Citations

Chapter 10 - Authentic Christianity

[2450] According to the last book of the Bible, there will come a day when God will dwell with men and wipe away all tears, death, sorrow, and pain. This kingdom, however, will be populated by those who have already developed a sincere relationship with God. Revelation 21:1-4:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

[2451] Book: The Evidences of Christianity: Stated in a Popular and Practical Manner, In a Course of Lectures, Delivered in the Parish Church of St. Mary, Islington. By Daniel Wilson. Volume 1. Crocker and Brewster, 1833. Page 38.

[2452] Book: On the Seventh Day: Forty Scientists and Academics Explain Why They Believe in God. Edited by John F. Ashton. Master Books, 2002. Page 236.

NOTE: Andrew Ruys has a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering.

[2453] Article: "One-Quarter of Self-Described Born Again Adults Rely On Means Other Than Grace to Get to Heaven." Barna Group, November 29, 2005. http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/...

This article summarizes the results of a nationwide survey of 1002 adults performed in October 2005 and states: "Overall, 80% of adults in the U.S. call themselves 'Christian.' In comparison, the phrase 'a committed Christian' is embraced by two out of every three adults (68%)."

[2454] Article: "Most Adults Feel Accepted by God, But Lack a Biblical Worldview." Barna Group, August 9, 2005. http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/...

This article summarizes the results of a nationwide survey of 1002 adults performed in July 2005 and states: "Overall, then, just one out of every six adults (16%) claim they make their moral choices based on the content of the Bible."

[2455] Matthew 7:21-23 (New International Version)

[2456] Speech: "Religious Extremism and Ethnic Rivalries." By Taslima Nasrin. Humanist in Canada, Summer 1988. http://humanists.net/

I am an atheist. …

… Can one really forget all those wars and strife and plundering in the name of religion in Asia, Africa or Latin America? It is a fact that a pope tore up the map of the world into pieces and gave a part to each different imperialist group as a licence to colonize and proselytize the new world. Even Europe was not spared from religious strife. Islam was also spread in different parts of the world by fire and sword. To me the dark side of religion was always prominent. …

… So one day I had to take up my pen and start writing against the various misdeeds in the name of religion, against all the injustice, unreason and prejudice sanctioned and promoted by religious institutions. I began to try to expose the crimes of religion, particularly the injustice and oppression against women. …

There are some other reasons why I am against religion. It does not often teach people to love one another. On the contrary, it often teaches them to hate people of a different faith.

[2457] Article: "German Martyrs." Time, December 23, 1940. http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,765103,00.html

Page 38: "So this second Christmas of Hitler's war finds Niemöller and upwards of 200,000 other Christians (some estimates run as high as 800,000) behind the barbed wire of the frozen Nazi concentration camps."

Page 39:

And one of Hitler's first acts as Chancellor was to declare: 'In the two Christian creeds lie the most important factors for the preservation of the German people.' Only in secret did he tell his confidant Hermann Rauschning: "The parsons will be made to dig their own graves. They will betray their God to us. They will betray anything for the sake of their miserable little jobs and incomes. … I can guarantee that they will replace the cross with our swastika." Hitler won his religious Munichs over Germany's 21,000,000 Catholics and 40,000,000 Protestants in the first six months of his power.

Page 40:

Hitler soon shelved him, presently gave his powers to Minister of Church Affairs Hanns Kerrl. Minister Kerrl's creed: "The primacy of the State over the Church must be recognized…. The question of the divinity of Christ is ridiculous and unessential. A new authority, Adolf Hitler, has arisen as to what Christ and Christianity really are."

[2458] Book: Hitler's Table Talk 1941-44. Translated by Norman Cameron and R. H. Stevens. Introduced by H.R. Trevor-Roper. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973. First published in 1953.

