Sara Groves - Songs, Videos, Lyrics

Sara Groves Official Website

Sara Groves - Fireflies and Songs

"Fireflies And Songs"

Thirty years ago I was a little girl

riding in the back seat of the car
a woman sang you don't bring me flowers anymore
I felt a sadness in my little heart

we're looking for the music 
in the music box
tearing it to pieces
trying to find a song

I was drawn to you in ways I can't explain
we fought like crazy but I couldn't stay away
piled on expectations and lots of blame 
like we couldn't do it any other way 

we're looking for a firefly 
moving through the night
staring at the one place
swear it never lights

were you surprised our hearts were not like ticking clocks
with faces and hands easy to read
we both wished if only in the land of oz
longed for things we'd never really need

now we're standing in the kitchen
all pretense is gone
you kiss me on the shoulder
fireflies and song



Sara Groves - "Breath of Heaven"




"Breath of Heaven"

I have travelled many moonless nights,

Cold and weary with a babe inside,

And I wonder what I've done.

Holy Father you have come,

And chosen me now to carry your Son.

I am waiting in a silent prayer.

I am frightened by the load I bear.

In a world as cold as stone,

Must I walk this path alone?

Be with me now X2

Breath of Heaven,

Hold me together,

Be forever near me,

Breath of Heaven.

Breath of Heaven,

Lighten my darkness,

Pour over me your holiness,

For you are holy.

Breath of Heaven.

Do you wonder as you watch my face,

If a wiser one should have had my place,

But I offer all I am

For the mercy of your plan.

Help me be strong.

Help me be.
Help me.



He's always been faithful by Sara Groves




"He's Always Been Faithful"

Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me
Morning by morning I wake up to find
The power and comfort of God's hand in mine
Season by season I watch Him, amazed
In awe of the mystery of His perfect ways
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He's always been faithful to me

I can't remember a trial or a pain
He did not recycle to bring me gain
I can't remember one single regret
In serving God only, and trusting His hand
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He's always been faithful to me

This is my anthem, this is my song
The theme of the stories I've heard for so long
God has been faithful, He will be again
His loving compassion, it knows no end
All I have need of, His hand will provide
He's always been faithful, He's always been faithful
He's always been faithful to me



Hiding Place, by Sara Groves.wmv




"Hiding Place"

Early when the day is new
Before the stirring

I will come and talk to you
And confess the ways I am broken
To recall the words you've spoken
And to try to comprehend
The love you have for me

You are my hiding place
You fill my broken heart with songs
Songs of deliverance
You sing of how the weak are strong

You never meant for me to walk alone
You are always for me
As the truest lover of my soul
You hear my desperate calling
You have kept my feet from falling
And have set me on this rock on which I'm stand now

You are my hiding place
You fill my broken heart with songs
Songs of deliverance
You sing of how the weak are strong

And I believe you
For you've saved me from my darkness and my shame
And I believe you
For I hear your song of beauty (??-through the) pain

Sara Groves - Hello Lord

"Hello Lord"

Hello Lord, it's me your child

I have a few things on my mind
Right now I'm faced with big decisions
And I'm wondering if you have a minute, cuz
Right now I don't hear so well
And I was wondering if you could speak up

I know that you tore the veil
So I could sit with you in person
And hear what you're saying but
Right now, I just can't hear you.

I don't doubt your sovereignty
I doubt my own ability to
Hear what you're saying
And to do the right thing
And I desperately want to do the right thing
But right now I don't hear so well
And I was wondering if you could speak up

I know that you tore the veil
So I could sit with you in person
And hear what you're saying but
Right now, I just can't hear you.

And somewhere in the back of my mind
I think you are telling me to wait
And though patience has never been mine
Lord, I will wait to hear from you
Oh Lord, I'm waiting on you

Right now I don't hear so well
And I was wondering if you could speak up

I know that you tore the veil
So I could sit with you in person
And hear what you're saying but
Right now, I think you're whispering

Sara Groves - Miracle (Official Music Video) - Music Video

"Miracle"

Lay down your arms
Give up the fight
Quiet our hearts for a little while

Things have been spoken
Shouldn't be said
Rattles around in our hearts and our heads

Let's feel what we cannot feel
Know what we cannot know
Let’s heal where we couldn't heal
Oh, it's a miracle, it's a miracle

Things have been spoken
Shouldn't be said
Rattles around in our hearts and our heads

