Hitler, Napoleon & King Frederick the Great could NOT have been Christians
The topic has come up time and again as to whether Hitler was a Christian. I published an article earlier about Leon Degrelle, whom I have great respect for, saying that Hitler believed in God. Hitler told him this when he spent a few days living with Hitler during WW2. Hitler also told Degrelle that if he had a son, he’d want him to be like Degrelle.
It is clear from Degrelle that Hitler was, what you could call, a believer in Intelligent Design. BUT, that does not make Hitler a Christian. Nor do I know of anyone seeing Hitler reading the Bible or even quoting the Bible, except in a speech he gave once where he said "Lord we have changed…".
So even if Hitler believed in a God as part of, say, Intelligent Design, that does NOT make him a Christian.
But in my own studies further, I’ve seen the question coming up of whether Napoleon was a Christian. There is a quote where a scientist brought Napoleon a book that he had written about astronomy and Napoleon chided him by saying why doesn’t the book mention God?
In my own extensive reading of Napoleon, I see nothing that indicates that he was a Christian. There is a quote of his where he says that Religion is what prevents the poor from killing the rich. I think this might be a closer insight into his views.
I have never yet come across anything that indicates to me that Napoleon was a Christian. Like Hitler, he ruled Christians, but he could not have been a Christian himself. Napoleon was driven by history, and I would posit the notion that Napoleon thought much more like the pagans, just as Hitler did.
But if you want an example of a Great King, who really could not, in the slightest way, have been a Christian, then go no further than King Frederick the Great. He mocked religion and he said a number of things that could never have come out of the mouth of a Christian. Though Frederick predated Napoleon and Hitler, he was not in the slightest way a Christian.
Both Napoleon and Hitler looked up to Frederick the Great in a big way. They both held him in the highest of esteem.
Frederick is seen by history as being "Liberal". He was very open minded. He also had a great admiration of the French.
But if you look at him closely, his mind was rock hard, his will was like steel, and his brain was incisive.