Good morning. Today we'll be speaking about Unitarian Universalism. Kind of noble sounding, isn't it? But before we begin, let's ask God to bless our time together. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for this Lord's Day, and we ask that we may have fellowship around Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. We ask that you bless our time as we compare error and truth together. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. definitions of Unitarians and Universalism. A Unitarian would be a person who denies the doctrine of the Trinity, believing in the teachings but rejecting the divinity of Jesus, and holding that God is a single being. And a second definition would be a person who emphasizes the importance of character and tolerance for differing religious views. Universalism is just the theological doctrine that all souls will basically be saved in I got a few things, by the way, from Walter Martin's Kingdom of the Cults, another one called The Chaos of Cults, plus a little bit from their website and some other things here and there. But one of the interesting things in Martin's book was that, here on the demographic, the Unitarian Universalists are almost completely an American phenomenon, with Massachusetts having the highest concentration of members. And their influence far outstrips their numbers. Unitarians ranked first, by the way, in this One Nation Under God study, which was some sort of religious study that was done in the 90s in regard to home ownership, education, and family income. And by the way, the Jehovah Witnesses came in last at 30th. There's been an over-representation of Unitarian Universalists in the Supreme Court, at least since 1970. There's been eight. And I don't know, but what there may have been more since this book was written that I've used as my reference material. And also in the 101st Congress, they've had at least five presidents. So perhaps as conservatives, we may look at some of the decisions the court has made and scratch our heads. This may perhaps help us to be enlightened. I'm going to skip over the quick facts. That's for your reference, because we're going to look at their belief system here in detail in a moment. So we'll go right down to history. The Unitarian Universalist Association traces its history back to the Radical Reformation. Never considered Christian by its Orthodox foes, Unitarians nevertheless saw themselves as such until recent times. By the way, does any student of church history here know about the Radical Reformation? Anything they want to share about that? I have never heard of that before. Al or Charlie, you haven't heard of that? Okay. I'm just going to very quickly sketch that. Apparently, these folks tried to compare their views of Scripture and stand on Scripture alone, and they came up with some strange ideas, and when I was reading about it, I was puzzled because they're saying, well, they're trying to defend these views of Scripture, but they're not considered Orthodox. But anyway, apparently they've never been considered solid. burned at the stake, 1539-1604, he organized the movement of this Radical Reformation, which became later on Unitarianism, trying to utilize Scripture to justify his position, which was, any interpretation of Scripture that contradicts right reason cannot be a correct exegesis of the text. John Biddle came a little bit later, he also rejected the Trinity, eventually discovered this fellow's writings, and he too rejected the Trinity based on logic. He tried to consider scripture authoritative as to rule for Christian life, and his views were considered bizarre, even in his day. They didn't give me a lot to go on as far as what those bizarre views were, but apparently it was definitely not considered kosher, so to speak. William Allery Channing came a little bit later still and preached the famous Baltimore Sermon in 1819, after which the American Universalist Association was founded in May 1825. This sermon, which was preached at Jared Sparks' ordination, became the most popular printed sermon since Thomas Paine's Common Sense. He tried to defend his position by saying there can be no real contradiction in scripture. Later on in the 19th century, Unitarian Universalism was strongly influenced by Transcendentalism, particularly in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson's writings are somewhat pantheistic and seen as a combination of Hindu and Eastern mystic beliefs. Does anyone know what Transcendentalism is? I didn't think it had anything to do with Unitarian when my girlfriend came out of that as a Christian. She said that they believe that the soul can leave the body. She was telling me things that they believe they can actually meditate into another world. Is this the Unitarians? No, the Transcendentals. But I never thought it was Unitarians before. She just said Transcendentals. Emerson strongly influenced the Unitarians. Does anyone else know anything about Transcendentals? I just thought it was a Hindu practice of meditation, as Sherry said, where your soul basically departs the body. Yeah, I saw a little bit of things like that in the dictionary. I took, for the sake of the class, just the definition strictly of transcendentalism, and Webster, once