Old Man of the Sea (Part VI)
Pastor: We have been chatting about the holocaust and the lead up years
to World War II.You say a great deal about the attitude of Americans. I take
it you are very displeased with their attitude, stemming back at least to the
beginning of the holocaust?
Old Man of the Sea: Truer words were never spoken. It all goes back to
our lack of study of scripture. While many Americans are churched, they don't
seem to learn much about scripture.
Pastor: Do you believe that's the result of personal intellectual laziness or
lack of solid biblical teaching?
Old Man of the Sea: Both. Many people think listening to 20 or 30 minutes
of a sermon is enough. Many sermons are the "same ole, same ole" stuff, about
being a good person. Everybody should know that before they ever enter a
church. But, it's a feel good, easy out. Many pastors don't want to rock the
boat; they want things calm and peaceful. Unfortunately the most ambitious
preachers are apostate teachers, twisting the Word skillfully so they, in a
sense, replace Christ as the main biblical feature. The worst of these are the
ones who preach the "prosperity" philosophy.
Pastor: You're talking about preachers who encourage congregations to
sacrifice more and more money to their church and personal ministry. They,
then, will receive more and more material blessings.
Old Man of the Sea: Correct. These preachers and their followers are lured
by material gains more than spiritual gains. Material gains you can easily see.
Greed never changes. I hear some "so called" Christians tell me that helping
others is a matter of personal choice through volunteering. Apparently they
ignore the lesson of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-35). Here two people,
a priest and a Levite (man of the priestly tribe) passed a badly hurt man on the
road without attempting to offer aid. Then a Samaritan, a mixed heritage man,
stopped to offer aid. He actually was helping a stranger and didn't know what
ethnic background he came from. You see, here we have a true volunteer,
while we also have two people who could and should help, but they've got
their nice, comfortable life and don't want to be bothered. There is a sizable
number of people who volunteer today.Most give of their time and experience.
But there are many more who don't volunteer, and these are frequently the
people who could contribute material things. This costs money, hence the
response, I worked for mine, let them work for theirs.
Pastor: European Jews had no one to help them.
Old Man of the Sea: That's right. While the rest of the world ignored the
problem, it grew until by war's end, six million Jews were slaughtered in the
Nazi "final solution".
Pastor: Germany wasn't the only nation gearing up for war?
Old Man of the Sea: No. While we were sleeping, Italy invaded Ethiopia.
Japan invaded Manchuria, the Spanish civil war took place, Germany and
Italy joined forces as the "Axis", the war between China and Japan began,
Germany and Austria became a geographical unit, and an American gunboat
was sunk by Japan.
Pastor: This seemed to be a case where the writing was on the wall, somewhat
like in the Book of Daniel, Chapter Five.
Old Man of the Sea: Exactly. Now we come to one word I want to talk about
at length, because we are right now, today, experiencing the meaning of that
word and repeating the mistake the world made at that time. Britain, France and
Italy signed an agreement permitting Germany to partition Czechoslovakia. That
gave Hitler the conclusion no one wanted to fight Germany, and he immediately
invaded Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. Of course Germany
later moved to Africa and extended the war to that continent. Britain and France
gave Hitler an ultimatum, and he laughed at them and invaded France. The French
didn't even try to defend Paris. This actually gets laughable, as the French then
signed an armistice with Germany. Hitler set up a new French government,
staffed by French traitors. We had two French nations within one, one fighting
with the Germans, although in a civilian way, and the other becoming the French
Underground. Shortly thereafter, Germany broke its non-aggression pact with
Russia, a fatal mistake.
Pastor: You said you wanted to talk about one word, yet you haven't told us
what that word is.
Old Man of the Sea: That word is "appeasement". Britain and France, as well
as the rest of the world, let Hitler get away with the aggression that captured
most of Europe because he kept promising he wouldn't do any more. He never
even slowed down. It became clear that appeasement meant someone could
continue to do terrible things because absolutely no one would challenge him
or dare to take a stand against him. There now was evidence to well-studied
Christians that Europe was suffering partially because of their treatment of Jews.
Pastor: You mean the German treatment of Jews?
Old Man of the Sea: No. Long before this, many European nations had
discriminated against their Jewish population in an effort to rid their countries
of Jews. Remember, God said He would bless and curse according to the
treatment of His people. These nations were now experiencing the curse they
so dearly deserved. At the same time, America was given the opportunity to
at least partially repent for biblical shortcomings of roughly 35 years. I would
like to address appeasement some more. Appeasement is with every one of
us every day on a personal basis. Proverbs 22:15 "Foolishness is bound in
the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." We
are responsible for raising our kids properly. A so-called child expert named
Spock wrote about child raising, and said we shouldn't spank children as a
method of correction. We're still paying for following his advice, and many
modern "experts" still say we should not use any means of physical
correction. School teachers today are victims of this temperament appeasement.
