The Truth About Hitler (You Probably Will Never Hear About)

Atheists and others frequently use the actions of past historical figures to discredit Christianity, and slander our God. They set up a strawman argument, and then justify their willful rebellion against their Creator: sinful men standing in judgment of a Holy God! 

The Crusades are a favorite argument along this line. However, the Crusades were a product of the Roman Catholic Church, not followers of Jesus Christ, who commands us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44), not put them to death. The Crusaders were following the Pope, not the Lord Jesus Christ.

Another argument is that Hitler was a Christian, and that the Holocaust was a result of Christianity. The following video answers this false claim, and shines the light of God's truth and history on what Hitler really believed and did. Please watch:

Santa Biblia: Palabra Dioses en Español

I really love the Bible. It is unlike any other book - religious or secular - in that it is not written by man. You see, the author of the Bible is Almighty God. Our Creator used about 40 men, as you and I use a pen, pencil, or a keyboard, to write out His Holy Word in the 66 books of the Holy Bible.

And yes, I can prove this is so: the fulfilled prophecies of the Bible prove that this book could not have been written by man, because frankly, men can't guess that good! And we know that the God of the Bible is THE GOD, and that the Bible is HIS WORD, through the nation of Israel, as I have mentioned in the past. Wow...to hold in one's hands the words of our Creator to us!

But, I digress. Today my son and I dropped back into Rosenkranz Book & Bile Outlet Store up in
Eldora, IA. Mary and I stopped in last week and stocked-up on Bibles to give away, but they had no Version Reina-Valera Spanish Bibles at that time. But today, there were many! Seems they bought a gaylord container of liquidated Bibles from Holman Bible Publishers this past week, so I scooped up several, and now have a good stock to give to my Spanish speaking friends and neighbors.

Please pray for us as we give out the precious seed of the Word, that God will speak to the hearts of these dear souls, and may they be delivered out of the bondage of religion (most I meet here in Marshalltown are either Roman Catholic, or Jehovah's Witness: both of which have no gospel, and are leading their followers to eternal Hell) and into the glorious light of eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

(In case you wonder, the title of this post is "Holy Bible: God's Word in Spanish").

The Eucharist Is What Draws Us Close To God???

Last Saturday at the Des Moines Farmers Market, a woman approached Paul on the box as he was open-air preaching.  Paul guided her to me so that she could say her peace and that he could continue speaking.  Once in a while people ask questions that just throw me off.  This woman, who was really gentle and kind by the way, said that we should become Catholic because it would make us nearer to God.  I was pretty stunned by the statement and really had a hard time answering being that both Paul and I escaped from Catholicism to Protestantism because (well I can only speak for myself) I couldn’t have been further from God.  So I asked her, “How then does a Catholic get nearer to God being a Catholic?”  She responded that it was through the Eucharist, and then shifted the conversation to John 6, in that he that eats His flesh and drinks His blood abides in Me and I in him.

⁵³ Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵ For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. ⁵⁶ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”- John 6:53-58.

Roman Catholic Error

So I asked her, “Do you believe you have the Holy Spirit living within you?” 

“Yes, I do.”

“Then why do you need the Eucharist if God resides in you already?  Why do I need something physical when I already have something (someone) spiritual within me.  Do you believe that if the Holy Spirit is residing within me that He abides with me forever?”  I asked. 

“I know what you’re saying.  I just want to invite you back to the Catholic Church.” 

I said, “Well, we are here inviting people to come to Jesus…not to the church.“

She asked why I left in the first place and then I started to answer but then she had to go.  I guess she just wanted a quick answer.  I’m sorry, I was in the church 30 years, and one day I woke up and realized when I read the bible that I either had to remain a Catholic and believe the Catechism, or I become a Christian and believe the bible.  But I couldn’t be both. 

What I Should Have Said.

What I probably said was that she had a misunderstanding of John 6 and saw it only through Roman Catholic lenses.  You have to take the chapter as a whole and look at what happened previous, and what Jesus said about Himself throughout the book of John.  Basically…what was Jesus trying to convey to the people?  That He was the Son of God, and that the Father sent Him as the propitiation of sin.

Chapter 6

In order to answer this question we need to look at chapter 6 as a whole.  Verses 1-14 is the feeding of the 5,000 where Jesus fed 5,000 men including women and children.  Some of these 5,000 wanted to make Jesus king so He went away from them to be alone. 

