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| Christianity, Truth
and Fantasy |
HERMAN OTTEN
Christianity, Truth and Fantasy:
The Holocaust, Historical Revisionism and Christians Today
(Paper presented to the Ninth Intemational Revisionist Conference)
The early Christians were champions of the truth, not myth and fantasy. They spoke and
wrote on the basis of solid evidence. Peter wrote:
We didn't follow any clever myths when we told you about the power of our Lord Jesus
Christ and His coming. No. With our own eyes we saw His majesty. God the Father gave Him
honor and glory when from His wonderful glory He said to Him: "This is My son whom I
love and with whom I am delighted." We heard that voice speak to Him from heaven when
we were with Him on the holy mountain.
And we have a more sure word of prophecy. Please look to it as a light shining in a gloomy
place till the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Understand this first,
that no one can explain any written Word of God as he likes, because it never was the will
of a human being that brought us God's Word, but the Holy Spirit moved holy men to say
what God told them. [1]
John concludes his Gospel: "This is the disciple who testified about these things and
wrote this. And we know what he testifies is true." [2] John begins his first
epistle: "It was from the beginning, we heard It, we saw It with our eyes, we looked
at It, and our hands touched It - we're writing about the Word of Life." [3] He
concludes this epistle: "We know God's Son came and gave us the understanding to know
Him who is real, and we are in Him who is real, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true
God and everlasting life. Children, keep away from idols." [4]
The prophets and apostles who write the Bible presented facts, true history, not pious
myths based upon some emotional experiences. They carefully evaluated the evidence Luke
begins his Gospel:
Many have undertaken to plan and write a story of what has been done among us, just as we
heard it from those who from the first became eyewitnesses and servants of the World. For
this reason I too decided to check everything carefully from the beginning and to write it
down in the proper order for you, excellent Theophilus, so that you too will be sure what
you have heard is true. [5]
Jesus, who said: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father
except by Me," [6] emphasized the importance of knowing the truth. He declared:
"If you live in My Word, you are really My disciples, and you will know the truth,
and the truth will free you." [7]
Today direct revelation, the very concept of truth, doctrine, and real history which can
be known are being rejected right within the established churches. The very thought that
God revealed Himself or any truths to man in propositions recorded in Holy Scripture is
denied. Many contend that there is no such thing as absolute truth and that no one can say
with absolute certainty what really happened. A professor we had for a course in
philosophy at the University of Rochester in New York held up his pencil and told our
class that if we believed the pencil were a cow or an elephant it would be a cow or
elephant for us. Our response was that one may very well call it a cow but it certainly
would not produce any milk.
Modern liberalism contends that there is no such thing as divinely revealed,
authoritative, final doctrine, doctrina divina. However, the idea of propositional truth
and revelation is taught by the Scriptures. The Holy Scriptures contain dogma, doctrine,
real history, divinely revealed truth, which can be known.
While the Bible does use the term "truth" at times to mean such things as
"loyalty," "faithfulness," etc., the Bible also teaches the idea of
propositional truth, revelation, absolute truth, which man can know and express in
doctrinal statements.
To the Samaritan woman who said, "I have no husband," our Lord replied that
since she had had five husbands and since her present consort was not her husband, her
answer was quite correct: "You've told the truth." Obviously Christ means
"factual precision." He is not attributing "faithfulness or
"loyalty" to the woman. [8]
Of another woman we read in Mark that she came to Christ and "told Him all the
truth." Again this can only mean "factual precision." Certainly she is not
preaching the Gospel to Christ. She simply narrated the prosaic facts of her case. [9]
Martin Luther and other early Reformers had an intense desire to know and proclaim the
truth in all areas. Luther, in his explanation of the Eighth Commandment: "Do not lie
concerning your neighbor," noted: "We should fear and love God that we may not
deceitfully belie, betray, slander, nor defame our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of
him, and put the best construction on everything."
Christians are not free to believe or spread lies and myths about anyone or any people or
nation. In short: A Christian promotes truth, not lies and hoaxes.
Revisionism
A Christian is not a revisionist in the sense that he wants to revise real history and
distort what actually happened. Rather he is interested in learning and promoting facts,
not lies, in every area. He is particularly vitally concerned about the true origins of
all religions. Christianity is the only religion which is founded upon actual history.
Unlike all other religions, it is founded upon actual events, which really happened in
ordinary calendar history, not some kind of History" which is above and beyond
real.history (the realm of myth). A Christian is not out to revise true history.
However, a Christian can be a Revisionist if by this is meant that a Christian is
interested in revising what many consider to be history. Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
by Harry Elmer Barnes, who was not a Christian, was one of the first books I bought by a
Revisionist during my college days in the early fifties. I still have this copy. Barnes
noted in Revisionism and the Promotion of Peace" in The Journal of Historical Review
(Spring, 1982):
During the last forty years or so, Revisionism has become a fighting term. To so-called
Revisionists, it implies an honest search for historical truth and the discrediting of
misleading myths that are a barrier to peace and goodwill among nations. In the minds of
anti-Revisionists, the term savors of malice, vindictiveness, and an unholy desire to
smear the saviors of mankind.
Actually, Revisionism means nothing more or less than the effort to correct the historical
facts, a more calm political atmosphere, and a more objective attitude. It has been going
on ever since Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) exposed the forged "Donation of
Constantine," which was a cornerstone of the papal claim to secular power, and he
later called attention to the unreliable methods of Livy in dealing with early Roman
history. Indeed, the Revisionist impulse long antedated Valla, and it has been developing
ever since that time. It has been employed in American history long before the term came
into rather general use following the first World War.
Revisionism has been more frequently and effectively applied to correcting the historical
record relative to wars, because truth is always the first war casualty, the emotional
disturbances and distortions in historical writing are greatest in wartime, and both the
need and the material for correcting historical myths are most evident in connection with
wars.
Growing Up in New York City During World War II
The October, 1988 IHR Newsletter announcing this conference referred to me as a
"German-American." My parents came to this country from Germany as teen-agers.
However, ancestors on both my mother's and father's side came to Germany from Sweden. I
mention this because some have said I am a neo-Nazi, out to defend Germany because of my
background. But Mother's mother refused to say "Heil Hitler." She insisted that
she had only one Heiland (Savior) and that was Jesus Christ. Some feared she would be
imprisoned. My father's father was one of the first Lutherans in Germany to leave the
German territorial [state] church and helped form an independent church free from any
government control. He vigorously protested against the liberal anti-Christian theology
taught in many German universities and schools of higher learning. Perhaps much of the
suffering that Germany has had to endure is because it had to such a large extent departed
from God's Word.
I was fortunate to have a father, who, although he was an ordinary housepainter in New
York City, was interested in world affairs and did considerable reading, including the
writings of some Revisionists. Prior to WW II he followed the work of Charles Lindbergh
and the America First Committees which sought to keep the U.S. out of war. I can still
recall sitting in front of our radio in a Bronx apartment on December 7, 1941 listening to
reports of the bombing of Pearl Harbor - I was eight years old at the time but I remember
Dad telling us that this was the beginning of the most devastating war the world had ever
known and that President Franklin Roosevelt was not entirely innocent in the affair.
"F.D.R.'S WAR PLANS! - Goal is 10 Million Armed Men; Half to Fight in AEF - Proposes
Land Drive by July 1, 1943 to Smash Nazis" were the headlines of the December 4, 1941
Chicago Tribune, three days before Pearl Harbor. One of the first things we had to do many
mornings during WWII was run to a local �candy� store to buy a
copy of the New York Daily News, which at that time was only 2 cents. In the evening Dad
would come home from work with other newspapers to keep up with the latest news about the
war. When the news came on the radio at supper time, the entire family had to be quiet so
we could hear the reports. Dad would often comment, after coming home from a day of
painting in the homes of some clergymen and college professors, that a good number of them
were rather uninformed about what was really going on in the world. He told us that very
few of them recognized that Roosevelt actually planned to get the U.S. into the war.
During our public school years in the Bronx, news and evidence of the war were constantly
before us. Apartment houses near our public schools were vacated and thousands of WACS,
WAVES and SPARS moved in. They regularly marched around our school and trained in what is
probably one of the largest armories in the world, which was right across from our school.
A few gold stars replaced blue ones in our church and as we walked to school from time to
time we could observe in the windows of apartment houses where a gold star had been placed
just the day before where there had been a blue one. Another American had died in the war.
Some of the forty families who lived in our apartment house were Jews who had recently
come from Europe and still had relatives there. At times there were only two or three of
us in some of our grade school classes who were not Jews. Many of our teachers and friends
were Jews. We collected newspapers for the war effort in apartment houses where most of
the tenants were Jews. Some had only been in this country for a short time and still had
some contact with relatives in Eastern European countries.
Before and after the war our family helped European Jews and other refugees settle in this
country. A few of them became Christians. Our congregation in New York, St. Mathew
Lutheran Church, often called the oldest Lutheran church in the country, probably included
more former Jews than any other Lutheran church in the U.S. At one time our pastor told us
that there were about 80.
During the years immediately after the war our family sent hundreds of food packages to
the destitute in Europe. Since we had no automobile, we children took many of these
packages to the post office in our wagon.
We cannot recall any of the many Jews with whom we came into contact growing up in
Manhattan and the Bronx from 1933-52 who acted as if he really believed that millions of
fellow Jews were being gassed by the Germans.
Undergraduate Revisionist Studies
I attended Concordia College Institute in Bronxville, New York, which consisted of a
four-year prep school and two-year junior college. The school had a high academic
standing, and four years of Latin, two years of Greek, and four years of German were
required of all students, in addition to the standard courses in English, history.
mathematics, and science.
