Wilhelm Busch (pastor)

Wilhelm Busch (* March 27, 1897 – † June 22, 1966) was a German Lutheran pastor, youth evangelist, writer and activist of the Confessing Church during the Nazi period in Germany. His book "Jesus our destiny" (in German Jesus unser Schicksal) is regarded for being probably the most famous evangelistic book in German language.

Bileam

• "Half-Christian is a full swindler."
  • "Ein halber Christ ist ein ganzer Betrüger." (from Bileam, Volume 5, Wilhelm Busch Bibliothek, p. 82)

Jesus Our Destiny

• Today, when the Gospel is under attack from all directions, I too must ask the question: "What profit do you get from your unbelief?" I never get the impression that people have peace of mind or are happier for all their unbelief. No, my friends.
  • "What's the use of walking with God?" p.216 (19 June 1966)
• All religions are human attempts to find God. But they all have this in common: they have all gone astray in the fog and have not been able to discover God.
  • "Why do I need Jesus? Jesus reveals God to us." p.11
• There is sort of Christians Christianity of whose had died out long ago, they have just not noticed that. Thus, they let all things stay as they are.
  • "Someone who didn't have time" p.41
• I owe my view of the world to the Bible. To my mind, the Bible's approach is the only valid one. Most philosophies usually go out of date within 20 years.
  • "The world we live in" p.131
• In the Middle Ages, people still reckoned on God - the cathedrals they built make that plain. But as time went by man tried to get rid of God. Marxism is nothing else than a gigantic attempt to put God on the shelf. They have tried to replace Him by technology. Scholars, in their attempt to prove that God does not exist, have resorted to the pen. And the masses have shouted: "Religion is the opium of the people."
  • "Not for me! We use it when we shouldn't." p.157
• Religious people crucified the Son of God. He was not fitting to their wishes.
  • "I just can't believe! People who can't believe in God." p.114
• At that period, everybody in the Roman Empire had some kind of religion, but nobody bothered much about it. Just like today. ...Although Romans had plenty of gods, in reality they believed in none.
  • "Things have got to change -but how? It's Either this or that!" p.146 Walking with God is no illusion. p.208
• In fact, it is only through the New Testament that we can learn just what Christian faith is. ... Open your Bible at any page you like, there is nothing about solving religious problems. Bible testifies that God exists and that he revealed himself through Jesus Christ. It shows too that the man who lives without God is not living right.
  • "Is there any certainty in religious matters? 2.The Bible gives us wonderful certainties." p.166
• [In Germany] we have already experienced and passed through a vast variety of political systems and governments: constitutional monarchy, absolute monarchy, presidential democracy, popular democracy, dictatorship, and who knows what else. And we could all plainly see that neither of these systems was worth much. ... There have never been so many qualified economists as in our days. Never has world economy been so sophisticated. Yet in spite of this, according to UN reports, more than one-half of humanity never eats its fill. ... It isn't the Bible which is out-of-date, but our ideologies. The Bible guides us towards the future. ... He knows how to govern. If you want proof of this, visit a home where Jesus is King - for such homes do exist even today - and you will be conscious of a different atmosphere as soon as you have crossed the doorstep.
  • "When will the end come? 1.Jesus is coming back 2.Events preceding Christ's return" p.197 p.200 p.202
• I know of people who secretly think about themselves: "God must be really happy that I still believe in Him at all." Good heavens! That's not enough!
  • "What's the use of walking with God? Walking with God is no illusion" p.209
• But that has changed when a few months later during a lull in the battle of the attack on Verdun, he was telling his comrade a dirty anecdote. To his amazement, his buddy did not laugh: “Kutscher, didn’t you find that one funny?” The reaction of poor fellow to joke was no longer a laughing matter: a shrapnel of an enemy grenade struck him right into the heart - he collapsed dead to the ground. "I still see myself on the edge of the trench. A bright light, brighter than the atomic bomb struck me: he is now standing before holy God! And the next thought was: if we had sat in different arrangement, then the splinter grenade would have hit me instead, and then I would be standing face-to-face before God right now! My friend was laying dead in front of my eyes. For the first time in many years, I folded my hands and uttered a prayer, which consisted of only one sentence: "Dear God, I beg You, do not let me fall before I'll be sure not go to hell!"" A few days later, he then entered with a New Testament in the hand a broken French farmhouse, fell to his knees and prayed: "Jesus! The Bible says that you have come from God in order to save sinners. I am a sinner. I cannot promise anything in the future, because I have a bad character. But I do not want to go to hell, if I get a shot. And so, Lord Jesus, I surrender myself to you from head to foot. Do with me whatever you want!" Since there was no bang, no big movement, I just went out. I had found the Lord, a gentleman to whom I belonged."

Quotes about Wilhelm Busch

• "Wherever he emerged, there was always something going on. The essential at him was however, that he was a credible and all reservations penetrating ambassador of his Lord."
  • "Wo er zugegen war, passierte immer etwas. Das Eigentliche aan ihm aber war dieses, dass er ein glaubhafter und aller Vorbehalte durchstoßender Bote seines Herrn war." by Gustav Heinemann, later President of the Federal Republic of Germany (1966, funeral oration)

External links

• Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (in German): Busch, Wilhelm (1897-1966)