UNITARIANSIM

 [PDF]

A recent edition of the BBC’s ‘Songs of Praise’ contained a short feature on the famous authoress Beatrix Potter and what caught my attention was the reference made to the fact that she was a UNITARIAN. A few days prior to the broadcast marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Beatrix Potter and helpful information can be found on this article

http://unitarianchiefofficer.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/150th-anniversary-of-birthof-beatrix.html

This is a religious grouping that I have rarely made mention of in my writings and so this article seeks to address that ‘omission’.

Whilst there are some officially designated ‘Unitarian’ churches in Ireland, here in Northern Ireland another group of churches that would closely ‘fit the description’ of UNITARIAN would be those of the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church (One of these churches – ‘All Souls’ in Elmwood Avenue in Belfast regularly hosts a ‘service’ for the LGBT community on the day after their ‘Pride Parade’ through Belfast – details for 2016 can be seen on http://www.belfastpride.com/events/annual-pride-service-2/).

The close links of these two church groupings can be seen on these links

http://www.ukunitarians.org.uk/local_ireland.htm

http://www.nspresbyterian.org/

What I propose to do in this article is to reproduce two items that I have in my possession. The first is a tract written by a Rev. George Darby that is simply titled ‘UNITARIANISM’ and the second is the relevant chapter from the excellent book ‘Cults and Contemporary Religions: TRUTH UNDER ATTACK’ by Dr. Eryl Davies. So firstly, the tract by Rev. George Darby –

UNITARIANISM

Considered as a denomination Unitarianism is relatively insignificant. Beginning as a school of thought in New England Congregationalism it became a denomination in 1825 under the leadership of William Ellery Channing who organised the American Unitarian Association. Since that time the movement has grown to include some 400 churches in the United States and Canada with a combined membership of approximately 100,000.

The importance of Unitarianism however is not to be measured by its denominational strength. In point of fact, the movement is less a denomination than a philosophy of religion which has affected the thinking of many who do not wear the label ‘Unitarian’ One reason why the denomination has not grown beyond its present size is perhaps to be found in the tolerance of Unitarian views within the ranks of evangelical denominations.

As its name implies, the chief feature of Unitarianism is its rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity or Trinitarianism. Refusal to accept the definition of God as one substance in three persons leads inevitably to a denial of the essential Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was so with the Arianism of the 4th century and it is so with the Unitarianism of the 20th century. This is the damning heresy of the movement.

In its early history Unitarianism was near-evangelical. An examination of the writings of some of its leading figures will reveal their adherence to such Biblical concepts as the inspiration of the Scriptures, the reality and guilt of sin and the Saviourhood of Jesus Christ. But there was death in the pot, nevertheless. The high Arianism of Channing, who sought to retain the “divinity” of Jesus Christ without the “deity” soon deteriorated into the blasphemous unbelief of Theodore Parker who contended that it was reasonable to expect that God would some day create a greater than Jesus. And it is the Unitarianism of Parker rather than that of Channing after which our 20th century movement is patterned.

Unitarianism has no formal creed. Priding itself upon liberality and independence of thought it is constitutionally opposed to anything suggestive of dogma. The nearest approach to a statement of belief to which its followers subscribe is in the words of one of its early exponents, James Freeman Clarke: “The fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the leadership of Jesus, salvation by character and the progress of mankind upward and onward forever”. I have seen these words in the form of a motto hanging upon the wall of a Unitarian place of meeting, evidently intended to be a declaration of faith. As such, they may fairly be made the basis of our analysis of this movement.

1. The Fatherhood of God

To the Unitarian this is the consequence of creation. God is our Father because He made us. There is no recognition of the Bible’s pronouncement that we are “alienated from the life of God” (Ephesians 4:18) and thus need to be reconciled before men rightly call Him “Father” (Galatians 4:4-6). The unique relationship to God of His only-begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:18) is completely ignored and in its place is put a humanistic, pantheistic, conception of God as the Father of all men, including “Jesus” who simply apprehended more clearly than do most men the fact of this relationship.

