Was Hitler a Christian?

PopeADope said:

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So, one of the definitions of Christian is:
Chris·tian
/ˈkrisCHən/
adjective

1. a person who has received Christian baptism or is a believer in Christianity.

According to the Bible, can't Hitler have technically gone to Heaven? Why or why not?

John 3:16 New International Version (NIV)
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Whoever believes in him? That would include Hitler.

Romans 10:9 ►
If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

I think that is most ridiculous, but it is Scriptural nonetheless. That's one reason I'm not that into Scripture anymore. Too many bizarre promises that no one knows they have the right interpretation to. Yet almost everyone believes they do, and they fight and argue back and forth, and even kill eachother over the correct interpretation of some ancient text about an invisible God. Quite stupid if you ask me!

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He was certainly a cultural Christian. What his personal beliefs were is somewhat more debatable. What certainly is true is that most of the Germans who supported him were classical Christians.

He was not a Christian by belief or practice and actually disliked Christianity. In private, he said many negative things about it. But he knew he couldn't openly disparage Christianity since Germany was a Christian country so he used it as a tool.

"the wide consensus of historians consider him to have been irreligious, anti-Christian, anti-clerical and scientistic.[1]"
Religious views of Adolf Hitler - Wikipedia

iam1me said:

You don't get hate for the jews from the scriptures. Christ - the one who was crucified - is even quoted praying for their forgiveness. The scriptures do not support a vendetta against Jews or Judaism.

That's not to say people haven't used the scriptures to attempt to justify their hatred for Jews and others - but in an intellectually honest reading of the scriptures, you won't find any support.

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If only it were as you say. There is plenty of fodder for hatred of Jews in the Christian New Testament.

Antisemitism and the New Testament - Wikipedia

Mindmaster said:

By Hitler's beliefs, he was a Christian. God commanded all sorts of people to be killed, so I don't think killing people is enough to keep you out of heaven. (If there is one, not likely.) There's so much killing the OT you'd think killing people was practically a way to worship "God".

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lukethethird said:

Hitler was a Christian, he claimed to have put the fight to the Jews because they killed his God. He would have got that from a reading of the gospels.

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Altfish said:

Hitler certainly played the 'Christian Card' to gain popularity, the Catholic Church backed him.

I suspect it is a bit like Trump, Trump isn't religious but he knows that he can guarantee 35% of the vote by pandering to them.

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Valjean said:

Hitler was raised Catholic. He was never condemned by the church, and he believed he was doing God's work:


The Nazi regime was firmly opposed to atheism. The army's belt buckles were stamped with "Gott mit uns."

Catholic Bishops took an oath of allegiance to the Nazi regime and the clergy were ordered not to oppose it.

If, as the Lutheran denominations believe, salvation is earned by faith, then Hitler may be in Heaven.
If, as the Catholics teach, salvation is earned by deeds, then he's probably in Hell.
If, as the Calvinist denominations believe, salvation is pre-destined, then heaven only knows what his fate is.

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First of all, the Roman Catholic Church denounced Hitler/Nazism and even created whats considered to be the first official document to severely criticize and insult Nazism. Please refer to this source for more information and proof. There's also the Kirchenkampf which is when Hitler shut down many Christian churches and sent thousands of Christians to concentration camps. According to past historical journals, the "Gott Mit Uns" (God With Us) in the Third Reich referred to the Pagan Norse God Odin, not the Christian God - which isn't surprising as Hitler wrote a poem dedicated to Odin in WWI.

Academic documents prove Hitler and his top Nazi command had long-term plans to get rid of all Christianity (not just Catholicism or the Church) in Germany and replace it with Paganism. Hitler used Christianity as a weapon to gain public support (since Germany had been Christian for 1,000+ years) then used "Positive Christianity" to phase it out. Here are the actual documents:

S R & A 3114.4 / The Nazi Master Plan / Annex 4: The Persecution of the Christian Churches / Office of Strategic Services / Research and Analysis Branch / Draft for the War Crimes Staff / Approved by the Prosecution Review Board / CONFIDENTIAL [Cornell University]

The Third Reich: Working Relentlessly to Destroy Christianity

Additional information/proof:
The Nazi War Against Christianity Part One: The Myth of a "Christian" Nazi Germany
The Nazi War Against Christianity Part Two: Hitler and the Pope
The Nazi War Against Christianity Part Three: More Information About Hitler and the Pope

"We follow not Christ, but Horst Wessel,
Away with incense and Holy Water,
The Church can go hang for all we care,
The Swastika brings salvation on Earth."
- Horst Wessel aka Die Fahne Hoch. This was the Nazi Party Anthem (1930-1945), Co-National Anthem of Nazi Germany (1933-1945) and a Hitler Youth Marching Song. Source

It also doesn't make sense why Adolf Hitler, a "Christian" leader put:
- Pagan Anti-Christian guy to lead his elite
- Pagan guy to lead his youth
- Pagan anti-Christian guy as spiritual and philosophical educator of the Nazi Party and all related organizations
- Anti-Christian guy as the Propaganda Minister
- Pagan and the most anti-Christian guy of them all as the head of Party Chancellery

If he never separated from the church then yes.

