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█ WORLD WAR II & THE HOLOCAUST During World War II, the Nazis’ meticulous administrative attention to detail, first so admired by some the world over, eventually turned with diabolical efficacy against them when they, with the Allieds fast approaching their notorious ‘labour camps’ and ‘death camps’, have had to evacuate their camps poste haste to flee for their lives.
█ DOCUMENTED ATROCITIES. In the ensuing confusion, those meticulous records were left carelessly behind and, eventually, were equally meticulously recovered and presented by the Prosecution at Nuremberg as deadly, incontestable prima facie evidence of Nazi atrocities.
█ THE NAZIS' DEFENCE. In the light of such irrefutable documentary proof (that among others also included ample film-footage from the Russian liberators of decrepit and starving inmates at Auschwitz-Birkenau etc.), the Nazi-collaborators (including people like Luftwaffe-master Hermann Göring) then resorted to an unconventional tactic:
They pleaded 'personal inculpability' on the grounds that they were only ‘following orders’, and that nowhere in the ‘Law’ of their country the so-called atrocities were necessarily specifically listed as illegal. They then wanted to know from the Court in terms of ’which Law on their books’ they were being technically charged. This is how Senior Judge, Justice Jackson (unperturbed), responded:
They pleaded 'personal inculpability' on the grounds that they were only ‘following orders’, and that nowhere in the ‘Law’ of their country the so-called atrocities were necessarily specifically listed as illegal. They then wanted to know from the Court in terms of ’which Law on their books’ they were being technically charged. This is how Senior Judge, Justice Jackson (unperturbed), responded:
“We propose to punish acts which have been regarded as criminal since the time of Cain and have been so written in every civilised code.”
[William Shirer, The Nightmare Years: 1930-1940, p.653].
█ JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG. The Nazi collaborators probably never saw that one coming; in the end, the commandment from the BIBLE as given to Moses by YHWH (Yahweh), the august “I Am!”, personally on Mount Sinai, was invoked by the judges at Nuremberg to indict and condemn them one by one for their part in Adolf Hitler’s cavalier reign of terror during the years of the Holocaust. As someone has said: ‘Entitled’ princes and royalty today; cleaners of latrines the next … how the mighty has fallen'.
█ THE BIBLE AS MORAL AUTHORITY. The Bible described:
“Christianity began as an outgrowth of Judaism, using the Septuagint as the basis of the Old Testament. The early Church continued the Jewish tradition of writing and incorporating what it saw as inspired, authoritative religious books. The gospels, Pauline epistles and other texts quickly coalesced into the New Testament. With estimated total sales of over five billion copies, the Bible is the best-selling publication of all time. It has had a profound influence both on Western culture and history and on cultures around the globe.
The study of it through biblical criticism has indirectly impacted culture and history as well. The Bible is currently translated or being translated into about half of the world's languages.” [Wikipedia: ‘Bible’].
P.S. When Christians refer to the ‘Bible’ the following is implied: The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) comprising 39 books plus the New Testament comprising 27 books together adding up to 66 books.
“Christianity began as an outgrowth of Judaism, using the Septuagint as the basis of the Old Testament. The early Church continued the Jewish tradition of writing and incorporating what it saw as inspired, authoritative religious books. The gospels, Pauline epistles and other texts quickly coalesced into the New Testament. With estimated total sales of over five billion copies, the Bible is the best-selling publication of all time. It has had a profound influence both on Western culture and history and on cultures around the globe.
The study of it through biblical criticism has indirectly impacted culture and history as well. The Bible is currently translated or being translated into about half of the world's languages.” [Wikipedia: ‘Bible’].
P.S. When Christians refer to the ‘Bible’ the following is implied: The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) comprising 39 books plus the New Testament comprising 27 books together adding up to 66 books.
█ THE CORNERSTONE OF JURISPRUDENCE. John Eidsmoe has written:
“ … the Ten Commandments have been the foundation of Western law. Around 890 AD, Alfred the Great produced the Book of Dooms, the first written legal code to govern all England, and it began with a recitation of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments, and the Old and New Testament in general, were a principal source of study in the medieval Inns of Court (England's law schools), even in an age before the Reformation when laymen were often denied direct access to the Bible.”
[John Eidsmoe. The Decalogue : Corner-stone of Jurisprudence. Chalcedon. 2003. Online].
█ THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE BIBLE. When Christians and Jews refer to what are commonly known as ‘Judeo-Christian values’, the following values as encapsulated in the Ten Commandments are, among others, emphasized, i.e.,
(i) respect for God
(ii) respect for the right to life
(iii) respect for family life
(iv) respect for private property rights (and not 'Socialism')
(v) respect for truth.
Added to this consider the Sermont on the Mount and the Preamble to that sermon, i.e., the Beatitudes of Jesus Christ in Matthew Chapter 5. So precious in the eyes of Jesus Christ is the Bible as the Word of God that He has said:
“Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to destroy but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, Till the heaven and the earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle shall in any way pass from the Law until all is fulfilled.”
[Matthew5:18].
█ THE BIBLE IN SOCIETY TODAY. Even the atheist, pagan or heathen who does not believe in God or know the Ten Commandments, will, when his car is stolen, invoke the holy commandment (about stealing and coveting a neighbour's property) and shout ‘blue murder’ at his nearest police station. Why? Truth has the uncanny habit of always rising to the surface.
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