What Do Unitarians Believe?

Unitarians do not believe in the trinity and they do not believe that Jesus is divine. They say they worship God only and are attempting to demonstrate a "genuinely religious" community without doctrinal conformity. They believe in rationalism, social action, and the inherent goodness of humans. Because they do not believe in salvation through Jesus Christ, who would have to be divine in order to save us, they have developed a humanistic type of religion that makes salvation dependent upon ethical good works.

The beliefs of one member of this society were clearly summarized a few years ago in an advertisement: "Do Unitarians Believe in Anything? We believe in brotherhood;...in Civil Rights; in the United Nations; in upgrading our educational system; in an attack on the problems of poverty; in the nuclear test ban treaty.... Many of us even believe in God."

In 1961, the Unitarians merged with a group called The Universalists who, during the 19th century held that salvation was ultimately for everyone, regardless of repentance in this life. The Universalist teaching acknowledges that Jesus is God, but takes away any human responsibility in salvation. Because the Unitarians do not believe Jesus is God, it is hard to understand how these two groups could have gotten together, but they did.

Today it is difficult to distinguish the statements of Unitarians from humanists and atheists.

Excerpt taken from Answers to 200 of Life's Most Probing Questions, Copyright 1984 by Pat Robertson.