Thirty-one years ago, in 1963, the members of the Epping Forest Christadelphian Ecclesia in Jamaica, established in the previous year, were surprised when people attending an open-air meeting told them that the Bible truths being proclaimed were neither strange nor new to them. They vehemently assured our new ecclesia that a church existed in the next village which believed and preached the same things as the Christadelphians were preaching, and that there were also other branches elsewhere.
Inquiries made
At first, the brothers and sisters were skeptical. But a brief search soon revealed a meeting hall of the Bible Truth Church. A Bible class was started in the home of a couple in that ecclesia (as they called it). One by one, the doctrines were compared and assurances made that their Bible views and ours were one and the same.
The local Bible Truth Church did not have any literature, but one of the Epping Forest brethren was urged to visit a larger congregation in distant Spanish Town. There, as predicted, literature was available that could be checked for conformity to Bible teaching. It did conform: One God the Father; a human not a trinitarian Jesus; the kingdom of God on earth; hell as the grave; man’s mortality; resurrection; believers’ baptism; the Holy Spirit acquired through the Bible; even the Bible devil.
There was no doubt at all that saving truth was there. Preaching the Truth to these people was pointless. They were, with good reason, rejoicing in it already.
Thirty years later
Many years passed during which we (the Christadelphians) had little contact with the Bible Truth Church. Then, early in 1994, the Epping Forest ecclesia had a Bible Seminar at the Vocational Training Center in the small town of Newport. Several members of the Bible Truth Church preregistered and attended the classes, including one of their pastors.
It transpired that membership in their local congregations had dwindled since the earlier contact; it was clear that they needed a boost. Hopes were raised again that some sort of mutual recognition might be possible. But soon there were signs that something was amiss. An offer on our part to give a Bible class series in the Edge-ware Bible Truth Church (the nearest to Epping Forest) was refused without explanation.
New errors substituted for old truths
One day I visited the pastor. He pressed upon me one book and two small booklets and urged me to read them. One of them expounded the book of Daniel in typical Christadelphian fashion. There was familiar teaching on the worldwide kingdom of God centered on Jerusalem, the reign of Christ with his saints over mortals who survive Armageddon, the resurrection of Daniel and the saints to inherit the earth, Ezekiel’s temple erected for the worship of the remnant of Jewry. There was even a brief explanation on resurrectional responsibility.
The two booklets which were more recent and were basically programs of conventions gave an interesting history of the church, its Barbadian-born pioneers and their search for truth. But in these newer booklets, popular “gospel” songs emphasized the “rapture” to heaven. The reign of Christ on earth was given no place at all. The Jews had no place either, as the “church” replaced them in expounding the Old Testament.
Apostasy overtakes the truth
Tackled on the glaring inconsistencies between the publications, the pastor backed into a corner like a defensive boxer. He admitted that he no longer taught the kingdom of God on earth, but the “rapture” to heaven at the resurrection. He said that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, he and his fellow pastors had “improved” on the beliefs and writings of their founding fathers.
He asserted that “all scripture” pointed him to heaven for his reward. I offered to provide ten passages teaching the kingdom of God on earth if he would find even five promising heaven or the “rapture.” His response to that was, the thief on the cross asked Jesus: Lord, remember me when thou “goest” into thy kingdom, and paradise up there was good enough for him and proof plain of the “rapture.”
Confusion at a service
A sister from Epping Forest accompanied the pastor to a “convocation” of the Bible Truth Church. Here the puzzle began to unravel. As she put it afterwards: “All was total confusion.”
The leading speaker taught Bible truth — the kingdom, gehenna, resurrection, and others — but the rank and file, many of whom are illiterate, insisted on singing choruses — “redemption songs” and Sankey hymns [Ira Sankey was a 19th century composer of “gospel songs” used in evangelical crusades] — which teach quite the contrary. And they had their way. It was apparent that in the Bible Truth Church, a serious attempt to believe and teach the truth had gone horribly wrong.
Why they had gone astray
Recently, I joined with the Epping Forest brethren in a review of the Bible Truth Church. We discussed: Why has the salt of the Bible Truth Church lost its savor and that of the Christadelphians has not?
Reviewing our experience, we came up with five reasons, and we think these are of interest to readers of the Tidings:
- Hymns and songs. One of the most important things the brotherhood ever did was to publish its own hymn books with the doctrines taught therein carefully reviewed for scriptural content and all errors expunged. The Bible Truth Church did not do this, with the result that Sankey’s theology has gradually prevailed.
- Daily Bible Readings. Another wonderful advantage for Christadelphians is the Bible Companion. The pioneers of the Bible Truth Church were Bible readers and students: only a few of the present generation are, even the pastors (e.g. the thief on the cross above!). Their reading of the Bible — in church and at home — is unstructured and subject to whim, even where it is practiced at all. Thank God for what Robert Roberts did with his “penny exercise book!” (wherein he first constructed the daily reading plan).
- Acts 8:12 is crucial. We link scriptural understanding and baptism in a way no other denomination does. Let us keep it that way. The Bible Truth Church has slipped into a way of thinking of baptism “in Jesus’ name” as an end in itself, as a baptism of repentance, unrelated to the specific doctrines upon which their church itself was founded.
- Erroneous views on the Holy Spirit. The Bible Truth Church began well, basing belief on the Bible alone. The result — knowledge of the Truth -was therefore inevitable (Proverbs 2). The present pastors — or, at least, some of them — defend their innovations, or rather their lapse into apostasy, by claiming that the Holy Spirit is guiding them into all truth.
With enough incentive, and a dose of self-conceit, such claims are very easy for people to slip into, wresting the scripture in the process. We do well to beware: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. 8:20).
This passage made no impression whatsoever on the pastor.
- The Bible campaign movement of the Christadelphians (and its counterpart in our Bible missions) is unique in keeping to the forefront the whole counsel of God. At least in recent years, the Bible Truth Church, like so many other religious bodies, has concentrated on “bringing people to Jesus,” and the vital importance of their own biblical doctrines has been, it seems, sadly diluted. We must resist that temptation if we want to be faithful as a body until the coming of the Lord.
Right preaching is critical. I received a letter from a brother yesterday lamenting that, in the part of the world where he lives, zeal for preaching the Truth has evaporated, having been replaced by materialistic pursuits. Sad would it be if that were widely true. Serious, organized, well-planned preaching strengthens the conviction of the preacher and helps, even teaches, him or her to distinguish between what is fundamental for salvation and what is of lesser importance in the word of God.
The theme for several of our Jamaican Bible campaigns this year has been, “The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” With that, we shall defy the odds and go on to do great things for God, and be spared the sad fate of sliding with the Bible Truth Church to perdition.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One