MICHAEL SERVETUS - Burnt alive by order of Calvin on the 27th
of October, 1553; for his rejection of the doctrine of the trinity and infant
baptism!
What he said to Calvin :-
"You may perceive how your gospel is confounded with the law; your gospel is without the one God, without the true faith, without good works. For the one God you have a three-headed Cerberus; for the true faith you have a fatal dream; and for good works, you say they are empty pictures. Mankind in your account are no more than stupid blocks; and God in your system is no other than a monster of arbitrary fate."
From Servetus' book, "Errors of the Trinity" :-
"What Turk, Scythian or barbarian, tell me, I beseech you, can endure without laughter those logomachies, or strifes of words, as Paul calls them? Besides - what is more distressing than all is this -
how fruitful a cause of derision the tradition of the Trinity is to the Mahometans God only knows. The Jews also abhor the imagination, and deride our folly about the Trinity, which they hold to be a blasphemy. Not only the Mahometans and Hebrews, but the beasts of the field might mock us if they should perceive our fantastic notions - for all the works of the Lord bless the ONE GOD."Excerpt from his dying words ...
"No man yet could explain or inform me how he understood that these three, of which each is God were only one God. ... We are willing to try the whole matter by the word of the Holy Scripture, as by a touchstone, and to find out the true knowledge of God. ... The Son himself declares that 'The Father is greater than I'; and 'I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.' ... The Scripture does always distinguish between God and the Son of God."
The fire was lit. Servetus shrieked. At the
end of the half hour that it took him to die, he was heard to moan, "Oh
Jesus, Son of the Eternal God, have pity on me!"
He had
remained true to his beliefs. Otherwise, he would have said, "Oh Jesus, Eternal
Son of God."
GEORGE VAN PARRIS - burnt at the stake on April 25th, 1551 for declaring :-
- "God the Father is the only God, and Christ is not very God"
- "that it was no heresy to call God the Father, the only God."
DR. ISAAC WATTS' (1674-1748) last thoughts were completely Unitarian :-
Excerpt from his "Solemn Address to the Great and Ever-Blessed God" :-
"Dead and blessed God, hadst Thou told me plainly in any single text that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three real distinct persons in Thy Divine Nature, I should have humbly accepted Thy words ... Surely the Deity is not made up of three such distinct and different spirits."
THOMAS AMORY (1691-1788) :-
"The religion of Jesus was not Trinity in Unity, a creed turned into a riddle."
THEOPHILUS LINDSEY (1723-1812), FOUNDER OF ESSEX STREET CHAPEL :-
"For, in the end, I became fully persuaded (to use Paul's express words, 1 Cor. viii. 6) -
'That there is but one God, the Father,' and He alone is to be worshipped.This appeared to be the uniform, unvaried language and practice of the Bible throughout; and I found the sentiments and practice of Christians in the first and best ages corresponding with it."
WILLIAM FREND, M.A. (1757-1841) :-
"I rejected the doctrine of the Trinity because I could not find any basis for it in Scripture. The question with me was simply this: Is the doctrine contained in Scripture or not? To this test, and this test alone, did I apply myself, availing of the Scriptures in their original language. With respect to the term 'Trinity' itself, I, of course, could not find that in the Scriptures, nor were the expressions 'God the Son,' and 'God the Holy Ghost,' to be found there."
CHARLES LAMB (1775-1834) wrote in a letter in October, 1831 :-
"Did George Dyer send his tract to me to convert me to Unitarianism? Dear, blundering soul.
Why, I am as old a One-God-ite as himself!"
FRANCIS DAVID who died in prison in 1579 for his unitarian beliefs declared :-
"Whatever the world might try to do, it will nevertheless become clear to the whole world that God is One."
ANONYMOUS (17th century) :-
"Brethren, this is the creed of St. Athanasius, but God forbid that it should be the creed of any other man!"
BARON FRANCIS MASERES (1731-1824) :-
"Talk of essence, and substance, and no one knows what! God either made Jesus, or else he did not: If made, he's a creature, without more ado; If not, he's a God - and then we have Two."
