Sermon

Week 30: Unitarian Universalism Believes Everything and Nothing, All At Once | March 1, 2026 Sunday School

Sermon Podcast—LBC Easton

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  1. Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

  2. The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

  3. Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

  4. or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

  5. us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

  6. message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

  7. And if you would open your Bibles, please, to 1st John

  8. chapter #2 this morning as we continue our series looking at

  9. world religions and cults. We'll be taking our leave of

  10. this series next week. And then we'll be off until

  11. after Easter because we have just some different programming

  12. taking place next week. And then after that, we will be

  13. gone. Scotland missing one Sunday as

  14. we go and visit Diane's parents. And then also after that, the

  15. following Sunday, we'll have brother Scott Sandy with us.

  16. He'll be with us during the morning.

  17. He'll be teaching Sunday school and then church.

  18. And then of course, not long after that, we'll be Easter.

  19. And so as soon as Easter is done, we'll be back in our

  20. series and we'll be taking a few more weeks and probably ending

  21. sometime early or mid-May. That'll mean about a year that

  22. we have been in this series in world religions it called.

  23. It's hard to believe that it's been that long.

  24. That's kind of what I'm looking at is our exit strategy, if you

  25. will, and then getting into our next Sunday School series.

  26. But in the meantime, we are in First John Chapter 2 this

    1 John 2 chapter mention

  27. morning and we're looking at Universal rather Unitarian

  28. Universalism and the title of the lesson this morning.

  29. It's a long one, but it believes everything and nothing all at

  30. once. You say, pastor, what on earth

  31. does that mean? Well, it just gets down to the

  32. place of trying to find out what exactly, exactly the Unitarians

  33. actually believe. And you say, what is

  34. Unitarianism? Something that's a, that's a

  35. thing. Is it something that is

  36. prevalent? And the answer is in this area,

  37. absolutely. Unitarian Universalism,

  38. particularly in the New England area, is something that you'll

  39. find in many New England cities and towns, including here in

  40. Easton. And they are very peculiar, or

  41. not just in their history, but also what they believe even

  42. today. And really, they're more

  43. remarkable for what they don't believe than what they believe.

  44. And I want us to look at that this morning and have some

  45. understanding because again, your town, even if you don't

  46. live in East and your town very likely has AUU Church, ours

  47. would be Unity Church here in downtown.

  48. Yours has it as well. And we should be familiar with

  49. who they are and what they believe.

  50. And interestingly enough, they go all the way back to the

  51. 1600s, actually probably even before that as well, developed

  52. in Europe in the mid 16th century.

  53. And the term Unitarian is different than what we believe

  54. is Trinitarians. What would you say Trinitarian

  55. means? Well, it believes that we

  56. believe in the Trinity, right? The Father and the Son and the

  57. Holy Ghost. The Unitarians believe something

  58. completely different, that Jesus is not the Son of God, or if he

  59. is the Son of God, that he is not God the Son and the Holy

  60. Spirit is more of a life force, if you will, but that truly God

  61. is 1 God and say, well, we believe that as well.

  62. But we also believe that God's expressed in three persons,

  63. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Unitarians do not believe

  64. that. Now why would that be wrong?

  65. Well, we're in first John right now chapter #2 so let's go ahead

  66. and just give you a brief debunking, if you will.

  67. Why we believe God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy

  68. Ghost. And it says in verse #21 It says

  69. in first John chapter 2, verse 21.

    1 John 2:21

  70. I have not written unto you because you know not the truth,

  71. but because you know it. And that no lie is of the truth.

  72. Who is a liar but he that denieth Jesus is the Christ?

  73. That's pretty clear right there, isn't it?

  74. Who is a liar, but he that denyeth that Jesus is the

  75. Christ? He is Antichrist that denyeth

  76. the Father and the Son. Boy, I think that's pretty clear

  77. right there, isn't it? Verse #23 Whosoever denyeth the

  78. Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that

  79. acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.

  80. Let that therefore abide in you which he have heard from the

  81. beginning. If that which he have heard from

  82. the beginning shall remain in you, you shall also continue in

  83. the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He

  84. had promised us, even eternal life.

  85. It seems very clear right there that when you believe in God,

  86. quote UN quote, I believe in God.

  87. Well, that belief has to be in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

  88. That we can't just say, as the Unitarians do, that we just

  89. believe in one God. Of course we believe in one God,

  90. we're not polytheists, we don't believe in three gods, but yet

  91. we believe that God again is expressed in three persons,

  92. Father, Son and Holy Ghost. There's other verses that

  93. explain that as well. Matthew 28 verse 19 go.

