Not many coming out with their community name

Looking back at 2013

In the month of January the Christadelphians from Belgium and Holland considered their position, facing the difficulties of ageing in the community and of a Man from the North boycotting having more meeting places in Belgium.

Flag of the Brussels-Capital Region (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nivelles (Belgium), the romanesque St. Getrude colegiate church (XI/XIIIth centuries).  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 2013 the Belgian Christadelphians saw their Sunday-meeting place at the AC Heverlee E40 service station (at the East of Brussels, near Leuven) demolished and turned in a Texaco service station. In September we also lost our other Sunday and midweek meeting-place in the centre of Brussels, having our brother Andy going back to Wales.

Nivelles (Belgium), the lookout tower called « Tourette » (XVIth century).  In Summer we do have our meetings in open air close by. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As such, now, we can only offer to the general public the weekly meeting at the ‘Aire de Nivelles’, or roadway on the A7/E19 in Nijvel or Nivelles (at the South of Brussels), on Thursday night from 7.30-9.00 pm and our three monthly meeting at the Quakerhouse in Paris.

At the discussion with our Dutch brethren we not only were confronted with the difficult situation of the Man from the North and his organisation not willing to join hands, but also both countries facing no new blood, having the older people dying, leaving lesser people in the congregation.

Internet world and the citizens

In the world of internet not many hear from Christadelphians because lots of them are from a non-i.t. generation, part of a more conservative generation, or not so eager to tell the world the name of the community which worships the God of gods.

Location map of Belgium Equirectangular projection, N/S stretching 157.218 %. Geographic limits of the map: N: 51.8° N S: 49.2° N W: 2.2° E E: 6.9° E (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

People living in Belgium and Holland are not interested in God and those who worship one God, notated by the census, in Belgium would be the official 6% Muslims of the population, but in reality they nearly reach 25% of the Belgian population, though the country is still categorised as a Roman Catholic country.

The estimated 650,000 Muslims Soeren Kern of the Gatestone Institute is talking about are those which are connected with the official Islamitische Raad or Islamic Council. In Belgium you can find many different Islamic groups which do not have big mosques but meet with each other in what we call ‘garage mosques’, because they mostly are in private garages or previous factories. Their imams are also not paid by the government, like the official imams and priests.  It is the same as for the many non-trinitarian Christians, who are not part of the official Religious council and as such are never counted and have their preacher not having a monthly income, paid by the ministry of justice. Ministers part of the Protestantse Kerk België (PKB) or Belgian Protestant Church are being paid by the government and by their official denomination.

Languages spoken at home in the Brussels Capital Region (2006) French French & Dutch Dutch Neither French nor Dutch French w/ another non-Dutch language (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Belgian and Dutch cities have significant Muslim populations, comprised mostly of Turkish and Moroccan immigrants, as well as a growing number of converts to Islam. In several regions you will be able to find a majority of Islamic believers practising their monotheistic belief. Many Belgians may perhaps call themselves Christian, mostly meaning Catholic, but mostly they do not practice their faith and only keep to the traditional feasts, which are mostly the heathen feasts, plus child-baptism, first and second communion, marriage and funeral.

It is not exaggerated when Soeren Kern writes that the self-styled ‘Capital of Europe’ is now one of the most Islamic cities in Europe. Several parts of Brussels look more like in a North African country, with even the Arabic language on the window-screens.

In 2013, Muslims made up approximately 26% of the population of metropolitan Brussels, followed by Rotterdam (25%), Amsterdam (24%), Antwerp (17%), The Hague (14%) and Utrecht (13%), according to a panoply of research. {The Islamization Of Belgium And The Netherlands In 2013}

Not coincidentally, Belgium and the Netherlands have been at the forefront of the debate over Muslim immigration and integration in Europe.

Believers in name

Those Muslims are mostly the ones who practice their religion, though also many name Muslims can be found, who do like the many Catholics only keep to the tradition and common holidays. As such it is not rare to find in those communities Muslim families where they do keep the Ramadan, have the Sugar Festival, but also have presents at Sinterklaas (Saint Nicolas), decorated trees at Christmas and chocolate eggs at Easter. Like many Christians they also do not mind to have decorated pumpkins and fancy dress parties at Halloween and Carnival.

