Part 5
Baptist is this call: Let your hearts be moved, for mighty
things are in store for you! The movement that John
speaks of is love - the movement of the heart of God.
Unless our hearts are moved, they will remain cold. And
when our hearts are cold, we think and talk about our
own personal weaknesses and those of others, because
our hearts are not moved by the greatest love of all. God
is love. When we live in his love, we are freed from all
petty thoughts.
Talk, July 1933
The Living Word
Without God's calling, no one can proclaim the word, for
the gospel is living power, not a dead letter. For the New
Testament given by the Holy Spirit is written not with ink
on paper, but by God's finger upon our hearts. The scribes
whose hearts are not filled with God can preach the
printed word as servants of the Old Testament, but never
as servants of the Spirit. Everything depends on their
vocation, for unless God has called them, they cannot pro
claim the meaning of scripture. Even if their interpretation
is true, their teaching will be in vain if God is not in it.
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
God does not talk to those whom he has not called. Such
persons have gotten up too early; the sun has not yet risen
for them. They have started on their way at night. They
have gone without being sent. Without a light, they thresh
empty straw, and their sword slashes at the wind. God has
not commanded them. God has not called them. Neither,
then, can they be God's witness. Therefore their speech has
no incisiveness, no power, no spirit, and makes no impres
sion; their talking does not bear the fruit of life.
There is a great and powerful difference between
serving the letter and serving the Spirit. The one excludes
the other. Those who serve the letter read from scrip
ture only what is contained in the written word. They sit
in Moses' chair. They proclaim not the scripture, but the
words that hold it.
Those who serve the Spirit do something completely
different. They serve the gospels by proclaiming the Holy
Spirit, who sows, plants, and inscribes Christ in people's
hearts. They speak by inspiration of the Holy Spirit; they
are appointed by the authority of the Holy Spirit. They
speak not in their own strength, but as the mouth of God.
Only through people kindled by the Holy Spirit does God
give light.
Servants of the Spirit must be appointed by the
Spirit. They must be chosen, called, and sent out by the
Holy Spirit, and equally, of course, by a people filled
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
with this spirit. They are sent out into the harvest by
God himself and by his church. Christ himself was sent
and anointed by this Spirit. The apostles could not go
out as servants of the word until they were clothed with
power from on high, by the living word proclaimed
through the living Bible. That is why their words have
such force, such clarity, and such power. That is why
their sayings cut like a knife, stabbing the heart and
piercing the marrow.
To preach Christ and to proclaim his gospel means to
impart the Holy Spirit: to plant in people's hearts the
word, and to awaken them to a new birth through the
Holy Spirit. It means representing the Spirit in such a
way that the enemies of God are beside themselves
because of it. Just as the apostles met this resistance, so
should all other servants of the Spirit meet the same
resistance. For God does not change; God has grown
neither greater nor less since the time of the apostles.
Therefore each of us should examine our calling, and
see whether we are servants of the Spirit or of the cold
and dead letter. We each must ask ourselves whether the
Holy Spirit goes with us in our service and whether our
preaching brings forth fruit, or whether it is empty, as it
is with every servant of the letter.
Christ sends out his own like the Father sent him: to
bear fruit. He arms them with the same authority with
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
which he is armed, and says of them: "Those who
believe in me will do all that I do, and even more." Those
whose word is not imbued with the power of Christ
should therefore know that they have not been called as
servants of the Spirit, or of the living word. They should
know that they have crept in among the sheep as thieves
and as murderers. They are like one who carries water
to the Rhine (which has enough water already) while
ignoring the needs of the thirsty.
Only those who are of God speak God's word. In the
same way, only those who are of God hear God's word.
And God speaks to the children of his Spirit in a special
language. They alone understand him, and if others
come near to listen, they understand nothing. For the
secret of his language is love - not the love that comes
from people, but from God. Peter was not allowed to go
to the flock until he was asked whether he loved and
until he had received the Holy Spirit.
The apostles waited for this love just as they waited for
the Spirit. Until they had received it, they did not dare
preach a word. They knew that without this love, the Holy
Spirit would not go with them on their journeying. With it,
they would know what to do and where to go.
Those who are led by love will wait on God at all
times. It is not enough if they wait for God's calling at
certain moments. No, they must be made the mouth,
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
hand, and instrument of God every single day of their
lives. They must be protected so that they do not under
stand or speak in their own strength, but do and say all
things in God. They must not speak until God has told
them what to say, nor must they speak when it is too
late, when God has already left them.
Address, September 1933
We believe that every human being has a longing for
true justice, true love and unity. Therefore, the open
door of the community is open to everyone. At the same
time we realize that not every person is ready for com
munity at every stage of his or her life. You can't expect
everyone to be able to accept it at every moment. For
example, I can't simply stand at the Leipzigerstrasse in
Berlin and call, "Come here, all of you, come and live at
the Bruderhof!" It is not cowardice that keeps us from
doing this. It would be folly; many people would simply
not be in the position to understand such a call. They
would not be mature enough in their inner development
to follow it. God must call them first. I have no right to
call anyone unless the Spirit himself has already called
that person.
Talk, October 1933
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
There can be no victory of the Spirit as long as people
set themselves up as healers of sickness. The Holy Spirit
has nothing to do with magic. Not until all human
claims disappear will the Spirit of Jesus Christ show
himself as the Spirit who heals sickness, drives out de
mons, and overcomes death. Not until we lay down our
self-will can God be victorious over demons...
