December 8, 2024 • 28 mins
What does a theologian, a spy, and a martyr have in common? Everything—if you’re talking about Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
In this special episode of Revival Radio TV, host Gene Bailey dives deep into the life and legacy of Bonhoeffer, the man who stood against Nazi tyranny with unwavering faith. Discover how his bold actions, profound writings, and ultimate sacrifice continue to inspire believers today.
What can we learn from Bonhoeffer’s courage and commitment in our generation? How can his story spark a revival in our hearts and communities? Watch now to uncover the powerful truths behind one of history’s most compelling spiritual leaders.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
♪
In every generation,
there have been revivals,
massive moves of the Spirit
that changed thecourse of history.
In every revival,
there were believers like you
who chose to answer the call
to become the one intheir generation.
(00:20):
Discover your callto be the one
in your generation.
♪
Welcome to avery special edition
of RevivalRadio TV.
I'm your host,Gene Bailey.
Let me pose aquestion to you.
What does a cloak anddagger spy story have to do
(00:42):
with the Gospel or revivals?
I mean, after all, thisis Revival Radio TV.
But wait, we also have adouble spy story for you.
But once again, what if Itold you it was set
against a struggle that's facingthe church right now today?
It's going to be exciting.
We've got a mystery to unlock.
(01:05):
[Greg Stephens] One of thegreatest minds ever on the planet said
there's nothing newunder the sun.
In 2 Corinthians 4:8 inthe New Living Testament,
it says we're pressed onevery side by troubles,
but we're not crushed.
We're perplexed, butnot driven to despair.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is going tohave to face some things
(01:26):
that will challenge his faith inGod, his faith in his country,
his faith in himself.
At the turn of the 20th century,Germany was in its golden age.
German society was consideredthe intellectual leaders,
the new enlightened Europe, andit was an exciting time
(01:46):
to be a German.
From the late 1870s to 1917,the liberal takeover of German
society was calledKulturkampf, or culture war.
It was atheist leftists versusChristian conservatives,
just like we seein America today.
Now this started half-a-centurybefore the Nazis,
(02:07):
and it was a tear ofculture between leftism
and the traditional church.
When we talk liberal theology,one constant these pastors had
was each set aside the ideathe Bible was literally true.
As we exploreDietrich Bonhoeffer,
you might ask yourself, whatdoes this have to do
with Christianity?
(02:29):
Simply, it's salt and light.
Jesus said you arethe salt of the earth,
but if the salt haslost its flavor,
how shall it be seasoned?
It's then good for nothing.
Yet this was a time ofoptimism and possibilities.
The German speaking culture wasat the forefront of European
society in science, industry,and even philosophy.
(02:51):
From Germany toAustria, coffee shops,
taverns and salons became placeswhere progressive university
ideas emerged and took form.
In the middle of this culturewar, the Church stood.
What were they to do withthese new leftist values?
This Bonhoeffer story ofinspiration, courage,
(03:13):
and faith is a warningto our generation.
Because in the rootsof this culture war,
we find that these same ideasare the very same
spiritual battles thatwe're fighting today.
Well, let me introduce you toa guy that was pressed
on every side, but hewas not crushed.
He remained the one, evenin the darkest of times.
(03:35):
His name wasDietrich Bonhoeffer.
He was born in 1906 in Germany.
His faith came from his motherwho's part of the Moravian
prayer revival a hundred yearsbefore his mother's faith.
She couldn't ignore because ofher faith what was happening
in her country tothe Jewish people,
even at the cost of almosther own children dying.
(03:56):
They were a very large family,very celebrated German
aristocrats, and his maternalgrandfather was a preacher
in the court ofKaiser Wilhelm II.
His father was awell-known professor
at the Universityof Berlin.
They have allthe right pedigree,
much like theapostle Paul,
who I quotedat the very beginning of this.
(04:16):
His father's famous fordiscoveries in neurology
and psychiatry.
And he was encouraged to read.
He was also anaccomplished pianist.
His family thought that maybethat would be his career.
So, they weren't sohappy when he said, "No,
I want to be a preacher."But nonetheless,
Dietrich enrolled at theUniversity of Berlin in 1927
at the age of 21.
Age of 21, he got his PhD.
(04:39):
He couldn't be aLutheran minister
until he was 25 years old.
So what'd he do?
He traveled the world.
He wasn't impressed withwhat he found in Rome,
or even in the Americas.
The American liberal theologywasn't what the fundamentalist
were all about, and theliberals were against it,
but there's somethinghe discovered.
It was in a Black Baptistchurch in Harlem,
(05:00):
he found a move of theSpirit taking place,
and he got to knowJesus in a way
he'd never thought hewould know.
And he found a connection to theLord that the German church
that he grew up in hadn'texperienced before.
He heard about troublebrewing in his home,
and he felt he needed to takea stand with the church
and make changes.
Basically, he decided tobecome salt and light.
(05:23):
So, he heads backto his homeland.
He heads back to Germany.
Well, what happens?
In World War I, ithit Germany very hard.
They lost everything.
In the Treaty of Versailles,Germany was really debt ridden,
and they removed their monarchy.
The entire economy ofthe nation collapsed.
Whenever there's a vacuum,a void will be filled.
(05:44):
Adolf Hitler will becomethat filler of the void.
He's gaining power.
His brand new thing calledthe Nazi party
is in the middle ofchaos and problems.
The Nazis seemed to have a plan.
They were going toget out of this.
One pastor was even knownto state that Christ
has come to usthrough Adolf Hitler.
Well, Hitler's Mein Kampfhad been published
(06:06):
about eight years earlier.
It laid out his plan.
But so many people who readit really didn't believe it.
