Why did God allow the Holocaust?

Answer

In addressing the issue of evil in the world, we encounter various challenges like this one. Could God have prevented the Holocaust? Indeed, He could have. He could have also averted Stalin’s massacres in the U.S.S.R., the Spanish Inquisition’s persecution of dissidents, and Nero’s tyrannical rule. In each instance, God permitted wicked individuals to wield a certain degree of authority for a brief period.

Ultimately, we are unaware of the rationale behind what God permits. His ways and thoughts surpass ours infinitely (Isaiah 55:8-9). His sovereign plan encompasses the entirety of history, encompassing every conceivable course of action, every cause and effect, every potentiality, and every contingency. We cannot comprehend the intricacies of His design. Through faith, we believe that His plan is the optimal one for restoring fallen humanity and a cursed world to righteousness and blessing.

However, we can grasp this: God’s allowance does not equate to His endorsement. God permitted Adam to partake of the forbidden tree, but He did not endorse the action. Similarly, God allowing the Holocaust does not imply His approval of it. God is saddened by humanity’s sinfulness and the hardness of their hearts (Genesis 6:6;Mark 3:5).

We also understand that God has done everything feasible to save us from the sin that would lead to our destruction. He offered His only Son, who gave His life for our sins and bore our punishment. All who believe in Jesus Christ are saved. The sin in this world, and atrocities like the Holocaust, are a direct consequence of humanity’s ongoing rebellion against God.

While nothing can excuse the atrocity of the Holocaust, it indirectly contributed to the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.The Holocaust was a primary reason the White Paper of 1939 was rescinded, allowing European Jews to immigrate to Israel. Regardless of one’s political stance, the fact is that the 1948 restoration of an independent Jewish state helps to fulfill biblical prophecies such as Ezekiel 37 and Matthew 24.

In all of His actions, God is just “The LORD is righteous in all his ways, And holy in all his works.” , (Psalm 145:17). The blame for the Holocaust lies squarely on the shoulders of sinful humanity. The Holocaust was the result of sinful choices made by sinful men in rebellion against a holy God. If the Holocaust proves anything, it is the utter depravity of man. Just fourteen years after “the war to end all wars” (World War I), Hitler rose to power. What is even more shocking is that millions followed him, enabling his horrific policies and pursuing a path to national destruction.

And while Nazism took hold in Germany, where were the European churches? Some, it is true, stood firm against the evil in their midst, and some churchmen, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, paid the ultimate price for dissenting. But they were the minority. Most churches of the era complied with Nazi Party rules and remained silent while the Jews were slaughtered. Where were the world leaders? Other than England’s Winston Churchill, the world’s politicians took the path of isolation or appeasement. Neither approach worked. Where were the good, decent people? Edmund Burke is often quoted as saying, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.” Although there were a few Germans and other Europeans such as Oscar Schindler and Corrie ten Boom and her family, who risked their lives to save thousands of Jews from annihilation, most remained silent and the Holocaust ensued. The question is not so much “Why did God allow the Holocaust?” but “Why did we?”

God gives mankind freedom of choice. We can cho

Choose to follow Him and take a stand for righteousness, or we can rebel against Him and pursue evil. The issue lies in the heart of man. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” «The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? », (Jeremiah 17:9). Until man’s heart turns to God, the world will continue to witness “ethnic cleansings,” genocides, and atrocities such as the Holocaust.