Christ reveals himself only to those who no longer
seek their own honor and greatness. He seeks that
church in which people are unimportant - in which
people have become like children and beggars. He re
veals himself only to the church that lives without hy
pocrisy and without any religious show. But there,
where people turn to him for all things, demons and
darkness will yield.
Talk, June 1935
The Church Comes Down to Us
Arnold always emphasized Gemeinde - the living congre gation of believers - over Kirche, the church as an institu
tion or establishment. He believed that the true church transcends time and space, uniting all those who call on
God and receive his Spirit. Thus the church is past and present and future, and lives on earth as well as in heaven.
For him, the high point of the ecclesiastical year was Pentecost: the celebration of the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit as the foundation of the "living church."
The following address, a response to a letter from his
friend, the Swiss Religious Socialist Leonard Ragaz, touches on these themes. Ragaz had asked whether
Arnold's community, the Bruderhof, considered itself to be "the" church - as opposed to just one of many other mem
bers in the "family of Christ." The question, Ragaz con ceded, was a delicate one: "If such a great thing would be
given to you, should you not handle it with the utmost re
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
serve, as a miracle which could easily withdraw, something of which you were not worthy, as none of us is?"
Arnold considered Ragaz's question carefully, dedicating three evenings to the topic; the excerpt below summarizes
these discussions.
It is of decisive importance that we remember the
mission of the Church as it is laid upon us in the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit. If anyone asks us whether
we, a few weak and needy people living in community,
are "the" church, we have to say, No, we are not. Like
all human beings, however, we are the recipients of
God's love. And like everyone else - more so, if
anything - we are unworthy and unfit for the work of the
Holy Spirit, for the building of the church, and for its
mission to the world.
But if anyone asks, "Does the church of God come
down to you?" - then we have to answer yes. For the
church comes down wherever believers are gathered
who have no other will but that God's kingdom come
and that the church of Jesus Christ be revealed. The
church is wherever the Holy Spirit is.
Of course, we need to call on God if we want to
receive the Holy Spirit; willpower by itself is not
enough, for it remains rooted in what is human. The
Holy Spirit alone has the power to bring the church to
us.
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
There is, however, one other condition that must be
fulfilled: we need to agree on the one object of our
pleading, for only when we are united in our asking will
the impossible become possible. Unless our prayer is
made as one body, the Holy Spirit will not be poured out.
Without the pouring out of the Holy Spirit the church
will not be established and built up. Without the working
of the Holy Spirit there is no perfect fellowship, no living
body of Jesus Christ.
The disciples whom Jesus told to wait for the Holy
Spirit remained together for days, united in their
expectation of God and his power. And when the time
was fulfilled the Holy Spirit broke upon them from
above, as a wind from heaven, as flames of fire on their
heads. They received the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the
powers of the world to come. They were united with one
another in their teaching, in the breaking of bread and in
the fellowship of the table; they were united in prayer
and in the sharing of all their goods. So the church came
into being, and so the church will come into being again
and again.
But where people do not submit to the working of the
Holy Spirit - and where there is not full fellowship of
work and goods, nor complete unity and agreement in
faith and action - there we cannot speak of the church.
The Spirit of God works everywhere and in all people.
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
God sees this, though it is often hidden from us. For this
reason we cannot presume to say where the Holy Spirit
is at work. Only God can judge in this way. All the same,
there are works, deeds, fruits, results, and effects of the
unity of the Spirit that are quite plainly recognizable as
coming from the Holy Spirit. About such things we
cannot remain silent. Where it is impossible to establish
deeds as fruits of the Holy Spirit we may not speak of
the church. But where the working of the Holy Spirit is
clear, we must for the sake of God's honor say: Man has
not done that; God has done it. There is no other
explanation. That is the church.
We confess quite simply that we cannot live in unity for
a single day if the Holy Spirit is not given to us again and
again. We cannot agree on anything unless Jesus Christ is
revealed to us - unless we allow God to work in us and
amongst us. And God works only when we put our own
works aside. The mystery of the church is thus deeply
related to the mystery of the kingdom of God, for when
God reigns, the works of human beings will rest.
Clearly, the mark of the church of God is the laying
down of human works. This is of particular significance
today, when we stand before the collapse of state and
society - when love is growing cold and enmity and
hatred are increasing. More than ever before, we must
recognize that the church of Jesus Christ is God at work
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
now. And so we must come together to call upon God,
despite our smallness, our unworthiness and insufficiency.
We must come before God and ask him to pour out upon us
that which we do not have, do among us what we ourselves
cannot do. We must ask for his Holy Spirit so that we can
live as a witness to the whole world, so that we can become
one, even as the Father and Son are one.
Address, March 1933
Arnold's eldest son Hardy told of an incident that illus
trated his father's emphasis on the work of Jesus as op posed to the work of men. It was 1933, shortly after Hitler had come to power; Hardy was studying at Tübingen and
had arranged for his father to speak at the Christian Stu dent Union Building. Wanting to secure a good audience,
he had plastered the university campus with posters pro claiming a lecture, by Eberhard Arnold, "about the Brud
erhof." But his father was indignant; he told his audience that he had come not to talk about the Bruderhof, but
about Jesus - and what his life meant at that very grave hour.
