Our Statement of Faith

"O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding

profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science

falsely so called”—1 Timothy 6:20.

CHRISTADELPIIIANS have a "Statement of Faith," outlining what we believe to be the essential Gospel of Salvation—that which must be believed for salvation, as we read—

2 Th.2:13 – "God hath chosen you to salvation through … belief of the truth."

Gal. 1:8 – "If any preach any other Gospel, let him be accursed."

l Cor. 15:1-2 – "The Gospel by which ye are saved, if ye keep in memory."

The Bible is a large book. Many, many divergent views claim its support. Yet it emphasizes over and over that truth is vitally im­portant, and that ignorance and error alienate from God. It is nec­essary, therefore, as John says (1 Jn.4:1) to—

"Try the spirits …because many false prophets are gone out."

It is necessary for sound and harmonious and profitable fellowship and mutual labor in the Truth to be agreed on what the Bi­ble's basic message of salvation is. That glorious message of hope, briefly outlined in our Statement of Faith, is beautiful and in­spiring. It is good, and it is important, for us all to keep ourselves constantly refreshed in it.

We believe that any who truly understand the Gospel, who desire it in its simplicity, and who do not have or desire their own pet crotchets—will wholeheartedly and joyfully concur with our Statement of Faith, and will recognize its value and necessity and importance. We believe any who do so are largely protected from errors and crotchets, and from the constant, dangerous, restless human quest for "some new thing" to tickle the ears. It has 30 clauses, with an introduction that is fundamental—

THE FOUNDATION

That the book, currently known as the Bible, consisting of the Scriptures of Moses, the Prophets, and the Apostles, is the only source of knowledge concerning God and His purposes at present extant or available in the earth, and that the same were wholly given by inspiration of God in the writers, and are consequently without error in all parts of them, except such as may be due to errors of transcription or translation.*

Two vital points: 1. We have no source of knowledge of God and His purpose other than the Bible. It is here that we must constantly search and study for the instruction of life eternal. 2. As orig­inally given, by direct inspiration of God, the Bible is wholly and verbally—word for word—letter for letter—infallible and unerring.

This was the view of Christ and the apostles, who quoted it as absolutely final, with implicit trust and faith, basing whole argu­ments on a single word or even a single letter. Regardless of any specious arguments trying to break down this fact—and there have always been such—we must in simplicity stick right to it to avoid shipwreck of our faith. Jesus says, and it is conclusive—

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*This foundation clause has been attacked in another group as "wrong" and "error" As recently as last year, a justification of this attack was circulated in this group, and the one who charged this clause with "wrong" and "error" was said to be giving us a "lesson in careful reading and analysis." The circulated justification asks, "Can anyone doubt the truth of bro. –‘s example in citing the Foundation clause" (as containing "wrong" and "error"). Rather we marvel that ANY can justify it.                       

"THE SCRIPTURES CANNOT BE BROKEN" (John 10:35)

He was reasoning, in argument with the Jews, from the use of one single word in the Psalms.

Our Statement of Faith begins—

1.       That the only true God is He Who was revealed to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, by angelic visitation and vision, and to Moses at the flaming bush (unconsumed) and at Sinai, and Who manifested Himself in the Lord Je­sus Christ, as the supreme self-existent Deity, the ONE FATHER, dwelling in unapproachable light, yet everywhere present by His Spirit, which is a unity with His person in heaven. He hath out of His Own underived ener­gy created heaven and earth, and all that in them is.

Isa. 45:5 – "I am the Lord, and there is none else."

1 Tim. 2:5 – "There is one God, AND one mediator between God and men, the MAN Christ Jesus." (Note Jesus Christ is a man, and is someone other than the one God: "One God—AND…").

1 Cor.8:6 – "There is one God …AND one Lord Jesus Christ"

Psa. 33:6 – "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made."

Job 26:13 – "By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens."

Job 33:4 – "The Spirit of God hath made me."

