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Revelation of God's Holiness - R Edward Miller

Some biography about Ed Miller's son.
Robert is the eldest son of Dr. R. Edward and Eleanor Francis Miller, who were on their way to Argentina as missionaries, when Robert was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico on March 22, 1945. While only a few months of age, he contracted rheumatic fever, which left his heart with a mitro-valve prolapse. As a small child he attended a crusade where he was prayed for by Evangelist/Prophet William Branham, and by God’s grace, he was made whole.

At the early age of five, Robert saw the outpouring of the Holy Spirit under his father’s ministry in a small church in Mendoza, Argentina. At age seven, he was present for the 1952 angelic visitation, with times of deep intercession at the Bible School in City Bell, Argentina. There, the angel foretold of a nationwide revival that was to soon come. In 1954 those promises were fulfilled through Evangelist Tommy Hicks. The story of this revival is written by his father, Dr. R. Edward Miller, in his book, “Secrets of the Argentine Revival.”

During his childhood, Robert would often go with his father to the healing crusades. There, he would sit on the platform and watch his father praying for the sick, diseased and dying. He witnessed untold numbers of miracles night after night. The paralyzed would leap up and walk, the blind would see, deaf ears would be opened and demon possessed people would be set free.

Saved by the grace of God at an early age and filled with the Holy Spirit at the age of 14, Robert began to minister as a translator for foreign missionaries in Argentina. In 1961 he went to Bethany Bible College (6820 Auto Club Rd., Minneapolis, MN), graduating in 1964.

He began to pastor his first church in Walport, Oregon, and was there for one year. He was then led by the Holy Spirit back to Argentina, where he taught in a Bible School in Mar del Plata for his father and also worked there with the children in the orphanage.

Shortly thereafter, he founded and was Pastor of a church there called “Peniel” (Face of God – Gen. 32:30). During those years, a precious move of God broke out among the Bible School students. Heavenly worship, deep repentance, cleansing, spiritual warfare and intercession were a daily occurrence. The Bible School and Church experienced a tremendous, unforgettable move of God’s Spirit, where the Lord awesomely manifested His Glory and Presence during untold hours of worship. Month after month, the services continued each day, and would last until four o’clock in the morning. People would go straight to work without sleep for weeks at a time (supernaturally sustained by God). It would take volumes to write of all the wonderful experiences, healings, miracles and deliverances that took place during those years. There was such conviction and repentance, with many being converted and filled with the Holy Spirit. Nearly everyone experienced God in an open, transparent, face to face relationship in the light of His manifested Glory and Presence. Many of the students attending “Peniel” during those years are serving the Lord Jesus and in the ministry today.

The Lord instructed Robert to return to the United States in 1974. He was ordained at The King’s Temple by Pastor Charlotte Baker and continued ministering throughout the USA in many churches until 1976.

Robert, again led by the Lord, returned to Argentina -- this time to the capital city of Buenos Aires, taking over a struggling church. By the grace of God, this work blossomed. Again, the Lord visited the people in extraordinary ways during those unforgettable years. How wonderful it was also to have Prophetess Ruth Heflin ministering at conferences. A group of about 25 young people gave their lives to the Lord Jesus, and joined the youth training school that had just begun. It was hard to envision at that time that all but one of these students would be serving the Lord and in the ministry.

The church continued to grow, and purchased land in a central location in the Capital city of Argentina and later built a lovely sanctuary on it, with the help and oversight of Beto Pagano, a church member, businessman and contractor.

Also, during these years, a “Quinta” (lovely park area) was purchased out in the country. A portion of this property was subdivided into lots and sold to people in the church, who built their houses and now live there at the Peniel Christian community. A youth camp facility was also begun. What tremendous encounters with God, the children, young people and counselors have experienced on those campgrounds!

Yet another part of this “Quinta” property was later developed into a conference center, with the capacity for 3,000 people, under the leadership of Robert’s brother John Miller who took over the work in 1984.

In July 1983, Robert moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to help his father who was pastor of a new church he had pioneered. Ministering together, the church grew to over 600 people, which God sovereignly drew from various states and from other nations (Taiwan, Australia, South America, etc).

A powerful move of the Holy Spirit, later called the “fire move”, broke out in this church, during the years they were pastors together, which lasted several years. Ministers and laypeople from many parts of the world came to the conferences and would ‘catch’ the fire and take it back with them to their churches. Again, it would take volumes to relate the accounts of this move of God’s Spirit during those years in Atlanta, but we will share just a few highlights.

