Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Awakening: One Man's Battle with Darkness
    The Awakening: One Man's Battle with Darkness
    The Awakening: One Man's Battle with Darkness
    Ebook109 pages2 hours

    The Awakening: One Man's Battle with Darkness

    By Friedrich Zuendel

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    When Blumhardt, a nineteenth-century pastor from the Black Forest, agreed to counsel a tormented woman in his parish, all hell broke loose – literally. But that was only the beginning of the drama that ensued. Zuendel’s account, available here in English for the first time, provides a rare glimpse into how the eternal fight between the forces of good and evil plays itself out in the lives of the most ordinary men and women. More than that, it reminds us that those forces still surround us today, whether we are awake to them or not.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPlough Publishing House
    Release dateJan 2, 2014
    ISBN9780874865714
    The Awakening: One Man's Battle with Darkness
    Author

    Friedrich Zuendel

    Friedrich Zuendel (1827–1891), the Swiss pastor and author, and essayist, is best known for his landmark biography of Johann Christoph Blumhardt. First published in 1880, it has been re-issued dozens of times and remains in print.

    Related to The Awakening

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Faith-Based Farming

      May 10, 2019

      Too often in environmentally themed discussions, spiritual reasons for building compost piles and pond dams get lost in practical howto. Our temptation is to get excited about the how, and that’s all well and good. But if we plan to leave a legacy th

      5 min read

    • Article

      BRUDERH OF The Cult Of Community

      Sep 11, 2019

      BRUDERH OF The Cult Of Community
      9 min read

    • Article

      Receiving The Good News Lessons From The Parable Of The Sower

      Jun 12, 2020

      The Bible is the best-selling book of all time. It is the best-selling book year after year, every year. It far outsells any other book, with a whopping 4 billion copies sold over the last 50 years. The mission with which I work, Hellenic Ministries,

      5 min read

    • Article

      Problems? She Can Relate

      Dec 28, 2020

      Problems? She Can Relate
      6 min read

    • Article

      Ilse Kleyn Prophetic Artist

      Jun 24, 2019

      Ilse Kleyn Prophetic Artist
      7 min read

    • Article

      Proclaiming The GOOD NEWS Laying Everything Down For The Sake Of The Gospel

      Apr 22, 2019

      In Romans 1, we read the story of Paul the apostle giving a message to the church in Rome. After the resurrection, Paul tells the church that their faith is being proclaimed to the whole world; that Jesus, their Messiah, was raised from the dead and

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Pained Intuition and a Palpable Longing: Katie Ford on Theology, Poetry, and the Unknowable

      Sep 13, 2018

      If You Have to Go, the new collection of poems by Katie Ford, is a book that conjures powers of possession. I feel that way about all of her books: Her poems bring me to a mystical plane somewhere between language and life. I’m left shaken. Her willi

      17 min read

    • Article

      An Angel for Freddy Lee

      Oct 28, 2021

      An Angel for Freddy Lee
      3 min read

    • Article

      An Incredibly Fast-paced Existence

      Jun 24, 2022

      Many, many, many people around the world are struggling with negative thoughts and the pressure of making multiple decisions each day. We are living in and experiencing an incredibly fast-paced existence. We are constantly forced to ‘think on our fee

      1 min read

    • Article

      Lindy’s Time

      Dec 24, 2018

      Lindy’s Time
      5 min read

    • Article

      Young Evangelists Are Answering The Call

      Jul 22, 2022

      Many years ago, Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke spoke of a vision that the Lord had given him of young people preaching the Gospel on the streets of Europe. That vision has taken another step forward with the introduction of Fire Camps – retreats for youn

      3 min read

    • Article

      Women Of Grace

      Nov 18, 2019

      God has an abundant life, and a great future planned for you. His plan is to take care of you, not to abandon you. God says in Revelation 22:13, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Nothing in your life s

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Bible Doesn’t Suggest We Attend Church, It Instructs Us!

