Correspondence

Tidings Historical Note

Dear Bro. Styles,

My father, Bro. Carl Wolfe, Pomona, CA, started the Tidings, nee Jr. Christadelphian, when I was about 14 or 15 years old. I’m now about 77.

We had a shed on the back of our property and it became the “Print Shop.” We all set type by hand and inked the presses. They were manually operated. I addressed envelopes by hand and stuffed, sealed and stamped them.

My father was a real believer and thought we should all “work out our salvation.”

I look back on it with fond memories.

Yours in the Truth,

Barbara Hilliard

Internet Gossip and Slander

Dear Bro. Don,

I wanted to thank you for your timely editorial in the Tidings on Internet gossip and slander (March, 2003). I really hope a lot of people read it and take note. I had the unfortunate experience encountering a web site that is run by very liberal Christadelphians and has fringe views, liberal views and non-Christadelphian views (e.g. present possession of Holy Spirit gifts, homosexuality isn’t so bad, doctrine isn’t important, etc.) and I made the mistake of posting a few messages. Well, any conservative posts are met by a 2 by 4.

Since then I have received several emails slandering Christadelphians here and there, accusing certain ones of the most heinous crimes. Whatever truth is in their accusations (if any) it is very upsetting to read and is, as you pointed out in the Tidings, an evil that needs to be eradicated. Emails get passed on, added to, spiced up, twisted out of all proportions. Really, we don’t need to know any of this stuff and it should be up to the elders of each individual ecclesia to sort matters out.

So thank you again for the editorial.

Richard Morgan, Panama

Chance or Providence?

Dear Bro. Don,

I am writing to provide a supplement to the very uplifting words of Bro. Clyde Drepaul in his exhortation in the March edition of the Tidings. I wholeheartedly concur that our Father is intimately involved in every aspect of the life of His children and does indeed bring trials and blessings into our lives for our learning, testing and proving. But I must add that the Scriptures also clearly teach that there are events in the lives of every man and woman that also occur by “chance.” Now when I say chance, I must also be clear that this is divinely ordained chance ­not “luck or fortune” by any means.

Bro. Robert Roberts in his wonderful book The Ways of Providence made a clear distinction between the intervening works of God and the “natural” course of events: “…all human affairs are not Divinely regulated…many things happen that are not of God. . . only a certain narrow channel of things (are) providence… there is such a thing as chance, as distinct from what God does. God has control of all chance; but all chance is not controlled. It is controlled when His purpose requires it.” (pg. 5).

The reality is that, as a result of God’s curse upon mankind and the earth, all creatures, man and beast, are subject to the consequences of sin without partiality.

“Vanity of vanities…all is vanity. What does a man gain by all his toil… a generation goes and a generation comes but the earth remains forever… this also is a striving after wind… Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the men of skill;  but time and chance happen to them all” (Eccl. 1:2­4,9;9:11-12).

Evil, the result of sin, befalls all creatures, no matter who they are. All people are under the bondage of sin and the effects of sin – disease, calamity and death – they touch us all – believers or not – equally. Jesus also shows us that God showers His blessings upon all of creation equally: “Your Father who is in heaven …makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:43­46).

The clear teaching of Scripture is that we are a fallen race and that we are all beneficiaries of God’s grace and we are all subject to the consequences of sin and death. What matters is how we respond to what happens to us. In the same way that God allows blessings and curses to fall upon mankind without partiality – so also He offers the hope of salvation to all mankind without partiality.

“‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

“The Lord is not slow about His promise…but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should  perish, but that all should reach  repentance” (II Pet. 3:9).

As Brother Clive beautifully points out, there is abundant evidence to show that our Father brings specific things into our lives for specific reasons — all the time. But this fact in no way eliminates the broad and general consequences of God’s established laws in His creation that apply to all creatures.

The issue that I want us to be clear on is that we cannot automatically associate our “fortunes ” with our standing before God. For example ­if a brother is healthy, prosperous and surrounded by the perfect family ­can we conclude that he is especially righteous and that God has rewarded him accordingly? Of course not! Only God knows the heart. In contrast – if a brother is sick, poor and has lost his family – does that mean that he is wicked and that God is punishing him for his sins? Of course not! Look at Job.

The message brethren and sisters is – we cannot judge! If God chooses to discipline us OR if time and chance come upon us – all that matters is how we respond. All too often, I have heard brethren and sisters say – “How awful – he/she must have done something terrible to deserve this affliction.”

The truth is — there is no justice this side of the Kingdom! The Scriptures abound with this message. “I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs; their bodies are sleek and sound. They are not in trouble as other men are; they are not stricken as other men” (Psa. 73:1-5).

Look around – the wicked do prosper in this life and all too often the righteous suffer. And this is because, this side of the Millennium, it is the powers of evil that rule. Again, what really matters is how we respond to what comes upon us. Peter’s instructions in this area are invaluable.

