If you come from
another church.

Before you begin

If you already belong to a church, much of what you read on this website will sound familiar, and some of it will not. This page is for you. For each tradition below we set out what we already share, where the real differences are, and which studies are the best place to start. We have tried to describe each church’s beliefs as its own members would describe them. If we have got something wrong, please tell us.

In a few sentences, this is what we believe. We are mortal people who need forgiveness and resurrection. God has provided his obedient Son, raised him from death, and promised to raise those who belong to him. Faith joins us to Christ in baptism and is lived out in obedience. And the hope is that God’s character and rule will fill the earth when Jesus returns. We would like to show you from the Bible that this explains the passages more consistently than the alternatives, and we would rather begin with what we share than with a list of objections.

Catholic or Orthodox

If you were brought up Catholic or Orthodox, you have been given a great deal that we share, and you will rightly ask how anyone can set aside so long a tradition. That is the question to begin with.

What we already share

You believe that God created all things, that the Scriptures are inspired, and that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, died for our sins, rose bodily from the dead and will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Your creed ends by looking for ‘the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come’, and that is our hope too. You treat baptism as necessary, not optional, and the Orthodox churches baptise by full immersion. You remember the Lord’s death with bread and wine every Sunday, as we do. And you know that the faith is handed on from one generation to the next, not invented afresh by each believer.

Where the real differences are

• Authority. You receive Scripture together with the Church’s Tradition and teaching office. We hold that Scripture is the final test, and that any later teaching must show it is the apostles’ teaching. This question sits underneath all the others.
• God and his Son. We believe the Father alone is God, and that Jesus is his Son, a man begotten by God’s power and now exalted to his right hand. We do not accept the Trinity.
• Death. We believe the dead are unconscious until the resurrection, so we do not pray to the saints or for the dead, and we do not accept purgatory. (Orthodox teaching does not define purgatory, but it does pray for the departed and ask the saints’ prayers.)
• The Mass and the priesthood. We break bread as a memorial of a finished sacrifice, led by ordinary members, not as a sacrifice offered by priests.
• Baptism. We baptise believers who understand the gospel, by immersion, rather than infants.
• The kingdom. We believe God’s kingdom will be set up on the earth when Jesus returns, with the faithful raised to share it.

Where to start

1. Scripture, tradition and the churchTradition, the keys of Peter, purgatory and the Mass, stated as your Church states them.
2. Scripture: the final authorityWhy we test every teaching, our own included, by what is written.
3. Death and the resurrection hopeWhat the Bible says happens when we die.
4. Why we reject the TrinityThe central passages on the Father and the Son.
5. Baptism: buried with ChristWho should be baptised, how, and why it matters.

Our study of Babylon the Great criticises the claims of a church system, not you. We suggest reading it after the others, once the common ground is clear.

Anglican, Protestant or evangelical

This is a wide family: Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, Brethren and the many independent evangelical churches. Your own confession may already affirm more of what follows than you expect.

What we already share

You hold that Scripture is the supreme authority in matters of faith; the Anglican Articles say that it ‘containeth all things necessary to salvation’. You believe that we are saved by God’s grace through faith, not by earning it; that Christ died for our sins and rose bodily; and that he will return in person. You read the Bible for yourself and encourage others to. Many of you already baptise believers by immersion. Your confessions look for the resurrection of the body at Christ’s return, and a number of evangelical scholars have questioned unending torment and the natural immortality of the soul.

Where the real differences are

• God and his Son. The Trinity and the pre-existence of Christ. We believe Jesus began at his conception, the Son of God by a real begetting, and that the Father alone is God.
• Death and hell. Most churches teach that the soul goes to heaven or hell at death. We believe the dead sleep until the resurrection, and that the end of the unrepentant is destruction, not endless torment.
• The hope. Not heaven, but the kingdom of God on the earth, with Christ reigning on David’s throne and the faithful raised to share it.
• Grace and obedience. We agree that salvation is a gift. We also take seriously Christ’s warnings that a believer can fall away, and his call to obey.
• Baptism. We baptise believers by immersion, after they understand the gospel, as the point where they are joined to Christ; not infants, and not as an optional symbol.
• The devil, and public life. We do not believe in a fallen angel, and we do not vote or serve in the armed forces.

