Bonhoeffer – born

ON THIS DATE

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (and his twin sister Sabine) born 2/4/1906 to Karl and Paula Bonhoeffer, at Breslau, Poland.  Trained as a Lutheran in Germany he also attended a seminary in the US.  He lectured at the U. of Berlin and as Hitler’s popularity spread (churches of Germany became propaganda tools) Bonhoeffer questions the treatment and mistreatment of the Jews and began to stand against Hitler’s power.  (Some say he was in on a plot to kill Hitler, which may or may not be true.)  He was engaged to Maria von Wedemeyer but was arrested before they could marry.  He was hung in 1944.   His Cost of Discipleship is well worth reading.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Qoutes

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline…”

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”

“Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.”

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer – birth, Feb. 4, 1906

We must make it clear—fearful as it is—that the time is very near when we shall have to decide between national socialism and Christianity… – 94  [1]

 

Christ’s work in us is not finished until He has perfected His own form in us.  – 116

 

Even those who honestly describe themselves as “religious” do not in the least act up to it, and so they presumably mean something quite different by “religious.”  – 169    

 

The real man is at liberty to be his creator’s creature…God loves the real man.  God became a real man.  – 179

 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born this date, 2/4/1906 at Breslau, Poland.  In the 1930s Hitler took over churches in Germany, trying to make them his propaganda tools.  Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran, was among those who protested this power.  He was arrested in April 1943 and hung in 1944, after being accused of a plot (note “accused”) to kill Hitler.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship is well worth reading. 

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[1] Page references from Michael Van Dyke, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Opponent of the Nazi Regime (Uhrichsville, OH: Barbour Pub., 2001)

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Hans Poulsen Egede – birth, Jan. 31, 1686

Hans Poulsen Egede (ā’ gu dĕ) was born this date, 1/31/1686, at Hinnøya in Harstad, Norway, hundreds of miles north of the Artice Circle.  After being educated by his Lutheran uncle and at the University of Copenhagen (earned a Bachelor’s degree in Theology) he returned home.  In April 1707 he was ordained and in the same year married Gertrud Rask (maybe Rasch) 13 years older than him, to whom were born two sons and two daughters. 

 

In 1721 he sought permission from Frederick IV of Denmark to search for a colony in Greenland and establish a mission there.  He departed from Bergen on 5/12/1721 reaching Greenland July 3^rd.  Egede found the Inuit people, started mission among them and studied their language.  In translating the Lord’s Prayer (since they had no word for bread) he saw the equivalent as “Give us this day our daily harbor seal.”

 

Hans Egede left his son Paul in Greenland and traveled on August 9, 1736 with his other children to Denmark, to become principal of a Copenhagen seminary that trained missionaries for service to Greenland.

 

Of interest are at least two more facts:

He founded Godthåb Nuuk in today’s world which became the capital of Greenland.

And he gave one of the oldest descriptions of a sea serpent.

 

Egede died 11/5/1758 at Falster, Denmark.

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer – wrote, Mar. 19, 1944

Dietrich Bonhoeffer on this date, 3/19/1944, is said to have written in a letter

“We can have abundant life, even though many wishes remain unfulfilled.” 

Bonhoeffer was a German pastor (Lutheran) who did not sympathize with the Nazi regime and was in fact of martyr of the same.  His Cost of Discipleship is a great read.

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Johann Lorenz von Mosheim – birth, Oct. 9, 1693

…Vigilantius…denied that the tombs and the bones of the martyrs were to be honored…maintained that prayers addressed to departed saints were void of all efficacy; and treated with contempt fasting and mortifications, the celibacy of clergy…

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 49.

 

…imperfect mortals…are much more disposed to worship with the eye than with the heart…

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 53.

 

The doctrine of Augustine, who was of opinion that, in the work of conversion and sanctification, all was to be attributed to a divine energy, and nothing to human agency, had many followers in all ages of the church; though his disciples have never been entirely agreed about the manner of explaining what he taught upon that head.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 89.

 

The terror of Mahomet’s arms…persuaded such multitudes to embrace his religion…his law was artfully and marvelously adapted to the corrupt nature of man.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 157.

 

It is highly probable that the Valdenses, or Vaudois [Waldenses] had already, in this century [Cent. VII] retired into the vallies [sic] of Piedmont, that they might be more at liberty to oppose the tyranny of those imperious prelates.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 167.

 

The clergy…were distinguished by their luxury, their gluttony, and their lust; they gave themselves up to dissipation of various kinds, to the pleasures of hunting and what was still more remote from their sacred character, to military studies and enterprises.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 214.

 

This horrid opinion [that excommunication included loosing the “claims and privileges of humanity”] which was a fatal source of wars, massacres, and rebellions…was borrowed by…the clergy, from the pagan superstitions.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 221.

 

Johann (John) Lorenz von Mosheim was born this date, 10/9/1693 (or 1694), at Lubeck, Germany.  He was a highly esteemed Lutheran, Church historian. In 1747 he was made chancellor of the University of Göttingen.  He wrote An Ecclesiastical History.  Johann Mosheim died 9/9/1755.

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Martin Rinkart – death, Dec. 8, 1649

“Now Thank We All Our God”   (stanza 2)

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

Martin Rinckart died 12/8/1649, Germany (born 1586).  He was a Lutheran who began pastoring at 31 in Eilenburg, Saxony, his home community.  Between the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) and the Plague of 1637 Rinckart buried some 5,000 victims – holding as high as 50 funerals a day.

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