There will be many posts today that recall the tremendous sacrifice of those brave and courageous men who stormed the beaches of Normandy 70 years ago today. Many of those will include the tactical details of the assault, many will include stories of individual heroism; of this I have no doubt. I also have no doubt that the authors of those posts will do a vastly superior job of recounting those things, so I will leave to them this task. Instead, I’d like to approach the subject a little differently.

I can well remember the 40th anniversary, and in a way it seems like only yesterday. I know the reverence that was in the air when President Reagan’s unforgettable remarks of that day were prepared, how those involved felt so inadequate, so small when considering the valor of those who were being honored. I know a little of President Reagan’s emotions on that day, being a WWII vet himself. I recall the genuine feeling that Mr. Reagan demonstrated on those beaches, honoring those veterans assembled; who can forget those images?

If there is such a thing as a “good” war, then the Allied position of the Second World War was a “good war.” Certainly the cause was just. When has there ever been such a well documented case of pure evil exposed for all to see than in the case of Hitler’s Reich? Who would dare suggest that we should have negotiated with him or that we should have turned a blind eye to his atrocities?

The case of the Nazis is well documented because they lost the war, and they kept meticulous records, but they were not alone in their manifestations of evil on a massive scale. Some would suggest that there were other nations in the 20th century that matched or even exceeded the magnitude of the Nazi slaughter, but that they weren’t caught in the act. I’ll leave that discussion to others as well, but I would hope to make the point that evil is still alive in the world today, and Christians must be aware of its presence.

The New Testament teaches over and over that we are not of this world, that we are here as strangers in a strange land as Ambassadors of the gospel, citizens of a Kingdom that is not of this world. At the same time, sadly, a great many of us have a hard time seeing the reality of this. There are many good things in this world, and I will readily concede that point. There is culture, things such as art, music, literature. Much of this cultural heritage seeks to glorify God, and that is as it should be.

Let us never forget that by the 1930’s, Germany was considered to be the most civilized of countries. It was the most scientifically advanced, it was the home of the greatest composers, philosophers and pure genius of the last hundred years. It had avoided the growing moral decadence of the West… and it produced Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Holocaust. Did you know that in the 1930’s there were those in this country who were praising the Nazis for their efforts to transform their country and suggesting that we adopt some of their methods? Needless to say, they came to regret those hasty words. One of those voices belonged to the father of a future US president.

We must not allow ourselves to be fooled by the allures of this life. We are here on a mission to spread the love of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ, not to be lulled to sleep by the beauty of this world, for if the story of the Nazis teach us nothing else, it should teach us that nothing in this world is quite what it appears to be at first glance.

On this 70th anniversary of D-Day, I hope we will take a moment to recall those who sacrificed on those beaches in the cause of freedom and decency, and I also hope that we will pause to reflect upon the reasons that their sacrifices were so essential to our survival. I pray this will lead us to redouble out efforts in the cause of Christ, for the time is growing shorter every day for us to reach those who will listen to that truth which can give life.