The Christadelphian October 1911, Birmingham Arranging Brethren

“The Christadelphian and the Constitution of the Birmingham Ecclesia”

A brother in New Zealand, having written to the Arranging brethren of the Birmingham ecclesia complaining about the omission of certain intelligence, and asking for some enlightenment concerning a clause of the constitution, the following reply was sent by the Recording brother:—

Dear Brother Tingey, —Your letter, February 26th last, was duly laid before the Arranging Brethren of this ecclesia, and I was directed to send you the following reply:—

The Christadelphian is a private undertaking, and is not in any way conducted by the Birmingham (Temperance Hall) Ecclesia, though the magazine is in full sympathy and harmony with our Constitution and basis of fellowship.

The ecclesia is not in any way responsible for the acceptance or rejection of any correspondence addressed to the Editor, to whom all complaints on this head should be directed.

The Arranging Brethren very much sympathize with the editor (who is one of their number) in the bewildering complications arising through ecclesial cross currents throughout the world.

With regard to your request for an explanation of Clause V. of our Constitution, we submit it in the following terms. The clause in question reads as follows:—

V.—That Adam broke this law, and was adjudged unworthy of immortality, and sentenced to return to the ground from whence he was taken—a sentence which defiled and became a physical law of his being, and was transmitted to all his posterity (Gen. 3:15–19, 22–23; 2 Cor. 1:9; Rom. 7:24; 2 Cor. 5:2–4; Rom. 7:18–23; Gal. 5:16–17; Rom. 6:12; 7:21; John 3:6; Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:22; Ps. 51:5; Job 14:4).

The expression “a sentence which defiled and became a physical law of his being” receives illustration from the scriptures quoted. Paul speaks of himself and his fellows as having “the sentence of death in ourselves” (2 Cor. 1:9); that is, they were not only mortal, but “despaired even of life” (5:8), by reason of the troubles and persecutions of the times. Paul speaks in Rom. 7:24 of “this body of death.” Such was Adam after transgression, but before transgression he was not “a body of death,” and had no “sentence of death in himself.” The case of Gehazi and his leprosy is an illustration. Before Elisha’s word there was no leprosy in Gehazi; but after he had pronounced the sentence the word took effect in Gehazi’s body, and he went out of the prophet’s presence “a leper, white as snow” (2 Kings 5.). So Adam had no “law of sin in his members” (Rom. 7:23), until he transgressed, but after he had transgressed, the sentence took effect upon his body as really and physically as in the case of Gehazi. Paul says “In this earthly house, we groan . . . earnestly desiring . . . that mortality may be swallowed up of life” (2 Cor. 5:2–4). Adam before transgression could not say this, having no experience of “groaning” and “mortality.” After transgression he had both. It is this truth that brother C. C. Walker is insisting on in The Christadelphian, 1906, p. 320. No one, so far as we are aware, has said that “sin” is a literal element, that was, as it were, hypodermically injected by God into Adam after he had sinned; but evil in the flesh being the result of sin, flesh itself is metonymically called “sin” as we see in 2 Cor. 5:21. “He (God) hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin.” David says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psa. 51:5), and Job says, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one” (Job 14:4). These are some of the scriptures quoted in support of our clause V. When some in Sydney thought fit to substitute “degraded” for “defiled,” and to suggest that their statement should be “THE Christadelphian Statement of Faith,” in our estimation they acted unwisely. In saying, as the Shield did say, that the Lord Jesus was “undefiled in every sense” (a saying which we believe has been modified), they appeared to be taking a step, at least, in the direction of denying that “Jesus Christ came in the flesh.” And we think that no ecclesia has authority to set forth a statement as “The Christadelphian Statement of Faith.” The statement appended to our constitution has done duty for this ecclesia (and for many others) for many years, and in our estimation does not need revision. But we have willingly given this explanation in hope that it may be of some assistance to you in the trouble that has arisen.

We are handing a copy of this reply to brother Walker, with the request that he will publish the same in The Christadelphian.