To the Unitarian this is the consequence of creation. God is our Father because He made us. There is no recognition of the Bible’s pronouncement that we are “alienated from the life of God” (Ephesians 4:18) and thus need to be reconciled before men rightly call Him “Father” (Galatians 4:4-6). The unique relationship to God of His only-begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:18) is completely ignored and in its place is put a humanistic, pantheistic, conception of God as the Father of all men, including “Jesus” who simply apprehended more clearly than do most men the fact of this relationship.

2. The Brotherhood of Man

The interpretation of the Kingdom of God as a social order to be established within the present world framework involves the concept of mankind’s spiritual unity. This was the ideal which inspired the early prophets of the Social Gospel, chief aming whom was the aforementioned Theodore Parker. Beneficial as were the results of this philosophy in correcting social abuses and effecting certain reforms, it nevertheless was and is a fallacious assumption.

‘Brotherhood’ there is in the New Testament, indeed, but it is the brotherhood of believers, those who have passed from death unto life by way of the new birth (1 Peter 2:17; 1 John 3:14). Instead of mankind’s being composed of one spiritually united family, the Bible declares that there are two clearly defined groups of humanity. “We know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness” (or in the wicked one) (1 John 5:19).

3. The Leadership of Jesus

The Unitarian invariably refers to the Lord Jesus Christ by His human name Jesus. It is as a man that Unitarianism thinks of Him. This is the central point of their ‘creed’ and it is this that gives colour to the whole. Jesus was a man, ‘the highest type of man’ (Parker) but not more than a man. Consequently, when the Unitarian speaks of the Leadership of Jesus he means something quite different from the faith of the evangelical believer who speaks of being led by the Lord.

The Leadership of Jesus as Unitarianism employs the phrase has no reference to the present ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ Who as the Great Shepherd of the sheep leads them by the Holy Spirit in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake (Hebrews 13:20; Psalm 23). It means only that Jesus has given us an example of true manhood, showing us the way to go, the ‘way-shower’. ‘We make a God of our brother, who should be our model’ (Parker).

4. Salvation by Character

Refusing to accept the depravity of man, Unitarianism proceeds to vitiate (spoil, render ineffective) the whole plan of salvation as revealed by God. Unitarians hold to the Pelagian theory of sin that every human soul is immediately created by God and that new-born infants are as free from depraved tendencies as was Adam before the fall. A H Strong in his ‘Systematic Theology’ quotes a Rochester Unitarian preacher as publicly declaring it to be as much a duty to believe in the natural purity of man as to believe in the natural purity of God. Such a defective view of human nature results directly in unscriptural theories of salvation. That is, men can be saved by keeping the law and by the development of a noble character.

It follows logically from the foregoing that Unitarianism has no place for the Biblical doctrine of the atonement. Christ’s death redeems us only in the sense that His example of faithfulness to truth and utter devotion to God influences our moral self-improvement. This is the Socinian theory of the atonement, propounded by Laelius Socinus and Faustus Socinus of Poland in the 16th century. Unitarians are the modern advocates of the theory. Lyman Abbott said that Jesus’ blood purchases our pardon and redeems us to God just as a patriot’s blood redeems his country from servitude and purchases its liberty. Such a view fails utterly to take account of the propitiatory character of Christ’s death or of the judicial aspect of His sufferings. Paul declares that He was set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood and Peter asserts that He suffered the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God (Romans 3:25; 1 Peter 3:18).

The Unitarian assumption that man possesses powers of self-transformation denies the need of regeneration by the Holy Spirit and makes meaningless the pronouncement of Christ “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).

It is not too much to say that the Unitarian theory of salvation by character requires the abandonment of every basic tenet of evangelical Christianity. We may fairly apply to it the words of a great theologian spoken with reference to the Socinian theory of the atonement to which it is so closely related.

