(May 2003 Edition)
Caribbean Comment - God's Judgment
Caribbean Comment
God's Judgment
Over the years, Bro. Timothy Whittaker has inspired us with his wonderful knowledge of the scriptures. His talks and exhortations are always full of inspiring thoughts. We look forward to seeing him annually at the Year-End Bible schools in Jamaica.
Last December, though, was very special because Bro. Timothy was accompanied by his wife, Sis. Muriel, his daughter, Sis. Anna, and son-in-law, Bro. Simon. We were truly happy to have them. Their visit to May Pen was a welcome one. The brethren and sisters and visitors turned out in good numbers.
The topic for the Bible class was God’s Judgement Day. In his talk, Bro. Simon pointed out that the resurrection will be a bodily form (Phil. 3:21; I Cor. 15:35-38). If there is no resurrection, then the only thing is to eat and drink and enjoy ourselves. In I Peter 5:4 we are told there is a crown of glory for the redeemed. The wise and the foolish will be at the judgement seat. Our reward of eternal life is related to how we live now (Matt. 25:31-35).
Bro. Timothy then put the icing on the cake with his usual energetic style. He was quick to remind us of the importance of watching patiently for the Lord’s return (Matt. 24:48-51). If we are not prepared and we think that the Lord will never come, then we will be cut asunder. We are not to fall asleep as the foolish virgins in Matthew 25:7. We are to be alert and prepared so that when Jesus comes and calls us, we can go straight ahead and meet him as the five wise virgins did.
Our faith, love and hope must be in tune with the Master’s requirements. Make use of the opportunity we have now. Our lives must be full of faith as the oil in the five wise virgins’ lamps in Matthew 25:7-9. There will be no time to go and buy – the Lord has come and the door is shut. Bro. Timothy drew our attention to Romans 2:28-29, where it says that the circumcision of the heart is not done with a knife. We have to cut bad things from our lives. It’s a complete change of heart or God will cut us off. The life we live now is like a woman in travail, but after giving birth there is rejoicing. There will be everlasting joy in the kingdom. Though we suffer pains and trials now, the reward of eternal life will bring great rejoicing and happiness.
Bro. Timothy and family, we thank you for enriching our understanding of the truth and wish you God’s blessings as you continue to spread the message of salvation.
Melvin Gordon, May Pen, Jamaica
At the Lord's Table
Revealing God's Love
And now these three remain: faith,
hope, and love. But the greatest
of these is love (I Cor. 13:13). Why is love the greatest?
When a farmer sows his seed, he shows faith. While he waits for it, he has hope. But the greatest time of the farmer’s year is when he can reap and then joyfully share in abundant harvest, and that is love. Faith and hope have fulfilled themselves in love.
Love created the world and sustains it. Because of love God keeps the human race going.
Faith is believing what you cannot see. When we see face to face there will be no more need for faith. Hope will have gone when Jesus comes. Love alone will remain. That is what the kingdom of God is all about. It’s about what remains when faith and hope have passed. Love is essentially spiritual. The kingdom is not just about bashing oppressors. It is not sensual or hedonistic enjoyment. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17).
The
greatest kind of love
A step further: if love is the greatest, what is the greatest kind of love?
Jesus in John 15:12-14 tells us that it is: a) loving like Jesus has loved;
b) sacrificing our lives, following his example; c) doing what he commands
us.
I like a phrase that Judah uses in Genesis 44:30. Speaking of the relationship between his father Jacob and his young brother, Benjamin, he says that his father’s life is “closely bound up with the boy’s life.” That is great love. And I am sure we are meant to see an allegory in this, for God’s life is closely bound up with the life of His Son. Which is why the Son said, “I and my Father are one.” It’s nothing to do with a trinity of persons in a single God: it is simply and deeply the oneness and the wonder of pure sacrificial love.
Piercing the heart of God
I am sure you will recall Zechariah 12:10. When Jesus returns to reveal
himself to a partially blind Israel, God says, “They will look on me, the
one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him.” Yes, when the
soldiers drove those brutal nails into the holy hands of Jesus Anointed,
they were piercing the heart of God. God felt the pain. At Golgotha, the
Almighty put His feelings, His deepest emotions, on the line.
God
went out of His way
If almighty God does something, it is because He chooses to do it. God is
love, and so that determines the choices of action. And although the world
may look a chancy, arbitrary place, for the godly it is not. The godly see
that divine wisdom, and marvelous providential planning, go through all of
creation and all of life. Remember, God went out of His way to love us!
