Great News for the World

[Resource Manager]

Sleeping and Waking Up

 

To make quite sure that we have got the message, the Bible frequently refers to death as a ‘sleep’. People who are too busy to find time for God will die without any hope of everlasting life; sooner or later they will fall into an endless sleep. As the prophet says, ‘They shall sleep a per­petual sleep and not wake.’ (Jeremiah 51:57.)

 

But those who decide to centre their lives on the Lord Jesus Christ are in a very different position. Death is still a sleep, even to them, but a sleep with a difference. Their death is a sleep which will be broken when Jesus comes to wake them up, just as his own sleep in the tomb was ended when God raised Jesus from the dead.

 

To demonstrate this wonderful fact the Lord Jesus Christ raised a few disciples from the dead, when he was on earth the first time. One of these was his friend Lazarus, who fell ill and died. When Jesus heard the bad news he said:

 

‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep.’ John 11:11.)

 

John goes on to describe how the grave of Lazarus was opened up. Jesus then called to the dead body in the tomb, ‘Lazarus, come out’ - and Lazarus walked out of his grave, a living man once more.

 

What happened to Lazarus is only a foretaste of what will happen to all Jesus’s friends when he comes back to the earth. Scripture is clear and emphatic about this:

 

‘Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep ... the Lord himself will descend from heaven ... and the dead in Christ will rise.’ (1 Thessalonians 4:14-16.)

 

‘Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man (Adam) came death, by a man (Christ) has come also the resur­rection of the dead.... But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who be­long to Christ.’ (1 Corinthians 15:20-23.)

 

All through the New Testament we find the same teach­ing. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes back to the earth he will raise his faithful followers from the dead, and give them everlasting life. This is the only way that anybody will ever find life beyond the grave. There is no other hope.

[Resource Manager]

The Day of Judgment

 

It is not only the real friends of Jesus who will be raised from the dead. His false friends, as well as his outright enemies, will also be roused from the sleep of death to stand trial before the Son of God. Here are three of the many Bible verses that solemnly warn us about this.

 

‘Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.’ (Daniel 12:2.)

 

‘Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead...” (2 Timothy 4:1.)

 

‘We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, accord­ing to what he has done in the body.’ (2 Corinthians 5:10.)

 

Thus all of us who have heard the call of Jesus will have to stand before him at that day. He will sort us into two groups, and his decisions will all be final; there will be no court of appeal.

 

Those who are no use to him will be destroyed as com­pletely as the rubbish of Jerusalem that used to be thrown into Gehenna. As David said:

 

“Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; Though you look well at his place, he will not be there.’ (Psalm 37:10.) 

 

But the other group will be miraculously transformed so that their bodies become the image of their Master’s, and fit to enter eternity. In the words of Paul:

 

‘We eagerly wait for our Saviour to come from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our weak mortal bodies and make them like his own glorious body.’ (Philippians 3:20,21, TEV.)

[Resource Manager]

Inheriting the Earth

 

When the Lord Jesus Christ has made his faithful servants immortal they will enter into everlasting life. It may come as a surprise to learn that this is something they will enjoy on earth.

 

On earth?

 

Yes, on earth. That is precisely what the Bible says.

 

‘The righteous shall possess the land and shall live there at peace for ever.’ (Psalm 37:29, NEB.)

 

‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ (Matthew 5:5.)

 

You (Jesus) bought men for God

From every tribe, and language, and people, and nation.

You have made them a kingdom of priests to serve our

God; And they shall rule on earth.’ (Revelation 5:9,10,TEV.)

 

There is a wonderful future in store for those who truly give their lives to the Lord Jesus. There is a marvellous future in store for this planet of ours, too, and the two are intertwined.

 

In the next chapter we shall see how this is.

[Resource Manager]

8 - PLAN FOR A PLANET

 

Raymond’s bewilderment is typical of many of my friends.

 

‘Honestly, I don’t know what to believe. When I look up at the trees and the birds and the mountains, or at the night sky, I feel as if there simply must be a God. How else could this marvellous universe have come about?

 

‘Then, when I look down at this wretched world of ours, I can’t help doubting. Just look at it: floods and famines and earthquakes and epidemics, thousands of little children starving to death every year, people being killed and maimed and blinded every day in wars or terrorist attacks or riots or bank raids, greed and cruelty everywhere.

 

‘Does the world really have to be like this? Why is life so unfair? Surely, if there is a God in control of the world, He ought to be able to make a better job of it than this. Why doesn’t He do something about it? Isn’t He able to, or doesn’t He care?’

[Resource Manager]

World in a Mess

 

In a sense, the whole Bible is the only complete answer to these questions.¹ Very briefly, there are three main points to take into account.