Said A H Strong ‘It requires a surrender of the doctrine of inspiration; for the idea of vicarious and expiatory sacrifice is woven into the very warp and woof of the Old and New Testaments. It requires an abandonment of the Scripture doctrine of sin; for in it all idea of sin as perversion of nature rendering the sinner unable to save himself, and (sin) as objective guilt demanding satisfaction to the divine holiness, is denied, it requires us to give up the Deity of Christ; for if sin is a slight evil, and man can save himself from its penalty and power, then there is no longer need of an infinite suffering or an infinite Saviour, and a human Christ is as good as a divine.

It requires us to give up the Scripture doctrine of justification, as God’s act of declaring the sinner just in the eye’s of the law, solely on account of the righteousness and death of Christ to whom he is united by faith, for the Socinian theory cannot permit the counting to a man of any other righteousness than his own. It requires a denial of the doctrine of regeneration; for this is no longer the work of God, but the work of the sinner; it is no longer a change of the affections below consciousness, but a self-reforming volition of the sinner himself. It requires a denial of eternal retribution for this is no longer appropriate to finite transgression or arbitrary law, and to superficial sinning that does not involve nature’.

5. The Progress of Mankind Upward and Onward Forever

This sounds very like the phrase, ‘The inevitability of human progress’ which was so common in philosophical writings at the beginning of the century.. those were the days when Walter Rauschenbusch could write that ‘The swiftness of evolution in our own country proves the immense latent perfectibility in human nature’ (Christianity and the Social Crisis’ p 422). Two world wars made the advocates of inevitable progress a little less glib but did not entirely silence them. Men like Sherwood Eddy in his ‘God in History’ (1947) and Shirley Jackson Case in his ‘The Christian Philosophy of History’ continued to argue for the upward development of the race and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth through a process of social evolution.

It is only necessary to turn the searchlight of Scripture on these ideas of progress to discover how far removed they are from the truth of God. The Bible declares that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13). It describes the moral and spiritual collapse of so-called Christian civilisation which will mark the closing of the age (2 Timothy 3:1-5). While it does indicate the growth and ultimate perfection of the redeemed society called the Church (Ephesians 4:12-16) there is nowhere any indication that mankind as a whole will undergo a moral transformation. Intellectual and scientific progress there will continue to be, no doubt, but no improvement in human nature.

The Bible predicts a sudden, catastrophic judgment by which the forces of evil in the world will be checked and the will of God become supreme in the earth. This will be effected by the coming in power and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 13:41-43). For that portion of mankind who remain impenitent and unreconciled to God there is no prospect of indefinite progress, but rather “a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries” (Hebrews 10:27).

The eschatology of Unitarianism, if it can be said to have an eschatology does not contemplate a final judgment. There is no severing of the wicked from among the just in its programme. Hell is a theological figment not to be entertained by reasonable minds. It required no compromise of thought therefore to effect a union between Unitarians and Universalists, long the advocates of the ‘no hell’ doctrine. The union was consummated in August 1953 under the name of the Council of Liberal Churches. In its denial of hell,

Unitarianism not only rejects the historic belief of the Christian Church but the plain words of Jesus Christ Himself Who spoke of “Hell-fire, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:47-48).

Earlier in this article I alluded to the connection between Unitarianism and the Arianism of the 4th century. Arius of Alexandria held that the Father was the only Divine being absolutely, without beginning; the Son and the Holy Spirit having been created before the world was. He was opposed by Athanasius who at one time stood almost alone in his refusal to accept the Arian theory.

The controversy raged about two words, ‘homoousion”and “homoiousion” the one meaning ‘of the same substance’ and the other ‘of like substance’. Thomas Carlyle is said to have once remarked with a sneer that ‘the Christian world was torn in pieces over a diphthong’. But when the Council of Nice (325) decided in favour of Athanasius and condemned the Arian doctrine as heresy, the victory as Carlyle himself in later life acknowledged was one of supreme importance to Christianity. For it is written “Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father” (1 John 2:23) and had the decision been reversed the stamp of orthodoxy would have been placed by the church upon a form of teaching calculated to destroy the faith she professes.

