Great Britain – Kanisa la Christadelphian huko Anderlecht

Reason enough to be baptised and become a member of our community

Mai 11, 2024Mai 10, 2024 par Marcus Ampe, publié dans ??? Questions asked, Almighty God, Behaviour or attitude towards others, Christadelphian, Faith, Jesus Christ - son of God, Questions & Answers, Thought for today

When we talk to several people, we discover how many people have many questions about faith and how many are not even really well aware of the doctrines or teachings of the church community in which they are baptized and of which they are members.

Catholic church, — Photo by Ivan Drau017eiu0107 on Pexels.com

In Great Britain, forty years ago it was not surprising to find several religious communities in villages. At that time there were a variety of churches there. In Belgium, on the other hand, there was not much diversity and in the villages there was usually only a Roman Catholic Church. Today, when many people and even on television in Flanders are heard talking about ‘the Church’, they usually mean the Catholic Church. Many are not even aware that there are still many subdivisions or denominations in that Catholic Church.

Nowadays, there are more Protestant churches in Belgium, compared to the last century. But when people talk about the Protestant church, they are more likely to talk about a collected set of Protestant churches, with the Belgian Protestant Church and the Pentecostal churches being the two most important, in addition to the evangelicals.

It is striking that among Protestant believers there are many more believers who know what the teachings of their community are. In those groups, no one will be found to deny the Trinity if they belong to a Trinitarian Protestant movement, unlike Catholics.

Over the years, there are more Catholics who are more aware that Jesus is the son of God. However, we also encounter Catholics who say that they believe that Jesus is not God but the son of God. They do not realise that this goes against Catholic teaching where it is taught that Jesus is god the son, assuming that God came to earth to deliver humanity from the curse of sin and death.

There are also many people who doubt any faith and are more likely to ask what it can bring them. People like what they do and get them something. Faith is no different.
The Catholic Church has always been a master at promising people everything. They used to go so far that people buy off their sins with indulgences. No one seemed to think that in such a case one could bribe God and that the rich could rather be remitted of temporary punishments (penitence) for sins, while people who were poor had to suffer longer in purgatory.

It is strange that those members of the traditional churches no longer asked their clergy about these matters and about the specificities of God and Jesus.

Thus one might ask:

If God is an unchangeable eternal Spirit who no man can see, how could He appear as a man on the earth and be seen by several?
If Jesus were God, why does he claim not to be a spirit, and can anyone who sees him continue to live while the Bible says that the man who sees God is dying?
If God is a God who doesn’t lie, why does He claim that He knows everything and that Jesus is his son, who in turn says that he doesn’t know things, because it is only given to God to know those things?

Strange that those believers are satisfied as quickly as their spiritual leaders say that they cannot understand that, and that they should believe those many things as dogmas, even if they do not understand them.

The Catholic Church has succeeded in scaring people with many things for centuries, so that they would step in with that Catholic doctrine.

A neighbour I had suggested to come to our Anderlecht ecclesia was told by his Catholic Church that he would then commit a mortal sin.

Rather, we believe that those who continue to adhere to church rules of doctrine rather than Biblical rules that they will remain in the world of sinfulness and will not have a chance to enter God’s Kingdom.

If one wants to be able to go through the narrow gate of the Kingdom of God, we believe one would do well to live according to Biblical norms and teachings. Scripture is not as difficult to understand as many churches claim. If one reads the Bible carefully, one will gain sufficient insight to know which path to take.

Baptême, doop — The Baptism of Jesus Christ by Library of Congress is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0

In this way one can also see that God is an Eternal Spirit and that Jesus is his beloved son who has put aside his own will to fully realize God’s Will. The 66 books that make up the Bible provide a clear insight into how things are going. If there are still many questions, it is up to the spiritual leaders of the churches to give an honest and effective answer.

In the Community of Brethren in Christ, believers are open to receive outsiders and assist them with counsel.

We do admit that certain activities, such as participation in bread and wine, are only permitted to be enjoyed by believers who have enjoyed a Biblical baptism. If one really wants to become a partaker of that memorial meal, the community is open to educating you in their faith and giving you the opportunity to be baptised by immersion in water, as a sign of surrender to God and as a sign of accession to our community of faith.

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Further related

Christadelphian beliefs

A world where one must make oneself clearly known #2 Unrest among the working people

février 16, 2024février 8, 2024 par obligingworldviewer, publié dans Faith, History & news feed, World events & environment

Photo by Porapak Apichodilok on Pexels.com

In the « Far West« , conflicts had already arisen among the indigenous population when growing prosperity had taken place between the different peoples, an alliance was the only way to resolve these conflicts and so the Iroquois Confederacy was founded.

The Haudenosaunee considered themselves a proud warrior nation and originally called themselves Ongwe Hongwe, « men who surpass all others »; yet in their heyday they could raise at most a thousand warriors.