again, his two definitions were any of various philosophies that propose to discover the nature of reality by investigating the process of thought rather than the objects of sense experience. And then the second one was more specifically the philosophical ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson based on a search for reality through spiritual intuition. I love it. Yeah, a little bit strange. The intuition was a transcendentalist's guide, not the Holy Spirit, nor scripture. Nor the senses. Right, in a sense, right. Sort of like anti-rationalism, sort of. This was a shift from the authority of Jesus Christ to the sovereignty of the self. It was also a move away from scripture. Not that they were, as I said before, not that they were ever considered orthodox. I should throw this out here, by the way. Does anyone know anything about Unitarian Universalism? Jerry? Can I just finish on the Transcendental? Sure. She actually had a very frightening experience, and that's why she came to Christ. When she did meditate and she felt her soul out of the body, she saw Venus. And she explained it completely. She said, Sherry, you know, like a lot of people think red and horns and this and that. She said, they were small, they were gray, and they sneered. And she said, I was so frightened. Someone had said to me, you should go to your Christian girlfriend and be with her. And maybe she could help you with that. And that's how Bula was jammed to the Lord. Isn't that amazing? So when you said that about being totally of Satan, it gave me kind of a chill because I thought that she entered the other spiritual world. I had a fellow that was in one of my groups at Xerox that I witnessed several times and he came back to me several months later and told me he had palm seeds because he went to the Unitarian Church, and the thing that he liked is that he was accepted with everything that he brought into the church. In other words, whatever thought, whatever mindset he had was acceptable, and that was good, whereas what I was telling him was he had to change. Yes. You never know what you're going to get or choose. We have more than one in Orleans. Well there's one in East Hampton right over here next to the windmill. In Samoset. Pardon me? In Samoset. Yes. Orleans is somewhere down by the water. Oh really? One in Truro too. Is there one in Truro now? I think there used to be one. Would that be it? I mean there was some a woman, a man would choose for a woman. That might be the one that's going to the Christian Union Church at one point. I don't know about that. There's one in Provincetown, and I know for sure there's one in Brewster. I noticed, particularly, Alta and Evan-Arthur, they always tend to be very handsome buildings. I'm not sure what that is, but Christopher Wren designed the steeple for the one in Provincetown. There may be. I don't know. It may be a home meeting or something. That's down there on the west end of town, down near Wheeler's Wharf, across the street from Wheeler's Wharf, down past Adams Pharmacy. John? The early pilgrims and settlers, did they believe that? No. No, they didn't. They were Orthodox Christians. We had two of them, the Lexington Unitarian Christians. Yeah, it took over New England pretty rapidly. Yeah, I think I left a note out, which was that it was a very Boston thing, and it was concentrated in Boston, Massachusetts in general, and Boston in particular. Well, I think it makes sense, because we exalt the human mind in this area. We tend to be very proud of our intellectual capabilities. And so Unitarianism would appeal to the flesh to be able to go in and exalt my thinking and to be able to proclaim the brilliance of my own mind. That fits very well with this area, which is academia. Yes. And once again, this is certainly not an exhaustive study. Some time back, you had the modernists taking over and you had the fundamentalist controversy, fundamentalist modernists. At that time, some folks got to the point where they think, well, it's not intellectually respectable to be a Christian, so they went with the Modernist camp. I also should have mentioned that a little bit earlier. When we get to the quotes part, if we have the time to do that, you'll see some quotes from Unitarians slash Modernists. Unitarians were also considered Modernists earlier on, and at this point, of course, they're just called Unitarians or Unitarian Universalists. But there was a time when they were proud to wear the stripe of modernist. So one of the books I referenced was written in the 30s, but it was very interesting, a lot of the quotes. This is The Heritage of the Unitarians, the quotes we'll get to. Some of the quotes would read like a rose gallery of quotes. By the 1850s, universalism meant universal world religion, not universal salvation. That's about a third of the way down the page. Humanism was later brought in as well. Half the signers of the Humanist Manifesto I were Unitarian Universalist ministers. They espoused evolution and gave reason and science supreme importance. As mentioned just now, some early Christian apologists called the Unitarian Universalists modernists. They are also known as Protestant liberals. Some of the writing that I was perusing was talking about that, how