I went to a second Christadelphian meeting in another ecclesia on Sunday. They meet in a rented room in a large school/library building in Chryston. I turned up for a "public talk" at 1.30 pm, but the speaker cancelled and there was a Bible discussion instead.
This was a much younger congregation - sorry ecclesia - than Glasgow Central. There were 33 people in attendance, and 13 of them broke off for a children's Sunday school in another room. That left 20 of us to discuss Job chapters 1 to 4. They took turns reading two verses each until they read the whole section. I did not join in reading although I think they would have allowed me if I wished. Neither did I join the discussion. This is apparently the largest Christadelphian meeting in Scotland and the most vibrant. Still pretty small though. There was an even mixture of Scottish and English accents in the group. All white, middle middle and lower middle class in appearance, a roughly even split between men and women, including a few full families.
It was a slow-paced discussion. The youngish leader sat at a desk in front and allowed others to do most of the talking. There were periods of silence between contributions. It stuck me again that Christadelphian meetings are much slower-paced than JW meetings. JW elders are always in a rush to cover the parts. Christadelphians take their time and don't worry about covering a programme in full.
In the discussion of Job 1and 2 they had to tackle the problem of "Satan". It's a problem for Christadelphians because they don't belelieve Satan exists. Yet he appears quite stubborn about his existence in Job 1 and 2 in particular. One brother said that the word for Satan simply means adversary and that putting a capital letter on the word Satan is simply the choice of the modern translator. Another brother read a verse from Job 42 that says God visited evil on Job rather than Satan. He therefore concluded that Satan is not a heavenly being. Another brother said we can't be sure what Job 1 and 2 means about Satan, but "what we can know for sure is that Satan isn't some sort of powerful being in heaven, we can be sure about that".
Then they talked about Eliphaz and how his advice appeared good and godly on the surface, but was deceptive on closer inspection. They seem to know their Bibles very well and take study very seriously.
At the end one man told me about prophecy in Israel and how Putin is the king of the north and will bring about Armageddon. He said JWs have got a lot of things wrong, including "1924 or whenever it was". I pressed him on how soon Armageddon will come. He said it will be soon but we don't know the day or the hour. I pressed him further and said could it possibly take hundreds of years. He conceded this was possible, but not likely. I found it difficult to take this conversation too seriously and I think he sensed this in the end. We were not on a wavelength on this issue. I tried to be respectful. Another brother with an English accent who lives near me invited me to come for group Bible study during the week (at his home, with cakes after, just like the old "book study") and gave me his mobile number. Then I left late to get to a Methodist meeting half an hour away.