The Barmen Declaration

A Banner of the Confessing Church

    

    With the rise of Nazism in Germany, there came a Pro-Nazism movement within the church called the "German Christians."  In an attempt to stand against Nazism and its evils, the confessing church called a synod in Barmen, Germany.  During this synod, members of the Reformed church and Lutheran church came together to re-articulate tenants of the faith which were abused by Nazism.

    The resultant document of the Barmen synod was the Barmen Declaration.  Karl Barth was the principle formulator of the Barmen Declaration.  At the center of the declaration are six theses backed by scripture.  One goal of setting these six theses was to ground the truth of the faith and give a rule for judging the false teachings (especially found in Nazism).

      Within the Barmen Declaration, the confessing church denies the right of the state to take power over every aspect of human life, and also denies the right of the church to take power in the state.  This outline of separation of church and state struck a strong chord against Nazism which mixed the two together.  The Barmen Declaration really came about as a reaction against Nazism.  During the time this declaration did not resonate with the majority.  This is noted by the considerable amount of followers of Hitler's evil regime. 

      Even though the Barmen Declaration did not express the thoughts of the majority, it is a document that stood against evil and stood for the foundations of the Christian faith.  The confessing church's attempt to thwart acceptance of Nazism is absolutely admirable.  It is often most difficult to stand for what is right when everyone else is against you.  May we always stand for the truth of God and live accordingly. 



Here is a link to the six theses followed by some commentary: 
http://www.ucc.org/beliefs/barmen-declaration.html


This is another link to the full Barmen Declaration:
http://creeds.net/reformed/barmen.htm