Such were the manifestations of power and fire, that some would literally see the flames as lightning bolts. Some could actually feel this intense heat of the flames upon their bodies. While many, because of fear, could not stand the intensity of the Holy Spirit manifesting this way, countless others who did not yield to their fears and close their hearts, were given open visions and transported into the world of the Spirit, for hours at a time. People would call these experiences “virtual reality”, for many of them were still conscious of this world, while in the spirit world other. Many were transported in vision to Heaven or hell and would describe the things they both saw, and experienced, totally unaware that they were speaking in this world, where others could hear witness what they were describing. Most everyone experienced the crucifixion of Jesus in a very personal way, and were then brought into a life changing love relationship with Him.

Those whose experiences took them to hell, would cry out because of the burning flames and repent of the hidden sins in their lives. Many were given to identify themselves with the Cross of Christ, as if they were the ones who had killed Him. (Acts 2:23 …ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.) Then after this experience, the Lord would reveal to them His overwhelming love and mercy, letting them know that they had not taken His life, but that He had willingly given it on their behalf, so they were completely forgiven. Impossible to describe, the depth of gratitude and worship that poured out of these lives, as tears bathed their faces and the radiance of God’s love and glory lit their countenances.

A classic example of those taken to Heaven in a vision is the experience of a Taiwanese woman, who for many years had lived in condemnation and torment over a past abortion. In one of these meetings, while under the power, she was taken to Heaven. A beautiful teenage Chinese girl came to meet her with a joyful, radiant face, calling her, “mother.” She told her mother, among many other things, “I love you and forgive you. Please don’t suffer anymore, because I’m happy here in Heaven and I love being with Jesus.” This woman came back from this experience so radically set free, that she has never more been plagued by those condemning torments. Unforgettable for sure were the experiences that all who were there, encountered. That fire spread to many churches in different countries, including Argentina, Canada, England, Holland, Panama and the United States.

A few years later, Robert was invited to minister in the country of Panama, which turned out to be an incredible visitation of the Lord. The services were aired live over radio waves throughout Panama, then the calls began pouring into the radio stations, telling of supernatural things God was doing while people were listening to the live services in progress. An architect who was driving on his way home, was listening to this service, when the sense of God's Presence became so strong in his vehicle, he had to pull over on the shoulder of the road, no longer able to drive, because he was crying uncontrollably. He had been backslidden for some time and the Lord restored him back to Himself right there.

Another account was of a Christian manager of a factory who was on her lunch break. She was listening to the service over the radio and began to weep uncontrollably. She then fell under the power of the Holy Spirit. When other operators saw what had happened through the window into her office, they went in to see what was taking place and upon hearing the radio message, they too fell under the power of the Spirit. Everyone in the factory spontaneously broke into tears, dropping everything and God began to move among them.

Another report was of a pastor and his wife from the interior of the country who could not be at the conference, and had said that as they were listening to the message over the radio waves, they clasped hands around a coffee table and began to pray, when suddenly they were slain under the power of the Holy Spirit and fell on the floor weeping. There were reports about several other people who from their homes reported the same phenomena. Truly, God had come and was calling His people to Himself.

Robert has been privileged to minister in many countries. By the year 1995, he had ministered in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Mexico, the United States, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Israel, Greece, South Africa, England, Holland, Spain and Wales. Countless people’s lives have been transformed as they encounter the reality of Jesus Christ. Robert is a spiritual father to pastors and leaders in several countries (edifying, encouraging, exhorting, imparting his gifts and anointing to the next generation).

In July of 2001, Robert went to Buenos Aires, Argentina to be with his father until Nov. 1, 2001, at which time the Lord took Dr. R. Edward Miller home to Glory. Robert and Deborah returned to Georgia, U.S.A. in the first part of 2002, founding the church, “Peniel Int’l Fellowship” in Union City. This church has an outreach in Argentina for some of the poorest and needy children. Thousands of dollars every year are sent to feed and clothe the children who gather together at the new “Quinta” outside of Mar del Plata, which was purchased in 2005. Already the miraculous provisions of God for the poor and less fortunate of that area, are too numerous to mention. Many are coming to know Jesus as their Savior and are baptized in water and filled with the Holy Spirit, as a result of this outreach that is under the direction of Daniel and Inez Kloster.