Psa.139:7 – "Whither shall I go from Thy presence? Whither shall I flee from Thy Spirit?"

2.  That Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, begotten of the virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit, without the intervention of man, and afterwards anoint­ed with the same Spirit, without measure, at his baptism.

Mt. 1:23 – "A virgin shall be with child."

Lk.1:35 – "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee…therefore that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."

3.        That the appearance of Jesus of Nazareth on the earth was necessitated by the position and state into which the human race had been brought by the circumstances connected with the first man.

1 Cor. 15:21-22 – "By man came death: by man came also the resurrec­tion of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive."

4.      That the first man was Adam, whom God created out of the dust of the ground as a living soul, or natural body of life, "very good" in kind and condition, and placed him under a law through which the continu­ance of life was contingent on obedience.

Adam was the first man: not an evolved creature from animals or sub-men, but created directly by God out of the dust of the ground. The Scriptures are clear on that to the simple mind of true faith. Any degree of evolutionary speculation that Adam was not the first man is not sound scriptural or Christadelphian teaching. It is the first fatal step to shipwreck of faith.

Gen. 2:7 – "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul (nephesh—creature)."

—not an immortal soul (of which the Scriptures know nothing), but a natural, living creature. This same word nephesh, here trans­lated "soul," is used 4 times of the animal creation in Gen. 1.

Note that when first made, Adam was "very good"— a striking contrast to man’s present condition, as we shall see.

5.      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.

—"a sentence which defiled, and became a physical law of his being, and was transmitted to all his posterity." A vital truth that many have stumbled at, even many claiming the name Christadelphian. This truth is the key to the meaning of the sacrifice of Christ.

Gen. 3:19 – "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

At his creation, Adam was "very good"—completely free in every way from sin, and from its defiling and death-bringing effects—

Rom. 5:12 – "BY MAN sin entered into the world, and death by sin"

There was no sin in the world or in man before Adam and Eve sinned. But in Rom. 7 Paul describes a very, very different condi­tion, to which we can all agree by bitter and sorrowful experience—

V. 17 – "Sin dwelleth in me."

V. 18 – "In my flesh dwelleth NO good thing."

V. 20 – "Sin dwelleth in me."

V. 23 – "The law of sin in my members, warring against the law of my mind."

And David says of the same universal physical condition of the condemned and defiled race—

Psa. 51:5 – "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."

And Paul says again to the Galatians (5:17}—

"The flesh lusteth against the Spirit .   these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."

Because of the law of sin in our members, we cannot do to per­fection what we desire to do in obedience to God.

6.      That God, in His kindness, conceived a plan of restoration which, without setting aside His just and necessary law of sin and death, should ultimately rescue the race from destruction, and people the earth with sinless immortals.

God's "just and necessary law of sin and death" here referred to is that sin must end in death. Sin has no place in God's universal presence. It cannot be allowed to continue. God does not set aside that vital law of holiness and purity. In His love and wisdom He provided a man who conformed perfectly to it, and He invites us to die completely to ourselves, and to enter completely into that man, and be saved—

Rom. 6:23 – "The wages of sin is death."

Rom. 6:22 – "Being made free from sin, ye have your fruit unto holiness."

Heb. 9:26 – "He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."

Rev. 21:4 – "There shall be no more death."

7.      That He inaugurated this plan by making promises to Adam, Abraham, and David, and afterwards elaborated it in greater detail through the prophets.

To Adam:  Gen. 3:15 – "The woman's Seed shall bruise the serpent's head."

To Abraham: Gen. 22:18 – "In thy Seed shall all nations be blessed."

To David:  Ps. 89 – "Thy Seed will I establish for ever.   

"I will make him My Firstborn.

"My mercy will I keep for him for evermore."

The prophets: Hos.13:14 – "I will redeem them from death: O grave, I will be thy destruction."

