The  Aletheian  Christadelphian  Fellowship:

The Truth about

Dear Friends,

Here at the outset is the fundamental mistake of which most religious thought is guilty. With very few exceptions it is accepted, almost without question, that man with his abilities of thought and reason has also the inborn ability to remain in existence in one form or another for evermore. Once he has been born it is believed that the life, the thought and the personality remain in existence and it is impossible for this to perish.

Since the earliest recorded history there is evidence that men thought that there was a conscious survival after death. The ancient Egyptian papyrus of Hunefer in the British Museum dates from about 1300 B.C., and depicts a scene where Osiris the judge of the dead is weighing the hearts of the deceased. Nearby is a composite animal waiting to pounce on and devour the heart if found guilty, in which case the deceased is never again allowed to be united with it. If, on the other hand, it is judged not guilty, the heart is given back to the deceased and is then permitted to associate with the god Osiris and is allowed to live with the blessed in ‘the fields of peace’. Whether Egyptian thinking on this final judgment would have been influenced if modern heart transplant surgery had been known in those days we do not know.

The significance of this papyrus is that it was written within a few years of the time of Moses, the author of the first five books of the Bible.

Moses was brought up as an Egyptian prince, and would have been well aware of the religious beliefs of the Egyptians. Nowhere in his writings is there the slightest hint that he believed in the immortality of the soul. He mentions death as a punishment, and describes how the first man and woman disobeyed God and died in consequence. This, as far as Moses wrote, was the judgment; and his words, ‘Thou shalt surely die’, in the context of disobedience to God, needed no further explanation. It was the final and irrevocable judgment that could be understood by all. As the first man and woman were non-existent before they were created, so at death they returned to that same state. There was no mention of a further judgment of the soul to see if they were worthy of eternal association with God.

This is the clear teaching of Moses given at a time when the whole nation to whom he was writing had been living in Egypt for nearly 200 years. He mentions the world ‘soul’ but makes no distinction between the souls of animals and those of men. They all ceased to exist in death.

The traditional Roman Catholic belief, from which most other Christian sects have borrowed, is that the righteous are immediately received into heaven at death, and the wicked into hell, whilst those who are neither wicked nor righteous, go to purgatory prior to their entry into heaven.

As with most of the doctrines of the Christian church, these beliefs have been queried by many over the centuries. Whilst it has been accepted that the God of love as revealed in Jesus Christ would be pleased to welcome the righteous into heaven, doubts have been raised about the love of God in permitting the everlasting suffering that is implicit in the traditional doctrine of hell, of a place where the wicked are tormented eternally in the fires of the inferno without hope of release. In 1890, the Sacred Penitentiary in Rome gave the ruling that confirmed the long-held belief of the presence of real fire in hell, and forbade any priest to absolve anyone from sin if they did not hold this view. This comparatively modern ruling is still the guide to devout Catholics today.

Many Christians, nonetheless, have been puzzled by the fact that the Apostles’ Creed, the most ancient guide to Christian doctrine outside the Bible, and accepted by Catholic and Protestant alike, states that Christ descended into hell. This point is made clear in the 3rd of the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England: ‘As Christ died for us and was buried, so also is it to be believed that he went down into hell.’ This doctrine that Christ went down to hell has been questioned by many. Others have tried to soften its implication by explaining that ‘hell’ probably has some connection with an intermediate state of departed souls and not the final abode of the wicked.

But to query this belief is to query the Bible; and whilst this is not an unusual thing with modern Christians, it is an attitude that strikes at the very root of truth and clear thinking on religious matters. There are passages in the Bible that state clearly that Jesus was in hell after his crucifixion (Acts 2:27; Ephesians 4:9). To align such passages with the traditional belief of hell is to stretch logic beyond its limits, and is one of the reasons why many people have accused the Bible of contradiction and unreliability.