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you, as though something strange were happening to you” (I Pet. 4:12-13). The things we experience — whatever their source — are to be embraced as another opportunity for our Father to prove us. Peter tells us that the outcome is worth the pain.

“Rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ…as the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls” (I Pet. 1:3-9).

The position of Scripture brings harmony to the question. God has set in motion a series of laws and parameters that encompass His entire creation (i.e. law of sin and death). Therefore, like the laws of physics, they have universal application. Like our Sister Dianne Drywood said in her comment in the March volume, “often we just make terrible choices.”…

But this in no way prohibits the Creator of all things to intervene as He (and He alone) sees fit in the life of any creature – which He most surely does – otherwise there would be no point to prayer. But as in all things our prayers must be circumspect -“not my will, but Thine, be done.”

Al Hussey, Niagara, Canada

While agreeing with Bro. Al’s• very useful point, we feel that in context “chance” in Ecclesiastes 9 refers to the one event of death which befalls all living creatures. The context of chapter nine is set out in verses 2 and 3 as the “one event” (mikreh) ofdeath that falls on all. Subsequent verses develop the point (Eccl. 9:4-10,12). Elsewhere in the book mikreh refers to death every time it is used (2:14 event”; 2:15 “happeneth”; 3:19 “befalleth” 3 times). “Chance” (Eccl. 9:11) is from the Hebrew pehgag which occurs only here and I Kgs. 5:4 (“occurrent’) and in the context of chapter nine almost certainly refers to the occurrence, or event, of death which happens to all.

Youth Suicide

Dear Bro. Don,

Despite my previous volubility on this sort of subject [on an Internet discussion group for which this letter was written before submission to us], I find it hard to bring myself to write what I’m about to write. Mental illness runs in our family, so the subject of suicide, and the big question of whether it is a salvation-preventing sin or not, is not an academic one for me.

I have had the privilege of fighting mental illness alongside another brother in my ecclesia who also has manic-depression, even worse than I do. During the worst of it, we were both an immense help to each other, and had an intense friendship, one akin to David and Jonathan, to “brethren in arms.” During the worst period, this brother faced a continual and daily pressure to “check out” from a mental pain that not even I can imagine. We personified this temptation as a dark and seductive woman called Thanata, calling to him, tempting him to embrace her, holding out the lure of release from pain in oblivion.

This sort of dark humor was an enormous help to us. Thanata became for us a symbol of the strong allure of death when you are going through this much agony. This is hard to understand for those who haven’t gone through this sort of struggle and pain. We love life, even on bad days. We fear oblivion above all else in those rare moments when we actually stop to think about oblivion. But oblivion seems sweet when you’re enduring this kind of mental pain, and the temptation to commit suicide can be very strong.

I don’t use the term “temptation” lightly, it is just that. So, having used the word “temptation,” am I then implying that suicide is a sin? Even worse, is it a sin which, since you can’t seek forgiveness when you are dead and the deed is done, cannot be forgiven? Does dying with unforgiven sins of this magnitude prevent salvation?

I would like to suggest that the way in which you answer the question as to whether suicide could prevent someone from being in the kingdom indicates one’s true beliefs about sin, forgiveness and salvation, and what these are based on. Those who claim to follow Christ have not been kind to people who commit suicide, or their kin. In the history of the Roman Cathholic and Orthodox churches up until the recent past, suicides have been denied the comforts of last rites. In their theology, this indicates a belief that the person committing suicide has no chance for the afterlife. Their fate was imagined to be hell without question, and they were not allowed to be buried with other Christians. Protestants have been a little more nuanced about this, with an emphasis on justification by faith. But overall, the idea is very prevalent in Christianity that suicide prevents salvation.

I submit that this is because, in general, we have had a very muddled view of what salvation and forgiveness are all about.

It seems to me that many of us start our thinking about this subject with what I call the “transaction view.” This is a form of “salvation by works” thinking, probably in its crassest form. We imagine that God requires moral perfection before we can be saved. We know this is impossible, but we imagine that God is merciful, and forgives those sins we commit, for which we ask forgiveness, thereby erasing them from the tally. Thus, at the end of the day, or every week at breaking of bread we pray to God for forgiveness for the sins we have committed during the last time period. We thus begin the next period with a “blank slate.” We then do our best during the next period to not have any marks on the minus side, and perhaps even manage to put a few marks on the plus side. When we come to the end of our regular period, we “clear out” those sins by praying to God for forgiveness.

This might seem rather crass or simplistic to you, but you would be surprised how many people, both inside and outside our community, have this view, even if it is not so simply put. Ask some probing questions of the young people in your ecclesia. That will tell you what they have really learned, which may or may not have been what you tried to teach them. I’m not picking on the young folks. The fact is, in a community like ours, where our teaching about this subject, when we talk about it at all, is very muddled and unclear, this is about the best that most of us can come up with.

