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After the July 7 terror bombings on three London Underground (subway) trains and one of the city's famous double-decker buses, Western leaders were quick to recount memories of the resolve of Londoners during the World War II blitz on the city by the German Luftwaffe.
The blitz isn't the only comparison one can draw with the Second World War.
Another is the matter of appeasement.
For much of the decade preceding the September 1939 German invasion of Poland that precipitated World War II, Winston Churchill was warning of impending calamity. He was largely ignored, criticized as a warmonger and kept out of government. This period came to be known as the famous statesman's "wilderness years."
But he was right.
Just one year before the outbreak of war, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sat down and talked with Adolf Hitler in Munich, purportedly receiving his assurances that he would stop his aggression. Returning to Britain, waving a piece of paper in his hand as he came down the steps of his airplane, Chamberlain proclaimed "peace in our time."
He had appeased Hitler by giving in to Germany's annexation of Czechoslovakia, trusting things would end there. But all he did was buy time while Hitler grew stronger.
The apostle Paul warned of such delusion: "For when they say, 'Peace and safety!' then sudden destruction comes upon them . . ." (1 Thessalonians 5:3). While this prophecy specifically applies to the global state of deception just preceding the coming Day of the Lord, the principle is always at work: The subtle spirit of appeasement blinds people to the truth, leading to serious, often fatal, misjudgments.
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