Preaching Among Our Youth
Dear Bro. Don,
I enjoyed reading the report in the Tidings on the campaign weekend in North Carolina which took place this past January. This was a wonderful example of team effort by Christadelphians from many different ecclesias in different parts of the U.S. (and beyond). Many people from different age groups were involved in the organization and execution of the campaign, but what impressed me the most was the large group of young people who came to North Carolina with the desire to help preach the word of God to people they’d never met. And they engaged in this work with energy and dedication.
Many Christadelphian young people in the U.S. today are blessed with the opportunity to frequently gather together in CYC meetings and weekend youth gatherings to study the Bible and talk about their walk in the light of the Lord. A much smaller number are able to spend extended periods of time, usually during the summer months, involved in organized preaching efforts such as Truth Corps. Opportunities for our young people to really get to work on important matters are, however, limited, by money and by infrastructure.
Lately, it seems there is an unprecedented eagerness by large numbers of young people to be involved in substantive work on behalf of their belief in the Gospel, particularly in preaching efforts. These young people are a valuable resource — the future leaders of our body, and more than that, a present source of inspiration and zealous labor. Many seem ready to spend less of their youth in volleyball games and skating parties and more in being about their Father’s business. It seems to me that we older ones should gratefully accept and encourage their assistance and provide opportunities and mechanisms for them to work together with more experienced brethren. We need the help and they need the practice and the mentoring. This requires our faith in the ability of our young members to work with integrity and accountability and sincerity.
Mary Warner San Francisco, CA
Prophecy
Dear Bro. Don,
I was deeply moved on reading the letter from Bro. Al Hussey (Jan. 01).
Like him, as an ex-Catholic I remember those heady days when I was first introduced to the Bible – those initial discoveries, those endless questions and those eager people so ready with scriptural answers. How beautiful and logical I found God’s truth to be. Within months I, too, was baptized. I was encouraged to read the writings of the pioneers and to acquaint myself which I dutifully did. I value these men greatly.
At the time of my first reading of Eureka (1957), little did I know that great heart searching was being undertaken by learned and conscientious brethren who had reservations about the continuous-historical approach either partly or in total (I support its main features but still have questions). When some of these brethren eventually went into print, we have to accept the fact that we have received a series of interpretations which in some respects are mutually exclusive and contradictory. One example being the Whittaker brothers, one opting for an Arabic beast and one for a Roman. If two great men of the word, such as these, come to different conclusions, it should give us pause.
I have to say that I personally find two major flaws in the initial approach of Bro. Harry (Whittaker), one of which is indicated by his closest ally in interpretation, Bro. Nick Lunn. Bro. Harry was a great man of God who gave his entire life to the truth, and his book is fine in that it teaches us so much about the workings of scripture If I had cut him off because I did not agree with his interpretations, then I would have lost ten years of exchanged letters and telephone calls, something to be grateful for. He taught me so much.
One thing which must not be lost sight of is the responsible attitude of our community to the Apocalypse. It is to be applauded when we consider some of the unscriptural interpretations which come from other sources. But if the trend outlined by Bro. Al continues, then it will lead to suspicion, intolerance, a dividing of friends and the separation of very brethren. The insistence that we conform to one interpretation only can lead to a monolithic power structure such as erected by Rome in the heyday of its persecuting power, or something comparable: nobody dare question.
Twenty years ago, a brother of great venerability told me that in the sixties he had told the Christadelphian office that we do not have to fear what Rome or Protestantism might do to us: the real danger was within in that extreme demand that all must conform. What has this to do with the God of reason, or His apostle who states that we must be fully persuaded in our own minds? Dr. Thomas said that, like Paul, he would not be brought under the power of any. Neither will I. I will not be cemented into someone else’s mindset. This must not be demanded of anyone.
