prophet, spy by Eric Metaxas. Unpacking a few weeks ago, this is installment number two. Because of the thickness of the book, there may also be an installment number three. We talked the last time about Bonhoeffer. He was born in 1906. He was martyred in 1945 at the age of 39. The back cover of the book says, Who better to face the greatest evil of the 20th century than a humble man of faith? As Adolf Hitler and the Nazis seduced a nation, bullied a continent, and attempted to exterminate the Jews of Europe, a small number of dissidents and saboteurs worked to dismantle the Third Reich from the inside. And one of those was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We talked the last time just to give a brief review how he was raised, large family in Berlin. He chose to become a theologian somewhat to the discouragement of his psychiatrist's father. He had a relationship with a beautiful woman named Elizabeth Zinn who was also an academic, but that didn't go forward. He also went to America in 1930. He was exposed to a ministry of a gentleman named Clayton Powell who was a very spiritual black preacher who moved Bonhoeffer in a striking way there in Harlem. He had affection for the Negroes who were abused by bigots parallel with the Jews in Germany. He was probably converted there it seems in New York under the ministry in Harlem there. When he got back there was an Arian paragraph that was added by Hitler and the Third Reich, government employees must be of Aryan stock, blonde, blue-eyed, proper earlobes. Anyone of Jewish descent would lose their job. And also, the German church, being a state church, only Aryan men could be pastors. Any pastors with Jewish blood would be excluded from the ministry. There was a boycott of Jewish stores as the screws were being put to the Jews. Bonhoeffer wrote pamphlets as he grew to be a man and these pamphlets opposed the Third Reich and the abuse of the Jews. We remember his sister here, Sabine, who had actually married a Jewish individual. There's Karl Barth, who was a part of Bonhoeffer's life. The church made friends with Hitler. Martin Niemöller was a man who said, I didn't speak when the Jews were abused and imprisoned. Then I was imprisoned and there was no one to speak for me. People demanded subservience from Hitler, and now we begin with our second class having reviewed. Back in Germany, the political forces, as Bonhoeffer has come back from the U.S., they were wearying of Hitler's extremism. And the Fuhrer, Hitler, caught wind of this conspiracy and he responded with ruthless terror. On June 29, it was called the Night of the Long Knives. Let me just read. On June 29, the extraordinary murder spree known as the Night of the Long Knives was unleashed in Germany. A ghastly tableau of bloodletting across Germany in which hundreds of people were slain in cold blood. Some were dragged out of bed and shot in their homes. Some were killed by firing squads. Others were sent to eternity sitting at their desks. wives were dispatched with their husbands. It was a foretaste of things to come. By far, the most brazen act of all the carnage was the killing of two army generals, von Schlichter and then Bridau. Hitler claimed that only 61 had been shot, but in reality it was more like 400 to some say 1,000, with many more hauled off to concentration camps. Again, these were individuals within the German government who had been colleagues of Hitler. One wrote, this had a chilling effect on most Germans. A crippling fear rose up like a bad odor within us. I mean, my even being able to talk to my father-in-law, Arnold, who was actually in Hitler's army just while I was reading through this book this summer. So interesting to get his perspective on these things. So Hitler combined the presidency and the chancellorship now into one position. And the German people found themselves far from shore, wrote Metaxas, alone in a boat with a madman. In 1934, the anti-Nazi confessing church was then organized in Barmen, Germany. Bonhoeffer himself bitterly opposed that Aryan paragraph, arguing that its ratification made the church to submit itself to the state instead of to God's word as all non-Aryans were banned from the ministry. And he argued that the pastors needed to have an allegiance to their colleagues and so a new church arose out of the state church, a remnant church called the Confessing Church that would remain free from the Nazi influence and Bonhoeffer was a leader in this, arguably the point man. In August of 1934 now, there was a conference at Fano, which was an island just off the coast of Denmark in the North Sea. Bonhoeffer was heavily involved. He acted like a Jeremiah. calling people out of the corrupt state church that was submitting to the Nazis, like a Jonah giving warning to the nation. Nineveh was going to be destroyed, he would say, Germany is going to be destroyed. There was a statement that came out of Thano resulting in the church to be liberated from the bonds of the Nazis. Bonhoeffer began taking up a role in providing seminary training for Christian aspirants now, men who wanted to be in the ministry in the confessing church. He hoped to set up schools that would cultivate not only academic lives of young men, but also their spiritual lives. He desired to create a context in which he would be able to He wanted to create a context in which he would be able to... cultivate the academic