    Matthew 28:19

  94. He therefore make disciples unto all nations, baptizing them in

  95. what the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy

  96. Ghost. 2nd Corinthians 13 verse 14, the grace of the Lord Jesus

  97. Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be

  98. with you all. And that benediction, if you

  99. will, from Paul mentions God the Father, Jesus Christ and the

  100. Holy Ghost. What about Matthew 3 verses 16

    Matthew 3:16

  101. and 17? And when Jesus was baptized,

  102. immediately he went up from the water and told the heavens were

  103. open to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a

  104. dove and coming to rest on him. And behold a voice from heaven

  105. said This is my beloved son with whom?

  106. And well, please, what do you see at the baptism of Jesus, the

  107. voice of the Father. Will you hear the voice of the

  108. Father. You see the expression of the

  109. Spirit in the form of a dove Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

  110. You can go to Genesis chapter 1 and we find that Jesus is or

    Genesis 1 chapter mention

  111. rather the Lord is in conference with himself.

  112. That term us is used there. We saw last week in Isaiah

    Isaiah 6 chapter mention

  113. chapter 6 the same who shall go for us again, the Lord in

  114. conference with himself. When you and I talk to

  115. ourselves. Sometimes that's problematic,

  116. isn't it? When God talks to himself, he's

  117. talking between Father and Son and Holy Ghost.

  118. And so we reject out of hand the idea that the Unitarians would

  119. say that God is not expressed in three persons.

  120. Again, we believe in one God. That is not God the Father who

  121. is 1 God, God the Son who is a second God, God the Holy Spirit

  122. who is 1/3 God. That would make us polytheists,

  123. that they are one God expressed in three persons.

  124. This is what the Bible teaches. This is what we believe.

  125. Now Unitarianism arose during the Protestant Reformation from

  126. the teachings of a man named Michael Cervatus.

  127. So during the time of John Calvin during the time of the

  128. Reformation. In fact, Cervatus sat at the

  129. feet of Calvin for a brief period of time.

  130. However, even for John Calvin, some of his beliefs about

  131. Unitarianism were too much for him and he was considered

  132. Cervatus to be a heretic. But yet even the writings of

  133. which he made during that early 1500 time period ended up

  134. fanning the flames of which later would be a more robust

  135. teaching of Unitarianism from one Faustus Saucinus, who

  136. continued to promote anti trinitarian views of Servatus

  137. and began to develop the system that now is known as

  138. Unitarianism. Some of the other things that he

  139. taught as well. Beyond believing, beyond

  140. teaching against the Trinity, he also promoted an unbiblical view

  141. of Christ's sacrifice. He denied that Jesus was the

  142. substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of mankind.

  143. He taught that men will reconciled to God through piety,

  144. demonstrations of love and obedience to God.

  145. Meaning this it was a works based salvation of which he

  146. taught as a Unitarian. He said Jesus is more of just a

  147. good example for us to follow really, not the Son of God.

  148. And you could see that these are errors that we have seen

  149. repackaged and reformed over and over again in different

  150. religions. And no matter how they're

  151. repackaged, no matter how they're repurposed, guess what?

  152. They're all false. Because Jesus wasn't just a good

  153. example. He didn't go around proclaiming

  154. himself to be a good example. He went around proclaiming

  155. himself to be who he was before Abraham was.

  156. I am very clear, isn't it? Well, that's not just a man

  157. talking about being a good prophet or good example.

  158. That's a man who said, you've seen the father, you've seen me,

  159. you've seen the father. And this is what we have, and

  160. this is what is being taught. And the Unitarians would deny

  161. all of this, including the very idea of original sin.

  162. This is all denied by the Unitarians.

  163. This man Fausta Saucinus back in the early 1600s and as such

  164. around that time Unitarianism starts to spread.

  165. One of the reasons is because it leans heavily.

  166. While it does speak of the Bible, even in those times it

  167. did use the Bible. The Bible was certainly twisted

  168. far beyond recognition. But they did have the idea that

  169. they would use the Bible. But they were entering into

  170. human reasoning that this was a big idea of the Enlightenment,

  171. that sure there is the Bible, but the idea of a Trinity just

  172. isn't reasonable. And so because of that, we don't

  173. believe it. Now if you want to take faith

  174. and put your human reasoning above faith, guess what, You

  175. don't have faith. Faith is a substance of things

  176. helped for the evidence of things not seen.

  177. It says in Hebrews Chapter 11, we understand that we don't

    Hebrews 11 chapter mention

  178. understand the Trinity. Did you catch that?

