The following is a list of this month's articles.

Editorial - Two Points to Ponder - and Put into Practice

At the Lord's Table - "A Humble, Thankful Heart"

"Overcharged With Surfeiting"

Two Covenants

Faithful Shepherds

The Lindo Story

Editorial
Two Points to Ponder - and Put into Practice

Here are a few statements of the royal law from just one book of the Bible, the Proverbs.  They concern the poor.  Many Christadelphians do not accept that they apply to us, or in our world today.  It is said that our age is so uncertain we all have to be very prudent and cautious with money.  Or we say that any assistance may be abused.  But are such objections scripturally or soundly based?  Even in our own brotherhood, brothers and sisters range from fairly wealthy to almost destitute.  So, in a practical way, how can we “lend to the Lord” today?  Discussion, then practical application, are needed.

Lending to the Lord
“He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he give to him again” (Prov. 19:17).  “He that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he” (14:21).  “He that honoureth [God] hath mercy on the poor” (14:31).  “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard” (21:13).  “He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor” (22:9).  “Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither oppress the afflicted in the gate: for the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them” (22:22-23).  “The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it” (29:7).  “[The virtuous woman] stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy” (31:20).

“So hath  the LORD ordained”
“Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple?  And they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?  Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel” (I Cor. 9:13-14).  “Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges?  Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof?  Or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?” (I Cor. 9:7).  “He that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope” (I Cor. 9:10).  “The labourer is worthy of his hire” (Luke 10:7).  “Remember them…who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation” (Heb. 13:7).  “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine” (I Tim. 5:17). 

The Scriptural principle is clear.  The Lord Jesus has ordained – that is, made it a rule – that within his body, the church, “those who preach the gospel” should be financially assisted in their work.  Moreover, those who are especially notable for “labour in the word and doctrine” are to be generously supported by the brotherhood (“worthy of double honour”), not a measly minimum.  Like Paul, they may forego it, but it is a right to which by ordinance of the Lord they are entitled.

In practice, most Christadelphians refuse to accept the Lord’s instructions, saying that they don’t apply today, and that preaching of the gospel should be spare time and unsupported.  No valid scriptural reasons ever seem to be given for this, and the real reason may be fear of the kind of financial abuse we see in many churches of the apostasy.  A small minority of Christadelphians do accept these instructions heartily, and generously support dedicated preachers who go forth into the Lord’s harvest fields – though there never seem to be enough to reap the ripening crops or tend the lambs.

The facts are incontrovertible: in the Caribbean, as almost everywhere else, whenever and wherever supported preachers of the gospel have gone, large numbers of converts have been made, strong ecclesias have grown and flourished, and God has been glorified (John 17:22).  Whenever and wherever supported preachers have died, been withdrawn or left, the work of the Lord has tended to languish.  That has been our experience in the Caribbean since 1888.  In every other region the situation has been, is, and will be the same, depending on our policies.  That, obviously, is the very reason why the Lord “ordained” his chosen missionary system.  “Hearken! Behold, there went out a sower to sow…” (Mark 4:3).  Discussion, then practical application, are needed.

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At the Lord's Table
"A Humble, Thankful Heart"

No gifts have we to offer for all Thy love imparts,
But that which Thou desirest, our humble, thankful hearts (Hymn 332, verse 3).

Humility is the bottom step in the staircase of our service to God.  It is also the top step.  Without treading those steps, we cannot please God.  Being humble means being modest, unpretentious, under control, subduing oneself.  It involves accepting that greatness is always bestowed, never achieved.  I have come to realize that Matthew 18 is a chapter that many busy Christians find embarrassing.  It is inconvenient.  It is tough on the flesh.  And even tougher on the spirit.  It is too personal for comfort.  We wish it was not in the Bible.  It records teaching of Jesus which comes too close to home.

That embarrassing little child
No doubt after lengthy discussion among themselves, Jesus’ disciples “came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’”  If we had been in that group, you know perfectly well what we would have expected Jesus to say.  The best Bible scholar or the best speaker.  The best debater with the adversary.  Most likely, the most ‘blameless’, the one with the cleanest and widest reputation for holiness and rectitude.  We would have waited for him to make some of us feel real proud.

Jesus said nothing of the sort.  He called a little child and had him stand among them!  Then came the embarrassing words: I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  The disciples, like us, should have known Jesus’ habit of teaching from the prophets.

