Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich exterminated 6 million Jews during World War ii. The war he started led to the deaths of 60 million people. Still, Hitler thought he was the savior of the Germans.

Many would attribute Hitler’s destructiveness to insanity, but the Bible is filled with examples of Satan using human beings to fulfill his purposes. In Ezekiel 28, the prince of Tyre seamlessly transitions to the king of Tyre, who once was perfect (verses 11-14). Only Satan, formerly Lucifer, fits this description. Satan is the king of Tyre, and the prince of Tyre is his human instrument.

Satan has possessed and guided humans throughout their history. Perhaps the most notable example of this is Hitler.

Satan got to Hitler early. “When Adolf Hitler was 17 years old, a radical change occurred in his life,” we wrote in our booklet on Germany in prophecy.

A friend close to Hitler was deeply shaken by his voice. In his book called The Psychopathic God—Adolf Hitler, Robert G.L. Waite wrote: “After gazing intensely at his friend for a full minute, he began to speak. ‘Never before and never again have I heard Adolf Hitler speak as he did in that hour ….’ [August] Kubizek thought there was something strange about Hitler that night. ‘It was as if another being spoke out of his body, and moved him as much as it did me. … I rather felt as though he himself listened with astonishment and emotion to what burst forth from him with elementary force.’” … What Hitler said that night has been lost, but one thing was burned into Kubizek’s memory. Adolf did not speak of becoming an artist or an architect. Now he saw himself … as the messiah of his people.

Satan the devil exalts himself in the same way. “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:13-14). The connection between Hitler and Satan is clear.

Where It All Began

Before ever gaining power, Hitler exhibited dangerous tendencies. He said the foundation of his philosophy was laid in Vienna, Austria. “This was the time in which the greatest change I was ever to experience took place in me,” Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf referring to the effect seeing the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire had on him. “I had turned into a fanatical anti-Semite.”

Here is more from my booklet on Germany in prophecy: “Much of the world looks upon the Jews as God’s chosen people. In Vienna, Hitler came to believe that God had replaced the Jews with the Germans and the Holy Roman Empire. He believed the Germans were God’s chosen people. This is why the crown jewels of that empire meant so much to him.”

Hitler brought the crown jewels home with him and showed them off at a rally in Nuremberg in 1938. They had been in Vienna for 140 years, but Hitler said they would stay in Germany forever once he followed in the bloody history of Charlemagne, king of the First Reich. Hitler knew so much about history, and he believed the Third Reich was entirely dependent on him. That is not normal thinking.

Satan makes people fawn over his German war machine. “And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” (Revelation 13:4). We must always remember that Satan is the ultimate power behind the beast. The Germans have many good traits, but God allows Satan to use them as a tool to punish the nations of Israel (Isaiah 10:5).

At a Nazi Christmas celebration in 1926, Hitler said, “Christ was the greatest early fighter in the battle against the world enemy, the Jews. … The work that Christ started but could not finish, I—Adolf Hitler—will conclude.” Again, this is eight years before Hitler became führer! The German people heard exactly what Hitler planned to do, and they still elected him!

Hitler thought he could accomplish something that even Jesus Christ supposedly couldn’t. Satan thinks the same way! He has tried to overthrow God twice. He thinks he knows more than the Being who created him. He led Hitler down the same path.

If you ever place yourself ahead of Christ, something is terribly wrong with your mind.

Religious Motivation

“We are not a movement. Rather, we are a religion,” Hitler said. “I’m going to become a religious figure.” Hitler planned a colossal assembly hall for his new capital of Germania. Instead of seeing this structure as a civic building, Hitler thought of it as a secular cathedral. The dome would have been seven times the size of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica.

“It was basically a hall of worship,” said Albert Speer, Hitler’s chief architect. “Without such cult significance, the motivation for Hitler’s main structure would have been senseless and unintelligible.” Satan is the master of all counterfeit religion. He inspired Hitler’s perverted religious aspirations.

Hitler’s track record is staggering. Here is the total number of Jews killed by the top concentration camps: Auschwitz: 1 million; Treblinka: 750,000; Belzec: 550,000; Sobibor: 200,000; Chelmno: 150,000; Lublin: 50,000. A better name for these outposts would be extermination camps! Yet Hitler reached the height of self-delusion, claiming he was a messiah-type.

Hitler considered the Jew to be the devil personified. He heard voices as he lay on his hospital bed in 1918, telling him to rescue his motherland from the Jews. Satan lied to Hitler. He convinced Hitler that the Jews were evil, thus justifying his goal to exterminate them. In reality, Hitler was Satan personified.

Hitler’s religion directly opposed God’s true religion. “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 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” (Matthew 5:43-44).

Had Hitler followed Christ’s admonition, he never would have carried out the Holocaust.

An Attack on God

Hitler attacked the Jews because he believed they were Satan’s tool, but they are actually the exact opposite. “In truth, the Jews have been specially commissioned to preserve the oracles of God (Romans 3:1-3),” we wrote in our booklet on Germany in prophecy. “The oracles include the sacred calendar, knowledge of the biblical week, including the seventh-day Sabbath, and the Old Testament Scriptures.”

God commissioned the Jews to bring humanity to Him, but they and the other nations of Israel have failed. However, the Jews have successfully preserved His oracles. The Jews weren’t Hitler’s main target; God and His plan were! Satan is always trying to cast God’s truth to the ground. He has even done it in God’s Church in this end time (Daniel 8:12).

Everything Satan told Hitler was a lie. Satan lies all the time. “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). Combine a lying leader with real military power, and you get a mass murderer.

By contrast, God speaks only truth: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17). You can see why Satan would fight viciously to take over God’s throne and crush God’s purpose.

Worse Than Hitler

Hitler was the sixth head of a seven-headed beast controlled by Satan (Revelation 12:3; 17:10). Since the time of Hitler, God has cast Satan and his demons out of heaven and confined them to this Earth (Revelation 12:12). Look at the mounting problems in this world. Never have events been so chaotic. Satan is the cause.

Satan keeps repeating the same strategy of causing tremendous destruction through human instruments because mankind never learns. People could see the devil in Hitler’s compelling eyes, but they didn’t heed the warning. Satan gave this man great power to fulfill his will.

“Hitler did not like to be told that the ways of God were not always revealed to him,” we wrote. “On one occasion an aide noted that ‘God does not let people look at the cards He holds.’ Hitler immediately broke forth into such a [hysteria] of fury that he himself feared a heart attack. He gave orders that the aide never repeat the offensive phrase” (ibid). This angered Hitler because his god—Satan—did reveal things to him!

A man coming on the scene today is about to cause even more destruction than Hitler ever did (Daniel 8:22-24). Events will get so bad that Christ must return to stop him (verse 25). “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful” (Revelation 17:14).

Jesus Christ will ensure that no beastly power will ever terrorize the world again. Those who serve God before Christ’s Second Coming will be His bride (Revelation 19:7). These faithful few will rule with Christ for all eternity!