Was Bonhoeffer a "justly executed" "traitor"?
My debate with Ray Fava of "Evangelical Dark Web"
Yesterday I participated in a debate with @evangelicaldarkweb (X here) regarding his statements that Bonhoeffer was a “traitor” and “justly executed”.
I’m very grateful to @ReformationRedPill (X here) for hosting and I think the conversation was much needed.
Evangelical Dark Web@EvangelicalDW
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a false teacher, and his execution was just.
So naturally, homosexuals look up to him. https://t.co/GBkwaK08DY
4:21 PM · Apr 9, 2025 · 31.5K Views
28 Replies · 8 Reposts · 238 Likes
Evangelical Dark Web@EvangelicalDW
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a traitor and a heretic.
I stand by what I said. He has his reward.
Eli McGowan @elimcgowan
Everyone knows EDW are open antisemites. They once decried Bonhoeffer as a “traitor.”
Yet Defiant Baptist still has them linked in his bio, and many Reformed men will use them as a source.
7:46 PM · Mar 31, 2026 · 9.08K Views
20 Replies · 5 Reposts · 168 Likes
From the “Evangelical Dark Web” blog:
Would I be misunderstanding EDW to contend that if a pastor has expressed some questionable beliefs in private correspondence, his life is essentially forfeit?
It seems like he is confusing the left-hand and right-hand kingdoms (a Lutheran distinction; I don't know if other branches of the Reformation hold a similar concept). It's not necessarily a strict "separation of church and state," but the idea that God's "left-hand kingdom" is the state and His "right-hand kingdom" is the church. The church has the power of the Word, and the state has the power of the sword, and tyranny arises when one usurps the other sphere. They are interfering where they don't have a vocation.
To ask it differently, if all the circumstances of Bonhoeffer's actions, arrest, and execution were the same, yet he had held more firmly to orthodox Christianity, would EDW's judgment about the justice of his execution been the same? Or is it his lack of orthodoxy that makes it just?
A few other comments:
It might have been helpful to show how the Magdeburg Confession defines a lesser magistrate. EDW's definition seems arbitrary.
Finally, it seems to me that where EDW is mistaken on the inerrancy question is that it's not a lack of robust belief in inerrancy that makes one a de facto heretic; rather, the reason denying inerrancy is dangerous is that it can lead one into de facto heretical beliefs. It's the difference between opening a door and walking through it. Denying inerrancy isn't itself heresy, but it can place one's salvation in jeopardy by tempting one to doubt essential doctrines such as the bodily resurrection of Christ, because one questions the source of those truths if not the truths themselves. Yet it is possible to affirm all the essential doctrines while not holding to inerrancy. (I speak from experience growing up in a liberal church body. I didn't suddenly gain my salvation when I embraced inerrancy; I was already a Christian who needed correction and better catechesis.)
EDW was in the game with HHC and got BTFO’d