This week marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War on November 11, 1918 and the 29th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.
The city of Berlin was the epicenter of the ideological and military wars of the Twentieth Century. Those conflicts were rooted in the Nineteenth Century, when German theologians sold out to secularism, cast doubt on the scriptures, and destroyed the Christian faith of most Germans. The spiritual void was filled by a secular state religion and Darwinist survival of-the-fittest militancy. It is not a coincidence that the Germans brought the ancient Temple of Zeus from Pergamum, “where Satan has his throne” (Rev 2:13) to Berlin in the 19th century. And based on what followed it may truly be said that Satan moved with his throne to Berlin.
The First World War was welcomed by the militant Germans, who expected easy victories. They did manage to defeat the Russians, but at the price of helping to establish an expansionist Communist state. However, the Germans could not sustain the war in Western Europe and they surrendered on November 11, 1918. The Peace Treaty which followed in 1919 left the Germans humiliated and bitter, but they did not give up their militaristic spirit. They hardened their hearts, missing their chance to repent, and Satan remained enthroned in Berlin.
Feeding on that militaristic spirit, Adolph Hitler and his Nazis fashioned a new religion where the Germans would evolve into God-like super humans. Their version of the Godhood Religion, or New Age Religion, swept through Germany and led to the Second World War. Their early success in the war led them to attack the Russian Communists and they even declared war on the United States. All the while they were murdering Jews, Christians, and others who did not fit into their super human evolutionary vision. No one could doubt that Satan ruled through the Nazis in Berlin.
Judgment came to Berlin in 1945 as the Russian army destroyed the city, revenged itself on the population, and took the Temple of Zeus to Moscow. Berlin, and Germany, were divided between the Russians and the Western Powers. Yet, after the war, Berlin became the focal point of Cold War tensions as the Russians tried to force the Western Powers out. West Berlin became an embarrassment to the Russians as it prospered under free enterprise and democracy. Finally, in 1962, they built the infamous Berlin Wall to keep East Berliners from fleeing the Communist police state.
German Christians began to repent for their country and pray for deliverance from the Communist oppression, and in response God sent them a Polish Pope and an American President. Miraculously, the Russian tyranny simply fell apart under its own weight without a shot being fired. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989 as the prayers of the Christians were answered in an unmistakable way.
The two days in Berlin show the horrible consequences of failure to repent and the power of God to move for those who reach out to Him in repentance.
As we remember these two days, let us not harden our hearts if God’s judgment does come, because the Lord sends judgment to bring righteousness (Isaiah 26:9). Let us learn from the German Christians to repent and ask God to deliver us from the consequences of our sin.
“If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” -2 Chronicles 7:14