 

First of all, the world is in a wretched condition only because man is sinful. It is no use blaming God for our ‘own wickedness, even though He did give us the freedom to sin if we so choose. After all, nobody would want to sur­render his free will, even if lots of men do abuse their freedom by making others suffer; none of us would wish to become a puppet or a robot!

 

The second point is that God has allowed the world to remain like this because He is doing a wonderful work in it. As we have seen in Chapters 4 to 7, He is busy fashioning characters that will be fit to live for ever and ever in perfect happiness. And a world filled with a mixture of joy and sorrow is the best possible place for developing such characters.

 

Finally, the present tragic state of the world is only tem­porary. It is rather like the pickle that your house is in when its interior is being repainted; you can put up with paintpots and ladders and dustsheets in your living room when you know that in a little while everything is going to be clean and tidy, and nicer than it has ever been before.

 

That is why the full Christian message is such Great News for the World. Raymond (like millions of other people) wanted to know why God doesn’t do something about the state the world is in.

 

The answer comes shining out of the Bible as clear as a searchlight beam. There is no need to wonder or to worry, because God is going to do something about it - and very soon, too. That is precisely why Jesus Christ is coming back to the earth.

[Resource Manager]

Clearing Up the Mess

 

About a quarter of a century ago the British people were called upon to elect a new parliament, at a time when Britain was facing grave difficulties.

 

It was widely believed that the politicians who had been ruling Britain for several years - let’s call them the X Party - were responsible for the nation’s troubles. So their principal opponents flooded the country with election posters promising, ‘The Y Party will clear up the mess’.

 

The public believed this and voted them into office. But the Y Party failed to ‘clear up the mess’. They had no­thing like enough ability or power to do so.

 

Several British governments have come and gone since then, and things have gone from bad to worse. Although Britain and the other advanced nations are still enjoying peace and prosperity they are like men living on the slopes of a volcano, with the threat of disaster constantly over­shadowing them. Meanwhile, the British public has grown more cynical: it knows now that no politicians are able to solve the appalling problems facing mankind.

 

It is not only Britain that is facing a crisis. Every coun­try on earth is in trouble of some sort. The world as a whole is in a ghastly mess, and its leaders have no real idea how to clear it up.

 

For one thing, this is a job that cannot be tackled piece­meal, each country acting on its own. The world today is too small, too inter-related, for global problems to be solved like that. What we obviously need is a worldwide government, a good one, with both the ability and the power to put things right. It would have to be headed by some strong-minded, gifted individual capable of ruling the entire planet, and ruling it well.

 

A pipe dream? On the face of it, so it would seem. There is not a single man on earth who could measure up to such a superhuman task. The only man who is qualified for the job is in heaven - but he would certainly be the ideal man for it if he were here.

 

That is why the second coming of Christ is such Great News for the World.

[Resource Manager]

King Jesus

 

Try to forget that you have ever seen any pictures of Jesus. Nearly all of them are misleading. He was nothing like the pale, insipid character with the butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth expression that artists love to portray.

 

In actual fact he was a tremendously forceful personal­ity. Though he was only a mortal man in those days, he still had the strength of character to right some of the most appalling wrongs of his time.

 

On one occasion he went into the temple of God in Jerusalem, and found it’s great courtyard filled with shady business men feathering their nests. Singlehanded, he denounced their wickedness so effectively that not one of them could stand against him. They fled from the temple in confusion, knowing in their hearts that they were in the wrong and that here was a man with the personality and the power to put things right.

 

The way he cleaned up the temple then is a foretaste of the way he will clean up the worldwide mess when he comes again. God has already given him all the extra power he will need for such a gigantic task: ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto me,’ he an­nounced after he rose from the dead. (Matthew 28:18.)

 

A thousand years before he was born, the Old Testa­ment foretold that a Son of God would become king of the world:

 

‘You are my son (says God), today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ (Psalm 2:7-9.)

 

After he ascended to heaven the New Testament ex­plained, in vivid picture-language, that he will come back to fulfil that prophecy:

 

‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever...

 

‘From his mouth there went a sharp sword with which to smite the nations; for it is he who shall rule them with an iron rod ... And on his robe and on his thigh there was written the name: “King of kings and Lord of lords.”’ (Revelation 11:15, RSV; 19:15,16, NEB.)

[Resource Manager]

The King and His Kingdom

 

The Bible has a name for the world as it will be when the Lord Jesus Christ has come back and is ruling over it: the Kingdom of God. Jesus taught his disciples to pray for that kingdom:

 

‘Pray then like this:

“Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven...”’ (Matthew 6:9,10.)

 

He also told them exactly how, and when, that prayer would be answered: at his second coming.

