The Bible is accepted as one of the greatest masterpieces of the world’s literature. The grandeur of the opening chapters of Genesis and of John’s Gospel, the moving poetry of the Psalms, the fiery denunciations of the Hebrew prophets, the compelling records of the life and work of Jesus, and the apocalyptic mysteries of the book of Revelation — all these serve together to set the Bible in a class of its own. It is quite unrivalled by any other work, in any language or from any age. But it is more than this: the Bible claims to be the written word of God.

The World’s Most Remarkable Book

The Bible’s contents are of the greatest antiquity. Parts of it are over 3,000 years old and, as any historian worth his salt will tell you, it contains the oldest and the most reliable records of ancient history ever written. Time and again its narratives have been shown to contain a remarkably accurate account of people, of places, and of events of bygone ages. No other book in the world can begin to compare with the Bible for the way it helps us both to understand the past and thereby largely to explain the present.

The Bible’s influence on the history of civilisation …

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The title of this booklet is partly factual and partly a matter of judgement. One Bible — Many Churches … is surely indisputable. Does it matter what we believe? is open to discussion. It seems sensible to begin where there is likely to be the greatest measure of agreement – that there is one Bible. Surely this is manifestly true. The Bible may be a collection of books but they are brought together in one volume, called ‘the Bible’. Of course there are several versions and many translations — but one Bible, whether the language is eastern or western, ancient or modern. The text is not open to alteration in order to bring it into harmony with this view or that. There are hundreds of scholars quick to detect any interference with the book. Thousands of pens are poised ready to condemn any attempt to meddle with the words. The Bible is unique, using the word in its proper sense — there is one Bible. It is true that the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches include some additional books which are not recognised by Protestant churches as inspired. But they make little difference to the integrity of the central collection of 66 books.

That there are many Churches seems equally self-evident. There are some who say that there are many names but the church is one. This is a verbal device to hide the divisions. The different names do stand for different causes. True, they are alike in some respects but the differences are real enough. There is a difference of teaching between one church and another, and sometimes the difference is very substantial, even fundamental. Then sometimes within the same church there are ideas and practices which contradict each other. In any case the effect speaks for itself — some seeking to find the true church are puzzled and perplexed and forced to cry at last that they cannot make up their mind when faced with so many different churches clustered around one Bible. The problem is intensified by the fact that most of the differing churches claim to have based their teaching on the one Bible. How has this situation arisen?

The Development of Differences

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The word ‘resurrection’ may sound strange to anyone who has not read the Bible: it is not a word we use in everyday life in the twenty-first century. ‘Judgement’ is a more familiar word: it conjures up in our mind a law court and a judge handing down a sentence on a criminal. So what is a booklet on ‘resurrection and judgement’ about? If you are familiar with the Bible, you will know that — in a Bible context — ‘resurrection’ is the raising to life of people who have died, while ‘judgement’ has to do with God’s assessment of men and women according to His standards.

This is a booklet to explain what the Bible says about a future time, which Christadelphians expect to be very soon, when God will send His Son Jesus Christ back to the earth to raise the dead and judge the world.

Life After Death

Even those few sentences perhaps raise questions and problems in your mind:

• Is there really a God?
• Who actually is Jesus Christ?
• How do we know he is coming back?
• What has happened to dead people?
• How can they be raised from the dead?
• Will everyone be raised?
• Why does there need to be a day of judgement if God knows everything about us?
• What are the possible outcomes of that judgement?
• Where do I fit in all this?

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Let the issue be quite plain from the start: all that we believe — if we claim to be Christians — is staked upon the truth of Christ’s resurrection. Either it is true that the body which hung upon the cross was pierced by the soldier’s spear and placed in a tomb, came out of that tomb with the marks of its suffering still upon it, and was seen and touched truly and physically before ascending to heaven — or Christianity is a delusion. There may be protest against this today: some may urge that Jesus was no less a great teacher of mankind if he decayed in the tomb and was lost, and others will contend that there may have been a kind of “spiritual” resurrection of Jesus without the need for a bodily presence among his disciples which, for some reason, is distasteful.

If Jesus did not Rise …

As to the first of these protests, …

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The question can be simply put. Should we believe in a supreme and all-powerful Being who is the essence of goodness — a God who is so interested and concerned for His creatures that He sent His Son to be the saviour of mankind; or should we place our trust in a supernatural power of wickedness and darkness — the basis of occult beliefs? Only one other possibility has ever been considered, and that has been a belief that man can determine his own destiny and solve the world’s problems. Despite the great strides made by mankind in the technical world — or perhaps because of them — man’s inability to solve the one problem that afflicts every human being has caused him to search elsewhere for answers. Man’s great problem is his certain destiny. The great advances made in the last century-and-a-half have shown that it is not just death that needs removing from the earth; the effects of mortality are equally serious. People are now living much longer than they used to. Yet who really wants to live an extra five or ten years if they bring no improved quality of life?

