Schneider & Spirit-Empowered Boldness

Connecting my last two posts, Paul Schneider is an example of Spirit-empowered boldness.  As he shepherded his people he found himself compelled to call evil by name as he saw it in the Nazi party which was solidifying its power in Germany and in the cowardice of some church leaders.

Notice the boldness and clarity of these quotes. May they challenge you as they do me.

[Schneider’s circular letter]

“Oh, the unholy party-spirit that sins against our entire people coming and going!  Where are those Christian consciences who judge righteously, who take the standards for their politics neither from National Socialism nor from socialism, but rather from the Gospel?  National Socialism draws nothing from that source; can this movement really unite both poles and lead our people into moral and religious renewal, when it needs renewal so badly itself?” 45

[Schneider to the Sate Police]

“In this I also cannot (as you unreasonably require of me in your communication) promise to refrain in the future from similar ‘expressions hostile to the state,’ if the duty of my office and my Christian confession demands it of me.  So that we can avoid such incidents – which certainly can damage the Party’s authority among our people who hold fast to the Bible and their creed – it is advisable that the Party and its organizations earnestly respect the regimens and authority of the church.” 60

 

[Schneider’s letter to Dornholzhausen]

“…know that the church of Christ returning to a relation of tension with the world is in truth returning to its normal condition.” 61

[Schneider to his congregation]

“Apparently with this Reichstag election it is not only mandatory that we give our votes to the Fuehrer and approve his foreign policy, but also that we approve the world-view and policy of National Socialism upon which the whole fate of the nation rests at its deepest point – a world-view and policy which ever more openly opposes biblical Christianity.  Germany’s fate however is not decided by the troops on the Rhine, but on the attitude of the German people to the Word of God.  Therefore the question of world-view is disproportionately more important than that other question. . . . An unchristian German community school system is supposed to be installed by force. . . . Therefore the Church of Jesus Christ cannot approve the path of the Third Reich in this most important of all questions, and cannot give her godly wish for blessing to the election of the new Party-Reichstag.  On the contrary, she has the duty to pronounce godly warning and the judgment of God to the Fuehrer and the regime if they do not desist from this policy of removing all Christianity and Christian confession from public life. . . . Bear witness to the Honor and Majesty of the living God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, against the master-gods and false gods of this transitory world.” 69

[Schneider sermon]

“What is being put together in the ‘German Faith Movement’ is naked paganism with which there can be no agreement from the standpoint of the Christian faith…” 88

(quotes from Paul Schneider: The Witness Of Buchenwald)

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