Yes, even while we were, and some of us still are, His enemies! “God
demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
The
hazard of love
The emblems of bread and wine reveal God’s love. In His love, our God
prepared a body. Through His Son, our God poured out His heart for you and
me. Paul accepted the hazard of love, and accepted it gladly and joyfully.
“For your sake we face death all day long” (Rom. 8:36). Many of us
here today know what that means, and willingly accept that hazard. At this
table, once we discern the Lord’s body, nothing, nothing whatsoever can
separate us from God’s love in Christ.
John Hadfield, Harvey River, Jamaica
The
eleven-stepped Pyramid of virtues
Fill in the blank letters. Galatians 5 and II Peter 1 will help.
J_Y
L_ _E
P_ _ _E
W_ _ _ _M
S_ _ _ _ _E
P_ _ _ _ _ _E
K_ _ _ _ _ _ _E
C_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T
G_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _S
F_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _S
R_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _S
The reapers were busy
toiling, no one had thought of ease,
Continuing their labor of gathering in the sheaves.
Tho’ hot, weary and footsore, they smiled, and hearts beat in tune,
Had not their Master told them He might return at noon?
A man thought he’d join the
reapers, just a little before noontime
And gather of the harvest, saying, “Lord, here is mine!”
“I’m sure ‘twill give Him pleasure, e’en though the sheaf be small,
And perhaps it will not matter if I have no sheaf at all.”
But, while in comfort lying,
sleep came and touched his eyes,
And the others worked together for, the sun, high in the skies
Spoke of approaching noontime, when their hearts did burn for Him.
At last, He comes and,
smiling, He grasps each roughened hand,
And they look at one another with eyes that understand.
“My men, ye have been faithful, the sheaves who work well done,
Come, now, rest from your labors, receive the talents won.”
They journey with the Master
to His appointed place,
Enjoy the happy love feast of gazing on His face.
And He with sweet compassion, gives them the wages due,
Prepares a feast long promised, as Lord and Savior too.
Meanwhile, the sleeper
wakened, to find himself alone,
The sheaves had all been gathered, not one to call his own.
The sun was almost setting, showing the day had passed
And, faithful to His promise, the Lord had come at last.
TOO LATE now with the
offering, the time is past recall,
No labor means no harvest, not watching means no call
When He will bid his servants join in the marriage feast,
And live with Him forever, when sin and death have ceased.
THEREFORE, be up and doing,
rest not with folded hands.
If hard to make some progress, be sure, God understands.
And love, with mercy blended, will shine on you from heaven,
‘Tis yours if you will seek it, to you it shall be given.
Provided by Gwen Christmas
It was November, 1932, and I was nine years old. That was when a great wind came and the brightest lightning ever. My father made the home as safe as he could, telling my mother and us children to remain inside. Father was troubled knowing that a couple nearby were old and alone, so he went out and helped them to higher ground. You must understand that we were not related to these folks, but behaved like good Christians should, just helping each other. The night of that storm I was in a hammock looking after my one-year old brother , and holding him tight. One wall was blown in and the thatch roof blowing away. Birds could be seen through it, yes, I remember that. Prayers were being said all night, as the family kept together. We couldn’t pray God to take the storm away. It was already upon us! So we just prayed for strength to carry on.
You wouldn’t believe what met our eyes when we came outside. There were fish all around and lobsters in bushes. Our main water cistern had split, and a big drum full of water had clear blown away. All the trees were down. The hardest part was putting ourselves together after the storm. It seemed beyond all power of man. But we believed in our prayers, and somehow we got through. Clear and plant, clear and plant: that’s all we could do. But the soil is good in Cayman and things soon became established once more, thanks to God. Who does ‘dem young people think they is, not believing in God? Who them think put all these beautiful plants and everything here?
The storm of 1945 was hard, too. By then we had a tin roof and father had to tie it down with rope we made ourselves from thatch. Then there was Gilbert who came close. What I recall of Gilbert is that the ground was covered with grapefruit everywhere you looked.
I still plant and plait, a skill I learned from my father. I make baskets, hats and brushes, whatever people want. My garden holds all the plants and trees that God has given to Cayman. I have to tell people: life is hard, too hard to live without God.
Nell Smith
In Defense of Christadelphians
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 their salvation, all they need 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
The Response
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.
Alan Eyre and Gerzel Gordon