The small world of the individual man must reflect the great world of God’s history. To experience God means to surrender to the goal of His kingdom so that one accepts His judgment of death and believes in His resurrection. The power of the future comes to the believer. Through the active Spirit of the coming Christ he receives already in the present the calling to live for the future.
- Eberhard Arnold
- Eberhard Arnold, January 1920 From an EssayJustice and love demand that everyone take part in simple practical work with a spade, hatchet, or rake. Everyone should be ready to devote a few hours every day to this practical work; those who have done purely mental work till now will feel its humanizing effect especially. In this way it will be possible for each person’s unique gifts to be kindled. The light that flickers within each heart will then exhibit its once-hidden glow in scholarly research or in music, in expressive words, or in the craftsman’s art in wood, stone, or paint…such work will reveal the joy in life that is in each person. Only death knows idleness and tedium. Where there is life, the mind’s creative will remains alert and comes to expression in the service of the whole.
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We want to ask for all men that they may be released from the delusion of self-exultation and of becoming “wonderful” people. We want to ask that they may understand the meaning of history and the significance of the human being in relation to Jesus Christ who is the complete human being. He is the new human being toward whom we may grow because of our belonging to Him. So that out of Him, through Him and in Him, men will become new. This change will begin in the body of Christ, which is the Church.
- Eberhard Arnold
The peace of God is unity in his creative Spirit, who wants to bring a new peace and unity to the torn state of humankind and the whole world. When God blesses his people with peace, we must never think exclusively of peace of soul or of a military cease-fire. God’s peace brings the new order of a kingdom of peace that carries all before it inwardly and outwardly.
- Eberhard Arnold