  179. We understand that we do not understand the Trinity.

  180. We understand what the Bible teaches about the Trinity.

  181. We accept it by faith. But I can tell you that as a

  182. pastor, I have not found over the years a good illustration to

  183. be able to show people who the Trinity is because every time I

  184. try to find one and every time I hear other pastors tell of one,

  185. they all fall woefully short. You're saying you don't believe

  186. in the Trinity. When did I say that?

  187. Of course I believe in the Trinity.

  188. I believe in it by faith. What I'm telling you is this.

  189. Our finite minds have trouble wrapping our heads around what

  190. it is. So what do we do?

  191. We believe in it by faith. The Unitarians say this.

  192. We don't understand it, so we can't believe it.

  193. Can you see much different way of thinking in a way that will

  194. lead them very far away from the faith in the living God?

  195. Well, Unitarianism starts to spread in places like

  196. Transylvania, Poland and England in the 1600s.

  197. But then beyond that, it starts to take root in the new American

  198. colonies, and then beyond that into America itself.

  199. The very first Unitarian church in the United States, you may

  200. have been here before, I've been here several times, is King's

  201. Chapel in Boston. If you've been on the Freedom

  202. Trail, some of you, it's probably been a while since

  203. you've been on the Freedom Trail, unless you had some

  204. guests or visitors in town and they all want to go and walk on

  205. that red brick line throughout Boston.

  206. And if you go on the Freedom Trail, you start in Boston

  207. Common and then you go right around the corner and there is a

  208. cemetery where Paul Revere is from colonial times.

  209. But then beyond it is your next stop, which is King's Chapel.

  210. Now, King's Chapel was an Episcopal Church for some period

  211. of time, but Unitarian thinking ended up going into this church.

  212. And because of that, it actually renounced its Episcopalian ways

  213. and became a Unitarian church and is AUU church even today.

  214. So if you go into King's Chapel, which I have many times, you'll

  215. find a first example in the United States of A a Unitarian

  216. church and now a Unitarian Universalist Church.

  217. It flourished in New England. And as it flourished in New

  218. England, and particularly in the 1800s, it became, words are hard

  219. today. All right, that's not good

  220. because it's only 1015, but it became rolled up into the

  221. transcendental movement, Ralph Waldo Emerson and the like.

  222. And so now it's even throwing off the idea of any pretense of

  223. following the Bible. And now it has just become

  224. literally man's thoughts about who God is.

  225. This will continue all the way up to 19611961 is the inflection

  226. point for the Unitarian movement because at the same time, there

  227. is also a universalist movement that is taking place in this

  228. region, in this area as well, particularly a Universalist

  229. church, a Unitarian church in 1961.

  230. They kind of come to this place. They say, hey, we kind of

  231. believe like you, and you kind of believe like, so why don't we

  232. believe the same thing together? And in the United States, the

  233. Unitarian Universalists are born now.

  234. We are at the place now where even the Unitarian Universalists

  235. don't even look like the Unitarians of the 1500s and the

  236. 1600s again. Why?

  237. Because they have thrown off all pretense of believing the Bible.

  238. And literally the Unitarian Universalists believe this.

  239. Whatever you want, you believe, whatever you want, and you can

  240. become part of our congregation. Now, there's some limits to

  241. that, and we'll find out what those limits are here in just a

  242. moment. But I do want us to watch a

  243. short video that comes from the Unitarian Universalist as they

  244. explain in their own words who they are.

  245. And so we're going to go ahead and watch that and then give you

  246. some further explanation. We are Unitarian Universalists.

  247. We are people of many paths who are brave, curious and

  248. compassionate thinkers and doers.

  249. Everyday people are inundated with information, overwhelmed by

  250. demands, and pulled by a culture that seeks to divide us from the

  251. web of life. Unitarian Universalism

  252. reconnects, bringing people together with meaning and

  253. inspiration. We are a house without walls, a

  254. congregation without spiritual limits, and a movement that

  255. calls you to put more faith in yourself, your community and

  256. your beliefs. We are a faith that honors your

  257. mind, your heart, your journey. Simply put, we are a guided path

  258. towards a better you and a better world, grounded in

  259. hundreds of years of thoughtful religious communities.

  260. We are people of many generations.

  261. Ethnicities, genders and sexualities and spiritual

  262. backgrounds. People engaged in making the

  263. world a better place. People focusing on what really

  264. matters, love, justice, integrity and hope.

  265. Unitarian Universalists have different beliefs but shared

  266. values. We are Unitarian Universalists

  267. and at the same time we may also be agnostic, Buddhist,

  268. Christian, Hindu, Humanist, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, atheist,

  269. believers in God and those who let the great mystery be.

  270. The diversity of beliefs you'll find in a Unitarian Universalist

  271. community is one of our strengths.