Where to start

1. Death and the resurrection hopeThe resurrection at Christ’s return, rather than heaven at death.
2. Judgment and the second deathWhat the Bible means by hell, and why the end of the wicked is destruction.
3. The Kingdom of God on earthThe promises to Abraham and David, and the kingdom they describe.
4. Why we reject the TrinityThe case, tested against the strongest texts on the other side.
5. Grace, faith and obedienceHow Paul and James agree.
6. Baptism: buried with ChristWhy baptism is more than a symbol.

Jehovah’s Witness

We are often mistaken for Witnesses, and it is easy to see why. We are not connected with them, but we share more with them than with most churches.

What we already share

We agree that there is one God, the Father, and that Jesus is his Son, not God the Son. We agree that the holy spirit is God’s power, not a third person. We agree that the soul is mortal, that “the dead know not any thing”, and that hell is not a place of eternal torment. We agree that God’s kingdom is a real government that will rule the earth, and that the earth will not be destroyed but filled with God’s glory. We agree that Christ’s followers should not take part in war or politics. And we share a habit of serious, regular Bible study.

Where the real differences are

• Who Jesus was before his birth. Witnesses teach that the Son existed first as Michael the archangel, God’s first creation. We believe the Son of God began at his conception: “that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Hebrews sets him above the angels: “unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?”
• His resurrection. Witnesses teach that Jesus was raised as a spirit. We believe he was raised bodily, and is now immortal: “handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”
• One hope or two. We read the 144,000 of Revelation 7 within the book’s symbolism, and believe all the faithful share one hope, to reign with Christ: “we shall reign on the earth”. So every baptised believer shares the bread and wine, every week.
• His return. We believe Christ’s return is still future and will be seen: “this same Jesus… shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” We do not believe he returned invisibly in 1914.
• Authority. We have no Governing Body. Every member reads and tests the Scriptures, and no group interprets them for the rest.
• The devil. Witnesses believe Satan is a fallen angel. We believe the Bible’s devil is sin and its human agents, not a rebel spirit.

Where to start

1. The Word made fleshWhy the Son of God begins with his conception, and what John 1 means.
2. Scripture: the final authorityWhy no organisation stands between the reader and the text.
3. The Kingdom of God on earthOne hope for all the faithful: the kingdom on the earth.
4. Satan, the devil and the real enemyWhat the Bible means by Satan and the devil.
5. Baptism: buried with ChristBaptism into Christ, and what it joins us to.

Seventh-day Adventist

Adventists and Christadelphians share a great deal of hard-won ground, much of it rediscovered in the same nineteenth-century search of the Scriptures.

What we already share

You believe that the dead sleep until the resurrection, and that the wicked will finally be destroyed, not tormented for ever. You baptise believers by immersion. You expect Christ’s literal, visible return. And you read Daniel and Revelation historically, as an outline of history from the prophets’ day to Christ’s return, as we do.

Where the real differences are

• The Trinity. Adventist teaching affirms the Trinity. Agreement about death cannot settle that question; it has to be argued from the passages about God and his Son.
• 1844 and the investigative judgment. Adventists teach that in 1844 Christ began a final phase of his ministry in the heavenly sanctuary, reviewing the lives of believers. We believe he entered “into heaven itself” at his ascension, “having obtained eternal redemption for us”, and we find no basis in Scripture for a new phase beginning in 1844.
• Ellen White. Adventists hold that her writings speak with prophetic authority, while the Bible remains the standard. We believe the gift of prophecy ended with the apostolic age, and that Scripture alone is sufficient.
• The Sabbath. We believe the Sabbath, with the rest of the law of Moses, was “a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ”, and that the rest it pictured still remains for “the people of God” in the kingdom.
• The thousand years. Adventists place the saints in heaven during the millennium while the earth lies desolate. We believe Christ and the saints reign on the earth, from Jerusalem.
• The devil. We do not believe in a fallen angel.

