He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
— Psalm 91:1
Bro. Phil Kapusta
The Apostle Paul wrote that Christians must submit themselves to the governing authorities (Romans 13), yet Peter said that we must obey God over human authority (Acts 5:29). Is there any contradiction in these instructions? What should Christians do when the commands of Christ and the State conflict? What is the proper attitude that followers of Jesus should have with regards to the State? Did Jesus teach pacificism? What are the perils of political involvement for a Christian disciple? How have these questions shaped the Christadelphian community over the last 160 years? These and similar topics will be discussed in this class.
Bro. Eric Sankey
As each day that passes brings us closer to the return of Jesus to the Earth as he promised, the world continues to grow further from the expectations that Yahweh has for his people. Does it matter what we believe? Doesn't God love us regardless of how we choose to live? As long as we're "good people" isn't that good enough? The other religions believe and teach that God accepts everyone ... why do we care about what a person believes and how they live? All these questions are great questions today for each one of us to answer, and the only sure way to do that is to examine what Yahweh has said that he expects from his people. We will search the scriptures for answers to these questions to understand Yahweh's perspective as we look for purpose in our lives.
Bro. Ralph Diliberto
The Bible is the only book to ever exist to be able to prove its authentcity through the means of prophecy, archaeology and consistency. Therefore everything writen in the book must be true. We are told in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that "All scripture is given by the inspiraton of God and is proftable for doctrine, reproof, correcton, and instructon in righteousness. That a man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." In this book lies everything required of us, the things essental for salvaton. "Let us hear the conclusion of the mater, fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man."
Bro. Alan Ghent
"To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it" (Deut. 10:14). Biblical stewardship is a recognition of God's claim and the claim of the Lord Jesus Christ over all that we are and all that we possess. We are called to manage or steward our time, our material resources, even our relationships to further the will of our Master. This ownership extends to our very selves. Paul said, "You are not your own, you were bought with a price" (1 Cor. 6:19,20). God has the right to determine what He wants of us for He owns each one of us. He has determined our work, deciding what resources He will entrust to our care to deploy on His behalf. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Eph. 2:10). Paul's progression of thought is significant. We are first saved by grace through faith in Jesus, and then we are created to do good works. It's not that we do good works so that we may be saved; rather, we are saved so that we may do good works! There is a "to do" list waiting for each one of us. This class will explore what it means to be a faithful steward of the living God and how we might demonstrate our gratitude for being afforded this privilege. We will examine several Scriptural examples of faithful stewardship and consider both the blessings and the challenges today "of serving each other as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." 1 Peter 4:10
Bro. Dan Ribaudo Sr.
There are three aspects that we will explore about the body of Christ. They concern his nature, his body of believers and the variety of talents we all bring to His service, and the purpose of His ecclesia and its shepherds. First class we will reaffirm our common understanding of who Jesus was during His time on the earth. This is a fundamental that Christadelphians have a fairly clear understanding of and yet sometimes have difficulty articulating. Second class we will discuss His body of believers, their responsibilities as outlined in Romans and Corinthians, as well as why His body symbolized at the memorial table is sacred to us. Third class we will discuss the purpose of the ecclesial system establish by the Apostles by the direction of Jesus, with a focus on ecclesial shepherds. The content in these first three classes is nothing new to us and basically a review of what we already know. However, it should serve as a good foundation to lead us into a discussion about the present state of our ecclesia’s and where we see our community in the next ten years, should we still be on this side of our Lord's appearing. Fourth class will be a discussion about identifying issues that are affecting ecclesial life. The effects the pandemic had on our ecclesia’s and its members. The effects modern day society is having on our members and especially our young people. We hope to share what different ecclesia’s have done or are doing to address these issues and by sharing we might help each other to preserve and build up our precious community. At the same time respecting that each ecclesia has its own culture and what works for one may not work for another. Fifth class is the take away session, what can we take back home that might address these issues. This will be an open brainstorming session where we hope that previous discussions will open us up to sharing some ideas that we hope will address the concerns we have expressed.
Bro. Mike MacDonald
A 2019 survey of over 600 Christadelphians put forth the following statement: "My faith is weakened by these past or present issues in the community. Many choices were given, and those surveyed could choose as many options as they wished. The #1 answer chosen was "Legalism in the community." Do you agree? Maybe it depends on how "legalism" is defined. Maybe some who chose this answer weren't pointing the finger externally at the community, but internally to personal struggles. When Paul contrasts freedom in Christ with bondage to the "works of the law," do we view this as a concept that's completely antiquated to us now because we are no longer under the law? Or is there an application to us today in finding freedom in Christ? If so, what is the contrast, if not the works of the law? What is the bondage and yoke that we need to overcome? Those times when we are able to overcome sin and temptation and choose what is good and right, what is it that leads to that choice: a rule or a relationship; a law or the conscience; fear or the heart? We hope to use the week of study to expand the definition of legalism to more than just "works-based religion," to understand how a legalistic mindset affects our relationships, to look inward to our walk in Christ and avoid the controversy usually associated with this topic, and to hopefully provide some spiritual tools as options for a legalism remedy.
Bro. David Pinkston
The verses in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 are some of the most misunderstood verses in the Bible. Many people would agree that these verses are hard to explain. What was the Apostle Paul trying to teach the Thessalonian brethren when he told them that they would be "caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air? This week we will examine these verses and allow the Bible to speak for itself. We will do this by looking at the ecclesia at Thessalonica to see what unique circumstances may have led to Paul using these phrases that he used in these verses. We will also look at the verses carefully and compare them to other spiritual concepts taught in God’s word in order to discover a consistent message that will allow us to understand and explain the words of the Apostle Paul and to be able to "comfort one another with these words".
Bro. Brian Forbes
A faith-building look at current events and trends hastening the return of Christ.
Bro. Jay Johnson
We shall try to address some common reactions to the subject of prophecy. Prophecy is too complicated. Christadelphians who study prophecy don’t agree; so who am I to say which interpretation is correct? We look for Christ's return but it has been predicted to arrive many times on dates that have come and gone; how can we trust that anybody knows? If the interpretation of prophecy is so difficult, why bother with it at all? To address these reactions, we will discuss the purpose of prophecy, how to go about a study, and what our expectations should be. We will consider Scriptural examples and attempt to find the Scriptural principles needed to guide us.