For over 140 years, the Christadelphian body has maintained the faith and looked for the Lord’s return. That is a long time for a community of believers to maintain a clarity of teaching without allowing inside or outside influences to distort the Truth. We do not belong to a fad that will come quickly and be gone in ten years.
Why do we do it?
Yet all of us have asked ourselves why we do it. Is it fun getting up on Sunday morning, running around to get the family ready to go, and arrive at meeting on time only to find you’ve forgotten your own Bible and hymn book? If you’ve been doing this routine ten or more years, is it worth it? Many neighbors don’t think so. They sleep in Sunday morning and spend the rest of the day in their own pursuits.
And what of the other time we spend on the Truth: preparing classes, exhortations and lectures, doing the readings, attending mid-week and other activities. Is it worth it? All that time the neighbor has for his own interests. The bumper sticker on his car says, “I’d rather be golfing,” and often he is!
You keep telling yourself it’s worth it. In fact, you have a whole list of verses in your wallet to help remind you that it is.
Sometimes we wonder
Haven’t you ever doubted for a few moments? Have you ever considered what it would be like not having the Truth to hold you back? You would be free to seek out your own pleasures, maybe even leave your spouse for another one. Of course, the gross evils of the world would still bother you and you would still be a good citizen, but without the Truth and without the pressure of trying to follow the example of Christ.
During the last ten years, we personally know about 15 people who have left the Truth, most of whom have reasoned along such lines. They have wanted to do their own thing and have also felt that Christ wasn’t coming any time soon. “Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning” has been their thinking.
In many cases, they started out feeling Christ would come soon and were attracted by that possibility. But the hands of God move so slowly that they gave up, feeling His plan has stopped altogether.
Some will fall away
It’s inevitable that some will fall away. As we recently read in Isaiah, the prophet frequently experienced aggressive challenges from men who had lost faith in the working of God. Until Hezekiah’s reign, the ecclesia was pressured by the faithless until the faithful remnant was greatly reduced. Then, all at once, there were great calamities and great deliverance. The faithful saw the fulfillment of their hope: “Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed” (Isa. 66:5).
Every person who falls away must have some excuse. But for every excuse there is an answer and for every weakness, God has an exhortation.
The situation was not much different for Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The faithless said to Jeremiah: “Where is the word of the LORD? [that is to say, where is its fulfillment] Let it come now” (Jer. 17:15). Ezekiel had to endure the same complaint about God’s timetable (e.g. Ezk. 11:2,3).
How do you convince a brother who has lost heart in God? That was the dilemma that faced Ezekiel. The people said, “The days are prolonged and every vision faileth…The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off.” But the Lord responded: “There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezk. 12:22,27,28).
Peter was concerned about similar problems in New Testament times and about conditions that would exist in the last days. All along some have said, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Peter 3:4). If they haven’t said it out loud, they have said it by their action or inaction.
Another problem we face
We have talked about spending time on the Truth and about God’s timetable. There is something else that concerns some of us. At times we want Christ to come soon so that we can escape from trials and suffering. Rather than endure the molding of our characters for 50 or 60 years, we want this over with now.
When trials come before the Lord returns, we can become discouraged.
The mature thinking disciple, however, prepares himself for the fact that Christ may not come in his lifetime. If Christ does delay his coming, it may mean 50 or more years of holding to the faith. But the mature disciple wants to be in the kingdom more than anything else in the world and views our relatively short probation as a small price to pay.
Encourage one another
We don’t want to paint too bleak a picture. We need to recognize our problems and we need to lift up the faltering arms and stumbling knees.
Pastoral care greatly helps; that is really preventive maintenance for the ecclesia. The nice thing about it is that the one who gives it usually gets more out of it than the one he is helping.
God surely encourages us. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9). We see the encouragement in Isaiah, too: “Say unto them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not; Behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you” (Isa. 35:4).
We all want to give up from time to time, even if we really know the world is not a better choice. When that happens, we need to impress on our minds that God knows what He is doing even though He seems to delay.
While we wait, He finds pleasure in our patience and joy in our anticipation of the return of His Son. One day, of course, He will not postpone the event any longer and Christ will return. What we need to do is endure to the end, making our calling and election sure. In the words of hymn 308:
“We know the end, we know the way,
And some with life he will endow.
Shall we be with him in that day?
We make the answer now.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One