Let's feel what we cannot feel
Know what we cannot know
Let’s heal where we couldn't heal
Oh, it’s a miracle, love is a miracle

Let's feel what we cannot feel
Know what we cannot know
Let’s heal where we couldn't heal
Oh, it's a miracle

Let's say what we cannot say
Let’s see what we cannot not see
Let’s hear what we could not hear
Oh it’s a mystery, love is a mystery
Oh it's a miracle, it's a miracle
Let's be a miracle



Roll to the Middle

"Roll To The Middle"

We just had a World War III here in our kitchen
We both thought the meanest things
And then we both said them
We shot at each other till we lost amunition

This is how I know our love
This is when I feel it’s power
Here in the absence of it
This is my darkest hour
When both of us are hunkered down
And waiting for the truce

All the complicated wars
They end pretty simple
Here when the lights go down
We roll to the middle

No matter how my pride resists
No matter how this wall feels true
No matter how I can’t be sure
That you’re gonna roll in too
No matter what, no matter what
I’m going to reach for you



What I Thought I Wanted by Sara Groves




"What I Thought I Wanted"

Tuxedo in the closet, gold band in a box

Two days from the altar she went and called the whole thing off
What he thought he wanted, what he got instead
Leaves him broken and grateful

I passed understanding a long, long time ago
And the simple home of systems and answers we all know
What I thought I wanted, what I got instead
Leaves me broken and somehow peaceful

I keep wanting you to be fair
But that’s not what you said
I want certain answers to these prayers
But that’s not what you said

When I get to heaven I’m gonna go find Job
I want to ask a few hard questions, I want to know what he knows
About what it is he wanted and what he got instead
How to be broken and faithful

What I thought I wanted
What I thought I wanted
What I thought I wanted
What I thought I wanted

Staring in the water like Aesop's foolish dog
I can’t help but reflect on what it was I almost lost
What it was I wanted, what I got instead
Leaves me broken and grateful

I’m broken and grateful
I want to be broken and grateful
I want to be broken, peaceful, faithful, grateful, grateful
I want to be broken, peaceful, faithful, grateful, grateful



This Journey is My Own - Sara Groves
[may play together as stereo]






"This Journey Is My Own"

When I stand before the Lord, I'll be standing alone

This journey is my own 

Still I want man's advice, and I need man's approval

This journey is my own 

Why would I want to live for man, and pay the highest price

What does it mean to gain a whole world, only to lose my life

So much of what I do is to make a good impression

This journey is my own 

And so much of what I say is to make myself look better

But this journey is my own 

And why would I want to live for man, and pay the highest price

And what does it mean to gain a whole world, only to lose my life

And I have never felt relief like I feel it right now

This journey is my own 

Cuz trying to please the world, it was breaking me down

It was breaking me down

And now I live and I breathe for an audience of one

Now I live and I breathe for an audience of one

Now I live and I breathe for an audience of one

Cuz I know this journey is my own

And why would I want to live for man, and pay the highest price

And what does it mean to gain a whole world, only to lose my life

And you can live for someone else, and it will only bring you pain

I can't even judge myself, only the Lord can say, 'Well done.'

Oh, this journey is my own

Sara Groves - All Right Here

"All Right Here"

It's every loss and every love

It's every blessing from above
Here I am, all added up
Oh, it's all right here

It's what I know, and what I'm guessing
Half truths, and full confessions
It's why I choose to learn my lessons
Oh, it's all right here

[Chorus]

And I'm not God, I'm a girl - I confess
That I don't have a sea of forgetfulness
No, it's all right here
It makes me stronger, it makes me wince
Makes me think twice when I pick my friends
Oh, it's all right here
It's all right here

It's caution and curiousity 
And it's all the things I never see
Welling up inside of me
Oh, it's all right here

It's what is best, and what is worse
It's how I see the universe
It's in every line and every verse
Oh, it's all right here

[Chorus]

Every heart has so much history
It's my favorite place to start
Sit down a while and share your narative with me
I'm not afraid of who you are

I'm all here, and you're all there
Some of this is unique, and some of it we share
Add it up and start from there
Well, it's all right here

[Chorus]

It's caution and curiousity
It's all the things I never see
Oh it's all right
It's what is best, and what is worse
It's how I see the universe
Oh it's all right, it's all right here
I'm all right here



Sara Groves - It Might be Hope




"It Might Be Hope"

You do your work the best that you can
You put one foot in front of the other 
Life comes in waves and makes it's demands 
You hold on as well as your able