This attitude comes from an entirely wrong approach to the Bible. Coming to the Bible with fixed beliefs that they imagine will be confirmed in its pages, many are disappointed when their beliefs are not upheld. Rather than dispense with their beliefs, which they may well hold very sincerely, they proceed to criticise the Bible. The interpretation of the word ‘hell’ is a case in point. If there is an unmovable conviction in anyone’s mind that hell is a fiery place of torment where the wicked are eternally punished, then there will be much in the Bible that will be baffling and unexplained. Almost without exception the word ‘hell’ in the Bible simply means ‘the grave’. It certainly is the place where the wicked are eternally punished: not in a conscious state of torment, but in the long dreamless sleep of death from which there is no awakening.

In the Old Testament the Hebrew word translated ‘hell’ is ‘sheol’, and in 31 places the word is so rendered. In another 31 places. ‘sheol’ is rendered ‘the grave’. The literal meaning of the word is ‘the unseen state’, which we submit is a very fair description of the grave.

The following are a few references where this word ‘sheol’ has been translated ‘hell’:

‘The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God’ (Psalm 9:17).

‘For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell: neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption’ (Psalm 16:10).

‘Hell and destruction are never full’ (Proverbs 27:20).

‘I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit’ (Ezekiel 31:16).

In the following passages the word ‘sheol’ has been translated ‘grave’:

‘As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away; so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more’ (Job 7:9). ‘For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?’ (Psalm 6:5).

‘For the grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee’ (Isaiah 38:18).

It can be seen from these references that the word ‘grave’ is a completely acceptable translation of ‘sheol’. The translators of the authorised version of the Bible made a distinction in these references of the same word. This may stem from the fact that they were believers in orthodox Christianity and subscribed to the traditional doctrine of hell, but there was no need for this distinction to be made. In fact, the English word ‘hell’ comes from the Anglo-Saxon, and simply means ‘that which covers’.

‘Sheol’, in the Old Testament, is the place that receives the righteous and the wicked, and where the dead are concealed and unseen. This is why Jesus was spoken of as being in hell after his death. For three days he joined the millions of the silent and the unseen in the grave. It was not until his resurrection that he again received consciousness, and thus by God’s power had conquered the ‘gates of hell’, or the grave.

In the New Testament there are two words which have been translated ‘hell’. They are the Greek words ‘hades’ and ‘Gehenna’. ‘Hades’ closely corresponds to the Hebrew ‘sheol’—’the unseen state’, whilst ‘Gehenna’ is a place name meaning, ‘valley of Hinnom’. ‘Hades’ occurs eleven times. Ten times it is rendered ‘hell’, and once, in 1 Corinthians 15:55, ‘grave’. In all these references, if the word ‘grave’ is substituted, the true meaning of the passages is immediately seen. For example:

‘And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell’ (Luke 10:15).

‘He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption’ (Acts 2:31).

The other word, Gehenna, also occurs eleven times, and is always translated ‘hell’. Four times it is also associated with the word fire, and has the special warning that sinners shall be in danger of hell fire, or shall be cast into hell fire. These are the passages of scripture that have led people to believe the orthodox view: ‘If thy hand offend thee, cut it off:

it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched’ (Mark 9:43); ‘But whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire’ (Matthew 5:22).

Here, apparently, are all the ingredients necessary for a belief in the traditional hell, and many have been persuaded this way by these references. When, however, we find that the hell or ‘the valley of Hinnom’ referred to was an actual place outside the walls of Jerusalem, a somewhat different meaning begins to emerge. This valley, in the time of Jeremiah the prophet (600 B.C.), was associated with the very worst displays of idolatry, where children were sacrificed to heathen gods. Because of this association, the later inhabitants of Jerusalem used the valley for the city’s refuse tip. It was also the place where the bodies of animals and criminals were burnt. To end up in death without a proper buryingplace and to be burnt along with all the other rubbish from the city would amount to a complete rejection of a person by the society in which he lived; an outcast who had received what he deserved, who would be mourned by no one.

