{"id":39503,"date":"2017-12-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/dietrich-bonhoeffer-advent-opens-our-prison-door-from-outsi\/"},"modified":"2017-12-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T00:00:00","slug":"dietrich-bonhoeffer-advent-opens-our-prison-door-from-outsi","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/dietrich-bonhoeffer-advent-opens-our-prison-door-from-outsi\/","title":{"rendered":"Dietrich Bonhoeffer: &#8216;Advent Opens Our Prison Door from the Outside&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While waiting in a Nazi prison cell in 1943 a few weeks before Advent, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a friend, &quot;A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, does various unessential things, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened <em>from the outside<\/em>, is not a bad picture of Advent.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Shortly after penning those words, the Nazis executed Bonhoeffer. But he was right: the door of freedom for him and for us today is still opened <em>from the outside<\/em> by the coming and second coming of Jesus Christ.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3387,3600,4018,4142,4317,4530,4541,4592,4710,4780,4782,4808,4834,4877],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-39503","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-advent","tax_ctp_tags-christmas","tax_ctp_tags-freedom","tax_ctp_tags-helplessness","tax_ctp_tags-justification","tax_ctp_tags-need-for-salvation","tax_ctp_tags-new-life","tax_ctp_tags-pardon","tax_ctp_tags-prisoners","tax_ctp_tags-redeemer","tax_ctp_tags-redemption","tax_ctp_tags-rescue","tax_ctp_tags-return-of-christ","tax_ctp_tags-salvation"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - 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