Amended Christadelphians
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The term Amended Christadelphians is a name given to all Christadelphian fellowships who adhere to the Birmingham Amended Statement of Faith (BASF).
The term Amended Christadelphians is not the name of any of the groups that fall under this title but is used when any of these groups are being contrasted with a fellowship of Christadelphians called the Unamended Christadelphians. The terms "Amended" and "Unamended" refer to the statements of faith used by each set of Christadelphians, one of which has been amended (and hence the prefix - "Amended" - added to that community of Christadelphians), and one has not been amended (and hence the prefix - "Unamended" - added to that community of Christadelphians). Both "Amended" and "Unamended" are prefixes exclusive to the United States and Canada, as the issue is localised here. The majority of Christadelphians within the US and Canada, and all Christadelphians outside of this area, are Amended Christadelphians (although there are a number of fellowships that come under this umbrella name, ranging from the largest Christadelphian fellowship to some of the smallest); the Unamended community is confined to the US and Canada.
Both "Amended" and "Unamended" groups are Christadelphian and share fundamentally the same doctrines, with a few exceptions. They are, like all Christadelphians, millennialist and non-Trinitarian.
The name "Christadelphian" derives from the Koine Greek meaning “Brethren of Christ”. Like Unamended Christadelphians, Amended Christadelphians have neither formal, ordained, or paid clergy.
Contents |
[edit] Doctrine
- For general Christadelphian beliefs, see the Beliefs section of the main Christadelphian article. The section here will deal only with the beliefs of Amended Christadelphians that are different to the beliefs of the Unamended group (this is because the term "Amended" is used when a comparison is being made between the Unamended fellowship and all other Christadelphian fellowships).
In contrast to Unamended Christadelphians, the Amended groups believe that all who are responsible will be raised from the dead at the time of the Judgment when Jesus returns to the earth. The "responsible" are those who have been exposed to the Gospel. The righteous among the responsible ones will be judged according to their works, rewarded appropriately, and live forever. The wicked will be annihilated, and cease to exist. Those who are not responsible, since they had never heard the Gospel, will not be raised.
The Unamended group believes that only people who have been baptised are responsible, and it is only these will be rasied from the dead at the time of the Judgement when Jesus returns to the earth. The righteous among these ones will be judged according to their works, rewarded appropriately, and live forever. The wicked among these people will be annihilated, and cease to exist. Those who are not responsible, since they had never be baptised, will not be raised.[1]
[edit] Historical development
[edit] Foundation
- The Amended community of the Christadelphian body shares the same initial history as all other fellowships within the Christadelphian brotherhood. For more information on this, see 'History: 2.1 Origin' (and the first half of the section 'History: 2.2 Early years: 1865-1914') in the main Christadelphian article. The relevant history for this article commences with the division that resulted in the separate "Amended" and "Unamended" communities, for which, see the second half of the section 'History: 2.2 Early years: 1865-1914' in the main Christadelphian article, and below.
[edit] Statement of Faith & Division of Christadelphian Fellowships
A major division occurred among the Christadelphians in 1898 on the issue of "resurrectional responsibility". The controversy caused serious disagreement concerning whether the Judgement at the return of Christ would be limited to baptised believers, or would also apply to anyone who had "heard" the Gospel message, but had rejected it - referred to as "The Enlightened Rejecters".
The majority, who held the latter view, wanted to modify (or amend) the statement of faith to clarify this. A minority, however, did not accept the amendment and a division followed. Those who associated on the basis of the unamended statement of faith became known as the Unamended Fellowship, and those who have associated on the basis of the amended statement become known, when in contrast to the Unamended fellowship, as the Amended Christadelphians. There is still contention today over what the original established beliefs of the Christadelphian community as a whole were prior to the controversy leading up to the division in 1898, with members of each "fellowship" claiming that their current views were the original.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ religioustolerance.org
- ^ For example: Website claiming views held by Amended community were original Christadelphian beliefs Versus Website claiming views held by Unamended community were original Christadelphian beliefs.