This, then, was what the teaching of Jesus conveyed to those of his day, To be judged unworthy of life in the kingdom of God was a complete and final rejection, and it was to be compared with the ignominious burial of criminals in the valley of Hinnom. Jesus made reference to this place as containing worms that died not, and fire that should not be quenched. These things may well have been present in the valley of Hinnom as they are in rubbish tips the world over. They have, however, a significance that all can appreciate. The worm, or maggot, as some would translate it, is associated with decomposition and corruption. Fire is the agent of complete destruction. Worms that die not, and fire that shall not be quenched, must be taken to mean that these agents of corruption and destruction would accomplish the complete judgment of sinners.

The last verse of Isaiah uses almost identical symbols to describe those who transgress against God. In the time of the gathering of all nations to the Messiah, the people who come to Jerusalem to worship will look upon the carcases of the transgressors, ‘for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be. quenched’. This quotation would have been well known to the Jewish disciples to whom Jesus was speaking in Mark ch. 9, and would have conveyed to them that the wicked would perish and that future generations would remember the reasons for their destruction and regard them with horror and loathing.

Jeremiah also refers to fire that shall not be quenched when speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 17:27). It does not mean that the fire of itself would never go out, but that the destruction would be completed and that no agency would be able to stop it. In a similar manner will hell, the covered place, the grave, consume those who are rejected by Christ

In the 16th chapter of Luke we read the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. In the parable they are spoken of as being in a conscious state in death: one, the rich man, being tormented, and the other, Lazarus, being in Abraham’s bosom. It has been assumed that as Christ used this parable to make a point to his hearers, he must have believed all the details which the story referred to. This involves a belief in the ability of those in hell to see Abraham and the righteous in his bosom; in the ability of those in hell to be able to converse with those in heaven; that the tormented possess all the normal body parts such as eyes and tongue; and that Abraham looks unmoved on the torments of the wicked, with apparent approval that justice is being well carried out.

Did Christ give this parable to teach what it would be like after death? Were the details of the parable taken from the revealed word of God, thereby imparting the indisputable facts of eternity?

If we look at the chapter we see that he was addressing his words to the Pharisees (Luke 16:14 & 15). These people were the powerful and the wealthy of his day, and they were the leaders of religious thought among the Jewish nation. Many times Christ rebuked this class of people for their beliefs, because these were in direct opposition to the truth revealed in the Old Testament His words to them were, ‘ye have made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition’ (Matthew 15:6). The apostle Paul once gave advice not to give heed to ‘Jewish fables and commandments of men, that turn from the truth’ (Titus 1:14). Jewish tradition and fables had the effect of cancelling out the truth of the Old Testament scriptures.

From what source then, does this conception of heaven and hell come? The historian Josephus lived in the first century A D. only a few years after the time of Christ. He was a Pharisee and he gives an explanation of the belief of this sect in his discourse concerning Hades. He says:

‘Now as to Hades, wherein the souls of the righteous and unrighteous are detained, it is necessary to speak of it. Hades is a place in the world not regularly finished; a subterraneous region wherein the light of this world does not shine. There must be in it perpetual darkness, a place of the custody for souls in which angels are appointed as guardians to them who distribute temporary punishments agreeable to everyone’s behaviour and manners. In this region there is a certain place set apart as a lake of unquenchable fire. There is one descent into this region, the just are guided to the right hand into the region of light. This place we call the bosom of Abraham. But for the unjust, they are dragged by force to the left hand into the neighbourhood of hell itself, where they seethe place of the fathers and of the just, and even hereby are punished: for a chaos deep and large is fixed between them so that none can pass over it.’

It will be seen that Christ’s words in the parable closely follow this description of the Jewish tradition: Abraham’s bosom (v. 23), the fire (v. 24), the chaos deep and large (v. 26). He was, in fact, quoting from this tradition, for nothing resembling these ideas or these words occurs anywhere in the Old Testament.

