day no. 16,883: the dead man who haunted Hitler

"Hitler was obsessed with Kuyper, a man who had been dead for twenty years when Hitler launched his attack on the Netherlands. What high praise for this man whose chief desire was to bring true praise and honor to the Lord Jesus." — George Grant, The Kuyperian Vision of Christ's Lordship

Kuyper was a dead man who haunted Hitler. Kuperian categorical distinction, commonly referred to as sphere sovereignty, and the kingdom of Christ were the bane of Hitler's existence. Kuyper brought the Name of Jesus to bear everywhere and that meant that anyone hellbent on treading anywhere in Christendom would break their own ankles.

"Why did Hitler fear a man that had been dead for twenty years? Hitler feared Kuyper’s view on the role of God in everyday life. For Kuyper believed that God continually influenced the life of believers, and daily events could show his workings. As Kuyper famously said, 'Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!''” — George Grant, The Kuyperian Vision of Christ's Lordship

All of Christ for all of life is a tough nut to crack and people who live that way are not easy to bribe or battle. A people who push Christ to the corner of everything will have a place that is defended from top to bottom, side to side, front to back by the Word of God. A pillar of fire by night and a cloud of smoke by daybreak makes for timid neighbors.

"Kuyper lived out this notion and helped create a culture completely juxtaposed to the world order that Hitler had hoped to impose." — George Grant, The Kuyperian Vision of Christ's Lordship

A culture consumed by Christ is ordered according to His Word. Chaos cannot stand against Christ. Tyranny preys upon disordered people, but well-ordered, free-spirited slaves of Christ cannot be bought or beaten.

"One desire has been the ruling passion of my life. One high motive has acted like a spur upon my mind and soul. and sooner than that I should seek escape from the sacred necessity that is laid upon me, let the breath of life fail me. It is this: That in spite of all worldly opposition, God's holy ordinances shall be established again in the home, in the school and in the State for the good of the people; to carve as it were into the conscience of the nation the ordinances of the Lord, to which Bible and Creation bear witness, until the nation pays homage again to God." — Abraham Kuyper