In November of 2005, in recognition of the call on their lives, both Robert and Deborah were ordained at White Horse Christian Center. In January of 2012 the Lord led the Millers to return to metro Atlanta, GA as their home base, as they minister in many churches in the U.S.A. and abroad.

Passionate for God, Robert often ministers in the prophetic psalmist anointing, where the Heavens open and the manifested Presence of God fills congregations with the sense of God’s heavenly glory. People meet God face to face and those encounters transform their lives for eternity.

from Revival carriers.org

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R.Edward Miller - Love

6 Videos and the biography of R. Edward Miller













On March 27, 1917, Robert Edward Miller was born in Alsea, Oregon, U.S.A. He is the son of Dr. Buford Charles Miller, a Baptist minister, who came into the full gospel message through the ministry of the well known Aimee Semple McPherson. He was used by the Lord in the healing ministry with Dr. Charles S. Price and pioneered many large churches with his team of young people in Southeastern Oregon.

After his father's untimely death, Edward Miller, at the early age of 11, spent ten years working on the farm of his aunt and uncle. Separated from his peers and locked into long hours of farm labor, he learned to pray. His Bible was his companion. One day, while working in the fields, he had an encounter with God and a genuine conversion.

Attending Bible College in Southern California, he again experienced the Presence of the Lord like he had as a child in the field on the farm. During his college years, there were many days when classes were suspended, because the Holy Spirit visited them. During these days of prayer and seeking God, he was challenged to some day go to the mission field.

After Bible College, he took up his first pastorate among the Chiloquin Indians in Chiloquin, Oregon. After this, he then moved to Bandon, Oregon to pastor his second church.

Years later “The Haven of Rest” and the "Crew of the Good Ship Grace" (a radio broadcast) financially sponsored the Millers, enabling them to go to South America to answer the call of God to become missionaries in a foreign land. On their way to South America, the ship was detained in Puerto Rico due to the United State’s involvement in the war with Japan. They remained in Puerto Rico for a couple of years, ministering evangelistically and in several churches. After this time, they continued on down to Montevideo, Uruguay's capitol city, where they ministered for several years in tent evangelism and pioneered a full gospel church. Dr. Miller then moved down to Argentina, which, unknown to him, was to become his "life work."

In the fall of 1948, he went to Mendoza, Argentina at the foot of the South American Andes Mountains. There, tired of “church as usual”, he set himself apart to intensely seek the Lord for 8 hours every day. He had to discover for himself, the same power that he had seen in other ministries and churches as a child. After several months, his prayers were answered and he experienced a dynamic encounter with God. Shortly afterward, a move of the Holy Spirit broke out in the church which he was pastoring. (The story of the moving of the Holy Spirit in Mendoza is related in his book, "Secrets of the Argentine Revival").

He spent many years in Argentina as a missionary, ministering in crusades as an evangelist and witnessing many supernatural miracles and conversions. He not only pioneered several churches, but traveled to many churches throughout the country where spontaneous visitations of God would break forth. He founded a Bible School in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina, where for several years there was an unusual move of the Holy Spirit and a manifestation of God’s Presence. Many of the students went on to serve the Lord, founding churches in many provinces of the country.

Dr. Miller also began an orphanage for abandoned children, which became very well known in the city of Mar del Plata. By faith, God brought in offerings to construct all the buildings.

The Millers remained in Argentina until 1974, strengthening the Peniel churches and working with their sons, Robert and John, and adoptive daughter Annie.

The Holy Spirit had spoken to the Millers, telling them that they were to go forth to churches in various other nations to strengthen their faith for an onward move into the purposes of God. So in March 1974, they left the work in Argentina to move into a larger harvest field. For the next six and one-half years they traveled around the world several times, ministering in numerous countries, including Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the Middle East and the United Kingdom.

In 1980 they returned to the United States, where God directed them to begin a work in Atlanta, Georgia. With a small group of about a dozen hungry believers, Peniel Bible Assemblies began with prayer and bible studies in one of the homes. As God began to sovereignly draw others to the fellowship from neighboring areas - as well as from other states and countries - it was necessary to find a larger place to meet, as the number of those desirous of moving into the purposes of God continually increased. Eventually, property was purchased and a church built to seat 700 people, which soon was filled. A tremendous move of the Spirit of God took place during the years of 1986 to 1994. Too numerous to mention here, are the countless testimonies of those who had life-changing encounters with God as He manifested His Presence, Glory and power.

