WWII happened before I was born, but I heard a lot about it growing up. In church, it seemed as if every sermon illustration was about the war.
Grownups often talked about Churchill, MacArthur, Pearl Harbor, D-Day, Hitler, and the Jews. Many have read The Diary of Anne Frank or recognize the name of Corrie TenBoom. My mother-in-law used to tell us stories about the German occupation of the Netherlands.
She was just a teenager at the time on the family farm in Friesland. On the one hand, the Dutch didn’t appreciate the Nazis storming into their homes and demanding food and supplies. On the other hand, the Nazis didn’t appreciate the Dutch who hid Jews, or operated the underground, to save them from Hitler’s gas chambers. Many were rewarded for the rescue efforts with immediate–no due process necessary–executions.
Throughout history there have been enormous, unspeakable hardships for the biological children of Abraham, those through whom God brought the Savior into the world. From AD 70 to the present, nations and empires have attempted to exterminate them.
Tragically, for 2,000 years, the church has authorized or endorsed their brutal treatment. Martin Luther retained that sordid piece of Roman Catholicism as evident in his hatred for Jews, and later Nazi perpetrators citing the Reformer’s works in their defense.
The church’s history in this regard is a heart-wrenching, soul-searching embarrassment.
Except for the Calvinists.
For these believers, hiding and helping Jews was a matter of Biblical justice.
But there was even more to it.
Christians abhor injustice done to any people. But hiding Jews was also a matter of heils-geschiedenis.
Jewish people, for the most part, still do not yet recognize Jesus as Messiah. That puzzled the first believers, and led the church down through the ages to punish these “obstinate” folk for not accepting Christ.
So, has God kicked them to the curb?
The Apostle asks and answers his own question on the matter: “Did God reject his people? By no means!” (Rom. 11:1). The Gospel beckons them, as well as the Gentiles, to come to faith in his Son.
Pray for the gospel to penetrate all nations and peoples, including the Jews, who still have a special place in God’s heart.
(Endtimes Blog #7)
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