Jesus - the Jesus distorted by all theological "interpre
tations" - is practically unknown today. It is high time
that he be understood or at the very least be taken
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
seriously. Without rejecting the teachings of Paul, the
church which is named after Jesus must turn again to
Jesus, as it did in the time of early Christianity, of the
Waldensians, and of the Radical Reformation. The
church must, at long last, begin again to live according
to the four gospels. A life of Christian community can
pattern its living only on the words and life of Jesus.
There is no one else it can follow.
Essay, 1934
No heights of oratory, no burning enthusiasm could
have awakened for Christ the thousands who partook in
the united life of the early church. The friends of Jesus
knew this very well. Had not the Risen One himself
commanded them to wait in Jerusalem for the fulfillment
of the great promise? John had baptized in water all
those who listened to him. But the first church was to be
submerged in the holy wind of Christ's Spirit.
Essay, 1920
At Pentecost, there was such oneness between the apostles
and those with them that each person present heard his
own language being spoken. The listening crowd was
moved by the same Spirit that overpowered those who
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
spoke. This was neither hypnosis nor human persua
siveness; rather, people allowed God to work in them.
They were filled by his Spirit. And at that very moment
the only true collective soul assumed shape and form:
the organic unity of the mysterious Body of Christ, the
church community, was born.
Essay, 1920
Unity
In order to understand Arnold, it is vital to understand
what he meant by unity: unity as the hallmark of the church, and the sole basis for Christian fellowship. Already
in 1913, seven years before he began to live in community, he had concerned himself with the subject.
The church is unity: oneness of heart and mind in the
Holy Spirit. Whenever this Spirit reveals the will of
God, the church is there. Wherever the Spirit brings
Christ so near that his word is carried out, the church is
there. It is revealed in the united gathering of those to
whom Christ has come. It is a gift of his Spirit. Faith in
the Holy Spirit must be active as faith in the community
of believers, and community can come into being only
where Christ comes to each one through his Spirit,
touching and filling the inmost heart.
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
Unless we have surrendered completely to the spirit of
unity, we cause division, for we ourselves are emotional
and divided people. Separation caused by private life
and private property - self-will devoid of love - this is
the essence and character of sin. God wills unity and
community. God's justice is the love that gathers and
unites.
Essay, 1913
Only if we have willing and sincere hearts will we find
unanimity in our convictions. We have never found it
disturbing when people have come to us representing
convictions that differ from ours. On the contrary, that
is more fruitful than if we had no chance to hear opposing
ideas. Each one will bring from the storehouse of his
earlier convictions those elements that are true, and he
will find these again. The more varied our different
backgrounds are, the richer the fruits of this diversity
will be. But a united conviction can never be produced
by forcing anyone to comply. Only the inner persuasion
of the Holy Spirit can lead people to true unity.
Address, May 2,1933
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
What we have all been looking for is a life where
brotherliness is voluntary, where there is no artificial
attempt to make people equal, but where all are of equal
worth and are therefore free to be very different. The
more original an individual is, the better. The greater
the differences between people, the closer they can
come to each other inwardly. We affirm the individual
personality: each person, adult or child, is unique. But
this uniqueness, taken to the ultimate depths, must lead
us to the church. If we all go into the depths, we will all
be united. The more original and genuine we are, the
more fully will we all be one.
Address, July 1935
We are not satisfied with intellectual unanimity. It is not
enough to set a common goal and use all our willpower
to reach it; nor is it enough to vibrate together in an
emotional experience. Something quite different has to
come over us - something that can lift us above a purely
human level.
Address, March 1932
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
Unity means much more than just mutual good will. It
has nothing to do with people's subjective relationships.
Rather, it has to do with something much deeper. The
spirit of unity is something extremely sober because it
is something extremely objective. Even pure rationality
will not help us. Rationality is a great gift, but it cannot
lead to objective unanimity and solidarity.
Even when something is not completely grasped with
the intellect, it is still possible to attain unity of recognition
- even in the most difficult matters. It is through inner
insight that we come to see a situation as God sees it.
And inner insight can be imparted only by the Holy
Spirit. It can happen only through the all-seeing Spirit,
the Spirit who perceives all things, even those things not
understood with the intellect.
Everybody agreeing to make an effort of will is not
enough. Everybody having the inner will is not enough.
We want to be truly in agreement; no one doubts this
will. But the will is not enough. We cannot come to unity
by a mere effort of the human will. A different will must
triumph over our will. God's will must be revealed.
Talk, March 1933
Arnold insisted that communal living was the only answer
to all social, political and economic problems, but he never
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
held onto his community as its prototype. The following excerpts, from letters to neighboring communities, show
his lifelong desire to join hands with others.
It is the age-old curse of Christendom to separate over
personal differences, to become divided by ambition,
sectarianism, and lack of trust. Instead we should come
together. We do not want to put our place or our group
in the center. In fact, we need to leave Sannerz, since our
work is growing. So we ask you again today that we
move together, put all our property together, and become
united and unanimous in everything. Of course, this
unity will demand a holy and serious struggle.
Letter to leaders of Neu Sonnefeld, 1925
We feel urged to say again: we know that we are united
with you all in a lasting, imperishable relationship of
brotherhood. We realize that saying this means supporting
one another in absolute faithfulness for the life-task
given to us both. Our relationship of brotherhood must
from now on find its strongest expression in constant
mutual service; thus our Sannerz household now stands
at your disposal. We are certain that through our daily
community of life, work, and goods you will find a second
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
home, and that our community will be encouraged and
purified through the task given to you. You will always
find our door open, our hands ready - to accept from you
and to work for you. Above all, our hearts are open to
you, and we want to listen to that which speaks to us
through you.