8.      That these promises had reference to Jesus Christ, who was to be raised up in the condemned line of Abraham and David, and who, though wear­ing their condemned nature, was to obtain a title to resurrection by perfect obedience, and, by dying, abrogate the law of condemnation for himself and all who should believe and obey him.

One of the condemned race had to escape from death in a per­fectly righteous way, without any violation or ignoring or setting aside of the righteous law of sin and death. Life had to be achieved within the framework of God’s law of holiness.

Christ DIED in harmony with the law of God because he partook by birth of the condemnation of death that had come upon the race through Adam.

Christ ROSE in harmony with the law of God because being perfect in character it was not righteous that death should hold and possess him. Once the body of sin had died, death had no claim on him. To leave him dead would have been unrighteous. To raise him to life manifested God's justice and righteousness.

Heb. 2:14 – "He partook of flesh and blood that through death he might destroy him that hath the power of death" (devil, diabolos, sin in the flesh).

Gal. 4:4-5 – "Made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law."

He had to be "made under the Law" of Moses to be able to redeem those under that Law. Note the significance of this as ap­plied to the law of condemnation on the race through Adam.

Rom. 8:3 – "God, sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh."

Heb. 5:9 – "Being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salva­tion to all them that obey him."

To raise Christ to life manifested God's righteousness and justice. To raise those who are in Christ and obey him manifests God's mercy and forgiveness for Christ's sake; on the foundation of Christ's perfection; because of what he accomplished; within the covering of his holiness. He is the holy ark of salvation.

9.      That it was this mission that necessitated the miraculous begettal of Christ of a human mother, enabling him to bear our condemnation, and, at the same time, to be a sinless bearer thereof, and, therefore, one who could rise after suffering the death required by the righteousness of God.

Two things were necessary: 1. He had to be of the human race, des­cended from Adam; bearing the same defiled, condemned nature; having the same "law of sin" in his members as Paul describes.

2. He had to be perfectly obedient, never once allowing the law of sin to control him in any thought, word, or action.

An ordinary man, born of the will of the flesh, could never ac­complish this, so God created a specially prepared and strength­ened man, but still a real man descended from Adam, of the same sin-and-death stricken race. So the salvation wrought was by the will and power of God, through man, in harmony with the law of holiness.

10.  That being so begotten of God and inhabited and used by God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was Immanuel, God with us, God manifest in the flesh—yet was, during his natural life, of like nature with mortal man, being made of a woman, of the house and lineage of David, and therefore a sufferer, in the days of his flesh, from all the effects that came by Adam's transgression, including the death that passed upon all men, which he shared by partaking of their physical nature.

God dwelt in Christ; manifested Himself through Christ—and Christ completely and joyfully submitted to God's use, never for a moment asserting his own will against God Who was working in him for the salvation of the race. Paul says (Ph. 2:13)—

"It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."

Christ was this—in absolute completion and perfection—

1 Tim. 3:16 – "God was manifest in the flesh."

2 Cor. 5:19 – "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself."

Jn. 14:10 – "I speak not of myself: the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works."

11.  That the message he delivered from God to his kinsmen, the Jews, was a call to repentance from every evil work; the assertion of his divine sonship and Jewish kingship; and the proclamation of the glad tidings that God would restore their kingdom through him, and accomplish all things written in the prophets.

A call to repentance: Mk. 1:15 – "Repent, and believe the Gospel."

Assert divine sonship: Jn. 10:36 – "I am the Son of God."

Jewish kingship: Jn.19:21 – "He said, I am the King of the Jews."

Restore kingdom: Mt. 19:28 – "In the regeneration, ye (disciples) shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."

Accomplish all things in prophets: Lk. 24:44 – "All things written in Moses, the prophets, and psalms, concerning me, must be fulfilled."

