‘Tis the season to be jolly! But what if you’re not? Is there more to Christmas than just endless mince pies, mountains of sprouts, and re-runs of Mary Poppins? What if there’s a real emptiness behind all the effort and frivolity unless you discover what the real heart of Christmas is all about?
In episode 6 of SHORT/ANSWERS, Dr. Andy Bannister of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity explains why it’s impossible to escape the significance of Jesus Christ.
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Ho, ho, ho! Every Christmas, you can guarantee that some atheist, somewhere, will make the tired old argument: “Belief in God is just like belief in Santa Claus!” Does that comparison stand up?
In episode 5 of SHORT/ANSWERS, Dr. Andy Bannister of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity explains why not and why God is utterly, incredibly, wonderful unique.
Short Answers is a viewer-supported video series: if you enjoy them, please help us continue to make them by donating to Solas. Visit our Donate page and choose “Digital Media Fund” under the Campaign/Appeal button.
What is your identity based around? Career success? Social media followers? Sexuality? How would you feel if you achieved everything you wanted only to realise that it still lets you down? Dr. Andy Bannister, Director of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity asks , “Are you more than your resume?” and explores what the best grounding for a solid sense of identity looks like.
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If we could all just affirm that everybody worships the same God, would there be much more peace in the world? Dr. Andy Bannister, Director of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity explores the question of whether or not Muslims and Christians believe in the same God.
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Please share this video widely with friends or family and for more SHORT/ANSWERS videos, visit https://www.solas-cpc.org/shortanswers/ or subscribe to our channel.
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Dr. Andy Bannister, Director of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity explores the question of whether or not science and Christianity are opposed to each other. For more “Short Answers” videos, visit https://www.solas-cpc.org/shortanswers/
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‘Burn In Hell!’ screamed the tabloid headline as it vented the frustration and wrath of ‘the people’ against a particularly evil individual. It’s strange that despite the lack of teaching about hell in the Church, the idea of hell continues in popular culture.
I’m not sure when I last heard any teaching about hell in church, never mind a good old fashioned hell-fire sermon. Isn’t that a wonderful thing? Isn’t the rejection of hell a sign we’ve grown up, matured and finally come into the 21st century? Isn’t this a much nicer picture of God?
Indeed it is. There is only one slight problem. Its not what Jesus taught. Which is a big problem for those who profess to be Christians – followers of Christ.
I spoke at Spring Harvest once and was given the subject of Hell. I guess they thought that a Scottish Presbyterian Calvinist would have that has one of his favourite subjects. I turned up in Skegness and was shown to a large hall, which was heated by two flame-throwers set either side of me. I said that under no circumstances was I going to teach about hell with flame throwers as props! But what astounded me that more than 100 people turned up for the seminar. These were Christians who were concerned that they did not have any real teaching about hell.
Everyone from the Jehovah’s Witnesses to Christopher Hitchens wants to tell us that either Jesus did not teach about hell, or if he did it has been terribly misunderstood. But Jesus taught more about Hell than anyone else in the Bible, by a long way.
Why would a loving Jesus, gentle Jesus meek and mild, give such horrific teaching? The only reason I can think of is that it is true.
“The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:41-43).
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats… And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:31-46).
Jesus taught that hell is a place of torment and fire, as these Scriptures reveal:
“And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:42)
“Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41)
In Mark 9:46, Jesus speaks about Hell: “…where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched”.
The bottom line is that Jesus believed that there is an afterlife. He believed that what we do, say and choose in this life determines where we will spend that afterlife. He believes that there is a judgment and after that judgment some will spend their eternity in what we call Hell. It is a place of exclusion, darkness and pain. And it is eternal. That much we know. I am not sure it is wise to speculate beyond that. Images of Dante’s Inferno, magnificent poem though it is, do not really help. It is important not to confuse the speculations of later times with the simple and stark words of Christ.
It is also important to remember that Hell is about justice. I met a man from Manchester who had grown up in a nominally Christian home but had converted to Islam. Why? Because all he ever heard about in his church was a God of love, and he wanted a God of justice, who was not going to leave sin unpunished and who would right every wrong. Ironically his church, who doubtless thought they were presenting a more attractive version of God, had turned him away from Jesus because they presented Jesus as someone who let evil go unpunished. They did not teach the Jesus of the Bible – the one whose love is beyond any human comprehension and yet who spoke so passionately of hell.
