#barmen declaration

THE NECESSITY OF CHRISTIAN DISTINCTIVENESS

1st May 1948 Passing of Johannes Lesser – Faithful Pastor, Prussian Nationalist, “Half-Jew” #otdimjh

Barmen continues to remind us that there are times when we should, indeed, must, make a confession. In addition, the particular confession articulated so concisely and boldly in the Declaration is essential, if the church seeks to proclaim a message that is consistent with the very center of its faith and desires to live in ways that reflect this faith.

Neither the Synod nor the Declaration has crucial historical significance, in my opinion. The course of history was not changed by the events or the message of Barmen. Hitler's regime was not toppled. The Confessing Church often forgot the ultimate meaning of the Declaration during the course of the next decade and a half. Most Germans were not persuaded by the claims of the Declaration. The events of the years immediately following Barmen were not decisively shaped by the spirit and content of the Barmen Declaration. I do believe, however, that the Barmen Synod and the Barmen Declaration had and still have significant ecclesiastical and theological significance. Those few days mark an important moment when Christian people were willing to take a public stand inspired by and consistent with their most profound theological and faith convictions. That is worth celebrating and remembering as a challenge and encouragement to the community of faith in any particular context or at any particular moment.

As I have indicated, however, there were those who refused to submit to the ideology and policies of the German Christian movement. Indeed, they opposed them, sometimes actively and sometimes passively, through their participation in the Kirchenkampf and the Confessing Church. The official beginning of the Confessing Church is usually identified with the meeting of the Confessing Synod of German Evangelical Churches in Barmen from May 29-31, 1934. It was, of course, at Barmen that the Confessing Church adopted the Barmen Declaration. The document itself was produced by Hans Asmussen, a Lutheran, and by Karl Barth, a Swiss Reformed theologian teaching in Germany at the time. Barth was, of course, the leading spirit behind the Barmen Declaration.