Teens and ChristMade by teens

← Compare beliefs

Outside the creeds

Groups that deny the Trinity

Several movements use Christian words — Jesus, Bible, salvation, church — while teaching something different about who God is. This page describes what they actually hold and why the church has always treated these as first-order disagreements rather than style differences.

Say this once and mean it: the people in these groups are often sincere, disciplined and generous — frequently more so than the Christians criticising them. Disagree with the teaching. Never sneer at the person.

Jehovah's Witnesses

1870s, Charles Taze Russell (Watch Tower Society)

On God: Only Jehovah the Father is God; the Trinity is rejected as pagan.
On Jesus: Jesus is the first created being — identified with Michael the archangel — divine in a lesser sense but not God. The Holy Spirit is God's impersonal active force.
On salvation: Faith plus loyal obedience and preaching work; 144,000 rule in heaven while others live on a renewed earth.
Scriptures used: The New World Translation, produced by the movement, renders key verses about Christ's deity differently.

Why this falls outside historic Christianity

—Denies that Jesus is God and that the Holy Spirit is a person
—Denies Christ's bodily resurrection
—Adds an organisation's teaching authority as necessary for salvation

How to respond kindly: Read John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:16-17 and John 20:28 together: the one through whom all things were made cannot himself be a made thing, and Thomas calls the risen Jesus 'my Lord and my God' without correction.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons)

1830, Joseph Smith

On God: The Father, Son and Spirit are three separate beings united in purpose; God the Father has a body and was once a man, and exalted humans may become gods.
On Jesus: Jesus is the literal firstborn spirit child of the Father and elder brother of all people, including Lucifer — not the eternal, uncreated Son.
On salvation: Grace after all one can do: faith, ordinances, temple rites and obedience lead towards exaltation.
Scriptures used: The Bible 'as far as it is translated correctly', plus the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price.

Why this falls outside historic Christianity

—Teaches many gods and a God who changed from man to deity
—Denies the eternal deity of the Son as historically confessed
—Adds scriptures and a restored priesthood as necessary

How to respond kindly: Isaiah 43:10 and 44:6 rule out gods before or after the LORD. Latter-day Saints are often sincere, warm and moral people — disagree about doctrine without insulting the person.

Oneness Pentecostalism (Modalism)

1910s, from the Pentecostal movement

On God: God is one person who appears in three modes — Father in creation, Son in redemption, Spirit in the church — rather than three eternal persons.
On Jesus: Jesus is God, but is himself the Father and the Spirit; there is no eternal distinction between them.
On salvation: Typically requires baptism in Jesus' name only and speaking in tongues as evidence.
Scriptures used: The Bible, read through a modalist framework.

Why this falls outside historic Christianity

—Collapses the persons of the Trinity, an ancient error (Sabellianism) rejected by the whole church
—Makes the Son's prayers to the Father a performance rather than real relationship
—Often adds requirements to the gospel for salvation

How to respond kindly: At Jesus' baptism the Son is in the water, the Father speaks from heaven and the Spirit descends — three at once, not one being switching costumes (Matthew 3:16-17; John 17:5).

Unitarianism / Unitarian Universalism

1500s onward; formalised in the 1800s

On God: God is one person. Classical Unitarianism keeps a Creator; modern Unitarian Universalism is often non-creedal entirely.
On Jesus: A great moral teacher and example, fully human and not divine.
On salvation: Usually universal — all people are ultimately fine — or reframed as ethical living.
Scriptures used: The Bible as human religious literature, alongside other traditions.

Why this falls outside historic Christianity

—Denies the deity of Christ and the Trinity
—Denies that the cross accomplishes atonement
—Modern forms have no fixed doctrine at all

How to respond kindly: If Jesus is only a teacher, his claims to forgive sins and receive worship become intolerable rather than admirable (Mark 2:5-7; John 5:23).

Christian Science

1879, Mary Baker Eddy

On God: God is impersonal divine Mind or Principle; matter, sickness and death are ultimately unreal.
On Jesus: Jesus was a man who demonstrated the 'Christ idea'; he was not God incarnate and did not die a substitutionary death.
On salvation: Correcting false belief; understanding that evil, illness and death are errors of thought.
Scriptures used: The Bible interpreted through Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

Why this falls outside historic Christianity

—Denies the incarnation, the atonement and the bodily resurrection
—Denies the reality of sin, suffering and death that Scripture takes with total seriousness

How to respond kindly: The gospel does not say suffering is unreal; it says God entered it. The wounds of the risen Jesus were touched (John 20:27).

Iglesia ni Cristo and similar restorationist groups

1914, Felix Manalo (Philippines)

On God: Strictly one person; the Trinity is rejected.
On Jesus: A uniquely exalted man, not God.
On salvation: Membership in the one true church organisation and obedience to its leadership.
Scriptures used: The Bible interpreted exclusively by the group's leadership.

Why this falls outside historic Christianity

—Denies the deity of Christ
—Makes salvation depend on belonging to one organisation

How to respond kindly: Test any group that says salvation requires their institution against Acts 4:12 — the name given is Jesus, not an organisation.

How to tell whether a group is teaching historic Christianity

1.Is Jesus fully God and fully man, uncreated and eternal?
2.Is God one being in three eternal persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
3.Did Jesus die a real death and rise bodily?
4.Is salvation by grace through faith in Christ, rather than by belonging to an organisation?
5.Is Scripture the authority, rather than Scripture plus a modern revelation that overrides it?

These are the questions the ancient creeds were written to answer. Disagreeing with a group's doctrine is not the same as despising its members — argue the claim, love the person.

Want the positive case? Read the Trinity explained.

Where this came from

We're not experts — these are the sources we used while researching this page. Read them yourself, keep digging, and hold us to them.

[1]The Nicene Creed (325/381) and the Chalcedonian Definition (451) — full texts
The standard the historic church uses to test a group's teaching about Christ.
[2]Britannica — Arianism
The fourth-century controversy that most modern denials repeat.
[3]Official self-descriptions: jw.org, churchofjesuschrist.org, Christian Science and Unitarian Universalist sites
Each group is quoted from its own published teaching before it is answered.
[4]Blue Letter Bible — Greek text of John 1, Colossians 1, Philippians 2, Hebrews 1
The passages the argument turns on, read in Greek rather than in translation only.