Hitler and Christianity

In his autobiographical narrative Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi describes a death camp selection in which weak prisoners were designated to be killed. He calls it an abomination “which no propitiatory prayer, no pardon, no expiation by the guilty, which nothing at all in the power of man can ever clean again.” 

Primo Levi was right – there is nothing at all in the power of man that can atone for or expiate even one such crime, let alone all of the horrors of the Holocaust  – yet there is something not in the power of man, and far above the power of man, that can atone for those evils, and for yet more evils. 

Try to imagine all of the suffering and misery that has taken place in the whole world, from Cain’s murder of Abel up to the present day. Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas – how many uncountable centuries, millions of years of combined human experience, spread out over vast expanses of the globe, over deserts, forests, jungles, frozen northern wastes, prisons, camps, dungeons, slave ships, plantations, killing fields, and abortion clinics? What an incalculable  amount of human suffering has taken place. Wars, hatred, slavery, famine, torture, killing, revenge, exploitation, racism, injustice, loneliness, fear, greed, selfishness, alienation – a significant part of the human experience can be seen as a dark, turbulent sea of evil, suffering, sorrow, misery, and sin.   

The extermination of 6,000,000 Jews was only a small part of humanity’s combined evils – yet the Holocaust was and rightly remains unique in world history because of the concentration and intensity of its evil. It was also unique in that it was carried out in supposedly civilized Europe, and facilitated by technology, by inventions such as the railroad and electricity that should have been used for the benefit of mankind. It was also, unlike so many other crimes, thoroughly exposed. Nevertheless, in spite of its undeniable uniqueness, in spite of its well-deserved elevation as a towering and unassailable symbol of inhumanity, the Holocaust can be seen as part of a larger whole. Nazi cruelties were extreme manifestations of human traits that have existed throughout human history. 

It is extraordinary to think that there might be a force for good in the universe vastly greater than all of this evil, more powerful than all of the passions of human hatred and cruelty, a force that tolerates this evil for the time being, even as it offers deliverance for those who will accept deliverance, but in the end will deal justly with evil and end it. Such a concept of goodness seems impossible to the natural mind – but then, the natural mind is very far from being the final arbiter of what is and is not true, what is and is not real. Many people have glimpsed this higher reality, and have tried to shape their lives accordingly. 

There are deep spiritual truths far beyond the grasp of human reason, truths that have been revealed by God to us in his Son the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the bible. Many Christians are uncomfortable with stating this too directly, at least at the outset. The concept of the necessity of divine revelation alienates unbelievers who, it is assumed, should first be won over by more general philosophical truths and / or by our “winsome” characters. Nevertheless, however or whenever it is introduced, this is the Christian teaching. There is a place for tact and careful approaches, but if deep down we are ashamed of this essential aspect of Christian teaching because it isn’t intellectually respectable, we are in serious trouble, and are half-defeated before we even begin to speak. 

By Christ, the Spirit, and the written word, and in no other way, we can begin to discern the invisible realities of the spiritual world. We can also find insight into the mystery of evil, and its final resolution. These insights are denied to those who simplistically rely on human intelligence alone. They ridicule us for our beliefs, but it is in fact they who are blind, deceived, and in darkness. May God have mercy on them, and may we be fit to be instruments of that mercy. 

Several of these spiritual truths beyond the grasp of reason unaided are not merely that God exists, but that He manifested himself in human form, showed us the way to Himself through his only begotten Son the Lord Jesus Christ, and appointed his Son to die as a sacrifice to appease the divine wrath at the wickedness of man. I John says that Jesus Christ “is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” When Christ, who knew no sin, became sin, he took upon him the entire sin of the human race, including the sins and the evils of Auschwitz. 

