Nazi Germany, 1940

Did you know that in 1940 more than 80% of the prisoners in German concentration camps were not Jews, but Christians?

A friend loaned me his costly December 23, 1940 edition of Time Magazine. An article, German Martyrs, begins on page 38. It’s a fascinating report of the courageous Christians Hitler imprisoned, tortured, and martyred.

My first reaction as I read the piece is, I wonder why I never heard of this in my history courses in the public schools of California–including one of its prestigious universities. All I remember being taught about church history was the bad stuff, like the Crusades.

Naming the resisters by name, the author documents their courageous opposition to injustice. “Behind the barbed wire of the frozen Nazi concentration camps,” Time reports, “men bear mute witness that the Christ—whose birth the outside world celebrates unthinkingly at Christmas—can still inspire a living faith for which men and women even now endure imprisonment, torture and death as bravely as in centuries past.”

Einstein’s Tribute

The writer continues, emphasizing the impact of these German believers: “The best tribute to the spirit of Germany’s Christians comes from a Jew and agnostic (TIME, Sept. 23) — the world’s most famous scientist, Albert Einstein. Says he: ’Being a lover of freedom, when the revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth; but, no, the universities immediately were silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom; but they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. . . .

“Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom. I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly.’”

Social Justice and Jesus

This is a big debate in Christian circles today. I think both sides of the debate can learn from these German Martyrs. Followers of Christ are for social justice, but it’s more than theology and theory. It’s not what you think you would do if standing for justice in the name of Christ that matters most. It’s what you would do in the name of Christ that counts.

And the only way I know to produce the type of Christian who would stand is to make disciples to Him.

How do you feel about Christians and social justice? Should it be a priority?

“Whatever happened to our hope of heaven?”

That’s the question an aged saint asked of a small group she had joined when a twenty-something Bible student told her he could care less about heaven because, “He was into being the hands and feet of Jesus to a hurting world.” He was about living for others, not about what He would get someday through some, in his words, “pie-in-the-sky” promises that, again in his words, “medicate the poor and hurting” so that they’ll accept social injustices.

As a Jesus Movement convert of the 60’s, I’d have to own some of this young man’s charge. We were so focused on “getting people to heaven,” we convinced ourselves we could ignore the social insensitivities, the prejudices, and injustices of our day. Wouldn’t want anyone to accuse us of preaching a “social gospel” like the liberals.

However, if I’m reading my Bible correctly, there’s no good hell and no bad heaven. Seems to me this isn’t an either-or but a both-and deal. Believers who ignore the hurting aren’t living out Christ’s love in this world; believers who ignore eternity aren’t living out what He says about the world to come.

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