Bruderhof wrote:
> Bruderhof wrote:
>
>> Yet the light of hope does ****ne among these m***** 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 m***** 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 m***** 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 tem****arily
tolerated
by God.
--
Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
www.blumhardts.com
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