Unitarianism is the belief that God is not Trinitarian in nature.

This belief can take many forms, such as Modalism: the belief that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are “modes” in which God sometimes manifests, or in Partialism: the belief that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are “parts” of who God is.

Other unitarians believe that Jesus is not divine and that there was a time when Jesus was not, i.e. that at one point in time, Jesus came into being – and that he has not existed from eternity past, as the Father has. Further, unitarians might believe that the Holy Spirit is either essentially the Father, or that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force, but not a “person” of the Trinity.

The following is a list of responses to common Unitarian claims, written by Pastor Jason Cralley, Executive Pastor at White Fields Community Church.

Creeds show progression of development towards the Trinity. 

False. The creeds were developed to fight heresy. As one heresy appears, they created a creed to address it. When another heresy appeared around the same topic, they would change the creed to make it more specific. According to the earliest Christian writings it is very clear that they believed in the trinity. Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Theophilus of Antioch, Tertullian, and others all church fathers that wrote about the Trinity long before the first creed was ever written.

The Old Testament foretold that Jesus would be a human being. 

True. But it also said he would be God. Isaiah 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 7:14 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” As Matthew 1:23 points out, Immanuel means “God with us.” The Biblical Unitarians argue that the Jews never understood that these meant the Messiah would be God. True. But as we knew they misunderstood most of the prophecies about Jesus. They thought he would come and set up an earthly kingdom. We cannot take what they believed as truth.

The New Testament teaches that Jesus was a man. 

True. But it also teaches that Jesus was God. We have to take the Bible as a whole and not take some verses to make a theology and leave others out. Jesus has divine attributes that only God possesses: he is omnipresent (Matt. 28:20), Omniscient (Mark 2:8, John 6:64; 16:30; 21:17), Omnipotent (Matt. 28:18, Mark 4:37-41; 6:30-44), Created all things (John 1:3, Col. 1:16-17), he keeps the universe going by his power (Heb. 1:3). Jesus thought himself as God: he forgave sins (Mark 2:3-12) and the everyone knew that was something only God could do as they tried to kill him (Luke 7:48-50), he accepted worship as God and never rejected it (Matt. 28:9, 17; Luke 24:52; John 9:38; 20:28), He stated he was God (John 10:30-33, Mark 14: 61-62, Rev. 1:8).

The Bible teaches that Jesus was a created being. 

False. Jesus explains his own preexistence ((John 3:13; 6:33, 38, 62; 8:23; 16:28) and that he existed before Abraham (John 8:58). God sent his Son proving that Jesus existed before his incarnation (Rom. 8:3; 1 John 1:2; Gal. 4:4). He didn’t create a son but sent the one that already existed.The New Testament teaches that Jesus is eternal: He existed before creation (John 1:1-3; 17:5), Jesus holds all creation together therefore he had to preexist before his birth (Col. 1:17), Jesus has always been and always will be (Heb. 13:8, Rev. 1:8), created all things meaning he was there before creation (John 1:3, Col. 1:16-17), he keeps the universe going by his power so he had to be preexistent (Heb. 1:3).

The Bible teaches that Jesus has a God. 

True and False. Jesus has two natures: fully human (Gal. 4:4) and fully divine (John 1:1, 14; Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:8). When he came down to earth he humbled himself and cooperated with the limitations of being a human (Phil 2:5-8, Heb. 2:9). Jesus the man had someone he would call his God (the Father). Jesus still has a human nature (1 Tim. 2:5; Col. 2:9). Jesus will always have a human nature and will therefore always call the Father God. This does not mean that Jesus doesn’t share the same divine nature as God the Father. 

Biblical Unitarianism commits the logical fallacy of equivocation where the meaning of a word changes as it is used. Saying “The Trinity is the teaching that the one God of all existence, consists of three divine persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” is not the same as “The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God.” The first sentence uses God as a quantitate, dealing with how many gods there are. The second sentence is qualitative, dealing with the nature of divinity. The Unitarians are confusing the qualitative with the quantitative. Jesus is qualitatively stating that the Father is God. He is not quantitatively stating that only the Father is God, and he is not. 

Jesus Called the Father the only true God. 

True. But Jesus claims that the Father and he are one (John 10:30) which his opponents knew to mean that Jesus was claiming to be God and picked up stones to kill him (John 10:31). He later states the Father is in him, and he is in the Father (John 10:36-38). So, if the Father is the one true God, then so is he. The Triune God is the one true God.The Holy Spirit is simply the Father. False. The Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father. The Father sent the Spirit (John 14:26). The Spirit does the will of the Father (Rom. 8:27). The Holy Spirit is mentioned with the Father and Son (Matt. 28:19). If the Father was the Spirit, none of these would make sense.