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Does such sect inside Christianity exist? And if so how do they explain the reasoning for this belief?

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FYI, I did a meta post about this here – Affable Geek Aug 30 '12 at 17:55
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Christ-ianity, as it's name implies, has Jesus Christ at it's center. This can hardly be over-stated. See Colossians 1 for one of many odes to his nature from the Bible. Believing in Jesus as anything other than God would basically make you not a Christian. Even the few sects related to Christianity that deny this also emphasis their non-affiliation with orthodox Christianity. – Caleb♦ Aug 30 '12 at 22:48
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You're going to get tied up in questions of definitions. I'd say that by definition, if you don't believe that Jesus was God, then you are not a "Christian". It's like asking, "What percentage of Canadians do not hold Canadian citizenship and have never been to Canada?" Obviously there are people who call themselves Christians and don't agree with that. So the question is, Who defines what the word means? or What definition are you using? – Jay Aug 31 '12 at 3:13
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There are many people who believe in the teachings of Jesus who consider themselves Christian. That does NOT mean that they feel that Jesus is God. The Bible is ambiguous on this. To someone who believes that he is God, they will interpret the scriptures so. To someone who does not believe that his God, they will interpret the scriptures differently. Nobody here has the authority to judge who is and who is not Christian. – user1054 Sep 1 '12 at 2:28

3 Answers

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A.) less than 2.2 percent of Christians belong to sects professing to believe that Jesus is not God. 

                     Do            Don't         N/A        (in billions)
Catholicism          1.2   
Protestantism        0.801  
Eastern Orthodoxy    0.230 
Oriental Orthodoxy   0.082
Restorationism                      0.045* 
Unitarian Universalism                           0.006 
Nestorianism                        0.006**
                     2.313          0.051        0.006

Demographics wikipedianot the table

*There are quite a few who would disagree with the assessment of these two groups, including myself, but for the sake of simplicity, if you're going to go looking for groups that deny the Divinity of Christ, start here.

**I was just reading about the hypostatic union, and apparently Nestorian's think it was just luck or something.

B.) The answer is too subjective and contentious to possibly answer without inciting a holy war. The reasons are probably:

  • They have different or changed scriptures. (Jehovah's Witnesses)
  • They were founded by people who called themselves prophets and wanted to essentially start a new religion.
  • They were founded on enlightenment ideals wherein Jesus could not be God because that would mean God exists in a real and profound way in human history. (Deists and Unitarians probably don't believe this)
  • They exist to fulfill some desire to project a certain idea about God that others don't share. Like dualism (meaning the body is bad and the soul is good), they'd say that Jesus, couldn't have been God since He inhabited a body. (Christian Scientists and older heretics like the Manichean's) or they think that the Body was inhabited by God, but the Body was not God (Nestorians)
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Read through it and the Restorationism article. I don't see any of these sects as denying the divinity of Christ. Millerites, for example, just say that Christ is coming back in 1845. (Ok, Miller died in 1844, but the JWs and SDAs survive...) I still think you're being overly generous to the "Don't believe in the divinity of Christ" column... I will admit that Jehovah's Witness don't believe Jesus is God, but I wouldn't lump the LDS into that... – Affable Geek Aug 30 '12 at 18:07
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While it's true that the Latter-Day Saints have additional scriptures, and that the church was founded by a man claiming prophetic authority, the church most definitely does believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. – Mason Wheeler♦ Aug 30 '12 at 18:21
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@PeterTurner: Yes, and that belief has been clearly articulated since the establishment of the church. I'm not sure what implications you're talking about, but this is a solid and non-controversial piece of LDS doctrine. Perhaps this could be discussed more productively in a chat? – Mason Wheeler♦ Aug 30 '12 at 18:43
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So, we've established that less than 2% of Christians deny the deity of Christ. By way of comparison, about 2% of Americans deny the holocaust every happened. I think we have a winner! – Affable Geek Aug 30 '12 at 19:19
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@PeterTurner Even if that is 0.2%, you cannot say that all Christians believe <blank>. The tyranny of the masses shalt not prevail. – user1054 Aug 30 '12 at 19:31
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There are quite a few smaller Christian sects that deny the divinity of Jesus but nevertheless believe he is the Messiah and son of God. To say that these groups are not truly Christians is about as narrow minded as a Protestant saying that a Catholic or a Mormon is not a true believer. Jehovah's Witnesses and Christadelphians are both examples of Christians that reject the notion that Jesus is a deity but accept his virgin birth and await his 2nd coming.

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Hi there and welcome to our Christianity Q&A site. I understand where you are going with this (it's even part of what makes this site tick), but @Peter Turner did a really good job of summarizing the demographics, which is the crux of this question. This turns out to be less of an answer and more of a comment. – Jon Ericson Nov 16 '12 at 20:37
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The problem with your stats is polls show that up to 40% of members of the trinitarian sects you list don't believe in Jesus' divinity. Christian means just that, following the teachings of Jesus Christ. It no more requires belief in his divinity than Islam, Buddhism or Confucianism require belief in the divinity of Mohammed, the Buddha or Confucius.

Most Christians who reject trinitarianism see it as thinly veiled polytheism. Personally, I find the idea that a simple carpenter found those moral insights to be uplifting and challenging.

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Welcome to the site! I think it would be beneficial for you to read the About page and the FAQ to see how this site varies from your typical discussion forum. Particularly, it would help to review this post: meta.christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/692/… In your defense, however, this question isn't really a very good one - it's not really answerable as it's phrased. – David Stratton Mar 22 at 4:27
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If you could back up the 40% figure, this would kinda be a good answer. It is true that common practice often diverges from official theology- but typically on this site we are looking for official answers. Part of good discussion is to assume the best about people with whom you may disagree. As it stands, however, this seems like a number you pulled out of your head, rather than a book. – Affable Geek Mar 22 at 11:31

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