Lessons from Hitler’s Rise to Power

By Mark Shipowick

Why did the Lord allow a single man, Adolf Hitler, over the course of about six years, to cause so much death and destruction? One reason was to warn end-time Christians of the form that the final Antichrist will take.

As in Nazi Germany, which was controlled by the National Socialist Party, the world is being primed today by the social justice movement. This movement is essentially a front for the global destruction of Judeo-Christian values, the effect of which is to set the stage for humanity to accept another charismatic but ruthless tyrant. And as in Nazi Germany, I’m afraid most Christians, including Adventists, will accept the future Antichrist like they did Hitler who was blasphemously adored by all branches of the Christian German community with only a few exceptions.

It is a sad historical fact that most German Adventists in Hitler’s day were complicit in Hitler’s rise to power, in some cases by their silence and in others by their active betrayal of their innocent brothers and sisters (who were pacifists) to the authorities and to death.

German Adventists failed to recognize Hitler as a type of Antichrist because, like him, they were carnally minded. Like most western Adventists and Christians today, they were the moral products of their time, salt that had lost its savor. They had listened to and assimilated the culture around them rather than listening to and obeying the Word. This caused them to be attracted more to Hitler than to Christ and to interpret prophecy by their own carnal minds.

As a Christian nation, Germany at this time suffered from the same superiority delusion, the idea they were the divinely favored Aryan race, as the Jews did in the days of Christ. And this was rooted in the same spiritual disease that afflicts the end-time church of Laodicea – spiritual pride.

Another factor that tripped up German Adventists was that they, like western Adventists today, applied the prophecies of the mark of the beast too narrowly, to only the issue of Sunday vs. Sabbath sacredness. There were clear signs that Hitler was a type of Antichrist working in league with Rome but since German Adventists were focused on the letter of the law and not the Spirit animating it they couldn’t see Nazism for what it was.

Like most Adventists today, the Adventists of Hitler’s Germany believed that the Sabbath would be an issue well before probation closed for all Germans. In the book, The Great Controversy however, Ellen White says that while Sabbath observance will be a central issue, it does not become a global issue of life and death until after probation closes when Satan impersonates Christ, (See the Great Controversy page 624 forward.) Since there were few signs on the horizon of the Sabbath becoming an issue under Hitler for non-Jews, German Adventists were in denial. After all, wasn’t their great Fuhrer a vegetarian and didn’t he condone their worshiping on the Sabbath? The fact that six million Sabbath-keeping Jews were being annihilated was only an inconvenient fact. To most Germans, including Adventists, Hitler’s approval rating remained high.

Unfortunately, the same willful blindness is rampant today in western Christianity and in Adventism which is why current and past church and political leaders have responded in silence or at times with approval of another genocide, that of the unborn, and why they have sat idly by during the suppression of modern personal freedoms that were narrowly preserved from the Nazis two generations ago by the blood of millions.

Many of our leaders have, by their silence or approval, watched as our liberties have been eroded and removed over the last three decades, but especially since 9/11 and particularly in the last eighteen months.

Notwithstanding their denial, the fact is that the beast is already here. It’s in full view now prohibiting businesses from buying or selling who cannot in good conscience cater to the LGBT+ community, attacking any who dare to say all lives matter, cutting the jobs and smearing the reputations of those who stand for freedom and biblical morality, denying biological sexual identity, rewriting history and twisting every branch of science to suit their narrative. But for too many leaders, it is business as usual.

On Sunday, July 25, 2021, protests and clashes ignited again across western Europe, 275 of them in Italy and France alone, over government plans for mandating vaccinations and more lockdowns. While it’s true that Christians are “in the world but not of the world”, the wise man said there is a time for everything under the sun. If our religious and political leaders, who ought to know better, remain silent or actively endorse complicity much longer, like German Christians and Adventists did under Hitler, the results will be the same but this time it will be the free world that morphs into freedom’s and Christ’s worst enemy.

Let’s face this issue for what it is and come to grips with the fact that the battle of Armageddon, that great spiritual battle and the climax of the great controversy between the forces of good and evil is already well underway and will only intensify from here on in until the beast is defeated and thrown alive, with the dragon and false prophet, into the lake of fire. There’s no going back now. With the Red Sea in front and the armies of Egypt behind, the Lord is calling us to move forward with Him until the victorious return of Christ. The great question is, are we finally ready to obey Him?

The battle of Armageddon will be fought. And that day must find none of us sleeping. Wide awake we must be, as wise virgins having oil in our vessels with our lamps. The power of the Holy Ghost must be upon us and the Captain of the Lord’s host will stand at the head of the angels of heaven to direct the battle.

“Solemn events before us are yet to transpire. Trumpet after trumpet is to be sounded; vial after vial poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth. Scenes of stupendous interest are right upon us and these things will be sure indications of the presence of Him who has directed in every aggressive movement, who has accompanied the march of His cause through all the ages, and who has graciously pledged Himself to be with His people in all their conflicts to the end of the world. He will vindicate His truth. He will cause it to triumph. He is ready to supply His faithful ones with motives and power of purpose, inspiring them with hope and courage and valor in increased activity as the time is at hand.” {3SM 426}

You can reach Mark Shipowick at: mark.shipowick@gmail.com