You've been here for a long long time

Hope has a way of turning it's face to you 
Just when you least expect it 
You walk in a room 
You look out a window 
And something there leaves you breathless 
You say to yourself 
It's been a while since I felt this 
But it feels like it might be hope 

It's hard to recall what blew out the flame 
It's been dark since you can remember 
You talk it all through to find it a name 
As days go on by without number 

You've been here for a long long time 

Hope has a way of turning it's face to you 
Just when you least expect it 
You walk in a room 
You look out a window 
And something there leaves you breathless 
You say to yourself 
It's been a while since I felt this 
But it feels like it might be hope



Add to the Beauty - Sara Groves

"Add To The Beauty"

We come with beautiful secrets
We come with purposes written on our hearts, written on our souls
We come to every new morning
With possibilities only we can hold, that only we can hold

Redemption comes in strange place, small spaces
Calling out the best of who we are

And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside

It comes in small inspirations
It brings redemption to life and work
To our lives and our work

It comes in loving community
It comes in helping a soul find it's worth

Redemption comes in strange places, small spaces
Calling out the best of who we are

And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside

This is grace, an invitation to be beautiful
This is grace, an invitation

Redemption comes in strange places, small spaces
Calling out our best

And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside



Sara Groves Rain

"Rain"

Call it what you will I call it rain
When troubles come and pat against my soul
Go in if you like, I will remain
And let the washing waters make me whole

Just when I’m sure that I can't bear the rain
A tiny leaf starts pushing through the ground
In a place where the ground was too dry to sustain it
A new tiny flower can be found

Once I was stuck I thought things would never change
As I watched a cloud pass through the sky
Right before my eyes it took a different shape
And I knew, so were the clouds in my own life

I see Him in the rain
I feel Him wash away
What I do not understand
So new life can spring up once again

The flowers come to show
that all that rain was helping me to grow

You Are the Sun

"You Are The Sun"

You are the sun shining down on everyone
Light of the world giving light to everything I see
Beauty so brilliant I can hardly take it in
And everywhere you are is warmth and light

And I am the moon with no light of my own
Still you have made me to shine
And as I glow in this cold dark night
I know I can't be a light unless I turn my face to you

You are the sun shining down on everyone
Light of the world giving light to everything I see
Beauty so brilliant I can hardly take it in
And everywhere you are is warmth and light

And I am the moon with no light of my own
Still you have made me to shine
And as I glow in this cold dark night
I know I can't be a light unless I turn my face to you

Shine on me with your light
Without you I'm a cold dark stone
Shine on me I have no light of my own
You are the sun, you are the sun, you are the sun
And I am the moon



Something Changed by Sara Groves

"Something Changed"

Something changed inside me broke wide open all spilled out
Till I had no doubt that something changed

Never would have believed it till I felt it in my own heart
In the deepest part the healing came

And I cannot make it
And I cannot fake it
And I can't afford it
But it's mine

Something so amazing in a heart so dark and dim
When a wall falls down and the light comes in

And I cannot make it
And I cannot fake it
And I can't afford it
But it's mine



Sara Groves performs "Eyes On The Prize"

"Eyes On The Prize"

Paul and Silas bound in jail
Got no money for to go their bail
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on

Paul and Silas thought they were lost
The dungeon shook and the chains fell off
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on

Freedom's name is mighty sweet
And one day soon we are gonna meet
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on

I got my hand on the gospel plow
Won't take nothing for my journey now
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on

The wait is slow, and we've so far to go
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on

The wait is slow, and we've so far to go
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on

Only chain a man can stand
Is that chain of hand on hand
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on

Ain't no man on earth control
The weight of glory on a human soul.
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on.

The wait is slow, and we've so far to go
Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on

The wait is slow, and we've so far to go
Keep your eyes on the prize [x3]

When you see a man walk free,
It makes you dream of jubilee.

When you see a child walk free,
It makes you dream of jubilee.

When you see a family free,
It makes you dream of jubilee.

Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on



Sara Groves - When the Saints

"When The Saints"

Lord I have a heavy burden of all I've seen and know
It's more than I can handle
But your word is burning like a fire shut up in my bones
and I can't let it go

And when I'm weary and overwrought
with so many battles left unfought
I think of Paul and Silas in the prison yard
I hear their song of freedom rising to the stars

And when the Saints go marching in
I want to be one of them

Lord it's all that I can't carry and cannot leave behind
It all can overwhelm me
But when I think of all who've gone before and lived a faithful life
Their courage compels me

And when I'm weary and overwrought
with so many battles left unfought
I think of Paul and Silas in the prison yard
I hear their song of freedom rising to the stars

I see the shepherd Moses in the Pharaoh's court
I hear his call for freedom for the people of the Lord

And when the Saints go marching in
I want to be one of them
And when the Saints go marching in
I want to be one of them

I see the long quiet walk along the Underground Railroad
I see the slave awakening to the value of her soul

I see the young missionary and the angry spear
I see his family returning with no trace of fear

I see the long hard shadows of Calcutta nights
I see the sisters standing by the dying man's side

I see the young girl huddled on the brothel floor
I see the man with a passion come kicking down that door

I see the man of sorrow and his long troubled road
I see the world on his shoulders and my easy load

And when the Saints go marching in
I want to be one of them
And when the Saints go marching in
I want to be one of them
I want to be one of them
I want to be one of them
I want to be one of them



Heart Wide Open Like a Lake

"Like A Lake"

So much hurt and preservation

like a tendril round my soul
so much painful information
no clear way on how to hold it

when everything in me is tightening
curling in around this ache
I will lay my heart wide open
like the surface of a lake
wide open like a lake

standing at this waters edge
looking in at God's own heart
I've no idea where to begin
to swallow up the way things are

everything in me is drawing in
closing in around this pain
I will lay my heart wide open
like the surface of a lake
wide open like a lake

bring the wind and bring the thunder
bring the rain till I am tried
when it's over bring me stillness
let my face reflect the sky
and all the grace and all the wonder
of a peace that I can't fake
wide open like a lake

everything in me is tightening 
curling in around this ache
I am fighting to stay open
I am fighting to stay open
open open oh wide open 
open like a lake

Sara Groves - It's Going To Be Alright

"It's Going To Be Alright"

It's going to be alright
It's going to be alright

I can tell by your eyes that you're not getting any sleep
And you try to rise above it, but feel you're sinking in too deep
Oh, oh I believe, I believe that

It's going to be alright
It's going to be alright

I believe you'll outlive this pain in you heart
And you'll gain such a strength from what is tearing you apart
Oh, oh I believe I believe that

It's going to be alright
It's going to be alright

When some time has past us, and the story if retold
It will mirror the strength and the courage in your soul
Oh, oh, I believe I believe,

I believe
I believe

I did not come here to offer you cliche's
I will not pretend to know of all your pain
Just when you cannot, then I will hold out faith, for you

It's going to be alright
It's going to be alright

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Groves

Sara Groves (born Sara Lee Colbaugh, September 10, 1972) is an American contemporary Christian singer, record producer, and author.

Groves received her Bachelor of Science degree in history and English in 1994 from Evangel University, a private Christian university in Springfield, Missouri. Groves spent four years teaching high school in Rosemount, Minnesota before recording her first album, Past the Wishing, in 1998. Since then, she has released nine additional albums and appeared on several others. Groves has been nominated for three Dove Awards including New Artist of the Year in 2002 and Special Event Album of the Year 2003 by the Gospel Music Association. She was named one of the best Christian music artists of 2005 and the album, Add to the Beauty, was named Album of the Year for 2005 by CCM Magazine.

Sara Groves Official Website

Scot McKnight - Who Owns Bonhoeffer? Or, How to Take Sides in Theological Disputes

Who Owns Bonhoeffer?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2014/10/16/who-owns-bonhoeffer/

by Scot McKnight

Oct 16, 2014

Comments

Bonhoeffer Author  Andrew Root

I have been with a wide variety of theologians and pastors who love Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In fact, Bonhoeffer seems to be on every one’s side. Is there a “real” Bonhoeffer beyond the ownership? We might wonder where he’d locate himself in our theological spectrum but that’s speculation. Andrew Root, in his new book on Bonhoeffer, called Bonhoeffer as Youth Worker: A Theological Vision for Discipleship and Life Together, sketches what Stephen Haynes called the “Bonhoeffer phenomenon.” That is, he sketched the various groups who thought they had ownership of that altogether interesting, if at times elusive, German theologian.

Three views of Bonhoeffer (plus one):

1. The Revolutionaries: “They pounced on certain phrases and thoughts in Bonhoeffer to support their own position. Most particularly, Bonhoeffer’s conception of “religionless Christianity” caught their attention, making Bonhoeffer the face of radical (anti-)Christianity. Haynes states, “For radicals Bonhoeffer is a ‘seer’—a man born out of time who perceived the future with uncanny prescience” (13).

