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An Explanation of Unitarian Christianity D. R. Miano |
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PREFACE
A manual such as this is
meant simply to express the general belief of the majority of
Unitarian Christians and is intended to familiarize the interested
person with the Unitarian Christian faith. The term “Unitarianism”
once referred specifically and exclusively to a Christian
denomination. Over the last century, however, particularly since the
advent of the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1961, the movement
has transformed into a diverse body in which there is great variance
in theological opinion, including non-Christian theists and even
“humanist” atheists. The sentiments outlined in this handbook are
representative only of those holding to the original Christian
tradition in the Unitarian movement.
Briefly described,
Unitarian Christianity is, like other forms of Christianity, a
religion that asserts the divine character, divine spirit, and divine
foundation of the teaching of Jesus Christ. It places particular
emphasis on reason, conscience, and free will in religion and uses
contemporary methods to understand myths and symbols of the past. It
is a progressive religion, founded on and patterned after the
elemental Christianity of Jesus and his disciples. Like that model, it
seeks ever to form surer and nobler understandings of God and of the
world by a conscientious search for truth. It lays great stress on the
ethical responsibility of individuals, of the Church, and of the human
race. Unitarian Christianity is distinguished from other Christian
religions in four main respects:
1) the belief that human nature in its present condition is neither inherently corrupt nor depraved, but exactly as God created it and intended it to be from the beginning, capable of both good and evil; 2) the conviction that no religion has a monopoly on holy spirit or theological truth; 3) the belief that the Bible, while inspired of God, is written by humans and therefore subject to human error; 4) the rejection of traditional doctrines that malign God’s character or veil the true nature and mission of Jesus, such as the doctrines of predestination, eternal damnation, the Trinity, and the vicarious sacrifice or satisfaction theory of the Atonement. Other religions may
subscribe to one or more of these views, but Unitarian Christianity is
unique in upholding all of them. It is the rejection of the Trinity
doctrine that gave rise to the name “Unitarian,” although
disavowal of the Trinity teaching is hardly the emphasis of
Unitarianism. Unitarians have great respect for all forms of
Christianity, but are convinced that their Christianity best reflects
Jesus’ own vision. What follows will
attempt to explain in more detail the reasons for the views outlined
above and provide further information about Unitarian Christians and
their religion. This handbook is based loosely on the “Manual of
Unitarian Belief,” penned by James Freeman Clarke in 1884, but
reflects developments made in Unitarian Christian thought since that
time. As in the case of the original, every proposition contained in
it is liable to discussion, correction, and revision. There is, of
course, a variety of religious opinion even among Unitarian Christians
and no doubt many Unitarian Christians would find something in this
handbook with which they disagree. Nevertheless, it is a fair
representation of Unitarian Christian thinking. The author hopes that
it will stimulate and arouse inquiry and deeper reflection on
Unitarian Christianity among both Unitarian Christians and those
interested in learning more about the faith. TABLE
OF CONTENTS I.
Religion II.
Christianity III.
The
Bible IV.
Creeds V.
God VI.
Jesus
Christ VII.
Faith
and Belief in Christ VIII.
The
Work of Christ IX.
The
Holy Spirit X.
Humanity XI.
The
Problem of Evil XII.
Atonement
and Reconciliation XIII.
Probation,
Judgment, and Retribution XIV.
The
Future Life XV.
Conversion
and Regeneration XVI.
Prayer XVII.
Religious
Duty XVIII.
Free
and Rational Christianity XIX.
The
Church ARTICLE
I.
§ 2. Religion can be an enhancement to human life,
as it heightens consciousness, increases emotional wellbeing, draws
one to better oneself, and nourishes the sense of self-value. It is a
vehicle through which to express or develop spirituality through
prayer, ritual, religious or spiritual readings, and connection to
others and God. For some it adds meaning and purpose to life, or a
personal sense of mission. It also provides a source of guidance or
comfort when needed. Faith in things unseen and eternal give people
the hope of continued existence. Successful religion produces a change
in worldview and leads to a wiser, more compassionate society.
§ 3. The following
elements in the human soul constitute the basis of religion: (a) a
sense of dependence upon the Creator, (b) conscience, or the sense of
right and wrong, (c) the ideas of duty and responsibility, (d) reason,
or the faculty which perceives universal and necessary laws, and (e)
aspiration, which tends toward the good, the beautiful, and the true.
That religion is natural to humans is demonstrated by the fact that,
in a higher or lower form, it has been manifested among all peoples
and cultures, in ancient and modern times. § 4. Natural
religion is that which is awakened by the sight of the order and
beauty of nature, of its suitability to the use of living beings, and
of its variety and unity, leading the rational mind up to the
conception of a Creator who is supreme in power, wisdom, and goodness. § 5. Revealed
religion consists of the disclosures, or discoveries, of divine
truth made to inspired persons, thus producing lawgivers, prophets,
philosophers, and spiritual leaders for the human race. ARTICLE
II.
§ 7. All those who try
to live by the words of Jesus are Christians. When they read the life
and teachings of Jesus, they find in them what feeds their moral and
spiritual nature and satisfies the highest needs of their inner being.
They then believe consciously and experimentally in him, because he
helps them to be good and to do good. When a Christian is able to
compare the character and truth of Jesus with those of other teachers
and masters (like Moses, Confucius, Buddha, Mohammed, or Socrates), he
or she finds in him a greater depth and fullness of spiritual life
than in any other. Although they respect and find value in the sayings
of the other great teachers and masters, they believe intellectually
in Jesus as the best of them (1 Cor. 3:11). This is what makes them
Christian. § 8. In accordance with
Jesus’ teaching, Unitarian Christians hold that practical religion
is summed up in love to God and love to humankind (Matt. 22:34-40).
Unitarian Christians highly value those forms of Christianity that
strive to be ever more in accordance with the teaching of Jesus and
that are more frequently associated with free thought and social
progress, two principles that Jesus himself promoted and exemplified. ARTICLE
III.
§ 10. The Bible was
inspired, not to be perfectly accurate in matters of science and
history, but to teach, to reprove, to correct, and to train in
righteousness. In other words, the purpose of its instruction and
training is to equip us for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). The
Bible accomplishes this purpose perfectly. With this in mind,
Unitarian Christians are keen to pay attention in the Scriptures to
whatever admonitions are directed toward a universal audience and to
learn from principles governing admonitions directed toward a limited
or circumscribed audience. § 11. The respect that
Unitarian Christians give to the Scriptures is a reason, they believe,
for studying them with particular care and for understanding the
principles of interpretation by which God’s messages, embedded
within, may be uncovered. We ought to expect occasional obscurity in
such a book as the Bible, which was written for past and future ages,
as well as for the present. But God's wisdom is a pledge that whatever
is necessary for us, and
necessary for salvation, is revealed too plainly to be mistaken, and
too consistently to be questioned, by a sound and upright mind. § 12. Although
considering it, on the whole, an inspired book, Unitarians also regard
the Bible as coming not only from God, but also from humans. It is
full of human experience, sorrow, joy, temptation, sin, repentance,
trust, hope, and love. Coming from the deepest places in the human
heart, it goes to the deepest places. Written by many people and at
different times, it is of various application and value. We find
that many portions of the Bible, instead of being concerned with
universal truths, refer specifically to the times when they were
written, to the cultures, people, concerns, states of society, and
patterns of thought that have passed away, and without the knowledge
of which we are constantly in danger of assigning to all times and
places what was of local (and temporary) application. These documents
often strongly bear the mark of the persons who wrote them. That an
individual’s genius and character show themselves clearly in such
writings tells us that they did not compose by Divine dictation.
