Showing posts with label doctrine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label doctrine. Show all posts

Tuesday 18 May 2021

Afscheiding van 1834

Een kerkgemeenschap is iets levendigs. Hoe meerdere kerkgemeenten bij zich bij elkaar aansluiten of aansloten is zeer wisselvallig. Doorheen de geschiedenis is er in het christendom heel wat gepalaverd over doctrines, regels en wetten. Zo zijn er in het christendom heel wat verschillende denominaties ontstaan.

Geen enkel land bleek gespaard te blijven van scheuringen in haar kerkgenootschappen.

In Nederland kwam in 1834 een aantal gemeenten en predikanten buiten de Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk (NHK) te staan. Dat moment en die beweging worden de Afscheiding genoemd.

De rede, het verstand, had in de 18de eeuw met de verlichting een grote plaats gekregen.  Het gevolg was dat de prediking op veel plaatsen dor en droog werd en de harten van mensen niet meer raakte. Voor de Bijbelse leer van zonde, schuld, verdorvenheid, de noodzaak van bekering en rechtvaardiging door het geloof was er steeds minder plaats. Predikanten die vasthielden aan de gereformeerde belijdenis kregen het hierdoor moeilijk.

Ook had koning Willem I op 7 januari 1816 het ”Algemeen Reglement voor het bestuur der Nederlandsche Hervormde Kerk” (NHK) goedgekeurd. Deze kerkorde verving de Dordtse kerkorde van 1619. Dat riep verzet op. In de kerk zagen velen het reglement als een ongewenste inmenging van de koning.

Er kwam heel wat kritiek op de NHK en vonden gelijkgezinden dat zij hun eigen weg moesten gaan.

Ds. Hendrik de Cock (1801-1842), predikant in Ulrum, had een kritisch boekje geschreven over de leer in de NHK en zich uitgesproken tegen verschillende gezangen. Dat leidde in 1834 tot zijn afzetting, maar de kerkenraad van Ulrum bleef achter hem staan. Ds. De Cock en zijn volgelingen scheidden zich in oktober 1834 officieel af van de NHK en tekenden de ”Acte van Afscheiding of Wederkeering”. Ds. Cock werd vastgezet en zijn gezin moest uit de pastorie.

Maar enkele duizenden leden van de NHK in heel Nederland volgden het spoor van ds. De Cock. Alleen al in Groningen en Drenthe ontstonden binnen twee jaar tijd ruim dertig afgescheiden kerken. Ook in andere delen van het land ontstonden afgescheiden kerken. Ds. Anthony Brummelkamp (1811-1888) was de voortrekker in Oost-Nederland; in Zuid-Holland was ds. Hendrik Scholte (1805-1868) de leider en in Zeeland ds. Huibert Jacobus Budding (1810-1870).

Vanaf de Gereformeerde Kerken onder het Kruis loopt er een lijn naar de Gereformeerde Gemeenten (in Nederland). De Oud Gereformeerde Gemeenten in Nederland hebben hun wortels vooral in de Ledeboeriaanse gemeenten die ontstonden toen ds. L. G. C. Ledeboer in 1840 werd geschorst. Hij sloot zich kort aan bij de Christelijke Afgescheiden Gemeenten, maar ging uiteindelijk toch zijn eigen weg.

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Wednesday 6 July 2016

Focussing on the man Jesus and the relationship with God

Having now three different websites focussing on the man Jesus and his relationship with God we only can hope more people shall come to listen to the very challenging things Jesus said.

Hopefully those Christians who take Jesus as their god will consider those words Jesus spoke like
“on that day” (Matthew 7:22),
i.e., the day of judgement. Jesus speaks of those who will come before him, but to some of them he will say,
 “Depart from me; I never knew you” (verse 23).
 These will be among the
 “many (who) will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name … and do many mighty works in your name?” 
In Christendom we can see many  who try to build mega churches and attract lots of people by laying of hands and claiming to do miracles in the name of God, though “works” does not necessarily mean, perform miracles, and his reference to those who prophecy, we should not think of him as meaning those who have some gift to foretell the future.

