IS HITLER IN HELL?

If the above question were asked, most people would respond, “Of course!” Then they would ask, “Why do you ask? Isn’t it obvious?” My reply would be, “No, it is not. Besides, how do you know Hitler is in hell, or for that matter, Joseph Stalin, Idi Amin and all others of their ilk: mass murders one and all? We only assume they are burning in hell or whatever punishment we deem appropriate for such sinners. But we certainly do not know and will not know until we are like them: dead and buried.

The issue at hand is God’s infinite love and forgiveness. For those who believe Jesus died on the cross for our sins, he thus died for the sins of Hitler and Stalin and the rest, including you and me. Yes, we want to object that we certainly are not as great a sinner as these men. The truth is that we certainly are not. But we are just like them in that we are indeed sinners; and if our sins are forgiven, then so are theirs. Thus, if heaven is open to us because of Jesus’ death on the cross, so it is for them.

That just doesn’t sit well, does it? No, it does not and it should not, but not for the reason we think it does not. It doesn’t sit well because it is so difficult to believe that mass murderers, for instance, who knew full well what they were doing and did it any way without any seeming compunction, should be given a free pass to heaven in spite of their horrendous sins.

The real reason it doesn’t sit well is that we believe no one should be given a free pass and that includes you and me. We should have to earn our way into heaven. And if we have not done anything to do so; and, even more, if we have done much to negate any good that we do, we do not deserve heaven when we die. We should get what is coming to us, what we have earned and what we deserve, like Hitler: hell.

The problem is that we can’t earn our way into heaven. We can never claim we deserve it either. The greatest saints would be appalled if anyone told them that they were a lock for heaven because of their saintliness. They would have quickly reminded the one praising them that they were no saint but rather a great sinner. And they would be right. They were sinners, even if not great sinners. Heaven would be theirs, they would say, only because of the grace and love and forgiveness of God and not because they had lived such a saintly life and thus deserved that eternal reward.

Nevertheless, none of us likes the thought of Hitler, for instance, being in heaven. It just grates at everything we consider right and just and even fair. And as much as we believe Hitler and some other rotten so-and-so we personally despise think even hell is too god for such as they, we waste our time and our energy mulling the issue. It’s none of our business and is out of our hands.

What is our business and what is in our hands is our own life. While there is nothing we can do to merit heaven when we die, getting to heaven or avoiding hell when we die should not be the reason why we do what we do. We do what is good and right and loving because that is what we are called to do and because that is what we want to do.