"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."
2 Timothy 4:3 & 4
In a box in the corner of the attic, I found a belt and buckle which my father had brought home after World War II. On it is emblazened an eagle, a swastika and, in German, the phrase, "God with us." This shocked me, seeing those words beneath that hated symbol of evil. How could God be with the Nazis who exterminated millions of Jewish people?
Hitler presented himself as a new messiah with a new cross: the swastika. He stated openly that "it was his intention to begin a new religion that would accomplish what Christianity failed to bring about."* The citizens of Germany had been through rough times after World War I. They wanted to believe Hitler was the answer, but their itching ears forgot what the true questions were. They believed the myth of racial purity and forsook God's greatest commandment: Love one another as I have loved you. And so, with a copy of Mein Kampf on the altar and a swastika perched above, the churches of that day endorsed a man who brainwashed and deceived them.
The Bible clearly warns of such anti-Christs and there are bound to be more of them. How can we keep from also being deceived? Keep your eyes fixed upon Jesus. Do not swerve to the right or left. Study your scriptures, writing them on the tablet of your heart. Those who remain standing will receive a crown of righteousness in the end.
*Quotation taken from Hitler's Cross by Erwin Lutzer
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