Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Hero or Heretic?

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran minister most known for his involvement in a plot to assassinate

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Adolf Hitler near the end of World War II, for which Bonhoeffer was imprisoned and later executed. This became the focus of a movie about his life that came out in 2024 entitled

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Bonhoeffer Pastor -Spy -Assassin. His most famous work was The Cost of Discipleship, published in 1937, examining what he called cheap grace versus costly grace.

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Cheap grace would be like preaching forgiveness without repentance, whereas costly grace is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.

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Bonhoeffer taught that salvation should radically change a person's life, for faith without obedience is no faith at all, as said in James 2 .17.

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Unfortunately, Bonhoeffer's theology was rather liberal. In his book Christ the Center, he cast doubt on the fact that Christ really existed.

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He wrote, As a subject for historical investigation, Jesus Christ remains an uncertain phenomenon.

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His historicity can neither be confirmed nor denied with the necessary absolute certainty.

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Bonhoeffer said of Christ's resurrection from the grave, Empty or not empty, it remains a stumbling block.

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We cannot be sure of its historicity. Whereas the Apostle Paul provided numerous proofs for the resurrection and said,

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If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.

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Bonhoeffer denied the inerrancy of Scripture, calling the Bible flawed. He went as far as denying the power of the gospel itself, saying,

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We must finally break away from the idea that the gospel deals with the salvation of an individual soul.

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But Romans 1 .16 says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe.

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Though regarded as a courageous hero of the faith, one should be very careful with the theology and life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer when we understand the text.