and the spiritual lives of these individuals. He wanted to set up a Sermon on the Mount type climate. In fact, he wanted to visit India, actually. He wanted to see the communities that Gandhi set up because he believed that they were according to loving one another. In fact, he wrote, must we be put to shame by non-Christian people? Bonhoeffer never himself made it to India, by the way. He wanted to get there, but circumstances disallowed it. And again, this attachment to Gandhi indicates that there were some, what we might say, unorthodox elements, especially in his youth, but as he matured, he became much more biblical. Meanwhile, the Nazi government implemented the T4 euthanasia program. And in this, scores of thousands of persons with mental and physical disabilities were removed from hospitals and they were murdered. Innumerable forced abortions took place as women who were deemed genetically inferior or racially deficient, meaning being Jews or they were mentally or physically disabled. Bonhoeffer wrote a letter to his brother at this time saying, I recently came across the fairy tale of the emperor's new clothes, which really is relevant for our time. All we are lacking though is the child who speaks up. In April of 1935, there was the establishment by Bonhoeffer of an underground seminary for anti-Nazi confessing church aspirants in Zinxed by the Baltic Sea, which in June we find was moved to Fickenwald up in Pomerania. Bonhoeffer envisioned a kind of monastic community at this time. What was life like at Fickenwald and at Zinx, these little seminaries? Well, Bonhoeffer brought his gramophone for the playing of Negro spirituals that he brought from Manhattan. He also, Bonhoeffer was a pianist, so there were two pianos there in the manor house and he would often be found playing Bach. There were strict daily routines. He required a 45-minute chapel service in the morning and in the evening. Also, he requested that not a word would be spoken for minutes prior to the service. Seminarians were told that they were to meditate on a single verse for an entire week, considering it was God's word to them. Imagine that. One passage. Meditated on the one passage all week, certain seminarians, especially those from the more liberal viewpoint, chafed at this. Why should the Word of God and the actual nouns and verbs and prepositions be so important? Obviously, Bonhoeffer thought the Word of God was inspired. Karl Barth said that these seminaries had an odor of the monastic pathos about them, somewhat critical. Some criticized them saying that there were no time for such things. These men needed to learn to preach, they said. But Bonhoeffer responded, if you can't meditate and pray, you'll never be able to preach. So see the emphasis of this man. Bonhoeffer simply wanted the students to personalize the inspired word. He wrote this, selfishness, laziness, self-pity, poor sportsmanship and the like were not tolerated. They were never to speak about any brother in his absence. Bonhoeffer himself encouraged table tennis, running, shot putting. By the way, Bonhoeffer hated to lose. Bonhoeffer would teach on extemoraneous preaching and prayer, quote, while sitting on a large staircase in the manor house holding a cigarette and a cup of coffee. You get the dynamic there. Bonhoeffer suffered from a sadness of heart that we might call depression. He wrote this, I wonder why it is that we find some days so much more oppressive than others for no reason. He had a very sunny, personality friend named Bethge. And he wrote to Bethge, I don't know anyone who doesn't like you, whereas I do know a great many people who don't like me. During this time, we're going to see, because he's in Pomerania, I had some pictures here, but I can't get to them right now. In Pomerania, he actually met a woman named Ruth Van Geist, a 68-year-old woman. It was actually granddaughter of Ruth Van Geist up in Pomerania that he became smitten with and eventually became betrothed to her. He was 39 and 38 and she was 19. In September of 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were announced for the protection of the German blood and honor, it says. One, marriage and extramarital sexual intercourse between the Jews and German citizens was forbidden. Two, Germans now can't employ for domestic work any Jews under the age of 45. What was the result of this? Jews began to little by little trickle out of Germany And Bonhoeffer said at this time, only one who cries out for the Jews may sing Gregorian chants. In other words, if you're silent for the Jews, don't sing praise in the house of God. On Feb 4 of 1936, Bonhoeffer celebrated his 30th birthday. He often helped people in need. Just to give a picture of his personality, one man had an appendicitis. and was in a large ward, third class. He paid the price to get him into a private room. Once he paid train tickets for an entire group, and Bonhoeffer's comment was, money is dirt. Bonhoeffer, in his criticizing of the government, caused him to be banned from the University of Berlin, effectively ending his access to high credentialed academia. But his brother told him he should wear it as a badge of honor. In April 22, 1936, Bonhoeffer stated controversially in a lecture, listen now, he said this, he who knowingly separates himself from the confessing church, that's the remnant church in Germany and goes back to the state church, he