Franz Jägerstätter - The Dream of a Beautiful Train.
While recovering from an injury to my arm a few months ago - It was as though I took a last days tour on youtube!
During that time I listened to many messages on youtube...but one in particular caught my attention, Pastor Anton Bosch shared a story about travelling on a train in the UK. And it got me thinking very deeply.....and took me back to memories I hadn't thought of for years - about the story of another train journey and the sobering dream of a man who saw a beautiful train on a journey to Hell.
I had more or less forgotten about this.... I must have been in my twenties, I first saw a documentary which mentioned the dream and the man who saw it - it left a deep impression. And the memories came back after all these years and after pondering and meditating on the subject what Pastor Anton Bosch was preaching about out. I was determined to follow this up and started to search online about the dream and the train. The documentary was about a Franz Jägerstätter, a conscientious objector who died a martyr's death protesting against the Nazi regime. And to my very great surprise it so happens, a film is released this year about the story of Franz Jägerstätter. The film is due to be in film theatres this month of December 2019. A Hidden Life
"From 1938 on, Jägerstätter told the story of a dream that he had about a train. It was a beautiful train – attractive especially to the youth that streamed toward it. The voice in the dream was unequivocal, “This train is going to hell.” The dream served as a warning to Jägerstätter that no matter how attractive the Nazi movement seemed – especially to young people – it was nothing but pure evil.
The Falling Away
Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3
Well what does this falling away look like, someone might ask? Well, we don't have to look very far for an example! In many ways what happened to Germany not so long ago is a prelude, a dry run - the Evangelical Church in Germany started falling away late Victorian period…. but this was not worldwide…this falling away was in one nation and it prepared the way for Adolf Hitler to gain power.
During the time I was recovering, I had also been listening to Derek Prince preach what I thought was a completely different subject - But when I settle down to listen - Derek more or less starts off his message talking about the great falling away and mentioning the state of the German Church at the start of the last century...leading to Adolf Hitler!. You could say, indeed the Lord had my attention!...and it was as though pieces of a jigsaw puzzle falling into place!
What is happening today in the main stream churches is a falling away…How else can we explain what is happening! How this will unfold worldwide we don't know yet, but it looks like it will be a precursor for the real Anti Christ and all we have been warned would happen.
Earlier this year Darrow Miller shares about the state of the Evangelical Church in Germany prewar - and it is very telling. The pre war Church in Germany was silent and even gave their blessing for Adolf Hitler. Only a small remnant....and this is what is the most chilling part ...a very small number stood up and opposed Hitler. And that dear friends is what should concern us all very much today - Are the conditions right for the anti Christ to appear? Remember out of the devastation of the 1st world war…..Adolf Hitler appeared as a saviour for Germany and ascended to power. If another world war happens or catastrophe which shakes the world…...who do we think may appear out of the ashes?
As a boy I listened to stories my great auntie Florence would share, she was a strong Christian. She lived through the 2nd world war and understood exactly what it would have meant if Hitler invaded the UK. For them at that time Hitler was seen by many evangelicals as the Anti Christ. But the state of the German church at that time and what happened to it, how do we explain this? Hitler was seen as the saviour? And given the way things are today....people are still looking for a saviour, but not seeking or following after Jesus Christ. And what does God do with such a people who refuse to love the truth ? God will give them a powerful delusion....as we can see from the History of the 20th century...we can see parallels....but what of the 21st Century?
The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. For this reason, God will send them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, in order that judgment will come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness. 2 Thessalonians 2: 9-12
Some qoutes below to reflect on:
Qoute 1
Right from the very beginning, Franz Jägerstätter refused to cooperate or support the Nazis, who took over power in Austria in 1938, as he viewed Christianity and Nazism as being completely irreconcilable. Franz Jägerstätter had a dream which he felt was a warning to him against Nazism: in it, he saw a train carrying innumerable people to perdition, and its meaning was “unveiled” to him as representing the Nazi Party with all its attached organizations. dioezese-linz.at/
Qoute 2
Well before the Anschluss, Franz had been an anti-Nazi, but the event that brought his aversion to a much deeper level was a remarkable dream he had in January 1938. Perhaps it was triggered by a newspaper article he had read a few days earlier reporting that 150,000 more young people had been accepted into the Hitler Youth movement.
In the dream he saw “a wonderful train” coming round a mountain. The gleaming engine and carriages seemed especially attractive to children, who “flowed to this train, and were not held back.” Then a voice said to him, “This train is going to hell.” He woke Franziska to tell her of his dream and continued to think about it long afterward. The train, he realized, symbolized the glittering Nazi regime with all its spectacles and its associated organizations, Hitler Youth being one of the most important and spiritually corrupting.
The dream seemed to Franz a clarifying message from heaven. The Nazi movement — with its racism, its cult of violence, its elimination of those members of society regarded as unfit, its efforts to suppress Christianity — was satanic. It was nothing less than a gateway to hell.
From the introduction to Franz Jägerstätter: Letters and Reflections from Prison, edited by Erna Putz and published by Orbis Books Jim and Nancy Forrest
© Peter N Millward
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