Nagasaki’s Christian Hero

“All we have left is our knowledge, our love, and our bare hands.” He used his own blood to make a Japanese flag to mark the way to the new hospital. A little later he and others found one of the cathedral bells and set it up to ring again.

Only two days later could he go looking for his wife. He found their home obliterated. Then he found some of her charred bones, her hand clutching her rosary. He prayed: “Dearest God, thank you for allowing her to die praying. Mother of Sorrows, thank you for being with faithful Midori at the hour of her death. … Ah, gracious Jesus our Savior, you once sweat blood and bore the heavy Cross to your crucifixion. And now you have shed peaceful light on the mystery of suffering and death, on Midori’s and my own.”



Later, he wrote: “Unless you have suffered and wept, you really don’t understand what compassion is, nor can you give comfort to someone who is suffering. If you haven’t cried, you can’t dry another’s eyes. Unless you’ve walked in darkness, you can’t help wanderers find the way. Unless you’ve looked into the eyes of menacing death and felt its hot breath, you can’t help another rise from the dead and taste anew the joy of being alive.”

An Apostle of Peace
For the few years he had left, Takashi was an apostle of peace and reconciliation. https://stream.org/nagasaki-christian-hero-paul-takashi-nagai/ This is a great article about human transformation. A great man who did good things in the face of adversity. His story is well worth telling.

 

For those who look at the linked article the blue box quote from his book is a great read.

 

Nice!! Enjoyed the read.

 

I’m glad you enjoyed it. I like to take a break from all the political stuff from time to time.

 

Wow!!!!

He is an astonishing example of somebody who denied self so totally.

 

For a good conversion story look up Mitsuo Fuchida. God saved him from Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Cant remember which one off the top of my head but his story is a great one.

 

One guy got nuked twice in one week. He died of old age decades later.

 

I guess he couldn't be bothered to stop a war, save tens of thousands of people, stop the bombs from going off or any of the other "Miracles" so he instead told a woman to pray to his mercy before he let her be incinerated.

 

Its exactly this why i´m atheist.

When i hear their stories about miracles, their god appears like an absolute self centered monster. More like a demon or a god.

When you old at old germanic, greek or even egyptian gods, they were more portraied like "super heroes" who actually tried to stop desaster from happening.

This changed when the monotheistic form came up and installed a sinister and hateful god like we see in jewish, christian and islamic religion.

Its the same madness as those freaks who say Rabies or EBola can be cured with Auyurveda and praying.

When that tsunami crushed an entire city in the indian oceanand only building left standing was a mosque i found it so crazy how muslims shouted "Allahu Akbar" and about the mirackle that the mosque still stands.

What kind of god crushs endless numbers of city with a Tsunami, kills hundredthousands of people and allow suffering on this scale but let his pathetic little worship shrine stand

 

You don't like your perception of who God is therefore He must not exist. Kinda childish isn't it?

What kind of a man would build an entire nation in spite of knowing that it's prone to seismic activity? Let alone have all it's people live right on the coast in an areas known for catastrophic waves?
So it's God's fault that people built in stupid places.
A totally infantile response.

Daddy I'm mad at you because i beat my toy against a brick wall andvit broke...

 

If this is god, he needs to be destroyed.

 

That's what is happening....more and more everyday. The interesting part being his followers are expediating it even though they do not realize it.

 

Im from east Germany, the most "godless place on earth. With atheists ranging well above 90% and polls could not find a single person believing in god.

Thats something to be proud for.

 

Like the rest of us, God grieved at the bad choices made then. Would you rather have no free will, so He could force you to believe? Even a human wouldn't want such 'love'.

 

Your home and North Korea must be a paradise, huh?

 

Do you actually compare Germany with North Korea?

Comrade your comment is too funny.

But yes our country is paradise. We need to sky zombie to be happy.

 

Only in the dying West, the US is only 5% of the world's population. A Pew survey projected globally Christianity will grow 35% from 2015-2015, with the no-religion category dropping during that period.