Once again the Millers felt led to travel overseas. This time most of their efforts were spent ministering in Taiwan and Malaysia. The impact of God’s sovereign move through their ministry there, lasted for many years, with thousands of lives changed. So much so, that China’s “eternal First Lady” Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, asked to have an interview with him. She also had him flown to her private residence to pray for one of her family members.

Dr. R. Edward Miller has authored a number of books and has an extensive library of audio messages, which continue to minister to many around the world. His rich insight into the Scriptures and the Presence of God in his personal life, have brought spiritual awakening and enrichment to many who have desired a deeper walk with God.

In their final years, the Miller’s returned to Argentina, where God called both of them to their eternal home with Himself.  from revival carriers.org




Books from This Ministry    

Zeffirelli - The Power of Love

Franco Zeffirelli, KBE (Italian: [ˈfraŋko ddzeffiˈrɛlli]; born 12 February 1923) is an Italian director and producer of films and television. He is also a director and designer of operas and a former senator (1994–2001) for the Italian centre-right Forza Italia party.........
Read more on Wikipedia

Some of you know that I am working as both a piano tuner, and also as a cleaner in a pub to help fill out the week, and involve myself in more strenuous daily activity. While I am cleaning I am currently doing a crash course on Who's Who.

Only I am doing the equivalent by means of Desert Island Discs. Where else is such a formidable record of people's potted lives to be found in their own words, coupled with very revealing portraits in the personal music they choose and love? I am not sure if this is available online to people overseas, but it is certainly available free now to all UK residents.

Why am I doing this?
Daniel Yordy really pinpointed a key for me about fiction in general, then the revelation of God IN A PERSON via their story.
So each episode I am listening to the movers and shakers and asking

• from where do they hail....who were their forebears?
• are there any common patterns emerging, especially among fellow musicians and artists?
• are there any traces or giveaways concerning Illuminati connections or references as to real history?
• are there any hidden aspects that are poohpoohed by figures such as Dawkins,Pratchett and other humanists that nevertheless keep emerging that are pointers to humans being primarily spirit in body casements.

I may delve into my findings in a later post.

Today I want to pull some details out of Zefirelli's life.
We begin in the natural. We are "sown " in the natural, we die as a seed, and are raised as spirits in the Earth now...long before our bodies fully respond to the resurrection. If you read Daniel Yordy you will find him pursuing the direction of Sam Fife which awakens the Body of Christ to believing for the full resurrection here and now of our bodies as did St Paul. I wouldn't give this house room apart from the fact that God spoke the self same thing out of my own mouth in a 1981 prophecy to Emsworth church in the very Tin Tabernacle that Smith Wigglesworth opened some 50 years beforehand.

The problem with religion is we try to work with the natural and make it more holy. Flesh and blood cannot be made more holy. We need a totally new Creation to form itself, birth itself out of our spirit man.
Galations 2:20 makes it quite clear that I HAVE DIED WITH CHRIST.

However Christian we were brought up, and I was, in the religion of Methodism, and Franklin Graham was as the son of Billy Graham. Franklin became a complete motorcycling rebel. His was totally the opposite image of his Dad. But he too was collared by a direct encounter with God and is now an evangelist.

My point with Zefirelli is that the details of his early life are excruciating.
Zeffirelli was born Gianfranco Zeffirelli, on 12 February 1923, in the outskirts of Florence, Italy. He was the result of an affair between Alaide Garosi, a fashion designer, and Ottorino Corsi, a wool and silk dealer. Since both were married, Alaide was unable to use her surname or Corsi's for her child. She came up with "Zeffiretti" which are the "little breezes" mentioned in Mozart's opera Così fan tutte, of which she was quite fond. However, it was misspelled in the register and became Zeffirelli.^[2] When he was six years old, his mother died and he subsequently grew up under the auspices of the English expatriate community and was particularly involved with the so-called Scorpioni, who inspired his semi-autobiographical 1999 film Tea with Mussolini. Wikipedia

His parents were both married to other people. But they found love with each other. It broke the rules. Italy regarded Franco as a non person. Friends urged his mother to abort him. Italy was Catholic, and in very few circumstances could you ever receive an annulment of marriage.

But love was happening.
Franco was a product of love but not morality.

This doesn't LOOK like a promising start. But what a crucible for God to birth an understanding of LOVE and HIS LOVE, when man's love fails?