 

‘There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations... And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory ... when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.’ (Luke 21:25-31.)

 

Thus, when Christ rules over it the whole world will be God’s kingdom. Christ will rule on behalf of his Father, so that there will be heavenly splendour right here. Already God’s will is done in heaven; soon it will be done on earth, too.

 

The Bible gives many a glimpse of this coming king­dom. The rest of this chapter will reveal a few of them. As you read on, keep reminding yourself: ‘This is our world as it will soon become - probably in our time!’

 

It will come about; that much is certain. Three thou­sand years of fulfilled prophecy is ample proof that God always keeps His promises.

[Resource Manager]

A Ruler who Loves his people

 

The trouble with all ordinary rulers is that they love rul­ing more than they love their people. The British statesman, Lord Acton, had a lifetime’s experience of politi­cians. He summed it up like this:

 

Tower tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.’²

 

If absolute power corrupts absolutely, the mere thought of one man ruling the whole world is enough to send icy shivers running up your spine. Happily, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one exception to the general pattern of human nature.

 

Read the four Gospels, and see how Jesus always put other people first and himself last. And he really was morally incorruptible. No other man has ever dared to ask a crowd, ‘Which one of you can prove that I am guilty of sin?’ or to declare, ‘I always do what pleases him (God).’ John 8:46,29, TEV.)

 

So when Christ governs the world he will not just be a good ruler - he will be a perfect ruler. One prophet de­scribes his reign like this:

 

‘The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,

the spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the spirit of counsel and might,

the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord,

And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

 

‘He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

or decide by what his ears hear;

But with righteousness he shall judge the poor,

and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.’ (Isaiah 11:8-4.)

 

King David of Israel - a brilliant ruler himself - was full of admiration for this great future king.

 

‘May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!

For he delivers the needy when he calls,

the poor and him who has no helper.

He has pity on the weak and the needy,

and saves the lives of the needy.

From oppression and violence he redeems their life;

and precious is their blood in his sight.’ (Psalm 72:11-14.)

 

Hundreds of millions today live bedraggled lives, crushed by hopeless poverty, or oppressed by power-drunk tyrants. Their misery will not last much longer. When Christ rules the earth the welfare of the common people will be his first concern.

[Resource Manager]

Kind, but Firm

 

Does this mean that people will be able to do as they like in the Kingdom of God? Far from it! Those who are pre­pared to serve God and love their neighbours will find the Kingdom a delightful place, but those who want to live selfishly or cruelly will be made to think again.

 

Yet this ruler’s power will not grow out of the barrel of a gun. With God Almighty behind him the Lord Jesus will have better methods of keeping rebels under control, as these two quotations show:

 

‘The Lord will become king over all the earth... And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusa­lem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain upon them.’ (Zechariah 14:9,17.)

 

‘He (Christ) shall judge the poor with justice

and defend the humble in the land with equity;

His mouth shall be a rod to strike down the ruthless,

and with a sword he shall slay the wicked...

 

They (his subjects) shall not hurt or destroy in all my

holy mountain;

For as the waters fill the sea,

so shall the land be filled with the knowledge of the

Lord.’ (Isaiah 11:4,9, NEB.)

 

There are not likely to be many complaints about these very effective methods of policing the world. Most people will be only too glad to see the end of vandalism, hooli­ganism and crime. There will be widespread approval for a world-state where Article No. 1 in the Constitution is, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and thy neighbour as thyself.” As the prophet says:

 

‘In his days shall the righteous flourish;

And abundance of peace, till the moon be no more...

And men shall be blessed in him;

All nations shall call him happy.” (Psalm 72:7,17, RV.)

[Resource Manager]

Peace and Plenty

 

To see what a crazy society modern man has built up, look at the way the world’s great army of research scientists is employed. Only a small minority of them are busy trying to improve the quality of human life.

 

Many more are beavering away at projects of doubtful value to mankind, ranging all the way from inventing striped toothpaste to landing men on the moon. But the crowning obscenity is this: no less than half the research scientists in the world are concerned with what is politely termed ‘defence’ - in other words, with wholesale death and destruction.

 

This incredible folly will soon come to an end. Jesus Christ was not named ‘Prince of Peace’ for nothing; nor were the angels mistaken when they sang, ‘On earth peace among men’, the day he was born. (Isaiah 9:6; Luke 2:14.) In his kingdom this bloodstained planet of ours will at last be freed from the curse of war.

 

‘The battle bow shall be cut off,

and he shall command peace to the nations.

His dominion shall be from sea to sea,

and from the River to the ends of the earth.’ (Zechariah 9:10.)

