Questions
people ask.

‘Don’t Christians go to heaven when they die?’

No. Jesus said “no man hath ascended up to heaven”, and he promised to come again for his disciples, not to take them to him at death; the faithful dead sleep until he raises them. Full answer →

‘Jesus said men “are not able to kill the soul”. Doesn’t that prove the soul is immortal?’

Read the rest of the verse: God “is able to destroy both soul and body in hell”. Men can take this present life, but not the life God will give back at the resurrection. Full answer →

‘Didn’t Jesus promise the thief he would be in paradise that very day?’

The thief asked to be remembered when Jesus came into his kingdom, and Jesus himself did not go to paradise that day: he lay three days in the grave, and afterwards said, “I am not yet ascended to my Father.” Full answer →

‘Doesn’t the rich man and Lazarus show that the dead are conscious?’

It is a parable, told to Pharisees who had “derided him”, in pictures of the afterlife they themselves used; taken literally, it falls apart. Full answer →

‘Paul had “a desire to depart, and to be with Christ”. Didn’t he expect to be with Christ when he died?’

Paul tells us when he will be with Christ: at his appearing, when “the dead in Christ shall rise first”. For someone asleep in death no time passes, so that is the next thing he will know. Full answer →

‘“Absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” Isn’t that the soul leaving the body?’

Paul says he does not want to be “unclothed” but “clothed upon”, “that mortality might be swallowed up of life”: his hope is the resurrection body, not a bodiless soul. Full answer →

‘Isn’t hell a place where the wicked are tormented for ever?’

The hell Jesus spoke of, Gehenna, was a real valley outside Jerusalem, and his warning about it comes from Isaiah’s picture of “the carcases of the men that have transgressed”: to be cast there meant to die in disgrace, not to live in torment. Full answer →

‘“Everlasting punishment” stands beside “life eternal”. Doesn’t that mean everlasting suffering?’

The punishment is everlasting, and Scripture says what it is: “the wages of sin is death”, “everlasting destruction”, a death that is never reversed. Full answer →

‘Revelation says the devil is “tormented day and night for ever and ever”. Isn’t that eternal torment?’

Revelation is a book of signs, and it explains its own symbol: “death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” Death cannot be tormented, only abolished. Full answer →

‘Isn’t destruction letting the wicked off lightly?’

Losing everlasting life with God is the greatest loss there is, and each is punished in proportion to what he knew; endless torment would make the punishment out of all proportion to a human life. Full answer →

‘Jesus said “all that are in the graves shall hear his voice”. Won’t everyone be raised?’

He describes those “that have done good” and those “that have done evil”, people answerable for what God made known to them; Scripture also says some “shall not rise” but “sleep a perpetual sleep”. Full answer →

‘Isn’t it unfair that some people are never raised at all?’

No one is wronged: death is the natural end of every human life since Adam, and God does not raise people only to condemn them by a law they never knew, for they “perish without law”. Full answer →

‘Didn’t Jesus say “I and my Father are one”?’

He prayed that his disciples “may be one, even as we are one”: one in mind and purpose, not one being. When he was accused of making himself God, his claim was “I am the Son of God”. Full answer →

‘If Jesus is not God, why is he worshipped?’

Because God commands it, “let all the angels of God worship him”, and the honour given to his Son is “to the glory of God the Father”. Full answer →

‘Isaiah 9:6 calls him “The mighty God, The everlasting Father”. Doesn’t that settle it?’

These are names the child would be called, declaring what God does through him; the Hebrew words are used of men too, and Moses was made “a god to Pharaoh”. Full answer →

‘Thomas called Jesus “My Lord and my God”. Doesn’t that prove he is God?’

Thomas saw in the risen Jesus the God who had raised him and was revealed in him; the same chapter has Jesus call the Father “my God”, and John wrote so that we would believe Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of God”. Full answer →

‘Jesus calls the Father his God only because he is speaking as a man, doesn’t he?’

Scripture never divides Jesus into a part that has a God and a part that does not: it is the risen, immortal Son who will “be subject unto him that put all things under him”. Full answer →

‘“The Word was God.” Doesn’t John 1 show that Jesus existed before he was born?’

The Word is God’s own self-expression and purpose, which “was made flesh” in Jesus; Luke tells us when the Son of God began: “that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”. Full answer →

‘Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Isn’t that God’s name from Exodus 3:14?’

Abraham saw Christ’s day by faith, and before Abraham the Christ was already the promised seed in God’s purpose; “I am” is the same claim Jesus makes earlier in the chapter, “if ye believe not that I am he”. Full answer →

‘Wasn’t the Trinity simply defined more clearly by the later councils?’

