♪ Welcome to a very special edition of Revival Radio TV. I'm your host, Gene Bailey. Let me pose a question to you. What does a cloak and dagger spy story have to do with the Gospel or revivals? I mean, after all, this is Revival Radio TV. But wait, we also have a double spy story for you. But once again, what if I told you it was set against a struggle that's facing the church right now today? It's going to be exciting. We've got a mystery to unlock.
[Greg Stephens] One of the greatest minds ever on the planet said there's nothing new under the sun. In 2 Corinthians 4:8 in the New Living Testament, it says we're pressed on every side by troubles, but we're not crushed. We're perplexed, but not driven to despair. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is going to have to face some things that will challenge his faith in God, 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 considered the intellectual leaders, the new enlightened Europe, and it was an exciting time to be a German. From the late 1870s to 1917, the liberal takeover of German society was called Kulturkampf, or culture war. It was atheist leftists versus Christian conservatives, just like we see in America today. Now this started half-a-century before the Nazis, and it was a tear of culture between leftism and the traditional church.
When we talk liberal theology, one constant these pastors had was each set aside the idea the Bible was literally true. As we explore Dietrich Bonhoeffer, you might ask yourself, what does this have to do with Christianity? Simply, it's salt and light. Jesus said you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It's then good for nothing. Yet this was a time of optimism and possibilities.
The German speaking culture was at the forefront of European society in science, industry, and even philosophy. From Germany to Austria, coffee shops, taverns and salons became places where progressive university ideas emerged and took form. In the middle of this culture war, the Church stood. What were they to do with these new leftist values? This Bonhoeffer story of inspiration, courage, and faith is a warning to our generation.
Because in the roots of this culture war, we find that these same ideas are the very same spiritual battles that we're fighting today. Well, let me introduce you to a guy that was pressed on every side, but he was not crushed. He remained the one, even in the darkest of times. His name was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was born in 1906 in Germany. His faith came from his mother who's part of the Moravian prayer revival a hundred years before his mother's faith.
She couldn't ignore because of her faith what was happening in her country to the Jewish people, even at the cost of almost her own children dying. They were a very large family, very celebrated German aristocrats, and his maternal grandfather was a preacher in the court of Kaiser Wilhelm II. His father was a well-known professor at the University of Berlin. They have all the right pedigree, much like the apostle Paul, who I quoted at the very beginning of this.
His father's famous for discoveries in neurology and psychiatry. And he was encouraged to read. He was also an accomplished pianist. His family thought that maybe that would be his career. So, they weren't so happy when he said, "No, I want to be a preacher." But nonetheless, Dietrich enrolled at the University of Berlin in 1927 at the age of 21. Age of 21, he got his PhD. He couldn't be a Lutheran minister until he was 25 years old. So what'd he do? He traveled the world.
He wasn't impressed with what he found in Rome, or even in the Americas. The American liberal theology wasn't what the fundamentalist were all about, and the liberals were against it, but there's something he discovered. It was in a Black Baptist church in Harlem, he found a move of the Spirit taking place, and he got to know Jesus in a way he'd never thought he would know. And he found a connection to the Lord that the German church that he grew up in hadn't experienced before.
He heard about trouble brewing in his home, and he felt he needed to take a stand with the church and make changes. Basically, he decided to become salt and light. So, he heads back to his homeland. He heads back to Germany. Well, what happens? In World War I, it hit Germany very hard. They lost everything. In the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was really debt ridden, and they removed their monarchy. The entire economy of the nation collapsed. Whenever there's a vacuum, a void will be filled.
Adolf Hitler will become that filler of the void. He's gaining power. His brand new thing called the Nazi party is in the middle of chaos and problems. The Nazis seemed to have a plan. They were going to get out of this. One pastor was even known to state that Christ has come to us through Adolf Hitler. Well, Hitler's Mein Kampf had been published about eight years earlier. It laid out his plan. But so many people who read it really didn't believe it.
Didn't matter that he didn't like Jews or that he complained about political leaders. Would we go with him and change this or will we stand in what we've had before? People got really serious about Hitler with two signed documents that forever changed Germany. They removed the constitutional rights of the people and created a dictatorship that would create what we know as World War II and the death camps. You need to understand this about the Nazis. The Nazis weren't right-wingers.
They were the socialist left. It's the Democratic Socialist Party of Germany. Let me make it this way. If you're going down a train track, when you have two tracks equal going together. And then let's say there's a switch there and it sends the track this way, and this one goes to this way. Communism is a left of Nazi-ism, fascism, which is left of capitalism. They're both left of what we would know as right wingers today. Now they call fascists right wingers, but they weren't right wing.