  272. We are always learning how to see the world from a different

  273. perspective. What unites us are our core

  274. principles that uphold 7 real world values, believing in the

  275. worthiness of every person, showing compassion and fairness,

  276. accepting others for who they are, growing through a personal

  277. search for truth, leading with democratic spirit, working for

  278. justice, and understanding that everything is interconnected.

  279. Seven days a week, Unitarian Universalists live these

  280. principles by doing. When we gather, we worship,

  281. reflect, and remind ourselves what matters most in life.

  282. Whatever our age, we learn to live with more wisdom, more

  283. awareness, more gratitude, and more soul.

  284. We show our values by showing up to answer the call for social

  285. justice. We have a track record of

  286. standing on the side of love for civil rights, LGBTQ equality,

  287. immigration reform, environmental sustainability,

  288. reproductive justice, racial justice, and more.

  289. Find what it means to live your deepest values out loud.

  290. Join us on this extraordinary adventure of faith.

  291. You say, pastor, that doesn't sound like a religious group,

  292. That sounds like a political group.

  293. And your answer would be you're getting very close to the truth

  294. of what the Unitarian Universalists are all about.

  295. What are the Unitarian Universalists?

  296. Well, Universalist congregations, according to

  297. their own beliefs, affirm and promote 7 principles which we

  298. hold as strong values and moral guides.

  299. We live out these principles within a living tradition of

  300. wisdom and spirituality drawn from sources as diverse as

  301. science, poetry, scripture, and personal experience.

  302. And I would say very heavy on the personal experience.

  303. What are those 7 principles that were mentioned there just a few

  304. moments ago? That was the quote that I just

  305. gave you just now. But what are those 7 principles

  306. of Unitarian of Universal unitarianism #1 the inherent

  307. worth and dignity of every person #2 Justice, equity,

  308. compassion in human relations #3 The acceptance of one another

  309. and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations #4A

  310. free and responsible search for truth and meaning #5 the right

  311. of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our

  312. congregations and in society at large.

  313. Number six, the goal of world community with peace, liberty,

  314. and justice for all. And then #7 respect for the

  315. interdependent web of all existence of which we are apart.

  316. Now, from these principles that you see here, the pluralistic

  317. nature of this religious system is quite obvious.

  318. In general. A Christian could agree with

  319. several of the things that are up there just in general.

  320. But we understand from what we just read that it's not just the

  321. meaning of the words, but it's the meaning behind the meaning

  322. of the words that are truly dangerous.

  323. That when it talks about being worth and inherent dignity of

  324. every person, of course we would agree that there isn't worth and

  325. inherent dignity of every person, but they would not agree

  326. that there's worth and inherent dignity of the unborn.

  327. They wouldn't agree with that. We could go on and on justice,

  328. equity and compassion and human relations.

  329. And well, I would say Micah 68 was way out in front of that

  330. before anything that the Unitarian Universalists had ever

  331. talked about, that we should do justly and love mercy and walk

  332. humbly with thy God. But at the same time, what they

  333. mean by that was, well, those things that were mentioned there

  334. and their political speech at the end of the video, more than

  335. what we would mean by what the Bible says about that.

  336. And on and on and on it goes. So really what the Unitarian

  337. Universalists believe is, well, all of that.

  338. You saw agnostic, Pagan, atheist, Christian, Buddhist,

  339. Muslim, and on and on and on. They believe all of that and

  340. none of it at the same time. How do you gather together and

  341. worship when people don't even agree on who God is?

  342. Or if there is a God, How do you gather together and worship when

  343. people don't even agree what their shared values are?

  344. How do we gather together? Well, we gather together because

  345. we believe in God, we believe in Father, Son, Holy Ghost, and we

  346. believe in this word. And that is really what binds us

  347. together, isn't it? And if we were to get together

  348. and say, well let's talk about something different other than

  349. the Bible today, well that would pretty much be the end of this

  350. assembly, wouldn't it? Because this is what binds us

  351. together is the word of God that shows us Father, Son and Holy

  352. Ghost. But these 7 principles are again

  353. more arbitrary in the sense that it's just kind of things that

  354. they have come up with over time and that they believe.

  355. But I would even suggest you that they don't believe them in

  356. the way that they say that they believe them in.

  357. Now I found this several times of quotes that have explained

  358. what Unitarian Universalist believe.

  359. And this quote's just startling to me.

  360. They say this, our faith is not interested in saving your soul.

  361. We're here to help you unfold the awesome soul you already

  362. have. There is no soul that needs to

  363. be saved. You're inherently good.

  364. They just want you to be able to have a better life.

  365. They want you to unlock a better you.

  366. This is who they are. And the very arbitrariness of

  367. what they believe is not a bug, it's a feature.

