Does anyone have information about the Christadelphians? Has anyone ever attended or is an ex Christadelphian? Please please contact me asap. THanks Chuck

Hey I can see this is an old post..
Am a christadelphian from Nigeria..Do you want anything from us?

Pete

chaupil,

i looked up some stuff. here is an outside link to some information.

[en.wikipedia.org]

i have never before heard of them and know very little, but the link above does give some insight.

it seems they use different terminology then usual. example, churches are not churches they are ecclesias (as in the early church of ecclesiastes) and that hell is not a place of torment but simply known as the grave, death. and they claim Christ to be completely seperate from God, not one in the same. from what i read they seem to be alot like christian libitarianist (or the loosly used christian anarchist), though they are not, due to the fact that they are pacifist and they claim to not take part in politics, military service or war.

its an interesting read.

hope this helped!

peace,

jason

Quote
fulajay
what i read they seem to be alot like christian libitarianist (or the loosly used christian anarchist), though they are not, due to the fact that they are pacifist and they claim to not take part in politics, military service or war.

pardon me, i seem to have made a grammatical error that could be taken in the wrong manner. christian libitarianist (christian libitarianism or loosly called christian anarchist) are also extreme pacifist & do not take part in war, politics, military service, etc.


hope everything helped!

peace,
fula

I am an ex-Christadelphian. I was born into a Christadelphian family which is the main way the Christadelphians perpetuate their faith. Occasional ‘interested friends’ are converted, however here are some things the Christadelphian’s will not tell an interested friend straight up.

-They have been falsely predicting various world events and the return of Christ and a cataclysmic Armageddon for well over a century. Usually they put the date 10-20 years ahead of the last failed prediction.

- Their dogma requires much time and study.

-When a major world event happens they will link various obscure verses in the bible that ‘proves’ that their faith is correct.

-Armageddon will devastate the world, however Christadelphian’s will be sheltered from it by Jesus. When I was with them they were saying they would all disappear from society and go missing right before Armageddon and people would wonder where they all went. They believe they will go to stand before God and be judged.

- At Armageddon the Christadelphians would be judged by God and given long life for their faith.

- God would also judge any who came into contact and had the opportunity to become a Christadelphian and any who did not would die. They also believe people who fit this description, but have died already, will be raised from the dead for the purpose of dying again.

- After Armageddon a new kingdom designed by God will be located in Jerusalem and governed by the now long living Christadelphians. It will be their task to restore humanity to Gods will after Armageddon has scoured the world of hate and sin.

- This is a period of 1000 years blessed service to God in a world where lambs will sleep with lions.

- After this period they will be granted eternal life and angel like status. They get a bit vague as to what happens after this point.


Here is what they will tell you. They are dedicated bible students, pacifists who strive not to sin or enter into worldly debates or causes. They are very nice and their families function harmoniously. They will rattle off verse after verse from the bible to prove their theories.


I was once as a child a very devoted Christadelphian and terribly honest in my attempts to convert school friends. The bullying I received was terrible but it served a purpose. It made me see just how outlandish the beliefs were and how insular the Christadelphians were. I questioned my Christadelphian family and received emotional isolation, fear and guilt loading and constant erosion of self esteem. I had no where to go with these problems and could only drive them inwards. As an adult I am very much in a journey of cult recovery and that is a terrible journey to be taking. The Christadelphians are all or nothing and will rip your family from you then load you up with guilt for this if you question their faith.

This is written with sadness and a warning to any who want to explore this faith further. Be careful. They are all very nice and educated but denial saturates and perpetuates the Christadelphians and many who leave face a cultic recovery.

Take care

Hope Tailor

Hope,

I used to regularly pass a Christadelphian church on the way to work and only saw one or two families outside, all dressed up.
Another time I passed a different church and there was one family eating lunch? on a table on the lawn outside with no one else around.
I think I saw a sign up there mentioning a free meal?
It was a surreal picture.
Was this something practiced?

They may well use the free meal approach. The churches (or as they call them ecclesias) I experienced mostly used bible seminars as a form of recruitment. They would drop pamphlets about current events and claim to have knowledge about these events. They would hire out university rooms and all come to hear their revered speakers talk about the events.

The sunday meetings they had from 11-1 were a bit too much for interested friends to handle and they kept them away from them until they judged that the 'interested friend' was ready to handle them.

They also claim to have the 'key' to reading the bible and run classes on how to read the bible. All they are is a course on how to interpret the bible the Christoadelphian way.

I ran into a display in a public library once about 'Why the bible is the most read book in world history'. Full of facts and figures but leading to further infomation to be revealed at a bible seminar run by the Christadelphians. When I pointed out to the librarians my experiences with the Christadelphians they promptly removed the display.