Letter to group in Wiesbaden, 1927
Church and State
The New Incarnation
In this talk from 1934, Arnold addresses two visitors from
England, and compares the church - as God's embassy on earth - to the British Embassy in Berlin.
The birth of Jesus shows how every new birth from the
Spirit takes place. The word came to Mary. Mary believed.
She received the word, the life-giving Spirit. And because
she had faith, the living word took flesh and form from
her.
Today too the living word wants to take form. Today too
the living word wants to become flesh. Today too the
eternal Christ wants to have a body. It is for this reason
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
that the Holy Spirit is still sent from the throne of the
Father: so that Christ, first embodied as man, might now
come into being as the church.
The living word, which is the eternal Christ, became
body in Mary's son. And the eternal, living word
Christ - becomes body again in the church. Therefore
Paul says that a mystery is entrusted to him, which he
calls the mystery of the body of Christ. The fact that the
church is the body of Christ means that Christ receives
a body, a form or shape, and becomes visible and real in
the world. Otherwise the word "body" is meaningless.
And when theologians say that what is meant here is the
"invisible Christ," they are simply demonstrating the
nonsense of which only theologians are capable. The
apostles did not believe in ghosts. They spoke either of
the completely invisible Spirit or of the body, which is
completely visible.
How all of this becomes visible in the church is
described further by Paul. He speaks of "the mystery"
of the body of Christ, "which is Christ in you"; and then
he speaks of the expectation of Christ's future coming
the "hope of glory."
These words have become so trite that they no longer
convey anything to us. We have to translate them into
the language of today. "Hope" in the New Testament
means the expectation, the assurance of a completely
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
new order. "Glory" means the majesty of Christ on his
throne. This is the glory: that God now rules over all
things and that Christ rules over all things - that all
political, social, educational, and human problems are
solved in a concrete way by the rulership of Christ. This
is what glory is.
Only very few people in our time grasp this realism
of the early Christians. And it is just in this very realistic
sense that the word, which is Christ, wants to find a
body in the church. Mere words about the future coming
of God fade away in people's ears. That is why action is
needed. Something must be set up, created, and formed,
so that no one can pass it by. This is the embodiment, the
corporeality.
"Christ in you" is the first part of this mystery. As
Christ was in Mary, so Christ is in us who believe and
love. Thus we live in accordance with the future; the
character of our conduct is the character of God's future.
This is not something moralistic or legalistic; it is some
thing very natural and simple. It takes place now, through
Christ in the church. The future kingdom takes on a
physical form in the church.
Just for this reason, the church must demonstrate per
fect peace and perfect justice. This is why it cannot shed
blood or tolerate private property. This is why it cannot
lie or take an oath. This is why it cannot tolerate the
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
destruction of bridal purity and of faithfulness in mar
riage. This is why it must also be free of the actions by
which individual people make themselves great. No one
must think that he is a second or third or fourth Christ.
The church as a body, and not the individual within the
church, is the incarnation of Christ.
Everything about this church should be in keeping
with the simplicity of Jesus. Poverty, too, belongs to this
embodiment: because we who represent the church are
called to serve the whole world and because there is so
much need in the world, we must live as simply as possible
in order to help as many people as possible. But it is an
error to mix this specific task of the church with public
affairs. Paul shows clearly that the unique task of the
church is to be the embodiment of Christ, thrust in
among the nations.
It is not the task of this body of Christ to attain a
political voice. According to the apostolic truth there is
no such thing as a Christian state. A Christian church
does not fight for the interests of the state. Nor does the
church fight against the interests of the state. There is
no such thing as Christian politics in the League of
Nations. No head of a state can wield the sword in the
name of Christ. No church can say that it agrees to this.
Nor can a League of Nations arm and organize a punitive
police force in the name of Christ.
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
A Christian is not active in politics. The apostle Paul
says we are ambassadors of the kingdom of God. And
the kingdom of God is not represented by any state of
this world, but by the church. This means that we ought
to do nothing at all other than what God himself would
do for his kingdom. Just as the British ambassador in
Berlin does nothing other than the will of his superiors
in London, so we too must do the will of God alone. We
are no longer subject to the laws of this world; the
grounds of our embassy are inviolable, just as in the
residence of an ambassador, only the laws of the coun
try he represents are valid. The will of God is to unite,
and thus our task is to reconcile and to unite. We have
no other mission in this world.
When we take this task upon ourselves we enter into
mortal danger. For whoever goes the way of Christ goes
the way of the cross; world, state and society are not
willing to follow his call. Nevertheless, there is certainty
in the depths of every human heart that his way is the
way of truth, and this gives us the courage to speak.
There is no greater bravery than that of faith. There is
no greater courage than that of love.
Address, August 1934
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
Church and State
From the moment Adolf Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor, Arnold voiced grave concern over Germany's
future. But his belief in the ultimate evil of the state came long before the Nazi's ascent to power; in fact, he had
come to this conviction two decades earlier, after the First World War. The following address was delivered in
Liechtenstein in 1934. Despite the relative advantage of this location, Arnold's boldness is remarkable - he was still
a German citizen, and the rash of murders and "suicides" amongst radicals and nonconformists back home had
already begun.
No absolute monarchy in the past ever achieved the
centralization seen today in our fascist state, and in
Bolshevism. Just as the monarch is meant to represent
the whole state, so too, present-day centralism - as in
the case of Mussolini and Hitler - combines everything
in one person. It is like Rome under the emperors.