To have sincere believers keeping to the Laws of God is much more difficult. Not many shall be found, and it must be said in Belgium most religious citizens shall be found in the Muslim community.

by the Christians you also may find a lot of people who call themselves Christian but do not really belief and do not show what they belief nor go to worship services regularly.

Coming out

It is more than time that the Christian community comes out in the open, and gets people to know God. Belgians do have to proof to the Muslim world that there are real lovers of God living in the country.

Sunday meeting at hotel Queen Anne, Brussels Centre, 2010 May 2

The most well known believers in Only One God from the Christian population in Belgium has 373 congregations, with 25,311 baptised people. They together with our Christadelphian community get 44,191 visitors at the Memorial Evening (Pesach/Pascha or Passover). Those worshippers of the True God, using His Name, are not liked very much by the majority of the population. Though they really do what followers of Christ should do. Jesus has given his followers the task to go out in the world and to preach the Gospel of the coming Kingdom of God.

Many Christians do not know there are lots of other Christians than the Jehovah’s Witnesses who also use the name of God and preach the Good News.

Jews in Belgium

Today there are officially only around 42,000 Jews in Belgium; The Jewish Community of Antwerp (numbering some 20,000) being one of the largest single communities in Europe. For many Christians who do not know Hebrew Antwerp is a good place to communicate and learn from the Judaic population. The Dutch speaking citizens of Belgium can communicate and get to know more of Biblical language by  having Yiddish as transit language. Some Belgians, like me, may have Jewish members in the family, which is of great help in understanding the Biblical language. The Jewish community is also tampered with many who have become more secular Jews and is facing the same problem as Christians have, seeing the active religious population diminishing. Their community has a Jewish interest programs radio station 24 hours a day, Radio Judaica (Jewish radio).
Some of them may hold a Super Shabbat where the community gets together for a Jewish learning fest, designed around a theme ranging from Israel & Ecology to Pesach-prep to Emigration-Immigration challenges, offering a way for people of all ages to be actively involved in learning, by doing, listening and discussing.

Spending time to Word of God and talking about it

We should see more of such events where time is spend to look at the Word of God and to discuss it with all interested to know more about it and about the way we can live according to the Will of God.

Not many people do want to tell others about their faith or do go out to preach about the Divine Creator. So many are afraid of the Muslims, but we do not see them much going out to discuss with others. From the many Muslims which live in my neighbourhood there is only my neighbour and one person, who lives one street further away from me, who also works for a mosque in Leuven, who talk about their believe with me. Some youngsters in my street, Flemish Islamic converts, I tried to have a conversation with, do not want to talk about religion and avoid any conversation with me.

The Islam can convert Caucasians. The many Flemish adolescents going to fight in Syria, for the good cause, have proven that youngsters today can be interested and taken by a form of faith. The Roman Catholic Church looses more and more people.  Most of them become atheist, but there also several who have a Catholic background but come into fundamentalist Islamic groups.
Yesterday the Flemish television showed the decline in marriages in church. The most important day for a couple is not any-more celebrated in church.
Our own Christadelphian community did not have one baptism in 2013, in Belgium nor in Holland. Mr.D.H. from the North has baptised several people, but does not allow them to have contact with our community, and even does not want to give the addressed of his ecclesiae (churches).

Websites and Forums

When we look at the internet we encounter many fundamentalist Muslim and fundamentalist Christian websites, but not enough blogs or websites which present the standard faithgroups or young enthusiast believers.

88% of Belgium Jews feel that in the course of the recent years antisemitism has intensified in their country, and many Jews are retracting from coming in view. Those who try to bring the Gospel are also more under attack. The main focus for criticism of a religious group is on the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Several Jews and sincere Christians have encountered incidents of physical violence or threats because of their being Jewish or being a real monotheist or a non-trinitarian believer. Therefore lots of sincere believers become very quietly and keep their faith to themselves.

I recently also had my religious newssite Christadelphian World and my Facebook page Christadelphia subject of a black-out.

We can find many websites presenting lots of sexual images, violent scenes and shabby talk. Filthy words can be found in abundance on the net. Those websites presenting so much dirt are not censored. But every where in the world we can see that a lot of grudge or hate is taken against websites or forums which proclaim the works of the Divine Creator.

