What Becoming a “Biblical Unitarian” Taught Me
What Becoming a “Biblical Unitarian” Taught Me
In this post, I’m going to reflect on the last few years of my experience becoming a Biblical Unitarian. Before we do that, I’ll provide some of my background and how I became one to begin with.
Confused
I became a “Biblical Unitarian” after I read the words of Jesus, who said, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”[1] Prior to this, I was a Modalist[2] for about six months. I became a Modalist after I began to investigate a controversy between a former friend and my former “pastor” of a church we’d left in Phoenix. They both believe in the Trinity, they just disagree on some of the language. My conclusion was based on two things: limited availability of Non-Trinitarian literature and other media, and also the fact that I wasn’t ready to explore the idea of Jesus not being God. So, in a way, I limited myself. Before being a Modalist, I was a very typical Trinitarian—confused.
So, I encountered the truth through the words of Jesus, and I began to seek others who believe the same. Enter Social Media.
Disillusioned already, but not surprised
Here’s where I explain what becoming a “Biblical Unitarian” taught me. By all means, disagree.
In all the debates I listened to, in all the articles I’d read, and in all the discussions I monitored and participated in, very few B.U.’s seemed truly convicted of their message. Let me explain by asking some questions I still have:
- If the Trinity is false, why aren’t debaters and writers explicitly rebuking the false god and warning those who worship it that they’re in idolatry? Call it what it is!
- If pre-existence is false, why are efforts being made to ignore that issue by giving those who believe that view a platform on Unitarian websites? They’re not purely Unitarian.
- If the Trinity, or any other form of Preexistent Christology, is false, then why are “leaders” and “teachers” and “doctors” and “masters of divinity”[3] advising people to attend those churches “if it’s the only kind of ‘fellowship’ you can find in your area”? Sure, it’s not “recommended,” but it’s also “not impossible,” either. What conviction! Only a wolf and hireling would send a sheep to the slaughterhouse. There seems to be more of these in the Unitarian camp that the Trinitarian! A Trinitarian would never give that advice to a fellow Trinitarian.
- Why are we investing in more theological conferences? When you become a Unitarian, you’re introduced to all the Youtube channels, Websites, Blogs, and Podcasts you could hope for that provide good theological investigation and study. What Unitarians (and I mean Unitarians) need to invest in through their new “Unitarian Christian Alliance” and local assemblies is the training, equipping, and sending of domestic evangelists that use the UCA directory to find pockets of believers not assembled and bring them together as such. Why is there so little effort being made to do this? It’s arid out here! We don’t need more theology. We need more actual groundwork.[4]
To be frank, piss-poor efforts like this make the truth appear as just another expression of an already convoluted, ancient “myth.” Why should anyone really care about our theology if they don’t see it unfolding?
The travesty is that the Biblical Unitarian movement as a whole has inherited a great responsibility from the previous movers and shakers of the Radical Reformation period and are squandering it. I must say, I often wonder how pleased those brave souls would be to find that their theology is being made more palatable, more “seeker friendly,” and left to drown in a stagnant swamp of on-going speculation and doctoral thesis after doctoral thesis. You would think with the religious tolerance in European and Westernized nations, there’d be greater efforts at growing the Unitarian numbers than there are. Nope. Just conferences and patty-cake debates.
In other words, it seems that the Biblical Unitarian pursuit is merely intellectual. It’s wonderfully logical information, but it isn’t being made practical. It isn't turning the world upside down. There’s an obvious difference between Trinitarianism and Unitarianism. Trinitarians understand that there can be no fellowship with people who deny their most essential doctrine. Trinitarians are more zealous in winning Muslims and Jews to their god than Unitarians are in planting ekklesias and multiplying themselves. Such a difference indeed! Why don’t Unitarians have the same fidelity and urgency to their message? Perhaps my experience is somewhat in a vacuum. After all, I've only been a Unitarian for a few years. But my observations indicate that the general consensus among B.U.'s is that you’re free to attend a Trinitarian-idol fest (“church”) or, for those singles out there, even seek a Trinitarian husband or wife!
Conclusion
This is just some of what I’ve learned since becoming a Biblical Unitarian. It isn’t all bad, though. Here are examples of the positive things I’ve learned:
- Patience, because not everyone wants to hear about your “mere man Jesus”
- The remnant is smaller than I thought
- God is knowable and relatable. He’s not a Mysterious Unfathomable Essence
- Jesus is even more knowable and relatable. He’s giving me a more practical, replicable example to follow
Nevertheless, I wonder if there’s a different term I can adopt to spare myself the disappointment and somewhat ease my conscience.
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[1] John 20:17, KJV
[2] A damnable heresy that teaches God is one person but that Jesus (the Son) is also God. So the “Father” and “Son” are literally the same person. Like Trinitarianism and other Preexistent Christologies, it’s antichrist.
[3] These terms, like the term “Trinity,” aren’t found in the Scriptures, nor are the institutions that people attend to earn them. Alas, “The Reformation” isn’t over…
[4] For example: Unitarian assemblies partnered with a pure UCA could, perhaps, apply for small grants used for literature/ tract printing and distribution, or partner with UCA “evangelists” who are traveling ministers dedicated to facilitating small-groups around the country and filling the gaps where little to no fellowship is found. Maybe the UCA could help facilitate and moderate more online debates with a broad-range of Unitarian voices so there’s a more robust Internet presence. Maybe barriers to "ordination" can be eliminated by more grassroots efforts at training teachers and evangelists. It shouldn't take a seminary education, mountains of debt, and a fancy degree to "qualify" a person to bring the Gospel of the Kingdom to people. In other words, we need to stop abdicating responsibility and shipping people off to schools. The school is the ekklesia.