They were left of what we know here in America. The church struggles. Do we make peace with the Nazis who hated communism, because we hate communism. Would we throw in our support with them, and maybe this will restore things like it was before the Versailles Treaty? The liberal German church said, yes. Is morality more important than the Word? The large number of liberal mainstream Christians treated the Bible really as literary mythology over being the anointed holy Word of God.
They were about moral good over following the edicts of the Bible. The morality let them tolerate separate but equal treatment of their own citizens who happened to be Jewish. The Jews were discriminated against from even being good citizens supporting their nation. Do you understand that in World War II, many Jewish people had fought for Germany in World War I, and now they're being ostracized. Who knew those Jews would be sent to the death camps?
Not everyone decided to tolerate the new policy shakeups. And some people spoke up. One indicator that this is a spiritual battle is that antisemitism was involved. God chose to bring about His plan of salvation through Abraham and the Jews. Satan has historically tried to destroy the Jewish people all throughout history. So naturally, Satan was using the Nazis to destroy the Jews. But to the average German Christians who had up to now been silent in all this turmoil, this was not their Germany.
It was not their fathers' Germany. It was all changing rapidly, and they realized the church was not there blocking society from going where it shouldn't go. The church had lost both its saltiness, and the church's voice appeared too late. But God had a remnant, a remnant of believers who began to speak out. Let me tell you about a man. His name was August Landmesser. I love this guy. One day he spoke up. He was a member of the Nazi party. He was a union member, worked in the shipyards.
And one day they were, they were pushing the ship off, and they were dedicating it, and they were all doing the Heil Hitler salute, except August. It shows him like this in the picture. And it reminds me of that moment. Everybody else was saluting, and he folded his arms. Why'd he do that? Because he had been accused of not being true to the party because his wife happens to be Jewish. He stands there with his arms folded while everybody else salutes, and I call it a Daniel moment.
When everybody else bowed their knee, he was the one, and he refused to do the salute. We don't hear from him after that. Again, we can only surmise that he died somewhere after 1941. As the rift in German society widened, not everyone in Germany was a part of this leftist doctrine.
More and more of what we would call traditional German Christians were seeing the changes in their society that they just couldn't go along with, things like the increased secularization of society, where the church just wasn't relevant anymore. See the schools had become secularized a generation before, and the introduction of Darwin's teaching of evolution had eliminated the concept of a creator, even the concept of a God. And of course, this led to a generation who didn't believe in God.
Furthermore, the secular generation was adrift spiritually and people were turning to spiritualists, having seances and reviving the old Pagan Germanic religions. And it was in this spiritual vacuum that all this was happening. Remember it was also in the aftermath of the terrible deaths and destruction of World War I, where Germany was devastated. In this spiritual vacuum came the threat of the rise of communism.
And on the other side of the political spectrum, were the socialist and their dictatorial takeover, and systematic elimination of their opposition. And even worse, they were slowly taking over control of the German churches. Let me make it clear, because the church wasn't doing what Jesus said, "Occupy until I come," a power vacuum arose that gave room for Darwinism, communism, and socialism to rise up and take control. Revival came, but was it too late for Germany?
[Greg Stephens] Another such person who spoke up was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He's a young Lutheran pastor. He had to make a decision. He's 26 years old when Hitler comes to power. Is he just one more new leader running the country? How long is this going to last? Will there be another leader behind him? What kind of real power does this leader have over our country? Within days, Bonhoeffer was on the radio blasting this new regime. He warns the Germans against trusting Hitler.
Murdering masses of people was not even mentioned. On the broadcast, he all really criticized the concept of the furor, and in particular, the danger of idolatry. Even in that time with his radio broadcast, he was cut off in mid-sentence. Cancel culture was part of the fascist of Germany. Was this the furor's power beginning to show, Dietrich Bonhoeffer is going to raise the first voice for Christians to resist Nazi persecution of the Jews?
He said this, "The church must not simply bandage the victims under the wheel, but you have to jam a spoke in the wheel itself." The Lord moved on him, and other believing Christians to create what they called a confessing church. Or in other words, a Christian church who believed Jesus was Lord, and began to do what He did and speak like He did. The Nazi leaders were very, very good at taking over and controlling every aspect of society. That's what fascism is about.
