About the Christadelphians
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Everyone I have ever talked to about Paul’s request for “the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus” (2 Timothy 4:13) treats that request as evidence that he was cold. They tie it to the later line “come before winter” and to the fact that he was in prison awaiting death, and they picture him shivering in a damp cell. I believed that myself for about twenty years. Then it suddenly became obvious that that interpretation couldn’t possibly be right. In the same chapter Paul says, “Only Luke is with me.” If Paul had been cold, he could have turned to Luke and asked for a coat, and Luke would have instantly given him the one off his own back. Whatever the cloak in Troas was for, it wasn’t for warmth. The reason so many of us—including most Christadelphians—have repeated the cold-cell story is simply that we heard it, it sounded reasonable, and we never stopped to test it. It’s a tiny example of a much larger habit of accepting and repeating what we have heard without examining it closely.
Christians already know the pattern from the first century. Most Jews of that time did not expect the Messiah to suffer and die as a sacrifice for sin. Instead, they expected a victorious king who would drive out the Romans. The idea was so settled that even Jesus’ closest followers struggled with it—Peter tried to correct him, and the Gospels note how foreign the prediction remained even after Jesus explained it more than once. I think something similar is still happening today, such that most Christians hold false positions on a handful of key issues just as most Jews did in Jesus’ day.
I’m including this material for the sake of openness, not because I want to argue anyone into agreement. The distinctive points have almost no effect on how the website actually works. The whole point is Bible literacy—getting clearer about what the text itself says—using biblical language. Most people can ignore everything on this page and still use every tool without any problem. One thing that is foundational for Christadelphians, and that shapes how I approach the work, is the conviction that the Bible is the only place God has given us the details of His plan and purpose for today.
Historical setting
For a long time the Catholic Church held a virtual monopoly on what counted as Christian teaching. The Protestant Reformation was the first large-scale break with that monopoly. Even after the break, though, most Protestant groups carried forward a number of teachings that Christadelphians believe are not actually in the Bible, and many of those groups were still tied to governments. Limited religious freedom, low literacy rates, and the relative difficulty of obtaining a Bible for personal reading and study, made it hard for ordinary people to test those teachings for themselves. By the early 1800s, especially in the United States, three things had changed: people were legally free to form new religious groups, far more of them could read, and the Bible was readily available at affordable prices. That combination produced a wave of new movements. The Christadelphians were one of them.
John Thomas, an English physician who had moved to America in the 1830s, spent time with the Campbellites—part of what religious historians call the Restoration Movement—before he parted from them over basic questions of doctrine. Christadelphians generally look to John Thomas as the key person who “founded” the Christadelphians in about the year 1848 even though the name “Christadelphians” wasn’t coined until the 1860s, and many early Christadelphians came from the Campbellite movement. While John Thomas and others of the period are highly regarded, Christadelphians do not regard their writings as inspired — only the Bible is inspired.
Main points of difference
Christadelphians think of themselves as standing in the line of “true Judaism.” One of the clearest differences from almost every other Christian group is how seriously they take the promises God made to Abraham. Most Christians focus on the righteous going to heaven when they die. Christadelphians are waiting for Christ to return, for a judgment, and then for eternal life in the Kingdom of God on the earth—the fulfillment of those promises made to Abraham and the other patriarchs. Depending on how you count, and what qualifies as a “major” difference, there are roughly half a dozen major points where Christadelphians differ from the majority of other Christians. Here are the main ones.
God and Jesus.
The Trinity is the teaching that God is one Being who has always existed as three distinct Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—equal in every way. Most Christians believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, but Christadelphians instead believe there is one God, the Father. Jesus is his Son, brought into being by the power of God in Mary’s womb. He is fully human, lived without sin, died as a sacrifice, and was raised. He is not thought of as a second divine Person who has always existed alongside the Father.
Death, heaven, and hell.
Most Christians believe we have an immortal soul that leaves the body at death and goes immediately to heaven or hell. Details vary—some speak of purgatory, some debate whether hell is conscious fiery torment or “merely” the pain of separation—but the basic picture is immediate, conscious existence after death. Christadelphians believe that when we die we cease to be conscious, and we stay that way unless God raises us. Those who belong to Christ are raised when he returns; then comes judgment. The saved receive eternal life in the Kingdom of God on earth, while the condemned return to permanent unconsciousness—the second death. The hope of the Kingdom on earth is not only an Old Testament idea; Christadelphians argue that the New Testament itself, read carefully, presents it as the hope Jesus and the apostles actually preached.
Satan and the devil.
A few decades ago it would have been fair to say that virtually all Christians taught that Satan is a real, personal fallen angel. That is still the official position of many churches, but the picture has become less uniform. Quite a few individual Christians now treat Satan more as a metaphor or as a personification of evil rather than as a literal supernatural being. Christadelphians have long rejected the idea of a personal supernatural fallen-angel devil or Satan. In their reading the words are used in different ways depending on the passage; most often they refer either to some human adversary or, more importantly, to the pull toward sin that is part of ordinary mortal human nature. At the same time, Christadelphians are clear that the angels in heaven do not sin—they are faithful servants of God without exception.
Salvation.
Salvation is a gift of God’s grace. Full stop. We do not earn a place in the Kingdom by being good enough, believing hard enough, or doing enough. Romans 6:23 calls eternal life “the free gift of God.” That can sound as if it clashes with John 3:16, which speaks of “whoever believes.” The way I understand it is that the gift really is free, but God is not arbitrary or capricious about who receives it. He gives it to those who believe. And real belief produces the kind of life that naturally includes good works. So it is fair to say both that salvation is entirely by grace and that receiving it involves believing the gospel, turning from the old way, and doing the things that flow from that belief, including being baptized by full immersion. Baptism is the moment a person publicly identifies with Jesus’ death and resurrection and becomes a potential heir of the promises made to Abraham. When some people say Christadelphians teach “salvation by works,” they are misrepresenting our position. The starting point is that eternal life is God’s gift. This page isn’t the place to make a detailed argument, but this emphasis on God’s gift of grace coupled with the need for our belief and subsequent works accords with fundamental Bible passages on the topic such as Ephesians 2 and in Romans chapters 3 and 4, plus their contexts.
Relation to the state.
Christadelphians see their real citizenship as belonging to the Kingdom that is still future. They are “strangers and pilgrims” in the present world. They pay taxes, obey laws that do not contradict God’s commands, and show ordinary respect to authorities. They do not vote, run for office, join political parties, or try to steer governments. They also refuse military service and, in most cases, any role that requires an oath of allegiance or the use of force. This is not because they believe force will never be used; they expect it when Christ returns to establish his Kingdom. The refusal applies now because today’s governments are not that Kingdom.
All of this is here so you know where I’m coming from. It changes almost nothing about how the tools on the site function. If none of it interests you, you can skip it entirely and still use everything else.