The problem then becomes: what if you die before you have been able to “clear the registers” as it were? (The “mechanical” nature of the idiom I used is not unintentional). For some Christian groups the answer was something called “last rites.” Preferably while you were actually dying, but at least as soon afterward as possible, someone would pray for forgiveness for you, thus clearing your tally one last time, and freeing you for salvation.

Things are not so simple for groups like ours who reject the concept of “last rites.” If we don’t have some understanding of salvation as being something which is given by God as a gift, rather than earned, then those unforgiving sins become a problem, one that may keep you from being saved, particularly if the unforgiving sins are “big” ones, into which category we usually put suicide.

I think you probably see where I am going with this. I believe that a better view of salvation for us, and one that is far more Biblical and consonant with what we know about God, is to understand that salvation is a free gift from God to people who cannot earn it. When we become followers of Christ, no, more precisely when we become “in Christ” through repentance (“turning away” from our previous life) and baptism and acceptance of that gift, we come into a state whose natural outcome is salvation. So long as we remain “in Christ,” we share his destiny. We will be “raised in Christ” to reign with him. Death becomes for us, merely a long nap, God tucking us in, as it were, when our “now” bodies can no longer function, to await resurrection and the gift of a “then” body. (Tears come to my eyes as I write this, this is a beautiful picture to me.)

However, there is an even better way to look at this matter. When we come into Christ, we become related to God. We join His family. God truly becomes our father, our abba, our “daddy.” Our brothers and sisters become literally our family, our kin, our people, our tribe. The only way to really leave a family is to completely reject the whole family, move somewhere else, change your name and try to forget your past. Sadly, this does happen. We all know of brothers and sisters who have done this. God, sadly and perhaps with weeping, lets them go. So it is possible to reject the gift of salvation, and possible, of course, to leave the family, even if your physical body still attends family reunions. But if you remain in the family, then the God-Father takes care of His family. Now. And forever. Amen.

When you view things in this light, the question of the salvation of the suicide can now be asked in a different way. Does suicide equal leaving the family?

God knows that “our flesh is grass.” God knows the weaknesses of our human mind. We don’t believe in an immortal and immaterial soul, one that can exist consciously if separate from the body. Thus we can agree with the finding of modern science that consciousness, the brain processes we refer to as “our mind,” are entirely dependent upon the workings of the organ of the body we call the brain.

Consciousness is what we call an “emergent” phenomenon, something which occurs when multiple hundreds of billions of cleverly designed and cleverly connected computers inside our skulls come online at some point in the first few weeks or months of our existence. The brain is the biological “support system” which allows the mind to exist. If the brain ceases to work, the mind can no longer exist, until God recreates our brains in our resurrection bodies.

Conversely, if the brain is not working correctly, then the mind will probably also not work correctly. In the last 10 years or so, psychiatry has made enormous strides in understanding how the brain works, and the ways in which brain malfunctions can cause mental illness. Illnesses such as manic-depression and schizophrenia are now known to be caused by brain disorders. Manic-depression and depression are now very treatable, since the advent of effective anti-depressants such as Prozac. Progress also is being made in the treatment of schizophrenia.

One of the most tragic things about suicide is that now it is often preventable. But the biggest problem preventing us from dealing with this issue more effectively is that folks still do not seek medical treatment when they, or their loved ones, are experiencing depression. This is due in part to attitudes which are still held by many concerning the cause and treatment of depression and mental illness in general.

God is merciful to us. He understands that for our minds to work properly, our brains must also be functioning correctly. He “makes allowances” without at the same time lowering His standards. His standards are high, and no one except His Son has ever met them; yet He understands why we fail, that our bodies and minds are weak, and subject to failure.

Let’s put this into family terms: does your children’s failure to meet your own standards put him/her outside the family? If one of your children commits suicide, does that put him/her outside your family? Certainly you might be furious with him/her, but he doesn’t stop being your child, does he? Especially considering that his/her suicide probably has nothing to do with rejecting the family, or with rejecting you, but rather he wants the pain to stop, with not being in his right mind. We don’t blame someone with one leg for not being able to run, do we?

The hardhearted might argue that the act of killing yourself is certainly equivalent to leaving the family. And from a certain perspective, you could argue this. If someone “checks out,” he is certainly not around anymore for family reunions. But this is a narrow and sickly view of family, if death is thought to remove us from family. Those who die are still considered part of the family by those who remain. We don’t take down their pictures from the walls of our hearts. We still call them our “son” or “daughter” or “brother” or “sister.” This is even more doubly so with God, who thinks eternally. When you are in the family, you are in FOREVER. Death does not part us from God. Even death at our own hands, in a moment of supreme weakness and pain.

Praise be to God.

Grace and peace,