In one classic episode of Inspector Morse, set in Australia, Lewis asks Morse about whether he believes there’s a hell. Morse, thinking about the evil and injustice he has seen, muses:
“I hope so, Lewis, I hope so.”
But in Downfall, the amazing German film about Hitler’s last days, Hitler is shown, just before he commits suicide, talking about how his death means he will be at peace. That is what the world believes and its what ‘liberal’ Christianity teaches. It doesn’t matter what you do in life, there is peace at the end. There is no justice, no judgment day. In fact without hell, there might as well be no God.
To reject hell is to reject the teaching of Christ, to demean his atoning work on the cross and to attack the character of God. If you believe that as Rousseau argued “God will forgive me, because that’s his job”, then you end up with a God who is weak, cruel and unjust.
John Milton wrote in his epic poem Paradise Lost:
So spake the Son, and into terrour changed His countenance, too severe to be beheld, And full of wrath bent on his enemies.
(Book VI)
We struggle with the idea of the wrath of God, finding Milton’s description as somehow unpleasant and inhumane. We judge God for being Judge. And yet we ourselves feel perfectly justified in being angry at the injustice we receive and indeed the injustice in the world. Is it wrong to be angry about a truck being driven through a crowd of people in Nice, killing men, women and children? Would there not be something wrong with us if we did not feel anger at the abuse and rape of young children? If it is right for us to feel anger, as weak and fallible humans, will not the Judge of all the earth do right?
There are Christians who believe that ultimately no one goes to hell. Others believe that while hell is real and lasts forever, people within hell will eventually die after suffering the punishment for their sins. The traditional view has been that hell is eternal conscious torment because those in hell keep on sinning and never repent, and so get caught in a never ending cycle of sin and punishment.
I cannot think of Hell without shuddering. I believe what Jesus says and the bottom line is that I believe that God is just. I also believe that Jesus came to save us from hell and that no one needs to go there. Indeed the only people in hell are those who have chosen not to go to heaven.
C S Lewis has been a great help to me in trying to understand something of heaven and hell. The Great Divorce is a fascinating book with lots of wonderful insights (and some things I am not too sure about). In it he says:
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”
“The choice of every lost soul can be expressed in the words, ‘Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.’“
The reason Jesus came and suffered such a horrendous death was to save us from the eternal death that is hell. He is the Saviour who not only came to save us from hell; he also came to save us for heaven.
Belief in hell is counter-cultural. It is not easy. And there are lots of questions that we will have. But we need to be aware that in denying hell, we are denying the triune God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
If we don’t take hell as seriously as Jesus did, I suspect that we will not really take Christianity seriously. And our evangelism won’t really work because the Good News is reduced to denying what Jesus taught and instead telling people that everything is nice and going to be OK. The Holy Spirit comes to convict us of sin, righteousness and the judgment to come (John 16:8). When a Christian says they don’t believe in the judgment to come, they are in effect denying the work of the Holy Spirit.
Maybe it’s time for the Church in the West to recover the teaching of Jesus about hell?
Have you noticed that every time a celebrity dies (which seems to be occurring at an alarming rate this year – or am I just getting old?) that inevitably the remarks follow about them being in heaven, looking down, playing their guitar etc. For a generation that is supposed not to believe in God and the afterlife it seems somewhat contradictory. For human beings, it appears there is an understandable fascination with what happens to us when we die. As the preacher in Ecclesiastes tells us, God ‘has put eternity in the heart of man’. Is this just false comfort? Is this just social conditioning for the poor and the weak, to help them cope with the troubles they have in this life, by encouraging them to think of the next? Is it just pie in the sky when you die?
What will heaven be like? I know this sounds strange but even as a Christian for a number of years I struggled with the idea of going to heaven almost as much as I struggled with the idea of going to hell. Not long after I became a Christian I was walking along the beach at Brora in the Eastern Scottish Highlands. It was about midnight and it was a glorious and beautiful crisp and clear night, with the full moon bouncing off the calm sea. I confessed to my companion at the time, the wonderful Bible teacher, Dick Dowsett, that I did not want to go to heaven. He smiled and asked me why not. “Because although I know that it is not really like this, I cannot get out of my head the images of sitting on a cloud, playing a harp, or heaven being like one eternal church service, and then when I look at all this beauty, I think I don’t want to leave that.” Dick looked horrified; “David, you really have no idea about heaven. Stop and think. Look at all this beauty and you have to realise that it is just a foretaste, it is but a shadow. What you see now will be a million times more in heaven.”
