There is no other life of faith than that of the unity and community in which Christ lives. Faith lives in Christ. The deepest relationship of unity is the necessary condition for the restoration and renewal of life. The believer is in Christ and Christ is in him; this is the power that transforms from within all relationships of life.
- Eberhard Arnold
- Eberhard Arnold, November 1918 From an EssayWhen poets describe their experience of the powers that move in their inmost hearts, then they speak about longing. If we allow only a few rays of hope from the poets to work upon us, we will be deeply moved by the indissoluble connection between mankind and longing. Even the smallest selection of the poetic outpouring of human longing will confront us with their deepest content: the longing for God and for unity with God. At the deepest level, they have recognized that the essence of all longing is the cry of the soul to God.
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The lightning descends and reveals the tension between the small “I” of man and the great “Thou” of God. The heart of man, as an “I” that remains very small, worships in complete surrender of will the great “Thou” that gives itself to him in incomprehensible goodness.
- Eberhard Arnold
Union with God is possible only when all powers opposed to God, all facts and actions opposed to Him, are radically destroyed. Therefore forgiveness and removal of sin, release and liberation must be the basic substance of every experience of God. Forgiveness is the removal of things as they are. What is hostile to God cannot be present when God unites. He wants perfect purity in uniting. Thus everything that is opposed to purity must be taken away. This is forgiveness. Without this, God’s kingdom will not come.
- Eberhard Arnold