Did Christianity Inspire The Holocaust?

[WinePusher]

Was Christianity An Influence Of The Holocaust and Adolf Hitler?

Personally, I've seen the people who agree with that statement make two claims. That it was fueled by Roman Catholic Anti-Semiticism, or it was ignited by Martin Luther's replacement theology. I would contend that Christianity was used as a vesel of propoganda that made Hitler's message more potent.

I would dispute the assertion that the Christian God and the Christian Bible inspired/caused the holocaust and motivated Hitler to action. Social Darwinism played much more of a factor in it and the claim that Hitlers was a bible believeing Christian seems to be unfounded.

[fewwillfindit]

Certainly Hitler was raised a Catholic and later dabbled in Protestantism. But He was no more inspired by an accurate understanding of the scriptures than was Timothy McVeigh or the procurators of the Wesboro Baptist Church. Christianity is defined in the New Testament, and nowhere therein can such actions be justified. It is not the fault of the book of Romans if Hitler sought to use an altogether twisted understanding of it to fuel his anti-semitism. And I am unaware of any influence that Luther's anti-semitic bent had on Hitler, although I suppose it was possible.

Was Christianity an influence on the Holocaust and Hitler? My answer would be a resounding "no." Was a skewed understanding of Christianity an influence on the Holocaust and Hitler? Perhaps, but what has that to do with Christianity?

[McCulloch]

To start, it is obvious from his actions, that Hitler was not a Bible believing Christian.

However, the deep seeded antisemitism that he tapped into, that resonated with the German people, has roots in Christian mythology. Luther was quite evidently antisemitic. The continued existence of faithful Jews is a source of embarrassment to many forms of Christian theology. If Jesus was the messiah prophesied by the Jewish scriptures, then why do so many reasonable people continue to deny him?

[fewwillfindit]

The continued existence of faithful Jews is a source of embarrassment to many forms of Christian theology. If Jesus was the messiah prophesied by the Jewish scriptures, then why do so many reasonable people continue to deny him?

I've never been embarrassed by that, I've never talked to a fellow Christian who was embarrassed by it and in all my studies I've never read a theologian who was either.

As for Hitler, I will admit that I've never delved deeply into his life. Is he on record as having said that one of his reasons for despising Jews was because they didn't accept Jesus as their Messiah?

[Grumpy]

"ANTI-SEMITISM: ITS ROOTS AND PERSEVERANCE

BY DR. DAVID REAGAN

This excellent article on Anti-Semitism and Replacement Theology was published in the September 2007 issue of The Lamplighter, the magazine of Lamb and Lion Ministries. Dr Reagan writes:

I recently spoke at a conference where I was assigned the topic, “Israel in the End Times.� I think I startled a lot of people when I began my presentation by asking the question, “Is there really any role for Israel in God’s plan for the end times?� I’m sure most of my audience thought it was a silly question because most of them were students of Bible prophecy and they were aware of the fact that the Jewish people are the focal point of end time Bible prophecy. But I proceeded to assure them that the question was not a silly one. I explained that for almost 2,000 years the Church at large, both Catholic and Protestant, has maintained that due to the fact the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah, God poured out His wrath on them in 70 AD , destroying their nation and their temple, and that He has washed His hands of them, leaving them with no purpose whatsoever as a nation. In short, because of their rebellion against God in their rejection of Jesus, God has replaced Israel with the Church, transferring the blessings promised to Israel to the Church. This is called “Replacement Theology,� and those who believe in it constitute the majority of professing Christians today. Accordingly, they consider modern day Israel to be an accident of history, with no spiritual significance whatsoever. And therefore, they would deny that God has any special plans for the Jewish people in the end times. Again, to them, the regathering of the Jews and the re-establishment of Israel are simply accidents of history, with no spiritual significance.