Page 59 (quoting Hitler on October 14, 1941): "So it's not opportune to hurl ourselves now into a struggle with the Churches. The best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death. A slow death has something comforting about it. The dogma of Christianity gets worn away before the advances of science. Religion will have to make more and more concessions. Gradually the myths crumble. All that's left is to prove that in nature there is no frontier between the organic and the inorganic."

Pages 6-7 (quoting Hitler on the night of July 11th/12th, 1941): "In the long run, National Socialism [Nazism] and religion will no longer be able to exist together. … The ideal solution would be to leave the religions to devour themselves… The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianity's illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew."

Pages 143-144 (quoting Hitler on December 13, 1941): "The man of the isles pays homage to the forces of nature. But Christianity is an invention of sick brains: one could imagine nothing more senseless, nor any more indecent way of turning the idea of the Godhead into a mockery."

NOTE: In these records, Hitler made more than 50 statements on religion and related topics. My assessment is that he was indisputably an adherent of naturalism. As shown by the note above and in the quotes below, Hitler's occasional public acceptance of Christianity was a political ploy.

Page 62 (quoting Hitler on October 14, 1941: "If at this moment we were to eliminate the religions by force, the people would immediately beseech us for a new from of worship. … As for men close to me, who like me, have escaped from the clutches of dogma, I've no reason to fear that the Church will get its hooks on them. We'll see to it that the Churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State. We shall continue to preach the doctrine of National Socialism, and the young will no longer be taught anything but the truth."

Page 625: (quoting Hitler on August 11th, 1942): "The great ambition of the parson clique is, and has always been, to undermine the power of the State. And for as long as we suffer these parsons in our midst, it serves us right! Every country gets the type of parson it deserves, at the moment I can do nothing about it, and so I continue to keep them happy. But one of these days I shall bring this conflict, as old as German history itself, to an abrupt and decisive conclusion. I'll make those dammed parsons feel the power of the State in a way they would have never dreamed possible!"

Page 555 (on July 4th, 1942): "The fact that I remain silent in public over Church affairs is not in the least misunderstood by the sly foxes of the Catholic Church, and I am quite sure that a man like Bishop von Galen knows full well that after the war I shall extract retribution to the last farthing."

NOTE: The "Book Description" at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-Table-Talk...) states these records are "indisputably authentic." This is substantiated by the following information in the introduction. Page xiv:

Hitler's own table-talk … as briefly recorded by Hermann Rauschning [Hitler Speaks, 1939], so startled the world (which could not even in 1939 credit him with either such ruthlessness or such ambitions) that it was for long regarded as spurious. … If any still doubt its genuineness, they will hardly do so after reading the volume now published. For here is the official, authentic record of Hitler's Table-Talk, almost exactly ten years after the conversations recorded by Rauschning.

Page xvii:

[Hitler] agreed that an official of the party be admitted to his meals, who might, in a retired corner, unobtrusively take a few notes…. [Martin] Bormann at once made the necessary arrangements. A Party official was appointed and, from 7th July 1941, was duly admitted to Hitler's presence at meal-times. His name was Heinrich Heim. … Heim continued to take these notes until 11th March 1942 … during these four months, another official, Dr. Henry Picker, deputized for him. … [A]s Hitler's secretary, [Bormann] was responsible for the preparation, the accuracy, and the preservation of the records. … [A]t the head of the 1,045 typed pages which they ultimately filled, and which Bormann kept in his personal custody, he wrote with his own hand the words, "Notes of fundamental interest for the future. To be preserved with the greatest care."

Pages vii-viii explain that Bormann preserved a full copy of these records, and Picker kept a copy of the notes that he personally transcribed. Except for some trivial differences, these records confirm one another.

[2459] Book: A Reader in Marxist Philosophy. Edited and Introduced by Howard Selsam & Harry Martel. International Publishers, 1963.

Pages 243-244 (quoting Lenin in 1909): "Marxism is materialism. As such, it is relentlessly hostile to religion… We must combat religion—that is the rudiment of all materialism, and consequently of Marxism."