It is God Who calls people, but it is the way how they react to God's call which shall be important. We also should be aware that when people hear about Jesus and his heavenly Father they shall come to make decisions. How and why they take them shall be important for God and on the final day of judgement.


Those who Jesus tells to depart are described as “workers of lawlessness”, the ones who are “outside” excluded from a place in God’s “city” because their names were not found in “the book of life” (20:12). them who did things which are not acceptable for God, perhaps wanting to keep to human traditions, participating to heathen rituals and preferring to be popular, i.e. being of this world, instead of becoming a child of God belonging to the world of Christ.

You may wonder when a person does not want to accept the words Jesus speaks, like saying the Father is greater than him, how they sincerely can be called a follower of Christ when they keep holding fast to human traditions and human doctrines like the trinity, worshipping a three-headed god instead worshipping the Only One True God.

How can they who consider Jesus to be God build up a proper relationship with Jesus, when they keep ignoring that Jesus did not do his own will and demands from us to do the same, coming in unity with his heavenly Father like Jesus is one with God


We must make sure we have developed a really strong and committed relationship to and with Christ – only then will we be able to “conquer” our human nature and become more and more like our Saviour. Let us remember what we read last week in Revelation 21:7
 “The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son” – then “on that day” he will declare “I … knew you”.

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Jewish and Christian traditions of elders

How can a Christian book possibly write":
"nowhere in the old testament is there one single word about 'GOD, THE FATHER,' and yet, that phrase dominates the New Testament and Christs teachings."
Also strange to find written
Christ also, according to scientists who were finally able to extract blood from the shroud of Turin, had AB negative blood which is stated to be the original blood of humans, on the planet.  
Michael A. Hoffman II was educated at the University of New York and is a former reporter for the New York Bureau of the Associated Press. He is the author of several books, including the well known, Judaism's Strange in which we may find very strange remarks.
According to  but being based on the "Oral Law.".
He says
The New Testament speaks of this as the "traditions of the elders." Jesus Christ denounced and condemned the "traditions of the elders" in the Gospel of John Chapter 5 and in the Gospel of Mark Chapter 7.
It is known that the rabbis teach that the revelation granted to Moses had been delivered in two forms, a smaller revelation in writing, and the larger one kept oral.
The rabbis claim that the so-called "oral revelation" had been transmitted by the leaders of each generation to their successors — by Moses to Joshua; and then to the elders; to the prophets; to the men of the Sanhedrin; to the leaders of the Pharisees; and finally to the earliest rabbis who saw themselves as heirs of the Pharisees.
It is because having so much accent been given to the oral tradition that lots of human doctrines entered mankind's teaching. Also in Christendom we can find such an evolution, having lots of people preferring to follow the human doctrines instead of the Biblical doctrines.

According to Michael A. Hoffman the oral tradition of the Jews is not consonant with the Old Testament. He says


The spurious claim of an "oral tradition of the elders" bequeathed by God to Moses is anti-Biblical, just as Jesus asserted. Christ very simply illuminated the fact that if the Pharisees' tradition had indeed been from Moses, then they would have become Christians. For Christ rebuked them saying, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?"
Here Jesus annihilated in one stroke the basis for the religion of Judaism and its conceit of an oral tradition given to it by Moses. For had such a tradition existed it would have testified of Jesus the Messiah. Instead, Christ tells them point blank that they don't follow Moses!

We must be aware that in Judaism as in Christendom we do have the same problem that many do not know their Holy Scriptures. Michael A. Hoffman says:
 When presenting Old Testament proofs of the Messiahship of Jesus to the rabbis and their followers - one must penetrate the iron-clad grid of the Talmudic mind-set which according to Christ’s assertion makes the Scriptures "of none effect."
From the outset, the Christian must realize that the rabbis and their followers do not know their own Scriptures, and for that matter, do not care to know them. For they view the Talmud as superceding the Scriptures. Much patience is required when bringing the Gospel message to them, and perhaps at times, stern reproofs are necessary.