we Protestants, and they fill in the blanks. But it was interesting how they lumped themselves with other Orthodox Christians, though they So, what I want to do now here on the Unitarian Beliefs, I'd like to run through those all and I'd like to open up the floor so that we can compare the Unitarian Beliefs with the Scripture. So, I'm going to run through these first. Number one, freedom, tolerance, and pluralism. Unitarian Universalists have tolerance of all faith positions and exclude all exclusiveness. Number two, revelation. The Bible and other sacred books are not to be regarded as absolute or infallible. In particular, the Bible is believed to be a human book and therefore flawed. Reason, conscience, and experience are the final test that religious truth claims. Many Unitarian Universalists don't believe in God at all, and among those who do, a wide array of beliefs exist. Some view God as a higher power or a divine spark within themselves, others believe God is a word for the ordering principle in nature, and then some hold to neo-pagan beliefs, etc. All Unitarian Universalists reject the Trinity. 4. Christ. Some Unitarian Universalists regard Christ as a great moral teacher. Others reject even this. Christ is not divine in the way Orthodox Christians believe, according to them, and others can or have attained to the same level of spirituality that Jesus did. 5. Man and sin. All human beings have inherent dignity and worth. At the same time, however, humans came about through evolution. Unitarian Universalists reject the idea of original sin, but emphasize the natural human ability to do good. 6. Unitarian Universalists don't accept the biblical teaching on salvation from sin. Because people are basically good, they don't need a savior to deliver them. When they speak of salvation, they mean making the world a better place. 7. Heaven, Hell, and the Afterlife. Most Unitarian Universalists deny the afterlife. and focus their efforts on the here and now in an attempt to create heaven on earth. Often through political activism or social programs, Unitarian Universalists reject the resurrection of the body as scientifically impossible. They reject the doctrine of hell and also a time of future judgment. Unitarian Universalists believe people experience hell right here on earth as a consequence of deeds they do. So, we're going to start with number one, and I'd like to get some feedback from you as to comparing Orthodox Christianity against this idea, number one, and their belief system. Freedom, tolerance, and pluralism, unitarian universalist tolerance of all faith positions and exclude all exclusiveness. How would we compare that to Christianity? Well, John chapter 8, I think it's verse 36, the truth shall set you free. Tolerance of all faith positions. Anyone have any thoughts on that? Compare that to Christianity? A little louder, Charlie? So under their system, we're the only ones they don't tolerate. Right. Or other systems that would make an exclusive claim. Yeah, we're called bigots. Essentially, we are bigoted. because we hold ourselves to be supreme. I mean, it's an ironic thing with pluralism generally, and certainly with them as well, that it makes for very much intolerance to Christians and other groups that would make those exclusive claims, more so than even a Christian who's making an absolute claim, but isn't trying to stand in the place of God and perfectly trying to make an appeal for faith. but not at the point of the sword like Islam. We don't have to, you know, we can stomach an open exchange of ideas because the truth will win the day in the end. I think that Jesus is an example and it's the best because when he was with his disciples They were preaching Christ, but they said, it's not the Christ that we're talking about, or the Messiah, or the Scripture. And he said, don't worry, I'll take care of that, God and I. You know, and more or less... Definitely not who is against me is for me. Yeah, that kind of thing. So we are to present the Gospel in love, and we don't do the same thing. And we always have to remember that. What did Christ say about tolerance of other positions? I am the way, the truth, and the life. He even used the word tolerance as a bit of a camouflage. It's really a wrong word. Pluralism is the right word. Religious pluralism. Because tolerance implies that you disagree with one another. If I tolerate you, it means I disagree with you, but I'm going to put up with you anyways. That's a sense of tolerance. That's not how they're using it here. One of the things that I didn't bring out today was that I read a little bit of an article where there's a strain of Unitarians that want to believe in God, and apparently it's creating some sort of an uproar in their denomination. You know, Trinitarian Unitarian Universalism. We've got to be allowed. If I can bring in any baggage I want, can I bring in Trinitarians? It would be allowed. It's interesting when you walk in the church that they usually have three symbols, the three, Muslim and Hindu. I mean, not Hindu, though. I didn't see that. It's not Muslim, Christian, and Jewish. Times. But I can't even remember what they were, now. Now, why can't we just get along? Yes, exactly. But it is a lot, Rodney King. It is