Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)
READ: Mark 8:31-38
Hitler’s rise to power was all-encompassing. He sought to purify the motherland and to seize control of the European world. He ruled with a smooth tongue and an iron fist. We know him to be a monster responsible for the brutal killing of 6 million Jews, but to many Germans, his message was one of hope and unity, particularly after the shame and loss of WWI. The promise of German pride caused many to turn a blind eye to the atrocities happening behind barbed wire. There were some, however, who took a stand.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor when Hitler came to power in the early 1930s. Hitler’s ideas were seeping into the church at the time, and both the Lutheran and Catholic churches were falling prey. Hitler was a sensation, the people in a frenzy over him. Some church leaders began to declare him a second Christ! And so Dietrich Bonhoeffer, along with about a third of the Protestant clergy formed the Confessing Church – a church that stood boldly against the work of Adolf Hitler.
During the subsequent years, Bonhoeffer wrote his famous, The Cost of Discipleship – a book rejecting apathy and cheap grace and emphasising repentance and sacrifice. After he was banned from preaching, he began teaching at an underground Bible school until it was shut down by the authorities. Bonhoeffer had tried to take a peaceful stand against Hitler through sound moral teaching, but it was not enough; he became involved with various plots to kill Hitler, though none were successful. He was an extremely brave man, even joining the German secret service as a double agent, using his connections to help Jews escape oppression. In April 1943 Bonhoeffer was caught. After spending two years in prison he was transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp, and then on to an extermination camp where he was hung on April 9, 1945, only weeks before Germany surrendered.
Richard Wrumbrand (1909-2001)
READ: 2 Corinthians 6:3-10
In the mid-1940s as WWII was coming to a close, Communism was engulfing Romania. Richard Wrumbrand and his wife Sabina were Romanian Jews who were led to Christ by an old Jewish carpenter in the late 1930s. They committed their lives wholeheartedly to the Lord’s work and Richard became a pastor. In 1945, 4000 religious leaders were called together to swear their loyalty to the new communist party. In doing so, many pastors stood up and denied their Lord, claiming that Christianity was fundamentally cohesive with Communism. Sabina could not stand it and urged her husband to “stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ.” Richard did so, and his allegiance to the Lamb cost him 8 years of torturous imprisonment. He was mercilessly tortured for preaching the gospel, but Jesus strengthened Him and gave him a heart of love and forgiveness for his persecutors.
God poured out his love on Richard and Sabina Wrumbrand, burdening their hearts with passion for those trapped in Communism. Though warned, Richard continued to preach after his release, earning him five more years in prison. Sabina, also, would spend three years as a prisoner for the gospel.
Richard and Sabina would eventually move to the United States; friends and family raised money to pay off the government to let them escape. And from America, they continued to reach out to Communists until the regime was overthrown in the early 90’s. The Wrumbrands started the ministry The Voice for the Martyrs dedicating themselves to serving the persecuted church worldwide, reaching out to persecuted believers and praying for the brokenness and redemption of those who persecute God’s people in hopes that Sauls may become Pauls and more will come to know the love of Jesus Christ.
JOURNALING AND PRAYER
1. Where do you feel weak in your faith?
2. Ask God how He wants to grow your faith this summer. What does He want to do in your heart?
3. Thank God for what He has shown you, and pray that it would become a reality in your life.
