The Village on The Hill: A Story of the Church Conflict in Germany

I have just finished a very moving and perhaps even convicting book published in English in May of 1940. The Village on The Hill: A Story of the Church Conflict in Germany is a true account of the village of Lindenkopf just before and after Hitler came to power and the Nazi regime began to control Germany.

The old pastor of the local German Christian Church retired and a new younger pastor was sent to the village. Peter Holzschuh, a woodman and member of the church council, had been in the military with Pastor Stefan Grund during the first world war.

The church had previously been content to attend services on Sunday with little or no impact on their daily lives, though they are upstanding people. However, Pastor Grund began to call their attention back to the Word, eventually even holding extra Bible classes to teach the people.

Slowly, but surely, this town, fairly disconnected from the outside world before, began to see the effects of the Nazi regime in their small village. Gradually, the German Christian Church was infiltrated and the upper leadership replaced with members of the National-Socialist Party. A separation became necessary and the Confessing Church was formed, which declared that it stood on the Word of God alone. I will not spoil the story for any who have the opportunity to read this book, so, this is my only introduction!

I have never read anything about the Christian church during this time, I confess. The story of their struggle is amazing. It reminds me that we must all "be prepared in and out of season", learning to love God and studying Him through His Word. We must be ready to stand on His Word and trust him alone for our salvation, else we also could fall prey to looking for the salvation of our nation and all that we hold dear in man and government. We pray for our government and obey its laws to the extent that they do not go against the Word of God. His Word endures forever.

I leave with one quote from the book:

This was the sort of thing we felt that our fathers had endured; they, too, had gathered together that God's Word might not be taken from them; they, too, had sung the battle-songs of the Gospel in the face of their enemies. Hundreds of years had passed since the Reformation, floods of water had rolled down our millstream since then, plagues and wars and revolutions had broken over our village, new things had come in and old things died out; but the Word of God had not died; we could see once again how much it was alive.