One of the images that help me to understand heaven better is that of sight. Now we see but through a glass darkly. Then we shall see clearly. I heard a scientist who was based in the Antarctic explaining that when he stood on his small hill he could now only see 100 miles with the naked eye whereas when he first came to the Antarctic he used to be able to see 400 miles. It was not that his eyes were fading but rather that the environment was becoming more polluted. It struck me that that is a great analogy for heaven. Right now we see dimly. The pollution of sin, the incapacities of our minds and the limitations of our bodies mean that we cannot conceive what God has prepared for those who love him – in the new heavens and the new earth, without the pollution of sin.
Before I sat my driving test I had to go and get an eye test. I thought my eyes were perfect and confidently told the optician that there was nothing wrong with my eyesight. When he covered over one eye and asked me to read the top line on the board, I had to ask, “what board?!” When he gave me glasses and I put them on, everything in the room was clearer. I had not known that my eyesight was so bad because it had gradually deteriorated. That for me is what heaven is like. We think just now that we can judge God, that we can tell him what is right and wrong and that we can even determine that he does not exist. The arrogance is breathtaking because in reality we are blind men shouting at the light that we say does not exist. When Jesus opens our eyes we begin to see, but it is only a beginning. Throughout our lives as we draw closer to Christ we see more and more of the beauty. But it is only when we get to heaven that we will really see and grasp. Then we shall see clearly.
It takes an enormous shift of mind to grasp that what we are living in just now is real, but is not the ultimate reality. We are tasting but this is not yet the banquet. Heaven is not an ethereal dream but a reality to which in contrast this current live I am now living is but a shadow. CS Lewis developed and spoke a great deal about this idea of the Shadowlands. This week’s recommended book is his wonderful story about the difference between heaven and hell –The Great Divorce.
Speaking of which I don’t know a better description of heaven than the latter part of Lewis’ conclusion to the Narnia tales, The Last Battle. “It was the unicorn who summed up what everyone was feeling. He stamped his right fore-hoof on the ground and neighed, and then cried: I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this. Bree-heehee! Come farther up, come farther in!”
What all of this has to do with Jesus is this. What makes heaven heaven, is the presence of the Lamb. It is Christ who is the joy, light and life of heaven. “We now understand that Jesus himself is ‘heaven’ in the deepest and truest sense of the word – he in whom and through whom God’s will is done,” says Pope Benedict. Heaven is where Jesus is. Hell is where he is not. Anyone who chooses to reject Jesus and live without him is in effect choosing hell.
The Humanist Hope
There are problems, depths and many questions in thinking about all of this. And surely that is the way you would expect it to be? When human beings try to create a heaven on earth just think how weak and pathetic our efforts are in comparison to what God does and promises.
What is the humanist hope? Bertrand Russell expressed it starkly – “No fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought or feeling, can preserve a life beyond the grave…all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system; and the whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.”
We are a blob of carbon floating from one meaningless existence to another.
That is really what it all boils down to. Is our life a sad meaningless journey from nothing to nothing? Is life, as Macbeth says in his final speech,
…but a walking shadow; a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more; it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
Or is there something more? Surely everything in you screams out – there is more. Life is a journey – complete with ups and downs. For me as a Christian it is a joy, a feast, but it is not the final destination. We are on the road to somewhere.
That somewhere is tied up with a whole host of words and concepts – beauty, truth, love, life, justice. A few years ago I buried a young man who was a great fan of The Lord of the Rings movies and so the family requested that we play Annie Lennox singing Into the West. It is the song at the end of the last of the trilogy and accompanies the ship sailing into the West. It represents death. And hope. Beautifully phrased and sung. Little wonder that there was not a dry eye in the house.
Lay down
Your sweet and weary head
Night is falling
You have come to journey’s end
Sleep now
And dream of the ones who came before
They are calling
From across a distant shore Why do you weep?
What are these tears upon your face?
Soon you will see
All of your fears will pass away
Safe in my arms
You’re only sleeping What can you see
On the horizon?
Why do the white gulls call?