Outdoing others was nothing new, but this was about the hatchet because of others who were materially better off.

On 17 March 1768, the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Sir William Johnson, concludes a peace agreement with the leaders of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (the tribal nations of Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora) of the North American lands, and with Chiefs Oconostota and Attakullakulla of the Cherokee nation in the South American lands.

Ten days later, Catherine the Great of Russia sends troops under General Pyotr Krechetnikov to intervene in a civil war in Poland, at the request of Polish King Stanisław II Augustus, a move that will eventually lead to the Partitions of Poland.

On one side there is a merger of peoples while on the other side there is a division.

On April 5, 1768, the New York Chamber of Commerce, the first of its kind in the American colonies, is established in the New World, it is clear that one is thinking of facilitating the trading of goods and seeing them as a possible source of enrichment, and this may well ask the question « whose enrichment »?

Those who provide the ship link between the old and new world and those who land food and merchandise in Great Britain are tired of their starvation wages That year in Sunderland the sails are lowered by the sailors, to reinforce their grievances and claims for better working conditions. It was one of the first major work stoppages and she was then considered a ‘muitery’. Since that mutiny, in which the seafarers lowered their sails (‘striking the sails’), the word ‘strike‘ became established in the English language as an indication of a work stoppage or strike.

The onshore mutiny for better working conditions and working conditions, the strike, would rapidly expand in early industrial England.

A hundred years later, those working conditions had not really improved and the dissatisfaction was so great that many were no longer interested in staying there in wet England or cold Scotland.

In the century, which is characterized by unparalleled advances in the sciences and an attitude to life that increasingly focuses on a materialistic philosophy of life, there is a resentment among people because the rich are seen becoming increasingly richer while the ordinary working people have to work harder and harder to make ends meet.

In several regions, a feeling jester is also emerging that one must save one’s own region and be able to manage it oneself, nationalism is emerging, and certain groups are also going to demand from others that if they want to belong they will have to adapt to their nationalism is opening the way to legitimize racial, ethnic and religious divisions, to attack or suppress minorities and to undermine human rights and democracy.

Certain faith groups are either targeted or accused of the difficulties that exist In Central and Eastern Europe, an ethnic nationalism emerged in which the language one spoke or the religion one practised would become decisive to either be loved or hated Heads of Government took particularly convenient advantage of this to blame others and thus stigmatize them, as a result, Jews, for example, began to have a very difficult time, especially because their work and financial activities were a thorn in the side for those who owned little.
The Roman Catholic Church stoked the fire by accusing them again of murdering Jesus. Furthermore, that Church as well as the Anglican Church also railed fiercely against other believers, especially those who did not wish to accept the Trinity, such as certain Anabaptists and Baptists, including the Brethren or Brothers, who were convinced that only the Bible had the authority to tell the truth and thus adhered to the sola scriptura.

Preceding

A world where one must make oneself clearly known #1 From the first to the 19th century

février 15, 2024février 7, 2024 par obligingworldviewer, publié dans Christadelphian, Faith, History & news feed, Jesus Christ - son of God, World events & environment

In this world where there is a lot of commotion, there is little room for the Divine Maker, and the majority of the people in our region are busy collecting money and material goods.

Yet there are certain people, who are often looked at as madmen, who afford to look beyond this earthly world. They are firmly convinced that in the future, after a terrible war (World War 3 or Armageddon), there will be a much better will develop a world in which people will be fully happy.

For some years now there have been such people in Belgium who also try to convince others that there is a better future ahead, for a long time it was just lonely goons or lonely trekkers who moved from « Jet » to « Jar » to proclaim the Good News for a long time they had to feel lonely in a world where there was little obedience to that special news.

But things started to stir in the capital of Europe during the previous year. Some people indicated that they no longer wanted to move up alone, but that they wanted to join others who had also traveled a bit here in Europe. had travelled away. Some islanders who saw their land torn away from the European Union did not give up the courage to continue talking about their faith on the mainland, they had already managed to pull a pioneer to the New World to walk down the steppes there From there from that United States it went back to Europe where seeds were planted in Great Britain in the late 19th century, but also on the Western European mainland.

They were followers of Dr. John Thomas who wished to make it clear to others that almost two millennia earlier a Nazarene preceptor had brought about a change in the world of faith Yeshua ben Josef, better known here by the name of Jesus Christ, had the way been cleared there in the Middle East for goyim or non-Jews to now possibly come under that large umbrella and be included as members of God’s People.

But to be able to join that People of God one must be willing to do something for it Already from the first century of our era, that was made clear by that Jewish rabbi who had come to fulfill the prophecies as the son of God, his faithful followers too, the apostles, were aware of the importance of what their teacher had to say and why it was necessary for them to explain this further.

Preceding