Karl Barth: The Church's Struggle in 1933, Theology for Today 5

Paganism is as old as sin. Paganism also rears its head without and within the Church in some form in every century. In Germany, before and during the Nazi years, paganism in various forms invaded the churches. Those who espoused it based their religion on blood and soil; that is, religion for the German Church was considered best represented by that which conformed to German nationalism and culture. The interesting aspect of this is how first orthodoxy, then liberal Christianity could evolve to meet such a need.

Arthur C. Cochrane, author of The Churches Confession Under Hitler, writes of one pastor, Friedrich Andersen of Flensburg:

The latter [Andersen] is typical of how many ecclesiastics turned from Protestant orthodoxy to radical liberalism. As early as 1907 and 1913, Andersen was an avowed critic of the Old Testament and ‘all Jewish blurring of the pure teaching of Jesus’; and in defending himself, he liked to appeal to Adolf von Harnack’s book Marcion. Coming under the influence of the writings of Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Andersen eventually became a member of the Hitler Party and an enthusiastic advocate of racial theories, even defending Rosenberg’s Myth of the 20th Century! As Hans Buchheim has observed, Andersen is a classic example of the transformation of liberal, historical theology into intolerant German nationalistic dogmatism. (75)

Religiously speaking, two important aspects of the liberalism of the German Churches in Nazi Germany correspond to Progressive Protestantism today, that is, a rejection of much of the Old Testament and a rejection of the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. In fact both groups, the ‘German Christians’ of Nazi Germany and contemporary Progressives, reject Jesus Christ as he is found in both the Old Testament and the New.

As this particular heresy evolved in Nazi Germany it could not help but emerge as a form of paganism. Theologians insisted that theology must meet the needs of the German people; it must be seen, interpreted and formed in the context of their culture. Since all are sinners always turning toward themselves, the German people glorified the ‘volk’ that is the people. The people were glorified as was their leader, therefore Jesus Christ could only be understood as a heroic figure set beside Hitler.

There were those both inside the Church and out who went much further in their Paganism. There were many who wished to destroy Christianity as it had been known for almost two thousand years. Those outside tormented and mocked the Confessing Church. By 1937 many pastors of the Confessing Church were imprisoned

Along side this many declarations and statements of faith were written all leading toward Barmen. Cochrane writes of one such statement written by Pastor Heinrich Vogel. It is the ‘Eight Articles of Evangelical Doctrine.’ It is the answer to all paganism inside the Church. Cochrane writes:

"In these articles the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are acknowledged as God’s Word, which is to be heard only in faith through the Holy Spirit. The attempt to rend the unity of the Old and New Testaments, or to do away with them or to abbreviate them, is condemned. Thereafter Scripture is confessed ‘as the only source of revelation,’ and the ‘acceptance of other sources of revelation in nature and history’ is rejected. ‘We hear God’s voice not in the voice of the people who today cry ‘hosanna and tomorrow ‘crucify’ but in the Word of Scripture.’

The sermon is dealt with as ‘the present proclamation of God’s word subordinate to Holy Scripture, whose true preacher and hearer is the Holy Spirit alone.’ The second article deals with the sacraments. The third affirms the Triune God and rejects nature deities, and idols of culture, race, class, folk, and humanity. Next, the nature of God’s law is defined and distinguished from civil law and from social customs. Sin is ‘disobedience, unbelief, and enmity to God’s Word,’ which is known only through the cross of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, in which it is judged and forgiven.’

Then follows an article on grace in which it is asserted that we are redeemed through the blood of Christ and not by our own blood and natures." (125)

Cochrane’s explanations go on to describe the nature of the Church, the condemning of the banning of Jewish Christians from the Church and much more. He points out that all of the various writings and confessions being written during this time were the seeds being sowed for a new Confession which would grow out of the Church’s need to simply stand and confess her Lord.

The progressive theology of today will evolve also since it has no foundation in the revealed Word of God. Only God, however, knows that future. That some progressives in the Church care to mock the Lord of the Church and those who belong to the Lord of the Church is a telling sign of their evolving direction.

From Theological Existence Today: (And I have used this often before!)

"Of course something has to be done; very much so; but most decidedly nothing other than this, viz. that the Church congregations be gathered together again, but aright and anew in fear and great joy, to the Word by means of the Word. All the crying about and over the Church will not deliver the Church. Where the Church is a Church she is already delivered. Let persecution be never so severe, it will not affect her! 'Still,' it is said, 'still, shall the City of God abide, lusty beside her tiny stream.' (Psalm xlvi. 5; Luther's translation)." (78)