Persecution, Prophecy, and the Fundamentalist Reconstruction of Germany, 1933–1940

Abstract

By the 1930s, the fundamentalists of America’s Protestant churches had been driven to ground. In a series of titanic struggles throughout the 1920s—ranging from the cultural spectacle of the Scopes trial to procedural battles for control of denominational conventions—they had attempted to assert primacy in American religion and culture. But they failed. However, failure suited them; the role of prophetic minority fit neatly with the apocalyptic pessimism of their worldview. They began to build a shadow culture, in the world but not of it, a network of Bible schools, radio stations, and journals. These institutions were particularly strong among Presbyterian and Baptist fundamentalists; the premiere journals affiliated with schools or organizations, such as the Sunday School Times, the King’s Business, and the Moody Bible Institute Monthly, reached tens and even hundreds of thousands of readers. Smaller journals, such as Arno Gaebelein’s Our Hope and H. C. Barnhouse’s Revelation, were respected for the reputation of their editors. Through all these mediums, fundamentalists watched the crises of the Great Depression unfold, certain that their prophetic perspective, based on intricate interpretation of the biblical texts of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation, explained the world better than the solutions and arguments offered by their secular counterparts.