Was he using Micah 6? “He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

It’s the hardest thing!
Jesus knew, and in our case knows now, that as disciples by far the hardest thing for any of us to accept and to practice is the need to be humble.  He hammered away at this so often that it seems he almost despaired of getting it into the heads and hearts of even his closest friends.

Luke 18 records a parable that must have stunned his disciples.  The shock of the parable was not that the humble brother, despite his shortcomings, was “justified before God,” but that, amazingly, the confident, righteous, stalwart, highly respected brother wasn’t accepted by God at all!

“Impossible!  Jesus is wrong there,” would have been their reaction, just as it is ours today.  But Jesus is right.  Why?  Not because the good brother’s works didn’t count.  But because his confidence had swollen into pride, leading him to “look down on everybody else”!  The other fellow over there is a stranger, an alien, a lapsed brother to be shunned.  O Lord, I am not supposed to be anywhere near him.

As his manner was, Jesus goes on to emphasize his teaching on developing “humble, thankful hearts” with one of his most memorable and easily remembered proverbs.  “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

If we humble ourselves now, the Lord will lift us up.  If we exalt ourselves now, the Lord will abase and humble us in ways that will be most uncomfortable.  It is interesting that when Peter and John were praying with the church in Jerusalem, they contrasted all the proud rulers of Jews and Gentiles with “your holy child Jesus” (Acts 4:23, 27, 30).  The word they used is the ordinary common one for a child (boy or girl), and suggests that at last Jesus’ words about being like a little child had been learnt.  Yes, Jesus, you did humble yourself as that little child that you put in our midst!  In fact, you made yourself “nothing” (Phil. 2:7).

Just like Jesus!
In Philippians 2, the apostle Paul extends and expands Jesus’ own teaching – about himself and about ourselves.  He shows that it is not theoretical at all, this humbling.  It is practical.  Follow it through, and you will understand.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves (that’s tough, isn’t it?).  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing...Therefore God exalted him.

Wills Samuels, Kingston, Jamaica

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"Overcharged With Surfeiting"

Jesus warned that over-eating (“surfeiting”) and drinking to excess can “overcharge” us or “weigh us down” (Luke 21:34 NIV).  No doubt he meant this mainly in a spiritual sense, dulling our zeal.  But it is also true in a very literal sense.  A recent World Health Organisation report stresses that in the Caribbean “diseases due to lifestyle and uncontrolled personal indulgence” have risen dramatically in recent years.  Diseases due to promiscuous sexual activity show the greatest increase, with the Caribbean now being the second most seriously affected region in the world, after southern Africa.  But far more people are affected by “surfeiting” in our region than anywhere else in the world.  Caymanians in particular are now the world’s fattest people, on average.  The myth still prevails that if you cannot afford to eat quality meals, then just go for big ones.  Purveyors of ‘western-style’ junk food are making mega-profits in the Caribbean.  In a recent survey, 78 percent of respondents chose “fries” as their favourite food.

A combination of improper diet and insufficient physical activity is the cause of 80 percent of all premature coronary heart disease.  Obesity increases the risk of high blood pressure, lipid disorders, osteoporosis, depression, anxiety, diabetes, and cardio-vascular diseases.  Obesity is now the number one health problem in the Caribbean islands and Guyana, and directly the cause of one in eight deaths.

The secret of good health has been known for a very long time, and was correctly identified by the Great Physician: avoid surfeiting and drunkenness!  Studies in various Caribbean countries suggest that simply cutting down the size of meals by half – especially the rice and other starches – would prevent the development of almost 60 percent of diabetes cases and one third of all cancers.  This enormous benefit would be increased still further by a regimen of greater physical activity.  Did Paul have this in mind when he decided not to take the ship from Troas to Assos, “minding himself to go afoot”?  Physical activity can be a practical means to achieving health gains such as lowering the rates of violence among young people, promoting a tobacco-free and drug-free lifestyle, reducing feelings of isolation and loneliness among older people, and reducing obesity in all age groups.

P. Rodrigues

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Two Covenants

From a workshop handout at the Millennium Bible School, Jamaica 1999-2000

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Faithful Shepherds

And so it was, that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered... (Luke 2: 6).  This not unusual event occurred on just one of those same days when the same things happen, while we all go about our same duties, at the same times.

“Too bad for that poor woman, in that condition, just no place for her in the inn and....maybe she could go to the cattle barn, and make use of whatever space is available there,” the inn keeper may have thought, as he turned his attention to the number of people flocking into the inn.

