Rudolf Hess is dead. I repeat, Rudolf Hess is dead.
If you don't know who Rudolf Hess is, then we can find someone to blame like the education system, but a short bio would be in order. He was a Nazi who helped Hitler rise to power to become one of his lieutenants in the German government. In what was a fairly bizarre act in 1941, Hess flew to Scotland to negotiate a peace where he was arrested and imprisoned in Spandau Prison. Of course, the conspiracy crowd, existent even then, insisted that was not Hess but an imposter. As such, they felt that the real Hess lived in relative peace in some undisclosed place, so when Hess died in 1987, it was rumored he wasn't dead.
Except that a DNA test administered recently on a Hess descendent matched the DNA from blood taken from Hess during an exam in 1982 from Spandau Prison. Hess, the sole occupant of the prison until he died in 1987, was confirmed dead again.
While there is no humor in what Hess and the Nazis under Hitler did, there is this bizarre, either sad or humorous, activity that takes place when something of significance happens. There are those who will, with almost the level of certainty beyond absolute, deem a conspiracy of the event. Our own history in the US is deep with conspiracies from those in our history through present day. One from my childhood during the first Arab Oil Embargo was the fact, FACT, that General Motors had a carburetor in a vault deep in the basement of Detroit that got 100 miles per gallon. Of course, they were just sitting on it because the oil barons were making millions on gas. Imagine our surprise when they quit using carburetors and went to fuel injection.
Can you begin to wonder what the talk was during Christ's day shortly after his death and resurrection? The panic among those who sought to sew seeds of conspiracy for the missing body of Christ? Those fishermen have hatched a plot to take his body and begin to insist he's back among us! This is a disaster! We must make sure this "risen" thing doesn't stand! Even one among them, Thomas, wasn't satisfied with just the simple statement among those who had already seen Christ. "Unless I see the nail holes in his hands...." (John 20)
From the day of the fall of man in the garden until now, we still look for the sign. In Mark 9, a man brings his son to Jesus to heal. Jesus asks about the boy's condition and the man tells Christ that his disciples couldn't cast out the unclean spirit. In a moment of desperation, the man exclaims to Christ, "...if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." Jesus replied, "'If you can'! All things are possible for one who believes." The man cried out, "I believe, help my unbelief!"
That is our prayer daily as we seek strength from the Spirit to renew us daily. That is our prayer as we ask for God to protect us from "the evil one," who lies in wait to find that one little crack in our armor that can become a gaping hole. Our frailty needs daily attention through prayer and devotion to God's Word. To that end, we confess to God, "I believe, help my unbelief!"
Hope Men's Ministry
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