It's the corporations coming alongside the government, and the church coming alongside of that. Because of Luther, the church was the heart and core of their country. To be a German, was to be part of Martin Luther, even not being a state run church since the Reformation, being German meant that I'm a Christian. The Nazis knew if they cloud their policies within the church and the corporate structure, it'd be more palatable to the German public.
Bonhoeffer and his church movement resisted that takeover. [Gene Bailey] German society began to split after 1860. In fact, we see this happening all over the Western world, but it happened in Germany much faster, because German society had been so indoctrinated in the European enlightenment. God was becoming less of a part of the foundations of intellectual society. Then something historic happened.
In fact, you can pinpoint when German society changed direction, and it was this book, the first German translation of Darwin's The Origin of Species. It was published in 1860. It was translated by Heinrich Braun, a naturalist and paleontologist. Braun did not entirely agree with Darwin, but on one vital point they did agree. There was no God, no creator, man had evolved by totally natural unguided means. Were we just animals? Was it science or was it just moral philosophy?
One thing's for sure, removing God from society has moral consequences. [Greg Stephens] How could the Church of Germany, these prosperous thriving nation, how could they become so divided? How could it split? How could the church becomes so blinded by things? We have to go back to the 1800s and the 1860s. Darwinism. Darwinism is embraced in Germany. It is not embraced, but hugged and kissed. And what it did, is it caused the split between the Church.
The Church went really liberal on one side, and the other side became more fundamentalists like Bonhoeffer, more of a fundamentalist. Now this is the Word. This is what's true. And that split will lead us into World War I, but survival of the fittest will become an Anthem in World War II, and the fact that we're the Aryan race, we're superior to other races by evolution. So the theory of evolution is what precipitated all of this in Germany.
[Gene Bailey] There are so many parallels to what the Church is facing today, and here's why. It was a spiritual battle. The church was split between the liberal and Bible-believing Christians, and the government was trying to silence the church. The German Church waited too long to act. So Bonhoeffer had to go underground. But for us, today is the day. Now is the time for the church to act.
The church needs to use its spiritual authority to occupy its rightful place, to ensure there's freedom to preach the Gospel, and stop evil from advancing in the world. [Greg Stephens] During Bonhoeffer's time, the leaders, including church leaders, rigged elections to take over the churches in Germany. It was a time to silence and mute the voice. Shut down the opposition of the church.
They applied the Aryan paragraph of a document that said, "Any pastor or church clerk with any Jewish blood at all, had to be removed from church leadership immediately." They even demanded the removal ... Listen to this, are you ready? For the Old Testament from the Bible. When the church's rights are removed, do I sit back and do nothing, or do I try something? Bonhoeffer tries to get help. He goes to London to gain support. And the Nazi regime blending with Christian Gospel was unacceptable.
He knew that. A bishop who was in charge of the German Lutheran Church's affairs at the time, foreign affairs, will travel to London and he tells Bonhoeffer, you have to stop this, but Bonhoeffer refused. And shortly thereafter, this bishop got Bonhoeffer stripped of his authority to teach at the University of Berlin. He was denounced as a pacifist and an enemy of the state. When you can't do Christianity openly, when you can't express your faith freely, what do you do?
And I think we're sensing that right now, aren't we? The next two years, he will travel secretly throughout Eastern Germany. He's going to meet with students. He's going to continue to teach the Gospel. His seminary on the run was a way to supervise students, encourage them, don't give up, never give up. Nazi oppression is clamping down everywhere, yet he's quoted as saying, "Action springs, not from the thought, but from a readiness of responsibility."
By 1938, the Gestapo had banned Bonhoeffer from Berlin. And by 1940, they banned his seminary. Harassment against him will increase. Ephesians chapter six tells us to put on the full armor of God, so you're able to stand, like August did, against the schemes of the devil. He's forbidden to speak in public altogether. He's ordered to report to the police weekly to give an account of his activities. He was forbidden to print or to publish, kind of like you are on social media platforms.
You're banned, you're canceled. It's very eerie to see the similarities. During this time Bonhoeffer's brother-in-law introduces him to the German resistance movement. He learns of their plan to try to overthrow Hitler. He joins this movement. He discovers the full-scale atrocities that the Nazis did killing Jews and others. He'd realized that the scripture teaches him to be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. And that's his moral dilemma.
Do I decide to absolutely tell no lies and take the consequences that yet... Do I become a double agent for the resistance, which is the greater good? How far is too far? Why am I even in this position? [Gene Bailey] With his back against the wall for Bonhoeffer, the time of action had come. It was the moment where he felt he had no other option but to act. And this action allowed him to continue his underground church work while he actively worked for change. But what would he say to us today?