“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2: 7).  No one could ever have thought that this was that most significant event in history ‑ the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world, and its future king ‑ born unnoticed by man, in, of all places, a stable.  While unnoticed by man, our Heavenly Father was in attendance, and sent out the proclamation of this great event to his faithful servants.

This just shows us how we could so easily overlook the most important event of our lives because of misguided focus.  We could just as easily be caught unaware at his return.  The scripture warns us about this.

Jesus’ birth was announced to shepherds in nearby fields.  They were in the field keeping watch over their flock by night.  This was no comfortable occupation ‑ certainly not an armchair existence.  They were exposed to all kinds of weather and to the wild beasts.  Watching over their flocks involved alertness and diligence; the shepherds must observe any ailment that may be affecting any one animal, thus quelling any disease that could ravage the flock.  They must ensure the sheep were adequately fed and watered; they must know the temperament of each animal to ensure that it would not harm another or wander off.  This is the caring shepherd, who, regardless of time or circumstance diligently keeps guard over his flock.  They were his priority.

It is to these that the angel of God appeared with the glory of the Lord shining around him to announce the birth of their Saviour who was Christ the Lord.  This angel was joined by a multitude of the heavenly host praising and glorifying God in the highest.  What a visitation and honor was paid to these faithful shepherds!  Can we imagine what a joyous and exciting moment this was to them as they made their way to find their Savior?

There are still shepherds among us watching over their flock right now in this night, darkened by sin and corruption.  These are the angels of the churches.  We think about ecclesias with those few brethren trying amidst difficulties and trials to care for the sheep.  They are struggling to keep the meetings active and vigilant.  There are brethren in the missionary fields, some amidst great hardship, engaged in pastoral activities.  To be sure the work is not easy, and we must remember them in our prayers.  They must be as watchful and caring as those shepherds who watched over their flocks by night.

“Who  then is the faithful servant, whom his Master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time?  Blessed is that servant whom his Master when he comes will find so doing.  Truly I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.”

Esther Worrell, formerly of Guyana

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The Lindos are one of the two great Jewish dynasties in the past thousand years of world history, ranking only with the Rothschilds.  The Rothschilds are Ashkenazim, rising to importance first in Germany and then dominating the financial world of France, Britain and Italy.  The Lindos are the most renowned of all Sephardic Jewish families.  They rose to prominence in Spain in the 15^th century, and have since that time enormously influenced the economic and cultural life of the Netherlands, Italy, Britain, Costa Rica, Israel, Canada, the Caribbean, and in some ways the whole world.

My ancestors left the land of Israel about forty-five generations ago in ships of Tarshish and settled in a small area of what is now southwestern Spain.  Jewish families tended to use their Hebrew names only among themselves, and took surnames from the cities where they lived: Geddes (from Roman Gades, now Cadiz), de Casseres (from Caceres), Albuquerque, de Leon, da Costa and so on.  My family lived in the city of Badajoz and must have been unusual in some way because they adopted, or were given, the name Lindo which means both “pure” and “handsome”!  For hundreds of years, all these Jewish families, which later spread all over the Caribbean, developed a rich culture in Spain.

During the six centuries of Muslim rule, 750 to 1350 CE, many members of my family were not just wealthy merchants and business people, but became doctors, teachers, mathematicians, writers, scientists, and even high government officials. But in the year 1391, after the Christians defeated the Muslims, many were massacred, and in the city of Badajoz between 1492 and 1499 more than two hundred were burnt alive.  Our family has always responded to these pressures by having children in biblical abundance.  My great-great-great grandfather Alexandre Lindo, who lived in Peter’s Lane in Kingston, had twenty-two legitimate children, six by his first wife, Hannah, and sixteen by his second wife, Esther.  My great grandfather, Menachem, had ten children by his wife Grace, and my own father, John Lindo, begat at least twelve of us.  And most of these Jewish patriarchs had their concubines as well!  One thing the Lindos have always been noted for is a stubborn refusal to renounce their Jewish nationality and the hope of Israel, however severe the persecution.  A cousin of mine, Tony Lindo, retired CEO of Scotiabank, is “ruler of the synagogue” in Kingston.  A few weeks ago he escorted Louis Farrakhan to his synagogue during the latter’s official visit to Jamaica.  I am the first Lindo in my direct line for two thousand years to accept Jesus as the Messiah.

