MATTHEW 12


1 At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.

2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.

Well, the breaking of the Sabbath was unlawful, and it is a good thing to be opposed to "that which is not lawful;" but it is a different thing to show this opposition only when the object is to condemn another. This is a common and grievous form of wickedness. 

Righteous men are scrupulous round the whole circle of God's commandments, and not at one or two points only; and they show their scrupulosity in subjecting their own life to them on all points, rather than in hunting up the shortcomings of their neighbours. It is a suspicious thing when a man shows a great and unusual zeal on behalf of some one element of righteousness, to score a point against an adversary.

Jesus has called such zeal "hypocrisy," and the most searching reflection will show that it is nothing else. Zeal of this sort is apt to be very shallow in its constructions, and it is always deaf to reason. The only way to deal with it effectually, next to passing it by on the other side (which Jesus sometimes did, and wisdom sometimes calls for), is to question it on its own premises. This is what Jesus did in this case.

Nazareth Revisited - Ch 25



5 Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?

The priests work on the sabbath increased. They were blameless because the work was appointed by Yahweh.

The Leviticus Expositor p209

The priests, notwithstanding the command to do no work on the Sabbath day, were to offer up special sacrifices on that day, or to circumcise children whose eighth day might fall on the Sabbath, that God's will on other points might be done. In doing this, they were blameless, though technically guilty.

The Pharisees were aware of this -- that the temple law suspended the Sabbath law where the law otherwise required it, without involving unrighteousness. Yet they were condemning disciples of Jesus for doing on the Sabbath day what the Sabbath law required -- viz.: the eating of food to supply nature's wants; and that, too, under the sanction of one present who was

"greater than the temple!"

It was a poor and paltry quibble,as the sanctimonious carpings of enmity generally are. But what a crime when directed against

Nazareth Revisited Ch 25



7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.

"So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also to you if ye from your hearts -- FROM YOUR HEARTS -- forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."

The greatest of personal sacrifice is repulsive to God if it is in self-glory and harshness, and not in the spirit of humbleness and mercy and tenderness and an expanding love toward all mankind.

Bro Growcott - I Will Return To My First Husband



12 How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.

Away from the presence of the people, doubtless, answer would not have failed them; they would have quibbled and confused the issue with all the loquacious agility and finesse which distinguishes Jew and Gentile to the present day, when confronted with a dilemma they will not, or cannot, face.

But the Pharisees desired, above all things, to keep their reputation with the people for common sense, and, therefore, their tongues were tied -- they could not utter a word. They could not appear to contend that it was wrong for a man to save imperilled property on the Sabbath day.

Nazareth Revisited Ch 25



14 Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.

What a perfectly melancholy picture; a conclave of shallow egotisms -- (egotisms are necessarily shallow, for with any depth, self-consciousness becomes a merely steadying power, as intended) -- a league of pious mediocrities, whose piety consisted of long-faced and holy-toned superstition; a band of petty respectabilities, whose respectability consisted of carefully doing nothing that would hurt a human sensibility or shock human propriety; and most carefully and industriously doing, or appearing to do, what everybody was agreed to consider the right and the meritorious thing; a company of ornamental, self-satisfied parasites and monopolists, trading in the name of Moses while outraging his wisdom and righteousness, professing to serve God while most skilfully and decisively serving the craft only; simulating mercy and righteousness, while systematically practicing the vilest oppression and wickedness in secret.

Such a set of human contemptibles sitting in solemn judgment on the Son of God -- the glorious Son of God, who, with power to hurl them all to destruction in a moment, patiently accommodated himself to a worthless population, while exhibiting in their midst the grandeur of God's character in his own compassion, and wisdom and dignity; and His power in the undeserved healing of all their diseases -- such a picture is the saddest the sun ever looked down upon.

Its sadness is unutterable if we look at it by itself. But enlightenment cannot look at it by itself. It must be looked at in connection with the whole work of which it forms but a momentary phase. The completion of that work will show Christ enthroned in the scene of his humiliation, under circumstances that will owe their principal satisfaction to the bitter humiliations of the day of probation in which Christ preceded all his brethren.

Nazareth Revisited Ch 25



18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.

