The Church and the World: Bonhoeffer Under Tyranny

Today's Reading

Read Romans 13:1-7: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God... For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad."

Then read Acts 5:29: "But Peter and the apostles answered, 'We must obey God rather than men.'"

Reflection

Romans 13 and Acts 5 stand in apparent tension. Paul says submit to governing authorities. Peter says obey God rather than men. How does the Christian hold these together? Bonhoeffer lived this question — and his answer cost him his life.

Paul's argument in Romans 13 is that governing authorities have been "instituted by God" and function as God's servants for maintaining order. This is a general principle, and it is important. Christianity does not teach anarchy. The structures of civil government are a provision of God's common grace, and Christians should generally respect and submit to them.

But Paul assumes a crucial condition: that rulers are "not a terror to good conduct, but to bad." When a government inverts this — when it terrorizes the good and rewards the wicked, when it enacts genocide, enslaves the innocent, and demands worship for itself — it has forfeited its God-given mandate. It has ceased to function as God's servant and has become God's enemy.

This is precisely what Bonhoeffer confronted. The Nazi regime did not merely ask for political compliance. It demanded the church's theological capitulation — requiring pastors to swear an oath to Hitler, expelling Jewish Christians from congregations, and eventually implementing the systematic murder of six million Jews.

As early as 1933, Bonhoeffer wrote that "the church has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering of society, even if they do not belong to the Christian community." This was radical. Most German Christians — including many in the Confessing Church — believed their obligation was to their own members. Bonhoeffer said the church's obligation extended to all victims, including Jews who were not Christians.

His conviction deepened over the years. He joined the Abwehr conspiracy, used his ecumenical contacts to aid the resistance, and participated in the plot against Hitler's life. He did this knowing it could cost him everything — and it did. He was arrested in April 1943 and executed in April 1945.

Going Deeper

Bonhoeffer's story does not give us a simple formula for when to obey and when to disobey the state. What it gives us is a witness — the witness of a man who knew Romans 13, who believed in the authority of the state as a divine ordinance, and who nevertheless concluded that some situations demand disobedience, resistance, and even the willingness to bear guilt. "Not to speak is to speak," he said. "Not to act is to act."

The question for every Christian in every generation is: where does obedience to God require disobedience to the powers of this world? And do I have the courage to act when the moment comes?