Now can you begin to understand why his two religious films have touched so many? Brother Sun Sister Moon about Francis of Assissi, and Jesus of Nazareth. See Youtube clips.

The man who gave me an apprenticeship in pianos was a converted ex-policeman on Hayling Island called Geoff Vaughan. He was thoroughly converted through the Jesus of Nazareth film. While running his piano shop in the late seventies and early eighties, and rising from secondhand piano dealer out the back of his garage to one of the foremost agents for Bluthner pianos on the South Coast in less than 15 years....yes, while doing this, he bought and rented out all Zefirelli films on VHS. Anybody know how much early VHS films were? YUP...£60 - £100 each!!!!!   Many many became Christians through this one man.

The crucible in which the seed is sown is offputtingly the very reverse of the end product. This is what throws people about the Kingdom of God. This is why Matthew 5 looks so bad. Blessed are those who are persecuted.......etc etc  It's like a reverse manufacturing form for whatever you are pressing out and making.
Where you want an indentation, the form, (the negative image on the thing applying pressure) has a protuberance.

People are continually fooled.
Rahab the Prostitute, Ralph Harris has noted, while being installed by God BANG in Jesus actual lineage, got there by doing one thing, and it wasn't giving up prostitution...initially. IT WAS LYING by faith...as in telling a lie....not the other kind of lying on a bed with someone.

GOD is forming PASSION for Himself.
Amazingly, when you consider the pain that Catholicism caused him, Zefirelli offered his PR services to the Pope.  In connection with this matter, he was quoted as saying "I am a Christian down to the depths of my spirit." Wikipedia
Many of the speakers on Desert Island Discs are very spiritual people, and you can't always tell how much their belief system is in line with what I would believe...but Zefirelli certainly comes over as one with incredibly deep insight as to how life really functions.

He made these observations too.

• Maria Callas was sucked dry, hoovered by her marriage to Onassis. She never recovered. In my mind I was making these links:

Facebook today:Chris Welch
Unless history includes Illuminati history it remains an elusive seemingly random series of events. In reality, very very little is random. It isn't random that as Zefirelli said about Onassis' relationship with Maria Callas...he used her...he hoovered her....he sucked the life out of her from which, a broken woman, she never recovered. This is all very understandable when you learn Onassis and Stavros his brother inlaw were/ are right in the centre of everything, which is why they were in with Prince Phillip, and why Stavros helps lead Bilderberg with Rockefeller. The reason we know so little about Phillip is HIS choice NOT OURS. As head of Freemasonry in the UK, Phillip is so far in the centre of everything he doesn't want you to know.

• He regards abortion as the worst crime on earth today because people are denying the right of existence to other human beings before they can even make any of their own decisions in the matter.

(obviously Franco Zefirelli would just be aborted today and  would would have lost one of the world's great directors both of film and opera.

Frank Viola on Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Picture: Dietrich Bonhoeffer - weekend away with students

Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Born 4 Feb 1906
Died 9 Apr 1945
Country Germany
Category Government

Contributor: C. Peter Chen
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born, with a twin sister Sabine, into an upper-class family in Breslau, Germany. His father, Karl Bonhoeffer, was a professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Berlin and also the director of the psychiatric clinic at Charité Hospital, which was also in Berlin. His mother was Paula von Hase, daughter of Countess Klara von Hase. As a child, he was a gifted pianist, and it was thought that he would either become a musician or follow his father's footsteps and become a doctor. Surprising everyone in the family, at the age of 14, he chose to pursue a career in religion instead. He attended Tübingen University for a year, toured Rome, and then returned to Berlin in 1924 to enroll in the University of Berlin. He graduated from the University of Berlin in 1927 with a doctorate in theology. Between 1928 and 1931, he worked and studied in Spain, United States, Mexico, Libya, Cuba, and his home country of Germany. He was ordained on 15 Nov 1931 at the St. Matthew's Church in Berlin.