Didn't matter that he didn'tlike Jews or that he complained
about political leaders.
Would we go with him andchange this or will we stand
in what we've had before?
People got really serious aboutHitler with two signed documents
that forever changed Germany.
(06:29):
They removed the constitutionalrights of the people and created
a dictatorship that would createwhat we know as World War II
and the death camps.
You need to understandthis about the Nazis.
The Nazis weren't right-wingers.
They were the socialist left.
It's the DemocraticSocialist Party of Germany.
Let me make it this way.
(06:51):
If you're goingdown a train track,
when you have two tracksequal going together.
And then let's say there's aswitch there and it sends
the track this way, and thisone goes to this way.
Communism is a leftof Nazi-ism, fascism,
which is left of capitalism.
They're both left ofwhat we would know
(07:13):
as right wingers today.
Now they call fascistsright wingers,
but they weren't right wing.
They were left of whatwe know here in America.
The church struggles.
Do we make peace with theNazis who hated communism,
because we hate communism.
Would we throw in oursupport with them,
and maybe this willrestore things like it was
before the Versailles Treaty?
(07:34):
The liberal Germanchurch said, yes.
Is morality moreimportant than the Word?
The large number of liberalmainstream Christians
treated the Bible reallyas literary mythology
over being the anointedholy Word of God.
They were about moral good over
following the edictsof the Bible.
The morality let them tolerateseparate but equal treatment
(07:55):
of their own citizens whohappened to be Jewish.
The Jews were discriminatedagainst from even being
good citizens supportingtheir nation.
Do you understandthat in World War II,
many Jewish people had foughtfor Germany in World War I,
and now they'rebeing ostracized.
Who knew those Jews wouldbe sent to the death camps?
Not everyone decided to toleratethe new policy shakeups.
(08:18):
And some people spoke up.
One indicator that thisis a spiritual battle
is that antisemitismwas involved.
God chose to bring about Hisplan of salvation through
Abraham and the Jews.
Satan has historically tried todestroy the Jewish people
(08:39):
all throughout history.
So naturally, Satan was usingthe Nazis to destroy the Jews.
But to the average GermanChristians who had up to now
been silent in all this turmoil,this was not their Germany.
It was not theirfathers' Germany.
It was all changing rapidly, andthey realized the church
(09:00):
was not there blockingsociety from going where it shouldn't go.
The church had lostboth its saltiness,
and the church's voiceappeared too late.
But God had a remnant, aremnant of believers
who began to speak out.
(09:22):
Let me tell you about a man.
His name was August Landmesser.
I love this guy.
One day he spoke up.
He was a memberof the Nazi party.
He was a union member,worked in the shipyards.
And one day they were, theywere pushing the ship off,
and they were dedicating it,and they were all doing
the Heil Hitler salute,except August.
(09:44):
It shows him likethis in the picture.
And it reminds meof that moment.
Everybody else was saluting,and he folded his arms.
Why'd he do that?
Because he had been accused ofnot being true to the party
because his wifehappens to be Jewish.
He stands there with his armsfolded while everybody else
salutes, and I callit a Daniel moment.
(10:05):
When everybody else bowedtheir knee, he was the one,
and he refused to do the salute.
We don't hear fromhim after that.
Again, we can only surmise thathe died somewhere after 1941.
As the rift in Germansociety widened,
not everyone in Germany was apart of this leftist doctrine.
(10:26):
More and more of what wewould call traditional
German Christians were seeingthe changes in their society
that they just couldn'tgo along with,
things likethe increased secularization of society,
where thechurch just
wasn't relevantanymore.
See the schools hadbecome secularized a generation before,
(10:46):
and the introduction of Darwin'steaching of evolution
had eliminated theconcept of a creator,
even the concept of a God.
And of course, this ledto a generation
who didn't believe in God.
Furthermore, the seculargeneration was adrift
spiritually and people wereturning to spiritualists,
having seances and reviving theold Pagan Germanic religions.
(11:12):
And it was in thisspiritual vacuum
that all this was happening.
Remember it was also in theaftermath of the terrible deaths
and destructionof World War I,
where Germany was devastated.
In this spiritual vacuumcame the threat
of the rise of communism.
And on the other side ofthe political spectrum,
(11:33):
were the socialist andtheir dictatorial takeover,
and systematic eliminationof their opposition.
And even worse, they wereslowly taking over control
of the German churches.
Let me make it clear, becausethe church wasn't doing what
Jesus said, "Occupy until Icome," a power vacuum arose
(11:55):
that gave room forDarwinism, communism,
and socialism to riseup and take control.
Revival came, but wasit too late for Germany?
[Greg Stephens] Anothersuch person who spoke up
was Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
He's a young Lutheran pastor.
He had to make a decision.
He's 26 years old whenHitler comes to power.
(12:18):
Is he just one more newleader running the country?
How long is this going to last?
Will there be anotherleader behind him?
What kind of real powerdoes this leader
have over our country?
Within days, Bonhoeffer wason the radio blasting
this new regime.
He warns the Germansagainst trusting Hitler.
Murdering masses of peoplewas not even mentioned.
(12:40):
On the broadcast, he all reallycriticized the concept
of the furor, and in particular,the danger of idolatry.
Even in that time withhis radio broadcast,
he was cut off in mid-sentence.
Cancel culture was partof the fascist of Germany.
(13:00):
Was this the furor'spower beginning to show,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is goingto raise the first voice
for Christians to resist Nazipersecution of the Jews?
He said this, "The church mustnot simply bandage the victims
under the wheel, but youhave to jam a spoke
in the wheel itself."
The Lord moved on him,and other believing Christians
(13:20):
to create what they calleda confessing church.