"Don't wait until it's too late. Act now using your spiritual authority, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12. He's so angry, he agrees to become a double agent. So sometimes it's hard when you read the records to know what's the truth and what's not.
He and his brother-in-law meet with the other churches in Europe, working to save as many Jews as possible and he writes to men of influence outside of Germany, to work towards a post Hitler, peaceful transition. And that's what we've got to do today. We've got to realize this is not going to last forever, and that we're going to be the one to begin to plan for a peaceful transition. First Corinthians teaches us be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
On April the fifth, 1943, Bonhoeffer's arrested. He spends the next year and a half in prison awaiting trial. Now his uncle runs the jail, so he's able to continue working on his writings and he meets with his fiance of three months, they're about to be married. He's even offered a chance to escape, but chose not to, in case the Nazis went after his fiance or his family. He's only expected to be in jail for a few months. And on July the 20th, 1944, Operation Valkyrie took place.
It was an attempt to overthrow Hitler, to assassinate him. And it failed. Over 7,000 men were arrested because of that. Secret documents were discovered. Bonhoeffer was accused of being associated with the conspirators and the SS secretly moved him from the concentration camp on April the 4th, 1945. The diaries of the Admiral, the head of the resistance were discovered, and in a fit of rage, Hitler demanded the execution of all of the conspirators. Bonhoeffer's uncle is one of the first to die.
When Bonhoeffer heard this, much like maybe Jesus was when He heard about John's arrest. He realized this is the end, yet it's the beginning of life. [Gene Bailey] It hadn't turned out the way that the church and Bonhoeffer had hoped. Germany was being systematically destroyed by war. It had been a terrible price, but hope was always there. The prayers had been unceasing. And finally the light at the end of the tunnel of this long nightmare was insight.
[Greg Stephens] Think about this, with the only two weeks, two weeks, 14 days before the allies reach the prison camp he's in. He could hear the guns, he could hear them coming. Everyday the fighting armories are getting closer and closer. Any day, any morning, the tanks are going to roll in here, down this road, I'm going to be free. Maybe today. All the prisoners probably would thought that, may today be the day. Perhaps this long nightmare will finally be over.
On a cold gray morning, Bonhoeffer was condemned to hang. There was no trial, no witnesses, no defense. They secretly held a tribunal and it sealed his fate. He stayed, he actually went back to Germany to make a change. He stayed trying to save his own family. He'd saved Jews and other people who were persecuted, like so many martyrs before him. He was led to the gallows and laid down his life for what he believed. Let me tell you something, his faith never failed him.
As a witness was true, he had chosen to be the one in his generation. Even as he secretly worked to save others, he preached as he lived. He became the inspiration for Christians. We're talking about him today. In 2008, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church officially recognized Bonhoeffer as a modern day martyr. He's the first martyr to be named since the Reformation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived what he believed. He didn't just talk it, he lived it.
[Gene Bailey] Another German pastor named Martin Niemöller, began to wrestle within himself after the war. What had he done during the Holocaust? Could he have made a difference before the war? He had been arrested, but survived the concentration camp. He was a part of the liberal German Church that had suffered a rude awakening. And realized his only hope was to turn to God. He wrote this, "First they came to communism, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the socialists and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unions, and I did not speak out, because I was not a 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 one left to speak for me." If you take anything from this story, let it be that ideas have consequences.
The enemy Satan, has cleverly used and designed philosophies to stop God's plan for salvation. This has been going on since before Jesus. And Darwinism is just one of the latest, however, most effective of these ideas, because it gives scientific license for racism and replacing God's law with survival of the fittest. It's been like an acid that's corroded every part of society by replacing God with man.
Today, the church is still fighting the same fight that Bonhoeffer fought, but now it's fall on us to pick up our sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and speak out. Take our authority that was given to the church to take action. This is such an inspirational story, but to honor Bonhoeffer's ultimate sacrifice, let it reverberate in us, like all the martyrs of the church of old. Think about it. How would you react in that very same situation?
Would you think of the great Christians who have given so much for the Gospel? The time is now. Now's the time to speak the Word in authority, stand in faith, and to believe that God's Word will indeed come to pass. Jesus said, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church." That's not a defensive stance, it's an offensive attack on the gates of hell, that cannot stop a Bible believing Word speaking church that operates in prayer. So come along with me. God is calling to us now.
Calling to you to climb that hill that's set before us as a society, as salt and light. To climb that hill set before you personally, and as a call to be the one in your generation. We'll see you next time, right here on Revival Radio TV. ♪