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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 3, 1866

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 27, No. 18.

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REMARKS.

By J. H. Waggoner

We certainly have no intention to misrepresent the Unitarians or any other class; and shall be thankful to any one to set us right if we do so unwittingly. In the present case we do not yet see where the misrepresentation lies. If the faith of the Unitarians was such as to make the remarks referred to incongruous, or out of the way on the occasion, Mr. S. has ground for his objection. Let us see:
There are three views respecting the nature of Christ. First. The Trinitarian, which makes him to be the "very God," the self-existent Deity, the Creator of all by his own word and power.
The second we shall denominate the Christian view, well known to be the faith of that people. (We do not mean the Disciples or Campbellites, but those sometimes called Christ-ians.) That is, that Christ is divine; that he existed before his incarnation, acting by the power and authority of his Father; that he was "with God" "in the beginning;" that the Father made the worlds by him. This is, we think, the true Bible view.
The third is the Unitarian. Although they often claim all as Unitarians who do not believe in a Trinity, they are distinguished from others by the great majority of them holding to Socinianism. Buck, in his Theol. Dict., summing up the "prevailing tenets of the New England Unitarians," places the following first: "That Christ is not truly a divine Being, but an exalted and pre-eminent pattern of human perfection." The Rel. Encyclopedia says: "A name assumed by those who confine the glory and attributes of Divinity to the Father and refuse them to the Son and Holy Spirit."
These authorities give the generally received views of Unitarians; and now as regards the Convention referred to:
1. According to the newspaper report of the Convention Mr. Burley was not the only one who objected to the term Lord being applied to Christ, as would be inferred from Mr. Summerbell's letter.
2. The Unitarians deny the divinity of Christ, so that a protest against using the term "Lord," or applying this term to Christ in an exalted sense, was not out of place, but strictly in keeping with their faith.
J. H. WAGGONER.
Battle Creek, Mich., March, 1866.