      Oct 21, 2019

      As the editor, I often receive letters from our readers requesting help or advice. I always try my best to refer people to the right organisations or people that I think could help them. Some enquiries are genuine, and others are from people simply t

      2 min read

    • Article

      G K Chesterton, Saint And Sinner

      May 1, 2024

      Gilbert Keith Chesterton – born 150 years ago, on 29th May 1874 – never quite goes away. He’s still widely read and quoted by people who rely on speechwriters rather than books. He’s a major voice in conservative circles, in particular. The Father Br

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Doctor Is In

      Jul 30, 2019

      The Doctor Is In
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Würzburg Witch Trials

      Jan 31, 2024

      The Würzburg Witch Trials
      3 min read

    • Article

      Letter Of The Month

      Jun 21, 2021

      Letter Of The Month
      7 min read

    • Article

      Biography & Memoir

      Jun 30, 2021

      Biography & Memoir
      11 min read

    • Article

      Tuesdays With Mitch: Ghosts Of Past, Present And Future Issue Ominous Warnings For Jews

      Dec 29, 2022

      Every Sunday at noon, when many are eating brunch or getting ready for a football game, a room full of chairs awaits in the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Maybe a few dozen people show up, sometimes more, sometimes less. The

      3 min read

    • Article

      What Kind of Nazi Was He?

      May 22, 2023

      What Kind of Nazi Was He?
      11 min read

    • Article

      Chesterton revisited DAN HITCHENS

      Aug 25, 2021

      Harbour Books £20 Invited to give a reading at the Catholic Poetry Society, G K Chesterton sat in miserable silence, unable to remember a single poem. ‘Will you recite The Donkey?’ someone asked. ‘Don’t know it,’ came the doleful reply. He brightened

      3 min read

    • Article

      How New Gods Are Made

      Mar 24, 2022

      TO SEND REVIEW COPIES, CONTACT THE BOOK REVIEWS EDITOR AT DVBARRETT@FORTEANTIMES.COM On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine Anna Della Subin Granta Books 2022 Hb, £20, 460pp, ISBN 9781783785018 Many of the subjects of this delightfully curious book had no

      11 min read

    • Article

      Books & co

      Nov 11, 2022

      by Rachael English This novel, inspired by true events, tells the story of a mother’s sacrifice to save her child from starvation in the Irish Famine. Young mother Bridget Moloney had faced the heartwrenching experience of leaving her baby daughter

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Awakening

    3.5/5

    9 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This is an unusual book. Normally books of this type I avoid because I do not quite know how to handle them - don't know whether to fully believe them or if they are written by somebody with a desire to fool us. This book is not of that type though, it is written about a pastor that was not always happy with the results, sometimes questioning them, but describing what was happening with his parishioners and others. It was fascinating reading and worthy for other Christians to have reservations to read.J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the Isms" "Wesley's Wars" "To Whom It May Concern" and "Tell Me About the United Methodist Church"
    • 2/5
      I have found this book to be a very interesting and challenging story. the reason for only two stars is a concern about theology and doctrine. The view of demons as tormented souls of dead people struck me as odd; among other things. I would recommend a discerning reader to search out scriptures to see it is right.
    • 5/5
      The Awakening is a story from 1841 with an important message for 2015. This is the true story of Johann Christoph Blumhardt’s encounter with Gottliebin Dittis, a young woman overcome by demonic activity. I usually avoid books about this subject, but this book is different. It is a respectful retelling of Blumhardt’s own writings not to sensationalize, but to show the real struggle with spiritual warfare. Blumhardt approached each situation by putting on the full armor of God. The book states that when things took a serious turn, he would pray with a friend. “Together we searched through the Bible, determined not to go any further than Scripture led us.” His approach, his faith, his humbleness, and his honesty about his feelings made such an impression on me. Not only did he encounter the spiritual fight, but also resistance from the local authorities. In spite of all of the obstacles, he saw a true spiritual awakening in his parish. While the book is about demonic activity, it is even more about the importance of repentance, confession, and reconciliation and peace that comes from Christ. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in spiritual warfare.