Therefore, acquaintance with their feelings and influences is a vital
preparation for understanding their works. Human language is subject
to various interpretations, and every word and every sentence must be
understood and explained according to the subject under discussion,
according to the intentions, beliefs, circumstances, principles, and
idiosyncrasies of the writer, and according to the idioms and
capabilities of the language that he uses. With these views of the
Bible, we feel it is our duty to exercise our reason upon it
constantly, to compare, to infer, and to look beyond the words
themselves to the spirit of the message itself. § 13. Unitarians see
some variation and discrepancy in the Bible’s theology and morality,
which are affected by the times and circumstances of the various
writers. Beginning with the Hebrew Scriptures and progressing to and
through the New Testament, the truth has unfolded itself gradually to
human eyes and continues to do so. Unitarians give due regard to this
phenomenon. The apostle Paul refers to the growth and development of
knowledge about divine things and compares it to his own personal
experience: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a
child, I thought as a child; now that I have become a man, I have put
away childish things” (1 Cor. 13:11). Unitarians likewise put away
the childish things of former days. § 14. Unitarians
therefore do not believe in the infallibility of the Bible, as some
other Christians do. Objections to the doctrine of plenary or
infallible inspiration of the Scripture are such as these: (a)
The Scriptures nowhere claim or assume infallibility.
The texts usually relied on (2 Tim. 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:21) teach that
the prophets and apostles were inspired, but do not assert that their
inspiration made them infallible.
Inspiration leads to the
sight of truth and reality, but not necessarily to a perfectly
accurate description of what is seen. But these errors of expression
do not detract from the authority of the Bible as a teacher of the
best moral and spiritual truth. ARTICLE
IV.
§ 16. A creed is simply
a statement of belief or a list of points on which people can agree.
In this sense creeds are good, useful, and desirable for individuals.
If a number of persons who hold the same belief unite to convince
others of its truth, this also is natural and right. If they state
their beliefs in propositions and articles, this also may be useful.
To such creeds Unitarians do not object. Many of their churches and
organizations have adopted such statements of opinion. § 17. But Unitarians
object to religious creeds under the following circumstances: (a) When
they are made a test of character; (b) When they are made a condition
of fellowship; (c) When they become an obstacle to the spiritual
progress of the Church or of an individual. Most of the creeds of the
Christian Church have been liable to these objections. They have been
made a test of Christian character, contrary to the distinct statement
of Jesus that obedience, not belief or profession, is the true test of
character (Matt. 7:15-27; 19:16-21; see also Eccl. 12:13), and that
true religion consists in love to God and fellow humans (Mark
12:28-34). They have been made a condition of Christian fellowship,
contrary to the declaration of Jesus that whosoever
shall
do the will of God is like a mother and sister and brother to him
(Mark 3:35). They have been obstacles to progress, imposing the
opinions of past centuries upon present belief. Though Unitarians
reject such creeds as these, their religious convictions are no less
distinct and earnest. But since perfect knowledge is of the future, it
is wise not to be dogmatic at this time (1 Cor. 4:5). § 18. Some object that
Unitarians’ aversion to creeds results in too great a divergence of
opinion in their religious views. But Unitarian Christians agree on
the fundamental aspects of their religion, which include the
indispensable tenets of Christianity (in their most basic, unrefined
form), and which emphasize that which Jesus himself emphasized,
namely, godly attitude and behavior. One of Christ’s apostles, in a
letter to Timothy, urges his reader not to teach doctrine beyond the
healthful words of Jesus and the teaching that accords with godly
devotion, warning that questionings and debates about words can lead
to envy, strife, abusive speech, wicked suspicions, and violent
disputes about trifles (1 Tim. 6:3-5). Indeed, history has shown that
whenever Christian leaders required all worshippers to accept doctrine
beyond the necessary exhortations for good living, these were the sad
results. God has so made the human mind that, as soon as people really
begin to think, they begin to differ. If, therefore, there is no
difference of opinion in a church, it shows that there is no
individual thought in that church. Men think alike only by not
thinking at all. This is assent, not conviction. Such belief is, in
reality, no belief and has no value. The only agreement in opinion
that is worth anything is that harmony which comes after full and free
inquiry about subjects on which men differ. Only thus can questions
really be settled; without such free discussion, differences are only
covered up. The variety of opinions among Unitarians is therefore the
evidence of free thought. ARTICLE
V.
(a) As regards
God’s indivisible unity. Jesus answered, “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O
Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord” (Mark 12:29); “We know . . .
there is no God but one” (1 Cor. 8:4); “God is one” (Gal. 3:20).
We find no intimation that this language was to be taken in an unusual
sense, or that God's unity was a quite different thing from the
oneness of other intelligent beings that were created in God’s
image. (b) That this
one God is called “Father” in Scripture. “To us there is but one God, the Father” (1 Cor.
8:6); “One God and Father of all, who is above all” (Eph. 4:6). (c) That God is
supremely holy, supremely powerful, supremely knowledgeable, and yet
near and accessible to all. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is
to come” (Rev. 4:8); “God is greater than our hearts, and he knows
everything” (1 John 3:20); “He is not far from every one of us;
for in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:27);
“For of him, and through him, and to him are all things” (Rom.
11:35); “One God…who is above all, and through all, and in you
all” (Eph. 4:6). (d) That God is
essentially love and loves all his creatures, both bad and good.
“He that does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John
4:8); “God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and
God in him” (1 John 4:16); “God loved the world so much that he
gave his only-begotten son” (John 3:16); “Love your enemies . . .
that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven: for he
makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on
the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:44-45). (e) That God is
deserving of worship. “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and
power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and
were created” (Rev. 4:11). However, we give honor, not merely
because God is our Creator, but because we were created for good and
holy purposes; we pay allegiance, not simply because God’s will is
irresistible, but because God’s will is the perfection of virtue.
Could we bow before a being, no matter how great and powerful, who
governs tyrannically? We respect excellence, whether on earth or in
heaven, and believe that in no being is the sense of right so strong,
so omnipotent, as in God. We believe that the Deity’s almighty power
is entirely submitted to that One’s perceptions of rectitude; and
this is the ground of our piety. We venerate not only the loftiness of
God’s position in respect to the creation, but the equity and
goodness on which that position is established. § 20. God cannot be
portrayed in pictures or sculptures, because God is spirit. Therefore
those who worship God—according to Jesus’ teaching—must worship
God in spirit and truth (Acts 17:29; John 4:24). § 21. The doctrine of
the Trinity, as stated in the creeds of all the so-called orthodox
churches, is this: that there are three persons in the Godhead, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and that these three are one God,
the same in substance, equal in power and glory, but distinguished by
personal properties. Unitarians reject the doctrine of the Trinity for
the following reasons: (a) Because the doctrine of the Trinity is
claimed to be derived from the Bible, but is nowhere plainly taught
there.
