opinion A call to Evangelicals worldwide — Be like Bonhoeffer!

There have been major turning points in history, like in 1780 when William Wilberforce, a member of the British Parliament, witnessed his government facilitating the slave trade. As a Christian, would he just sit it out and do nothing? No! He led a movement to abolish the insanity of dehumanizing human beings and successfully ended the slave trade.

Then there’s Winston Churchill, who understood the nature of evil which gaslights, deflects, and desensitizes in order to destroy, much like a deadly cancer. Churchill had the moral clarity to recognize what is good versus what is evil, which empowered him to refuse to negotiate with Hitler, unlike his predecessor Neville Chamberlain. You cannot negotiate with evil; it will only morph and metastasize. It must be destroyed!

In 1933, as Nazi Germany began isolating and persecuting Jews—only the beginning of the horrors to come—Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer called on the church to rise up and do everything possible to protect and save the lives of Jews.

Bonhoeffer wrote, “Only he who cries [out] for the Jews may sing Gregorian chant.”

He urged his fellow Christians to “throw a stick in the spokes,” even if it meant joining a plot to assassinate Hitler, for which he was ultimately arrested and hanged.

Today, we’re at a turning point.

Threats against Jews in the United States have tripled in the year since the deadly October 7 terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas. Worldwide, there has been a tsunami of hate directed at Jewish communities.

As Christians, we cannot ignore what we are witnessing. We are at a 'Bonhoeffer moment.' We must not repeat the mistakes made by many in the German church.

We must pass four critical tests:

One: The Moral Test, Hitler believed in a superior race, while today the Iranian Islamic leadership believes in a superior faith and seeks to establish a new Islamic world order, with Israel standing on the front lines of this battle. Today, the 'Free Palestine' campaign has become nothing less than the rallying cry of 'Islamic Nazis'—those who seek to destroy Israel and spearhead an Islamic New World Order. Those who chant this slogan are deluded by evil; those who promote it are its puppets.

Two: The Historic Test, the land of Israel is the ancestral home of the Jewish people! Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to a national home in Israel. Anti-Zionism is the promotion of the idea that the land of Israel is not the historic and ancestral home of the Jewish people. This lie serves as the fertilizer for the false narrative that Israel is 'the oppressor' on 'occupied Arab land,' fueling the delusion that murder and rape of Jews are a justified response.

Three: the Theological Test, understanding that Christian’s are grafted in God's unfolding plan through Israel and the Messiah of Israel. If a Christian loses their “story”, they will lose their identity.

Four: The Faith Test, affirming that our faith should not only inform us of the truth but also transform us, as Scripture reminds us, “faith without works is dead.”

If the Christian world does not pass these tests, how can we expect others to?

To be like Bonhoeffer is to pray for and protect all Jews, to fight against the insanity and demonic delusion of antisemitism, anti-Zionism, radical Islamism, replacement theology, and other attacks on Israel and the Jewish people.

May there be an awakening throughout the Christian world—one where the darkness of antisemitism and anti-Zionism is confronted first by Christians, ensuring that our Jewish friends and the nation of Israel know more than ever that they are not alone.

Now is the time!

If you are a pastor and would like to join the 'Pastors Alliance for Israel' in the fight against antisemitism and antizionism, visit www.BeLikeBonhoeffer.com