God and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Today, Germany and the World (except for Obama and some other Leftists) celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

The anniversary connects with me because it reminds me of a way God very personally demonstrated his sovereignty.

Just over 20 years ago, a news story about East Germany (I don’t remember the details.) so provoked me that in anger, I prayed that God would remove “that Communist fossil” East German leader Erich Honecker from power.

Only a few months later, not only was he removed from power, but the Berlin Wall fell.

Now, of course, God did not say, “Oh my, Mark has prayed. I must do his bidding.” Just the opposite. God showed the arm of His sovereignty and answered the prayers and yearnings of millions beyond what they hoped or imagined, certainly far beyond what I hoped or imagined. The Iron Curtain fell, and that peaceably for the most part. Not longer afterward, the Cold War ended with the Fall of the Soviet Union, again with hardly a shot fired.

Younger readers may not understand how remarkable that was. So a little perspective. In the late 80’s, I was already well past 25, and the Cold War and the Iron Curtain was all I knew. These evils preceded me and I expected they would continue my whole live and beyond. And if I did see them end, it would surely be with violence. Communists did not care what “the people” really thought. They would hold on to power until it was ripped out of their cold dead hands by either internal revolution or by war, or so I thought. Nuclear war was still far more thinkable than the peaceful fall of Communism in Europe. In fact, the 80’s saw not a little Nuclear War scare. See the movie The Day After for one symptom (and cause) of that. I, myself, gave a lot of thought to what I would do if a nuclear strike seemed likely. On the other hand, it did not even occur to me that the people behind the Iron Curtain would see freedom and that peaceably.

So I practically had to pinch myself when the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the other events of 1989 occurred. I still consider these a wonderful act of God. And I still get a bit emotional thinking back on it.



The Lord is indeed Lord. He is sovereign. Thanks be to God!