12 Points and Arian Beliefs
Newton's Arian beliefs
Newton became an Arian around 1672. First let us explain the Arian
doctrine. It is a Christian heresy first proposed early in the 4th
century by the Alexandrian Arius which, based on a study of the Bible,
stated the belief that Jesus was more than man, but less than God. In
other words Arians do not believe in the identification of God, Jesus
Christ, and the Holy Ghost, so they do not believe in the doctrine of
the Trinity.
Newton came to believe that the Roman Catholic Church was misguided in
its interpretation of Christianity, and had returned to idolatry.
Although he partly approved of the Protestant Reformation, he felt it
had not gone nearly far enough to return Christianity to its original
state. Now if Newton did not believe in the Trinity, he had to
consider the First Epistle of John Chapter 2, verse 7, which reads (in
the King James version):-
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
Now Newton, who felt that his mission was more to study religion than
science, certainly did not stop at reading the King James version of
the Bible, but rather read all original versions he could, learning
the necessary ancient languages. He discovered that the final phrase
'and these three are one' was not present in any Greek version that he
studied. Newton came to the conclusion that it was a deliberate
addition to the text to provide justification for the doctrine of the
Trinity. He wrote down a list of twelve reasons why he was an Arian.
Now of course it was not acceptable for people to hold views
considered heresy by the Church, so after Newton's death this list,
and his other theological writings, were marked "Not fit to be
printed". They were stored and were not read by anyone until Keynes
acquired them in 1936.
Here is Newton's list:-
1. The word God is nowhere in the scriptures used to signify more
than one of the three persons at once.
2. The word God put absolutely without restriction to the Son or
Holy Ghost doth always signify the Father from one end of the
scriptures to the other.
3. Whenever it is said in the scriptures that there is but one God,
it is meant the Father.
4. When, after some heretics had taken Christ for a mere man and
others for the supreme God, St John in his Gospel endeavoured to state
his nature so that men might have from thence a right apprehension of
him and avoid those heresies and to that end calls him the word or
logos: we must suppose that he intended that term in the sense that it
was taken in the world before he used it when in like manner applied
to an intelligent being. For if the Apostles had not used words as
they found them how could they expect to have been rightly understood.
Now the term logos before St John wrote, was generally used in the
sense of the Platonists, when applied to an intelligent being and the
Arians understood it in the same sense, and therefore theirs is the
true sense of St John.
5. The Son in several places confesseth his dependence on the will
of the Father.
6. The Son confesseth the Father greater, then calls him his God etc.
7. The Son acknowledgeth the original prescience of all future
things to be in the Father only.
8. There is nowhere mention of a human soul in our Saviour besides
the word, by the meditation of which the word should be incarnate. But
the word itself was made flesh and took upon him the form of a
servant.
9. It was the son of God which He sent into the world and not a
human soul that suffered for us. If there had been such a human soul
in our Saviour, it would have been a thing of too great consequence to
have been wholly omitted by the Apostles.
10. It is a proper epithet of the Father to be called almighty. For
by God almighty we always understand the Father. Yet this is not to
limit the power of the Son. For he doth whatsoever he seeth the Father
do; but to acknowledge that all power is originally in the Father and
that the Son hath power in him but what he derives fro the Father, for
he professes that of himself he can do nothing.
11. The Son in all things submits his will to the will of the
Father, which could be unreasonable if he were equal to the Father.
12. The union between him and the Father he interprets to be like
that of the saints with one another. That is in agreement of will and
counsel.
Below the list of twelve points, Newton wrote 13. but did not write
anything for this thirteenth point.
A devout Christian, Isaac Newton wrote 1.3 million words about theology and Biblical prophecy. This amounts to far more words written about theology than all of Newton's writings about science combined. His passion for the study of God, the Bible and history was equally as consuming to Newton as his interests in science and physics.
According to most scholars, Newton was Arian, not holding to
Trinitarianism.[7][19] 'In Newton's eyes, worshipping Christ as God
was idolatry, to him the fundamental sin'.[22] As well as being
antitrinitarian, Newton also rejected the orthodox doctrines of the
immortal soul,[citation needed] a personal devil and literal
demons.[7] Although he was not a Socinian he shared many similar
beliefs with them.[7] A manuscript he sent to John Locke in which he disputed the existence of the Trinity was never published.
This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent Being. […] This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of his dominion he is wont to be called "Lord God" παντοκρατωρ [pantokratōr], or "Universal Ruler". […] The Supreme God is a Being eternal, infinite, [and] absolutely perfect.[4]