God was pleased with the character of Jesus: but it was not the character, as an abstraction, that was the Son of God. "Character" is but expressive of his mental attributes; but those attributes would not have existed in him had he been born of the will of the flesh. They were the result of the Spirit's operation. We require not to ask "how" the Spirit wrought those results in the seed of David. He did work them, and that is sufficient.

The Christadelphian, Dec 1873



23 And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?

That he was the son of David was never in doubt (even among the pharisees)

Do you think Christ's enemies, who crucified him, would not have been glad to seize upon so fatal an objection to his claims, if they could have done so? In his own day, it was the general repute that he was the son of David, both among the common people and amongst those who had an opportunity of being critically certain. First, as to the common belief, I quote the following passages:

Matt. 9:27: "And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us."

Matt. 12:23: "All the people were amazed and said, Is not this the son of David?"

Matt. 15:22: "And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord, thou son of David."

Matt. 20:30: "And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, 0 Lord, thou son of David."

Matt. 21:9-11: "And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth, of Galilee."

And at the fifteenth verse it says, "When the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David, they were sore displeased."

This proves two things, first that the popular impression was that he was the son of David, and second, that the popular impression was brought under the cognition of the scribes and pharisees; and they never challenged it, although they had the power of disproving it, if Jesus were not the son of David. ..

... Zachariah was of "the course of Abia." In that position of access to the public archives then, we find him saying "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets which have been since the world began."

Remember these are the words of a priest in the temple, having a distinct and intimate relation to the records of genealogy, which either confirmed or destroyed the impression concerning the origin or extraction of Jesus.

Bro Roberts - Was Jesus of Nazareth The Messiah? (debate)



23 And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?

He gave their enthusiasm no encouragement. He knew it was of the superficial and transient character of the feelings of any crowd in the immediate receipt of some benefaction. He further knew that his rejection and death were at hand, and that popular feeling in his favour would only be an embarrassment.

"He charged them that they should not make him known."

Matthew says (xii. 17), that thus was fulfilled what had been written in Isaiah xlii. I:

"He shall not strive nor cry,..."

The fulfilment of this will be seen in all its force if we compare the attitude of Christ during his ministry with the course usually observed by aspirants to popular fame and leadership.

He did not get up a political agitation. He did not head a party, or get up a sedition. He made no suggestion of revolt against the authorities. He made no appeal to the suffrages of the people on his own behalf. He delivered no harangues intended to inflame them against their rulers, and to draw them away from their allegiance and gather them around himself.

He quietly went about from place to place doing good in the healing of disease without partiality, announcing the purpose of God, and explaining what was acceptable to God and what was not, comforting the poor, and encouraging the lovers of righteousness.

He counselled no resort to violence; on the contrary, he preached submission. He resorted to none of the artifices of strife; on the contrary, he retired before personal opposition. His occasional ardours and polemical thrusts were all employed in the enforcement of truth, and never in the promotion of personal or political aims.

He never strove nor cried in the public sense of those terms. He abstained so entirely from coercive, or constraining measures, that he could not be said to break even a bruised reed, though that required no force; or to extinguish a smoking flax, though that was easy of accomplishment. The time will come when

"he will bring forth judgment unto victory,"

but till that time should arrive, his part was (and his part is continued in all his disciples) to observe a passive attitude with regard to the institutions and movements of the present evil world. Knowing this, he forbade the healed and gratified people to make him known.

Nazareth Revisited ch 25



24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.

... it is a sin against God to attribute to man the work that is His own by the Spirit. It was a sin so heinous in another form, that Jesus declared there was no forgiveness for it-when men ascribed his miracles to the diabolical art.

We may not fellowship blasphemy. A man receiving the truth has a claim to fellowship if it be not nullified by his attitude in some other relation.

A drunkard, to wit, or an extortioner, or a fornicator, was ineligible for apostolic fellowship, though "a man called a brother"-that is, a man "receiving the truth." So, if a man receiving the truth, do at the same time blaspheme the Scriptures, or lend himself to those who do, he raises an obstacle which no amount of "receiving the truth" can remove.

Secondly, the divine inspiration of the Scriptures is part of the truth: and any man denying this, denies a part of the truth, and therefore cannot be described as in the absolute sense "receiving the truth."