When the Nazi Party rose to power in 1933, Bonhoeffer became one of the first religious leaders to oppose Nazism. Two days after Adolf Hitler was made Chancellor, he delivered a radio address against him, and the radio address was cut short by a Nazi sympathizer, and he was unable to finish. He was also a prominent leader against the Nazi prejudice against Jews. Between 1934 and 1935, he was the pastor of two German-speaking churches, St. Paul's and Sydenham, in London, England, United Kingdom. In 1934, he was among those who organized the Confessing Church in Germany. As the Nazi regime continued to suppress the Confessing Church, his authorization to teach at the University of Berlin was reovked in Aug 1936. In Aug 1937, Heinrich Himmler declared it was illegal to teach the theology of the Confessing Church, and the church's underground seminary was shut down by the Gestapo in the following month, arresting 27 pastors of the church. One of his sisters, Christine, married Hans von Dohnanyi, a German politician who was also dissatisfied with the Nazi Regime. It was Dohnanyi who introduced Bonhoeffer to members of the Abwehr (German military intelligence) who plotted to overthrow Hitler. In Jun 1939, he traveled to the United States at the invitation of the Union Theological Seminary in New York, but returned to Germany shortly before the start of the European War.

In war-time Germany, Bonhoeffer was forbidden to speak in public by the Nazi German government, and by 1940 was required to regularly report his activities. In 1941, he was forbidden to publish. He joined the Abwehr, where he had already made contacts with like-minded anti-Nazi colleagues. He was active in the planning of assassination attempts against Hitler, and believed that he had sinned for such action, but he believed that he was sacrificing for the greater good for Germany. As an Abwehr personnel, he was able to work as a courier and diplomat for the resistance movement, visiting various contacts within Germany and aboard in Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. In May 1942, he made contact with Anglican Bishop George Bell, a member of the British House of Lords; a report was submitted to British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden, but no further action was taken (Britain had similarly turned down many offers to help from various groups within Germany at this time).

On 6 Apr 1943, Bonhoeffer and Dohnanyi were arrested as the result of political struggles between the German SS and Abwehr organizations. Bonhoeffer was accussed of corruption, evading military service, and using his position to circumvent orders to cease church activities. He was imprisoned at the Tegel military prison in Berlin. During his 18-month imprisonment at Tegel, a sympathetic guard named Knobloch offered to help him escape, but Bonhoeffer rejected him in fear of retribution against his family. After the failed July Plot in 1944, which nearly succeeded in killing Hitler, a large effort to hunt down conspirators commenced, and connections were finally made between Bonhoeffer and other conspirators. He was transferred to the detention cellar of the Reich Security Head Office, then in Feb 1945 he was sent to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Some time later, he was moved to the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp. On 4 Apr 1945, the diaries of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of Abwehr, was discovered; as Hitler read them, he condemned all Abwehr conspirators to death. On 8 Apr, SS judge Otto Thorbeck sentenced him to death per Hitler's orders, and he was executed by hanging on the next day.

Source: Wikipedia.

Frank Viola series of Four Blogposts

Take time over this one and follow the links into Frank Viola's blog and his books and other posts, for example : Kingdom Confusion

Blogging Through Bonhoeffer Part One
I’m a student of history. And the more I look at it, the more I recognize a certain pattern. God sends spiritual giants who change the course of church history in waves.
One wave was made evident around 1926 and continued through the 1940s. In three different countries.
Three choice vessels of God began publishing then. They had lots of similarities in the testimony they bore regarding the supremacy of Jesus Christ and His church.
Those three vessels were:
Watchman Nee in China.
T. Austin-Sparks in England.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Germany.
In the coming days, I’m going to be blogging through Bonhoeffer’s complete works.
Bonhoeffer was first and foremost a theologian. And as a theologian, he’s one of my favorites.
I’ll begin by recommending a recent biography written about him, which may be the best ever written on his life.
It’s called Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
If you like reading biographies, you’ll want to own this one. Click on the link above to see a movie trailer and read endorsements and reviews. I own the book and love it.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post: It’s called Advice for Christian Authors. It will contain advice for established authors, first-time authors, and those toying with the idea of writing a book