Following my Dad's example, I became an early and enthusiastic Revisionist, which got me
into difficulty with some of my teachers at Concordia. During my senior year I gave a talk
on Roosevelt, Pearl Harbor, and the forced repatriation of millions of Eastern Europeans
back to the Communists. One of the resources I used was The Crime of the Ages, by Ludwig
A. Fritsch. The book included a pamphlet with an endorsement from Dr. Walter A. Maier, who
at that time was speaker on the "International Lutheran Hour" and a professor at
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.
My history professor, who was an ardent fan of Roosevelt, almost exploded after I
completed the speech. I had previously expressed some disagreement with this professor's
views of the causes for the war and Roosevelt�s parts in the war, but this
was the final straw. A few of my classmates were prepared for a confrontation. I was sent
to the principal to get "straightened" out. It didn't do much good and only led
me to read more books by such Revisionist historians as Charles Tansill, George
Morgenstern, Percy Greaves, John T. Flynn, Charles Beard, Admiral Theobald, etc. I was
determined to read all I could about WW I and WW II. When I graduated from Concordia
Seminary, St. Louis, in 1957 I also received a Master's Degree in history from Washington
University. One reason for majoring in history was because I was interested in writing a
textbook on American history which would tell the truth about the origins of World War I
and II.
Christian Influences for Revisionism
I. Dr. Walter A. Maier
My thesis at Concordia Seminary in 1957 was on the political and economic thought of Dr.
Walter A. Maier, who was one of the best known American churchmen during the war years. 32
years ago I wrote:
From Maier's endorsement of The Crime of the Ages it is rather obvious that he accepted
the Revisionist interpretation of World War Two. He concluded a letter of thanks to the
author with the words, "It certainly tells the truth" The author of this book,
Ludwig A. Fritsch, Ph.D., D.D., stated that Roosevelt and his associates led America into
war in order to bring this nation out of the depression. He argues that Roosevelt was not
able to solve the unemployment situation in spite of social legislation and huge spending.
Since Hitler could not be induced to attack the United States, Fritsch maintains that
Roosevelt had to engineer war "via the back door." Through various economic
pressures Japan was supposed to have been sufficiently antagonized to attack Pearl Harbor.
This was claimed to have permitted Roosevelt and his associates to stand before America
and demand revenge for the sneak attack. Fritsch, whom Maier endorsed, wrote:
TELL OUR PEOPLE what Oliver Lyttleton, British Minister of Production, told the Chamber of
Commerce of America June 20, 1944, as reported by the United Press: "Japan was
provoked into attacking the United States at Pearl Harbor. It is a travesty of history
ever to say that America was forced into the war." �� TELL OUR PEOPLE, that
before God and history, the load of responsibility for the chaotic conditions and the
indescribable misery all over the world rests on our conscience; because we played havoc
with prehistoric brutality and saved Bolshevism, making it a world menace. Without our
intervention there would have been peace and order in Europe and the world long ago. [10]
II. Dr. Alfred Rehwinkel
Most of my professors at Concordia College (Bronxville), Washington University, Columbia
University and Concordia Seminary (St. Louis), promoted the generally accepted line about
Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt and the cause of both World War One and Two. Almost all of the few
who were even aware of the Revisionist position refused to accept it. Dr. Alfred
Rehwinkel, one of my advisors at Concordia Seminary, was one of the few who knew what was
really going on in the world. Rehwinkel had been associated with Charles Lindbergh and the
America First Committee. I often visited him, even after graduating from Concordia
Seminary. He was several times a guest speaker at our congregation in New Haven, Missouri.
Rehwinkel had been president of Concordia, Edmonton and later St. John's College in
Winfield, Kansas, founded in 1893 by J.P. Baden, a distant relative our family. My father,
who was one of Rehwinkel's many admirers among the laymen, first became acquainted with
him when Dad worked in the wheat fields in Kansas in the 1920's.
Perhaps one reason The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod�s Concordia Publishing
House has never published an excellent well written biography by Rev. Ronald Stelzer of
Rehwinkel known as "Rip," is because of his position on WW II. -This biography
notes:
To Rip "The Second World War was the bankruptcy of Western statemanship, and worse
than that, it was the bankruptcy of Western morality." It was the impetus behind his
400 page unpublished manuscript entitled War, The Christian's Dilemma. Herein is depicted
one side of the story that likely will never appear in the textbooks of American history.
Against the backdrop of American and Allied atrocities in World War II, Rip analyzes the
ethical problem of war as it is dealt with in the Old and New Testaments, the early Church
Fathers, medieval Church history, by the Reformers and those in recent times ��
Amidst the jubilant celebration of his countrymen over the German and Japanese surrender,
Rip was profoundly unimpressed with the Allies' accomplishments on the battlefield and at
the negotiating table. Fifteen years later an interviewer asked Rip, "Who do you
think has had the worst influence on our modern world?" Rip spoke without hesitation,
"The answer is very simple. The men who have had the most baneful influence on our
whole world today are Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill." (Questionnaire
prepared by Dr. William Beck of St. Louis at the request of Dr. O.A. Dorn of Concordia
Publishing House.) In my own coversatons with Rip he consistently referred to these two,
but especially Roosevelt, as "contemptible warmongers, deceivers and fools." On
occasion he has described them as "the architects of world chaos" or "the
curse of our generation" and their acts as "stupendous stupidities" or
"selling us down the river." ��
Rip was a voice crying in the wilderness, a lonely prophet proclaiming God's judgment upon
a nation that could see only that it had won a great war. "God�s
attitude regarding the dignity of human life has not changed. No government has the right
to shed man's blood unless for a just cause specifically sanctioned by God Himself."
Instead of sharing in the party spirit, Rip posed the rhetorical question, "What does
it profit a nation if it conquers the whole world but loses its soul?" When his
countrymen cheered as wave after wave of bombers pounded Dresden and Hamburg, Rip echoed
the words of the prophet "Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and booty-no end
to the plunder! The crack of whip, and rumble of wheel, galloping horse and pounding
Chariot! Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, hosts of slain, heaps of
corpses, dead bodies without end - they stumble over the bodies! �� Behold I am
against you, says the Lord of Hosts." (Nahum 3:1-5) ��
Rip also perceived a sign of God's judgment in that the American people supported and
approved the follies of their leaders. Jeremiah writes "An appalling and horrible
thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at
their direction; my people love to have it so." (Jer. 5:31). It was a source of
constant amazement to Rip how the Americans and Briffsh still honor Roosevelt and
Churchill as great heroes.
But what of Hitler? "Like Nebuchadnessar, when he made himself to be a god, God made
him to be a fool; likewise those who worshipped him." It is plain to those who have
eyes to see that God is using Russia and the rest of the Communist world as His
executioners just as He used Assyria and Babylonia against an apostate Israel and Judah.
III. Professor Kurt Marquart
Not all of the students at Concordia Seminary were unfamiliar with the works of
Revisionist scholars and unconcerned about the threat of Communism. One of these students,
who was also greatly influenced by by Rehwinkel, was Kurt Marquart, now a professor at
Concordia Seminary (Ft. Wayne). Dr. Marquart is considered by many to be one of the
leading theologians in all of Christendom. At the same time is well informed about what is
going on in the world.
Marquart and I were roommates at Concordia Seminary in 1954-55. His mother and stepfather
were born in Russia, and he was born in Estonia, escaping when the Communists took over.
Marquart taught Russian during his first year at Concordia Seminary. A good number of his
writings on Communism and many other matters have been included in The Christian News
Encyclopedia.
Marquart stated in an address first presented at the Australian League of Rights in
Brisbane, Australia in 1968:
It is difficult for those who have not directly experienced Communism to comprehend the
horror of it all. Allied soldiers, who as a result of the infamous Yalta Agreement, had to
force Soviet citizens "liberated" from German captivity at the end of World War
II, to return to the Workers' Paradise, reacted with utter bewilderment and
incomprehension when most of these people not only refused to go back "home,"
but resorted to the most desperate measures to avoid this fate. I myself shall never
forget the pathetic spectacle I witnessed in 1945, of a two-mile stream of Russians,
simple workers and peasants in the main, fleeing into the woods with what few belongings
they could carry, to avoid being sent back to the Soviet Union. One of our friends, a
Russian engineer, went back to the camp to help rescue some others, and was caught by the
British soldiers whose distasteful duty it was to enforce these inhuman mass-deportations.
When the men vehemently resisted "repatriation" the British officer in charge
asked him if he realized that he could be sent to gaol for five years if he refused to
co-operate. Our friend explained that he would gladly go to prison rather than return to
the Red hell! He served five years. In other camps, also in the American occupation zone,
ever more terrible scenes took place. When the men had been herded like cattle onto
trucks, the women would lie down on the road in front of the trucks, and had to be removed
at bayonet point. Not infrequently mothers would kill their children, and then slash their
own wrists, if there was no other way out. Such unparalleled mass desperation testifies
unanswerable to the utter contempt for human life practiced in the name of the brotherhood
of man by the most brutal, most cynical, most inhuman regime of modern times, if not of
all history. [11]
Some Twentieth Century Hoaxes
The Christian News, true to its function as a Christian Lutheran paper, has, since its
founding in 1962, combated a number of false beliefs which I consider to be hoaxes no less
than the Holocaust The Christian News has exposed the false notion that all self-professed
Christian churches and sects embrace the Christianity of the Gospel, as well as the claim
that Christianity is just one of the many valid religious ways to God. We have upheld the
inerrancy of God's directly revealed word in the Bible, and have published hundreds of
articles by prominent scientists which demonstrate that the theory of evolution is a hoax.
The Christian News has stood firmly against the idea that God has picked any one
particular race to be his "chosen people." This is a hoax which is widely
accepted by both liberals, with their theory of evolution, and many
"conservatives," who maintain that the Bible teaches the Jews are God's chosen
race.