Thirdly, if the Scriptures are partly human and erring, there is no foundation on which the truth can, with certainty, be received. The foundation of all truth in our day, when God hides His face, is the divine authority and infallibility of the Scriptures of Moses, the prophets and the apostles.

If men do not assent to this authority, their receiving of what truth they have is a mere exercise of opinion; and it is not opinion but faith that is the basis of fellowship.

The Christadelphian, Nov 1886.



25 And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:

Christ's life mission was to provide a way of life and to teach men to walk in it. In this chapter we find the Great Teacher propounding a fundamental lesson with a graphic, unforgettable illustration. He came to teach Truth to a world which had, in the unbounded confidence of its ignorance, developed for itself an intricate and highly plausible system of philosophic self-deception.

This system, even in Christ's day, was already venerable with age. In fact, we find it in full bloom ten centuries earlier at the time that David lived and wrote, as his 49th Psalm clearly shows. Its keynote is found in v. 18 of that Psalm, "Men will praise thee when thou doest well to thyself."

This has been man's watchword from the childhood of the race. If a man spends his time benefiting himself, building up wealth and power and prestige, he will be honored and flattered and fawned upon. The same banner of glorious self­ishness still waves in unchallenged supremacy today.

So ingrained by centuries of repetition and habit is this principle of predominant self-consideration that it is often unquestioningly taken for granted as a basis of interpreting Christ's teaching, even among the brotherhood.

Bro Growcott - As Little Children



26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?

The kingdom of sin is among the living upon the earth; and it is called the kingdom of Satan because "all the power of the enemy," or adversary, of God and His people, is concentrated and incarnated in it.

It is a kingdom teeming with religion, or rather, forms of superstition, all of which have sprung from the thinking of sinful flesh.

This is the reason why men hate, or neglect, or disparage the Bible. If the leaders of the people were to speak honestly they would confess that they did not understand it. Their systems of divinity are the untoward thinkings of sinful flesh; and they know that they cannot interpret the Bible intelligibly according to their principles. At all events they have not yet accomplished it.

Hence, one class have forbidden their people the use of the Scriptures at all, and have placed it among prohibited books. Another class advocates them, not because it walks by the light of them, but because they hate the tryanny of Rome.

These, in their public exhibitions, substitute their sermonizings for "reasoning out of the Scriptures," and , "expounding out of the law of Moses and the Prophets" (Acts 28:23-31). Thus they neglect the Bible, or use it only as a book of maxims and mottoes for their sermons, which for the most part have as much to do with the subject treated in the text, as with the science of gymnastics, or perpetual motion.

Elpis Israel 1.3.



31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the holy spirit shall not be forgiven unto men.

'‬To consider lightly the word of the Holy Spirit as recorded by the prophets and apostles is sin against the Holy Spirit,‭ ‬and a heinous one too,‭ ‬though not‭ ‬the sin‭; ‬and one of which the sectaries and a great many reformers are guilty.‭'

The Christadelphian, Jan and Aug 1873


31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the holy spirit shall not be forgiven unto men.

The Pharisees committed an unpardonable sin in attributing the miracles of Christ to Beelzebub,‭ ‬the imaginary prince of demons‭; ‬but such an offence would be impossible now.‭ ‬There is no miracle-working now,‭ ‬nor are there any who have tasted of the powers of the world to come in the same sense as did the apostles of the first century.‭ ‬In short,‭ ‬it is perfectly evident that the whole of the New Testament teaching is in harmony with the words of John,‭

‭"‬There is a sin unto death,‭ ‬and there is a sin not unto death.‭"

Those who do their best to follow Christ,‭ ‬and keep pressing onward will be forgiven the remissnesses which they have manifested.

It was thus in Old Testament times.‭ ‬Unless those under the law were in a much more privileged position than those under grace,‭ ‬forgiveness of sin would be no more possible then than it is now‭; ‬yet,‭ ‬after entering covenant relationship the subsequent sacrifices offered were an indication that sin might still be covered.‭ ‬The Israelites did sin without exception,‭ ‬and yet it is clearly stated that many of them will have eternal life.

TC March 1896.



