the hearts of the military. Depression and the undoubted tyr anny of some of the Versailles provi sions added fuel. Hitler came along to become the match to set flame to this tinder-dry brushwood. , Rationalism’s Result Hitler and Nazism are products of all the above contributing factors, per mitted and used by God to bring to heel a God-dethroning, Christ-denying world. Hitler is the noxious fruit of rationalism, irreligion, selfishness, immorality. Given the fervent, force ful, faithful Lutheranism o f ' Gus- tavus Adolphus and the other Protes tant worthies, Germany could have stemmed and stifled the plague Naz ism at the source. God is using Hitler to teach the rational outcome of’ rationalism, to bring the drifting Ger man Christians, preachers, professors, lay folk, to a realization of their need of the Christ and the •unadulterated, unexpurgated Bible. What happened in Russia? The rec ord is self-instructive. Under the czars, the Greek Orthodox Church priesthood
ple. Overthrowing the government, they strove and are striving to banish, all religion. Because of their unquali fied atheism, Stalin arid the present leaders hold life cheaply. P u r g e s mean to them no more than the de struction of so many robots, so many machines, that have gotten out of order. It is my fervent hope and prayer that before this terror comes to its end, the Bolsheviki may have a change of heart. England’s Recent History What happened in England? There is the direst tragedy of them alj. Eng land, great England, mighty England, conquering Eriglarid, England; on~ whose possessions the sun never^ sets, the England of Francis Drake, of Wil liam of Orange/ of Nelson, of Welling ton, of Chinese Gordon, of Balkalava, pussyfooting, kowtowing before an Austrian paper hanger! Why?. The rationalism of Germany, the iri- fidelity and immorality of France, crossed the English Channel, inun dating the land of Latimer and Rid- ,ley,.of Cromwell and Bunyan, of Spur geon and Parker. A great-grandson of good Queen Victoria sold his mighty birthright for the blandishments of a twice-divorced woman. England had forgotten the God of Kipling’s Reces sional. Many of England’s preachers* being more interested in the latest pronouncements from Rome (shades of the Puritans!) or from Russia, were in . pinkish politics, and communistic conclusions. Formality supplanted fervor, while polite platitudes replaced passionate pleadings. So-called Christian Eng land, the defender of Democracy, saw Japdn rape China, Italy d es p o i 1 Ethiopia, Germany ravage Czechoslo- [ Continued on Page 212]
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