Dear Sir and Madam,
I have had problems believing the Christadelphian doctrine since I was a teenager, and always felt something was fundamentally wrong. I am now forty-five and it was only after carefully researching the teachings of the Christadelphians, SDAs, JWs, Mormons and other sects that I realized that they are the product of human vanity, and that it is only man’s desire to appear superior to his peers that has caused these small religions to survive. These religions prey on people’s desire to feel that they belong to an exclusive club that will somehow receive special treatment on judgment day. Sorry, no such luck.
If anyone is serious about his/her salvation, all he/she needs is the gospel of Christ. Christ and the apostles never said or implied that a proper understanding of the concepts of devil and Satan, the soul, hell and others were concepts to be understood before one can attain eternal life. Indeed, if they were essentials they would have been clearly taught by Christ and/or his apostles. To come to any other conclusion is an insult to Christ and implies that Christ taught false doctrines (e.g. rich man and Lazarus), or at least that he did not teach the required doctrines clearly. Indeed, the JWs have stated unambiguously that their doctrines are right and the teachings of Christ are wrong — what arrogance! No doubt they will pay dearly for that pompous indiscretion. Christadelphians, although they have not made such a statement, are not far from it, since they have fabricated ridiculous explanations for, or ignored altogether, portions of the Bible that conflict with their doctrines. Christadelphians have fallen into the trap of placing their own fallible human interpretations above the clear and irrefutable teachings of the Master (modern-day Pharisees!).
Whenever evidence is found which conflicts with the doctrine of the Christadelphians, members make an effort to discredit such evidence. In Christadelphian circles, defending the Christadelphian faith regardless of how it is accomplished seems to carry more weight than the truth.
A good example is the irresponsible attempt by Stephen Cox in Christadelphian Tidings (series started in May, 2000) to discredit the writings of the prophet Enoch. This Book of Enoch contradicts Christadelphian doctrine regarding hell, the soul, devil and Satan, the sons of God, angels who fell, etc. His motive no doubt is to convince gullible Christadelphians that the Book of Enoch is not a reliable source of information. But both Christ and his apostles regarded Enoch as a prophet and his writings constituted part of the scripture that they used.
For churches to include private interpretations and doctrines into their statements of faith, and worse, to then claim that belief in these statements is a requirement for eternal life is human arrogance and an insult to the Almighty. If this is what Christadelphians believe then they are sadly mistaken.
Make no mistake — Christ will judge only on the basis of what he taught, and the fact that his teachings are crystal clear and easy to understand cannot be disputed. Christ has no regard for the worthless doctrines and interpretations of men — witness his views on the Scribes and Pharisees.
I doubt that you will be interested in publishing this letter in the Pioneer. It is my experience that Christadelphians generally cannot take criticism or gracefully defend their faith.
A reader in Trinidad
To our Reader,
We are most interested in publishing your letter. We readily acknowledge that there are Christadelphians who mistakenly imagine that belief in their particular statement of faith is essential for salvation, who take pride in membership of an exclusive club, and who expect special treatment on judgment day. If you have met some of them, this may have colored your view of us as a community.
We must insist, nevertheless, that the Christadelphians do not belong in your list of cults. We are in a totally different category, and the experience of both authors (Alan Eyre and Gerzel Gordon) strongly support this. No one has or could ever become a JW or a Mormon or an SDA without being indoctrinated, and accepting their special private doctrines as divine. You could never become a convert to them through the Bible alone.
In contrast, over a period of half a century we have assisted very many to learn the truths taught by Jesus Christ, obey it in baptism and share lifelong Christadelphian fellowship thereafter, and we have never used anything but the holy Scriptures to bring about conviction and acceptance. Our “converts” must learn Bible truth for themselves or we do not baptize them. For years Gerzel organized an informal Seekers After Bible Truth Class in her home, using the Bible alone as the sole guide to faith, and Bible reading as the only method of learning. From that class more than 20 people of many denominations, including a Jesuit priest and several evangelical Christians, obeyed the gospel of Christ and became — and remain — zealous members of Christadelphian ecclesias. Reading the Bible, not human interpretations of it, revolutionized the life of Gerzel’s own husband, Melvin, once a staunch Roman Catholic, so that he became — and remains — a pillar among brethren in Christ.
The majority of Christadelphians do not believe that you must accept all their interpretations of Scripture to be saved. On non-essentials these interpretations vary widely. Stephen Cox’s articles on Enoch are an example. Some readers of the Tidings find them convincing; others do not. Incidentally, if we consider the two Books of Enoch to be inspired Scripture, then we are committed to belief in astrology and horoscopes. It was never part of Jesus’ Bible: “I Enoch was generally rejected by the early church” (Encyclopedia of Early Christianity).
Alan’s Eyre’s books The Protesters and Brethren in Christ demonstrate that very many sincere people through the centuries and in many lands, besides those called Christadelphians, have sought and found saving truth from God’s word, and given their lives for “the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (Jude 3). The Protesters explains which fundamental Bible doctrines have been rejected or abandoned by popular Christianity and which have continued to be treasured by groups of Bible believers including the Christadelphians. And both books tell how every time some sincere group adopted Bible teaching, they were persecuted by church and state, at least in Europe. No one will be excluded from God’s coming Kingdom for just believing in fallen angels. But if we believe in going to heaven (or a demonic hell) at death rather than in resurrection at the return of Christ, then our faith is vain and we are yet in our sins (I Cor. 15:17). Unless we believe and teach the full humanity of Christ, that he condemned sin in the flesh, we are “Antichrist” (I John 4:3).
We agree totally with you that it is the gospel of Christ which saves. Christadelphians believe sincerely that on all fundamentals the teachings of Jesus Christ are totally consistent with the rest of scripture.
We cannot, of course, doubt your own experience of Christadelphians. But right now we can tell you that in the year 2000 many hundreds of sincere people, from Albania to Zimbabwe, learned the truth of God simply from His holy word alone, in their native tongues, were baptized as Christadelphians, and are readily and very gracefully defending their faith.
A final thought. We can assure you emphatically that Christadelphians do not believe that “they alone have the true teaching.” The first followers of Jesus were not called Christadelphians, obviously. They were called “The Way.” Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and we seek to follow him in whom all the promises of God are yea and Amen, to the glory of God the Father.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One