Today is the 75th anniversary of Operation Overlord, the plan for the Allied invasion of France to liberate Nazi-occupied Europe, going into action.

There are many good lessons to learn from it, but as some of these will not be noted by our mainstream media, I offer a few additional ones for the Christian church.

Operation Overlord required the tremendous effort of 14 Allied nations of such ingenuity and surprise that the German forces were caught napping and outwitted. It was the the largest amphibious force ever mustered in world history, which launched the greatest airborne assault across the English Channel followed by an amphibious landing on five beaches in Normandy, France. The ingenuity, boldness and daring of such a plan is acknowledged the more one studies and learns about it.

The Christian Church is today facing as great a spiritual foe as the Allies faced in WWII. It needs nothing less than a co-ordinated effort using the masterplan of our Over-Lord to resist its advance. Is the Christian Church able to muster its forces? Where is the command centre?

Allied ingenuity outwitted the Nazis who expected an invasion via Calais several months later, but the element of surprise was assisted by the weather conditions. Just as weather played a significant, large and important part in the evacuation of Dunkirk and in the defeat of the Nazi advance upon the Russian front, so we are reminded of the Lord’s providential oversight of events. Man proposes, but God disposes.

The anniversary was attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This is appropriate because the enemy was not the German people but the Nazi ideology which had captured and overcome a nation. Germany needed to be liberated from Nazism as surely as France needed to be liberated from Panzer divisions. Similarly, western Europe now needs to be delivered from aggressive secularism. Modern Germans can join the Allied countries to celebrate the defeat of an oppressive ideology and securing the liberty of the free world. This reconciliation after conflict is a reminder of the Millennium peace yet, and possibly soon, to be witnessed in this earthly sphere.

The recording on film of the atrocities during World War II together with the memorials and memories of aged veterans are part of the mix leading up to the pre-millennial judgment, the Jewish Pleroma and the Millennial Advent when the nations will learn war no more.

‘And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.’

Isa 2:4 and Mic 4:3.

Update:

6 Jun 2019: the 75th anniversary of D-Day on 6-6-44, which marked the beginning of the three-month Normandy campaign, the beginning of the end of WWII. The quotation “for your tomorrow we gave our today” summed up the sacrifice of the brave men and women who died in this campaign. It would be good if observers would recognise that military sacrifices illustrate Jesus Christ giving His life for the salvation and deliverance of His people from devilish tyranny.