slimboyfat joins the Christadelphians! (page 2)

careful

They've even got a Bible school run out of Shippensburg University, a state university in Pennsylvania that has an enrollment of over 7,000 students (the univ. not the Bible school). It looks like just a week-long course. I couldn't help but think of the week-long KM schools for elders in the WT org.

http://www.midatlanticbibleschool.org

It looks as well like they have a creed. Click on the "Fellowship" link and see the brief comment on "the Birmingham Amended Statement of Faith... as historically practiced by the Central Community." Did your doorman mention any of this?

scratchme1010

Hopefully you're not going cult shopping.

smiddy3

SBF I have enjoyed your series into other religions especially anyone that is close to the beliefs of the WT/religion.

When I was new in the "truth" working with a P.O. /Elder now we called on what he described as a break away movement from JW`s who still at that time in the 1960`s still followed C.T.Russells teachings.

I have no idea how accurate that information was but he believed it.

Known as the Berean`s ,which I believe is now known as the Berean Bible Institute Inc. with H.Q. here in Melbourne Victoria Australia.

And I believe they have connections with "Dawn Bible Students Association" New Jersey USA

www.dawnbible.com

also with

"Pastoral Bible Institute" California USA www.heraldmag.org

It would be very interesting if they have any connection with the Australian Bereans and if they are in fact a break away movement from the JW`s or should I say "Russellite`s" ?

I believe a David Stein a former JW from 1967-75 is now a bible lecturer of the Dawn bible Students Association

I just thought you may be interested in this info to follow up on if you care to.

I look forward to who else your going to "break bread with" to coin a phrase

passwordprotected

When I was a window cleaner many years ago, one of my customers was a Christadelphian, and somehow it came up that I was a JW. One time she gave me a leaflet about a youth camp they'd organised and she explained the similarities in beliefs between the two sects.

Years later, when I was exiting the Watchtower, I felt I needed something else to cling to, and it came back to me about this woman and her religion, so I looked up where the local meeting that next Sunday would be, and took it as a sign from god that it would be happening in a community hall in a village a couple of miles from where I lived at the time.

So I rolled up to their meeting, my old window cleaning customer was in attendance with her husband, and I struck up a brief friendship with one of the members named Jared, who worked for a tech company in Glasgow.

He and I had long email discussions about the bible and my struggle coming to terms with learning TTATT.

However, ultimately I didn't attend any of their meetings again as it was all just too small and parochial.

Phizzy

Interesting visit ! Thanks SBF.

I have always maintained that if Jesus was going to do an inspection in 1918/19 as JW's claim, then he would have chosen the Christadelphians.

They were teaching at the time broadly what JW's today teach, but more importantly they were truly neutral, proper Conscientious Objectors during WW1, having established in Law their right to be such during the American Civil War.

In contrast the JW's were being encouraged by Rutherford to buy War Bonds, and were far from neutral.

The moribund state of the Christadelphians is probably due to lack of real work at gaining converts.

St George of England

When I was groing up there was a Christadelphian Church near to our KH. They used to advertise their talks on a board outside and they were very similar titles to JW talks. This would be 1950's - 60's.

To have collected £120 + £90 last week shows a very generous spirit. We have a congregation of over 100 and collect little more than that for a month.

George

shepherdless

Very interesting sbf. I admire your commitment. Part of me would love to go experience the various services of differing religions, but I know I would be bored out of my brain within a short while.

Just some stats on Christadelphians from the last 3 censuses in Aust:

2006:

4889 males, 5317 females, 10,209 total.

2011:

5122 males, 5533 females, 10,653 total

2016:

4867 males, 5228 females, 10,092 total.

That surprised me. I thought they would be going extinct, but they are holding up reasonably well. I did a quick call on the median age for the 2016 numbers, and it came out in between 38 and 39 years of age. That surprised me as well, but is consistent with a religion holding up and not in significant decline.

Just by way of comparison, the median age of JWs in Aust (2016 census) is around 44. So nowdays in Aust, the typical JW is a whopping 6 years older than the typical Christadelphian.

[Note: anyone comparing my median age figure with Pew Report 2014 USA data needs to remember to add 9 yrs to mine, as Pew only gives median ages of adults (ie 18+).]

slimboyfat

Thanks shepherdless, your statistical data adds a lot to the picture. The information here is really surprising to me and not at all what I would have expected. My first thought is that perhaps Christadelphians in New Zealand comprise many members who are immigrants? Perhaps from Southern Africa or elsewhere? It seems difficult to believe Christadelphians are converting outsiders or retaining their children in large numbers. Unless it's a very different kind of community in Australia compared with Scotland. I don't suppose you've got the figures for New Zealand?

We learned from the example of SDAs that the composition of the community may be quite different between Scotland and Australia. In Scotland most SDA members are African, Caribbean, Filipino, or east European, with only a few white British members. Whereas your data showed a more balanced mix in Australia.

darkspilver

Thanks for another interesting 'review'!

slimboyfat: Sandwished between two other churches (a Baptist hall and something else), from the outside the Christadelphian meeting place looks like a very old fashioned, run down Kingdom Hall.

Baptist Church on left, Gospel Hall on right.....

slimboyfat

Aha shepherdless I just noticed something about the Australian SDA figures: "Oceania and Antarctica" is perhaps a more complex bracket than you credit. Because SDAs are incredibly numerous on islands, and on Pacific islands in particular. So it's possible that, while the 70% of JWs who are from "Oceania" are descended from white British, the 70% of SDAs from "Oceania" may be largely immigrants from Pacific islands.

Does the census in Australia have a category for race self-description?

slimboyfat joins the Christadelphians!

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