Life Together

5 Minutes in Church History with Stephen Nichols

Ligonier Ministries

Christianity, History, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2021

⏱️ 5 minutes

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Summary

Although the seminary at Finkenwalde was shut down by the Nazis in 1937, Dietrich Bonhoeffer continued to work and write in order to help Christians understand the life and ministry of the church in this world. On this episode of 5 Minutes in Church History, Dr. Stephen Nichols analyzes Bonhoeffer's classic book Life Together.

Read the transcript: https://www.5minutesinchurchhistory.com/life-together/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to another episode of Five Minutes in Church History. Last week, we looked at the context for the classic text
0:06.1	Life Together by Dietrich Bonnefer. Today, we'll actually look at that text. You might recall that the
0:12.6	Underground Seminary there in Finkenvalde was shut down
0:16.2	November 30th,
0:18.0	1937. Bonnefer continued his work among the seminarians and the recently graduated pastorates by visiting them throughout
0:24.8	Pomerania, and basically privately tutoring them. He spent the month of September
0:31.4	1938 at his parents' home, and it was during that month that he wrote this book Life Together.
0:38.0	It was based on what he was trying to accomplish there at Finkenvalde and of Bonnefer's
0:43.1	understanding of that crucial concept of the church and what the church is.
0:48.8	Early in the book, he writes,
0:50.7	it is not in our life that God's help and presence must still be proved.
0:57.2	But rather, God's presence and help have been demonstrated for us in the life of Jesus Christ.
1:04.7	It is in fact more important for us to know what God did to Israel, to his son Jesus Christ,
1:11.9	than to seek what God intends for us today. The fact that Jesus Christ died is more important than the fact that I shall die.
1:21.1	And the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead is the sole ground of my hope that I too shall be raised on that last day.
1:30.9	I find no salvation in my life history, but only in the history of Jesus Christ.
1:38.3	Only he who allows himself to be found in Jesus Christ, in Christ's incarnation, in his cross, in his resurrection, is with God and God with him.
1:53.1	Bonnefer begins there because he reminds us that community begins in our union with Christ.
2:01.1	And through our union with Christ, we share a truly common union with one another, and that is true community.
2:11.9	That is what Bonnefer was trying to do there at that seminary in Finkenvalde, and one of those seminarians, as they went out into their pastures,
2:20.7	to create churches that were built around the principle that we are united together in Christ, and we are united together to serve one another.
2:30.1	And one of the chapters in life together, he entitles it ministry, and he lists seven ministries that we should be about in the church.
	...

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