Thy Kingdom Come: A Blumhardt Reader

Vernard Eller, Editor

Preface
Introduction

Johann Christoph Blumhardt
Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

Preface

The subject of my doctoral study was Søren Kierkegaard, the nineteenth-century Danish thinker. In the course of that research I came across Emil Brunner’s testimony to the effect that the best predecessors of Neo-Orthodoxy were “two great figures of Pietism–Chr. Blumhardt, in Boll, and Kierkegaard.” The strange pairing stuck in my mind: the name I had never heard along with the one heard all over the place. Were these two to be considered equals?

It was, then, in 1966 I discovered some of Blumhardt’s work, namely, the 1963 Plough Publishing House translation of Lejeune’s Christoph Blumhardt and His Message. Since that time it has been my magnificent obsession (well, one of my magnificent obsessions) to get more of the work of the Blumhardts–father and son–known in larger circles of Christian theologians and laity.

The Plough Publishing House is the publishing arm of that longstanding Christian community commonly known as the Bruderhof, officially as “The Society of Brothers,” and more recently as “The Hutterian Society of Brothers.” My interest in the Blumhardts immediately got me into contact with these dedicated and friendly people, resulting in two different visits to their headquarters and archives at Woodcrest, Rifton, New York.

Out of longstanding interest and through connections with descendants of the Blumhardts, the Bruderhof has been largely responsible for keeping the Blumhardt tradition alive in this country. These people regularly use readings from the Blumhardts in their worship and meditation. They are responsible for virtually all of the translation and publication of Blumhardt material in English and hold the largest collection of Blumhardt materials outside Germany.

Gottlieben Blumhardt, daughter of Christoph Blumhardt, devoted the last years of her life to collecting the works of her father and grandfather. It was this effort that made possible the German publication of a great deal of Blumhardt material during the past decade.

It Is too little to say that the Bruderhof has been helpful in connection with this book. Without the Bruderhof archives, Johann Christoph Arnold (the Plough publisher), and the anonymous members who did the first draft translation of much of the material herein, this book simply would not have been possible. I want to take the opportunity to express my profound gratitude to the community and to all the individual members who have lent themselves to ourmagnificent obsession.

The search for a publisher to take on the book and competent translators to get the Blumhardts’ German into English has been a long-drawn and many-directioned one. The publishers, of course, have now come down to one and the translators to four or five of us; but along the way, a whole host of well-wishers and moral supporters did their bit to keep the obsession alive. For a while it almost amounted to the establishment of an underground Blunthardt society; my file of correspondence is several inches thick.

One sort of support came from several different book editors–none of whom were able to sell their houses on the book idea but who did give personal encouragement to the project. There could be enough Blumhardt books to have given one to each, I am sorry that did not happen; but I am grateful for their having made the big try.

Some of the people now to be named are since deceased, and others have moved from the institution with which they are here associated. Many of the contacts were made through the Bruderhof rather than directly with me. But one way or another, to one degree or another, there have been expressions of support from the following.

From Germany, Karl Barth (via a letter written by his secretary, Eberhard Busch); Eduard Heimann (a long-time colleague Paul Tillich); Gottlieben Blurnhardt (daughter of Christoph Blumhardt); Margrit Hönig (granddaughter of Christoph Blumhardt); and Christine Ragaz (daughter of the Swiss theologian, Leonhard Ragaz).

From this side of the ocean, Markus Barth (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary); James Smart (Union Theological Seminary); James Luther Adams (Harvard Divinity School), who also offered to speak for his deceased friend, Paul Tillich; Franklin Littell (Temple University); Harvey Cox (Harvard Divinity School); Martin Marty (University of Chicago Divinity School); and H. Martin Rumscheidt (Atlantic School of Theology).

Recommendations of this caliber convinced me that the project represented an essential contribution and thus kept me at it through the years. I am grateful to all these people.

Because of my own obvious inadequacy in the German language, I have had to have the help of those who could perform at least the first step toward an acceptable translation. These people will be named at the point in the book where they made their contributions: but here I want to take public notice of the time, effort, and skill they have given and express heartfelt gratitude for it.

Finally, I want to recognize and thank (without naming) all the relatives, colleagues, friends, and some new acquaintances who have constituted a general support group for the project and for me in the project. Among these certainly are to be included Eerdmans Publishing Company and all the people there.

Vernard Eller
La Verne, CA
January 1980

Introduction

In this introduction there are two things I want to do and one I do not want to do. The not doing of the one will be the most difficult.

But, in the first place, no matter how sore the temptation, I am going to try not to do anything in the way of introducing the Blurnhardts’ thought–whether describing it, characterizing it, explaining it, or commenting upon it. Once I start that, there would be no end. I prefer to devote the space to letting them introduce their thought for themselves–which is what this whole book is about.

Besides, these two are fully capable of introducing their own thought. Perhaps every word of theirs recorded here originated as oral discourse delivered informally before a lay audience. The Blumhardts may be the theologians who least need a third party to analyze and “explain” them. if their own words fail to inform, enlighten, or move the reader, there are no words of mine that could reverse the situation.

Besides attempting not to introduce the Blumhardts’ thought, I intend to present a whole collection of facts purposed to show the sort of influence the Blumhardts have had upon modern Christian thought. The hope is that this will arouse within the reader the question, “Why have I not heard of them before?” thus exciting him to do something about It, namely, read the remainder of the book. Finally, then, I will offer brief biographical sketches of the two men.

The two Blumhardts, Johann Christoph (1805-80) and Christoph Friedrich (1842-1919), were father and son. Their careers–much more pastoral than theological in character–focused upon the son’s succeeding his father as leader of what might be called a Christian retreat center that the father had established at Bad Boll in southwestern Germany. The thought of the two men shows enough continuity and agreement that it cm be treated as one “theology.”

We already have noted that Emil Brunner identified Christoph Blumhardt and Kierkegaard as the two greatest predecessors of the Neo-Orthodox movement. Karl Barth also said enough to indicate that he would agree with the opinion. And, Independently, both Leonhard Ragaz and Theodor Haecker had made the same pairing and showed interest in it. Brunner’s father had as much as been converted by the younger Blumhardt, which certainly made Emil’s own relationship to Blumhardt much more than a sheerly intellectual one.

Eduard Thurneysen, Barth’s long-time pastor-partner, visited Bad Boll and studied under Blumhardt as early as 1904. And it was he who subsequently introduced Barth to Bad Boil and to Blumhardt. In 1926, Thurneysen published a small book Introducing Blumhardtian thought; and he quoted the Blumhardts at some length in his books on pastoral care. Over a period of thirty years, Barth wrote three different essays on the Blumhardts and gave them major notice both in Church Dogmatics and in other of his works. Barth’s chosen touchstone for his own theology, “Jesus Is Victor,” is a motto from Father Blumhardt. In Gerhard Sauter’s doctoral study of the Blumhardts (the normative scholarly analysis of their thought), there is a major section entitled, “Considerations Regarding the Relationship of Christoph Blumhardt to Karl Barth.”

James Luther Adams has testified to Paul Tillich’s interest in what Adams calls “the religious-socialist element In Blumhardt”–although I think it would be fair to say that this social concern is about the only element of commonality between Blumhardt’s theology and Tillich’s.

When I was a seminary student, the book that set the direction of my understanding of Scripture for time to come was Oscar Cullmann’s Christ In Time. More than a decade later, upon discovering the Blumhardts, I was convinced I bad found a forerunner of the Heilgeschichte (Salvation-history) idea. When I met Cullmann, I put it to him whether he was familiar with the work the Blumhardts and had been influenced by it. His face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” he said.

I had not discovered that, in his published works, Dietrich Bonhoeffer ever mentioned the Blumhardts; but I had suspicions nevertheless. When the opportunity presented itself, I asked Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer’s confidant and biographer. He assured me that Bonhoeffer had been well familiar with Blumhardtian thought and strongly influenced by it. This is confirmed in Gerhard Sauter’s study. Although it does not include a separate section on Bonhoeffer, that book, at a number of points In passing and in one passage of several pages, does rather conclusively demonstrate how several of Bonhoeffer’s most important concepts tie back into the Blumhardts.

Even so, the fact that Gerhard Sauter is a recognized theologian in his own right and the fact that he has done this major study of the Blumhardts–these things have the effect of bringing the Blumhardtian influence directly into the present generation of German theologians with their “theology of hope,” “political theology,” and “liberation theology.”

Karl Barth had called Blurnhardt’s a “theology of hope” long before Jürgen Moltmann was even born (in 1967, Moltmann published a book of that title to launch at least something of a movement). Moltmann is aware of the connection. As editor of the sourcebook, The Beginnings of Dialectic Theology, he chose one of Barth’s Blumhardt essays for inclusion. And in personal conversation he was quick to confess his debt to the Blumhardts. There is no knowing how many more of the so-called “younger” German theologians would be ready to confess the same.

Finally, my own “best” theologians include not only Kierkegaard and the Blumhardts but also the contemporary French maverick, Jacques Ellul. Ellul has mentioned and quoted the Blumhardts a few times in his works. There are many of his ideas that could be attributed to Blumhardtian Influences–although, most often, these probably came via Barth. Yet I did do an article showing the profound likenesses and convergences between Kierkegaard, the Blumhardts, and Ellul (with Malcolm Muggeridge thrown in as fourth). Ellul himself accepted my interpretation wholeheartedly, demurring only that I had placed him “too high.”

So the Blumhardtian heritage has been and even now is very much with us–mainly through the offices of the continental theologians with whom we have been involved. After this introduction already had been written, quite by accident I learned that the Blumhardts are better known among the Christians of Japan than among us, that there Is more Blumhardt material in print in Japanese than in English. And that makes the question all the more poignant, “Why have we not heard of these Blumhardts before?”

Particularly is this so when we learn that, in Germany, Thurneysen’s 1926 volume is circulating in a new edition; the 1887 biography of the elder Blumhardt has gone through at least twenty printings and is still available; the collected works of both Blumhardts are still in the bookstores. But on the other hand, in English, apart from a few books (such as those by Thurneysen and Barth, and a few on the history of NeoOrthodoxy) which refer to and quote from the Blumhardts, virtually all of the Blumhardt material comes from the Plough Publishing House (the Bruderhof).

Heading that list is R. Lejeune’s Christoph Blumhardt and His Message. Almost the first half of that book is given to Lejeune’s introduction, the remainder of the volume presenting nineteen selected talks and sermons from the younger Blumhardt. Also important is Action in Waiting, a slight volume incorporating Barth’s first essay on Blumhardt (1916) and one of Christoph Blumhardt’s crucial sermons, “Joy in the Lord.” Then there Is a pocket-sized book, Evening Prayers for Every Day of the Year, compiled after his death from spontaneous prayers the younger Blumhardt used at Bad Boll. There is next a slim, 31-page paperback, Now Is Etermity, something of a random sampler of very brief “sayings” from both of the Blumhardts. And finally, there has just appeared a beautiful little 58-page paperback, Thougts About Children, compiling material from both Blumhardts on the topic.

In addition to these from Plough, there is yet, from Thomas E. Lowe, Ltd., a 63-page paperback,Blumhardt’s Battle. After a quite un-Blumhardtian introduction, this translates Father Blumhardt’s official report to his Synod regarding his involvement with the case of demon possession of Gottlieben Dittus, one of his parishioners (which incident is recounted below).

“So why haven’t we heard about the Blumhardts before?” Partly because so little material is available In English; and because what is available has come from small, private presses. “But why have other publishers failed to pick up on the Blumhardts?” My best guess in that regard is that, because the Blumhardt impact naturally came with the younger Blumhardt’s maturity, death, and the generation of thinkers who continued the tradition from that point. and because that point itself coincided with the First World War, the war itself prevented the Blumhardt reputation from jumping either the English Channel or the Atlantic Ocean at the time it normally would have. Then, later was too late: why publish the works of the Blumhardts when no one knows who the Blumhardts are? Who would buy?

Johann Christoph Blumhardt

Now we will attempt to rectify that ignorance. The elder Blumhardt, Johann Christoph (1805-80), was educated for the Reformed ministry and, after a brief term as executive for a missionary society, became pastor in Möttlingen, an obscure village of Württemberg, southern Germany. His career was uneventful until, in 1842, he had to deal with one of his parishioners, a young woman, Gottlieben Dittus, who suffered some sort of severe nervous disorder and whose household was visited with strange psychic phenomena.

Johann Christoph
Blumhardt
1805-1880

Blumhardt concluded that the case was of a kind with those reported in the New Testament as demon possession.

After two months of pastoral care and reverent hesitation, discovering that he had no wisdom or power that could help, he and the girl prayed together: “Lord Jesus, help us. We have watched long enough what the devil does; now we want to see what the Lord Jesus can do.” This prayer-battle continued for almost two years without change–the situation deteriorating, if anything.