No emperor, however, ever claimed the kind of self-
deification these men claim today. The Romans did set
up small incense altars for Nero and other emperors,
altars at which incense was offered in testimony of the
religious significance of a unified emperorship. But the
sacrifice was made to the "genius" of the Emperor, and
not to the emperor personally. Neither Nero, nor any
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
other emperor, ever managed to have the Romans call
out "Heil Nero!" from every street corner.
The present-day dictator has been so utterly abandoned
by what is spiritual that he does not even believe in the
genius of his dictatorship, but only in his own small person.
Thus idolatry is coarsened in the most vulgar way. What
people worship nowadays is the tone of voice and the
hair and the nose of the dictator. The human person has
been made into an idol. What the dictator says gets
done. Thinking is forbidden.
This modern fascism is a phenomenon that makes me
feel like weeping day and night. Goebbels says, "If we
are right, it follows that no one else is right. For us there
is no justice other than self-interest." So there is no justice
whatever; objective justice is eliminated, and stupidity
reigns. In the twentieth century, that is shattering. I
don't believe that such a destructive spirit ever prevailed
among the early Germanic tribes. Their chiefs were
bound by the decision of the council meeting, and to the
concept of justice for the tribe as a whole. But what we
have today is egoism and self-assertion beyond all law
and all thought. Who still believes in progress today?
What power opposes this force? What is England's
parliamentary monarchy doing? What are the other
states with great spiritual traditions doing? Where are
the churches, with their theologians and philosophers?
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
There have been raids on the Bishop's Palace. Catholic
priests have been arrested and taken to concentration
camps. Two of the most outstanding priests have been
murdered. And yet none of this prevents the Pope from
dealing with Hitler again and again.
The Evangelicals are led by a cleric with an ignorance
unprecedented in thousands of years. The Reform
Church of Zwingli and Calvin has proven more capable
of resistance than the Lutheran Church; Orthodox
Protestant groups have bristled a little, most vigorously
in the Rhineland and Württemberg - where pietism and
the personal experience of salvation has been the
strongest. But it seems that one established church after
another is succumbing to brutal violence and base deceit.
The Confessing Church Synods have given the word:
"No withdrawing from the church!" But that cripples
every bit of initiative. For if the established church is
godless - if it is ruled by demons and idolatry - it is useless
to say, "We protest, but we remain in the church." The
reason for this limp attitude is clear. Even protesting
groups in the Catholic and Protestant Churches render
unconditional homage to the National Socialist state.
They give the Heil Hitler salute. They are willing to
take active part in government functions. So what good
is it if, from within the churches, they protest isolated
incidents that lead to suppression of free speech, brutal
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
murder, and all manner of other horrors, while at the
same time supporting the overall application of this evil
system?
The failure of the churches of the Reformation to take
a radical, early-Christian position with regard to state
and society is taking its toll. We are paying here for the
historical sins of the Peasants' War: the bondage to the
rule of princes and the outrages committed against the
popular Anabaptist Movement. We are reminded of the
way Christianity in England sold out to the state in
Oliver Cromwell's time and afterwards.
The cause of this error lies in a misunderstanding of
Paul's words in Romans 13, "Let each person be subject
to the governing authorities." Verses 1-5 are quoted
repeatedly by the established churches to defend their
interests in the state. These verses show what the state's
task is: to punish evil with the sword.
In contrast to this, Paul gives the answer of love, in
verses 8-10. "Love is the fulfilling of the law," and
"Owe no one anything, except to love one another."
Paul says that the Christian way is different from that
of the state.
There is no state that does not have a police force,
which maintains order with the sword. This is what God
has ordained in an unchristian world so that evil does
not gain the upper hand: child molesters, for example,
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
simply cannot be allowed to run free. We cannot stand
up in London and preach, "Away with all policemen!"
We cannot deny the necessity of government order for
the world of evil.
But the Christian church is in a different region, the
region of absolute love. Here there is no police system.
The church will suffer death at the hands of the state,
but it will not partake in evil. For this reason the church
cannot deliver up a criminal. It simply cannot.
There are two worlds, then. One is the world of evil;
the other is the world of pure light and pure love, which
has nothing to do with violence.
Our own love to Jesus can never be what is most
important. What is far more crucial is that God and his
Kingdom prevail among us in such a way that we represent
its cause in the face of all other circumstances, condi
tions, and relationships. As a result, we will find our
selves to be in decisive opposition to the world around
us. This includes opposition to the State, which has to
defend private property, and which is maintained by
force and by violence.
We respect government as God-ordained. But we are
called to an order of society utterly different from the
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
state and the present social order. That is why we refuse
to swear oaths before any court of law; why we refuse
to serve in any state as soldiers or policemen; why we
refuse to serve in any important government post. For
all of these are connected with law courts, the police, or
the military.
We oppose outright the present order of society. We
represent a different order: that of the communal
church as it was in Jerusalem after the pouring out of the
Holy Spirit. There, the multitude of believers became one
heart and one soul. On the social level, their oneness
was visible in perfect brotherliness. On the economic
level, they lived in complete community of goods, free
from all private property and from any compulsion. And
we are called to represent the same life in the world today.
Of course, we cannot put this burden on others, unless
they prize the greatness of God's kingdom above
everything else and are certain that there is no other
way to go.