Blogging Through Bonhoeffer: Part II
Posted on 03/01/2011 by frankaviola 11

Last week I promised I’d begin blogging through Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s major works. I won’t do it every day, as we’ll need a break for lighter subjects. But I’ll resume until finished.
I will refer to Bonhoeffer henceforth as DB.
Some of DB’s works are highly academic. Others are prophetic, written in the context of Nazi Germany.
His academic works are dense and presuppose a fair knowledge of theology, philosophy, and history.
I began this series by starting with DB’s biography, which was the subject of my first post.
The rest of the series is based on the brand new, unabridged translations of his written legacy published in Dietrick Bonhoeffer Works (16 volumes when completed) by Fortress Press.
Let’s explore the first volume today: Sanctorum Communio: A Theological Study of the Sociology of the Church (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 1)
This was DB’s doctoral dissertation. It is an academic work. It’s considered brilliant and ground-breaking. Years after it was published, Karl Barth called it “a theological miracle.” This work informed all of DB’s work to come. So it was foundational to his life and message.
The explicit goal is to relate sociology with ecclesiology in the description of the Church. DB differentiated his theology both from the Liberalism of his German professors and the new and growing current of Barthian theology (a la, Karl Barth’s view of the Church).
While DB sided with Barth on some of the issues, he differed with him on others.
Ernst Troeltsch exemplified the Liberal approach when he described the Church entirely in terms of secular sociology. Troeltsch was contradicted by Karl Barth, who saw the Church entirely in terms of the response of individuals to God’s act of self-revelation in Christ.
Liberalism fails to maintain the truth of the extraordinary reality that makes the Church what God created her to be in reality. Liberalism reduces the Church to the level of a human religious fellowship. The Church as a spiritual reality is lost.
Barthianism fails also because it reduces the Church to an event that blinks in and out of existence depending on the event of revelation. The Church as a stable, practical reality is also lost.
DB avoids both Liberalism and Barthianism by describing the Church as “Christ existing as community.” And this is the view upheld by Scripture. (See From Eternity to Here for an analysis traced throughout the Biblical narrative.)
It is in the matrix of Christ as community that we become true human beings. We are joined together in the forgiveness of sins. We are gathererd together by the love of God for us and through us in Christ. We are part of Christ together as community under His lordship.
The continuation of the reality of divine revelation is found not in doctrine as such or in pious sentiments. It is found in the reality of the Church. One could paraphrase Bonhoeffer by saying that the real exposition of divine revelation is the Church.
Since the heart of divine revelation is Christ, and Christ is not separate from His Church, this is scripturally true.
Therefore, the Church cannot be reduced to or explained as an empirical community (thus everything that calls itself “Church” isn’t necessarily so). Neither does it exist other than as an empirical community (so DB would reject the post-church paradigm).
On this basis Bonhoeffer constructs a theology centered on the convergence of Christology and ecclesiology.
What I find amazing is that at the same time that DB penned this insightful Christocentric work on the Church, Watchman Nee was writing along the same lines in China and T. Austin-Sparks was doing the same in England. While DB was a high-church Lutheran, his theology of the Church was fundamentally the same as theirs.
Here are some excerpts:
“Christ personifies the new humanity, and the Christian community is about the restoration and consummation of the created sociality of humanity.”
“Paul repeatedly identifies Christ and the church-community. Where the body of Christ is, there Christ truly is. Christ is in the church-community, as the church-community is in Christ. To be in Christ is synonymous with to be in the church-community.”
“The church is the presence of Christ the same way that Christ is the presence of God.”
“In and through Christ the church is established in reality. It is not as if Christ could be abstracted from the church; rather, it is none other than Christ who is the church.”
My favorite part by far is Chapter 5. For an academic book on the reality of Christ and the Church, this is a priceless work.

Blogging Through Bonhoeffer : Part Three
Act and Being, 1931. This is volume 2 of Deitrich Bonhoeffer Works.
It was a dissertation that qualified DB to become a faculty member of the School of theology at the University of Berlin. It’s a heavy theological work that draws on a good bit of philosophy. Not light reading at all. I’ll give a summary, then make some practical application.
DB begins by presenting a view of theologians as belonging to either one of two schools of thought. There are advocates of a theology of Act and advocates of a theology of Being. Theologies of Act stress discontinuity, dualism, the moment of revelation, and decision. Theologies of Being stress continuity, unity, tradition, and cognition.
Karl Barth is the quintessential theologian of Act. The influence of Immanuel Kant’s transcendental philosophy is evident in Barthian thought.
The theology of being stands for the continuity of God and Christianity. Some of these theologians see God’s availability to us in terms of true doctrine. Others in terms of inner experiences. Still others in terms of the institution of the structures of the Church or a verbally inerrant Bible. But all of these not only make God available, they make Him manipulatable. God loses His sovereign freedom in all three cases. He can be pinned down and domesticated by us.
We can avoid losing God in the unknowability of the transcendent or trying to capture Him in forms that make Him just another object to manipulate by returning to the reality of Christ existing as community.
As those who are recreated into Christian community, we participate in the continuity of revelation as the life of the Church. God’s self-presentation in the proclaimed Word make it necessary that we reflect on that Word so that we can faithfully proclaim it. This reflection is called theology. Because theology reflects on the Truth of God, it participates in that Truth. Yet because theology is not itself that Truth, it always has a fragmentary, fragile, and partial grasp of the Truth. And thus it is always open to criticism, correction, and improvement.
Revelation has its being in the Church. Both preaching and theology are for the Church and in the Church. Act and Being are united in the Church.
Like DB’s first work, Christ and the Church lay at the center of his theology and philosophical outlook: “Christ existing as community.”
In Jesus Manifesto, there’s a chapter on the kingdom of God that takes a fresh look at the justice vs. justification debate. Some of that chapter is taken from these two articles where I talk about how some Christians view the kingdom simply as Act. While others view it simply as Being. But it’s both.
Kingdom Confusion: I
Kingdom Confusion: II
Here I stand with DB. In the Church we find the unity of Act and Being. Christ is both Act and Being and so is His kingdom.
If you want a more detailed analysis of this work, click here
Note that DB’s prophetic books are much more accessible.