When I was a college student Bonhoeffer and radical revolution was the name of the game, and I had more than one associate wonder aloud to me if Bonhoeffer did not become an atheist. I found myself amazed people would think like that of him. As a student I read his The Cost of Discipleship (now called more accurately Discipleship) and so the atheism theory jarred me. As a senior, however, I read The Letters and Papers from Prison and began to wonder what he was talking about when he spoke of “religionless Christianity” and “the world come of age.” So, this is one reading of Bonhoeffer: this view, I understand, is now advocated by Peter Rollins. (Root says this of Rollins’ view: “Perhaps the most popular of these is Peter Rollins, who so deeply misreads Bonhoeffer along these lines that he admits disdain for the earlier historical and intellectual elements of Bonhoeffer’s thought.” [13 n. 3])

The Bonhoeffer of Discipleship and Life Together is something Bonhoeffer himself abandoned; they were the early Bonhoeffer.

2. The Liberals: “This group was enamored with Bonhoeffer’s attention to social justice, exploring particularly Bonhoeffer’s resistance to National Socialism and his advocacy for the Jews. But, Haynes explains, these historical realities are not the central biographical lens through which they see Bonhoeffer. They instead draw on the themes of resistance, themes of resistance, advocacy, and the call for justice, centered on Bonhoeffer’s experience in New York City, and particularly in Harlem in 1930-31″ (14).

Root knows Bonhoeffer has roots in German Protestant liberalism; he was a student of Harnack, not to ignore also a family friend. But Root is right to point out that Bonhoeffer broke with liberalism as a student at liberal-theology-Berlin when he discovered Barth, and Seeberg his mentor at Berlin knew the tensions with Barth/Bonhoeffer at Berlin. Barth’s target of criticism was Berlin! And Bonhoeffer found Union Theol Seminary’s theology severely lacking. It was all justice and activism.

3. The Conservatives: If the revolutionaries like Letters and Papers from Prison, and the Liberals his spirituality in Negro spirituals, the conservatives have fastened onto his Discipleship and Life Together. “Bonhoeffer is a hero for conservatives because he not only spoke boldly of following Jesus but also did so—into the hands of his executor” (17). None other than [James?] Dobson saw in Bonhoeffer a path for evangelicals in the public sector.

Metaxas follows this line. Here is what Root says of Metaxas: “… which I find so flawed and earnest to paint Bonhoeffer as a conservative (not possessing the openness of Bethge’s work) that I cannot follow him in any way, for to do so would be to foreclose on one of the above interpretations” (18 n. 13).

4. Plus One: Root pursues Bonhoeffer not so much through his precise theological location on the spectrum but through his pastoral theology, and in particular, he traces Bonhoeffer through the lens of his youth ministry theological turn. I hope you read this book — it’s a good one on how pastoral theology is done.

Root is convinced readers of Bonhoeffer have ignored approaching him through the lens of his pastoral ministry to youth.

---

Addendum

At Relevancy22 we follow each of the trends listed above with a Christian "common sense realism" that might be applied to each group's grasp of the truth as they wish to see it and purvey it. Similar to a cluster of blind scientists trying to describe an elephant - one thinking the animal is all nose, the other all hide, and the third large ears, missing the animal itself, so too Bonhoeffer is drawn upon in this way by all parties involved.

So that, when coming to Radical Theology, we will admit to that aspect of Christianity that can (and should be) religionless realizing that our cultures can never attain this aspect, only aspire within its religions and denominations.

That when coming to Liberal Christianity we should pay attention to liberal scholarship's observations and statements of the Bible as scholars in their own right of academia just so long as they don't loose the tradition of the historic orthodox Christian faith in Christ Jesus. An orthodox faith which we here at Relevancy22 have intentionally been elevating and re-describing within today's postmodern, post-Christian contexts. Contexts that neither deny Jesus nor refuse to listen to the newer discoveries and observations made of the Christian faith and its religious foundations. A difficult tightrope to walk... but nonetheless we walk it without collapsing into a loss of faith in the God who loves. And loves us through His Son as the ultimate expression of His grace and truth.

