Reinhard Bonnke

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Reinhard Bonnke, 2014

Reinhard Bonnke (born April 19, 1940 in Königsberg in East Prussia ; † December 7, 2019 in Orlando , Florida , United States ), referred to in the press and sometimes as God's combine harvester , was a German evangelist from the Pentecostal movement .

Missionary activity

At the age of nine, Bonnke said he received a divine calling to go to Africa as a missionary . He adopted this as his goal in life and later coined statements such as “Africa should be saved” or “Africa washed in the blood of Jesus”.

After completing his commercial training, he studied at the Evangelical Bible College of Wales in Swansea , then founded a church in Flensburg that was part of the Pentecostal movement and was the pastor there for seven years. During this time he was ordained by the Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden (BfP).

In 1967 he began his work in South Africa as a missionary for the Velbert Mission under the direction of the South African Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM). From 1968 he took over an independent area, the independent mountain state of Lesotho .

In 1974 Bonnke founded the mission organization Christ for all Nations (CfaN) based in Witfield, a suburb of Johannesburg . The German association Christ for all Nations , founded shortly afterwards . V. had its seat in Herrenberg , but was later relocated to Solingen . Since South Africa's apartheid policy made evangelism activities of a local organization in the rest of Africa much more difficult at the time, the headquarters were relocated to Frankfurt am Main in 1986 . According to its own statement, CfaN is not affiliated with any church or free church association, but works non-denominationally.

In November 2017 he carried out his farewell evangelism in Lagos , the former capital of Nigeria, and handed the baton over to his colleague Daniel Kolenda for health reasons.

After his death in December 2019, Bonnke left three adult children in addition to his wife Anni, with whom he had been married since 1964.

Missionary self-image

Bonnke's missionary work on the African continent was characterized by large-scale events lasting several days, which usually offered evening evangelism and smaller “fire conferences” in the morning for local pastors and community workers. His events reached an audience of several hundred thousand people and were supported by local Christian communities of almost all denominations .

In his own terminology, Bonnke differentiated between missionary and evangelistic work. He expanded the evangelist's field of activity compared to that of the missionary insofar as the latter is generally aimed at "unconverted people", not just at those who actually belong to another religion. He understood the goal of his activity in conversion as a formal consent to the Christian faith. Initially, this took place independently of baptism or church membership. The "converts" were invited to join the local congregations and churches. The company's own statements of 29 million conversions (status: 2004) and 55 million conversions (status: 2010) only referred to people who, by filling out a so-called decision card, signaled that they wanted to practice a Christian lifestyle from then on. The so-called follow-up work after the evangelization is the responsibility of the participating parishes and churches on site.

Its mass events regularly ended with a public call for conversion and prayers for supernatural healing as well as liberation from demonic spirits ( exorcism ) and curses that weighed on the city or region. Afterwards, visitors were given the opportunity to give so-called testimony of healings received. Particularly spectacular was the alleged raising of the dead of the Nigerian pastor Daniel Ekechukwu in 2001, which became known through a TV interview with Bonnke by the US TV preacher Pat Robertson . Such events have been received controversially in Nigerian society.

Spectacular stage work played a central role in the dramaturgy of the events.

In 1994 Bonnkes Missionswerk Christ for All Nations started a project in which the evangelistic brochure From Minus to Plus was distributed in all households of a country by direct mail . The campaign started in the UK and continued in several countries including Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland and Scandinavia. The total international circulation reached 93 million.

"Evangelism by Fire"

About his self-image as a missionary and evangelist, Bonnke wrote Evangelism by Fire (German title: When the fire falls ). Accordingly, he saw the foundation of his work (like every other evangelist) in God's calling ("anointing"), but not in his theological training. The appointment is not questionable. Not reflection but “action” is the substance of evangelistic authority.

As an evangelist, Bonnke saw himself caught between God's calling and the constant attacks of the devil, including public criticism of his work. Bonnke did not see the danger of immunization against any criticism . According to his understanding, dialogue and criticism are only meaningful and possible within a (Christian) spiritual community. It is important to expose yourself to criticism from the enemy and to be guided by human advice; but by distinguishing between profane and spiritual “fire”, any criticism expressed outside of a charismatic context is ultimately irrelevant.

Controversy

Supporters revere Bonnke as a "prophet" and highlight his missionary successes. Opponents criticize evangelization methods that would create conflicts between Christians and Muslims in Africa in order to conquer the core areas of Islam between the 10th and 40th parallel. The incitement of sections of the population by militant Muslims, at the same time as a Bonnke mission event in 1991 in Kano , a stronghold of militant Islamism in northern Nigeria, led to serious riots. A state of emergency was declared for a time. According to official sources, it is said to have resulted in several hundred deaths. As a result, Bonnke was declared an undesirable person in Nigeria until 1999. In 2000 Bonnke preached in the Christian-dominated Lagos in the southwest of the country and in 2001 only in the southern states. Bonnke later refrained from major provocative events in regions with a predominantly Muslim population.

Bonnke's teachings on the action of the Holy Spirit , especially with regard to casting out demons and miraculous healing , are controversial. While Bonnke's teaching is largely accepted among charismatic congregations , there are many reservations about these specific beliefs in other churches. The availability of the Holy Spirit as proclaimed by him is criticized when miraculous healings and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit are announced in advance of an evangelism, which for Bonnke, however, with biblical teaching according to u. a. Mark 16.15–18  EU , Matthew 10.1.8  EU and Luke 9.1  EU ; 10.9 EU u. ö. is compatible.