The following day the people catch up to Jesus and His disciples and He already knows what lies in their hearts…that they didn’t come for Him, but for what He can give them.  And since He wasn’t going to give them food, they ask how they can work the works of God (John 6:28).  The rest of the chapter talks about how it was not Moses who gave their ancestors bread from heaven but that the bread from heaven came from the Father, and that Jesus, who is the bread from heaven came from the Father as well.  Both are for nourishment…one for the body, and another for the soul.  One for temporal life, the other for everlasting life.  One will fade, the other lasts forever.  Bread does not last, but Jesus lasts forever more. 

All of John

Not only did Jesus say that He was the bread of life (John 6:35), He also said that He was:

·         I am the Messiah who brings living water and those who drink will never thirst (4:26)

·         I am come in My Father’s name ( 5:43 kjv)

·         I am the bread of life (6:35,48)

·         I am the living bread which came down from heaven (6:51)

·         I am from Him and He that sent me (7:29)

·         I am the light of the world (8:12)

·         I am not alone but with the Father who sent Me (8:16)

·         I am from above (8:23)

·         Before Abraham was…I am (8:58)

·         I am the light of the world (9:5; 12:46)

·         I am the door of the sheep (10:7)

·         I am the door by which men are saved (10:9)

·         I am the good shepherd (10:11,14)

·         I am the Son of God (10:36)

·         I am the resurrection and the life (11:25)

·         I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No man comes to the Father but by Me (14:6)

·         I am in the Father, and the Father in Me (14:10,11,20)

·         I am the true vine (15:1,5)

·         I am not alone for the Father is with Me (16:32)

·         I am not of this world (17:14,16)

The truth is, is Jesus is the Messiah and what we need to do to work the works of God is to believe in Jesus whom the Father sent (John 6:29).  It’s not about the Eucharist, a specific denomination or church, but it’s about believing on Jesus whom the Father sent, and abiding in Him.  That’s what gets us close to God.

Success: What Is It?

Mary and I made it down to the Market today, and it was an interesting day. We got down a little later than usual. I talked to several people, so the preaching was shorter and kind of "here-and-there."

Right away I ran into a man named Ken, a big, burly man, and a believer, who I've seen every year since 2009 when we started preaching at the Market. We never really talked, so he asked how I came to know the Lord. I shared about that, and we enjoyed a few minutes of the fellowship of Christian brothers.

We set up at the cross-walk between 4th & 3rd, and while I was preparing, Mary came up with another man named David, also a believer, and we talked a bit about evangelism and the times we live in. Up on the box, I started out with the true definition of success....

SUCCESS: FINDING AND DOING THE WILL OF GOD

 

So today I had a woman heckle me, which was great. It is rare down at the Market, and usually consists of a "drive-by", but this woman came up to the box and wanted to engage. I really should pray for more hecklers, because it grabs a lot of people's attention - gives them an excuse to stop and see what's going on - and as other open air preachers say, it can generate a crowd really quick. Since the preaching was intermittent, I won't post all of it; but here is a brief exchange with my heckler:

Click HERE for the audio.

 

A man by the name of Don came up and shared how he had been saved out of radical Roman Catholicism. Since my background is Catholic, I could identify. This fella was driving 300-400 miles to attend a Latin Roman Catholic mass somewhere in Illinois! Praise God that he was delivered from this deep bondage, being born-again by faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ alone. (Don has my cell phone number: if I hear from him, I may ask for his written testimony, and if I get it, I will post it here on the website).

 

By the time I finished with Don, it was a little after 12 Noon, when the Market shuts down. I finished up with a few minutes of clearly presenting the gospel out of 1 Corinthians 15. Mary had passed out all her tracts, and had walked a few blocks down to 2nd Street where our friends Steve and Theresa Paul had their organic grains stand set up. We enjoyed visiting with them, and helped pack things up before leaving.

 



Brothers and sisters, the Lord has given us the command to preach the gospel and to be his witnesses wherever we are. It's not a numbers thing: you are successful whenever you step out by faith and reach out to someone with the hope of the gospel. And it is an act of worship to lift up the name of Jesus Christ and to give glory to our Most High God.

Contact us if we can be of any help. We want to encourage you to be bold, and to be the people that God created us and saved us to be:

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."
(Titus 2:11-14)