separates himself from salvation. Very controversial, but you see, he saw this issue of the Jews and seeking their protection as a right eye besetting type sin, that kind of proportions. Also during this time, I had a picture of Jesse Owens and Hitler, there you remember, the Olympics came up, there would be a showcase for Hitler, but the confessing church with Bonhoeffer was handing out pamphlets criticizing Hitler. didn't make Hitler happy at all. Nazis did their best to portray Germany as a Christian nation. In fact, there was one state church German leader, a pastor, who said, I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler, who built a front line of defense against the Antichrist of communism. It's true, communism was Antichrist. But some said Hitler then is a godsend to us because he was a firewall against communism. But the homicidal tyranny was a poor exchange. August 5 of 1936, Bonhoeffer was forbidden to lecture at the University of Berlin. In 1937, now, moving along, the Nazis abandoned all pretense of being even-handed. They began to imprison Some of the pastors of the Confessing Church, 800 of them were imprisoned. men who said we must obey God rather than men. Some of Bonhoeffer's students were actually imprisoned. And he made sure to keep up with the wives and the parents of some of these students to find out how they were doing and how they were faring. In 1937, the Fickenwald Pomeranian Seminary was closed by the Gestapo. 27 former Fickenwald students were imprisoned. And out of this experience at Thickenwald emerged some of Bonhoeffer's best-known books, such as The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together. In 1938, Bonhoeffer was arrested himself by the Gestapo and was henceforth banned from any preaching in Berlin. He could visit his family, but now he couldn't preach anymore in Berlin. I had a picture as well of Hitler standing, and there were his German officers standing behind him. Hitler's military aspirations began to display in the eyes of his fellow officers. Some of these old Prussian aristocratic generals, they thought he was a man of megalomaniac dimensions. When he told his well-bred German military generals of his intent to seize Austria and then Czechoslovakia to calm Germany's eastern flank, they recognized him as a madman. The generals began to whisper among themselves, he's mentally ill, he's bloodthirsty, he's heading toward national suicide, he's the very incarnation of evil. So numerous effects on the part of these generals were made to weaken Hitler and to drive him out of office. These little coups all failed. One wrote, Hitler would wiggle free like a Houdini from hell. And so the idea of conspiracy to assassinate Hitler was hatched. And Bonhoeffer would become involved in this conspiracy. February 4, now 1938, Bonhoeffer's 32nd birthday, on that day Hitler decreed, from now on I take over personally the command of the whole of the armed forces. Claiming his previous field marshal, that he overtook the authority, he says, he has the brains of a movie usher. and saying, if you can't get people seated in a movie theater, how can he arrange my troops on the battlefield? Again, we see that Hitler then moved forward. The Anschluss, you know what the Anschluss is? You've seen the movie called Sound of Music Captain von Trapp, Austria was seized by Hitler. Hitler announced that he would take Austria back as a result of the abuse of the Treaty of Versailles. And people thought, ah, the benevolent Fuhrer at work. Returning back our fatherland, on April 20, a certain sycophant pastor, Frederick Werner, said, if you are to be a pastor in the Church of Germany, you must give an oath of allegiance to Hitler. You must swear, I swear I will be faithful and obedient to Adolf Hitler. And anyone refusing to take the oath of allegiance would be dismissed. And many pastors, concerned for their careers, took the oath. You can see the separation between the true church and the false church. Also we find here, Churchill communicated, I just think it's an issue with the wrong PowerPoint. Churchill communicated with German conspirators hoping to rebuild a new government. Churchill in England says, we will give you everything but first bring us Hitler's head. Hitler was hoping that someone would assassinate Hitler at this time. Bonhoeffer's sister Sabine Liebholz, I showed you a picture of her earlier, she had married a Jew. She saw the need to get out as the screws were tightening. So one afternoon she and her husband told the kids, we're going on an afternoon ride. and they went on an afternoon ride, but they rode out of the country to Switzerland, and there they were freed till after the war. Hitler's plan to march into Czechoslovakia had really overstretched his boundaries, and many thought surely this would cause Hitler to be deposed. If he goes into Czechoslovakia, surely Germany will turn against him. But guess who showed up? Neville Chamberlain. Neville Chamberlain had this wonderful treaty that he made with Hitler, peace in our time. And this was the very thing that enabled Hitler to wiggle out, but soon Hitler would laugh at Chamberlain only a few months later when he would streak across Poland on all cylinders. Because Hitler said he would just take Czechoslovakia and he would stop there. On 9-11 of 1938 was the night of broken glass. A German Jew whose father was deported to Poland shot and