# What if Hitler repented? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 11, 2002, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-hitler-repented/113394 "2002-06-11T04:46:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![nicky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f0a364/32.png) [@nicky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nicky)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2002, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-hitler-repented/113394/21 "2002-06-11T23:40:01Z")
if he sincerely repented, he would willingly go to hell for punishment ---
**Author:** ![Soup\_du\_jour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Soup\_du\_jour](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup_du_jour)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-hitler-repented/113394/22 "2002-06-12T03:24:06Z")
I have no idea where this came from, but it’s in the Lutheran Liturgy, so it might be Biblical… “God does not desire the death of sinners. Rather that they may turn from their wickedness and live.” ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-hitler-repented/113394/23 "2002-06-12T04:01:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Soup\_du\_jour \* > \*\*I have no idea where this came from, but it’s in the Lutheran Liturgy, so it might be Biblical… > > “God does not desire the death of sinners. Rather that they may turn from their wickedness and live.” \*\* Yep, it’s biblical. Ezekiel 33:11. It’s also in the Yom Kippur service in Judaism. (JPS translation) > [@](#): > > Say unto them: As I live, saith the L-rd GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-hitler-repented/113394/24 "2002-06-12T04:59:41Z")
> [@](#): > > if he sincerely repented, he would willingly go to hell for punishment Ummm. OK, I guess. But if he sincerely repented, he would be forgiven, and there would be no need of punishment. ---
**Author:** ![CheapBastid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8baadc/32.png) [@CheapBastid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheapBastid)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2002, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-hitler-repented/113394/25 "2002-06-13T20:57:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Libertarian \* > **’Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.** Darn Commie! ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2002, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-hitler-repented/113394/26 "2002-06-13T21:28:10Z")
I prefer to see Him as a wealthy philanthropist. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2002, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-hitler-repented/113394/27 "2002-06-13T21:48:07Z")
That’s one of my favorite Parables, **Lib**. ---
**Author:** ![partly\_warmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@partly\_warmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partly_warmer)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-hitler-repented/113394/28 "2002-06-16T06:18:16Z")
What a reasoned and level collection of responses. Maybe this group could try something more tricky next time, such as the role of forgiveness in certain extremist religious factions… I couldn’t avoid adding this other thought: what does “asking for repentance” mean in Hitler’s context? It would take an hour to drum up a list of his sins. In Hitler is a man so divided from the common decency of human activity that his reasons for eating breakfast and writing a letter to his mother would probably be offensive to most people. I’m not kidding. He probably ate to “fuel the fires” of some wacko (non-spiritual) notion of bodily purity. It might be possible that Hitler was so encompassingly twisted, having commited henious acts for years, that he would be unable to repent. ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-hitler-repented/113394/29 "2002-06-16T06:37:00Z")
I think the result would be somthing like this: [![](http://angryflower.com/goodhi.gif) ](http://angryflower.com/goodhi.gif) ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-hitler-repented/113394/30 "2002-06-16T16:36:48Z")
Hayduke Lives!! wrote, in the OP: > [@](#): > > Right before he died, what if Hitler prayed to God and repented for his evil, and begged God for forgiveness. Would he get it? Doesn’t matter if he did. He died by committing suicide. That’s pretty much a Mortal Sin that no amount of forgiveness is supposed to erase. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2002, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-hitler-repented/113394/31 "2002-06-16T18:16:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\*He died by committing suicide. That’s pretty much a Mortal Sin that no amount of forgiveness is supposed to erase. \*\* Isn’t it possible that he didn’t commit suicide but was instead murdered by one of the other people who were present? Either way, I for one don’t buy the “suicide is unforgiveable” theory. But I also doubt Hitler was sorry for anything he did. **Muad** , that cartoon was hillarious!😛 ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2002, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-hitler-repented/113394/32 "2002-06-17T01:43:32Z")
Well, in the little Baptist Church that I went to, I was taught that all anyone has to do is ask Jesus, the Lord God, to forgive us any time in our life and we are saved. Whosoever believeth in him won’t perish. Since Jesus is God and Immortal he is in heaven, which is not a place in the sky, but something that exists outside of time, it doesn’t matter when we ask. It is all the same to him. We are not perfect, but God is. So we don’t have to enumerate all our sins, or even have committed them all yet, just ask that he forgive them. He is perfect so that he can forgive perfectly even if we can only ask imperfectly. So according to this even if we lose faith, having asked once was enough, so yes, Hitler may well have made it to heaven. So will a lot of others that we may not see fit to forgive, God is a bigger person that we ever can be. In Sunday school, another kid was worried and scared because a friend had told him that if he did not ask for forgiveness after each sin he could go to HELLL. He was telling about how you could think bad things on your deathbed and go to HELL, or forget a sin and not ask forgiveness and then go to HELL. The Sunday school teacher listened in quitet horror at all the ways you could wind up in Hell and finally said, “Do you think God is a lawyer?” He explained that God wasn’t going to try to trap us. God loves us. Our sins hurt him, but he doesn’t demand you apologize after each one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-hitler-repented/113394.md?page=1)