Finally came the moment of crisis. At a point when Blumhardt’s prayer and the girl’s trouble were at a pitch, Gottlieben’s sister (who had recently come under demonic attack herself) in a strange voice suddenly uttered the cry, “Jesus Is Victor!” –and it was all over. Gottlieben later became a servant in the Blumhardt household and lived there the rest of her life; but she was never troubled again. Blumhardt understood the voice to be that of the demons who had just been conquered and expelled.

There is much in this story at which modern readers inevitably will look askance (as in the story to follow as well); but it must be said that both of the Blumhardts were solid, unflappable characters with nothing of the fanatic about them. In fact, rather than doing anything to encourage sensationalism or a personality cult centering in themselves, they regularly took deliberate steps to dampen such tendencies. Even so, very strange and wonderful things did take place.

Jesus’ victory in the demented girl immediately triggered an in-breaking of kingdom power that transformed the entire village of Möttlingen and attracted people from miles around. The congregation experienced revival to a degree quite beyond even the dreams–let alone the actual accomplishments–of modem programs of church growth and renewal. There were many healings, conversions of some of the church’s most determined opponents, and radical transformations of life and character. Marriages were saved, enemies were reconciled, there was an outpouring of evangelistic zeal and missionary fervor–all under the conviction that, because Jesus is victor, the kingdom of God has become a real possibility for life here and now.

As might be expected, this sort of goings-on at Möttlingen aroused the criticism of many of the church authorities. Blumhardt’s vision of Christianity was larger than the church institution could manage. Thus, after a few more years at Möttlingen, the pressures toward churchly conformity became so constrictive that Blumhardt gave up his pastorate and, for all intents and purposes, formal connection with the Reformed Church. He moved a short distance away to Bad Boll, where he purchased a vacant resort hotel and made it into something of a retreat center, a place to which people could have recourse for periods of rest, meditation, study, and pastoral counsel–and a place where Bllumhardt was free to operate according to God’s leading.

He continued this ministry until his death in 1880, the testimony of his life perhaps best being summed up in a hymn with which he had been inspired at Möttlingen and which remained popular in Blumhardt circles:

Jesus is victorius Lord
    Who conquers all his foes
Jesus 'tis unto whose feet
    The whole wide world soon goes;
Jesus 'tis who comes in might,
    Leads us from darkness into light.

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

Son Christoph was born at Möttlingen in 1842, at the very time his father was becoming involved in the struggle with Gottlieben’s demons. As his father had done before him, he took university training pointing toward a Reformed pastorate. However, he became disillusioned with the church and theology and so decided simply to return home to Bad Boll and act as a helper there. Upon his father’s death, then, he took over as housefather and continued the work until his own death in 1919.

Christoph Friedrich
Blumhardt
1842-1919

In time, the younger Blumhardt became quite renowned as a mass evangelist and faith healer. But after a very successful “crusade” in Berlin in 1888, he drastically cut back both activities, saying,

I do not want to suggest that it is of little importance for God to heal the sick; actually, it now is happening more and more often–although very much in quiet. However, things should not be promoted as though God’s kingdom consists in the healing of sick people. To be cleansed is more important than to be healed. It is more important to have a heart for God’s cause, not to be chained to the world but be able to move for the kingdom of God.

Blumhardt’s interest gradually took what could be called “a turn to the world,” namely, a focus upon the great socio-economic issues of the day. Under the impetus of this concern Blumhardt chose, in a public and conspicuous way, to cast his lot with Democratic Socialism, the much maligned workers’ movement that then was fighting tooth and nail for the right of the working class. Although it brought upon his head the wrath of both the civil and ecclesiastical establishments, he addressed protest rallies, ran for office on the party slate, and was elected to a six-year term in the Wörttemberg legislature. He was asked to resign his ministerial status in the church.

Blumhardt began as a very active and energetic legislator, but as time passed he greatly curtailed this activity and bluntly declined to stand for a second term of office. Clearly, the pattern was of a piece with his earlier retreat from mass evangelism and faith healing.

Blumhardt’s disillusionment with Democratic Socialism–i.e., with the party politics, not with the movement’s purposes and ideals–and the even greater disillusionment which came toward the close of his life with the dark years of World War I–these brought him to a final position expressed in the dialectical motto: Wait and Hasten. His understanding was that the call of the Christian is still for him to give himself completely to the cause of the kingdom. To do everything in his power to help the world toward that goal. Yet, at the same time, a Christian must remain calm and patient, unperturbed even if his efforts show no signs of success, willing to wait for the Lord to bring the kingdom at his own pace and in his own way. And, according to Blumhardt, far from being inactivity, this sort of waiting is itself a very strong and creative action in the very hastening of the kingdom.

Blumhardt suffered a stroke in 1917 and died a peaceful death on August 2, 1919.

Part One

Leonhard Ragaz (1868-1945) was a highly respected Swiss professor and theologian, one of the early contributors to dialectical theology, and a leader of the religious-socialism movement in Switzerland.

In 1922, he published a book of 321 pages, Der Kampf um das Reich Gottes in Blumhardt, Vater und Sohn–und Weiter! The first 43 pages are an introduction to the Blumhardts and their thought (none of which we will use). The remainder is a presentation of their “message,” the outline and headings of which become directly the outline and headings of our Part One, here following. Under each of these headings, Ragaz opened with his own description of and comment upon the Blumhardts’ position (none of which we will use). Then he collected quotations and excerpts of the Blumhardts’ own words on the topic. Although retaining all of Ragaz’s headings, we have selected, to translate and present here, roughly half of the Blumhardt material Ragaz used.

Using Ragaz as compiler and editor, as it were, has given us inestimable advantages.

Ragaz presents a comprehensive and ordered (although not “systematic,” which, regarding the Blumhardts, would be a wrongheaded impossibility) view of their thought which any amount of random reading in their talks and sermons could never provide.
Ragaz had access to the totality of the Blumhardt corpus in a way unsurpassed by anyone and unequalled by any contemporary, non-German scholars.
Ragaz knew the Blumhardts and their thought well enough and himself had sufficient theological expertise to make this an authoritative and dependable presentation of their “theology.”
Ragaz was wise enough not to try to force their thought into the customary categories and outlines of theology but to let the outline grow out of the Blumhardtian materials themselves. And finally,
Ragaz was a skilled enough editor that his selections do not read like a collection of “selections” but almost as though the Blumhardts had set out to write a presentation of their thought as a whole. In short, the Blumhardts nowhere expressed themselves as fully and as clearly as they do here with the help of Ragaz.

The translation of the Blumhardt material here presented (via Ragaz) is mine. However, I could not have managed it alone. A rough, first draft translation for part of the material was provided by members of the Bruderhof (The Society of Brothers) who had been at work before I ever entered the picture. A second part was done recently by Professor William Willoughby, my colleague at the University of la Verne. And a third part was done some years ago by Lonna Whipple, then a La Verne College German major who had done her junior-year-abroad at Marburg University. To these people I tender my gratitude for their help. However, at the same time it must be said that, with their drafts beside me, I nevertheless worked directly from the Blumhardt’s German (as given by Ragaz, of course). Thus, although they were most helpful, the translation is mine, and I must take full responsibility for it.

Ragaz made no effort to identify sources for any of the Blumhardt quotations he used; so we can be of no help regarding the items of Part One. — V.E.

A. The Kingdom of God is for Earth

There must be a new reality which is of the truth. It not to be a new doctrine or law, not a new arrangement. The new truth to which we must listen is that which came in the person of the Son of Man himself, namely, that God is now creating a new reality on earth, a reality to come first among men but finally over all creation, so that the earth and the heavens are renewed. God is creating something new. A new history is starting. A new world is coming to earth.

Evil shall be defeated for all generations, and the good shall come into its rightful rule. That was the goal of the people of Israel, and for hundreds of years it was steadily pursued. The cause originally was an earthly one, not, as we Christians think, a heavenly one. It was the heavenly coming to reality upon earth; and to that extent it was earthly. It was earthly because it was a concern that the situation on earth become good and righteous, that God’s name be hallowed on earth, that his kingdom come on earth and his will be done right here on earth. The earth is to manifest eternal life. We want to shine so brightly that heaven itself will become jealous of us.

Where in all the scriptures does God comfort man with a hereafter? The earth shall be filled with the glory of God. According to the Bible, that is the meaning of all the promises. Jesus, come in the flesh, what is his will? Of course, nothing other than the honor of his Father on earth. In his own person, through his advent, he put a seed into the earth. He would be the light of men; and those who were his he called “the light of the world” and “the salt of the earth.” His purpose is the raising up of the earth and the generations of man out of the curse of sin and death toward the revelation of eternal life and glory.

Why else did he heal the sick and wake the dead? Why did he exalt the poor and hungry? Surely not in order to tell them that they would be blessed, after death, but because the kingdom of God was near. Of course, God has a way out for those who, unfortunately, must suffer death; he gives them a refuge in the beyond. But shall this necessary comfort now be made the main thing? Shall the kingdom of God be denied for earth and perpetuated only in the kingdom of death, simply because God wants also to dry the tears of the dead? It is to discard the whole meaning of the Bible if one argues, “We have nothing to expect on earth; it must be abandoned as the home of man.”

Truly, within the human structures of sin, we have no lasting home; we must seek what is coming. But what is it, then, that is coming? The revealing of an earth cleansed of sin and death. This is the homeland we seek. There is no other to be sought, because we do not have, and there cannot come to be, anything other than what God intended for us in the creation.

No proper servant remains with his master solely for the wages involved. If he realizes that he is of no use, he would rather leave and be poor. And no proper maid will stay just because of the pay. She wants to be of service. If there is nothing more to do, she is unhappy; even if she is paid, she no longer exists as a maid does. And man, in the midst of creation, has the feeling that he is here for a purpose–not just for himself but for something else, something greater, something which has been lost.

Nevertheless, today people sit in the churches thinking mostly about themselves. Everyone sighs over himself, looks for something in himself and for himself–and doesn’t himself know what it is. One would like to call out to them all: “People, forget yourselves! Think of God’s cause. Start to do something for it. Don’t be sorry for yourself; or at least be sorry that you have nothing to do but worry about your own petty concerns.”

Our greatest lack is that we are of no use to the Lord; no wonder, then, that we go to ruin in spite of all our culture. Any person degenerates, even in a physical sense, if he is not acting as part of a body that has a higher purpose. But those who, in love and enthusiasm, work for something greater than themselves prosper, even regarding their physical well being. And the race declines in its very life-values, both physical and spiritual, if, as people, there is nothing we are producing for the life of the earth, for creation, for God.

To believe in God is easy; but to believe that the world will become different–to do that one must be faithful unto death.

You know, the angels can’t do much with “the blessed,” because they seek only their own comfort in eternity and are no longer good for anything. One seats them in a comfortable chair and says, “There you are now; stay put.” But when the kingdom of God is being fulfilled and many are pressing to enter, then there is really work and life among the angels. For the kingdom of God stands in a direct relationship to the earth; it lives with the earth.

Nothing will be revealed in the hereafter that is not already grounded here. God’s goal is the here and now. It is here that the inheritance is to be received; and it comes as a work of creation, not of philosophy or theology.

Christians should take an objective view of the times. Instead, they want to experience everything subjectively within themselves and enjoy inner beatitude. Yet, these feelings have no permanency, and so they become disappointed. But when a person has his eye on a better future for mankind, then he gains a festival of the heart. A great confidence gives us strength for difficult times.

According to our customary false way of thinking, the kingdom of God must give way to our happiness. With many people the words of the Savior already have been altered to read: “Seek first your own blessedness, and all those things shall be added unto you.” This is something very deceptive, although I know that for me to say so will rub many people the wrong way. They love themselves; and if only they know that they are safe, they don’t much care about the rest of the world–or at most, only so much as to say to others, “See to it that you also get yourself saved, and then I will be happy!” With this little error, my friends, our fellowship with the Father is destroyed. We are like children always coming to our parents demanding candy, pop, and ice cream instead of being concerned about the wishes of our parents, honoring them with fidelity and hard work, in which case our food would come as a matter of course.

The goal of all God’s effort is that finally he will be a God whom we will be able to see on earth, a God who will make the earth his footstool, where Jesus will be Lord over all men and where they, in him, once more will be integrated into God’s creation.

B. The Living God

What do I care about a God of the sort whose being must be demonstrated? The dear Lord came from heaven and spoke; had he not done so, even the philosophers could not have found him. Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schelling–why, they would all still be heathen if he had not spoken his word on Mt. Sinai. I almost burst sometimes when our modern culture sets classical learning over the Bible. Why, everybody would still be ignorant were it not for the Bible and its God who there speaks upon earth.

God lets us meet him in Christ; and in the days of the apostles when there was talk of faith, of being true until death, everyone who belonged to the body of Christ knew what course his faithfulness would take. Something came over these people, something to which none of them had given thought and which none of them would have been able to explain. Suddenly they found themselves part of a history that proceeded of itself and in which such wonderful powers were discovered that the inevitable impression was: “These powers are stronger than the whole world.”