killed a German official. So Hitler said, you see these rebellious Jews? We must clamp down on them. So Jewish homes and businesses were destroyed. Synagogues were set ablaze. Jews were beaten and killed. And at this time, Bonhoeffer was reading through his devotions and he hit Psalm 74, 8 which says, they burn all God's houses in the land. And so Bonhoeffer claimed this verse as God speaking to him. And he concluded that God was saying to him, you see his reverence for the word of God. He believed that God truly spoke through his word. As far as the hermeneutics, we might say we had a little different hermeneutic. But he said, God is speaking to me at this time. I'll see some of the Karl Barth neo-evangelicalism about a lightning bolt strike of the word. But he considered to lift hands against the Jews was to lift hands against God. And he was saying this is what God was saying to him. Bonhoeffer was unclear about what to do. He himself knew he would soon be drafted. Also, the confessing church became increasingly hopeless. So, he realized that this time, leaving Germany was an option for him. He received an offer from New York to serve as a pastor of German refugees and lecture at Union Seminary in New York. And though all Bonhoeffer was uneasy about leaving Germany with the knowledge of concentration camp carnage going on, the Holocaust was happening. and gas chambers and incinerators were destroying people. On June 4, he was on his way to America, having received his own draft notice about a month earlier, because he wondered, how can I go and fight for them? And maybe this is God's way to get me out. I'm off to New York. Some even viewed that Bonhoeffer would be the man to rebuild Germany after the war. Far better, get him to a safe place. so he can come back and rebuild. Had a picture of Bonhoeffer on the deck of a steamship on his way to New York City. But as he was streaming to the harbor on June 12 of 1939, New York wasn't what it was during its first visit The Depression began to set in. Bonhoeffer got to Union Seminary. They wined and dined him with star treatment and fine lodgings and dinners. But when he was in New York, he knew he had to get back. He walked the streets of New York like a ghost. He says, my whole life is still over there, he wrote to a friend. The famous preaching of Emerson Fosdick, the great preacher, sickened him. Instead, The preaching of the conservative Dr. McComb, the fundamentalist who'd been reviled, thrilled his heart. Eventually he told the men at Union Seminary, I can't stay. And he went back to Germany, went back into the fire where eventually he would be martyred. During his return journey, he heard that Paul Schneider, among the bravest of the confessing church pastors, had been beaten to death at Buchenwald, and he knew it was right for him to go back. to feel for this guy's character. Helmut Traub had been thankful that Bonhoeffer had been kept safe from the reign of terror. He believed he was destined to rebuild the church afterwards, but there standing before Traub was Bonhoeffer calmly lighting a cigarette, telling him it was a mistake for me to go off to America. I've got a picture of the map of Poland and all of the different approaches of Hitler invading Poland, which would be my own homeland in some ways. Hitler attacked Poland, claiming Poland had provoked him. Imagine that. The horses of Poland attacking the tanks of Germany. And actually, in actuality, Hitler had a German near the border murdered to make it look like the Polish had murdered him. World War II then began on September 1, 1939. Reports came from Poland of unspeakable atrocities never before heard of in the civilized world. Here's a single example. On September 10, a group of SS men had brutally overseen the forced labor of 50 Polish Jews who spent the day repairing a bridge. And when the work was completed, the SS herded the workers into a synagogue and murdered them. All across Poland, there was mass murder of civilians. It was a systematic practice. This is the unpublished Jewish Holocaust. They know there are six million Jews who were exterminated, but there were actually more Poles exterminated. Hitler implemented a brutal new Darwinism The survival of the fittest, the strong triumphing over enslaving the weak, Poland became a giant slave labor camp, treating the Poles as subhuman. All this was, was his book Mein Kampf becoming a reality. More Jews and Poles were being butchered daily. Within Germany, weaker Germans with disabilities were being systematically removed. The T4 euthanasia program, well, it was implemented further. Prior to the war, all children found with genetic defects were registered, but now they were called incurables and they were being systematically killed. If you're on the list as being one with a physical problem, you were on a death list. The writing was on the wall for you. Such people were put on buses taken from hospitals, transferred, murdered by way of lethal injection or carbon monoxide gas, and relatives would receive letters that their loved ones had died of pneumonia or some common ailment, and their cremated ashes would then arrive in a box at the house. Shortly after, one memo on the subject read from the Nazis, medical facilities must be made available for soldiers fighting for the fatherland. Furthermore, the cost for caring for the incurables would be cost prohibitive and they must