The holy oracles are the words of the Holy Spirit, and anyone speaking against them, speaks against their author. Nevertheless, this is not that sin against the Holy Spirit which Jesus says will never be forgiven. That sin was the one committed by the Scribes and Pharisees, which it is not in our power to commit.

The Holy Spirit was present in their midst, speaking by the mouth of Jesus the words of eternal truth, and doing works of power which only the power of the Eternal could work. This living speaking agency, whose works bore witness of the Father's operation therein, the Pharisees blasphemed in saying the works done were the works of Baalzebub, the god of the Philistines, and that the worker, therefore, was not the Holy Spirit, but a mythical pretended spirit, and unclean, as the supposed spirit of Baalzebub was supposed to be.

Jesus declares this offence unpardonable. The evidence adduced was such as ought to have convinced them of the divinity of Christ, and would have convinced them had they been other than hypocritical self-seekers and timeservers. Jesus makes this evidence the ground of their responsibility:

"If I had not come among them and done works which none other man did, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for their sin. Now have they both seen and hated me and my Father."—(John 15:21.)

A man disregarding the voice of the Holy Spirit through ignorance, is not in the position of the Pharisees. Though he sins against the Holy Spirit (in treating lightly and disobeying its voice) he is not guilty of the offence which Jesus says is unpardonable, but, like Paul, may find mercy, because he did it ignorantly in unbelief.—(1 Tim. 1:13.)

The Christadelphian, Aug 1873



36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.


every one gathered to that grand assize will be called upon to give an account of himself. Of this there can be no doubt, for Paul says again,

"everyone of us (saints) shall give account of himself to the Deity."

This relation of experiences will consume time; and one would conclude no little time. Some will doubtless be very brief, having little to say, while others will be even "speechless;" but some will have a longer account to give, as in the case of Paul and others like him.

Then there will be the verdicts with all their attendant circumstances; for after the accounts given, come the personal recompenses; for they appear at the tribunal that they may

"receive in body the things according to that they have done whether good or bad."

For what a man sows in body he must reap in body --

"he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."

Saints who have sown to the flesh, and there have been many such, will, in this "time of the dead," be left in the body recently created from the dust; and of that body they will reap corruption that will utterly and finally destroy it.

"This is the Second Death."

Eureka 11.4.1.



...but the unbelieving, who love and invent lies, when their attention is directed to these words, reject them; and say they "don't believe a word of it". They say, that there is no judgment for the saints when they have come forth from the graves; and that the only judgment day for them is the time of their existence between immersion and death.

In this time, they would have the simple believe, they are standing before the tribunal of Christ and giving an account of themselves; and that at death the account closes: so that in their coming forth from the charnel-house of corruption, sentence is executed; and they will know their acceptance before they even see Christ! Such is the latest invention in the department of lies, which the inventors, with good words and fair speeches, seek to impose upon the hearts of the simple.

But to these unbelieving lovers of lies, though they may say Lord, Lord, and prophesy in his name, Jesus says,

"he that receiveth not my words, hath that which judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day".

To receive his words is to "believe on him". They do not believe on him who receive not his words; but of them who do, he saith, "I will raise him up at the last day". This shows that judgment by the Word is to be in the day of resurrection: concerning which Paul saith, in Rom. 2:12,

"as many as have sinned without law shall perish without law; and as many as have sinned under law shall be judged through law in the day when the Deity shall judge the secret things of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel".


Eureka 20.3



37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

I proceed now to remark, that the second proposition of our opponents is as foundationless as their first.

They say that the " righteous are not to be brought to judgment." By this they mean that the elect are not to stand at the bar of Christ's tribunal, and there to tell the story of their lives, as developed in connection with the profession of the faith.

Their theory of being conceived, quickened and born of the spirit in an instant of time, will

not allow of giving account. They are satisfied with nothing short of an instantaneous and sudden bound from the dust, somewhat after the manner of a rocket skyward through the air !

They do not seem to have any respect for figures, or analogies ; and, I am sorry to say, some of them manifest as little deference for the plain and direct testimony of the Word.