In this situation people had a perfectly dear picture of what God is. There was no need to look up to heaven; the occurrences took place on earth; they were bound up with naming the name of Jesus.

In that regard, we ought not to be ashamed frankly and openly to call our Christ “God,” because, with only mental pictures of God, nothing gets started. Our Christ has become Yahweh; he stands upon earth and calls to us, “I am.” And we need not make a big ceremony of it but simply fall before him, knowing in him the living God, the Father in heaven. Then, once we’ve met him, we feel ourselves on solid ground which does not quake but from which the mountains of God’s sovereignty burst forth to overwhelm us, as, in the final cataclysm, they shall overwhelm the whole world.

It may be that there is one error that poisons most of our thinking about God’s kingdom. Prevailing very widely, this is the understanding that, in order for God’s kingdom to come, it is sufficient that we finally and firmly establish and systematize the doctrine. This error works as a poison in that, from this perspective, certain doctrines and conventions soon become almost more important than God himself.

It has become dear to me that no single, dogmatic, fixed, and systematized doctrine will decide the issue of the kingdom: this only the living God himself will do.

As long as you believe sheerly as routine, things are not right. One cannot come drowsing into the kingdom of God. The cause must proceed with clarity and zest; the way must ever be made afresh by God. And therein is true grace demonstrated–that God hurries forth as the God who acts.

I tell you I cannot hold out for a single day unless from somewhere, either in myself or from afar, I have a report or am able to see that “Praise be, God is hurrying forward!” … Thus we all should become enlightened in spirit so that we become clear about world events, so that we do not fall into religious confusion and other foolishness, so that we know what time it is, so that we have an inner sense about how to comport ourselves. “Shall I hurry? Shall I wait? Shall I do this? Shall I leave that?” In short, we need light.

C. From Creation Through Deterioration to Restoration

We are encompassed by a creation; and one piece of it is this ground under our feet. We go forth upon it; we live from it; we have a certain power over it; we are employed with it and yet it nowhere comes completely right.

If one observes the morals, customs, viewpoints, and lives of all the world’s peoples, he is amazed that, alongside the glorious appearance of nature’s truth, mankind goes as if deranged. As the Chinese who bind a girl’s feet are not satisfied until she is so crippled she can’t walk, so do all the nations and peoples, be they Christian or heathen, right in the midst of the organism of truth which is creation, manage to make habitual falsifiers of themselves.

You must bear in mind, my friends, that we humans, even the best of us, are poor comrades to the great whole of creation. Something in us is twisted. Now, all of us were created in the image of God, an important part or–to put it pictorially–an important wheel in the great gearworks of creation. But on this wheel the cogs are all crooked and chipped; and the axle is bent. The human part doesn’t work right; and the whole creation suffers in consequence. This is sin. Things don’t run right with us men. There is much that is awry with every person in the world.

Is this creation to which our bodily life belongs simply to be east aside? Or does there lie within it the embryo of eternity? There are many who see God’s creation as of little value and its very loveliness as a sorry thing one would like to leave as soon as possible–preferably with a good kick! I am sad about that.

God did not create mere spirits for this corporeal world but bodies–which he has called his “image.” Only through tattering travail can such a body come to be. And every person sees and experiences for himself that death is a judgment that makes him anxious even when he wants to be strong and convince himself that he can die tranquilly and be a spirit.

Men often attribute everything that happens in the world to God; but this is to do him an injustice. There are also works of man and of the devil. These do harm, whereas the works of God always do good–indeed, it is by this they are known. We are the ones responsible for so much that goes awry in the world. So lay off of my God, and don’t say, “He’s doing it!”

D. Jesus Christ

Jesus, who is the glory of God on earth, wants to help us become the same thing. In this man, God again shines forth. It is for a purpose, then, that he is here; he acts as God in the creation, among men. This is his work; consequently, he has eternal life and does not perish even though nailed upon the cross. Nothing, no possible situation, even the most disadvantageous you could conceive, can overcome this man, because he is here to accomplish something.

From him shines forth the Father of creation. And the creation feels that once more it has been given hope, as it were, because this man understands what needs to be done so that the things of God might again be brought into order and the ruined, wasted earth again be restored to him. I tell you, such is the Savior’s first order of business. The Savior is, first of all, “for” God and only then “for” you. Bit by bit, man has turned things around and made the case appear as though the Savior had come only for us. Thus people use Jesus to flatter themselves; but this eventually can bring things to a pretty pass. I tell you, therefore, the Savior doesn’t care about us–he doesn’t even care about people as a whole if they will not help him.

Without further ado he can put us all aside. Already he has begun to cut the threads; and–who knows how things will go? It may happen that even the Christians will be left entirely on their own and have nothing more of a Savior.

He is the glory of God upon earth and the glory of man in heaven. Just as God was blotted out on earth, so also was man blotted out in heaven. Now Jesus comes as the one he is; and God lives upon the earth. Then Jesus is again with the Father in heaven; and humanity lives there in him. Now before God there gleams something of the humanity that was dead–it is the glory of mankind in heaven before God through Jesus.

This is the man Jesus Christ; he is fixed in the creation where his true nature is grounded. As the creation is a work of God, so Jesus the Son is a work of God in the whole of creation. He is far above all angels and all powers of God that drive the world. The highest messengers of God, the life elements and life powers, serve him. He is in the creation, and it must go as he goes. One must understand this tremendous magnitude of Jesus Christ in order to believe that he still is able to help us men.

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” That is true; nevertheless, it remains night as long as men are unaware of the fact and as long as Jesus is not known universally. We are in the night. That people have believed it to be day simply because Jesus was born, died, and rose again is the greatest error of Christendom. With that error we have been in the darkest night for nineteen hundred years, thinking that everything was complete and good.

But we must undertake great exertions if we are to be apostles of Jesus Christ. Our dead world must first be given light. Then it will be day. All people, all consciousness in heaven, on earth, and under the earth must know that Jesus bears all things and that he, as the glory of the sovereign God, as Son, rules the things of this world. Then it will be day; and then redemption will rush over all heights and into all depths.

One person we know through whom things moved as they should; he is called Jesus Christ. And thus it is that light has again been given to creation. Then why do you wonder at the fact that Jesus has bread for four or five thousand people? It amazes us; but he is simply a true man again, and that is why the powers of the world are subservient to him. Or why are you surprised that when he touches a sick person healing takes place? He is a true man. Things go as they should through him, under the oversight of God. He is the image of God, the Son of God. This makes him a blessing and constitutes a power that also makes others blessed if only they come within his reach. Even people who in themselves are perverted and godless, if only they press to him, are touched by something of his true spirit so that something comes true in them as well.

As long as it depends upon the perceptions merely of the eyes of reason, that understanding which is represented by research into the advent of Christ shall stand opposed to Christ’s life in the will of God. So many people write “lives of Jesus” and seek to establish grounds for “the historical appearance of Christ”; and then they despair over the fact that we have such scant records in this regard. Neither the Gospel accounts nor the works of other authors of the time serve to satisfy the lust for the confirmation of this human history of Jesus. The apostles and prophets don’t even bother to give us the year of Christ’s birth. Neither are they concerned to prove to the world the historicity of his singular life, the facts about his birth and the resurrection following his death on the cross. For the truth does not lie in the rationally verifiable history but in a life–a life which, out of an unpretentious and derided history, breaks forth as the life of God, while history according to the flesh is left behind as a useless shell.

The man whom you seek is not here (Mk. 16:6), but the God-man remains and brings to people life and light. In this and that there may be contradictions in the reports godly people have handed down from those who knew Christ in the beginning, in what must be taken as outward history. It is little wonder if, where all sorts of people worked together in great enthusiasm, imperfect things got mixed in with the perfect; it is ever so with us humans. Also, after the Lord Jesus had given it into the care of the people, his history would have been passed along and elaborated. Yet, against this the Apostle Paul says, “I no longer know Jesus after the flesh” (2 Cor. 5:16). He does not intend to say that Jesus had not lived historically but that the outward history has fallen away and the outward history of God remains.

When the Spirit of God moves in a person who is seeking proof of God, that spirit makes his appearance in the life of men actually upon earth and does not allow himself to be shunted into secondary matters. For the spirit knows that the very crux of all truth lies in the kingdom of God–there rather than in the history of man according to the flesh, which shall disappear. A true history of man’s life is in process of fulfillment, bound up with God, even though presently developing under the husks of an unfulfilled relationship. The Spirit knows that this life history is not that of tradition or historical research but of God himself entering the scene. Thus, after the history of mankind has been lost, the life of mankind still will be known, because, from beginning to end, it has been represented in the life of God himself.

Humanity indeed has its history. We can learn it–and we also can learn much from it. But this is not the history that truly brings joy to our hearts. The joy of human history is not so great that we would not gladly give it up. But there is also a history made up of experiences which are not confined to man himself but which are informed by something of the divine. That which is human must be touched by the divine.

When we read of the singular experiences of men of God from Abraham to Jesus and the apostles–let us admit it openly–they make us angry. What wouldn’t people give if they could take Jesus without having to take in the bargain other events that are, humanly speaking, unexplainable? And to top it all off, in the resurrection Christ is raised to heaven. How unsettling this report is to all those who would like to make this dear man the founder of their religion–if only he had not said things or had things said about him that must make cultured people unculturedly ashamed.

How can those who still have faith in science imagine that a man dies and is buried and then later comes back and now lives beyond death? It is as if death were something one could just strip off, something one could come through without losing his physical existence but–quite the contrary–with the physical body transfigured. Yet all the experiences of the people of God point in this direction; and it is in these experiences, and not in the doctrines that follow from them, that the seeds of God’s kingdom are found. The doctrines do not lead to experiences, but experience leads to doctrine; and for better or for worse, it is back to experience we must go if we would see the kingdom of God.

When Jesus came into our company, it was day….

The whole history of humanity pivots, one might say, upon the works of Jesus. All that has come to pass since–the good and the evil, the bright and the dark–everything turns upon these works of Jesus which are directed toward the future of humanity.

It is something like the first beginning, about which, respecting our earth, it is so beautifully and significantly said: “‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” From that moment on, there was nothing that could stop it. The earth had light, and from that light came everything else–all life, all aspects of life, all the perfecting of life. Everything, down to the deepest depths of the earth, even the coal mines, comes into being through the light. But what a development it all went through! There was much stirring of dust and mire, much destruction, much horror, much abomination–a fearful development–until finally there came out of the earth that which we enjoy today.

In like manner, a kind of light is given in Jesus. It is directed particularly toward man and, to begin with, toward only relatively few men. But whether shining upon many or few, the power of the Spirit’s light calls people out to strive for a high purpose and not be satisfied with baseness. This light has appeared and even now shines forth. This light of the Spirit which has been implanted in humanity produces the greatest development, has the greatest power of revolution and advance for mankind, right up to the present day. A great deal of dust has been raised, the hideousness of man has been uncovered, because sin and brutality and vulgarity had to have their day. The history of Christendom following the coming of the light is a horror to behold and study. But what of that?…

It is so obvious in human history: there comes a time when something is born; and then things stand still and nobody follows up. There have been developments, and beginnings have been made, which we have failed to recognize. No one can comprehend the mere three years of Jesus’ ministry as being the occasion of the greatest revolution ever to occur in human society. The rise of empires and nations’ wars, battles, and victories–these are no “events,” no “creations.” In comparison to the high calling that is mankind’s, all the empires of earth fade to nothing–as do all differences of race and language, all enmity, all hostility and arrogance between man and man. In the light of the creation that has come to us in Jesus Christ, all these things dissolve; nothing of them remains to be found. But that which does remain, which truly is of value for us–that has the permanence of eternity.

It must yet come to pass that we will not simply hold fast to an ancient confession of faith but out of a new experience be able to call to one another: “He is risen indeed! He lives among us! He takes the reins in hand and leads his people, leads them all the way to his death, that, in the death of the flesh, his resurrection and his life might be exalted in mankind to the eternal praise and glory of God.”

For this cause is Jesus Christ risen from the dead: so that in him it can be seen that God will bring forth even our lives out of death and will take everything into his own hands once more. Therefore, we should die with Christ so that we also can be awakened and so that whatever should live will then be able to live fully and beautifully and gloriously.

The Lord Jesus stands humanly very near to us; I do not know my best friend as well as I know the Savior, I can’t get inside my best friend; it is possible that there is within him that which is not quite trustworthy. But as far away as the Savior is from us, we still are so well acquainted with him through the scriptures that he is, as it were, transparent to us. With the writings of a Cicero it is not so; though a person read Cicero as he will, he does not thereby see into his heart. Likewise with a Plato, a Socrates, a Virgil, all the noblest spirits–however beautifully they have written, they still do not become our friends. But the Savior comes in such a way that each person can be his friend. One has only to make his acquaintance; then everything comes of itself.

E. Redemption

1. There Is Redemption

When, as often happens, a person recites some sad case to me, some fate of life before which I shudder, I cannot simply say, “Accept your fate!” No, I say, “Be patient; the matter will be resolved–very surely it will be resolved.”

