Preface: The following was first posted on June 22. President Trump today 'authorized' the total declassification of documents on Russian collusion and Hillary's email probe. Please consider this as you read these posts....one from June....and the other from October of 2018. He is attempting to use his executive powers to win an election....to attack opponents. This in itself is cause for grave concern. Whereas it would be most probable that if total justice were served....both he and Hillary would someday be sharing the same prison food....for Donald Trump has never had any disdain for corruption....as he profited by it to a great extent. This is his real mind....and given four more years there is no telling where it might lead him....for there is apparently no one left in the administration....or any who would be brought in.... willing to stand up to him.
The hated Weimar Republic had to go....that goal....all the main parties agreed upon. Hitler's Nazi party....with its own press....and complete with its own paramilitary Sturmbteilung....(Brownshirts)....(which greatly outnumbered Germany's army)....(and eventually superceded by the SS after Hitler no longer needed the Brownshirts)....but still fell short of a majority in the government....seemed the only choice in getting rid of the Republic. German president Hindenburg ultimately.....after a lot of negotiations in closed door sessions....named Hitler Chancellor....and astonishing to everyone who witnessed it....the next 100 days literally transformed Germany.
Peter Fritzsche's book....Hitler's First 100 Days....When Germans Embraced the Third Reich....documented seemingly everything going on from newspaper reports and letters and diaries....to songs and theater productions and film. Germany....once torn apart....became united....which is the entire basis of this book....focusing on 100 days....but providing a sizable introduction on how Germany came to where they were in late 1932. Let us hope and pray that America never 'unites' as did Germany after Hitler took power.Previous to Hitler's being named chancellor Germany was every bit as divided as we are today....even more.....as they were fighting regularly in the streets. The communists and socialists hated these new 'conservative' parties.....and these parties hated the communists just as much....but one thing towered above all of this.....the Weimar Republic had to go....and now it was finally gone! Something new and exciting and great replaced it! What exactly that was they could not have known in detail....but they did come quickly to believe that Hitler was the one who could lead Germany back to greatness. A patriotism exploded out of the political division. Within those 100 days the Nazis....through that excitement.....seemed to convert most everyone......and therein is the astonishment to historians as they look back on it.
The Storm Troopers.....the SA....went after the communists first.....and with unbridled vengeance.....murdering and arresting and incarcerating. The red flags that were once everywhere in the communist enclaves disappeared. Then they went after the socialists. Let me segue to Martin Niemoller's famous quote in poetic form.....
"First they came for the the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me."
This is exactly what happened and Fritzsche's book details all of it....but as these persecutions progressed a remarkable thing happened.....the German people bought into the thought of greatness returning to Germany through National Socialism. They were now united in this nationalistic and ethnic unity. The opposition not only physically disappeared....but disappeared in the general psyche of the people. The people came to love this horror of a man.....Hitler.....and eventually paid a much steeper price than even that of the Treaty of Versailles.
As I read through this book.....so very slowly....contemplating how the divide between socialism and nationalism was so similar to what we are experiencing today....I saw very clearly the last 100 year agenda of communism in America....not that that was new as I have published on this over the entire eleven years of these posts....but I saw it in contrast to a large but still minority fervor of National Socialism. Just as the Bolsheviks had in Russia....the minority National Socialists.....as opposed to those more moderate....wrangled their way into power....and then purged everyone....even their own who they were not certain of 100% loyalty. Even the Brownshirts....who essentially put Hitler in power....were purged.
Folks....these are human phenomena.....actions that we humans are very capable of if there is no sure foundation in God. They do not have to share ideologies....indeed they can differ greatly in ideology....and they can differ greatly in degree....but follow the same wide path. Right now we in America are experiencing a similar horror from the communist agenda of the past 100 years. If I seem less aghast than most in recent posts it's because I saw this coming and posted on it for years. We need to make sure that we do not become nothing but reactionaries. We need to be vigilant that a powerful minority does not hijack what conservatism has been in America. We need to do what Germans did not do....see that we had departed from God....humble ourselves....and return to Him with our hope and utter dependence.
CBN......Pat Robertson's network....has been reporting on a revival of sorts emanating from all the division in America. We need to be very careful here also for a false revival....ecumenical in nature....and an essentially cross-less Christianity can emerge....just as a distorted patriotism can lead to tyranny.
