February 8, 2017
The Apostle Paul

“After we had reached safety, we then learned that the island was called Malta. The natives showed us unusual kindness. Since it had begun to rain and was cold, they kindled a fire and welcomed all of us around it. Paul had gathered a bundle of brushwood and was putting it on the fire, when a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “This man must be a murderer; though he has escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him to live.” He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. They were expecting him to swell up or drop dead, but after they had waited a long time and saw that nothing unusual had happened to him, they changed their minds and began to say that he was a god. Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the leading man of the island, named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days. It so happened that the father of Publius lay sick in bed with fever and dysentery. Paul visited him and cured him by praying and putting his hands on him. After this happened, the rest of the people on the island who had diseases also came and were cured. They bestowed many honors on us, and when we were about to sail, they put on board all the provisions we needed.” Acts 28:1-10

On this day, February 8, 58, Paul set sail from Malta for Rome, maybe. The maybe is not about the place, but is about the date.

“This may be the day that Paul sailed from Malta, according to Jack Finegan’s reckoning in the Handbook of Biblical Chronology. Pliny tells us in his Natural History (an early encyclopedic work) that February 8 was the date Spring opened its seas to voyagers. If the sailors acted on the traditional date, we may actually have pinned down an exact moment in Paul’s life.

Paul was converted in ad 36. For several years he preached the gospel, always going to Jews first, and when the majority rejected him, turning to the gentiles. His gospel was of salvation by faith in the resurrected Christ whom he had seen with his own eyes. Good deeds could not win it although they would surely follow it. Despite great adversity, Paul carried the gospel through Asia Minor and Southern Europe. In fact, Europe is Christian today in large measure because of Paul’s zeal. Eventually Paul was arrested in Jerusalem. Imprisoned for several years, he finally appealed to Caesar, which was his right as a Roman citizen. He was shipped off to Rome under guard. This was probably in 57. On the way, he and his companions were wrecked on the island of Malta where they wintered, in custody of Roman soldiers.” (Christianity.com website, Paul Sailed from Malta to Rome—Maybe)

Paul is known as the greatest missionary for the early Christian church. The Christian church would not have spread as far and as quickly were it not for Paul’s mission to the Gentiles. His life most likely ended in Rome, but to have the first hand account of his missionary trips and possible dates to place him in history, all contained in the book of Acts, well all of that is priceless.

Pastor Dave

February 7, 2017
Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran Theologian

On this date, February 7, 1945, Lutheran theologian and pastor Deitrich Bonhoeffer was transferred to Buchenwald Concentration Camp. He would be dead in three months, just weeks before the camp was liberated.

“Where does a Christian fit in a nation which makes itself god? The Lutheran theologian Deitrich Bonhoeffer answered that the Christian’s duty is to resist such a regime. This landed him in a concentration camp and cost him his life. Safe in exile in America, he abruptly returned to Germany. “I have come to the conclusion that I have made a mistake in coming to America. I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of the Christian life in Germany after the war if I did not share in the trials of this time with my people. Christians in Germany face the terrible alternative of willing the defeat of their nation in order that civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose. But I cannot make that choice in security.”

In Germany Bonhoeffer worked with the underground resistance. He helped guide Jews to safety. Believing that Hitler was like a madman “driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders,” he joined a plot to kill the Führer.  After he was arrested for his aid to the Jews, his role in the plot was discovered. There was little hope he would survive Nazi wrath. Nonetheless Bonhoeffer was personally at peace. Suffering, he said, had become a better key for understanding the world than happiness had ever been. On this day February 7, 1945, he was transferred to the terrible Buchenwald Concentration Camp where many thousands of prisoners died, some under cruel medical experiments. Three months later Bonhoeffer corpse was added to the list of dead. He was hanged days before the allies freed the camp. He had fulfilled his own theology, aptly expressed in his book The Cost of Discipleship: “The one thing that matters is practical obedience. That will resolve [man’s] difficulties and make him free to become the child of God.” (Christianity.com website, Bonhoeffer Transferred to Buchenwald Concentration Camp, by Dan Graves)

Jesus said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:12-13) Deitrich Bonhoeffer was safe in America, but he knew the commandments of Jesus – he knew what the love of Christ meant to him. He knew the commandments of Jesus, and he lived them to the end of his life.

Pastor Dave