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
April 27,2025
- Eberhard Arnold From a letter, May 1920How glad I am that you are so positively united with me in the experience of peace and of Jesus’ spirit of love! The question is not at all one of our only refusing to do military service, though people always put it in this negative way. This refusal, after all, follows as a matter of course from a positive experience of the Spirit of Christ. When this Spirit, which is expressed so very intensely in the Sermon on the Mount and in Romans 8, penetrates us and glows in us, then we will become victorious people who must work as long as it is daylight—work in the productive, creative work of love.
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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