The Origin of Replacement Theology

The roots of Replacement Theology and its fruit of anti-Semitism go back to the very beginning of Christianity. This is ironic when you consider the fact that the Church began as a Jewish institution. It was founded in Judea by Jews who were followers of a Jewish Messiah, and all its founding documents were written by Jews. (1) The oldest Christian symbol that has ever been found clearly emphasizes the Jewish origins of Christianity. The symbol is carved into artifacts found in Jerusalem that date back to the First Century.(2) It shows the fish, the symbol of the Church, emerging from Jewish roots, represented by the Menorah and the Star of David. The fish became a symbol for Christians because the word for fish in Greek is icthus, and Christians used the letters of this word, ICTHUS, as an acronym for Iesous, Christos, Theos, Huios, and Soter, meaning Jesus Christ, God’s Son and Savior. But the distinctive Jewish flavor of early Christianity was not to last long. As the Church began to spread beyond Judea, its message was embraced by more and more Gentiles who had no interest in maintaining contact with the Church’s Jewish roots. Even worse, the new Gentile leaders began to turn against the Jews by characterizing them as “Christ killers.� Consider the following examples:(3)

Ignatius of Antioch (ca 50-117 AD) - Taught that those who partake of the Passover are partakers with those who killed Jesus.(4)

Justin Martyr (100-165 AD) - Claimed God’s covenant with Israel was no longer valid and that the Gentiles had replaced the Jews.(5)

Irenaeus (ca 130-202 AD) - Declared the Jews were disinherited from the grace of God.(6)

Tertullian (ca 155-230 AD) - Blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus and argued they had been rejected by God.(7)

Origen (185-254 AD) - He was responsible for much anti-Semitism, all of which was based on his assertion that the Jews were responsible for killing Jesus.(8)

The Council of Elvira (305 AD in Spain) - Prohibited Christians from sharing a meal with a Jew, marrying a Jew, blessing a Jew or observing the Sabbath.(9)

The Council of Nicea (325 AD in Turkey) - Changed the celebration of the Resurrection from the Jewish Feast of First Fruits to Easter in an attempt to disassociate it from Jewish feasts. The Council stated: “For it is unbecoming beyond measure that on this holiest of festivals we should follow the customs of the Jews. Henceforth let us have nothing in common with this odious people ...�(10)

Eusebius (ca 275-339 AD) - Taught that the promises of Scripture were meant for the Gentiles and the curses were meant for the Jews. Asserted that the Church was the “true Israel.�(11)

John Chrysostom (349-407 AD) - Preached a series of sermons against the Jews in which he stated, “The synagogue is not only a brothel and a theater, it is also a den of robbers and lodging place for wild beasts ... Jews are inveterate murderers possessed by the Devil. Their debauchery and drunkenness gives the manners of a pig.� He denied that Jews could ever receive forgiveness. He claimed it was a Christian duty to hate Jews. He claimed that Jews worshiped Satan. And this man was canonized a saint!(12)

Jerome (ca 347-420 AD) - Described the Jews as “... serpents wearing the image of Judas. Their psalms and prayers are the braying of donkeys … They are incapable of understanding Scripture …�(13)

St. Augustine (354-430 AD) - Asserted that the Jews deserved death but were destined to wander the earth to witness the victory of the Church over the synagogue.�(14)

The Middle Ages

By the Middle Ages, two erroneous concepts had become established Church doctrine: 1) The Jews should be considered “Christ killers� and should be mistreated accordingly. 2) The Church has replaced Israel, and God has no future purpose for the Jews. These concepts were reinforced throughout the Middle Ages through the Crusades, the Inquisition, passion plays, the black plague epidemic, and blood libels. In 1095 Pope Urban II called for a crusade to rid the Holy Land of its Muslim rulers. Although the prime goal of the crusade was to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims, Jews were a second target. The accumulated hatreds and fears resulting from charges of deicide (the murder of God) exploded with this call to arms. The abbot of Cluny asked why Christians should travel to “the ends of the world to fight the Saracens, when we permit among us other infidels a thousand times more guilty toward Christ than the Mohammedans?� Religious passion, greed, and the vulnerability of Jews led to the rise of violent mobs who murdered thousands of Jews to the cry of “Conversion or death!� This behavior continued for eight additional crusades until the 9th in 1272.(15)

