Who are the Christadelphians

Base for a community

Since the day Jesus got followers, there were serious people who loved to follow everything Jesus told them to belief and to do. Many of them had to bring a lot of changes to their life, which was not always received kindly by family and friends. But they found it more important to take actions under the Law of Christ, doing the Will of God Like Jesus also wanted only to do the Will of his and our heavenly Father.

Those beliefs and practices of the earliest disciples continued to live by many individuals throughout the ages. Several enthusiast continued the preaching work the apostles had started and did not mind going to places far away to preach the Gospel of the Good News, the coming Kingdom of God. Around the world countless independent communities were founded on the same believes the early followers of Christ had. Those people who came together in several places, private and public, found it most important to follow the Holy Scriptures, The Bible, which they considered to be the infallible Word of God.  For them the best way to get to know what God wanted from them and humankind was to eagerly study the Bible and to accept its simple teachings, above the teachings of man

The beliefs and practices of the Christadelphians can be traced from the New Testament to the earliest Christians of the 1st and 2nd Centuries in documents such as the Epistle of Clement, The Didache and The Apostles’ Creed.

With the advent of religious freedom in Europe in the 16th Century Reformation and the the Antitrinitarian Council of Venice in 1550, the same beliefs and practices resurfaced in Bible-minded groups such as the Swiss Anabaptists and Polish Socinians. The early English Baptists held similar beliefs (although these beliefs are not held by Baptists today and at the turn of the 20th century many left the Baptist community because it had become more and more trinitarian). In the 18th Century many leading figures in the Enlightenment such as Sir Isaac Newton and William Whiston held these beliefs.

 

A renewed movement

In the world of the Christian religion many times people found it necessary to react against the activities of religious behaviour or against the way of living at that time.

Early in the 19°century lots of people did not like how things were going in their country and looked for better pastures somewhere else. Going from one place to an other far away place they had  lots of time to think about their and others way of life and about the world they were living. They also were confronted by the beauties of nature and looked for the Hand of God.

The modern Christadelphian movement has its origin in the 1830s, an age of revival and reform in America and England. The British medical doctor, John Thomas (1805-1871), whose family descended from French Huguenot refugees, emigrated to America in 1832 where he joined a group of evangelical Christians, the Campbellites. He disagreed with their beliefs and pursued his own study of the Bible. In May 1834 the first issue appeared of his magazine the Apostolic Advocate (1834-39).

He began to believe that the basis of knowledge before baptism was greater than the Restoration Movement believed and also that widely held orthodox Christian beliefs were blatantly wrong. His difference on the works we should do to be able to come in the Kingdom of God and the preaching of these beliefs as necessary for salvation met with a lot of controversial debates particularly between Dr Thomas and Alexander Campbell. For him it was clear that be baptised was not always a clear way to the hope we all should have, to inherit the Kingdom.
In 1843 Dr Thomas was introduced to William Miller, the leader of the Millerites, and agreed with their belief in the second coming of Christ and the founding of a millennial age upon His return.

 

Groups around bible students

John Thomas

Going around the New Country he encouraged many to study the Bible and those Bible Students in turn created small groups or home-churches were they tried to go back to the way the first Christians worshipped. Exchanging his ideas with many other enthusiast Bible students he started bringing all their ideas together and putting them in order. Sometimes it is held against him that he took ideas of different denominations and formed his own sort of faith, but he found what was right should be kept and what was false or doctrinal teaching should have to be abandoned.

He arrived at his unique interpretation of various Bible doctrines by about 1848 and attracted a small group of followers who were, at first, known as 'Thomasites'.

John Thomas published the magazines The Herald of the Future Age (1843-49) and Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come (1851-61). His writings from writings from 1845-61 were posthumous published as Faith In the Last Days. 
The Herald of the Kingdom set out Bible teaching on the resurrection and the Kingdom of God.


On 1 January 1834 in Philadelphia John Thomas married Ellen Hunt who became his lifelong companion and constant support throughout the trials of faith that persisted throughout his life. John Thomas made never a claim to any vision or personal revelation and wanted never to be seen a a prophet.

In Britain a journalist named Robert Roberts took up the same cause in the Ambassador of the Coming Age. Thomas and Roberts made no claims to any vision or personal revelations - only to try to be honest students of the Bible.

 

 

To be registered

In 1854  Bro. John Thomas wrote in the Herald of the Kingdom and Age To Come a "Constitution Of the Royal Association Of Believers In New York" which was also published as The Old Man and The New Man In The Coming Tribulation.
 
