“Never again” stands out in five languages against a stone wall at Dachau, Germany. These two words stir deep feelings of resolve and regret in the hearts of millions. After the horrors of the Holocaust, decent people the world over hold them out as a solemn promise to unborn generations.
But too often it is a feeble and empty promise. A generation before the liberation of Dachau, and numerous times since, the world has turned a blind eye to the wholesale slaughter of innocents. The Armenian genocide, the Bolshevik starvation of Ukraine, China’s great leap forward, Cambodia’s killing fields and Rwanda’s slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis all happened while the world looked on. Globalist rulers never mustered the moral courage to stop the slaughter in real-time.
Only after the bloodletting had subsided did bleeding hearts denounce atrocities and renew their vows of “never again.” Even after Rabbi Meir Kahane published his 1972 book “Never Again,” the United States Supreme Court turned a blind eye to the unborn and allowed a holocaust of 62 million abortions over the next 50 years. Never again, indeed.
How is it that such a noble and universally breathed vow can be so consistently ignored when its payment comes due? That is the riddle. Until it is solved, wanton slaughter and the wholesale violation of human rights will proceed apace. Promises made — whether by the Bill of Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or by your favorite politician — will remain hollow.
The first clue to the riddle’s answer is to notice that it is far more convenient to demonize dead men than the living ideology that guided them. One pays no political price to condemn Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Mao. But to condemn the murderous ideas of socialism — national or international — risks offending those who consistently put power and profits over principle.
Demonization of the dead is worthless if the demons themselves are allowed to thrive. Serious-minded people should start there. The devil “was a murderer from the beginning,” says Jesus (John 8:44). If Hitler is the devil, he is dead and is no longer a threat. But if the real devil animated Hitler, that murderous spirit remains alive and well.
Murder is satanic. It is not merely the suspension of some man-made law. It is a violation of cosmic principles that exist before and outside of governmental edicts. Mass murders are never perpetrated by those who humble themselves before the Creator of the universe. They are always perpetrated by governments that deny His existence.
That is why justice requires that we acknowledge “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.” The U.S. Constitution is a set of governing rules created by men and written on parchment during the summer of 1787. But the Declaration of Independence acknowledges the eternal law of God Himself and is written into the very cosmos.
To deny this truth is the lie behind all lies. And that lie is the death of men and nations. Jesus, who identified the devil as a murderer, goes on to call him “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). By this, he teaches that lies and murder form a seamless garment.
The murder of innocents never comes out of the blue. The Holocaust did not begin with death camps. It began years earlier with the tolerance and promotion of lies. Too many Germans tolerated the lies until it was too late. Those unwilling to stand against Satan’s lies in the present will never be moved to justice, even after the killing starts.
That is why American survivors of the Nazi death camps, Soviet gulags, Castro’s Cuba and China’s Cultural Revolution are sounding the alarm. They hear the same lies being repeated in America that they heard before the blood flowed in their former countries. We should take their concerns seriously.
There is no such thing as an insignificant and inconsequential lie. Whether the lie be about the origins of human life, the nature of men and women, the medical sciences or the distortion of current events, all lies have murderous consequences. Even those lies that seem to advance the ball for your “team” cost far more than anyone dares to anticipate.
The only safe path is to renounce the devil and all his lies. Test every claim. Take responsibility for learning the truth. Never go along to get along. Listen to dissenters. And when you discover deception, never again trust the liar.
Today’s battle for the truth is tomorrow’s battle for life. Fight as hard for the first as you would for the second. In so doing, “never again” stops being a hollow slogan and becomes a vow to live by.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at OnlyHuman-JL.blogspot.com. Email: JLange64@allwest.net.
