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 selfdeification 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 allsustaining 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.
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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, allembracing, 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 allembracing 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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.