CHRISTADELPHISM
Taken from the book "HERESIES EXPOSED" by Wm. C. Irvine
Article written by A. J. Pollock
CHRISTADELPIANISM makes a great show of appealing to Scripture. Every
lover of the truth will be well content to judge this system by such an
unerring standard. No seeker after light need fear the result. If it be of
God, Scripture will surely be its amplest vindication; if not of God, its
fullest exposure.
Nor is it mere details we shall have to consider. There is not one
important fundamental doctrine upon which Christendom has for ages been
agreed that is not by this system denied.
The book from which we cull extracts to show what they (Christadelphians)
distinctly hold, and which was sent to the writer by a Christadelphian to
convince him of their tenets, consists of thirty-six propositions, with
about five hundred Scripture quotations. The number of Scripture is their
exposure, as we shall see. Read by the careless or ignorant, they may
succeeding misleading, but once let the truth be clearly stated by
Scripture, it will soon be apparent how great is the deception.
UNITARIAN IN BELIEF
1) Christadelphians believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was not divine, but
merely a man - thus aiming a fatal blow at the whole scheme of redemption.
Let us quote their words:
"Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is not the `second person' of an eternal
Trinity of Gods, but the manifestation of the One Eternal Creator, who is
`above all and through all' (Eph. 4:6) and `out of whom are all things'
(Rom. 11:36). This Creator is Spirit, dwelling corporally and personally
in heaven, yet in His Spirit-effluence filling immensity. (How strangely
careless yet deceptive is this piece of writing! The Creator is Spirit.
How, then,can He dwell corporally in heaven?) By this Spirit-effluence He
begot Jesus, who was therefore His Son: by the same power He anointed him
and dwelt in him, and spoke to Israel through Him (Heb. 1:1). Jesus
Christ, therefore, in the days of his weakness, had two sides - one deity;
the other man; but not as construed by Trinitarianism, which makes Jesus
the Son Incarnate. The man was the son whose existence dates from the
birth of Jesus; the Deity dwelling in him was the Father, who without
beginning of days, is eternally pre-existent. There were not two or three
eternal persons before `the man Christ Jesus,' but only One-God the
Father, whose relation to the Son was afterwards exemplified in the event
related by Luke (Chap. 1:35), by which was established what Paul styles
the `mystery of godliness;' `God manifested in the flesh, justified in the
Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up to Glory' (1 Tim. 3:16)."
In this proposition is stated, as clearly as words are able, that the
Lord Jesus is not God the Son. No one believes in "an eternal Trinity of
Gods," but Christendom believes in God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy
Spirit - one God. Christendom believes in a Triune God, not in a plurality
of Gods. This can be proved most clearly from Scripture. Yet we are told
in this proposition that there are not two or three eternal persons, that
Jesus is not the Son Incarnate, that He is only God's Son as begotten into
this world, Whose existence dates only from His birth, that Deity is not
essential to the person of the Lord Jesus, but "Deity dwelling in Him was
the Father."
The whole proposition is entirely false. Let Scripture, to which they so
confidently appeal, answer them. The Christadelphians assert that the Lord
Jesus had no existence previous to His incarnation. The Lord's own words
are:
John 8:58
Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I
AM."
Again observe carefully the words of the Lord Jesus Himself:
John 17:5
"And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory
which I had with You before the world was."
Rom. 9:5
...of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ
came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
John 1:1-3
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through
Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Could refutation of Christadelphian teaching be more convincing and
clear?
In denying the essential Deity of the Son, the fountain of Christadelphian
teaching is poison at its source. What wonder, then, that the stream
emanating from such a source is baneful and poisonous! To proceed further:
ATONEMENT CARICATURED
2) Christadelphians deny the atoning value of the death of Christ, and thus
would take from us, if they could, the Saviour. They say:
"The death of Christ was not to appease the wrath of offended Deity,
but to express the love of the Father in a necessary sacrifice for sin
that the law of sin and death which came into force by the first Adam
might be nullified in the second in a full discharge of its claims through
a temporary surrender to its power; after which immortality by
resurrection might be acquired, in harmony with the Law of obedience.