a facade. You get the trappings of getting along, while vehemently rejecting that thing that's really true. Their argument is always unsustainable, because they say, you are intolerant. And all you have to do to say that is, you're being intolerant of my intolerance. It just turns everybody around. You can imagine going into one of these places I don't want to call it a church, but the parlor, and you preach a sermon. And somebody stands up and says, well, I disagree with that. And he gets up and preaches a sermon. And then somebody else says, well, I disagree with both of you. And he gets up and preaches a sermon. And then everybody gets up and leaves. You know, I had this thing, there was somebody I used to work with at a pool that knew I was a pastor and came and they attended a Unitarian Universalist church and said, well, we've got this guy that comes and he wants to work with our kids and he's got, you know, he's got a bad history, you know, How do we deal with this? Well, I know how I would deal with this, but I have no idea how you would deal with this. We want to accept this guy for who he is, as a pedophile. You're right, you've got a big problem. Yeah, I said, you've got a big problem. One of the things they believe in, is salvation by character, and so they would, yeah, they'd have a problem, but they certainly wouldn't. They'd want to figure out how to deal with it in a way that also honored their character. But the issue is, and the second point about relativity, you know, is there evil? One of the questions that I would ask a Unitarian is, does evil exist? and what is it, and who defines it. That's the kind of Robbie Zechariah's approach to life. There is evil. It has to be determined by some moral code. So, where do moral codes come from? They would say probably, I would imagine they'd say traits of evolution somehow, and science. Reason, intellect? Herd mentality perhaps, I don't know. Which strikes me, there's so much objective evidence suggesting that you can't trust your own intellect. It seems to me about the shakiest starting foundation you can come up with. As you're reading that, I'm like, oh my goodness, what folly there. But they believe that the more education you receive, the more you're freed from your bondage, and your intellect will enlighten your heart, if you will. But even so, these people would know people with PhDs, and they would have evidence. The more you know, the more you know you don't know. We would make lousy Unitarians. I always thought the word tolerant was hysterical because when I was a school counselor, you know, I had a Jewish fellow there. But he didn't practice the faith. He was probably Unitarian. But Saul would always come in and give me these things on tolerance. And I said, you know, I got a few African-American friends. I think they would really, really be upset if I ever said to them, I really tolerate you. comes from the fact that you're not telling them that you're wrong. I'm saying, actually, that I'm giving you some credit for your thought. It's not wrong. They do know you're wrong, but in that way, giving them some respect for what they're thinking. Yeah, I think the concept of toleration in this setting, and I go back to my colleague was that he was accepted because of his ideas. So what we're talking about is not the person, but the person's ideas. Yeah. This was carried over though, the skin color and race. Right. Yeah. It is interesting how you can use that word. It's a better word for the type of thing you're aiming for, is respect. Do you treat people with respect? Let's tackle number two, revelation. The Bible and other sacred books are not to be regarded as absolute or infallible, and particularly the Bible is believed to be a human book and therefore flawed. Reason, conscience, and experience are the final test of the religious truth. Reason, conscience, and experience are the final test of any religious truth. It's a challenge, isn't it? To be honest with you, I would probably tend to think that if you left out the Bible, the other sacred books are perhaps to be considered flawed and definitely fallible. The Book of Mormon, for instance, or Science and Health is key to the Scriptures, Mary Magdalene, etc. So I would give them that and probably everything else except the Scripture. That we would not give. I just got an email from the website about Mormonism. This guy actually emailed me a while back on a sermon I did, and he misunderstood something I said, thinking I was citing a Mormon position on something, but I was not. I now forgot why I brought him up. You said he emailed you in reference to, I think, something on the Mormonism. Oh, about the sacred books. One of his questions was, well, how can you share, if everybody's got this sacred scripture, how can you be sure that, you know, which one's the one from God? How can you be, you know, how do you know, sort of thing. That very question. Have you answered her back yet? Oh, no, no. He actually was sending it to you. I forwarded it to you. But we could talk about it a little bit more later. Well, let's roll it out there. How would you know? How would you know the difference between the pearl of great price or is it above price? I think it's pearl of great price versus... versus