There are plenty of sincere but misguided Christians who maintain that when the Bible
speaks about the conversion of all Israel this means physical Israel and those who are
referred to as Jews today. The Christian News Encyclopedia includes a good number of
articles exposing the nature of this hoax. [12]
Even some who might consider themselves "Revisionists" and who reject the
anti-scriptural notion that the Jews are God's chosen race are guilty of racism. Here is
just one recent example: An article appearing in the December, 1988 Christian Vanguard,
newsletter of the New Christian Crusade Church, says:
First let us bear in mind that the Bible is a book about the racial history of the White
Race and that Adam, our ancestor, was White and that that line remained pure until Jesus,
who was God, came in the flesh. If our God was White, and we are His sons and daughters,
then we may fairly say that there is nothing in the Bible for any race other than the
White Race, despite the millions that Christian churches have spent overseas to
"save" non-Whites. For some strange reason, the ministers who so roundly
denounce Adolf Hitler, champion of the White Race, never find time to criticize Moses and
the prophets who actually did what Hitler didn't do! Deuteronomy 11:23 tips the hand in
which way the Pentateuch will take the White Race: " �� and ye shall possess
greater nations and mightier than yourselves." Thusly, we see that under the
"Fuehrership" of Moses, Israelite tribal ascendancy was to come at all costs,
including some rough treatment of other races. Hitler was falsely accused of having put
into practice the racial conceptions handed to Moses by Yahweh Himself. [13]
The Bible knows nothing about any chosen race. The true Christian today worships the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Holy Trinity. Those who are called Jews today reject
this God. Paul wrote to the Galatians that Abraham "believed God, and so was counted
righteous. You see, then, those who believe are Abraham's real descendants. The Bible
foresaw that God would make the nations righteous by faith, and long ago He told Abraham
the good news: Through you all nations will be blessed. So those who believe are blessed
with Abraham, who believed." [14]
According to Holy Scripture, in God's sight there is no special race, color, nationality,
sex, etc. Peter wrote to the Christians of his day: "But you are a chosen people,
priests of the King, a holy nation, a people saved to be His own and to tell of the
wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you
were no people, but now you are God�s people. Once you had received no mercy,
but now you have received mercy." [15]
Peter noted that "God doesn't prefer one person to another. It doesn't matter what
people you belong to; if you fear Him and do what's right, he accepts you." [16]
I have repudiated all racism as long as I can remember. As I previously mentioned, I grew
up in New York City among members of numerous nationalities and races. Our church had
members of all races. One of my Sunday School teachers was Japanese. I had a Chinese for a
roomate my first year in Prep School. In grade school most of my schoolmates were Jews. I
often worked with my father as a housepainter in Harlem in the homes of blacks. One summer
I was the only white person on a 40-man picking crew. The Christian News, ever since it
began, has published editorials against racism. I have been invited to speak to large
groups where the vast majority were non-whites. Churchmen from various races have spoken
in our church. Yet the Anti-Defamation League has labeled The Christian News as a hate
sheet, racist and anti- Semitic. [17]
I wrote to the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League on June 25, 1988:
Mr. Abraham Foxman, National Director
Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith
823 United Nations Plaza
New York, N.Y. 10017
Dear Mr. Foxman:
The Christian News has just received in a letter from Mr. Edgar M. Bronfman, President of
the World Jewish Congress 501 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10022, a statement from
you which says in part: "we educate, persuade, demand when we have to, use the
courts, do the research, and make sure the necessary information is published and
distributed where it will do some good. ADL responds to the needs of individual victims of
prejudice, and fights against bigotry, racism and anti-Semitism." Attached to your
statement is a report titled " An ADL Special Report - HATE GROUPS IN AMERICA - A
Record of Bigotry and Violence."
Your special reports include a section titled "List of Extreme-Right Groups." It
says: "The following is a list of extreme-right groups that have operated in the U.S.
in recent years. These groups espouse racism and/or anti-Semitism: many have engaged in
violence." Under a section title "List of Extreme-Right Publications" is
Christian News, New Haven, Missouri - (no organization)."
Christian News wrote to Mr. Harold Singer, publisher of the Jewish Journal, Brooklyn, New
York, on March 8: "An article in the February 19 Jewish Journal lists Christian News
as part of the 'Right Wing Hate Press.' Could you please tell us why Christian News is
considered part of the 'hate press?' Could you please send us the address of Mr. Abraham
H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith?"
Christian News wrote to you on March 29: "A report in the February 19 Jewish Journal
says that the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith lists Christian News as part of the
Right Wing Hate Press.' Could you please tell us why Christian News is considered part of
the 'hate press?'"
Perhaps you never received this letter. Could you now please answer these questions?
I then posed a series of questions to Mr. Foxman, asking to produce a single citation from
The Christian News advocating or defending racial hatred, anti-Semitism, or violence. Then
I put to him a series of questions on the factuality of the Holocaust, and on ADL's
willingness to engage in a debate on the issue.
The Christian News never received any response from the Anti-Defamation League and, as far
as I know, The Christian News is still on the ADL's list of hate and racist publications.
Two hoaxes often promoted by Christians are closely linked. According to one of them,
Jesus Christ will establish a kingdom of peace on this earth and reign from Jerusalem for
a thousand years. The other hoax represents the contemporary State of Israel as the
fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.
Space does not permit me to show how widely Millennialism has infiltrated the
fundamentalist, charismatic, evangelical and Reconstructionist movements. Such prominent
churchmen as Jerry Falwell, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Dave Hunt, Carl McIntire, Rousas
Rushdoony, Gary North, Robert Sumner, Billy Graham, Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, Hal
Lindsey, and many others are all Millennialists of one sort or another. The State of
Israel has welcomed the Israel First Milliennialists, who believe the State of Israel a
fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, with open arms.
Millennialists often disagree with one another. Some of the hoaxes the Millennialists
promote are rather bizarre. Hal Lindsey, the author of the bestselling Late Great Planet
Earth (more than 20 million copies) says, in his A Prophetical Walk Through the Holy Land,
that there will be such a terrific battle in Israel, involving hundreds of millions, that
blood will flow up to the horses' bridles for 200 miles. Lindsey's book includes a map
showing where this wide tide of blood will flow up to the horses' bridles for 200 miles.
Lindsey and other Millennialists are quoted at considerable length in the CNE. [18]
Anyone who wants documents showing that the whole of Millennialism is a dangerous,
anti-scriptural hoax, should consult The Christian News Encyclopedia. [19]
The Augsburg Confession, one of the confessions of the orthodox Lutheran Church, stated it
well when it referred to the Millennialists of the Sixteenth Century as those who were
spreading certain "Jewish opinions." The Augsburg Confession says in Article
XVII:
Also they teach that at the Consummation of the World Christ will appear for judgment, and
will raise up all the dead; he will give to the godly and elect eternal life and
everlasting joys, but ungodly men and the devils He will condemn to be tormented without
end.
They condemn the Anabaptists, who think that there will be an end to the punishment of the
condemned men and devils.
They condemn also others, who are now spreading certain Jewish opinions, that before the
resurrection of the dead the godly shall take possession of the kingdom of the world, the
ungodly being everywhere suppressed. [20]
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in its Brief Statement correctly confesses after
listing numerous Bible passages: "According to these clear passages of Scripture we
reject the whole of Millennialism, since it not only contradicts Scripture, but also
engenders a false conception of the kingdom of Christ, turns the hope of Christians upon
earthly goals, (1 Cor. 15:19; Col. 3:2), and leads them to look upon the Bible as an
obscure book." [21]
Another widespread delusion among Christians is that today's Jews view the Old Testament
in the same way as Christians, and that the Old Testament is the chief Jewish scriptural
authority.
Jews today insist that the Talmud is their highest religious authority. They consider it
to be far more authoritative than the Old Testament. When I was in Israel last year,
various Israeli guides and leaders repeatedly told me that the Talmud was their most
authoritative source of religious truth. A new translation of the Talmud is now in the
process of publication. The Christian News Encyclopedia includes some 160 pages from the
34-volume Socino edition of the Talmud. [22] Few churchmen have studied the Talmud. Hardly
anyone at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, has checked out the edition of the Talmud in the
seminary's library. Almost all the pastors and professors we asked about the Talmud say
they had not read even a few pages.
Those who have read what Luther wrote about the Talmud should have at least some idea of
the gross immorality and lies found in the Talmud. Fifty and more years ago some of the
orthodox theologians of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, such as Lutheran Hour speaker
Walter A. Maier, did not hesitate to point out the lies, racism, and immorality in the
ralmud. The standard of morality promoted in the Talmud gives Israel the right to take
land away from Arabs who have owned it for centuries. Today it seems that even many
conservative theologians hesitate to expose the Talmud for "fear of the Jews."
The Talmud reports that the Emporer Hadrian slaughtered some 800,000,000 million Jews at a
time when most historians say there were about 2,000,000 Jews in Palestine. Gentiles are
said to have fertilized their vineyards for seven years with the blood of Israel without
using manure. Sixty-four million Jewish children, according to the Talmud, are supposed to
have been slaughtered by the Gentiles in Bethar. Another section of the Talmud says that
the Romans killed 4 billion Jews or "as some say" 40 million Jews. The blood of
the slain Jews is to have reached the nostrils of the Roman horses and then, like a tidal
wave, plunged a distance of one or four miles to the sea, carrying large boulders along
with it, and staining the sea a distance of four miles out. The bodies of Jews slain by
the Gentiles were used to build a fence around Hadrian�s vineyard, which is
said to have been eighteen miles square and the blood that was saved from the tidal wave
was used to fertilize the vineyards for seven years. [23]
Most Jews today are scarcely familiar with the Old Testament. They reject the real message
of the Old Testaments the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and salvation only in Him.