And finally, when coming to conservative Christianity - one which this writer here (myself) has been birthed within and from - we seek its truths. But also wish to display its foibles, its bad theology, and fallacious dogmas. We would do the historic Christian faith no justice if we were not to examine all its foundations, its philosophies, its directions and bearing, lest we loose that precious faith itself to the false prophets of our day. Whether they be in the pulpits of the church or at the dais of the university lecture rooms. All who pretend to examine Jesus must proclaim Him Lord and King, Savior and God. Suffering Servant and loving Humanitarian.

Jesus is the conundrum of faith even as He can be all things to Radicals, Liberals, or Conservatives. Each group, each direction, each organization of thought has its own philosophical and religious lenses through which it chooses to see Jesus and the Christian faith. No less we here at Relevancy22 using a combination of all the above approaches without losing sight of the Lord's calling to be the mustard seed, the new wine, the lost coin of the Kingdom realm. Even the found faith of our days and times, years and appointments.

We wish to rupture the faith of the land. To disturb it, stir it, apply it, and re-examine it at every level of our thought and being, actions and attitudes. Even as the Lord Himself did during the times of His ministry to the lost generations of both believers and unbelievers alike. So be ye then salt, and light, and new wine, in the name of the Lord of Heaven and Earth.

R.E. Slater

October 16, 2014

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Taking Sides in Theological Disputes

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2014/10/13/taking-sides-in-theological-disputes/

by Scot McKnight

Oct 13, 2014

Comments

Every generation has its theological disputes. Some are much more significant than others, though some suggest that each of the debates concerns the most essential elements of the faith. Which translation to use is not as important as the Trinity but some of the voices in the former debate suggest apocalyptic doom if we get it wrong.

Rudolf Bultmann (see my post here) famously advanced his theories about de-mythologizing the New Testament because of the advances in science and technology, and one of his more famous lines was that one can’t believe in spirits and demons and use the radio. He saw himself stripping the NT of those mythological elements that prevented moderns from believing the more essential core of the gospel. And he pressed forward an existentialist gospel in Lutheran terms. From the decade of WWII and throughout most of his career Bultmann heard from, faced, and responded back to his many critics, including many established Lutheran pastors in the Confessing Church. [note: Dietrich Bonhoeffer (DB) was a Lutheran pastor during Bultmann's era. - re slater]

Taking sides was part of the theological dispute about Bultmann.

Bonhoeffer took sides and his position can be found in Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works (English) 16. I’d like to trot out what DB said to illustrate in this post three things: first, that the Bonhoeffer many embrace is not the full Bonhoeffer (he was not only Barthian but in some ways Bultmannian) and, second, that the only way to know Bonhoeffer is to read him — not read about him in biographies. Third, it is nearly impossible not to take sides (unless one ignores an issue).

About a year ago I did a series on Mark Thiessen Nation’s book Bonhoeffer the Assassin? (here and here) in which he argues Bonhoeffer sustained his pacifism even during the war year all the way to his death. At the time I said I wanted to reconsider the so-called shift (or in Nation’s case, non-shift) in Bonhoeffer’s thinking but to do so I’d have to read Ethics again and Letters and Papers from Prison again, and along with that the correspondence in his last few years (which can be found in DBW 16). More of this at another time.

In that volume (DBW 16) I encountered his observations about the Bultmann controversy among the Confessing Church pastors. To professor-journal editor Ernst Wolf, 24 March 1942, Bonhoeffer said this:

I take great pleasure in the new Bultmann volume. The intellectual honesty of his work never ceases to impress me. Apparently Dilschneider recently disparaged you [Wolf] and Bultmann quite stupidly here at the Berlin pastors’ meeting; and, as I was told, the meeting came within a hair’s breadth of sending you a protest against Bultmann’s theology! And from Berliners, of all people! I would like to know if any of them has actually worked through the commentary on John
. This arrogance, which flourishes here—under the influence of several blowhards, I think—is a real scandal for the Confessing Church.

Barth took sides, too. One of the leading opponents of Bultmann’s work was Hans Asmussen, and Barth sized it up on 12 May in a letter to Otto Salomon:

From the same letter we became aware of the repercussions of the most recent Bultmann furor. It saddened me as well; but should the “pious Hans” truly desire to burn him at the stake over this, I would most likely join the other side. Oh, if only our dear friends in the Confessing Church would leave all that and would finally begin to rack their brains, five minutes before midnight, whether there is anything, anything, they could do to deal with the inexorable coming disaster! The demythologized New Testament is truly only the dotting of an i, that is, in comparison with all that the Germans have done and daily continue to do in the occupied regions, stirring up a cloud of wrath. But I am afraid that all their eyes are still closed and behind them they are only dreaming, dreaming….

