"A Time to Heal" The Los Angeles 10 points The following 10 points appeared in 'The Christadelphian' Dec 1940, as part of an article, the stated purpose being to heal division. Such an article would not appear today in this publication, because there has been a massive declension from the truth concerning the Sacrifice of Christ in 'Central Christadelphians'. Our appeal to those who are sincere believers is to consider the 10 points (4 of error and 6 of truth), read 'Elpis Israel' concerning the "two principal acceptations" of "sin" and the Scriptures, and the links at the end of this page. When you have settled in your mind that there has been a departure from the Faith, consider your own position of complicity which must be rectified. No-one can do this for you, but remember that each one who is responsible to judgment will answer for themselves, and in that day a majority will be of no advantage. 4 POINTS OF ERROR 1. That the nature of Christ was not exactly like ours. 2. That the offering of Christ was not for himself, and that Christ never made any offering for himself. 3. That Christ's offering was for personal sins or moral impurity only. That our sins laid on Christ made him unclean and accursed of God, and it was from this curse and this uncleanness that Christ needed cleansing. 4. That Christ died as a substitute: i.e., that he was punished for the transgressions of others and that he became a bearer of sin by suffering the punishment due for sin. 6 POINTS OF TRUTH 1. That death came into the world extraneously to the nature bestowed upon Adam in Eden, and was not inherent in him before sentence. 2. That the sentence defiled him (Adam) and became a physical law of his being, and was transmitted to all his posterity. 3. That the word "sin" is used in two principal acceptations in the scriptures. It signifies in the first place "the transgression of law", and in the next it represents that physical principle of the animal nature which is the cause of all its diseases, death and resolution to dust. 4. That Jesus possessed our nature, which was a defiled, condemned nature. 5. That it was therefore necessary that Jesus should offer for himself for the purging of his own nature, first, from the uncleanness of death, that having by his own blood obtained eternal redemption for himself, he might be able afterward to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by him. 6. That the doctrine of substitution, i.e., that a righteous man can, by suffering the penalty due to the sinner, free the sinner from the penalty of his sin, is foreign to scripture and is a dogma of pagan mythology. (1) is quoted in The Christadelphian, 1937, page 553; (2) is the fifth proposition of the Statement of Faith; (3) is from Elpis Israel; (5) is from Bro. Roberts in The Christadelphian,1873, p.468; (4) and (6) are statement of fact. The Birmingham Central ecclesia, being sound in doctrine in 1940, stated its endorsement of the above as follows: "...we would say that in our judgment the four items of doctrine to which objection is taken in your appeal, are contrary to the Truth, and the six items in which you state the opposite view, are the Truth". As stated above, 'Central Christadelphians' today hold & tolerate error. It is now more subtle than the earlier more easily-identified form (the serpent-mind never runs out of new ideas). But it still results in the same destruction of the Truth, because if it is taught that Christ made no sacrificial offering for Himself, it is simply a variation of the substitutionary heresy of the "churches", adopted into 'Christadelphia'. This heresy denies that "God...condemned sin in the flesh" - Romans 8v3. Any teaching which denies this cannot save anyone. page 1 (sacrifice) page 2 (sin&sin-offering) |