Hi. I'm an ex-Christadelphian having been brought up as one and I can associate with many of the things Hope says.

The first point I would make is that I don't really think the term cult is a very meaningful one for any group. Control is very much dependant upon perspective and the principles of control of behaviour, information, thought and emotion apply in everyday life. The world as a system could very easily itself fit that description. It controls behaviour through ownership, social conditioning and so forth. I do agree however that we should be able to access information on different groups and systems of thought and behaviour. In that respect I symathise with Hope when she talks about how classmates bullied her at school. She seems to support that as a correcting mechanism, but I don't think they were right to do that and that is part of the way the world has to condition and control us too I would suggest. It doesn't like anyone being different or viewing the world through a different lens. Ultimately even bad religious systems do teach us something about what is wrong with our world and how it's own 'cultness' has flaws.

Here are some of the things which are inbred into the world's thinking. An overly materialistic outlook and a commodification of all things. Money, status and position over humanity. A system of dominance where some people starve whilst a few have immense wealth and influence. People's behaviour controlled (often into unsatisfying work) through a need to work for money. Detatchment from nature and lack of access to the very basis of all life meaning dependance upon the system. Everyone individualised through competition for personal survival with all the attached loneliness and depression and other mental problems caused. It's not all simplistic, but the world isn't a free place with everyone given the ability to be free thinkers. We are all influenced, controlled and subject to forces that limit us and a case can be made that due to our imperfection many have to be there.

The position of Christadelphians is that they and they alone have the truth. They are not alone in that, but they are very small and they believe they are the only true Christadelphians. It came into existance through the teachings of John Thomas who believed he had rediscovered the truth of Christianity in the 19th century that had been lost since the first. It was established as a denomination by Robert Roberts. Today this position is spelled out less rigidly than that and many believe that various groups and individuals have always existed, although that has never yet been proven in the full degree of the official statements of faith and basis of acceptance today.

As a group they have positive and negative points. Most membership in Western countries comes from those brought up into the faith as Hope says, although that does not apply in some other countries. My experience is with how it works in the West..

I'm writing this in sections so I don't lose information after writing a bit.

I agree with Hope it is difficult to grasp the Christadelphian way of thinking for an outsider. The basis is that the Bible is the source of all truth and you have to study it real hard. It is therefore very intellectual in nature. Other churches are held to twist scripture and are suggested to have taken their beliefs from paganism. On many issues arguments centre on the real meaning of words such as Satan and hell. Further people are caution to read the right translation and a huge emphasis is placed upon Christadelphian books and material and it is frowned on to look at the material of other Christians of different persuasion or attend their churches. So it is a very highly enclosed denomination and there is a high leaving cost as a result.

In general those who accept the teachings and do not question the beliefs or the way things can have a strong bond with others, but it does depend very much where you are. Many meetings are very small, many centre around a couple of families and all the effort tends to revolve around formal organised meetings which in practice are very dull and not very inspiring. Not much emphasis is placed upon getting emotions in line and a huge number of people struggle with that. It is very legalistic in nature generally with divisions historically over very small variations of understanding.

To me too many things never added up and when I questioned various areas of belief I hit a very strong defensiveness and it led to me being disfellowshipped. The reality I also found was that many people had rote arguments and could verse quote, but an appreciation of the whole of things wasn't there. Christadelphians also have a particular dismissal of Christian churches which recognise the need to involve the emotions such as the Pentecostals whom they dismiss as 'happy clappies' whilst not recognising the reverse difficulties of intellectualisation and over rationalisation. They don't see much value in our emotions which they tend to see as fleshly whilst they believe our intellect is the key to understanding.

Christadelphians largely believe it isn't our job to change the world. They therefore tend to fit into the status quo, except where it conflicts with their beliefs. They won't fight in wars or vote and some won't sit on juries either. Their emphasis is on Jesus returning to set up a physical kingdom on the earth. They spend huge effort in looking at world events to see the pattern that is leading to that and it does tend to lead to a lot of speculation that has had to change at times. For instance when the former Societ Union took over Afghanistan they were loads of talks on how that fitted prophecy and future invasion of Israel to come. When the Societ Union broke down it was restructured to fit. They do not see much power in the message of scripture to change the spirit of the world and how that would inevitably change things. They therefore have little concern with social justice or the environment and it hangs very much on the true believers being removes before things get too deperate here on earth. There are some grey areas here and some things such as the thousand year reign rest on one passage in a highly metaphorical book.

I do understand where Hope is coming from with the journey from being a Christadelphian due to the isolation one is encouraged to develop.