Talk, March 1933
The first Christians expected men to be freed from
suffering, to be liberated from injustice, war, and
bloodshed. They expected the transformation of all
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
things political and economic, resulting in new relation
ships of unadulterated justice and love. Therefore it is
correct, to a certain extent, to compare the socialist
expectation of a future state to the early Christian hope
for God's kingdom. Yet there is an important difference:
the socialist ideal arises from a purely economic concept of
history. This stands in sharp contrast to the basic truth
of Christianity, in which the spirit, as the highest and
greatest manifestation of life, rules over matter.
Still, the material world is not foreign to God. God is
a God of Life, and he encompasses and commands all
life even in its primitive and degenerate forms. This
includes matter. Only the perverse idealism of false
Christianity teaches that the world of matter and the
senses is unspiritual and therefore to be despised. Only
those without love or spirit or power try to appease
suffering mankind with promises of the life beyond.
This is why the socialists revolt in the name of materialism;
they oppose religious idealism because they recognize
the ethical demands of the spirit within the material
sphere and seek to fulfill them in this sphere. Even
though they put aside the spirit, their materialistic
interpretation of history is better than a high-flown
Christian spirituality that simply accepts the injustice
of the world as it is.
Of course, the socialist revolution can never be
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
confused with a spiritual awakening. One need not even
mention the sewers of human weakness, the whirlpools
of animal blood-thirst, the bottomless abyss of petty
egoism, and the demonic thirst for power present in the
socialist wave - things all found in people who call
themselves Christians as well. Yet no one can deny that
the attack of socialism against the present social order is a
challenge to our consciences, and reminds us more
strongly than any sermon that our task is to live in active
protest against everything that opposes God's will. We
who call ourselves Christians have done so little in this
regard that we must ask, Are we really Christians at all?
A Christian church as such is not called to abolish the
existing state order; the power of the state and its juridical
order are instruments of God, needed to hold murder and
hatred, lying and deceit, injustice and impurity at bay. But a
determined Christian cannot be undiscriminating in his
dealings with the state. His conscience will rise up
against any government that acts as executioner in the
employ of the rich, just as it will protest the rapacious
egoism of the proletariat. And in the conflict between
individual and collective will, between individuality and
communality, the Christian must take the side of the
social spirit of fellowship and community.
Plato, Aristotle, and Hegel held the task of the state
to be that of realizing justice and virtue. But one thing
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
they did not see: that force and violence must ultimately
fail. And the state lives exclusively in the sphere of
force. Socialism, with its rigorous organization of the
masses and strictly applied discipline, is simply another
form of totalitarian militarism. Marxism, too, has to
compensate for the absence of the Spirit by applying
coercive measures. Therefore the dedicated church can
have nothing to do with these powers of the state.
The church represents one thing alone: the all-
sustaining power of love. It is her task to exert her
influence on the political life for the sake of social
justice and peace, for the sake of encompassing love.
But to master the murderous spirit of mammon, she
must call on spiritual forces far greater than the ideals
of economic politics. She has the one and only hope by
which to achieve unity and freedom among men: the one
spirit who is the Spirit of God.
Essay, 1919
Expectation
Arnold's faith was in the future, yet he lived fully in the present. Even after the rise of Nazism had forced the Bruder
hof to send its young men and children abroad, he pressed forward with plans to expand the buildings and business
operations at the Rhön Bruderhof in Germany. He liked to quote Martin Luther: "If I knew the world would end
tomorrow, I would still plant my apple tree today."
Faith in God means faith for the future. Those who live in
God do not look back, but forward. Those who are alive do
not look back over the short span of their own life, nor even
over the greater span of religious development, to find a
past realization of their current longing. They look
forward into time, toward the goal, toward the destiny of
humankind as it should be and as it shall be.
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
When we put hour hand to God's plow, we look
forward; our lives are directed by the future. But if we lose
ourselves in historical speculation and self-absorbed
reveries, we are not fit for God's kingdom. Certainly,
our faith today is linked to God's working in the past,
for God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But a
pietism that immerses itself in the Bible only to gain
insights into religious history is a weak and poor thing,
because it stands in opposition to the almighty, all-
embracing, creative God. There is, however, a meditation
on scripture that can lift us beyond our small ego and
our petty affairs, a meditation that carries us into God's
heart, so that we may take part already now in God's all-
embracing kingdom.
But our expectation of this kingdom cannot be a passive
waiting, a sweet, soft occupation with ourselves and our
like-minded friends. No; if we truly expect God's kingdom
we will be filled with divine power. Then the social justice
of the future - with its purity of heart and divine fellowship
- will be realized now, wherever Jesus himself is
present. Our belief in the future must bring change to
the present!
The spirit of expectation is the spirit of action because
it is the spirit of faith. Faith is bravery. Faith is reality. If
we have faith, even only a small seed, we cannot regard
anything as impossible. For faith is what gives us a clear
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
picture of life's ultimate powers. It discloses God's
heart to us as the pulse of the entire living creation, and
shows us that the secret of life is love.
If we live in love we can never exhaust ourselves in
psychic introspection or in narrow conventionality. If
we are gripped by the experiences of faith and of love,
by the expectation of Christ and his second coming, we
will act. For God's love is boundless; it applies to public
life just as much as to the individual heart; to the economic
as well as the political affairs.
If we expect God we will be purified by the purity of
the One we expect. There is nothing that heightens the
conscience more than such expectation; it eliminates all
relativity and overcomes weak submission to the status
quo. It enables us to live so securely in the future world
that we as its heralds dare, here and now, to assume the
unbroken, unconditional character of the kingdom.
