{"id":27281,"date":"2021-02-23T16:06:06","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T00:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=27281"},"modified":"2021-02-23T16:06:06","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T00:06:06","slug":"the-cloud-of-witnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-cloud-of-witnesses\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cloud of Witnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Dietrich Bonhoeffer\u2019s funeral service, Franz Hildebrandt recalled a conversation he had with Bonhoeffer: \u201cWhy should it always have to be the bad people who make the revolutions?\u201d<\/a>[1]<\/p>\n

The word \u201crevolution\u201d carries with it many connotations. For Americans, we may think of the American Revolution and the spirit of nationalism it evokes as cries of \u201cfreedom\u201d echoed throughout the land. For political leaders, it may evoke a spirit of fear as the people rise up to overthrow their regime. Revolutionaries are both scorned and celebrated for their work; venerated and demonized; considered both \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cbad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonhoeffer\u2019s words came from the context of Nazi Germany and the steady decline of civilization as millions of Jews were murdered. It was a \u201crevolution\u201d driven by fear, hate, and the need for power. But in reflecting on Bonhoeffer\u2019s words, one can see that there is a hope and desire to see see and revolution from another perspective \u2013 one that is built on love, humility, faith, and compassion.<\/p>\n

Tom Holland\u2019s Dominion<\/em> traces the idea that Christ Himself brought a revolution to this world, one that influenced the very fabric of society since its inception.<\/a>[2] In fact, the greatest revolution of history was not started by the \u201cbad people\u201d, but rather by the Son of God Himself. History attests to this, even if that story and revolution was hijacked by the \u201cbad people\u201d at times to further another agenda.<\/p>\n

But the Revolution has carried with it a great cloud of witnesses. Men and women who went before us, who are among us now, and who will come long after we are gone. The author of Hebrews details many examples of great faith in chapter eleven, but my favorite part of this chapter comes toward the very end:<\/p>\n

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon,\u00a0Barak, Samson\u00a0and Jephthah,\u00a0about David\u00a0and Samuel\u00a0and the prophets,\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>who through faith conquered kingdoms,\u00a0administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,\u00a0quenched the fury of the flames,\u00a0and escaped the edge of the sword;\u00a0whose weakness was turned to strength;\u00a0and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.Women received back their dead, raised to life again.\u00a0There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection.\u00a0Some faced jeers and flogging,\u00a0and even chains and imprisonment.\u00a0They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword.\u00a0They went about in sheepskins and goatskins,\u00a0destitute, persecuted and mistreated\u2014\u00a0the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground (Hebrews 11:32 \u2013 38).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Great Cloud of Witnesses that came before is so vast there there isn\u2019t enough space to record every person. It is in the \u201cnameless\u201d members of this cloud that I find the greatest encouragement. The Revolution may have its figureheads, but each of us who are part of the body of Christ lend our stories to the greatest story ever told. Our struggles, our successes \u2013 the good, the bad, and the ugly \u2013 are testaments to the goodness and faithfulness of God.<\/p>\n

As we look back on the lives of those who come before us, we are able to reflect on their journeys and find encouragement as we journey alongside them. At the beginning of this Bonhoeffer series, I shared how Bonhoeffer served as a spiritual guide to me through his story.<\/p>\n

What does my story say? What does yours say? Who, when looking back, is going to resonate with our story?<\/p>\n

How do we continue to the mantra of the Christian revolution?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a>[1] Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer<\/em> (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2010), 540.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[2] Tom Holland, Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind <\/em>(London: Abacus, 2019).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Dietrich Bonhoeffer\u2019s funeral service, Franz Hildebrandt recalled a conversation he had with Bonhoeffer: \u201cWhy should it always have to be the bad people who make the revolutions?\u201d[1] The word \u201crevolution\u201d carries with it many connotations. For Americans, we may think of the American Revolution and the spirit of nationalism it evokes as cries of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[1943,1961],"class_list":["post-27281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography-drama-history","tag-bonhoeffer","tag-witnesses","cohort-lgp10"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27282,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27281\/revisions\/27282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}