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Person of Faith

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in Poland and faced the social, political, and military pressures of Nazism while spreading the Word of God.

Testimony
Impact
Books
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Meet
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The effects of the Holocaust were catastrophic. Many innocent lives were lost in the onslaught of Adolf Hitler’s wake.

One notable casualty was that of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Bonhoeffer was born in 1906 and passed away at the young age of 39 in 1945. His 39 years were very fruitful.

He was a Lutheran pastor who used his biblical theology to unite the church against the Nazi regime.

In 1933 the German Lutheran Church supported the Nazis. Bonhoeffer knew that Nazism was not coherent with Scripture, thus he and other theologians founded the Confessing Church against Nazism.

Bonhoeffer’s actions united the church in the 20th century; furthermore his writings continue to unite believers in the 21st century. Life Together, Ethics, and The Cost of Discipleship are among his critically acclaimed books.

Bonhoeffer’s faith in Christ is evident in his writings despite his terrible circumstances. He was hanged for opposing the Nazi regime.

The Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Birth
Dietrich was born in Poland to an affluent family.
Occupation
He decided to become a theologian and minister at the age of 14 against his family’s wishes.
Critical Moment
Dietrich rejected the church’s support of Nazism by creating the Confessing Church, a non-government sanctioned house church.
Seminary
He directed the seminary of the Confessing Church.
Publishing
Dietrich’s seminary was forcefully closed by the Gestapo. Later that year he published his first book, The Cost of Discipleship.
Publishing
Dietrich published his second book, Life Together.
Arrest
He was arrested for plotting Adolf Hitler’s assassination and was taken to Tegel prison.
Conspiracy
Dietrich had ties to the coup conspiracy which ultimately failed.
Death
He was hanged at the extermination camp at Flossenbürg, Germany. His last words were, “This is the end; for me, the beginning of life.”
Publishing
His Letters and Papers from Prison were published as a book.
1906
1920
1933-1934
1935
1937
1938
1943
1944
1945
1951
Testimony
Article: 4 Min

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Did You Know?

by Mark and Barbara Galli, Friends of Bibles.net
READ ARTICLE
Article: 9 Min

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and "The Cost of Discipleship"

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by Randy Alcorn at Eternal Perspective Ministries

Messages: 40 Min

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

by Stephen Nichols

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Infographic

Who Am I
by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Wallpaper

We have made a graphic so you can keep the poem "Who Am I" on your phone as your background or screensaver!

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Quote

Because I am
a preacher of the Word,
I cannot expound Scripture unless
I let it speak to me
every day.
I will misuse the Word in my office
if I do not keep
meditating on it in prayer.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Quote

Contrasts Between God and Us

In me there is darkness,
But with You there is light;
I am lonely, but You do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but with You there is help;
I am restless, but with You there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with You there is patience;
I do not understand Your ways,
But You know the way for me.
Lord Jesus Christ,
You were poor
And in distress, a captive and forsaken as I am.
You know all man’s troubles;
You abide with me
When all men fail me;
You remember and seek me;
It is Your will that I should know You
And turn to You.
Lord, I hear Your call and follow;
Help me.

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer | Source
Video: 27 Min
Image

 

 

Whoever does not
bear his own cross
and come after me
cannot be my disciple. 

Luke 14:27 ESV
Impact
Article: 5 Min

Seminary in Nazi Germany

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by Stephen Nichols at The Gospel Coalition

Quote

The person who
loves their dream of community
will destroy community,
but the person who
loves those around them
will create community. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Quote

Bible Reading

One cannot simply read the Bible, like other books. One must be prepared really to enquire of it. Only thus will it reveal itself. Only if we expect from it the ultimate answer, shall we receive it. That is because in the Bible God speaks to us. And one cannot simply think about God in one’s own strength, one has to inquire of him. Only if we seek him, will he answer us.

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer | Source
Messages: 35 Min

Helping
Each Other
Endure to
the End

by John Piper

LISTEN NOW
Verse
Acts 2:42 ESV

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Verse
John 13:34-35 ESV

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Quote

Why We Need
to Share the Bible
with Others

But God has put this Word into the mouth of men in order that it may be communicated to other men. When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek and find his living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of a man.

Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth. He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ.

The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own heart is uncertain; his brother’s is sure.

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
in his book, "Life Together" | Source
Quote

A man who confesses
his sins in the presence
of a brother knows
that he is no longer
alone with himself;
he experiences
the presence of God
in the reality of the
other person… in the
presence of a brother,
the sin has to be
brought into the light.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Article: 8 Min

Costly Grace and a Concentration Camp

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by Javier Garcia at The Gospel Coalition

Quote

One act of
obedience
is worth
a hundred sermons. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Article: 7 Min

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: German Theologian and Resister

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by J.I. Packer at Christianity Today

Video: 5 Min

By Gentle
Powers

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by Siegfried Fietz
Messages: 72 Min

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
and Christian
Social Witness

by Eric Metaxas

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Quote

A Wonderful Thing About God

Where reason is indignant, where our nature rebels, where our piety anxiously keeps us away: that is precisely where God loves to be. There he confounds the reason of the reasonable; there he aggravates our nature, our piety—that is where he wants to be, and no one can keep him from it.

Only the humble believe him and rejoice that God is so free and so marvelous that he does wonders where people despair, that he takes what is little and lowly and makes it marvelous. And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly…. God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in.

He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, "God is in the Manger" | Source
Quote

Silence
in the face of evil
is itself evil:
God will not hold us
guiltless.
Not to speak
is to speak.
Not to act
is to act.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Quote

What We Most Need in Trying Times

We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds; we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretense; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical.

Are we still of any use? What we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or misanthropes, or clever tacticians, but plain, honest, and straightforward men. Will our inward power of resistance be strong enough, and our honesty with ourselves remorseless enough, for us to find our way back to simplicity and straightforwardness?

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, "Letters and Papers from Prison" | Source
Quote

God is not a God
of the emotions
but the God of truth.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Verse
Ephesians 4:25 ESV

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Chill & Relaxing

Bonhoeffer’s Prayer

by Bifrost Arts feat. Molly Parden
Spotify Apple Youtube
Verse
Micah 6:8 ESV

He has told you, O man, what is good; 
    and what does the Lord require of you 
but to do justice, and to love kindness, 
    and to walk humbly with your God?

Article: 12 Min

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Final Thoughts on His Life and Death

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by Randy Alcorn at Eternal Perspectives Ministries

Video: 4 Min
Quote

We are not
to simply bandage
the wounds of victims
beneath the wheels
of injustice,
we are to drive
a spoke into
the wheel itself.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Quote

The Cost of Discipleship

The messengers of Jesus will be hated to the end of time. They will be blamed for all the division which rend cities and homes. Jesus and his disciples will be condemned on all sides for undermining family life, and for leading the nation astray; they will be called crazy fanatics and disturbers of the peace.

The disciples will be sorely tempted to desert their Lord. But the end is also near, and they must hold on and persevere until it comes. Only he will be blessed who remains loyal to Jesus and his word until the end.

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, "The Cost of Discipleship" | Source
Quote

The fact that
Jesus Christ died
is more important
than the fact
that I will die.
And the fact that
Jesus Christ was raised from the dead
is the sole ground
of my hope
that I, too, will be raised on the
day of judgment.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Books
Books
Bonhoeffer
The Cost of Discipleship
by Dietrich Bonhoeffer | Christian Living
Difficulty: Easy
Get the book
Bonhoeffer
Life Together
by Dietrich Bonhoeffer | Christian Living
Difficulty: Easy
Get the book
Book Review
Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr,
Prophet, Spy
by Eric Metaxas | Biography
Difficulty: Intermediate
Get the book
Bonhoeffer
Bonhoeffer on the Christian
Life: From the Cross for the World
by Stephen Nichols | Biography
Difficulty: Scholarly
get the book
read a chapter
7 Men
7 Men and the Secret
of Their Greatness
by Eric Metaxas | Biography
Difficulty: Easy
GET THE BOOK

Precious in
the sight of
the Lord 

is the death of his saints.

Psalm 116:15 ESV
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