Or in other words, a Christianchurch who believed Jesus
was Lord, and began to do whatHe did and speak like He did.
The Nazi leaders were very,very good at taking over
and controlling everyaspect of society.
That's what fascism is about.
It's the corporations comingalongside the government,
(13:44):
and the church comingalongside of that.
Because of Luther, thechurch was the heart
and core of their country.
To be a German, was tobe part of Martin Luther,
even not being a state runchurch since the Reformation,
being German meantthat I'm a Christian.
The Nazis knew if theycloud their policies
within the church andthe corporate structure,
(14:04):
it'd be more palatableto the German public.
Bonhoeffer and his churchmovement resisted that takeover.
[Gene Bailey] German societybegan to split after 1860.
In fact, we see this happeningall over the Western world,
but it happened inGermany much faster,
because German society hadbeen so indoctrinated
(14:27):
in the European enlightenment.
God was becoming less of apart of the foundations
of intellectual society.
Then somethinghistoric happened.
In fact, you can pinpointwhen German society changed
direction, and it was this book,the first German translation
of Darwin's The Originof Species.
(14:50):
It was published in 1860.
It was translatedby Heinrich Braun,
a naturalist and paleontologist.
Braun did not entirelyagree with Darwin,
but on one vitalpoint they did agree.
There was no God, no creator,man had evolved by totally
natural unguided means.
(15:11):
Were we just animals?
Was it science or was itjust moral philosophy?
One thing's for sure,removing God from society
has moral consequences.
[Greg Stephens] How couldthe Church of Germany,
these prosperousthriving nation,
how could theybecome so divided?
(15:31):
How could it split?
How could the church becomesso blinded by things?
We have to go back tothe 1800s and the 1860s.
Darwinism.
Darwinism isembraced in Germany.
It is not embraced,but hugged and kissed.
And what it did,is it caused the split between the Church.
(15:52):
The Church wentreally liberal on one side,
and the otherside became more fundamentalists like Bonhoeffer,
more of afundamentalist.
Now this isthe Word.
This is what's true.
And that split will leadus into World War I,
but survival of the fittestwill become an Anthem
in World War II, and the factthat we're the Aryan race,
(16:13):
we're superior to otherraces by evolution.
So the theory of evolutionis what precipitated
all of this in Germany.
[Gene Bailey] There are so manyparallels to what the Church
is facing today, and here's why.
It was a spiritual battle.
The church was split betweenthe liberal and Bible-believing
(16:34):
Christians, and the government
was trying to silencethe church.
The German Churchwaited too long to act.
So Bonhoeffer hadto go underground.
But for us, today is the day.
Now is the time forthe church to act.
The church needs to use itsspiritual authority to occupy
(16:55):
its rightful place, to ensurethere's freedom to preach
the Gospel, and stop evil fromadvancing in the world.
[Greg Stephens] DuringBonhoeffer's time, the leaders,
including church leaders, riggedelections to take over
the churches in Germany.
It was a time to silenceand mute the voice.
(17:16):
Shut down the oppositionof the church.
They applied the Aryan paragraphof a document that said,
"Any pastor or church clerkwith any Jewish blood at all,
had to be removed from churchleadership immediately."
They even demanded the removal... Listen to this,
are you ready?
For the Old Testamentfrom the Bible.
(17:37):
When the church'srights are removed,
do I sit back and do nothing,or do I try something?
Bonhoeffer tries to get help.
He goes to Londonto gain support.
And the Nazi regime blendingwith Christian Gospel
was unacceptable.
He knew that.
A bishop who was in charge ofthe German Lutheran
(17:57):
Church's affairs at thetime, foreign affairs,
will travel to Londonand he tells Bonhoeffer,
you have to stop this,but Bonhoeffer refused.
And shortly thereafter, thisbishop got Bonhoeffer stripped
of his authority to teachat the University of Berlin.
He was denounced as a pacifistand an enemy of the state.
(18:20):
When you can't doChristianity openly,
when you can't express yourfaith freely, what do you do?
And I think we're sensingthat right now, aren't we?
The next two years, he willtravel secretly throughout
Eastern Germany.
He's going to meetwith students.
He's going to continueto teach the Gospel.
His seminary on the run wasa way to supervise students,
(18:40):
encourage them, don'tgive up, never give up.
Nazi oppression isclamping down everywhere,
yet he's quoted assaying, "Action springs,
not from the thought, but from areadiness of responsibility."
By 1938, the Gestapo had bannedBonhoeffer from Berlin.
And by 1940, theybanned his seminary.
(19:02):
Harassment againsthim will increase.
Ephesians chapter six tells usto put on the full armor of God,
so you're able tostand, like August did,
against the schemesof the devil.
He's forbidden to speakin public altogether.
He's ordered to report to thepolice weekly to give
an account of his activities.
He was forbidden toprint or to publish,
(19:24):
kind of like you are onsocial media platforms.
You're banned, you're canceled.
It's very eerie tosee the similarities.
During this time Bonhoeffer'sbrother-in-law introduces him
to the Germanresistance movement.
He learns of their plan totry to overthrow Hitler.
He joins this movement.
He discovers the full-scaleatrocities that the Nazis
(19:47):
did killing Jews and others.
He'd realized that the scriptureteaches him to be steadfast
and movable, always aboundingin the work of the Lord.
And that's his moral dilemma.
Do I decide toabsolutely tell no lies
and take theconsequences that yet...
Do I become a doubleagent for the resistance,
which is the greater good?
(20:07):
How far is too far?
Why am I even in this position?
[Gene Bailey] With his backagainst the wall for Bonhoeffer,
the time of action had come.
It was the moment where he felthe had no other option
but to act.
