FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS, volume 8, number 18, April 30, 2009.

Their feet are swift to shed innocent blood . . . Destruction and misery are in their paths,  Romans 3:15-16.

The Theology of Appeasement

While out of politics in the 1930’s Winston Churchill continuously, and with increasing fervency, warned Europe of her impending doom at the hands of Adolf Hitler. Great Britain and Europe were in no mood to hear such gloom forebodings. After all, they were only fifteen years removed from the horror of the Great War that decimated an entire generation of her men. After Hitler’s Anschluss of Austria and the absorption of the Sudetenland and the Rhineland, along with the threatened invasion of Poland—Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew to Berlin and came back with a treaty of peace with Hitler. All of England rejoiced. They believed that a Second World War had been averted. Chamberlain had carried on a policy of appeasement, believing that he could sit down across the table from Hitler and talk logically with him, being able to cut a deal to stop Nazi expansion. His return from Berlin was so promising. A few weeks later on September 1, 1939 Hitler ignored the treaty and invaded Poland. Soon England declared war, and some nine months later Churchill replaced Chamberlain to head up the effort to save Britain and Europe from Nazi imperialism.

Near the end of World War II President Franklin D. Roosevelt believed he could talk sense into “Uncle Joe” Stalin. At the Teheran meeting of the big three in November, 1943 FDR sought to meet privately with Stalin, not wanting Churchill in the meetings, being convinced that he alone could influence Stalin. He even made Stalin laugh by denigrating Churchill in one of their meetings. By Yalta in February, 1945 when the big three met to “carve up post war Europe” FDR was still convinced that he could encourage Stalin to carry through with his promise to allow democratic elections in Poland. Churchill at no time in their negotiations trusted “Uncle Joe.” Soon after FDR’s death in April, 1945, new President Harry S. Truman began hearing reports of Stalin’s violations from the Yalta treaty and was livid. And President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s Détente was another example of seeking to appease the Soviet Union.

The influx of Muslims to Western Europe and Great Britain for the last thirty years has continued unabated. There are now over three million Muslims in Germany, nearly two million in Great Britain, and seven percent of France is Muslim immigrants. At least twenty million Muslims live in Western Europe. When Ayaan Hirsi Ali—a refugee from Somalia who immigrated to the Netherlands and was elected to the Dutch Parliament—spoke out against the growing menace of militant Islam in her new country, a fatwa was announced against her. Her colleague in the production of her movie Submission, Theo Van Gogh, was murdered at the same time. It appears that the policy of appeasement has consumed Europe and Great Britain once again. They want peace at any price. Many will do whatever it takes to maintain a false sense of peace.

Our former president’s announcement after 9/11 that Islam is a peaceful religion, and our current president’s recent European tour, where he announced that we are not a Christian, Jewish, or Muslim nation, where he apparently bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, and where he has reached out to the president of Iran, hoping to dialogue with him on their differences are the latest examples of appeasement. The underlying assumption with all these efforts at appeasement is the conviction that a kind, peaceful, respectful move toward tyrants will win the day.

I suggest these efforts are built on a theology of appeasement that is unbiblical. Chamberlain, Roosevelt, Kissinger, and Obama all assumed their charisma and statesmanship could talk sense into these tyrants. This is naïve. Why? It is a denial of the doctrine of the total depravity of man. It is a denial of the imputation of Adam’s sin, that Adam our federal head sinned and when he sinned, we sinned in him (Romans 5:12ff). Murder, genocide, and virulent hatred reside in the heart of every unregenerate person. All are capable of the most heinous evil. Hitler, Stalin, bin Laden, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have proven to be wicked men, intent on the annihilation of people whom they despise. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, as a young man, came to see the wickedness of Communism and devoted the rest of his life to destroying it. Indeed, these despots have proven that their feet are swift to shed innocent blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. While Paul is making a general statement of all unregenerate mankind, we can thank God that His restraining grace prohibits the vast number of people from such extremes of hatred and violence. Nonetheless, world history is replete with despots who seek to kill, maim, and destroy. Reasoned, kind overtures do not impress tyrants. History proves this to be true, but so does Scripture. There was no bargaining with Ahab or Ammonite kings, who only respected force or the threat of it.

But there is another component of the theology of appeasement, and it is “peace at any price.” Israel repeatedly tried to cut deals with the Assyrians because they did not have the stomach to fight. Neville Chamberlain’s England was weary of fighting. They wanted “peace at any price,” at least until it was nearly too late. And now Europe is once again wallowing in appeasement. Many there seem to think the problems will fix themselves, failing to understand a basic principle of life—nations and cultures decay when left to their own devices.  

In the geo-political sphere this means, to borrow from Teddy Roosevelt, that we are to talk softly and carry a big stick. Or in the words of Ronald Reagan, “None of the four wars in my lifetime came as a result of America being too strong.” President Harry Truman came to this conclusion and talked tough to the Soviet Union to check their expansionist policies. The civil magistrate is to restrain evil and a strong military, left free to act quickly and decisively, is vital to any nation’s defense. But second, from a decidedly Christian point of view, this means that the church must diligently stay at her task—to preach Christ crucified, to call the nations to faith and repentance in the Suffering Servant who became the Exalted One. The church of Jesus must fervently commit to do what only she can do—bring Jesus to the nations, that those dwelling in darkness will see a great light, that millions will believe the message of gospel salvation.

FORGET NONE OF HIS BENEFITS is a weekly devotional by Reverend Al Baker, pastor of Christ Community Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Connecticut.

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