Across the sea
A pale moon rises
The ships have come to carry you home And all will turn
To silver glass
A light on the water
All Souls pass Hope fades
Into the world of night
Through shadows falling
Out of memory and time
Don’t say
We have come now to the end
White shores are calling
You and I will meet again
And you’ll be here in my arms
Just sleeping
Whilst we are on the Lord of the Rings – perhaps the following quote encapsulates the Christian hope of heaven.
‘”Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?”
“A great Shadow has departed,” said Gandalf, and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count.’
The hope of heaven and the certainty of arriving at our final destination, the realisation that ‘this world is not my home, I’m just a passing through’, is something which gives us the courage, strength and ability to face all the ups and downs of this present life. It’s not just pie in the sky when you die, but steak on your plate while you wait!
Isn’t it great to be free! Especially free to be creative. Doesn’t religion shackle creativity? Isn’t it just better to be ourselves and express ourselves? So runs the somewhat narrow and simplistic narrative of some of our culture. Does Christianity really stifle music and the arts? I guess tales of bagpipes being burned (although that may have had something to do with taste rather than theology!), or statues being smashed can fuel that misapprehension. Because, as anyone who knows anything about art or music history, it is a demonstrably false claim.
I once visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and was astounded at the crowds in the 17th, 18th and 19thcentury galleries. Then I went into the 20th century gallery – there was enough space to play five-a-side football! Why? It’s a complex question but I think one aspect is that largely 20th century art has lost its way, becoming a commercialised caricature of itself (and I say this as someone who likes a great deal of modern art and supports modern art galleries). When someone asks “what is art worth?” and the answer is given, “what any idiot is prepared to pay for it?” then you have reached a level of anti-art which is the real stifler of creativity. Paying £5 million for someone’s bed, or £250,00 for a pair of spectacles left in the middle of the floor, or any other expensive surrealist joke is sadly all too common.
I visited a small Edinburgh art gallery to have a look at the work of an artist I know whose painting is very special. One of his works of art was hanging at a price of around £5,000. It was a beautiful creation that stunned me and filled me with awe (ever notice how really good art inspires worship?) Beside it was a painting which was selling for around £40,000… to say it was rubbish would be to be unkind to garbage. I asked the gallery director why the difference in price and which painting he thought was the better. His answer was revealing. The cheaper painting was by far the best, but the other one was more expensive because of the name on it. Without the name you would have done well to sell it for £10 in a bring ‘n’ buy. With the name it cost £40,000. No-one was going to buy it for the beauty, the quality or the art. Dealers would buy it as an ‘investment’ – hoping that because it cost so much, people would value it!
My church is just up from one of the best art schools in the country, the Duncan of Jordanston College of Art and Design at Dundee University. I love going to their degree shows, though it can be depressing that there are still young artists who think they are being radical by featuring genitalia in their art! One year there was a young jeweller who produced a fabulously intricate, well-designed and beautiful piece of jewellery. She got a 2:2. Then there was another who produced a rotting carrot on chain. They got a First! Much to the embarrassment of the college, the 2:2 went on to become British young jeweller of the year and now makes her living in her chosen craft. I don’t know if the First made it, but I suspect their career was more likely to be in gardening!
Hans Rookmaaker’s Modern Art and the Death of a Culture traces some of the developments in this. It is a classic which examines the relationship between philosophy, worldview, history and art. That’s why it is this week’s highly recommended book of the week.
The fact is that Christianity has always encouraged art. Jesus is supreme patron of the arts. And why not? After all, if we believe that he is God and God is Creator and we are created in his image, then surely that enhances rather than restricts creativity? We are creative because we have been created by the Creator. I used to give a lecture in art colleges entitled ‘Can Artists be Atheists?’ The title really upset some people because they thought I was asking could atheists be artists? – which of course they can! It might appear that the original question has an obvious answer, too. But my point is that it is more difficult for artists to be atheists and to be consistent. How can you have art without the Artist? How can you have creativity without the Creator?
Christianity has always been associated with music as well. Our God is a God who sings. “He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17) There have been many musicians who believe that their music was a gift from God. I remember one atheist saying that the best argument for God he had ever heard was JS Bach. The late great Johnny Cash expressed it well:
“And that was the first time I remember her calling my voice ‘the gift’. Thereafter she always used that term when she talked about my music, and I think she did so on purpose, to remind me that the music in me was something special given by God. My job was to care for it and use it well; I was its bearer, not its owner.”
