How can God forgive such evil?

Nice question Joe? In my last post I wrote on the mercy of God and Joe commented on whether or not God could forgive evil to the degree of Hitler? I would argue that he can. Our human mind is incapable of this kind of forgiveness and that is probably why it is hard for us to understand this kind of forgiveness. It is hard to understand something that we can not do. I visited a web site that explains this forgiveness so well. The web site is http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5306

I especially liked this excerpt:
"This is the other lesson. Whether you have one billion sinners being forgiven of one sin, or one sinner being forgiven for a billion sins, it all amounts to the same thing--a billion sins. The work of the cross is such that it can forgive even the most egregious of sinners. The fact of Jeffrey Dahmer's forgiveness, if it is a fact, ought to teach us an entirely different lesson. Paul put it this way in I Timothy 1:15-16, "It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance (in other words be confident of this), that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. And yet for this reason I found mercy, in order than in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life." Paul says, Look, I am the biggest of sinners. I persecuted the church of God. I led people to their death because they were Christians. If God could forgive me, He could even forgive a Jeffrey Dahmer. He could even forgive a Greg Koukl. He could even forgive a Ken and John.

For those of you who are tempted to say, Listen I'm no Jeffrey Dahmer, my response is simply this: Maybe not, but you are no Jesus Christ either. You are more like Jeffrey Dahmer than you are like Jesus Christ. That's the comparison that ultimately will matter. If God can forgive Jeffrey, He can forgive you. And that is good news."


So can God forgive Hitler? Yes, if Hitler had wanted to be forgiven.