“Hitler was a Christian”, says every uneducated atheist troll with an axe to grind. While Atheists love to throw around the claim that the most notorious anti-semite in history actually worshipped a Jew as his God, the truth is, not only was Hitler very firmly opposed to Christianity, but he was almost as weak in his argumentation as modern atheists.
Take this quote, given in an interview specifically about his religious views in January 1940: “The Christian-Jewish pestilence is surely approaching its end now. It is simply dreadful, that a religion has even been possible, that literally eats its God in Holy Communion.”
Hitler called Judeo-Christianity a “pestilence”. He hated it, and after the war was over, he wanted to eradicate it. But note also his strange statement: “It is simply dreadful, that a religion has even been possible, that literally eats its God in Holy Communion.” I never thought I’d say these words, but in this case, I actually agree with Hitler. But of course, that’s not what Christianity teaches either. The only sacrifice Christ had to make was the cross. He was not sacrificed before the cross, nor would He ever need to be sacrificed again. Communion isn’t literally eating God. It’s symbolic. It is representative of what Jesus really did to save us.
So, not only did Hitler hate Christianity, he severely misunderstood one of its most basic traditions. If Hitler did not understand the most basic of Christian rituals, can one expect him to get everything else right? Even if Hitler repeatedly affirmed “I am a Christian, I'm a Christian, I promise you I'm a Christian”, his failure to understand the faith makes him unsuitable to represent it. Therefore, atheists pointing to Hitler and saying he proves Christianity is an evil religion is as fallacious as Christians pointing to Hitler and saying he proves atheism is evil.
Of course, that would be the case even if Hitler not only claimed to be Christian, but could also recite every page of the Bible from memory. Christianity has only one perfect example, and every other Christian, be they faithful, heretical, or fraudulent, is a sinner. Any attempt to judge Christianity by any human, with the sole exception of the Lord Jesus Christ, is folly. The clue is in the name, Christianity. Not Hitleranity. Not Briananity. Not even Paulanity, or Peteranity, or (insert any Apostle here)anity. No, it's Christianity, because it is Christ's religion. Whatever Christ says or does is a part of Christianity.
But what atheist will ever look at Christ and say "because of what Jesus did, Christianity is a violent religion"? Even the few who do make this argument use the silliest out-of-context verses to prove it. In truth, if you judge Christianity by Christ, you're judging it by a God who loves sinners so much that rather than punish them as they deserve, He instead chose to enter our world, live as one of us, and receive a capital punishment He did not deserve. Why? Because we're the ones who deserve it. Our sin, in the eyes of the Holy God, merits death, and yet He died instead, so that we may have eternal life. All He demands in return for this is faith. And atheists, your response to this is "but some guy who hated Christianity killed a bunch of Jews, therefore I'm not going to believe"? Foolishness. That is plain foolishness.