Jesus repeatedly challenges us to work while it is still day. He compares his kingdom to labor in a vineyard, to the working investment of moneys entrusted to one, to the good use of all one’s talents. If God’s kingdom is to transform the “vale of tears” into a realm of joy, then it must be a kingdom of work. Work alone befits the destiny of man’s spirit.
- 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 kingdom of God is truly God’s kingdom and not the kingdom of men. It is the kingdom of the heavens and not the kingdom of the earth. This means that this kingdom is not determined by, nor is it created by, nor does it come about through the working of the humans or the limits and barriers of our earthly space and the short span of our past, present, and future in time. This kingdom of God has its source where neither human limitations nor the limits of space or time is decisive.
- Eberhard Arnold
God wants to reveal himself in order to establish his kingdom over all worlds, including the world of this earth. He wants to reveal it as a kingdom of peace in operation, a kingdom of active work, of brotherliness, of the justice that goes with complete unity and penetrates right into material things. We expect this kingdom as a kingdom of the future of God. It does not grow from earthly foundations. Rather, it comes like the sunrise from the east. It takes hold of the earth completely and universally.
- Eberhard Arnold