Was Adolph Hitler A Christian?

Last updated on: September 26, 2016 at 9:46 am by Jack Wellman

Was Adolph Hitler A Christian? 2016-09-26T09:46:19-05:00 Jack Wellman

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Was Adolph Hitler a Christian as some claim?

Who is a Christian?

Who is a Christian? It is someone who’s repented of their sins and forsaken them, and turned away from a continual pattern of sin, and then put their trust in Christ. This doesn’t mean they are sinless or without fault. In fact, we all sin, Christians included (1 John 1:8, 10), but the difference is we fall into sin, and don’t dive into sin and swim in it. That’s because the Holy Spirit convicts them of their sin and causes them to repent and confess their sins. Christians are in no way superior to anyone, so we are not saved because we’re better….we’re only accounted as righteous before God on account of Jesus Christ (2nd Cor 5:21). There is none of us that can boast (Eph 2:8-9), but we can only boast on the work of Christ on Calvary. A Christian should exhibit the fruits of the Spirit of God, such as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23), however “the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:19-21). The Bible doesn’t say, “You will know Christians by their words” but rather “You will know them by their fruits” (Matt 7:16), and we have seen the fruits of the unsaved (the flesh) and the fruits of the Spirit. There is a vast difference between the two.

How does a Person Become a Christian?

Many falsely believe that they make themselves Christian by seeking after God, but this is contrary to the biblical doctrine that “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom3:10), and “There is none who seeks after God” (Rom 3:11). Jesus reminds His disciples (and us), “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide” (John 15:16), and “flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 16:17). The Apostle John wrote “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will or of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13). They weren’t born from a human decision, or the will of man or the flesh, but rather, by the will of God. Besides, we were dead in our sins, without hope, until God quickened us or made us alive in Christ (Eph 2:1), so “even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:5).

Was Hitler a Christian?

The late Christopher Hitchens wrote in his book, “God is Not Great” described Adolph Hitler as a “pagan polytheist,” so that’s hardly a description of a conventional Christian as defined in the Bible. Hitler himself wrote he wrote in “Mein Kampf,” “By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord” but is fighting for the work of the Lord.” Really!? Murdering millions of innocent people, and not just Jews, but the disabled, transients, Gypsies, and several different groups of people that he put into a “less than human” class is being a Christian? Hitler was raised a Catholic, but so was Joseph Stalin, and no one would classify this mass-murderer as a Christian. Atheists (certainly not all, but a few) who claim that Hitler was a Christian have no real evidence to prove this, and in fact, as we have read, the Bible says you will know them by their fruits, and Hitler exhibited no fruits that a believer in Jesus Christ would show, but rather, exhibited fruits of the flesh.

Loving our Enemies

If Hitler was a Christian, then where is the evidence that he loved his enemies? Jesus describes what Christians are called to do as He said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:44). If someone claims to be a Christian and yet, hates others, then the love of God does not abide in them. The Apostle John writes that “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1st John 3:15), and that “it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother” (1st John 10).

Conclusion

Hitler’s “Table Talk” is a very revealing collection of his personal opinions that was assembled during the war by one of his closest aides and these prove that Hitler was definitely anti-religious. In fact, Hitler called Christianity one of the great “scourges” of history, and said of the Germans, “Let’s be the only people who are immunized against this disease.” He even blamed the Jews for “inventing Christianity,” but this is contrary to what Jesus said that He would build His church, not the Jews (Matt 16:18). Historian Richard Evans, in his multi-volume history of the Third Reich, writes that “the Nazis regarded the churches as the strongest and toughest reservoirs of ideological opposition to the principles they believed in.” The body-count of those who Hitler opposed is a mountain of evidence that cannot be ignored that Hitler was not a Christian, and to believe such a lie, flies in the face of concrete, historical evidence.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.

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