sermonette: Discord From Self-Determination

Martin G. Collins
Given 05-Jul-97; Sermon #296s; 25 minutes

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If everyone will please turn to Proverbs 6, we will begin there. Proverbs 6:16.

Proverbs 6:16-19 These six things the LORD hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren.

It is that last one, that seventh one that I would like to key in on today, “One who sows discord among brethren.” Discord refers to an intrinsic disagreement producing quarreling, dissension, and antagonism. Words that are synonymous with discord are strife, conflict, contention, dissension, and variance. If you think about that, there is nothing good about discord at all. There is not any time when sowing discord is purposeful in a good way. There is no time that it is advantageous or beneficial to man. It only destroys.

Now Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, wrote a book called, A Place Among Nations, and in that book, he draws an interesting parallel between the discord that happened to Czechoslovakia in 1938, and the discord that is being sown in Israel today with the Palestinians and the Israelis. That discord is sown by promoting self-determination. Self-determination seems like some long fairly great term, but in reality, it just means free choice to decide one's own actions, thoughts, or states without any outside influence. So it is simply someone else not telling you what to do, which is very appealing to us as human beings. We do not want to be told what to do.

Now what I would like to do is read some excerpts out of Netanyahu's book, because the parallel he draws is so fascinating. And as I read this, please apply it to what you see happening in the church today among those who have recently left us, and the discord that they are sowing.

Beginning with Netanyahu's book, I am going to do quite a bit of reading, and I apologize ahead of time, but please bear with me. It is a very interesting parallel.

Czechoslovakia is strategically placed in the heart of Europe, and its conquest was central to Hitler's plans for overrunning Europe. Though small, Czechoslovakia could field over 800,000 men—one of the strongest armies in Europe—and it had a highly efficient arms industry. To complicate matters, from Hitler's point of view, it possessed a formidable physical barrier to his designs in the shape of the Sudeten Mountains, which bordered Germany and guarded the access to the Czech heartland, and the capital of the city of Prague only miles away.

What you had were mountains between Germany and Czechoslovakia. And these mountains were not only high for the military—soldiers and things to go over—but they also had fortresses in them that Czechoslovakia had built to protect their land. So as Hitler looked at Czechoslovakia, he wanted Czechoslovakia because he needed it for his taking over all of Europe. It was strategically placed. It came out in the Nuremberg trials that all of his generals were totally against attacking Czechoslovakia, because it was so impossible a feat to accomplish.

In fact, France and Britain said that if Germany attacked Czechoslovakia, then they would come to Czechoslovakia's aid. France alone had an army 50% larger than Germany's. So there is no way that that Hitler could attack Czechoslovakia. So Hitler embarked on a propaganda campaign to sow discord among those in the Sudetenland; they were primarily German, but those Germans had never been part of Germany. They had always been part of Czechoslovakia. But Hitler zoomed in on the fact that they were Germans, and started to sow discord.

Hitler embarked on an unprecedented campaign to politically force the Czechs to give up the land and any hope of being able to defend their capital or their country. The inhabitants of the Sudetenland, Hitler said, were predominantly German, and these 3 million Sudeten Germans deserved the right of self-determination, and a destiny separate from the other 7 million inhabitants of Czechoslovakia—this despite the fact that the country was a democracy, and that the Sudeten Germans enjoyed economic prosperity and full civil rights. They had nothing to complain about. But Hitler with his propaganda started sowing discord by telling the people that they were under the gun of another people; that they were that the other people were subversive; and that they needed to be free from this; they needed their own state.

Hitler backed the establishment of the Sudeten liberation movement called the Sudeten Free Corps, and he instigated a series of well-planned and violent uprisings that the Czechs were compelled to quell by force. Hitler's propaganda chief, Goebbels, orchestrated a fearful propaganda campaign: Fabricated Czech terror and oppression of the Sudeten Germans.

Hitler kept touting the idea that it was that the Sudetenland was rightfully Germany. It was rightfully the Germans in Sudetenland land and that they should rule themselves, even though they had never ruled themselves and those Germans had never been part of Germany.

Continuing Netanyahu's comments:

But there was a simple way simultaneously to avoid war and achieve justice, Hitler said. The Western powers (meaning Britain and France) could force the Czechs to do what was necessary for the sake of peace. Czechoslovakia had to relinquish the occupied territories. That was what would bring peace, according to Hitler.