12.  That for delivering this message, he was put to death by the Jews and Romans, who were, however, but instruments in the hands of God, for the doing of that which He had determined before to be done—namely, the condemnation of sin in the flesh, through the offering of the body of Je­sus once for all, as a propitiation to declare the righteousness of God, as a basis for the remission of sins. All who approach God through this cru­cified, but risen, representative of Adam's disobedient race, are forgiven. Therefore, by a figure, his blood cleanseth from sin.

—a "propitiation"—a mercy-seat, a place of mercy—a provision that God's love has made so that He can righteously extend mer­cy. Sin had to be openly condemned. The voluntary sacrifice of the life of a perfect man who bore the sin-defiled, condemned na­ture, must be made—to condemn and repudiate sin before all the world, and to show its deadliness in God's sight. God's holiness, and holy requirements, and sentence of death on sin, must be man­ifested, and upheld, and vindicated, and acknowledged as righte­ous and just and necessary.

Christ recognized and acknowledged the deadly sin-principle in his flesh, all his life he kept it perfectly and completely under control, he vanquished it in himself, and he nailed it to the cross in repudiation and destruction.

13.  That on the third day. God raised him from the dead, and exalted him to the heavens as priestly mediator between God and man, in the process of gathering from among them a people who should be saved by the belief and obedience of the Truth.   

14.  That he is a priest over his own house only, and does not intercede for the world, or for professors who are abandoned to disobedience. That he makes intercession for his erring brethren, if they confess and forsake their sins.

Christ is priest and mediator for his own people only. He does not pray or intercede for the people of the world, nor for willfully dis­obedient "believers." He makes intercession for us to God if sin is confessed and forsaken.

Jn.17:9 – "I pray not for the world, but for those whom Thou hast given me."

1 Jn. 2:1; 1:9 – "We have an Advocate with the Father: If we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive us."

15. That he sent forth his apostles to proclaim salvation through him, as the only name given under heaven whereby men may be saved.

Christ is the only way of access to God and eternal life. This is fundamental. There are no hazy ifs or buts or maybes that any can be saved outside of faithful submission to Christ—

1 Jn.5:12 – "He that hath the Son hath life: he that hath NOT the Son hath NOT life."

Jn. 14:6 – "NO man cometh unto the Father but by me."

16. That the way to obtain this salvation is to believe the Gospel they preached, and to take on the name and service of Christ, by being thereupon immersed in water, and continuing patiently in the observance of all things he has commanded, none being recognized as his friends except those who do what he has commanded.

1.    We must believe the Gospel—the Gospel of the Kingdom.

2.    We must be baptized into Christ—the ONLY way to get into him, and be part of him, and get life through him. We must get inside Christ—within him. Outside of him, the one perfect and divinely acceptable man, we shall inevitably be destroyed by God's righteous and necessary law of sin and death. Inside of him—covered by him—we are safe.

3.    None are his friends—none are truly in him—who do not devote their whole life to knowing and obeying him.

Mk. 16:16 – "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."

Jn. 15:14 – "Ye are my friends, IF ye do whatsoever I command you."

17. That the Gospel consists of "the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ."

Acts 8:12 – "When they believed Philip preaching (literally; gospelizing, preaching the Gospel of) the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized."

18. That the Things of the Kingdom of God are the facts testified concern­ing the Kingdom of God in the writings of the Prophets and Apostles, and definable as in the next twelve paragraphs.

These 12 paragraphs begin with No. 19—

19. That God will set up a Kingdom in the earth, which will overthrow all others, and change them into "the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ."

Dan. 2:44 – "The God of heaven shall set up a Kingdom that shall break in pieces all these kingdoms (the present kingdoms of the world—see context), and it shall stand FOREVER"

Mt. 5:5 – "The meek shall inherit the earth."

Rv. 5:10 – "Thou hast made us kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth"

20. That for this purpose God will send Jesus Christ personally to the earth at the close of the Times of the Gentiles.

Acts 3:20-21 – "God shall send Jesus Christ at the time of the restitution of all things."