Bonhoeffer, too, took sides in these terms:

Now as to Bultmann: I belong to those who welcomed his writing— not because I agree with it. I regret the twofold approach it takes (the arguments deriving from John 1:14 and from the radio should not be mixed together; I do consider even the latter to be a valid argument, but the distinction should be clearer) —in this regard perhaps I have remained Harnack’s student to this day. To put it bluntly: Bultmann has let the cat out of the bag, not only for himself but for a great many people (the liberal cat out of the confessional bag), and in this I rejoice. He has dared to say what many repress in themselves (here I include myself) without having overcome it. He thereby has rendered a service to intellectual integrity and honesty. Many brothers oppose him with a hypocritical faith that I find deadly. Now an account must be given. I would like to speak with Bultmann about this and open myself to the fresh air that comes from him. But then the window has to be shut again. Otherwise the susceptible will too easily catch a cold.

If you see Bultmann, please give him my greetings— Tell him that I would like to see him, and how I see these things. (To Winfried Krause, 25 July 1942.)

On the 13th of September, in a letter to Ernst Wolf, he said something similar:

As I hear from Marburg, the Council of Brethren there is presently in the midst of deciding about the expulsion of Bultmann from the Confessing Church! These theological hypocrites, so works-righteous! Were it actually to come to expulsion, the matter would have to go to the Conference of Regional Councils of Brethren. If the same thing happened here, I think I would have to have myself expelled as well, not because I agree with Bultmann, but because I consider the others’ attitude by far more dangerous than Bultmann’s.

Leaving Behind "Left Behind"

Leaving Behind “Left Behind”

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by Roger Olson

[Illustrations, links, videos added by R.E. Slater]

October 15, 2014

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I haven’t seen the new movie starring Nicholas Cage and don’t intend to, so this is not a movie review. Instead, I intend to respond to the whole phenomenon of what I call “rapture fever” that has gripped segments of American society for the past fifty years.

I grew up in a home and church that fervently believed in the “rapture”—the premillennial, pre-tribulational, departure of God’s true people from the earth by Christ to be with him in Paradise during a seven year period of the wrath of God poured out on the earth and the rise and domination of the “Antichrist.” Most of the people in my home church and denomination owned a Scofield Reference Bible whose footnotes included this eschatological vision. Many also owned books by Clarence Larkin, a major promoter of it. I remember being taken to “Prophecy Conferences” where Larkin’s “biblical timelines” ending with the rapture, the tribulation, and the millennial reign of Christ on earth were posted up around the auditorium or sanctuary. (This was before overhead projectors [to say nothing of PowerPoint]!)

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A bible timeline by Clarence Larkin from his book, Dispensational Truth

We were caught up in rapture fever long before ninety-five percent of Americans knew what “rapture” meant (in this sense). I remember asking God to “tarry longer” (postpone the rapture) until I could get married and enjoy sex. Every boy in every similar church did the same! I heard numerous sermons and Sunday School lessons about the “imminent return of the Lord” which, in our context, always meant the imminence of the rapture that would come “like a thief in the night.” The point was that we should be ready at all times, because even carnal Christians were likely to be “left behind” to endure the horrors of the “Great Tribulation.”

Jesus Returns for His Holy Church

This belief (which we considered [certain] knowledge) was our secret; it belonged to us. We knew that attempting to explain it to non-Christians (including nominal Christian church members of “mainline churches”) was like throwing pearls before swine. They would never be able to understand it and they would scoff at it.

Then came the Cuban Missile Crisis, talk of a “European Union” and a single world government and currency, and technologies that would make placing the “mark of the beast” on people’s forearms or foreheads invisible to all but those with that technology. And, of course, Israel’s Six-Day War. How well I remember watching television during those frightening years of the 1960s and thinking of the imminent rapture. I didn’t enter a movie theater until I was twenty because my spiritual mentors warned me that people in movie theaters would be left behind when Jesus returned to gather his true and faithful people to himself to escape the Tribulation.

Seeds of doubt about the rapture were planted in my mind by a book that was supposed to offer biblical and theological support for it—Things to Come by dispensationalist theologian Dwight Pentecost. I read it when I was nineteen or twenty and sensed something was wrong. Why would it take hundreds of pages of convoluted exegesis and argument to establish something so simple? I thought the book’s case for the “secret rapture” was weak and yet it was supposed to be the most scholarly case for it yet published!

