The Tragedy of Apathy

pastorjonbarrett
Jun 18
6 min read

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the legendary German theologian and pastor, could not stay silent in the face of the atrocities committed against the Jewish people by Hitler’s Nazi regime. He famously said this: "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."

With Hitler's ascent to power, many German church leaders welcomed the rise of Nazism. In 1933, a group called “the German Christians” began to promote the Nazification of German Protestantism through the creation of a pro-Nazi Church. Soon after, multitudes of German Christians were ‘arm in arm’ with the Nazi regime, agreeing that Jews were a “separate race” and needed to be eradicated. With very few exceptions, German churches remained silent about the ruthless persecution of Jews.

As they say, the rest is history.

Written around 585 B.C., Ezekiel chapters 37 and 38 prophesied that once Israel regathered again as a nation, it would come under immediate attack. This Biblical prophecy was fulfilled in 1948 when on the heels of the Holocaust, Israel became an official state for the first time in 2,000 years. The very next day Israel was attacked by 5 Arab nations, starting the War of Independence.

In 1967, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan all conspired against Israel resulting in the infamous 6-day war. In 1973, an Arab coalition jointly launched a surprise attack against Israel on Yom Kippur, commencing the Yom Kippur War. In 2006, Hezbollah fighters sent rockets to Israeli border towns ushering in the Israel/Lebanon War.

On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian terror group Hamas, funded by Iran, launched a surprise attack on southern Israel killing 1,400 Jews which was the most in one attack since the Holocaust. Additionally, Hamas took 200 hostages with them back to Gaza. In response to the October 7 attacks, on October 13, the Israeli Defense Forces called for all residents of Gaza City to evacuate their homes and move south for their protection in preparation for Israel’s military entering the Gaza Strip.

On October 17, Hamas reported to the world that at least 500 Gazan’s were killed by an Israeli air strike, hitting a hospital in the middle of Gaza City. Most world media outlets ran wild without confirming the validity of the story. An anti-Israel firestorm ensued worldwide, even across America. Holocaust survivor Primo Levi said this: "Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”

As anti-Israel protests and acts of antisemitism raged around the world, the truth came out that the rocket was fired from inside Gaza, landed in the hospital’s parking lot, and was not actually deadly. However, this did nothing to stop the uproar against Israel. In fact, it got even worse.

Isaiah 5:20 says, “woe to those who call evil good." Hamas, a self-proclaimed Islamic terror group, was somehow looked upon by the world as the victim while Israel was seen as the evil aggressor. Israel was also blamed for creating a humanitarian crisis in Palestine even though there was already a crisis occurring in Palestine thanks to Hamas’ evil government.

Now we come to June 2025. Antisemitism is raging with the start of the Iran/Israel conflict even though the line between good and evil has never been clearer regarding 2 vastly different ideologies. I am NOT talking about politics. I’m talking about ideology.

How can the world be so blind?! We’ll answer that question a bit later.

Since 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has LOUDLY and very publicly declared its goal to wipe Israel off the map. There is absolutely no mistaking that Israel has been in Iran’s gunsights since the Islamic revolution brought Ayatollah Khomenei to power 45 years ago. The destruction of Israel has been a central policy of Iran ever since.

Following the 1979 revolution, Iran’s nuclear program was paused but later resumed secretly during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. From then, Iran has been building up the program with the intent of mass destruction against none other than, you guessed it, Israel. Iran’s nuclear program has accelerated significantly in recent months, bringing the regime significantly closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon.

In fact, in February 2025, Israeli intelligence learned that Iran possessed over 7,000 kilograms of enriched uranium and was now capable of producing 15 nuclear bombs. FIFTEEN! As a result, Israel launched a preemptive, precise mission to strike Iran’s enrichment compounds housed in underground, fortified sites.

Since 1979, EVERY Iranian administration has called for Israel’s complete and total destruction. Here are just a few modern-day examples (there are MANY more) that literally cannot be misinterpreted:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2006: “Israel is destined for destruction and will soon disappear.”
Ahmad Alamolhoda, senior cleric, member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts in 2013: “The destruction of Israel is the idea of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and is one of the pillars of the Iranian Islamic regime. We cannot claim that we have no intention of going to war with Israel.”
Mohammad Hassan Rahimian, advisor to Supreme Leader Khamenei in 2010: “We have manufactured missiles that allow us, when necessary to replace Israel in its entirety with a big holocaust.”
Iran Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2012: “Israel is a cancerous tumor that should be cut and will be cut.”
Iranian Armed Forces Commander Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi in 2013: “The Iranian nation is standing for its cause, that is the full annihilation of Israel.”
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami in 2019: “This sinister regime (Israel) must be wiped off the map and this is no longer a dream but it is an achievable goal.”
In 2020, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei revealed a poster that used the words “final solution” in calling for Israel’s destruction, which was a phrase associated with Nazi Germany’s efforts to eliminate all Jews during the Holocaust. He was also quoted as follows: “We will support and assist any nation or any group (referring to Hezbollah, Hamas, and other proxy’s) anywhere who opposes and fights the Zionist regime, and we do not hesitate to say this.”
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in June 2025: "We will act with determination and destroy the despicable Zionist regime."

If you’re Israel, how do you negotiate with an ideology like that? Throughout history, Israel’s enemies have had her destruction as their top priority. Whether it was the Egyptians, Amalekites, Midianites, Moabites, Ammonites, Amorites, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians (modern day Iran), Romans, or Nazi Germany, the nation of Israel has always been persecuted. The question is, WHY?

According to the Bible, it’s because God has a special plan for the nation of Israel and Satan wants to defeat that plan (which won’t happen!). Through Satanically influenced hatred of Israel—and especially Israel’s God—Satan has blinded the masses from seeing the truth. This will be the case until the second coming of Christ.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw through the ideology behind Hitler’s Nazi regime, he could not keep quiet in the face of such evil done against the Jewish people. Sadly, most German Christians remained silent back then and watched it all take place.

In 2025, Christians are at another cross-roads regarding the Jewish people. Will we be silent again while the world rages against Israel? Israel has every right to exist and defend themselves from the evils that have come upon them like a violent storm from hell.

Pastor Greg Laurie said this: “From the Jews came our Bible. From the Jews came our Messiah. We owe them a great debt, and now we must pray for them and stand with them as a nation and a people. As Christians, we must stand up for our Jewish friends and the nation of Israel.”

As Psalm 122:6 tells us, please join me now in “praying for the peace of Jerusalem.”

Iranian TV footage showing a military parade in 2019 with a banner on an Iranian missile saying in English “Israel must be wiped off the map.” (Photo credit: MEMRI).