# Refuting ridiculous charges of Hitler's Christian belief or influence



## Joe Keysor (Aug 5, 2005)

*Refuting ridiculous charges of Hitler\'s Christian belief or influence*

I put together a few basic points for anyone who has come across the ridiculous assertion that Hitler was a Christian or influenced by Christianity


I. Hitler's assembled religious quotations and statements contain none of the essential Christian doctrines.

In all of the references made by Hitler that have any religious content, assembled by diligent search by those who want to link him to Christianity, the following doctrines are conspicuously absent:

~ That Jesus Christ is God come to earth in the flesh
~ That he was born of a virgin
~ That he died on the cross _as a sacrifice for the sins of the world_. This last part is put in italics because Hitler did mention the crucifixion once or twice, but merely mentioning the crucifixion (once in comparison to himself) does not constitute Christianity.
~ That God is three-in-one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
~ That Jesus Christ rose from the dead
~ That Jesus Christ now sits at the right hand of God, whence he will return to judge the world
~ That we are all guilty of sin, and forgiveness of sins comes through faith in Christ and his sacrifice on the cross
~ That there will be a resurrection from the dead, and a day of judgment, on which the chosen of God will be ushered into paradise, while the lost will be sent to punishment in the lake of fire 
~ That the bible is the word of God, directly inspired and infallible and inerrant.

The fact that Hitler never once mentioned any of these will not satisfy some - that is their mistake.


II. Many of Hitler's comments were politically motivated, insincere, and often blatantly dishonest. 

One man argued for Hitler's Christianity by asserting that Hitler must have been a Christian because he said so himself, and therefore it must be true (this with reference to an oft quoted remark in a speech of 1922). It is difficult to know how to respond to someone who puts their faith in Hitler's sincerity. Perhaps the best way is by showing a few other statements of Hitler's, taken fromwww.adolfhitler.ws/

_It [the German government] is impressed with the importance of its duty to use this nation of equal rights as an instrument for the securing and maintenance of that peace which the world requires today more than ever before. 
May the good will of all others assist in the fulfillment of this our earnest wish for the welfare of Europe and of the whole world. (February 1, 1933)

It is the sincere desire of the National Government to be able to refrain from increasing our army and our weapons, insofar as the rest of the world is now also ready to fulfill its obligations in the matter of radical disarmament. For Germany desires nothing except an equal right to live and equal freedom...The German nation wishes to live in peace with the rest of the world...The keeping open of this wound leads to distrust on the one side and hatred on the other, and thus to a general feeling of insecurity. The National Government is ready to extend a hand in sincere understanding to every nation that is ready finally to make an end of the tragic past. The international economic distress can only disappear when the basis has been provided by stable political relations and when the nations have regained confidence in each other...we are ready to co-operate with absolute sincerity on the basis it provides, in order to unite the four Great Powers, England, France, Italy, and Germany, in friendly co-operation in attacking with courage and determination the problems upon the solution of which the fate of Europe depends. (March 23, 1933) 

What we want lies clear before us: not war and not strife. Just as we have established peace within our own people, so we want nothing else than peace with the world. For we all know that our great work can succeed only in a time of peace (May 1, 1935).
_
Hitler wanted peace, he said so himself. Anyone who does not understand that Hitler routinely lied (not pathologically but deliberately and skilfully) really has no business trying to discuss what he believed. 

Hitler was at times very honest, at other times very dishonest. In stating his main goals, he was extremely forthright. Tear up the Versailles Treaty; regain lost territory; expand to the east; end the Weimar democracy; get rid of the Jews; make Germany militarily strong - on these points Hitler was honest. As he worked toward the attainment of these goals, however, he was extremely skilfull at telling people what they wanted to hear, and lied as a matter of deliberate policy. It is more than merely ironic that when Hitler told the truth, many people refused to take it seriously, and when he lied, they believed him. People believe what they want to believe.

Moreover, it is easy to forget that Hitler was at one time not the Fuhrer, but a politician angling for votes, and trying to broaden his base of support. To antagonize a significant portion of the electorate - whether serious and committed Christians, or those who had some sort of respect for the religion even if they didn't practice it - would not have been to his advantage. This is ordinary politics, observable in America today. Many politicians will make a few religious noises on occasion, or make a point of being photographed in some religious connection, even if in their hearts they have no use for Christian doctrines.


III. Mere references to God, Providence, the Lord, and so on do not constitute Christianity.

Those who assert Hitler's Christianity based on his religious sounding statements or phrases are entirely ignorant of the whole context and trend of 19th-century German secularism. There were many people who explicitly rejected biblical Christianity, and wanted nothing to do with Jesus the Son of God dying on the cross, but who neverthless felt that there was some sort of a higher spiritual realm. Whether Hegel's World Spirit, or the pantheistic cosmic force of the idealistic philosophers, or the "god" of the material universe that operated through natural laws known to science, religious sounding words were frequently used in a non-Christian context. Hitler had deep roots in the 19th-century, a century of which many seem to be entirely oblivious in their attempts to understand Hitler.