When you go looking for religious websites many can be found which are held by big Church organisations. Many of the smaller ones are often from very specific groups and from more fundamentalist groups. Also in Christendom we do find many extreme conservative groups which bring their teachings to the international public by way of internet.

Christadelphians on the net

The more moderate groups are less easy to find. Smaller faith-groups are even more difficult to find. Christadelphians seem not keen to have their ideas spread on the net. There are the many ecclesiae or individual parishes which may broadcast their activities, but there are not many individuals who would like the inquisitive person to enter his kitchen. It would be nice if we could come to see more personal blogs written by Christadelphian individuals.

Many blogs may be found of people against Christadelphians and from ex-christadelphians who seem to have come in conflict with the Christian way they have been brought up and have been attracted more to the loose way of living of the contemporary society. Some of those ex-christadelphians mostly grew up in an isolated or very very conservative group. Pity they never consulted other Christadelphian groups before leaving the faith. But like most Christians who became frustrated with what they learned at home, those ex-christadelphians mostly claim it to be the fault of their denomination and not of their person not wanting to believe in God any more.

Most of them who turned against the Christadelphians became ungodly and turned their back to the Divine Creator.

Cliques of Christadelphians and Christadelphians for all

I would agree to some point with The un-Christadelphian who says

Christadelphians are full of Christadelphians, who think other Christadelphians aren’t Christadelphians.

I suppose they are like any other church of men, where if you have a falling out from one clique of Christadelphians, you can leave and start your own clique of Christadelphia, all with your own rules.

Like accepting gays.

There isn’t a true Christadelphian church on this universe that accepts homosexuality as an acceptable god-fearing, god-honouring, christ-serving relationship. It is, as some would say, an oxymoron. {A Collection of Idiots}

It is true there are churches in our denomination where they do not like gay people and others who do not have any objection to be welcoming those people also in their community. We in Belgium welcome them and welcome also the crooks and even murderers, we all would like to bring to God. All sinners are creations of God and should be brought back to Him. Jesus, the son of God, died also for their sins and brought salvation onto them. you could consider Church to be a Hospital for sinners

Lots of people do have difficulties that Christadelphians put the responsibility by each person himself. No other person can be blamed for the faults one did or does. Everybody has to come before Jesus himself and shall not be able to say he was tempted by Satan, either a devilish spirit or a real person, being the accuser and adversary of God. It is just that point of our learnings by which most people stop following us, because they themselves have to take the responsibility, and that is just something what most people do not want to do.

Living Called idiots

Being pacifist, generous, trusting and/or naive we are often considered a bunch or A Collection of Idiots.

Many also can not understand how we can find peace in death. Believing that when we die it is finished, strangely enough frightens also atheists. The Biblical teaching that we die being our payment for our sins, gives us comfort that nobody can take anything with him in the grave or could do something to the living. For us everybody who comes under the dead, is either put in the grave or the incinerator to decay and to become dust, being nothing again. For us this looks less fearful than the teachings of many Christian denomination who yell about damnation in hell, hellfire or torture in purgatory.

What I do find strange is that some who left Christadelphianism just left this faith group because they were cross they would not be able to see their grandmother or some friends in a sort of life after this one. Ridiculous I do find it when they became atheist, because I would think most atheists do not believe in an afterlife.

Message of Hope

For believers in the One God, who live according to the Laws of God, be it Jews, Christians or Muslims, we do believe there is a message of hope, giving the picture of prosperity and ability to be saved and to be resurrected to be allowed in the Kingdom of God to live endlessly on this earth under the best best conditions. It was that message of Good News that the Nazarener Jew Jeshua taught. It was the reason why this man Jesus  gave his life for many he even did not know. God can not die, but Jesus really died and was resurrected from the dead after three days in hell (= the grave). In that resurrection we do have an example of what can happen to us. For all, meaning ‘not just Christadelphians’, hope is given by the death of Christ Jesus.

We do find it is necessary to get others also to know that message of a world peace here on earth, which can come over us after the prophesied World War III, or Armageddon and the one thousand year still to come after it.

Those who shall be prepared for what is to come, shall not have to fear so much. They shall be able to find delight, because when they die, they shall be delivered from pain and will not have to suffer any-more.