this, the Holy Bible, which is how we know. On a study basis, one of the things, just the other day, Steve and I were talking about, when you look at, for example, the Koran, or the Book of Mormon, or Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health key description, is that they are simple. The writings are very simple. And one of the things that students of the Scripture find is that when you're looking at the Scripture, you find depth that's anything but simple. There are usually four levels of understanding of every piece of Scripture you read. There's historical, in some cases poetical. There's typical or typology of 24 described in this prophecy. you know, the scriptures, just by the study of them, and maybe it's because we have the Holy Spirit who gives us illumination, but to compare Joe Smith's Mexican calendar to the scriptures is petty. It's trivial. It's like comparing a comic book to a, you know, a great deal of literature. Exactly. It's trivial. And I think, you know, that in and of itself is not necessarily prove the scriptures, but I believe the scriptures will prove themselves to be true. And especially when we put ourselves in submission to the scriptures, and the Holy Spirit makes them true. In other words, we have the attestation of the Holy Spirit coming and illuminating the Word of God, whereas the Holy Spirit is not going to illuminate the Koran. And then, of course, throughout history you've had visible signs that the Lord has provided So, for the Torah, the first four books of the Bible, you've got the Exodus that we're going through right now. These were visible, the whole world saw it, everybody heard about it. Then, when Israel was being led into the Promised Land, the parting of the Jordan River during flood season, and the miraculous tumbling down of the walls. And then when you get some of the later prophets, you get some of the miracles that some of the great prophets did. You meant the Red Sea, by the way, I believe. No, I mean, no, George, George, George River, going to the promised land. But certainly part of the Red Sea, too. And then, of course, in Jesus's day, there was never a time where there was such an outpouring of miraculous signs and wonders. confirming the ministry of Jesus. And culminating with the death and resurrection of Jesus himself. Prophecy. Prophecy. So, if you actually want to compare, there's oodles of evidence. Sure. And the two prophets, as we've said before, when you took a look at Russell and his understanding of the New World Translation, which is the Jehovah's Witness interpretation, There are many prophecies that frankly didn't come true. And the scriptures are clear about prophets that make prophecy that doesn't come true. They're not prophets, and they should be dealt with appropriately. And Wendy, did you have something to add? I was just saying that the discoveries over the years that they found proved that what the Bible said was true, when back then they didn't believe that to be possible. Yeah, archeological confirmation, just one more piece in public. All these are encouragements to those things, but I think what you said initially is that scripture does prove itself when you study it. Start there, but then if you really want to sit around and have an objective comparison between the Book of Mormon and the Bible, good luck with that comparison, because the Book of Mormon is not going to square up very well at all. Nor is the Qur'an, for that matter. So, you know, there's layers to all this. The God has revealed himself throughout time and history, culminating in the mystery of Christ. Whereas, you've got Muhammad, and then a guy following him, kind of getting his writings together. And then you've got Job as witness. You've got Joe Smith. You know, unconfirmed, unsubstantiated people making wild claims. So why is it we don't accept these books? Because they contradict the book. Right, and what did the book say about other books or any other writings that would come after him? He said that they would receive these plagues on the time of Revelation. It's a word that we used to get, the curse. Anathema, you mean? Yeah. Would that be it? It's a very well written revelation. from God, and you recognize foremost of communication or revelation of how God exposed his nature throughout the scriptures, you see a perfect thread from Genesis to Revelation. And you see there can be no greater communication than the living word of God, Jesus, who came and communicated to man by taking manhood upon himself and communicating so that we might know who God is and what his character is like. All of that perfect synergy and flow you have from revelations backwards and these feeble attempts and when you read the history of the Book of Mormon, when you read Muhammad's outbursts in his meditations in caves It is almost comical as compared to the depth of the scriptures, and yet folks seem to want to grab a hold of it. It's difficult for us to go the other direction, to go from the real thing to the imitation. The imitation seems much more compelling when you're muddled to begin with, I would think. And then if you get all muddled up in that, you're thinking, well, how is this so different from what you're saying? You're not really digging