Hitler was raised in Catholicism, studied to become a priest (and learned of the Swastika from that), thought of himself as spared for a greater purpose during World War I, and had an obvious Messiah Complex.

Oh, and he spoused anti-semitism and allied with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem for that purpose.

Yeah, I think that it is clear that he was a Christian, probably to the moment of his death.

I also think that it is even clearer that his having been created in a flawed environment that emphasized Christian beliefs was a key factor in shaping his destructive personality. It is very dangerous indeed to be a troubled person who convinces himself of having been spared by a higher power for a grand design.

LuisDantas said:

Yeah, I think that it is clear that he was a Christian, probably to the moment of his death.

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Yet he persecuted the Church, considered Christianity to be the root cause of a slave morality that weakened the will and was a danger to the ideology of German supremacism, surrounded himself disproportionately with occultists, the irreligious and anti-theists, implemented policies to marginalise Christianity, left Christian iconography and symbolism out of Nazi Party rallies, expressed contempt for Christianity to his closest henchmen, spoke of the necessity to phase out Christianity over time and promoted an ideology and political vision in which all of the above make perfect sense due to its militaristic and totalitarian nature.

How do you square these as being the actions of a man who was 'clearly a Christian'?

LuisDantas said:

thought of himself as spared for a greater purpose during World War I, and had an obvious Messiah Complex.

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Assuming these are true, no reason to identify them as being evidence of him being specifically Christian.

There is certainly a good case that he believed in some form of Providence, although little else theistic in nature. A form of 'Providential deism' would be far more plausible than Christianity given his expressed beliefs, politics and actions.

I do not expect to convince you, @Augustus .

Plenty of people have been attempting to settle this question for decades already, and I am not nearly formidable enough to do it now. Clearly and unavoidably, this is a very emotionally loaded subject matter.

That said, I do not find your objections particularly strong, either.

Augustus said:

Yet he persecuted the Church, considered Christianity to be the root cause of a slave morality that weakened the will and was a danger to the ideology of German supremacism, surrounded himself disproportionately with occultists, the irreligious and anti-theists, implemented policies to marginalise Christianity, left Christian iconography and symbolism out of Nazi Party rallies, expressed contempt for Christianity to his closest henchmen, spoke of the necessity to phase out Christianity over time and promoted an ideology and political vision in which all of the above make perfect sense due to its militaristic and totalitarian nature.

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I am not aware of what evidence you have for those claims, but I do know that there is a lot of precedent for similar squabbles internally in Christian environments, as perhaps best evidenced by the Fourth Crusade.

For all its professed love for peace, Christianity has a remarkable degree of ability to nurture strife and conflict, even internal conflict - as one would expect from such a strongly theocentric doctrine.

Hitler seems to have taken inspiration for his version of the Swastika from his time as a student at Lambach's monastery school. Clearly, he thought of himself as exceptionally wise and not bound by other people's authority - which, again, is the mark of a theistic, specifically Abrahamic delusion.

His conflicted feelings would of course express themselves in litigious manners, as they apparently always did. His refusal to trust or defer to Christian authority is obvious, but I don't think that it indicates in the slightest that he did not consider himself a Christian himself.

That is in fact unremarkable. There seems to never have been any shortage of people who consider themselves Christians but do not generally trust priests or churches. They are certainly numerous at the current time.

Christianity itself has hardly any claim of being inherently incompatible with totalitarian or nationalistic militarism and strife either, if history is any indication. It was often associated with bloody wars before Hitler, and it remains so after Hitler.

How do you square these as being the actions of a man who was 'clearly a Christian'?

Assuming these are true, no reason to identify them as being evidence of him being specifically Christian.

There is certainly a good case that he believed in some form of Providence, although little else theistic in nature. A form of 'Providential deism' would be far more plausible than Christianity given his expressed beliefs, politics and actions.

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That is a matter of interpretation, I suppose, but I stand unconvinced.

Deism is so at odds with Messianic attitudes that I don't think there is even a word for it, nor any other speculative examples come to mind.

Very consistently, it is the Abrahamic doctrines that fuel such delusions of grandeur.

He was christian with crazy ideas? The catholic chancellor of a majority protestant country with vatican backing. He believed he was carrying out gods will. He insisted his troops were blessed by a catholic priest before battle and he used the motto "gott mit uns" for military


it s not any one elses prerogative to decide his faith for him.