Page 247 (quoting Lenin in 1905): "Our propaganda necessarily includes the propaganda of atheism…. We shall now, apparently have to follow the advice which Engels once gave to the German socialists, namely, to translate and widely disseminate the literature of the French enlighteners and atheists of the 18th century."

[2460] Book: Landmarks in the Life of Stalin. By E. Yaroslavsky. Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1940.

Pages 8-9:

At a very early age, while still a pupil in the ecclesiastical school, Comrade Stalin developed a critical mind and revolutionary sentiments. He began to read Darwin and became an atheist. G. Glurdjidze, a boyhood friend of Stalin's relates: "I began to speak of God. Joseph heard me out, and after a moment's silence said: 'You know, they are fooling us, there is no God….' I was astonished at these words. I had never heard anything like it before. 'How can you say such things, Soso?' I exclaimed. 'I'll lend you a book to read; it will show you that the world and all living things are quite different from what you imagine, and all this talk about God is sheer nonsense,' Joseph said. 'What book is that?' I inquired. 'Darwin. You must read it,' Joseph impressed on me."

Page 12:

Very interesting reminiscences of this period are given by Comrade G. Parkadze… "Comrade Stalin brought these books to our notice. The first thing we had to do, he would say, was to become atheists."

NOTE: This book was published in the Soviet Union at a time when Stalin ruled with an iron fist. Thus, this book undoubtedly met with Stalin's approval.

[2461] Book: The Political Thought of Mao Tse-tung. By Stuart R. Schram. Praeger, 1969. Page 138 (quoting Mao):

Obliged to submit to natural forces, and capable of using only simple tools, primitive man could not explain the surrounding phenomenon and hence sought help from the spirits. This is the origin of religion and idealism. … The history of science furnishes man with proof of the material nature of the world and of the fact that it is governed by laws and helps man to see the futility of the illusions of religion and idealism and to arrive at materialist conclusions.

Page 188 (quoting Mao):

Christianity says that God created the world, Buddhism and all of China's various fetishist religions attribute the movement and development of all the myriad phenomena (wan wu) of the universe to spiritual forces. All of these doctrines which think about movement apart from matter are fundamentally incompatible with dialectical materialism….

[2462] Lyrics from the song: "Wonderful World." By Same Cooke. Album: Wonderful World, 1959.

[2463] Article: "German Martyrs." Time, December 23, 1940. http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,765103,00.html

Page 38. 

[2464] Book: Albert Einstein: A Documentary Biography. By Carl Seelig. Translated by Mervyn Savill. Staples Press Limited, 1956.

Page 198: [As recounted by the theologian Adolf Keller who met with Einstein at Princeton during WWII, Einstein stated:]

I had always hoped that the German universities would have led the struggle for freedom. I was mistaken. But even if the universities failed, the churches, at least, struggled for this freedom, both the Catholic and the Protestant. This much, as a Jew, I must recognize, and this struggle must not be forgotten.

[2465] Book: Albert Einstein: A Documentary Biography. By Carl Seelig. Translated by Mervyn Savill. Staples Press Limited, 1956.

Page 38: "[T]he best tribute to the spirit of Germany's Christians comes from a Jew and agnostic (TIME, Sept. 23) – the world's most famous scientist, Albert Einstein."

[2466] Article: "Einstein, Albert." Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite 2004.

The section entitled "International acclaim" states: "International fame came to Einstein in November 1919. … In 1933, soon after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, Einstein renounced his German citizenship and left the country."

[2467] Matthew 6:1-4:

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

[2468] This citation and the one that follows detail just a few of numerous examples I have seen.