And this action allowed him tocontinue his underground
church work while he activelyworked for change.
(20:28):
But what would hesay to us today?
"Don't wait until it's too late.
Act now using yourspiritual authority,
for we do not wrestleagainst flesh and blood,
but against principalities,against powers,
against the rulers of thedarkness of this age,
against spiritual hosts ofwickedness in the heavenly places."
(20:50):
Ephesians 6:12.
He's so angry, he agreesto become a double agent.
So sometimes it's hard when youread the records to know
what's the truth and what's not.
He and his brother-in-law meetwith the other churches
in Europe, working to saveas many Jews as possible
and he writes to men ofinfluence outside of Germany,
to work towards a postHitler, peaceful transition.
(21:14):
And that's what we'vegot to do today.
We've got to realize this isnot going to last forever,
and that we're going to be theone to begin to plan
for a peaceful transition.
First Corinthians teachesus be on the alert,
stand firm in the faith,act like men, be strong.
On April the fifth, 1943,Bonhoeffer's arrested.
(21:36):
He spends the next year and ahalf in prison awaiting trial.
Now his uncle runs the jail, sohe's able to continue working
on his writings and he meetswith his fiance of three months,
they're about to be married.
He's even offered a chanceto escape, but chose not to,
in case the Nazis went afterhis fiance or his family.
(21:56):
He's only expected to bein jail for a few months.
And on July the 20th, 1944,Operation Valkyrie took place.
It was an attempt to overthrowHitler, to assassinate him.
And it failed.
Over 7,000 men werearrested because of that.
Secret documentswere discovered.
Bonhoeffer was accused of beingassociated with the conspirators
(22:18):
and the SS secretly moved himfrom the concentration camp
on April the 4th, 1945.
The diaries of the Admiral, thehead of the resistance
were discovered, andin a fit of rage,
Hitler demanded the executionof all of the conspirators.
Bonhoeffer's uncle isone of the first to die.
When Bonhoeffer heard this,much like maybe Jesus was
(22:42):
when He heard aboutJohn's arrest.
He realized this is the end,yet it's the beginning of life.
[Gene Bailey] It hadn't turnedout the way that the church
and Bonhoeffer had hoped.
Germany was being systematicallydestroyed by war.
It had been a terrible price,but hope was always there.
The prayers had been unceasing.
(23:04):
And finally the light atthe end of the tunnel
of this long nightmarewas insight.
[Greg Stephens] Think aboutthis, with the only two weeks,
two weeks, 14 daysbefore the allies reach
the prison camp he's in.
He could hear the guns,he could hear them coming.
Everyday the fighting armoriesare getting closer and closer.
(23:27):
Any day, any morning, the tanksare going to roll in here,
down this road, I'mgoing to be free.
Maybe today.
All the prisoners probablywould thought that,
may today be the day.
Perhaps this long nightmarewill finally be over.
On a cold gray morning,
Bonhoeffer wascondemned to hang.
(23:47):
There was no trial, nowitnesses, no defense.
They secretly held a tribunaland it sealed his fate.
He stayed, he actually went backto Germany to make a change.
He stayed trying tosave his own family.
He'd saved Jews and otherpeople who were persecuted,
like so many martyrs before him.
He was led to the gallowsand laid down his life
(24:10):
for what he believed.
Let me tell you something,his faith never failed him.
As a witness was true, he hadchosen to be the one
in his generation.
Even as he secretlyworked to save others,
he preached as he lived.
He became the inspirationfor Christians.
We're talking about him today.
(24:31):
In 2008, the General Conferenceof the United Methodist Church
officiallyrecognized Bonhoeffer as a modern day martyr.
He's the firstmartyr to be named since the Reformation.
DietrichBonhoeffer lived what he believed.
He didn't just talkit, he lived it.
(24:55):
[Gene Bailey] Another Germanpastor named Martin Niemöller,
began to wrestle withinhimself after the war.
What had he doneduring the Holocaust?
Could he have made adifference before the war?
He had been arrested, butsurvived the concentration camp.
He was a part of the liberalGerman Church that had suffered
a rude awakening.
(25:15):
And realized his onlyhope was to turn to God.
He wrote this, "Firstthey came to communism,
and I did not speak outbecause I was not a communist.
Then they came forthe socialists
and I did not speak out,because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the tradeunions, and I did not speak out,
(25:36):
because I was nota trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no oneleft to speak for me."
If you takeanything from this story,
let it be that ideashave consequences.
(26:00):
The enemy Satan, has cleverlyused and designed philosophies
to stop God's planfor salvation.
This has been goingon since before Jesus.
And Darwinism is just oneof the latest, however,
most effectiveof these ideas, because it gives scientific
license for racismand replacing God's law with survival
(26:23):
of the fittest.
It's been like an acid that'scorroded every part of society
by replacing God with man.
Today, the church is stillfighting the same fight
that Bonhoeffer fought, but nowit's fall on us to pick up
our sword of the Spirit, theWord of God, and speak out.
Take our authority that wasgiven to the church
(26:46):
to take action.
This is such aninspirational story,
but to honor Bonhoeffer'sultimate sacrifice,
let it reverberate in us,
like all the martyrs ofthe church of old.
Think about it.
How would you react inthat very same situation?
Would you think of the greatChristians who have given
(27:07):
so much for the Gospel?
The time is now.
Now's the time to speak the Wordin authority, stand in faith,
and to believe that God's Wordwill indeed come to pass.
Jesus said, "The gates ofhell shall not prevail
against the church."
(27:28):
That's nota defensive stance,
it's an offensive attackon the gates of hell,
that cannot stop a Biblebelieving Word speaking church
that operates in prayer.
