The Christadelphians

Denomination·Founded 1848 CE·Around 50,000 worldwide in roughly 120 countries is the figure usually cited, from the Columbia Encyclopedia and repeated widely. There is no central body and no census: each ecclesia keeps its own roll and no one aggregates them, so the number is an estimate and should be read as one. Substantial communities exist in Britain, Australia, North America, Malawi, Mozambique and India.

Judaism → Christianity → Catholicism → Protestantism → The Christadelphians

Christadelphia — the community's shared siteArchiveDisciples of Christ Historical Society

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Scripture of The Christadelphians

The daily readings — the whole community on the same page.

Robert Roberts drew up a Bible Companion in 1863 that takes a reader through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice a year in three portions a day. Most Christadelphians follow it, which means a member in Malawi and a member in Adelaide read the same chapters on the same morning.

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LanguageEnglish; the King James Version by long habit rather than by doctrine
ComposedBoth testaments read as one continuous purpose, with the promises to Abraham and David as the spine
What it holdsThat the whole Bible is God's word and that no doctrine may rest on anything outside it
How it is usedDaily, on a fixed plan that reads the Old Testament once and the New twice a year
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held

The Bible Companion, drawn up by Robert Roberts in 1863, is one of the most effective pieces of religious infrastructure any small movement has produced: three readings a day, taking the reader through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice every year. It is printed in the front of Christadelphian hymn books and diaries and followed by most of the community, which produces a shared frame of reference in which any member can be assumed to have read the same chapters that week. The King James Version predominates by habit and by the age of the movement's literature rather than by doctrine, and other translations are used freely. The Birmingham Amended Statement of Faith, adopted in 1898 after a dispute over the resurrection and judgment, is the doctrinal basis most ecclesias in the largest fellowship subscribe; it is a list of doctrines to be accepted and doctrines to be rejected, and the second list is as long as the first.

The same ground, other faiths

claims that share this one's ideas
The Rigveda. Vedic Religion Open the book →
The Vedas were not composed by anyone. Hinduism · core tenet Go deeper →
The Kalpa Sutra. Jainism Open the book →
Reading the scroll. Judaism · rite Go deeper →
Tajwid, and the ten readings. Islam Open the book →
Akhand Path — forty-eight hours, unbroken. Sikhism · rite Go deeper →

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Numbers count Panfaith activity only — never real-world adherence.

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