Pastor: I take it you have more to say about appeasement?
Old Man of the Sea: Yes, I do. I'll skip through history to the present. Americans
have gone way too far in the name of tolerance. I've mentioned taking the prayer
out of school. Who has been hurt by prayers? Were listeners' ears burned? Who
has been hurt by "In God We Trust"? Who has been hurt by a nativity scene?
Who is hurt by "merry Christmas"? For too many years Christians have been
voluntarily giving up parts of their beliefs and quiet worship because a few
people or a small group, or ONE person objects to Christianity. Why don't
Christians understand that our Constitution provides for freedom of religion and
freedom of speech? We are being denied the right to say "merry Christmas",
not by law, but by intimidating non-believers or people of authority such as
managers of big box stores. We can't have nativities in public places because
someone doesn't want them. They can't just look away? We have to accept
their censorship? That's what it is--censorship of our religion. When we agree
to that, we are appeasing people who deny our God, our Christ and the Holy
Spirit. We are no longer living in the land of the free. This is exactly how
appeasement works for the Devil. We are told we are being tolerant to observe
the wishes of people who do NOT follow our God, the supreme God as written
in the bible (Daniel), who do not believe in our redeemer, Christ, and the Holy
Spirit. In reality, we are denying God, Christ and the Holy Spirit. Don't they
understand the very teaching of Christ?
Pastor: So you're saying that when we cave in to the demands of these
non Christians we are actually denying, God, Christ and the Holy Spirit?
Old Man of the Sea: If you don't think so, look up the meaning of deny in
the dictionary. Among the various definitions of the word are "to disavow",
"to disclaim connection with", "counter to the truth", and others. There's nothing
wrong with happy holidays, but there wouldn't be a holiday if it wasn't for
the observance of Christ's birthday.This is an easy way for the Devil to get us to
blot out Christ. Each of those things is a small step to replace Christ with
something else. We must realize the Devil is constantly working to replace
Christ, which will take us right into Revelation. Read Matt. 10:32,33 "Whosoever
therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father
which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also
deny before my Father which is in heaven." Christ believed this was so important
it was mentioned several times. Luke 12:8,9 "Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall
confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels
of God: But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of
God." I don't know about you or anyone else, but I refuse to be intimidated by
anyone into giving up my right to praise my God, Christ, or Holy Spirit, or to give
up my Constitutional guarantee to free speech. Furthermore, if I want to destroy
any other country's flag or religion's symbols, as long as I own them, it is my
right to dispose of them. We have permitted other cultures and religions to come
here and dictate to us their cultural and religious beliefs while we aren't permitted
to worship and pursue our culture that has kept the world free. We can burn an
American flag or spit on it, but we can't even talk about doing the same with some
other country's flag or symbols. I didn't serve in the military for this.
Pastor: There isn't any doubt you feel strongly about that.
Old Man of the Sea: If I didn't, I would at best be a lukewarm Christian. I look
forward to the rapture, and I want to take that trip before virtual hell breaks loose
on earth. The easy road and accepting the wishes of non Christians will lead
only to suffering and probable death. Think a bit about history. Back in the first
half of the century through the 50s, people came to this country and wanted to
become Americans. They retained much of their former culture, but it NEVER
conflicted with our culture. We observe various ethnic celebrations for people
of other nations such as Italy, Ireland, Poland and others. We accept worship of
other religions. Until recent years this worked out fine. Now we have foreigners
demanding they have rights to be here illegally and that we can't worship in
Christianity because it offends them.
Pastor: So you are saying that in the name of tolerance we Christians are giving
up our Constitutional rights of free speech, and, to a degree freedom of religion?
What about the First Commandment that states "Thou shalt have no other gods
before me"?
Old Man of the Sea: Foreigners are coming here now to take advantage of the
"soft" Christians who will not stand up for Christ. They no longer want to become
Americans--they want to be of their failed culture and nations, but able to simply
take of America's abundance and freedoms, things they didn't have where ever they
came from. The free speech began to erode nearly 50 years ago when we caved
in to the Atheists' demands about prayer. Foreigners look at that and realize how
stupid we can be. We're inviting a take over of Christianity and our nation.
Pastor: You see this activity as a sort of slide the Devil has prepared, and believe
it puts us in the position of denying our God?