So come along with me.
God is calling to us now.
Calling to you to climb thathill that's set before us
as a society, as salt and light.
(27:50):
To climb that hill setbefore you personally,
and as a call to be theone in your generation.
We'll see you next time,
right here onRevival Radio TV.
♪
♪
In every generation,
there have been revivals,
massive moves of the Spirit
that changed thecourse of history.
In every revival,
there were believers like you
who chose to answer the call
to become the one intheir generation.
(00:20):
Discover your callto be the one
in your generation.
♪
Welcome to avery special edition
of RevivalRadio TV.
I'm your host,Gene Bailey.
Let me pose aquestion to you.
What does a cloak anddagger spy story have to do
(00:42):
with the Gospel or revivals?
I mean, after all, thisis Revival Radio TV.
But wait, we also have adouble spy story for you.
But once again, what if Itold you it was set
against a struggle that's facingthe church right now today?
It's going to be exciting.
We've got a mystery to unlock.
(01:05):
[Greg Stephens] One of thegreatest minds ever on the planet said
there's nothing newunder the sun.
In 2 Corinthians 4:8 inthe New Living Testament,
it says we're pressed onevery side by troubles,
but we're not crushed.
We're perplexed, butnot driven to despair.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is going tohave to face some things
(01:26):
that will challenge his faith inGod, his faith in his country,
his faith in himself.
At the turn of the 20th century,Germany was in its golden age.
German society was consideredthe intellectual leaders,
the new enlightened Europe, andit was an exciting time
(01:46):
to be a German.
From the late 1870s to 1917,the liberal takeover of German
society was calledKulturkampf, or culture war.
It was atheist leftists versusChristian conservatives,
just like we seein America today.
Now this started half-a-centurybefore the Nazis,
(02:07):
and it was a tear ofculture between leftism
and the traditional church.
When we talk liberal theology,one constant these pastors had
was each set aside the ideathe Bible was literally true.
As we exploreDietrich Bonhoeffer,
you might ask yourself, whatdoes this have to do
with Christianity?
(02:29):
Simply, it's salt and light.
Jesus said you arethe salt of the earth,
but if the salt haslost its flavor,
how shall it be seasoned?
It's then good for nothing.
Yet this was a time ofoptimism and possibilities.
The German speaking culture wasat the forefront of European
society in science, industry,and even philosophy.
(02:51):
From Germany toAustria, coffee shops,
taverns and salons became placeswhere progressive university
ideas emerged and took form.
In the middle of this culturewar, the Church stood.
What were they to do withthese new leftist values?
This Bonhoeffer story ofinspiration, courage,
(03:13):
and faith is a warningto our generation.
Because in the rootsof this culture war,
we find that these same ideasare the very same
spiritual battles thatwe're fighting today.
Well, let me introduce you toa guy that was pressed
on every side, but hewas not crushed.
He remained the one, evenin the darkest of times.
(03:35):
His name wasDietrich Bonhoeffer.
He was born in 1906 in Germany.
His faith came from his motherwho's part of the Moravian
prayer revival a hundred yearsbefore his mother's faith.
She couldn't ignore because ofher faith what was happening
in her country tothe Jewish people,
even at the cost of almosther own children dying.
(03:56):
They were a very large family,very celebrated German
aristocrats, and his maternalgrandfather was a preacher
in the court ofKaiser Wilhelm II.
His father was awell-known professor
at the Universityof Berlin.
They have allthe right pedigree,
much like theapostle Paul,
who I quotedat the very beginning of this.
(04:16):
His father's famous fordiscoveries in neurology
and psychiatry.
And he was encouraged to read.
He was also anaccomplished pianist.
His family thought that maybethat would be his career.
So, they weren't sohappy when he said, "No,
I want to be a preacher."But nonetheless,
Dietrich enrolled at theUniversity of Berlin in 1927
at the age of 21.
Age of 21, he got his PhD.
(04:39):
He couldn't be aLutheran minister
until he was 25 years old.
So what'd he do?
He traveled the world.
He wasn't impressed withwhat he found in Rome,
or even in the Americas.
The American liberal theologywasn't what the fundamentalist
were all about, and theliberals were against it,
but there's somethinghe discovered.
It was in a Black Baptistchurch in Harlem,
(05:00):
he found a move of theSpirit taking place,
and he got to knowJesus in a way
he'd never thought hewould know.
And he found a connection to theLord that the German church
that he grew up in hadn'texperienced before.
He heard about troublebrewing in his home,
and he felt he needed to takea stand with the church
and make changes.
Basically, he decided tobecome salt and light.
(05:23):
So, he heads backto his homeland.
He heads back to Germany.
Well, what happens?
In World War I, ithit Germany very hard.
They lost everything.
In the Treaty of Versailles,Germany was really debt ridden,
and they removed their monarchy.
The entire economy ofthe nation collapsed.
Whenever there's a vacuum,a void will be filled.
(05:44):
Adolf Hitler will becomethat filler of the void.
He's gaining power.
His brand new thing calledthe Nazi party
is in the middle ofchaos and problems.
The Nazis seemed to have a plan.
They were going toget out of this.
One pastor was even knownto state that Christ
has come to usthrough Adolf Hitler.
Well, Hitler's Mein Kampfhad been published
(06:06):
about eight years earlier.
It laid out his plan.
But so many people who readit really didn't believe it.
Didn't matter that he didn'tlike Jews or that he complained
about political leaders.
Would we go with him andchange this or will we stand
in what we've had before?
People got really serious aboutHitler with two signed documents
that forever changed Germany.
(06:29):
They removed the constitutionalrights of the people and created
a dictatorship that would createwhat we know as World War II
and the death camps.