The same as we do have to have much patience to try to convince those who call themselves Christian we do need lots of time to bring Jews to come to see what it is about the Messiah and why Jesus really can be seen as that promised sent one from God

We do not agree with those people who say Jews have their own God and Muslims have their own God. It is very easy to come with such accusation as excuse for promoting their own teachings which are often also based more on human or church doctrines instead of Biblical doctrines.

Unlike the writer of the boos says, the main tenet of Judaism is not Jewish self-worship. Judaism has not as its "god," another God than the one of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We can more say that lots of Christians do have an other god than the God Who is worshipped by the Jewish people. The People of God never worshipped a trintiarian god. They all knew and know very well that there is only One true God of gods according to the infallible Word of God.

for the author Jewish self-worship is at the core of the Talmud.
The secularist amongst them shares in this self-worship. For the Talmud teaches that the Gentile is a lower form of humanity.
 Michael A. Hoffman says.
He also finds that the Talmud blasphemes Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary.
Tractate Sanhedrin 106a says that Jesus’ mother was a harlot: "She who was a descendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters." Also in Tractate Shabbath 104b of the Talmud, it is stated: "Miriam the hairdresser had sex with many men."
As regard the Talmud's treatment of Jesus Christ, Tractates Sanhedrin 107b and Sotah 47a say: "Jesus was sexually immoral, worshipped statues of stone and brick, was cut off from the Jewish people for his wickedness, and refused to repent." And even a more vile blasphemy is written in Tractate Gitten 57: "Jesus is in hell, being boiled in hot excrement."
 The Jews know that in the Scriptures is written that Jesus was three days in hell, something lots of Christians do seem to overlook. But naturally the sheol or hell from the bible is not such a place of torment as many Christians and Muslims understand it. there does not exist a place of hellfire where people would be tortured for ever. The Creator God is not such an awful sadistic Being which would enjoy such torment for His creatures. For Him when a person dies he or she has paid for his or her sins and everything ends with it.

Michael A. Hoffman is totally wrong in saying:
Christians must understand that the religion of Judaism is anti-Biblical. The true religion of the God of Israel is Christianity not Judaism. Judaism is simply a perversion of God’s original revelation to the Hebrew nation. It is the very religion of nullification of the Old Testament.
All Christians should know that the Jews are God His chosen people. They always shall have a preferred place in God's Plan. The heathen or gentiles may not expect that they would get a higher place than the Jews. they should be happy that , when they agree to follow Christ Jesus, have their sins washed away by baptism, can also enter the Kingdom of God, when from their conversion onwards they are willing to follow the commandments of Christ and the commandments of God.

Mr Hoffman with so many Christians do seem to forget that whatever happens God shall keep His promises He made centuries ago to Abraham. The seed of Abraham is in first instance the Jewish people and in second instance those who have become the new children of the patriarch Abraham, the reborn people in Christ or the Christians then new sons of Abraham

