“It is quite common for men to typify Jesus Christ, but not nearly so common for men to typify the Heavenly Father. What other instances of this can you find in the Bible? We’d be pleased to hear about them” (G.B., Nov., page 469).
Dear Bro. George,
- One “type” of the Heavenly Father is Solomon, who writes, “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and reject not your mother’s teaching; for they are a fair garland for your head, and pendants for your neck. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent” (Prov. 1: 8-10, RSV). This fatherly advice was surely intended primarily for Jesus.
Throughout the early chapters of Proverbs, the same pattern is apparent: “My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and years of life and abundant welfare will they give you. Let not loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind them about your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man” (Prov. 3:1-4). How sadly ironic that the writer who thus portrays the yearnings of the Father eventually rejects the advice conveyed to him both by God and by his own natural father. - Hosea’s experience provides a poignant counterpoint to Ezekiel’s. The latter felt the anguish of losing one who was faithful and beloved [cf. Ezek. 24:16]; the former was required to restore to himself one who had been habitually unfaithful. “Go again, love a woman who is beloved of a paramour and is an adulteress; even as the LORD loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods” (Hos. 3:1). We have each been unfaithful to the Father… bringing pain to His heart. But still He is willing to restore us to Himself.
Philip Jones
I’d suggest one minor caveat to the first example: there may be good reasons to suppose that much if not all of the “fatherly advice” in the Proverbs was initially David’s advice to his son Solomon rather than Solomon’s advice to his son Rehoboam. (Also, the “man after God’s own heart” ought surely to make a better “type of the Father” than would Solomon!)
This would of course mean that the “father” who gave the advice (David) did not so much reject that same advice, as that the “son” who received the advice (Solomon) rejected it.
But who composed the fatherly advice in the first place is something of which we cannot be certain.
George
Conscientious Objection website
The website mentioned in the last issue — www.christadelphianco.org — has been closed down, unfortunately. (The server has been hit twice by hackers in the past year and wiped out.) Much of the same information that had been posted there is available from the Christadelphian National Service Committee, through Bro. Andrew DeLorenzo (andymart@vermontel.net), or — as mentioned earlier — Bro. Jim Dillingham (bible888@aol.com). Other materials on conscientious objection in general are also available from the Detroit Christadelphian Book Supply (www.christadelphianbooks.com) and Thousand Oaks Christadelphian Library (www.bigbrand.com/library).
The best books?
A brother writes: “What are the best, most profitable Christadelphian books you have ever read? And why?”
Of course, you can’t go wrong with John Thomas’ Elpis Israel, “The Hope of Israel”. Written in 1848, it is well worth the time, on historical grounds alone, for it marks the beginning of the modern “Christadelphian” movement.
The Protesters and Brethren in Christ (Alan Eyre): The primary reason to read these two books is to marvel at the spiritual strength of the pioneers of our faith (going back much earlier than the 19th century!), and to be motivated, by their examples, to greater efforts in these days of laziness and indifference.
As a young man, the most revolutionary, eye-opening thing I ever read was Harry Whittaker’s Exploring the Bible (and of course, its sequel, Enjoying the Bible). They changed my life. I still go back and skim through them every several years. It is probably safe to say these two books have helped more readers to become true Bible students than any other writings.
For Bible overview, background, and apologetics, Alan Hayward’s God’s Truth is a must read.
Almost anything by Islip Collyer is worthy of attention. He was the most reasonable, calmest, gentlest, and kindliest of writers — but with a profound grasp of the Bible.
Read any of the many exhortations by “Rene” Growcott. You’ll have to find most of these on the internet — just search for “G.V. Growcott” and you’ll find them in short order (but be careful of some of the other things you might find along the way). GVG was a polite, courteous, and pleasant man, as well as a dedicated Bible student, but — as a writer — he was a throwback to the sternest and most uncompromising of the old Puritans. So stern, in fact (in print, at least), that his messages are a little frightening. I always like to read a bit of Islip Collyer alongside GVG: they balance one another off quite nicely.
Wrested Scriptures, by Ron Abel, is an organized, in-depth analysis of Bible verses regularly misapplied by various denominations to justify their own special false doctrines. It is very useful in preaching work.
For deep insights, and a feeling that God is still working today, read Robert Roberts’ Ways of Providence (Bible-based exhortation of the highest order).