I am certainly not saying that the best musicians or songwriters are always Christians, far from it. I recall a wonderful scene in a Christian gathering where a young Scot stood up and sang a dreadful song in an American Country and Western accent. It really was cringeworthy – especially when he introduced his self-penned composition with the words: “the Lord gave me this song”. The leader of that particular event, with all the subtlety of my fellow Scots, stood up, walked over, took the sheet of paper from the music stand and with the words of Job, “the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord!”, scrunched it up and threw it in the bin.
I am saying, however, that the gift of music is one of the great gifts of God. Calvin taught that of all the gifts God gives us, it is the most powerful. And the great themes of the Bible; creation, humanity, sin, redemption, love, life, death, beauty, ugliness and hope, are the themes out of which the best music arises. I think of a band I absolutely love, The Manic Street Preachers. I love the way they explore these great themes through their music. Although at one level they come across as anti-religious, I think their analysis of the human situation is often spot on, and the questions they ask are all answered in Christ. Richey James, their initial lead singer who sadly disappeared in 2002 (presumed dead), wrote: “I never saw the point of organised religion.” In his desperate search for meaning he tried drugs, alcohol and self-mutilation. He described an idyllic childhood and a rotten adult life. He became obsessed with religion and the basic questions of humanity; latterly carrying a book of biblical quotes everywhere. Their album, The Holy Bible is an album, unlike the real Bible, full of pain, and without any real hope.
The great Dutch Calvinist Abraham Kuyper declared:
“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!'”
That includes art and music. That is why for some of us the notion of Christian music, and Christian art, makes about as much sense as that of Christian sausages or Christian bricks. Music and art are tools given to us by the Creator, to be used for his glory or to be perverted by his Enemy. Christ does not stifle the arts, he frees them. Music is not drowned out by the pious; it is Jesus who puts the song into our hearts.
The Hitler challenge: Wasn’t he a Christian?
Adolf Hitler: Was he really a Christian?
I confess. In last week’s column I sinned, at least against the internet gods. I mentioned Adolf Hitler, thus triggering Godwin’s Law, which states that the minute anyone mentions Hitler in an argument they have lost.
It is astonishing how many times Hitler comes up in conversation. It’s not just that people have a seemingly endless fascination with him, it’s the way that the new fundamentalist atheists have adopted ‘Hitler was a Christian’ as one of their mantras. So how do we answer this one?
Certainly not just by saying, “No he wasn’t, he was an atheist.” Nor is it helpful to shrug one’s shoulders and walk away from the discussion, as though it did not matter. Because if Hitler was inspired by his Christianity to do what he did, there is a serious charge to answer.
As it happens I love being asked this question (as for example in this debate with Matt Dillahunty); firstly, because when I did my history degree at the University of Edinburgh my speciality was Weimar Germany and the Nazis; secondly, because it was partly through the question of evil raised by Auschwitz that I became a Christian.
If you are asking whether Hitler was a follower of Jesus Christ, the answer is absolutely no. If you mean, was he baptised as a Catholic and did he sometimes make positive references to Christianity in his public speeches, and did he try to get the Churches on his side, then yes.
But he was not a Christian in any meaningful sense of the word. He did not read the Bible, go to church, or follow Jesus. He hated God’s chosen people, the Jews. It is difficult to see how someone who hated the Jews could follow the greatest Jew of all. As his ideologue Martin Bormann put it: “National Socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable…National Socialism is based on scientific foundations… [it] must always, if it is to fulfil its job in the future, be organised according to the latest knowledge of scientific research.” The condemns “the concepts of Christianity, which in their essential points have been taken over from Jewry”.
Hitler’s Table Talk makes it very clear what his views were.
“The only way of getting rid of Christianity is to allow it to die little by little”.
“In the long run, National Socialism and religion will no longer be able to exist together” (p 61).
“As far as we are concerned, we’ve succeeded in chasing the Jews from our midst and excluding Christianity from our political life” (p 394).
“There is something very unhealthy about Christianity” (p 418).
“When all is said, we have no reason to wish that the Italians and Spaniards should free themselves from the drug of Christianity. Let’s be the only people who are immunised against the disease” (p 145).