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Please also do find to read:
  1. Bible Word of God, inspired and infallible
  2. God-breathed prophetic words written torah and the mitzvot to teach us
  3. The very very beginning 2 The Word and words
  4. Creator and Blogger God 7 A Blog of a Book 1 Believing the Blogger
  5. Missional hermeneutics 1/5
  6. Missional hermeneutics 2/5
  7. Missional hermeneutics 3/5
  8. Missional hermeneutics 4/5
  9. Missional hermeneutics 5/5 
  10. Jesus begotten Son of God #3 Messiah or Anointed one
  11. Jesus’ answers about our Creator
  12. Believing what Jesus says
  13. Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus 
  14. Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ
  15.  Our relationship with God, Jesus and with each other
  16. People are turning their back on Christianity
  17.  Manifests for believers #5 Christian Union
  18. Necessity of a revelation of creation 1 Works of God and works of man
  19. Necessity of a revelation of creation 3 Getting understanding by Word of God 1
  20. Necessity of a revelation of creation 4 Getting understanding by Word of God 2
  21. Religion and spirituality
  22. Faith related boycotts
  23. Built on or Belonging to Jewish tradition #4 Mozaic and Noachide laws
  24. After the Sabbath after Passover, the resurrection of Jesus Christ
  25. Disobedient man and God’s promises
  26. Position and power
  27. Truth, doubt or blindness
  28. Being Religious and Spiritual 1 Immateriality and Spiritual experience
  29. Statutes given unto us 
  30. Why is it that Christians don’t understand Muslims and Muslims do not understand Christians? 
  31. Luther’s misunderstanding
  32. January 27, 417, Pope Innocent I condemning Pelagius about Faith and Works
  33. Our life depending on faith
  34. Romans 4 and the Sacraments
  35. Is Justification a process?
  36. Letter to the Romans, chapter 3
  37. Letter to the Romans, chapter 4
  38. Additional comments to the 3rd Letter to the Romans
  39. Additional comments to the Letter to the Romans 4
  40. Comments to James remarks about Faith and works
  41. A god who gave his people commandments and laws he knew they never could keep to it
  42. Necessity of a revelation of creation 8 By no means unintelligible or mysterious to people
  43. Creation of the earth and man #8 Of the Sabbath day #6 If it be necessary to keep Sunday
  44. Were Gentiles excluded from entering the synagogue?
  45. Blinded crying blue murder having being made afraid by a bugaboo
  46. Belonging to or being judged by
  47. Israeli leaders delight in Europe’s cruelty toward refugees
  48. Daring to speak in multicultural environment
  49. A Synod to speak freely and to listen without reservations
     
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Thursday 8 October 2015

A Synod to speak freely and to listen without reservations

English: A Roman Catholic priest baptizes an i...
A Roman Catholic priest baptizes an infant as his parents look on. what about baptisism of children of gay people or same sex marriages? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Often referred as the "Pope John Paul II generation," or now the "Benedict XVI generation," the younger leaders today are often far more receptive to the principles articulated in twenty years old Apostolic Constitution that defined Roman Catholic colleges and created guidelines to assist them in fulfilling their missions, Ex corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church) issued by Pope John Paul II.

Coming together in Rome conservatives and more progressive cardinals do have to find a solution for the changes in our society and how the world today looks at marriage and gender relations. They can not ignore the changes that took place in civil society the last three decades. Several gender-problems did find the light but haven't yet find solutions.

We can see that the Roman Catholic church like always has found 'temporarily' local solutions. Yesterday in 'Koppen' on Canvas we could see how homosexual men are working as pastoral-workers in Belgium. Belgium has the problem that there are not only many homosexual priests, there are not  enough priests in the diminishing parishes. For that reason the Catholic Church accepted the transfer from other denominational clergy into their community and when those pastors were married they could keep their wife and family as a Catholic priest. Male who did not want to take on the priesthood no matter their gender feelings could become a pastoral co-worker and take office in parishes.

In the Ex corde were laid out rules for academic freedom in order to justify positions that contradict the faith and the teaching of the church would obstruct or even betray the university's identity and mission but also the parish its intentions. Several Catholics in Belgium do find Pope Francis I his main interest in preaching the Gospel. Though many also urge Roman Catholic institutions to abide by traditional church teachings.

The Fourteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family taking place on the theme "The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and in the Contemporary World" as the continuation of last year special synod on the family, may wind up in a situation similar to that one.

Many Cardinals made it already clear that no one should have to expect new church teachings or some changes in church doctrine. Though others expect that this time key leaders can not go around the agenda to emphasize "innovative" pastoral practice..

