Anyone Who Believes Will Not Perish.

He leads me …

At the end of World War Two on October 18, 1945, the chief prosecutors of the International Military Tribunal (IMT) came together in Nuremberg, Germany. Their job was to bring charges against 24 leading German officials who had worked directly with Hitler in the Third Reich, and who were responsible for the authorisation of some of the most horrific crimes against humanity.

Captain Henry Gerecke (rhymes with “Cherokee”), was a Lutheran chaplain from St. Louis in America and had been informed that he was being sent to Nuremberg to serve as a spiritual adviser to these agents of the Third Reich - men considered the curse of the earth as they awaited trial for their crimes against mankind.

In sending Henry it was acknowledged that he was a minister in the Lutheran Church which several of the Nazi officials had at one time attended. Henry could also speak German fluently, and he already had experience of working as a prison chaplain.

For Henry, the decision to accept the assignment was not easy. He wondered how a preacher from St. Louis could make any impression on the disciples of Adolf Hitler. Would his considerable faith in the core principles of Christianity sustain him as he ministered to these evildoers?

He said he prayed harder than he ever had in his life, so that he could ‘somehow learn to hate the sin but love the sinner’.

In accepting the new role Henry believed his duty as a Christian minister was to bring redemption to these souls, to save as many Nazis as he could before they were executed.

One of these men was Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. When Henry visited him on the first occasion, Keitel was reading a book. ‘I asked him what he was reading. He all but knocked me speechless by replying, “My Bible.”’

Keitel said, ‘I know from this book that God can love a sinner like me.’

‘A phony,’ was Henry’s immediate thought.

Keitel’s role as the head of the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces was largely symbolic, because he was regarded as Hitler’s ‘yes man’. Despite this, Keitel consented to the mass brutalities and war crimes committed in the name of the Third Reich, including the extermination of European Jews.

Wilhelm Keitel stated, ‘The troops are therefore empowered and are in duty, bound in this war to use without mitigation even against women and children any means that will lead to success.’[1]

During the year that the trial was being held, Henry and Keitel became close. Henry found that Keitel was always in a reverent mood when they met in his cell. The field marshal was usually remorseful and “deeply Christian.” Keitel was really interested in any hymns and verses from Scripture that dealt with the proof of God’s love for man, and man’s redemption from sin through Christ’s death on the cross.

After studying the sacrament of communion during the early stages of the trial, Keitel asked Henry if he could celebrate Communion under the chaplain’s supervision. The general chose the Bible readings, hymns, and prayers and read them aloud. He then kneeled beside the bed in his cell and confessed his sins.

Henry later wrote that, ‘On his knees and under deep emotional stress, [Keitel] received the Body and Blood of our Saviour.” “With tears in his voice he said, ‘You have helped me more than you know. May Christ, my Saviour, stand by me all the way. I shall need him so much.’”

Later, on a rainy October morning, at 1:00 a.m. in 1946, Henry was with Keitel as they waited for his call to be taken to be hanged. Both the men sank to their knees in Keitel’s cell, and Henry began to pray in German. In the impact of the moment, Keitel realised that his life was over. His soldierly bearing suddenly shattered. His voice faltered. His prayer trailed off. He began to weep, and then sob uncontrollably, his body shaking as he gasped for air. Henry raised his hand above Keitel’s head and prayed a final benediction. Most likely it was Martin Luther’s favourite, from the book of Numbers: “The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make his face shine on you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up his countenance on you, and give you peace.”

Keitel was led by two MP’s off to the gallows followed by Henry. Following the final processing, Keitel turned on the heels of his gleaming black boots and walked briskly up the thirteen steps of the gallows. Henry followed him up, and the two men looked at each other. Henry began a German prayer he had learned from his mother. The chaplain knew Keitel’s mother had taught him the same verse as a child, and the field marshal joined Henry in prayer.

Then the trap door opened and Keitel’s life was over.[2]

From this account it appears that Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel was genuinely repentant. But was it enough for God to save him from Hell?

The Bible verse that is probably the most well know one of all, spells it out quite clearly.

For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 TLB)

Our God who is pure love loved everyone so much that He gave His precious Son so that whoever believes …

It cannot get much clearer than that. In Luke 18 Jesus spoke about how hard it was for a rich man to enter Heaven. The disciples exclaimed, ‘If it is that hard, how can anyone be saved?’ Jesus replied, ‘God can do what men can’t!’ (TLB) This means that even if we cannot forgive, God can.

If we are still not sure, in John 6:37–40 (TLB) Jesus says –

‘But some will come to me—those the Father has given me—and I will never, never reject them. For I have come here from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to have my own way. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them to eternal life at the Last Day. For it is my Father’s will that everyone who sees his Son and believes on him should have eternal life—that I should raise him at the Last Day.’

If we hear anyone tell us that there is no way that God can forgive them on account of what they have done, we can now assure them that apart from cursing the Holy Spirit, nothing is too bad for God to forgive.

[1] Wilhelm Keitel   Wilhelm Keitel Quotes, QuoteFancy; https://quotefancy.com/wilhelm-keitel-quotes

[2] Mission at Nuremberg: An Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis, Tim Townsend, Religion & Politics;

https://religionandpolitics.org/2014/04/23/mission-at-nuremberg-an-american-army-chaplain-and-the-trial-of-the-nazis/

Wilhelm Keitel: Biography, Holocaust Encyclopaedia; https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/wilhelm-keitel-biography

Wilhelm Keitel   Wilhelm Keitel Quotes, QuoteFancy; https://quotefancy.com/wilhelm-keitel-quotes