Moses and Paul both testify that " Yahweh shall judge His people " (Deut. xxxii. 36 ; Heb. x. 30). And Solomon says, " The Elohim shall judge the righteous and the Wicked " (Eccl. iii. 17). This Elohistic Judge is the Father and the Son in flesh-manifestation, justified by spirit (1 Tim. iii. 16). "The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son, and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man " (Jno. v. 22, 27). " As I hear," adds Jesus, " I judge; and my judgment is just." " The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day " (Jno. xii. 48). " The Lord will not condemn the righteous when he is judged " (Ps. xxxvii. 33). " He shall bring every work into

judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil" (Eccl. xii. 14). " Every injurious word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in a day of judgment " (not merely when they confess in prayer) : " for by thy words," saith Jesus, " thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned " (Matt. xii. 36-37).

Paul teaches that "men treasure up for themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of Deity : who will render to every man according to his

deeds : to them who by patient continuance in well doing SEEK FOR glory and honour and incorruptibility, eternal life ; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile ; but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile ; for there is no respect of persons with Deity. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law ; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by law, in the day when Deity shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel" (Rom. ii. 5-12,16).

No teaching can be plainer than this. There is a day styled " the last day," which is " a day of judgment " ; specified by John as " the time of the dead that they should be judged " (Rev. xi. 18). In that day, " a great white throne " is set; and " the dead, small and great, stand before Deity " sitting thereon : certain books are then opened;" and the dead are judged out of those things which are written in the book, according to their works " (Rev. xx. 11-15).

Anastasis



38 Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.


The Signs are important, but secondary. Some have made shipwreck in over-emphasising them far out of proportion: obsessed with them to the detriment of deeper things - then often being devastated when they did not follow an expected pattern at an expected time. Unbalance concerning the Signs can lead to a shallow and unstable faith: a gospel of political sensationalism.

Character, service to God and the Brotherhood, and an ever-deepening knowledge of the full range of the Truth, must be the principal aspects of our interest and effort.

Bro Growcott - The Household of Faith in the Latter Days



41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

From what Jesus says about Moses and the prophets, it is evident that the class of mind that cannot be convinced by the evidence contained in the Scriptures, and the confirmation which it receives in various ways from the history and condition of mankind, is too far below the elementary endowments of intelligence to possess the faith that pleases God, and without which it is testified "it is impossible, to please Him" (Heb. xi. 6). How much more must this have been true of those who, like the Scribes and Pharisees, could listen to Christ's wonderful teaching and behold his wonderful works without perceiving, with Nicodemus, that he was "a teacher come from God."

We may therefore understand why he proceeded to give his contemporary generation a poor place in comparison with some of the ancients:

...The Ninevites showed some susceptibility to the claims of righteousness at the mouth of an erring prophet. The Queen of Sheba showed some reverent appreciation of excellence coming to her merely as a matter of report. But here was a generation who could set up their opposition to him to whom all the prophets gave witness, and who could cry down the impersonation of all wisdom and worth though exhibited in their very midst.

Nazareth Revisited - In collision with the Pharisees


43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.

That "wicked generation" listened for a while to "the voice crying in the wilderness."

"All Jerusalem and Judea went out to be baptized of him in the Jordan, confessing their sins."

Then when Jesus appeared

"all men resorted to him"-"The common people heard him gladly."

The unclean spirit had gone out of the nation, and the nation in that state went through the dry places of its political desert-seeking rest-wanting to take him by force and make him king-and finding none; for Jesus did not reciprocate these advances in a political form, but said,

"Who hath made me a ruler and a divider among you?"

The time had not come. Disappointed at last, they returned to the original position of things, and found it empty, swept, and garnished, John being beheaded and Jesus given over to the will of his enemies, and the nation in no sense saved. Then allied they to themselves all the sects and parties to be found in the realm, including even bands of robbers, in a frenzy of opposition to all divine things, thus described by Paul-

"They have both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us: and they please not God and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway; for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost."-(1 Thess. 2:15).

This is the state of things illustrated in the saying of Christ about the unclean spirit having gone out of a man. Hence, in our reading of the saying, we must find its parallel, thus:-

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he (the man) unaccustomed to civilized ways, walketh through dry places, seeking rest and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return to my house whence I came out, and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished (as a house belonging to a hopeless and absent madman would be likely to become at the hands of rude neighbours.)