The councils of 381 and after went well beyond what Nicaea said, above all about the Spirit; the decisive question is not their date but whether those additions faithfully express the apostles’ teaching. Full answer →

‘Peter said Ananias lied to the Holy Ghost, and so to God. Isn’t the Spirit God?’

It shows the Spirit is God’s own, “the Spirit of the Lord”, as Peter calls it a few verses later; it says nothing about a second person distinct from the Father. Full answer →

‘Doesn’t Matthew 28:19 name Father, Son and Holy Spirit together as equals?’

Being named together does not make three equal persons: Israel “worshipped the Lord, and the king”. Baptism brings the believer under the authority of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit by which God revealed it. Full answer →

‘The Spirit can be grieved, and gives gifts “as he will”. Isn’t that a person?’

The will and the grief belong to God, whose Spirit it is: “grieve not the holy Spirit of God”, and “it is the same God which worketh all in all”. Full answer →

‘I have seen people speak in tongues and be healed. How do you explain that?’

We do not doubt that people sincerely experience something powerful, but the apostles’ tongues were real languages and their healings undeniable, and today’s experiences occur in churches that contradict one another, so they cannot be God’s seal on any of them. Full answer →

‘Does God still answer prayer and heal the sick?’

Yes: “the prayer of faith shall save the sick”. What has ended is the power given to men to work signs at will, which was always for confirming the word. Full answer →

‘Don’t Isaiah 14 (Lucifer) and Ezekiel 28 describe Satan’s fall from heaven?’

Isaiah 14 is a “proverb against the king of Babylon”, a man who made “the earth to tremble”, and Ezekiel 28 is addressed to the prince of Tyre, “a man, and not God”; neither mentions Satan. Full answer →

‘Who tempted Jesus in the wilderness?’

Christadelphians have held different views of the tempter, but two things are clear: it was not a fallen angel, and the victory was Christ’s own obedience, answering each temptation with “It is written”. Full answer →

‘Doesn’t Revelation 12 describe a war in heaven and the devil being cast out?’

The war follows the birth of the man child who rules the nations, so it cannot be a rebellion before creation; it is a vision in signs, which we read as the pagan Roman power cast down. Full answer →

‘What about “the angels that sinned”?’

Neither Peter nor Jude mentions Satan or tempting, and these offenders are held “in everlasting chains under darkness”, not roaming the earth; the context points to men, such as Korah’s company. Full answer →

‘Doesn’t Ephesians 6:12 say our fight is with spiritual powers, not flesh and blood?’

“Principalities” and “powers” are Paul’s words for earthly rulers, “be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates”: the struggle is with the system of power behind individual people. Full answer →

‘Jesus cast out demons. Doesn’t that prove they exist?’

The healings were real acts of God’s power, described in the language of the time; Scripture never says the afflictions were fallen angels, and every one was subject to Christ’s word. Full answer →

‘Aren’t we saved by faith alone?’

We cannot earn salvation, but the only place the Bible says “faith only” is to deny it: “by works a man is justified, and not by faith only”. The faith that saves is never alone. Full answer →

‘Once I am saved, can I ever be lost?’

No outside power can take a faithful disciple from God’s hand, but the promise is to the sheep who “follow me”, and Scripture warns believers against “departing from the living God”. Full answer →

‘Does it really matter how someone is baptised?’

Yes, because the method carries the meaning: we are “buried with him by baptism”, and only immersion pictures death, burial and resurrection. Full answer →

‘What about infant baptism?’

Every baptism in the New Testament follows belief and repentance, which an infant cannot give; even at the household baptisms the word was spoken “to all that were in his house”. Full answer →

‘The thief on the cross wasn’t baptised. Why do I need to be?’

The thief died before Christian baptism existed: baptism “into his death” could not take place until Christ had died and risen. Full answer →

‘I was baptised in another church. Do I need to be baptised again?’

A baptism given to an infant, or on belief in a different gospel, is not yet the baptism the apostles preached; as at Ephesus in Acts 19, being baptised on the true gospel is not a second baptism but the first true one. Full answer →

‘Did God punish Jesus instead of us?’

Christ died as our representative, not as a legal substitute: we are saved by dying and rising with him, which is why believers still die and look for the resurrection. Full answer →

‘Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Isn’t it spiritual rather than earthly?’

The same verse ends “but now is my kingdom not from hence”: he spoke of its source and character, not its location, and he has gone to receive the kingdom and return. Full answer →

‘Doesn’t Luke 17:21 say “the kingdom of God is within you”?’