  368. They just want you to believe whatever you want to believe and

  369. come together again. There's a limit to that, but

  370. this is what they say. This is what they espouse.

  371. You can believe whatever you want.

  372. You come here, you'll find a warm and welcoming, inviting

  373. place. It really doesn't matter what

  374. you believe, as long as you come and be part of the community.

  375. And there's a part of you that sounds that sounds really good

  376. until you get down to it and you think it doesn't work like that,

  377. does it? In fact, it never works like

  378. that in life and certainly not within the confines of a

  379. so-called church. Now I want to show you a second

  380. video. I think if we can get that

  381. queued up, that I will show you a little bit of how arbitrary

  382. the beliefs of the Unitarian Universalists are.

  383. So we can run that. Let's go ahead and try that.

  384. Amanda Rights. I wish I knew more about

  385. Unitarian Universalism. I've struggled not having a

  386. church and feeling like I want one, but none seem to fit to be

  387. honest. So let me tell you a little bit

  388. about why I love Unitarian Universalism.

  389. And you know, maybe it would fit you, maybe it wouldn't, but

  390. maybe I can give you a little bit of information.

  391. So Unitarian Universalism is non creedal and pluralist, which

  392. means that we don't have a set of beliefs that everyone has to

  393. agree with in order to belong. And we are pluralist.

  394. We pull from all the different worlds, religions and

  395. philosophies and stories and life experiences.

  396. And So what that has meant for me is that I had the room and

  397. have had the room all my life to explore and grow.

  398. And as I had experiences in my life, I had a religion where I

  399. could really change what I believed.

  400. But I stayed in the same religion.

  401. And one example of that is my youngest daughter had cancer and

  402. she developed it as a six month old baby.

  403. And let me tell you, any sort of faith and understandings of the

  404. world and God and all of that, I mean, poof, they were gone in an

  405. instant. And this, this religion gave me

  406. the space to be able to explore those really hard questions and,

  407. and whatever conclusions I came to, there wasn't going to be

  408. someone telling me, no, you have to believe this really rigid

  409. doctrine. Everyone who is in this faith

  410. understands that it is this faith evolves.

  411. And it's also expected that we are going to evolve, that, you

  412. know, our life experiences are going to shape us in different

  413. ways and we're going to change. And I love that there is a deep

  414. moral center of this, this faith-based around treating

  415. other people well and working for justice.

  416. And, and so it is without dogma, but ethics is a huge part of

  417. what we do, ethical living. And I get to do all of this,

  418. both the work on myself and my work out in the world.

  419. I get to do it with a supportive community.

  420. I love these people and I love this faith.

  421. At the very beginning it was mentioned there are no beliefs.

  422. You heard that correct? That there is no belief here

  423. that you can believe whatever you want to believe.

  424. And I want to touch on what she mentioned in the middle.

  425. Of course, anyone who would have to deal with the cancer of a

  426. child, my heart would go out to them.

  427. There's certainly no animosity in my heart towards her or

  428. towards that situation at all. I understand when I say that,

  429. that that is how I feel, but at the same time, to be able to say

  430. through that my faith went out the window and that I was able

  431. to decide what I wanted to believe after that event took

  432. place. That's a dangerous form of

  433. living. What happens is it ends up that

  434. you are the decider of what faith actually is.

  435. In fact, it's just all about what do you want to believe,

  436. what feels right to you. It's a very dangerous place to

  437. be. But then you get from the

  438. beginning to there is no set belief to the middle of, well, I

  439. got to get to the place where I believe what I wanted to

  440. believe. And that belief could also

  441. change over time too. We have a very real set of

  442. ethics. Did you catch that at the end?

  443. Well, where do ethics come from? Those ethics come from what we

  444. believe and for us that comes from the word of God.

  445. So the question I would have to a universal Unitarian

  446. Universalist would be how can you come up with this core of

  447. ethics when everyone can believe what they want to believe in the

  448. 1st place? And this is where we start to

  449. get to the place where it really shows that there is a lot of

  450. righteous talk when it comes to Unitarian Universalism.

  451. But at the same time, there is absolutely zero depth because

  452. everyone can believe what they want to believe, but you have to

  453. believe like we believe. So what do you mean you have to

  454. believe like we believe? Well, there's a very real set of

  455. ethics that were mentioned in the first video as well as the

  456. second video. If you don't believe in that

  457. form of ethics, do you believe that you would be welcomed

  458. within their society? Do you think you'd be welcome

  459. within their church? The answer is we know from

  460. experience, we know from testimonies of others that the

  461. answer to that is no. Let me illustrate it to you in

  462. this way. I I go to when I go to the gym,

  463. I go to Planet Fitness. One of the things I love about

  464. Planet Fitness big sign on the wall, no judgement, no judgement

  465. zone, right? That's, that's, we understand

  466. that there's no judgement when you go into the Planet Fitness.