When the American Civil War broke out in 1861 those Christian groups who did not fight were required to register with the Union government. Sam Coffman and other brothers in Ogle County, Illinois, registered themselves as "Brethren in Christ, or in a word Christadelphian". This name was soon adopted by many like-minded groups of believers in America and Britain. Since then, independent Christadelphian groups have been established in countries all over the world.

Those Bible students did not want to be lovers of the world but make sure that they came together as loving of the law of God, finding it a characteristic of the faithful, who search the Scriptures daily as circumstances allow.

 

Robert Roberts

The man who is mainly responsible for having a worldwide community under the name of Christadelphians or having several  Brothers in Christ adhering to the teachings of Dr. John Thomas is the son of a captain of a small coasting vessel, Robert Roberts, born in Link Street, Aberdeen, Scotland (1839 – 1898).
After he had come across a copy of a magazine, belonging to his sister, entitled the Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, by Thomas, when in his teens he started his Bible studies in earnest.

After reading Thomas’ book Elpis Israel, with Bible in hand, he became convinced of its soundness, and ceased attending the Calvinistic Baptist chapel with his family. He was baptised in 1853 aged 14 as part of the "Baptised Believers" (this was 11 years before the name 'Christadelphian' was coined by John Thomas; he was re-baptized in 1863 "on attaining to an understanding of the things concerning the name of Jesus, of which he was ignorant at his first immersion")

The reading plan, later published as The Bible Companion, to facilitate his daily systematic reading of the Scriptures he developed is still followed by many Christadelphians and other Biblestudents.

He married Jane Norrie in Edinburgh on April 8, 1859. They had 6 children, only three of whom survived into adulthood.

Being of one faith

Christadelphians want to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ (Jeshua) and would love to become like the Nazarene man, only doing the will of God.

In the Christadelphian faith each person is responsible for himself and has to make their own choices, this with the knowledge that every man's work is always a portrait of himself.

For Christadelphians it is not persons or organisations that we do have to follow, but we may not be so bounded to the world that we keep to the traditions of that world. Everything what is against the Word of God and against the Will of God, we should avoid to be connected with. Each of us has to make sure to whom we want to be enslaved, man or God.

Christadelphians are convinced that the God of gods is a loving God Who has given His Word for humankind as a guide and a message which can build us up. We should take it at heart so that it can bring us as individuals to faith in God and His Son and can make us to become one part of the sharing community which should be part of the Body of Christ, all having God's hope as our hope.

All believing in only One God, Who has given us His son as the only one mediator between God an man, for salvation, should come into Fellowship to help each other to grow if faith. Christadelphians do believe that it was God Who sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

The Christadelphians do believe that this Jew from Nazareth, born in the tribe of King David was a man of flesh and blood who, though tempted several times, did not sin. He died to show God’s righteousness and to redeem those who receive this sacrifice by faith. God raised him from the dead, gave him immortality, granted him all authority in heaven and on earth, and set him, the one with the other name, as the mediator between God and man in whose death is glorification. (Romans 3:21-26; Ephesians 1:19-23; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:5) 

The Christadelphians want to give Jeshua or Jesus Christ full honour for what he has done. They believe that the unbiblical doctrine of the Trinity diminishes the work of Christ by denying both his humanity and the reality of his death. For if he was God he was not tempted, and could not die. (1 Timothy 2:5; 1 Corinthians 11:3; Hebrews 5:8)

The Christadelphians do believe that the Divine Creator has given many promises to the world which shall become fulfilled and are fulfilled in Jesus Christ and give the believers reason to treasure that Great and Precious Promise. (Acts 13:32; Genesis 13:14-17, 22:15-18; 2 Samuel 7:12,16; Luke 1:31-33; Galatians 3:6-9,16,26-29) Knowing those many promises they are convinced that the world shall not end. Only this system will end but those who believe in the son of God will not perish, but have everlasting or eternal life, because God shall receive us on the basis of our faith. (Matthew 1:20-21, 3:17; Luke 1:35; John 3:16) 

The only hope of life after death is the resurrection of the body and everlasting life in God’s kingdom on earth after the Conclusion of the System of Things. (Psalms 49:12-20; John 11:25-26; Acts 24:15; Romans 8:22-39; 1 Corinthians 15:12; Revelation 5:10, 20:4; Daniel 12:2; Matthew 25:31-34; Luke 21:20-32; John 5:28-29; Acts 1:11; 2 Tim 4:1; Revelation 22:12)

