Unitarianism Around 1860

Unitarianism Around 1860 

Thomas Allen 

In Unitarianism Defined: The Scripture Doctrine Father, Son and Holy Ghost; A Course of Lectures (Boston: Walker, Wise & Company, 1860), Frederick A. Farley, describes Unitarianism in the mid-nineteenth century. (Today, like most Trinitarian denominations, most Unitarian denominations believe in woke agnosticism that stresses social justice much more than the message of the Bible. Since man can save himself, the state has replaced Jehovah as the God and savior of mankind. Along with worshiping the state, they also worship Moloch and Gaia.) The following is quoted from his book, pages 255 to 259.

  Christian Unitarianism affirms in the first place — That there is One only God; that He is one Person, One Being; that He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God and Father of all mankind. It lays stress not only on the strict personal Unity of God, but especially on His Divine Fatherhood. “To us, there is but One God, the Father.” (1 Cor. 8:6. )

In the second place it affirms — That Jesus is the promised Christ; the Divinely-appointed Messiah or Anointed of God; pre-eminently the Son of God, preeminently the Son of Man: the most distinguished Messenger and Representative, the brightest visible Manifestation of the Invisible God; second only to God in the glory of that office and rank with which He has invested him; one with God by a moral union and harmony of wisdom, will, holiness, and love; acting with the delegated power and authority of the Supreme; by His indwelling Spirit given him without measure, the infallible Teacher of God’s holy Truth; and exalted with the right hand of God to be a Prince and All-sufficient Saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins. “To us there is . . . One Lord, Jesus the Christ.” (1 Cor. 8:6.) 

In the third place it affirms — That the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit, is the Spirit of God; not a distinct person, or person at all; but by and through which, God is always present with us and ready to help, inspire, succor, comfort, enlighten, and sanctify the spirits of His children, will they but seek the precious Gift. (Luke 11:13.)

In the fourth place it affirms — That all men are born innocent; free at birth from all taint of sin and guilt, as they are destitute of holiness; gifted with a nature of glorious capacities, but exposed to temptation, liable to sin, actually sinners; needing the provision which God in His abounding mercy has seen fit to make in the Gospel of His Son for their regeneration and salvation; but free to choose, and therefore, free to accept or reject the offered grace.

In the fifth place it affirms — That the Atonement — At-one-ment — is the Reconciliation of man to God; not of God to man, for that could not be necessary. As the All-gracious Father, He never needed to be reconciled to his human family; but on the contrary, as the crowning expression of his exhaustless compassion and boundless Love, He sent His only-begotten Son into the world, to teach and bear witness to the truth, to labor, suffer, and die for us, that we might live through him. (1 John 4:9.) The divine instructions, the miraculous works, the sinless and perfect life and example, the sufferings and death, the Resurrection, Ascension, and present Intercession of Christ, being all part and parcel of the means appointed in the counsels of the Infinite Mind, for accomplishing this great Reconciliation and Salvation of the world. (Rom. 5:10; 8:30; 2 Cor. 5:18, 19.)

In the sixth place, it affirms — That the Bible is the History and Record of God’s Revelations to our race; furnishing, especially in the New Testament, the Divine, and therefore sufficient Rule of Faith and Practice to all Christian Believers; the Holy and inestimable Volume, which the Inspiration and Providence of God have caused to be written, preserved, and transmitted, for the Religious Instruction of mankind in every succeeding age.

Finally, it affirms — That the present is a life of moral discipline and probation, introductory and preparatory to a higher and an eternal life, in which a righteous judgment and retribution await all, and God will render to every man according to his deeds.

Thus much for the positive or affirmative side. But while thus on the one hand, in contradistinction to all systems of mere Naturalism or Rationalism, Christian Unitarianism affirms the reality of God’s last and fullest revelation in and by Christ and his Gospel, and these as the chief and leading doctrines of that Gospel; on the other, in contradistinction to the popular or received Orthodoxy of the Church, it denies and rejects the following dogmas, viz.:

1st. A Tri-personal God, or Three co-equal, co-eternal Persons in the Godhead.

2d. The Supreme Deity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It holds, asserts, maintains as earnestly as any form of faith in the Christian Church, his Divinity — his Divine Mission, Office, and Authority; but denies that he is God over all, the Supreme and Eternal God.

3d. The Personality and Deity of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit; denying that it is literally a Person; or God in any sense, except as the spirit of a man is the man himself.

4th. The expiatory, vicarious, and infinite Atonement of Christ; with the entire doctrinal scheme of Calvin.

Upon other points, Unitarians, recognizing in others and claiming for themselves the right of private judgment, do not entirely agree, viz. :

I. As to the metaphysical nature of Christ.

1st. Some believe him to have pre-existed, the first in order of time of all created intelligences [sic]; — 

2d. Some believe him to have been born of Mary, but miraculously conceived;—

3d. And some rest on his own declaration for the present, and await God’s pleasure for further light; — “No man (no one) knoweth who the Son is, but the Father.” (Luke 10:22.)

II. As to the Future Punishment of Sin. While they agree in rejecting the popular belief in the eternal damnation of the impenitent, and all believe in a righteous judgment and retribution hereafter; —

1st. Some believe, that the sufferings or punishment of the impenitent will terminate in their annihilation; — 

2d. Others, that all punishment under the righteous and benevolent government of God, must be disciplinary and remedial; and must finally result in the universal recovery of the lost to holiness and happiness;

Finally, others believe, that while progress is the law of the soul, the eternal consequences of unfaithfulness here will be realized hereafter, in the consciously lower plane on which the unfaithful and impenitent must enter, and forever relatively continue, in “the world to come.”