The Roman Catholic church has long maintained that some of its saints have been able to
raise people from the dead and that the Virgin Mary appears to some of them. An
advertisement of Raised From The Dead, True Stories of 400 Resurrection Miracles by Father
Albert J. Hebert, a book which has the imprimatur of Rome, says:
The raising of the dead is a miracle which, astonishing as it is, has been performed
hundreds of times since the days of Christ. Our Lord told His Apostles to raise the dead
(Matt 10:8), and over the centuries many saints have done so - particularly great
missionaries like St Francis Xavier, St Patrick, St Vincent Ferrer, St Hyacinth, and St
Louis Bertrand, but also a multitude of other saints. The stories of these resurrection
miracles are amazing: they include the raising of persons who had drowned, or persons with
mutilated bodies, of persons who had been hanged, and of those whose bodies had already
suffered decay, been reduced to skeletons, or been buried for several years. [24]
Some Charismatics have requested us to publish their reports about Charismatics raising
people from the dead. We asked them for the evidence but they never supplied us with any.
Kenneth Copeland, a Charismatic who denies the deity of Christ and speaks in tongues,
reports in his April, 1987 Voice of Victory that a leading African Charismatic has raised
seven people from the dead. [25]
Oral Roberts, one of the leading Charismatics of our day, says that he has spoken face to
face with a 900-foot Jesus. Roberts and other Charismatics continually claim that God
speaks directly to them, particularly when they are in need of money. There are millions
who believe this hoax.
Dr. Percy Collett, who has been widely promoted by Charismatics, including the Full Gospel
Businessmen�s Fellowship, claims that for almost six days he was literally in
heaven. An advertisment promting Collett says: "For 5½ earth days he talked with
God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Elijah, Elisha, Abraham, Moses, Paul and others.
He viewed the mansions of the saints, and toured the buildings NOW under
construction." [26]
Dr. Richard E. Eby, who claims that after he died Jesus sent him back to earth to tell
people the truth, is now being promoted by charismatics. The Charismatic Full Gospel
Business Men's Fellowship says that
In 1972, Dr. Eby fell two stories to his death. His blood had drained out into the ground
from his crushed skull. He was instantly in a new body with the Lord. He shares this
unique experience in Heaven with Jesus Christ as well as the dramatic return to life in
his earthly body. He describes the marvels of life after death, and as a physician he
includes a vivid description of his immortal body. Jesus sent him back to earth to tell
the truth. Everyone has wondered about life after death - is it true? Where will I go? Is
there really a Heaven? A Hell? This is your opportunity to meet someone who has actually
experienced death and restoration, and find the truth for yourself.
Jimmy Swaggart, one of the tongues-speaking and healing Charismatics who has promoted
Collett, said:
�� you are going to be literally elated, excited and thrilled at what Dr. Collett
is going to share. I could talk to His man for 10 years and never scratch the surface -
what he saw, what has happened to him, and the move of the Holy Spirit, within his life ��
He has thrilled my soul and I think he's going to thrill yours as well . . [27]
The Christian News has for many years exposed the hoaxes promoted by such leading
Charismatic preachers as Oral Roberts, Kathryn Kuhlmann, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart,
Kenneth Copeland, Jack Coe, and others. [28]
God speaks to man today through His Word, Holy Scripture, which is powerful and
efficacious. [29]
The Charismatics, and visionaries who accept the testimony of those who claim the Virgin
Mary spoke to them at Fatima, Medujmorje, and elsewhere have been among those who accepted
the Shroud of Turin as the Shroud of Jesus. However, even some conservative and
evangelical Christians also believed the Shroud of Turin was the Shroud of Jesus, as we
noted in a Christian News editorial titled: "Admit Mistakes - Even Some Conservatives
Believed in Hoaxes - Recognize the Shroud of Turin is not Shroud of Jesus." [30]
Millions of pilgrims have gone to Turin and many of them claim to have witnessed miracles.
Such conservative publications as William Buckley�s National Review, Billy
James Hargis' Christian Crusade, Human Events, and even such scientific journals as the
American Medical News and the Industrial Research Development have published articles and
editorials supporting the hoax that the Shroud of Turin is the Shroud of Jesus. Some of
our conservative friends took sharp issue with us for maintaining that the Shroud of Jesus
was not the Shroud of Turin.
Rev. Jeff Gavin, a Lutheran Church-Missouri minister in Dacatur, Illinois, commented:
I am writing to comment on your article "The Shroud of Turin Is A Hoax," April
12, 1982.
I never considered The Saturday Evening Post to be a theological publication, yet compared
to your article and your "scholarship" it appears I must reconsider my
evaluation of the Post.
For some years, I have been interested in the Shroud, and must agree with the Post's
conclusion "The man of the Shroud suffered, died and was buried the way the Gospels
say Jesus was." You neglect to mention that Dr. McCrone was the only dissenting
scientist among the STURP team of 40 scientists. The conclusion reached by the others all
indicated that the Shroud cannot be proven a hoax. What Dr. McCrone did find on the Shroud
was not paint but iron oxide, a substance found in paint but also found in blood.
The amount of physical support for the authenticity of the shroud has filled many books
and articles. I suggest you study some of them before you make your own conclusions.
Let me conclude by quoting a Biblical scholar far more knowledgeable than either of us.
Dr. David P. Scaer of the Concordia Theological Serninary writes concerning the Shroud of
Turin in an article in the C.T.Q. [Concordia Theological Quarterly] Jan. 1979 issue:
"The image on the Shroud of Jesus portrayed in the Gospels �� there is
therefore no valid theological objection to identification of the Shroud of Turin as the
Shroud in which Jesus was buried.
While we have often commended the Concordia Theological Quarterly (formerly The
Springfielder) and have urged readers to subscribe (Concordia Theological Quarterly, 6600
North Clinton Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46825), we still insisted that the Shroud of
Turin was not the Shroud of Jesus. We did not retract our editorials on the shroud being a
hoax simply because various scientists and even some orthodox Christian professors
concluded that the Shroud of Turin may very well be the Shroud of Jesus. The Shroud of
Turin is not the only hoax some orthodox Christians accept as fact. The October 14, 1988,
Washington Times reported in a story titled Triple Testing Finds Shroud Medieval
Fake:"
Turin, Italy-The Shroud of Turin, revered by many Christians as the burial cloth of Jesus
Christ, has been shown by carbon-dating tests to be a fake from the Middle Ages, the Roman
Catholic church said yesterday.
But Vatican officials said the mystery of how the blood- stained image of a crucified man
has appeared on the yellowing cloth was still unsolved and the shroud would remain an
object of veneration for the Church.
Turin Cardinal Anastasio Ballestrero told a news conference that tests by three
laboratories - in England, the United States and Switzerland - showed with 95 per cent
certainty that the cloth dated from sometime between 1260 and 1390.
The results of the carbon-dating tests should again show the folly of accepting as fact
all the stories of visions, healings, relics, etc., which Rome, the charismatics, and even
some misguided churchmen at times promote. Christians should not accept any hoax as a
fact.
Other hoaxes The Christian News has exposed include the "new morality" and
"situation ethics," the idea that sinful acts are permissible in various
situations, thus superseding the teaching of the Bible. The veneration accorded such
unrepentant adulterers as Paul Tillich and Martin Luther King, Jr. shows to what extent
many within the various churches have swallowed these unscriptural notions.
Last but certainly not least among the hoaxes exposed in The Christian News is the
Holocaust, the alleged slaughter of some six million Jews, most of them by gassing, in a
planned attempt at extermination by the German government in the Second World War. Those
not familiar with The Christian News may be surprised to learn that we have published
hundreds of items supporting the Holocaust theory, and numerous letters defending the case
for the Holocaust.
The Revisionist Side
While The Christian News has given those who are convinced that the Germans exterminated
six million Jews plenty of space to defend their position. the paper has also published a
good number of articles, letters, and reports by Revisionists who question the Holocaust
story. Some of these articles, in the sections on the Holocaust, Revisionism, Israel,
Jews, Germany, Millennialism, and Germany, have been reprinted in The Christian News
Encyclopedia. We have included photographs of various documents pertaining to the
Holocaust.
My father was a friend of Dr. Austin App, a Christian Revisionist honored at your
conference last year. When Dr. App published his booklets on the Holocaust, he sent us
copies and they were reviewed in The Christian News at a time when others hesitated to
even mention them. [31] We also published a long statement from a liberal pastor who took
issue with Dr. App, and then printed Dr. App's response. [32]
Some of the Revisionists whose writings have appeared in The Christian News are Mark
Weber, Arthur Butz, Bradley Smith, Charles Weber, Jim Keegstra, Clarence Lang, Ernst
Zundel, Walter Bodenstein, Robert Faurisson, Ratibor Ray M. Jurjevich, Martin A. Larson,
William Stäglich, and Ditlieb Felderer. [33] We have repeatedly invited readers who
disagree with the Revisionists to send us articles and letters showing where the
Revisionists are in error. Many of our readers, some tell us the vast majority, including
most of the thousands of clergymen and professors who receive The Christian News, accept
as absolute fact that the Germans exterminated approximately 6 million Jews during World
War II. We have noted, however, that some, particularly among our younger readers, are
seriously questioning the Holocaust.
Last year when The Christian News reviewed Thies Christophersen's The Truth of Auschwitz,
The Christian News published this special notice:
If any reader knows of someone who was at Auschwitz who is able to refute Thies
Christophersen, or anyone who can show that Christophersen is either lying or sadly
mistaken, please contact The Christian News. The Christian News is particularly interested
in publishing a statement from someone who actually saw the gas chambers at Auschwitz,
where some four million Jews are said to have been gassed by the Germans. [34]
Christophersen was at Auschwitz when the Germans were supposed to be gassing millions of
Jews, and states that there were no gas chambers and no mass extermination of Jews in
Auschwitz.
