Essay: Jesus, Christianity and Other Religions

 From Stan Anonymous

 Many, many years ago, I was asked, by the "Arranging Brethren" not to attend the Christadelphians any more, because I was having severe doubts about my beliefs in the Bible.

I feel that it may be possible for me to help some who have come out of the Christadelphian error but who feel lost without some kind of faith (as I was, many years ago). So I have written an essay to help.

Note: I know that some leave the Christadelphians and are not really bothered about religion any more. These may find my essay interesting, but equally, they may find it irrelevant to their needs, also boring.

Also note that, although I should be willing to engage in a posting “conversation” with someone that seeks further information, I shall not want to be arguing with anyone about anything that they feel is erroneous in my essay. I simply would not have the time. It’s offered, warts and all, as it says in the preliminary notes.

For those interested, the essay can be found here.

When prophecy comes true

By Jon Morgan

Right now, the world is reeling from the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And some Christadelphians are excited about it. Just like so many times before. Prophecy is unfolding before their eyes. The end times are here, and the return of Jesus is just around the corner. It’s the fulfilment of God’s great plan, and anyone who happens to be hurt by it is just unfortunate collateral damage.

But that’s not really what I want to talk about. I want to talk about
prophecy that really does come true.

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Christmas from the Archives

 By Jon Morgan

Different people following this site will have different views of Christmas.  Clearly it contains both religious elements and secular elements.  As it's less than a week away, I thought I'd link a few Christmas posts from the archives.

For myself, last night I went to a carols concert in a cathedral, and really enjoyed it.  I don't believe the events referenced in many of the carols actually happened, but enjoy the music and the memories.  On Christmas Day I expect I'll spend time with family members.  Religion will probably get a mention, but it won't be the centre of the day.

Merry Christmas to all readers!

A couple of books

 By Jon Morgan

There were a couple of books I read last year which I found helpful with working through my strict, literalist religious upbringing, and they might be of interest to others here.

Bible in the News - Discussion post

 Bible in the News is a Christadelphian podcast which aims to "provide a weekly analysis of world politics and events in the light of Bible prophecy".  Recently it has frequently come up in discussion here, particularly with relation to a Brexit post.

This is intended as a discussion post for Bible in the News.  It can also be used as a discussion post for anything else related to Christadelphian prophecy interpretation or current events.

Who was Robert Roberts?

by Phynnodderee

Growing up, I had an image of Robert Roberts as a clear-sighted, intelligent man who cut through the tangle of religious ideas that had accumulated over the centuries to establish a simple, rational, authentic religion. But I actually knew very little about him. Years later, when I decided to find out who he really was, I discovered he wasn’t quite the man I was taught to believe.

 

Who's next?

 By Jon Morgan

This year I’ve been reflecting on how much I changed in the 2010s. Some of the changes could probably have been expected given my age and stage of life, but leaving religion in particular wasn’t expected by me or by those around me.

It now makes me wonder how many others there are like former-me: People who are young, indoctrinated, dedicated to their religion. Maybe they’re already facing doubts, or maybe they will in the next five or ten years. Maybe they’re already thinking of quitting, or maybe they just view the doubts as things to be conquered.

If I were going back in time, what might I say to former-me? And if anyone feeling these things happens to be reading this post, what might I want them to be aware of?

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What Elijah shows us about God

 By Jon Morgan

Growing up, I always liked the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel. Now I see that it shows problems with God.

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Can we trust God's promises?

 By Jon Morgan

The words from Mendelssohn’s Elijah echo in my head:

If with all your hearts ye truly seek Me,
Ye shall ever surely find Me,
Thus saith our God.

It’s a song I like a lot (yes, still), and it seems like such a simple promise. But was it ever really true?

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How a dangerous pandemic works for (God's) good

By Jon Morgan

In these difficult times, almost everything seems to about Covid-19. It is a pandemic that is already bad and looks like getting a lot worse.

However, many Christians feel almost contractually obliged to look for the good side of the pandemic, and this just ends up showing
the bad side of their religion.

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The world is bigger than Christadelphia

By Phynnodderee

Growing up Christadelphian, my world was pretty small in many ways. But from the inside, the religion seemed big and important. It took me years to get a sense of perspective and realise not only that Christadelphians weren’t the authority on everything, but also just how much I’d been missing out on in terms of what the outside world had to offer.

