Thoughts on Being a Christadelphian
July 13, 2009
Dear Friends,
The Christadelphian Magazine recently published an article entitled Being a Christadelphian – Holding fast in challenging times. In this article they put before the reader the current state of flux within Christadelphia-the challenges to doctrine, walk and practice. The article was not too specific in nature, but if you spend any time online or using other traditional means of keeping up with what is going on, you know what they are talking about.
Christadelphianism has had its ups and downs for the past 150 years. However, during most of that time, Christadelphians have stood for a particular set of doctrines, a specific set of morals and a common way of doing things. Yes, we have at times been divisive, legalistic and perhaps even a little bit elitist. These negatives have even produced their own set of jokes (“Where two or three Christadelphians are gathered together in my name, there will there be an argument.”) However, despite our peculiarities, we have created a community of people which is perhaps one of the best kept secrets on the planet. Long before McDonalds was able to serve you up the same hamburger wherever you were with amazing consistency, the Christadelphians had a system which ensured that wherever you might travel you were guaranteed to meet good, honest, doctrinally sound people with whom you could feel good about leaving your children.
But over the past few years we have been hit with the “perfect storm.”
The storm’s first ingredient is that Christadelphia has truly been in need of some repair. Our practices have become stale, adhering to a Victorian era order of service and catalog of hymns. Our system of checks and balances hasn’t kept up with the age of the internet. [Another Christadelphian joke: the three fastest ways to disseminate information - telegraph, telephone and tell-a-Christadelphian.] Our failures (divisions, heavy-handedness by groups or individuals, legalism, etc.) were not addressed strongly enough or in a Biblically correct manner. This failure to address real, substantial issues led to discontent which, in turn, led to people looking for solutions on their own without consensus and without regard to past standards. Because we were not good stewards of that which was entrusted to us, we created the “every man for himself” system in which we now live. It is not “they” that is the problem; it is “us.”
The second ingredient is that our lack of central authority-one of our most enduring positives-also created an environment for new flavors of Christadelphianism to spring up and prosper. No one owns the copyright to the name “Christadelphian”. This is not new. I am told there are currently roughly 17 distinct “fellowships” calling themselves Christadelphians. What is new is that the new groups that are springing up are pretending to be part of the main, whereas in the past most splinter groups would hold themselves apart. In times past, Christadelphians divided over doctrinal and moral issues which the average person would have a hard time understanding. We would divide over whether there are two usages of the word “sin” in the Bible, or whether a person can remarry if their spouse commits adultery. In these cases, a distinct “fellowship” would form and ties would be severed. This old practice was, quite frankly, abysmal and a blemish on the community, so we are not defending it. Yet, the new practice has the potential to be equally sinister. Some of the new ideas are easily understood, but the proponents are not splintering off. Instead they adhere to the main body. All this naturally prompts the question that the Christadelphian Magazine article has asked- what makes a Christadelphian a Christadelphian? Where is the line drawn? We have a dismal history of line drawing.
Since we have no central authority which can dismiss groups who are misusing the Christadelphian name, some people out there no longer resemble historical Christadelphia and yet continue to claim that mantle. In the past you might have come into contact with another “fellowship”, but if you could tolerate their little quirk (whatever that might be), they would essentially have the same look and feel as the rest of the community. This is no longer true.
The third ingredient of our perfect storm is that we’ve been hit with a new social context but are ill-equipped to handle it. We are currently in the Golden Age of Sin. Right is wrong and wrong is right. The only real sin today is talking about sin. The perfect storm of Christadelphia was coupled with the perfect storm of humanism, evolution and moral relativity in society around us. A significant percentage of Christadelphia’s current membership has only known a world in which the only sin is judging another person’s words and actions. This has eroded our standards and brought about a moral and doctrinal laxity in our ecclesias. In an honest effort to become more loving and kind, we have in many ways become less loving and less kind. Mirroring society, we are now threatened by a dynamic of extreme tolerance. In that climate, the tolerant stand idle as people simply do as they please, but swiftly condemn anyone who judges doctrine and behavior according to Biblical standards.
Have a great week,
Comments»
Who care whether all Christadelphia has “the same look and feel”? Uniformity can be stifling of any beneficial changes
And where is your evidence for this alleged “moral and doctrinal laxity”?
