Weak Pastors, Weak Churches: Similarity Number Nine Between the False Church of Nazi Germany and Today’s Growing False Global Church
By Brannon S. Howse
Many Christians in Germany justified allegiance to Hitler through a belief that their duty to God was spiritual; their duty to the state was political. Some American Christians have similarly bought the lie that their worldview can be divided between the secular and the sacred—the politician has one area of responsibility, the pastor another, and never the two shall meet. Yet the Bible teaches that all issues are fundamentally spiritual.
While many pastors faithfully defend and preach the Gospel and the Word of God, they are increasingly becoming the minority. Many other pastors have sold out for the approval of men over the approval of God. As a result, I’ve come to believe that some of America’s pastors and Christian leaders are false converts at best. The feminization of the American man by the Frankfurt School faculty has been largely accomplished, and their success includes the pansies in the pulpit.
I am stunned at the lack of masculinity, fight, fever, zeal, individuality, perseverance, resolve, and courage of the average pastor and Christian leader in America. Where are the firebrands who will go against the group, speak without fear of offending the enemies of Jesus Christ, call out false teachers of the false church and the traitors within evangelicalism? Where are the godly men who do not want to be part of group consensus and dialogue and who are not afraid to stand alone? Sadly, the men willing to do this are not well-known because becoming nationally and globally recognized often requires compromise and pandering to the New Religious Right and to neo-evangelicals who operate the radio and television networks, publishing groups, the largest conferences, and the social clubs masquerading as churches.
Hitler saw the pastors of his day as wimps and compromisers that he could control because of their commitment to materialism and self-preservation. Speaking of the pastors in Germany, the Fuehrer proclaimed, “The parsons will dig their own graves. They will betray their God to us. They will betray anything for the sake of their miserable jobs and incomes.” Hitler apparently understood “the parsons” very well. Their compromise became so great that on September 5 and 6, 1933, “Delegations of pastors and church leaders arrived wearing Nazi uniforms and giving the Nazi salute.”
Times have changed, and the deceit and betrayal is not so blatant, but pastors and self-described Christian leaders nonetheless salute with their words political leaders, Mormon leaders, the pope, and celebrities hostile to the Gospel. I think of the large number of pastors and evangelical leaders who literally locked arms with false teachers and enemies of Jesus Christ and stood behind New Age Mormon Glenn Beck in August 2010. They compromised in hopes of regaining America’s “glory days,” just as the pastors and Christian leaders of Germany united with the paganism of Hitler in hopes of a restored and victorious Germany.
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