Who and What is Babylon? (excerpt)
Who and What is Babylon? (excerpt)
Author: Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Source: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Christmas Sermons, ed. Edwin Robertson (Harper Collins, 2005)
Advent placement: 2025-12-09 (paired with [[09-benriach-the-twelve]])
Theme: On Revelation 14 - the eternal gospel endures; “Fear God, and you will have nothing else to fear.”
Verbatim source text
Reproduced from calendar/2025-12-09.qmd (Whisk(e)y Advent 2025).
Excerpt from Who and What is Babylon? 1
The Eternal Gospel. This is a great comfort for all who believe. The gospel remains. It is an eternal gospel, our gospel, which we hear read and preach Sunday by Sunday, the gospel that once changed our lives when we understood it for the first time.
By many mocked and derided and thrown into the dust, yet hidden and dearly loved, confessed by martyrs through the ages, by confessors and unnumbered souls. The gospel remains through all eternity. We need not fear or trouble ourselves with the thought that it might, as it seems today, be abandoned. What are ten years or even more of our experiences and observations? The gospel is eternal and remains despite everything. It remains the one and only true proclamation of God and his lordship over the world.
And though there be thousands of religions and views and opinions and philosophies in the world, and though they construct the most attractive of ideologies, and though the hearts of the people are moved and won over by them, they are all shattered by death. They must all be broken because they are not true. Only the gospel remains, and before the end comes, it will be preached to every nation, tribe, language, and people throughout the whole world. Although it may appear that there are many ways, there is really only one true way for all people on the earth: the gospel.
And the speech of the angel is so simple that anyone could understand it: “Fear God and give Him glory because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship Him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water.” That is the first command of the gospel. “Fear God” And you will have nothing else to fear. Don’t fear what the next day may bring. Don’t fear other people. Don’t fear violence and power even when it comes to you personally and can rob you of your life. Don’t fear the high and mighty in the world. Don’t fear yourself. Don’t fear your sins. All these fears will die. From all these fears, you will be set free. For you, they are no longer there. But fear God and Him alone. For he has the power over all the powers of this world. The whole world is in fear of God. He has power to give us life or to destroy us. All other powers are a mere game.
Footnotes
Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Christmas Sermons. Ed. Edwin Robertson. (New York: Harper Collins, 2005). 21.↩︎