Tag Archives: things we couldn’t say

“Things We Couldn’t Say”

Diet Eman, in her book “Things we Couldn’t Say” quotes Dietrich Bonheoffer from “The Cost of Discipleship”… “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

Eman a Christian, was a teenage girl living in the Netherlands when the Germans invaded her town. It was an “overnight” takeover, and many believing friends and family succumbed to this evil invasion, thinking as Christians, they were to submit to the authority of the government no matter who or what they represented.

Many of them suffered and died at the hands of the Germans, but Eman, with a few other young men and women, managed to hide and save many Jews because they could not resolve that God himself was on the side of the Germans. They could not understand why their Christian brothers and sister so easily gave in to the invasion and forfeited the freedom God had given them.

Confusion turns into conviction:

“It didn’t take long however, before our group of resisters had answers to the question we had constantly asked during those first days of the Occupation. Soon enough we knew that the only way for us to act was to resist, even though the risk sometimes seemed very high.” pg. 38

Eman continues several paragraphs later;

“Right from the beginning, the Occupation created ambiguities, arguments, and difficult struggles within Christian circles. When Jesus lived, his country was occupied by Romans, and everyone remembered what He said, “Give Caesar what is Caesar’s.” Jesus Christ never preached rebellion against the Roman. Part of the struggle, the moral struggle, was the belief that what had happened in our little country was in fact ordained by God: some people claimed that we shouldn’t interfere with what went on because the Occupation itself was God’s will.” pg. 44

The confusion caused some to not act at all;

“But the church we called the “black-stocking church” leaned toward the other point of view: that our burden was to be in subjection to whatever higher powers God had placed over us. People who took that point of view were never very strong in the Resistance because they thought resistance against the established government was quite simply sin.” (italic added) pg.45

What kind of people laid down their spiritual weapons…

“Jet’s family didn’t invite boys from the armory into their house. Her family belonged to our church, but they had six kids, and they would say, “Yeah, yeah, our family is too busy. We can’t do that.” We accepted their decision. But they were really the same kind of people we were; they attended the same church and had the same basic beliefs…” pg. 49

from: “Things we Couldn’t Say” ~Diet Eman

The point is… where do you stand? Are you “too busy” to get involved? Are you of the conviction that you are to succumb to evil because evil is encroaching? May I suggest you read the book. It is an easy and fast read. It will stir your conscience. Find a copy on Amazon and read it with friends. Read part of it here on Google books;  “Things We Couldn’t Say” there are about 90 pages online and it may be all you need to read.

See Lord Mockton explain Communism:


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