This difficult and profound doctrine, if it were so fundamental to
Christianity, must have been presented by Jesus and his apostles with
great clarity and precision and guarded from misconstruction with
particular care. However, in the many passages that speak of God’s
nature, there is not one in which we are told that God is a threefold
being, or that God is three persons, or that God is Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. In fact, the Scriptures abstain from stating the Trinity
so entirely, that when Trinitarians wish to describe it, they are
forced to go outside of the Bible and to invent words and phrases not
found in Scripture. The Unitarian opinion is reflected well in the
words of W. E. Channing: “That a doctrine so strange, so liable to
misapprehension, so fundamental as this is said to be, and requiring
such careful exposition, should be left so undefined and unprotected
that it must be made out by inference and hunted through distant and
detached parts of Scripture, this is a difficulty which, we think, no
ingenuity can explain.” (b) Because the texts quoted in support of
the Trinity are inadequate or irrelevant. Scriptural passages that list the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit together prove nothing except that there are a
Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit. Frequently, Trinitarians make their argument by showing instances
where Jesus and God are described as having the same attributes or
titles. But using the same logic, let us notice that in the New
Testament almost every “divine” attribute claimed for Jesus is
also claimed for his disciples. Was he said to “know all things”?
It is also said to them, “You have an anointing from the Holy One,
and you know all things” (1 John 2:20). Is it said that he was
“without sin”? It is also said of them, “Whoever is born of God
does not sin” (1 John 5:18). Did Christ work miracles? He says of
the believer, “Greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12).
Did God give to Christ a glory which he had before the world was? He
says of his disciples, “The glory which you gave me, I have given
them” (John 17:22). Did he rise from the dead to a higher life? Paul
says: “If the dead are not to be raised up, neither has Christ been
raised up” (1 Cor. 15:16) and “As we have borne the image of the
earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor.
15:49). Did Christ come to judge the world? It is said of the
disciples, “Do you not know that the saints shall judge the
world?” (1 Cor. 6:2). Did God dwell in Christ? It is written of his
followers, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that
the spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16). No faith can be
supported on this sort of reasoning. The Scriptural passage on which
Trinitarians rely most heavily is John 1:1, which reads in most
Bibles, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.” Most people agree that the Word refers to
Jesus. What is important to note about this verse is that the first
instance of “God” (theos) is preceded by the definite
article (ho), whereas the second is not. The Greek language had
a definite article (“the”), but it did not have an indefinite
article (“a” or “an”). So when a predicate noun is not
preceded by the definite article, it may be indefinite or have a
qualitative meaning, depending on the context. In this case, we should
understand the final clause to mean that the Word was “godlike,”
“divine,” or “a god” (Compare Acts 28:6). Many unbiased
translations reflect this understanding. Surely to speak of the Word as
God contradicts the earlier statement that he was with God. (c) Because there are many texts in the
Bible plainly opposed to the Church doctrine of the Trinity. Such are the texts in which the Father is called the
one or only God, which could not be said if the Son is also God and
the Holy Spirit God: “For though there are many that are called
gods, whether in heaven or on earth, (as there are many gods and many
lords), to us there is one God, the Father” (1 Cor. 8:5,6); “For
there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). Jesus prays to the Father, saying, “Father!
The hour is come!” and immediately adds, “This is life eternal,
that they might know you are the only true God” (John 17:3).
He also says, “My Father, who gave me them, is greater than all
(John 10:29), and then he makes it clear that he is one of the
“all” when he says, “I go to the Father, for my Father is
greater than I” (John 14:28). The apostle directs the Ephesians
to give “thanks always, for all things, in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father” (Eph. 5:20). If the Son were
God, and the Holy Spirit God, it would be our duty to pray to them
also. But all prayers are commanded to be addressed to the Father (See
Matt. 6:9; John 4:23, 16:23). (d) Because the Trinity teaching, said to
come from Jesus, arose long after Jesus.
The history of the evolution of the doctrine is well known. The
Apostles’ Creed, which in its substance goes back to a very early
Christian period, contains no trace of the doctrine of the Trinity. It
calls God “the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.” Before
the outbreak of the Arian controversy, almost every theologian thought
that the Son was in some sense subordinate to the Father. The original
Nicene Creed (produced at the Council of Nicea in 325) took the first
step and declared that the Son is of the same substance as the Father.
A number of bishops were reluctant to sign the creed because of this
expression, but they were coerced into doing so by an appeal to
“unity.” Even so, the creed knows nothing of the Trinity. It calls
Jesus “God,” but speaks of him as “God of God,” meaning “God
derived from God,” and so makes his divinity derived and dependent.
It was not until the year 381, after much controversy and party
strife, that the doctrine of the Trinity was established in the Church
at the Council of Constantinople. Immediately after the Council,
Theodosius the Emperor issued an edict that decisively established
this version of the Christian faith by threatening to declare anyone
who did not accept it as a heretic. (e)
Because the doctrine has no other foundation. Not only is there inadequate support for the Trinity in the Bible, no
valid or credible evidence in support of the Trinity doctrine outside
of the Bible has ever been found. (f) Because the doctrine is unintelligible.
Although many attempts have been made to explain it, none have proved
logically or philosophically satisfactory to the human mind. It
therefore remains, even by the admission of its advocates, a mystery;
and a mystery is something unintelligible and therefore cannot be an
object of belief. It
is clear that Unitarians are no less Christian than the early
followers of Jesus, who also never put Jesus on the same level as God
the Father. § 22. Unitarians object
to the doctrine of the Trinity, because, while acknowledging the unity
of God in words, it subverts that unity in effect. The doctrine
divides and distracts the mind in its devotion to God. It defeats the
effectiveness of true monotheism, which is to offer us one
object of worship, one supreme figure, one person
to whom we may ascribe all goodness, in whom is concentrated all our
love and vitality, and whose beautiful and venerable nature may
pervade all our thoughts. True piety, when it is directed toward an
undivided Deity, has a singularity and a chastity that strengthens and
enriches religious reverence. But the Trinity, though claiming
to represent one God, sets before us three distinct objects of the
highest honor, three infinite persons having equal claim on our
hearts, three divine agents each performing different roles and who
are to be acknowledged in those roles and worshipped accordingly. The
doctrine of the Trinity degrades God and injures devotion, not only by
creating additional objects of worship, but by taking the highest
affection away from the Father, who rightfully deserves such
affection, and transferring it to the Son, the most attractive person
in the Godhead for most Christians. People are inclined to worship a
figure most like themselves, and this is where the snare of idolatry
lies. A God who appears in our own form, having the same desires and
feelings that we do, speaks to us more strongly than an invisible
spirit in heaven, who is unapproachable in a human sense and difficult
to comprehend in human terms. Veneration of Jesus as God is a form of
idolatry. ARTICLE
VI.
