Churchill’s Warning for Today
During the 1930s, Winston Churchill warned Britain and the Western world about the dangers of Adolf Hitler and Germany. It was the strongest warning ever by a politician! Still, that warning was ignored.
Nobody was more contemptuous of his warning than the British Parliament. Hitler was conquering some of Europe and seriously threatening the rest. Less than one month before World War ii began, Parliament went on a two-month vacation!
Here is what Martin Gilbert wrote in his massive biography of Winston Churchill: “In discussing the government’s policy, Churchill told [General Edward] Spears that [Prime Minister Neville] Chamberlain’s decision to adjourn Parliament from August 4 to October 3  was a grave error of judgment, which could only encourage the Germans to believe that Britain would not take decisive action when the crisis came, and would also convince the Russians that Britain was not in earnest about an alliance. Churchill had decided to speak against this two-month adjournment, and read Spears a draft of the speech which he intended to deliver on August 2, asking for Parliament to be recalled on August 22 or 25” (emphasis mine throughout).
During the debate itself, Churchill said, “Abroad, the House of Commons is counted, and especially in dictator countries, as a most formidable expression of the British national will and an instrument of that will in resistance to aggression.”
His speech continued, “This is an odd moment for the House to declare that it will go on a two months’ holiday. … Is this, then, the moment that we should separate and declare that we separate until the 3rd October? Who can doubt that there is going to be a supreme trial of will power, if not indeed a supreme trial of arms.” Britain declared war on September 3 of that year.
He added, “At this moment in its long history, it would be disastrous, it would be pathetic, it would be shameful for the House of Commons to write itself off as an effective and potent factor in the situation, or reduce whatever strength it can offer to the firm front which the nation will make against aggression.”
Churchill then concluded, “It is a very hard thing, and I hope it will not be said, for the government to say to the House, ‘Begone! Run off and play. Take your masks with you. Do not worry about public affairs.’”
This gives a deeply disturbing insight into how Britain rejected Winston Churchill’s warning. Like little children, Parliament tried to hide from the brutal reality. According to several historians, Britain and the Western world came dangerously close to being conquered by Adolf Hitler.
Churchill was used to keep Western civilization from dying! Why do we continue to ignore or hide from his warning message? His warning should be a flashing red light in our memory today. What price will we have to pay for forgetting?
Mr. Churchill often warned America of the dangers of Nazism. Martin Gilbert’s biography quoted from his 15-minute broadcast to the United States on Aug. 8, 1939, in which Churchill told his American listeners:
“Holiday time, ladies and gentlemen! Holiday time, my friends across the Atlantic! Holiday time, when the summer calls the toilers of all countries for an all-too-brief spell from the offices and mills and stiff routine of daily life and bread-winning, and sends them to seek if not rest, at least change in new surroundings, to return refreshed and keep the myriad wheels of civilized society on the move.
“Let me look back—let me see. How did we spend our summer holidays 25 years ago? Why, those were the very days when the German advance guards were breaking into Belgium and trampling down its people on their march toward Paris! Those were the days when Prussian militarism was—to quote its own phrase—‘hacking its way through the small, weak, neighbor country’ whose neutrality and independence they had sworn not merely to respect but to defend.”
Churchill then spoke about a hush “hanging over Europe.” “Alas! it is the hush of suspense, and in many lands it is the hush of fear. Listen! No, listen carefully; I think I hear something—yes, there it was quite clear. Don’t you hear it? It is the tramp of armies crunching the gravel of the parade grounds, splashing through rain-soaked fields, the tramp of 2 million German soldiers and more than a million Italians—‘going on maneuvers’—yes, only on maneuvers!
“Of course it’s only maneuvers—just like last year. After all, the dictators must train their soldiers. They could scarcely do less in common prudence, when the Danes, the Dutch, the Swiss, the Albanians—and of course the Jews—may leap out upon them at any moment and rob them of their living-space, and make them sign another paper to say who began it.
“Besides, these German and Italian armies may have another work of liberation to perform. It was only last year they liberated Austria from the horrors of self-government. It was only in March they freed the Czechoslovak Republic from the misery of independent existence. It is only two years ago that Signor Mussolini gave the ancient kingdom of Abyssinia its Magna Charta. It is only two months ago that little Albania got its writ of Habeas Corpus. …
“No wonder the armies are tramping on when there is so much liberation to be done, and no wonder there is a hush among all the neighbors of Germany and Italy while they are wondering which one is going to be ‘liberated’ next” (ibid.).