Pope Francis I wishes for an open discussion yielding a well-grounded unity, but it could well be that this synod may result in even more confusion and dissension.
To prevent this, some are looking upon the synod as a summons to return to the established teachings of the Church, to revert to Scripture and tradition, which were largely sidelined at the last synod. Critics of last year's meeting believe that, after years of poor catechises, doctrine must be reasserted and proclaimed, ending the false dichotomy underlying the notion that upholding the Church's teaching and practice somehow means being unpastoral. Jesus, they point out, took pity on the crowd, who were "like sheep without a shepherd," not by affirming them in their worldly thinking and values, but by first "teaching them many things."

There are several clergy who warn about false doctrine cloaked under the seductive guise of "innovative" pastoral practice. This is not new, of course, and no shortage of scriptural passages warn against it. Also not new is the passion shown during a synod, which can, at times, be wearying....

In the Catholic church today doctrine and pastoral theology seem to stand irreconcilably against each other never being able of reconciliation.  One reads about “The Rigging of a Vatican Synod?” and alleged manipulations and the now famous Cardinal Burke stated that the final report of the extraordinary Synod produced a
“gravely flawed document that does not express adequately the teaching and discipline of the Church and, in some aspects, propagates doctrinal error and a false pastoral approach” {Ideology or Faith?}
Being a Roman - Catholic priest and working in the fields of HIV and AIDS in Africa, the blogger of

God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE writes:
Pope Francis encouraged the participants of the Synod to speak freely and to listen without reservations. These are the basis of deliberation and discernment to find consent, to build bridges, to see realities, to encourage dialogue and to give Pope Francis the tools to extract what is needed for the development of the church. Synods are advisory boards – they are not a parliament and they should have the openness to listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit who – in my humble opinion – can’t work freely if there is nothing to reflect or to develop as everything must remain as it is. {Ideology or Faith?}

Lots of discussions have gone on the last few months about laity in church and gender issues. since the clergy sex-scandals in Belgium "Mercy" has been a much uttered word, though for many civilians this seems to work only from one site for the Catholic church. Many divorced people who wanted to stay in the Catholic Church and wanted still to be partakers of the sacraments, are often refused to take them.

Concerning the theology of marriage a lot of discussions found their way into the community. The government accepting gay marriage brought also forth that from those wanting to seal their bond of marriage, they asked for a marriage ceremony in church. Most churches refuses such actions but gay people still could find their way out by renting a priest and having a sacramental services in their own environment, which made it even cosier.

The above mentioned priest warns:
There is no need to build up theological barricades or fortresses to defend yesterday – look at Abraham and Moses and be aware that faith always means to set out trusting that God is in the lead. If one only holds firm what one knows already there is the danger that faith turns into ideology and that would be the worst outcome of any such church assembly.

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Additional reading:

  1. Two synods and life in the church community
  2. A synod not leading to doctrinal changes because it is about pastoral attention
  3. Different assessment criteria and a new language to be found for communicating the faith
  4. 72 Synod Fathers on the topic “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the contemporary world”

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Thursday 10 July 2014

Believing what Jesus says

How many people are really willing to believe what Jesus says. In Christendom we do find many Christians who prefer to keep to the traditional doctrines of the doctrinal churches, instead of willing to take the words of the Bible like they are written there.
Evangelistar von Speyer, um 1220 Manuscript in...
Evangelistar von Speyer, um 1220 Manuscript in the Badische Landesbibliothek, Karlsruhe, Germany Cod. Bruchsal 1, Bl. 1v Shows Christ in vesica shape surrounded by the "animal" symbols of the four evangelists. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The barrier to fully accepting Jesus’ words is the cost involved in following him and his teachings. To follow his teachings, and the teaching of the Bible at large, requires a different type of focus. That is, one not focussed upon material or present benefits, but rather upon following the truths of God no matter what the present cost, because something far greater has been purposed and promised by God.
You as a Christian or as a unbeliever, what do you want to come to believe? Where do you want to put your focus?

