In 1934, the Confessing Christian church in Germany spoke out against the rise of what was called "German Christianity," inspired by Nazism. Hitler was anxious to enlist the aid of the churches. He appealed to certain churchmen, patriotic Germans, who were bishops and elders and pastors in a church, to work with him to better the lot of the German people. What began to emerge was the idea that it was the duty of the church to advance a political ideology. And much of the German church embraced this so-called "German Christianity."

But a group of Confessing Christians in 1934 got together and authored what is known now as the Barmen Declaration, and it argued with this premise. It said that the church and the gospel serves no one or nothing, that Christ is Lord over everything and the church must never allow itself to be enlisted in the service of any ideology, no matter how good it may seem. They put it this way: "We cannot put the word and the work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily chosen desires, purposes, and plans."

We cannot put the word and work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily chosen desires, purposes, and plans by changing the language of Scripture about God, or by changing the meaning of the words of Jesus himself about God.