You need to understandthis about the Nazis.
The Nazis weren't right-wingers.
They were the socialist left.
It's the DemocraticSocialist Party of Germany.
Let me make it this way.
(06:51):
If you're goingdown a train track,
when you have two tracksequal going together.
And then let's say there's aswitch there and it sends
the track this way, and thisone goes to this way.
Communism is a leftof Nazi-ism, fascism,
which is left of capitalism.
They're both left ofwhat we would know
(07:13):
as right wingers today.
Now they call fascistsright wingers,
but they weren't right wing.
They were left of whatwe know here in America.
The church struggles.
Do we make peace with theNazis who hated communism,
because we hate communism.
Would we throw in oursupport with them,
and maybe this willrestore things like it was
before the Versailles Treaty?
(07:34):
The liberal Germanchurch said, yes.
Is morality moreimportant than the Word?
The large number of liberalmainstream Christians
treated the Bible reallyas literary mythology
over being the anointedholy Word of God.
They were about moral good over
following the edictsof the Bible.
The morality let them tolerateseparate but equal treatment
(07:55):
of their own citizens whohappened to be Jewish.
The Jews were discriminatedagainst from even being
good citizens supportingtheir nation.
Do you understandthat in World War II,
many Jewish people had foughtfor Germany in World War I,
and now they'rebeing ostracized.
Who knew those Jews wouldbe sent to the death camps?
Not everyone decided to toleratethe new policy shakeups.
(08:18):
And some people spoke up.
One indicator that thisis a spiritual battle
is that antisemitismwas involved.
God chose to bring about Hisplan of salvation through
Abraham and the Jews.
Satan has historically tried todestroy the Jewish people
(08:39):
all throughout history.
So naturally, Satan was usingthe Nazis to destroy the Jews.
But to the average GermanChristians who had up to now
been silent in all this turmoil,this was not their Germany.
It was not theirfathers' Germany.
It was all changing rapidly, andthey realized the church
(09:00):
was not there blockingsociety from going where it shouldn't go.
The church had lostboth its saltiness,
and the church's voiceappeared too late.
But God had a remnant, aremnant of believers
who began to speak out.
(09:22):
Let me tell you about a man.
His name was August Landmesser.
I love this guy.
One day he spoke up.
He was a memberof the Nazi party.
He was a union member,worked in the shipyards.
And one day they were, theywere pushing the ship off,
and they were dedicating it,and they were all doing
the Heil Hitler salute,except August.
(09:44):
It shows him likethis in the picture.
And it reminds meof that moment.
Everybody else was saluting,and he folded his arms.
Why'd he do that?
Because he had been accused ofnot being true to the party
because his wifehappens to be Jewish.
He stands there with his armsfolded while everybody else
salutes, and I callit a Daniel moment.
(10:05):
When everybody else bowedtheir knee, he was the one,
and he refused to do the salute.
We don't hear fromhim after that.
Again, we can only surmise thathe died somewhere after 1941.
As the rift in Germansociety widened,
not everyone in Germany was apart of this leftist doctrine.
(10:26):
More and more of what wewould call traditional
German Christians were seeingthe changes in their society
that they just couldn'tgo along with,
things likethe increased secularization of society,
where thechurch just
wasn't relevantanymore.
See the schools hadbecome secularized a generation before,
(10:46):
and the introduction of Darwin'steaching of evolution
had eliminated theconcept of a creator,
even the concept of a God.
And of course, this ledto a generation
who didn't believe in God.
Furthermore, the seculargeneration was adrift
spiritually and people wereturning to spiritualists,
having seances and reviving theold Pagan Germanic religions.
(11:12):
And it was in thisspiritual vacuum
that all this was happening.
Remember it was also in theaftermath of the terrible deaths
and destructionof World War I,
where Germany was devastated.
In this spiritual vacuumcame the threat
of the rise of communism.
And on the other side ofthe political spectrum,
(11:33):
were the socialist andtheir dictatorial takeover,
and systematic eliminationof their opposition.
And even worse, they wereslowly taking over control
of the German churches.
Let me make it clear, becausethe church wasn't doing what
Jesus said, "Occupy until Icome," a power vacuum arose
(11:55):
that gave room forDarwinism, communism,
and socialism to riseup and take control.
Revival came, but wasit too late for Germany?
[Greg Stephens] Anothersuch person who spoke up
was Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
He's a young Lutheran pastor.
He had to make a decision.
He's 26 years old whenHitler comes to power.
(12:18):
Is he just one more newleader running the country?
How long is this going to last?
Will there be anotherleader behind him?
What kind of real powerdoes this leader
have over our country?
Within days, Bonhoeffer wason the radio blasting
this new regime.
He warns the Germansagainst trusting Hitler.
Murdering masses of peoplewas not even mentioned.
(12:40):
On the broadcast, he all reallycriticized the concept
of the furor, and in particular,the danger of idolatry.
Even in that time withhis radio broadcast,
he was cut off in mid-sentence.
Cancel culture was partof the fascist of Germany.
(13:00):
Was this the furor'spower beginning to show,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is goingto raise the first voice
for Christians to resist Nazipersecution of the Jews?
He said this, "The church mustnot simply bandage the victims
under the wheel, but youhave to jam a spoke
in the wheel itself."
The Lord moved on him,and other believing Christians
(13:20):
to create what they calleda confessing church.
Or in other words, a Christianchurch who believed Jesus
was Lord, and began to do whatHe did and speak like He did.
The Nazi leaders were very,very good at taking over
and controlling everyaspect of society.
That's what fascism is about.
It's the corporations comingalongside the government,
(13:44):
and the church comingalongside of that.