Let us today be not less vigilant than was Athanasius long ago, lest by our unwariness we contribute to the weakening of that testimony which by the mercy of God was preserved and committed to us.

“We know that the Son of God is come and hath given to us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

Moving on now I want to quote the relevant chapter from the book ‘Cults and Contemporary Religions: TRUTH UNDER ATTACK’ by Dr. Eryl Davies. The earlier tract that I quoted by Rev. George Darby focussed very much on events in North America whereas Dr. Davies in his opening section gives more detail of the movement’s influence in other locations such as Britain and The Commonwealth. The relevant chapter is headed as follows –

UNITARIAN CHURCHES

While all the Unitarian churches are autonomous, they are linked together by means of a General Assembly, which was established in 1928 to give encouragement and cohesion to the work. In 1987 there were 237 congregations and fellowships in Great Britain including four in Scotland. In 1995 there were only 195 congregations. The majority of the churches in England are in the Midlands, Lancashire and the London area. The Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church in Ireland, with its thirty-two congregations, including two in the Republic, also co-operates closely with the British Assembly. The first avowedly Unitarian Church, which was opened in London in 1774 by Theophilus Lindsey, is now the site of the Assembly’s headquarters.

In Britain and the Commonwealth countries of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa there are an estimated 15,000 Unitarians, whereas there are about 150,000 in the United States and Canada. Romania (where organised Unitarianism began under the Unitarian Prince Sigismund in 1568 at the diet of Torda), Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Western Germany and the Khasi Hills of Assam India, all have Unitarian churches, with an approximate total membership of 20,000.

The religious affiliations of the Unitarian General Assembly in Britain are both revealing and disturbing. For example, it is an associate member of the British Council of Churches and also of the World Congress of Faiths.

In one of its official publications the Assembly defines Unitarianism as ‘a liberal religious movement arising out of Christianity, expressing itself largely but not wholly in Christian forms and terms, and in the spirit of the man Jesus. It is liberal in rejecting the idea of a unique and final revelation of truth and in trusting men to discover and believe as much as they can for themselves; it is a religious movement inasmuch as it has churches and a ministry and ways of worship… It is glad to remain Christian where it can but glad also to discover other truth and beauty and goodness in other faiths and other lives. Unitarians know of no better man in religion than Jesus of Nazareth but they believe that there have been others like him in the past, and that there will be others like him again’.

It is significant that Unitarianism did not take root in North Wales during the latter part of the last century. Its influence never extended beyond places like Lampeter and Cilian Aeron and although meetings were held regularly in Aberystwyth from the autumn of 1902, the cause remained extremely weak and services were finally suspended there on Sunday 14 March 1976. The main factor, of course, in checking the progress of Unitarianism especially during the last century was the vigorous and fruitful preaching of the gospel under the power of the Holy Spirit. 

There were numerous outpourings of the Holy Spirit upon churches, communities and counties at regular intervals, with the result that large numbers of people were converted and the truth of God’s Word was vindicated. This is a salutary lesson for us in our contemporary situation, namely, that despite our evangelism, apologetics and social involvement, nothing but the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the church will radically alter our situation and cause the truth to prevail in our land.

 

What Unitarians teach about – GOD

They deny the Trinity, affirming that in God there is only one personality, namely, God the Father. Even when referring to God as Father they feel human language is inadequate to define what is beyond definition. For this reason some find it more helpful not to use the word ‘God’ at all. They usually reject miracles believing that the natural order of the universe is never broken or superseded.

What the Bible teaches about – GOD

“God said, Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26; cf 11:7)

“in the name (the one name yet including three persons) of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit “ (Matthew 28:19).