Our expectation of the future must mean certainty
that the divine will conquer the demonic, that love will
conquer hate, that the all-embracing will conquer the
isolated. And certainty tolerates no limitation. God
embraces everything. When we trust in him for the future,
we trust for the present. When we have innermost faith
in him, this faith will prove valid for all areas of life.
Essay, 1920
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
Now is the Time
In this talk, Arnold exhorts his listeners to make their lives count. He foresees an awakening of the masses that will
stretch far beyond the personal to encompass and transform all of society, and challenges those who call themselves
believers to make this happen. Such an awakening will not come about without struggle and sacrifice, but anything
less would not be worthy of God's great calling.
All the various movements of the past decades will one
day converge in a radical awakening of the masses that
leads the way to social justice and to God's unity - that
is to say, to the church, to the kingdom of God, and to
community in action. We must set our little Bruderhof
in the midst of this mighty task and sacrifice ourselves. We
must not cling to a time when we were (or still are) a small
circle of people knowing each other intimately. Rather we
must be ready to be consumed in a mighty outpouring of
the Holy Spirit, to be merged with it completely.
What we need now is mission. Mission means reaching
the millions who live in cities, the hundreds of thousands in
industrial centers, the tens of thousands in medium-sized
towns, the thousands in small towns, and the hundreds in
villages - all these at once. Like a volcanic eruption, a
spiritual revolution needs to spread through the country, to
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
spur people to crucial decisions. People have to recognize
the futility of splitting life up into politics, economics,
the humanities, and religion. We must be awakened to a life
in which all of these things are completely integrated.
We need to find an attitude of responsibility for public
affairs, and this attitude must be completely practical,
completely spiritual, and thoroughly believing. We
must gain an inner understanding and a broad view of
how all things affect each other, and through this find
the right way to tackle all kinds of social problems. With
this understanding we will be able to work creatively in
the economic sphere. We will do all this in faith, and this
faith will find its fulfillment in the love that creates
community in all things.
So we must win a faith that does not break down in the
face of social ills, but that completely envelopes and
transforms them - a faith that embraces economic
problems and solves them. This means a faith that takes
on all inner and outer tasks and makes them part of our
daily life; it means faith in a God who created everything
and provides for everything and who does not let go of
any part of his will.
The new awakening must therefore be both religious
and social; a Christ-centered communist awakening, an
awakening to God's kingdom, to grace as a reality. This
is the only kind of awakening that comes into question.
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
But it will be paid for with bitterest pain. The suffering
of Jesus, which he experienced to the full for the sake of this
future joy, will be our suffering. We shall be persecuted to
death with hatred and scorn from all sides, in particular
by the most religious, the most respectable and cultivated
people. They will slander us and send us to psychiatrists.
The police and the military will be called out against us.
All sorts of lawsuits will be brought against us in the
courts. An economic boycott will be started against us,
and attempts will be made to drive us out of the country
by taking away our livelihood. Ultimately they will pass
special laws against us, as they once did to the Socialists
and the Jesuits.
When the movement has reached its peak, it will be so
dangerous that capitalism will see itself imperiled by it.
Wealthy landowners will see it as a threat to their position,
and the state will see its existence endangered - for
where shall the state get its income from if its members
live in absolute propertylessness? It will foresee its own
dissolution, and so will have to call in the executioners.
This image of the future appears fantastic only to the
unbelieving. The believer who reckons with the historical
realities of Jesus' time and of the Reformation will feel
that all this must surely take place, and very soon at
that. But if we are as convinced of the truth as we have
often asserted, then we must live in such a way that all
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
this can really happen. More than anything else we must
arrive at such a reverence for the working of the Holy
Spirit that our trivial concerns over personal matters
the state of our health and our emotional needs - are
sacrificed in this mighty flame.
Everything will depend on whether or not the last hour
finds us a generation worthy of greatness. And the only
thing worthy of God's greatness is our readiness to die for
his cause. So we must show this readiness to die in the
trivial details of daily life, or we will not be able to stand
firm in the critical hour to come. We need to overcome
completely all petty points of view, all purely personal
opinions and feelings, all fear, care, and inner uncertainty
in short, all unbelief. In its place we must put faith - faith as
small as a seed but which has the power to grow.
This faith is active in our midst, through Christ and
the Holy Spirit. We have sensed it, but we have not lived
according to it. If the Holy Spirit has withdrawn from
us, it is because we have grieved him and driven him
away - because we have given him little regard and no
reverence, and have esteemed our own affairs more
than his. Then all we can do is to ask for judgment, and
to believe that this judgment will prepare us at long last
for mission - that we may be freed and released from all
that comes from ourselves. Only then will we be usable
for God's will.
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
Whether the twentieth century is shattered for God's
kingdom or simply passes by depends in part on us. We
know what is at stake; we know the will of God. We
have felt the power of the Holy Spirit and the powers of
the future world. So let us get going; now is the time!
Address, August 1928
The whole world is shaking at its joints. We have the
frightening impression that we stand before a great and
catastrophic judgment. If this catastrophe does not take
place, it is only because it has been averted by God's
direct intervention. And the church is called to move
God - yes, God himself - to act. This does not mean that
God will not or cannot act unless we ask him, but rather
that he waits for people to believe in him and expect his
intervention. For God acts among us only to the extent that
we ask for his action and accept it with our hearts and lives.
This is the secret of God's intervention in history.