make the ultimate sacrifice for the greater cause of the fatherland. You see how relevant this is today for our own society? Bonhoeffer's conviction deepened that Hitler must be removed. Good Germans and faithful Christians believe that the evil must be stopped at all costs, but the assassination must be done carefully. You assassinate Hitler without a replacement plan, something even worse could take place. So in negotiations with British and allies, it was crucial for the conspirators. Would they be supportive if Hitler was removed? Should they act before Hitler marched into Belgium or into Holland? Bonhoeffer played an important role in the upcoming months. Bonhoeffer's non-Christian sister criticized him on this. Listen to what was said. You Christians, you're glad when someone else does what you know must be done, but it seems that somehow you Christians aren't willing to get your hands dirty to do what needs to be done. And Bonhoeffer resolved, Metaxas argues, He would be willing to get his hands dirty. The conspirators planned a coup to be launched when Hitler attacked the West. That would be Holland, Belgium, and France. Twenty-nine times Hitler said he was going to go in, but then he would stop, and the conspiracy would trip over itself. Finally, the conspiracy actually collapsed. And when the Germans saw, they've now taken Denmark and Holland and Belgium and now France, Hitler became so popular. And Heil Hitler became a very popular political perspective. Mass executions continued now in Poland. Bonhoeffer did not see truth-telling according to religious legalism. Imagine Bonhoeffer had to say a thing. In fact, there was a time when Bonhoeffer, he said, Heil Hitler, in the midst of a public demonstration. And Bethke, his friend, says, what are you doing saying Heil Hitler? He said, we've got to play the role. And Bonhoeffer writes in one of his works, if a girl is asked if her alcoholic father is a drunkard in front of her class, she's not bound to say yes, bring dishonor on her father. As Bonhoeffer argues, there are some cases when you don't tell the truth. He says, he who dons a halo of fanatic devotion and makes no allowance, he is a fool, says Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer then joined what was called the Abwehr. You know in the U.S. there's the FBI and the CIA. There it was the Gestapo and the Abwehr, somewhat pushing against each other, a rival agency. He joined the Abwehr, giving him unhindered movement and immunity from the draft. He was pretending to be a German pastor, but in reality, in the Abwehr, he was a conspirator, and it was a high-stakes game of deception on deception. While he was in Switzerland, he met with Karl Barth and Barth says, I'm really uneasy with your being in the Abwehr. A Christian pastor in that kind of a role? But Bonhoeffer believed God called him to do it. Hitler's euphoria filled Germany. June 22 of 1941, Hitler declared war against the Soviet Union now. Imagine what the Prussian generals thought about this. The man is insane. In fact, Canaris, who was the head of the Abwehr, who actually hired in Bonhoeffer, Canaris hated Hitler, wanted to take him down. Canaris went into France and he was saluting the sheep. Heil Hitler, he said to the sheep. People said, what are you doing? Canaris says, you never know in one of the party members or even among the sheep. You have to pretend to be a follower of Hitler. Hitler was a charmed man with a number of victories now on his belt, and the conspiracy began to weaken. And Churchill said, all right, forget it. I'm not going to work with the conspiracy any longer. It's all or nothing. We're taking down Germany. In Lithuania, SS squads gathered defenseless Jews together and beat them to death with nightsticks, afterwards dancing on their bodies, clearing them away, and repeating it again. The German military generals and devout Christians joined forces now to kill Hitler. All Jews in Germany were forced to wear yellow stars in public. and there were mass railroad exportations to the Far East. In fact, Sabine, the sister, she'd have been all aboard with her family if she hadn't fled a year earlier. Count Van Moltke was a devout Christian co-conspirator who said, With knowledge of more than a thousand murdered daily, what shall I say when I'm asked, what did you do during the war? What would you have done during the war? So he helped the Jews, but he himself did not believe assassinating Hitler was morally acceptable. He also said it would make a martyr of him and maybe do things worse. Like Napoleon, Hitler was forced by 30 degree below temperatures to retreat from Moscow, but Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor lifted his spirits, saying, encouraging sign from Providence. There were a number of encouraging signs from Providence. During this time, Bonhoeffer is going to have a relationship with Maria. Did I have a picture of Maria in there somewhere? He had a woman named Maria Van Wyden that he became romantically involved with. Let me just go in the final stretch or just talk about some of these assassination attempts. Operation Flash. called for the planting of a bomb on Hitler's plane in Smolensk, which was bound for the city of Rastenburg, with generals waiting in the wings to launch their coup. A book-sized English plastic explosive bomb would do the job after a corrosive chemical time-release capsule was broken, resulting