Passion plays abounded during the Middle Ages, and they were used to cultivate hatred toward the Jewish people. Jews were depicted as demons who knew full well that Christ was the son of God. In each play, as Christ carried the cross, he was tortured by bloodthirsty, cursing devils with hooked noses, horns and tails. The Jews were made to seem as evil as Christ was divine.(16) Throughout the Middle Ages, professing Christians spread myths which helped to heighten popular hatred and fear of the Jewish people. As a result, it became commonplace among Christian groups to think of Jews as agents of Satan. One of the most popular anti-Jewish myths that gained widespread acceptance was the notion that Jews murdered Christians each year around the time of Passover in order to get blood needed to perform satanic rites. This became known as the charge of ritual murder or “blood libel.� Another common myth that circulated during these years was that Jews would steal the wafers used in communion and stab them with knives, thus killing Christ once again!(17)

The Black Plague in the middle of the fourteenth century killed approximately one-third of the population of Europe. At the time, it was not known how the illness spread, but stories and rumors circulated that Jews had poisoned the wells. Although the accusation was totally unfounded, many Christians believed the myth. One reason it was easy to believe is because the Jews were not impacted by the plague as much as were the Gentiles. But this was due to the sanitary laws of the Bible which the Jews carefully followed. This accusation led to severe consequences for Jews. More than sixty Jewish communities were burned to the ground with all their occupants killed, and in some places, Jews were tortured and burned to death in bonfires.(18)

In 1478, Pope Sixtus IV granted the monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, the right to establish a special inquisition in Spain to deal with baptized Jews who were suspected of remaining faithful to Judaism. Thousands were burned at the stake by order of the Spanish Inquisition. In 1492, King Ferdinand decided that all Spanish Jews should be banned from Spain. It was feared that Jews were a danger to Christianity. Approximately 150,000 Jews were forced to leave Spain.(19)

The Impact of the Reformation

Unfortunately, the Reformation produced no changes in attitude. In fact, the hatred of the Jews was reinforced and intensified by the writings of Martin Luther, the very man who launched the Reformation. Initially, Luther was sympathetic toward the Jews because he believed their rejection of the Gospel was due to their recognition of the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. But when they continued to reject the Gospel, Luther turned on them with a vengeance. In 1543 he wrote a pamphlet entitled “Concerning The Jews and Their Lies.� The document was an anti-Semitic diatribe. In it, he referred to the Jews as:

“A miserable and accursed people�
“Stupid fools�
“Miserable, blind and senseless�
“Thieves and robbers�
“The great vermin of humanity�
“ Lazy rogues�
“ Blind and venomous� (20)
Having dehumanized and demonized them, Luther then proceeded to make some startling proposals for dealing with them:

Their synagogues and schools should be burned.
Their houses should be destroyed.
Their Talmudic writings should be confiscated.
Their Rabbis should be forbidden to teach.
Their money should be taken from them.
They should be compelled into forced labor.

Needless to say, the Nazis gleefully quoted Luther as they rose to power and launched the Holocaust. In his book Mein Kampf, published in 1925, Adolf Hitler referred to Martin Luther as “a great warrior, a true statesmen, and a great reformer.� Keep in mind that Hitler was a professed Christian. In 1924 at a Christian gathering in Berlin, Hitler spoke to thousands and received a standing ovation when he made the following proclamation: “I believe that today I am acting in accordance with the will of Almighty God as I announce the most important work that Christians could undertake - and that is to be against the Jews and get rid of them once and for all.�(21) Hitler then proceeded to talk about the influence of Luther on his life: “Martin Luther has been the greatest encouragement of my life. Luther was a great man. He was a giant. With one blow he heralded the coming of the new dawn and the new age. He saw clearly that the Jews need to be destroyed, and we’re only beginning to see that we need to carry this work on.�(22) At the Nuremberg trials after World War II, the Nazi leader, Julius Streicher, defended himself by saying, “I have never said anything that Martin Luther did not say.�(23)