For light reading, try Len Richardson’s Sixty Years a Christadelphian, subtitled A Worm’s Eye View of our Community.
But for the very best example of Bible study and exposition, you can scarcely do better than HAW’s Studies in the Gospels.
“And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of…” — so many other writers. As a community, we are richly blessed: not just in the fundamental doctrines passed along to us, but in the fine brothers and sisters who have labored with pen (and typewriter and computer!) to “open” God’s Holy Book for us.
We would welcome other answers from our readers to the question: “What are the best, most profitable Christadelphian books you have read? And why?”
George
A Christadelphian Sampler
John Thomas
“Search the scriptures with the teachableness of a little child, and thy labour will not be in vain. Cast away to the owls and to the bats the traditions of men, and the prejudices indoctrinated into thy mind by their means; make a whole burnt offering of their creeds, confessions, catechisms and articles of religion; and, after the example of the Ephesian disciples, hand over your books of curious theological arts, and burn them before all. These mountains of rubbish have served the purpose of a dark and barbarous age; the Word, the Word of the Living God alone, can meet the necessities of the times” (Elpis Israel, pp. 5,6).
“Where is the man among ‘philosophers’ who will stultify, or idiotize himself by saying that the Creator permitted chance to elaborate the terrestrial system? The thing is absurd. The fool says in his heart it is not God. Why does he say so? Because he would make the cause of all things, a mere physical disposition in matter, destitute of all intellectual and moral attributes, in order that he may get rid of all responsibility to such a Being. He hates truth, righteousness, and holiness, and therefore he vainly strives to persuade himself that there is no God of a truthful, righteous, and holy character” (Elpis Israel, p. 169).
“Beloved brethren, human nature is always tending to extremes and transcending what is written. As the saying is, it will strain at gnats and swallow camels by the herd. It set up the Inquisition and is incessantly prying into matters beyond its jurisdiction. It is very fond of playing the judge and of executing its own decrees. It has a zeal but not according to knowledge, and therefore its zeal is intemperate and not the zeal of wisdom or knowledge rightly used. It professes great zeal for the purity of the Church, and would purge out everything that offends its sensitive imagination. But is it not a good thing to have a church without tares, black sheep, or spotted heifer? Yea, verily, it is an excellent thing. But then it is a thing the Holy Spirit has never yet developed, and cannot be developed by any human judiciary in the administration of spiritual affairs. There are certain things that must be left to the Lord’s own adjudication when he comes” (The Ambassador, 1866, pp. 91,92; reprinted under “Dr. Thomas and Divisions”, The Christadelphian, Vol. 67, No. 788 — Feb. 1930 — pp. 52,53).
Alan Eyre
“On the evening of this fateful winter Saturday [in 1525], about 20 men gathered in the home of Felix Manz in Zurich. They walked over the situation, and their own needs before God. Let a contemporary account speak of what followed: ‘As they were together, anxiety came on them and pressed upon their hearts. So they began to bend their knees before Almighty God in heaven… they prayed that He would grant them to do His divine will, and that He would reveal His mercy to them. For flesh and blood and human frowardness did not drive them, since they well knew what they would have to bear and suffer on account of it… And so they together dedicated themselves in the high fear of God to the Name of the Lord. Each confirmed the other in the service of the gospel and began to teach and hold the faith.’
“They linked themselves into a brotherhood of faith: Bruder in Christo, Brethren in Christ. It was sealed by a solemn but intimate ‘breaking of bread’, either the same evening or the next day, Sunday.
“To appreciate the spiritual power generated in that hour it is well to pause and consider what manner of men these were who so determined that they would obey God rather than men. Most of them were in the prime of life. Cajokob, Manz, Eberli, Hutzer, and Brotli were all to be burned, drowned, or beheaded within five years of this Zurich meeting, in places hundreds of miles apart. Grebel was to survive little more than eighteen months. They fully realised the peril of the step they took” (The Protestors, pp. 28-30).
