Was Hitler a Christian?

It is well known that Hitler has an ear for the occult, that he consults mediums. He is said to neither smoke nor drink, nor does he eat meat. In these last days with his attack on the Christian religion, seeking to substitute for it the worship of Germany as the super-nation, and of himself as Führer, we see how things may easily develop in fulfillment of prophecy concerning the end of the age.

Is it possible that men, who live in lands where the light of the Gospel once has shone, can sink to such a level? It certainly is. Millions of men and women were recently worshipping Hitler, who apparently was in touch with a demon by means of clair-audience — hearing voices from the unseen world. He would have been next to nothing without his "familiar spirit," and in worshipping him men were really worshipping the demon that inspired him. The worship too of the material grows apace, as more and more men are obsessed with their great discoveries, and the works of their own hands by which these discoveries are made available, whether for good or for ill. In worshipping these works of their hands, man really is worshipping himself. In those days then, men will worship themselves and demons. They are not very far away from it today.

Apostasy will take the form of the absolute rejection of God and of Christ, the Saviour of mankind. For this there is no remedy, no recovery. Can we not see a foreshadowing of what we have been describing in Germany of late years? Who would have thought that Germany, the land of the glorious Reformation, the country of Martin Luther, would have disavowed Christianity as it has done under the misrule of Hitler? The Scriptures were flouted, in their place a neo-paganism substituted, hundreds of pastors flung into all the ghastly horrors of vile concentration camps for the only crime of refusing to bow the knee to this godless regime. The stark misery and shame of this staggered humanity. It is but a faint picture of what will take place on a vastly wider scale in the last days.

We believe there is more in the present upheaval in the world than the wickedness and ambition of godless men. Spiritual powers—the principalities and powers in the heavenly places that rule this world’s darkness (Eph. 6:12) are working behind the scenes in the dictator states. We read in the prophecy of Daniel of “the Prince of Persia,” and “the Prince of Greece.” These were great spiritual powers that controlled and gave energy to those world empires in ancient days, and it is our conviction that such powers are increasingly active in world-affairs in our time. A sure sign that we are nearing the end of the age. When a nation of more than 60,000,000 people casts off its Christian profession, relapses into its former paganism, takes lying and deceit for its chief weapons, becomes devoid of all human pity, exalts brute force and savagery to the highest place, and marches with ever-increasing success along a road that must end in disaster, apparently at the will of one man, it is surely evident that a supernatural power is blinding, energizing and driving not the man only but the people. Having cast off the fear of God, such men as these become the willing instruments of evil powers in their struggle against light, and good and God, and when the wickedness of men and. devices of devils are joined in one purpose, they make a most formidable force, and more is needed than Spitfires and tanks, guns and bombs, submarines and battleships, and the unconquerable spirit of British men, if their power is to be broken. We thank God for the remnant of faithful Christians in Germany who stand true to God and His Christ, and who are suffering persecution for their witness. The prisons and concentration camps in which they suffer are a proof of what we say.

We are confirmed also in this view of things when we learn on the authority of Sir Neville Henderson, the former British Ambassador to Berlin that Hitler waits for “the Voice” before coming to his decisions and issuing his commands. He hears what his ministers and generals say, but he is not guided by their advice. It is “the Voice,” with a capital V, that governs his policy and actions. He is a foreshadowing of the coming “Beast”; a man to whom the dragon (Satan) will give “his power, his seat, and great authority” (Rev. 13:2). So great will be the success of that devil-inspired man, that his followers and the smaller nations will say “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him,” and they will render divine honours to him (Rev. 13:4). This is how the German nation already regards Hitler. His infatuated followers make the blasphemous claim for him, “Hitler is a new, a greater, a more powerful Jesus Christ; our God, our pope is Adolf Hitler.” “We believe in our leader; our body, our spirit, our possessions, our soul belong to the Fuehrer. He is the sum of our power and meaning, and we live through him as God.” Coming events are casting their shadows.

Faith is being sorely tested today. Whichever way one looks there is room for much disquietude. If we had been told ten years ago that Germany, the home of the Reformation, the land of Martin Luther, should call upon the pastors of that land to sign a document in which Germany is put before God, nationalism before Christ, and a dictator’s edicts before the Bible, and submit to state dictation of a pagan nature, in order to retain their posts, we should have said it was not possible. Yet, so it is.

We are seeing this worked out just now in German prisons and concentration camps. German pastors have been flung into strict confinement, not because of any crime against the state, but because of their loyalty to their Lord. They have refused to substitute Hitler for Christ as Head of the church. They have dared to stand for the truth, and now “it is given them to suffer for His sake.” It is no new experience, as they have freshly found out.

We may not hope for victory on the ground of our righteousness. But when we think of the wickedness of the aggressors, their defiance of God, their refusal of the Bible and of Christian teaching, their imprisoning of hundreds of German pastors because they will not surrender the gospel of the grace of God, the unspeakable torture of the Jewish race, their concentration camps, their devilish and unspeakable torturing of all who stand in the slightest way of their wickedness, we can only believe that God, who witnesses all this, will rebuke their wickedness and cause them to be brought to naught.

How often have we prayed that God will open the prison doors of the German pastors, who are held in durance vile because they will not bow the knee to the neo-paganism Hitler is seeking to impose on that unhappy country. God opened Peter’s prison of old, delivering him but a few hours before the time fixed for his martyrdom, and we have the same God today. One day these prison doors will assuredly be opened.

Read the letters of the German pastors. They witness to the fact that they are at peace, in tranquillity of mind, their hearts rejoicing in the Lord, the Scriptures encouraging them, the succour of their Lord, their great High Priest in heaven, supporting them, they are happier by far in their bare cells than Hitler in his gilded palace, with his over-reaching ambition riding for a terrible fall.

In India I met a lady doctor, the daughter of a Polish rabbi, a strong character, and an earnest Christian. She loathed Hitler and all his works. Yet she told me that when in Berlin she heard him three or four times. She would begin by feeling very antipathetic, but before long she would be swept off her feet by some weird supernatural power, and could not release herself from this malign power as long as she was in his presence. For the first three or four minutes he would speak like an ordinary man, and then his face would take on a different and terrible look, and in an instant the audience would be gripped by a power which she and many others believe to be satanic.