  467. And the whole point of that is, you know, there are people, you

  468. know, like me, who are intimidated.

  469. You go in and you get the meatheads that are going in and

  470. that, you know, they got the, they got the gallon of water,

  471. you know, they're drinking it. You don't have to be a meathead

  472. to do that. But the idea is, you know,

  473. they're going in there, they're they're doing their reps,

  474. they're looking at the, at the mirror while they're doing it,

  475. not because they're trying to make sure the form is right,

  476. just because they look good. You know what I'm saying?

  477. And they're doing all this, they're grunting, they're

  478. yelling, they're doing all these different things.

  479. So Planet Fitness came up with the idea.

  480. What if we had a place that was just, you know, where people

  481. could go and they don't have to worry about being judged because

  482. they are not like those people. And that idea in of itself, I

  483. think it's great to be honest with you.

  484. I enjoy that very much. But they call it a no judgement

  485. zone. But I'll be honest with you,

  486. there's a lot of judgement there.

  487. Say, what are you talking about? Well, what if you are one of

  488. those guys that go in there? You know what happens if you

  489. grunt and you throw down your weights when you're done?

  490. They have something that's called a lunkhead siren.

  491. You said, what's a lunkhead? What's somebody that's like, you

  492. know, you know, acting like a like a dope at the gym.

  493. And if you drop that weight too loud, the siren goes off kind of

  494. like, look at this guy. Look at this guy.

  495. You're telling me there's no judgement.

  496. You're just saying there's no judgement as long as you believe

  497. like we do. But if you don't, we go look at

  498. this guy. Look at this guy.

  499. He's he's yelling, he's grunting.

  500. Look at him. You know, what I'm saying is

  501. let's just be honest about what it is.

  502. I'm not saying that that environment that they built is a

  503. bad one. I think it's a good one.

  504. But you can't call it a no judgment zone because you are

  505. literally pointing out people who don't fit in that and say,

  506. look at this guy, we have the whole place, the lights are

  507. going on and off, the sirens going off.

  508. Because we want you to look at this person and see what a

  509. lunkhead they are. This is what Unitarian

  510. Universalism is. It's hey, you can believe

  511. whatever you want, just as long as you believe the things that

  512. we believe in. You've got to make sure you

  513. believe that women can have abortions whenever they want.

  514. You've got to make sure you believe in immigration reform.

  515. Did you hear that up there? Get not a religion, that's a

  516. political party. You have to make sure that you

  517. believe love is love for everybody.

  518. You have to believe that. So if I was to go to the

  519. Universal Unitarian Universalist congregation in town, if I was

  520. invited and I preached a message about why God believes that,

  521. well, God, why God has in his word that marriage is between

  522. one man and one woman for one lifetime, do you think that

  523. would be received well? Well, we can believe whatever we

  524. want. No, but you can't believe that

  525. this is a no judgment zone. Look at this guy.

  526. You can't believe that. Do you see what's the Unitarian

  527. Universalist? Do you say, pastor?

  528. You would never be invited to be able to be a part of their

  529. church. I have been invited to be part

  530. of their church. In the first few years of the

  531. church was open, I've been invited to several different

  532. events with the Easton Ministerial Association, meaning

  533. every pastor was invited to be able to come and do a

  534. Thanksgiving service or an Easter service or a Transgender

  535. Day of Remembrance service. These are things I've been

  536. invited to over the years. And so I politely declined so

  537. many times that they no longer invite me to be able to come to

  538. those. But I have been invited to go

  539. and to speak along with other ministers in Easton at a

  540. Thanksgiving service at Unity Church.

  541. Say, well, pastor, why wouldn't you do that?

  542. Well, because we don't all agree who we're even giving thanks to.

  543. And if I was to give thanks in a way, you say, well, they, they

  544. have to believe what you believe.

  545. No, they don't, because that arbitrariness only lasts for so

  546. long. And here's really what it comes

  547. down to for the Unitarian Universalists.

  548. Here's what they won't admit but they know is true.

  549. Everyone is welcome, unless they don't like what you believe.

  550. Again, every belief is good. Well, not every belief is good

  551. if you believe like a could we maybe put it this way, a Bible

  552. believing Baptist or a Bible believing Christian in general.

  553. So this is what I've come to the to the understanding of

  554. universals are broad minded, single minded and narrow minded

  555. people all at the same time. He said that doesn't make sense.

