“Earnestly contend

for the faith”

STEPHEN GREEN AND REG CARR

AS A COMMUNITY the Christadelphians rightly claim to have found the true Faith which, according to Jude, “was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude v. 3). For us, that Faith, derived from the Word of God, is now summarised in documents such as the Declaration and the Birmingham Amended Statement of Faith, where our claim to follow the basic teachings of Scripture and to have the true apostolic Faith is clearly substantiated. Yet the truths we believe as a community, now as in the first century, are under threat; and if we do not give “earnest heed to the things which we have heard” from God’s Word (Heb. 2:1) then we too will certainly “run out as leaking vessels” (v. 1, AV mg.) and be unfaithful to the Truth.

And the Faith is under threat from a whole variety of influences and false notions, the most insidious of which it is the aim of this Special Issue to identify and to challenge from a Biblical standpoint. Many of the ‘-isms’ of the age, for example, some of which are actually old enemies in new garb, are unduly affecting our communal thinking and behaviour, and their baneful influence needs to be recognised and resisted by every one of us. Higher criticism, materialism, ecumenism and evangelicalism are four examples of pervasive worldly philosophies which have made inroads into our community, but which ought to have no appeal for any who claim to be ‘the People of the Book’. ‘Modernism’ in all its forms should be shunned. Refusing to share the contemporary outlook of the religious and secular worlds around us should be second nature to true believers, and should be part of our earnest “contending for the faith” as Jude understood it all those centuries ago.

If it was “needful” for a first-century apostle to write such dire warnings to his brethren and sisters in Christ (Jude v. 3) it is surely necessary for us to be warned also—we who have been privileged to benefit from the revival of that same Faith delivered ‘once and for all’ to the saints of all ages, and we who live in a world every bit as spiritually perilous as that of our early counterparts. For, as one writer recently explained, the true Faith does not change, though men and women, true to their unchanging human nature, may move away from it:

“It is a faith ‘once for all delivered to the saints’. Here is an emphatic declaration that the Truth in Christ is essentially the same in all ages—necessarily so, for God is unchangeable, and human nature is always the same. So a basic doctrine in one generation must also be basic in the next”.*

The letters of Paul and the other apostles are sprinkled with warnings about the departure from faithful to false doctrine, and about those who would arise to draw away disciples after them. But there is no need to confine these warnings to the first century, as the history of ‘Christianity’ and of the Truth since then has confirmed.

Causes of the development of false doctrine mentioned in the New Testament are: covetousness, lusts, presumption, self-will, deceit, self-deception, being deceived by others, iniquity abounding (in the world), love growing cold, pleasure in unrighteousness, smooth talk, flattery, never receiving the love of the truth, deceitful spirits, the desire to attract disciples, and to avoid persecution (Mt. 24:11,12,24; Acts 20:30; Rom. 16:18; Gal. 6:3; 2 Thess. 2:10-12; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:13; 4:3,4; 2 Pet. 2:3,10,13-15,18; 2 Jno. v. 7; Jude vv. 16,18).

These reasons follow the general pattern of the flesh, and, since the flesh has not changed, there is every reason to expect the same patterns to be at work now. There is a real need to be on our guard so that we are not deceived, and are not a cause of deception to others. The emphasis on sound doctrine, faith, words and speech which is found in the pastoral letters was the remedy provided in the first-century context. We may therefore expect this to be the remedy today.

We live in an age of spiritual dangers. “This know also”, said Paul, “that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God ... ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:1-7). The characteristics listed by Paul certainly existed in the world when he wrote, so in speaking of perilous times to come he must have had in mind the development of such things within the ecclesias, and this is confirmed by his comments later in the same chapter (vv. 12-14). History records how what was originally Christ’s Ecclesia of ‘called out ones’, separated to him and holy, became an apostate church, and even formed an influential part of the world. But “the last days” or “perilous times” to believers are not just a fact of history long gone. They represent a period of time extending to the return of Christ, which the message of Paul to Timothy depicts ominously for us today.

This Special Issue aims to counter some of the more major problems of doctrine and practice which are sadly evident in the Brotherhood. These problems are considered under three main headings: Doctrine, Practical Living, and The Ecclesia. In an age when the content of the Faith is being squeezed, we need to be certain of the inspired status of the Scriptures; we need to know from amongst all the words of Scripture what constitutes the Faith that saves; and we need to be able to answer current doctrinal and practical problems.

There is, of course, no real demarcation between faith and godly works, or between The Faith and Practical Living. Each is bound with the other in the Divine measure of things, as brought out by the articles in the second group. Similarly, the Ecclesia cannot prosper without the Faith and the practical outworking of the mind of Christ working in harmony.

* Harry Whittaker, 7 Short Epistles, p. 262.