(a)
Because the Scriptures teach that there is one God, who is distinct from
the Christ. See 1 Cor. 8:6; 1 Tim. 2:5; Eph. 4:5-6. (b)
Because Jesus plainly distinguishes himself from God. See Mark
10:18; John 16:27; 17:7-8 (compare also John 13:3). (c)
Because the highest powers and glory ascribed to Christ are said to be
given to him by God. See Phil. 2:9; Col. 1:19; Acts 2:36; 3:13;
5:31; Matt. 28:18; John 5:19; 10:29; Eph. 1:22; Heb. 1:2, 9; etc. (d) Because we find no account in Scripture where Jesus reveals to his
disciples that he is God. They regarded their Master as a man, but
wiser and better than themselves, and having an intimacy with God so
as to be called “Son of God” (Matt. 16:15-17). We should surely
have found in the New Testament some trace of the astonishment and awe
that must have come upon them if the wonderful fact had been
communicated to them that their Master was the Supreme God. (e) Because we find no opposition made by the Jews to the doctrine that
Jesus was God. It must be remembered that Christianity was born
and grew up among enemies who were on the lookout for any part of the
religion that might be seen as objectionable. They would have found
the Trinity doctrine, with all its apparent contradictions, a
particularly gratifying target. Nothing could have seemed more
abhorrent to the Jewish mind, which adhered to a belief in the unity
of God, than to be told that Jesus was the Sovereign Lord Yahweh. But
in the apostolic writings, which relate so much about objections
against Christianity and to the controversies that grew out of this
religion, not one word is said in defense and explanation of the
Trinity. Had Jesus’ apostles preached a God of three divine persons,
co-equal and co-infinite, one of which was the man who had recently
been executed as a criminal, they would have been obliged to repel a
continual barrage of verbal assaults. Is it not strange that such
objections are not recounted in the early Christian writings? Not even
a hint or whisper reaches our ears from the apostolic period. To be
sure, on one occasion the Judeans falsely bring the charge that Jesus,
being a man, made himself God (John 10:33). Jesus, instead of saying,
“Yes! I am God,” answers by quoting a passage in the Hebrew
Scriptures, where those to whom the word of God came were called gods,
and then says that he had only called himself the Son of God
(John 10:36). After this, no such charge was made by the Jews. We find
many accusations made against the apostles, but they are never charged
with calling their Master the Supreme God. They were only commanded
not to teach in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:18, 5:40). (f) Because Jesus prayed to God. See Luke 6:12; Matt. 11:25; Luke
22:42; Heb. 5:7. (g)
Because he taught us to pray, not to himself, but to the Father.
See Matt. 6:9; John 16:23; Luke 11:1, 2. (h) Because he taught us to worship, not himself, but the Father.
“The true worshippers will worship the Father with spirit and truth,
for, indeed, the Father is looking for suchlike ones to worship him”
(John 4:23). (i)
Because God is called the God of Jesus Christ. See Rom. 15:6; 2 Cor.
11:31; Eph. 1:3, 17; 1 Pet. 1:3.
§ 24. The Bible is
clear about Jesus’ subordination to God, but its testimony is less
so regarding Jesus’ precise nature in relationship to God. The
titles “Christ,” “Son of God,” and “Lord,” although
undoubtedly accurate and fitting descriptions of Jesus from a
Christian perspective, are somewhat abstract, and thus Unitarians may
differ in their understandings of them. Some Unitarians believe that
Jesus was a man, entirely human in mind and body (1 Tim. 2:5; Rom.
5:15). However, they say, he was an exceptional man, made free from
sin and kept so by an exceptional divine influence, made perfect in
all spiritual and moral attributes, that he might be the leader of his
race. In this view he was endowed with supernatural gifts by which he
was distinguished from other men. Some Unitarians think Jesus to have
existed as a spirit before he was born a man on earth and to have been
created by God before all other finite beings. This view is supported
by a few texts that call Christ “the first-born of every
creature,” the being through whom all other things were created,
etc. (Col. 1:15, 16; John 1:3), and by Jesus statement: “Before
Abraham existed, I have been” (John 8:58). Other Unitarians hold
that Jesus was neither divine, nor even an exceptional man, but a
representative man, such a man as all are intended to be. In this
sense he is the ideal man. In their view sin is not natural, but
unnatural, and a sinless man is more truly a man than is a sinner.
They also believe that all men will grow up into the stature of Jesus
and become like him, so that he will be the first-born among creation.
They contend that the typical man is not the imperfect, but the
perfect man, just as the typical plant or animal of any species is not
an imperfect but a perfect specimen. Any other view, say they, takes
us back to the doctrine of natural depravity (see § 40). § 25. As the Scriptures
frequently call Jesus “the Son of God,” but never call him “God
the Son,” he must have been the Son in the sense of an intimate
union with God and dependence on him, rather than something of God’s
own essence. When Jesus said, “I and my Father are one” (John
10:30), he must have meant one in sympathy, since he prayed that his
disciples might be one, even as he and the Father were one
(John 17:11). He certainly could not have intended to ask that his
disciples might be one in essence or substance.
§ 26. Unitarian
Christians believe that the great glory of Jesus is his spiritual and
moral glory. His true greatness was in his devotion to the Divine
will, his sympathy with suffering people, his readiness to perform the
lowliest tasks and bear a death of shame in order to save humankind
from the power and evil of sin. All this is continually expressed in
the New Testament, in passages similar to that in Philippians 2:5-11.
In this place the apostle exhorts his disciples to have the same mind
that was in Jesus, who, being the chief manifestation in the world of
the Divine character, did not ambitiously grasp at the honor of that
high dignity, but was willing to die the death of a slave in the
service of humanity; and he adds: “Wherefore God also has highly
exalted him and given him a name which is above every name: that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.” This passage, often quoted as a proof-text by Trinitarians,
is actually an argument for Unitarian views of Jesus, because, while
it attributes to him the highest honors, it states that these are all
given to him by God, that he is exalted by God, and that this great
authority is “to the glory of God the Father.” And it also
ascribes the origin of all this glory, not to the divine nature of
Jesus, but to his humility of character. The Scriptures thus teach
that (1) all that Christ had, he received from God and (2) that all he
received, he received in order to impart it to his fellow humans. § 27. Though Unitarian Christians do not believe it right to call Jesus “God,” some see no objection to the epithet “divine,” or even “a god,” in the sense that it is used in the Bible of those who receive honor (John 10:34-36), but not in the sense that he should be equated with the Supreme God. All agree that he revealed God as Father, as Love, as Infinite Goodness, as perfect Providence. He is portrayed as the image of the unseen God, the Word of God uttered to the world, the beloved Son dwelling in the bosom of his Father; it is said that he who has seen him has seen the Father, that God dwells in him and he in God. All these expressions teach the intimate union of his soul with the Infinite Spirit, an intimacy which he desired to communicate to all his fellow humans. Unitarian Christians therefore believe in Jesus as a man raised up to be the mediator to his fellow humans of the divine life; but they do not believe that he was God himself. ARTICLE
VII.
§ 29. Jesus asked
people to believe in him because he knew that he clearly saw the way
to help them. If they would only trust in him, he would give them
comfort and peace, put their feet in the right path, and enable them
to conquer their sins. If we have faith in the wise, the good, the
noble, the generous, we also become wiser, nobler, more generous; and
as Christ is the wisest and most generous soul that we have ever
known, faith in him is the strongest influence of all. His great hope
of the coming of a kingdom of heaven on earth has inspired his
disciples to overcome the evils of the world. His faith in the
parental love of God has brought comfort to the sorrowful and the
unfortunate. His faith in the triumph of good over evil has filled the
world with a living hope. § 30. Besides belief in Jesus, there is a belief about
him. We form this belief by study and reason. The good of having a
distinct belief is that it saves us from doubt, hesitation, and
confusion of mind. § 31. Unitarian Christians believe that the four Gospels contain an adequate historical account of the life, teaching, and character of Jesus. They believe him to be the Lord, Christ, or King, not in the same sense as were the former kings of Israel, but as one who is to be the master of the world by the power of the truth that he taught. That he himself held this view appears from John 18:37: “To this end was I born, and for this cause I came into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.” Some Unitarian Christians believe that Jesus wrought wonderful works of healing, but that it is possible that some of the accounts in the Gospels may have been imperfectly reported. Other Unitarian Christians reject the miraculous element in the Gospels altogether and yet believe in the leadership of Jesus.
