Good Hope Christadelphian Ecclesia

4.5-th Annual Memorial Day Gathering

...a huge success!

Our Memorial Day Gathering was yet again a great success. Brother Joseph Fordham (Arlington Ecclesia) exhorted us and led a workshop with us on the subject of “Building your Spiritual House.” He also gave us a lecture on “Encouraging One Another.” Sisters Mandie Smith and Missy Hill did a fantastic organizational job, and the weekend went off without a hitch! We held our gathering at the Shepherd’s Inn Retreat Center, and have high hopes to return next year. Much love – and welcoming, open arms – from the Good Hope Christadelphian Ecclesia to fellow believers everywhere!

Our Ecclesia

well, most everybody, anyway...

Here's the latest picture of our ecclesia. What a great group!!! Come see us anytime!

Memorial Day Gathering 2008 Announcement

The Good Hope Ecclesia is pleased to announce our 5th Annual Memorial Day Gathering will be held on....

YOU GUESSED IT!!! Memorial Day Weekend, 2008! (May 23-26, 2008). We are blessed to have Bro. Joseph Fordham presenting our adult classes, and a young adult teacher TBA (we'll provide an update on this website shortly...). Bro. Joseph will be presenting a series of classes on "Building your Spiritual House."

You may view the campground we're using online at http://www.sirc4christ.org. You can also download the full version of our gathering announcement here.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email Sis. Missy Hill at hill2-at-alliancecable.net, Bro. Dyron Hamlin at dhamlin-at-cteh.com, or Sis. Mandie Smith at mandieblake-at-sbcglobal.net. (replace the -at- with @, of course)

Looking forward to seeing you all there!

"The Trinity"

Discussion #1

Tonight at Bible Class, we decided it would be nice to start some threads via blog entries for discussion of certain theological concepts. So this is our first effort.

Tonight, we got going on "the Trinity."

What is "The Trinity?"

For some History, go here. You can also look at the rest of the page for more info. I haven't read the whole thing, and it looked like some of it was a little slanted, but Wikipedia is generally a good place to start, I reckon. You probably won't find any saving gospel there...

For the record, Christadelphians are not "Trinitarians." We acknowledge that Jesus was a special human, designated by God (the Creator, known by name to His followers as Yahweh, or in Hebrew, the "Tetragrammation" YHVH, or equivalent) to be the Savior of all mankind. It's a beautiful plan, and the Bible bears it out quite clearly and wonderfully.

So the first step in discussing whether or not you are or are not a Trinitarian, based on select Bible verses, is to enter the discussion believing 2 things:

1. the Bible is true, and everything it says is true, and
2. you have to cast off all pre-conceived ideas, and try to see it from the other person's perspective. A corollary to this idea is: people will generally believe whatever they want to. Don't expect to make some huge doctrinal breakthrough in a discussion or two...

Believe me, I've tried to be Trinitarian.

I just can't be one. It just doesn't make sense. At least in the classic sense. So what you find is that people who say they're hard-core Trinitarians actually believe some different version of Trinitarianism! WHEW!!! That's a lot of syllables!

So let's simplify this thing: basically, which do you believe:
1. Jesus was human, flesh and blood, mortal, the Son of God; or
2. Jesus was God, who decided to be human, flesh and blood, mortal, etc.?

Or do you claim to believe both? Think hard about that one...

Here's another question: how did the doctrine of the Trinity come up in the first place?

I think it was from verses like "I and the Father are one," (John 10:30) and "by him (Jesus) were all things created," (Colossians 1:16) and "in him (Jesus) dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," (Colossians 2:9) and the like. They're NOT easy verses. They stretch our imaginations.

So let's jump right in with Colossians 1. What is Paul saying here? Start in verse 13, and look through to verse 20.

---IMPORTANT!!!! If you're not ready for some DEEP theological discussion, go back to Genesis and begin there by learning the stories. Immerse yourself in the stories of the Old Testament, where Yahweh seems to prepare you for the deeper things He reveals later in His Bible. ---

The sum of these verses is this:

Jesus Christ is supreme.

Supreme among whom? Gods? People? What does this mean?

There are a few clues: verse 18 states He was the First-born from the dead. How was this? Well, He was the first human to be raised to immortality, for one thing. How did He do that? By leading a sinless, selfless life! "The grave could not hold Him." (Acts 2:23-24)

How else was he supreme?

He, Jesus Christ, is the man upon whom the WHOLE CREATION depends for life!!! Without Jesus's death on the cross, we are ALL without hope, which = DEAD!!! So essentially, without Jesus Christ, there IS NO CREATION. So in that sense, all things were created by Him, when He died.

Does that make him the Creator? In a sense - he is the Creator of the New Creation - the one that should transform normal people into the type of person who is willing to live the way he showed us.

Who was there in Genesis 1:1? Certainly Yahweh had Jesus in mind from the beginning - a way to reconcile people to Himself, as Paul puts it in Colossians...but the physical Creation was ALL YAHWEH.

And Yahweh gave His Son, Jesus, that we might not perish, but have everlasting life! (John 3:16) Jesus is the virtual linch-pin of all creation - the Supreme Human, the Son of God. He wants us to give all glory to His Father, God - the ONLY ONE WHO IS GOOD, by Jesus's own admission/direction to the young ruler - "Why are you calling ME good? There is none good but One - the FATHER!" (Matthew 19:17, Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19)

Jesus did amazing things for us. We are right to be eternally grateful. God, our Creator, is the One True God, Who has no equal. There is a difference. We thank God that He sent His Son Jesus, so we might see how a human ought to imitate Him. Jesus was truly "God with us" ("Emmanuel" Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23). He related to us on a human level, which is why God's plan culminating in Him is so beautiful. It gives us insight into how we can follow Yahweh in our mere mortal state.

And anyway, we have to confess that Jesus came "in the flesh." It's what sets us apart....II John 1:7

Think about that...