We must not forget that Germany started both world wars. That dreadful history demands that we carefully watch Germany’s actions today. (It is not politically correct to do so—which is a bad sign.)
Are the Germans ashamed of their bloody past? Are they really seeking a democratic government today? Or are they bullying Europe and the world once again?
You soon will be shocked if you don’t know what is happening inside Germany today. (Request our free booklet The Rising Beast.)
Many think this tragic story ended with World War ii. It did not. Sadly, Britain and America soon began to drift back into their pacifist dream.
Most of the Western world’s politicians, media and religious leaders have been hiding from Churchill’s warning since the war. They do so for two reasons. First, they are intensely embarrassed and severely corrected by their nations’ failure to heed his warning until it was almost too late. Second, by hiding from that frightening reality, they can continue in their pacifist world of fantasy.
The same disastrous failure of will that Churchill had to fight against still plagues Britain and America today. That is because we did not learn a lesson from his civilization-saving message!
America and Britain lacked the will to fight the tyrants before World War ii. Our nations had to suffer through a world war to learn the lesson—temporarily.
According to Winston Churchill, World War ii could have been avoided if we had confronted Hitler in the mid-1930s.
Today, Iran and Syria use terrorists to attack America, Britain and Israel; however, we lack the will to hold them accountable for these acts of war! That is a deadly sign that our nations lack the will to win the war against terrorism. It also shows us that America is not a true superpower.
On Nov. 17, 1932, Churchill wrote in the Daily Mail, “Do not delude yourselves. Do not let His Majesty’s government believe—I am sure they do believe—that all that Germany is asking for is equal status. I believe the refined term now is equal qualitative status by indefinitely deferred stages. That is not what Germany is seeking. All these bands of sturdy Teutonic youths, marching through the streets and roads of Germany, with the light of desire in the eyes to suffer for their Fatherland, are not looking for status. They are looking for weapons, and, when they have the weapons, believe me they will then ask for the return of lost territories and lost colonies, and when that demand is made it cannot fail to shake and possibly shatter to their foundations every one of the countries I have mentioned, and some other countries I have not mentioned” (ibid.).
Martin Gilbert wrote, “The dangers were too acute to be hidden behind bland platitudes” (ibid.). He then quoted Churchill as saying, “I cannot recall at any time when the gap between the kind of words which statesmen used and what was actually happening in many countries was so great as it is now. The habit of saying smooth things and uttering pious platitudes and sentiments to gain applause, without relation to the underlying facts, is more pronounced now than it has ever been in my experience.”
Churchill pleaded for leaders to speak the truth to the people, not “smooth things.” He even used a Bible expression to get their attention. That expression is included in a prophecy for this end time, so I think it is appropriate to include it here.
“Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever” (Isaiah 30:8). The expression “time to come” in the original Hebrew means “the latter day.” So these prophecies were written in a book for the time we are living in now. “That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits” (verses 9-10). This was prophesied for God’s spiritual and national leaders today. First it is to God’s own people. They wanted “deceits” in order to make it easy to rebel against God’s law. They knew God’s truth and prophecy. Then they rejected true prophecy and wanted “smooth things” from their leaders. They didn’t want a true watchman to warn them or the world.
Leaders like Winston Churchill refused to “prophesy deceits.” That is the mark of a great leader! They tell the truth, no matter how hard it is to accept! Throughout history, our people have desired a smooth, deceitful message! The same is true today.
Churchill had to battle pacifist statesmen from every quarter. And Isaiah prophesied that we would have even worse leadership today than what Churchill battled against!
We were entering into “the latter days” even when Churchill was on the scene. He was fighting against Israel’s end-time attitude of wanting to hear “smooth things.”
We have been proving and teaching for over 50 years that biblical Israel is primarily America and Britain. Churchill was fighting against this condition that was prophesied—and it’s going to get even worse! So expect physical and spiritual Israel to clamor for “smooth things” as they head for destruction—unless people turn from their evil ways. But who can conceive of that happening before World War iii?
