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SPEAKING UP- DOES IT MATTER?Martin Niemoller was a German pastor, and a leader in the Christian resistance to Hitler during World War II. He was arrested in 1937 because of his opposition to the hatred and persecution of various peoples, and was imprisoned in Dachau. Amazingly, he lived through it all. At the age of 55, he was released in 1945 when the war in Europe ended. Niemoller felt that Christians should have spoken up. Speaking to his congregation at his old Church of St. Anne’s in Dahlem in the U.S.-controlled sector of Berlin, he made this oft-repeated statement which has since become famous: "In Germany they came first for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because wasn’t a communist. They they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionist, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up." These words should ring in the ears of Seventh-day Adventists everywhere, who are gradually letting modernist liberals take over our schools, churches, editorial and executive offices,—while they remain silent. Joel 2:17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? |