ARTICLE
XIII.
§ 33. Unitarian
Christians believe it was, and is, the chief work of Christ to save
men from sin and death, here and now. (a) Sin refers to all those actions that are committed with consciousness, through which the moral teaching of God is violated. The apostle Paul speaks of human slavery to sin and defines this slavery as obedience to corporeal desires (Rom. 6:12-23). Christ saves or frees us from slavery to sin by his teaching, which reveals what sin is and how we can avoid it: “Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house upon a rock” (Matt. 7:24). His teaching shows us that right and wrong are rooted in the very nature of the universe and iterates the laws of moral consequence (examples: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” [Matt. 23:12]; “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving” [Acts 20:35]; “With whatever judgment you judge, you shall be judged” [Matt. 7:2]; “Give, and people will give to you” [Luke 6:38]; “No one can slave for two masters” (Matt. 6:24); ‘A tree is known by its fruit’ [Matt. 7:15-20]; “Happy are the pure in heart, for they will see God” [Matt. 5:8]). While the teaching of Jesus manifests the duty and expediency of doing right, Jesus’ life and sufferings demonstrate the truth of his teaching, and how persons can achieve freedom from sin by turning their allegiance over to righteousness. His example shows the possibility, reality, and beauty of a life given to the service of God and humanity: “I have given you an example so that you should do as I have done to you” (John 14:15), “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5), etc. (b)
The death that Jesus delivers us from is a spiritual death,
referred to in Scripture also as the “second death” (Rev. 2:11),
by which we would fall into a state of alienation from God (Rev.
21:7-8; see also §56). By consistently obeying Jesus’ teachings, we
“conquer the world,” become regenerate (see §§60-61), and attain
everlasting spiritual life, which is the ultimate goal for worshippers
of God (Eph. 2:4-5; Heb. 12:9; 1 John 5:11-12). Thus, by a gracious
mission, by simple and clear instructions, by encouraging
representations of God’s parental love and pity, by winning examples
of the transcendent beauty of goodness, and, most of all, by that
grand consummation, death, by that exhibition of the curse of sin, and
by his compassion even while he was made to bleed, Jesus brings us
nearer to God by helping us to escape sin and spiritual death. ARTICLE
IX.
§ 35. Unitarian
Christians believe this influence to be given by a constant operation,
wherever the human heart is prepared and ready to receive it. It helps
us to do good, clarifies the intellect, cleanses the heart, and
strengthens the will, thus enlightening, calming, encouraging and
making one happy. Therefore Christians are told to “live in the
Spirit,” to “walk in the Spirit,” and the Spirit is said to
“dwell in them” (Gal. 5:16, 25; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19). It
is given not only to prophets and apostles, to saints and martyrs, but
to all who desire help to lead better lives. § 36. The difference
between the influence of the Spirit of God and other influences which
come from the Deity is this: that whereas the others come to us from
without, through nature, events, and our fellow humans, the influence
of the Spirit is God speaking to us within our very being. We commune
with God outwardly through God’s works and through the events of our
earthly life. We commune inwardly when we are by ourselves and when,
in the secret chamber of our hearts, we lift up our thoughts and
wishes, our sorrows and sins, to our Heavenly Parent. ARTICLE
X.
§ 38. Unitarians
believe that all virtue derives from the human moral nature, that is,
from conscience, and from the power to mold one’s disposition and
life according to conscience (1 Tim. 1:18-19). This God-given moral
faculty distinguishes human nature from animal nature, and its very
existence assumes an ability to choose between good and bad.
Unitarians therefore reject the notion that all of our actions are
predetermined by God. We are commanded to be virtuous, and virtue
cannot exist without free will, any more than it can exist in the
instinct of lower life forms. § 39. When Unitarians
speak of “the dignity of human nature,” they do not mean the
dignity of human nature in its actual condition, but as God means it
to be and can make it become. No one can say about him- or herself
that she or he has committed no sin, because in spite of the
resistance of our spirits, we frequently do bad instead of good (1
John 1:8). We break the laws of God because we are weak, that is, we
are children of God in development. Besides our
virtues, we have failings as well, which are a
constant danger to our humanity because they obscure our
understanding, they destroy the quietude of our hearts, and disturb
the peace among us (James 1:13-15). But we find in all people powers
and faculties which unite them with eternity, no less than with time.
We have within us reason, which is capable of seeking and finding the
noblest truths. We have conscience, which shows us the difference
between right and wrong. We have the power of freedom, by which we can
choose good and refuse evil. We have the sense of the beautiful, the
true, and the good, and a longing for what is unchanging and eternal.
These powers, which are in all people, constitute the dignity of human
nature and make it capable of perpetual progress. § 40. Unitarians reject
the Calvinistic doctrines of original sin and total depravity, the
responsibility of the human race for Adam's fall, and the belief that,
until converted, man is under the wrath of God. They maintain, on the
contrary, that God, being just, punishes no one for the crimes of
others, and that evils committed by our forefathers may inflict
misery, but not guilt. They maintain that the Bible does not teach
that human nature was corrupted by Adam and passed down hereditarily
to all. When Paul says that “through one man sin entered into the
world” (Rom. 5:12) and “by one man’s trespass, many died”
(Rom. 5:15), he means that Adam was the one who introduced sin and who
set a poor example that others followed. But Paul is very clear that
“death spread to all men because they had all sinned” (Rom.
5:12), and not because someone else had sinned. When Paul speaks of
involuntary wrong-doing (“sin that dwells in me” [Rom. 7:17, 20]),
he is not referring to a something he inherited, but to a selfish
habit, which became ingrained when he personally allowed sin to take
residence inside of him. § 41. Unitarian
Christians agree with the apostle Peter, who said that anyone
that fears God and works
righteousness is acceptable to God (Acts 10:34). Jesus accepted
people who were supportive of him, even if they were not directly
associated with him and his movement (Mark 9:38-40). In the parable of
the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37), he commends the good qualities of
an “outsider.” And the account of the Day of Judgment indicates
that those who treat Christ’s family well, even if they do not
embrace Christ himself, will be placed among his sheep (Matt.
25:31-40). § 42. Unitarians
therefore reject the doctrine, taught in some Christian denominations,
that God selects a limited number (the elect) to be saved from the
corrupt mass of the people of this world and retrieves them by a
special influence from the common ruin. Some of them may condemn other
religions and assert that God is revealed to one group and to one
group only, and that the rest of humankind must affiliate with that
group and accept its doctrines of theology (which people by nature may
be disposed to reject) or suffer penalty from the Almighty. Nature,
conscience, common sense, the general message of the Bible, which
includes the mild example of Christ and the numerous positive
statements of God’s universal kindness and equity, stand in direct
contradiction to these positions. The remonstrances of such groups do
not produce all the effects on character that might be anticipated.