 

‘Out of Zion shall go forth the law,

and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between many peoples,

and shall decide for strong nations afar off;

And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more;

But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,

and none shall make them afraid.’ (Micah 4:2-4.)

 

When the world’s resources are no longer squandered on weapons of war, poverty will be a thing of the past. With the Son of God controlling the world’s agriculture there will be no world shortage of food.

 

Above all, he will ensure that supplies are fairly distri­buted. To the everlasting shame of our so-called ‘Western Christian Civilisation’, there are millions of overfed white men and women today spending more on slimming aids than many black or brown people are able to spend on food. It won’t be like that in the Kingdom of God:

 

‘Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord,

when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper,

and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;

The mountains shall drip sweet wine,

and all the hills shall flow with it.’ (Amos 9:13)

 

There shall be abundance of corn in the earth upon

the top of the mountains;

The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: 

And they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.’ (Psalm 72:16, RV.) 

[Resource Manager]

Health and Happiness

 

When the Son of God was on the earth before, he gave mankind a preview of what is coming. By the power of his Father he healed the sick, the lame, the blind and the deaf. So did his immediate associates.

 

When he reigns as King of the World, all this will be repeated on a global scale. The result will be worldwide happiness, such as men could not begin to hope for apart from him:

 

‘The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,

the desert shall rejoice and blossom;

Like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly,

and rejoice with joy and singing...

 

‘Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

Then shall the lame man leap like a hart,

and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy...

 

‘And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,

and come to Zion with singing;

Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain joy and gladness,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.’ (Isaiah 35:1,2,5,6,10.)

 

Even the power of death will be weakened, since the span of mortal life will be greatly prolonged:

 

‘No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping

and the cry of distress.

No more shall there be in it

an infant that lives but a few days,

or an old man who does not fill out his days,

For the child shall die an hundred years old,

and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

They shall build houses and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

They shall not build and another inhabit;

they shall not plant and another eat;

For like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, 

and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.’ (Isaiah 65:19-22)

[Resource Manager]

Mortals and Immortals

 

One very important point must now be emphasised. There will be two sorts of people in the Kingdom of God, mortals and immortals.

 

There will, in fact, be a three-tier structure in the King­dom, like this:

 

 

There is no doubt that the Kingdom will be inhabited by ordinary flesh-and-blood people. Nearly all the Scrip­tures quoted in this chapter speak of such folk enjoying life under Christ’s worldwide rule. Look back at them and see.

 

They tell of people who beat swords into ploughshares, who bring up children, who plant vines and fig trees, sow seeds and make wine, suffer illness and rejoice in being cured. These people live to a great old age (as long as trees), but not for ever. They are greatly blessed and very happy - but they are still mortal men and women.

 

It is not difficult to see where these mortal people come from. When Christ returns there will be vast numbers of people living who have never had the opportunity to follow him. For example, there are hundreds of millions in China and Moslem countries today who might never even see a Bible before Christ comes back.

 

If they survive until Christ is on the earth again, their turn will come then. They and their descendants will be the happiest mortal men and women to walk this earth since Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden.

 

As the flesh-and-blood inhabitants of God’s Kingdom they will enjoy many blessings. Above all, they will have a great opportunity to serve God faithfully, and eventually to find everlasting life. To help them, God will provide expert teachers - immortal teachers, in fact.

 

Those immortal teachers will be what you might call the ‘ruling class’ in the Kingdom of God. And you can become one of them, if you wish, because this is the Christian hope of everlasting life as the Bible portrays it.

 

There is something very fitting about this. True Christi­anity involves (among other things) loving and helping one’s fellow men. It is only reasonable that those who do this faithfully in this life should be allowed the joy of doing it on a higher level in the age to come. As the Bible says:

 

‘If we have died with him (Christ) we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him.’ (2 Timothy 2:12.)

 

‘As my Father appointed a kingdom for me, so do I appoint for you that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’ (Luke 22:29,30.)

 

‘Don’t you know that God’s people will judge the world?’ (1 Corinthians 6:2, TEV.) 

 

‘Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resur­rection! Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years.’ (Revelation 20:6.)

[Resource Manager]

Everlasting Joy

 

Don’t underestimate the joy involved in helping Christ to rule the world. After all, what are the main ingredients of human happiness?

 

Security; peace of mind; freedom from fear and from suffering; and, above all, worthwhile work to do.

 

The men and women who are given everlasting life in God’s Kingdom will find all those things in abundance. Their immortal bodies will be incapable of shining, or of feeling pain. They will no longer make foolish mistakes and regret them bitterly, but everything they do will be in harmony with the all-wise will of their God.