He was answering the Pharisees, and the King was standing among them; in the next verses he describes the kingdom’s future arrival, as sudden and visible as lightning. Full answer →

‘Won’t believers be “caught up” to meet the Lord in the air and taken to heaven?’

The movement is downward: the Lord “shall descend from heaven”, believers go out to meet their returning King, and “his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives”. Full answer →

‘Isn’t the kingdom really the church, or Christ’s rule in our lives today?’

Jesus rules now as Lord, but Scripture keeps the kingdom itself in the future, linking his judgment to “his appearing and his kingdom”. Full answer →

‘Is the modern State of Israel really a fulfilment of prophecy?’

We believe it is God keeping his word to gather Israel to their land before the Messiah reigns; it is not yet the whole promise, and it is not blanket approval of a modern state’s decisions. Full answer →

‘Will there really be sacrifices in a future temple, when Hebrews says “there is no more offering for sin”?’

The Kingdom’s offerings look back to Christ’s finished sacrifice as memorials, as the bread and wine do now; even under Moses the sacrifices never took away sins, but pointed to him. Full answer →

‘Doesn’t Babylon in Revelation simply mean pagan Rome?’

The city is Rome, but the harlot is an unfaithful bride, which pagan Rome never was, and the vision runs on to the ten kings who “make war with the Lamb” at his return. Full answer →

‘Isn’t calling the papacy Babylon sectarian and unkind to Catholics?’

Wycliffe, Tyndale, Luther and most of the Reformers held it; naming a system is not condemning a person, and the call of Revelation 18 is addressed to sincere people as “my people”. Full answer →

‘Isn’t Gog identified with Russia just because Rosh sounds like Russia?’

No: the case rests on direction (“the north parts”), the time, the named allies and the close parallel with Daniel 11; the sound-alike names are not the proof. Full answer →

‘Didn’t John Thomas and Robert Roberts get their predictions wrong?’

Some of their dates and details were tied to the Europe of their day, and we leave those aside; their central expectation, that the Jews would return to the land before Christ comes, was published a century before it happened. Full answer →

‘Doesn’t the Bible tell us to keep tradition, not just Scripture?’

The traditions Paul commends are what the apostles taught, “whether by word, or our epistle”; anything added since must prove itself by Scripture, for Jesus warned against “Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition”. Full answer →

‘Who decided which books belong in the Bible?’

The Old Testament was settled before Christ, and the New Testament books carried authority because they came from the apostles and their companions, not because a council later voted on them. Full answer →

‘Isn’t the Bible full of contradictions?’

Most alleged contradictions disappear when the passages are read in context: honest witnesses describe the same event from different angles, and some forty writers over many centuries tell one consistent story. Full answer →

‘Didn’t the early church fathers believe these things?’

Some early writers held beliefs that later grew into these doctrines, but early is not the same as apostolic: Paul said “the mystery of iniquity doth already work” in his own lifetime. Full answer →

‘Where were the Christadelphians before the nineteenth century?’

Christ promised a faithful people, not an unbroken organisation with our name; through the centuries there were believers who held parts of the apostles’ teaching, and that teaching is open to anyone in what the apostles wrote. Full answer →

‘Are you Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons?’

No, we are not connected with either: our beliefs come from the Bible alone, with no additional books or prophets, and no headquarters directing what members believe. Full answer →

‘Isn’t it irresponsible not to vote or get involved in politics?’

“The most High ruleth in the kingdom of men”, so disciples leave the choosing of rulers to him, while they pray for those in authority and seek the good of their neighbours. Full answer →

‘God commanded Israel to fight. Why is war wrong now?’

Israel’s wars were fought at God’s explicit command in his kingdom; that kingdom is not now in existence, and no modern government can claim his command for its wars. Full answer →

‘Surely I may use force to defend my own family?’

A disciple must protect those in his care, by shielding them, fleeing and calling on the authorities; what Christ forbids is taking vengeance or taking life. Full answer →

‘Isn’t this simply guilt by association?’

No: the argument concerns a person’s own knowing support of a continuing breach, and that has to be shown; ordinary kindness, or meeting someone to correct them, is not endorsement. Full answer →

‘Isn’t each ecclesia responsible only for its own decisions?’

Local independence gives an ecclesia the responsibility to judge its own actions before God; it does not give it authority to remove a command of Christ. Full answer →

‘Didn’t faithful people remain in imperfect ecclesias?’

Christ gave the troubled ecclesias of Revelation 2–3 time to repent; a warning with time to repent is not permission to tolerate known corruption indefinitely. Full answer →