At that time, tensions were also growing in society. The economic crisis following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 destabilized both Dutch and wider European society. While the economy in the Netherlands collapsed, in neighboring Germany the National Socialists assumed power and became a serious threat to the fragile European peace of 1918. In 1939, the German army invaded Poland and ignited the Second World War, followed by the invasion of the Netherlands in May of 1940. Schilder continued to polemicize and was one of the first in the Dutch press to issue a call for resistance against Nazi ideology in the articles he wrote for De Reformatie. The German occupiers responded swiftly by incarcerating Schilder in August of 1940 and subsequently forcing him to refrain from public writing.
In June of 1940, Schilder had called for the study of the new ideas to be halted now that the Netherlands was occupied by the Germans, but the Synod stuck to its agenda. Since Schilder, unlike his theological opponents, had been muzzled by the Germans and after 1940 could no longer publish anything, he discontinued his advisory role to the Synod. On top of this, in July of 1942, the Germans harbored plans to take him as hostage, forcing him into hiding. In the midst of this national, ecclesial, and personal situation, the Synod rendered a mild judgment on the new ideas in June of 1942. That same summer, the Synod extended its official three-year session. This was unusual because, according to Dutch Church Order, synods are convocated with a mandate for a specific time period. After this period, a new synod is to be appointed. When Schilder, who continued to be very influential, objected to this extension, the Synod responded by requiring churches and pastors to underwrite the decisions of June 1942. Regardless, Schilder’s objection resulted in a broad protest movement within the churches, which finally led to his suspension and deposition as pastor and professor in 1944. As such, an ecclesial conflict was forcefully brought to a close in the midst of the most intense period of the German occupation. This last fact did not prevent Schilder and his followers from taking quick action. In the months that followed, a new denomination was formed, the Gereformeerde Kerken (Vrijgemaakt), which by 1946 had incorporated about 8 percent of the total membership of the Gereformeerde Kerken. By the mid-1940s, therefore, the ecclesial conflicts of the 1930s had escalated and yielded a devastating schism. And Schilder, the very man who had doggedly pursued the unity of the church, ended up as the lead character in that schism.
Marinus De Jong, “General Introduction,” in The Klaas Schilder Reader: The Essential Theological Writings, ed. George Harinck, Marinus De Jong, and Richard Mouw, trans. Albert Gootjes and Albert Oosterhoff (Lexham Academic, 2022), 11–13.
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