IV. Hitler's policy toward the churches after coming to power was not one of respect, sympathy, and mutual belief.

Hitler demanded total obedience, and those who deviated too far from the party line were swiftly punished. That the Nazi policy toward the churches was one of rigorous repression rather than sympathy and support is documented amply by J.S. Conway in his book The Nazi Persecution of the Churches. Here are some of the repressive measures enumerated by Conway:

* arrests of clergy and incarceration in concentration camps
* murders of religious opponents of the regime
* physical assaults on clergymen ignored by the police
* academic, social, youth, labor, professional, women's and athletic religious organizations and associations banned
* seizure of church property, including orphanages, hospitals, monasteries and schools (with religious insignias removed and teachers fired)
* Catholic civil servants dismissed
* church publications censored or forbidden
* religious meetings broken up by SA attacks
* dissolution of religious political parties
* attacks on church and Christianity in the press
* attempts to force all German churches into one state controlled church
* restriction of religious activities to church buildings only
* surveillance of worship services and church leaders
* public attacks on the church by Nazi leaders, including Goebbels and Goering
* criticisms of National Socialism or the government forbidden
* the establishment of new religious groups forbidden
* civil servants required to withdraw their children from religious youth organizations with loss of job the penalty for refusing to comply
* total submission of the church to the state in every respect 
* "separation of church and state" meant the churches were allowed to have no say whatever in political questions
* high school teachers forbidden to be active in religious youth groups
* clergymen, including monks and nuns, arrested and tried on trumped up charges
* prayers forbidden at school assemblies
* removal of crucifixes and religious paintings from schools
* numerous independent religious groups banned completely 

One individual argued that these repressive measures were inherently Christian, that Christians always did such things. Such monumental ignorance of history defies refutation, if it is in fact ignorance, and not rather wilful deception.


V. Hitler's life and actions were blatantly contrary to the teachings of Christ and apostles. 

Not only did Christ say "Blessed are the merciful" and "Blessed are the peacemakers," which clearly have nothing to do with Hitler; the bible also says plainly that liars and murderers will not inherit the kingdom of God. As it is written in Revelation: "...the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." Galatians gives a list of sins, including "Adultery, fornication, uncleanness...hatred...wrath, strife...murders, drunkenness" and concludes "they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

Let no one point to the Crusades or the Inquisition, which did not occur until more than a thousand years after Christ, and are in no sense inherent in biblical teaching. Those who have the name of Christian and use this or the church as a cloak for their evildoing and cruelty will receive a heavier condemnation on the day of judgment. Jesus himself referred to those who called him "Lord" but will be turned away on the day of judgment.


VI. Hitler's intellectual antecedents are clearly visible in the writings of 19th-century German thinkers all of whom expressly and vehemently rejected Christianity. 

It is quite remarkable, the way people will jump from Roman Palestine to the Crusades and the Inquisition to Luther and thence to Hitler, omitting the entire 19th century as if it never occurred, or passing over it very lightly and superficially. No Christian ever advocated or attempted to carry out the extermination of the Jewish people as a whole. Apart from the aformentioned warnings about murderers not going to heaven - a serious restraint on anyone really serious about Christianity - there are clear teachings in the New Testament that God still, after the death and resurrection of Christ, has a plan for the Jewish people.

It took the 19th century to introduce the added element of racial "science," and also to embolden man in criminality by dismissing all thoughts of a future judgment. It took modern secularism to unleash the evil in man to an extent never before dreamed of, and it is no secret that the three figures in the preceding century who most fully adocated what Hitler later put into practice were all outspoken opponents of Christianity. I am referring here to Wagner, Haeckel, and Nietzsche. 

The last of these three, Nietzsche, not only denied the existence of God altogether - he also claimed (in his book significantly titled The Antichrist: A Curse on Christianity) that Christianity was nothing but a trick invented by the devious and cunning Jews to manipulate stronger people. Moreover, he described the Jews as vermin, bloodsuckers, hostile to life, and enemies of civilization. The venom against the Jews with which Nietzsche's pages drips in this book have nothing to do with Christ and the apostles, but a great deal to do with the Third Reich - and Hitler's admiration for Nietzsche is a documented fact. The following passage from Shirer is significant [http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Nietzsche.html]:

Yet I think no one who lived in the Third Reich could have failed to be impressed by Nietzsche's influence on it....Yet Nazi scribblers never tired of extolling him. Hitler often visited the Nietzsche museum in Weimar and publicized his veneration for the philosopher by posing for photographs of himself staring in rapture at the bust of the great man.

As to the social Darwinist Ernst Haeckel, Daniel Gasman in his impressive book The Scientific Origins of National Socialism explains how Darwin's survival of the fittest was elevated by Haeckel and others to the racial level. Superior races, racial purity, life as a pitiless struggle without God or ethics in which the strong survive and the weak die, imperialism, German nationalism - all of these and other elements which have everything to do with the Third Reich and nothing to do with the bible are found in Haeckel.

A third source is Wagner. Holding to the then very common belief that Christianty was a religion of weakness and passivity that had corrupted the healthy and primitive pre-Christian society of German warriors, Wagner not only openly advocated dictatorship and German supremacy - he also had a deep hostility to Jews, as is documented in detail by Simon Weil in his online essay Wagner and the Jews[http://members.aol.com/wagnerbuch/intro.htm]. A well-known biography of Hitler gave the impression that Hitler liked Wagner's music, nothing more, and neglected to mention that Wagner was a prolific writer whose many writings on race and politics connect him intimately with the Third Reich. This is elaborated on at length by Peter Viereck in his work Meta-politics: The Roots of the Nazi Mind.

This is not to say that these three men "caused" the Third Reich. It is to say that they are representative of deep and powerful trends in society that were at work long before Hitler was even born - and their roots are in the 19th century rebellion against God. The depth and extent of these trends as found not in individuals, but in organizations, clubs, publications, educational and professional associations and so on, have been examined in detail by George Mosse in his book The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich.


NOT YET COMPLETED
VII. What about Christian support for Hitler?
VIII. What about Christian antisemitism?
IX. Germany was a Christian country
X. What about Martin Luther


http://www.ourchurch.com/view/?pageID=236649

[Edited on 8-5-2005 by Joe Keysor]

[Edited on 8-5-2005 by Joe Keysor]


----------