Was Christ quoting this to give it his approval and sanction its truth? Let the words of the parable answer this:

‘Abraham saith unto him (the rich man), They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead’ (Luke 16:29-31).

It can be seen from this that Christ uses this fable of departed spirits, not for approval, but to condemn it and all those who believe it. These Pharisees boasted that they were the followers of Abraham and Moses, and here Christ makes both Abraham and Moses condemn them. They were never to be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. If they persisted in their ideas of spirits surviving after death, the fact that one rose from the dead would carry no particular significance with it. If they thought that they could never truly perish, and never lose consciousness, the resurging again from the grave would not form any vital link in the continuance of life.

How different is this from the teaching of Moses and the Old Testament prophets, who clearly state that death is the cessation of life, and apart from the resurrection there is no more hope, for the grave is the end and death is the punishment for sin!

If the doctrine of departed spirits were true, there would be no need of the resurrection of the body, and certainly Christ need not have been raised. Yet the apostle Paul says, ‘If the dead rise not. .. then they which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished’. ‘What advantageth it me, if the dead rise not?’ (1 Corinthians 15:16, 18 & 32). There is no future life apart from the resurrection, as Moses and the prophets teach, and this was how Christ entered into life eternal (Psalm 16:10 & 11).

In the parable, Abraham is the principal character in the abode of the righteous. There is no doubt that in the account of him given by Moses in Genesis, he received the highest approval that any man could have. God made promises to him which pointed to his future life, to the nation that should proceed from him, and to Christ his seed who should ‘bless all nations’. The New Testament takes up these promises, and says that they will be fulfilled in Christ:

‘To Abraham and his seed were the promises made’ (Galatians 3:16). ‘The promise that he should be the heir of the world’ (Romans 4:13). ‘God. . . preached the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed’ (Galatians 3:8). No one understanding these things could possibly build up an image of Abraham as depicted in Christ’s parable. Abraham died and was buried, and still sleeps in the dust of the earth awaiting the time when Christ will raise him from the dead to reward him with the everlasting possession of his land.

Some might say that the parable was misleading. When Christ was asked ‘Why do you speak in parables?’ he said ‘that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand’ (Luke 8:10). Jesus did not attempt to force the unrepentant and the cynical to see the truth. He said that he would do the reverse and blind them. ‘For judgment I am come. . . that they which see might be made blind’ (John 9:39).

Christ spoke of the coming judgment of all nations and he depicted a time when he would stand as supreme judge of all the earth. In the 25th chapter of Matthew he particularly refers to the personal efforts of his followers to minister to one another, and he said that it was by these efforts that they should be rewarded or condemned. In verse 46 of this chapter he says of the condemned, ‘And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal’. It has been supposed that everlasting punishment is the torment that the wicked endure in hell, but Christ’s words do not convey this idea except to those who already believe in the traditional hell. Christ here contrasts two things: eternal life for the righteous, and everlasting punishment for the condemned.

Life, or eternal life, is offered many times in the Bible to the righteous, but never to the wicked. ‘Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life’ (John 3:15). ‘Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life’ (John 5:40). It is life that is offered by Christ, not joy and happiness added to life which is already there. It is death which is the ultimate destiny of the wicked, not everlasting torments added to life which cannot end. Life signifies conscious existence and thought. Death is non-existence and unconsciousness. ‘The wages of sin is death’ (Romans 6:23), ‘By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin’ (Romans 5:12). This one man who introduced death into the world was Adam, and the record of Moses states that when God passed this sentence of death he simply said, ‘Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return’ (Genesis 3:19).

There is no eternal life for unrepentant sinners; consequently there can be no eternal torments for them. But there is everlasting punishment, for if the punishment is death, this will certainly be everlasting. Christ says that at his coming again to judgment, the dead shall ‘come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation (or judgment)’ (John 5:29). Daniel records that ‘many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt’ (Daniel 12:2).