 

What Unitarians teach about – THE BIBLE

In contemporary Unitarianism the individual conscience, guided by human reason, is the source of what is believed, While the Bible is respected as a ‘helpful guide’ containing religious insights, it is rejected as the Word of God. God continues to reveal himself in life, in the order and beauty of nature, in moral standards, spiritual desires, human aspirations and in the love of what is pure and good. Thus they teach ‘universal inspiration.

What the Bible teaches about – THE BIBLE

“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20)

“Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:20-21)

“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

 

What Unitarians teach about – THE PERSON OF CHRIST

Jesus was only a man and as such should not be worshipped.

He was an example and has shown us what man’s life can be when he obeys God’s will and co-operates with the Spirit. Jesus is one of many great spiritual leaders of the world.

What the Bible teaches about – THE PERSON OF CHRIST

“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16)

“For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he not only was breaking the sabbath, but also was calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (John 5:18) “

I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6)

 

What Unitarians teach about – THE DEATH OF CHRIST

Modern Unitarians do not believe that mean and women need a mediator to approach God. Therefore Christ’s death was not sacrificial or substitutionary.

Not all Unitarian churches observe the communion; those who do regard it as a mere remembrance of the life, works and teachings of Jesus Christ.

What the Bible teaches about – THE DEATH OF CHRIST

“Because by the works of the Law no flesh shall be justified in his sight” (Romans 3:20)

“But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13)

“For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:18)

“For Christ also died for sins, once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that he might bring us back to God” (1 Peter 3:18)

 

What Unitarians teach about – RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

Most Unitarians interpret our Lord’s resurrection as his deeds and thoughts living on in the lives of others in history. There was no physical or spiritual resurrection of the Lord.

What the Bible teaches about – RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

“Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but he has risen” (Luke 24:5-6)

“He was buried and… he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:4

 

What Unitarians teach about – The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is regarded in several ways: for example, as the influence of Christ’s teaching on people; as God’s way of revealing himself in the whole of life; or as the ‘Power’ beyond us.

He is not regarded as a person in the Godhead co-equal with the Father and since man is basically good there is no need for his regenerating and sanctifying work in people.

What the Bible teaches about – The Holy Spirit

“If I go I will send him to you” (John 16:7)

“Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? … You have not lied to men, but to God” (Acts 5:3-4)

“Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba Father’!” (Galatians 4:6)

 

What Unitarians teach about – MAN AND SIN

Unitarians assert their belief in man and his essential goodness. Although people are capable of great cruelty, this is regarded as a falling away from their essential goodness, which is best displayed in babies.

What the Bible teaches about – MAN AND SIN

“Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5)

“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders” (Matthew 15:19)

“There is none righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10)

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23

 

What Unitarians teach about – SALVATION

All religions are regarded as equally valid schemes of salvation and Jesus belongs to the class of the great saviours of mankind.

No mediator is needed to approach God and no special requirement is needed on man’s part to attain salvation.

What the Bible teaches about – SALVATION

“I am the door; if anyone enters through me, he shall be saved” (John 10:9)

“And there is salvation in no-one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31)

 

What Unitarians teach about – FUTURE STATE

Unitarians believe that the process of dying is one of the processes of life and their aim is to approach it without fear. There are three general Unitarian positions here:

1. Those who believe in personal immortality.

2. Those who believe their deeds and thoughts survive only in the memory of other people.

3. Those who don’t know.

What the Bible teaches about – FUTURE STATE

“For I know that my redeemer lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19: 25-26)

“And these shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46)

“For an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28-29)

“It is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27)

 

What Unitarians teach about – PRAYER

True prayer aims at effecting a change in ourselves so that, by our example, we may change others.

For many Unitarians, private prayer has been equated with honest work rather than with the devotional life, and there is a general dislike of petitionary prayer.

Believing that man has direct access to God in prayer, they do not pray ‘through Jesus Christ’.

What the Bible teaches about – PRAYER

“For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope”.