Don’t comfort yourself with that sort of Christianity which today practices the art of decking out every distress and wrapping everything in phrases to the effect that whatever happens is good. Don’t accept such comfort; but seek with me people who stand before God arid say, “Dear Father in heaven, we are not worthy to be called your children–but oh, that you once could use us as your hired servants!”

2. The Redemption of the Body

The Spirit must embody itself. It must enter into our earthly life; it must happen that deity be born in flesh so that it can overcome this earthly world. God is active Spirit only when he gets something of our material underfoot; before that, he is mere idea. The Spirit would govern life.

It is a divine-natural law that body and soul hang together; and whoever would work on one part must take the other into consideration as well. Whoever would divide body and soul may be said to commit murder.

It seems to be the first concern of the human spirit that the body quickly become well; whereas, in silence thee soul should thank God that, in its illness, the body had more rest than in its health–indeed, that it again feels more life and power than it did in healthy days. But many people become almost angry over such a consolation; they are so unaccustomed to being still and considering their lives that they forcibly push themselves back into the turbulence of activity. Yet precisely in this way do they stand in the way of their own health at the very moment God would put them under spiritual restraint, because he does not want them given over to destruction.

Harm to the body is the judgment upon man’s drivenness of spirit. Wretchedness and darkening of the soul are judgments upon the vagabond life of the spirit. Therefore, it is important that every sick person who knows Christ should not make it his first impatient wish to become well. … [Rather,] he should first hold back his spirit and tame its wildness so that, through the person’s own will, Christ can truly receive him and immediately bind him to God and his truth. That is to say, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then body and soul will become healthy.

Being healthy is, to God, the same as being righteous. A healthy body, no matter how normal it may be, is not healthy in God’s sight if it is dragging around in unrighteousness. In this way, stings of death press in by the thousands; and before they have outward effect, a body that appears healthy to us can be sick from head to foot, sick unto death. Righteousness is our health; and the first point of righteousness is that we allow our-selves to be bound by God so that our spirit no longer desires its own freedom.

As long as our Spiritual piety does not present itself as true for the body, as right for the body, as freeing the body for God–as long as this piety is not free of human customs, insofar as these are perverted and out of harmony with divine laws–so long we remain only pious cripples. We must learn to be genuine creations of God through winch life can stream out in all directions, as is the intention for all creation.

Therefore, we do not pray, “Do miracles,” but rather, “Let things go the way of truth.” God should do miracles–but only when they are an aspect of the spiritual rectification of mankind. There must be a ground for them, a ground in the kingdom of God renewing and enlightening us from the divine side. It is from this base that miracles should take place; and then–yea, then–we shall shout aloud for joy, when, from within, things get set right. But at that point, outward miracles can disappear…. I do not wish to see a single miracle in anyone that is not the consequence of that person’s inner rectification.

3. Political Redemption

Only revelation brings progress; and that is what makes it so important that finally revelation come into the body politic. That would be a real step forward for the world, because until now it has not happened. God has not yet truly entered into the history of the nations. There are only more and more human histories–as, for example, the Boer War. Only after such an incident can the Spirit of God give more light to individuals, Boers as well as Englishmen, so that they can see further. Yet, through revelation, enlightenment also must come into politics.

In several respects these are threatening times; and it is necessary that we keep faith and, in particular, that we not accept the belief that war or anything of the sort would improve our situation. Although it is heard among us, this word is only a form of despair which itself contributes greatly to the chances of war. God will look into such talk. There is absolutely no justification for war; and we can dare to trust his almighty arm even when that seems a very risky thing to do. We can believe that he will bring peace and, under any circumstances, send signs and wonders from heaven to help us. We need no swords or cannon. We should live and let live. So have mercy upon us, 0 Lord our God, that finally, thou wilt create the kingdom of peace winch thou hast promised.

Anyone with eyes in his head can see that in Europe nothing could be more sensible than efforts for peace. Whoever would speak word against peace today is making a mistake. True, there is still a certain political atmosphere winch has been cooked up, as it were. For centuries now a kind of lust for war has been working itself into the flesh and blood of Europeans and other peoples. This war-lust reigns within some sectors of the population; but stable people know nothing of it. Nevertheless, they let themselves too easily become enthused about it, because in the back of their minds still sleeps the idea, “There must be wars.”

To this very day, in the political world there are certain questions for which we can find no solution except the sword. But it is scandalous to think that there should be no other solution than knocking one another around to see who is the more fortunate (one hardly can say “more powerful,” because there are thousands of instances in winch the more powerful have gone under)….

Whoever can think of it, should think once of how shriveled we are in a political sense. This great, round earth with its peoples, what an unconfined playground it could be for a genuine humanity, and how small we have made it in dividing up ourselves as tigers and lambs, fox and geese–with, naturally, the fox gobbling down the geese. On this earth, things go according to particular rules of animal life, and the life of the Spirit is not to be found.

Of course, thought cannot go too far in this direction before we come upon a word that is very much forbidden today. Yet there is something to be said for it. I will state it right out: “Anarchy!” Regarding the inhabitants of earth, a certain freedom, a veritable rulelessness, would almost be better than this nailed-up-tight business that as much as turns individual peoples into herds of animals dosed to every great thought….

Man is here to make progress; and if he wants peace he must also help bring it about–on has own ground, in has own way, seeking to bring it onto the scene. Mere talking and wishing that it would come of itself is of no value. Thus, everyone who wants peace must undertake peace, must be a man of peace.

And this in particular is what God would have us do now, out of respect for has eternal truth and righteousness. This is our calling; and who knows whether we are not the strongest ones in the present situation? I would not belittle those who strive for peace out of other considerations–out of sympathy, humanitarianism, and the like–but I do not believe that such efforts carry much power. However, there is a particular, invincible power in our efforts: as God wills, as the eternal truth wills, so our will is for peace; our will is that the peoples become changed and this terrible European history come to an end….

If anyone remains stuck in the history we have had until now and thinks to find a solution there, he is a terribly small person…. Yet it is already something worthwhile if in these matters even a few people open their eyes to what is righteous, eternal, and true and thus make a firm resolution, “There must be a change!” To that degree, they are able to rise above the history of their time. And this will not have been done in vain; on the contrary, It will lead toward what we call the kingdom of God.

4, Social Redemption

Is Social Democracy that which rightly should be demanded? Or is it rather–because it so energetically pursues “the state of the future” –that which, as so many assume, should by all means be opposed by every citizen and churchman?

A person must indeed be blind if he cannot see that, during the entire century since the French Revolution, there have arisen movements of ever increasing consequence directed toward a new ordering of society. Where is there a country that has not been agitated by socialistic ideas? It is one impulse, one forward-striving spirit, which seeks this new social order. No one can avoid this movement. Church and state must grant people freedom in this regard. We have lived in a century of revolution and rapid change and are living in the midst of radical movements–and this is in accord with the will of God!

Notice how much our ways of looking at things have changed already! Who wonders today at the fact that every citizen demands political rights and receives them in ever greater degree? Who now is surprised when equal justice is demanded for all, both high and low? Is there anyone who wants to reintroduce slavery and indentured service? Or who would do away with representative government? These are genuinely new ways of looking at things.

In previous centuries, people who demanded the rights of freedom were simply brought to justice and exterminated. And now, when Socialism sets up the goal that every person have an equal right to bread, that matters of ownership be so arranged that neither money nor property but the life of man become the highest value, why should that be seen as a reprehensible, revolutionary demand? It is dear to me that it lies within the Spirit of Jesus Christ, that the course of these events leads toward his goal, and that there is bound to be revolution until that goal is reached. Resistance will be of no avail, because it is God’s will that all men in every respect should be regarded equal and that they, rather than being plagued by the earth, should be blessed creatures of God.

That this struggle of the oppressed classes has not always gone pleasantly and that many imperfect things have been thought and done does not discountenance me. The basis of the movement, the energetic will, and the spiritual creativity of the goal are enough for me, so that I can feel myself an ally–and that, indeed, in the Spirit of Jesus Christ who had led me all along….

But, you say, the Social Democrats want bloody revolution, illegal overthrow of the existing order, and general chaos. Now I say simply, that is not true. Many people have a horror of every revolution, because the French Revolution and the revolutionary movements which followed it were of a bloody nature. Yet the Reformation of the sixteenth century was even bloodier; why then do we not hate the Reformation? Because it, at least to some extent, brought religious freedom? Why then do we hate the revolutions of the eighteenth century? Is it because they helped people toward political freedom? The latter seem to me indispensable to the former. The bloodshed of the Reformation pains me just as much as the bloodshed of the Revolution; but I must take both in the bargain and in both see progress toward the freedom of humanity. Why don’t we have a general horror of the bloodletting of times both past and present instead of a national prejudice that wants to ignore blood? Indeed, the whole world history is one long, revolutionary stream of blood….

But people say, “Christ kept his distance from all such revolutionary ideas, having in view only the spiritual uplift of mankind.” Yet, when he looked upon the temple of the Jews, when he came in touch with the false gods of nationalism and culture which stand opposed to the kingdom of God, he gave warning about the greatest sort of overthrow. “Not one stone shall remain standing upon another” is what he said about the proud national shrine of the Jews; and he saw destruction fast coming upon the capitalistic social system of that time.

He considered that the immediate result of his advent would be the greatest of revolutions; and he warned his disciples that things would be very violent. Of course, he went on to say that this was not the true end. At the very end, things shall proceed without violence. The Son of Man, the Man of Men, will come as a bolt of lightning lighting up the whole world. That suggests that God’s thought and will shall drive universally and with power into human hearts, creating the people that God would have. And at that point we will be ready for a new heaven and a new earth.

However, if we were to bring together all the words of Jesus and the apostles dealing with the final purpose of human history, we would soon discover that, in spirit, Jesus concerns himself with the political and social situation, that his kingdom could not come or even be conceived apart from the overthrow of the established order. And he thought of this overthrow in essentially violent terms.

Nevertheless, this does not imply that, as followers of Jesus, we are to do deeds of violence. We are not to be bloody revolutionaries but to be filled with peace and power as we endure through the entire process, having our eyes fixed on the final goal of peace. Yet this end state cannot come without the most shattering of overthrows. Like the whip which Jesus wielded in the temple at Jerusalem, there is still a whip to be wielded upon the whole unrighteous nature of humanity–“a day that shall burn like an oven,” as the prophet Malachi said. And even if the judgment begins in the household of God, I will rejoice.

Even so, the Socialist movement is like a fiery sign from heaven warning of the coming judgment. And if Christian society is faced with a judgment, rather than becoming proud, let it consider well what truth there is in that which mounts the attack.

Yes, greed is the root of all evil! And it puzzles me that this truth is not more sharply felt. The truth is that our generation is perishing in its acquiring of money and its desire for money. Today nothing stands more high and holy in our eyes than speculation about money. Even among the wealthiest, many suffer from this burden; they take part in self-serving works of charity and yet are unable to be of real help to the miserable. True help will be brought only by the Christ of the all-encompassing End.

And now an organization arises, born out of bitterest need, and struggles toward this end, toward redemption from this world of money, this time of gold. And who would prevent me from giving this organization a hand in the name of Christ? Who will blame me for declaring the truth of those people’s dear witness that we are on a downhill road, of their hope that in spite of all our present decadence we are coming to a better time, a time in which it will truly be said, “Peace on earth,” a time giving birth to those who understand what life and salvation mean? Such is the goal of God’s kingdom on earth, of the God who is a redeemer for all humanity.

Nota Bene

Because Ragaz’s personal predilection was to back Democratic Socialism even more fully than Blumhardt had ever done, he chose to give us only this one statement on the subject. However, if we are to get the total picture of Blumhardt’s thought, we need also to hear these words spoken after his somewhat disillusioning experience with the party and as party spokesman In the Württemberg legislature. They are recorded In R. Lejeune’s Christoph Blumhardt and His Message,
73. — V.E.

“[Potentially, Democratic Socialism can] further the thoughts of Jesus in the life of the nations more than any other movement.”

“In the social movement there lies an all-embracing concern for the pure human life: quite generally the concern that men be helped. This has been accepted by the broad ranks of the people and is an echo of God’s will that all men be helped.”

“[Christendom] has never expressed so conclusively this principle, which lies in Jesus.”

“The social movement as we see it today still belongs to the world which will pass. It does not contain the fellowship of men as it will one day come through God’s Spirit. Too strong a defense of prevailing opinions has a flavor which is disturbing to the pure service of God.”

“The attempt to carry my idea of God into earthly things cannot take root at a time when men are filled with the hope that they and they alone can create a blissful humanity. Now they first have to run aground on the rock of earthly things, in order to grasp the higher things.”

Nota Bene

Plainly, Blumhardt does not want to be understood as retracting what he said in the Ragaz quotation; we are not called upon to choose one Blumhardt over the other, the earlier over later or vice versa. What the later Blumhardt did was to introduce a corrective (which may even have been implicit in the earlier statement). The truth, then, is to be found by holding the two positions in tension–letting each correct the other.