 

And their work will be of the most rewarding kind imaginable. The mortal inhabitants of the Kingdom will be in constant need of help and guidance, and their im­mortal rulers will find immense satisfaction in leading them along the uphill road to immortality.

 

Eventually the immortals will see the fruit of their labours. After a long period - probably a thousand years³ - God will make another great change in the state of the world. Those mortals that are worthy will themselves be made immortal, and the rest will be destroyed.

 

Then there will be no more fallen human nature upon the earth, no more sin, no more death. God’s plan will have reached its climax; Jesus will hand over his kingdom to his Father, and God Himself will dwell in every immor­tal being.⁴

 

But that is all a long way off - more than a thousand years in the future, in fact. It is enough to keep that pic­ture in the back of our minds as the ultimate destiny of our planet.

 

The prayer, ‘Thy kingdom come’, tells us where to con­centrate our thoughts at present. The world desperately needs the Lord’s return, and that should be our hearts’ de­sire today. As Peter says:

 

‘What kind of people should you be? Your lives should be holy and dedicated to God, as you wait for the Day of God, and do your best to make it come soon.’ (2 Peter 3:11,12, TEV.)

[Resource Manager]

9 - AN ANCIENT FAITH IN MODERN DRESS

 

When I was a young man I used to spend many a Saturday afternoon at Speakers’ Corner in London’s Hyde Park. One day I met there a man who had lost all faith in God.

 

‘You’ll never make a Christian of me,’ he said, empha­tically. ‘Never!’

 

‘Why not? What have you got against Christianity?’ I asked.

 

‘I was put off it for life during World War I, when my Indian batman opened my eyes to the absurdity of it all. “What funny people you Europeans are,” he said. “You send missionaries to India to tell us ignorant people to follow Christ and to love one another. Then when a war breaks out you pay us to come to France and help the English Christians to kill the German Christians.”

 

‘I never went to church again after Mohammed Khan said that. How could I? Every church in Europe supported its own side during the war. You would hear men praying for strength before they went over the top. Then they would charge and say, “God help me,” to themselves as they stuck a bayonet into the other fellow, who, as likely as not, was praying to the same God at the same time.’

 

I had to agree with him that this was indeed a terrible state of affairs. Nevertheless, he was making a slight over­statement. It was not true that ‘every church in Europe’ supported its own side during the war.

 

Several churches, I told him, made a firm stand during both world wars for what is loosely termed ‘Christian pacifism”. (So also did many individuals in other commu­nities.) Most of these base their convictions on the simple belief that their Master meant what he said, in New Testa­ment passages like this:

 

‘I say to you (said Jesus), Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also ... if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles ... Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ (Matthew 5:39-44.)

 

Prominent among the churches that have always tried to follow this difficult teaching is the body I belong to, the Christadelphians. I shall spend the rest of this chapter explaining why we do this, and what we think practical Christianity is meant to be like.

[Resource Manager]

The Verdict of Historians

 

Bertrand Russell, the philosopher and historian, was an unbeliever. From this neutral point of view he studied both the Christians of the first century and the Christian sects of the twentieth century, and came up with the fol­lowing conclusion:

 

‘Christianity was, in its earliest days, entirely un­political. The best representatives of the primitive tradi­tion in our time are the Christadelphians, who believe the end of the world to be imminent, and refuse to have any part or lot in secular affairs.’¹

 

In other words, Christianity in its earliest form was very different from what is generally regarded as Christianity today. And the Christadelphians (despite our many fail­ings, which we would be the first to admit) have come closer to the first-century idea of a Christian church than any other community, says Russell.

 

His conclusion was shared by another independent scholar, Prof. G. C. Field. He was appointed by the British Government during World War II to sit on what was known as a conscientious objectors tribunal. This was a legal body whose job was to sit in judgment on men who refused to bear arms because of their beliefs.

 

After the war he published a book describing his experi­ences on this legal tribunal. In it he wrote:

 

‘If we are to obey in detail the injunctions that were given to the first Christians, we must put ourselves in the same position as the first Christians, and regard our­selves as a small band of believers, living in a world that as a whole has not accepted Christ, following the path of separation and taking no responsibility for the affairs of this world ... This is the line actually followed by some of the smaller Christian sects, such as the Christa­delphians and the Plymouth Brethren ... I feel little doubt that their attitude is much closer to the attitude of the earliest Christians than that of the larger religious bodies.’² (My italics.)

[Resource Manager]

Bible-Based Christianity

 

Russell and Field were both very perceptive men. They appear to have realised that the whole aim of the Christa­delphians is to recapture, as closely as is humanly possible, the beliefs and the practices of the early church. We may not have succeeded in this as well as we should have liked, but at least there are some independent observers who think we are heading in the right direction.