These passages contrast life with ‘damnation’ (or judgment) and ‘contempt’. This judgment and contempt is the death that will overtake the unfaithful who have failed to serve God when they have had the opportunity. There will be great sorrow of a very terrible kind among those rejected at the judgment seat of Christ. ‘There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out’ (Luke 13:28). These rejected will eventually die after suffering according to their degree of wickedness; but it is the intention of God to rid the world of all suffering and turmoil, and the righteous shall inherit the earth free from sin. ‘God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away’ (Revelation 21:4).

In the last agonising hours of Christ’s life, Luke records, he had a conversation with a prisoner who was executed with him. The Romans had nailed the mocking title over the cross, ‘This is the King of the Jews’; and the prisoner besought Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom’. Jesus said to him, ‘Verily I say unto thee. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise’.

This reply is offered by many to prove the immediate ascent of the soul to heaven at death. It is clear, however, from the prisoner’s request, that he was expecting something quite different from this. He spoke of a ‘coming into a kingdom’; and this, in relation to the King of the Jews, had practical and historical connections with this earth, with Jerusalem and with the nation of Israel.

After Christ’s resurrection, there was a period of forty days in which he appeared to his disciples and explained to them all the facts concerning his mission which they did not understand. On the day that he ascended to heaven, his disciples asked him about this kingdom in the words, ‘Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?’ (Acts 1:6). He did not tell them that it was not his intention to restore this kingdom, and that they were wrong in supposing that he would; what he said to them was, ‘It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power’. In other words, the exact time of this restoration was known to God only. A few moments after this, when he had ascended, two angels informed the disciples that he would ‘come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven’.

It is clear, then, that this kingdom was in the minds of all those who had heard the teaching of Christ while he was with them after his resurrection. If their understanding concerning the Kingdom of God was wrong, there had been ample opportunity for Christ to have informed his followers. But there is no record of this happening, and nothing that the disciples subsequently said or did can lead us to believe that they expected anything other than the re-establishment of the kingdom of Israel on earth.

What, then, did Christ mean when he said, ‘Today shalt thou be with me in paradise’? He had previously told his disciples that he would be three days and nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40). This does not refer to his body only as distinct from his soul, for Peter said, ‘His soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption’ (Acts 2:31). His soul means his being, his person, and this went into the grave at death and came out at his resurrection. He could not therefore have been in heaven on the day he died on the cross, nor could the prisoner who died on the same occasion.

What, then, is the meaning of the word ‘paradise’? It is a Persian word which has been translated in the Old Testament as ‘king’s forest’ (Nehemiah 2:8), and ‘orchard’ (Ecclesiastes 2:5; Song of Solomon 4:13), and has the meaning of a well-ordered park or garden. ‘Paradise’ occurs two other times in the New Testament (2 Corinthians 12:4; Revelation 2:7); and the word has been left almost in the untranslated original, i.e. ‘Pardes’ (Hebrew), ‘Paradeisos’ (Greek). What well-ordered park or garden was Christ referring to? It was an accepted theme with the Jews who were looking for the Messiah that the earth would become as it was in the beginning in the garden of Eden, as their prophets wrote. The land was to become ‘like the garden of Eden’ (Ezekiel 36:35). ‘The Lord will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord’ (Isaiah 51:3). It is on this land that Jesus will establish his kingdom when he returns to the earth, and this is what he was referring to on the cross. But how could he say, ‘Today ... thou shalt be with me...’? In fact, he said, ‘Verily I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be with me in paradise’. All that has been moved is the comma, and Greek scholars agree that ‘semeron’ (today) may follow or precede the verb which qualifies it. ‘Say’ and ‘today’ can be coupled in this way, and it makes clear the meaning of the promise of Christ to this man.

What is the teaching in the Bible concerning heaven, a word which occurs many times? Both in the Old and New Testaments it is used when describing the physical heavens, and we read of the wind, rain, clouds and lightning as coming from heaven: ‘The windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the earth’ (Genesis 7:11 & 12). ‘The heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was great rain’ (1 Kings 18:45).

