Christadelphians
Christadelphians
(from the Greek
for
Brothers of Christ
/ Christ’s Brethren:
Christou Adelphoi; cf. Greek of Colossians
1:2—"brethren in Christ")[1] are a Christian
group that developed in the United Kingdom
and North America in the 19th century. The
name was coined by John Thomas, who was
the group’s founder. Although no official
membership
figures
are published
the
Columbia Encyclopedia gives an estimated
figure of 50,000 Christadelphians[2] in 120
countries[3] established in many countries
throughout the world,[4] along with isolated
members. Census statistics are available for
some countries. Estimates for the main
centres of Christadelphian population are as
follows: United Kingdom (18,000),[5] Aus-
tralia (9,987),[6] Malawi (7,000), Mozambique
(5,300), United States (6,500),[7] Canada
(3,375),[8] New Zealand (1,782),[9] Kenya
(1,700),
India
(1,300)
and
Tanzania
(1,000).[10] This puts the figure at over
55,000.
History and development
The Restoration movement and
John Thomas (up to 1871)
The Christadelphian religious group can be
traced back to Dr John Thomas, who moved
to America from England in the mid-19th
century. Following a near shipwreck he
vowed to find out the truth about life and
God through personal Biblical study. Initially
he sought to avoid the kind of sectarianism
he had seen in England. In this he found sym-
pathy with the rapidly emerging Restoration
Movement in America at the time. This move-
ment sought for a reform based upon the
Bible alone as a sufficient guide and rejected
all creeds. However this liberality eventually
led to dissent as John Thomas developed in
his personal beliefs and started to question
mainstream orthodox Christian
beliefs.
Whilst they accepted his ability to have his
own beliefs, when he started preaching that
they were essential to salvation, it led to a
fierce series of debates with a notable leader
of the movement, Alexander Campbell. John
Thomas believed that scripture, as God’s
word, did not sustain a multiplicity of differ-
ing beliefs, and c