By Theodore Shoebat
Christian pastor, John Piper, said that he would not have killed Hitler because the Bible says to love your neighbor. I did an entire video on this:
Killing Hitler would not have been murder, and it would not be going against loving your neighbor, but instead, it would be a great illustration of loving your neighbor. To kill Hitler would have been to prevent the slaughter of your neighbor.
Moreover, it would not be evil or seditious to have killed Hitler. In the words of St. Thomas Aquinas:
Tyrannical is not just, because it is not directed to the common good but to the private good of the ruler, as the Philosopher shows at Politics III and Ethics VIII. Disruption of such a government therefore does not have the character of sedition, unless perhaps the tyrant’s rule is disrupted so inordinately that the community subject to it suffers greater detriment from the ensuing disorder than it did from the tyrannical government itself. Indeed it is the tyrant who is guilty of sedition, since he nourishes discord and sedition among his subjects in order to be able to dominate them more securely. For this is tyranny: a form of government directed to the private good of the ruler and the injury of the community. (Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, IIaIIae 42: On sedition, ad 3, trans. R.W. Dyson)
Now we must remember that there are actually assassinations against tyrants and evil people done in the Bible, and they are not condemned.
Israel was being tyrannized under the despot Eglon, the king of Moab:
And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord. Then he gathered to himself the people of Ammon and Amalek, went and defeated Israel, and took possession of the City of Palms. So the children of Israel served Eglon king of Moab eighteen years. (Judges 3:12-14)
The Hebrew Ehud, rises up and assassinates the tyrant:
So Ehud came to him (now he was sitting upstairs in his cool private chamber). Then Ehud said, “I have a message from God for you.” So he arose from his seat. Then Ehud reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly. Even the hilt went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, for he did not draw the dagger out of his belly; and his entrails came out. Then Ehud went out through the porch and shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.
When he had gone out, Eglon’s servants came to look, and to their surprise, the doors of the upper room were locked. So they said, “He is probably attending to his needs in the cool chamber.” So they waited till they were embarrassed, and still he had not opened the doors of the upper room. Therefore they took the key and opened them. And there was their master, fallen dead on the floor. (Juges 3:20-25)
Lets look at another story. Moses was living in Egypt when it was being ruled by a tyrant (like Hitler), and there was an Egyptian brutally beating a Hebrew. Did Moses sit there say, “I am going to love the Egyptian”? No, he killed the Egyptian:
Now it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens. And he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. (Exodus 12:11-12)
When St. Stephen spoke of Moses’ killing of the Egyptian, did he say, “I am going to be slow to condemn Moses. I would not have killed the Egyptian because the Bible says thou shalt not kill”? No, St. Stephen honored Moses’ killing of the Egyptian:
And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. 25 For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand. (Acts 7:24-25)
How about another story of righteous men fighting defying tyranny and killing tyrants. Antiochus Epiphanies, a tyrant (like Hitler), was slaughtering the Hebrews in Israel, and when one of his generals tried to compel Mathathias, the father of Judas Maccabees, to sacrifice to false gods, did he sit there and say, “Well, the law says thou shalt not kill, so I won’t do anything”? No! He unsheathed his sword and killed not only the general, but the Jews who sacrificed:
And they that were sent from king Antiochus came thither, to compel them that were fled into the city of Modin, to sacrifice, and to burn incense, and to depart from the law of God.
And many of the people of Israel consented, and came to them: but Mathathias and his sons stood firm.
And they that were sent from Antiochus, answering, said to Mathathias: Thou art a ruler, and an honourable, and great man in this city, and adorned with sons, and brethren.
Therefore come thou first, and obey the king’s commandment, as all nations have done, and the men of Juda, and they that remain in Jerusalem: and thou, and thy sons, shall be in the number of the king’s friends, and enriched with gold, and silver, and many presents.
Then Mathathias answered, and said with a loud voice: Although all nations obey king Antiochus, so as to depart every man from the service of the law of his fathers, and consent to his commandments:
I and my sons, and my brethren will obey the law of our fathers.
God be merciful unto us: it is not profitable for us to forsake the law, and the justices of God:
We will not hearken to the words of king Antiochus, neither will we sacrifice, and transgress the commandments of our law, to go another way.
Now as he left off speaking these words, there came a certain Jew in the sight of all to sacrifice to the idols upon the altar in the city of Modin, according to the king’s commandment.
And Mathathias saw and was grieved, and his reins trembled, and his wrath was kindled according to the judgment of the law, and running upon him he slew him upon the altar:
Moreover the man whom king Antiochus had sent, who compelled them to sacrifice, he slew at the same time, and pulled down the altar.
And shewed zeal for the law, as Phinees did by Zamri the son of Salomi. (1 Maccabees 2:15-26)
It is quite disturbing to see how Christian leaders will take biblical verses to justify and vindicate passive indifference towards evil, as opposed to supporting defiance toward demonic tyrannies.