The Christadelphians are a restorationist group that hold a view of biblical unitarianism. There are approximately 50,000 Christadelphians in around 120 countries. The movement developed in the United Kingdom and North America in the 19th century around the teachings of John Thomas, who coined the name Christadelphian from the Greek words for Christ (Christos) and brothers (adelphoi).
The Christian countercult movement or the Christian anti-cult movement is a social movement among certain Protestant evangelical and fundamentalist and other Christian ministries and individual activists who oppose religious sects that they consider cults.
Socinianism is a Nontrinitarian Christian belief system developed and co-founded during the Protestant Reformation by the Italian Renaissance humanists and theologians Lelio Sozzini and Fausto Sozzini, uncle and nephew, respectively.
Nontrinitarianism is a form of Christianity that rejects the mainstream Christian theology of the Trinity—the belief that God is three distinct hypostases or persons who are coeternal, coequal, and indivisibly united in one being, or essence. Certain religious groups that emerged during the Protestant Reformation have historically been known as antitrinitarian.
The Church of the Blessed Hope is a small first-day Adventist Christian body. The churches have common roots with the Christadelphians and the Church of God General Conference.
Dr. John Thomas was a British religious leader and founder of the Christadelphians [Brethren in Christ Jesus]. He was a dedicated Bible Expositor, and author of Elpis Israel the First major writing to bring to light the subject of God Manifestation and the Hope of Israel for future generations. In this work, he was able to draw upon his understanding of Biblical Prophecy to predict the return of Israel in the near future, which came to pass in 1948, with the Balfour Declaration. Other of his writings include, Eureka a 5 Volume exposition of the Apocalypse, and the amazing accuracy of its remarkable history. [Copies of these works and many other are available at the Christadelphian Office, Birmingham UK]
In ancient times, the Bereans were the inhabitants of the city of Berea, also referred to as Beroea in the Bible. Today, the city is known as Veria in what is today northern Greece. The name has been taken up by certain groups within Protestantism based on the Bereans' emphasis on apologetics and studying Scripture.
The Christadelphian Tidings of the Kingdom of God is a Bible magazine published monthly by the Christadelphians.
The Nazarene fellowship were an offshoot from Christadelphians from 1873 to 1881, led by Edward Turney (1820–1879) of Nottingham and David Handley (1822–1886) of Maldon. They were sometimes called "renunciationists" and their teaching called "free life" and "clean flesh". They separated over the atonement. The division was relatively short-lived, with most of the 200 people who had left returning within the next few years. Following his death in 1879, Turney's most active supporter, David Handley of Maldon, returned to the main grouping, and the group gradually died out. In the 1950s Ernest Brady revived Turney's cause and the name of the group.
The Unamended Christadelphians are a "fellowship" within the broader Christadelphian movement worldwide, found only in the United States and Canada. They are, like all Christadelphians, millennialist and non-Trinitarian. The term Unamended Christadelphians is not the formal name of this community but is used informally to identify the grouping since a statement of faith traditionally used by many in this community is the "Unamended Statement of Faith". Similarly, most of the much larger grouping of Amended Christadelphians traditionally use a statement of faith that has been amended and therefore, in North America is known by the prefix "Amended". Nevertheless, Christadelphians worldwide and both Amended and Unamended Christadelphians in North America share fundamentally the same doctrines, with a few exceptions.
The Fundamentals: A Testimony To The Truth is a set of ninety essays published between 1910 and 1915 by the Testimony Publishing Company of Chicago. It was initially published quarterly in twelve volumes, then republished in 1917 by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles as a four-volume set. Baker Books reprinted all four volumes under two covers in 2003.
Robert Roberts is the man generally considered to have continued the work of organising and establishing the Christadelphian movement founded by Dr. John Thomas. He was a prolific author and the editor of The Christadelphian magazine from 1864 to 1898.
Christendom Astray From the Bible is a polemic work by the Christadelphian Robert Roberts that claims to demonstrate that the main doctrines shared by most Christian denominations are at variance with the teachings of the Bible. In the preface to the book the author states the rationale of Christendom Astray From the Bible as follows:
THE enlightened reader will bear with the seeming arrogance of the title. It is a proposition-not an invective. The question proposed for consideration is a question for critical investigation. Attention is invited to the evidence and the argument. They are strictly within the logical sphere. They can be examined and dismissed if found wanting. What the title affirms is that Christendom, the ostensible repository of revealed truth, is away from that truth.
The Berean Christadelphians are a Christian denomination.
Charles Curwen Walker (1856–1940) was a Christadelphian writer and editor of The Christadelphian Magazine from 1898 to 1937.
The pre-existence of Christ asserts the existence of Christ prior to his incarnation as Jesus. One of the relevant Bible passages is John 1:1–18 where, in the Trinitarian interpretation, Christ is identified with a pre-existent divine hypostasis called the Logos. There are nontrinitarian views that question the aspect of personal pre-existence, the aspect of divinity, or both.
Thomas Williams (1847–1913) was a Welsh Christadelphian who emigrated to America in 1872, and eventually became editor of The Christadelphian Advocate magazine and author of The Great Salvation and The World's Redemption, reserving him a place alongside Christadelphian founders Dr. John Thomas and Robert Roberts. When his appeals to English brethren went unheeded, he became the most prominent of the brethren who avoided these divisive factions, and later became known as Unamended Christadelphians because they never adopted a particular amendment to the Christadelphian statement of faith.
F. G. Jannaway was an English Christadelphian writer on Jewish settlement in Palestine, and notable for his role in the conscientious objector tribunals of World War I. His reaction to controversy was to separate from others in the name of purity, and he was instrumental in the formation of minority factions, such as the Berean Christadelphians. However, this reasoning eventually caused him to separate even from his own brother, A.T. Jannaway.
Alan Hayward (1923–2008) was a British engineer and physicist who was also active as an old-earth Creationist writer, and Christadelphian.
John Carter (1889–1962) was editor of The Christadelphian from 1937 to 1962.