Let us take the example of the Lord Jesus. At the age of 12, he was found in the temple among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. He must have done this many times before embarking on his ministry, and true searchers after knowledge must have always delighted in him. When he started to preach, he invited people to listen to him and ask him questions. The result was that by many he was subjected to a campaign of deliberate misunderstanding, personal vilification and character assassination, leading to a treacherous betrayal, a “fixed” court hearing, and the cruelty of a criminal’s death under Roman law. As David said to Saul, what begins as an itch became an obsession, and a search for a flea led to a blood sport (I Sam. 24:14; 26:20).
We must follow the Lord’s example. We must hear each other and ask each other questions. I suggest regular discussion groups wherein brethren are prepared to disagree in love, because common consent can never be achieved by coercion, only by persuasion, and if a person is not persuaded, then he or she cannot be forced to accept.
An aged brother once told me that Revelation is a set of exercises given to us by God, and we shall continue to do them until the kingdom comes.
Can I offer a hypothesis? Suppose that we could raise Dr. Thomas from his sleep and ask him to comment on the world today. Might he not look at Israel and say, correct! They have returned and colonized in unbelief. Would he not look at the Arab/Islamic situation and confess that he had not foreseen this? And as for the European situation, would he not be deeply satisfied? The great unification is under way. “These shall make war with the lamb.”
I greet Bro. Al in grace and truth and heartily endorse his appeal. We have escaped from an “infallible” religion. We have no wish to belong to another.
Tom McCarthy, UK
Dear Bro. Don,
I find it strange and sad that some of our brethren feel it necessary to challenge the very brothers who, through their writings, showed them the light of truth in contrast to the years spent in darkness.
Perhaps we should be challenging the teachers of darkness who failed to teach us right. Do not these former teachers brag that given a child until seven years of age that child will not leave them?
I would rather be spoon-fed by my brothers who know the truth then fed lies coming from those who are ignorant of it, and will probably die in their ignorance because they refuse to hear the truth.
We need teachers and shepherds, not challengers.
A Sister, Canada
No matter how helpful human teachers are, our confidence must be in the word of God and it is that which we must study. I’m sure any teaching brother, including our pioneer brethren, would be aghast if they felt their teachings were being accepted unchallenged and not rigorously tested against scripture. Our great difference from every other “Christian” community is that we rely solely on the Bible rather than on Papal authority, some “inner light,” the Book of Mormon, the Watchtower Society or other substitutes for personal Bible reading.
Dear Bro. Don,
I was interested in your editorial in the February issue (“Something Big’s Coming”) but I wonder, Is it possible Armageddon takes place after the return of Christ rather than before? Is it possible that the Arab nations, with some help from others, will fulfil Zechariarh 13 and 14, take half of Jerusalem, possibly the old city, and wipe out all but a third of Israel, at which point Christ will return?
Then Israel will indeed “dwell safely,” but the nations will unite and try to fight Christ. They are said in Revelation 20 to “surround the camp of the saints.” I can’t see how there is a “camp of the saints” until Christ returns unless it is just referring to Israel.
Helen Booker; Australia
We feel the coming of Christ is referred to in Revelation 16:15, before the nations are gathered for Armageddon. Further; the great earthquake “such as not since men were upon the earth” (Rev. 16:18), we feel is the same earthquake alluded to in Ezekiel 38:20 (“…every wall shall fall to the ground’) and in Zechariah 14, when “the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof” There are other linking points as well which convince us Zechariah 12-14 refers to “Armageddon.” It is our opinion the Gogian invasion occurs after Christ has returned to judge the responsible and before he establishes himself king in Zion. A pamphlet detailing our view of the evidence is titled, “Israel’s. Defeat: by Gog or the Arabs” and is available from the CSSS in Torrence Park, South Australia.
Revelation 20:7-9 is placed “when the thousand years are expired” and, in our opinion, is the natural outcome of the power of the flesh still prevailing in the mortal population of the kingdom.
You ask is a different scenario possible? Of course. That’s why we decline to side with those who insist all agree to a specific interpretation of events leading up to the full establishment of the kingdom.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One