Thus, Christians must be open to perceive the hand of God even in those purely secular sociopolitical movements whose goals are compatible with the gospel picture of the kingdom of God. And once perceiving God’s hand, we are, of course, under some obligation openly to welcome and support it. However, the later Blumhardt tells us, we dare never give ourselves to any sociopolitical movement as though it were the coming of the kingdom or an equivalent of that kingdom. No, Christian support of any and all such movements must ever include an element of “eschatological reserve,” the freedom to criticize and even withdraw when, inevitably, anti-kingdom aspects of the movement show themselves. But it is quite possible to see Blumhardt as being right, as making a true Christian witness, both in joining and, later, in withdrawing from Democratic Socialism.

His total position, then, offers an essential corrective both to those Christians who want to forego all participation in the socio-political world and to those–such as certain proponents of liberation Theology–who commit themselves so completely to particular party programs that, in the name of the gospel, they are willing even to give their blessing to revolutionary violence. — V.E.

The will of God came forth in Jesus’ coming forth upon earth. And what is he? He is the friend of men and of human society. And in a very particular way he holds society by what might be called its lowest part–by the miserable, the despised, the poor, by the masses of mankind who go through life unnoticed–this is where Jesus takes hold with a firm hand….

No one else, even to the present day, no one who has not come from God could take upon himself this mass of mankind. A person representing only education, or only science and philosophy, or only human love and mercy, he would not come to these people. He would always think, “Oh, them; they are not important!” It is when he would meet a distinguished person, an honored one, somebody righteous, he would think, “Yes, it is with him I must join.”

If anyone wants to found a party or amount to something, he seeks friends in the upper echelons of society. But the highest spirits, even the highest angels, cannot do what Jesus can. We put our hope in the professors or the exalted spirits of various sorts. We pin our hope on the highest heights of heaven; and Jesus places his hope in the proletariat, the outcasts, people whom kings and Caesars ignore, with whom they dally as with playthings of the mighty–yet that is where Jesus sees the beginning of renewal. Will we follow him in this? It is just here that we must confess Jesus, that is, wholeheartedly press forward–for Jesus is there.

To my last breath I will fight for the sinners, the miserable, the unwanted. And my great joy will be when I, to all that is high, can make clear what rottenness lies in “highness.” And to my own house I would like to repeat every day. “Stay with the lowly!” And if we often seem to be a respectable social group, we should be ashamed that we are so respectable. Would to God we respectable people were all pushed into the comer and that those in rags would sit here! We would be a thousand times happier in so proclaiming such a Jesus. Yet the lowly ones must also come in.

5. Redemption from Death

The hope of resurrection is an aspect of our longing for God’s kingdom; and the abolition of death is undeniably an element of the kingdom of God. Anyone who does not have the courage to accept this in all earnestness and give himself to the fight against death, he, we rightly can say, ought not be called a disciple of Jesus…. All the words and works of God in Christ breathe the abolition of death.

This is the great triumph of the resurrection of Christ: people are born, people who already live. But those who live in sin and death are born again; and in them something new is revealed through the tremendous power of Christ Jesus…. Acts of resurrection take place, new men arise, and here and there new people step forth so that one has to say, “There is a person in whom something new has been born.”

I ask you, “Friends, from where does humanity draw its life? From where does Christianity draw its life?” We can answer with certainty: From those in whom the resurrection of Christ has repeated itself, those of whom it truly is said, “Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and every one who lives and believes in me will never die” (Jn. 11:25-26).

It is through those in whom Christ has become the resurrection and the life, through those who have become victorious in faith so that they trample the power of this world underfoot in the strength of eternity, which is the rule and power of Christ–it is through these people that the world endures even today. In them lives Jesus, the one risen from the dead. In them he rules and in them is victor. In them he is grace, is the light of the world. In them he will be glorifi through all creation.

The entire Bible looks forward to a colossal time of God, to which all the struggle, need, and suffering of the present time are as nothing. But as I often have said, what is completely new and unbiblical is the idea, “It will soon be all over with me; I will shortly be dead!” No prophet or apostle ever thought that way; rather, they dwelt upon the idea, “Until our God comes! Until there comes that great time for us!” …

If one has lived a worldly, earthbound life, the dear Lord cannot make him happy even if he is the best of men. He is too greedy for worldly things and doesn’t seek the heavenly. The time of God, which finds its center in the people of Jesus Christ and the glory that is the comfort of the whole world and all its creatures–this is what must be sought.

6. Redemption from Evil

A person can make himself weak by continually looking at his sinful nature and things he sees as wrong in himself. Often the sin has been forgiven long before; but the person hangs on to it and considers himself weak and sinful. What he should do, then, is stand up and be strong, through faith in God being certain of forgiveness…. In principle, sin is forgiven; and we must carry that reality into the world.

When I look at the conversions of today, I see so much lacking that I am afraid they will be a detriment unless people stop making the conversion experience the main thing. The Lord will give nothing, will reveal nothing of that for which we hope, unless the change of heart remains the first and last thing. The gospel always produces repentance…. The outcome of one’s own repentance is to produce further repentance–which thought also belongs to the gospel. But whatever does not come out of one’s own repentance is about as effective as soap bubbles against fortress walls.

When people come to me in their misery, I always have the feeling, “Oh, here it should be easy to help!” Even when I see a ruined body before me, or someone in the clutches of hell, I often get the powerful impression, “If only these folks had the love of God, they would be helped; but oh, the superstitions and the idols!” They think about all sorts of things, but God does not come into their hearts…. And so people passionately hold on to that which destroys them. This is the distress of lovelessness toward God. Don’t look so much on your personal sins; nothing comes of staring at them. Hang on to God; look to him. Otherwise, even if you repent and believe, you are still not converted; your life does not depend upon God. A simple, sober reverence for God, seeking of God in the spirit, the soul’s being filled with love for God–by these we can overcome. But we must be whole people.

Leave for a while your begging before God and seek first the way, the way in which we truly can know God, by recognizing our guilt and in truth seeking only the righteousness of God in his rule upon earth. Put aside your own suffering and start doing honest works of repentance, doing them with joy, not with sighing and complaining, giving God the glory in body and soul. Then accept your guilt and its judgment and become a true person. Thus, through Christ, you will be bound to God; and your own suffering and need will fade of itself.

Turn about in the inward man and, instead of looking at yourself and all your need, look to the kingdom of God and its need; it has been held back for so long because of the false nature of man. Then you can be confident that God will treat you as a true child who is seeking his honor, and you will not come to shame in this life.

The first and last word for a disciple of Jesus is, “Obey!” I mean to say that today the word “believe” is not as important as, “You who believe, obey him whom you believe!” Of what use is believing if you cannot obey?

Eternal damnation is not biblical; it is only a notion of the churches…. What the dear Lord will finally do with the disobedient is his business. Here and now the main thing is the battle of history; we should stick with this. What have we to do with the dear Lord’s action in an entirely different age? Our concern is solely with what God wants of us in the fight that is in progress here on earth; and that, my friends, we should take seriously.

7. Redemption from Law

Our concern is not at all with the outward commandments but rather with the nature of life. That is God’s commandment. Thus we find in the Bible a colossal freedom. There are none of the rules that were first formulated about the time of Jesus. Jesus goes completely beyond them; not even the law of the Sabbath is a rule for him. No sacrifice, no temple, no altar, none of them are rules for Jesus. Nothing of the outward but that of the spirit is God’s law….

Our people must be permeated by the simple awareness that we are God’s. Accordingly, without further talk or churchly nonsense, we become both bound and free…. Go where you will–there is no law–but do it in this awareness: “I do not belong to things; they are no business of mine. I belong to the Father in heaven; it is with God I have to do.”

8. Redemption from Suffering

I have for all of you a heartfelt concern before God; and I so much want to help. However, I know of nothing to say but, “Remain firm, firm in doing what God wants.” The kingdom of God must be the desire of our hearts; then solutions will come. You can be useful when you are willing to bear the greatest misery for God’s sake. Even in a bodily sense you will not go under, whether or not that seems to be the case. It cannot be in vain, bearing what God wills us to bear, when we are following the one who bore the cross.

A light-hearted Christianity is really the greatest foolishness in this world where millions of our brothers and sisters are sinking, where everything goes dark. Therefore, the cry might well be loud, even if it comes to, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Correctly understood, that is not faithlessness but sympathy with the world…. In this cry lies our way to God and God’s way to us.

The capacity to hope is extremely important both for the kingdom of God and for our own development, because something very real and powerful has been laid in our hearts with this hope. One might say that we have been given a power that corresponds to the power of God. A power goes forth from God to make something of us; and from us there goes forth a hope that we shall become something. And this power of God and our hope go together hand in hand, as in a marriage, walking together. We in hope and God in his power, we belong together so that we can follow a purpose, the good purpose of God.

Scarcely does a need arise and, as we think, it should be quickly cared for, because we believe in God. Yet, in this we often are disappointed…. Frequently God goes his way high above the needs and suffering of the human way. We think that God should come with his help just as soon as is possible; but God regularly says to us, “Have patience! The goal can be reached in only one way, a way that does not permit me to suit your preference, even in giving you something very special.”… But we should not let our faith get away from us just because something was not quickly improved or made more godly. The kingdom of God entails a long, long history. All that is of God must have its own time.

9. Continuing Redemption

Every disciple of Jesus can acquire some qualities of a redeemer in himself. These are gifts that God wants to give through the Holy Spirit. They then can be shared: one person has a gift for one sort of situation, another for another; but we disciples of Jesus should always have something redeeming for other people.

F. The Holy Spirit and His Gifts

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. Consequently, he preaches to us in our hearts–especially in reminding us of what Jesus said, renewing this in our minds and making it ever dearer to us. And so the believing disciple carries, or ought to carry, this master teacher within himself.

Thus, it is not particularly necessary for him time and again to bear some human preacher who tells him every detail and splits hairs in explaining things. It ought not to be the case that a person is without further instruction just because no bodily teacher is present. No, the instruction continues–and just that much more powerfully because it comes not simply to the outward ears but from within, awakening the mind and spirit. Everything becomes much dearer than when one is instructed primarily through external words and still has to consider at length, “What do these words mean?”

But the Spirit, as master teacher, grants us inward revelation; we “see” what otherwise is only heard and thought. We under-stand profoundly, even when, now and then, words fail. Thus should the Holy Spirit be our teacher.

Our basic Prayer always should be for the coming of the Holy Spirit. Of course, this is a tremendous request in itself; and it will cost us pains to put into a few words all that this petition signifies. As a very minimum, I would say, there lies in this prayer a desire to stand inwardly right before God and to come into true community with him. This is something which is mediated and accomplished by God through the Spirit….

Further, our basic prayer must be that we learn to understand what is revealed to us. No one can even call Jesus Lord except through the Holy Spirit; so, to a certain extent, this idea also is expressed in our basic prayer, that God might give us an understanding of spiritual things, might let us understand his ways, his ideas about us, his plans for us….

All we have said thus far represents only the preliminary stages of our prayer, for in the phrase, “Pray for the Holy Spirit,” much more is being asked. At the time Jesus commanded this prayer, the disciples had not yet had the experience of Pentecost; and in that coming of the Spirit lay the salvation of all.

The one thing with which the disciples were to concern themselves was prayer for the coming of that Spirit–for themselves, for the world, for all flesh. After the Lord departed from them, that was to be their one task. We know that they did pray. Daily they were united together, praying for the promised Spirit. Together with their praying, they worked until the time was fulfilled. And on the feast of Pentecost the glorious gift and grace and power came; and they were all wonderfully filled. From that moment they truly became new men. The heavens opened, and the Lord brought the disciples into a unity with the things of heaven. Powers from above descended and covered everything upon earth. And through these powers, everything shall henceforth be overcome, and the powers of darkness shall be trampled underfoot.

How is it that everything came to life wherever the apostles preached? They were not great men; they had no earthly wisdom and cleverness, no special way of speaking or gift of oratory. No, it was simply the glory of God, which, in Greece and Rome, in Macedonia and Asia Minor, in Palestine and everywhere, was bearing fruit to his honor.

[As with Paul in 2 Cor. 12], it is quite natural that the extraordinary should come forth in a person who is truly freed and born again as a new creature, standing, therefore, in a new, totally different relationship to God from that of most people. If something striking did not show itself, we would have to doubt whether a new creature actually was present.

Now we must generalize this thought and say that, if in a Christian community nothing of the extraordinary is experienced–that is, nothing extraordinary in a recognition and experience of God, as also in a recognition and experience of the opposite, of sin and its power–then that community is in fact incapacitated.

G. The Living Christ

It is an extraordinary thing and characteristic of the Lord Jesus that he gives us to understand that what he is doing on earth is only a beginning. Nothing is finished yet. Nothing is so complete, nothing so perfect, that it is to remain unchanged from what it was in his time. What he has given us is a root and not yet a tree. The seed still must grow, the branches spread out; the blossoms will come later. In the end the fruit will come….