2 Th. 1:7 – "The Lord Jesus shall descend from heaven in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God."

Acts 1:11 – "This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."

21. That the Kingdom which he will establish will be the Kingdom of Israel restored, in the territory it formerly occupied, namely, the land be­queathed for an everlasting possession to Abraham and his seed (the Christ) by covenant.

Mic. 4:7-8 – "The Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion; the Kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem."

Amos 9:11 – "I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen."

Ez.37:21-25 – "I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, and they shall dwell forever in the land where your fathers dwelt."

Heb. 11:8-9 – "Abraham sojourned in a land which he should afterwards receive as an inheritance."

Isa. 61:4 – "They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations."

22. That this restoration of the kingdom again to Israel will involve the ingathering of God's chosen but scattered nation, the Jews; their reinstatement in the land of their fathers, when it shall have been reclaimed from "the desolation of many generations"; the building again of Jerusalem to become "the throne of the Lord" and the metropolis of the whole earth.

Mic. 4:2 – "The law shall go forth from Zion."

Jer. 31:10, 40 – "He that scattered Israel shall gather him .. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever."

Jer. 3:17 – "They shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord: All nations shall be gathered unto it."

Isa. 11:12,9 – "He shall assemble the outcasts of Israel … The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord."

23.  That the governing body of the Kingdom so established will be the breth­ren of Christ, of all generations, developed by resurrection and change, and constituting, with Christ as their head, the collective "seed of Abraham," in whom all nations will be blessed, and comprising "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets," and all in their age of like faithfulness.

That the brethren of Christ shall govern the world—

Rv. 2:26-27 – "To him that overcometh will I give power over the na­tions, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron."

Mt. 25:34 – "Come ye blessed of my Father: inherit the Kingdom."

Dan. 7:22 – "The Kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the saints of the Most High."

That they shall be raised from the sleep of death at the last day—

Dan.12:1-2 – "At that time (the 'time of the end') … many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake … to everlasting life"

1 Th. 4:16 – "The Lord shall descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ shall rise"

Jn. 6:40 – "Every one that believeth in the Son, I will raise him up at the last day." 

Jn.11:24 – "He shall rise in the resurrection at the last day."

24. That at the appearing of Christ prior to the establishment of the Kingdom, the responsible (namely those who know the revealed will of God, and have been called upon to submit to it), dead and living—obedient and disobedient—will be summoned before his Judgment Seat "to be judged according to their works"; and "receive in body according to what they have done, whether it be good or bad."

2 Cor. 5:10 – "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ."

Jn.12:48 – "He that rejecteth me, the Word shall judge him in the last day."

Rm. 2:12-16 – "As many as have sinned under law shall be judged by law … in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus."

Mt. 25:34-41 – "Come ye blessed, inherit the Kingdom: Depart ye cursed, into everlasting fire."

25.  That the unfaithful will be consigned to shame and "the second death," and the faithful invested with immortality, and exalted to reign with Je­sus as joint heirs of the Kingdom, co-possessors of the earth, and joint administrators of God's authority among men in everything.

Dan. 12:2 – "Many that sleep in the dust shall arise: some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

Rev. 21:7-8 – "He that overcometh shall inherit all things, but the unbe­lieving shall have their part in the second death."

Psa. 37:9-11 – "The meek shall inherit the earth, but the wicked shall not be."

Rm. 4:13 – "Abraham was promised that he should inherit the world"

Gal. 3:29 – "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

Lk. 22:29 – "I appoint unto you a Kingdom, as my Father hath appointed me."

26.  That the Kingdom of God, thus constituted, will continue a thousand years, during which sin and death will continue among the earth's subject inhabitants, though in a much milder degree than now.

Rv. 20:4 – "They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."

Rv. 1:15 – "The kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdom of our Lord and His Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever."

Isa. 65:20 – "The child shall die an hundred years old."

