Saturday, March 15, 2014

Book Review: Christ or Hitler? By Pastor Wilhelm Busch Compiled and Translated by Christian Puritz



The stories in this book, from the life of Pastor Wilhelm Busch, are compiled separately; it is not a streamlined story of someone’s life.  This made it a little hard to read at first, but once I got used to that it became an interesting, touching, comical, serious account of this man’s life that gave me a glimpse into a life that I could not have imagined.  I think if I were a Pastor there were times that I would have thought to myself “that’s the kind of ministry I want.”  The book shares both Pastor Busch’s life through World War I, World War II and the time in between, and his message – Jesus died for us on the cross and that means everything to our lives. 

Pastor Busch died the year after I was born, in a different country, having lived a completely different life story and still managed to make me stop short several times during the book with his words.  And as a youth worker in Church, much of his life as a Youth Pastor challenged me and reminded me of what’s important – not just for the youth but for my own life as well.

There was one passage that I thought timeless, he was living through it at the time, I’m sure it’s happening in other countries right now, and I’m sure it will be happening in ours in the not too distant future.  He said “’This is the church of the future’. The church in prison: one is giving testimony and the other, behind a bolted door, kneeling and crying to God.  This is the true church which experiences defeat with Jesus and yet conquers.”  Fighting for Christianity in Hitler’s Germany is beyond something I can comprehend.  I was honored to read the account of this man’s life.

*I received a free copy of this book from Cross Focused Reviews in exchange for writing a fair review.*

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