1970 saw the publication of the book that took our arcane doctrine of the rapture public: The Late, Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. This was the height of the Jesus People Movement, too, and nearly all Jesus People believed fervently in the rapture. I remember wondering if it was really a good idea to publish a popular book for public consumption about the rapture. It made me uneasy.

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For $4.95 you too can know the Prophetic End Times of Mankind

1971/1972 saw two events where I was present at Ground Zero (or nearly so) (of the public rapture fever that still persists). In 1971 I attended the Tri-State Youth for Christ rally in Evansville, Indiana. Larry Norman sang his new song “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” and electrified the audience. In 1972 I attended the world premier of the movie “A Thief in the Night.” (The premier was held at Hoyt Sherman Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa.)

Larry Norman, I wish we'd all been ready




A Thief in the Night 1972 Full [Movie]

Those events and ones like them (Lindsey’s book, Norman’s song, the movie) launched what I call “public rapture fever.” The imminent secret rapture was no longer a secret; it was “out there” for everyone to know about—whether they believed in it or not. As millions rushed to believe in it (or at least be entertained by the idea), including many who showed no signs of being evangelical Christians, I gradually left it behind.

But by leaving rapture fever and a belief in a “pre-trib” rapture behind was not solely, or even primarily, due to the doctrine’s vulgarization by its Christian popularizers. While attending a fundamentalist Christian college I began to wonder about the biblical and traditional basis for several beliefs taught by my spiritual mentors. Search as I might, I could not find clear biblical evidence for them as doctrines (that is, as more than opinions) and they seemed to have gone unnoticed by even the church fathers closest to the apostles themselves (e.g., Irenaeus). But, alas, when I attempted to mention my doubts to my teachers and spiritual mentors (pastors, evangelists) I was shamed for even asking such obviously unspiritual questions.

Finally, while attending an evangelical Baptist seminary, I discovered one could be a “God-fearing, Bible-believing, Jesus-loving” evangelical Christian and not believe in those sectarian doctrines. One was the “pre-trib” rapture. One evangelical biblical scholar who guided me in shaking off that doctrine was Robert Gundry, long-time New Testament professor at Westmont College, an evangelical Christian liberal arts institution in California. His book The Church and the Tribulation (1973) confirmed my suspicion that the doctrine of a secret, pre-trib rapture of Christians was both unbiblical and against the best of even evangelical tradition. Dave MacPherson’s The Incredible Cover-Up (1975) convinced me that the whole idea originated in some prophecies given in England and Scotland in the mid-19th century. While in seminary I read books about eschatology by the dean of evangelical New Testament scholarship George Eldon Ladd that convinced me of the truth of “historic premillennialism” or what some call “post-trib rapture” (in which no “rapture” as that is interpreted by Lindsey, et al. happens).

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One of the most surprising things that has happened during my lifetime is the explosion of entertainment centering around the old “secret, pre-trib rapture” myth beginning, I suppose, with the Left Behind series of books by Tim LaHaye {and Jerry Jenkins] and the movies based on them. Many non-Christians have jumped on that bandwagon for the sheer entertainment of it. I suppose they regard it as little more than another dystopian futuristic fable. Well, in my opinion, that’s how it’s presented there. What I keep waiting for is a book or movie (or both) depicting the millennium which is, of course, the denouement of the wider eschatology onto which “rapturism” has been grafted. But, I conclude, that wouldn’t make for very good entertainment for people fascinated with evil and horror.

- Roger

P.S. For you who are interested in reading a good book that lays out the premillennial alternative to pre-trib rapturism, I recommend A Case for Historic Premillennialism: An Alternative to “Left Behind” Eschatology edited by Craig Blomberg and Sung Wook Chung (BakerAcademic, 2009).

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END TIMES ESCHATOLOGIES

CHARTS, TIMELINES, WARNINGS

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continue within this series -

Historic Premillenialism v. Rapture Theologies

Leaving Behind "Left Behind"

Of Blood Moons & Prophecy: "What Kind of God Leaves People Behind?"

Kingdom Theology (Stay & Work) vs. Rapture Theology (Wait & Leave)

Is "Left Behind" Really A Christian Movie? (podcast)

Why the Rapture isn’t Biblical… And Why it Matters

Debunking "Left Behind" Theology - Resources for Shaping A "Raptureless" Theology



or continue to -

Index to past articles on Kingdom Eschatology