The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops was marked recently at the site of the former death camp, a ceremony that was widely being treated as the last major observance that any notable number of survivors will be able to attend. 

Nazi German forces murdered some 1.1 million people at the site in southern Poland, which was under German occupation during World War II. 

Most of the victims were Jews killed on an industrial scale in gas chambers, but the Germans also murdered many Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, gay people and others who were targeted for elimination in the Nazi racial ideology.

The year was 2016 and I was blessed to spend time with a man who literally lived through the most devastating time in the history of the world, the Holocaust. 

His name is Irving Roth. Roth’s family moved to Hungary from Slovakia in 1943 where Jews were still safe. 

The tide of the war was turning against the Nazis. 

The Roths believed that the war would soon be over, and they would survive. 

In the spring of 1944, Irving Roth celebrated Passover, the festival of the historical oppression and liberation of the Jews from under the reign of the Pharaohs, hoping that his own deliverance was on the way. 

In April of 1944, the Hungarian government decided to liquidate the Jewish population of Hungary. 

He was captured and taken to Auschwitz and later Buchenwald were he barely survived to the end of the war in which more than six million Jews died in the Holocaust. 

On one occasion when we were together, Irving rolled up his sleeve and showed me the number tattooed on his arm. 

He looked up at me and said sadly, “I remember how I felt when this was placed on my arm, it was a fearful time” he continued, “I’m afraid it’s becoming a fearful time once again!”

So, while this chapter of history was being written in Irving’s life, on June 6, 1944 over 160,000 troops from America, Britain, Canada, free France, Poland and other nations landed along a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast of France.

It was the largest amphibious invasion force in world history, supported by 5,000 ships with 195,700 navy personnel and 13,000 aircraft.” 

NO one knew if it would succeed, NO one knew those things that only God could know. 

But all knew that they were called to stand, to fight and persevere. If they had failed another invasion, another effort would be months or years away. 

The Nazis would likely have further perfected their rockets, their jet aircraft and would have killed almost all remaining Jews in Europe. 

The supreme commander of the June 6 invasion, Dwight D. Eisenhower sent his troops into battle invoking the protection of Almighty God. 

The author of an obscure little letter placed toward the end of the New Testament, Jude, gives us a clarion call for moments such as this. 

He writes, “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” 

A wonderful paraphrase the Message renders the passage this way, “I have to write insisting begging! that you fight with everything you have in you for this faith entrusted to us as a gift to guard and cherish.” 

Did you catch the word contend? Jude is the story of people who commit apostasy… those who fall away from Jesus Christ. 

The verse before us is about starting and finishing well. I think Jude is handing us at least three wonderful reminders. 

First, a great start matters little when followed by a poor finish. 

Ask any pilot, a good flight is never without a good landing. 

Second, we are kidding ourselves if we think that our character doesn’t matter. 

I recently met with the pastor of a large church who when I asked the question, “how can I pray for you?” 

His reply, “pray for wisdom, courage and purity.” 

Good advice! And last, a great finish happens by paying careful attention to the things of God. 

I have a picture in my office of Tanzanian marathon runner John Stephen Akhwari, who lost the race in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, yet is still a hero in the hearts of millions. 

Not long after the start of the marathon at the Mexico Olympics, he fell and was badly injured. 

When he limped into the stadium on bloody and bandaged legs an hour after the winner of the race had left, there were only a few spectators remaining in the stands. 

When asked why he didn’t retire from the race, Akhwari’s answer is calm and simple. “My country didn’t send me to start the race, they sent me to finish it!” 

God has placed you and me in a blessed nation in a wonderful moment in time; may we, with His help… finish well! 

Tim Throckmorton is the president of Lifepointe Ministries.