Thus sin is taken away, and righteousness established."
Here the death of the Lord Jesus is looked at as the expression of the
Father's love. Doubtless it is the expression of God's love, and who would
wish to question that? But mark, reader, the righteousness of God demanding
satisfaction for sin is entirely ignored. The death of Christ, they say,
was not to appease the wrath of God. Surely holiness and righteousness had
their claims, and if God's love is to be righteously shown to sinners in the
offer of forgiveness of sins and salvation, there must be satisfaction
rendered to God's holiness and righteous claims against sin. In the book
quoted from, Christ is not referred to as Saviour, nor the precious blood as
that which alone can cleanse from sin, and the confession of Jesus as Lord
is altogether ignored. How inexpressibly sad!
SPIRIT IMPERSONAL
3) If Christadelphianism denies the divine personality of God the Son, we
are quite prepared that they should deny the divine personality of the Holy
Spirit. They teach that:
"The Spirit is not a personal God distinct from the Father, but the
radiant, invisible power or energy of the Father, filling universal space
and forming the medium of His omniscient perceptions and the instrument of
His omnipotent behests, whether in creation or inspiration; the
distinction between the Father and the Spirit being not that they are two
persons, but that the Father is Spirit in focus so intense as to be
glowing substance inconceivable, and the Spirit, the Father's power, in
space-filling diffusion, forming with the Father a unity in the stupendous
scheme of creation, which is in revolution around the Supreme source of
All Power."
Thus in grand, swelling, empty words they deny the personality of the
Spirit of God.
On the contrary, Scripture repeatedly refers to the Holy Spirit as a
Person.
John 16:13
"However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into
all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears
He will speak, and He will tell you things to come."
[See also Matt. 28:19; John 19:16-17,26; 15:26]
SATAN'S PERSONALITY DENIED
4) "The Devil is not (as is commonly supposed) a personal supernatural agent
of evil, and that in fact, there is no such being in existence. The Devil
is a scriptural manifestation - subjective, individual, aggregate, social
and political, in history, current experience, and prophecy; after the
style of metaphor which speaks of wisdom as a woman, riches as MAMMON and
Satan as the God of this world, sin, as a master, etc."
The purpose of Satan is well served if people can be persuaded that he
does not exist. Can subtlety go further?
HELL DENIED
5) Christadelphians, not content with denying heaven to the believer, refuse
to believe in a hell or eternal punishment at all. They settle it in very
few words. They say:
"It also follows of necessity, that the popular theory of hell and
`eternal torments' is a fiction."
As Christadelphians deny heaven to be the believer's portion, and deny
the very existence of hell, they are forced to propound what they call
"conditional immortality" to cover their retreat.
Enough has been shown to prove that this system is anti-Christian and
Satanic. We can understand that, once having started with a wrong premise
as to the person of God the Son, error after error was needed wherewith to
bolster up this daring attack on Christianity.
It may be contended that amidst this mass of error the Christadelphians
at least are sound as to their acknowledgment of God the Father. Even this
contention Scripture takes from them, and they are left completely under the
curse of Scripture. They deny the Divine Personality of the Son. Scripture
tells us in this connection that:
1 John 2:23
Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either, he who
acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
2 John 7,9,10,11
For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus
Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an Antichrist.
Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does
not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father
and the Son.
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive
him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil
deeds.
Without God, without the Father, without the Son, without the Holy
Spirit, without atonement, without a hope of heaven, how truly terrible
their condition is! Theirs is indeed a system of error without one
redeeming feature.
DAVID J. GEAUVREAU
3053 Metchosin Rd. Lovat St.,
Victoria, B.C.,
Canada V9B 4Y9
BBS: (604)-478-2789
VOICE: (604)-478-0254
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