Biblical Unitarianism and the Dark Ages of Christendom

It is difficult to find any evidence for anyone teaching the true gospel during the Christian Dark Ages. For centuries, Catholic dogma replaced Bible doctrine.

The Dark Ages, also known as the Middle Ages, is a term used to describe the period after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, approximately from AD 500 to AD 1500, characterized by a supposed decline in culture and science and a lack of written documentation. It is something of a misnomer, however, and we do know that there were many advances during that time. However, “The Dark Ages” describes one aspect of society very well—the state of the Christian Church.

From the fall of Western Rome to the Reformation, the Catholic Church dominated Christianity. Other groups did exist, most notably the Eastern Orthodox Church. Smaller groups, like the Albigensian Church in France, flourished for a short while but were eventually stamped out towards the end of the Medieval period. Earlier than that, the Donatists split from the Catholic Church around the time of the Nicene Council, and other groups came and went, like the Paulicians of Armenia and Arian churches of Germanic tribes, such as the Vandals and Visigoths. But the Christian world, especially in the West, was solidly Catholic.

One cause for Catholic dominance was the medieval feudal system. This arrangement was a hierarchical system in which the elite let out portions of land called “fiefs” to people known as “vassals.” Typically, these fiefs consisted of a manor that included a church and pasture lands and knights protected it. Most people were peasants who owned no land, had little opportunity to travel and receive an education, were mostly illiterate, and knew little beyond what happened in their fief. Therefore, whatever the local church taught was considered gospel truth, enabling Catholicism to retain its stranglehold on the general populace.

Three main factors brought about the end of feudalism: the advent of the Renaissance and, eventually, the Protestant Reformation. First, the “Black Death” in the 14th century caused a significant labor shortage in Europe, enabling wages to rise so peasants could earn more money than they had before. A mercantile class emerged, and those who before could only hope to work on the land now found opportunities to run their own businesses and become famous for their artistic abilities during the Renaissance. Second, the Crusades opened trade routes and brought better security to roads between different fiefs, meaning people could travel more safely and share information. Third, with the advent of printing press technology, enabling information to be disseminated and stored more easily. 

The Christianity Gap

Many Christians today want to trace their roots back to the first-century church. However, the only church that comes close to that claim is the Catholic Church. Like the ones mentioned above, all other churches either died out during the medieval period or emerged from the Protestant Reformation or later. While these churches can claim to be a revival of first-century Christianity, none have an unbroken line from the first century until today. 

For centuries, Christianity lived during the Dark Ages. Catholicism reigned supreme, and any efforts to counter it were met with swift measures to destroy them. In the main, if you were Christian (which most Europeans were), you were Catholic and espoused Catholic teaching. 

This situation lasted for over one thousand years. Unless one believes Catholicism is thoroughly Biblical, it is difficult to find any evidence for anyone teaching the true gospel during the Christian Dark Ages. For centuries, Catholic dogma replaced Bible doctrine.

Prophesied in the Bible

There is evidence in Scripture that God prophesied the Christian Dark Ages. In particular, our attention is drawn to Revelation 12-13. According to expositors of the Book of Revelation, who follow the continuous historical methodology of interpretation, Revelation 12-13 speaks of the rise of Constantine, the end of paganism in the Roman Empire, and the rise of the Catholic system. The reader is invited to consult continuous historical papers on these two chapters to find evidence for that interpretation. A summary of this interpretation is as follows:

Revelation 12 opens with a vision of a woman and a dragon. The dragon threatens the woman who is pregnant with a child. The woman represents the early Christian church, which the pagan Roman Empire persecuted, represented by the dragon. It looks like the manchild she gives birth to is her savior, but things are not quite as they seem. There is enough ambiguity about the manchild that we wonder who he really is, and when salvation seems to come to the Christian world, the dragon keeps persecuting the woman and her offspring. The supposed savior is not Christ but an imposter in the form of Constantine. Those who followed moved to remove paganism from the Roman Empire, at least as a political force. Paganism persisted, however, but subtly so, because in Chapter 13, we have the rise of a beast that has curious Christian characteristics but is empowered by the pagan dragon. This development speaks of the rise of the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages.

As far as the Christian Dark Ages are concerned, we learn that the woman “fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is nourished for 1,260 days.” (Revelation 12:6). That is to say, the woman is off the scene for some time. This period is lengthy, if we use the day-for-a-year principle—1,260 years.

Constantine played a major role in the development of the Medieval church. He presided over the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 and influenced the church leaders’ decision to adopt Trinitarianism instead of Arianism, which was largely a political rather than theological decision.

It is intriguing that the period of 1,260 years, if we begin at the Nicene Council, takes us to the end of the 16th century. Was this the time when the woman emerged from the wilderness? By now, the magisterial and radical elements of the Protestant Reformation were in full swing as people wrestled themselves away from the Dark Ages of Catholic domination.

Another passage that alludes to the Christian Dark Ages is 2 Thessalonians 2. There, Paul talks about the man of lawlessness, believed to be a reference to the Papacy. Paul speaks of this system performing false signs and wonders, the same as what is said of the systems outlined in Revelation 13. Like the passage from Revelation, Paul talks about this system that administers wicked deception. But verse 11 gives us a clue as to what would happen during the Christian Dark Ages: “Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false.” For 1,260 years, the Christian world was defined by the “strong delusion” or error of the doctrine of the Trinity. 

Conclusion

Based on continuous historical interpretations of Revelation 12-13 and 2 Thessalonians 2, the long period of Catholicism and Trinitarianism that dominated Europe should not surprise or alarm us. It does not mean the Catholic Church is the true church or that the Trinity tells the truth about God and Jesus. On the contrary, the history of the formation of both the Catholic Church and Trinitarianism tells us to know they are both thoroughly antagonistic to truth. 

The Protestant Reformation is a famous period in Christian history, but what is not so well known is that it consisted of two main elements: the Magisterial and Radical Reformations.1 Most protestant churches today can trace their roots to one of these movements. The Reformed and Presbyterian churches went to the Calvinistic branch of the Magisterial Reformation, the Lutheran Church went to Luther, and groups like the Mennonites and Baptists went to the Radical Reformation. 

Notably, even the Magisterial Reformers debated whether to dispense with the Trinity, although tying themselves to creedal orthodoxy became too big a hurdle to overcome. It was up to the Radical Reformers to question the Trinity and other Catholic doctrines. The Christadelphians owe a debt of gratitude to groups like the Polish Brethren, who emerged from the wilderness in the latter part of the 16th century. They dispensed with the ideas of the doctrine of the Trinity and the deity of Christ.

After being exiled from Poland, they eventually formed the Unitarian churches of Holland, England, and North America. Those Unitarian churches flourished for a while as Christians continued to free themselves from Catholic orthodoxy. Many Presbyterians in England turned to Biblical Unitarianism, as did many of the Puritans who settled in New England. These were no longer tied down by what their priest taught them to believe or adherence to creeds, including those heavily influenced by pseudo-Christian Roman Emperors. These were Bible students who opened the Scriptures, studied them for themselves, and came to conclusions that were at variance with the period of the Christian Dark Ages.

The Christadelphian heritage continued in the same vein. John Thomas and others, from careful Bible study, concluded that the Trinity and its associated doctrines are not taught in the Bible but should be confined to the Dark Ages’ trash heap. In today’s world, that heritage continues in people we have met who have studied themselves out of their churches and Trinitarian dogma. Today, a small movement represented by the Unitarian Christian Alliance has opened up doors of opportunity for those of like minds to share their Bible understanding and further distance themselves from the darkest period in Christian history.

Richard Morgan,
Simi Hills Ecclesia, CA