What does it mean to you when Jesus says God is greater than him? What does it mean when he says we do have to pray to God his Father and do not may worship him, but should give all honour to the Only One Divine God, Creator of heaven and earth?

Jesus concentrated himself on the words and works of his heavenly Father and asked others not to focus on his (Jesus) works, because he (Jesus) could do nothing without his Father. Jesus his focus was on his heavenly Father who had appeared above him and had spoken "This is my beloved son." How many Christians are willing to accept those words of God Who spoke about His only begotten son?

Do you want to focus on the doctrines of the many churches, or are you willing to focus on the Word of God as it is presented to the world in the Bible?

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Please read also:  A Different Life Focus

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Wednesday 12 February 2014

19° Century London Christadelphians

 From

the
RELIGIOUS LIFE OF LONDON.

by
J. EWING RITCHIE,
author ofbritish senators,” “the night side of london,” etc.
LONDON:
TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND.
1870.

What good men have been persecuted and suffered wrong because they bore the name of a sect distasteful to an imperious majority!  How the mob have thirsted for their blood!
  “These are Christians—away with them to the lions,” said they of old Rome.  “Down with the Roundheads!”
 was the cry of country squire and rural parson when a few devout men such as Richard Baxter and others more or less known to fame met in a small room to keep alive the spirit of piety and prayer amongst themselves.  It was the same when Wesley and Whitefield, often at the peril of life, proclaimed in parishes of England sunk in ignorance Gospel truths.  There are thousands who, like the late Isaac Taylor, of Ongar, could tell how a “Church and King mob” kept them in perpetual fear, because they were “Meetingers.”  There are yet parishes in Suffolk and Norfolk where to go to chapel is to insure your being despised as a “Pogram,” and cut by all the dignities of the village, even if you have the learning of a German professor and the piety of a saint.

  In the Babel of London, however, it is different; here, there is a rage for new names, and there are preachers and people ever ready to resort to a new name, as if novelty were a possibility in our day, after eighteen hundred years of theological hair-splitting and threshing of straw.  The Christadelphians are the latest production in this way.  They meet in Crowndale Hall, Crowndale Road, St. Pancras Road, every Sunday; in the morning, at eleven, for the breaking of bread, and worship; in the afternoon at three, when there is a Bible-class especially for inquirers, when opportunity to ask questions respecting the one faith is afforded; and at seven in the evening, when we are told the Word of God is expounded in harmony with the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus anointed.

  One of the most active teachers is Mr. Watts, late of Vernon Chapel, King’s Cross Road.  The Athenæum Hall, Temple Road, Birmingham, seems to be the headquarters of Christadelphian publications.  There are published there the Christadelphian Shield, the Biblical Newspaper, and the Ambassador, monthly periodicals, and other publications more expensive, and aiming to be standard works.


This, I take it, is the epitome of their faith:—
One God, the Eternal Father, dwelling in heaven in light of glory inconceivable; one universal irradiant Spirit, by which the Father fills all and knows all, and when He wills, performs all; one Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, begotten by the Spirit of the Virgin Mary, put to death for sin, raised from the dead for righteousness, and exalted to the heavens as a Mediator between God and man; man a creature of the ground, under sentence of death because of sin, which is his great enemy — the devil; deliverance from death by resurrection, and bodily glorification at the coming of Christ and inheritance of the kingdom of God, offered to all men on condition—1, of believing the glad tidings of Christ’s accomplishment at His first appearing, and of His coming manifestations in the earth as King of Israel and Ruler of the whole earth at the setting up of the kingdom of God; 2, of being immersed in water for His name; and 3, of continuing in well-doing to the end of this probationary career.”
This is the teaching of the new sect.  They rejoice in their emancipation from the bondage of orthodoxy.