LuisDantas said:

Plenty of people have been attempting to settle this question for decades already, and I am not nearly formidable enough to do it now. Clearly and unavoidably, this is a very emotionally loaded subject matter.

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Only if you actually care one way or the other for ideological reasons.

Seems to me the overwhelming majority of the "Hitler was a Christian" brigade coincidentally happen to be anti-theists. This is one of several issues where anti-theists adopt a position that goes against the vast majority of scholarship on the issue, yet aligns with their ideology.

Maybe it's just coincidence, but...

LuisDantas said:

I am not aware of what evidence you have for those claims,

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You wouldn't have to go much beyond wikipedia for most if not all of them.

Can start here: Alfred Rosenberg - Wikipedia
Kirchenkampf - Wikipedia
Religious views of Adolf Hitler - Wikipedia

LuisDantas said:

Clearly, he thought of himself as exceptionally wise and not bound by other people's authority - which, again, is the mark of a theistic, specifically Abrahamic delusion...

thought of himself as spared for a greater purpose during World War I, and had an obvious Messiah Complex.

Deism is so at odds with Messianic attitudes that I don't think there is even a word for it, nor any other speculative examples come to mind.

Very consistently, it is the Abrahamic doctrines that fuel such delusions of grandeur.

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You surely can't be serious.There can't be that many things which are more universal and less dependent on a specific ideology.

Caesars and Emperors used to proclaim themselves gods. Napoleon was a deist. Mao a Marxist. Ghengis Khan a Tengriist. 'Destiny' is a concept widespread throughout non-Abrahamic history and delusions of grandeur are ubiquitous throughout time and space.

How can you see something as universally attested to such as 'not being bound by the rules of others' as 'specifically Abrahamic'?

LuisDantas said:

Christianity itself has hardly any claim of being inherently incompatible with totalitarian or nationalistic militarism and strife either, if history is any indication. It was often associated with bloody wars before Hitler, and it remains so after Hitler.

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Nationalistic militarism can link perfectly easily with Christianity.

Nazi totalitarianism is not just generic nationalistic militarism (see for example, the Alfred Rosenberg wiki above).

In a country almost entirely Christian, why do you think so many of Hitler's inner circle just happened to be virulently hostile to Christianity? Why is a man who thinks he has been chosen by the Christian God to fulfil Destiny surrounding himself with people who wish to eradicate the One True Religion?

Augustus said:

Only if you actually care one way or the other for ideological reasons.

Seems to me the overwhelming majority of the "Hitler was a Christian" brigade coincidentally happen to be anti-theists.

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That is hardly a coincidence. Centuries of indoctrination and conditioning made it so that there is a deep-rooted reluctance to acknowledge flaws in Christianity. Anti-theists are naturally on the whole better equipped to resist that tendency.

Augustus said:

In a country almost entirely Christian, why do you think so many of Hitler's inner circle just happened to be virulently hostile to Christianity?

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What would you expect? Surely you have some notion of how furiously competitive and conspirational those environments were?

Why is a man who thinks he has been chosen by the Christian God to fulfil Destiny surrounding himself with people who wish to eradicate the One True Religion?

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Clearly, because he saw himself as the embodiement of that destiny - complete with prophecies of his own, no less.

Come to think of it, it mirrors several features common among Catholic saints.

LuisDantas said:

Hitler was raised in Catholicism, studied to become a priest (and learned of the Swastika from that), thought of himself as spared for a greater purpose during World War I, and had an obvious Messiah Complex.

Oh, and he spoused anti-semitism and allied with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem for that purpose.

Yeah, I think that it is clear that he was a Christian, probably to the moment of his death.

I also think that it is even clearer that his having been created in a flawed environment that emphasized Christian beliefs was a key factor in shaping his destructive personality. It is very dangerous indeed to be a troubled person who convinces himself of having been spared by a higher power for a grand design.

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Hello! He he!
You and I have been here before, I remember......

Did you mention that Hitler was an alter boy?

The thing is, a true Christian, a Catholic Christian, takes communion regularly.... is that right? And what about confession? No..... Hitler was no Christian!

At the moment the Catholic Church is experiencing some considerable traumas, difficulties and extreme embarrassments over the 4000 odd priests who have-been or still are sexually assaulting minors, women and men. I guess that some people might think that these criminals are real Christians, but are they? And who would believe that Hitler was a Christian, other than folks on an agenda, I wonder?
Gosh..... this is like old times!!

oldbadger said:

Hello! He he!
You and I have been here before, I remember......

Did you mention that Hitler was an alter boy?

