Barton Stone’s Unorthodox Christology

For Barton W. Stone, agreement with the Bible's statements about Christ was the most that one could require of a believer's Christology. Any teaching beyond these statements, such as the doctrine of the Trinity, was at best an opinion and at worst a threat to the unity of the church. Stone desired to demonstrate the viability  of  unity  among  "Bible  only"  Christians,  yet  his  literal-logical hermeneutic was at odds with the need for Christianity's essential confessions to have meaning beyond recitation of Bible words.