“ ‘You are the salt of the earth.’ Jesus of Nazareth invested the tiny band that he called apart to testify to him and all he stood for with a staggering responsibility. Into all the world they were to go. Not with the hope of converting the world, but with the aim of creating and forming a redemptive society that would be as the savour of salt in a world of corruption. In parable, metaphor and allegory, the Gospels illuminate the Master’s teaching as embodying the one element of permanence and true selfhood in a world of doubt, changeableness and transcience. To build on it was to build on rock; by it one entered the light and joy of the bridal festivities while outside was the darkness; to bear witness to it was to be bearing lamps which shone with divine illumination; it was enduring bread and living water. In the wild darkness of the stormy night human guidance was in vain, and all their rowing brought no aid to a boat sinking with water. They were unable to discern any ethical landmarks; in all their doubts and fears they were in jeopardy. It was the voice of the Lord which stilled their storm.
“The world has had — so it is said — an age of gold, an age of faith, an age of reason. Now perhaps we are in the age of uncertainty; which is strange since we know more about things than ever before. Yet we do not know what to give in exchange for our souls. ‘For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits himself?’ That is true enough now, but in the day of reckoning if our self has been compromised and sacrificed to the Moloch of expediency, what will there be left to perpetuate?
“‘You are the salt of the earth.’ Many of the characters in this book, most of them virtually unknown, worked and struggled to season their generation with the savour of sincerity, charity and faith, and they are their own commendation. Many of them wrote, not with the cool pen of the academic theologian, but with the passionate intensity of tested conviction and a love that overflowed from a source which they felt was infinitely more precious than anything that this world affords. There is much we can learn from them” (The Protestors, pp. 213,214).
Harry Whittaker
“Every time you learn some new thing — a piece of out-of-the-way information which throws light on an obscure passage of Scripture, a neat explanation of a longstanding difficulty, the name of a book which will supply useful knowledge on a particular subject, a simple association of two Bible passages which illuminate each other — whenever you encounter anything which might conceivably be of value one day, make a note of it somewhere. Of course, you have a blotting-paper memory and can carry these details easily, so the note is not necessary. But please accept an emphatic assurance that one day your memory will not be as good as it is now, so it would be well to start the note-taking habit right away” (Exploring the Bible, p. 10).
“And so the search for the more exact meaning of Bible phraseology goes on. It is those who soak themselves in the language of Scripture and who pore over its words, trying in a sympathetic, imaginative fashion to think themselves into the minds of the men who wrote — it is they who learn the more precise, inner meaning of what is written. But to this attitude of mind must be added a willingness to persevere in the comparing of Scripture, and to spend long hours with Bible and concordance side by side” (Enjoying the Bible, p. 87).
“Hebrew is essentially a picture language. It has astonishingly few abstract terms. Presumably the language grew up this way because the genius of the people naturally expressed itself in illustrations and pictures taken from life and the world they lived in. Consequently even the most matter-of-fact narrative in the Old Testament is liable to be unselfconsciously helped along with some vivid metaphor, as when Jacob said to Laban: ‘The Lord hath blessed thee since my coming’ (Gen. 30:30). Here the phrase Jacob used is literally ‘at my foot’, giving the picture of prosperity springing up wherever the foot of Jacob trod in the service of his father-in-law. When Joseph’s brethren were scared at finding themselves given special treatment by the unrecognised chief minister of Egypt, they explained the experience thus: ‘We are brought in that he may seek occasion against us’ (Gen. 43:18). But again, literally, the expression is: ‘that he may roll himself upon us’ — and immediately the picture is before the mind of an imperious tyrant crushing defenceless victims beneath his chariot wheels. In countless places in the Hebrew Scriptures this literary phenomenon is observable — and it should always be observed. All the more is this true in the poetic books. There the wealth of imagery has such a variety and splendour as to make these ancient writings a wonderful inheritance for any who appreciate good language put to good use — this, quite apart from the inspiration which is undoubtedly behind it all” (Enjoying the Bible, pp. 36,37).
Alan Hayward
“In every walk of life people learn to sense the difference between true and false. Old hands in the teaching profession can glance down an examination room, and pick out the one boy who is trying to crib [cheat]. The customs officer gradually learns to spot which suitcases are worth opening. The experienced magistrate can nearly always tell when a witness is lying. In every walk of life things either ring true, or they ring false.
“But before you can detect the ring of truth with any certainty you need experience. It is therefore significant that those who know the Bible best trust it the most.
“A Bible lover once told an anecdote about a pompous colonel at a dinner table. ‘In my opinion,’ he declared, ‘the Koran is vastly superior to the Bible.’