  556. It doesn't make sense. But this is who they are.

  557. They're broad minded. We believe everything, but

  558. they're single minded. This is what we believe in

  559. ethics. That also makes narrow minded

  560. because if you don't believe like them, then they have no

  561. regard for you. You can believe in whatever you

  562. want as long as it fits within their parameters of their

  563. ethics. This is why they believe

  564. everything and nothing all at the same time.

  565. Now I have a third video I want to show you as well.

  566. And if you think this is just me saying this, this comes from

  567. their own mouth. The same woman is going to speak

  568. again and she makes very clear Unitarian Universalist is not

  569. for everybody. It's like, whoa, whoa, hold on a

  570. second, I'm going to watch for everybody.

  571. I thought it didn't matter what, but apparently there are some

  572. people who won't be comfortable in a universalist church.

  573. Seems to undercut the entire argument right from the start.

  574. So let's go ahead and show that. Reasons why you would probably

  575. not be happy in a Unitarian Universalist congregation.

  576. Let's go. First of all, if you believe

  577. that there is only one path, one way of understanding what is

  578. most holy and true, you're probably not going to be happy

  579. in AUU church, because we are deliberately pluralist, we pull

  580. wisdom from all the different worlds faiths, and every

  581. individual UU gets to figure out what is most true for them.

  582. If you believe that people are born evil or with a propensity

  583. to evil, and it requires the intervening force of some type

  584. of a deity to get us to act decent, yeah, you're not going

  585. to be happy. In AUU church, we believe in the

  586. inherent worth and dignity of all people.

  587. If you believe that God has created a natural order and that

  588. families should fit this traditional model with certain

  589. gender roles, you're probably not going to be happy in one of

  590. our congregations. If it is important for you to

  591. hear about Jesus every Sunday, there are some exceptions.

  592. We do have what are called some affiliated churches that are

  593. more explicitly progressive Christian, but the vast, vast

  594. majority of you congregations do not identify as Christian in any

  595. way, although there may be Christian individual Christian

  596. members in it. But but so you're probably not

  597. going to hear about that every Sunday.

  598. And also if it's really important to you to hear about

  599. God every Sunday, again, in most of you churches, that may not

  600. happen. Now, I would also say if it if

  601. it's really important to you that you never hear the word

  602. God, you might be able to find some congregations.

  603. But overall, no, we are a big tent religion.

  604. If you believe that spirituality has no connection with the world

  605. of politics, you probably won't be happy in AUU church because

  606. this is a way of us living out our religious values.

  607. UU churches are often full of activists and they are involved

  608. in what many see as progressive causes, the environment,

  609. reproductive justice, LGBTQIA plus issues, voting rights, it

  610. goes on and on. So there's some reasons why you

  611. might not feel comfortable in AUU church.

  612. So what if none of those apply to you and you kind of find all

  613. of this intriguing? Well, feel free to.

  614. You can look at some of my videos.

  615. I have some playlists like AUU one O 1 or ask away.

  616. Ask me some questions. Anybody is welcome unless you

  617. believe in Jesus Christ. And unless, Yeah, I don't think.

  618. See, I had to show you this just so you could make sure that you

  619. felt that way because I didn't want everyone going over to

  620. Unity Church after Sunday school.

  621. You're comfortable there. Unless you believe in God,

  622. unless, unless you believe in the Bible, unless you're a

  623. conservative. I mean, that's very clear.

  624. People talk about, you know, religion and politics.

  625. And we tried to be very careful here.

  626. You know, this is not a political group.

  627. Of course, we believe the Bible and the Bible causes our

  628. politics to go in certain ways. But this is not a political

  629. rally here every Sunday. It just is not.

  630. And that's on purpose because we're dealing with Kingdom

  631. issues that far go beyond those other things that are also

  632. important. But you're talking about not a

  633. Sunday morning service. You're talking about a political

  634. rally of which we are not welcome in.

  635. And again, you say pastors this important.

  636. Almost every town in New England has one of these churches.

  637. The oldest church building in Easton is Unity Church.

  638. This is out here and a lot of the activism that you see that's

  639. out there for these ultra liberal causes is underpinned by

  640. those who are part of the Unitarian Universalist Church.

  641. So yes, it is important for us to understand, although

  642. certainly you are not in the place where you say, well, I

  643. wonder if I should go there. It's not that as much as it's

  644. you need to know that this is out there and you know that

  645. people that live in your community are going to those

  646. churches and that everybody's welcome unless you're sitting in

  647. this church today. And they would pretty much

  648. rather that we don't go over there and mess up that which

  649. they have, although everyone is able to believe whatever they

  650. want. It reminds me of Proverbs 14,

    Proverbs 14:12

  651. verse 12. There is a way which seemeth

  652. right unto a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.