Where to start

1. Why we reject the TrinityWhere our shared reading of the Bible leads on God and his Son.
2. One God, the Father, and his Son Jesus ChristWhy Jesus is the Son of God rather than God the Son.
3. The Kingdom of God on earthThe thousand-year reign on the earth.
4. Spirit gifts: given for a purpose, withdrawn when it was doneWhy the gifts of prophecy were withdrawn.
5. Satan, the devil and the real enemyWhy the Bible’s devil is not a fallen angel.

Pentecostal or charismatic

Most Pentecostal and charismatic churches are Trinitarian; others, such as Oneness Pentecostals, are not. The notes below try to cover both.

What we already share

You take the Bible as God’s word and expect it to change lives. You call people to repent and be baptised, usually by immersion, and you quote Peter’s words as we do: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins”. You pray as if God hears, and he does. You expect Christ to return soon. And you are right that the Holy Spirit is God at work, not a doctrine on a shelf. Oneness Pentecostals also reject the Trinity, though for different reasons from ours.

Where the real differences are

• The gifts today. We believe the miraculous gifts (tongues, prophecy and healing) were given to confirm the apostles’ word, and were withdrawn when that word was complete. God still answers prayer and works in his people’s lives; the question is whether those particular gifts continue.
• Tongues as the sign. In Acts the tongues were real languages: “every man heard them speak in his own language.” Scripture never makes tongues the necessary sign that a believer has received the Spirit, and Paul asks, “do all speak with tongues?”
• Testing experience. Experience matters, but it does not prove itself. Even a sign that comes to pass must be tested by the word (Deuteronomy 13:1–3), and John says, “try the spirits whether they are of God”.
• God and his Son. Against the Trinity, we believe the Father alone is God. Against Oneness teaching, we believe the Father and the Son are distinct: the Son prays to his Father and sits at his right hand.
• Death and the devil. We believe the dead sleep until the resurrection, and we do not believe in a fallen-angel devil.

Where to start

1. Spirit gifts: given for a purpose, withdrawn when it was doneWhat the gifts were for, and why they ceased.
2. The Holy Spirit: the power of GodThe Spirit as the power of God.
3. One God, the Father, and his Son Jesus ChristThe Father and the Son, distinct and united.
4. Death and the resurrection hopeThe hope of resurrection.
5. Baptism: buried with ChristBaptism into the name of Jesus Christ.

Church of God or biblical unitarian

This section is for readers from the Church of God General Conference (Abrahamic Faith) and other biblical unitarian fellowships. Many churches are called Church of God, and some of them are Trinitarian or hold quite different views, so check whether these notes fit yours.

What we already share

We are very close. You believe that there is one God, the Father alone; that Jesus came into existence at his conception in Mary; that the holy spirit is God’s power, not a person; that death is the end of all consciousness until the resurrection; that Christ will return in person to reign in Jerusalem over the whole earth; that Israel will be restored; and that baptism by immersion in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins is essential. Many of you also hold that Christ’s followers should not take up arms. Most of what is on this website you will already believe.

Where the real differences are

• The devil. Some in these fellowships believe in a personal devil; others read the Bible’s devil much as we do. It is worth comparing the passages carefully together.
• What baptism requires. We hold that baptism must follow an understanding and belief of “the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ”, so we will usually ask what was understood at the time.
• Conscience in public life. Christadelphians do not vote, stand for office or serve in the armed forces. Practice among biblical unitarians varies.
• Fellowship. We break bread with those who share the same faith and obedience, and we take that seriously. How fellowship is decided differs from one community to another, and local practice differs too, so we would rather hear from you than assume.

Where to start

1. Satan, the devil and the real enemyWhat the Bible means by Satan and the devil.
2. Baptism: buried with ChristWhat baptism is, and what it requires.
3. Following the Prince of PeaceWhy we stand aside from politics and war.
4. Fellowship and responsibilityWhy fellowship carries responsibility.
5. Responsibility: who will be raised to judgment?Who will be raised to judgment.

Whichever church you come from

Tell us what you believe in your own words, and which passage matters most to you. We will read it with you, make our case from the Bible, and listen to yours. A good conversation agrees one point, names the strongest remaining disagreement honestly, and chooses the passage to read next. You do not have to agree with us to be welcome.

Start a conversation