Then goeth he forth, discouraged at the absence of prospects, and taketh to himself seven other spirits (demoniacs) more wicked than himself and they enter in (to the reclaimed but now relapsed madman's house) and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first (for in the company of seven fellow-lunatics, he has given himself up to an abandonment of madness which is worse and more hopeless than the state from which he was originally released by cure.)

This reading of Christ's words supplies a parallel to the career of the "wicked generation" which he sought to illustrate. If instead, it be contended that it was the disembodied unclean spirit that walked through dry places and finally returned to the man with seven other diabolical entities, the parallel is entirely wanting.

The Christadelphian, Jan 1872




44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.

45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.


...a parable illustrative of the moral condition of the generation of Judah contemporary with Jesus and the apostles. The wickedness of the generation is personified, even as Paul personifies "sin" in Rom. 7:13, as καθ῾ υπερβολην αμαρτωλος kath huperbolen hamartolos, "an exceedingly great sinner."

Wickedness is "an unclean spirit;" and "seven other spirits more wicked than itself," is the superlative of wickedness. "The man" and "my house" are expressive of the generation. By the preaching of John, Jesus, and the apostles, before the crucifixion, wickedness in the positive degree was greatly restrained in Judah; for

"Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, were baptized of John in Jordan, confessing their sins;" and "great multitudes of the people followed Jesus:"

but, after seven years from the beginning of John's preaching, reaction set in, and the generation became superlatively wicked, filling up the measure of their fathers in killing Jesus, persecuting his disciples, and rejecting the Gospel of the Kingdom in his name.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, February, 1855



46 While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.

An ominous reaction is visible in Sardinia, where an active persecution is going on, not only against the liberal journals, but against the freedom of religious thought. The member of a Catholic congregation has just been condemned to six months imprisonment for doubting the Immaculate Conception. He affirmed what is unquestionably true, that the mother of Jesus had other children after him.

"While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood without, desiring to speak with him." And again: "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brothers, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us?"-Matt. 12:46; 13:55. Hence Matthew's testimony is, that Jesus was not the only son of his mother. It is easy to perceive, then, where Matthew would be if he lived and wrote under Victor Emanuel.

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception proves that the Roman Virgin Mary, like the Roman Jesus, her reputed son, are not the Mary and Jesus of the New Testament.

The Roman Goddess is declared by her worshippers to have had only one son, and he of an immaculate flesh like her's; the Bible contradicts this of the true Mary and Jesus; and teaches that she had many sons and daughters; and that consequently the flesh common to her and her son Jesus was identical with that of all the descendants of Abraham. The Roman goddess is a demon of priestcraft, having no real existence, past or present, in the universe of God.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, June 1856



50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

A prepared people are Christ's brethren (Christadelphians), and rejoice in this exclusive relationship, and none are entitled to this high position but those who do the will of the Father who is in heaven.

"The conscription has made it necessary for us here to designate ourselves by some name, and not only so, but I have been anxious that our brethren should have a name which would defend them from that of 'Thomasites.' I do not want to hear of such a people as the people I have referred to being called by my name.

If they believed and rejoiced in theories and traditions invented by me, it would then be well to call them by my name, but as far as developed truly, they believe the truth which makes them Christ's brethren, and CHRISTADELPHIAN expresses that fact.

To be called by this name is a great honour if we believe it. It is an unappropriated name by any sect, and, therefore, distinguishes us from all. Christian has lost its original signification in the mouth of a Gentile; hence the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Mormon High Priest of Utah, are all Christians so-called and brethren, but not Christadelphians."

Bro Thomas

My days and my ways Ch 29



50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

A brother of Christ‭ (‬or Christadelphian‭) ‬is one who does the will of the Father.‭ ‬This is Christ's own declaration‭ (‬Matt.‭ xii. ‬50‭)‬.‭ ‬Consequently,‭ ‬you may disregard the suggestion that a man is not a Christadelphian who,‭ ‬being otherwise a doer of the Father's will,‭ ‬was uninstructed at the time of his baptism on some abstruse question of priesthood.‭ ‬We have to grow in knowledge.

Bro Roberts.