The following post....A Very Natural Temptation....is from October of 2018....the two prefaces are more recent when I had republished this post:
Preface.....We have to be able to look back at Germany in 1933 to see the mistakes that we are making in America today....and we have to be able to do this without being accused of calling Donald Trump another Hitler. The Marxists today are following the Bolshevik pattern in Russia in 1917....Donald Trump is following too closely the pattern of Germany's national socialists who promised to make Germany great again. Ivana....not Ivanka but Ivana Trump....once told her lawyer that Donald Trump kept a book of Hitler's speeches at his bedside. This caused a stir during the 2016 campaign. Trump was questioned on it and responded...."If....I had these speeches....and I'm not saying that I do....I would never read them"....in other words....'so I read it sometimes....so what?' A friend of Trump's admitted that he did give him a copy of Hitler's collected speeches....My New Order....because he thought Trump might be interested in them. Hitler had a mesmerizing power over people....as evidenced in the reaction to his speeches....causing them to do things they would otherwise not do. Trump has that same mesmerizing power. This does not make Trump a Hitler....but it does also make us do and sanction things we would not normally do....and follow a man with extraordinary powers of persuasion.
Preface......What we have right now in America is eerily similar to the struggles that Germany was going through in 1933....with the communists fighting the National Socialists for control of the direction of the country. The communist element here in America is obvious. As for the National Socialist element....it is not in the form of the conservative/libertarian/Tea Party/talk radio people that I had been part of for decades....for most of us have long since surrendered to Donald Trump. It has nothing to do with the dominant anti-Semitism of the National Socialists....and its violence is restricted to firing (purging) people who question the President’s supreme authority....and to humiliation and verbal abuse. It is National Socialist in tactics and in both domestic and foreign policy power
God is most definitely behind the rise of Donald Trump in American politics....only it is not what you probably think. He has given him to us....that it will eventually be evident to us....that we had clamored for a king....as the Israelites had for Saul....and in demanding that king....we had rejected God. This is what happened in Germany....as National Socialism was going to make Germany great again....and that they would be powerful again. It's a very natural temptation no matter what the ideology.
A VERY NATURAL TEMPTATION
As we all know the reparations demanded of Germany in the Treaty of Versailles were unbearable for the German population who were fiercely defensive of their homeland and German heritage. The Weimar Republic which came about at the end of World War I was weak....and hated. It wasn't going to last....but what would replace it? The future of Germany depended on its church which was unified in that the German people believed that the state needed its church....and the church needed its state....but there was little unity beyond that.
A 'German Church' movement developed that entwined itself around the powerful ideology of National Socialism....a movement that was going to lead Germany back into prosperity and power. A 'Confessing Church' movement formed to stop in its tracks the state's intrusion into all church matters....but the Confessing Church itself was divided between those who just wanted the state out of the church....and those who knew that there were big problems with National Socialism.
Martin Niemoller....you may have heard about him....represented those who at first thought that National Socialism was a great thing if kept in its place. Dietrich Bonhoeffer....you certainly have heard of him....saw the horrors of where this extreme nationalism could go. Niemoller spent years in prison and concentration camps before finally seeing the mistakes that he made before the war. Bonhoeffer paid for his discernment with his life.
We are getting too close to having an 'American Church' movement.' President Trump again....this time at a West Virginia rally.....used the phrase "One glorious nation under God." We are not one glorious nation under God....and Donald Trump's god is not our God. I have for decades written various themes on how I love this country....but they will never take the place of or become equal with the gospel of Jesus Christ....and in this we must be vigilant.
It is a very natural temptation....to lay aside one's values in order to help your country....especially in times like this as America is being pillaged and plundered....and to confuse a return to greatness with a return to God. Patriotism can be devotion to justice or it can be devotion to just us. Capitalism can be a God-send....or a god in itself. We are already compromising the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to accommodate 'Make America Great Again'....and it can only get worse as we will seek to be more inclusive of policy that opposes God's Word and exclusive of dictates in His Word....all so that this glorious 'revolution' can continue.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
Preface.....We have to be able to look back at Germany in 1933 to see the mistakes that we are making in America today....and we have to be able to do this without being accused of calling Donald Trump another Hitler. The Marxists today are following the Bolshevik pattern in Russia in 1917....Donald Trump is following too closely the pattern of Germany's national socialists who promised to make Germany great again. Ivana....not Ivanka but Ivana Trump....once told her lawyer that Donald Trump kept a book of Hitler's speeches at his bedside. This caused a stir during the 2016 campaign. Trump was questioned on it and responded...."If....I had these speeches....and I'm not saying that I do....I would never read them"....in other words....'so I read it sometimes....so what?' A friend of Trump's admitted that he did give him a copy of Hitler's collected speeches....My New Order....because he thought Trump might be interested in them. Hitler had a mesmerizing power over people....as evidenced in the reaction to his speeches....causing them to do things they would otherwise not do. Trump has that same mesmerizing power. This does not make Trump a Hitler....but it does also make us do and sanction things we would not normally do....and follow a man with extraordinary powers of persuasion.