 

Unlike this chapter, which is concerned with Christian living, the previous chapters of this book have set out to show what the first-century Christians really believed — and consequently what we ought to believe today.

 

One thing about these earlier chapters is almost sure to have struck you: the Bible has been quoted a great deal. This is typical of the Christadelphian approach to re­ligion. First-century Christianity was thoroughly Bible-based, and so we try to make our faith like that, too.

 

For this reason every earnest Christadelphian reckons to read a portion of the Bible every day. This is no empty ritual; we think deeply about what we read, and find lessons in it. The Bible to us is a powerhouse, the Spirit of God in written form, on tap for our daily use.

 

Following Christ is often a hard struggle. The would-be disciple soon finds that his own strength is not enough. We read the Bible for the same reason that we pray: we need heavenly strength to help us on the way, and the Bible and prayer are the twin sources of that strength.

[Resource Manager]

Some Fallacies Exploded

 

It might be useful at this point to say what we are not.

 

To begin with we are not, as one enquirer put it, ‘One of them new-fangled American sects.’ Only a small mino­rity of the world’s Christadelphians are Americans. Although the actual name Christadelphian was coined in America in 1864 there are records of churches holding Christadelphian beliefs in various European countries long before that.

 

For as long as anyone can remember there have been more Christadelphians in England than anywhere else in the world. Today there are some three hundred Christa­delphian meetings in Britain, and smaller numbers in about two dozen other countries scattered across the five continents.

 

Neither are we one of those sects that claim a monopoly of religious wisdom. No Christadelphian teacher has ever claimed to be inspired. All we would ever dare to say is something like this:

 

‘Look, this is what I have learnt from reading my Bible carefully. Perhaps if you read your Bible with an open mind you might come to much the same conclusions. Let’s have a chat about it and see if we can’t reach agreement.’

 

Finally, we don’t pretend to know all the answers. We are painfully aware that all human beings make mistakes, ourselves included. There are a number of difficult passages in the Bible that, try as we will, we have never been able to understand completely. When the Lord returns we shall ask him to explain them. Until then, we are glad to recognise our own limitations.

[Resource Manager]

Christian Fellowship

 

The night before he was crucified Jesus had a meal with his disciples. As the apostle Paul explained in the words quoted below, Jesus used that meal to institute a simple ceremony, by which his followers were ever after to re­member him.

 

‘The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”’ (1 Corinthians 11:23-25.)

 

This little ceremony in memory of their Lord’s death was held by the early disciples on the first day of each week.³ Consequently, the heart of the regular Christadel­phian meeting for worship on Sunday is always this same act of communion, or fellowship, as the New Testament calls it.

 

It is in fact a double act of fellowship. It signifies our union with God, and our union with our fellow believers, too. For the Christadelphian it is a reminder that all true believers are really one big family.

 

The very name Christadelphian also reminds him of this. It is derived from a phrase in the Greek New Testa­ment which is translated ‘Brethren in Christ’. (Colossians 1:2.)⁴

 

This is not just a pretty little theory. Christadelphians really do think of one another as brothers and sisters, and they take a close and practical interest in one another’s welfare. They are usually on first-name terms, but when they are not they address each other as Brother X or Sister Y - never as Mr., Mrs., or Miss.

 

This brothering and sistering is the only touch of quaintness that the newcomer to a Christadelphian meet­ing is likely to encounter. We dress normally, we speak normal (but clean) English, we behave like normal, decent people. Our first-century religion is fully adapted to its twentieth-century environment.

[Resource Manager]

Self Government

 

The early church had no paid clergy, and no national or international headquarters. The first-century Christians got along quite well without those things, and so do the Christadelphians today.

 

Each Christadelphian meeting is self-governing, being responsible only to its own members and to Christ, its unseen leader. Its ministers are all laymen serving the church in their spare time; they would no more think of accepting payment than would the fishermen of Galilee who formed Christ’s first disciples. Their qualifications for the work are a sound knowledge of the Bible and a sound manner of life.

 

There are virtually no rules governing membership, except those laid down by the Bible itself. Should anyone openly rebel against Christ’s teaching — an unrepentant adulterer, for instance - they are not allowed to remain in fellowship.

 

But in general the Christadelphian does not expect his church to discipline him. He reckons, with God’s help, to discipline himself.

 

If he is in earnest about his religion he sets himself very high ideals, just as men did in the first-century church. He doesn’t always manage to maintain his high standards, but at least he keeps on trying.

 

Let me make it absolutely clear that what follows is not a description of a typical Christadelphian, nor even of a particularly fine one. It is a picture of the target we are always aiming at, but which none of us ever quite reaches.