One important item that Farley does not discuss is salvation. Is salvation by faith and only by faith in Jesus and nothing else? Or, is it by faith plus something else, viz.:

– faith in Jesus plus baptism,

– faith in Jesus plus baptism and repentance,

– faith in Jesus plus good works,

– faith in Jesus plus reliance on and commitment to Jesus,

– faith in Jesus plus obedience;

– faith in Jesus plus perseverance until death,

– faith in Jesus plus membership in the correct church or denomination,

– faith in Jesus plus belief in the Trinity Doctrine,

– faith in Jesus plus believing that Jesus is the one true God, i.e., he is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

– faith in Jesus plus speaking in tongues;

– faith in Jesus plus whatever.

Likely, most Unitarians of this era were like most Trinitarians: Salvation was by faith in Jesus plus something else.

Copyright © 2024 by Thomas Coley Allen.

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Two Natures of Jesus

Two Natures of Jesus

Thomas Allen

An essential component of the Trinity doctrine is the doctrine of the two natures of Jesus, also called the doctrine of the hypostatic union. According to this doctrine, two natures, divine and human, are indissolubly united in Jesus Christ, yet they remain distinct. One nature is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and incapable of suffering. The other nature is weak, has imperfect knowledge, and is liable to sorrow, pain, and death. Thus, the former is infinite eternal God, and the latter is finite mortal man.

In 451 A.D., the Council of Chalcedon formulated the doctrine of the two natures of Jesus:

One and the Same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten; acknowledged in Two Natures unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the difference of the Natures being in no way removed because of the Union, but rather the properties of each Nature being preserved, and (both) concurring into One Person and One Hypostasis; not as though He was parted or divided into Two Persons, but One and the Self-same Son and Only-begotten God, Word, Lord, Jesus Christ.

Accordingly, the divine nature and human nature are united without confusion or commixture. Consequently, Jesus never ceases to be both fully God and fully man.

A true believer in the Trinity doctrine of the two natures of Jesus has to believe simultaneously in the following contradictions about Jesus:

– He is 100 percent God and 100 percent man.

– He is omnipotent and can do all things yet feeble and limited in what he can do.

– He is omnipresent and, therefore, cannot move yet moves from one place to another.

– He is omniscient (knows all things and is completely void of all ignorance ) yet has imperfect knowledge and is ignorant of many things.

– His mind is uncreated and infinite yet his mind is created and finite.

– He is independent yet dependent.

– He is immutable yet mutable.

– He is exempt from pain, sorrow, and death yet suffers pain, sorrow, and death.

– He is immortal yet mortal.

– He is eternal with no beginning yet has a beginning.

– He is self-existent yet derived.

– He is equal to God the Father yet is inferior to God the Father.

– He does not need to pray because in the fulness of the Godhead he needs nothing yet prays because he has needs.

– He did not die on the cross yet died on the cross.

– He cannot be contained by the heavens yet was enclosed in a woman’s womb.

– He is light yet enclosed in the darkness of a womb.

– He is Almighty God yet an infant’s body housed him.

– He is Almighty God yet a suckling babe dressed in diapers.

– He is without limitation yet had to learn to eat, walk, and speak.

– He was incarnated yet conceived.

All these and more conflicting attributes are contained in the person of Jesus.

Orthodoxy demands that a person believe in all these contradictions. Some contend that if a person does not believe these contradictions about Jesus, he cannot be saved.

Besides a lack of Scriptural support, a major flaw in the doctrine of the two natures of Jesus is that it presents Jesus as a deceiver. When Jesus said, “I can of mine own self do nothing. . . .” (John 5:30), Trinitarians claim that Jesus said this in his human nature. However, in his divine nature, he can do everything that God can do. When Jesus said, “. . . my Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28) Trinitarians maintain that he said this in his human nature. In his divine nature, he is as great as the Father. However, if Jesus is God, then he has deceived his audience with these two statements because he told them things that are not true. (According to the Council of Ephesus and the Council of Chalcedon [where Jesus was declared to have two independent natures and wills] whenever Jesus spoke, he always spoke as God the Son and never as a mere human. Most Christians accept the decrees of these two councils. Thus, anyone who claims that Jesus ever spoke in his human nature is a heretic.)

These explanations are like a man claiming that he cannot write because he cannot write with his left hand, but he can write with his right hand. Another example is a man with a good eye and a glass eye who witnesses a crime. On the witness stand, he asserts that he did not see the crime although earlier in his police statement he had admitted seeing it. On the witness stand, he is referring to his glass eye (human nature), which did not see the crime, although his good eye (divine nature) did see the crime. 

Appendix. Atonement 

Trinitarians argue that sin is an infinite evil and, therefore, deserves an infinite punishment. Consequently, the atonement must be infinite, and no finite being can make an infinite atonement. Since Jesus is both God and man, his sacrifice on the cross qualifies as an infinite atonement. However, like the Valentinians, Trinitarians maintain that Jesus died as a man and not as God (God cannot die). Only his human nature bled and died. Thus, only the human nature of Jesus, the mere man, was offered and sacrificed. The divine nature of Jesus, God, was not offered and sacrificed. Consequently, the infinite atonement completely vanishes. The atoning sacrifice to the infinite God is a mere man, for only Jesus as a man endured and died on the cross. Therefore, concerning the atonement, the Trinitarian doctrine of the two natures of Jesus offers no advantage over the Unitarian doctrine that Jesus is solely human. (When dying on the cross, “. . . Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” – Mark 15:34. Thus, the God part of him had departed leaving only the human part to die.)

Copyright © 2023 by Thomas Coley Allen.

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