Fred Leuchter, one of the leading U.S. experts in the construction of gas chambers,
accepted the notion that the Germans exterminated some six million Jews before he made a
thorough examination of the matter last year. "The Leuchter Report - the End of a
Myth - An Engineering Report on the Alleged Gas Chamber at Auschwitz, Birkenau and
Majdenek, Poland" sets out the methodology and findings of the actual sites in Poland
where the gassings were alleged to have occurred. Luechter's conclusion, after inspecting
the sites and analyzing samples taken from walls and floors for total cyanide content, was
unambiguous: the alleged gas chambers could not have been used, then or now, as execution
gas chambers. The publisher of the "Leuchter Report" comments (CNE, 2363):
David Irving, the distinguished British historian, has called the "Leuchter
Report" a "shattering" document which was instrumental in hardening his
belief that the whole of the Holocaust mythology was now open to doubt. It is a document
which "Holocaust" historians can ignore only at the peril to their reputations
as objective scholars. After the "Leuchter Report," the allegation of genocide
perpetrated by the Germans against the Jews, using gas chambers as murder instruments, can
no longer be upheld.
When The Christian News published a report on the Leuchter document, The Christian News
noted:
Christian News welcomes a critique from anyone who still believes the Germans gassed six
minion Jews after he has read the "Leuchter Report." We have made similar offers
to those who still believe in the Holocaust after they have read the words of Faurisson,
Rassinier, Butz, Stäglich, and Feldereer. We have repeatedly discovered that those who
believe the Germans gassed six million Jews have seldom read the writings of the scholars
who maintain there were no gas chambers for the extermination of even a few Jews"
(The Christian News, July 18, 1988).
Faurisson concludes his "The Problem of the Gas Chambers":
There was not a single "gas chamber" in even one of the German concentration
camps; that is the truth. The non- existence of "gas chambers" should be
regarded as welcome news; to hide this news in the future would be an injustice. Just as
there is no attack upon religion if one portrays "Fatima" as a fraud, the
announcement that the "gas chambers" are an historical lie is not an attack upon
concentration camp survivors. One is merely doing one's duty by being truthful.
When The Christian News reviewed Wilhelm Stäglich�s Auschwitz Myth, we
made a similar challenge:
The Christian News now invites a response from anyone who can show that Wilhelm
Stäglich's The Auschwitz Myth is in error. We would like to publish a review from
anyone who has read the book and still believes that the Germans gassed four million Jews
at Auschwitz. [35]
No critic of the writings of such Revisionists as Arthur Butz, Charles Weber, Robert
Faurisson, Wilhelm Stäglich, and Thies Christophersen has ever sent us any statement
showing where their writings are in error.
The Christian News has insisted upon careful docu mentation and has always been willing to
publish the other side in any matter. It is possible for even a careful scholar to use an
oft-quoted statement without first checking its authenticity. In the past we have noted
that quotations can be spuriously transferred from one writer to another. One of the first
quotations we exposed as a phony was one which anti-Communists were quoting at the time.
American Communist leader Gus Hall is supposed to have said, at the funeral of Eugene
Dennis in 1961, "I dream of the hour when the last congressman is strangled on the
guts of the last preacher �� "
Our efforts to acquire any information which would refute the Revisionists have been
sincere. We wrote to both Dr. Jacob Preus, former president of The Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod and Rev. Richard Neuhaus, a prominent churchman, columnist for
National Review, and editor of other publications, on April 3, 1984:
This year April 24 is the Annual Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust. Both of you have
been among the Lutheran churchmen who have endorsed the idea of Holocaust Sunday ��
You have insisted that it is a fact that some six million Jews were killed by the Germans.
The Christian News has published a debate on Luther, the Jews, and the Holocaust. You will
note that Pastor R.H. Goetjen maintains that the Holocaust never happened. He claims that
Jews say far more ruthless things about Christians in their Talmud than Luther ever said
about the Jews. We are inviting you to respond to what Pastor Goetjen says. We would
appreciate if you could tell us the sources of your evidence that the Holocaust did occur.
Neither President Preus nor Editor Neuhaus responded
Fostering Debate on the Holocaust
Five years ago The Christian News published a front page article entitled "The
Christian News Invites Moellering and Goetjen to 'Debate' - Theologian Blasts Critics of
Holocaust - Deplores Luther's 'Anti-Jewish Tirades.'" It began:
"Nothing has been more detrimental to the reformer's reputation that his anti-Jewish
tirade," says Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod theologian Dr. Ralph Moellering in the
January, 1984 Cresset of Valparaiso University.
Writing in an article titled "Lutheranism and the Holocaust - The Question of
Culpability," the LCMS clergy- man, who is currently the pastor of Grace Lutheran
Church in El Cerrito, California, takes issue with some "crazies!" These
"crazies" do not believe that the Germans actually exterminated some six million
Jews. They excuse Luther's harsh words against Jews because of what the Jews say in their
Talmud about Christ, Gentiles, Christians, and the Virgin Mary. Moellering observes that
some of these "fanatics help keep alive belief in an international Jewish conspiracy
dedicated to the undermining of Gentile civilization �� [36]
One of the supposed "crazies" Moellering mentioned was Rev. Reinhold Goetjen. He
referred to a letter Goetjen had written to The Christian News. [37] The Christian News
invited both Moellering and Goetjen to submit essays of some 5,000 words on Luther, the
Jews, and the Talmud. We invited each to submit their evidence for or against the
truthfulness of the reports of the extermination of some six milion Jews. The lengthy
essays both submitted have been reprinted in the CNE. Goetjen sent us a rebutal to
Moellering's essay, but Moellering failed to respond to what Goetjen said about the Talmud
and the Holocaust. [38] At the time Moellering wrote his essay, he had not read what the
leading Revisionist scholars have written on the Holocaust.
Two years ago, the Rev. Mark Herbener, who is a member of the Board of Directors of the
Dallas Memorial Center for Holocaust Studies and who is now a bishop in the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, took sharp issue with us for publishing what Revisionists were
saying about the Holocaust. He said he had been sending copies of The Christian News to
such groups as the Anti-Defamation League. We welcomed the bishop's letter and made this
proposal:
The Holocaust is being debated in various European countries. Let's set up a debate on the
Holocaust which will receive attention all over the U.S. Now would be a good time.
Newspapers throughout the nation are mentioning the Holocaust in their reports of the
current Demjanjuk trial in Israel.
Could your Memorial Center for Holocaust Studies get Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who
is perhaps the chief spokesman for the Holocaust, to debate one of the leading
Revisionists who claims the Holocaust is a hoax and that the Germans never gassed six
million Jews? If you are unable to get Elie Wiesel or someone else to debate the
Holocaust, then perhaps you or someone else familiar with the arguments of the
Revisionists could debate the same subject in The Christian News. The Christian News will
give each side 6,000 words to present its case, 3,000 words to respond to the opposition,
and then 1,000 words for a rebuttal to the response. If you can think of a fairer
arrangement, please let me know. The Christian News wants to be as fair as possible to
both sides. [39]
Bishop Herbener refused to debate the Holocaust, declaring that "your proposition to
debate has only wickedness in its intent." [40]
In our response to the Bishop we included this statement
The next issue of The Christian News will include some quotations from Wilhelm
Stäglich's The Auschwitz Myth. An English translation of this book has just been
published in this country. We welcome a thorough refutation of this book by your Center
for Holocaust Studies. Perhaps you could persuade Elie Wiesel to review the book if he is
unable to travel to Dallas to debate the Holocaust.
The Bishop responded:
I understand what you are after and I call it "wicked." It is called
"Jew-baiting." It is one of the rankest forms of anti- Semitism I have seen. It
is closely akin to racism, the kind of racism that produced the Holocaust in Germany ��
The Bishop complained that if we had been sincere about getting the real facts on the
Holocaust we would have suggested a debate with some Holocaust historians rather than an
author like Elie Wiesel. We responded:
We suggested that your Center for Holocaust Studies get Elie Wiesel to debate, since his
is known as the chief spokesman for the remembrance of the Holocaust and the leader of the
Exterminationist viewpoint. However, if you can get Raul Hilberg, John Pawlikowski, Eva
Fleischner, Byron Sherwin, or Sybil Milton to debate with any of the leading Revisionists,
that would be fine with us. Could you please contact them to see whether they would be
willing to debate the Revisionists? It doesn't make any difference to us whom you get to
defend your notion that the Germans gassed some six million Jews during World War II. [41]
We asked the Bishop some questions he had previously refused to answer:
Do you believe that Jews were gassed at Dachau during the war years, as was alleged at
Nuremberg and elsewhere, or do you now concede that this story is not true? If you reject
this story, why do you believe that the evidence at Dachau is less credible than the
evidence for gassings at Auschwitz, Sobibor, and the other camps?
Do you believe the evidence that Jews were steamed at Treblinka? If so, why do you think
that Holocaust historians now reject that evidence. If not, why not? Is the evidence for
"steam chambers any less credible than the evidence for "gas chambers?"
Do you believe the story that the Germans manufactured bars of soap from Jewish corpses
during the war? If so, why do you think that Holocaust historians now reject the story? If
not, are you ready to condemn those who spread this story as liars or misinformed
defamers?
The prominent Jewish and former Auschwitz inmate Elie Wiesel wrote in his book, Legends of
Our Time: "Every Jew, somewhere in his being, should set apart a zone of hate - for
what the German personifies and for what persists in the German." Do you agree with
Wiesel?