in a delayed explosion of the bomb. Dr. Bonhoeffer's Mercedes was actually used to transport the explosive, that's Bonhoeffer's dad. A general casually asked if an entourage member would mind taking a gift of brandy to Rastenburg to give to an old friend. The package was now stowed on the plane. was March 14 of 1943 on the plane. The plane was airborne and only half an hour now when the chemical capsule was corroded, it explode. They waited in agony, but then came the unthinkable news. Hitler had landed safely. There was no explosion. The bomb needed to be retrieved. Imagine a general came and said, oh, by the way, could you give me that package back because And we ask the question, why Lord, why had you decreed such a thing? Why didn't you take Hitler down? How many millions of lives would have been saved? Also a man named Major von Gersdorf volunteered for a suicide mission. He would carry a bomb with a ten minute capsule fuse in his overcoat. And he would go right into Hitler's presence during a ceremonial weapons inspection. At the appointed time, Hitler approached. The vials were broken. The acid began to eat away. But unexpectedly, Hitler said, this inspection is over. It was supposed to have been a half an hour. Instead, it was seven minutes. And Hitler walked out. And of course, the man had to go off to the bathroom and take out the bomb and disarm it. And you say, why, Lord? Why didn't it work? Bonhoeffer was heavily involved in this. Just with the few moments we have remaining, let me ask you a question. If you were there, would you have involved yourself in the assassination plots? What are your thoughts? Think biblically, think biblically. What are your thoughts? What would you have done? What's his name? Ryan. Alright, why? Biblically? If you look at Romans 13, which I was reading all throughout the web on this, one of my dear friends, Bob Brown, said this, the government which were in power when the apostles lived, referring to Romans 13, particularly Peter and Paul, who specifically addressed the issue, were ruthless and despotic. Where it says that governments are to be subjected to, they carry the sword given by God. They were ruthless and despotic like Nero and Domitian. It was in just this setting that the Holy Spirit inspired words directing God's people in all ages to submit to the governing authorities. Paul, in context, even calls the Roman Empire God's deacon. And so Romans 13 according to my friend, says Bonhoeffer should not have ever been involved in any kind of plot. But I find myself maybe in some ways in your camp as well as I think about this dilemma. Anybody else? Paul. I'm just trying to think of David and Saul and how David's reaction to the evil that Saul was doing. Against my reaction, like Brian, Don't let it have the Lord's content. Thinking of the American context and Martin Luther King, Jr., who thought what he believed was wrong, but tried by all means to find what he believed was the right way. So whether or not you're a pessimist, it just shows that there are, that the only that force isn't the only means. That sometimes there are manners that, even though not being a pacifist, you can see that systems can be overthrown in a more peaceful manner. Interesting, there are some. There's a book written that's called Challenging the Myth, Recovering His Call to Peacemaking. It's a book that argues Bonhoeffer's involved himself in the actual conspiracy to assassinate. But Texas, in the book, argues heavily that he did, indeed, do participate in the murder. Yeah. You know, that aspect of submitting yourselves to the authorities that are over you, I think what you look at, too, is there's world authorities. You know, there were countries that wanted him or killed, sure killed. So I think you've got different authorities there as well. And is there an authority that is legitimately better than the authority that's over you? He broke international rules. and I think the game has changed a little. One man argued, so if you were in a community square and a sheriff at the park grounds here was gunning down children systematically, And the argument was exactly what Bonhoeffer was seeking to do. There are others who would say he was in the Abwehr, like the CIA. And some would say he had a governmental legal authority to fight for the welfare of the state. And some say that's why he went to the Abwehr, because in conscience he felt that gave him somewhat of a sword in his hand that he could wield. I think it needs to be asked, too, whether Hitler was really the rightful ruler of Germany, or by his actions. He acknowledged himself President of the United States. Right, but had he disqualified himself by his actions? If so, then he has no rights as a ruler. By basically trampling the Constitution, arguing with King George over costs, and revolutionary war. Someone ought to fight that. helping to assassinate her own people by helping the spies. And she was blessed for that by God. So I think there are some cases to be made where in certain instances, it could be right. Though Rhea was certainly more passive. and the aggressive assault against the head of Hitler himself. Well, we can continue on with this, but may the Lord help us to ponder. We hope to have a version three installment, and I'm so sorry about the pictures up there. God willing, we'll have it in order the next time. Let's close with a word of prayer.