“We’ll see to it that the Churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State. We shall continue to preach the doctrine of National Socialism, and the young will no longer be taught anything but the truth” (p 62).
“When understanding of the universe has become widespread, when the majority of men know that the stars are not sources of light but worlds, perhaps inhabited worlds like ours, then the Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity” (p 69).
These are certainly not the comments of a Christian. They read far more like comments one can read every day on many atheist/secular comment pages.
On the other hand, there are lots of atheists who use the same quotes all the time to go that Hitler was a practising Christian. For example, Hitler’s statement that
“Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction.”
Case closed. Hitler supported Christian schools because he wanted religious instruction. He must have been a Christian. But in quoting history, as in quoting scripture, the key question is always context. That quote is from April 26, 1933, a speech made during negotiations leading to the Nazi-Vatican Concordat. It does not take a genius to work out why Hitler would speak in favour of Catholic schools (the vast majority of schools in Germany were either Catholic or Lutheran) when he was still trying to consolidate his power. Once you know the particular cultural and historical context of the quote it changes it considerably.
Likewise with fact that the SS had Gott mit Uns (God with us) on their belt buckles. What they don’t realise is that this was the traditional motto of the German army and no more indicates Christian conviction than the fact that an American using a dollar note which says ‘In God we Trust’ proves a Christian conviction.
It’s not just reading quotes in context that helps; a wider reading of history does too. Formal quotes in political speeches or literature are not as valuable as private papers and memoirs. In my reading I came across a memoir from his personal secretary Traudl Junge, in which she gave the following fascinating testimony: “Sometimes we also had interesting discussions about the Church and the development of the human race. Perhaps it’s going too far to call them discussions, because he would begin explaining his ideas when some question or remark from one of us had set them off, and we just listened. He was not a member of any Church, and thought the Christian religions were out-dated, hypocritical institutions that lured people into them. The laws of nature were his religion. He could reconcile his dogma of violence better with nature than with the Christian doctrine of loving your neighbour and your enemy. ‘Science isn’t yet clear about the origins of humanity,’ he once said.
‘We are probably the highest stage of development of some mammal which developed from reptiles and moved on to human beings, perhaps by way of the apes. We are a part of creation and children of nature, and the same laws apply to us as to all living creatures. And in nature the law of the struggle for survival has reigned from the first. Everything incapable of life, everything weak is eliminated. Only mankind and above all the church have made it their aim to keep alive the weak, those unfit to live, and people of an inferior kind,” (Until the Final Hour, p 108).
If Hitler was not a Christian, was he an atheist? The answer is we don’t know and nor does it really matter. What is far more important is what influence his anti-Christian views had on his policies. In the film Downfall, Hitler is quoted as saying before his suicide that he was going to be at peace. His lack of belief in God and the judgment of God meant that he thought he would not be accountable for his crimes and that therefore he could get away with them.
Atheists like to argue that atheism, being just a lack of belief, means that it cannot be held responsible for anything. But a reason people go to war might be the absence of belief. If, like Stalin or Hitler, you believe that there is no God to answer to, that might is right and that power comes from the barrel of a gun, you are much more likely to indulge your selfish genes and go to war to get what you want. It is also the case that Hitler clearly did not go to war because he believed in God or because he wanted to spread Christianity. He hated Christianity. On the other hand he did believe that religion was a virus and that the Jews especially were vermin who should be eradicated in order to better preserve the species.
It was all perfectly logical, Darwinian and godless. Perhaps the atheist zeitgeist has moved on. But meanwhile until it is proven otherwise, I would prefer to stick with the tried and tested morality of the Bible.
Speaking of which, what about the question of suffering? I have written about this before, but let me simply state that Auschwitz was for me one of the reasons I became a Christian. It proves the Bible’s teaching if human beings are left to our own devices we will make a mess and a hell of things. As Freddy Mercury, late of Queen, sang at the first Live Aid, “If there’s a God up above, a God of love, then what must he think, of the mess that we’ve made, of the world that he created?”
Two years ago I stood at the gates of Auschwitz in tears. It was not just the industrial scale of man’s inhumanity to man, but also the answer to how to deal with that, which overwhelmed me. Ultimately the atheist worldview has no answer to the problem of evil, as exemplified in the Holocaust. But Christianity does. And that answer is Christ. His life, love, teaching, death and atonement.
