What About Antiochus IV Epiphanes? (or Hitler if you like.) – 01/08/2017

WARNING PREACHY…

Mark 12:30-31

³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’³¹ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

I find it very telling that when Jesus was asked what the most important Law of the Old Testament was, he didn’t answer the way we might have expected him to; like “Thou shall not murder” or “Thou shalt not commit adultery”, but rather he answered with something other than an actual written Law but rather with more of an idea promoted by the Law.  He answered with the idea that the Law was actually intended to promote.  In humanity, we tend to look at the written statutes quite woodenly rather than why those statutes were written.  So when Jesus answered the question put to him, he did so by answering with the Spirit of the Law rather than the Letter of the Law.  Part of what made Jesus so unique was that he was not at all a “letter of the law” type of guy.  He said those things that were unexpected and not the normal pat answers that are so common with the religious leaders of his day – and of ours today.

Even when Jesus taught in the Matthew 5, he spent a lot of time correcting the Jewish catechism, if you can call it catechism in the Jewish community.  No matter what it’s called, the fact is that from the time they were babies the Jews were taught the Law of God in doctrine and practice.  So when Jesus taught them saying “You have heard that it was said” he was referencing what they had always been taught, what was common knowledge to them all from their religious training.  But in the Matthew passages he added the words “But I tell you” just before he corrected and expanded their initial teaching.  Read the Matthew verse below o see what I mean.

Matthew 5:43-45

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

It seems that every time we get to this point of Jesus’ teaching about loving our enemies, someone is going to pipe up with a “What about Hitler?”

Of course the Jews in Jesus' day could not have asked such a question about Hitler, but they certainly could have asked "What about Antiochus IV Epiphanes[1]?" Antiochus IV Epiphanes was a Hellenistic Greek King from around 165 BC.  He persecuted the Jews, even sacrificing a pig on the altar of God in the Temple.  Antiochus IV was in a way the Greek equivalent to our modern day Hitler.  So I imagine that when Jesus taught the Jews to love their enemies, and those who persecute them, they would have been incredulous at the idea of loving Antiochus IV.

Going back to Hitler, I have to admit that I struggle with how to respond.  Was Hitler deplorable?  Yes.  Was Hitler pure evil?  I believe that he was.  Did Hitler deserve a bullet to the brain?  Absolutely, but when Jesus shed his blood on the Roman Cross he did so to complete the Law of God by dying for the sins of mankind.

At this point I am stuck having to justify the Cross of Jesus with the despicable acts of Hitler.  My emotions tell me that the acts of Hitler are unforgivable while my faith in Christ tells me that Jesus completely destroyed the effects of Sin for humanity.  How can I possibly be a man of faith and love Hitler while condemning his atrocities against mankind? 

The issue for me is this; do I accept the great power of the blood of Christ as more significant than the evil acts of the man Hitler?  In other words; is Jesus blood more powerful than Hitler bad actions?  In faith I must conclude that Jesus is greater, however that doesn’t get rid of my detest and contempt for the Hitler or his actions.  Despite this though, I have to conclude that the blood of Jesus covered over even Hitler’s sin. 

Romans 5:6-8

⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And so the scripture that tells me that Jesus died for me when I was still in the detestable state of sin must remain true for men that I would rather not give grace to.  The blessing is that grace and forgiveness is given to all men by God through Jesus Christ - and not me or how I feel about it.  And honestly, I am grateful for that.

But the natural question then becomes; “So is everyone forgiven?”

I need to be careful here, so please stick with me.  

 I have pondered this question and turned it over and over in my mind.  As I look at the Scripture and pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit I have concluded that YES, all men have been forgiven of sin by the single act of Jesus on the Cross and the shedding of his blood.  However, just because I do believe that all men are forgiven by the blood of Jesus does not mean that I consider all men to experience eternal benefit from that blood.  So, put simply, just because the sin of men has been eradicated and forgiven by the blood of Jesus does not mean that men automatically go to heaven and experience eternal life.  I believe this because there is an obscure verse in the Bible.

Jude 4-5

⁴ For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. ⁵ Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

In this passage from Jude, the Jews are the intended audience.  In verse 5 Jude reminds them about what they already know, that God delivered the Jews from Egypt but he later destroyed those who did not believe.  It’s this word “later” that makes me think what I think.

Back in the days of Moses, God released ALL of the Jewish people from their slavery to Egypt, irregardless of their belief in Him or their right or wrong actions, and he redeemed them out of Egypt and set them free to the dessert.  But many of those redeemed people walked the dessert and did not believe that it was God who had set them free; so they were later destroyed by God.

Likewise, I see the Christian situation as mirroring the ancient one.  Jesus, on the Roman Cross shed his blood to set mankind free (all of us) from the slavery of sin.  He forgave us all and set us on the path to the Promised Land (i.e. eternal glory in heaven).  And now, a Great and Terrible Day of Judgment of Christ is coming and at that time it will be determined who bent a knee to Jesus and who did not.  Who believes that Jesus death on the Cross set us free of our sin and who does not.  And unfortunately, there are many men, like Hitler, who have not (to the best of our knowledge), and will not believe in the Christ as the salvation of sinful men, so their judgements are sure.

The Good News today, however, (i.e. The Gospel Truth) is that Jesus has set us free from the slavery of sin and death.  Today, you are walking across your own dessert toward the Promised Land and you have Jesus to thank for it.  And like Hitler, you can either believe it or not.

So what about Hitler?

In my limited knowledge, I don’t think he ever really believed in Jesus or the redemption that he had in Christ.  And because of this I feel sorry for him.  I don’t “love” him per se, and I cannot generate sad feeling for him, but I do pity him for he was a man just like me that was so saturated by demons, mental illness, and the obsession of self that he became like the name of Judas in our present day, and so completely (I suspect) missed the grace of our savior.

And so the real question is not “what about Hitler” but more immediately “what about you?”  Do you believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your own sins?  If you don’t, I hope and pray that you will.

Be blessed my friends…

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiochus_IV_Epiphanes