As Calvin said, it is impossible to preach the Gospel without instantly enraging the world.

 

I haven't been to your country, but shouldn't NK be a great place, having no God and all? I know in the past your nation produced great men like Luther.

OK, see how that works out for you. BTW, I don't need a sky zombie either, whatever that is. Is that your ultimate purpose of life, being a happy hedonist?

 

I dont need a god for that.

My purpose of my life is to serve my nation, serve my family and friends and to move forward. I dnt need a god to be a good person.

The church did gigantic damage to Germany and honestly to get rid of it was one of the greatest achievements.

Once free from it, you can only laugh about it. Its stupid stories, its greed and false hyper morale.

We went with school in a church and laughed entire time.

 

I see...so did you see him weep, or just hear the sobbing?

 

Even if your nation's leader is Hitler or Erich Honecker? How would an atheist make a moral choice against either of these? A dead universe doesn't care.

I'm sure you are a good person, but that won't reconcile you to God, as faith in Christ's atoning death on the cross will. It was to a very religious Jew, Nicodemus, that Jesus said "You must be born again."

How did they get rid of it, Germany taxes to support churches today.

As the Bible says, the Gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing.

 

Morals need no imaginary freak in the cloud.

How Germany got rid of the church? In the East it was made laughable. And it never recovered. The church is seen here as pure freakshow.

In West Germany it collapses more and more. The Churches lose hundredthousands of members each year. And since only church members get taxed, the churches lose more and more income.

The sooner this cult is exterminated here, the better. The church has brought nothing than bad things to our country.

Many church leaders have done worse crimes than Honecker. And some even worse as Hitler.

Whats the difference if i follow as soldier in a holy war ignited by an immoral pope? That i commit crimes for a corrupted church and then when i die on the battle field to cling on that little hitty cross they gave me?

 

I'm against imaginary freaks also. Take out God, and all you have left is personal preference, which can be completely opposite among two people.

The church had a role in getting rid of the Communist regime, I assume you think that a good thing.

"Like in neighboring Poland, the churches in East Germany championed the mass political dissent against the regime in the 1980s. Most of the mass protests began with church prayer meetings that provided a focus for the opposition.[40] It fostered the youth counter culture and emphasized the church's positive role in society. The churches fostered discussion on issues such as rock music, sexuality, life in the third world, alcoholism, life in the GDR, the militarization of society, etc.[40] This drew large crowds.

The churches promoted change in the GDR, not by overthrowing the authorities, but through peaceful change." Wikipedia

I'm not disputing Christianity is in decline in the dying West, globally, however, it is exploding. China, for example, had about 1 million members at the time of the revolution, today there are over 100,000,000 despite decades of persecution. There are probably more Christians than Communist Party members.

Seems like a strange system, in the US Christians give voluntarily.

LOL, that has been tried for 2,000 years, with tens of millions of Christians killed trying, yet there are more Christians today than ever.

So helping to get rid of the Communist regime, and Hitler, were bad? Over 700 clergy died in Hitler's death camps.

Where did Jesus say to do those things? You don't judge a philosophy by its misuse.

Luther rebelled against immoral popes.

 

Luther was as immoral as the pope.

Well here exterminating the church was sucessful. I know nobody who believes in a god. Eastern Germany has lowest number of religious people in the world.

We are free.

The church did the most extreme crime to my country imaginable.

You know the 30 year war? Were catholics and protestants fought on german lands who has the better imaginary friend in the sky? The funny thing is, it was french, swedish and italian troops who fought on our lands.

30 years terror and collaps. Unspeakable things happened. Entire cities went down into nothing. Magedburg was wiped out. Germany lost 30% of its people. Some regions had no human population left.

That war was more devastating than WW I or WW II and burned into the collective soul.

You can go into forests here and still see old ruins of villages that were erased.

All in the name of your god.

 

Hero of yours was he?