The Christadelphians do believe that the Kingdom of God will be established on earth. Jesus will be king in Jerusalem; his rule will be worldwide and his government will bring eternal righteousness and peace. (Psalms 72; Isaiah 2:2-4, 9:6-7, 11:1-9, 61:1-11; Jeremiah 3:17; Daniel 2:44, 7:14,27; Acts 3:21)

The Christadelphians are convinced that the way to enter the kingdom of God is by faith. This involves belief in the Bible and obedience to its requirements that men and women confess their sins, repent, be baptised and follow Jesus faithfully. (Matthew 16:24-27; Mark 16:16; John 3:3-5; Acts 2:37-38, 4:12; 2 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 11:6)

As parts of the body of Christ we should take all opportunities to share a love like brothers and sisters, reading and studying the Bible, as our only authority, with each other. Together the Christadelphians do look forward to the return of Christ at the Last Days, believing that he will return in power to set up a worldwide theocracy beginning at Jerusalem. Though they believe that we do not know when the Messiah shall return, the Christadelphians believe the world can see the signs of the days coming to an end and that we should prepare ourselves to be ready to enter the Kingdom of God.

For the Christadelphians no one is infallible. We all have our own shortcomings. They also believe each of us has to work on their own failings but should also be prepared to help others to overcome their inadequacies. This helping each other should be done in agapé or brotherly love, together tasting a great promisse of being renewed under Christ.

 

Organisation

Coming together to study the Bible

The Christadelphians want to show the world that not all christians are followers of a Greco-Roman culture, and that we best take care to come to live according to what the Bible teaches. With Power in their life they do find it important to come together at regular times. But their meetings or not dependent of one greater organisation; All Christadelphian groups have their own independence.

Following the teaching and example of the Apostle Paul all Christadelphians aim to support themselves and their family by honest work. Certain professions (politics, the military, the police, criminal law) are avoided. (I Timothy 5:8; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-12) For the work of God, the work in the ecclesia, the preaching, the members are not paid for and as such always do have to provide for their own means to live properly.

In the communities there is also no demand to give money to the ecclesia or to tithe (give 10% of our income to the church) because in the Old Testament tithes were to provide for the (Levitical) priesthood - which has now been abolished.(Numbers 18:24; Hebrews 7:1-28)

Christadelphians gathering at the Belgian ecclesia Brussel-Leuven

Christadelphians are, both individually and in groups, involved in charitable work and giving. However they try not to "do our works to be seen of men", and also do not mix charity with preaching to avoid people coming to Christ for the wrong reasons. (Galatians 6:10; James 1:27, 2:15-16; Matthew 6:1-4; John 6:26)

They want to be an open community welcoming everybody without any distinction for culture, race or colour. all people are considered to be created in the image of God and being part of creation and as being a creature of God should be respected likewise.

 

Christadelphianism

Christadelphianism is nothing more nor less than the result of that principle that God intended men to make themselves acquainted with the Bible, the word of God, and to embrace what it teaches, and reject what it denounces, however many may be arrayed against the conclusions to which the study of it may lead them.

All over the world there are different Christadelphian groups which may have or may not have any connection with each other. Most of them are belonging to one of the main deviations like the Amended, Unamended, Central (with the CBM-mlembers), Bereans, Dawn Christadelphians, Carlinks, Christadelphian Bible Students, or are just Free Christadelphians.
Further there are Thomasites, Old-Path, Antipas,  Maranatha Christadelphians, Nasu Christadelphians, Republic Christadelphians, or
Some other groups also may be considered belonging to the Christadelphian breed: Nazarene Fellowship, Nazarene Friends, Church of God of Abrahamic Faith, Abrahamic Faith church, Commandments of Christ, Remnant of Christ's Ecclesia ,United Shepherds, Restoration Fellowship, Restoration church, a.o..

All of the members are free to read whatever theological writings and no Christadelphian writer is considered to have all the knowledge and power. they themselves also not consider themselves as pope, bishop, theologian, or a prophet every Christadelphian should believe in and follow.
Each Christadelphian is free to express himself or herself and every ecclesia, wherever in the world is free to organise its own ecclesia as they want. there is not a central committee that decides everything for all the Christadelphians over the world.

They all are under Christ, liberated and as such not bounded to any man or organisation, but to Christ.

