People We Would Be Surprised To See In Heaven

It is startling to realise that one day soon all the governments and cabinets of the world will be summoned to appear before Jesus Christ to hear their sentences when the Lord descends from heaven to settle the insoluble problem of Israel and Palestine. When he shall come in all his glory and with his mighty holy angels (to the Mount of Olives on the east of Jerusalem, Zechariah 14:4), then he will sit upon his magnificent throne. Before him will be summoned all nations and he will pick out individuals to separate them as a shepherd divides sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:3Iff).

The rate at which Gerecke's audience showed response varied greatly. At first Von Ribbentrop made no response, resisting for a long time. He had been a product of the Nazi youth movement and had been brainwashed by their dogma.

We have always found that it is very difficult to win ex-members of Nazi youth to look at life from any other angle, let alone to consider Christianity. In their book of instruction they were told that they could not be a Nazi and a Christian, and the sayings of Nietzsche advocated by Hitler were quoted in the style of what Jesus said: 'Love your enemies and do good to those who ill-treat you, but I say to you hate your enemies and destroy them.' Hitler regarded Christ's principles of forgiveness as namby-pamby and weak; anyone practising them was inferior and not worthy of any consideration.

Very gradually, however, Ribbentrop realised that he had been misled by wrong propaganda, but when his wife knew of his changing attitude she threatened him. Gerecke felt that she was the most ungodly woman he had ever met. He discovered that originally they attended church and then withdrew. As the prison chapel services continued, Ribbentrop began to read the Bible until he became so fascinated with it that he read it every day for hours. He had progressed from cool indifference to a sincere Christian faith. This upset Frau Ribbentrop who wrote some very nasty letters to the chaplain saying she would offset all the influence he had exerted upon her husband in every way she could.

When the death sentences were pronounced the men were allowed to see their wives, and Ribbentrop pleaded with his wife, 'Have the children baptised, sweetheart.'

In the end she gave in, and later the chaplain heard Ribbentrop plead with her to bring up the children in the care and knowledge of Jesus Christ. For nearly a year he had heard the Good News simply explained, how the assurance of forgiveness could actually be experienced when a person was thoroughly sorry for what he had done and believed that Jesus had suffered the punishment for those sins on the cross. It was the Holy Spirit who applied that wonderful assurance. Ribbentrop could hold out no longer. He sought God's miracle of forgiveness and opened up his heart to Christ.

First published in Miracles & Angels, Dr E K Victor Pearce.