Sir Anthony Farquhar Buzzard, 3rd Baronet, ARCM (b. 28 June 1935), is a biblical scholar, Biblical unitarian Christian theologian, author and professor on the faculty of Atlanta Bible College.
Anthony was born on 28 June 1935 in Surrey, England, the son of prominent Royal Navy officer and Director of Naval Intelligence Anthony Buzzard, and grandson of the Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford Sir Edward Farquhar Buzzard. He succeeded to the title of Baronet of Munstead Grange in the Parish of Godalming, co. Surrey on the death of his father in 1972, and has a younger brother Tim and younger sister Gill.
Buzzard was educated at Charterhouse, and served in the Royal Navy as a sub-lieutenant in the secretarial branch between 1954 and 1956. In 1960 he graduated in Modern Languages in French and German from the University of Oxford.
Anthony Buzzard was a 1963 graduate of Ambassador College, part of the Worldwide Church of God founded by Herbert W. Armstrong. Upon graduation in Pasadena, California, Buzzard then transferred to teach music at its campus in Bricket Wood, England. In the early 1970s, Buzzard left the Worldwide Church of God and published theological views refuting those of Armstrong. He became a close associate of Charles F. Hunting, an American evangelist who had been an official of the Bricket Wood campus. [1]
Buzzard gained a Diploma in Biblical Hebrew from the University of Jerusalem in 1970. He attended the University of London. He gained a Masters in Theology from Bethany Theological Seminary, Chicago, in 1990.
Buzzard taught French and German at The American School in London and taught theology and Biblical languages for 24 years at Atlanta Bible College, McDonough, Georgia (formerly Oregon [IL] Bible College). [2]
Following his break with Armstrong, in 1981 Buzzard, founded with the help of Charles F. Hunting, the Restoration Fellowship, [3] a Christian group dedicated to missionary and teaching work all over the world. It is affiliated with the Church of God General Conference, a group founded in 1921, holding Adventist and Unitarian beliefs, similar to the Church of the Blessed Hope and Christadelphians.
Buzzard publishes a monthly newsletter Focus on the Kingdom, and is co-editor of A Journal from the Radical Reformation, [4] which explores continuity between the beliefs of Reformation groups - such as some Anabaptists, Socinians, early Unitarians and "Biblical Unitarian" groups today. Buzzard has been noted as one of the principal writers seeking a revival of early Unitarian beliefs. [5]
Apart from excelling in languages and biblical studies, Anthony also has a love of classical music. He studied at the Royal College of Music, London, where he gained Diplomas in oboe in 1959 and piano in 1961.
Buzzard shares the following beliefs, as expressed on his Restoration Fellowship website:
Arianism is a Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius. It is considered heretical by most modern mainstream branches of Christianity. It is held by a minority of modern denominations, although some of these denominations hold related doctrines such as Socinianism, and some shy away from use of the term Arian due to the term's historically negative connotations. Modern mainstream denominations sometimes connected to the teaching include Jehovah's Witnesses, some individual churches within the Churches of Christ, as well as some Hebrew Roots Christians and Messianic Jews.
A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community which summarize its core tenets.
The Christadelphians are a restorationist and nontrinitarian Christian denomination. The name means 'brothers and sisters in Christ', from the Greek words for Christ (Christos) and brothers (adelphoi).
The resurrection of Jesus is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lord. According to the New Testament writing, Jesus was firstborn from the dead, ushering in the Kingdom of God. He appeared to his disciples, calling the apostles to the Great Commission of forgiving sin and baptizing repenters, and ascended to Heaven.
The Second Coming is the Christian belief that Jesus Christ will return to Earth after his ascension to Heaven. The idea is based on messianic prophecies and is part of most Christian eschatologies. Other faiths have various interpretations of it.
Unitarianism is a nontrinitarian branch of Christianity. Unitarian Christians affirm the unitary nature of God as the singular and unique creator of the universe, believe that Jesus Christ was inspired by God in his moral teachings and that he is the savior of humankind, but he is not equal to God himself. Accordingly, Unitarians reject the Ecumenical Councils and ecumenical creeds, and sit outside traditional, mainstream Christianity.
