The book is called Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor when Hitler came in to power in 1933. I am only about 25% of the way through the story, the author has taken a lot of time to lay the ground work of who Bonhoeffer was before Nazi Germany.
As the Nazis began taking over Germany, one thing to come under attack was Christianity. Chapter 11 is titled "Nazi Theology." Hitler said, "It’s been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn’t we have the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the highest good? The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?"
The new Nazi religion had a 30 point program outlining the way things should be. These points included cessation of the publishing and dissemination of the Bible in Germany and clearing away from its altars all crucifixes, Bibles and pictures of saints. And finally, point number 30:
On the day of its foundation, the Christian Cross must be removed from all churches, cathedrals and chapels . . . and it must be superseded by the only unconquerable symbol, the swastika.
Whew! That just struck me! The unconquerable symbol does not look like this:
There is only One Who is unconquerable and conquered all. Jesus said in Revelation 1:18, "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." The old rugged cross that "emblem of suffering and shame" is the unconquerable symbol! It stands for the greatest event in the history of mankind. When God Himself paid the ultimate price for US. Yes, there's an unconquerable symbol, but it looks like this:
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.