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Please do find also:

What are Brothers in Christ 

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Find additional literature:

1. Bible Word of God, inspired and infallible
2. Inspired Word
3. Belief of the things that God has promised
4. God of gods
5. Finding God amid all the religious externals
6. Challenging claim 4 Inspired by God 3 Self-consistent Word of God
7. Not all christians are followers of a Greco-Roman culture
8. Catholicism, Anabaptism and Crisis of Christianity
9. Science and the Bible—Do They Really Contradict Each Other?
10. Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
11. Looking for something or for the Truth and what it might be and self-awareness
12. Many forgot how Christ should be our anchor and our focus
13. Christianity without the Trinity
14. Interpreting the Scriptures (Part 5)
15. Servant of his Father
16. The Law of Christ: Law of Love
17. Hellenistic influences
18. Raising digression
19. Archaeology and the Bible researcher 2/4
20. Gainsayers In Apostolic Days
21. Our openness to being approachable
22. Position of the Bible researcher
23. Being Religious and Spiritual 4 Philosophical, religious and spiritual people
24. Religions and Mainliners
25. Not many coming out with their community name
26. Keeping an ecclesia in modern times
27. Christadelphian people
28. Christadelphians
29. Christadelphians or Messianic Christians or Messianic Jews
30. My faith 
31. A Living Faith #8 Change
32. Priority to form a loving brotherhood
33. Small churches of the few Christadelphians
34. What Christadelphians teach
35. About the Belgian Free Christadelphians
36. 19° Century London Christadelphians
37. Faith and works
38. Breathing to teach
39. Breathing and growing with no heir
40. Perishable non theologians daring to go out to preach
41. Self inflicted misery #8 Pruning to strengthen us
42. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #4 Transitoriness #2 Purity
43. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #5 Prayer #2 Witnessing
44. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #5 Prayer #3 Callers upon God
45. Reasons to come to gether
46. Meaning of “speaking in tongues”
47. Tongues a sign of authenticity or divine backing
48. Not words of any organisation should bind you, but the Word of God
49. Built on or Belonging to Jewish tradition #1 Christian Reform
50. Commitment to Christian unity
51. Fellowship
52. The Ecclesia
53. The Ecclesia in the churchsystem
54. The ecclesia or Christadelphian church
55. Atonement And Fellowship 4/8
56. Missional hermeneutics 3/5
57. A Society pleading poverty
58. People Seeking for God 2 Human interpretations
59. How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
60. Power in the life of certain
61. Dedication and Preaching Effort 400 years after the first King James Version
62. Belonging to or being judged by
63. Good or bad preacher
64. Jehovah's Witnesses not only group that preach the good news
65. Last Events Of Old Testament – Right or Wrong ?
66. Not all will inherit the Kingdom
67. Art and other taboos
68. Edward Wightman

Inhuldiging Armeense kerk van Jordaanse doopplaats van Jezus

De Armeense patriarch van Jeruzalem, Nourhan Manougian, heeft een Armeense kerk ingehuldigd op de 'Jordaanse' doopplaats van Jezus. De inhuldiging vond plaats in aanwezigheid van leden van de Jordaanse koninklijke familie. De kerk is toegewijd aan de heilige Garabed. Met de inhuldiging volgt de Armeens-apostolische Kerk het voorbeeld van de katholieke Kerk die op de site al eerder een katholieke kerk heeft geopend. De Jordaanse doopplaats wordt jaarlijks door meer dan 200.000 toeristen uit de hele wereld bezocht.

Volgens de Bijbel liet Jezus zich door Johannes dopen in de Jordaan. Maar Israël en Jordanië zijn het oneens over de precieze doopplaats van Jezus. Israël claimt van oudsher de 'authentieke' doopplaats. Sinds de initifada is de Israëlische doopsite moeilijk toegankelijk. Daardoor geven steeds meer pelgrimsgroepen de voorkeur aan de Jordaanse doopsite van Bethanië aan de Jordaan. Het koninkrijk promoot de doopplaats heel nadrukkelijk als toeristische trekpleister.

Paus veroordeelt hoogmoed moderne mens

Paus Franciscus heeft op Allerheiligen tijdens een eucharistie op het kerkhof van Verano felle kritiek geleverd op de 'cultuur van vernietiging' van de moderne mens, die leidt tot de verwoesting van het leven, de cultuur, de waarden en de hoop.

 "De mens waant zichzelf God en vernietigt de wereld, die vandaag gebukt gaat onder een industrie van vernietiging en aanhoudend conflict." Franciscus verwees daarbij op het grootste kerkhof van Rome ook naar het bombardement van deze stad in 1943.

"De mens speelt heerser van de wereld. Maar wie moet het gelag betalen",

vroeg de paus zich luidop af.

 "Dat zijn de armen en de kleinen, die niet enkel veraf zijn."

