Ex-Christadelphians

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.

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.

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.

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?

Letting Go Of God

If you haven't yet watched Julia Sweeney's monologue, "Letting Go Of God", you really should. It's hilariously funny, enlightening, and just a fascinating journey. Well, Julia has recently announced that the whole video is now available on YouTube! So find yourself a spare 2 hrs and a comfy chair, and watch it.

Imaginary Defects

Another fantastic video from TheraminTrees. I'm sure many of us can relate to this. We were made to feel guilty for being human. We were shamed for things we did, or even things we thought, that never harmed anyone.

Was The Bible Written By God?

By Thom Jonas

When faced with strong evidence from modern science that contradicts traditional Christadelphian interpretations of the Bible, many Christadelphians claim that the Bible was written by God - the very same god who created the universe - and thus it contains a superior understanding than anything science has discovered or even can discover.

But how did they, as fallible humans, reach the conclusion that the Bible was written by God? What if it wasn't?

This article explores some of the more common arguments for the claim that the Bible is the "Word of God".

Where Does God Fit In An Infinite Universe?

Professor Brian Cox, an English physicist, explains the framework of science and why anyone who wants to take reality seriously must work within this framework. He also makes the point that as far as physicists and cosmologists know, the universe may actually be eternal. Many modern cosmological models suggest that what we call the Big Bang may just be a local event in a much broader environment - one which may possibly be eternal. What would be the theological implications of an eternal universe?

By Thom Jonas

All readers will be familiar with science in some form. Most of us enjoy far better health than our distant ancestors, and have the prospect of a longer life, on average. You are reading this on a device only made possible by discoveries from the last 100 years. Through science, humanity has explored the far reaches of space as well as the very strange characteristics of matter at subatomic scales.

But I want to convince you that science is not merely a body of facts. It is not merely something engaged in during the working week by people who studied to become scientists. Perhaps most importantly for this audience, science is not a weapon of mass propaganda wielded by unbelieving apostates intent on robbing your children of a place in God's kingdom. Science is not your enemy. Science is simply a method or process by which we can understand the world and reality. You probably use this method all the time without realising it.

Luke: The Alternative Facts Gospel

This brilliant satirical video, from none other than NonStampCollector, clearly articulates some of the many problems raised by scholars in attempting to reconcile the gospels of Mark and Luke. In the video description, the author answers some anticipated criticisms, so I recommend reading that as well. There is also an accompanying blog post full of citations and references for the material in the video. Enjoy!

Dating The Book Of Daniel

Another short video from the awesome Digital Hammurabi channel on YouTube, outlining some of the reasons why most scholars think the book of Daniel was written and composed much later than the 6th century BCE. It's a great, high-level introduction to this topic, for anyone interested in learning why most of the so-called "prophecies" in the book of Daniel were not predictions at all, and the few that were (regarding the death of Antiochus IV Epiphanes), failed.

Wishing all you wonderful folks a happy new year!

To all who have contributed to the site throughout 2018, through articles, comments or both, thank you.

We run this blog because we think there is great value in talking about our experiences and what we've all learned throughout the process of leaving a highly-controlling religion.

Some of you may have had the great fortune of being able to walk away from the religion with relative ease, while others of us have found the process incredibly challenging and difficult. By sharing our unique experiences and perspectives, together we can heal the wounds, and help to make every year a little better than the last.

To that end, I want hear your feedback and suggestions of what you'd like to see more of in 2019 on this blog. Let's celebrate the magic of life, the universe, and everything, and have a little fun along the way as well.

So once again, happy new year! Let's make 2019 a great one!

-Thom

Archaeology Of The Hebrew Bible

"From the beginnings of what we call biblical archeology, perhaps 150 years ago, scholars, mostly western scholars, have attempted to use archeological data to prove the Bible. And for a long time it was thought to work. [William Foxwell] Albright, the great father of our discipline, often spoke of the "archeological revolution." Well, the revolution has come but not in the way that Albright thought. The truth of the matter today is that archeology raises more questions about the historicity of the Hebrew Bible and even the New Testament than it provides answers, and that's very disturbing to some people."

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Tired of Hearing About Tyre - Ezekiel 26 Prophecy Failed

Assyriologist and Old Testament Scholar Dr Josh Bowen explains the failure of the prophecy against Tyre in Ezekiel 26. He provides evidence from both the biblical text and also other Ancient Near Eastern texts, demonstrating clearly that the prophecy failed. Also in this video you will see why those who claim otherwise often try to contort the text to make it say something it clearly does not say.