Christadelphians’ Obsession with the Bible
“The foundation of our faith is not an inspired book, but rather an event that inspired the book. Namely the death and the resurrection of Jesus. That is the foundation of our faith.”
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I just want to thank you James for putting this across with such clarity. I have long thought this, but it is a no go area in most ecclesias in the Midlands of the UK. It is so appropriate now that we have a whole new generation of believers in the conversion of many Iranian (and others) asylum seekers seeking to know God and His son. They don't have a tradition of reading the bible or even learning basic bible stories at school, but they do KNOW the Lord Jesus and have given up so much for Him. The test for us now is how we respond - by insisting on a strict adherence to 'biblical truth' and our man made traditions or by showing them how to live their faith with love and without judgement? It is certainly causing us to think about how and what we teach them . We don't want to impose a whole load of new rules because that is the religion they have left. We want to show them true liberty in Christ and what that really means. Not easy! But thank you so much.
Sis Suzette
Hi Suzette,
thank you very much for your email and I'm glad you've enjoyed reading the article and it's something you can resonate with. It's interesting that you mention the situation with the Iranians living in the UK as Christadelphians, simply because I plan on writing another article in which I try to explain why it is that as a community, we as Christadelphians are not really growing, and one of the reasons is how we treat or impose our man-made traditions on outsiders who join our community (outsiders meaning they weren't exactly born into the "truth" like the Iranian converts). As someone who has been a refugee I can tell you that it's not easy digesting the Christadelphian way of life. I come from a Roman Catholic background, and with that background we never had bibles, so we never did any bible readings, we had to believe everything the pastors and bishops told as as being true (this was traditionally, however, modern Catholics today do own bibles, back in the day it was seen as a Holy book meant for "Holy" Men only such as priests, pastors and bishops). Yet even without the bible, we were still able to practice our Christianity and we still believed in God and His commandments (albeit we believed that He happened to be Jesus as well). So from a Christadelphian point of view, I get the need to focus on reading the Bible and bible studies, to educate people who come from backgrounds with different beliefs. Like, how do you try to explain that Jesus is not God to someone who grew up believing in the Holy Trinity? It would be very difficult without bible studies. This is a problem that I unfortunately do not have a solution to, but there is a growth of progressive thinkers in our communities who think like you and I and are starting to voice their opinions, which is always refreshing. As a community, I strongly believe that we need to sit down and change a few things about us, our worship and how we do things, otherwise we are in danger of being extinct. The world has drastically changed over the past few decades, yet most of our ecclesias are still running their meetings as they have in the 70s and 80s. We all know of famous businesses and companies that became extinct for failure of keeping up with changes, and that's my biggest fear for our community. Sorry to digress a bit, but I'll discuss more of these issues in my second article. Hopefully you enjoy that too! Personally, I'd love to see Iranians celebrating and worshipping God in THEIR culture, Africans celebrating and worshiping God in THEIR culture, the same with Asians, South Americans etc. But yet regardless of where in the world you go today, if you happen to stumble on a Christadelphian ecclesia, there is a good chance that it will be run almost the same way as the white English ecclesias did in the 70s and 80s. We need to celebrate our differences, even in how we worship God. The great verse in Revelation that talks about many nations, languages and tribes wouldn't be any of that if we all did things the same way in such uniformity. But that's just my thought.
Thank you, Love Bro. James
Thanks James for this succinct summary -very helpful, especially the analogies of menu and maps. The Bible is a spiritual tool to help us, not a font of information so we know more than others. Knowledge for knowledge sake is can lead to human pride but understanding and applying the Bible can lead us closer to God and show us Jesus.
-Sis. Liz
Hi there, I am glad you enjoyed the article, and thank you for your kind words. I am writing another article, hope you enjoy it too when it's posted onto the website. God bless!
With love,
James
