“The state which endangers the Christian proclamation negates itself.” 

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This is a quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer from one of his messages during the rise of the Nazis in Germany. The power grab by Hitler and the Nazis came quicker than anyone could have imagined. It thrust the German church into turmoil and ultimately the Confessing Church split off from the German Nationalist Church because of their embrace of the Nazi party which included the persecution of the Jews. 

So, what should be the church’s attitude toward the state? Eric Metaxes, in his book on Bonhoeffer relates the German pastor’s ideas about Romans 13, “He addressed the issue of the church’s attitude toward the state and created common ground with his skeptical readers by paraphrasing Romans 13: ‘There is no power, but of God; the powers that be are ordained by God.’ In other words, governments are established by God for the preservation of order. The church had no fundamental quarrel with the state being the state, with its restraining evil, even by use of force.” (p.153, Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas) 

Bonhoeffer enumerated three primary ways in which the church can act toward the state. First, “The church must ‘continually ask the state whether its action can be justified as legitimate action of the state, i.e., as action which leads to law and order and not to lawlessness and disorder.” Metaxas builds on this stating, “In other words, it is the church’s role to help the state be the state. If the state is not creating an atmosphere of law and order, as Scripture says it must, then it is the job of the church to draw the state’s attention to this failing…If the state is creating ‘excessive law and order,’ then ‘the state develops its power to such an extent that it deprives Christian preaching and Christian faith…of their rights…The church, he said, ‘must reject this encroachment of the order of the state precisely because of its better knowledge of the state and of the limitations of its action. The state which endangers the Christian proclamation negates itself.’” (p.153) So, there is much wisdom we can pull from Bonhoeffer when it comes to the Christians role in politics. Of primary importance is for the Christian to first be biblically minded before speaking into politics. As followers of Jesus we are first to obey Him and pursue wisdom from the Holy Spirit how and when to speak into political issues. The church should be wrestling with public policy issues within its discipleship process so people have an opportunity to learn to be biblically formed before being politically active. According to Romans 13 the primary role of the state is law and order. This has many ramifications for how a Christian is to view the role of government. 

The second way the church can act toward the state according to Bonhoeffer was to “aid the victims of state action,” for the church “has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering of society, even if they do not belong to the Christian community.” Metaxas comments, “Everyone knew that Bonhoeffer was talking about the Jews…Bonhoeffer then quoted Galatians: “Do good to all men.” We can see this principle throughout the history of the church where they stepped in and served the outcast, oppressed and orphaned. But unfortunately we can also see times throughout history where parts of the church condoned actually oppressing certain people in direct violation of biblical commands. The two most recent grave sins would be the part of the German church that supported oppression of the Jews and the part of the American church that supported slavery. 

The ongoing discussions today about diversity, equality and equity are very important and the church should be speaking into these issues, but unfortunately much of what is being adopted and advocated is not biblically informed but philosophically informed from a progressive worldview. The biblical record is consistent and clear that all humans are created equal and in God’s image. But, the biblical record is also clear that to uphold these blessings among diverse peoples around the world that diversity does not have to be forced and should not be. God in His sovereignty chose Abraham and the Jewish people to be His covenant people. This does not negate the value of the other cultures, for Jesus came to save all, it means God can and will chose certain people to do His tasks. Jesus chose twelve men and twelve Jewish men to be His disciples. He did not have a woman nor any other culture represented when he chose His inner circle to take the gospel to all people. This does not mean He values them more because they are men and Jews, but only that He chose them for His specific purpose. If diversity is forced personal responsibility and unique calling and qualification are forfeited. And this is where we find our culture today. 

The third way the church can act toward the state according to Bonhoeffer, “is not just to bandage the victims under the wheel, but to put a spoke in the wheel itself.” Metaxas clarifies, “a stick must be jammed into the spokes of the wheel to stop the vehicle. It is sometimes not enough to help those crushed by the evil actions of a state, at some point the church must directly take action against the state to stop it from perpetrating evil. This, he said, is permitted only when the church sees its very existence threatened by the state, and when the state ceases to be the state as defined by God.” Bonhoeffer’s also stated,  “A state which includes within itself a terrorized church has lost its most faithful servant.” (p.154) 

Now this raises all kinds of questions. When does the church defy the state? For Bonhoeffer, he finally came to the conviction that he needed to get involved in the resistance and do everything he could to resist Hitler and the advance of the Nazis. This conviction eventually had him involved in an assassination attempt on Hitler’s life. He was caught by Hitler and hanged in a concentration camp 2 weeks before the Allied troops set Germany free from the Nazis. What would you have done? We will discuss this issue in more detail in future blogs. 

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We should learn from history, but too many times we end up just repeating it. If anything proves the biblical doctrine of “sin” and that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, “ it should be the repeating of the same evils throughout history. 

One of the worst evils that has been repeated is the integration of the Church and the State where gradually the uniqueness of each becomes blurred. And this happened in Germany with the Lutheran Church and helped pave the way for Nazi Germany. In Eric Metaxas’ book Bonhoeffer he writes,

“To understand the relationship between Germans, Jews, and Christians, one has to go back again to Martin Luther, the man in whom Germanness and Christianity were effectively united. His authority as the man who defined what it was to be a German Christian was unquestioned, and it would be used by the Nazis to deceive many. But when it comes to the Jews, Luther’s legacy is confusing, not to say deeply disturbing.” (p.91) 

So how did this happen in Germany? How did the Church that Luther founded upon “sola scriptura” get blurred with the Nationalist Socialism of Nazi Germany? Tim Keller gives us some insight in the Foreword of Bonhoeffer: 

“It is impossible to understand Bonhoeffer’s Nachfolge (succession) without becoming acquainted with the shocking capitulation of the German church to Hitler in the 1930s. How could the ‘church of Luther,’ that great teacher of the gospel, have ever come to such a place? The answer is that the true gospel, summed up by Bonhoeffer as costly grace, had been lost. On the one hand, the church had become marked by formalism. That meant going to church and hearing that God just loves and forgives everyone, so it doesn’t really matter much how you live. Bonhoeffer called this cheap grace. On the other hand, there was legalism, or salvation by law and good works. Legalism meant that God loves you because you have pulled yourself together and are trying to live a good, disciplined life…Both of these impulses made it possible for Hitler to come to power.” 