The thing is, a true Christian, a Catholic Christian, takes communion regularly.... is that right? And what about confession? No..... Hitler was no Christian!

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By that measure, Catholicism is just not very common even here in Brazil.

At the moment the Catholic Church is experiencing some considerable traumas, difficulties and extreme embarrassments over the 4000 odd priests who have-been or still are sexually assaulting minors, women and men. I guess that some people might think that these criminals are real Christians, but are they? And who would believe that Hitler was a Christian, other than folks on an agenda, I wonder?
Gosh..... this is like old times!!

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Wonder all you want, and I suppose most everyone has some form of agenda regarding Hitler. A very popular one being "To warn against the conditions that enabled him as I understand them to be".

I still fail to see any serious challenge to what I said.

LuisDantas said:

That is hardly a coincidence. Centuries of indoctrination and conditioning made it so that there is a deep-rooted reluctance to acknowledge flaws in Christianity.

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If you believe that then I'm guessing you have never been to Europe.

LuisDantas said:

Anti-theists are naturally on the whole better equipped to resist that tendency.

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But in place they tend to be stunningly credulous to anything that paints Christianity in a bad light no matter how implausible and no matter how widely discredited.

LuisDantas said:

What would you expect? Surely you have some notion of how furiously competitive and conspirational those environments were?

Clearly, because he saw himself as the embodiement of that destiny - complete with prophecies of his own, no less.

Come to think of it, it mirrors several features common among Catholic

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The fact that Hitler surrounded himself with virulent haters of Christianity who wanted to wipe it out and empowered them to put policies in place to do so was an undoubted sign of his Christianity.

Can't argue with proofs like that.

LuisDantas said:

By that measure, Catholicism is just not very common even here in Brazil.


Wonder all you want, and I suppose most everyone has some form of agenda regarding Hitler. A very popular one being "To warn against the conditions that enabled him as I understand them to be".

I still fail to see any serious challenge to what I said.

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You forgot to mention the Nazi military belt buckle, as well! You see?, I'm even helping your case...... !

But you're gonna need a lot of help with that, I reckon.

There are good reports of his last hours, even a quite good film called 'Downfall' which showed details of his marriage et al.......... but no last communion or service of any kind. Now surely a true Christian would go out clutching to something Christian?

Anthem said:

If he never separated from the church then yes.

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LuisDantas said:

Hitler was raised in Catholicism, studied to become a priest (and learned of the Swastika from that), thought of himself as spared for a greater purpose during World War I, and had an obvious Messiah Complex.

Oh, and he spoused anti-semitism and allied with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem for that purpose.

Yeah, I think that it is clear that he was a Christian, probably to the moment of his death.

I also think that it is even clearer that his having been created in a flawed environment that emphasized Christian beliefs was a key factor in shaping his destructive personality. It is very dangerous indeed to be a troubled person who convinces himself of having been spared by a higher power for a grand design.

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ChristineM said:

He was christian with crazy ideas? The catholic chancellor of a majority protestant country with vatican backing. He believed he was carrying out gods will. He insisted his troops were blessed by a catholic priest before battle and he used the motto "gott mit uns" for military

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it s not any one elses prerogative to decide his faith for him.

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Its academically and historically proven that Adolf Hitler was not Christian and was in fact anti-Christian. Academic documents literally prove that Hitler and his top leadership had long-term plans to get rid of Christianity in Germany and replace it with Germanic Paganism. The documents:
S R & A 3114.4 / The Nazi Master Plan / Annex 4: The Persecution of t…
The Third Reich: Working Relentlessly to Destroy Christianity

ChristineM said:

He was christian with crazy ideas? The catholic chancellor of a majority protestant country with vatican backing. He believed he was carrying out gods will. He insisted his troops were blessed by a catholic priest before battle and he used the motto "gott mit uns" for military

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it s not any one elses prerogative to decide his faith for him.

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I'm so sick of people bringing up the damn belt buckles like they mean anything. That "Gott mit uns" phrase had been used in German and Prussian heraldry and in military logos long before the Nazis even existed. They didn't come up with it. It was just an older tradition.

Gott mit uns - Wikipedia

iam1me said:

The scriptural understanding of Christian is one who follows Christ and his teachings. Whatever non-sense Hitler said - there is no intellectually honest way to assert that Hitler's actions were in agreement with Christ's teachings.

Romans 2:6-11 [God] will render to each person according to his deeds: 7 to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; 8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 11 For there is no partiality with God.


James 2:14-21 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. 18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. 20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

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You are right. There is no way actually to tell if any given person is a Christian. You have only their word. Hitler certainly indicated he was, but that may have been politically motivated rhetoric. Nobody knows for sure. His storm troopers did have "God is With Us" engraved on their belt buckles, though.