 Franciscus verwees naar de vluchtelingen en mensen die honger leiden en die al te vaak met onverschilligheid worden behandeld.

"Vaak wordt de indruk gewekt dat de kinderen die honger hebben en die ziek zijn er niet toe doen, alsof zijn tot een andere soort behoren. Wij leven in een wegwerpcultuur waarin kinderen, ouderen en jonge werklozen aan de kant worden geschoven, omdat zij geen winst opleveren. In grote delen van de wereld heerst de ellende. Toch schenkt de goddelijke barmhartigheid de mens de kracht om zich van de vernietiging van de wereld te bevrijden."

(Kerknet)

Lees meer > Autumn traditions for 2014 – 5 People, souls and saints in the news

Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling: Bijbel in Gewone Taal

Op de Boekenbeurs in Antwerpen werd gisteren een nieuwe vertaling van de Bijbel voorgesteld. Volgens Luc Devisscher van de Katholieke Bijbelstichting (KBS) kunnen wij deze 'Bijbel in Gewone Taal' geen volksbijbel noemen, omdat hij niet zozeer op een bepaalde categorie van mensen mikt. Hij richt zich tot iedereen voor wie het klassieke taalregister van de doorsneevertaling te veraf ligt, omdat die taal te hoogdravend, te plechtig of te ver van hun bed is. Luc Devisscher: "Deze Bijbel is de logische opvolger van de Grootnieuws Bijbel, net zoals de Willebrordvertaling van 1995 de opvolger was van de Willebrord van 1975. Bij deze 'Bijbel in Gewone Taal' zijn min of meer dezelfde vertaalprincipes toegepast als bij de nieuwe Bijbelvertaling. Zo werd gewerkt met vertaalkoppels, zoals bij de Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling (NBV). De taalwetenschap boekt vooruitgang. Daar plukt deze Bijbel de vruchten van. "

Volgens Devisscher is de katholieke inbreng voor deze vertaling eerder beperkt: "Het initiatief gaat uit van het Nederlandse protestantse 'Bijbelgenootschap'. Daarom zijn de Deuteroncanonieke boeken niet opgenomen. Er wordt wel nagedacht om die Deuteroncanonieke boeken op een later tijdstip alsnog in aparte vertaling uit te brengen." Luc Devisscher noemt de eerste reacties heel positief. "De eerste druk is uitverkocht. Ook van de tweede druk zijn bijna alle exemplaren de deur uit. Intussen worden voorbereidingen getroffen voor een vierde druk. Dat is niet gering, omdat elke druk telkens uit 65.0000 exemplaren bestaat. Dat betekent dat nieuwe Bijbeluitgave echt een 'publieksbijbel' is. Hij richt zich niet zozeer tot de doorsneekerkganger, maar wel tot het brede publiek. Daarom ook wordt hij hier vandaag op de Boekenbeurs voorgesteld. Aanstaande dinsdag overhandigen wij een exemplaar van de 'Bijbel in Gewone Taal' in iets groter formaat aan Herman Van Rompuy, om 17.30 uur op de BGT-stand 403, in zaal 4. Er worden dan ook enkele fragmenten van de nieuwe Bijbelvertaling voorgelezen."

Balfour Declaration of 1917 remembered

Balfour declaration (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A letter issued by the British government favoring the establishment of a national home for the Jewish People.

Yesterday we remembered the Balfour Declaration of 1917

 

According to And the Hills Shouted for Joy; the Day Israel Was Born, "The Balfour Declaration was the first public acknowledgment by a Great Power of the Jewish connection with Palestine as well as an undertaking by that government to help restore the Jewish people to its homeland.  For the first time a sovereign government had entered into a pact with a people scattered over the face of the earth to return them to a land."

 

The Balfour Declaration—the fruit of 12 months of intensive negotiations between Foreign Office officials, Prime Minister David Lloyd George and leading British Zionists—was issued by Arthur James Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, to Lord Walter Rothschild, a British Jewish leader who was to convey the news to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday:

"Today we remember and welcome those people among the nations of the world who have not forgotten history and who remember our link to our land and our right to [a] state of our own," 

Related articles

• Israel, Palestine, and the Snowball Effect
• Britain's Real Promise to Israel; "Symbolic" Vote on Palestine
• From the killing fields of Flanders to the recurrent Israeli attacks on Gaza: A century later, WWI continues to echo in the Middle East
• Britain's real promise to Israel: 'Symbolic' vote on Palestine
• Britain's Real Promise to Israel
• Britain's Real Promise to Israel
• Lord Balfour: a century later
• The momentum to recognize a Palestinian State is unstoppable
• British Parliament Vote Yes to Recognizing Palestinian State
• What is Zionism?