There is a place for reasoned debate, argumentation, establishing credibility, inference, evidence, and persuasion – but there is also a place for presenting straightforward biblical teaching in and of itself, let the world respond as it will. Some will scoff, some will turn away, but some will listen, and will hears, if God so grants it. Some Christians fear if we are too biblical the world will marginalize us, and will not hear us – but, if we marginalize ourselves in advance, they will not hear us either. If we are ashamed of or even embarrassed by what we believe because it is not intellectually respectable enough, perhaps we need to be less concerned about what unbelievers think, and more concerned about these words of Christ: Whosoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him also will the Son of man be ashamed. 

Because of Christ’s divinity, his sacrifice is sufficient to atone for the entire human race in a way that nothing else can. Thus, no human action can cleanse the evils of Nazi atrocities, but the blood of Jesus the Son of God shed on the cross can. It has the power to cleanse those evils, and all of the evils of the world. Even victims of the worst atrocities, not to mention all of the lesser hurts and wrongs of more ordinary human experience, can in Christ find peace and release, healing forgiveness for those that have wronged them, and newness of life. Our eternal life, if we are in Christ, beings now, and I am thankful that salvation for sin begins not merely someday, before the judgment seat of God, but now, in this life, and in our hearts and minds and spirits. 

God’s grace, his mercy, his love, and his power are infinitely greater than the Nazis, and than all of the power of Satan, which the Nazis exemplified so well. Essential biblical teachings remain untouched and unchallenged by the evil and cruelty of this dark and sinful world. It is not scriptural truth but secular fantasies about human goodness and the inevitability of progress that are permanently destroyed by Auschwitz – or would be, if secularists were half as detached and objective as they like to imagine they are. 

It is possible to believe in God after Auschwitz. What is not possible is to believe in the power of science and human reason to bring about a better world without some sort of higher moral guidance. That historical development does not make people better, but may make them worse; that people are by nature sinful; that false ideas can be taken to the farthest extreme; that rejection of God’s law does not bring freedom but brings slavery and misery; that human progress can sometimes be progress in the wrong direction, taking us farther and farther from the truth – these lessons of the Holocaust are confined to earth, and do not reach to God.

Although I was not of course aware of all of the Christian responses that emerged out of the shock of 9-11, those that I did come across seemed inadequate and disappointing.

Some described the atrocity as a “wake-up call” – but what sort of sleep was America in that required a catastrophe to end it? This was not elaborated on. Also, once awakened, what was America supposed to do? Were we “awakened” only so that we might go back to sleep, and resume shopping and our individual pursuits of happiness as usual? Or to attack Iraq and Afghanistan maybe?

Others described 9-11 as a lesson teaching us that we are not guaranteed any length of life, and can be called to leave this world at any time – but that lesson can be learned from a car crash or a heart attack. Was such a spectacular manifestation of horror necessary to teach us this simple truism?

Still others blamed 9-11 on America’s open and flagrant sins, and pointed to abortion, pornography, the ACLU, and immorality of various sorts – but weren’t many innocent people killed in the attacks? And, didn’t Jesus condemn false religious teachers more than he condemned anyone else? Some of the most iniquitous places in America today include church pulpits and seminaries where the truths of God in Christ are trampled underfoot and openly despised. Why didn’t the hijackers crash their planes into a more obviously sinful place, if it was God’s intention to punish America for its most notorious evils?

One well-known church leader prayed that God would give us victory in our struggle for liberty, and “God bless America” was a theme commonly sounded in those dark days – but wasn’t 9-11 a very conspicuous demonstration of the absence of God’s blessing? And is America such a nation today that we can ask God to bless us, as if we deserve it just because we are Americans, no matter what the moral and spiritual state of our nation might be?

Finally, some referred to 9-11 as part of the larger problem of evil: How can a good God create a world with evil in it, and how can he sit on the sidelines when evil is done? This is something we Christians do not claim to fully understand – but still, cannot we say something more relevant to this problem? To what extent are our biblical teachings (if we really believe in the Bible), our Spirit of God (if we have the Spirit), and our mind of Christ (if we have the mind of Christ) able to enlighten us on this problem? Is biblical Christianity relevant to specific issues, or are we confined to general truisms that could apply to many different situations?

