The Danger in Ignoring History
Current world leaders—some of the most highly educated of our time—are making fatal errors in managing international crises. Why? The solutions that would work require knowledge and respect for history.
Prior to World War ii, Churchill warned Britain and the Western nations about Hitler’s rise to power. Because he learned the lessons taught by World War i, he saw the extreme danger of the bold (and illegal) German moves to rearm. Churchill saw the German youth ready and willing to fight for the Fatherland. As Germany rearmed, British leaders wanted to disarm. Churchill was aghast! But his warnings were met with a vicious attack from leaders in Parliament and at Oxford. A group of Oxford undergraduates officially declared they would not fight for “king and country.” Still, Churchill remained determined and only grew stronger in the face of their hostility.
“Oxford was the leader of the pacifists,” Gerald Flurry wrote in his booklet Winston S. Churchill: The Watchman (this vitally important booklet is yours free upon request). “Other colleges and universities thought similarly in America and Britain. Have our educational institutions learned a lesson from the Hitler experience? No they have not! Neither have our political leaders, nor the press.”
Today, Germany is again rising to power in Europe. The Roman Catholic Church is gaining influence globally. Iran is boldly prancing on the world stage. The United States, Britain and the tiny nation of Israel are being pushed into the background. What does this all mean? History tells us that a 21st-century crusade is coming. It will violently involve a Roman Catholic-inspired and German-led Europe. Israel will be swallowed in the coming clash. The U.S. and Britain will be powerless to intervene. But who believes that?
Referring to the perilous danger of Germany’s current rise to power, Mr. Flurry reported in the January 2002 Trumpet how Tony Blair’s government is contemptuous of history, as was former U.S. President Bill Clinton. “It is a dangerous problem—the kind of thinking that destroys nations!” Mr. Flurry wrote.
“Bill Clinton, when he was president, totally ignored the 1945 United Nations warning” about the likelihood of Germany starting World War iii. “Many of our own citizens personally lived through that history. Even worse, Mr. Clinton actually pushed Germany into dominating Europe—the ultimate contempt for extremely recent history! …
“How utterly contemptuous Mr. Blair and Mr. Clinton have been of World War ii history that cost 50 million lives! Our nations are going to pay dearly for such dangerous contempt of history” (ibid.).
Do we see how our contempt for history is putting us in harm’s way?
Just after World War ii, leaders like Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to make certain that Germany would not start World War iii. Where are men like these today?
Let’s face the truth. The pool of rightly trained, effective leaders is nearly dried up. There is a cause for every effect. Education has promised us that with sufficient knowledge we can solve all of our problems. Do we see that, in regards to leadership training, our education system is failing us?
Will we experience a turnaround? God’s textbook, the Bible, shows clearly that our modern education system will not produce any more Churchills. The Prophet Isaiah wrote of our time: “For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away … The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, The captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counselor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator” (Isaiah 3:1-3). God is working out His purpose on Earth. He has always been the unseen hand preparing and establishing the leadership of nations.
God prepared Churchill to save Britain, the U.S. and all of Western civilization. Martin Gilbert, one of Churchill’s biographers, even referred to him as a prophet.
Where is the world leader today willing to stand against the tide as Churchill did? Understand this: God is not preparing such a man to lead a national government today. In fact, He is allowing ill-equipped leaders to deal with our severe international crises. Do you see a world leader stirring up people, warning them about Germany’s rise to power? Let’s be honest: Even if God did raise up a political leader to warn the nations of Britain and America, people would not listen. Our people and our educational institutions are far more liberal than at the time of World War ii.
Isaiah continued, “And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them” (verse 4). Our world’s ships of state are now being commanded by babes. These childish leaders lack knowledge of critical history. Of course, we do not want to oversimplify the causes of our leaders’ mishandling of international crises, but we should be able to recognize that not learning the lessons of history is an important cause. For this reason and others often discussed in the Trumpet, our world is about to enter the worst trouble in man’s history! Just after that, though, true world peace is coming.