Because of Luther, thechurch was the heart
and core of their country.
To be a German, was tobe part of Martin Luther,
even not being a state runchurch since the Reformation,
being German meantthat I'm a Christian.
The Nazis knew if theycloud their policies
within the church andthe corporate structure,
(14:04):
it'd be more palatableto the German public.
Bonhoeffer and his churchmovement resisted that takeover.
[Gene Bailey] German societybegan to split after 1860.
In fact, we see this happeningall over the Western world,
but it happened inGermany much faster,
because German society hadbeen so indoctrinated
(14:27):
in the European enlightenment.
God was becoming less of apart of the foundations
of intellectual society.
Then somethinghistoric happened.
In fact, you can pinpointwhen German society changed
direction, and it was this book,the first German translation
of Darwin's The Originof Species.
(14:50):
It was published in 1860.
It was translatedby Heinrich Braun,
a naturalist and paleontologist.
Braun did not entirelyagree with Darwin,
but on one vitalpoint they did agree.
There was no God, no creator,man had evolved by totally
natural unguided means.
(15:11):
Were we just animals?
Was it science or was itjust moral philosophy?
One thing's for sure,removing God from society
has moral consequences.
[Greg Stephens] How couldthe Church of Germany,
these prosperousthriving nation,
how could theybecome so divided?
(15:31):
How could it split?
How could the church becomesso blinded by things?
We have to go back tothe 1800s and the 1860s.
Darwinism.
Darwinism isembraced in Germany.
It is not embraced,but hugged and kissed.
And what it did,is it caused the split between the Church.
(15:52):
The Church wentreally liberal on one side,
and the otherside became more fundamentalists like Bonhoeffer,
more of afundamentalist.
Now this isthe Word.
This is what's true.
And that split will leadus into World War I,
but survival of the fittestwill become an Anthem
in World War II, and the factthat we're the Aryan race,
(16:13):
we're superior to otherraces by evolution.
So the theory of evolutionis what precipitated
all of this in Germany.
[Gene Bailey] There are so manyparallels to what the Church
is facing today, and here's why.
It was a spiritual battle.
The church was split betweenthe liberal and Bible-believing
(16:34):
Christians, and the government
was trying to silencethe church.
The German Churchwaited too long to act.
So Bonhoeffer hadto go underground.
But for us, today is the day.
Now is the time forthe church to act.
The church needs to use itsspiritual authority to occupy
(16:55):
its rightful place, to ensurethere's freedom to preach
the Gospel, and stop evil fromadvancing in the world.
[Greg Stephens] DuringBonhoeffer's time, the leaders,
including church leaders, riggedelections to take over
the churches in Germany.
It was a time to silenceand mute the voice.
(17:16):
Shut down the oppositionof the church.
They applied the Aryan paragraphof a document that said,
"Any pastor or church clerkwith any Jewish blood at all,
had to be removed from churchleadership immediately."
They even demanded the removal... Listen to this,
are you ready?
For the Old Testamentfrom the Bible.
(17:37):
When the church'srights are removed,
do I sit back and do nothing,or do I try something?
Bonhoeffer tries to get help.
He goes to Londonto gain support.
And the Nazi regime blendingwith Christian Gospel
was unacceptable.
He knew that.
A bishop who was in charge ofthe German Lutheran
(17:57):
Church's affairs at thetime, foreign affairs,
will travel to Londonand he tells Bonhoeffer,
you have to stop this,but Bonhoeffer refused.
And shortly thereafter, thisbishop got Bonhoeffer stripped
of his authority to teachat the University of Berlin.
He was denounced as a pacifistand an enemy of the state.
(18:20):
When you can't doChristianity openly,
when you can't express yourfaith freely, what do you do?
And I think we're sensingthat right now, aren't we?
The next two years, he willtravel secretly throughout
Eastern Germany.
He's going to meetwith students.
He's going to continueto teach the Gospel.
His seminary on the run wasa way to supervise students,
(18:40):
encourage them, don'tgive up, never give up.
Nazi oppression isclamping down everywhere,
yet he's quoted assaying, "Action springs,
not from the thought, but from areadiness of responsibility."
By 1938, the Gestapo had bannedBonhoeffer from Berlin.
And by 1940, theybanned his seminary.
(19:02):
Harassment againsthim will increase.
Ephesians chapter six tells usto put on the full armor of God,
so you're able tostand, like August did,
against the schemesof the devil.
He's forbidden to speakin public altogether.
He's ordered to report to thepolice weekly to give
an account of his activities.
He was forbidden toprint or to publish,
(19:24):
kind of like you are onsocial media platforms.
You're banned, you're canceled.
It's very eerie tosee the similarities.
During this time Bonhoeffer'sbrother-in-law introduces him
to the Germanresistance movement.
He learns of their plan totry to overthrow Hitler.
He joins this movement.
He discovers the full-scaleatrocities that the Nazis
(19:47):
did killing Jews and others.
He'd realized that the scriptureteaches him to be steadfast
and movable, always aboundingin the work of the Lord.
And that's his moral dilemma.
Do I decide toabsolutely tell no lies
and take theconsequences that yet...
Do I become a doubleagent for the resistance,
which is the greater good?
(20:07):
How far is too far?
Why am I even in this position?
[Gene Bailey] With his backagainst the wall for Bonhoeffer,
the time of action had come.
It was the moment where he felthe had no other option
but to act.
And this action allowed him tocontinue his underground
church work while he activelyworked for change.
(20:28):
But what would hesay to us today?
"Don't wait until it's too late.
Act now using yourspiritual authority,
for we do not wrestleagainst flesh and blood,
but against principalities,against powers,
against the rulers of thedarkness of this age,
against spiritual hosts ofwickedness in the heavenly places."