Do you agree that spreading and supporting lies about the German nation and people is a
violation of the commandment Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor?"
Bishop Herbener was either unable or unwilling to answer these questions. IHR editorial
advisor Mark Weber's "Open Letter to the Rev. Mark Herbener," which appeared
both in The Christian News and The Journal of Historical Review (Summer 1988), presented a
brief and lucid case for Holocaust Revisionism. The April 13, 1987 Christian News, which
published the challenges from "The Committee For Open Debate on the Holocaust,"
included an editorial which said:
The Christian News is sent to many church leaders, scholars, and professors who maintain
that the Germans gassed about six million Jews. We hope some of them will accept the offer
to debate or urge some scholar they know to accept the offer. We would appreciate it if
those who accept the offer of the "Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust"
would send us a copy of their acceptance. We have no association with their committee and
want to make certain that both sides receive fair treatment. Perhaps we should also note
that there appears to be a growing number of informed churchmen and scholars who no longer
accept the Holocaust However, some of them have warned us that the subject is too
dangerous for The Christian News, even if we agree to give both sides equal opportunity to
express their views.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center of Los Angeles was quick to reply. After accusing the
Committee for Open Debate and the Institute for Historical Review of being
"neo-Nazi," the Center told The Christian News that it is an absolute historical
fact that the Germans gassed some six million Jews during WW II. When The Christian News
suggested that the Simon Wiesenthal Center accept the challenge from the Committee for an
Open Debate of the Holocaust, a spokesman for the center told The Christian News that just
as Dr. Jonas Salk, the discoverer of polio vaccine, would never debate with a witch
doctor, so the reputable historians and scholars at the Simon Wiesenthal Center would
never debate with anyone who questions that the Germans gassed some six million Jews.
According to the center, the gassing of the six milion Jews is so certain as to be beyond
debate.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centers' chief response was to tell a newspaper in the New Haven area
that The Christian News was publishing material from a neo-Nazi group when it published a
challenge to debate the Holocaust from "The Committee For Open Debate on the
Holocaust."
Dr. Harry James Cargas of Webster University in St. Louis lectures widely on the Holocaust
and is known as a fearless defender of the thesis that the Germans exterminated some six
million Jews. Dr. Cargas wrote in the June 26, 1987 St. Louis Dispatch:
Adolph [sic] Hitler tried to implement the goal of eliminating all of the world's Jews. He
died on the tax rolls of the Catholic Church, never having been excommunicated ��
The silence of Pope Pius XII regarding the murder of Jews is a scandal.
The Christian News wrote to Cargas:
We have been informed that you are one of the leading Holocaust scholars in the nation and
that you have written several books on the subject The Christian News has just received
the enclosed manuscript from the "Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust"
and has been asked to publish it (CNE, 2018)
However, we would like to give you or some other Holocaust scholar you know an opportunity
to respond. Would it be possible for you to send us a response by September 10 for our
September 14 issue? Possibly you already have an essay which answers those who question
whether the Germans actually gassed some six million Jews during WW II ��
Are you willing to debate the Holocaust in a forum with someone from the "Committee
for Open Debate on the Holocaust"? The Christian News would like to print the
transcript of such a debate, particularly at the present time when the Holocaust and the
Demjanjuk trial are so much in the news.
Dr. Cargas refused to send us an essay responding to the article we sent him from the
Committee for an Open Debate of the Holocaust He wrote: "I am not stupid - which I
would be if I engaged in any discussion of the validity of the Holocaust" [42]
Peglau Answers the Challenge
"Peglau Takes Up Gauntlet Against Revisionism - �DEBATE OF THE CENTURY'
IS ON!" A news release from the self- styled Exterminators of Revisionism, which
appeared in the March 7, 1988 Christian News, said in part:
Defense attorney Glen Louis Peglau has informed The Christian News that he and a team of
lawyers, theologians and congressmen are challenging the leadership of the Revisionist
movement, who say the Holocaust never happended, to an open debate in Washington, D.C. in
mid-February, 1989. It is already being billed as the Debate of the Centuryn by
pro-Holocaust supporters. Peglau and his team will take the position that over 6,000,000
Jews were murdered by the Nazis during the reign of the "3rd Reich" in the
1930's and 1/2 of the 1940's.
It is high time we prove beyond a reasonable doubt before the whole world, in open debate
before the global media, that the Holocaust was a real part of history. This must be done
now to stop the ridiculous contentions of the Revisionists that the Holocaust is only a
figment of the Zionists� imagination. Their antisemitic and neo-Nazi
propaganda must be stopped in this generation.
"It was because The Christian News began a focus on the issue of the Revisionist
claims that we decided to silence their ridiculous claims for all history. To say the
Holocaust never existed is like saying World War II never happened. This whole Revisionist
position is motivated by a pro-Nazi, anti- Semitic mentality that can no longer be
tolerated in the world. The distorting of history is an affront to the whole human race.
Even though Stalin murdered more human beings than Hitler did it was Hitler's intent to
stamp out a whole race of people in one generation ��
"Two months ago the editor of The Christian News and I interviewed for television a
fine West German pastor who confessed that the Nazis had killed over 6,000,000 Jews in
concentration camps
"It is also doubtful in my mind whether the Revisionists can get one responsible
theologian on their side. I assure you we will have at least four of the most responsible,
conservative, Bible-believing theologians on our side. These men are godly men who are
above reproach. One of them may not only be a theologian, but an attorney as well, Peglau
explained ��
"History will always owe a debt to the editor of The Christian News for his bringing
the issue of the Holocaust, and the Revisionist position, to the attention of the world,
and specifically to the attention of Bible-believing Christians who haven't fallen for the
nonsense Revisionists have promulgated. [43]
This news release from the self-proclaimed Exterminators of Revisionism in the April 4,
1988 Christian News reported, in part:
Attorney Glen L. Peglau announced that America�s best- selling Christian
author, Hal Lindsey, has agreed to be one of the debaters in the "Debate of the
Century" in Washington, D.C. in mid-February, 1989, on the side of those that support
the fact that over 6,000,000 Jews were slaughtered by the Third Reich" in the reign
of Adolf Hitler ��
Dr. Lindsey is the most widely read Christian author in all of history ��
The Revisionists only want three or four debaters on each side of the debate. Peglau has
asked for 15 debaters to be on each side of the Holocaust issue. Attorney Peglau believes
that Revisionists cannot get 15 scholarly debaters for their position in the debate ��
Peglau is indeed on a course to get the greatest Christian scholars in the West to take up
the cause of the Holocaust for "The Debate of the Century." It looks like Peglau
is putting together the best in Christendom. [44]
"�Debate of the Century� Peglau Selects Anderson As Final
Debater," a press release from the Committee to Exterminate Revisionism in the
October 30, 1988 Christian News noted:
Defense Attorney Glen Peglau has finalized his debating team with the addition of the
renowned Palm Springs, California attorney Thomas A. Anderson.
According to Peglau:
Attorney Anderson is a Christian lawyer who has served as the president of the California
Trial Lawyers Association.
Anderson is a brilliant lawyer who, Peglau states, is one of the three ranking top lawyers
in California, along with Melvin Belli and Marvin Michelson. Anderson is considered one of
the leading debaters in modern history. Anderson is a close personal friend of Christian
apologist Josh McDowell. Anderson is a lawyer's lawyer who anybody is afraid to take on in
a court room. We�ve two of the great lawyers in modern history with Anderson
and Montgomery on our team. Hal Lindsey�s track record of over 50,000,000 of
his books being sold speaks for itself.
Honestly Seeking the Truth
The Christian News has attempted to be fair to both sides in this debate by printing their
news releases exactly as they send them to us. We commented in the March 21, 1988
Christian News in an editorial.on the debate:
The Christian News commends both the "Exterminators of Revisionism" and the
Revisionists for agreeing to debate. It is true that The Christian News has had much more
contact with members of The Committee for Extermination of Revisionism and with others who
believe the Germans gassed some six million Jews during World War II. Several of them have
for years contributed many articles to The Christian News. On the other hand, we have not
met any of the leading Revisionists and really only know some of them through their
writings.. Years ago we met the top executive of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith and we have spoken on the phone with a spokesman for the Simon Wiesenthal Center
and with Mr. Mark Weber of the Committee for the Open Debate of the Holocaust. We have
confidence in the integrity and honesty of the debaters Attorney Peglau has said will
defend the position that the Germans gassed some six million Jews during World War II. We
are in accord with the theological position of most of them. While we certainly take issue
with the theology of some of the Revisionists who have sent us material for publication,
we have no reason to question their honesty. Some Revisionists are atheists, others accept
the anti-scriptural and unscientific myth of evolution and, as Peglau has correctly
observed, do not believe the Bible. A good number of Revisionists appear to be taking a
rather cynical attitude toward Christian theologians who insist that the evidence clearly
indicates that the Germans Gassed six million Jews during World War II. They question the
ability of these theologians to think clearly and properly evaluate evidence ��
We hope that both sides in this debate will keep it on a calm, low key level, where
neither side resorts to emotionalism to win but where both sides carefully look at the
evidence. Logic and clear facts and not feelings should govern the conduct of both sides.
Honest men are persuaded by facts not by some docudramas they see on television.
Now is a good time to carefully examine the evidence for the gassing of some six million
Jews. Enough years have passed to minimize the emotionalism which prevails after every war
and yet we are still close enough to WW II to establish what eally happened. This is not
some minor peripheral issue. The support Israel receives is based to a large extent upon
the reality of the Holocaust. The leadership of major denominations in our nation urge
thousands of congregations to conduct worship services which call to remembrance the
gassing of six million Jews by the Germans. The Holocaust is being used as one reason
various Germans, Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans should be sent back to Communist
nations.
