Rotherham: — “Can you tell me very simply what the error of Christadelphianism is?”
It would be difficult indeed to point out briefly the errors of a system so essentially unsound in all the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, as the one which arrogates to itself such a high-sounding title as Christadelphian (i.e. Brothers of Christ). It has been truly said that there is nothing of Christ in it except what is found in the title.
Their belief, as regards the Person of Christ, is the same as Unitarians. To them He is a man, but not God. They may quibble over the expression, Son of God, and so ensnare the unwary; but no simple-hearted believer should be misled by this. To the Christadelphian, Christ was the Son of God in no other sense than that all are the sons of God. They deny derisively His deity, and the eternity of His existence before all worlds.
There is nothing they so court as to entangle people in argument, but discussions as to the Person of Christ are ever to be shunned. No true believer will doubt either the perfect humanity or the absolute deity of the Son — hence for them discussion on this point is useless, rather is it a subject for worship and adoration; we tread this holy ground with bowed head and unshod feet. To discuss it with enemies of the Christian faith can only be damaging to the soul of the believer, while it produces no good result for the opposer. Hence, for my part, I turn away from every man who denies the truth as to Christ’s person.
When I have reason to suspect a man of being a Christadelphian, and their speech bewrayeth them very quickly, I always take them up on this ground. Press them as to their belief with reference to Christ. Is He the Son of God? Yes, they will most probably reply. Is He the eternal Son of the eternal God? This question, when pressed, will invariably bring out their hostility to the truth.
Scripture leaves no room to doubt that all who systematically hold and teach error as to the Person of our adorable Lord are deceivers of an anti-Christian spirit.
We need not wonder that unsoundness as to Christ’s Person is accompanied by error as to the Atonement. To the Christadelphian, Christ did not die for our sins in any efficacious manner. No sacrifice of infinite value was offered to a holy God, on the ground of which the believer stands justified before God.
Christadelphians do not believe that man is a lost sinner in need of justification. With them there is no heaven and no hell, neither has man an immortal spirit. They are never tired of quoting, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” Those only who imbibe the Christadelphian belief will rise from the dead and inherit the earth when Christ comes to establish His earthly kingdom. They speak much of the coming of the Lord, but it is only in the sense of His coming to the earth; the heavenly aspect of His coming as the “Bright and Morning Star” is to them unknown.
ED.
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Bournemouth: — 1. “Is it right to quote the words of the friends of Job... in the same way as one would a verse from the Psalms, &c.?”
The question is one of inspiration. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” &c.; hence Job is as truly and certainly inspired as the Psalms, or the Gospels, Epistles, or any other portion of God’s Word. Moreover, there are no varying degrees of inspiration, each part is inspired as fully as every other part. But this does not alter the fact that in the Bible we have recorded what wicked men said, and even what Satan said. Their words, It need hardly be said, were not inspired words; that is, they were not words put into their lips by God — nevertheless the record of those words has been given us by inspiration. The friends of Job often spoke things that were not right (Job 42:77And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. (Job 42:7)). Clearly God did not put these words into their lips, though He inspired the writer of the book of Job to give us an accurate record of what they said.
Wicked men said that the blessed Lord was “a gluttonous man, and a winebibber”; their charge was blasphemously false, and yet God has caused that these words should be recorded for our learning. The Pharisees were not inspired to speak them, though Luke was inspired to write them (Luke 7:3434The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! (Luke 7:34)).
We must never forget that we need the Spirit of God to rightly understand what that same Spirit has inspired the servant of God “in old time” to write. Multitudes today reject the written Word on various grounds, even as multitudes rejected Christ, the Living Word, when He was here on earth. It speaks too powerfully to man’s consciences for them to love those holy oracles, unless through grace they are convicted of their sin, and led to repentance and confession.
2. “What could one say to a person who says that certain chapters ought not to be in the Bible, because they are not fit to be read in public?”
In reply to this, let me quote the following powerful words: — “Sins, dark and terrible, are chronicled on the page of Scripture. These foul blots on human life are not vaguely indicated; they are not distantly hinted at. They are fully disclosed. They are told in simple, plain, direct language. But, somehow, this full description never ministers to uncleanness; it never kindles or feeds the flame of lust. The thought that utters itself here pierces to the I inner heart of wickedness, and we see it as we may imagine it is seen of God, who beholds it and whose Spirit remains nevertheless unsoiled; There may be no denunciation; and yet, under the mastery of the thoughts of this Book, we see the hideousness of the sin. And this purity of the Bible is a living force that makes itself, felt whenever we open its pages. If the love of sin be in us, then that love and love of this Book cannot go on together. We must either give up the sin and hold to the Book, or we must hold to the sin and give up the Book. That is a choice which is being made daily and hourly. It is a choice which the Book imperiously forces upon all who come to it. Sin and it cannot company together. The spirit of the Bible is one of war to the death against all uncleanness, selfishness, dishonesty, and wrong. The light which is here is such that nothing which is of the darkness can live in it. It is the light of thought and character. Whose thought? Whose character? Name one name; say that God speaks here, and all is plain. Hold back that explanation, and you shroud this Book in mystery. You leave unanswered the question which rises in your heart and mine; for if the Bible is of man only, how is it that we find this purifying power only there? Do we not both know that till we speak the word ‘God’ that question is unanswerable?”