Back in 1987, I was hired as a
flight crewmember for Lufthansa German Airlines on a three year
contract. As the job required me to be based in Frankfurt, my wife and I
found ourselves living in Germany, 42
years after Hitler’s war machine ground to a halt.
The three years living in Europe was a great experience and the job provided the
opportunity to travel. When my schedule only allowed me to have one or
two days off between trips, we would still visit some neighboring towns
close to
Frankfurt.
One such town we visited when both
sets of parents came to visit on two separate occasions was the town of Dachau, located just outside Munich. Walking through the former
concentration camp, I remember the uneasy feeling I had while strolling
past the old foundations of where once the barracks stood that housed
all the Jewish prisoners. The old wooden structures have long since
rotted away and been removed, but they did rebuild some mockups on the
first two foundation slabs in order to get an idea of what they looked
like and one could walk through them to view the cramped living
quarters.
I can remember thinking upon
seeing the sign written in German above the main gate “Arbeit Macht
Frei” (Working will set you free): what a cruel hoax, to offer a glimmer
of hope for their release if they labored well, when no such hope
existed in this dark place.
The walk past the rows and rows of
the barrack foundations finally led to where the crematoriums were
located. Another assault on the senses as you walked into these macabre
structures and looked upon the ghoulish devices erected to exterminate a
race. The whole Dachau experience for me
was one of a pinball of emotions: bouncing from horror, to grief, to
nausea and ultimately to incredulity – with the realization that human
beings could exact such treatment on fellow human beings in such an
offensive and diabolical manner.
Another point of interest for me
to visit while on layovers in Amsterdam was the Anne Frank house. Entrance
into the hideout was accomplished by means of passing through a swinging
bookshelf that concealed the opening into the annex.
Walking through the small living space, it is hard to fathom how
two families survived in that building for close to two years. The annex
is located just above a working place of business below, so the
occupants could not walk around during the office hours for fear that
the workers below would hear them and possibly expose them to the
authorities.
The living conditions were
deplorable: concealed away in a confined space, unable to venture
outdoors and depending on an outside source for their provisions.
Ultimately, they were found out by the Nazis, but it is not clear who
turned them in. All except for Mr. Frank – Anne’s father – succumbed to
the dreadful conditions of the camps. He survived and the infamous diary
was published.
The Nazi reign of terror across Europe, the death camps, the Holocaust, Hitler’s Final
Solution still make for a compelling story after all these years. There
have been numerous books, movies and documentaries detailing the rise to
power of one man from Austria and his quest for the rise of
the Third Reich of Germany. It is hard to imagine how the devil could
have influenced any other man as much as he did with Adolf Hitler, in
the enemy’s desire to rid the world of the Jewish race.
The audio and visual depictions in
the films of the Nazi reign of terror as they hunt down the Jews are
bone chilling: a police whistle pierces the quiet of the night on
discovery of a family fleeing; jack boots kicking in a door, marching up
stairs to discover some in their hideout; a single Luger shot to the
head out in the street on a person wearing a yellow star; the bark of a
German Shepherd dog as it corners someone in a back alley; the sounds of
heavy metal doors clanging shut on the boxcars that haul off another
load to the camps; and the shrill of the steam whistle on the train as
it begins to lumber down the tracks to the crematoriums.
While watching one such movie a
couple of months back, it dawned on me that this will all happen again
in the not too distant future – but on an even grander scale. After
World War II concluded and the concentration camps were exposed for the
entire outside world to see, the mantra became “Never Again”.
Never again would a people be herded up, forced to live in
ghettos, stripped of their basic human rights and ultimately sent off to
the death camps. This kind of atrocity should never be allowed to be
repeated.
But we’re told in the Scriptures
that during the soon coming Tribulation period, that a person will arise
(in Europe again) who will have ultimate control in the
matters of all commerce:
“And
he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to
receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
And that no man might buy or
sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number
of his name.
Revelation 13:16, 17
The antichrist and the false prophet will
force all to take a mark upon them to identify whether or not that
person has sworn loyalty to his system. Revelation 14:9 tells us that
entry into this exclusive buying and selling club will require the
candidate to worship the beast and his image. It will be this act that
will reward the recipient into receiving the mark. Those who refuse to
show up to fulfill this command, will instantly be outcasts and readily
identifiable in their opposition to the antichrist. So, whereas the Jews
were identified by a yellow star affixed to their clothing to mark them
as outcasts in Hitler’s
Europe, not having the beast’s mark on a person
will label them as undesirables during the antichrists reign. And who
knows…maybe the yellow star will be reinstituted again for the Jews to
wear.
Those who refuse the mark will almost
certainly be forced into going into hiding. Hitler’s final solution was
predominately confined to northern and western Europe, but the beast and false prophet will have control
throughout the world. In this day and age of computers, bar codes,
scanners, transponders, satellites, and closed circuit tv cameras, it
will be even more difficult to avoid the authorities.
The bible tells us that for those people
who miss the Rapture and become Christians during the Tribulation will
be martyred for their faith. Not only will the authorities be
persecuting and hunting down the Jews as the Nazis did, but they will
also be coming after the new Christians. And again, it will be
worldwide. It will be a time of unfathomable terror.
To make matters worse, we are told in
Revelation that somewhere near the midpoint of the Tribulation period,
that there will be a war in Heaven and Satan will be forever banished
from returning there. He will be furious in his desire to wipe out the
Jews and anyone who swears allegiance to Jesus Christ and not his
antichrist. He will then indwell the antichrist and this man will have
access to the spirit realm also in his hunting down of Jews and
Christians. Adolph Hitler certainly had to be demonically possessed in
his desire to exterminate the Jews and had to have had help to carry out
his plans. But the antichrist will have the chief devil residing in him
and with the help of his demonic forces, it will be next to impossible
to allude capture.
Jesus said concerning those days of wars,
natural disasters, plagues, earthquakes and yes, the rise of the
antichrist and his worldwide holocaust:
“And except those days
should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's
sake those days shall be shortened.”
Revelation 24:22
A very grim picture indeed of what lies
just ahead. The bad news is: we are almost there…perhaps days away from
the start of it all. The good news is: trusting in Jesus Christ right
now will prevent one from having to enter into this dark hour. Accept
God’s free gift of salvation:
“For the wages of sin is death; but the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 6:23
“For by grace are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” Ephesians 2:8,9
“Sirs, what must I do to be
saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved” Acts
16:30, 31
Steve
Gotitans25@aol.com