Biblically, we can attribute this evil deed to Satan. To the prince of darkness, catastrophes and horrors are things to be desired as good in and of themselves. Secondly, we can describe the perpetrators of 9-11 as servants of Satan. This does not mean they are excusable because “the devil made them do it.” They chose of themselves the path of destruction, and were of themselves suitable agents of the devil’s wiles. They imagined they would earn God’s favor by their wicked deeds, but in fact earned his condemnation, and will have their part in the lake of eternal fire prepared for, among other people, murderers. There will be no paradise for them, only everlasting destruction.

Yet, the question of God still remains. We as Christians do not need to consider the possibilities of God’s impotence, or lack of awareness, or indifference, or full approval. We know that God was not helpless to prevent the tragedy; that the event did not take him by surprise; that he was not remote and uncaring, like the ancient philosophical idea of the unmoved mover. We also know that the terrorist acts were not carried out by men acting in faithful obedience to the teachings of Christ, and hence meeting with God’s approval.

So, where was God? He could easily have frustrated the conspiracy in many ways, had he chosen to do so. That he chose not to do so means that it was his will that Satan be given some power and authority to act. But how can this be!? No, let’s ask a much better question: What right did America have, on September 11, 2001, and in the days preceding, to ask for protection from God? And what right did we have to expect to automatically receive such protection without even asking, as if it were our birthright? Are Americans so special? Is God’s blessing something we deserve because America used to be so religious a long time ago?

If the president of the United States in the preceding years was more concerned with chasing women than he was with national security, was God obligated to intervene? And hasn’t America consistently and systematically sought to remove God from its courts, its government, its entertainment, its news media, and its educational systems? Haven’t practices, entertainments, and attitudes that would have offended unbelievers 50 years ago become the norm among us? Haven’t even many outwardly bible-believing churches fallen asleep, and failed to adequately represent the Christ of scripture and the straight and narrow biblical way of the cross to a lost world?

Instead of the pathetic spectacles of the United States Congress singing “God bless America”; of theologians and spiritual leaders floundering out of their depth; of people trying to understand “Why do they hate us?”, a much more suitable response would have been that found in the book of the prophet Daniel.

Daniel, considering the devastation that had been wrought upon God’s chosen people, their great religious heritage notwithstanding, sought wisdom from God with fasting and deep self abnegation (practices unknown to many Christians today). He then confessed his nation’s sins, and stated “we have sinned . . . we have rebelled . . . we have disobeyed God . . . Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us . . . we have done wickedly.”

Many times in his prayer he says “we.” He did not point to notorious evil doers, but to the nation as a whole, including its religious people, and of course himself. In the same spirit Christians after 9-11 might have said “We have sinned . . . we have failed to die to self and take up the cross of Christ . . . we have failed to be light and salt . . . we have dozed in front of our TV sets while the culture went down the wrong path . . . we have not been concerned with God’s righteousness, but have been happy with our material comforts. We have been asleep while false teachings swept through the church; while iniquities were institutionalized as the law of the land; while our children were corrupted with the most contemptible and ignorant entertainments and educational programs.”

Some will object that America is not ancient Israel, that God dealt with Israel in a special way, and that is undoubtedly true – but do they want to say that the events of the Old Testament are not relevant to us? That contradicts the New Testament, which directly states that Old Testament events are for our example. Do they want to deny that God governs the nations? Just what sort of a God is it many Christians have nowadays anyway? A God who saves individual souls and deals with specific requests, while he allows the world to go on its way independently, and does not interfere because we humans are the sovereign lords of the earth?

God in the past gave America liberty, prosperity, and security – and he that gave them can also take them away. He is taking them away even now. We have less of those blessings than we had in the past, and without significant change we can expect further diminishing in the future, because America today is not a country that deserves God’s blessings.