  Mr. Watts says:
“My past nineteen years of religious life I regard as so much lost time taken up with the fables and follies of man’s fleshly mind, systematized upon a pagan theology; and although I honestly thought myself right, and strove hard to lead others, yet I am now fully persuaded it was all done in ignorance of the true knowledge of God.”
  He tells us the Evangelical party in the Church or Dissent do not know the Gospel.
  “Nothing can be more clear,”
 he says,
 “than that this (their doctrine of the resurrection) first item of the Gospel as preached by Jesus and the Apostles does not form any part of the teaching either of those who pretend to be the successors of the Apostles, or the sects and parties of Dissenters who have imbibed their system of theology from the same polluted stream.”
  The doctrine of the soul’s essential and inherent immortality is a pagan myth.  For the heathen there is no future life; for them what Macbeth wished has come to pass, and life is indeed
“The be all and the end all here.”
The mere belief of this doctrine relieves orthodoxy of the perplexing problem, What becomes of the heathen? and of course strikes at the foundation of the doctrine of purgatory.  Yet we are not to suppose there will be no punishment for the wicked and the disobedient; they shall beaten with stripes, and then, according to the righteous Judge, enter upon that second death state, from which there shall be no resurrection—an opinion the direct opposite of that of Origen and Archbishop Tillotson, first promulgated in modern times by Dr. Rust, Bishop of Dromore.  The Calvinistic formula is also, in the opinion of the Christadelphians, a mere travesty of the subject of the atonement.  As to man in general, he is born to die.  God treated the first man federally.  He put him on probation, and in him all his successors stood or fell.  We never read of immortal, never-dying souls in Scripture, and to foist such a meaning on 2 Cor. v. 8, as that it proves the existence of a separate state of disembodied spirits, is to handle the Word of God deceitfully.

  Once Mr. Watts believed in a kingdom in the sky, a throne in the heart, a seed of Israel, a New Jerusalem and promised land, all mystically referring to something at present existing in the so-called Christian Church.  He does so no longer.  His eyes are opened, the light is come, and he and his friends, chiefly juveniles, rejoice; and if they have the true light, who shall say they have no reason to rejoice?  Farewell, writes Mr. Watts, in a poem considered poetically of doubtful merit—
“Farewell to the false, I welcome the true,
And begin the year with Christ anew.”
This reference to poetry reminds me that the Christadelphians have a hymn-book of their own, to frame which appears to have been a matter of no little trouble.  With the hymns used by Christian churches in general they find much fault.  They require something manly and robust, whereas the churches of all denominations rejoice in what is sentimental, and their songs of praise and devotion are described as “oceans of slops.”  Whether the Christadelphians have much improved theirs, I leave the reader to judge.  As a specimen I quote one verse from Montgomery’s well-known poem, “The Grave.”  In their hymn-book I find it printed thus.  I quote from memory:—
“There is a calm for saints who weep,
   A rest for weary Weyyah found;
In Christ secure they sweetly sleep,
   Hid in the ground.”
At present the Christadelphians do not seem very flourishing.  In their little room—which is miscalled a hall—there are about forty of them of an evening, quibbling earnestly, and to the best of their ability.

In taking leave of the Christadelphians, let me refer to a passage in our Church history.  It is notorious that the celebrated Henry Dodwell, Camden Professor of History in the University of Oxford, in order to exalt the power and dignity of the priesthood, endeavoured to prove that the doctrine of the soul’s natural mortality was the true and original doctrine, and that immortality was only at baptism conferred upon the soul by the gift of God through the hands of one set of regularly ordained clergy.
p. 300-  p305
File:Women in Industry during the First World War, London, c 1918 Q28553.jpg
Women in Industry during the First World War, London, c 1918
A general view of the central hall of Crowndale Works, an anti-gas mask factory, in Camden Town, London. A mass of women sit shoulder to shoulder on long tables to prepare the glass for the mask eyepieces.
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