Who Are the Christadelphians

Hello, and thank you for visiting our website. We'd love to take a moment to talk about why the Christadelphians feel that this topic, Satan or the devil, is so important to those who believe in God. So first, just a bit about who we are, the Christadelphians are a global church organization that was founded over 170 years ago right here in the United States. Today we have more than 70,000 baptized brothers and sisters. We're unique in that we have a lay clergy which means that there's no church hierarchy, we are all brothers and sisters. Each one of us has the personal responsibility to read the Bible, find truth, and serve God. And in California there are 16 of our churches and they're listed at the bottom of the website. So, we invite you to visit any of those locations because you'll be quite welcome.

So why would we focus on this topic, the devil and Satan. We believe that this is actually one of the most detrimental beliefs held by many Christians. The belief in a supernatural being that is leading men and women toward sin is contrary to Bible teaching. The enemy has always been the same and that's our own hearts and minds. The Apostle James said it very clearly when he said:

"That every person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."

Since the garden of Eden, this has been the enemy that we face as humans. It's that impulse to follow our own desires at the expense of following God's commands. That's why the apostle Paul spoke of the important aspect of renewing our mind that is made possible for believers.

So why then is it so important that we talk about this belief in a supernatural devil or Satan? Well, it's the fact that it really affects so many other teachings from the Bible. To believe in the supernatural devil or Satan, means to believe that man is created essentially good, but is then corrupted by the influences of evil. However, the Bible clearly teaches the opposite, that we need to change our thinking and our behavior to be more like Jesus, because our natural tendency is not righteousness but sin.

The belief that the devil is a fallen angel who sinned and rebelled is also incompatible with the scriptures, because the Bible presents angels as immortal and sinless. It also affects the way that we see the role of Jesus Christ, because his victory wasn't over some supernatural evil being, but rather his victory was when he subjected his own will to his Father's will. His obedience in all of his life was concluded on the cross and in that way, he destroyed the works of the devil. Even more importantly, believing that God would permit some supernatural being to roam the earth and lead men and women astray is completely incompatible with what we know about God. God desires that all men should be saved. God is sovereign. He rules over all the earth. There are no powers that can equal Him or rise up against Him.

What we read in the Bible about the future, is a Kingdom that will be established on earth. We read that Jesus will return to be the king and for 1000 years of his rule, he will teach righteousness, invite men and women to live holy lives, and in the end, the world will be fully filled with immortalized sinless people. This is the invitation of the gospel and it's the hope for all Christians.

So, we invite you to watch the rest of the videos on this website. We hope that they might help you to answer some of your own questions and provoke you to do your own Bible study. We're offering special talks to be given in the locations listed at the bottom of the website. We highly recommend you attend one of them near you and for anyone that is unable to attend, we'll be posting recordings of those talks to this website in early October.

The message we want to leave you with is that there's no need for anxiety or fear about a supernatural evil. There's no evil force that's attempting to lure you into rebellion from God or to lose your faith. But instead, all of us are invited to develop the thinking of Jesus Christ to transform our minds not to be conformed to this world. We have a choice to serve God instead of our flesh. Now that might seem like a very huge task and it is one that we often fail to live up to, but by the grace of God we can be forgiven, we can repent, and the gift that's offered to us is so far beyond anything that we've experienced. We can have confidence that when Jesus returns, he will gather the living, he will raise the dead and give that reward of life everlasting.

So, as we close, we'll just let the apostle Paul explain what lies ahead for those people who commit their lives to serving God:

"He says no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him."

We sincerely hope that you'll examine this topic and see for yourself what the Bible teaches about the source of sin and the grace of God to save us.