Many people object to or question the position taken by Vine & Fig Tree with regard to war and the military. Here is a representative email:
|
In response, there are two questions that need to be asked:
|
Embarrassingly, many powerful people in America, the once-Christian nation, admired the ideas and policies of "scientific socialism," and helped advocates of that position come into power, notably including Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Other notable advocates of "scientific socialism" -- though not flying that banner by name -- were Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
In 1925, the "Scope's Trial" sent many Christians ducking for cover, and Christians have been in cultural and political retreat ever since. They are no longer the salt of the earth and a light unto the world, a City upon a Hill.
If America had followed Biblical blueprints, we would not have entered World War II. Winston Churchill is reported to have said:
America should have minded her own business and stayed out of the World War. If you hadn't entered the war the Allies would have made peace with Germany in the Spring of 1917. Had we made peace then there would have been no collapse in Russia followed by Communism, and Germany would not have signed the Versailles Treaty, which has enthroned Nazism in Germany. If America had stayed out of the war, all these 'isms' wouldn't today be sweeping the continent in Europe and breaking down parliamentary government, and if England had made peace early in 1917, it would have saved over one million British, French, and American and other lives.
If America had followed Biblical blueprints, the Great Depression would not have occurred. The economic policies that brought about the Great Depression in America were emulated in other nations, which also suffered during the Great Depression. "The Roaring 20's" were not just culturally, but in terms of banking and other economic policies, a repudiation of Biblical Law.
Departures from God's economic laws in the opening decades of the 20th century led to America's Great Depression, which had world-wide impact, including Germany, and directly set the stage for World War II.
If America had been a Christian pacifist nation, following the "Vine & Fig Tree" blueprints in the Bible, she would not have given military and financial support to Hitler and other dictators during the 1920's and 30's.
The "right hand" does not always know what "the left hand" is doing.
Senator Joe McCarthy -- for all the invective against him - was right: The U.S. Federal Government was infested with commies:
The prestigious (and conservative) think-tank at Stanford University, the Hoover Institute, published a multi-volume study of de-classified State Department documents and other government records which proved beyond question that the Soviet Union would not have lasted more than a few years without technological and financial aid from the so-called "capitalist" West. Socialism does not work. It must be propped up by capitalism.
WALL STREET AND THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION
Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1930-1945
The purpose of World War II -- which was determined not by the brave men and women who fought in it, but by the communists in the State Department and throughout the federal government -- was to extend communism, which was at least 10 times as lethal as Hitler. America only entered the war against German National Socialism in order to further International Socialism under Stalin.
The same is true for America's entry into the Pacific Theater against Japan: the goal
was to eliminate a threat to international socialism in the Far East.
FDR and his communist advisors were planning to enter WWII even as they promised to keep
our boys out of war, and in Asia they opened the door to Mao Tse Tung, keeping Douglas
McArthur from closing it.
|
But even if the U.S. put an end to Hitler's national socialism, is there really any important difference between national socialism ("fascism") and international socialism ("communism")? Tyranny is tyranny.
Many of the Philippine islands on which American soldiers gave their lives are now Muslim. The federal government has long financial aid to and maintained ties with Muslim governments which America's Christian Founding Fathers would have opposed. |
|
On the other hand, researchers on the far right are quick to point out that Bush's "neo-conservative" inner circle are devotees of Leon Trotsky.
|
If Hitler killed six million, Stalin killed 60 million.
American intervention against Hitler [and in defense of Stalin] arguably made matters
worse.
We MUST trust God.
This is our duty.
http://members.aol.com/VFTfiles/Directory/4_peace.htm
http://members.aol.com/VFTfiles//security.htm
I welcome a continuing dialogue on this issue.
Kevin Craig
http://i.am/not-a-lawyer
---------------------------------------------
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and sit under their Vine & Fig Tree.
Micah 4:1-7
Click here to view the exhibit of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., co-sponsored by Rutgers University:
IEEE Virtual Museum: WWII: What was all the Fighting About?
If you've never seen that website, give it a visit. Beginning with the IEEE text on the left, on the right are the questions Christians should be asking:
| WWII: What was all the Fighting About?