They tend to discourage the timid, to feed the egotism of the
fanatical, and to give excuses to the bad. By portraying a severe and
partial Deity, this religious system tends to corrupt and pervert the
human moral sense and to create a religion that is ominous,
proscriptive, and servile. Instead of moving people to tender and
impartial charity, it leads them into censoriousness, bitterness, and
prejudice. This system, which begins by degrading human nature, may
indeed promote humility at the start, but may be expected to end in
pride; for pride grows out of an awareness of distinctions, and no
distinction is greater than that between the elected and rejected of
God. ARTICLE
XI. THE
PROBLEM OF EVIL § 43. Any successful religion has a satisfying
explanation for why evil exists in the world and why good people
suffer. Too many people have turned their backs on God because they
cannot see how the presence of evil can be reconciled with the idea of
a loving God.
§ 44. There
are two types of evils that need explanation: evils of will and evils
of nature. Evils of will result from the choices that
various creatures of God make and usually result from deficiencies or
weaknesses on their part, i.e., a lack of love, tolerance, or empathy,
a lack of knowledge or understanding, a lack of courage, or a lack of
resources. Evils of nature, such as natural disasters or
unpreventable illnesses are not a by-product of free will, but are
attributable to dangers that are built into creation. § 45. With regard to the first type of evil,
Unitarians Christians are in full agreement. God created the universe
and its laws. As part of that creation, we have free will. God
does not determine what we will do ahead of time. We can exercise
this freedom for good or for ill. Just
like a human parent who agrees to allow a child to make some of his or
her own decisions, God cannot countermand the choices that his
children are free to make by divine permission, even if he knows some
harm may befall them. Like a human parent, God can try to persuade
them to do otherwise, but ultimately the decision is up to the child.
And sometimes the young and inexperienced foolishly get themselves
into trouble. Sometimes they actually hurt someone else, someone who
may not deserve to be hurt. God can discipline us afterward, but the
Almighty cannot prevent it from happening without taking away the gift
of free will. God knows that if humans have no free will, then
concepts of virtue and the soul have no meaning. If human beings
cannot choose to be evil, they cannot choose to be good. § 46. The second type of evil is more difficult to
account for. All Unitarians reject the belief that God uses natural
evils as a form of punishment, a lesson learned from the book of Job. Natural
evils are just that: natural. They occur in a more-or-less random
manner, and often we are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still,
God, as the Creator, is responsible for the existence of natural
evils, and if humans are harmed by these things through no fault of
their own, we may wonder why God refrains from protecting them. Indeed,
some may say, if God can stop something, but allows it, it is as much his doing as if
he caused it willfully. There is no uniform Unitarian position on this
issue, because the Deity has chosen not to give us a full explanation.
Although the Bible addresses the topic on occasion, its witness is
indefinite. It would seem that the only reason an omnipotent
God of love would refrain from helping people in these sorts of
straits is because some form of restraint exists to prevent such an
action. But who or what could restrain God? Since God is subject to
nothing, the restraint must be of the Deity’s own design.
In other words, there are physical laws and personal principles that
God has already set in place and over which God does not cross. God
may feel pained to see people experience adversity and may suffer
along with us, but God’s own principles prevent him from
stepping in and stopping evil (here and now, anyway) because of some
greater good. It may be that, in the “greater scheme of
things,” the suffering on earth is an acceptable price to pay toward
some other aim. In other words, only through a certain amount of suffering caused by
forces that God has set in motion is God able to truly achieve his
purpose. By interfering, the Divine betrays the Divine. It is a
scientific principle that an element of chaos or indeterminancy in the
ordered universe serves as a much-needed catalyst for change. Natural
evils likewise may be an impetus to necessary change, human progress
for example. The great bulk of human advancement has been aimed at
overcoming adversities. We are learning to combat sickness and
catastrophe. And we are getting better at it as time passes. Some day,
we will conquer these enemies to human life. This must be what God
wants. We are meant to mature and grow and better ourselves. Without
these challenges, we would stagnate. Thus the development of our
people as a whole may be the overriding concern. § 47. No theory about the problem of evil is entirely
satisfying to the human mind. We may never comprehend it. Regardless
of the reasons for evil’s existence, the Unitarian way is to have
faith and trust in the Creator. It is possible to believe that God is
good—even as we understand it—if we accept that God’s goodness
and eternal aims transcend what we consider good. “‘My
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ says
the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are
my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your
thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9). God is the only one who
understands what is really best for the human race, and for us
as individuals. We trust God’s judgment. We could never make the
sorts of decisions that God makes, and we best not even try. We leave
that up to God. The best faith is the faith that accepts and embraces
the perfection and infinity of God’s wisdom and judgment, even
though we have difficulty understanding it ourselves. ARTICLE
XII.
§ 49. Unitarian
Christians do not believe that Christ came to reconcile God to
humanity, but to reconcile humanity to God, not to make God love us,
but to reveal God’s love, not to harmonize God’s justice and
mercy, but to show that they are always in harmony. Christ's death was
not a sacrifice made to appease the Divine anger, but it was an
expression of the Divine love. Paul says, “He that spared not his
own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him
also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32). The idea that Christ's
death has an influence in making God placable or merciful in awakening
his kindness towards humans communicates very degrading views of God's
character. It gives the impression that the death of Jesus produces a
change in the mind of God towards humankind, and that in this its
efficacy chiefly consists. Unitarian Christians earnestly maintain
that Jesus, instead of calling forth in any way or degree the mercy of
the Deity, was sent by that mercy to be our Savior, that he is nothing
to the human race but what he is by God's appointment, that he
communicates nothing but what God empowers him to bestow, that our
Parent in heaven is originally, essentially, and eternally placable
and disposed to forgive, and that God’s unborrowed, underived, and
unchangeable love is the only fountain of what flows to us through
Jesus. § 50. Unitarian
Christians also agree in rejecting as both nonsensical and
unscriptural the popular teaching that the human race, because it has
sinned against an infinite Being, is infinitely guilty and is
consequently subject to an infinite penalty. According to this view,
sin, whatever the degree, exposes humanity to endless punishment, and,
according to Divine justice, the whole human race, being sinful by
nature, cannot escape this awful penalty unless a substitute is found
to bear a penalty in its stead. It teaches also that, since the guilt
is infinite, no substitute is sufficient except the infinite God
himself; and accordingly, God, in his second person, became human in
order to pay to his own system of justice the debt of punishment
incurred by humans. As a result, humans may now be forgiven of their
sins. Unitarians believe, however, that the guilt of any being, in all
fairness, must be proportionate to that being’s nature and powers.
Moreover, there is not one biblical text in which we are told that God
took human form that he might make an infinite satisfaction to his own
justice, nor one text which tells us that human guilt requires an
infinite substitute, or that Christ’s death could have been
effective only if he were an infinite being. In the mind of a
Unitarian, God cannot, in any sense, be a sufferer or bear a penalty
in the stead of his creatures (although some Unitarians hold that God
may suffer along with us). How dishonorable to God is the supposition
that the Divine justice is so extreme as to exact infinite punishment
for the transgressions of weak and ailing humans, and yet so amenable
as to accept the relatively brief pains of Jesus’ human soul as a
full equivalent for sins of humans past, present, and future.
According to this doctrine, God, instead of being inclined to forgive,
requires for forgiveness something humans could never give. It seems
absurd to speak of humans as forgiven, when their whole punishment, or
an equivalent to it, is borne by a substitute. While Unitarian
Christians gratefully acknowledge the importance of Jesus’ death,
they believe that he was sent on a much nobler mission, namely, to
deliver us from sin itself and to assist us in becoming a virtuous
people. They regard him as a Savior in the sense that he is a guide
through the darkness and a physician for the diseased mind. They
believe that salvation comes, not from the supposed value of a human
death in the eyes of God, but from the use of Jesus’ teachings,
precepts, promises, and the example of his whole life, character,
sufferings, and triumphs, as the means of purifying the mind and
heart, and of transforming these into the likeness of the Divine. ARTICLE XIII.