Herbert W. Armstrong was an American evangelist who founded the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). An early pioneer of radio and television evangelism, Armstrong preached what he claimed was the comprehensive combination of doctrines in the entire Bible, in the light of the New Covenant scriptures, which he maintained to be the restored true Gospel. These doctrines and teachings have been referred to as Armstrongism by non-adherents.
Socinianism is a Nontrinitarian Christian belief system developed and co-founded during the Protestant Reformation by the Italian Renaissance humanists and theologians Lelio Sozzini and Fausto Sozzini, uncle and nephew, respectively.
This is an index page of Wikipedia articles related to the topic of religion.
Nontrinitarianism is a form of Christianity that rejects the orthodox Christian theology of the Trinity—the belief that God is three distinct hypostases or persons who are coeternal, coequal, and indivisibly united in one being, or essence. Certain religious groups that emerged during the Protestant Reformation have historically been known as antitrinitarian.
In Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God as chronicled in the Bible's New Testament, and in most Christian denominations he is held to be God the Son, a prosopon (Person) of the Trinity of God. Christians believe him to be the messiah, who was prophesied in the Bible's Old Testament. Through Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection, Christians believe that God offers humans salvation and eternal life, with Jesus's death atoning for all sin.
The Church of God General Conference (CoGGC) is a nontrinitarian, Adventist Christian body also known as the Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith. The Church of the Blessed Hope, some of whose congregations also use the name Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith (CGAF), are a separate denomination, although they share the same origins.
Pauline Christianity or Pauline theology, otherwise referred to as Gentile Christianity, is the theology and form of Christianity which developed from the beliefs and doctrines espoused by the Hellenistic-Jewish Apostle Paul through his writings and those New Testament writings traditionally attributed to him. Paul's beliefs had some overlap with Jewish Christianity, but they deviated from this Jewish Christianity in their emphasis on inclusion of the Gentiles into God's New Covenant and in his rejection of circumcision as an unnecessary token of upholding the Mosaic Law.
The Church of God, International (CGI) is a Binitarian Christian denomination based in the United States, an offshoot of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) founded by Herbert W. Armstrong. It is one of many Sabbatarian Churches of God to separate from WCG.
Binitarianism is a Christian theology of two persons, personas, or aspects in one substance/Divinity. Classically, binitarianism is understood as a form of monotheism—that is, that God is absolutely one being—and yet with binitarianism there is a "twoness" in God, which means one God family. The other common forms of monotheism are "unitarianism", a belief in one God with one person, and "trinitarianism", a belief in one God with three persons.
Biblical unitarianism is a Unitarian Christian tradition whose adherents affirm the Bible as their sole authority, and from it base their beliefs that God the Father is one singular being, and that Jesus Christ is God's son but not divine. The term "biblical Unitarianism" is connected first with Robert Spears and Samuel Sharpe of the Christian Life magazine in the 1880s. It is a neologism that gained increasing currency in nontrinitarian literature during the 20th century as the Unitarian churches moved away from mainstream church traditions and, in some instances in the United States, towards merger with Universalism. It has been used since the late 19th century by conservative Christian Unitarians, and sometimes by historians, to refer to scripture-fundamentalist Unitarians of the 16th–18th centuries.
This is a glossary of terms used in Christianity.
The pre-existence of Christ asserts the existence of Christ prior to his incarnation as Jesus. One of the relevant Bible passages is John 1 where, in the Trinitarian interpretation, Christ is identified with a pre-existent divine hypostasis called the Logos. There are nontrinitarian views that question the aspect of personal pre-existence, the aspect of divinity, or both.
New Covenant theology is a Christian theological position teaching that the person and work of Jesus Christ is the central focus of the Bible. One distinctive assertion of this school of thought is that Old Testament Laws have been abrogated or cancelled with Jesus's crucifixion, and replaced with the Law of Christ of the New Covenant. It shares similarities with, and yet is distinct from, dispensationalism and Covenant theology.