The formalism that crept into much of the German Church lost the authority of the scriptures to lead the moral compass of the Church and allowed the State to be that compass. Today, the same thing is going on in our country. Sadly much of the Church is bowing to the cultural pressure of progressive secular culture and adopting its moral guiding compass and is increasingly losing a healthy hold on the scriptures. 

The legalism that crept into much of the German Church lost the authority of the scriptures to pharisaical or law and order attitudes. It was this blending of the scriptures and the law of the land that allowed much of the Church to adopt the Aryan Paragraph which opened wide the door for racism and the abuse of the Jews and other races. Sadly, this is exactly what happened with American slavery in some parts of the Church. And sadly today there are parts of the Church who are blending the church with politics and moving toward a Nationalistic approach much like the Nazis with their Nationalistic Socialistic party. 

So, how is the Church to respond today? First, we need to expose and fight against the cancer of cheap grace within our walls. The idea that God will go soft on sin is nowhere to be found in the scriptures. We must work diligently in communicating a solid theology of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in our pulpits, small groups and discipleship. We need to help each other apply a biblical filter when it comes to our moral and political and social justice convictions. Secondly, we need to expose and fight against the subtle but evil tendency of legalism. This evil always corrupts the gospel of grace and imposes itself upon politics in a way that blurs the biblical distinctions of Church and State. This legalism also blurs patriotism and the Christian mission in the world. 

The Church needs to re-establish its communities as places of gracious respectful dialogue where these issues are investigated with rigorous theological inquiry and personal application within the accountability of discipleship. 

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“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” -Matthew 6:33 

Recently I finished ready Bonhoeffer; Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor during WWII and Hitler’s Third Reich reign of terror between 1933 and 1945. Reading about the history of Nazi Germany and the relationship of the Church and State during this time was very insightful into many of our current struggles and issues. 

This is the first (v.1) part in a multi-blog series where I will be exploring history, Church and State issues in light of many of our current issues. I invite you to join me in some healthy discussion. 

Let me begin this blog series with a recent quote from Tim Keller, 

“In many churches across the US many members are falling into one of two camps, Keller said, ‘On one hand many young evangelicals particularly those living in cities almost have a tendency to be over-woke and take their cues from the secular world, talking about Christian nationalists in nasty ways…It is dangerous. But it’s also one of the ways that you fuel the extremists as sort of subhuman…But a bigger number of evangelicals many of them in the South and Midwest are unhappy because their minister isn’t denouncing the Left enough and isn’t telling people they need to vote for Trump…In an op-ed for CP conservative author and radio host Michael Brown clarified that those who simply love and appreciate America are not Christian nationalists but warned that equating America with God’s kingdom or merging the cross with the flag is a terrible and dangerous mistake…and that is the error of Christian Nationalism. The irony of all this is that if we would be kingdom minded people first and foremost we would bring the most blessing to America. If we would look at America as our mission field rather than our spiritual refuge we would help our nation fulfill whatever plans the Lord has for us. And if we would exalt Jesus infinitely more than any political leader we would better serve our country and our leaders.” (Christian Post article, Friday March 12, 2021, Tim Keller: Church’s affiliation with Republicanism has given Christian nationalism a place to incubate)

I think this is a very good assessment of two very dangerous ideologies and movements gaining ground in our culture and country today. The first dangerous ideology and movement is the “over-woke” movement which has embraced for the most part a very progressive secular viewpoint. This ideology reigns supreme in most major media outlets, entertainment and social media platforms and all public education. This ideology has crept into the Church today and is replacing the authority of the Scriptures in many people’s minds with secular progressive ideology. 

The second dangerous ideology and movement is “Christian Nationalism.” This is the ideology that merges the cross of Christ with the American flag. This ideology has been around for awhile and usually is tied to the Republican Party, but has grown more recently in response to the secular progressive movement. This ideology is dangerously knit into many church cultures today. We will look more deeply at these two destructive ideologies in this blog series as we look to learn from history and scripture. 

Christians should beware and be aware of “labelling.” We all label – it is our culture.  In some ways it is helpful to position thoughts and ideas but it is destructive and not helpful toward healthy dialogue if we label someone to discount them or minimize their viewpoint without hearing them out. It is not helpful to say that anyone who voted for Trump is a Christian Nationalist just like it is not helpful to say that anyone who voted for Biden is a secular progressive. 

Any country that moves away from God only becomes more evil with less liberty. This has been the record of history. And the move toward evil can happen quickly as we will see in this series as we look at Nazi Germany. And today with technological advancements things can happen even quicker. Both secular progressivism and Christian Nationalism can lead to a socialism or a fascism led by an evil dictator. We will explore this more deeply in the weeks ahead. But for the Church and those who follow Jesus the more important issues are going to be how we are going to respond and be a faithful and strong Church in the future with our priority on the Kingdom of God not on the Kingdom of this world. We must encourage each other and grow in our understanding of what it means to “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness” and know that Jesus also said, 

“My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” John 18:36

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