No other man ever thought, or even thinks today, that his work goes on after him in such a way that he himself is the one who continues to do it. Only Jesus has been raised above death and thus made a beginning in overcoming the death of mankind, in that he says, “As I have been, so I remain; and I am coming.”

In this lies the nature of the cause he founded and which he represents; he represents the redemption of the race–and how can that be completed in a day? How can that be finished even in one earthly lifetime? If he had wanted only to found a party or bring to people a new variety of religion in which they could be prouder and more fanatical than in earlier ones, then he could have completed it, as Mohammed and Confucius did in their lifetimes. But, my friends, redemption–that requires time. It is not just for a couple of people or for a few hundred or for a party; it is for all mankind.

The Lord Jesus is the beginning and the end regarding the kingdom of God. Therefore, among us, it firmly and with certainty is said, “The Savior is coming again!” He must complete the work; and we have only to be his servants until he comes again. As servants, we must serve him, the Coming One.

At the same time, we should be a prefiguring of the future of Jesus Christ on earth. We should not be so much concerned with ourselves; nor should we struggle so hard, as though we were the ones to bring the good to its perfection on earth. We cannot do that. That can be done only by the Lord Jesus, who has come the first time and is coming again a second time.

He will complete the work; we will not. We must lock this knowledge in our hearts; it must be true and firm whenever we preach the gospel. Our way must always be lighted by this star, “He is coming again!” And if our minds are directed toward the coming of the Savior, this puts the entire gospel into its true perspective. The gospel will become something personal and living when we firmly and faithfully focus upon the words, “He is indeed coming again!” When we fail to do that, then we are separating the gospel from his person. Then, no matter how much we talk or what great speeches we make about it, we are nevertheless separating him from the gospel. Without his personal presence, not a word of the gospel has real or profound value.

And so we must be directed toward that future coming of Jesus Christ which is not only something of the future but also of the present, in that he right now is awaited in our hearts….

We are living in a time of death; and we don’t want to hide that from ourselves. Our powers become weak; our ideas lose their strength, and our feelings do also. Even though they be alive for the moment, with time they are lost. The law of death surrounds everything, all we do and think and feel. But now a law of life comes into this world of death. It is actually the Lord Jesus himself, the one who is eternal life, who is arisen from the dead, who links us to the other world, who brings us the Spirit of God that, in the midst of our dying life, again and again we might receive something fresh and living through his gift, through his presence, through his coming.

We are not to think of his coming only as an appearance at the end of days. Rather, we must at all times have an awareness of the coming Savior. Each of us should continually have that in mind, even in times of darkness, in times of depression, in times of poverty, in times of sickness, in times of trouble, and in times of work with the things of earth.

We want the life of Jesus Christ to be seen completely pure and clean, to be seen alone ruling upon earth. We don’t want it to be mixed with earthly arts and the things of earth; we want it to be pure Christ.

Yet this is why Christ is so hidden. He will not be on earth as a human power. Christ will not be mixed in among men as a great man among the great. What we call great is not great to God. Those things which outwardly make such an impression, which seem so heroic, which so impress us in an earthly sense–those don’t impress God at all. And that is why we must take care that we do not become mixed.

As Christ shows himself completely pure, as he alone stands before us as the Spirit of Life, so should we Christians also remain pure and clean, not mixing ourselves with the things of our time. Every age brings forward earthly interests, and each century has its particular character. One can become part of that and also lead a satisfactory life in it; but such is not the life of God which Christ is building upon earth. That is something entirely new, which will finally conquer all that is earthly and lead to the coming of a new heaven and a new earth.

And so the life we have today must still be one of fighting and struggling for the divine. But it is a life which has great promise in it. What is hidden at present, hidden with Christ in God, finally shall be revealed. Christ, the life-bearer, the truth-bearer, who has been hidden in God for thousands of years, finally shall become dear to all eyes.

H. The Coming of Christ

“Behold, I am coming soon!” (Rev. 22:7). This word concerns the coming of our Lord and King, Jesus Christ. The word itself permeates the whole of his earthly and super-earthly life, and it may seem too high for our understanding to reach. There are few who can grasp it in its spiritual meaning so that it can play a natural part in their self-understanding and in their living for God. Yet we must recognize that the significance of the life of Jesus and his disciples depends upon the fulfillment of these words. Those people built upon them as a firm ground by which the results of their activity would be guaranteed. But also, all the later disciples of Jesus who carry in their hearts the kingdom of God on earth as the goal of the Christian community are directed by these words to hope for the future return of their Lord. Without that, it is useless to hope that the community of God, his justice and truth, will come upon earth.

“Behold, I am coming soon!” This saying divides the history of the Christian community into two periods: first, the foretime, and then, the time of the actual kingdom of God. The Savior himself is the beginning, the Alpha, and the end, the Omega. With the coming of the Savior in the flesh, the foretime has begun; all people should know this, for they are living in it. In this time we have the gospel, “the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith” (Rom. 1:16). With this, the kingdom of God is announced; and through its prophets it is founded upon earth.

However, the reign of God in Christ has not yet fully penetrated our world. It has made only a quiet beginning in those who believe, and is yet unknown to the world. The faithful are but few. All the rest of mankind, the masses, even though they hear the gospel are still under the reign of sin and death, because they are not yet able and willing to break loose from it.

Yet the light of hope does shine among these masses through the gospel, which reveals the love of God to the world. This hope is itself a world-shaking power of God which we experience in Christianity in a general way; even the unbelievers take part in that hope although they are not aware of it. It is by this power of hope coming through the gospel that the triumph of darkness is prevented; it no longer makes any headway. Wherever the gospel comes, death is pierced through by the hope of life. Yet the hearts of men are not free for God nor have they power for the victory over sin; thus, things in the world seem to go just as they always have gone.

The new (a new creation) is found only in secret, among the believers. These we can call the forerunners of the kingdom of God, in whom God’s righteousness already has a beginning. It is their calling to be faithful unto death, to fight for the earth as being the property of God until the Son of Man comes in the glory of his Father. It is only then that the power of God in Jesus Christ will come to the peoples and to all the masses of mankind. Then will become possible that of which Christianity and the gospel are incapable in these times, namely, a judgment.

“Judgment” means that, through the rigorous Spirit of God, a person comes to know himself for who he is, making a division between what is good and what is evil in God’s sight, and giving the evil over to be judged. Without such judgment, no one, even in New Testament times, was great or blessed. In the same way. it is not possible for the masses of mankind to be saved in the end without the judgment which the Son of Man brings with him when he comes. It is only in this final judgment that many things will collapse which we take as good and proper today but which in fact have been only temporarily tolerated by God.

So, regarding the world and the victory over it, all the apostles hoped for the time of Jesus’ coming. Before this time, they expected no true renewal of the world as a whole. Likewise, we ought not lose faith when, for the present, the world remains untouched and our faith can fight only in secret. The world is not by that token lost forever. It awaits the final revelation of Jesus Christ in which he will show himself as King of Kings.

Of course, a lazy waiting certainly is not appropriate, for the life of the faithful is itself the beginning of the end, and upon the faithfulness of these forerunners everything depends. The Savior himself, as well as the apostles, made note of this. To those servants “who wait for the Lord” (Lk. 12:36), “the elect who cry to him day and night” (Lk. 18:7-8), presently there is given, as answer to their longing, the words, “Behold, I am coming soon!” Their faithfulness is a power that can bear witness to people today. Without that, the gospel does not in itself have the piercing light that makes people right and enlists them as comrades in arms in the company of Jesus Christ.

So it is a joyful thing for us to carry in ourselves the power of the gospel: it brings light into the darkness of our world and is a help toward the end-time coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, when all flesh will see the glory of God.

Time itself is our enemy. Time is the enemy of eternity. Time crinkles us up like an old towel and throws us out into the darkness of death to be forgotten, as we ourselves suffer the shame of death. Yes, time is ourselves suffer the shame of death. Yes, time is our enemy; it brings us nothing. Christ is the one who brings something; only that which, through Christ, shall be born in the people of Christ, that is what brings the true fruit which mankind has owed to God for many, many centuries.

All the “prophecies” and booklets about the return of Christ are misleading when they suggest that the day comes according to some calculation of time. No, the day comes in response to the people of God; and changes for the good will come in response to that good which is fought for by God’s people. If that does not prove a possibility, then there will come God’s terrible ban against the earth (Mal. 4:1). Then a catastrophe could happen such as happened once before, with the earth as desolate and empty as it was before creation.

Yet, in the meantime, we must hold fast to the fact that necessary changes are not only possible but that their actuality is our one concern. The Savior has himself joined with our earth; and the Savior cannot simply be put off…. We can do something and should do something. We should not rest day or night. “Things must be different!”–that should be the continuous cry of our hearts.

And what can we do? We can take the guilt upon ourselves.

There are parties in Christendom who are already rejoicing that they will be transfigured and float up to heaven and then will laugh at the poor people left behind. But that is not the way it is. Now is the time to take upon ourselves a work in which we are the first to be given into judgment, not the first to have a sofa in heaven. For only those who are truly first, first to stand before the Savior in judgment, can become tools to further his work among the rest of mankind.

“And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness’” (Jer. 23:6). Such texts are very important to me, because they are concerned with the last times, the times which we usually think of in terms of the dark king, the desolation, Antichrist. Admittedly, it is written that there are enemies and opposition, as also an Antichrist. Yet scripture does not speak of any all-powerful Antichrist.

On the other hand, over and over again scripture does tell of a King who will bring peace over all the earth, thus making the end a culmination of the good. Oh, yes, people speak of the culmination of evil. Now, indeed, that is our experience. But scripture speaks of the end as the culmination of good; it is not the good but evil that shall be overthrown. Even before he comes, the Lord will be master of the earth. For, when he comes, we must then be able to say, “The Lord is our righteousness.”

I. The Spirit World

It is not the case that we are little manikins and there is the great, tremendous, powerful God of whom it is difficult for us to think, let alone understand. Rather, the reign of God operates through an endless number of powers, through an endless number of the heavenly host, through an endless number of personalities that stand about his throne and stand near to us as well. Yes, I know quite well that modern man wants to see only people and, beyond them, nothing else in the whole, wide world. I know very well that we want to be the only ones who have the Spirit, thus glorifying ourselves…. But, my friends, everything which lives in the heavenly world–that world into which our material eyes cannot see, which fills all earth and heaven–those beings nevertheless surround us from the side of the Father in heaven. There exists a regime under which we repeatedly feel ourselves served by invisible powers; and time and again our spirit feels awakened by the Spirit which fills the whole creation and which is God.

I don’t want to have a single day go by without recalling that God’s heavenly host is around us, going out into all the world. I couldn’t live a single day without the thought that there is never a time nor a place that we are alone.

God sends us all sorts of powers, all sons of helpers, both corporeal and spiritual; and all these messengers of God are personal in nature. Under God’s command, there are an endless number of powers which can surround us and accompany us; and they are most various.

For a long time we have fought against darkness. The devil, death, and hell would have us in terror. We have been in many difficulties, and many times have not seen a way through. But God has reached out his right hand to us in Jesus Christ; and for many years he has protected us and given us victory. But today there appears another fight for us, namely, the fight against people who do not want to accept the truth. Yet more dangerous than the invisible powers of darkness is the visible power of men, those who falsely administer the power of God, who misuse the Spirit in their flesh and so put God’s honor to shame through their cunning. More dangerous than the deceptions of the world are deceptions in the name of Christianity.

We experience many things which are not at all meant to be shared with others. Regarding experiences connected with the kingdom of God, it is not the main thing that others know about them except, perhaps, that others might live on the fruit of an individual’s experience of the kingdom. But the private experiences of Jesus and the apostles, as those of the prophets of the Old Testament, are for the most part untold.

We are convinced and could adduce much scripture showing that an unfathomable knowledge of the invisible world–the human-demonic-satanic as well as the divine-formed the background for the theory of the apostles and prophets, if I may put it so. Yet they do not favor us with glimpses of their experiences in this realm. Their thought runs, “If a person is called to participate in the battle, it is hardly necessary for us to tell him how it is. He will see for himself just how things are there where the earthly eyes of men do not penetrate….

It is not the devil to whom we want to give importance but our beloved God; and it is people, not demons, who should now put in an appearance….

Even the fighters themselves keep their distance from associations within this battle in which they are engaged…. It is not their task to give visible people a story of the invisible world…. Their call, indeed, is to prove themselves God’s true fighters to whom nothing counts except the kingdom of God in this world.

There are not two worlds, one in God’s hand and the other not. There are not two varieties of humans, one within God’s rule and the other outside. No, even where it is utterly dark, God alone is Lord. There is no devil who can do whatever he wills, no evil angel who can create anything; the fact that these are in the darkness is itself “of God.” Unfortunately, there is in the darkness a certain form of life which spreads and brings death to those who allow themselves to be drawn into it. Yet, despite the sway of sinful and death-dealing powers, that whole realm belongs to God and remains firmly in his hand. This is the witness we can have in our hearts. To every satan I would like to say. “You are God’s, you satan. You can do nothing; you can’t lift a finger, for you are God’s.”

