Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a remarkable young theologian and pastor in World War II Germany who joined the Resistance in several plots to assassinate Hitler. His devotional books are still best sellers today. That's because, according to Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer was also a prophet. Metaxas, author of the New York Times #1 bestseller Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, explains that term and what it means for all of us. Shirley Hoogstra hosts.

[@thereseward7852]

Found a book DIETRICH BONHOEFFER and knew I was meant to read it. First it was among children's books or I would never have found it and Second I was unable to check it out without help from staff. Now I want to know more. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a light setting my heart on fire

[@renatamvidal]

What a book!!! Love!

[@embvl1380]

Read the book. Very great story. Thank you.

[@liliannamathers3428]

Just started (finally!) reading the book today. Beautifully written, I can really see the Bonhoeffer family through Eric's writing. I had to set it down or would have sat and read all day :) I grew up told that DB wasn't a good guy, probably for the same reason people who haven't read Brennan Manning & others now -"He's too liberal! " No way. They read one paragraph & decide a person's life. I'm so glad God kept urging me to find truth for myself.

[@liliannamathers3428]

We can know who is real and who is not by praying for discernment and knowing Truth. You can tell a fake $20 bill best by knowing very well what the real $20 bill looks like. So if you know God well, you can better know if people who say they speak for Him are the real deal or not.

[@noelhausler2911]

Read more deeply than Metaxas and see Bonhoeffer's theology would upset conservative evangelicals.. His books Letters from Prison and Life Together are an easier read for the non-academic but I found Cost of discipleship and Ethics a harder slog to get through. He would be amazed how today how the Bible is approached. The exodus and conquest are not accepted as historical, Contradictions have been found, especially the resurrection stories. Letters allegedly written by Paul were not. Adam and Eve, Tower of Babel and the flood story treated as myth. As older Christians die they have not been replaced by millennials. The churches have been full of sex abuse scandals, financial scandals. Kenneth Copeland does not care he has his beautiful mansion and planes and enough gullible followers to keep the scam going.

[@digitalcowboy]

12:47 Legitimate leadership.

[@michaelcross6526]

Awesome

[@rapturebound197]

Good job Eric. Great story about a great man and an even greater God.

[@jameshardin4895]

just remembered a saying... That New Speak has cut out... 'Can't Fix Stupid'... i can only think of one way to free someone from their stupidity... UBI... if you can't talked sense into Stupid, Money Talks, ______ Walks... if their getting some piece of the Pie, they won't want to destroy the Oven, or the Cook... and money is freedom...

[@ashleysilva7414]

