Journey of Faith

Faith.


A single-syllable word that is one of the most difficult to define.  In Christianity about the most perfect definition can be found in the Book of Hebrews, 11:1:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

For the other extreme, Atheists (and to a certain extent - Agnostics), that sentence is the crux of all that is wrong with religion in general - and Christianity specifically.

But we won't be concerning ourselves with the unbelievers or semi-believers, or even non-Christians.  This is to be a conversation - a sharing - of my faith journey.  A journey that I continue on as we speak - growing, changing, expanding.

It is one that began in 1963 when I was born.  Yes...revealing my age here and I'm OK with that.  It's just a number anyway.

I grew up in a Christian family - a devout, faithful Christian family.  My parents choose a fringe faith - nothing you've likely ever heard of.

Christadelphian.

The link above is to the Wiki on this faith and it's about as accurate as you'll find without the mumbo-jumbo of the faith's particular belief system.  It is historically correct and represents the faith's tenets with clarity.

If you Google the name - you'll find references to a cult.  And that's not too far off to be honest.  It has much in common with the Jehovah's Witnesses...and any Christadelphian worth their salt would vehemently disagree with you on that point.

Christadelphians are a tiny sect in Christianity with very small worldwide numbers - 70,000 total in 120 countries.

Very small.

And for my entire childhood I dealt with the stares, derision and skepticism of my classmates when the subject of religion would come up.

In fact, it grew so onerous to deal with that I just started saying we were "Christians" and left it at that.  Tone and body language can go a long way to get your point across, even if you are only 12 years old.

As with most children, I followed my parents in their faith without question or comment.  Even in my teen years - when you would expect rebellious behavior - I largely never objected to going to church on Sundays, lectures on Sunday evenings and other related events.

In short - I believed.  I believed in God, in his son Jesus Christ.  I believed in the sacrifice made by Jesus for my salvation.

Christadelphians teach a very narrow view of Christianity.  They don't believe in an immortal soul, they don't believe in a Trinitarian system, they don't believe in Satan as a physical being and it follows that they don't believe in Hell as a physical place and they don't believe in christening infants. Baptism is reserved for someone old enough to discern their faith and answer questions during an Examination after a lengthy period of study and mentorship.

What they DO believe is astounding - they believe that the Bible - all of it...Noah, Moses, Abraham, King David, Jesus, the Apostles, etc...was written only for them.

Like I said - astounding.

Christadelphians truly believe that salvation belongs to them - and them alone.  And to go further, if you are a non-Christadelphian exposed to the faith and you fail to learn about it and follow it, you will have to answer to that at the time of Judgement.

Yes.

I believed all that to be true - until I turned 32.  My beloved dad died at age 63 and for the first time in my sheltered, pampered life - I started to question the meaning of, well, everything.  Including my faith - specifically the Christadelphian faith.

How could it all be just for them? For 50,000 people in a world with 6+ million - the only ones to be saved would be the Christadelphians?  It made no sense.

It rang hollow - devoid of depth, acceptance, tolerance - all those things that Jesus himself taught us were so very important.

And so, 18 months after daddy died, I left the only faith I had ever known.  I walked away with a heavy heart because my dad was a man of deep faith; he truly believed in all of it. And I knew that if he was alive, his disappointment in me would be catastrophic.

Yet - I began the first leg of my independent journey of faith; a trip that would take 15 years to complete.

And that - will be for another blog post.