In years gone by religion would have given mankind the opportunity to discover satisfactory answers to this universal problem. But society today has relegated religion to a very low position. Religion is the butt of comedian’s jokes, and religious leaders rarely comment on anything other than sociological issues. This situation has occurred for a number of reasons. Primarily it has come about because the authority of God’s revelation of Himself and Hid purpose has been forsaken. Men have failed to denounce as “sin” behaviour which is contrary to His law. Self-indulgent thought has been elevated by the producers and consumers of technology, and religious principles are scorned. Unthinkingly, Karl Marx’s comment about religion has been widely accepted; he called it “the opium of the people”.

If religion has become a no-go area for many people, …

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This is a booklet about the God of the Bible, the one unique God. Why is it needed? Because, as Christadelphians see it, there has for many hundreds of years been a serious misunderstanding about the relationship between God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. It is a fact of history that between 300 and 500 years after the death of Jesus Christ, the Christian Church developed ideas about God which centred around a ‘Trinity’. These traditions were eventually written down in what the Church called its ‘creeds’ (credo in Latin means ‘I believe’). We must leave the detailed history of the creeds until later, but the following extract from the Athanasian Creed (around AD 500) will set the scene:

“Whosoever will be saved: before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith … That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity … For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son: and another of the Holy Ghost [Spirit]. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one: the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal … So the Father is God, the Son is God: and the Holy Ghost is God, And yet they are not three Gods, but one God … Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost … amen.”

For more than 1,500 years, the Trinity has formed …

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There must be many people who feel that there is something outstandingly significant about the person and the teaching of Jesus Christ. Yet when they survey “Christianity”, both in its history and its modern forms, they find a wide variety of churches and communities, all with their differing foundations. teachings and practices. Feeling bewildered by the existence of so many groups claiming the name “Christian”, they may well give up the quest for “the truth as hopeless.

This short booklet is written to draw the attention of the interested enquirer to the existence of a community of believers in Christ, calling themselves “Chtistadelphians”, organised in groups found throughout the world. Wherever they exist they have a fellowship founded upon an agreed basis of beliefs. Fundamental to their faith is the principle that what Christ and his apostles taught in the first century was truth, and it is still the truth today. The holy scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, are their sole authority.

An Apostolic Fellowship

The community has no paid …

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A tiny strip of land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean is probably the most disputed piece of territory on earth. For thousands of years it has been fought over; in the last 60 years or so, it has been the focus of international attention as rival peoples have claimed their rights to the area. From time to time there have been promising moves toward reconciliation, and bitter enemies have signed cease-fires and peace treaties — yet the state of tension and unrest has continued.

The parties which are directly at odds with each other in this dispute are the Israelis and the Palestinians. Each side provokes the other: Palestinians, often with the backing of other Arab states and political movements, have launched rockets into Israel, undertaken suicide bombings, and promoted unrest among Israeli Arabs. Israel, with the backing of the United States and international Jewish groups, has conducted heavy reprisals, and pushed ahead with its policy of building Jewish settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians. Serious-minded people are concerned about the worsening situation and its implications for Middle East stability.

In this booklet we shall first attempt to define the Palestinian Question and then look at what the Bible has to say …

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No doubt may people today would say: “Why are you bothering with baptism? It’s only a ceremony, isn’t it? Having a few drops of holy water sprinkled on the head of an infant by a clergy man in church, or just having a bath? What real difference can it make? You’re wasting your time.”

The short answer is that the New Testament has a great deal to say about baptism, from the lips of Jesus himself as well as through his apostles. Now the plain fact is that the Bible is all we have. If we want to know who Jesus was, what he taught and what he commanded his followers to do, we must go to the Bible for the answers. To look elsewhere is to rely on the opinions of men, whether of individuals or of bodies of men in Synods or Councils. What the Bible has to says about baptism must be vital for us. If Christ and his chosen apostles have declared certain things about baptism, then we ought to want to know what they are.

The really important question must therefore surely be: What did Jesus command and teach and what did his apostles do as a result?

“Born of Water”

To Nicodemus, the Jewish leader who came to him by night, Jesus …

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Suffering is a problem in life that comes home to everyone. A child is born blind, deformed or mentally afflicted; and the question comes: Why? The child has done no harm.

A man or woman of fine character and in the prime of life is racked with pain in a hopeless disease that can only end in death. Why him? Why her? These are the people who can least be spared. Millions in the world are suffering semi-starvation and disease in countries with vast populations and low agricultural productivity. Others perish or are made homeless in floods and earthquakes. Why should they suffer?

Pain, torture and death have been imposed on helpless millions by the tyranny of man and the destructiveness of modern war. Countless lives are lost in acts of terrorism, by brutality and hijacking. Accidents there have always been, but the scale of today’s disasters and natural calamities is often overwhelming: a passenger aircraft crashes; an oil rig blows up; fire traps hundreds in an underground train. People ask: Why does God allow it?

Does God care?

The questions readily arise …

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