  653. And that's Unitarian Universalism in a nutshell.

  654. Their tolerance is not for those who believe something, it's only

  655. for those who believe there is no absolute truth.

  656. So in absence, they're only tolerant of those who believe

  657. nothing. Because if you actually believe

  658. something, it may not fit. Well, we, we allow Buddhists to

  659. come in and Muslims. Let me ask you, how many Muslims

  660. do you think with what they believe would be welcome in a

  661. Unitarian Universalist church? The answer would be none.

  662. You say, pastor, could you be a Christian and be in a Unitarian

  663. Universalist church? And my answer to that, well, if

  664. I press the right button there. Oh, OK, I forgot this too.

  665. But so much going on here. All right, This is the inherent

  666. craziness is the only word I can use of their belief.

  667. The seven principles here's #5 the right of conscience to use

  668. the and the use of the democratic process within our

  669. congregations and in society at large.

  670. They say they believe #5 but they don't.

  671. You can believe what you want. You have the freedom of

  672. conscience to believe whatever you want to believe.

  673. They don't believe that themselves.

  674. Because again, if you went as a Bible believing Christian into

  675. their society, if you went as a political conservative of

  676. whatever stripe and decide to go in their society, you would be

  677. ostracized. And that was made very clear in

  678. that video, which is one of many that we could have shown you

  679. here today. But can a unitary universalist

  680. be a Christian? They mentioned that there's

  681. Christians within there. I would submit to you that no

  682. actual follower of Christ could be a Unitarian Universalist,

  683. period. Because of the teachings,

  684. because of the ethics, because it goes exactly opposite to that

  685. which the Bible teaches. They're wrong in so many ways.

  686. I don't have time to go over all these at the extent that I want

  687. to, but they're wrong about sin. Do you remember what she said?

  688. That we weren't born with a sin problem?

  689. Well, that would go against what the Bible says, and that would

  690. go against what what we see with our own eyes.

  691. Nobody has to teach that little baby to say no.

  692. That comes natural. Doesn't now say it.

  693. No, no, no. Nobody does that, and they don't

  694. need to. Why?

  695. Because we understand the inherent sinfulness of mankind.

  696. Salvation. They're wrong about something.

  697. Hey, your soul doesn't need to be saved.

  698. You have an awesome soul and we just want to help you unlock

  699. that which is already within you of creation.

  700. Obviously they would not believe in a literal 6 day creation like

  701. the Bible says. They would believe anything but

  702. that of God himself, that they can't even decide if there is a

  703. God or not, let alone of whether there's the one true God of the

  704. Bible, authority and revelation. I've mentioned this here before

  705. just briefly, but they believe that authority in their beliefs

  706. can come from poetry, it can come from reading, it can come

  707. from the mythologies that come from years past, and it can come

  708. from your own personal experience.

  709. Basically, you find revelation wherever you can find it.

  710. If something seems good to you, something seems authoritative to

  711. you, then just believe it. That's good.

  712. Well, we believe authority comes to us through this word right

  713. here. It is not the final authority of

  714. faith and practice. It is the authority of faith and

  715. practice for us in our life, the very word of God and then

  716. mankind that they believe just in general about man and who we

  717. are. They would say that there's no

  718. accountability because you're basically just a evolutionary

  719. process. You're a cosmic mistake.

  720. And so if nothing else, just do what you want to do, do what

  721. feels right. But we know that the word of God

  722. says something completely different.

  723. A Unitarian Universalist church is, as I just mentioned, odd

  724. minded, single minded and narrow minded people who believe

  725. everything and nothing at the same time.

  726. They believe everything, but they don't believe anything.

  727. But if they do believe something, it's not like you and

  728. it's not like me and it's certainly not like this book.

  729. And so knows a very quick way to explain Unitarian Universalist.

  730. But again, check in your town, see if there is a church like

  731. that. Not because I want you to check

  732. it out, but just see that they are actually much more prevalent

  733. in this area than you could possibly imagine.

  734. And you can find that their influence actually goes far

  735. greater and further than probably we even understand,

  736. particularly when it comes to a lot of these political issues

  737. that are out there today. When it comes to the word of

  738. God, when it comes to being a Bible believing Christian, this

  739. isn't a political rally. It's all about Jesus.

  740. Amen. That's what it needs to be about

  741. and that's what we want to make it about every single Sunday.

  742. Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

  743. Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

  744. to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

  745. know by contacting us at [email protected].

  746. Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

  747. MA. May the Lord bless you as you

  748. grow in His Word.