It is also associated with the abode of God and of his angels. The Israelites were given a prayer by Moses which included the words, ‘Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel’ (Deuteronomy 26:15). Christ also taught his followers to pray to God, ‘Our Father, which art in heaven’.

The literal interpretation of the Hebrew word ‘shamayim’ translated in the Old Testament ‘heaven’ is ‘heaved-up things’ and seems to be a reference to anything above the earth. The Greek word most used in the New Testament is ‘ouranos’ and means ‘sky’ or ‘air’. In the majority of instances it is obvious from the context in what way the writer is using the word. In New Testament times the word became closely associated with the name of God, and in the parable of the prodigal son, he is recorded as saying, ‘I have sinned against heaven’ (Luke 15:18-2 1). He meant that he had sinned against God. John Baptist says, ‘A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven’ (John 3:27). Again, from God.

This word has the same meaning when we read that Christ spoke of the kingdom of heaven. To his hearers it meant the kingdom of God. This kingdom had been established in Old Testament times, and many of the kings of Israel recognised that they were privileged to be custodians of the kingdom of God (2 Chronicles 13:8). In Christ’s day it would have had a direct connection with the Israelitish hope that their Messiah would again establish this kingdom.

Nowhere in the Old or New Testaments do we read of heaven being promised as the reward of the righteous. Christ ascended to heaven and is at God’s right hand (Colossians 3:1); but it was pointed out by Peter on the day of Pentecost that the nation’s most illustrious king, David, who had been promised the rewards of righteousness, had not ascended to heaven (Acts 2:34). The words of Christ make this point quite clear, ‘No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven’ (John 3:13). The fact that Christ is in heaven does not mean that his followers will meet him there. There can be no doubt when reading the letters which were written after his ascension that the fervent hope of the apostles was that he will come again and reward his followers:

‘To wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead’ (1 Thessalonians 1:10).

‘To you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels’ (2 Thessaloniaris 1:7).

‘Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation’ (Hebrews 9:28),

There are several phrases which are sometimes put forward as support for the belief that heaven does play some part in the reward. Christ said, ‘For great is your reward in heaven’, and ‘Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt’; and Peter referred to ‘an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you’ (1 Peter 1:4). Peter explains how this inheritance is in heaven in verse 13 of this chapter: he says there is a ‘salvation that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ’. This, then, is the way in which the inheritance will be given. It is now ‘reserved’, and this implies that it is not now in use but will be used when needed. The inheritance is salvation, or eternal life. Eternal life will be the inheritance that Christ will give at his coming. The only person who has yet benefited from this inheritance is Christ himself. He now has eternal life. He is the saviour of the world, and all the hopes and aspirations of believers are centred in him. As he is now in heaven, so, it can be said, are the rewards and the treasures, but these will be distributed at the time appointed:

• (This article is placed on the web by The Aletheian Christadelphian Fellowship, Bible Students in the U.K.

  to draw attention to the true teaching of the Bible).

• Web Page Edition: April 2008

The word Christadelphian is a Greek word, and translated, it means the brethren of Christ (Heb. 2:11), We are a body of people associated together by a belief in the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 8:12); and by immersion into Christ (Gal. 3:27) for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38) and a part in his resurrection (Rom. 6:5).

We do not profess to have received any new revelation, but hold that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are able to make wise unto Salvation (2 Tim. 3:15,17). Believing in the Divine Authorship of the Bible, we think it only reasonable to reject any interpretation thereof which fails to harmonise all the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures; and finding that the creeds of the various sects around are, in a great variety of ways, opposed to the direct teaching of the Bible, we feel compelled to stand apart, making appeal in all such matters to the statements of Scripture, and testing all creeds thereby.

We believe in the personal, visible return of Christ to the earth, to set up his power and reign thereon, and we seek to share this knowledge with others. We offer our services in expounding the message of the Bible without cost of any kind.