Dear Ady:
Thanks for the comments.
Who cares? I care, for one. If you don’t care, that’s OK. To each his own. The reason I care, as I tried to explain in the series, is that there are a lot of benefits of Christadelphians being a known quantity. Our amazing hospitality, for one, is potentially at stake if we don’t know who or what is walking through the door.
This isn’t really the forum to get into specifics on moral and doctrinal laxity. The last thing I want is people dropping people’s names and their alleged sins on this blog. The point is to look at moral and doctrinal laxity in the one person each of us can control – ourselves. If we measure ourselves by Christ, all of us have at least a little moral and doctrinal laxity with which we must contend….if we think we don’t, then there is a great place to start.
It is true we also have to look to ourselves when it come to moral or doctrinal laxity? I, for one, struggle to read God’s Word alone, as I like to discuss it with someone else and bounce questions and thoughts off them
I honestly feel hospitality has been lost for the most part. Brothers and Sisters go to meetings, but most families rarely get together. Old and young single people are often left to go home alone for the rest of the week. We are in the Ecclesia of Jesus Christ 24 hours a day 7 days a week, not just a few hours on a Sunday morning and evening and maybe also a few hours one day during the week. The centre of an Ecclesia’s life should be an every day thing, not just a Sunday Meeting thing. Where are the opportunities for Brothers and Sisters to ask questions or seek counselling or support for single or marriage-related difficulties and problems? Why are so few single Brothers and Sisters “adopted” by families to relieve their loneliness and isolation? Why can’t we work on new ways to preach to our neighbours? Why can’t we help the poor, disabled, elderly and less fortunate citizens more? (For we are commanded to love our neighbours as oursevles, are we not?)
Dear Ady:
The problem is we can’t change other people (as much as we may want to). All I can do is what I can do. I can invite people to my house. I can include lonely brethren in my family activities. I can help the poor, elderly and less fortunate. Maybe, if I set the right example and give others the opportunity to participate, they might be encouraged to do it themselves. In the end, however, I can’t control them, only me.
I sometimes imagine the frustration that Jesus might have felt being perfect and being surrounded by….well….people like you and me. How aggravating it must have been to go out day after day and do the right thing — help people, heal people, feed people, teach people — only to have them complain, slander you, hate you and finally kill you. Since I am NOT perfect, I only can imagine it. It does make me think that I need to try a little harder and live a little more compassionately.
Thanks for writing.
Kyle, excellent points! And the last few sentences are so true, it’s heart breaking. “This has eroded our standards and brought about a moral and doctrinal laxity in our ecclesias. In an honest effort to become more loving and kind, we have in many ways become less loving and less kind. Mirroring society, we are now threatened by a dynamic of extreme tolerance. In that climate, the tolerant STAND IDLE as people simply do as they please, but SWIFTLY CONDEMN anyone who judges doctrine and behavior according to Biblical standards.
I must confess I didn’t originally realise there were three parts to your article, Brother
I agree with most of your observations
Like we all should do individually, I think our community needs to take a look at itself in the mirror and make some significant changes!
I think Ady that what we ALL need to do is ‘look…in the mirror and make some significant changes.’ The individual Ecclesias and, indeed, the whole community, are made up of the very brethren and sisters that Kyle Tucker refers to above. ‘Let him (her) that is without sin…’ – It ill becomes us to criticise others unless we have plucked out the beam from our own eye. We do, though, have to do our very best to preserve the Truth in it’s purity. Christadelphians have something extremely precious that is far more perfect than any one of us – we need to look at where liberality and so-called humanism has got other faiths to – look at the Baptists as just 1 example. Christadelphians try to be ‘in the world but not of it’ – that is not easy but it certainly doesn’t mean that we should roll over to appear more pleasing to others – we ARE different – or at least we should be.
