Christadelphians - Other Historical Groups and Individuals With Some Shared Doctrines

Other Historical Groups and Individuals With Some Shared Doctrines

One criticism of the Christadelphian movement has been over the claim of John Thomas and Robert Roberts to have "rediscovered" scriptural truth. However, although both men believed that they had "recovered" the true doctrines for themselves and contemporaries, they also believed there had always existed a group of true believers throughout the ages, albeit marred by the apostasy.

The most notable Christadelphian attempts to find a continuity of those with doctrinal similarities since that point have been geographer Alan Eyre's two books The Protesters (1975) and Brethren in Christ (1982) in which he shows that many individual Christadelphian doctrines had been previously believed. Eyre focused in particular on the Radical Reformation, and also among the Socinians and other early Unitarians and the English Dissenters. In this way, Eyre was able to demonstrate substantial historical precedents for individual Christadelphian teachings and practices, and believed that the Christadelphian community was the 'inheritor of a noble tradition, by which elements of the Truth were from century to century hammered out on the anvil of controversy, affliction and even anguish'. Although noting in the introduction to 'The Protestors' that 'Some recorded herein perhaps did not have "all the truth" — so the writer has been reminded', Eyre nevertheless claimed that the purpose of the work was to 'tell how a number of little-known individuals, groups and religious communities strove to preserve or revive the original Christianity of apostolic times', and that 'In faith and outlook they were far closer to the early springing shoots of first century Christianity and the penetrating spiritual challenge of Jesus himself than much that has passed for the religion of the Nazarene in the last nineteen centuries'.

Eyre's research has been criticized by some of his Christadelphian peers, and as a result Christadelphian commentary on the subject was subsequently more cautious and circumspect, with caveats being issued concerning Eyre's claims, and the two books less used and publicized than in previous years.

Nevertheless, all the distinctive Christadelphian doctrines, down to interpretations of specific verses, can be found particularly among 16th century Socinian writers (e.g. the rejection of the doctrines of the trinity, pre-existence of Christ, immortal souls, a literal hell of fire, original sin) Early English Unitarian writings also correspond closely to those of Christadelphians. Also, recent discoveries and research have shown a large similarity between Christadelphian beliefs and those held by Isaac Newton who, among other things, rejected the doctrines of the trinity, immortal souls, a personal devil and literal demons. Even with most source writings of those later considered "heretics" destroyed, evidence can be provided that since the first century CE there have been various groups and individuals who have held certain individual Christadelphian beliefs or similar ones.

For example:

• The typical Old Testament belief in unconsciousness till resurrection, instead of the immortality of the soul, has been held marginally throughout the history of both Judaism and Christianity; such sources include certain Jewish pseudepigraphal works, rabbinical works, Clement of Rome, Arnobius in the third to 4th century, a succession of Arabic and Syrian Christians from the third to the 8th century including Aphrahat, Ephrem, Narsai, Isaac of Nineveh (d.700), and Jacob of Sarug, Jewish commentators such as Abraham Ibn Ezra (1092–1167), Maimonides (1135–1204), and Joseph Albo (1380–1444), and later Christians such as John Wycliffe, Michael Sattler, and many Anabaptists, long before Martin Luther challenged Roman Catholic views on heaven and hell with his teaching of "soul sleep"

• The Christadelphian denial of the pre-existence of Christ, and interpretation of verses such as "I came down from heaven" (John 6:38) as relating to the virgin birth and Christ's mission only, are found in the teachings of: the early Jewish Christians, the Ebionites, the Nazoreans (or Nazarenes), the Theodotians of Theodotus the Cobbler (who believed Jesus was supernaturally begotten but a man nonetheless), Artemon, Paul of Samosata, the Pseudo-Clementines, and Photinus (d.376); naturally however, given that non-Trinitarian beliefs were punishable with death from the 4th century to the 17th, it would be foolish to expect to discover any consistent line of people or groups holding such beliefs. Such attempts become possible only after the Protestant Reformation. Christadelphian Christology is found from the publication of Lelio Sozzini's commentary on John (1561) through to the increasing resistance to the miraculous among English Unitarians after 1800.

• The Christadelphian concept of the devil and/or demons is found in a range of early Jewish and later Christian sources such as: Jonathan ben Uzziel (100s AD); Joshua Ben Karha (135-160); Levi ben Gershon (d. 1344); David Kimchi (1160); Saadia ben Joseph (892-942); Shimon ben Lakish (230-270), Joseph Mede (1640), Jacob Bauthumley (1650), Thomas Hobbes (1651), Lodowick Muggleton (1669), Dr. Anthonie van Dale (1685), Balthasar Bekker (1695), Isaac Newton; Christian Thomasius (1704), Arthur Ashley Sykes (1737), Nathaniel Lardner (1742), Dr. Richard Mead (1755), Hugh Farmer (at least in the account of Christ's temptation; 1761), William Ashdowne (1791), John Simpson (1804) and John Epps (1842)

Organised worship in England for those whose beliefs anticipated those of Christadelphians only truly became possible in 1779 when the Act of Toleration 1689 was amended to permit denial of the Trinity, and only fully when property penalties were removed in the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813. This is only 35 years before John Thomas' 1849 lecture tour in Britain which attracted significant support from an existing non-Trinitarian Adventist base, particularly, initially, in Scotland where Arian Socinian and unitarian (with a small 'u' as distinct from the Unitarian Church of Theophilus Lindsey) views were prevalent.