On Jan. 30, 1933, Hitler became Germany’s chancellor. On February 17, Churchill spoke at the 25th anniversary meeting of the Anti-Socialist and Anti-Communist Union. Commenting on the recent debate in the Oxford Union, at which a majority of the undergraduates present had approved the motion “that this House refuses in any circumstances to fight for king and country,” Churchill declared: “That abject, squalid, shameless avowal was made last week by 275 votes to 153 in the debating society of our most famous university. We are told we ought not to treat it seriously. The Times talks of the Children’s Hour. I disagree. It is a very disquieting and disgusting symptom”—and he proceeded to explain why it troubled him.
“My mind turns across the narrow waters of Channel and the North Sea, where great nations stand determined to defend their national glories or national existence with their lives. I think of Germany, with its splendid ancient songs, demanding to be conscripted into an army; eagerly seeking the most terrible weapons of war; burning to suffer and die for their Fatherland. I think of Italy, with her ardent Fascisti, her renowned chief, and stern sense of national duty. …
“One can almost feel the curl of contempt upon the lips of the manhood of all these peoples when they read this message sent out by Oxford University in the name of young England” (ibid.).
That was the shameful view of Britain’s future leaders. Churchill’s views were met with almost total hostility at Oxford. Britain’s most famous university was the leader of the pacifists. Most other colleges and universities in America and Britain also had defeatist views. Have our educational institutions learned a lesson from the Hitler experience? No they have not! Neither have our political leaders, nor the media.
As Churchill said, mankind is unteachable. They refuse to learn. As a result, historykeeps repeating itself in endless catastrophes! Being so wrong about one of the worst crimes and criminals in history is no small error. “By their fruits you shall know them.”
Events surrounding Churchill and World War ii should have taught educators, then and today, that something is dangerously wrong with higher education. But no lesson was learned.
That means we have educators who are eager to teach while they refuse to be taught—even from the worst disaster on this planet!
Educators are a big part of the problem. They should be giving us solutions.
After Churchill, Anthony Eden was one of the strongest members in Parliament; however, even he gave little support to Mr. Churchill, who was virtually alone. Here is how Mr. Eden (who later became prime minister) rebuked Churchill in a 1933 session of Parliament, as described by Martin Gilbert: “As for Germany, they did not wish to double her army, but to change the system ‘which was imposed on her at Versailles,’ replacing a small long-service army by a larger, but short-service militia.
“The House of Commons cheered Eden’s rebukes. On the following morning the press were strongly censorious. ‘The House was enraged in an ugly mood—toward Mr. Churchill,’ declared the Daily Dispatch; and the Northern Echo called Churchill’s speech ‘vitriolic,’ ‘a furious onslaught’ and ‘one of the most audacious he has delivered’” (ibid.).
That didn’t deter Churchill from his warning. On July 9, 1933, he wrote in the Daily Mail: “I look with wonder upon our thoughtless crowds disporting themselves in the summer sunshine, and upon this unheeding House of Commons, which seems to have no higher function than to cheer a minister”—and all the while, across the North Sea, “A terrible process is astir. Germany is arming!” (ibid.).
Hitler continued to grow in power during 1934. On June 30, most of his Nazi Party rivals were killed. It was a night of bloody butchery. Still, most of the people in America and Britain continued to praise Hitler or refuse to take a stand against him. It was a despicable time in our history.
The Germans continued to build a strong military as they violated the Versailles Treaty. Churchill said, “Germany’s illegal air force was rapidly approaching equality with our own.” He continued, “So far I have dealt with what I believe is the known, but beyond the known there is also the unknown. We hear from all sides of an air development in Germany far in excess of anything which I have stated today. As to that all I would say is, ‘Beware!’ Germany is a country fertile in military surprises” (ibid.).
Still, critics in Parliament discussed Churchill’s “scaremongering speech” or his “mad policy proposals” toward Germany.
Winston Churchill asked some hard questions. It was not just a concern about foreign policy. He discussed issues upon which Britain’s whole existence depended! We ought to be asking some hard questions today.
On April 11, 1934, Churchill wrote to his wife: “My statements about the air last November are being proved true, and Baldwin’s contradictions are completely falsified. There is no doubt that the Germans are already substantially superior to us in the air, and that they are manufacturing at such a rate that we cannot catch them. … How discreditable for the government to have been misled, and to have misled Parliament upon a matter involving the safety of the country” (ibid.).