World War II (1939 to 1945) was the largest and costliest war ever, both in terms of lives and money. In about six short years an estimated 50,000,000 people died as a result of battles, concentration camps, bombings, starvation, and disease. Millions more were displaced and left as refugees. Billions of dollars in property were also destroyed, as were artistic and architectural masterpieces. The war involved nearly every country, but essentially there were only two sides,
Although this exhibit will primarily focus on the technology developed by both sides during the conflict, a basic understanding of the issues surrounding the war is essential. |
In a battle between atheistic communism and pagan
Naziism, or in a battle between atheistic communism and Japanese fascism, which
side do you want to be on? For which side are you willing to give your life?
Why would you want to be on either side?
|
||
| The causes of World War II were complex. A major one was the global depression of the 1930s, which generated worldwide political unrest and encouraged radical political reforms. In Germany, the demand for reform brought the National Socialist Party (the Nazis) to power. Their leader, Adolf Hitler, promised and delivered both a better economy and the revitalization of German pride, which had been badly damaged by the country's humiliating defeat in World War I and the change in national borders in Europe. This pride reached a fanatical pitch with a call to unify ethnically German people living in nearby nations and to "purify" the German "race." "Purification" culminated in the Holocaust, the wholesale roundup and execution of Jews, homosexuals, Gypsies, and political dissidents. "Unification" led to expansion outside of Germany's borders with the annexation of Austria in 1938 and the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939. This aggression was met with negotiation by other European nations who hoped appeasing Hitler in the short term would prevent war in the long term. When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, however, Britain and France declared war. | What were the causes of the Great Depression? In the
early decades of the 20th century, America made a decisive conversion from
Christian Republic to Secular Empire. In 1931 America officially repudiated its
Christian heritage, but this repudiation had been taking place for decades.
"The Roaring 20's" were not just culturally, but in terms of banking and
other economic policies, a repudiation of Biblical Law.
Henry Hazlitt and the Great Depression Five Books That Explain It All Departures from God's economic laws in the opening decades of the 20th century led to America's Great Depression, which had world-wide impact, including Germany, and directly set the stage for World War II. |
||
| Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a very different war was brewing. Thousands of miles away, Japan became an ally of the Germans, even though they shared few military or political goals. The Japanese invaded China, seeking to gain territories there and in Southeast Asia. Feeling threatened when the U.S imposed severe trade sanctions in response to this aggression, Japan attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941. Within weeks of the attack the U.S was at war with both Japan and Germany. The USSR, which had seen their nonaggression pact with Germany violated just six months earlier, joined the Allies. | Do "severe trade sanctions" work? Did they
actually accelerate conflict with Japan and U.S. entry into World War II in
"the pacific theater?"
Future of Freedom Foundation - Trade Sanctions on Japan |
||
| British and American forces began their counteroffensive by attacking German forces in Africa in 1942, virtually driving the Axis armies from the continent. This was followed by American successes in the Pacific and the Russian defeat of the invading German army. The Allies finally entered German-held France in the famous Normandy (D-Day) invasion in June 1944 and gradually worked their way through France and into Germany before joining the Soviets in taking the capital city of Berlin in the spring of 1945. | |||
| With Hitler defeated, the Allies turned their full attention to the Japanese. Following brutal fighting on numerous small Pacific islands, the Japanese were beaten back toward their homeland. Believing that an invasion of Japan would entail too many casualties, President Truman ordered the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on 6 August 1945. Despite the horrible effects of the bomb, the Japanese did not surrender, and the Americans dropped a second bomb on the city of Nagasaki three days later. The Japanese then surrendered on 14 August, ending World War II. | |||
| A major cause of the unprecedented scale and destruction of World War II was improved military technology. Although submarines, tanks, and aircraft had limited use in previous wars, by World War II they were advanced enough to play a determining factor in the outcome. Submarines were made larger, faster, and deadlier and their torpedoes took a heavy toll on ships all through the war. | |||
| Aircraft and tanks, which had seen limited use in World War I, now became two of the most important types of weapons. Aerial bombing became especially important, as both sides developed bigger bombers capable of delivering more bombs (to see some, flip through the slideshow at right). This improved technology, however, was abetted by new technologies that debuted in World War II and would change war and the world forever. | |||
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers does not necessarily agree with the views expressed on this website. Its purposes are not political, certainly not pacifistic, anarchistic, or Christian, but solely for "furthering the understanding of the history of electrical and information technologies."
WorldNetDaily: Was World War II worth it?