THank you Kyle for your thoughts. In an age in which anything goes, the need for self-reflection seems void, and yet those who profess to follow the master need the mirror of Christ more then ever to judge their steps. We have been caught in a storm, perhaps some of it our own making, and the truth is that the troubled sea can only be calmed by Jesus himself. May we have the faith to keep in the boat, and trust he’ll guide us through…
I see words of smugness, I hear perfection in your voices. “May we have the faith to keep in the boat..” ? Is this really the voice of the meek? Is this the voice of love? To sit tight and weather the storm? This is just the problem. You give yourselves a bad name. You are referred to as a cult. You shut out others, when you should be bringing them in. Looking for lost sheep and those fallen by the wayside. Not just on special days of the year, i.e. the planned days for distributing leaflets. You should go out in that storm, get wet and windswept, and tell no one.
You speak as though you have something that you want to keep for yourselves…inside the snug warm boat, while others drown. You sound as if you believe that you’re already saved, and you criticize the Baptists? Don’t forget that they are the innocent. You are not their judge.
How’s about taking a leaf out of the book of the good Lord, as it were, and take a chance on the rest of society – the same society that you live in, take from, and then condemn. Go out and see if you have the strength to be amongst them, like Christ did. It really doesn’t matter about what society does. It matters however, what YOU do. That is, what you actually DO, not say or believe.
Oh, and so far as the hospitality thing… you can go too far with that. Give more, and take less, would be the better thing to do.
Once again, Christ was anything but smug. Get out of your comfort zones, if you want a real chance of salvation. Being a Christadelphian guarantees nothing. Yours, Marilyn
Being a Christadelphian guarantees nothing but being a brother or sister of Christ, a son or daughter of God guarantees everything, for there is nothing that can seperate us from his love. Knowing that should energise our lives to love others in the same way but John’s first letter tells us that there are other things we must try our best to do: acknowledge our own sin, accept Christ as our saviour, keep the teachings of Christ and the Apostles, keep the commandments and love our brethren. These are not conditions or guarantees (for who can keep them all the time) but they are characteristics which identify the brethren and sisters of Christ as opposed to those who merely claim to be but simply make up their own religion.
I have so many questions about Christadelphians and their beliefs and practices. I find myself confused about religion as each claim to be the right one and the only one when the point of all of it isn’t about us it’s about Him. I seek the truth, be it as it may, I think it’s out there and we as humans have the right and responsibility to know God’s truth and share it. I have, just as I do now, and most likely always will have questions regarding mans’ faith and why the truth seems to be hidden inside a web of lies and deceipt. If you ask a 90 year old Catholic and a 40 year old JW and a 20 year old Christadelphian and so on if they love God and Jesus each will say yes but each religion will say the other doesn’t. Why?
Mark,
I LOVE your question and comment. I am writing about this very topic an upcomign edition of the current TFTW series “Doctrines with Power” so I don’t want to say too much here. However, let me assure you I would NEVER say another religion didn’t love Jesus. I will explain more in the next couple of weeks, but let me just offer this advice. Your relationship with Jesus is NOT predicated on anyone else’s relationship with Jesus; just your own. I feel like we all need to be truth seekers and need to associate with other truth seekers. We are all on this journey together. One of the great paradoxes of Christianity is that if you try to get into the Kingdom of God to the exclusion of others, you exclude yourself. It is only by seeking to get everyone around you into the Kingdom of God that you yourself enter.
God bless your search for Him!
Kyle
I believe the bible has the answers, and it is only by the word of God and his son Jesus Christ that we can know the truth, and thereby be set free. It will take commitment to read it daily to find out, if what those around us say is in fact true. We are told to not to believe every spirit but to “try the Spirits whether they be of God”. It will take an everlasting love for God to endure all the difficulties that may come our way, and to continually seek for truth, but rest assured, if one desires to know the truth, and sets his heart to it, and seeks daily to find it, it will come, so long as we wait and believe ON Christ. (And not just in him). We must read, divide and compare the scriptures, daily just as those in berea did, to see what is the truth, and thereby we have the foundations laid to discover what God desires from us all. However there will be trials along the way, times when you may think all is lost, but if Jesus says he is able to “save us to the uttermost” then the only thing that will prevent us from being saved is ourselves. To put it in Jesus words, “If you abide in my words, then ye shall know the truth and the truth will set you free” If we truly loved God we would never give up on him, we would just continually try to be better sons and daughters of his, by loving him and our neighbor, as well as striving to tell others of the wonderful hope that is in store for those who do love him. As i see it there are no set works we can do to be saved, however there are certain things that if we don’t do we cannot be saved, for what sort of faith do we have if we don’t try and do ALL his commands, and those of his Apostles? How can we say we love him if we don’t? Keep praying to God for i know he cares for you all, and wants all of us to inherit his kingdom, “And may the grace of our God, and our lord Jesus Christ, be upon you all” kind regards Gavxxxxoooo
I was brought up Christadelphian and have sadly watched the community move from a sincere attempt to hold fast to God’s word, to a chaotic, lukewarm state of Laodicean liberality, blended with a minority of increasingly disillusioned people, who are nevertheless unwilling to break fellowship with what has effectively become yet another daughter church of the harlot.