In this life

For a Christadelphian it is the here and now, that we do have to make it.  We do not believe in the rapture, like so many protestants do. is not at all a message that should bring fear over you. Therefore it is so strange that those who were afraid of not seeing their beloved any-more after they die went to become atheist and not Catholics or Pentecostals. but they also forgot that we do have something to look out for in case we do live according tothe Law of God. And that seems to be the most difficult bit why so many are leaving the Christadelphians, the Jehovah’s Witnesses or any other Biblestudent group, because there each individual is demanded to do his or her best in this world to make it possible to come before the small gate and to be allowed entrance to the Kingdom by Jesus our mediator for God and man.

Voices to be heard

This world should have more voices to be heard. It should not be only the Jehovah’s Witnesses who knock at the doors and bring blogs of the Good News. I would love to see more Christadelphian and other Christian Blogs where the message is given of what is to come. Those accepting Christ as their Messiah should bring the message of joy and something to look out for.

The Christadelphian community could for sure also use some more voices on the internet, telling about the Word of God, the Good News but also about the Christadelphian faith and community.

I look forward to the day people shall be able to find many more Christadelphian blogs and websites where the Good News is been told. Places where is shown to people why we need some Change which has to come from within each person himself.

May we find more voices who dare to look at the difference of being an atheist, a trinitarian Christian and a non-trinitarian Christian.

Living Free  might be a Christian writer who will write more about his transition from ardent atheist to a follower of Jesus Christ. He is one of those people who sees

there is a massive stigma among Christians of all denominations: atheists are the quintessential picture of godlessness in the world – everything that is wrong with humanity; human nature ruling one being.  They have no morality.  Because they have no morality, they drink, participate in recreational drug use, have rampant sex, and disregard all other humanity unless it satisfies their own personal desires.  They do this because they have no fear of eternal repercussions.

I do hope he will be one of those Christadelphians who would not mind letting others know his journey into the Truth. He is willing to provide the readers an insight in his own journey towards Freedom in Christ.

We as believers and followers of Christ always should have nothing but respect for atheists and people who believe differently than us. People are wrong to think that we say only Christadelphians are good. We never would say such a thing. In every person can be a good man or woman. Everybody has the right to believe what they want and we should respect such freedom of belief or religion. But we also should take up the task given by Christ Jesus and let others know what they can receive. We should let them see they all can be part of the Grace given to us for nothing.

We do not consider it wrong to have contacts with other minded people or to have friends and fellow warriors in the fight against apathy and ignorance, by any sort of believer, in the knowledge that every human being is created in the image of God.

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Please do find:

1. The Divine name of the Creator
2. Christendom Astray
3. Key To The Understanding of The Scriptures
4. The Christadelphian Bible Study Circle Course — 24 Letters with Questions and Answers on Bible Truth
5. Faith In the Last Days
6. For those who make other choices
7. Jewish Heritage
8. Altered to fit a Trinity
9. Wishing lanterns and Christmas
10. Peter Cottontail and a Bunny laying Eastereggs
11. Around the feast of Unleavened Bread
12. Observance of a day to Remember
13. Did Christ Die On Behalf Of Himself?
14. 1 -15 Nisan
15. Seven days of Passover
16. Jesus memorial
17. Bread and Wine
18. Satan the evil within
19. What happens when we die?
20. Dying or not
21. Decomposition, decay – vergaan, afsterven, ontbinding
22. This month’s survey question: Heaven and Hell
23. You Will Never Go To Heaven
24. Change
25. Let not sin reign in your mortal body
26. True hope
27. Bringing Good News into the world
28. Proclaiming shalom, bringing good news of good things, announcing salvation
29. When we love we do not need laws
30. When discouraged facing opposition
31. If You want to start winning the war
32. Engaging the enemy
33. The Most Hated Family in America
34. Reflection for today: hating your brother
35. Church is a Hospital for sinners
36. Count your blessings
37. One mediator
38. Christadelphian faith

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Also of interest:

1. Modesty: The Reason Why
2. A Collection of Idiots
3. Mortality
4. The Faith Fallacy
5. A Modest Apology
6. What Does Love Look Like?
7. Does God reveal His Will to us?

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