Solomon, the wisest of men, wrote, " The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is NO NEW THING under the sun." (Ecc. 1:9). Unitarian doctrines are no new thing. They were held in various forms as far back as the 3rd century. Sabellius taught there is only one God, the Father; the titles, Son and Holy Spirit, he said, being different designations of the one God. This heresy was condemned at a council held in Rome in 260.
In the sixteenth century in Italy such writers, as Denck, Hetzer, Castellio, Gribaldi, Servetus, were prominent in teaching similar views, viz., that there is only one God, the Father; that Jesus was wholly human; that His death was not an atoning sacrifice. The last-named of these, Servetus (1511-1553), in 1551 published a treatise, The Errors of Trinitarian Beliefs—the chief Trinitarian belief attacked being, that the Godhead embraces Three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One in Three, and Three in One, ONE GOD.
The heretical views of Servetus and others were stoutly denounced by Lutherans, Zwinglians, Calvinists, as well as by the Romish Church. So strong was the feeling that these views were subversive of salvation itself, and destructive of the Christian Faith, that when Servetus set foot in Geneva, where John Calvin at the time was wielding a very powerful influence, he was arrested and arraigned for blasphemy. His trial lasted from August 1St to October 26th, 1553. The next day he was burnt to death. In England between 1548 to 1612 seven men were put to death for similar views.
Faustus Socinus (1559-1604), an Italian nobleman, was the leader of an anti-Trinitarian movement in Poland, which lasted about one hundred years, and was then stamped out by bitter persecution on the part of the Jesuits. He taught there was only one God, God the Father; that our Lord was not Divine; that He was not a Mediator; that hell would endure for a time, after which the souls and bodies of the unregenerate would be annihilated and cease to exist. We do not condone the persecuting spirit that prevailed in those days, but we draw attention to this, because their doctrines were similar to those of the Unitarians, so much so that Unitarians have sometimes been called Socinians.
The term, Unitarianism, was first used in 1600 to describe a religious association, marked by the heretical views we have mentioned. In 1774 Theophilus Lindsey resigned his living in the Church of England, and hiring an auction room, opened the first Unitarian Church in Essex Street, Strand, London. About that time the most influential name in the history of English Unitarianism was that of Joseph Priestley (1733-1804). He was very famous as a scientist. His discoveries in physics, electricity, and chemistry, especially his discovery of oxygen, gained him great prestige. But great and outstanding as his scientific achievements were, he was far more deeply interested in theology. He was an immensely voluminous writer, responsible for at least twenty-four large volumes. His influence attracted many to embrace Unitarian beliefs. One of their writers tells us that Priestley was " in some respects in advance of his time. He denied the miraculous birth of Jesus, and thought He was born in Nazareth with the same physical, mental and moral imperfections as other human beings.... He regarded the doctrines of the Trinity and the Atonement as corruptions of primitive Christianity." (The Unitarians, pp. 88, 89).
One hundred years ago these heretical views were confined mainly to Unitarian Chapels, but now, under the more widely known name of MODERNISM, they have permeated the professing Church of God. This has operated in the direction of weakening Unitarianism as a separate body. At first, if any one took the position of believing that there is only one God, the Father; that our Lord was only human; that His death was not of a sacrificial character, he would, generally speaking, be refused membership by the place of worship with which he was associated; and in that case would be likely to join himself to a Unitarian Congregation. But now, alas! these Unitarian views are widely spread and tolerated in many sections in Christendom under the name of Modernism In this way the tendency would seem to be in the direction of lessening the size of Unitarian Congregations, whilst their views are held by an ever increasing circle.