HITLER VS ME
Does God love me more than Adolph Hitler? Does God love me more than your average member of ISIS? More than an abortionist? Is the message of the Old Testament that He loved Israel more than Moab (or other nations)? Before you answer, let me offer some ideas on the subject.
Who doesn’t want to be “Daddy’s favorite” child? My mother often told about how I’d sit on my Dad’s lap and eat exotic cheeses that he liked (and I did not) just to try to become his favorite among his children. Some human parents do, in fact, show favoritism among their children and it often causes a lot of trouble in the family.
Is that the case with Abba, our Father God? Does He lavish special things on His “pet” child or children? Is that the lesson we are to learn from Old Testament Israel and the New Testament Church today – that we are God’s favorites – that He loves only a certain few groups among those He created in His image? Is He really willing to spend eternity with only the lucky few who’ve been taught about Him in the last approximately 6,000 years, while watching the rest fry in eternal torment? If that were true and He was a human parent instead of a divine Father, wouldn’t you think He was the worst parent ever?
Praise God, that the Last Great Day tells an entirely different story about God’s plans for all His children. Let me cut to the chase: God has a plan and a processes for calling and working with all His children – all who now live, all who ever lived (Hitler included), and all who will be born in years to come.
2 Peter 3:9 [KJV] 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Since that is His will, doesn’t it stand to reason that He would have a plan to bring it about?
God promised Israel that they would be His chosen people IF they obeyed. See Deuteronomy 7 for an example where He outlines in detail the blessings of obedience and the punishments for them if they disobeyed. You only have to read verse 12 to get the gist. Deut. 7:12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers.”
That is the big “if” that we all labor under today. It is my willingness to accept Jesus as my Savior, to live as He tells me to live, that makes me special in this world, in this age or era, and results in blessings in the here and now and hope for tomorrow. He worked with the nation of Israel (a physical nation) in the past and He works with His spiritual nation today. (Compare Exodus 19:6 and 1 Peter 2:9.)
The Last Great Day tells us the final step in His plan to bring about the opportunity of salvation to everyone who ever lived. Those of us who understand the meaning of this day and the details of God’s loving plan do not have to worry about our “unsaved” loved ones burning in hell fire in extreme torment (now or in the future) because they did not accept Jesus in this life. We don’t have to struggle with the idea that a loving God is willing to roast someone for eternity just because they lived in a remote area of China in 1600 AD and never heard of Jesus.
We know that this is not His plan - that the time of their calling is yet in the future, if not in this life then at the time pictured in the Last Great Day.
Just as I had to work differently with each of my three children because they have different personalities, have different strengths and weaknesses, and respond to different methods of instruction and correction; just as my children are blessed with different talents, chose different careers and took different routes toward their careers; Father God did, does and will work differently, individually and uniquely with each of His children in the timing that is best for each one.
This is the message of the Last Great Day that we celebrate at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles – that He has worked out a plan and the perfectly suited timing for the calling of and working with each and every child because He loves us all equally.
I submit to you that God does not love me more than Hitler. The same goes for any comparison between those in ISIS and me, an atheist and me, an abortionist and me, etc. It is not because God loves me more that I am had my eyes opened in this age. It is because the timing was right for me.
God is not calling everyone now. Therefore, not all can come to Him. However, the message of the Last Great Day is that the time will come when all who ever lived will be called and able to understand God’s law of love and plan of salvation. John 7:37 [KJV] 37In the last day, that great [day] of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Someone will have to explain all this to Hitler when he is resurrected at the time pictured by the Last Great Day. Hopefully, God’s amazing grace and great love for all mankind will humble Hitler and cause him to repent and accept not just the blood of Christ but also the fact that God loves all people, including all of the people that Hitler hated and sought to destroy in his own lifetime.
I cannot wait for the time when there will be no more sorrow, nor crying, when the former things will pass away and all things will be made new. (See Rev 21:4.)
See what great love God has for all His children!
I’d love to hear your thoughts too. You can write me at Nancy@DynamicChristianMinistries.org