Preface......What we have right now in America is eerily similar to the struggles that Germany was going through in 1933....with the communists fighting the National Socialists for control of the direction of the country. The communist element here in America is obvious. As for the National Socialist element....it is not in the form of the conservative/libertarian/Tea Party/talk radio people that I had been part of for decades....for most of us have long since surrendered to Donald Trump. It has nothing to do with the dominant anti-Semitism of the National Socialists....and its violence is restricted to firing (purging) people who question the President’s supreme authority....and to humiliation and verbal abuse. It is National Socialist in tactics and in both domestic and foreign policy power
God is most definitely behind the rise of Donald Trump in American politics....only it is not what you probably think. He has given him to us....that it will eventually be evident to us....that we had clamored for a king....as the Israelites had for Saul....and in demanding that king....we had rejected God. This is what happened in Germany....as National Socialism was going to make Germany great again....and that they would be powerful again. It's a very natural temptation no matter what the ideology.
A VERY NATURAL TEMPTATION
As we all know the reparations demanded of Germany in the Treaty of Versailles were unbearable for the German population who were fiercely defensive of their homeland and German heritage. The Weimar Republic which came about at the end of World War I was weak....and hated. It wasn't going to last....but what would replace it? The future of Germany depended on its church which was unified in that the German people believed that the state needed its church....and the church needed its state....but there was little unity beyond that.
A 'German Church' movement developed that entwined itself around the powerful ideology of National Socialism....a movement that was going to lead Germany back into prosperity and power. A 'Confessing Church' movement formed to stop in its tracks the state's intrusion into all church matters....but the Confessing Church itself was divided between those who just wanted the state out of the church....and those who knew that there were big problems with National Socialism.
Martin Niemoller....you may have heard about him....represented those who at first thought that National Socialism was a great thing if kept in its place. Dietrich Bonhoeffer....you certainly have heard of him....saw the horrors of where this extreme nationalism could go. Niemoller spent years in prison and concentration camps before finally seeing the mistakes that he made before the war. Bonhoeffer paid for his discernment with his life.
We are getting too close to having an 'American Church' movement.' President Trump again....this time at a West Virginia rally.....used the phrase "One glorious nation under God." We are not one glorious nation under God....and Donald Trump's god is not our God. I have for decades written various themes on how I love this country....but they will never take the place of or become equal with the gospel of Jesus Christ....and in this we must be vigilant.
It is a very natural temptation....to lay aside one's values in order to help your country....especially in times like this as America is being pillaged and plundered....and to confuse a return to greatness with a return to God. Patriotism can be devotion to justice or it can be devotion to just us. Capitalism can be a God-send....or a god in itself. We are already compromising the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to accommodate 'Make America Great Again'....and it can only get worse as we will seek to be more inclusive of policy that opposes God's Word and exclusive of dictates in His Word....all so that this glorious 'revolution' can continue.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
Matthew D Hockenos....Then They Came For Me.
Erwin W. Lutzer's 1995/2012 Hitler's Cross....How The Cross Was Used To Promote The Nazi Agenda.....the forward is by Ravi Zacharias if that makes a difference.
You might also be interested in Hitler's First Hundred Days....by Peter Fritzsche.....reviewed here back on July 14....titled First They Came For The Communists.
CABARET....It would only take a few seconds to Google a YouTube of one of the songs from the 1972 musical film.....this one titled.....Tomorrow Belongs To Me. It's not the music that is chilling and subsequently haunting....it's the visuals. The scene is a quaint German town in 1931.....where actor Michael York and another gentleman sit talking at a cafe.....when a young man begins to sing. If you decide to view this....watch the faces on the crowd....all of them as the camera moves around.....and notice the slight change in the young singer's face.....at the point where the subject mater of the song gets more serious
CABARET....It would only take a few seconds to Google a YouTube of one of the songs from the 1972 musical film.....this one titled.....Tomorrow Belongs To Me. It's not the music that is chilling and subsequently haunting....it's the visuals. The scene is a quaint German town in 1931.....where actor Michael York and another gentleman sit talking at a cafe.....when a young man begins to sing. If you decide to view this....watch the faces on the crowd....all of them as the camera moves around.....and notice the slight change in the young singer's face.....at the point where the subject mater of the song gets more serious
