Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof - Plough

Against the Wind
an absolute trust in God, a trust that sometimes appears naïve? But as for Emmy,
she declared a few days later that she could not “look on infant baptism as the
biblically valid baptism,” and so must let herself be baptized.
Eberhard endeavored to find a theological basis for his decision in an intensely
thorough manner. Already on July 13 he had written, “I, of all people, must prove
that it is a steady and deeply-founded conviction of the will of Jesus and the
apostles. Otherwise it will immediately be said, ‘First the Salvation Army! Now
the Baptists! 1 Always going to extremes! That’s part of his temperament!’ No,
what I do I am going to do with my whole being.”
To his surprise the result of his research was unmistakable: five of his theology
professors were themselves of the opinion that infant baptism could not be
validated from the Bible. Independently of this he concluded, “It is not the books
and articles of theologians in and outside of the church that are crucial for me, but
the words of the Spirit in the Scriptures.” 2
brEaking with thE StatE ChurCh
As early as July 17 of 1907 Eberhard recognized distinctly that rejecting infant
baptism would mean breaking with the state church. This made his decision
doubly hard: “The church has meant a great deal to me.” Now he applied the same,
careful step-by-step process he had used regarding baptism to work through his
relationship to the state church. On July 28 he wrote, “It is really a marvelous
opportunity to seak in such a church and even more so to do it every Sunday. A
very thorough work can be done here.”
Two months later, in September, he reflected, “The baptism of babies, who
cannot express faith, does not seem to me to be derived from the Holy Spirit.”
Later in the month he concluded, “Jesus never wanted to have unconverted masses
baptized and made into Christians as a formality. The historical rise of the church
of the masses confirms the fact that its origin was not from the Holy Spirit, who
dwells only in the reborn.”
Finally, he recognized the “system of lies” that comprised the state church as the
“most perilous enemy of apostolic Christianity.” 3 It should be noted that Eberhard’s
mistrust applied to the institution –the structure erected by human beings – and
not to the representatives and members of the church in general: “Of course I do
not fail to recognize the integrity of many people of the church or that they are
blessed children of God.” As he expressed on September 13, “I would gladly avoid
leaving the church…But as often as I consult my conscience and the Bible, I find
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