Perhaps it would be well if both sides in the debate submit to the other side several
months before the debate any documents they intend to introduce. This way all will have
the opportunity to check the authenticity of the document. Such a policy could also save
considerable time. While this may not be the practice followed in many debates, we
consider the "Debate of the Century" to be different than many debates. Both
sides should only be interested in the truth and not in winning some debate. Both sides
should follow The Christian News long-stnnding motto: "Put all the facts on the table
and let the chips fall where they may."
After the debate is over, we hope that one side or the other will have the courage to say
to the other "Thanks. We appreciate that you have shown us the truth. We regret that
we have been so sadly misled all these years and we will do our best to see that from now
on only the truth is told about the Holocaust." [45]
A Thwarted Proposal for Debate
February 15, 1989
Mr. Glen Peglau, Chairman
Committee For the Extermination of Revisionism
67660 Quijo
Palm Springs, California 92264
Mr. Mark Weber and Mr. Bradley Smith
Committee For Open Debate On the Holocaust
Box 931098 Los Angeles, CA 90093
Dear Gentlemen:
Mr. Glen Peglau has just informed us that there may not be a debate on the Holocaust in
February 21 in Torrance. According to Mr. Peglau, a team of three members of the Police
Intelligence Division visited Pastor Wilbur Wacker and Hal Lindsey and
"inferred" a "bomb threat." Mr. Peglau said that this was the first
time such a police committee ever visited Hal Lindsey and because of the
"inferred" bomb threat Lindsey has "been through hell and back."
Mr. Peglau said he was extremely embarrassed for putting Pastor Wilbur Wacker into so much
difficulty and danger. Mr. Peglau expects a riot in front of Pastor Wacker's church if the
debate is held as planned. He also noted that the other members of his team will be in
court the day of the debate. While Mr. Peglau said he had no evidence as to who was
"inferring" the alleged "bomb threat," he repeatedly emphasized that
it was not the Jewish Defense League or "the Jews." While he said some
"leading Jews" asked him not to go ahead with the debate, he said there was a
"small minority" of Jews who thought it would be in order for him to go ahead
with the debate.
Mr. Peglau said that in no way should the refusal of his committee to appear at the debate
on February 21 be interpreted as a refusal to debate the Holocaust. He told us that he was
now proposing a September 23 date for the debate at a secluded place in Palm Springs where
there would be no danger of any riot or of bomb threats. He said that Dr. John Montgomery
and Hal Lindsey are still thoroughly convinced of thir position that the Germans
exterminated some six million Jews and are eager to face the Revisionists and answer their
arguments. Mr. Peglau noted that perhaps Bible scholar and "genius" Walter
Martin will take Attorney Anderson's place in the debate.
Since I was not entirely certain what was going to happen, I made the following proposal
to Mr. Peglau. Without mentioning the dates:
Christian News in its issue of April 3, 1989 will publish a 5,000 word (approximately)
statement from each of the four debaters of both sides. Each side will then have about
20,000 words.
The May Christian News will publish a response of approximately 10,000 words from each
team to the other side. The space can be divided up in whichever way a team may decide.
The June 5 Christian News will then publish a rebuttal to the response of each team from
the opposing team. This statement should be no longer than 5,000 words.
Christian News should have the copy six days before the publication date.
Such an approach will give each side time to contact experts for resource information to
refute the other side. The Exterminationists, for example, could consult the Simon
Wiesenthal Center, such authorties as Raul Hilberg, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum or any
other place which claims to have material to refute the Revisionists.
Mr. Peglau agreed to this proposal of a written "debate" whether or not you
gentlemen are ever able to get together for a debate face to face.
It appears to me that a bomb threat should not prevent a debate, but Mr. Peglau said it
was a life threatening matter and that he had a family to care for.
I will leave it up to you gentlemen to contact the various members of your team with this
proposal. If the time schedule is not acceptable or if you have some suggestions to
improve the format, please let us know. I would also appreciate it if the Revisionists
would let us know if they, along with Mr. Peglau and the Exterminationists, will
participate in the written debate we are now proposing.
Sincerely yours,
Herman Otten
P.S. If one side in this "debate" sends us its statements and the other does
not, we will still publish the statements we receive.
[The "Exterminationors of Revisionism" did not show up for the debate. Dr.
Faurisson, Dr. Countess, Mark Weber and Bradley Smith presented the Revisionist case to
four empty chairs, an audience of over one hundred people, and Los Angeles press on
February 21 at the Quality Inn in Torrance, California. - Ed.]
Revisionists and Exterminationists
The Christian News has probably published more material and reports from those who are
convinced the Germans exterminated some six million Jews than any other religious
newspaper. The Christian News has repeatedly invited those who are convinced that this
Holocaust is a fact to send us their evidence. We have published what they have sent. Last
year, when we were in Israel as a guest of Israel, we visited Yad Vashem and saw the
"evidence" there for the Holocaust. Throughout our school years and entire
ministry most of our teachers and associates have accepted the Holocaust as fact As far as
I know this is probably the first time I have spoken to a group where the majority
probably does not believe the Germans gassed some six million Jews.
While Revisionists have responded to the writings and evidence of the Exterminationists
have presented, the Exterminationists seldom respond to the writings of the Revisionists.
An Exterminationist like Dr. John Warwick Montgomery considers them rather unscholarly and
like the works of the "flat earth" society people, even though when he made this
analysis he had not yet read the scholarly writings of such leading Revisionists as Arthur
Butz, Wilhelm Staglich, Robert Faurisson, Mark Weber, Charles Weber, Paul Rassinier, Harry
Elmer Barnes, Clarence Lang, Ernst Zundel, Austin App, et al. Dr. Montgomery is not alone,
among those who believe the Germans exterminated six million Jews, in having read very
little of what the Revisionists have widen.
The real Revisionist scholars, on the other hand, show in their writings that they are
thoroughly familiar with the works of the Exterminationists.
I have repeatedly asked theologians and pastors who say they are convinced that the
Germans gassed six million Jews, if they have read any of the writings of the
Revisionists. Most admit they have not. Even a good number of our conservative friends who
subscribe to The Christian News and who believe in the Holocaust say they don't have time
to read the articles by Revisionists in The Christian News. They claim they already know
the truth about the Holocaust, so "why waste time" reading about it.
They tell us that they have seen enough TV programs on the subject to know that the
Germans exterminated six million Jews. Forty years ago, when we tried to tell our
professors and some clergymen the truth about Pearl Harbor, WW II, and forced repatriation
of thousands back to the Communists, we found out how uninformed intelligent professors
and pastors could be. Thirty-five years ago we discovered how uninformed church officials
could be about what was being taught at seminaries and colleges they promoted. As the
years went by we discovered how modern man, with all his scientific research and great
learning, could still fall for the hoaxes we have mentioned in this essay, one of which is
clearly what is now referred to as the Holocaust.
While most Revisionists appear to be opposed to the construction of the Holocaust Museum
in Washington, D.C., right next to some of our nations's most cherished monuments, I say
let it be built! One day it will serve as a monument to the stupidity of modern man, who
can still accept a hoax as a fact. Hopefully it will then serve as a reminder to study all
the facts and evidence and repudiate all hoaxes.
The day is surely coming when all the evidence showing that the Germans never exterminated
six million Jews can no longer be suppressed. Truth is not determined by majority vote. I
learned this lesson in high school, and since then have repeatedly discovered how the
majority of scholars, even within our churches, can be in error. That our presidents,
senators and congressmen all are supposed to be convinced that the Germans killed six
million Jews, that almost all of our nation's professors and churchmen are said to
maintain that the Holocaust is a fact, doesn't make it a fact.
There is no dispute over the fact that large numbers of Jews were deported to
concentration camps and ghettos, or that many Jews died or were killed during World War
II. Revisionist scholars have presented evidence, which Exterminationists have not been
able to refute, showing that there was no German program to exterminate Europe�s
Jews and that the estimate of six million Jewish wartime dead is an irresponsible
exaggeration. (CNE, 2918).
The Holocaust, the alleged extermination of some six million Jews (most of them by
gassing) is a hoax and should be recognized as such by Christians and all informed, honest
and truthful men everywhere.
Here are the reasons which have impressed me as particularly persuasive in comming to my
own conclusion that the Revisionist view of the Holocaust story is the correct one:
�� There is no convincing or substantial evidence for the allegation of mass
killings in gas chambers in the wartime German camps. Careful investigation - in
particular that carried out by American engineer Fred Leuchter - has thoroughly
discredited the "gas chamber" extermination claims.
�� A number of former camp inmates - including some who were interned in the
notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau camp - have declared that the wartime German camps were not
extermination centers.
�� The most reliable statistics available cannot be reconciled with the legendary
"six million" figure. The best evidence indicates that no more than a million or
perhaps a million and a half European Jews perished from all causes during the war years.
�� Neither the major Jewish organizations in the United States, nor the wartime
Allied governments, nor the International Red Cross, nor the Vatican acted as if they
seriously believed the wartime extermination propaganda.
�� Although the German government kept extensive and detailed records of its
wartime Jewish policy, not a single document has ever been found which substantiates or
even refers to an extermination program or policy. Instead, the voluminous German records
confiscated by the Allies at the end of the war clearly show that the German "final
solution" program was one of emigration and deportation, not extermination.
�� Even prominent Jewish "Exterminationist" historians now acknowledge
that the stories of gassings, and extermination in camps in Germany proper are not true,
in spite of the fact that such claims were once seriously made, particularly at the great
Nuremberg trial of 1945-1946.
�� The Holocaust story now centers on just six former camps in what is now
Communist-ruled Poland, and the so- called "evidence" presented to prove mass
exterminations in these camps is qualitatively no better than the now discredited
"evidence" once cited for the exterminations in the camps in Germany proper.