In a letter to her two days later, he said, “It is a shocking thing when a government openly commits itself to statements on a matter affecting the public safety which are bound to be flagrantly disproved by events. …
“On the whole, since you have been away the only great thing that has happened has been that Germany is now the greatest armed power in Europe. [Germany is by far the greatest economic power in Europe today. Also, its military is becoming the strongest in the European Union. How history repeats itself!] But I think the Allies are all banking up against her and then I hope she will be kept in her place and not attempt to plunge into a terrible contest.
“Rothermere rings me up every day. His anxiety is pitiful. He thinks the Germans are all-powerful and that the French are corrupt and useless, and the English hopeless and doomed. He proposes to meet this situation by grovelling to Germany. ‘Dear Germany, do destroy us last!’ I endeavor to inculcate a more robust attitude” (ibid.).
As the danger worsened, the leaders and Parliament kept reassuring the public with false statements. Being self-deceived, they deceived the people. The leaders were too weak to face the hard truth. They lacked the will to fight and even survive—much less to conquer Hitler!
And so do our leaders today.
Many political leaders in Britain and America are trying to force our military to leave Iraq now—when the only way to win the war against terrorism would be to force Syria and Iran to stop sponsoring terrorism. Iran is the head of the terrorist snake, and the whole world knows it.
If you think it is bad now, wait until Iran—the number-one terrorist-sponsoring nation in the world—gets the nuclear bomb!
The problems Winston Churchill faced are mild compared to what we face today. America and Britain have far more power today but still lack the will to win against rock-hard terrorists.
Learning From History
Winston Churchill was always highly conscious of and urgent about time. Britain could not afford to waste any time.
Here are more of his profound words: “When the situation was manageable it was neglected, and now that it is thoroughly out of hand we apply too late the remedies which then might have effected a cure.
“There is nothing new in the story. It is as old as the sibylline books. It falls into that long, dismal catalog of the fruitlessness of experience and the confirmed unteachability of mankind. Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong—these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history” (ibid.).
What an utterly condemning statement! We haven’t learned from history—even recent history of Churchill and World War ii! Now we are just waiting for the “jarring gong” to awaken us.
If mankind is unteachable, it’s not just ignorance. It’ s refusing to face the truth. Man naturally hates and rebels against God’s law and even his own laws much of the time. Human nature is the first enemy we must conquer. Then we can be taught.
We didn’t denazify Germany after World War ii, and it is back on the world scene with power. The ugly factions are about to get control again. Already they are throwing their weight around—after the world has seen their grisly past in living color! What gall! That should be enough to teach those who learn from history that we are going to have to deal with yet another militant Germany.
It has already caused two world wars. And according to Bible prophecy, it is destined to start a third! (Request a free copy of our booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.) As Churchill said, it is “the endless repetition of history.”
The Western world’s media, politicians and religious leaders have proved to be unteachable about Winston Churchill’s warnings (and just about everything else). Then isn’t it logical that the hard mindset of the Germans would be unteachable when it comes to their causing two world wars? Especially when you consider that we didn’t even try to teach them a better philosophy after what they did in World War ii!
What does that portend for the two nations that were Germany’s main enemies in World War ii? We need to think deeply about that question!
As Churchill said, “Germany is a country fertile in military surprises.”
It’s as if our media and politicians today have no memory. In 1979, they virtually forced an ally, the Shah of Iran, out of office. Then Iran became the number-one terrorist nation in the world. Our political elites forced a white government and strong ally from South African rule and helped usher in Nelson Mandela. South Africa is now a close friend of Iran and Syria, the greatest terrorist nations in the world. The same story is being played out in Israel.
The “endless repetition” of our foreign-policy weakness plagues us. We fail to remember history, and we get lost in the present.
As we make nation-destroying mistakes, the press and people remain indifferent—just as we did before World War ii.
We learn nothing from history. The “endless repetition” of catastrophes will continue until we become victims. That is what happens to dupes!
History and Churchill should have taught us powerful lessons. Instead, that history condemns us!
Thankfully, this is all leading directly to a peaceful and happy civilization. “It is darkest just before the dawn.” Thank God the sun is about to rise in this dark and evil world.