Article: "Inherit the Wind: A Hollywood History of the 1925 Scopes 'Monkey' Trial." By David N. Menton. Accessed October 9, 2009 at http://www.scopestrial.org/scopes.htm

The purpose of this study was to carefully compare the film Inherit the Wind (CBS Fox Video, copyright 1960) with the actual transcript of the Scopes trial as well as with various biographical and historical accounts of the trial and its participants. …

I believe that the following observations will show that there are profound discrepancies between the film and the relevant historical evidence. With the exception, perhaps, of the degree to which this is true, these differences were not unexpected. What is more significant, however, is that there is considerable evidence to suggest that the film is not simply inaccurate, in the way of "Hollywood history," but that it is actually perverse in its' intent. The historical inaccuracies appear to be systematic and of a kind that presents a consistent bias of slanderous proportions against a particular class of people and their beliefs. Specifically, people who believe in a literal interpretation of the miracles of the Bible, and especially the Biblical account of creation, are portrayed in an outrageously uncomplimentary way. On the other hand, those who are critical or virtually unbelieving, with regard to the miracles of the Bible, are portrayed as eminently reasonable men who must suffer the abuse, threats and ignorance of the Fundamentalist Christians around them.

[2469] Article: "A Modern-Day Stoning?!? Cold Case Smears Christian Kids." By Colleen Raezler. Culture and Media Institute, October 1, 2007. http://www.cultureandmediainstitute.org/articles/2007/...

In the September 30 episode of the CBS forensics show, the devoutly religious teens in an abstinence club turn out to be sexually active hypocrites who murder one of their own members – by stoning her, as the Bible teaches – to keep their sins secret. Their youth pastor encourages one girl to describe her impure dreams to him, and masturbates while listening.

[2470] John 15:18-21:

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.

[2471] Book: Up From Slavery. By Booker T. Washington. Doubleday & Company, 1901. Page 193.

[2472] Matthew 7:12 (New International Version)

[2473] Romans 13:9-10 (New International Version)

[2474] Book: Scriptural and Statistical Views in Favor of Slavery. By Thornton Stringfellow. J.W. Randolph, 1856. Fourth edition. Page 35:

But, says the Abolitionist, he [Jesus] has introduced new moral principles, which will extinguish it as an unavoidable consequence, without a direct prohibitory command. What are they? "Do to others as you would they should do to you." Taking these words of Christ to be a body, inclosing a moral soul in them, what soul, I ask, is it? The same embodied in these words of Moses, Levit. xix: 18; "thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;" or is it another? It cannot be another, but it must be the very same, because Jesus says, there are but two principles in being in God's moral government, one including all that is due to God, the other all that is due to men. If, therefore, doing to others as we would they should do to us, means precisely what loving our neighbor as ourself means, then Jesus has added no new moral principle above those in the law of Moses, to prohibit slavery, for in his law is found this principle, and slavery also."

[2475] Book: The Bible and Slavery: In Which the Abrahamic and Mosaic Discipline is Considered in Connection With the Most Ancient Forms of Slavery; And the Pauline Code On Slavery as Related to Roman Slavery and The Discipline of the Apostolic Churches. By Charles Elliott. L. Swormstedt & A. Poe, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1859.  

Page 152: "Some very respectable names may be mentioned who have believed that this law [Leviticus 25:44-46] tolerated, sanctioned, or established the slavery of aliens or strangers among the Hebrews. … The Princeton Repertory, in an article in 1836, are very positive on this point."

Page 153 goes on to provide more examples of people who expressed this view, followed by the author taking issue with them.

[2476] Book: Scriptural and Statistical Views in Favor of Slavery. By Thornton Stringfellow. J.W. Randolph, 1856. Fourth edition. Page 74:

One of the greatest and best of men ever raised at the North, (I mean Luther Rice,) once told me when I quoted the law of God for the purchase of slaves from the heathen [Leviticus 25:44-46] … I say he told me positively, there was no such law. When I opened the Bible and showed it to him, his shame was very visible. (And I hope he is not the only great and good man, that God will put to shame for being ignorant of his Word.) But he never opened his mouth to me about slavery again while he lived.