(20:50):
Ephesians 6:12.
He's so angry, he agreesto become a double agent.
So sometimes it's hard when youread the records to know
what's the truth and what's not.
He and his brother-in-law meetwith the other churches
in Europe, working to saveas many Jews as possible
and he writes to men ofinfluence outside of Germany,
to work towards a postHitler, peaceful transition.
(21:14):
And that's what we'vegot to do today.
We've got to realize this isnot going to last forever,
and that we're going to be theone to begin to plan
for a peaceful transition.
First Corinthians teachesus be on the alert,
stand firm in the faith,act like men, be strong.
On April the fifth, 1943,Bonhoeffer's arrested.
(21:36):
He spends the next year and ahalf in prison awaiting trial.
Now his uncle runs the jail, sohe's able to continue working
on his writings and he meetswith his fiance of three months,
they're about to be married.
He's even offered a chanceto escape, but chose not to,
in case the Nazis went afterhis fiance or his family.
(21:56):
He's only expected to bein jail for a few months.
And on July the 20th, 1944,Operation Valkyrie took place.
It was an attempt to overthrowHitler, to assassinate him.
And it failed.
Over 7,000 men werearrested because of that.
Secret documentswere discovered.
Bonhoeffer was accused of beingassociated with the conspirators
(22:18):
and the SS secretly moved himfrom the concentration camp
on April the 4th, 1945.
The diaries of the Admiral, thehead of the resistance
were discovered, andin a fit of rage,
Hitler demanded the executionof all of the conspirators.
Bonhoeffer's uncle isone of the first to die.
When Bonhoeffer heard this,much like maybe Jesus was
(22:42):
when He heard aboutJohn's arrest.
He realized this is the end,yet it's the beginning of life.
[Gene Bailey] It hadn't turnedout the way that the church
and Bonhoeffer had hoped.
Germany was being systematicallydestroyed by war.
It had been a terrible price,but hope was always there.
The prayers had been unceasing.
(23:04):
And finally the light atthe end of the tunnel
of this long nightmarewas insight.
[Greg Stephens] Think aboutthis, with the only two weeks,
two weeks, 14 daysbefore the allies reach
the prison camp he's in.
He could hear the guns,he could hear them coming.
Everyday the fighting armoriesare getting closer and closer.
(23:27):
Any day, any morning, the tanksare going to roll in here,
down this road, I'mgoing to be free.
Maybe today.
All the prisoners probablywould thought that,
may today be the day.
Perhaps this long nightmarewill finally be over.
On a cold gray morning,
Bonhoeffer wascondemned to hang.
(23:47):
There was no trial, nowitnesses, no defense.
They secretly held a tribunaland it sealed his fate.
He stayed, he actually went backto Germany to make a change.
He stayed trying tosave his own family.
He'd saved Jews and otherpeople who were persecuted,
like so many martyrs before him.
He was led to the gallowsand laid down his life
(24:10):
for what he believed.
Let me tell you something,his faith never failed him.
As a witness was true, he hadchosen to be the one
in his generation.
Even as he secretlyworked to save others,
he preached as he lived.
He became the inspirationfor Christians.
We're talking about him today.
(24:31):
In 2008, the General Conferenceof the United Methodist Church
officiallyrecognized Bonhoeffer as a modern day martyr.
He's the firstmartyr to be named since the Reformation.
DietrichBonhoeffer lived what he believed.
He didn't just talkit, he lived it.
(24:55):
[Gene Bailey] Another Germanpastor named Martin Niemöller,
began to wrestle withinhimself after the war.
What had he doneduring the Holocaust?
Could he have made adifference before the war?
He had been arrested, butsurvived the concentration camp.
He was a part of the liberalGerman Church that had suffered
a rude awakening.
(25:15):
And realized his onlyhope was to turn to God.
He wrote this, "Firstthey came to communism,
and I did not speak outbecause I was not a communist.
Then they came forthe socialists
and I did not speak out,because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the tradeunions, and I did not speak out,
(25:36):
because I was nota trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no oneleft to speak for me."
If you takeanything from this story,
let it be that ideashave consequences.
(26:00):
The enemy Satan, has cleverlyused and designed philosophies
to stop God's planfor salvation.
This has been goingon since before Jesus.
And Darwinism is just oneof the latest, however,
most effectiveof these ideas, because it gives scientific
license for racismand replacing God's law with survival
(26:23):
of the fittest.
It's been like an acid that'scorroded every part of society
by replacing God with man.
Today, the church is stillfighting the same fight
that Bonhoeffer fought, but nowit's fall on us to pick up
our sword of the Spirit, theWord of God, and speak out.
Take our authority that wasgiven to the church
(26:46):
to take action.
This is such aninspirational story,
but to honor Bonhoeffer'sultimate sacrifice,
let it reverberate in us,
like all the martyrs ofthe church of old.
Think about it.
How would you react inthat very same situation?
Would you think of the greatChristians who have given
(27:07):
so much for the Gospel?
The time is now.
Now's the time to speak the Wordin authority, stand in faith,
and to believe that God's Wordwill indeed come to pass.
Jesus said, "The gates ofhell shall not prevail
against the church."
(27:28):
That's nota defensive stance,
it's an offensive attackon the gates of hell,
that cannot stop a Biblebelieving Word speaking church
that operates in prayer.
So come along with me.
God is calling to us now.
Calling to you to climb thathill that's set before us
as a society, as salt and light.
(27:50):
To climb that hill setbefore you personally,
and as a call to be theone in your generation.
We'll see you next time,
right here onRevival Radio TV.
♪
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