Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you. – Ezekiel 5:7

Today's Scripture Reading (July 29, 2026): Ezekiel 5

As the Nazi Party began to take hold of Germany in the 1930's, it quickly became apparent that the political structure of the nation was being set up for a conflict with the Christian Church. Adolf Hitler was willing to take steps beginning with a mediating position concerning the church. Still, ultimately, Hitler believed that Christianity and all other religions were incompatible with the National Socialism espoused by Hitler's Nazi Party. The problem, for Hitler, was that Germany had strong Christian roots. So, the only response for the Nazi's was to change Christianity.

The plan began by restricting the church's teaching. Nazi racism meant that Christianity had to make a clean break with its Jewish roots. The attack on the Jewish basis for Christianity appears to have had two main focal points. First, the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) had to be removed from Christian teaching. So, Hitler adopted a position similar to the position that the heretic Marcion had held in the second century; everything Jewish had to be removed from the Christian Bible. The second attack was found in the Nazi accusation that the Jews bore the guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus. What more could be expected from what Hitler believed was an inferior people? But there was a third line of attack. Quietly, Adolf Hitler was portrayed as the new Messiah: the new Jesus. And the specter of a "Positive Christianity," one dominated by the policies of National Socialism, rose within the nation.

The unfortunate truth was that many Christians seemed to be willing to make the shift from a historical Christianity to a Nazi-dominated version of the Christian faith. But not all Christians made the switch. A remnant of the confessing church remained active in the nation, and leaders like Dietrich Bonhoeffer kept the image of the Biblical Christ fresh in the minds of those they encountered. But for others, it seems that Jesus' message of love was all too easily exchanged for the Nazi-dominated Messiah characterized by hate. Knowing what Christ had demanded, they decided to go in a different direction. And the truth that the world discovered as the Second World War ended was that the Nazi's had not only violated the teachings of Jesus, but they had not even lived up to the moral standards of nations that had never accepted the teachings of Christ.

God warns the nation of Judah that their sins were greater than those of the other nations because, although they knew what God had demanded of them, they had decided not to keep his decrees and follow his instructions. Not only did they fail to measure up to the instructions of God, but they also did not even live up to the morality of the pagan nations that surrounded them. For God, that was unacceptable. It was then, and it remains unacceptable in modern times. God demands more of us. The disturbing truth is that the church still seems too willing to exchange the message of Jesus of love for one based on hate. In doing so, we continue to reject the demands of God, and we fail to live up to the moral standards of even our secular world. And God remains unimpressed by our moral ineptitude. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 6