What is Unitarianism?

A doctrine, similar to that held by the Arians, has come down to our own day under the name of Unitarianism.

Unitarians profess to believe in one God, but deny that there are three Persons in the Godhead. Consequently they hold that Christ was only a man, that He died as a martyr, but that there is no atonement in His death. Indeed, they believe that no atonement was needed, for they hold that man has not fallen from his original condition, and, on repentance, will be forgiven. They also deny eternal punishment.

Unitarianism fifty years ago was confined to Unitarian Chapels. Christians would pass these buildings with a shudder. Unitarians believe in one God and refuse to believe in Father, Son and Holy Spirit—One God. They affirm that the Lord Jesus was only a Man—a good Man, who is our Example, but not our Saviour. They affirm that He died a martyr’s deaths but deny that it was sacrificial. They deny the very foundations of the Christian Faith. Today Unitarian belief has permeated nearly all sections of Christendom Therefore the testimony against these beliefs, or rather disbeliefs, needs to be explicit and insistent.

Unitarianism affirms the oneness of the Godhead, but denies the truth of the Trinity—God, the Father; God, the Son; God, the Holy Spirit; Three in One; One in Three, One omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God, the one Eternal Supreme Creator, “which is, and which was, and which is to come” (Rev. 1:4).

At one time Unitarianism was confined to Unitarian chapels, where the Deity of our Lord was denied, and as a consequence the atoning character of His death refused. Christ was extolled as a wonderful man, but no more. Their teaching was to set forth Christ as an Example to be followed, whilst He was stoutly refused as a Saviour. Alas! there is little need for separate Unitarian chapels today as Unitarian beliefs have largely spread among the formerly orthodox churches. A man or woman holding Unitarian belief cannot be a Christian. Their teaching is blasphemy.

Unitarian beliefs, once confined to Unitarian chapels, now alas! permeating largely other sections of the professing church, go still further in their denial of the plain statements of Scripture. They deny the Deity of our Lord, they allow Him to have been a good man, but only a man. They deny the atoning value of His death, but hold Him up as a great example to the human race. Christians are indeed exhorted to follow in the footsteps of Christ as an Example (1 Peter 2:21), but, it is as SAVED PERSONS, they are thus exhorted.

UNITARIANISM TEACHES THAT OUR LORD WAS ONLY HUMAN

At this point it would be well to introduce to our readers the name of a Unitarian writer, whom we shall have to quote more than once. James Martineau (1805-1900) stands out as the most prominent speaker and writer of Unitarianism. One of their writers describes him as, “The best representative of modern Unitarianism in that his free criticism of the Bible was united with an intense reverence for Jesus and a profound faith in God. His sermons are classic in their beauty of expression, and in their depth of spiritual experience. They interpret the life and teaching of Jesus in terms of modem thought and modern needs. They appeal to the best in human nature, and they are filled with the sense of the infinite value of life and the goodness of God. On the other hand this confident religious faith was united with a complete repudiation of the Bible as an ultimate authority” (The Unitarians, p. 117).

The term, Unitarianism, was first used in 1600 to describe a religious association, marked by the heretical views we have mentioned. In 1774 Theophilus Lindsey resigned his living in the Church of England, and hiring an auction room, opened the first Unitarian Church in Essex Street, Strand, London. About that time the most influential name in the history of English Unitarianism was that of Joseph Priestley (1733-1804). He was very famous as a scientist. His discoveries in physics, electricity, and chemistry, especially his discovery of oxygen, gained him great prestige. But great and outstanding as his scientific achievements were, he was far more deeply interested in theology. He was an immensely voluminous writer, responsible for at least twenty-four large volumes. His influence attracted many to embrace Unitarian beliefs. One of their writers tells us that Priestley was in some respects in advance of his time. “He denied the miraculous birth of Jesus, and thought He was born in Nazareth with the same physical, mental and moral imperfections as other human beings… He regarded the doctrines of the Trinity and the Atonement as corruptions of primitive Christianity” (The Unitarians, pp. 88-89).

One hundred years ago these heretical views were confined mainly to Unitarian Chapels, but now, under the more widely known name of MODERNISM, they have permeated the professing Church of God. This has operated in the direction of weakening Unitarianism as a separate body. At first, if any one took the position of believing that there is only one God, the Father; that our Lord was only human; that His death was not of a sacrificial character, he would, generally speaking, be refused membership by the place of worship with which he was associated; and in that case would be likely to join himself to a Unitarian Congregation. But now, alas! these Unitarian views are widely spread and tolerated in many sections in Christendom under the name of Modernism. In this way the tendency would seem to be in the direction of lessening the size of Unitarian Congregations, whilst their views are held by an ever increasing circle.

UNITARIANS TEACH THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD, THE FATHER

Unitarians are fond of quoting the well-known affirmation of the Oneness of God, “Hear O Israel; the LORD our God is one LORD” (Deut. 6:4). But do the Unitarians take care to give the real meaning of this Scripture? Do they inform us of a most remarkable feature in the Hebrew language? It possesses no less than THREE numbers: SINGULAR, one only; DUAL, two only; PLURAL, three or more.

Solomon, the wisest of men, wrote, “The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is NO NEW THING under the sun” (Ecc. 1:9). Unitarian doctrines are no new thing. They were held in various forms as far back as the 3rd century. Sabellius taught there is only one God, the Father; the titles, Son and Holy Spirit, he said, being different designations of the one God. This heresy was condemned at a council held in Rome in 260 A.D.

In the sixteenth century in Italy such writers, as Denck, Hetzer, Castellio, Gribaldi, Servetus, were prominent in teaching similar views, viz., that there is only one God, the Father; that Jesus was wholly human; that His death was not an atoning sacrifice. The last-named of these, Servetus (1511-1553), in 1551 published a treatise, The Errors of Trinitarian Beliefs—the chief Trinitarian belief attacked being, that the Godhead embraces Three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One in Three, and Three in One, ONE GOD.

Modern Unitarianism denies the Lord Jesus to be more than man, and thus even His supernatural birth of the Virgin Mary, though Socinus asserted the singular modification of such an exaltation after His resurrection as constituted Him an adequate Object of divine worship. Arius seemed to approach the truth on the side of His pre-existence before He came into the world, owned that He, the Son of God, made the universe, but maintained that He was Himself created, though the very first and highest of creatures.

Faustus Socinus (1559-1604), an Italian nobleman, was the leader of an anti-Trinitarian movement in Poland, which lasted about one hundred years, and was then stamped out by bitter persecution on the part of the Jesuits. He taught there was only one God, God the Father; that our Lord was not Divine; that He was not a Mediator; that hell would endure for a time, after which the souls and bodies of the unregenerate would be annihilated and cease to exist. We do not condone the persecuting spirit that prevailed in those days, but we draw attention to this, because their doctrines were similar to those of the Unitarians, so much so that Unitarians have sometimes been called Socinians.

Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden sinned. God clothed them in the skins of beasts. How could that covering be procured? By sacrifice. For the very first time in the history of the world BLOOD was shed in order that the skins might be procured to form a covering for Adam and Eve. Again, when Abel and Cain approached God, Cain brought of the fruits of the ground—he was the first Unitarian the world ever saw. It is said that Unitarianism originated in this country, in Boston, Massachusetts, but it began just outside the Garden of Eden in the early stages of the history of this world, and Cain was its first exponent. Since that day this world has been divided into two great camps—