The nineteenth century German pastor Blumhardt
says that God waits for breaches to be made by human
beings. And just as in each person there is a small win
dow through which the light of God can shine, so it is
with nations. The great majority of people do not open
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
themselves up to the greatness of God. In their self-willed
impertinence they hold up their own actions instead of
God's. But wherever people are fully united in their
waiting for God, there God intervenes - in the history of
the nations and of humanity. No one can escape this reality.
Even governments cannot completely evade the interven
tion of God.
Before the Holy Spirit was poured out, the disciples
had to wait for God's kingdom to break in. They knew
that the first sign of God's kingdom would be a blowing
wind - the rushing breath of the Holy Spirit. This wind
came just like the wind that comes before a thunderstorm:
a roaring wind that breaks the calm and announces its
presence to all. And the wind that comes before a storm
is part of that storm. Thus it is clear that the experience of
the Holy Spirit can never be a merely personal matter. It
can never be private or subjective. No; the Holy Spirit is
the voice of God that precedes the day of judgment and the
day of redemption. It is the wind that heralds the breaking
in of God's kingdom over all people and all nations.
This is how the disciples in Jerusalem understood it. And
it is what we must now expect, for the whole of
humanity - for all peoples and nations, for all cities and vil
lages, for the billions of people inhabiting the earth. We
expect it not only for those people who are living now but
also for all those who have died and who are not yet born.
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
Jesus said, "Until now you have asked nothing in my
name; now ask in my name, and nothing will be impossible
for you. You will move mountains and uproot trees;
everything you ask will be given to you if you ask in my
name." So we ask now for each of us and for the whole
world that the new day dawn through the pouring out of
the Holy Spirit - that the heavens be opened, that they
come down to us in flames of the Holy Spirit.
Then the whole earth will be filled with the Spirit, and
there will be no laws. For the knowledge of God will be
poured out over all the lands, like water covering the
whole earth. Just this is the mystery of the new kingdom:
that the Spirit of God, the sap of the tree, the blood of
the Son, will fill and penetrate all. There will be no need
for commandments and prohibitions, for tables and tablets.
In this kingdom everything will be ordered through the
inner birth and inspiration which come from the
rulership of the Spirit.
Address, September 1935
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
For Further Reading
The following titles by and about Eberhard Arnold are
available in e-book format
The Early Christians
This collection of primary sources includes first-hand accounts of life in the early church by Origin, Tertullian,
Polycarp, Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus, and others - as well as equally revealing material from their pagan critics and
persecutors. Historical and contextual notes support each entry, but this is no dry, scholarly book: Arnold's selections,
ranging from apologies and confessions of faith to short sayings, parables, and poetry are pithy and eminently readable.
Innerland Arnold's magnum opus, this book absorbed his energies
off and on from 1916, when he published the first chapter, to 1935, the last year of his life. Packed in metal boxes and
buried at night for safekeeping from the Nazis, who raided the author's study a year before his death, Innerland attacks
the spirits that animated not only Nazi Germany in the 1930's, but still animate our own society today. A wellspring
of spiritual depth, it invites readers to turn from the chaos of a life distracted by violence and greed to that "inner
land of the invisible" where we will find strength and peace.
Salt and Light A collection of short talks and essays on the Sermon on the
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
Mount calling us to obedience and repentance: to the overturning of the old and the building up of the new.
Arnold's enthusiasm leaves no room for scholarly analysis, instead, his words are simple, direct, and radiant.
Why We Live In Community In this time-honored manifesto, Arnold adds his voice to
the vital discussion of what real intentional community is all about: love, joy, unity, and the great "adventure of
faith" shared with others along the way. He does not describe (or prescribe) community here, but provides a
vision to guide our search
God's Revolution
This anthology of selections from Arnold's writings (arranged by topic) challenges readers to break from the
stifling complacency of conventional life. But be warned: Arnold sees discipleship not as the quiet road to religious
fulfillment, but as revolution - a transformation that begins within but eventually permeates and transforms
even the outer aspects of life. Here is the raw reality of the gospel that has the power to change the world.
The Individual and World Need One of Arnold's most compelling works, this essay
explores the relationship of the individual to world sin and suffering and directs us to a solution. Enlivened by anecdotal
illustrations ranging from the ancient myth of Prometheus to the expressionist Franz Werfel, Arnold's message is
simple but revolutionary: only by overcoming isolation and individualism will we ever overcome the suffering of
the world and enter into a life of unity and love.
E B E R H A R D A R N O L D - W R I T I N G S S E L E C T E D
Eberhard Arnold: A Testimony to Church Community from His Life and Writings - coming soon as e-book
For a concise, readable introduction to Arnold's writings, this is a good place to start. It contains a biographical
sketch, selections from his most important works, and brief memoirs by friends and colleagues.
Against the Wind - coming soon in e-book format In this new biography, Markus Baum recounts Arnold's
renunciation of private property, nationalism and military service, his abhorrence of conventional piety, and his love
for the early Church fathers. Most of all, it gives flesh, blood, and personality to a man whose unwavering
conviction and contagious faith earned him hatred as well as admiration.
A Joyful Pilgrimage: My Life in Community Emmy Arnold was already in her seventies when she
began to write down her story, but the details she recounts were as alive for her then as if they had happened the day
before. But this book, by Arnold's widow, is animated neither by nostalgia nor sentimental yearnings. Rather, it
is driven by a vision of a society built on justice and love, and by an expectant longing for God's coming kingdom.