Blogging Through Bonhoeffer: Part IV
Posted on 03/11/2011 by frankaviola 1

Creation and Fall (Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, Vol. 3)
This is DB’s exposition of Genesis 1-3 delivered as lectures at the University of Berlin in 1932-1933. It’s a difficult read, yet many of the points are powerful.
This is from the Editor’s Introduction, which I found both fascinating as well as encouraging:
Despite the impact Bonhoeffer’s lectures had on his students, systematic theologians at the time ignored their publication, and most biblical scholars scorned Bonhoeffer’s Barthian method of “theological exegesis.” Nevertheless this indifferent and critical reception, Creation and Fall provided “a first small literary success for Bonhoeffer.” One of the book’s readers was Karl Barth; indeed it was the only work by Bonhoeffer on which Barth was to express an opinion during the author’s lifetime. Barth’s influence on Bonhoeffer is clear in Creation and Fall, and Barth found it congenial and helpful for his own work (pp. 5-6).
In Creation and Fall, DB tells us that Genesis lets us know that everything has been created by God and is preserved by Him. This means that there are no purely “secular” or “natural” realities out there. Everything constantly depends on God for its existence.
In the midst of our existence there are the two trees. We were created to live our lives on the basis of knowing everything only in God. There are not two possibilities offered to Adam to live by. There is only God and not the possibility of good versus the possibility of evil.
When Adam chooses to know good and evil, he chooses to understand his life in terms of the two possibilities that he bears in himself rather than in terms of God. This sort of goodness is as far from God as evil. It is only in Christ, through the forgiveness of sins, that we can be brought back to living our lives on the basis of the one Reality of God in Christ rather than in terms our human potential for good and evil.
I expand on this very issue in a more accessible way in the chapter I wrote on living by the Tree of Life in Jesus Manifesto. DB’s treatment is very dense and academic.
According to DB, Christians know the Truth in terms of knowing the end which has dawned in Christ. This means that the beginning cannot be understood apart from the end. And the end is Christ. We therefore must understand Genesis in terms of Jesus Christ. DB’s exegesis of this book is intensely Christological. Following Barth, he uses theological interpretation to grasp the Old Testament.
For DB, the Bible is the book of the Church, and the Old Testament is the book of Christ at all times. He is correct on both points. As the Editor’s Introduction states, “For Bonhoeffer, the Old Testament was certainly the Hebrew Bible, but it was also part of the Christian canon. Therefore it had to be read in light of God’s self-disclosure in Jesus Christ” (p. 9).
Here’s a choice passage from the book:
Therefore it [the Church] reads the whole of Holy Scripture as the book of the end, of the new [vom Neuen], of Christ. Where Holy Scripture, upon which the church of Christ stands, speaks of creation, of the beginning, what else can it say other than that it is only from Christ that we can know what the beginning is? The Bible is after all nothing other than the book of the church. It is it this in its very essence, or it is nothing . . . In the church, therefore, the story of creation must be read in a way that begins with Christ and only then moves on toward him as its goal; indeed one can read it as a book that moves toward Christ only when one knows that Christ is the beginning, the new, the end of our whole world. Theological exposition takes the Bible as the book of the church and interprets it as such (p. 22).