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    The Awakening - Friedrich Zuendel

    The Awakening

    Friedrich Zündel

    Ploughlogo.pdf

    Plough Publishing House

    Published by Plough Publishing House

    Walden, New York 

    Robertsbridge, East Sussex

    Elsmore, Australia

    www.plough.com

    ©Copyright 2000, 2014 by Plough Publishing House

    All rights reserved.

    PRINT ISBN: 978-0-87486-982-8

    PDF ISBN: 978-0-87486-570-7

    EPUB ISBN: 978-0-87486-571-4

    MOBI ISBN: 978-0-87486-572-1

    The Awakening is based on three chapters 

    (Der Kampf, Die Bussbewegung, and Die Wunder) 

    from Friedrich Zündel’s biography

    Johann Christoph Blumhardt, Zürich, Verlag S. Höhr, 1880.

    The introduction is an abridged translation of an article

    by Günter Krüger in Freundesbrief der Offensive Junger Christen

    No. 131, March-April 91/2, 59–73. Used with permission.

    Front Cover Photograph: © Eric Rank/Photonica

    PREFACE

    Though relatively unknown to many readers, Johann Christoph Blumhardt (1805–1880) is widely recognized in his native Germany, perhaps because of his landmark biography, which appeared the year he died and still remains in print. The terrifying psychic phenomena described in it catapulted his parish into the public eye and still draw streams of curious visitors to it, one hundred and fifty years later.

    The central fact of Blumhardt’s life, however, was not his involvement in demonic struggle as such, but the childlike faith that led him into it – namely, his belief in the reality of the age-old battle between good and evil, and in a Jesus who was not only an historical figure, but a living reality whose cosmic power can be felt and experienced still today.

    This faith embarrassed Blumhardt’s contemporaries, so much so that his nervous superiors tried to suppress him by restricting his pastoral work. It is even more suspect in our time, when scientific progress has rendered rationalism the only acceptable faith for thinking people, and the untidy mysteries of the supernatural are relegated to talk shows and fiction shelves. Mention God, or Satan, and you’re sure to evoke winces or worse.

    For Blumhardt, there was no question about it: good and evil truly did exist, and not only in the abstract. To him, the well-known accounts of New Testament writers had meaning not only as parables or stories, but as factual instances of divine intervention in the lives of real men and women. To him, it seemed obvious that if demons were driven out, the sick healed, and the dead raised two thousand years ago, they could also be driven out, healed, and raised in the present too.

    Zündel’s account is fascinating on an historical level, but it has vital implications for today’s reader. And though the quiet pastor at the heart of the struggle he describes worried that it might become a source of exaggerated rumors, he would still want it to be discovered and grappled with and read. More than that, he would surely want it to give courage to those who despair over the spiritual emptiness of our church-filled landscapes, and hope to those whose hearts are open to believe.

    The Editors October 1999

    I: THE FIGHT

    On July 31, 1838, the people of Möttlingen, a small town in southern Germany, turned out to welcome their new pastor. A zealous thirty-three-year-old, Johann Christoph Blumhardt had spent years preparing for such a position, and was looking forward to serving his new flock as a minister, teacher, and counselor. Now, finally, he and his fiancée Doris Köllner could marry, settle down, and raise a family.

    Blumhardt could never have anticipated the events he was about to be thrust into. Through them, the power of God to which he clung came close to him with a vividness experienced by only a few throughout history. At the request of his ecclesiastical superiors, he recounted these events in a detailed report entitled An Account of Gottliebin Dittus’ Illness. In his own memory the events lived on as the fight.