Amount of Muslims living in your country

The Ethnic composition of Muslims in the United States, according to the United States Department of State based on the publication of Being Muslim in America as of March 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Americans have a tendency to overstate the number of Muslims living in the United States -- and at least 13 other countries are dealing with the same misconception.

Only 1% of America’s more than 319 million residents are Muslim, according to the research group Ipsos MORI. But during a recent global survey, Americans told researchers that the Muslim population is 15 times greater than it really is.

On the other hand, Americans grossly underestimated the number of Christians living in the country -- with an average guessing around 56% when the true figure is closer to 78%.
The countries that fared the worse at accurately guessing the number of Muslims within their borders were France and Belgium, both of which guessed 23 percentage points too high. Belgium is standing equal 2° with France with an overrating of 23% according the researchers who use the official numbers. But for the real ciphers the governments only count the registered Muslims by the officially recognised Muslim federations, thought there are many more Muslim groups like there are other groups of Christian which are not recognised by the state and do not receive funding from the state. Only the official religions have their pastor and imam paid by the government, others like the ones in charge for the Christadelphians, Jehovah Witnesses, Church of God, a.o. have to take care of their own income

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Kingdom of God, a journey

You may wonder what the Kingdom of God might be and willing to see a kingdom of the earth. But come to understand that the Kingdom of God is already here for you and everybody. God has placed its path in front of every human being.

We are all on the road to some destination. Either we want to get somewhere or we do not have any aspirations to get somewhere. But most of us have dreams and really would like to get somewhere. But are our aims trying to get to the right place, having the right things?

On our path to somewhere in the future are we willing to see that there is that outstretched hand of the Elohim, the Most High God? How many of us our willing to feel that God is present out here … working.  He is everywhere.

The Kingdom of God is like a teacher and a pastor who became a truck driver …

God now has him on the road, searching for the lost.
He said;
“Truck driving is like life in a microcosm, you see people at their best, you see them at their worst.”
He found that God is alive and well outside the walls of the church.  He had to adopt the attitude that the joy is the journey, not the destination.

“It’s not about where you are or what you are doing, the Kingdom of God is about getting in touch with God right here and now … 24-7.” Please find an introduction to Frank's life as a truck driver and his thoughts on the kingdom of God.

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Please do find to read:

1. Disappointed with God
2. Concerning gospel-faith
3. God Helper and Deliverer
4. God's instruction about joy and suffering
5. God's hope and our hope
6. Exceeding Great and Precious Promise
7. A concrete picture of what is to come in the future
8. Incomplete without the mind of God
9. Knowing where to go to
10. First, Seek the Kingdom of God
11. Kingdom of God what will it be like
12. Exceeding Great and Precious Promise
13. The builder of the Kingdom
14. Empire with Jesus the emporer
15. Not all will inherit the Kingdom
16. People Seeking for God 2 Human interpretations
17. Looking for True Spirituality 7 Preaching of the Good News
18. Accommodation of the Void
19. Help us to recognise you this day
20. The great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me
21. Receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken
22. Atonement And Fellowship 8/8
23. Marriage of Jesus 10 Old and New Covenant
24. A royal wedding due to take place
25. Nazarene Commentary Matthew 3:1-6 – A Wilderness Baptist Prepares the Way
26. Nazarene Acts of the Apostles Chapter 1
27. Hebraic Roots Bible Book of The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 1
28. Life is too precious
29. Miracles of revelation and of providence 1 Golden Thread and Revelation
30. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #15 Exposition before the Creator
31. The Song of The Lamb #2 Sevens
32. The Song of The Lamb #3 Daniel and Revelation
33. Slave for people and God
34. A Messiah to die
35. Servant of his Father
36. Proclaiming shalom, bringing good news of good things, announcing salvation
37. Follower of Jesus part of a cult or a Christian
38. The Importance Of Scripture
39. Breathing and growing with no heir
40. Breathing to teach
41. Sense or nonsense of “Human Fragility”