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High Ideals

 

Christ had no time for immorality, and neither has any Bible-based church. Chastity, honesty and truthfulness are all musts for the genuine Christian.

 

At the same time, Christ hates self-righteousness, hard-heartedness and unkindness. He condemned the smug bunch of Pharisees who were looking down their noses at an adulterous woman - and then he rebuked the woman, ‘Go, and do not sin again.’ (John 8:11.)

 

The lesson of this story is clear. Christ hates both sorts of sin: the hidden sins of the heart, like the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and the more obvious sins, like the adultery of the woman.

 

So we must constantly fight against ‘internal’ sins, like pride, and covetousness, and unclean thoughts; but we must fight equally hard against the ‘external’ sins, like cheating the income tax man, gluttony, and lying our way out of a scrape.

 

But this is only the negative side of Christian behaviour - the ‘thou shall nots’. Equally important, maybe even more important, are the positive traits listed in Galatians 5:22,23.

 

‘The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.’

 

Let’s look at those pieces of fruit one by one, and see what they really mean in practice.

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Fruit of the Spirit

 

Love. The word Paul used means, ‘Christlike love.’ Not just natural affection, but the outgoing, genuine con­cern for other men and women that puts them first and me last.

 

Joy. Am I a wet blanket, a Dismal Willie of a Christian? Or has Christ brought joy into my life, the deep, abiding happiness that rubs off me on to others and enriches their lives too?

 

Peace. There is no room for quarrelling in Christ’s family. Christ died in agony to give us peace with God. We must not spoil that heavenly peace by earthly bicker­ing.

 

Patience. Paul’s word really meant tenacity, the ability to hang on however rough the ride becomes. Am I a sticker? Or do I give in far too easily, when sacrifice is called for?

 

Kindness. Time after time when Jesus saw people in trouble he was ‘moved with compassion’, and came to the rescue. Am I like that? Or do I pass by on the other side of the road?

 

Goodness. The very word has an old-fashioned ring about it. Goodness - decency, if you like - is in short sup­ply nowadays. No Christian can afford to be without it.

 

Faithfulness. There is not much of this about nowadays, either. People say, ‘You can’t rely upon anybody.’ Do they say that of me, too? They won’t, if I develop faithfulness.

 

Gentleness. Some of the qualities listed above call for a tough streak. It is difficult to be a Christian without it. But the true Christian will only get really tough with himself. Gentleness is the face he will turn towards his fellow men.

 

Self-control. Do I run my life as if pleasure and self fulfilment were the only things that mattered? Or do I keep self on a chain, like the dangerous animal it is? Do I give God the first call on my energy, my time, my abili­ties and my money? Because this is the way of real discipleship. Jesus said:

 

‘Do not start worrying: “Where will my food come from? or my drink? or my clothes?” (These are the things the heathen are always after.) Your Father in heaven knows that you need all these things. Instead, give first place to his Kingdom and to what he requires, and he will provide you with all these other things.’ (Matthew 6:31-33, TEV.)

 

If you feel you could never begin to rise to such high ideals, remember one thing. Paul called these things ‘the fruit of the Spirit’, for a very good reason.

 

Despite all the marvels of modern science, man still does not know how to manufacture an orange. Yet trees pro­duce fruit easily, through the strange powers locked up within their cells. Similarly, God’s Spirit is able to pro­duce ‘fruit’ in those who let that Spirit work in their lives. The Spirit of God is another name for the Power of God,⁵ and that almighty power can work wonders in helping you to develop a Christlike character.

 

Indeed, God has the power to perform miracles. He will work a miracle within you - if you let Him.

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10 - CAN WE AFFORD IT?

 

Sensible people always think carefully before they buy something. A new car, for instance.

 

What is the basic price? How much a week will that work out at? Then what about the running costs - tax, insurance, garage rent, petrol, oil, tyres, servicing, spares, and so on? In short, how much is it going to cost me overall? Can I really afford it? Will the benefit of having it make the expenses worthwhile ?

 

That is an example of a well-known situation, where someone works out the cost of doing something. But there are a lot of other situations, much less pleasant, when you have to work out a different sort of cost - the cost of not doing something. This one, for example.

 

It is Saturday morning and you are just setting out on holiday in your new car. To your horror a knock starts up in the engine. What’s to be done?

 

The temptation is to ignore it, to press on and hope the knock will go away. But that would be very risky. You might break down on some lonely mountain road when all the garages in the district are shut for the weekend, and find yourself stranded until Monday. That would be a fine start to your holiday!

 

Reluctantly, you face the fact that you’re up against it. There is only one safe way to act. You postpone your de­parture by a few hours and take the car to your local dealer for attention.