UK Christadelphian charities referred to Charity Commission: some thoughts

By Phynnodderee

As already reported, the National Secular Society in the UK has referred ten Christadelphian charities to the Charity Commission, the regulator responsible for registered charities in England and Wales. The NSS has identified content on the charities’ websites that it says promote “deeply intolerant messages”. Here are a few thoughts from an ex-Christadelphian perspective.

NSS refers Christadelphian charities to regulator

As mentioned by a couple of commenters:

The National Secular Society has referred 10 Christadelphian charities to the Charity Commission over concerns that they promote deeply intolerant messages, despite their legal requirement to provide a public benefit.

Material posted on some of the charities' websites condones the death penalty for LGBT people and Wiccans, associates being LGBT with child abuse and rape, and promotes female subservience.

Read more here

Full report

The Brexit prophecies

By Jon Morgan

In the lead up to the Brexit referendum, several Christian groups claimed that the Bible predicted a Leave vote, including many Christadelphians. When the Leave vote succeeded, they were quick to claim this trivial prediction as a stunning validation of the complete Bible message and a sign of impending Armageddon. However, while Brexit still seems likely to happen in some form, this year has seen it throw the UK parliamentary process into chaos, with no clear end in sight.

While I don’t think scripture makes any statement on Brexit, I do think this saga has some important lessons about Bible prophecy interpretation that stretch far beyond Brexit. It’s all here: A crystal-ball gazing seer, Armageddon, even a reference to my favourite fiction from last year. Some of it is mocking, but I don’t apologise - if Christadelphians didn’t want that, they should have chosen something better than Brexit to nail their colours to the mast over.

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Eyes opened to a tyrant god

By Jon Morgan

One of the dubious benefits of having been a lay preacher for over ten years is that Bible passages often remind me of talks I built on those passages. Recently, this happened with Ezekiel’s vision of God leaving his temple in Jerusalem (Ezekiel 8 - 11).

Five years ago, I used that as the starting point for my “Dies Irae” exhortation. Ironically, I sub-titled it “Finding our Blind Spots”, but I now see that it was I who had the blind spot: The passage clearly showed the unpleasant behaviour of the God of the Bible, and I was so busy trying to find what we might have done wrong that I just couldn’t see it.

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Well done

By Phynnodderee

Leaving the Christadelphians can be tough, painful and demand a lot of courage. So this is a message for ex-Christadelphians who have overcome significant struggles to mentally break free from the religion and move on.

Christadelphians and independent thinking

 By Phynnodderee

The idea of independent thinking is important to Christadelphians. They pride themselves on not following the crowd, but standing apart as a community who ‘search out the truth’ for themselves. This spirit of free thinking is supposedly part of the legacy of the pioneers, and Christadelphians believe it sets them apart from both other churches and ordinary society. I grew up with the idea that other Christians uncritically accept whatever they’re told by their clergy, while people in ‘the world’ go along unthinkingly with whatever idea happens to be in vogue.

I’d like to explain why I think this idea of independent thinking is actually illusory, and what is really required of Christadelphians is conformity.

No, The Bible Does Not Predict A Russian Invasion

By Thom Jonas

Everyone hold onto your hats and calm down. Christadelphians have been lecturing about Russia for much longer than I can remember and no doubt they will continue to preach fear and alarmism long into the future. I know I won't convince most of them that they have been misled, but for the few who are curious about why most scholars disagree with them, please read on.

The Bible is an ancient book and sometimes difficult to understand. It is therefore not surprising to find that there are often multiple interpretations held by various scholars and that modern research sometimes overturns widely-held ideas. This topic is one such example.

Tribalism

Another fantastic video by TheraminTrees about Tribalism, what it is, why it's sometimes useful, and sometimes harmful, and how we can all do better.

The Christadelphian Obsession With Death

By Thom Jonas

Have you ever noticed just how obsessed many Christadelphians are with death? I recently drove past a Christadelphian hall which had a sign out the front advertising an upcoming lecture titled, "What happens when we die?"

Of course, like any rational human being, when I want to find out the answers to such scientific / medical questions I always seek out my local Christadelphian community and trust them to know the correct answers to all things about human biology and natural chemical processes. I jest. What I actually did was type the above lecture title into Google, which linked me to a science article with a handy graphic showing the various stages of bodily decomposition in slightly unnecessary detail.

But why are Christadelphians so obsessed with death?