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Related articles

• Episode 006 - The We Run This Town Transformation [Podcast] (davidicalhiphop.com)
  I gave a message about the journey of how to advance the Kingdom of God through the Acts 1:8 Principle where we instead of trying to take on the whole world, we start first to influence the local community or city where we already are. I also gave a very good example of compare and contrast of a famous secular artist and a group of two rappers who were pretty much one hit wonders and why one succeeded and the group did not in this principle.
• Nathan Pitchford: What The Bible Says About The People Of God (The Kingdom Of God, Part 1) (psalm115three.com)
  If Christ had truly been offering a physical Kingdom, the Jews would not have rejected it.
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  The Church today is the Kingdom, and Christians are Kingdom citizens.
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  Christ sent the apostles out to proclaim the same gospel of the kingdom that he had proclaimed.
• The Servants and the Reward from God (idkh.org)
  God is worthy to be praised and adored. He is holy, almighty and He is the rewarder of all human beings. He will give eternal reward, which is the eternal life to all who served Him, to all who persevered until the end and to all who attained victory. However, God is also the giver of the eternal punishment to those who did not believe, who turned against Him, and who did not remain in Him.
• The Eternal Now (ijboudreaux.com)
  John Duns Scotus, one of the great Franciscan teachers, said that God did not create genus and species; God only created what Scotus called “thisness,” in Latin “haecceity.” He said that until you can experience each thing in its specific “thisness,” you will not easily experience the joy and freedom of divine presence. In other words, I can’t be present to all women in general. I’ve got to be present to this woman, right here, right now, in her specificity and particularity, and maybe even her eccentricity.
• Kingdom Conspiracy: Book Review (ryandueck.com)
  Scot McKnight has a bee in his bonnet.  He’s been observing how the word “kingdom” has been used by Christians over the last few decades and he doesn’t particularly like what he sees.  The word has become a kind of vaguely Christian (or not) catch-all term to describe generically good deeds that have a connection—sometimes strong, sometimes tenuous—to the ethical vision of Jesus of Nazareth. Rather than pointing directly to the biblical vision of a specific King and a kingdom with a specific people, it often devolves into little more than the baptizing of a liberal, western, democratic ethic from which Jesus could quite comfortably be subtracted.
• Heaven or the Kingdom of Heaven? (siggit81.wordpress.com)
  The church has preached going to Heaven, but Jesus preached Heaven coming to Earth.
  Somehow, this fundamental, basic truth eludes us. We are so focused on where we and others will end up in eternity that we miss the point that Mr. Eternity wants to set up His Kingdom here.
  When Jesus walked the Earth, His message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand (Matt 4:17).” It was not, “Repent so that you end up in Heaven when you die.”
  In His model prayer that He gave to the disciples, He said, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, in Earth as it is in Heaven.” This is not a weird new doctrine, but fundamental Christian faith. His kingdom will reign over all the Earth. We are the kings that will reign with Him.
  
• The Non-religious Meaning of Christmas (davidcalves.com)
  People have always mistaken that Kingdom God for a human, political/religious Kingdom. Yet, that Kingdom has been expanding and growing quietly, secretly just as Jesus said it would. Most often, the Royal Reign of God is totally missed . . . even by so-called “Christians.” But those who are truly included in that Kingdom understand and expand it joyfully. We recognize its supernatural origins and ultimate natural manifestation.
• Israel as a Divine Council, Part 3: The Fall of the Nations (returnofbenjamin.wordpress.com)
  Only by understanding the true importance of Israel’s position as a son of God and the Ekklesia’s true relationship to Israel can we hope to understand the Eternal One’s prophetic plan. But in order to understand Israel’s position, we must first understand the events surrounding God’s second use of that mysterious phrase, “Let us,” in Genesis 11, at the fall of the tower of Babel.
• God's Plan A (williamb97.wordpress.com)
  It is about how God uses circumstances or means to provide and strengthen us. God does not need to use the things of this earth to bring about his plan, but he uses them.
  +
  Your vocation and your personality only tell us how you might present the Gospel, but all of us are called to be missionaries, Africa, or your family room. Slums or Pizza Hut, place matters not, your willingness to be a tool of God, that is what counts.
• Grace turned outward (catchjohnfischer.wordpress.com)
  Grace is the realization that you have already earned a place in the kingdom of God, but you didn’t do anything to get it.

Idaho wedding chapel to either perform same-sex weddings or face jail time and up to $1,000 in fines

Protesters gathered inside the state capitol building in St. Paul, Minnesota, to protest against the upcoming vote by the Minnesota House of Representatives to put an anti-gay marriage amendment on the 2012 election ballot. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Todd Starnes in the Prophecy Newswatch writes that two Christian ministers who own an Idaho wedding chapel were told they had to either perform same-sex weddings or face jail time and up to $1,000 in fines, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in federal court.