into the Word of God, because if you did, you would see these things too. Well, speaking of muddled, you Jews, I think you have muddled down to a science. Let's keep moving here, because we're going to run out of time shortly. I do want to quote a few muddled quotes, speaking of muddled. Number three, God. Many humanitarian universalists don't believe in God at all, and among those who do, a wide array of beliefs exist. Some view God as a higher power, divine spark, etc. Others believe God is a word for an ordering principle in nature. Neo-pagan beliefs are also accepted, etc., and all you use reject the Trinity. There's more definition on what they're not than what they are. Yes, it's a system of denials, indeed. Any view on God would basically be accepted, except the orthodox position. They're really fighting against the fact that all men have an element of God. They're really pushing that away. What's interesting to me, I can't help but be struck too by the, at least in New England, the beauty of the buildings. When you think of that, you have this wonderful, I think the one in Brewster is just a magnificent building, architecturally speaking, and then you have this just poverty of belief. It's quite sad. They went in for that. They went in for the appearance and lost the soul. They've been enamored with the stuff, with the surface. 4. Christ. Some Unitarian Universalists regard Christ as a great moral teacher, and others reject this, and Christ is not divine in the way Orthodox Christians believe, and others can or have attained to the same level of spirituality. Indeed. Isn't this sort of a mishmash? If everybody didn't believe the same thing, how can you believe anything? Well, all Jews are welcome to come. That's what goes up to this whole definition of evil. I joined a universalist church. And I'd say, next Sunday I'm going to have a service and I'd like you all to come because I'm going to sacrifice my oldest son. What would they say? I think they'd say you shouldn't murder. I'm not sure they'd have a problem with that. Well, yeah, it becomes difficult to disagree with anybody about anything. It's like being influenced by universalism and the eastern mysticism that's the root of it. It's often called the religion swallower. Because the only thing we agree on is that everybody's right. But they want everything to be good, so they wouldn't sacrifice yourself. Man and sin, all human beings have inherent dignity and worth, but at the same time they came about through evolution. So there's a problem right there. How can you have inherent dignity and worth if you came about through evolution? I mean, how would that be? It seems to be, does it not? Unitarians reject the idea of original sin, but emphasize the human ability to do good. What do we think of that, as Christians? They reject the original sin, but emphasize the human ability, natural human ability, that is, to do good. They are wrong. Flat out. They get it exactly backwards. What does God say in his word about our natural ability to do good? Our Righteousness is what? Tilthiness. No one does good, not even one. Salvation, number six. You use don't accept the biblical teaching on salvation from sin because people are basically good. They don't need a savior. But when they speak of salvation, they mean making the world a better place. They are terrifyingly wrong about that as well. You can put your head in the sand and it doesn't make the reality go away. That is scary to me. And what would we as Christians have for if we wanted to make the world a better place? What would our motivation be for wanting to make the world a better place? The gospel. Indeed. Number 7. What does a Universalist pastor say? And I'm just thinking of a counseling situation. Let's say, Steve, you're a Universalist for a minute. So-and-so comes in, guy, been married, got kids, but he's found his soul mate, this other woman who's married to somebody else, and they've decided to go off together. And this is going to free his soul, and he's going to be happy forever. How would you advise him as a universalist? I can't see any grounds to keep him from wanting to do that. I can't think of anything that would I mean, if you want to try to do it in such a way that you cause minimal pain to your current spouse and kids. Because in his heart of hearts, he knows that this is right. This is right for him. I think we're running out of time here. I did want to move on, so we're going to skip seven for the sake of reading into recent developments. Humanism is diminishing in importance in the Unitarian Universalist meaning. The spiritual concern is becoming more prominent. It is supposed that the baby boomers are the reason for this, that they seek the spirit from whatever source. Earlier, by the way, the Unitarian Universalists voted themselves out of Christendom and declared they were no longer a Christian denomination, but an interfaith association. So within that association, they have a number of influences. Some of them would include neo-paganism. radical feminism, including goddess worship, matriarchy, and the idea that the earth is a goddess. Wicca, some priestesses have been accepted into Unitarian Universalist seminaries, and I would assume by now have graduated because