27.  That a law will be established which shall go forth to the nations for their "instruction in righteousness," resulting in the abolition of war to the ends of the earth, and the "filling of the earth with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea."

Mic. 4:2-4 "The law shall go forth from Zion … nation shall not lift up sword against nation … They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, none shall make them afraid."

These quotations are even stronger and more impressive and con­clusive concerning Christ's reign of peace on earth when their whole context is studied, which we urge all to do.

Isa. 11:4-9 – "With righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea"                                                                                 

Here is a striking and beautiful picture of universal peace and jus­tice and safety and prosperity ON EARTH, linked with righte­ousness and the knowledge of God. How different from man's present rule of sin and injustice and insecurity and fear!

28.  That the mission of the Kingdom will be to subdue all enemies, and finally death itself, by opening up the way of life to the nations, which they will enter by faith during the thousand years, and (in reality) at their close.

1 Cor.15:25-26 – "He (Jesus) must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."

For 1000 years the nations of the earth will be ruled with an iron rod, and taught the way of truth and righteousness and wellbeing. Evil will be rigidly restrained: rebels will be put to death.

 Zech.14:16 – "Every one that is left of the nations (after the worldwide judgments of Christ's return see context) shall go up from year to year to worship the Lord and keep the Feast of Tabernacles."

This will be enforced with penalties for disobedience (v.17-19).

V. 9 – "In that day there shall he one Lord, and His Name one."

—that is, His rule will be openly manifested and enforced, and all will be compelled to submit and obey. No rival rulers or religions will be permitted to exist, as in today's terrible Babel.

Isa. 11:6-8 – "The wolf shall dwell with the Iamb. The lion shall eat straw like the ox. The child shall play on the hole of the asp."

Due to man's sin, the earth and its produce, animal and vegetable, were cursed. Nature was set at war. But in the millennial reign of Christ, the curse will be lifted: all nature in peace and harmony.

29.  That at the close of the thousand years, there will be a general resurrection and judgment, resulting in the final extinction of the wicked, and the immortalization of those who shall have established their title (under the grace of God) to eternal life during the thousand years.

Christ's 1000 year reign on earth is a transition period leading to the final abolition of sin, mortality and death.

Rv. 20:7-8 – "And when the 1000 years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations."

Sin, human nature, the diabolos—bound and restrained during the 1000 years—is briefly allowed free reign to test faith, and to bring issues to a head for the final resurrection and judgment. To judge a man, he must be given opportunity to manifest openly what he really is, what side he is on.

V. 12 – "The dead stand before God, and the books are opened."

V. 13 – "The sea and grave give up the dead."

There is a general resurrection of those who have died during the Millennium, and they are judged.

V. 14 – "Death and hell (the grave) are cast into the lake of fire."

As a result of the last judgment, death and the grave are abolished. There is thereafter no more dying, no more burying, for all the wicked among mankind have been destroyed, and all the righte­ous have been given everlasting life.

30.  That the Government will then be delivered up by Jesus to the Father, Who will manifest Himself as the "All-in-All"; sin and death having been taken out of the way, and the race completely restored to the friendship of the Deity.

This is the final completion of the working out of the purpose of God with mankind—

1 Cor.15:28 – "And when all things shall be subdued unto him (Christ), then shall the Son also be subject unto Him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all."

Rv. 21:3-7 – "The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, for the former things are passed away."  

Beyond this lies the endless ages of divine strength and joy for the people of God—equal unto the angels, neither can they die any more—partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corrup­tion that is in the world through lust.

V. 7—"He that overcometh—HE THAT OVERCOMETH—shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be My son."

Let us, in this our so brief moment of the passing present, have the simple, basic commonsense and wisdom to cast away everything else, and devote all our efforts and attention to the very limit of our ability to laying hold on the glories of eternity. What unbelievable folly to do anything short of this!        

                                          —G.V.Growcott, The Berean Christadelphian, March 1975