We have never yet believed in the devil. That is why, fifty-five years ago, we said, “Jesus is victor.” He alone is victor; there is no lord, even in the darkness, who does not have to bow to our Lord. There is but one Lord, just as there is but one God; and nothing else is lord. Nothing else has any power. Nothing else has any rights or can claim anything as its own; no hell or death or devil can claim as much as a nail; everything belongs to our God�yes, everything.–If we would take such a position, then the darkness would have to go…. Fear no thing; fear God alone.

J. Fanaticism and Irrationality (An Afterthought)

It is fanaticism when a person regularly thinks only in natural terms, believing that he receives help only through the natural order.

That is irrational. Yet even to the present day a person is called irrational and heretical if he has hope in the Holy Spirit and the power of God.

One thing is certain. Biblically, that which is only “of the world” is irrational; and it is fanaticism when one abandons oneself to such stuff as, in the world, regularly is offered as aid and comfort. If I did not have to be discrete, I could gather a bouquet composed of letters from those who believe themselves to be rational in comparison to others. Yet we could see into what colossal irrationalism worldly people enter–and little wonder, with their wanting nothing from God, or at least nothing directly from him. Nevertheless, those whom they call fanatic and treat as irrational, those are the ones who stay rationally resting their hope upon the testimonies of God.

K. Mankind

1. God and Man–Humanity’s Becoming Human

It has always been my experience that whoever is an enemy of men is also an enemy of God. Whoever will not recognize the good that is in man, God will not recognize either. Whoever judges men, whoever damns men, whoever wants nothing to do with the people he sees as being “the least”–that person is himself separated from God. May things happen to him as they will.

We would become Men. Men, not “Christians”–Men! Not Catholics, not Protestants–Men! Not Conservatives, not Liberals, not Socialists–Men! Not French, not Gerraaan, not Chinese–“Men”! It was as a as a man Jesus became the light of the world; and it is men he would have.

At this point, Ragaz used an excerpt from a sermon that appears in its entirety in Lejeune’s Christoph Blumhardt and His Message,

157-168. I have chosen to replace Ragaz’s selection with a somewhat broader one of my own, using the Plough Publishing House translation, although taking the liberty to change the order of some of Blumhardt’s sentences in the interest of a smoother reading. — V.E.

True man is missing…. False men with a false spirit, with false desires and false aims, think that they are real men…. The false man is the world’s undoing…. True man is still missing and will be missing until Jesus comes and does away with the false man….

Yet now we do have the fortune to know that there is one in whom the world is God’s again, in whom all that is created is again placed into the light of the first creation. This one is Jesus, the Son of Man, is more real than any other man, more childlike than all other children. Hee lives among men, and he is the kingdom of God. He does does make it; he is the kingdom! Why? Because he is God and man.

When God created the world he founded his kingdom on earth. The earth was his kingdom. And who was to reign, to rule, and to watch over it as his representative? Man. God’s kingdom was in paradise through man. God’s kingdom is on earth through one upright man, no matter what men are like otherwise…. One true man–and God’s kingdom is here! … An Adam, and there it was, God himself in paradise. Even if here and there something wrong was still lurking in comers, that didn’t matter. A man was there, and God was with this man. Nothing else was of any importance….

The loss of man was the world’s catastrophe. Man was gone. This is still the world’s undoing today….

Now Jesus seeks a living church, and he seeks it on earth. Could not the one who rose from the dead have come quickly, in heavenly glory, to conquer and overcome all things? He would have done it long ago, without hesitating, if this would have made God’s kingdom possible. He could have come with hosts of angels. But no! He doesn’t want only angels. Man, not super-worldly powers, must serve God on earth. True man must do it; and God must do it in him. This Is Jesus’ loyalty toward us false men.

2. Of the Greatness, Freedom, and Glory of Man

Now earth has not only its life but also its consciousness–and this last is Man. The earth’s faculty of consciousness is man. In spite of all the sunshine and moonlight, the splendor of the stars, and the greenness of grass and forest–in spite of all–it is a dark matter if earth, in its conscious mind, does not know the truth, which is to say, if the Son of God is not recognized. Man must recognize him in order that, by him, the consciousness of the earth might reach fulfillment.

Because everything we ask for [in the opening petitions of the Lord’s Prayer] ultimately involves our own benefit, God does not make it his business to see that his name is kept hallowed, that his kingdom come, that his will be done–unless these things are, at the same time, the request of man. God will not make it his business if we do not find it important enough to hold his name in honor throughout the world; to oppose all that is willed contrary to the will of God; to help gather all creatures into the kingdom in order that his mastery of the earth might be attained. Consequently, God lets things happen as they will and as men want them to.

Even so, there are countless people who do not ask after the name of God nor trouble themselves at all concerning him. Again, some people would prefer anything other than being gathered into a kingdom of God. And how many there are who know absolutely only their own wills or who let themselves be led only by the will of darkness. But God will not use force and compel his creatures into their salvation. They shall, then, have that which they bring upon themselves, shall have all that great misery which people fall into who are without God, separated from God, or opposed to God.

The work of the kingdom of God must stand under two laws. First, you dare never again be angry at anyone, for the kingdom of God is love for all men. Therefore, you may not belittle anyone, even the least. Indeed, you are a miserable fool if you vex or annoy one of these little ones, demean him, or treat him as nothing. Thus, we must always look with God’s evaluation upon what I like to call “the pennies of God’s capital investment.” They belong to God, of course, although the value lies in the persons themselves. As man, you are of value to God; yet, your value is not a hair greater than that of some little guy of no status, e.g., a day laborer. We always must bear in mind the worth God attributes to a small, low-ranked, despised human being; such people we must guard and protect.

The second law is that we remain slaves. Slaves we want to be; lords we want never to become. We would be slaves under God’s hand–yet, that I not be misunderstood: slaves of men we will never be! … If I serve God, then God will stand by me and men must give way to me. I shall not yield as much as a fingernail to any man. And if empires and kingdoms of men multiply until the very heavens and earth itself fall, yet shall I stand like a rock in the sea. I hold fast to God, I am his slave; and all must break itself to pieces upon me, because I serve God.

We should be priests, i.e., we who have become firm in grace should stand firm for others, praying for them and the world so that the whole might be filled with the glory and power and grace of God. If we are steadfast in this priestly sense, then we bear a kinglypower. We can cooperate in overcoming the dark powers of this world…. You are not to be priests for yourselves but for the world in which you live. That world should move your heart; and if you see something of its misery and death, then you should protest against it, saying, “That cannot be; indeed, it must cease, because Jesus lives.”

3. No Nonentities

Whoever is demeanedand troubled has the sympathy of God. I might even say that our dear God can’t see our sins for the sheer suffering that is present, his heart welling up in love for the lowly ones in this world upon whom people wrongly pass judgment…. All sufferers, through their very suffering, should become bound to God…. The sufferer should be so positioned that he comes to experience great friendship, while the suffering itself comes to be identified as the enemy of both God and man, interposing itself between them. The suffering, then, becomes a third party, the one that is to be evicted from the house.

The Savior has two sides which make him great. The one side is that he recognizes people as his own, seeing in them his own property. Also, he can communicate with them, instantly establishing a relationship with whomever he will.

But he also has a second side by which people understand him and can easily develop a relationship from themselves to him. One thing cannot be denied: there is no individual so outwardly and so inwardly degenerate that, when he encounters the Savior, does not feel, “He truly wants me!” Immediately that person comes alive and, at the same time, discovers Jesus in his heart. Then there comes a sense of community–and after that, no questions are asked…. Jesus never demands character references. Such is the human way: scoundrels here, scoundrels there! But the force of the good in Jesus brings out the goodness in people, entirely overlooking the evil, which is spoken of no more…. Let us, also, not so much look upon the old man as help the new one come forth.

4. No One Bad or Godless

The worst is when we Christians want to make people different. Where has our dear God said that we should convert people? Nowhere is that said…. People cannot make themselves better simply because we wish it. Conversion does not happen according to our will, but according to God’s.

My friends, you must never look upon people as being weeks, or tares. The tares which are harvested as the sheaves (Mt. 13:24-30)–those are not people themselves. We would make a great error if we were to say, “These men are tares, and those are wheat.” No, oh, no! Consider that what we see as evil, as criminal, as sinful in people–of all these things we also bear the trace, even though we already venture to call ourselves children of God, body and soul. Who presumes to look into the depths of human nature? There, we are all alike. Yet, on the surface, in the outer sphere of life, the lawbreaking that shows up often is directed against human laws, not divine ones. There, pushing up, is the vile, criminal nature which is the outgrowth of the tares, crowding out the wheat kernels and stalks so that even a truly noble person becomes an evildoer.

I venture to assert, indeed, I dare say it before God: we must guard ourselves from making this malicious distinction. Strike out against evil we must–but, for God’s sake, don’t damn people! These old tares that have been scattered throughout Christendom–for God’s sake, don’t see them as being people! We poor people, we are all tangled up in them.

Have you ever seen the wind in a grainfield? There is little one can do to stop it; it tears up the delicate plants and destroys them. And so it goes with many people. Somehow a seed has come into their neighborhood and now is growing in an inhuman and unnatural way. It grows all through people, pushing into their feelings, influencing their wills. Often we label them as fools because of their behavior; and, consequently, they are put down and considered by us as “sinners.” Yet, if we were to think about it, the trace of those scattered seeds could be found even in our own lives.

Therefore, in all we are called to do in the way of holding human society together, the greatest blessing is this: although humanly we have to distinguish between righteousness and unrighteousness, these distinctions go no further than our own opinion. Would you go so far as to damn people for eternity? Do you want to take over the work of God? Is it then, O man, that you would make eternal decrees?

5. Love and Community

We must have a sense of community. Individual development, indeed, is also useful, particularly as a grounding for Christianity; yet, we still need this sense of community. And it should be built upon the truth that belongs to it, namely, the law of God….

You should keep the law of God. You should learn what you are to do by listening to the person of Christ; and you will need no other teacher. Only in this way is community possible. If a person exists only for himself he will have a very hard time of it and scarcely succeed….

Don’t believe it–that a person can become blessed and happy by himself. You, on earth, have been called into the community of Jesus Christ; we depend upon each other–and when one member suffers, the others suffer also. We must perceive one another in the Holy Spirit so that we can serve one another even as we let ourselves be served. Just as, out of this sense of community, God asks you to serve others as often as you have opportunity, just so, at another point, he asks you to let yourself be served–even by a person you rnay consider beneath you–that thereby you might know that you are nothing and God is everything and might learn to regard the other person as higher than yourself….

Above all, the fruit of this community with God and with one another must be that all sin is covered…. Indeed, this quality of community exists precisely that sin might be overcome.

Consequently, our sin must there be hidden; and we must always be ready to testify as to where that sin has been placed.

Many times a person can push through to faith by himself…. But in difficult cases, a person cannot do this on his own. Consider, my friends, I am nothing in myself; I am what I am only through this sort of community. If there are no brothers and sisters who understand me, I am nothing…. In the kingdom of God, no one exists for himself. We exist through God’s grace–and to do that is to exist for others and with others and to have ever more of the sense of community so that we can become a single instrument of power.

All the bonds of secular society, whether among heathen or Christians, represent imprisonment insofar as men are bound to men. In this way, a person becomes entangled with other people, finally achieving a human sort of union in which one individual pulls at another at his pleasure. And sad to say, that which generally is called “the church” has not kept free or been spared from this danger.

What comes under the generic term “church” and constitutes so-called “Christendom” has become simply a collection of sects and parties. And in that setup, one always has a bad conscience before others or is embarrassed before them; one goes “the way of men” along with the others to whom he has bound himself. Consequently, anxiety is created; there is a strong group spirit which must be respected. And so a person has to bow and scrape himself off the street and into the church. All In all, it is a very unpleasant story. And thus, frequently, it is seen that this sort of curse does not hold the person for long before he returns to entirely secular society.

But, dear friends, you are created after the image of God and not according to human images. There is no human image to which you must conform. There is only God the Father, whose likeness you can adopt. It is something impossible that you, in the long run, can endure by means of the human and transient or by making yourself dependent upon the endurance of the human. Rather, you should take note that you then do irreparable damage to your soul; and who is going to fix that for you?

Yet, my friends, it is the case that we have a new covenant, a covenant in which we all take on the image of God. It. is not a bond in which we make this or that law and try to differentiate ourselves from other people. There is no looking down on others. Other people have no authority over you, and you have no authority over others. There is only one bond–one true covenant in Christ. There is no law putting people over people. In Christ, there is only the law of God, from the Father in heaven. And when this law stands fast in every heart, there is a loving, free, blessed sense of community among us.