�� Much of the so-called "evidence" presented by the
"Exterminationists" over the years has already been thoroughly discredited. For
example, the well-known horrific photographs of piles of corpses taken in camps in western
Germany at the end of the war are now acknowledged to be photos of victims of disease and
malnutrition who perished as indirect victims of the war in the final weeks and months of
the conflict Also, so-called "confessions" - such as those of Auschwitz
commandant Rudolf Hoss - have been shown to be untruthful and extracted by torture. Many
of the official reports and testimonies presented as "evidence" by the
prosecution in the Nuremberg trials has since been shown to be lies.
�� The fact that so many Jews "survived" German rule during the war -
many of them even in so-called "extermination" centers such as
Auschwitz-Birkenau - is enough to show that there was no German program or policy to
exterminate the Jews of Europe.
Christians and the Holocaust Hoax
The Holocaust is a hoax and the time has come for Christian scholars and pastors to
recognize this and stop perpetrating a hoax as the truth. A Christian is not free to
believe and promote a lie about any person or nations, as we said in our introduction.
True Christian scholars should at least read what the Revisionists are saying.
Many have said to us: "What difference does it make? The truth of the Holocaust is of
no concern to Christians." Nonsense! A Christian is not free to believe and promote a
lie about any person or nation. A Christian is guided by truth and facts, not emotions and
majority opinion.
If Christians can accept as historical fact the Holocaust, despite all the powerful
evidence that it is a hoax, what does that say about their ability to evaluate evidence?
What about their scholarship? Is it any wonder that some Revisionists, who have made a
careful study of the Holocaust, question the scholarship of Christians, so many of whom
swallow as absolute truth what is clearly a hoax?
I have been told numerous times, even by theologians who claim to be orthodox: "I
don't care whether it was six million or one Jew, even one is too many." Such an
attitude shows contempt for the truth. A Christian is to show true love and the Apostle
Paul tells us that love is "happy with the truth (1 Cor. 13:6). The writing of
Proverbs tells us: "Speak out for those who can't speak, for the rights of those who
are doomed. Talk up, render fair decisions, and defend the rights of the poor and needy
peoples (Proverbs 31:9).
A Christian bases his faith upon facts and absolute truth, not feelings and emotion. A
Christian recognizes that only God is all-knowing. A Christian is willing to listen to
evidence and evaluate various viewpoints. He doesn't close his mind to the facts and
evidence. He doesn't start out with the assumption that the Jew is right and the German is
wrong or that the Jew is wrong and the German is right. He looks at the evidence. Those
who say they don't care if it was six million or one are showing a despicable attitude
toward truth. They are saying: "We don't care about the truth." Such an attitude
is sinful and worldly. Is it any wonder that so many then go on to act as if they don't
care about another man's wife or his property? The truth as to the Holocaust is a moral
issue. Those who maintain the Germans exterminated some six million Jews, most of them by
gassing, are seeing to it that the Christian Church can no longer avoid speaking out.
Churches are being pushed, as never before, to have special services commemorating the
Holocaust.
A Christian is ready to change his opinion if the evidence shows he is wrong. This essay
demonstrates how often we have afforded the "Exterminationists" opportunity to
refute the Revisionists.
Some tell us that we are not showing love to the Jews and are being racists and
anti-Semitic when we published articles by Revisionists questioning the Holocaust and when
we insist that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven.
We have repeatedly emphasized in many editorials that the Bible teaches that there is no
special chosen race. All those, regardless of color, race, nationality, sex, wealth, etc.,
who trust in the merits of Jesus Christ alone for their salvation are God's chosen people
and will go to heaven. Those who tell Jews, Muslims, and any other non-Christian that they
worship the true God and can get to heaven without Christ are not showing true love to the
Jews and other non-Christians.
The so-called fact of the Holocaust is being used to deport innocent men in this country
who served in the German army as teenagers. In some cases they have been sent back to
certain death in Communist lands. The Office of Special Investigation is using the
Holocaust as an excuse to force even such reputable German and anti-Communist scientists
as Arthur Rudolph out of the U.S.
Israel is using the "fact" of the Holocaust as an excuse to execute such
innocent men as the Ukrainian, John Demjanjuk. "The Jewish people have a long score
to settle with the Ukrainian people" says Dov Ben-Meir, a deputy speaker of Israel's
Knesset. According to this top Israeli official, "Unaccounted numbers" of
Ukrainians "collaborated with the Nazi regime, especially in the annihilation of
hundreds of thousands of Jews." (CNE 2504)
The "fact" of the Holocaust is being used by some to deny that Christianity is
the only true religion and that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
Israel is using the "fact" of the Holocaust as an excuse to kill Palestinians in
Israel. This slaughter, together with the anti- scriptural notions of the Israel-first
Millennialists, almost all of whom believe in the Holocaust, could lead to another bloody
war.
The Holocaust is not some innocent hoax, like children's fairy tales, which entertain and
have no evil consequences.
The "chosen people" and "Holocaust" myths makes mission work among
non-Christians far more difficult. Arabs, who are told that the Bible teaches that their
land belongs to the Jews, find it more difficult to believe what the Bible says about
Christ
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God!
We have been warned, even by some theologians who recognized that the Holocaust is a hoax,
to remain silent because of the danger involved. Some have told us to take out more
insurance. God is still in control of this world, not some vast conspiracy, whether the
Communists, Jews, international bankers, Illuminati, Trilateralists, etc.
For over 25 years The Christian News has been exposing a good number of hoaxes, even those
held by many church members. Some have asked: Do you believe there is any absolute truth?
Is there anything, in your estimation, that is not a hoax? You publish all sorts of
opinions. Just where do you stand? Each week we state in our masthead: Christian News is
not a doctrinally neutral observer, but it is committed to the full historic Christian
faith, as it is authoritatively revealed in the written Word of God, the Holy Scriptures,
and correctly set forth in the confessions of the orthodox Church, to wit, the Book of
Concord of 1580."
I commend to all Revisionists and everyone else nothing more nor less than historic
Christianity. God by "raising Christ from the dead has given everyone a good reason
to believe" (Acts 17:31).
In spite of the many attempts to falsify history, the Christian church has always
struggled for the truth. This was true for the first Christians. It was also the basic
issue of the Reformation. One of the gratest confessors of the faith in this century, Dr.
Herman Sasse, who was also avidly anti-Nazi, points out in his book Here We Stand that the
Reformation emphasized the profound seriousness of the truth."
So, as an Evangelical Lutheran pastor, in the tradition of the early church and the
Reformation, I stand before you today again to make a strong appeal in the struggle for
the truth.
The subject of the Holocaust is not my primary concern in life. It is not my main message.
As stated in the masthead the paper we founded and have served as editor for the past 26
years, we preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Nevertheless, Christians must not only
strive to proclaim the saving Truth of the Gospel. We are obligated by this same Gospel to
tell the truth in all areas of life, including events of political economics, war, and
Church and secular government
"These are the things which you should do: speak the truth to one another; judge with
truth and judgement for peace in your gates." Zechariah 8:16
Notes
1. 2 Peter 1:16-21. All Bible quotations taken from An American Translation of the Bible
by Dr. William Beck. Published by Leader Press and The Christian News, Box 168, New Haven,
Missouri 63068, 1976.
2. John 21:24.
3. John 1:2.
4. 1 John 5:20, 21.
5. Luke 1:14.
6. John 14:6.
7. John 8:31, 32.
8. John 4:18.
9. Mark 5:33.
10. Ludwig A. Fritsch, The Crime of Our Age (Chicago: Published by the author, 5121 N.
England Ave., Chicago 31, Ill 1947, pp. 74-75.
11. Kurt Marquart, "The Fate of Christians Under Communism," in A Christian
Handbook on Vital Issues (New Haven, Missouri: Leader Press, 1973), p. 189.
12. The Christian News Encydopedia (hereafter CNE), Washington, MO: The Missourian
Publisheres, 1988, pp. 2499-2520; 1077-1104; 1060-1074:2405-2469.
13. "Was Moses The First Nazi?" Christian Vanguard, New Christian Church,
December, 1988, 7.8. Sons of Liberty, Box 214, Metarie, Louisiana. Adolph Hitler in his
Mein Kampf regards "racial pollution as the original sin of humanity." (Boston
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1971), p.624.
14. Galatians 3:8,9.
15. 1 Peter 2:8,9.
16. Acts 10:35. See "Down With All Racism" by Jim Keegstra, CNE 2465. "Who
Are the Chosen People? Rightly Dividing The World of Truth" by Jim Keegstra, CNE
2981.
17. CNE 2517.
18. CNE 2708,9.
19. CNE 2688-2709; 2888-2895; 1306-1319.
20. Augusburg Confession, Article XVII. Concordia Triglotta (St. Louis: Concordia
Publishing House), 51.
21. CNE Appendix, volume II.
22. CNE 3102-3129.
23. CNE 2310-3129.
24. CNE 1920.
25. CNE 1948.
26. December 12,1988 Christian News. CNE 1943.
27. CNE 1943.
28. Index of CNE, under charismatic and also individual names.
29. Romans 1:16.1 Thess. 2:13.
30. Christian News, November 14,1988, p.9.
31. See CNE index, under "Holocaust."
32. CNE 1090.
33. CNE 2909-2929; 2302-3603.
34. CNE 2925.
35. CNE 2925.
36. CNE 2321.
37. CNE 1099.
38. CNE 2321-2329.
39. CNE 2336.
40. CNE 2337.
41. CNE 2339.
42. CNE 2348.
43. CNE 2356.
44. CNE 2357.
45. Christian News, March 21,1989.
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Source: Reprinted from The Journal of Historical Review, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 321-360.
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