Besides producing new Lindos, my forbears have survived and flourished by the traditional Jewish strategy of moving around.  At least one Lindo sailed with Columbus to the West Indies, and the Admiral named a cape after him.  After 1492, when the family was finally expelled from Spain, Lindos in my own direct ancestral line lived and made fortunes in Portugal, the Canary Islands, Venice, Amsterdam, London, Barbados, Costa Rica, Canada, and of course Jamaica.  They all had the Jewish penchant for putting their hands and minds to anything that looked like it would prosper.  Abraham (1711-1808) was a diamond cutter.  David (1833-1889) was a chemist in Falmouth (Jamaica) who invented the Lindo-Sladding process which is still used worldwide in the manufacture of fertilizer.  As a teenager in Jamaica, Cecil (1870-1950) is said to have owned only a bicycle and was packed off to Costa Rica by his parents for falling in love with a Gentile.  He founded the great banana empire that became the United Fruit Company, and by his mid-twenties was exporting five million stems of bananas a year, besides vast quantities of coffee and sugar.  Another relative, Percival (1877-1946), was a railroad magnate, realtor, international trader, sugar baron, and wheeler-dealer on a truly vast scale., Roy Lindo (1910-1962), after whom I am named, was a tycoon with financial tentacles in every corner of Jamaica., He and his family lived at Terra Nova (now a hotel), and owned great houses all over Jamaica, including magnificent Devon House, Strawberry Hill (also now a hotel), and Odnil (Lindo backwards) which is now the world-famous Bob Marley Museum in Kingston.  Roy’s nephew is Chris Blackwell, king of entertainment and culture, who launched both James Bond (Ian Fleming) and Bob Marley to world fame and fortune.

My great-great grandfather, Abraham Alexander Lindo (1775-1849), is of great interest to me as a Christadelphian.  In the early 19^th century, Jews all over the world were struggling to re-define their identity.  Under the enormous pressures of persecution, they were giving up their historical consciousness and trying to blend socially and culturally into their host societies, projecting themselves as merely a religion but not a nation.  The Lindos would have none of it.  Abraham Lindo made a great stir among worldwide Jewry with his speeches demanding the full right of Israeli nationhood.

Though presently without a country or temporal prince, we are as completely a nation as when first established as such, for we acknowledge ourselves now, as then, as being under the immediate government of the Sovereign of the Universe...We are a despised people, living in hope of one day being restored to our country, but as no man knoweth the time of our return to Zion, we have long felt, and it is commanded us so to feel by our God, that the peace and prosperity of any country which shelters and protects us is entitled to our prayers. The Jews must remain an instrument for the redemption of mankind.

It seems God used the Lindos to further His plan and purpose with His Land and ancient people.  More than one hundred years after those prophetic words were uttered, they were dramatically fulfilled in 1948 as the nation state of Israel took its seat at the United Nations.

Around that time, I was living in the Maxfield Avenue area of Kingston, and some Jehovah’s Witnesses started calling at the home.  They were trained to be very persuasive, and I started some studies with them.  Whenever I moved, like bloodhounds on the trail, they followed me.  Several of us used to meet to read from their books.

At this point Providence intervened.  We met Hugh Tingle, who was a Christadelphian, a religion which we had not heard of before.  He was partially deaf, and not much of a talker, but like Paul what he did say was “weighty and powerful.”  He invited us to some regular Bible classes he was holding with two other Christadelphians, Bernard Lloyd and Sheila Edwards.  We gave up studying with the J.W.s and began to take an interest in Hugh’s biblical faith.  It took a lot of persuasion for me to join them.  Eventually an ecclesia was started with about fifteen members, including most of my friends.  I obeyed the call to follow Christ on July 28, 1957.  From the point of view of my Jewish forbears, I was now a “dead man.”  But in truth I was alive unto God.

I invited a young friend to our Bible classes who was a stubborn Roman Catholic.  Over many months of quiet scriptural discussion and encouragement his obduracy melted into submission, and brother Sydney Tomlinson was born again in Christ.  He was a truly great-hearted brother, beloved by all, spiritually wise far beyond his years.  His exhortations were the fruit of hours of prayerful meditation, and always deeply moving expositions of the Word.  Tragically, he fell asleep in Christ after only a few years in the Faith.

My wife, Sis. Mavis, followed me to newness of life in January, 1975, but our children, though at one time keen Sunday school scholars and youth circlers, have not yet seen their way to obey the truth, though like all their forebears they have prospered well in their chosen professions.

Roy Lindo

[Thanks to the staff of the Elsa Goveia Collection at the University of the West Indies, Tom Lindo, two Roy Lindos and various other Lindos, and especially Jackie Ranston, the archivist of the Lindo family, for information].

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