What Would I Have Done?

Here are some thoughts from Erwin Lutzer (When A Nation Forgets God, Moody Publishers):

"Here is an eyewitness account of how some members of the church reacted to the Nazism of their times.  Put yourself in their shoes and ask:  What would I have done?"

I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust.  I considered myself a Christian.  We heard stories of what was happening to the Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it, because, what could anyone do to stop it?


A railroad track ran behind our small church and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance and then the wheels coming over the tracks.  We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by.  We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars!


Week after week the whistle would blow.  We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews en route to a death camp.  Their screams tormented us.


We knew the time the train was coming and when we heard the whistle blow we began singing hymns.  By the time the train came past our church we were singing at the top of our voices.  If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more.


Years have passed and no one talks about it anymore.  But I still hear that train whistle in my sleep.  God forgive me; forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians yet did nothing to intervene. p. 22


"We should not be too critical of the church in Germany.  What would we have done in the face of such abuses?  What should we do when the state's policy is evil?  What train is rumbling past us today whose whistle we ignore?" (bold added)

A challenging question for us today, not so?  What is somewhat disturbing to me is the thought that forces itself upon the subject-matter that so many Christians are not challenged by such a question. More disturbing yet is the thought that not many pastors are challenged by the question; some not even knowing that the question is even being asked.

With an ever-increasing godless agenda being adopted and proactively pursued by the World community against the church, it seems to me that a little more sobriety needs to be  embraced, and even generated, by the leaders of our local churches.  Those trains seem to be "rumbling by" our churches with an ever-increasing rapidity.  Are we singing louder and louder, or are we (hopefully) beginning to listen and observe that "rumbling" elephant that is in the room?

BTW, I recommend the book.  It is timely, substantive, and one can read it in one, or two readings.