Then the manipulating, hurting, repulsing judgment will entirely cease in our midst. Then, in this love toward God, we shall, one with another, be impassioned toward one object and do our loving one with another. And we shall do this even though one person or another has different opinions, a different creed, or understands things differently (perhaps even better) than we do. Then there will be no more of the human bonding from which comes war and bloodshed. Then there will be the bonding of God which, in all our hearts, the Holy spirit will be able to certify as nothing but love, nothing but the sense of true community.

The question today, as at the time Jesus appeared, is whether we can arrive at such a relationship and such a covenant.

What we usually call “love” is something that makes us weak. Therefore, among people in general, it is at the urging of their nature that they hate their enemies. Only a person who is born of God can do what Jesus says. Of course, if we are motivated from below, if we are mastered by our passions–sympathies and antipathies–then we cannot truly love. One must, therefore, be a child of God. And how does one become that? … We are such by nature…. We are from God. Consequently, something of his Spirit should live in us, should pluck us out of the ordinary to lift and carry us.

The love which friends or lovers have toward one another does not accomplish anything toward loving the enemy! The person who offends me, who does not understand me, who regularly humiliates and scolds me–he’s the one to hold fast for God: “You belong to me because you have hurt me.” If we always cut ourselves off and separate ourselves from those who do not please us, is the goal then reached? For that matter, what is our goal? …Is it not that God’s love should once master the whole world and that all the brutal acts and the suffering caused by those acts forever disappear? Then, if we take part in this by being patient and loving, isn’t that worthwhile? … We are drawing into the world the power which yet shall win the victory.

I know of no greater light coming from Jesus than this: “Love your enemies.” That is the word which should get its turn today.

The individual heart is very like a police headquarters; there people’s deeds are arranged as in a file drawer. One has only to ask, “What do you have on that person? What have you on this one? The person can open the file and give out information on anyone. Very often, with real grace, we leave the drawer closed and do not talk about the cases; yet, when necessary, the key is still there so that the cases can be brought to light. And that hinders; it does harm.

As long as we have a police register in our hearts, it is impossible for us to do anything with others. With this file drawer in my heart, even if I say something of great significance to someone, it still won’t do. The dear speaking of the will of God becomes possible only after the file drawer has been destroyed. We must be as firm as a rock in this matter: I will not be a police headquarters; the cases shall no longer be entered in me! Once take that stand and you will see how the illumination of your heart increases and how light its troubles become. Even the evil world loses its heaviness and everything goes well because the light of the Savior’s life now can illumine us.

Jesus will bear the guilt; but he will not be present in a heart in which there is a police station. He does not go in; he does nothing there. He has bornethe guilt of the world; and if you are one who lays on guilt, he may not have anything to do with you. That being so, take thought!

Give a person this consciousness: “I am God’s”–and immediately he will climb out of all his misery. The first thing that happens when a person is lost is that he sinks under. Thus our love should be such that we communicate this consciousness both to ourselves and to others. We should not put down either ourselves or others, should not consider anyone as evil.

Our love should be like the sunshine, as Jesus himself said. It should shine upon everyone and itself remain light and clean. In this way, our power would remain powerful. The enemy would be able to sense that we are not out to correct him but to accept him as God’s child Then he would no longer be an enemy. But when the world becomes insulting about this or that and we join in, then we have lost the consciousness that we are God’s.

Jesus sees every person as abnormal but gives up no one as lost If people were not as they are, they would have no need of Salvation. So, In the next place, Jesus allows all to come to him as they are: sinners and righteous, poor and rich, healthy and sick. Jesus gives himself to each person as he is; and people ought not play up their own piety and put down that of others.

Jesus wishes only that his disciples serve, as he himself served in the very shedding of his blood. His disciples, in his spirit, should make others free, giving up on nobody but, in great forbearance, looking for the good that God has created in each one. Once a person is thus freed, he can readily correct himself. This is how it is: always directed by a spirit of serving, saving, and freeing, we can fight against the greatest powers, certain of victory even in the most difficult relationships.

6. Godly Humanness

If we observe the life of the Savior and ask, “Which way did he go regarding people?” we find that he always sought out the childlike, the simple, the unsophisticated. But whatever was nailed into place, whatever attempted to be “religious” in a legalistic sense–from all of that he kept his distance.

Therefore, today I say: The ways which consist so much in “outwardness,” with their outward laws and outward activities … the ways upon which there is to be seen only the earthly life fenced in on religious grounds and the people weighed down with burdens … these are broad ways upon which anyone can go. And yet–and always on the grounds of “the religious life”–a person will increasingly be seen frequenting these ways as his “inwardness” becomes stunted, as the true power of his spirit dies away and, with it, the power of the eternal God as well.

It is not good that Christendom has been established solely by law. Indeed, if into this purely legal Christendom there also had not regularly come childlike individuals, often directly out of the masses, out of uneducated circles, out of the circles of the scorned and lowly … if such childlike individuals bad not found a way of saying, “I’m getting away from all this; I’m a child of God; and if I am being despised, then all people are being despised … if it had not been for these people, the Christian community would not have done as well as it has.

But this is terrible, my friends; everywhere among men you find wisdom, learning, might, rule, influence, every possible disposition. But only at great cost can you find childlikeness, the childlike heart. Under all the confusion of teaching and learning, under all the cultured manners, very often true man lies dead. What society most often makes of us is slaves! Many are not capable of thinking through what “the people” are saying; and so they look around and wind up going the way that all “the people” are going.

Have you not noticed that childlike individuals most often are looked upon by others as evil? I can think of many who were looked at cross-eyed their entire lives, simply because of their childlike demeanor, even though there was truth and the power of living in them. Many such people never get recognized, because childlikeness is of no use to our society. It needs clever and ruthless people who can exercise power over others; but the childlike must always seem to be on its way out. As the Lord Jesus, in his childlikeness and humility, had to stand against the religious laws of his day and thus get himself murdered, so it still goes today.

A person must be converted twice; once from the natural man to the spiritual, and then again from the spiritual man to the natural.

L. The New Revelation

am truly pleased by the question, “Does what once was said long ago to the people of that time apply also to us?” Indeed, this was also the question of my life, the answer coming to me only with difficulty. The question was solved not only theoretically but practically, being set forth through an act of God so that then we could say, “Now it applies to us; and even if it did not fully happen with the biblical people, it can now happen with me.” Thus something is happening for us today which did not take place for Abraham or Moses or even one of the apostles.

The advance of the kingdom of God brings to light old and new demands, as these may be required, and also old and new promises. There is nothing rigid, nothing mechanical about the rule of our God. Everything is always new, alive, relevant, and timely. And our problem, then, is always to understand what it is that is going on today.

Meanwhile, I believe, we have to seek–on the basis of the conscientious belief that Jesus is the truth of God–to seek that which today is true to life and to the living promises of God. I can understand that you–and many people–find this doubtful. Yet the old gives way; and new necessities bring forward new graces. And until this last is firmly understood, we will continue to stagger about. In this you can trust: whoever seeks will find, because God is never lost. However, he will be found only where he is, not letting himself be found where he does not wish to be. In this way, then, we must seek him.

Apart from life-experiences it does not happen. We dare boldly to say that “revelation” is also needed today;it did not terminate with the Bible. I am well aware that many people get angry over the word “revelation” and consequently, out of their very piety, have quarreled over all of God’s direct actions and his many miraculous deeds. But I do not see why, out of small-mindedness, we should allow the Highest to be robbed of what is his.

Christ lives; and if he lives, then there also is revelation; and revelation is essential for the hearts of those who would be enlightened by God.

On this basis [i.e., a new development of the kingdom of God penetrating the world] it is now permitted us to think of all things as being new. And if, for example, the apostles earlier have said, “Whoever believes is blessed, but whoever does not believe is damned; blessedness to those who believe, woe to those who do not”–that, in the course of the centuries, has changed a bit. Today it means: “Be blessed! Be blessed also for your enemies, for your opponents–be blessed even for the unbelievers!” We must be a people of blessing for the whole world; then the kingdom of God will come in blessedness.

M. The Bible

If we are awaiting a new Zion [i.e., a new Jerusalem, which is the new church community of the redeemed people of God], then, in our hearts we must prepare for that Zion and disregard the position presently defined by anyone’s church confession. In our hearts we must make ready to serve God alone. And if we become fellow workers with God toward that end, then we will again be biblical. It certainly is no fine or helpful word to call a person “biblical” simply because he follows and is zealous for the confessions.

The “biblical” keeps itself free. Thus, as it has always been, so today it also is difficult to seek and to give expression to that which is of God. Rather, so much of the human has found expression that the “biblical” now appears as some sort of defense for our civil and social life. Thus it can happen that finally someone with a biblical truth must be willing to be seen as a corrupter of the state and of the church.

Yet even so, Christ the Cornerstone stands eternal; and from this stone ever and again will come “the new”–until heaven and earth are themselves made new and the old has gone down before the new, in-streaming kingdom of God.

People speak much these days about “the inspiration of scripture”; and this is good. However, I prefer to speak of “inspired people.” God be thanked that we have scriptures that came from those through whom God’s Spirit spoke the truth. Yet it is the prophet who is inspired, not the letter of scripture. And if the letter is to lead to the truth, so must you also be led by the Spirit of God as you read.

Conversely, today’s natural man knows nothing of the Spirit of God and so gets himself quite confused regarding the words of the inspired prophets. But thus, also, a man like Luther could, for his time, personally witness to the God-intended truth of that for which other writers of his time could find no meaning nor make any sense. He was ruled by God and the Spirit, not by biblical texts. But if we all attend only upon the revealed life of God, and if each person is zealous only for his own gifts regarding God’s truth and steadfastness, then we do not need to be in conflict over the inspiration of scripture. We then can find ourselves in reciprocal agreement.

Even in ancient times there was a distinction: God in Yahweh and God in the totality of the world. Thus the heathen stood under God, but Israel under God in Yahweh–and Yahweh is the colleague who lives with man. Originally the name Yahweh was a cry, “He is here!” When something happens as one of the gracious acts of God, that signifies, “He is here!” As Jacob lay with a stone for his pillow and saw the ladder to heaven, he said, “He is here!” And thus there was built up a concept of God’s entirely loving actions signifying Yahweh. Indeed, in this regard there is nothing more grand than the old Testament. Veritably, Go lived with man; and man knew him through his deep and wonderful acts.

Consider once how poor we would be if we did not know of these gracious acts of God. If we always had to think of God in philosophic modes, how could we ever truly speak of him or to him? Yet every child can know this: God is like a father who does good to his children, who will be humane toward mankind. And because of these gracious acts of God, we are now, in particular, to be reconciled in Christ. It is there, indeed, that God has come in the flesh, has revealed himself as flesh…. Jesus would be truly human man, on that account calling himself the Son of Man; and in him, God himself draws near to man.

One must have norms, even for the Bible. And in this case it is Christ, as he is presented by the apostles. Wherever in scripture I cannot make that norm fit, then that passage is not for me until I can make it fit. Many times, then, I must wait until the teaching comes, until finally it is given to me.

Thy will sit at thy feet and learn of thy words (Deut 33:3, according to Blumhardt’s German translation). When you place yourself before that which our beloved God has spoken, then you are at the feet of God. Yet this happens only when one believes that it does. Many people do not take this personally enough, and God withdraws; then the word remains hidden and no longer has power. Consequently, many no longer take it as the word of God and want nothing more to do with it. A person must watch himself that he does not take the word of God too humanly, too superficially.

That which God has spoken represents his Person. I would almost like to say, “Don’t give me the word as though it were something–not the Bible but God in the Bible.” … One can use the Bible in a fearful, superstitious way if one looks only on the outward aspect of what it says, sticking to the letter rather than simply accepting that God is present in it. Now, if I read the Law, I am also speaking with God. This way a person can understand the Bible quite simply, because he hears God speak to him. There comes to him an understanding quite different from what otherwise would be the case. But when the person fails to do this sort of reading, he is being unbiblical. He is not understanding the Bible, because he is not taking it as something God says. If we translate everything coming to us from God into human terms, then we have a system; and that means that the “biblical” and, indeed, the essential Bible itself are utterly lost….

So it goes continually with everything one should say and hear: if he does it as seated at the feet of God, it will have a totally different effect from what it would if he simply read a book. Doing that has no real value…. It is not the book that has value; It is persons that have value–in this case, the Person of God. Therefore, I will sit at the feet of God; there I will learn–today so, tomorrow so, come what may!

One must, in his Bible reading, also notice how earthly things around us are going. There one inevitably discovers that things are not as they stand in the Bible; and it is easy, then, to say, “Because we do not have it so, apparently such things are not to be.” But that is a false conclusion. We should be honest enough to say, “if we do not have these things, then they should and must come to be.”

It is true that, in the Bible, we now have certain decrees of God by which we can judge whether someone is remaining faithful to the decree of God. But for the advance of the kingdom we need–pardon my expression–more than the Bible; we need direct instruction.

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