The
Christadelphians, to whom my family belong, are a group of sincere,
Bible-believing people, who do their best in their personal lives to follow the
example set by Jesus Christ and in their churches to follow the pattern of the
churches of the first century. Not much wrong with that, you might think.
But unfortunately, Christadelphianism is a demonstration of how you can be
sincere but sincerely wrong, of the inadequacy of reading the Bible without the
Holy Spirit to interpret it, and of the way in which an attempt to earn peace
with God through good works cannot succeed.
All Christian groups, be they evangelical or liberal, are equally condemned by
the Christadelphians as failing to believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of
God. I grew up to believe that the only true Christians were the
Christadelphians. However, in my late teens I began to reject my parents’
religion and the God of the Bible as I then understood Him.
I never really doubted the existence of God, but I was determined to find a
different pathway to Him than the way I had been told was in the Bible, that is
baptism followed by a life-time of obedience to Christ. Away at university my
search led me to dabble with drugs and with religions of the East. It also
brought me a great deal of unhappiness, because deep down I knew that I was not
right with God and that my lifestyle was all wrong. I was keeping in touch with
young Christadelphian students and attending their meetings on Sundays. Yet it
was a double life I was leading. Respectability on Sundays, but a life of
self-centredness of which the highlights were rock music and parties whenever
studies allowed during the week. My own hypocrisy sickened me, yet I felt
powerless to do anything about it.
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