While God’s purpose was clear, prayer was one of the means he decreed through which he would accomplish his purpose, so he continues

“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you” (Jeremiah 29:11-12)

“If you shall ask the Father for anything, he will give it to you in my name” (John 16:23)

“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

“If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1 John 5:14)

 

CONCLUSION

As I was typing this article it came to mind that many years ago I had obtained the cassette tape of a debate on this subject between the late Dave Hunt (who was my first-ever invited guest to come to Northern Ireland and speak under the auspices of ‘Take Heed’ Ministries) and Dr. John Wolf (an American Unitarian minister). I was able to locate the tape and it has been posted to the ministry YouTube site and you can listen to it by going to this link –

I have to confess I was shocked by the poverty of Dr Wolf’s arguments and the debate really highlights the difference between an unregenerate but proud academic and a regenerate believer relying alone on God’s Word to bring meaning and hope to human life and to reveal to humans the only true and living God. Finally, two other resources that shed light upon Unitarianism can be accessed on these links –

https://carm.org/what-unitarianism

http://ras.org/archive/archive.html?issue=1999_2&page=21

 

Cecil Andrews – ‘Take Heed’ Ministries – 3rd August 2016

APPENDIX 

Whilst preparing to speak in a church in Northern Ireland it was drawn to my attention that it had a close-neighbour church with strong ‘Unitarian’ connections. This close-neighbour church was a Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church and as I mentioned at the start of this article this close connection is exemplified in particular by All Souls Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church in Elmwood Avenue in Belfast.

Their minister Chris Hudson, gave a ‘Thought for the Day’ on Radio Ulster on 18 November 2016 and mentioned in the course of his talk that he had invited Galen Guengerich, the minister of All Soul’s Unitarian Church in New York to speak in his church in Belfast. He also mentioned that Mr Guengerich had authored a book called ‘God Revised’ and then quoted the following from it –

‘The great religious challenge of our time is adapting our faith to THE REALITY that GOD MAY NOT BE SUPERNATURAL’.

You can listen to the ‘Thought for the Day’ in full by going to this link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p048h5bv

Just to gauge the full extent of the diabolical thinking of the basically humanistic philosophy of Mr Guengerich you might want to spend 19 minutes listening to this ‘sermon’ he delivered in All Soul’s Unitarian in Tulsa which just happens to be the same church of which the man who debated Dave Hunt (John Wolf) was minister until 1995. This is the ‘sermon’ link

When I heard Mr Guengerich come out with statements like ‘we are human forms of the divine’ and ‘we are the divine in human form’ (only the Lord Jesus Christ was that) I could almost picture Satan swelling with pride and saying to himself ‘that’s my boy’ because his ‘boy’, Mr Guengerich was simply repeating one of the first lies that Satan told, namely, “Ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5). Mr Guengerich is one of those identified by Paul when he wrote “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). Geoffrey B Wilson in his commentary on these verses writes ‘

They [false apostles] changed their outward appearance by assuming the guise of Christ’s servants, but their essential character as the slaves of Satan remained unchanged. They pose as something which they are not, and in doing so they deceive…It is no wonder that those who are in reality opposed to Christ should wish to be taken for his apostles, for in this they are merely following the practice of their true master! Satan’s masquerading by deceit as a messenger of light… is but the pattern of his conduct as the deceiver, from his first dealings with mankind in the Garden of Eden… it is only by posing as the champion of truth that the prince of darkness is able to persuade men to swallow his lies… It is therefore no great thing if Satan’s power to present himself in a guise foreign to his real nature should also be found in those enlisted in his service… they are in fact deceivers of others because they are themselves deceived’ (pp 142-143).

I began this APPENDIX by referring to a ‘close-neighbour… Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church’ and the church in question is located in Moira. On their Facebook site, they listed their hymns for Sunday 29 January 2017 and herewith is a copy of one that they listed

I have one simple question – What’s missing? And the answer is VERSE 4

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty All thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea Holy, Holy, Holy, merciful and mighty God in THREE Persons, blessed TRINITY

As is often said in court proceedings, “I rest my case”

Cecil Andrews – ‘Take Heed’ Ministries – 14 February 2017