January 10, 2010

Seventy years ago Canada, Britain, and the democracies of Western Europe—nations that thought of themselves as Christian nations—were in the beginning stages of WWII. They had been unwillingly thrust into a life or death struggle with what Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King called “Pagan Nazism” in his Canada at the side of Britain address. (http://archives.cbc.ca/war_conflict/second_world_war/clips/8669/)

Neville Chamberlain—that iconic symbol for all present and future spineless appeasers who proclaim “peace in our time” while blithely signing away someone else’s freedom—was still the PM of the United Kingdom 70 years ago. William Manchester in his book The Last Lion noted that during the 1930s most of the political and social leaders of the United Kingdom (including the upper classes, the BBC, and The Times newspaper) were people of deceit, moral corruption, and even conspiracy, who had sold themselves to the principle of the appeasement of evil.

It was to be five more months till May until Winston Churchill would be chosen as PM. But that only happened after the disastrous consequences of the policy of appeasing evil became fully realized. In the spring of 1940 Norway, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands all collapsed under the brutal Nazi blitzkrieg. England would now face the Nazi dictator’s wrath directly. But, of course, it would be the ordinary people of Europe, North America, and Russia who would make most of the payments in blood and sorrow on appeasement’s debt. We, the people, always pay for tolerating our leaders politically correct duplicity and lies.

In an appeal to his people to summon courage and faith during that physically and spiritually dark time of 70 years ago, King George VI strove to rally his people as a new decade, the 1940s, and the struggle for survival as a free people began. He encouraged them with these words.

I said to a man who stood at the gate of the year, give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown, and he replied, go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God, that shall be to you better than light, and safer than the known way…

As we begin the decade of the 2010s, we, the free peoples of the West, are facing extremely sobering problems, vexing problems. Problems that ought to be dealt with speedily and effectively. But, are we, too, stuck in appeasement mode, trying our best to ignore and pretend that our day’s evil adversaries—both foreign and domestic—will be nice and just disappear.

Will the U.S. dollar crash this next year or the year after that or the year after that due to the USA’s mega-gazillion dollar debt? When will the Chinese finally tire of holding increasingly worthless U.S. Treasury bonds and shout in disgust that the Yankee Running Dogs Have No Clothes? What follows? A violent re-alignment of the world’s political order? Chaos? Civil war? Could some survive with no more trips to Vegas or Disney World?

And what of the Iranian dictators and their pursuit of nukes? Will the West find the courage to stand up to them before they have the Bomb that they’re dying to drop on Tel Aviv while they blackmail the rest of us? Don’t hold your breath.

So, in whom can we put full confidence and trust to lead us? Where is our Winston Churchill, or our George VI? What can we learn from the past to help us today? Who can be counted on to be trustworthy, consistent, diligent, loyal, and firm? Consider what the Apostle Paul had to say in his first letter to the Corinthians:

11-12These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence.

13No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it. (1 Corinthians 10:11-13, Message translation).

In the years to come it will be essential to remember that the Bible’s God is faithful even when our human leaders are not. Should all become darkness, when you must go out into the unknown, just put your hand in His and He will guide you.