Greetings in the sweet name of Jesus. We believe the Bible and we try to obey God and follow what is written with all our heart. We love God, and we can see His hand all around in every aspect of our lives.
We believe God’s promises
We have the same hope as Abraham. Actually, our hope comes from the promises of God to Abraham. God promised Abraham the land of Canaan as a personal possession. That promise will be fulfilled when Jesus comes and establishes the Kingdom of God, ruling the whole world from Jerusalem, for at his coming Jesus will raise again to life the ones who died in the hope of the promises of God.
God promised to David an everlasting Kingdom through His Seed. That Seed is the Son of God, ever living to be king forever. Of course, that immortal king is the risen Jesus. God made him immortal, as He promised to the fathers. That’s the reason why God raised him from the dead.
The Kingdom of God did exist in the past, but it was overthrown because of the sins of the nation and the wickedness of the rulers. But God is faithful. The Kingdom of God will exist again. And forever!
The recent return of the Jews to the land of Israel is the beginning of the prophetic process described by the prophet Ezekiel. So, it’s very important to watch what’s going on now in Israel, and this is a time to pray more and more for the peace of Jerusalem, for we are told that they will prosper that seek it.
The times of restitution
The first part of the Kingdom of God will be for a thousand years, and is called “the times of restitution of all things,” because everything must be given back to God, and Jesus will do it. God has put all things under Jesus’ feet, and in that thousand years Jesus will rule over the nations, over the kings of the earth, and he will restitute to God the whole creation. The immortal saints will reign with Christ as kings and priests, and they will go preaching the good news, the glad tidings of God through Jesus to the mortal men in the Kingdom of God. The capital of the world will be Jerusalem. The blessings of God promised to
Abraham, indeed all that God promised, will be shed over the nations in the Kingdom of God through Jesus the king of the world.
When the times of restitution of all things is over, the Kingdom of God will continue forever in a way that we can’t even imagine. All we know is that God will be all in all.
We believe in one God
We believe in One God, the Father. The Bible doesn’t teach about God being three persons in one: such doctrine is pagan. Jesus is the Son of God, so he isn’t what he never claimed to be. The Holy Spirit is the power of God. Jesus didn’t exist in any objective way before he was born into this world. I believe he was a “plan” in the mind of God, just as we have been too. But there was nothing real, just the plan. And the plan became flesh. And we believe that Jesus was tempted just like we are. He was sinless, however.
We believe that God can perform a miracle even today if He wants to, because He is alive and He is the same forever. But we don’t believe that God works without a purpose. His plan is higher than our human situations. In the New Testament times He gave the Holy Spirit — His power — to men to enable them to perform miracles. But there was an aim in that. It was to confirm the church as the announcer of the Truth. It’s not really necessary any more today because we have the Bible, and the testimony of the true body of Christ surviving through the ages.
We died with Jesus!
The first man Adam died because he sinned against God. As I see it, Adam’s sin affects all his descendants because he was the head of a “body,” the first type of a mankind (a kind of man). Like Adam, Jesus Christ is the head of mankind, a representative of all that trust in him as Lord and Savior. He died to obey God, and to enter into his glory, and to save the church — the body of true believers. When he died we died with him. When he rose up, we rose with him too. By faith we were together with him in his death and resurrection. And now we live for him! Amen!
The true devil
Satan or the devil isn’t actually a supernatural person. Rather it speaks about the “carnal mind” controlling the flesh. It says about the self, out of God’s control and under sin. It says about our natural nature, against God, that must be crucified by faith, with Jesus. It says about our desires and lusts, our “human” way to understand and act, our behavior out of God’s plan, our sinful constitution, our sinful heart. That is why we ought to get Satan behind us, out of the control of our being. The front seat of our life belongs to God, the Driver, who guides us by His word.
After death
After our death we are unconscious. Our soul is ourselves, and when we die our only hope is resurrection by the power of God, because we wait on His mercy and we trust in Jesus Christ, the Savior of the church.
The day of judgment
Nobody knows exactly when will be the Day of judgment. The only thing we know from the Bible concerning that Day is that it will be when Jesus comes from Heaven. The judge will be Jesus Christ. In that Day will be judged everyone who has heard the word of God and has been in a condition to make a decision for or against it. Those accepted by Christ will receive immortality and entrance into the Kingdom of God as co-rulers with Christ. The fate of those who are not accepted by Christ will be everlasting destruction.
With Christ in baptism
Baptism is one of the most important of Jesus’ commands. It is actually a condition of salvation, by immersion. It is identification with Jesus in his death and resurrection. Jesus is the Son of God with power by the resurrection, and we become by faith children of God by our resurrection, symbolized by baptism.
Baptism should be preceded by true belief. It doesn’t mean, of course, complete knowledge of all doctrines, or deep understanding about everything. Personally, I understand that biblically one must know about Jesus and his mission, his representative death and resurrection, and his second coming, to be baptized. I think also that because of the thousands of “cults,” “sects,” churches” and movements around the world in these last days before the coming of Jesus, that one should be baptized only after a proper explanation of basic fundamental Bible doctrines. This way, we can prevent misunderstandings.
I don’t believe that baptism is a rite of initiation. It’s something higher. It’s not a mere commitment to a church. It is something between a soul and his savior. It’s much more than an external sign for the local church.
I know how my heart was the day I went to be baptized by immersion in Jesus’ name. There was no one around who believed the Bible as Leila and I did, but we knew that we were committing ourselves by identification with the Lord Jesus and his Truth. The man who immersed me, though having not full knowledge of Bible doctrine about the Kingdom of God, the state of the dead and so on, was a man whose heart was for Jesus, with an open mind for learning. Afterwards I baptized Leila myself.
After baptism we must keep on studying the Bible, crucifying our old man, filling our heart and mind with the word of God and the mind of Christ. If we sin, we must come to God for forgiveness and we know that God forgives because we come to Him in the name of Jesus, who is now in the heavens making intercession for us.
This is our testimony
This is our testimony: we know that we are in Jesus, like the Christadelphians. We can’t join any church since we know the Truth and we can’t hide it. We are praying that the Lord may show us what we can do to establish his testimony in here. We need the help of all Christadelphians, because we can’t mix the true gospel with the preaching of the churches.
This is my calling
I work as a tourist guide in the Pantanal, a wild area where there are some people living beyond the reach of churches or politicians. They are open to a school, a Christadelphian oriented school. There are many children around here who don’t have classes, nor Sunday school, churches, mass, nothing. These people are mixed with Indians, and they keep a weak culture. They know nothing about the Gospel. All they have are tenuous notions from the Catholic church. They need a testimony of God among them. Today I met a tourist who told me she could put me in touch with some organization in U.S.A. interested in supporting schools in the jungle. But I don’t believe we can mix the word of God with such organizations. I prefer to work by myself and to pray to the Lord for help through some true brethren.
If possible, I would like to know how to get Portuguese booklets, tracts and Bible Courses. They would be wonderful and extremely useful.
Finally, I have finished. I hope you understand my writing. I have done my best with my English. We believe. I’m answering with Leila. We are together.
God bless you in Christ.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One