Son of Man and Son of God

As I go deeper into the details of the  century in which I was born and the decades during which I reached adulthood, I am amazed at how the Word of God was so completely abandoned in the nations from which my forefathers came. I speak about Germany on my father's side and Great Britain on my mother's. My persistent questions are, What led up to this? And how could this happen?

I ponder these issues  alongside portions of Holy Scripture again this week. I am considering Daniel 7:9-10 and Daniel 7:13-14, one of the texts for the final Sunday in the church year. This week's question, then, is who is this Son of Man with dominion and glory and a kingdom, served by all peoples, nations and languages? And how can it be that His kingdom shall not be destroyed when all around we see men and rulers opposing His rule?

I know, I know. This is such a weighty question that I can hardly lift my fingers to type anything further, but I shall try.

This past week I completed my reading of Erwin Lutzer's book Hitler's Cross. The book is obviously not merely a history of Christianity in Nazi Germany, but one in which Dr. Lutzer uses Nazi Germany as a background to proclaim his version of the Christian faith. That said, I learned many things.

One thing I noted at once in Lutzer's book—and knew from my study of WW I—there was a strong relationship between the nobility, the rulers of Great Britain and Germany. For instance, Houston Chamberlain, nephew of the noted Sir Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister who was completely duped by Hitler in the Munich Agreement of 1938. World War II broke out a year later. when Hitler's armies invaded Poland.

Houston Chamberlain moved to Germany in 1889 to marry Eva Wagner, composer Richard Wagner's daughter in 1908. He became a German citizen in 1916. He later joined the rising Nazi party and became very intimate with Hitler.

He wrote his very influential antisemitic work, The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, in 1913.

In his view the Teutonic peoples were the heirs of the Empires of Greece and Rome. When the Germanic races destroyed the Roman Empire, he said they saved Western civilization from Semitic domination. He went on to say that,

"Whoever claimed that Jesus was a Jew was either stupid or telling a lie . . . Jesus was not a Jew. He was an Aryan."

Further, he claimed that Christianity could only be appreciated by the Aryan race and that this race could be further strengthened by proper breeding.

Hitler loved Chamberlain's writings, as did those who helped to fashion Nazi doctrine. And so enraptured with Hitler were the German Christians  that many believed Hitler was the way of the Spirit and the will of God for the German people to enter the church of Christ. They adorned their altars with Nazi flags and in their congregations joined in the Nazi salute.

In the second reformation of the church these Germans repudiated anything that had to do with Jews, especially the Old Testament. Likewise they eliminated any reference to the Old Testament in the New and substituted "true life" for "eternal life." The cross was thrown away or wed to a pagan political agenda, that is the Nazification of the church.

Obviously leaders from both my ancestral nations long ago rejected Jesus, born of Mary, descended from Abraham and David, Son of Man and Son of God.

As foretold by the prophet Daniel, this resurrected and ascended LORD has received sovereign power over all peoples, nations and men. Millions of Germans followed the Nazi—and British—apostasy this to their deep sorrow and death. The final judgment of all such unbelief approaches.