Freedom from Sinful Thoughts

December 29, 1997
This revised edition of a book originally published in 1973 is a concise, straightforward work written from a pastor's heart about the sinful thoughts--sexual, blasphemous or otherwise--that plague the heart. Arnold (1913-1982), an elder in the Bruderhof community for some 40 years, offers spiritual steps to turn away from these recurring, destructive thoughts and "to win this fight demands faith in Jesus, who promises us victory." Arnold contends that a rigorous program of confession of sins, repentance of sins and turning toward the Cross of Jesus leads away from these hidden sins of the heart. A discussion of Arnold's Bruderhof tradition, a Christian communal-lifestyle movement founded in 1920 in Germany by Arnold's parents, is reserved for an 11-page addendum. Finally, Arnold sounds a warning to the self-oriented, therapeutic tendencies of our day: "The goal of confession should always be liberation.... We want to find Jesus, not ourselves."