§ 52. We expect
forgiveness of our sins only from God. However, God is a patient,
loving Parent, who does not reject us because of our evil, but gives
us time and the possibility to reform and improve ourselves. This is
the forgiveness about which Jesus taught us (Mark 2:15-17; John
8:3-11). We can expect forgiveness of our sins by God if we sincerely
repent, turn away from our sins, and daily strengthen ourselves in
love and goodness (2 Pet. 3:9). § 53. Our conscience
demands a Divine judgment on all human conduct and character, not so
much that the good shall be rewarded and the wicked punished, but that
goodness, which has been misunderstood, shall be justified, and that
wickedness, which has passed for goodness, shall be exposed, that
wrongs shall be righted, and that men shall see the justice of God.
The judgments to come, like the judgments of this life, may be
different for each individual person. The “Day of Judgment”
arrives when anyone comes to know himself as he really is and is seen
by others in his true character. It is necessary for a person's own
moral progress that he shall be undeceived if he is deceiving himself.
But the more a person is able to see his sin here and is ready to
confess it and to repent of it, the less he makes the judgments of the
future life necessary for him. Therefore it is said, “If we would
judge ourselves we should not be judged” (1 Cor. 11:31), and “If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). In John
5:22, it is said, “The Father judges no man, but has committed all
judgment to the Son.” Elsewhere Christ says, “I judge no man”
(John 8:15). These passages are clarified by the saying of Jesus,
“The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last
day” (John 12:48). The truth that Christ taught is to be our
standard, and by it we shall be judged. The essential thing in the
judgment to come is the manifestation of truth to every man's
conscience in the sight of God, to see ourselves as we are, and God as
God is. § 54. God’s justice
is the justice of a good being, supremely benevolent. All punishment
is intended to reform us and to do us good. This principle of the
Divine government is expressed in Heb. 12:10, where it is said that
the Father of spirits chastens us “for our profit, that we might be
partakers of his holiness.” Unitarian Christians understand this to
mean that the Divine system of justice is designed, not simply to give
people what they deserve, but to incite them to be good and
benevolent, as God is. God's justice has the happiness of the creation
as its end, because it understands that virtue leads to happiness, and
it punishes for this end alone. Unitarians believe that future
retribution comes from the operation of the same laws that produce
retribution here. By the everlasting principles of Divine Providence,
right-doing tends to moral health, peace, and spiritual growth;
wrong-doing to moral disease and suffering. These laws are beneficent
in their operation in this world and in all worlds. God's mercy plays
a role in these matters too, but it does not work at odds with
justice. It is not a blind instinctive compassion, which forgives
without regard to the interests of virtue. This would be incompatible
with enlightened benevolence. In other words, God’s justice and
mercy are intimate friends, always at peace, always in harmony,
reflecting the same spirit, and working for the same end. God's mercy
has a regard to character as much as his justice does. It strongly
desires the happiness of the unrighteous, but only through their
repentance. It defers punishment and suffers long that the sinner may
return to his or her duty (2 Pet. 3:9). ARTICLE
XIV.
§ 56. According to the
New Testament, there are two forms of death: the death of the body and
the death of the soul, or self (Matt. 10:28). The death of the body is
a literal death, but one that we are rescued from through resurrection
(Acts 24:15). When we do God’s will, when we believe that God cares
for us and loves us, we are free from the fear of death. We trust
ourselves entirely to our faithful Creator, and say, “Into your
hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit,” sure that when we are with God
we are always safe (Eccl. 12:7). The only death to fear is the death
of the soul (“the second death”), which is the death that no one
can bring us, except we ourselves. Unitarians believe that this is a spiritual
death, by which we fall into sin, unbelief and ignorance. The practice
of sin results in our separation from God and the denial of our
relationship with God as a son or daughter (Rev. 21:7-8). In such
cases, it is not God who has left us, but we who have left God.
However, if we turn back to God, we may experience a resurrection from
this death as well (Eph. 2:4-5; John 11:25-26). This scenario is
illustrated well in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son (Luke
15:11-32). When the wayward son finally returns home, his father turns
to his other son and exclaims, “We should enjoy ourselves and
rejoice, because your brother was dead and came back to life!” § 57. Unitarians do not
believe that hereafter there will be two distinct and separate worlds,
one for the good and the other for the wicked, the one of perfect
unchanging happiness, the other of entire and unchanging misery. The
“great gulf” (Luke 16:26) between the good and the bad person in
this and in all worlds consists in the everlasting distinction between
good and evil. So long as one is in the hell of selfish desire and
will, no consoling drop of heavenly content can be brought to him.
Unitarians believe in many hells and many heavens, according to the
character and condition of each person. They believe that the purpose
of future suffering will be reformatory and not vindictive, and that
if a man is selfish and willful, it is best for him to suffer the
consequences of these evils in order to become better. § 58. Unitarians oppose
the common doctrine of everlasting punishment as being hostile to the
sovereignty, wisdom, justice, and mercy of the Divine Being, and also
as limiting the redeeming power of Christ and his Gospel. They believe
that, the object of punishment, being reformatory, will only continue
until the sinner shall be reformed. Infinite punishment is not a
proportionate punishment for finite sins. If it be said that we have
no right to reason from human justice and mercy to that of God, we
answer, (a) that all we know of justice must come from the principle
of justice implanted in the human consciousness by God; (b) that Jesus
himself compares the love of the Heavenly Parent with the love of the
earthly parent, and shows us from an example of imperfect goodness
what we may believe that the Divine goodness will do for us (Matt.
7:9-11). The doctrine of everlasting punishment tends to destroy faith
in the redeeming and conquering power of the Gospel, for in that we
are taught that goodness is stronger than evil, that love is able to
conquer all sin, and that it is the pleasure of the Father to
reconcile all things on the
earth or in heaven to himself by Jesus Christ (Col. 1:20; 2 Pet. 3:9).
When Jesus declared that “more joy shall be in heaven over one
sinner that repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no
repentance” (Luke 15:7), he implied that the grief in heaven over
one lost soul would outweigh the joy over ninety-nine that are saved,
and that even the angels cannot be happy while one sinner turns
himself away from the love which is waiting to bless him.
§ 60. The scriptural
word palingenesia, translated “regeneration,”
“rebirth,” or “re-creation,” is used to signify the new life
which has its source not only in the sight of God's law, but also in
that of God's love (Titus 3:5). Then, when we come to see the love of
God in all things, we are born again and become new creatures. We can
turn away from our sins, but we cannot create for ourselves the new
heavens and the new earth of spiritual joy and love. They are revealed
to us by holy spirit. § 61. A converted man
is one who has determined to do right and has begun to do right. The
regenerate man is one in whom the custom of right-doing is
established, one who has come to love it, and to whom it has become a
habit. ARTICLE
XVI.