 

It is strange of a country which runs so high about Freedom of speech such measures can be taken. Nobody obliges those who want to marry to go to that specific church or to have only that specific minister to wed them or to perform any church service.  Normally you would think in the United States everybody is free to chose his own church and to go to any church of whatever denomination.

So, I wonder what can be the problem and why ministers who have a certain faith and want to keep to their faith should be punished not willing to marry certain people. Why do they not go to another church?

The two ordained ministers Donald and Evelyn Knapp, who own the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel in Coeur d’Alene are at risk of being prosecuted attorney Jeremy Tedesco told Todd Starnes.

Clearly those wanting to go in patrimony should know that the wedding chapel is registered as a “religious corporation” limited to performing “one-man-one-woman marriages as defined by the Holy Bible.”

However, the chapel is also a for-profit business and city officials said that means the owners must comply with the local non-discrimination ordinance.

That ordinance, passed in 2013, prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and it applies to housing, employment and public accommodation. But unto me religious services as weddings to not fall under such a rule of housing, employement or public accomodation, because it is not that institution which has to accommodate the married people in their belongings.

City Attorney Warren Wilson told The Spokesman-Review in May that the Hitching Post Wedding Chapel likely would be required to follow the ordinance.

“I would think that the Hitching Post would probably be considered a place of public accommodation that would be subject to the ordinance,” he said.

 

He also told television station KXLY that any wedding chapel that turns away a gay couple would in theory be a violation of the law “and you’re looking at a potential misdemeanor citation.”

Wilson confirmed to Knapp in a telephone conversation that even ordained ministers would be required to perform same-sex weddings, the lawsuit alleges.

“Wilson also responded that Mr. Knapp was not exempt from the ordinance because the Hitching Post was a business and not a church,” the lawsuit states.

And if he refused to perform the ceremonies, Wilson reportedly told the minister that he could be fined up to $1,000 and serve up to 180 days in jail.

Now all of that was a moot point because until last week gay marriage was not legal in Idaho.

The Ninth Circuit issued an order on May 13 allowing same-sex marriages to commence in Idaho on Oct. 15. Two days later – the folks at the Hitching Post received a telephone call.

A man had called to inquire about a same-sex wedding ceremony. The Hitching Post declined – putting them in violation of the law.

City officials did not respond to my requests for an interview nor did they respond to requests from local news outlets.

“The government should not force ordained ministers to act contrary to their faith under threat of jail time and criminal fines,” Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Jeremy Tedesco said. “The city is on seriously flawed legal ground, and our lawsuit intends to ensure that this couple’s freedom to adhere to their own faith as pastors is protected just as the First Amendment intended.”

Alliance Defending Freedom also filed a temporary restraining order to stop the city from enforcing the ordinance.

“The Knapps are in fear that if they exercise their First Amendment rights they will be cited, prosecuted and sent to jail,” Tedesco told Starnes.

It’s hard to believe this could happen in the United States. But as the lawsuit states, the couple is in a “constant state of fear that they may have to go to jail, pay substantial fines, or both, resulting in them losing the business that God has called them to operate and which they have faithfully operated for 25 years.”

The lawsuit comes the same week that the city of Houston issued subpoenas demanding that five Christian pastors turn over sermons dealing with homosexuality and gender identity.

What in heaven’s name is happening to our country, folks? I was under the assumption that churches and pastors would not be impacted by same-sex marriage.

“The other side insisted this would never happen – that pastors would not have to perform same-sex marriages,” Tedesco told me. “The reality is – it’s already happening.”

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, told me it’s “open season on Americans who refuse to bow to the government’s redefinition of marriage.”

“Americans are witnesses to the reality that redefining marriage is less about the marriage altar and more about fundamentally altering the freedoms of the other 98 percent of Americans,” Perkins said.

Why should evangelical Christian ministers be forced to perform and celebrate any marriage that conflicts with their beliefs?

“This is the brave new world of government sanctioned same-sex unions – where Americans are forced to celebrate these unions regardless of their religious beliefs,” Perkins told Todd Starnes.

As Todd Starnes writes his new book, “God Less America,” we are living in a day when those who support traditional marriage are coming under fierce attack.

The incidents in Houston and now in Coeur d’Alene are the just the latest examples of a disturbing trend in the culture war – direct attacks on clergy.

“Government officials are making clear they will use their government power to punish those who oppose the advances of homosexual activists,” Perkins said.

I’m afraid Mr. Perkins is absolutely right.

Whenever a city passes a nondiscrimination ordinance it seems like it’s open season on Christians.

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