Now, as I said before, Britain and France had signed a treaty in Versailles saying that they would come to the aid of Czechoslovakia if anybody in Europe would attack them. But now the West began to change their tune, because they did not want to go to war, and they began to believe the propaganda that Hitler put out. So they decided it would be better if Czechoslovakia gave away the Sudetenland with all their fortresses and their mountains. That is exactly what happened. That is exactly what they did. In return the Czechs received from Britain and France an international guarantee of new boundaries against unprovoked aggression. If the Czechs did not accept the plan, and thereby save the peace of Europe, they were informed by the leaders of the free world that they would be left to fight Hitler alone. They did not know that Hitler had no intention of attacking Czechoslovakia. He was going to take it by propaganda.

And then phase two came because Czechoslovakia finally did accept that treaty, and they gave away the Sudetenland to the German people in Czechoslovakia, and this is phase 2. This is what happened:

On September 30th, the Czech army began its withdrawal from Sudetenland from the strategic passes, the mountain fortresses, and the major industrial facilities that would have been the backbone of Czechoslovakia's effort to defend itself, but this was only phase one of Hitler's plan.

The German annexation of the Sudetenland was followed by a renewed list of demands on the Czechs. The Nazis continued to invent incidences of violence and oppression against the ethnic German minority in what was left of the Czech state. Less than 6 months later, on March 15, 1939, the Nazi war machine rolled through the rest of Czechoslovakia. Shorn of their defenses in the Sudeten mountains, the Czechs were now powerless to resist. Phase two had been implemented, and the Western powers did nothing, even though they had agreed to back Czechoslovakia. They still felt that the Czechs were wrong because of the media blitz that had happened prior to that and of all that Hitler said.

And then Netanyahu goes on in his book.

Unfortunately, the parallels to today's effort to gouge Judea and Samaria out of Israel are all too easy to see. Like Czechoslovakia, Israel is a small democracy with a powerful army much aided by defensive terrain. Like the Sudeten district, the West Bank is mountainous terrain, a formidable military barrier that guards the slender densely populated Israeli shoreline, and Israel's capital city. Like the Germans, the Arabs who are actually Muslims, understand that as long as Israel controls these mountains, it will not be overrun. They understand too that a military campaign to seize these mountains would be presently unthinkable.

And so what are the Arabs in the area doing? The Arab regimes have therefore embarked on a campaign to persuade the West that the Arab inhabitants of these mountains like the Sudeten Germans, comprising roughly a third of the total population of Israel, the Palestinians are a separate people that deserves the right of self-determination. And unless self-determination is granted, the Arab states will have no choice but to resort to war.

So this was written a few years ago. We have seen what has been happening. They have been giving away parts of their land.

That Arabs have borrowed directly from the Nazis in this as in so many of their other devices against Israel is not surprising. What is surprising, or at least disappointing is the speed and the readiness with which this transparent ruse has been received, disguised, and internationalized by the elite of the Western world.

So you see there the parallel between what happened in Czechoslovakia with the Nazis and what is happening in Israel with the Arabs. As you look around the world, you will see time and time again where this type of discord is sown by someone, or a group of people, or the news media, promoting self-determination.

For example, in our own country itself, we have self-interest groups that are always pushing the government to give them extra rights, and protection, and things like that.

The gays protest that they do not have special employment and benefit guarantees.

Hispanics argue that they cannot get good jobs because they cannot speak English, so they want to get Spanish made the official language of California. They have tried several times, and they are going to continue.

The French Canadians have tried several times to break away from Canada under the same idea that they would be better off under their own rule, that they need self-determination. The last vote that they had to separate was only missed by one vote, and so they feel that the next time they vote, which is in two years, that the French Canadians will have their own country, and that will be the downfall of Canada.

Turn with me to Proverbs 26. This principle was brought out in very pristine form—very clearly stated.

Proverbs 26:20-21 Where there is no wood, the fire goes out; and where there is no talebearer, strife ceases. As charcoal is to burning coals, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindle strife.

That is what the Nazis did in World War II, and that is what we are seeing today in the Middle East. We see that in the church as well with some of the people who have left us recently. What they have done is they have tried to sow discord under the banner of self-determination, because they feel like that they were not treated fairly.

The proverb mentions strife. Strife emphasizes a struggle for superiority rather than the incompatibility of the people involved, and that is the key. You see the pride in it where discord is sown by people who are proud.

God is allowing Satan to use the same ploy today in the church, and it is moving all of the members of the church of God, the whole membership away from each other rather than together. This discord that is being sown under the banner of self-determination, or other banners—I am not treated fairly or this, that, and the other thing—are nothing but ploys by Satan. Satan is the one who instigates and involves the world in these ploys to sow discord, and he especially wants to sow discord in the church. This ploy of self-determination, of feeling sorry for yourself, or not being treated fairly, is one that Satan very often uses in the church.

Turn to II Peter 2. You will notice how closely Peter summarizes this deception. We will begin reading in verse 18.