§ 63. Objects of
Prayer: The chief objects of prayer are spiritual. We ask God for
strength, peace, purity, love, etc., that is, for the fruitage of the
Spirit (Gal. 5:22-24). We know that to do any duty effectually it
should be done in the right spirit. But we cannot always obtain a
right spirit by an effort of the will. We may be depressed, or
anxious, or vexed, or irritated. In that case this bad spirit will go
into our words and actions and prevent us from exercising the good
influence we really have at heart (Gal. 5:19-21). But if we open
ourselves to God and ask for help to feel right in order to do right,
we may be sure that this help will come. May we also ask for outward
blessings? Some good and wise persons think that we ought not. They
consider it selfish to do so, and they also believe that this is
asking God to suspend the action of universal laws. Others, however,
say that we may ask God for anything we desire and that God wishes to
have us do so, just as a good father and mother like to have their
children bring to them all the wishes of their heart. Only, in such
cases, we must ask in submission, as Jesus did, “Nevertheless, not
as I will, but as you will” (Matt. 26:39). We also are wise to ask
in Jesus’ name (John 16:23-24). This, however, does not mean merely
repeating the words “through Jesus Christ,” as though these words
might have some magical power. But “the name of Christ” means the
spirit of Christ. We must ask in Christ's spirit, not selfishly, but
including the good of others in our prayer. To pray in his name is to
pray in the same spirit in which he prayed, just as the phrase “in
the name of a prophet or righteous man” (Matt. 10:41) means in a
spirit of sympathy with the prophet or righteous man. § 64. Times of Prayer:
It may be well to have some fixed times for prayer, for example, the
beginning of the day, when we are about to resume the duties of life
and need to go to them in a right spirit, and at the close of the day,
when we may look back and give thanks for what God has helped us to be
and do and ask forgiveness for our failures. It is also desirable to
pray, even for a moment, before any work that requires preparation
that it may be done aright. But this is left up to each individual. § 65. Answer to Prayer:
Some Unitarians believe that the only answer to prayer is the good
influence that the thought of God's presence exercises on the soul. In
this sense, prayer has the same result as contemplation or meditation.
Others, however, believe that by a law of the Divine government,
prayer puts the soul into such a relation with God that we can receive
a direct divine influence. This law requires us to ask as the
condition of receiving some special blessing, which we should not be
in a condition to receive unless we pray for it. This makes a real
communion between God and the self. Jesus says, “Ask, and it shall
be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened
to you: for every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and
to him that knocks it shall be opened” (Matt. 7:7, 8).
ARTICLE
XVII.
§ 67. Unitarians
believe that the whole duty of humankind consists in doing justice,
loving mercy, and walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8); in loving God
with one’s heart, mind, and soul, and one's neighbor as one's self
(Matt. 22:37-39; 1 John 4:21). They believe that the essence of
religion is goodness, that ‘the pure in heart see God,’ that
whoever hears Christ's sayings and does them has built his or her
house upon a rock (Matt. 7:24). They believe that if we have an
earnest desire to lead a good life, we may trust in the promise that
“he who hungers and thirsts after righteousness shall be filled”
(Matt. 5:6) and that if we are ready, when we fail, to repent,
confess, and forsake our sin, “God is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John
1:9). § 68. We believe that
the really good person is on the way to salvation, whatever may be
that person’s outward form of religion. Mere surface morality, not
rooted in principle, we do not call goodness. But whoever seeks to do
the will of God and to be faithful and just to other creatures of God,
whether they be Christian or not, we believe will be accepted by God,
the Creator of all (Acts 10:34-35; Matt. 25:34-41; Rom. 2:14-16). § 69. Unitarians regard
goodness as the end, and religious acts as the means and helps to that
end. Inward goodness of the heart expressed by outward goodness in
life is primary and essential. Religion is for the sake of goodness
and belongs, not only to the church and to Sunday, but to every place
and to all times. It must go with us to our home, to our place of
work, to our amusements, and be the help and strength of every day.
Religion is given to make all of life sacred, to sanctify business,
politics, pleasure, work, and all our interaction with each other. ARTICLE
XVIII. § 70. Rational
Christianity does not mean that we are to make reason the only
source of truth. But it means that we are to test every belief by the
light of our reason and seek to understand clearly what we think and
why we think it (1 John 4:1; 1 Thess. 5:21), as did the first-century
Beroeans, who were commended by the author of Acts (Acts 17:10-11).
ARTICLE XIX. THE CHURCH
§ 74. Unitarians do not
practice excommunication. Because we are all children of God, we
cannot expel those who behave poorly from the church, but we must
endeavor to recover them for the good way through brotherly love and
exemplary life, as Jesus did (Luke 5:30-32). § 75. Unitarian
Christians regard Jesus as the head of their Church (Col. 1:18). Jesus
leads the Church through his teachings. No human individual or body
holds sway over the Unitarian Church. Each congregation is independent
of others and governed independently, though ready to unite with other
congregations in work and sympathy. For these purposes they meet from
time to time in regional conferences and at an annual meeting. § 76. Unitarian
churches usually affiliate themselves with a national Unitarian
organization, through which they may cultivate relationships with
other Unitarian congregations around the country. There are two
Unitarian associations in the United States: the Unitarian-Universalist
Association (UUA) and the American Unitarian Conference (AUC). The two
organizations are independent of one another. The UUA is the larger of
the two and has a small Christian contingent, which is represented by
the Unitarian-Universalist Christian Fellowship. The American
Unitarian Conference is a God-centered association composed primarily
of Christians, although non-Christian monotheists and deists are
represented as well. § 77. The AUC, through whom this manual is published, is not a church itself, nor does it govern any churches. It is a publishing and missionary society and an association of like-minded churches and individuals designed to promote the Unitarian tradition in America. In all its endeavors, the AUC holds to the original meaning of the name Unitarian, rejecting humanist atheist, pagan, and polytheist conceptions of Unitarian-Universalism that have come to dominate the UUA. The AUC holds to the following religious principles: 1.
God's presence is made known in a myriad of ways. Religion should
promote a free and responsible search for truth, meaning, communion
and love. 2.
Reason is a gift from God. Religion should embrace reason and its
progeny, including the scientific enterprise which explores God's
creation. 3.
Free will is a gift from God. Religion should assist in the effort to
find a path that exercises that gift in a responsible, constructive
and ethical manner. 4.
Conscious of the complexity of creation, of the limits of human
understanding and of humanity's capacity for evil in the name of
religion, we hold that humility, religious tolerance and freedom of
conscience should be a central part of any religious experience. 5.
Religious experience is most fulfilling in the context of a tradition.
Our religious tradition is the Unitarian tradition, which emphasizes
the importance of reason in religion, tolerance and the unity of God. 6.
Revelation is ongoing. Religion should draw inspiration not only from
its own tradition but from other religious traditions, philosophy and
the arts. Although paying due regard for the hard lessons learned in
the past and to the importance of religious tradition, religion should
not be stagnant but should employ reason and religious experience to
evolve in a constructive, enlightened and fulfilling way. 7.
Conscious of the spiritual and material needs of our fellow men and
women, the evil they may be subjected to and the tragedies they may
endure, works of mercy and compassion should be a part of any
religious experience. The
AUC has staked out a specifically God-centered set of religious
principles to set itself apart from modern Unitarian-Universalism, but
left them open enough to embrace the myriad ways in which people come
to know God, allowing members and member churches to choose their own
path to God in true non-creedal fashion. However, the majority of the
AUC’s members are Unitarian Christians, and many have founded
specifically Unitarian Christian fellowships and congregations. In
fact, this manual was created to help these groups explore their faith
and spread their message. |
© 2003 American Unitarian
Conference™