The National Synod, which included all the German provincial churches, met at Wittenberg on 27 September and elected Ludwig Muller Reich Bishop by acclamation. Over Luther’s tomb in the castle church, the German Christian leader (Joachim) Hossenfelder extolled him: “I greet thee, my Reich Bishop!” (Franz) Hildebrand whispered to Bonhoeffer that now Luther “really would turn over in his grave.”
Friday's Child by Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-73)
(In memory of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
martyred at Flossenburg, April 9th, 1945)
He told us we were free to choose
But, children as we were, we thought---
"Paternal Love will only use
Force in the last resort
On those too bumptious to repent."
Accustomed to religious dread,
It never crossed our minds He meant
Exactly what He said.
Perhaps He frowns, perhaps He grieves,
But it seems idle to discuss
If anger or compassion leaves
The bigger bangs to us.
What reverence is rightly paid
To a Divinity so odd
He lets the Adam whom He made
Perform the Acts of God?
It might be jolly if we felt
Awe at this Universal Man
(When kings were local, people knelt);
Some try to, but who can?
The self-observed observing Mind
We meet when we observe at all
Is not alarming or unkind
But utterly banal.
Though instruments at Its command
Make wish and counterwish come true,
It clearly cannot understand
What It can clearly do.
Since the analogies are rot
Our senses based belief upon,
We have no means of learning what
Is really going on,
And must put up with having learned
All proofs or disproofs that we tender
Of His existence are returned
Unopened to the sender.
Now, did He really break the seal
And rise again? We dare not say;
But conscious unbelievers feel
Quite sure of Judgement Day.
Meanwhile, a silence on the cross,
As dead as we shall ever be,
Speaks of some total gain or loss,
And you and I are free
To guess from the insulted face
Just what Appearances He saves
By suffering in a public place
A death reserved for slaves.
Lutheran dogmatists Paul Althaus and Werner Elert from Erlangen…declared that the volkisch diversity of external church organization’ expressed ‘a necessary consequence of the the divisions of the peoples which are to be affirmed in terms of destiny as well as ethics’ and thus had to be taken into account ‘in admission to the ministry of the church’.
For the Church’s new task ‘of being a Volkskirche of the Germans’, in the present situation, ‘the occupation of its ministry by persons of Jewish origin generally would be a severe burden and a hindrance’. Therefore the Church must ‘require the withholding of its Jewish Christians from office’.
That with these words the two professors were, retrospectively, calling for Jesus, the Apostles and New Testament authors to be ‘withheld’ from the German Evangelical Church, does not seem to have entered their minds!
…the Confessing Church was built from the beginning on cooperation among many pastors and members of local churches. The members of the Emergency League were, first of all, to commit themselves anew to the Scriptures and Confessions; secondly, resist any violation of these; third, to give financial help to those affected by Nazi laws or by violence; and fourth, to reject the Aryan paragraph. In a very short time as many as 2000 pastors signed up to the commitments of the Emergency League. By the end of the year (1933) their number had grown to 6000, and was still to grow by a further thousand.
We are children of the light. Abortion is a work of darkness. The apostle Paul said, “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:11).
Our aim, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, through the authority of his word, is to glorify God by making much of his image in the unborn, and his mercy in forgiving sinners.
We would like to give you a free eBook based on three sermons I preached on abortion. We hope it helps you speak out. Please feel free to download it, print it, copy it, and share it with as many people as you like.
Here’s a sample sentence:
God is calling passive, inactive Christians today to engage our minds and hearts and hands in exposing the barren works of darkness. To be the conscience of our culture. To be the light of the world. To live in the great reality of being loved by God and adopted by God and forgiven by Christ (yes—for all the abortions that dozens of you have had), and be made children of the light. I call you to walk as children of light.
Martin Niemoller, together with 20 other pastors including Bonhoeffer and Hildebrandt, called for the creation of a Pastors’ Emergency League. The suggestion had come from two pastors in the countryside, Eugen Weschke and Gunter Jacob. Thus the Confessing Church was built from the beginning on cooperation among many pastors and members of local churches.
The German (Nazi) Christians say: We are not so concerned with these thousand Jewish Christians as with the millions of our fellow citizens who are estranged from God. For their sake, these others might in certain cases have to be sacrificed.
We answer: We too are concerned for those outside the church, but the church does not sacrifice a single one of its members. It may even be that the church, for the sake of a thousand believing Jewish Christians that it is not allowed to sacrifice, might fail to win over those millions.
But what good it do to gain millions of people at the price of the truth and love for even a single one?
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