The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his075/cdelp1.lzh/CDELP1.TXT

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CUL:Christadelphism  by A.J. Pollock

   Taken from the book "HERESIES EXPOSED" by Wm. C. Irvine

   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.