The terrible truth that Christians do not like to face, and which many are unaware of, is that the Holocaust was the product of 1,900 years of virulent Christian anti-Semitism. "

http://www.shema.com/Combating%20Replac ... rt-005.php

There is no question that Hitler claimed to be a Christian, was raised a Roman Catholic and received his antisemetic attitude straight from the Pulpit. He was taught his hatred of the Jews by the Christian teaching of the previous 19 centuries of Catholic theology. I would say he was not a GOOD Christian, he did not follow the teachings of Jesus, but then neither does the Conservative movement in the USA today.

Grumpy

[nygreenguy]

To start, it is obvious from his actions, that Hitler was not a Bible believing Christian.

Really? The bible pretty much allows for the killing of someone for just just about any silly thing one can imagine.

However, the deep seeded antisemitism that he tapped into, that resonated with the German people, has roots in Christian mythology. Luther was quite evidently antisemitic. The continued existence of faithful Jews is a source of embarrassment to many forms of Christian theology. If Jesus was the messiah prophesied by the Jewish scriptures, then why do so many reasonable people continue to deny him?

Right. The jews, through history, were discriminated against heavily even in the medieval times. It wasnt until AFTER WWII that Jews really actually became "accepted" by Christians.

even then, many people argue that the only reason christians want a jewish state is to fulfill their screwed up prophecies.

[fewwillfindit]

Ahh, well thank you for that. So then Hitler did use Luther to fan the flames. There is one thing in the article that I disagree with, though. In the first section, I would diagree that what he was describing was replacement theology. It is technically covenental theology which happens to peddle replacement theology, as opposed to dispensationalism. It is my opinion that covenental theology is in the minority today, while (Catholics excluded) dispensationalism comprises the majority of Christians, at least in America. So I would need to see sources that confirm his claim of "most." The main groups that affirm covenant theology (fringe groups like Mormons and Armstrongism aside) are those of the Reformed tradition, like Presbyterians, which are definitely in the minority.

[JoeyKnothead]

From the OP:

Did Christianity inspire the Holocaust?

Inspire it? Who knows.

Fan the flames? Undoubtedly.

[micatala]

Was Christianity An Influence Of The Holocaust and Adolf Hitler?

Personally, I've seen the people who agree with that statement make two claims. That it was fueled by Roman Catholic Anti-Semiticism, or it was ignited by Martin Luther's replacement theology. I would contend that Christianity was used as a vesel of propoganda that made Hitler's message more potent.

I would dispute the assertion that the Christian God and the Christian Bible inspired/caused the holocaust and motivated Hitler to action. Social Darwinism played much more of a factor in it and the claim that Hitlers was a bible believeing Christian seems to be unfounded.

Hitler used whatever rhetorical justifications he thought would be effective. Clearly, the long-standing anti-semitism prevalent in the Christian world going back nearly 2 millenia was something he effectively tapped into. It is also quite easy to point to Biblical passages which suggest anti-semitism can be justified. While I agree, anti-Semitism is not consistent with the central tenets of Christianity or the teachings of Jesus, but I would say the Christian Bible helped inspire the Holocaust.

I dispute the claim that "social Darwinism" played more of a role. I'll accept Hitler was not a bible-beleiving Christian.

[Cathar1950]

After thinking about it awhile and recalling some of my recent reading, I think maybe Abraham can be blamed or at least those that insist that God demands our obedience and sacrifice and us Abraham as their punitive father and model...

But I am only relating this to those that live in such mythology, which would include Hitler and others.

I don't think there is a limit to how many people we can unjustly kill and any justifications are bad models.