[2477] Leviticus 25:39, 44-46 (New International Version)

[2478] Exodus 21:16 (New International Version)

[2479] Deuteronomy 23:15-16 (New International Version)

[2480] Exodus 22:3 (New International Version)

[2481] "Report of The United States Of America Under The International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights." Prepared by the U.S. Departments of State, Justice and other Executive Branch departments and agencies, July 1994. http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/law/Covenant94/Specific_Articles/08.html

Article 8:

Hard labor is no longer available as a criminal sanction under federal criminal law, though it remains a possible punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and some state laws. In these jurisdictions, a judge may sentence a person to "a term of imprisonment with hard labor." There is no specific constitutional or statutory prohibition against hard labor. … Several states possess the statutory authority to place offenders in programs that employ "hard labor." While the term "hard labor" has remained unaltered in a few states, the U.S. military services, and some U.S. territories, "hard labor … [is] not correspondent to work in the stocks or other 18th century punishments which were then considered reasonable." Justiniano Matos v. Gaspar Rodriguez, 440 F. Supp. 673, 675 (D. Puerto Rico 1976). In theory, "hard labor" refers to a form of punishment and suggests more than mere institution work assignments. In practice, however, the jobs assigned to prisoners sentenced to "hard labor" are often the very same as those assigned to prisoners sentenced to a term of imprisonment.

[2482] Web page: "Frequently Asked Questions about the U.S. Military: After I get out, can I be recalled to active duty?" By Rod Powers. Accessed June 10, 2009 at http://usmilitary.about.com/od/theorderlyroom/f/faqrecall.htm

"Retirees (those who spend at least 20 years in the military and draw retired pay) can be recalled to active duty for life."

[2483] United States Code Title 10, Subtitle A, Part II, Chapter 39: "Retired members: authority to order to active duty." Accessed June 10, 2009 at http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/10C39.txt

Subsection (a): "Under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Defense, a member described in subsection (b) may be ordered to active duty by the Secretary of the military department concerned at any time."

Subsection (e): "A member ordered to active duty under subsection (a) may not serve on active duty pursuant to orders under that subsection for more than 12 months within the 24 months following the first day of the active duty to which ordered under that subsection."

Subsection (f): "Subsections (d) and (e) do not apply in time of war or of national emergency declared by Congress or the President."

[2484] Exodus 21:26-27 (New International Version)

[2485] Dictionary and Word Search: "ebed" (Strong's H5650). Blue Letter Bible. Accessed September 2, 2009 at http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H5650&t=KJV

[2486] Book: The Bible and Slavery: In Which the Abrahamic and Mosaic Discipline is Considered in Connection With the Most Ancient Forms of Slavery; And the Pauline Code On Slavery as Related to Roman Slavery and The Discipline of the Apostolic Churches. By Charles Elliott. L. Swormstedt & A. Poe, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1859. Pages 33-34:

The Hebrews used but one word—ebed or abed—to express all the relations of servitude of every sort… abad, the verb, means to labor, to work. The noun abed, derived from the verb, means a laborer, a servant. It is applied to a person who performs any kind of service. … As far as the meaning of these words are concerned, there is no countenance for slavery. Indeed, the Hebrew language had no single word to denote a slave. And the context, or peculiar phraseology must be adduced to show that slavery or slave is intended, as no single word will answer this purpose.

[2487] Book: Slavery in the Roman Empire. By R.H. Barrow. Barnes & Noble, 1968.

Page 236: "But under the [Roman] Empire slavery was everywhere present and everywhere accepted."

Page 29: "The lives of slaves were freely expended in the mad freaks of masters who aimed at eclipsing their predecessors or contemporaries by some gorgeous show or atrocious novelty, or attempt to perform the impossible. To give point to a jest, life or limb was accounted cheap…."

Pages 29-31 detail some of the brutalities committed against slaves by their masters.

Page 43: "Luxury in slaves and cruelty in the treatment of them reached their climax some time between Augustus and Nero [31 B.C. to 68 A.D.]."

