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Salisbury
Christadelphian Ecclesia
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A brief History Of The Christadelphians
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In the history of Christianity, there have always been brave and faithful individuals who questioned the doctrines and practices of the dominant denominations of their time and day. And perhaps no other person has questioned what the Christian churches taught him more than Dr. John Thomas, the founder of the Christadelphians movement.
Christadelphians would never claim that Dr. John Thomas was any thin other than a man, a Bible student. He was not a prophet or a man claiming to be acting under divine inspiration, but a man who was determined to find out what God was really teaching through the His Word, the Bible. John Thomas believed very strongly that it is crucial for men and women to not accept what clergy and theologians have been saying for centuries, but seek out Biblical truth for themselves.
Dr John Thomas was a medical doctor, born April 12th, 1805, in Great Britain. In 1832 his family decided to immigrate to the United States. He went first, taking passage in a ship bound for America. The ship encountered a series of severe storms off the coast of Nova Scotia causing the ship to flounder and shipwreck became imminent. John Thomas realised that although his father was a clergyman, he himself was unprepared for what awaited him if he were to die. He vowed to God that if he survived he would dedicate himself to studying religion until he found truth. God spared the ship and those on it including John Thomas, who kept his vow.
John Thomas was determined not to join any group so his mind would not be formed by the teachings of a group or church, and so he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where (against his inclinations) he joined the Campbellite movement (now known as the Churches of Christ and the Disciples of Christ). The Campbellites were followers of Alexander Campbell, a preacher who was determined to restore Christianity to its first century simplicity and authenticity. Dr. Thomas was rebaptised as a Campbellite, and later became a well known speaker and an editor of a magazine in the Campbellite movement.
The early nineteenth century was a time of great religious ferment in the United States, especially on the expanding frontier. America was being settled by a new kind of men and women, who were independent, and non-traditional. The last part of the eighteenth century had seen a revival of interest and enthusiasm in the churches, which was known as ‘the Great Awakening’. The Methodist movement of John Wesley had swept across the country at the turn of the century. Then came the Campbellites, preaching a reform of the paganism of the churches of the day, to be followed soon by the Millerites (also known as the Adventists) preaching the end of the world. Each of these movements questioned some part of the traditional Christianity of the time.
After a few years, John Thomas came to an understanding some things that caused some disagreement with the Campbellites. After several meetings and public debates with Campbell himself, he found his differences with the Campbellites to be irreconcilable and his faith in those things strengthened further. John Thomas had to leave them and push on with his search. Some of the members and congregations of the Campbellites left with him, as they also were convinced that some what the Campbellites were preaching was not Bible based truth.
At this time the Millerite or Adventist movement was growing and John Thomas had some association with them. He admired their enthusiasm, their desire for the return of Christ (which he believed to be a central teaching of Christianity), and their questioning spirit. He influenced the movement and was influenced by it. To this day, some Adventist groups (in the US) have similar doctrines to the Christadelphians.
The group of congregations and individuals who looked to John. Thomas grew in the decades that followed. In 1848 the movement became international when John Thomas went to Britain for a speaking tour. In Britain he was very well received, and to this day Britain has had one of the largest number of Christadelphians in the world and a centre for the growing Christadelphian community.
Before his tour of Britain, John Thomas was based in Virginia. When he returned from Great Britain, he moved to New York and began to preach there, concentrating especially on the Jewish community in New York. Dr. Thomas believed strongly that Christianity was not a replacement for Judaism, but a fulfilment of it, and emphasized that Christians become "grafted on" descendants of Abraham.
The movement had no official name until 1864, when the American Civil War found believers on both sides. The movement believed strongly in conscientious objection to participation in any war. However, in order to be exempted from military service, believers had to belong to a recognized religious group that did not permit participation in war. So in 1864, Dr. John Thomas gave the movement a name to identify it, "The Christadelphians", which was Greek for "Brethren in Christ".
Since that time, the Christadelphian movement has grown to include believers on every continent. But all Christadelphians recognize John Thomas not so much as a founder, but as an inspirational example of someone who strongly desired to know God and his will and who searched the Bible until he found the truth.
Such a spirit is not common today, but it is one which pleases God.