Bonhoeffer

[Mooky]

I have a copy of Eric Metaxas' book "Bonhoeffer." Am I wasting my time reading it and should I be aware of any apostate inclinations?

[LivelyHope]

Excellent read. Better than anything else I have read concerning Bonhoeffer. DH and I gained new understanding of the spiritual state of Germany before/during the war. Very worthwhile.

Enjoy!

[24thchance]

I have his Bio---and about 30 others.In thinking back on all the books I have read,hundreads of stories about faithfull Christians--one fact remains constant.If the book is detailed enough(always get the most detailed book available on a Christians life) you will find a flaw in his or her life.Not one Christian is gonna be perfect,deep down they all really will have a crazy belief or 2, and flaws as we all do---so read his bio,praise God for his faithfullness to stand tall in the nazi era,learn what you can then move on to the next biography.Bio,s are not doctrine,read the Bible for perfect doctrine,faith,and applied widson through understanding.

[SaintTexas]

We heard Eric Metaxes speak about him (and he has written a book about him as well) and watched a documentary on his life earlier this spring.

The documentary spoke a bit about his eucumenicalism, using that word, which caught my attention, but it was not in a negative way. It was to get Jews out and away from Hitler. Let me say two things. I agree with what is just said: look at any of our lives close enough, and you are going to see a flaw in following the Lord or in what we believe about what is in the Bible. It happens. We lean on our own understanding and don't always listen to or walk in the Holy Spirit. We are men being conformed to the image of Christ and are not perfect in these bodies. We make mistakes.

Second, his life from what we saw was devoted to Jesus Christ and he also seemed to share the Gospel. He was part of a group of men who got Jews out during the Holocaust and he eventually was martyred. I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to have done what this group of men did during that time and it made me humble in my assessment that I am unqualified to judge them and that Jesus is the only One Who can judge His servant's hearts.

I have many heroes in the faith. Corrie Ten Boom did not believe in a preTrib rapture and felt it left believers unprepared to endure persecution for the Lord. I believe she was sincere in this belief, loved Jesus Christ with all her heart, was used in mighty ministry for His glory, and could not disagree with her more on what the Bible teaches on this AND her assessment of what it does or does not do for the believer. She is still one of my heroes in the faith and I do not hold it against her and would still read something she wrote.

[acceptedintheBeloved]

If you're looking for cautions about Bonhoeffer, here's a link:

http://withchrist.org/mjs/bonhoeffer.htm

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER did not die for his faith in Christ, but rather for his participation in one of the plots to assassinate Adolph Hitler.

In his book, Creation and the Fall, he held that both [biblical Creation and the Fall of mankind] were myths and fairy tales.

In his book, No Rusty Swords, he wrote:

The New Testament bears witness in doctrine and history; it is nothing in itself, but bears witness of something else.

Its words and statements are not in themselves true and eternal and holy. The whole New Testament in all its parts is meant to be expounded as witness, not as a book of wisdom, a teaching book, a book of eternal truth. It is not a book which contains norms, doctrines, or eternal truths (p. 318).

Bonhoeffer followed Karl Barth in claiming that in the Incarnation God assumed not the flesh of man but the human "form," that is, humanity collectively:

The Son of God takes to himself the whole human race bodily, that race in its hatred of God and in the pride of its flesh has rejected the incorporeal, invisible Word of God. Now this humanity, in all its weakness, is, by the mercy of God, taken up in the Body of Jesus in true bodily form (Cost of Discipleship, p. 213).

Humanity has been made new in Jesus Christ, who became man, was crucified and rose again. What befell Christ befell all men, for Christ was a man (Ethics, p. 78).

The result of this argument is universal justification and reconciliation:

In Christ mankind is really drawn into communion with God, just as in Adam all mankind fell (The Communion of the Saints, p. 20).

All men are "with Christ" as a consequence of the Incarnation, for in the Incarnation Jesus bore our whole human nature (The Cost of Discipleship, p. 215).

To Bonhoeffer, the Virgin Birth was at best a symbol of the Incarnation:

Both historically and dogmatically the virgin birth can be questioned. The biblical witness is ambiguous (Christ in the Center, p. 105).

Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter, shortly before his death:

There is no longer any need for God as a working hypothesis, whether in morals, politics, science, philosophy, or religion. God is teaching us that we must learn to live as men who can get along very well without him. The God who is with us is the God who forsakes us. "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34). God is weak and powerless in the world and that is exactly the way, the only way, in which he can be with us and help us.

[SaintTexas]

Wow, Beloved. Thank you.
Absolutely none of this in any of the stuff we saw on him whatsoever.

Well, there you go. He was in jail because of the discovery of the plot to get Jews out though, if I am remembering correctly. I don't have the time to go back and relisten.

Just had my daughter read through the link as well and we talked about it and thanked the Lord right then and there for discernment ministries AND for Him always being ready to teach us and set us straight on things that He might be glorified. My daughter was very touched by what we had seen so far, and one of the things we talked about was never letting men be idolized in our hearts for their faith in Jesus Christ with an honor that only He deserves but to learn that those who are named in the Word of God are done so because of the One they placed their faith in.

Really, really appreciate the link.

[acceptedintheBeloved]

Wow, Beloved. Thank you.
Absolutely none of this in any of the stuff we saw on him whatsoever.

Well, there you go. He was in jail because of the discovery of the plot to get Jews out though, if I am remembering correctly. I don't have the time to go back and relisten.

Just had my daughter read through the link as well and we talked about it and thanked the Lord right then and there for discernment ministries AND for Him always being ready to teach us and set us straight on things that He might be glorified. My daughter was very touched by what we had seen so far, and one of the things we talked about was never letting men be idolized in our hearts for their faith in Jesus Christ with an honor that only He deserves but to learn that those who are named in the Word of God are done so because of the One they placed their faith in.

Really, really appreciate the link.

[Mooky]

If you're looking for cautions about Bonhoeffer, here's a link:

http://withchrist.org/mjs/bonhoeffer.htm

Thank you. I guess I'll read it as the biography it is and not the Gospel. That's the awareness I was looking for.