The rebirth Jesus spoke about to the man who came to Him at night means repentance. (John 3:1ff.) And repentance means a thorough upheaval. In this rebirth we are exonerated from all our sins, we are redeemed because our sins are forgiven and overcome through Jesus, the Crucified and Risen One.
- Eberhard Arnold, November 1917
January 06,2025
- Eberhard Arnold Why We Live in CommunityWe love the soil because God’s spirit spoke and created the earth, and because he called it out of its uncultivated natural state so that it might be cultivated by the communal work of human beings. We love physical work – the work of muscle and hand – and we love the craftsman’s art, in which the spirit guides the hand. In the way spirit and hand work together and through each other, we see the mystery of community. God – the creative Spirit – has formed nature, and he has entrusted the earth to us, his sons and daughters, as an inheritance but also as a task: our garden must become his garden, and our work must further his kingdom.
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Where the Kingdom of God, the rule of Christ, is being proclaimed, things start happening. That is why John the Baptist was challenged: Why are you asking? Look at what is happening, listen to what is being said, and accept it. This is what is happening here: The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised. (Matt. 11:5)
- Eberhard Arnold
Jesus is saying that if only you could believe what is actually happening, Christ would be revealed to you, and your questions about God’s Kingdom would be answered. That is what faith means.
The apostolic spirit is the prophetic spirit: his word brings his kingdom. The apostolic mission is a matter of the prophetic embassy of God, which brings the future kingdom to everyone here and now. As prophecy, the apostleship of the church embraces the whole truth of Jesus and his future.
- Eberhard Arnold