Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

by Eric Metaxas

connection to his church obligations. But he felt it vitally important to

Bonhoeffer’s words reveal that he was never what one might today term a culture warrior, nor could he easily be labeled conservative or liberal. He disagreed with Harnack’s liberal theological conclusions but agreed profoundly with the underlying assumptions that guided Harnack, and he rightly saw that these were more important than the conclusions to which they led. Anyone on the side of truth, wherever it led, was a compatriot to be lauded. This virtue had come to Bonhoeffer, in part, from Harnack and the liberal Grunewald tradition in which he had flourished, and Bonhoeffer was generous enough to see it and state it publicly. Bonhoeffer’s father was his primary mentor in this way of thinking. Karl Bonhoeffer’s conclusions may have been different from his son’s, but his respect for truth and for other human beings of different opinions formed the foundation of a civil society in which one might disagree graciously and might reason together civilly and productively. In the years ahead this would be seriously attacked, and the Nazis would stoke the fires of the culture wars (Kulturkampf) to play their enemies against each other. They would brilliantly co-opt the conservatives and the Christian churches, and when they had the power to do so, they would turn on them too.

The beginning and the end, O Lord, are thine; The span between, life, was mine. I wandered in the darkness and did not discover myself; With thee, O Lord, is clarity, and light is thy house. A short time only, and all is done; Then the whole struggle dies away to nothing. Then I will refresh myself by the waters of life, And will talk with Jesus for ever and ever.

The beginning and the end, O Lord, are thine; The span between, life, was mine. I wandered in the darkness and did not discover myself; With thee, O Lord, is clarity, and light is thy house. A short time only, and all is done; Then the whole struggle dies away to nothing. Then I will refresh myself by the waters of life, And will talk with Jesus for ever and ever.

“It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.”

Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.

have searched my conscience, before God and before myself.

being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will:

“Death is the supreme festival on the road to freedom.”

POWERS OF GOOD With every power for good to stay and guide me, comforted and inspired beyond all fear, I’ll live these days with you in thought beside me, and pass, with you, into the coming year. The old year still torments our hearts, unhastening; the long days of our sorrow still endure; Father, grant to the souls thou hast been chastening that thou hast promised, the healing and the cure. Should it be ours to drain the cup of grieving even to the dregs of pain, at thy command, we will not falter, thankfully receiving all that is given by thy loving hand. But should it be thy will once more to release us to life’s enjoyment and its good sunshine, that which we’ve learned from sorrow shall increase us, and all our life be dedicate as thine. Today, let candles shed their radiant greeting; lo, on our darkness are they not thy light leading us, haply, to our longed-for meeting? Thou canst illumine even our darkest night. When now the silence deepens for our hearkening, grant we may hear the children’s voices raise from all the unseen world around us darkening their universal paean, in thy praise. 498 While all the powers of good aid and attend us, boldly we’ll face the future, come what may. At even and at morn God will befriend us, and oh, most surely on each newborn day!

the only fight which is lost is that which we give up.