We know that we are surrounded by enemies of the Christian faith. In such times the sacrament of forgiveness is needed more than ever, for the enemy’s furious hatred challenges us to meet him with the opposite. Our enemies are the very ones we should love by having faith and understanding for them, knowing that in spite of their blindness they have a divine spark that needs to be fanned. Love for our enemies has to be so real that it reaches their hearts. For that is what love does. When that happens, we will find the hidden spark from God in the heart of even the greatest sinner.
- Eberhard Arnold
February 14,2026
- Eberhard Arnold From a letter, February 1925It is frightening and depressing when religion is misused to enslave and to rob the soul of its every freedom. How often does this happen! Nearly always and everywhere. It is the same with love. The noblest, purest and most divine becomes the lowest and meanest and most perishable, through the demonic powers that are released when this one area becomes a law to itself. God is freedom, deliverance from all slavery. We remain true to this watchword. It becomes ever clearer to me that all unfreedom is of the devil.
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Our expectation of the 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!
- Eberhard Arnold
Faith is a light of God that surpasses all human reason. The light of faith is nothing other than God drawing near and intervening. He who is in the sun has no lack of light.
He has called us, not so that we love our own lives, not even the lives of our fellow human beings. In other words, we are called to live, not for people, but for the honor of God and his kingdom. We must not endeavor to raise ourselves to God’s kingdom by loving our life and taking good care of it. The way to the kingdom leads through death, through very real death. It demands that our lives be given up for the sake of God and his kingdom (Mark 8:35).
- Eberhard Arnold