Unity church & Jesus?

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-20-2000
Unity church & Jesus?
15
Thu, 04-21-2005 - 2:16pm

I know Barbara for one goes to a Unity church... I gotta question for ya (or anyone who knows the answer, lol)

Do members of the Unity church believe that Jesus is God? And what's the story with the Holy Spirit? In other words are they Trinitarians? (believe in the Holy Trinity?)



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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Thu, 04-21-2005 - 6:29pm

Unity people have varying beliefs, but in general, no, Jesus is not considered "God" because there is only one god who is in all of us.


iVillage Member
Registered: 06-20-2000
Thu, 04-21-2005 - 6:47pm
But you say you're Christian - doesn't that implicitly imply that you think he's god?
Now I need to go look up the meaning of Christian... boy, this religion stuff gets hard to pull apart & figger out, doesn't it?


iVillage Member
Registered: 06-20-2000
Thu, 04-21-2005 - 7:04pm

OK, of course, there are varying definitions of what a Christian even is. Man, no WONDER there's so much disagreement in the world's religions! If we all had the same vocabulary, I bet we'd have a LOT less religions! LOL

Well, glad I tried to get to the bottom of THIS little riddle! Here's what I found so far:

Christian may mean:

1.Mormons only (cf. Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 132).
www.christiandefense.org/mor_define.htm

2. someone who follows the teachings of Jesus Christ.
www.ethnicityonline.net/christianity_glossary.htm

3. a religious person who believes Jesus is the Christ and who is a member of a Christian denomination
www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn

4. The term Christian means "belonging to Christ," and is derived from the Greek noun Χριστός Khrist s which means "anointed one," which is itself a translation of the Hebrew word Moshiach (Hebrew: משיח, also written "Messiah").
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian..........

...so of course, then I need to look up "anointed" to see if that means you're god if you're anointed... http://www.word-of-grace.com/Wordsmith/Anointing/Content/A1.htm

............this, of course, caused me to look up "messiah" - Does THAT word imply he's god????
1. Messiah -the awaited king of the Jews; the promised and expected deliverer of the Jewish people
2. Messiah-Jesus Christ; considered by Christians to be the promised deliverer
3. Messiah, christ -any expected deliverer

So, that cleared it all right up, eh?



iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 04-21-2005 - 8:25pm

LOL Lorax! And now you understand my aversion to labels! :-D

Before I really took the time to think about it, I assumed 'Christian' meant anyone who believed any variation of the religion following the Bible, both old and new testaments. (Those who follow only the old testment would, of course, be Jewish.) As I've taken the time to really put some thought and effort into it, I've come to equate it with the belief that the man Jesus was God incarnate.

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-20-2000
Thu, 04-21-2005 - 8:40pm
That's what I thought too, but it doesn't sound like that's necessarily the case.
Barbara, to put you on the spot here, do you personally believe that Jesus is God incarnate?


Avatar for dustbunny48
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 04-21-2005 - 9:38pm

You're not putting me on the spot at all!

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-20-2000
Fri, 04-22-2005 - 6:30am

All right then, I officially no longer see the difference between Unity and Unitarian Universalist.

Anyone?

(edited to add what I just thought of as I was hitting "send", lol)
Oh wait! Unity folks all have to believe in God? Maybe that's it? We've got pagans, agnostics & atheists over at UU too... it's a spiritual thing for them, more than an entity thing, I think...




Edited 4/22/2005 6:33 am ET ET by i_m_the_lorax
Avatar for nonisfern
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 04-22-2005 - 9:45am

Hi, all, butting in here from Lorax's 'nother board at her invitation !
See, these very wise women said what I was saying.
No Jesus is not God, but God is in all of us, I didn't know if we ( unity) believed in the trinity, because I'd never heard it.I guess I'd never heard it 'cause we don't !
And you are right, at Unity you go there because you believe in God. That was why I used such strong language in trying to clearly define the difference between Unity and Unitarian Universalist.
To maybe confuse you more I agreed about us being the christain version of you guys, but I was blindly accepting that Christian means the belief in God.
I'd never heard of the explaination of Jesus as God the way you put it before, but then again, I never really went to Church before 4 years ago when we stumbled into our *perfect for us* church in Unity.

For those of you who don't know me my apologies if you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, but I thought this was a more appropriateplace to continue this! Naomi

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Fri, 04-22-2005 - 9:49am

Here are 5 Basic Unity Principles that are printed in the new bulletin covers we use:


1)


iVillage Member
Registered: 06-20-2000
Fri, 04-22-2005 - 10:20am

Ah! It looks like we're very similar, we just don't REQUIRE a god perse.

We affirm & promote:
# The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
# Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
# Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
# A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
# The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
# The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
# Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Oh, let's be honest, MOST religions are very similar! What a shame that most people dont' seem to realize that!



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