Bonhoeffer on Reading Scripture


In a 1936 letter to his brother-in-law Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote,
"First of all I will confess quite simply - I believe that the Bible alone is the answer to all our questions, and that we need only to ask repeatedly and a little humbly, in order to receive this answer. 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 enquire of him.
...If it is I who determine where God is to be found, then I shall always find a God who corresponds to me in some way, who is obliging, who is connected with my own nature. But if God determines where he is to be found, then it will be in a place which is not immediately pleasing to my nature and which is not at all congenial to me. This place is the Cross of Christ. And whoever would find him must go to the foot of the Cross..."

2 comments:

  1. I really like this letter passage. Once human nature is overcome, we are free to worship Christ with no resistance. Putting Him before everything else will make the rest of our lives run far more smoothly, and according to His will.

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  2. We have kicked this around in small group, The western peoples have skewed the Gospels of Jesus Christ into almost Idolatry, and where Bonhoeffer differs is that he is asking God to lead him and Jesus said that God will send a helper. In prison for Dietrich this was manifested in the supernatural powers that brought him peace and learning.

    Everything in Christ is supernatural opposing the natural man. Many Theologians have taught this yet we tend to dismiss it to shape the Gospels of Jesus Christ to bolster our own Theology, and most time wrongly.

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