What is Christadelphianism and what do Christadelphians believe?

From this it is scarcely a step down to Christadelphianism, the system of the late Dr. Thomas and his followers. Their views have been little, if at all, noticed by any who have taken in hand to reply to annihilationist doctrine;† yet there is reason to believe they are spreading, not only in the United States, but also in Britain, where indeed, their first originator had birth. The system is acknowledged in the title page of a book that lies before me, by Mr. Roberts of Birmingham, England, their present leader, to be "opposed to the doctrines of all the names and denominations of Christendom" They adopt professedly an Old Testament basis, and deny almost all that is distinctive in the New: the deity of the Son, the personality of the Spirit, a personal devil, and the heavenly portion of the saints. To quote from Mr. Roberts' book,‡ they believe that "the Father is eternal and underived, the Son has his origin in the creative fiat of the Almighty as Adam had; the Holy Ghost is the focalization of His will power, by means of His ‘free Spirit,' which fills heaven and earth." They believe in "a Lamb of God, guileless from his paternity, and yet inheriting the human sin-nature of his mother." But, being free from actual sin, "He could meet all the claims of God's law upon that nature, and yet triumph over its operation by a resurrection from the dead." God "raised Him from the dead to a glorious existence, even to equality with Himself." "And now life is deposited in Him for our acceptance, on condition of our allying ourselves to Him, yea, on condition of our entry into Him." "Baptism in water is the ceremony by which believing men and women are united with Christ, and constituted heirs of the life everlasting, which He, as one of us, has purchased."

From this it is scarcely a step down to Christadelphianism, the system of the late Dr. Thomas and his followers. Their views have been little, if at all, noticed by any who have taken in hand to reply to annihilationist doctrine; yet there is reason to believe they are spreading, not only in the United States, but also in Britain, where indeed, their first originator had birth. The system is acknowledged in the title page of a book that lies before me, by Mr. Roberts of Birmingham, England, their present leader, to be "opposed to the doctrines of all the names and denominations of Christendom." They adopt professedly an Old Testament basis, and deny almost all that is distinctive in the New: the deity of the Son, the personality of the Spirit, a personal devil, and the heavenly portion of the saints. To quote from Mr. Roberts' book, they believe that "the Father is eternal and underived, the Son has his origin in the creative fiat of the Almighty as Adam had; the Holy Ghost is the focalization of His will power, by means of His 'free Spirit,' which fills heaven and earth." They believe in "a Lamb of God, guileless from his paternity, and yet inheriting the human sin-nature of his mother." But, being free from actual sin, "He could meet all the claims of God's law upon that nature, and yet triumph over its operation by a resurrection from the dead." God "raised Him from the dead to a glorious existence, even to equality with Himself." "And now life is deposited in Him for our acceptance, on condition of our allying ourselves to Him, yea, on condition of our entry into Him." "Baptism in water is the ceremony by which believing men and women are united with Christ, and constituted heirs of the life everlasting, which He, as one of us, has purchased."

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 own 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 corporeally and personally in heaven, yet, in His Spirit-effluence He begot Jesus, who was, therefore, HIS SON: by the same power He appointed 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 externally 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 into glory’ (1 Tim. 3:16).”

We have quoted this proposition in full, so that there can be no mistake as to the teaching of the Christadelphians on this vitally fundamental point. Scripture most plainly, positively, and emphatically gives the lie to such blasphemy, both directly and indirectly, both from Old and New Testaments.

As to the future portion of the dead, the Christadelphian teaches: “At the return of Jesus Christ, from heaven, to establish his kingdom on earth, he will, first of all, summon before him for judgment the whole of those who are responsible to his judgment … Faithful and unfaithful will be mustered together before his judgment seat for the purpose of having it declared, after account rendered, who is worthy of being invested with immortality and promoted to the kingdom, and who is deserving of rejection, and reconsignment to corruption after punishment.”

Scripture is not written for the learned only, nor to deceive the simple. The parable of the rich man in Luke 16, though a parable, is intended to teach a solemn truth and convey a solemn warning. 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. If the spirit of man is immortal it must go somewhere, and if heaven is not the dwelling-place of the believer at any time, it is convenient to get out of the difficulty by denying the immortality of the soul and spirit, and, therefore, when a man dies they say: “He is utterly unconscious, as if he had never existed.”

The Christadelphian says: “Soul in the Bible … never expresses the idea of immortality.” “Spirit in the Scriptures … signifies breath, life, vital energy, mind, disposition, etc., as attributes of human nature while alive.”

But in denying the essential deity of the Son the fountain of Christadelphian teaching is poisoned at its source. What wonder, then, that the stream emanating from such a source is baneful and poisonous! To proceed further: 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.”

Christadelphians also deny the personality of the devil. They teach: “The Devil is not (as 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 of sin in the flesh in its several phases of 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 the god of this world, sin as a master etc.”

When twenty-seven years of age he emigrated to the United States of America, and got into touch with and joined a sect named Campbellites, so called after the chief propagandist of the system. Baptism, as essential to salvation, is one of their chief doctrines. After some time Dr. Thomas began to teach the non-immortality of the soul, to deny eternal punishment, etc., and indeed was beginning to shape what became in time known as Christadelphianism. Christadelphianism is a coined word meaning The Brethren of Christ.

p485 [Mons. Eynard] [From the French.] BELOVED BROTHER, - I have not seen the writings which are circulating in Switzerland, but here the immortality of the soul, that is to say, of the soul that has not received Christ, is denied by all who have adopted these ideas. Among them are found two classes: those who make the soul perish finally with the body, and those who say that, although death be the end of the soul as of the body, man will be raised again to be judged and then burned by degrees like a branch. The natural immortality of the soul, by the will of God in creation, is denied by both classes. They cite the passage, "God only has immortality," forgetting that the angels do not die, and that the one who wrote it himself had immortality, according to their system. That God can destroy, I allow, as He could create. The question is to know what He says.

He teaches that the body and soul die together, whether they belong to saint or sinner. That the saint will be raised to eternal life confounding the terms eternal life and immortality, as is usual with conditional immortality advocates. Eternal life is a divine life communicated to the one who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life” (John 3:36) Immortality is never-ending existence without relation as to how or where in the next world the existence shall be perpetuated. But if the saint or sinner in death has ceased to exist, if body and soul, in other words, ceased altogether to have any being at all, where can resurrection come in? There is nothing to resurrect. For Mr. Roberts to talk about resurrection is a denial of his theory, which of course proves that his theory is a denial of Scripture.