[2488] Ephesians 6:5-9 (New International Version)

[2489] Ancient Work: The Lives of the Twelve Caesars. By C. Tranquillus Suetonius. Published about 121 A.D. Translated by Alexander Thomson. Worthington, 1883. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/dltext?doc=...

In the book about Augustus (who ruled 31 B.C. to 14 A.D.), Section 40 states:

Considering it of extreme importance to preserve the Roman people pure, and untainted with a mixture of foreign or servile blood, he [Augustus] not only bestowed the freedom of the city with a sparing hand, but laid some restriction upon the practice of manumitting slaves. When Tiberius interceded with him for the freedom of Rome in behalf of a Greek client of his, he wrote to him for answer, "I shall not grant it, unless he comes himself, and satisfies me that he has just grounds for the application." And when Livia begged the freedom of the city for a tributary Gaul, he refused it, but offered to release him from payment of taxes, saying, "I shall sooner suffer some loss in my exchequer, than that the citizenship of Rome be rendered too common." Not content with interposing many obstacles to either the partial or complete emancipation of slaves, by quibbles respecting the number, condition and difference of those who were to be manumitted; he likewise enacted that none who had been put in chains or tortured, should ever obtain the freedom of the city in any degree.

[2490] Ancient work: Roman Antiquities. By Dionysius of Halicarnassus. Published around 7 B.C. Translated by Earnest Cary. Harvard University Press, 1939.

Book 4, Chapter 24 provides additional historical context regarding Rome's opposition to the freeing of too many slaves.

[2491] Book: Slavery in the Roman Empire. By R.H. Barrow. Barnes & Noble, 1968.

Pages 173-206 contain an overview of the known Roman laws governing the freeing of slaves. Obviously, there may have been other restrictions that we are unaware of.

[2492] 1 Timothy 1:8-11:

We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

[2493] 1 Corinthians 7:21 (New International Version)

[2494] Philemon 1:12, 15-18, 21 (New International Version)

[2495] Galatians 3:26, 28 (New International Version)

[2496] Book: The Bible and Slavery: In Which the Abrahamic and Mosaic Discipline is Considered in Connection With the Most Ancient Forms of Slavery; And the Pauline Code On Slavery as Related to Roman Slavery and The Discipline of the Apostolic Churches. By Charles Elliott. L. Swormstedt & A. Poe, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1859.

[2497] Same as above. Page 289.

[2498] Book: Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves. By Adam Hochschild. Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

NOTE: Even with many quotations, I could not do justice to this book and the information it imparts on this subject. One must simply read it.

[2499] The above citation covers the abolition movement in the U.K., which was the birthplace of modern abolitionism. Regarding the other abolitionists listed, their writings along with a large assortment of encyclopedia entries and biographies record their Christian faith and contributions to this cause.

[2500] Matthew 5:44-46:

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

[2501] Book: Hitler's Table Talk 1941-44. Translated by Norman Cameron and R. H. Stevens. Introduced by H.R. Trevor-Roper. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973. First published in 1953. Page 51.

NOTE: See citation 2458 for more details about this book.

[2502] Book: Death and Deliverance: 'Euthanasia' in Germany 1900-1945. By Michael Burleigh. Cambridge University Press, 1994. Page 188:

"'Victim of the Past' (Opfer der Vergangenheit) was a sound film produced on Hitler's orders…. [It] was made between February and June 1936. It was publicly premiered in Berlin in March 1937 and, following Hitler's intercession, shown on a compulsory basis in all German cinemas thereafter."

Page 189 contains the cited quotation.

[2503] Article: "How Hitler perverted the course of science." By Richard Evans. London Telegraph, December 2, 2008. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/...

"And no other country took the next crucial step, which German medical scientists began as soon as the war broke out [1939], of killing these unfortunates. Some 70,000 people were put to death in specially constructed gas chambers in German mental hospitals, with at least as many more being killed by starvation or lethal injection."