II Peter 2:18-19 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, . . .

That is a key. These people who try to sow discord are always promising that the grass is greener on the other side; that you will be liberated from the tyrants that you are under now is one of the banners that they use.

II Peter 2:19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.

So we saw that in Czechoslovakia those who they thought were going to save them, the Germans who they thought were going to give them a better government, they actually ended up being enslaved under the Nazi regime.

And now the Palestinians are wanting the same thing. They want more of Israel for more Arabs. And then when they get that they will not be satisfied. They will want to put the Israelis under slavery.

Satan has long used self-determination to promote discord among God's people. He is going to continue to use it because it is so successful. We see it successfully used in the world and the church. It is a successful ploy that he is not going to stop.

Remember the story of Miriam and Aaron's rebellion against Moses. What was God's reaction to that? Turn to Numbers 12. We will see how God feels about sowing discord and how He feels about grumbling and dissension.

Numbers 12:1-2 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. So they said, "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?" And the LORD heard it.

You see there the pride involved in sowing discord. You also see the pride involved in not being satisfied with our lot in life, or our position in life, and they were not satisfied with the government that was over them.

Numbers 12:3-9 (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.) Suddenly the LORD said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting!" So the three came out. Then the LORD came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both went forward. Then He said, "Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?" So the anger of the LORD was aroused against them, and He departed. And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam became leprous, as white as snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and there she was, a leper. So Aaron said to Moses, "Oh, my lord! Please do not lay this sin on us, in which we have done foolishly and in which we have sinned.”

So we see there that dissension is a sin. It is foolishness, and God hates it, and He becomes very angry with it. In this case, He brought a very severe sickness upon Miriam. And then as you read on through, we see there that Moses asked God to heal Miriam and God said that He would, and she was outside of the camp for seven days until she was clean. We see there that God does not take dissension—sowing discord—lightly.

The apostle James said, “Do not grumble against another, brethren, lest you be condemned.” So we are under condemnation if we sow discord, or if we cause dissension, or if we are not happy with our lot and the authority that is over us.

In I Corinthians 10:10, the apostle Paul tells us that Satan can destroy us if we murmur and complain.

I Corinthians 10:10 Nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

So we see there that Satan does and is able to destroy those who murmur and complain.

But some groups associated with God's church promote themselves by saying some things like (and these are actual quotes that I have heard), “We are a refuge for those who have been abused.” Then the people entice others also by saying, “We are the “no hassle” church of God.” Well, these people are promoting self-determination. They are promoting the idea that others are not being treated fairly and are under an unfair authority. And they are trying to entice people to these other groups for that reason. And that is wrong as we have seen so far, having to do with dissension and murmuring and complaining.

Now Jude, the brother of James, instructed us in Jude 16:

Jude 16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.

That advantage that they are trying to gain is that they are trying to get people to go with them to do what they are doing, and it is wrong, because it sows discord, and causes God's people to become more and more disunified. When we murmur or complain, we confirm that we do not believe that God is treating us fairly.

Now let us take a look at that in Lamentations 3:

Lamentations 3:37-39 Who is he who speaks and it comes to pass, when the Lord has not commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that woe and well-being proceed? Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

So you see, as we go through trials, and as we complain or murmur about our situations, it is only because we are all sinners, all of us throughout the world, and that we are only getting what we deserve. And God does intervene at times, and heals us, and help us with our trials. In fact, most of the time He does. But there are times when He does not. And it is only because of our own sins that this is the case. Not necessarily individually, but also as a group. And so to murmur about them, and to complain that God is not treating us fairly, we have seen God's anger in how He dealt with Miriam. It is just something we should not do.

Now in 1938, Hitler successfully sowed discord among the Sudeten Germans of the Czechoslovakian mountains. Although they had it good, they were under democracy, they were politically free to vote as they wanted, they had everything they needed, they were prospering, they had jobs, they had no complaint at all as far as the blessings of a nation are concerned, but discord was sown. They started feeling sorry for themselves, and they felt like they were not being treated fairly.

The same thing is happening today in Israel with the Arabs. They do not feel like they are being treated fairly. They are unhappy with their lot in life the way things are. And so there is more and more tension building there.

And this is the same thing we have seen in God's church today. For some reason individuals feel that if they do not like what is going on, that they have to sow discord, or they have to cause dissension when they leave, trying to pull others with them. And that just is not right. We have seen that by Scripture.

Now, there is one scripture that Paul wrote that succinctly states our individual responsibility of what we should do about discord and why. This is what I will use to end on because I believe it so clearly summarizes our individual responsibility. It is Philippians 2. This is under the heading of “Light Bearers” and being an example as Christians.

Philippians 2:12-15 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.