I'm not surprised that many believers had a problem with his theology. The following is a summary of beliefs and influence of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as taken from some of the over 14 books and documents attributed to him: 1. He believed that "God is teaching us that we must live as men who can get along very well without Him. The God who is with us is the God who forsakes us." Bonhoeffer also believed that the concept of God as a "supreme Being, absolute in power and goodness," was a "spurious conception of transcendence," and that "God as a working hypothesis in morals, politics, and science ... should be dropped, or as far as possible eliminated" (Letters and Papers from Prison, S.C.M. Press edition, Great Britain: Fontana Books, 1953, pp. 122, 164, 360). 2. He believed that mankind had become of age and no longer needed religion, which was only a deceptive garment of true faith; he suggested the need for a "religionless Christianity." To Bonhoeffer, "the Christian is identified not by his beliefs, but by actions, by his participation in the suffering of God in the life of the world" (Letters and Papers from Prison, S.C.M. Press edition, Great Britain: Fontana Books, 1953, p. 163). Thus, Bonhoeffer's final writings have given impulse to Marxist theologians sponsoring "liberation theology" and to others wishing to promote a worldly social gospel. 3. He refused to discuss the origin of Christ, His relationship to the Father, His two natures, or even the relationship of the two natures. Bonhoeffer was adamant in his belief that it was impossible to know the objective truth about the real essence of Christ's being-nature (Christ the Center, pp. 30, 88, 100-101). 4. He questioned the Virgin Birth, and in reality denied it (The Cost of Discipleship, p. 215). 5. He denied the deity of Christ; he advocated that "Jesus Christ Today" is not a real person and being, but a "corporate presence" (Testimony to Freedom, pp. 75-76; Christ the Center, p. 58). 6. He denied the sinlessness of Christ's human nature and further questioned the sinlessness of His earthly behavior (Christ the Center, pp. 108-109). 7. He believed that Christ exists in three "revelatory forms" -- as Word, as sacrament, and as church. From asserting that Christ is the church, he followed that all persons in the church are identical with Christ (Christ the Center, p. 58; The Cost of Discipleship, p. 217). This amounts to pantheism! 8. He believed that Christianity is not exclusive, i.e., that Christ is not the only way to God (Testimony to Freedom, pp. 55-56). 9. He was a prominent figure in the early ecumenical movement, as evidenced through his associations with the "World Alliance for International Friendship" (a forerunner of the apostate World Council of Churches [WCC]), Union Theological Seminary, and Visser 't Hooft (who later became the first General Secretary of the WCC) (Testimony to Freedom, pp. 22, 212, 568). Bonhoeffer also reached out to Roman Catholics, prefiguring the broader ecumenism that blossomed after Vatican II in the mid-1960s. 10. He was a practical evolutionist (No Rusty Swords, p. 143), and believed that the book of Genesis was scientifically naive and full of myths (Creation and Fall: A Theological Interpretation of Genesis 1-3). 11. He adhered to neo-orthodox theology and terminology concerning salvation (Testimony to Freedom, p. 130), was a sacramentalist (Life Together, p. 122; The Way to Freedom, pp. 115, 153), believed in regenerational infant baptism (Letters and Papers from Prison, Macmillan, pp. 142-143) as well as adult baptismal regeneration (The Way to Freedom, p. 151), equated church membership with salvation (The Way to Freedom, p. 93), and denied a personal/individualistic salvation (Letters and Papers from Prison, Macmillan, p. 156). 12. He placed little or no value on the Old Testament --"... the faith of the Old Testament is not a religion of salvation" (Letters and Papers from Prison, S.C.M. Press edition, Great Britain: Fontana Books, 1953, p. 112). 13. He denied the verbal-plenary inspiration of Scripture, believing that the Bible was only a "witness" to the Word of God and becomes the Word of God only when it "speaks" to an individual; otherwise, it was simply the word of man/men (Testimony to Freedom, pp. 9, 104; Sanctorum Communio, p. 161). To Bonhoeffer, the Bible was meant "to be expounded as a witness, not as a book of wisdom, a teaching book, a book of eternal truth" (No Rusty Swords, p. 118). He also believed in the value of higher criticism/historical criticism, which is a denial of the inerrancy and authenticity of the Bible (Christ the Center, pp. 73-74). 14. He had no faith in the physical resurrection of Christ. Bonhoeffer believed the "historicity" of the Resurrection was in "the realm of ambiguity," and that it was one of the "mythological" elements of Christianity that "must be interpreted in such a way as not to make religion a pre-condition of faith." He also believed that "Belief in the Resurrection is not the solution of the problem of death," and that such things as miracles and the ascension of Christ were "mythological conceptions" as well (Christ the Center, p. 112; Letters and Papers from Prison, S.C.M. Press edition, Great Britain: Fontana Books, 1953, pp. 93-94, 110). - Dr. G. Archer Weniger declared, "If there is wholesome food in a garbage can, then one can find some good things in Bonhoeffer, but if it be dangerous to expect to find nourishment in a garbage can, then Bonhoeffer must be totally rejected and repudiated as blasphemy. It is worse than garbage" (FBF Information Bulletin, May 1977, p. 12).

[@noelhausler2911]

Thanks for the summary. I got the impression when Bonhoeffer attended Union Seminary that he found them too liberal especially Niebuhr. He attended Harlem church which seemed evangelical. Reading Ralph Garlin Clingan Against Cheap Grace in a World Come of Age: An intellectual Biography of Clayton Powell, 1965-1953. a comment " Harris favored Martin Luther's idea of each Christian as his own interpreter"

[@ashleysilva7414]

@@noelhausler2911 Yeah - lots of problems with Luther besides being antisemitic. The problem with the Protestants is that they didn't keep "protesting".:)

[@Shotts_Fired]

No where in page 215 does he question the virgin birth. Do you have another version? Do you know which chapter p. 215 is for you?

[@paulmuhle5840]

Not all of Metaxas' conclusions are sound. Their are better biographies than this one. Metaxas is a modern Deutsche Christian, believing in a white Jesus and those that do not believe in 'his white Jesus' should be imprisoned or put into concentration camps.

[@wolfman6649]

Please provide the evidence for your assertions.

[@paulmuhle5840]

@@wolfman6649 Read some of Metaxas' other works-pretty simple.

[@wolfman6649]

@@paulmuhle5840 I've never seen anything in Metaxes writing or teachings that would lead me to believe that he believes in "white Jesus" and that those who disagree should be thrown into concentration camps. Your response leads me to believe that you don't have any evidence of that.

[@paulmuhle5840]

@@wolfman6649 In July 2020, Eric Metaxas' tweeted that Jesus was white. Look it up.

[@antoniofred4536]

Nonsense