Biblical Unitarianism - Early Unitarians and The Bible

Early Unitarians and The Bible

Historians such as George Huntston Williams (1914–2000) rarely employ the term "Biblical Unitarian", as it would be anachronistic. Those individuals and congregations that we may now think of as Unitarians went through a range of beliefs about Jesus: that he was either pre-existent but created Son of God, not God the Son (Arianism); or that he originated at the virgin birth (Socinianism); or that he was simply a godly man (Adoptionism or Psilanthropism).

For early unitarians such as Henry Hedworth, who introduced the term "Unitarian" from Holland into England in 1673, the idea that Unitarianism was "Biblical" was axiomatic, since the whole thrust of the 16th and 17th century Unitarian and Arian movements was based on sola scriptura argumentation from Scripture, as in the case of the Isaac Newton.