    Before long, completely against Blumhardt’s wish, a distorted version of his report began to circulate publicly. This compelled Blumhardt, who had not even kept the original, to publish a carefully edited second version. He made one hundred copies and stated in the preface that he did not wish to see it circulated further.

    Out of respect for that wish, the following account describes manifestations of supernatural forces only where necessary to demonstrate God’s victories over them. However, general, mysterious hints would envelop his struggle in an apocryphal twilight. Besides, Blumhardt regarded his experiences during the fight as so significant for the church and for the world that he would almost certainly agree to making their essential content public now. In a sense, we owe it to him to do so.

    In the preface to his report Blumhardt wrote:

    Until now I have never spoken with such boldness and candor to anybody about my experiences. Even my best friends look at me askance and act as though they feel threatened by even hearing about these things. Until now, most of it has remained a secret that I could have taken with me to the grave. It would have been easy to give an account that avoided offending any reader, but I could not do that. At almost every paragraph I asked myself if it was not rash to tell everything just as it was, but time and again an inner voice would say, Out with it!

    So I dared it, in the name of Jesus, the victor. This is an honest report of what I can still remember, and I am firmly convinced that the Lord will hold his hand over me in this. My only intention is to tell everything to the honor of him who is the victor over all dark powers. I cannot take it amiss if somebody is mistrustful of these accounts, for these things are beyond our understanding. They are, however, based on observations and experiences over nearly two years, ones which can in every case be corroborated by eye-witnesses.

    In speaking out unreservedly for the first time, I ask that the information given here be regarded as private, as when close friends share a secret. I also ask the reader to be so good as to read the whole report several times before forming a judgment. Meanwhile, I put my trust in Him who has human hearts in his power. Whatever the verdict of those who read this account, I rest assured in the knowledge that I have spoken the unvarnished truth, and in the rock-like certainty that Jesus is the victor.

    Möttlingen, a parish at the northern end of the Black Forest which numbered 874 souls when Blumhardt arrived, encompasses two villages. Möttlingen proper, with a population of 535, overlooks the Nagold River and has the architecture, costumes, and customs of the Swabian lowland. Haugstett, the parish branch, is more typical of the Black Forest region, and its inhabitants were known at the time for a spirit of independence so fierce that it often bordered on hostility toward their pastor.

    Near the edge of the village of Möttlingen stands a ramshackle house, recognizable now just as it was then by a window shutter bearing this weather-worn inscription:

    Man, think on eternity,

    And do not mock the time of grace,

    For judgment is not far off.

    In the spring of 1840 a poor family by the name of Dittus, consisting of two brothers and three sisters, moved into the ground floor apartment of this house. The eldest, Andreas, later became a village councilor. Then came Johann Georg, half blind and known as Hans. After him came three girls: Katharina, Anna Maria, and Gottliebin, who was born October 13, 1815. Their parents, both devout Christians, had died young.

    Gottliebin was spiritually precocious and a favorite pupil of Pastor Barth, Blumhardt’s predecessor. Adept at composing verse, she later wrote many fine songs. Yet from childhood on she experienced uncanny things, and contracted one strange illness after the next, which more than once forced her to give up a good job. Though no one was certain of the cause of these afflictions, they were presumed to spring from her involvement in the magic practices rampant in rural German villages of the era. Barth used his connections to consult eminent physicians on her behalf, and she recovered fairly well from her last ailment, a kidney disease.

    Gottliebin felt as attracted to Blumhardt as she felt repelled by him. At his first sermon she had to fight a desire to scratch his eyes out. On the other hand, Blumhardt could be sure of seeing her wherever she had a chance of hearing an uplifting word from him. For instance, she attended his service at the remote parish branch of Haugstett every week, even though one of her legs was shorter than the other, and it was difficult for her to walk long distances. She had a marked, dejected sort of shyness, which, when broken, revealed a defensive reserve. She made a downright unpleasant impression on Blumhardt and on others as well.

    No sooner had the Dittuses

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1