[2504] This quote is repeated from memory from a poem named "Cannibal," which was written on a wall of the North Bergen (New Jersey) High School wrestling room by a wrestler named John Crowley sometime around 1979. Based upon a variety of Internet searches in which I found no quotations of this poem, I am fairly sure Crowley is the original author.

[2505] Book: River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life. By Richard Dawkins. Basic Books, 1995. Page 96.

[2506] Book: Johannes Kepler: Life and Letters. By Carola Baumgardt. With an introduction by Albert Einstein. Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1952. Page 17.

[2507] Book: Kepler. By Max Caspar. translated and edited by C. Doris Hellman. Abelard-Schuman, 1959. Page 376.

[2508] 1 Corinthians 1:9: "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord."

[2509] Jeremiah 31:3 (New King James Version)

[2510] Matthew 22:37-40 (New King James Version)

[2511] Isaiah 59:2 (New King James Version)

[2512] 1 John 1:8-10

[2513] Romans 6:23

[2514] Matthew 18:14

[2515] 2 Peter 3:9 (New International Version)

[2516] 1 John 4:10 (New International Version)

[2517] John 3:16 (New King James Version)

[2518] John 17:3 (New International Version)

[2519] Article: "Face to Face with Muhammad Ali." Readers Digest, December 2001. Page 93.

[2520] Galatians 2:16 (New International Version)

[2521] Ephesians 2:8-9

[2522] Psalm 22:29

[2523] Titus 3:5

[2524] There are many such examples I can point to in my own life. For Biblical attestation, in John 13:13-17, Jesus states: "Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. … If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."

[2525] John 14:21 (New International Version)

[2526] 1 John 2:3

[2527] James 2:18 (New King James Version)

[2528] John 14:6

[2529] John 3:36 (New International Version)

[2530] 1 John 4:16: "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

Zephaniah 3:5: "The just LORD is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity…."

[2531] John 9:39 (New International Version)

[2532] Some would argue that no one can use the "ignorance" excuse with God based upon the following passage, but this passage pertains to those who "suppress the truth." Also, those who argue this passage does not leave room for "legitimate ignorance" almost always allow such room for children. Romans 1:18-21:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

[2533] Book: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell. By Lewis Campbell and William Garnett. First published in 1882. With a new preface and appendix with letters by Robert H. Kargon. Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1969. Page 301.

In a letter dated January 31, 1858.

[2534] Book: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell. By Lewis Campbell and William Garnett. First published in 1882. With a new preface and appendix with letters by Robert H. Kargon. Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1969. Page 158.

[2535] The New International Version or New King James Version. Published by Zondervan.

[2536] Hebrews 10:23-25:

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

[2537]  2 Timothy 3:1-7:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

[2538] Colossians 1:18: "And he [Christ] is the head of the body, the church…."

[2539] John 13:35    

[2540] 1 John: 17: "But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"

[2541] Ephesians 4:1-3: "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

[2542] 1 John 5:2-3: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous."

[2543] Hebrews 10:24-15: "And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."

[2544] Romans 14:14-15: "I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died."

[2545] Galatians 5:13: "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another."

[2546] 1 John 4:18: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."

[2547] 1 John 215-17: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."

[2548] Hebrews 6:10 "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister."

[2549] 1 Timothy 1:5-7: "Now the end of the commandment is charity [agape] out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling; Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm."

[2550] Romans 13:8-10:

Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

[2551] 1 Corinthians 13:4-6: "Charity [agape] suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth…."

[2552] Ephesians 4:14-16:

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

[2553] Romans 8:35-39:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[2554] 1 John 3:16: "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

[2555] 1 John 18-19: "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him."

[2556] Book: The Life of James Clerk Maxwell. By Lewis Campbell and William Garnett. First published in 1882. With a new preface and appendix with letters by Robert H. Kargon. Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1969. Page 608.