My dad began teaching me about history very early on in life.
He had an absolute passion for it; therefore I spent countless hours on the couch downing air-popped popcorn while watching war flicks beside him. Family vacations regularly involved waiting with mom (to go shopping…) while he took 5x longer than the rest of us reading E.V.E.R.Y. informational placard at the historical sites. Ingrained in my memory are the words from his lips: “Those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it.”
“Those who don’t know their history are
doomed to repeat it.”
(So powerful was my exposure to history as a child that it became my college degree— American history with an emphasis in military history. I joked for years that I just liked taking classes with all the ROTC boys, but in my heart of hearts, I wanted to make Dad proud. But I digress…)
The new film, Return to the Hiding Place was God-breathed for many reasons, but the historian in me is most moved by its particular timing in our world’s history. The story is about Corrie ten Boom, the Dutch watchmaker whose family saved the lives of over 600 Jews during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands and the previously unsung heroes—a student army that helped Corrie and became instrumental in the Dutch resistance efforts against the Nazis. You may have seen the prequel from the ‘70s called The Hiding Place which was strongly endorsed by Billy Graham.
While you can expect a powerful reminder of the particular terrors of World War II, incredible stories of human suffering, and young heroes who took the two greatest commandments to heart, this film is careful to also tease out themes that are unquestionably relevant to the post-modern world.
We live in a time that is characterized by prosperity and convenience at one extreme and untold poverty and suffering at the other.
Please understand, I’m judging no one. I’m preaching to myself as I sit on my TempurPedic mattress, sipping on la Croix, typing on my laptop, checking stats on my iPhone…
We marvel at the Jewish Holocaust and flinch at the photos of the children’s shoes piled high, while somehow the 4 out of every 10 pregnancies in America ending in abortion is a choice, not an atrocity.
We fancy ourselves progressive and shake our heads at the monsters who allowed the “era of slavery” to unfold while more people are enslaved on planet earth today than ever before in history between the sex trade, human trafficking, bonded labour, and child slavery.
We cry watching Selma, embracing the fight for racial equality as a noble cause and a distant memory, and yet our country is a pressure cooker of racial tension AND Jewish persecution is back on the rise.
(Please understand, I’m judging no one. I’m preaching to myself as I sit on my TempurPedic mattress, sipping on la Croix, typing on my laptop, checking stats on my iPhone…)
But Return to the Hiding Place makes me wonder… what if all of these post-modern inconsistencies are really harbingers that our history is repeating itself? Could we be milliseconds away from the next widespread outburst of unadulterated evil? What if we can’t even fathom the test of faith that’s coming… What if it’s already happening, but we’re so blindly prosperous, or complacent, or indifferent, or asleep that we’re not even aware of it?
If Al Qaeda or the Chinese took over tomorrow and I had to choose to protect the innocent and die or turn a blind eye and keep my security/comfort/life—could I make the hard choices?
This is a film that our culture desperately needs. Writer/Director/Producer Peter C. Spencer is a visionary, an artist, a passionate and unapologetic follower of Christ. Enjoy the entertainment, but look beyond the obvious. Pay attention to Dr. Spencer’s harbingers. Prepare your heart for our future whether it be filled with unimaginable blessing and reward or raw tragedy and battle. Return to the Hiding Place will reveal of how we can have both.
Return to the Hiding Place is available on DVD at www.Hide-Movie.com
Check out my interview with Actress Rachel Spencer Hewitt who plays Aty van Woerden.