 

In this second situation you don’t really have much choice. In such circumstances you weigh up the cost of doing nothing - and, inevitably, you conclude that you simply must take action to avoid unpleasant consequences.

 

The Lord Jesus Christ once told a couple of parables outlining these two types of situation.¹

 

He began by talking of a man who wanted to build a tower. Of course the man prices the whole job before he starts; he would cut a sorry figure if he built the bottom half and then ran out of money.

 

Becoming a Christian is like that, warned Jesus. Don’t rush into it without stopping to think; weigh up the cost before you start. It is a big thing to follow the Son of God: you had better not begin if it is going to be too much for you.

 

Perhaps Jesus saw some of his listeners shaking their heads at that point. So he went on with his second parable, about a man who was forced to weigh up the cost of doing nothing.

 

This man was a king. Not much of a king, apparently, because his army was only ten thousand strong. One day bad news reached him. Another king, with an army of twenty thousand, was on the warpath and heading his way.

 

It did not take the first king long to assess his position. To do nothing would be disastrous. That would mean invasion, defeat, conquest. No, he could not possibly afford to sit back and hope that his enemy would go away.

 

Swiftly he took the only practical step open to him: ‘I must send an ambassador to negotiate a peace treaty while there is still time!’

 

And that, according to Jesus, is the sort of plight that all of us are in. We are all on a collision course with the King and Judge of the world, unless we take steps to make peace with Him.

 

So weigh up the cost of becoming a disciple by all means. But don’t stop there. Weigh up also the conse­quences of not becoming one, and you will soon realise that there is only one course for sensible men and women to follow.

 

Time is not on your side, either. Not so long ago people sneeringly called religion the old folks’ game. They had not long to live; it was natural for the aged to prepare to meet their God. But young men and women were dif­ferent; they could afford to wait a while.

 

Even if that was true then, it is not now. Who can say how many years our tormented civilisation still has to live?

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We are all like old men and women today

 

Society could begin to crumble in ruins tomorrow, bringing death and destruction to young and old alike.

 

Christ offers us a refuge from the coming storm, giving us peace of mind and comfort here and now, and the sure promise of everlasting life in his glorious kingdom in days to come.

 

Can you possibly afford to turn him down?

[Resource Manager]

NOTES AND REFERENCES

 

Chapter 1

 

¹ Debate on the Hydrogen Bomb, 1 March, 1955.

² Daily Telegraph, London, 25 April 1975, p. 5.

³ Ronald Higgins, ‘The seventh enemy’. Observer Magazine, 23 February 1975, pp. 14-23.

⁴ H. G. Wells, Mind at the End of Its Tether (Heinemann, London, 1945) ch. 1.

 

Chapter 2

 

¹ Cited by John Wesley White, in Re-Entry (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1971) ch. 1.

² I am indebted for this information to my friend Dr. L. A. Eyre of The University of The West Indies, the geographer and historian. He was personally acquainted with the late Mrs. Ella Ray, who recalled seeing President Lincoln at Christadelphian meetings in Washington when she was a girl.

³ John Wesley White, op cit.

⁴ See, for example, Newton’s Exposition of Daniel.

⁵ Edward Gibbon, Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 4, ch. 15, ‘The progress of the Christian religion - sentiments, manners, numbers and conditions of the primitive Chris­tians.’

⁶ As Paul indicated in Colossians 1:23, this had a small-scale fulfilment within the next forty years or so, when the gospel was preached throughout the ‘world’ that the Jews knew. This Jewish ‘world’ came crashing to its end, when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. But the main fulfilment has had to await our own day.

⁷ The Lord’s thoughts in this passage are complex. The intro­duction to the passage seems to link it to the troubles of the first century, but its conclusion clearly relates to our twentieth-century problems. It probably means that Daniel’s prophecy had a partial fulfilment in the first century, but will not have its complete fulfilment until the time of the Second Coming.

 

Chapter 3

 

¹ and ² Students of the Old Testament will recognise these expres­sions, which are used by the prophets as parable-language to indicate the collapse of governments. See Isaiah 13:5-13, for example.

 

Chapter 4

 

¹ All the people mentioned by name in this book are real, and the stories recounted are true, but the names have been changed (except the names of celebrities.)

² I have dealt with this in detail in GOD’S TRUTH - A scientist shows why it makes sense to believe the Bible. (Mar­shall, Morgan & Scott, London, 1973.)

³ C. S. Lewis, in his masterly work, to which this chapter is very much indebted, ‘Right and wrong as a clue to the mean­ing of the universe.’ (From Mere Christianity, Geoffrey Bles, London, 1952.) 

⁴ This also is dealt with in GOD’S TRUTH. (See 2, above.)