“ ‘Excuse me, Colonel,’ said a clergyman. ‘Do you mind if I ask you two questions? Have you ever read the Bible from beginning to end?’
“The colonel admitted that he had not, and waited uneasily for the second question. “ ‘Have you ever even seen a copy of the Koran?’
“When the colonel again answered that he hadn’t, the clergyman asked him what he thought of himself. ‘You publicly declare that a book you have never seen is vastly superior to a book that you have never read right through!’
“That story rings true. I have met dozens and dozens of people like the colonel, who condemn the Bible vigorously but have never read it. On the other hand I know people whose whole attitude to the Bible changed entirely when once they started to read it. As they read it, they could see that here was a book that rang true” (God’s Truth, pp. 69,70).
Islip Collyer
“ ‘Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up’ (1 Cor. 8:1). [Paul] was not condemning knowledge, but simply stating a truth. Knowledge of the right kind is excellent, but even that may tend to inflate the individual who possesses it. Men may be puffed up even by their knowledge of the Scriptures, especially if their reading has been ill-balanced. Much charity is needed to guard against this evil and to make knowledge lead to edification. There are people who will say that it is only the dangerous‘little knowledge’ that puffs men up, while those who have studied deeply are truly humble and never boast. This thought has been stated often, but it is not true. Indeed it would be difficult to define the words of such a saying. All the knowledge of mankind is only little. The most ignorant and the most cultured are only separated by a few degrees. It is quite true that intelligent people perceive the ugliness and folly of blatant boasting and so if they boast they do it more skilfully. Or it is possible for a man to feel himself so superior to the common run of humanity that he finds no pleasure in the admiration of the multitude. His detachment is a form of pride, and he may fall into the worst of errors by being puffed up against God” (Principles and Proverbs, pp. 128,129).
“To summarize the difference between ancient and modern doubt we may suggest that in olden times men saw superhuman beings in every shadow, and so in time of trial, they supposed that their God was only one of many. In modern times men seek a prosaic and ordinary explanation for everything, and so in times of trial even God is explained away” (The Guiding Light, p. 31).
Comments related to the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10):
“The Samaritans were neighbors in the most literal sense, but as for loving them, that seemed impossible. Christ loved them and caused his disciples to marvel at the manner in which he spoke to the woman at Jacob’s well and afterwards to others who came out to hear him. The Jews as a whole almost made it a part of their religion to hate the Samaritans, and if they were able to analyze their own feelings, they would probably have to admit that the hatred was directly traceable to the fact of their being such near neighbors. This is a common weakness of poor human nature. Those who are near but not quite with us arouse more bitterness of feelings than complete strangers. Then when such an evil feeling has once been started, the deceitful heart begins to build up fancies to justify the hatred, thus further traducing those who have been already wronged” (The Guiding Light, p. 66).
G.V. Growcott
“The human mind and body are incredibly marvelous creations of wisdom and capability. We do not use one hundredth of our potential. It is probably safe to say we do not use one thousandth of our potential. What the body can be trained to do in the lines of acrobatics and balance would be incredible if it were not proved by the accomplishments of some, as multiple somersaults in the air from a narrow bar, landing in perfect balance on the bar again. And as to the mind, some have memorized the whole Bible. Men spend a lifetime of effort and practice, and accomplish unbelievable marvels, all for a corruptible crown… What effort are WE making to obtain an incorruptible crown? Do we imagine the riches of the universe will be just handed to us on a platter? Why us, and no one else? What is so special about us? And yet we profess to be in the ‘race’ for life — ‘striving’ toward the mark? Earnestly preparing ourselves to the best of our ability for eternity with God. But we tend to just drift through life in ease and comfort, and unprogrammed, day-to-day, meandering self-pleasing? Absurdly assuming that because we happen to be fortunate enough to have ‘learned the Truth’ in its bare essentials, and have gone through the motions of baptism, and show up at some of the meetings, we thereby are guaranteed eternity, while the ‘heathen’ world perishes. What do we think we are given seventy years preparation time for? Just to play and accumulate and please ourselves? What unutterable, tragic folly! As we sow, so shall we reap: God is not mocked.”
“ ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35). Be big. Most people are small: small-minded; small-hearted; small-thoughted. The children of God are called on to make the supreme effort to grow up from mankind’s natural, infantile, self-centered smallness. Think eternity, not peanuts. Devote your life to giving, not getting. The getting will come in God’s good time — eternally: ‘heaped up, pressed down, shaken together, running over’ — divine good measure. Relax into goodness and largeness of heart. Let the little minds burn themselves out in anxious seeking and fear of being shortchanged. Have no fear that you are going to lose something unless you constantly consider your self-interest and fret about your fair share. You cannot possibly lose if you are in track with God.”
Ron Abel
“Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king” (Matt. 2:1).
“And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem” (Luke 2:4).
“The Problem: Matthew indicates that Mary and Joseph lived at Bethlehem, but Luke says that they returned to Bethlehem for the census. Therefore, it is argued, there is an apparent discrepancy.
“The Solution:
- Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem is no more proof that his parents lived there, than the statement that ‘I was born at sea’ implies that my parents lived in a ship.
- A reading of Luke 2:1-7 shows that, while his parents were at Bethlehem for the census, Jesus was born. But Mary had lived at Nazareth in Galilee before the journey to Bethlehem (Luke 1:26,27).”
Robert Roberts
Speaking of the trials of Joseph (Gen. 37), RR writes that Joseph, as type of Jesus, needed to suffer chastisement:
“Joseph was innocent and excellent, but Joseph was young and untried, and God had a great purpose with him that required that he should be matured and perfected in character as men only can be perfected — in the school of adversity. Joseph had to be fitted for exaltation and the exercise of power, and therefore Joseph had to suffer for Joseph’s own good and for the bringing about of a great result to the whole house of Israel. Joseph was allowed to become the object of his brethren’s successful hatred. Therefore, if sympathy sheds a tear, the understanding admires, while Joseph is bound by unfeeling brethren, and in spite of his frantic entreaties, lowered into a pit where death appears inevitable, both in his own estimation and that of his brothers.
“No greater evil short of death could befall a human being than that which thus came to Joseph. A spectator on the spot would have said it was evil in which it was not possible to imagine any good purpose. There was no explanation of it. Joseph was not permitted to know the meaning. He could not have understood if told. It would have frustrated the object for him to know.
“Let us recollect this when in any matter similarly situated. Circumstances may be dark; calamity unmixed; the situation such that enemies may say, ‘There is no help for him in God’; yet God may be at the bottom of all the trouble for purposes of goodness which the future alone will reveal. The only policy is, in all circumstances, to commit ourselves to the keeping of our Creator in faith and well-doing: ‘Commit thy way unto the Lord; and trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday’ ” (Ways of Providence, p. 87).
Len Richardson
“Our preaching efforts in Basingstoke at least made the name Christadelphian known. We cannot always measure the effects of our witness in the number of converts, for there is a wider aspect to our work.‘Ye are the salt of the earth,’ said our Lord and, as grains of salt in an alien environment, we have the responsibility of trying to influence our little bit of the world with the ideas and ideals of Jesus Christ, which alone can save it from putrefaction.
“So it was a great delight to me on one occasion, when we were holding some lectures in the Town Hall there, to learn that a car-load of supporters from the Reading ecclesia had [started out] without noting the address of the meetings. It was a dark winter’s night and as they entered Basingstoke they realised that they had no idea where to go, so stopped and asked somebody if they could tell them where the Christadelphians were having their meeting.
“The stranger replied, apparently, ‘Oh, you mean Mr. Richardson’s meeting — it’s in the Town Hall.’ It was heartening to know that to a total stranger in the dark ‘Richardson’ and ‘Christadelphian’ were synonymous terms.
“When they told me, I felt a little like Gideon must have felt when he heard the Midianite soldiers talking about him (Judg. 7:13) as he lay on his belly listening outside their tents in the dead of night. ‘And when he heard it, he worshipped,’ the record says. What a simple statement, yet how profound. ‘He worshipped…’ He did not need to be in a place of worship, or a posture of prayer. There he was, with his servant, doing a night time reconnaissance, eavesdropping on the enemy; but what he heard made him so thankful that ‘he worshipped.’ ‘Thank you, Lord, for letting me hear such encouraging news from the very camp of the enemy…’ ” (Sixty Years A Christadelphian, pp. 49,50).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One