Old Man of the Sea: Well, think about the founding of America and the First
Commandment. Our country was founded by Protestants and Catholics, all of whom
were Christians. The First Commandment is crystal clear. "Thou shalt have no other
gods before me." when you agree to backpedal on any connection with Jesus Christ,
you are placing the Christian God, Jesus Christ, the Son, and the Holy Spirit second
to some other god or figure of worship. There is no equal, there is no one in front or
beside the Christian God. Read the Book of Daniel and you'll see that over a period
of time the ancient world's people came to realize the God of Israel was the supreme
God. If you can't talk about God in public, on the radio or television, we have agreed
to place the Trinity below dozens of false gods.
Pastor: You said America was perhaps absolved of some of the excesses of the
Roaring Twenties because we could show a form of repentance through our service
to Jews and the free world by fighting in World War II. Everybody who was around
during that period still calls it "The Big One". How did we finally get involved, and
what was it like for those who didn't see military action?
Old Man of the Sea: It would take a bunch of big books to answer those questions
completely, but I'll try. It became clear that Hitler was out to conquer the world, with
Italy and Japan as helpers. He also wanted to eliminate ALL Jews. He had the same
goal with the Jews as today's Arabs, who don't show any world maps with the nation
Israel on them. From the late 30s through December 1941, Hitler ran wild conquering
country after country. As soon as Germany and Russia signed a non aggression pact,
Russia grabbed a few European countries, too. The world was in an unbelievable
turmoil. When Germany began bombing Britain and Japan carried out the sneak
attack of Pearl Harbor, we had no choice except to go to war. I've heard a lot of talk
from younger people about our entering the war against Japan and about our action
to set up "relocation camps" here in the United States for people of Japanese ancestry.
Pastor: I've heard these camps compared to concentration camps.
Old Man of the Sea: Well, they weren't. After the sneak attack on Pearl, you didn't
know what to expect from Japanese people. This wasn't fun and games-Japan was
out to conquer us. The Administration was not heartless, and these relocation camps
were not confining like a prison, but enabled us to know there weren't Japanese
spies running around loose. The alternative would have been to put them all in prison.
Americans were very fearful, because we now had only a crippled fleet and it was
obvious we were in mortal danger. The camp people were not mistreated.
Pastor: It's difficult for people who didn't go through that war to understand the
dangers and seriousness of the period. There are a number of misconceptions.
Old Man of the Sea: Yes, there are. One rumor has it that Roosevelt invited the
war. The truth is, had Congress and the money men listened to FDR, things never
would have gotten that far. We had a chance to maybe ride out the period, except
Congress kept refusing to take action. We were coming out of the depression, and
industries and businesses were making money. Eleanor Roosevelt, FDR's wife,
although from a monied family, was a champion and worker for the poor. She implored
FDR to do something to help the Jews. When a couple of shiploads of Jews arrived
here, FDR sent them away because Congress didn't want to oppose Germany. This
was a heartless action, and was a very big black mark from God. American
politicians were very critical of Eleanor. She wasn't beautiful on the outside but she
was very beautiful on the inside. There was a constant tirade against her.
Pastor: We finally were at war, and there's controversy today that FDR actually
wanted war with Japan.
Old Man of the Sea: Pure politics by people who want to rewrite history. If you
have any sense at all, which I doubt these rewriters have, you know that Pearl
didn't happen on a whim. The Japanese, like Germany, and to a lesser extent, like
Russia, were doing the same thing as the others. They were building a war machine.
When they attacked Pearl they had a large fleet of warships, including aircraft
carriers and support ships. They had thousands of war planes. They long since
had tanks and troops in Manchuria and were working on China, It took years for
this kind of buildup. We knew this was happening. Why else did we have such a
strong base at Manila? Why else have a fleet of aircraft carriers there? The Japanese
were island hopping, headed for the United States. There was so much ill feeling
against FDR about social security and fair wages, that his opponents conjured all
kinds of stories about him.
Pastor: The Japanese thought if they destroyed our fleet at Pearl Harbor they
would have easy pickings taking the islands enroute to America and we wouldn't be
able to defend ourselves?
Old Man of the Sea: Correct. Who knows what would have happened if our carriers
hadn't been out on maneuvers? God saw to it that we would be able to defeat the
Japanese. There is an interesting aside to this story. Do you know Einstein knew
about the feasibility of the atom bomb in 1939? Think how quickly that would have
ended the war.
Pastor: So you see God's hand in all of this?
Old Man of the Sea: Every step of the way. Part of a Christian's preparation for
heaven is to learn about things, experience problems, learn to solve problems the
way God directs you, to accept the trials and tribulations He puts you through. If
you're going to be fighting the strongest enemy in the universe, you need God's
boot camp.
Pastor: We'll journey through the war years in our next message.
