“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to [God] except through me” (John 14:6).

The Theological Declaration of Barmen takes its name from the German city in which the emerging “Confessing Church” met in 1934 to adopt the document drafted by a group of church leaders including Reformed theologian Karl Barth. The Declaration was a courageous denouncement by Protestant Christians of pressure from the pro-Nazi German Christian movement to “Aryanize” the church. The state-sponsored German Christian movement hailed Adolf Hitler as a prophet.

The church lives in the tension between faithful discipleship to Jesus Christ and allegiance to national forms of government. Each and every age experiences these tensions in new ways. So how do we celebrate our life in Christ and live out our role as citizens? The Theological Declaration of Barmen, one of our confessional statements, offers a model for maintaining healthy relationships.

In the book Conversations with the Confessions, Margit Enst-Habib offers a commentary on Barmen:

Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death. (The Book of Confessions, Barmen, 8.11)

If we follow Barmen’s lead, we will not identify ourselves primarily by what separates us from others, whether within our own church or within the broader Christian family. We will not first concentrate on what makes us “unique,” drawing the borders of our community in order to make sure that we are “in” while those who differ from us are “out.” We are not living in a situation comparable to that of the German churches in the 1930s, yet we live in a church fighting over many issues and living under the threat of a church split, so we too need the call to direct our attention to the Center rather than to the borders. The first thesis of Barmen urges us to look first at the Center, to trust and obey this one Word of God. Turning from the borders to the center is being obedient, but it is also trusting our God who is more powerful in holding us together than we are in separating us from each other. These confessional cobblestones bring us together, gathering us as one community around the foundation of our faith. They are not stones meant to build walls between us.” (Enst-Habib in Conversations with the Confessions, Joseph D. Small, ed., Geneva Press 2005)

Barmen calls us back to our primary commitment as disciples of Jesus Christ. As we give thanks for the freedom of religion that we experience, we also are called to maintain a vigilant watch over all claims that seek to take precedence over our commitment to follow in the way of Jesus.

The Theological Declaration of Barmen is available as part of The Book of Confessions (part of our church’s constitution).

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The author, Paul Galbreath, is former associate for Worship. Contact Chip Andrus at (888)728-7228, ext. 5772.