In his autobiography Bonnke denies this: “If I pray for a person today and the person is not healed, I know that I can never blame that person's faith for it. The longer I live, the less I claim to understand God's thoughts. I don't know why some are healed and some aren't. I only know that sometimes it is the belief of a sick person that restores him and sometimes the belief of other people. "

See also

Publications

  • Evangelism by Fire. Keys for Effectively Reaching Others with the Gospel. Full Flame, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 978-3-935057-19-6 .
  • Living a Life of Fire , Orlando 2009
    • German edition: In the fire of God. An autobiography. ER-Productions, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-941124-12-7 .

Web links

Commons : Reinhard Bonnke  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Bartholomäus Grill : Nigeria: The combine harvesters of God. In: Zeit Online . May 27, 2004, accessed December 7, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Heinz-Peter Tjaden : Full of sweet wine - God's combine harvester. In: Reader's Edition. November 30, 2006, archived from the original on July 5, 2007 ; accessed on December 7, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Reinhard Bonnke: In the fire of God. P. 82f.
  4. ↑ Reinhard Bonnke: In the fire of God. P. 183f.
  5. ↑ Georg O. Schmid: Missionswerk "Christ for all Nations" (CfaN) / Reinhard Bonnke. In: relinfo.ch . 1998, accessed December 8, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Daniel Gerber: Farewell evangelism: “God's combine harvester” hands over baton to Daniel Kolenda. In: jesus.ch. October 31, 2017, accessed December 8, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke has died. In: idea.de . December 8, 2019, accessed December 8, 2019 .
  8. ↑ a b Non-denominational: serving the whole body of Christ. In: bonnke.net. Archived from the original on December 13, 2015 ; accessed on December 9, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Reinhard Bonnke: Evangelism by Fire. Kingsway, Eastbourne, 1994, ISBN 0854765107 , pp. 124f.
  10. ↑ Christ for All Nations / Reinhard Bonnke. In: MinistryWatch. October 21, 2008, archived from the original on October 23, 2008 ; accessed on December 9, 2019 .
  11. ↑ a b Alexander Seibel: The miracles of Reinhard Bonnke. 2007, accessed December 7, 2019 .
  12. ^ David Servant: Resurrection from the Dead of Pastor Daniel Ekechukwu. In: davidservant.com. Retrieved December 9, 2019 .
  13. ^ Pat Robertson: Reinhard Bonnke Tells of Nigerian Man Raised from the Dead. In: CBN.com . January 21, 2015, accessed on December 9, 2019 (English, transcript of the interview).
  14. ↑ Sam Olukoya: Nigerians divided by TV miracle ban. In: BBC News. June 8, 2004, accessed December 9, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Reinhard Hempelmann : From minus to plus. An action by Reinhard Bonnke. (pdf, 12.1 MB) In: EZW Material Service . 4/1995, April 1, 1995, pp. 111-118 , accessed December 9, 2019 . Reinhard Hempelmann: Literature Mission without a Sender - Comments on the Campaign “Strength for Life”. In: EZW material service. 2/2002, pp. 33-34 , accessed on December 9, 2019 .
  16. Jump up ↑ The Story of Christ for All Nations: Third Decade, 1994 - From Minus to Plus. In: cfan.eu. Retrieved December 9, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Reinhard Bonnke: When the fire falls. ER Productions, 2004 (Original Version: Evangelism by Fire. Kingsway, 1994).
  18. ^ Evangelism by Fire. P. 121.
  19. ^ Evangelism by Fire. P. 36.
  20. ^ Evangelism by Fire. P. 6.
  21. ↑ a b Hakeem Jimo: Harvesting souls for the "combine harvester of God": The controversial German evangelist Bonnke in Nigeria. (pdf, 16 kB) In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . November 16, 2000, accessed on December 8, 2019 (reproduced on kirchen.ch).
  22. ↑ Saved souls . In: Der Spiegel . No. 44 , 1991, pp. 244-247 ( online ).
  23. ^ Corrie Cutrer: Bonnke Returns to Nigeria One Year After Tragedy. In: Christianity Today . November 1, 2000, accessed December 8, 2019 .
  24. ↑ In the fire of God. P. 373.
    Helmut Weidemann, Pastor of the Free Evangelical Community Movement, in a lecture about outstanding personalities of the Charismatic Movement and their teachings: The Charismatic Movement. (mp3 audio, 18 MB, 83 minutes) In: Sermon Online. Accessed December 8, 2019 (talk).
    • 19'25 ″: Critique of the announcement of the fire conference: "Prelude to the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Europe ... God will do signs and wonders"
    • 44'47 ″: Report about an apparently unhealed visitor to the fire conference
    • 48'47 ″: Report on an exchange of letters with which an allegedly medically attested healing should be proven; also cited by Alexander Seibel: The miracles of Reinhard Bonnke. 2007, accessed December 7, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Bonnke, Reinhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Combine harvester of god
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Christian evangelist with a Pentecostal orientation
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Koenigsberg
DATE OF DEATH 7th December 2019
Place of death Orlando , Florida , United States