this book that I was using was updated in the 90s into the 2000s. Another couple of things, some Unitarians are using the term good news or saving message in reference to their message. What that message is, we can't be sure, but their message is, at least in part, a safe place to wage our heresy, whatever tradition we may have come from. They're also actively courting the baby boomers, as the baby boomers open us to different family forms, deep anti-authoritarianism and egalitarian sex roles fits the baby boomers well. And then we have a few quotes here, and I thought we would just look at these quickly. First, from a couple of Christians. We can consider the source, I suppose, nevertheless. Unitarianism is a system of denials, and under its teachings, the foundation of Christianity has fallen away. And then from Charles Finney, that was about Beecher, Lyman Beecher. Charles Finney, who isn't necessarily even considered orthodox by some, The mass of people in Boston are more unsettled in their religious convictions than any other place I've ever labored in. They are very intelligent people on all questions but that of religion. They deny almost everything and affirm almost nothing." And then we have some Unitarian quotes here now. John Calvin is to blame for the idea of an authoritative Bible. He was originally a lawyer, and interpreted the Bible as if it were a book of law, infallibly and equally authoritative in all its parts. And Luther considered not the Bible, but Christ as the Word of God. And that was Charles Clayton Morrison. As preached in our Protestant churches, the Trinity has often been little more than a mathematical formula about three being one and one three. Well, let it be said that on the credit of the early Fathers who introduced the Church to the philosophical treatment of the Trinity, that they did not deal with such mathematical, I'm sorry, arithmetical, thank you, absurdity as has characterized our modern pulpits. The Trinity that matters is the Trinity of experience, and that's H.E. Ploszczyk. Has anyone heard of Ploszczyk? There were just so many good quotes from Faust that I just took two. Another one here down at the bottom, I do not believe in the physical return of Jesus. John Dewey, who I'm sure everyone's heard of, God is the work of human nature, imagination, and will. Nick Gifford, Christ is essentially no more divine than we are or nature is. and then Wicks. In vain we lift our eyes to the distant heavens. In vain we turn to the printed page. For us, no revelation from above, no revelation from beyond. And then, turning back to our unveiling search, we turn within, and there we find the light that lighteth every man that cometh unto the earth. Finding truth in our minds and justice in our hearts, we have found our light following their leadings. We are in the way of eternal life. You know, John Dewey is the father of public education. So, why should we even be concerned for this? Well, a couple of reasons. I probably should have put the heading at the bottom in the middle here. Unitarians apparently have been targeting using evangelism to target people. Reverend Scott Alexander, who is in Boston, published a book called Salty with Fire, Unitarian Universalist Strategies for Sharing Faith and Growing Congregations in 1995. It's a guide for basically using evangelical church growth ideas to try to get people in the Unitarian camp. Fueling their outreach, by the way, this might interest some of you folks, is a vigorous opposition to the religious right. They are rabid against the religious right and they hate that, so they would like to be able to win folks to their viewpoint. So they'd be corrupted, right? Why would we bother? Well, I think that would be a significant reason why to bother. Why would we bother to even talk to a Unitarian? But as was mentioned earlier, the lack of common ground here at the last sentence makes it difficult because they don't believe really in anything. It's going to be a challenge if you're going to try to witness to a Unitarian. Walter Martin also said he thought they posed a greater societal danger than former Unitarians who held to at least a vestige of Judeo-Christian heritage. So why would that be dangerous? I think we're seeing it, wouldn't you think? We're seeing, in a sense, some of the breakdown in society through the influence of Unitarian-type ideas, tolerance and such. I mean, sometimes the tolerance are a virtue, and sometimes they're not. But what do you think as a church? Well, I think, you know, certainly it's part of the way you get from God and truth, the more harm that does to our culture. But on a personal level, Christianity is true, and so we bother because, you know, we'd rather for God's glory as many receive mercy as he is pleased to extend that mercy to. That sounds good, doesn't it? Let's close with a word of prayer. Steve, would you close, please? Father, we do thank you for an opportunity to consider these things, and we pray that you would make us wise in the true ways of salvation as you've articulated in your word. so that we could be a blessing to those around us that we might need. Might you further equip us to speak the truth in love to those around us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.