Nihilism and Materialism: Similarity Number Sixteen Between the False Church of Nazi Germany and Today’s Growing False Global Church
By Brannon S. Howse
A Holocaust survivor named Viktor Frankl explains that the philosophical foundation for the slaughter was laid by those who taught evolution and the nihilism of Friedrich Nietzsche:
[quote] The gas chambers of Auschwitz were the ultimate consequence of the theory that man is nothing but the product of heredity and environment—or as the Nazis like to say, “Of blood and soil.” I’m absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other of Berlin, but rather at the desks and in the lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers. [end quote] [source: Viktor Frankl, The Doctor and the Soul: Introduction to Logotherapy (New York: Knopf, 1982), xxi; cited in Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God? (Dallas: Word, 1994), 25.]
Nihilism holds that there is no supreme judge and that life has no meaning aside from the state’s purposes. Yale University history professor Donald Kagan points out the consequences of the worldview—often idealized these days—that says “God is dead”:
[quote] [A] vulgar form of Nihilism has a remarkable influence in our educational system through our universities. The consequences of the victory of such ideas would be enormous. If both religion and reason are removed, all that remains is will and power, where the only law is that of tooth and claw. [end quote]
Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini demonstrate the destruction that results when leaders don’t believe in the God of the Bible who will judge them. Their worldviews declared that they were the highest authority, and as a result, Hitler killed as many as six million Jews and five million non-Jews during his Holocaust. While Stalin was dictator of the Soviet Union, he killed some twenty to forty million people. The twentieth century was the most murderous of any in history, due largely to tyrants and dictators who did not acknowledge any authority higher than themselves. The Congressional Record noted that 135 million people were killed by Communists in the twentieth century.
Today, scores of people around the globe look to the state as their god. As the natural disasters predicted by Jesus increase (Matthew 24), as we move toward the rule of the antichrist, and as the world’s financial markets collapse, people everywhere will look to the state and a one-world leader to save them. The promise of salvation will convince unbelievers of this world to follow him, just as the people of Germany followed Hitler when he promised to restore their defeated and financially crippled nation to a life of pleasure and greatness. Lutzer explains:
[quote] The churches derived strength from the improved economy and giddy optimism about a new day for Germany. Many of the wiser church members were not deceived, but the majority did not ask many questions. For now, what was good for Germany [the state] was good for the church. [end quote]
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