Whatever leaning one has, it is easy to find an ‘ecclesia’ which caters for itching ears, whether feminism, theistic evolution, emulation of modern idolatry passed-off as worship, belief in Holy Spirit possession, disrespect of the elderly, openly-tolerated defilement of the sanctity of marriage, a turning towards acceptance of active homosexuality, the sense of Christadelphia being part of the wider Christian brotherhood: as one of many ways to enter the Kingdom, with Church-unity Christian fish symbols being used on cars to advertise this, etc., etc. Those who try to fight for Truth are bullied by the liberals, often venomously branded “Pharisees.” This is so much a sign of the times proving that Jesus is near. Look at Luke 12:45-46 to see how Jesus predicted the abysmal behaviour at the time of the end, with the seamless blending-in with the standards of the world, and the turning-upon fellow servants.
I would urge those who wish to be faithful to get out of the godless mess that modern Christadelphia has become, just as they would have done when Catholicism gained a foothold in early Christianity.
“Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8)
I was brought up Christadelphian and have sadly watched the community move from a sincere attempt to hold fast to God’s word, to a chaotic, lukewarm state of Laodicean liberality, blended with a minority of increasingly disillusioned people, who are nevertheless unwilling to break fellowship with what has effectively become yet another daughter church of the harlot.
Whatever leaning one has, it is easy to find an ‘ecclesia’ which caters for itching ears, whether feminism, theistic evolution, emulation of modern idolatry passed-off as worship, belief in Holy Spirit possession, disrespect of the elderly, openly-tolerated defilement of the sanctity of marriage, a turning towards acceptance of active homosexuality, the sense of Christadelphia being part of the wider Christian brotherhood: as one of many ways to enter the Kingdom, with Church-unity Christian fish symbols being used on cars to advertise this, etc., etc. Those who try to fight for Truth are bullied by the liberals, often venomously branded “Pharisees.” This is so much a sign of the times proving that Jesus is near. Look at Luke 12:45-46 to see how Jesus predicted the abysmal behaviour at the time of the end, with the seamless blending-in with the standards of the world, and the turning-upon fellow servants.
I would urge those who wish to be faithful to get out of the godless mess that modern Christadelphia has become, just as they would have done when Catholicism gained a foothold in early Christianity.
“Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8)
What makes a Christadelphian is his or her adherence to the scripture and willingness to be adjusted and reproved and encouraged by God’s word. Most of what we deal with today as Christadelphian identity is in the realm of scriptural principle more so than doctrine. Really the only “doctrine” is the scriptures.
I agree that a lack of central organization, with Christ as head, is the greatest strength and weakness today. In the 1st century the Christians had a “governing body” of men. I used to be a JW before learning the real truth and fins it challenging sometimes that we dont have a central body. However 150 years later there is still a FAITH that is lasting and true.
Our every day actions make us Christadelphians and we musn’t forget that above all else.
I think the Christadelphian Office should conduct a survey to see where we are at as a community.
I’m new to Christadelphian belief. I have travelled a long religious road (Catholic, C.o.E, Jw’s, Baptist, modern evangelical and various other groups). I’m very tired. Exhausted with theology. It’s like many many people shouting “It’s over here” I feel tossed about from pillar to post. Discovering Christadelphian view of Scripture as woken something inside me. A light as flickered. I’m finding study very interesting. I’m starting to feel that perhaps “there is a best kept secret” the Bible is coming alive once more.
Paul,
I agree with you 100%. I think we are the best kept secret out there. We’ve got to to a better job of not being such a well kept secret! :-)
I am glad your faith has re-ignited! Burn brightly for all to see!
God bless!
Kyle