Trinities

In this episode I discuss thirteen bad reasons for switching one's theology from trinitarian to unitarian, reasons which I've actually encountered "in the wild." Some of these claims are false. Others are true but not relevant enough. Others are vague (false on some interpretations but true on others) but never a good reason for switch. These reasons are: "The Trinity" is incoherent (i.e. self-con...

In this episode Dr. Licona assumes that, as he argued last time , that the earliest Christians thought that "Jesus is God." In this portion of his lecture he argues that this is explained by the historical Jesus claiming exactly that, which he says is suggested by certain New Testament texts. At the start of this episode I turn to this scholarly debate to try to get some clarity about what it's su...

Trinitarian and unitarian Christians often argue about whether the Bible teaches that Jesus is the one true God. But in this presentation from a 2017 apologetics conference, Dr. Mike Licona argues that the real, historical man Jesus considered himself to be God, and he argues like a secular historian, not assuming that the biblical writings are inspired. Dr. Licona focuses on some of the earliest...

Consider the sentence "This sentence is false." If it is true, then (as it says) it is false. And if it is false, then what it says (i.e. that it's false) must be true. Why not, then, say that the sentence is both true and false? In this episode Dr. Beall argues that if one says instead that the above sentence is neither true nor false, that may be plausible, but the same answer won't work for thi...

In this first part of our discussion Dr. Jc Beall from the University of Notre Dame explains some of the motivations behind his suggestion that Christ should be understood as "a contradiction" (i.e. a being about whom some logically contradictory statements are true). We focus our discussion on what seem to be two implications of divinity and humanity. It seems that an absolutely perfect being, a...

In this episode I interact with an episode of the Church Grammar podcast by Baptist theologian Dr. Brandon Smith called " Did God Die on the Cross? " Dr. Smith's answer is: yes , "God" (i.e. the eternal, divine Son) did die on the cross. My answer is: no , it was not God but rather God's human Son who died on the cross, and a fully divine Person can't in any way die. It's a contrast of two ways to...

In this episode, my review of Dr. Millard Erickson's Making Sense of the Trinity . How many questions about "the Trinity" does this short and often-recommended book clearly answer? The author is very learned, and is not afraid to admit some difficult points for trinitarians, for example: [The doctrine of the Trinity] does not appear to be taught in Scripture , which is the Christian's supreme auth...

In this episode I interact with some arguments from the interesting blog post " 3 Syllogistic Arguments For Jesus’ Deity " by apologist Evan Minton (also posted here ). I evaluate the arguments according to whether or not they are valid (i.e. whether the premises really imply the conclusion) and sound (i.e. valid and the premises are each true). For more on the concepts of validity and soundness,...

In this episode, my final thoughts on my recent debate with apologist Anthony Rogers about whether Mark teaches that Jesus is the one true God ( part 1 , part 2 ). Topics include: the fulfillment fallacy how New Testament authors use the Old Testament a serious misreading of Psalm 110 which confuses together the two characters the idea of multiple meanings and how this relates to divine inspiratio...

In this episode I reflect on the debate of episodes 317 and 318. Topics include: why I was willing to debate a Jesus-is-God apologist like Rogers Rogers's post-debate statements that I think that all trinitarians are blasphemers, and that I regard them with "immense hatred." what I meant by referring to Rogers's views as "fringe" the idea that we can first interpret the Bible and construct our the...

In this episode, the final portion of my debate with apologist Anthony Rogers. Topics include what I call "the fulfillment fallacy," the meanings of "Lord" in the New Testament, what Rogers means by saying that "Jesus is God," whether or not Mark portrays Jesus as having been given authority by God, whether or not Mark portrays Jesus as not knowing certain truths, and just what the clear main thes...

In this episode apologist Anthony Rogers lays out his case that the gospel according to Mark asserts Jesus to be the one true God. Not only does it call Jesus "the Lord," it presents Jesus as doing miracles which sort of resemble some of the miracles involved in the famous Old Testament Exodus from Egypt. Thus, any reader should know that this is Yahweh himself , who has come as a man, doing mirac...

In this episode I review this introductory Trinity book by Dr. James Papandrea . As with the previous episode in this series, I'll ask how many of these fundamental questions the book clearly answers: What is “the doctrine of the Trinity”? Why is this doctrine not, as some allege, tritheism? Why is this doctrine not, as some allege, incoherent? Is this doctrine consistent with the common conceptio...

In this episode I ask whether this short, introductory book on the Trinity, Our Triune God: Living in the Love of the Three-in-One by Philip Ryken and Michael LeFebvre, answers the ten (or nine) basic questions we explored last time . I score the book based on how many are clearly answered, as opposed to either being ignored or answered in an utterly confusing fashion. One of this last sort is the...

There are now a plethora would-be experts on "the doctrine of the Trinity" who offer to tell you the basics of what you need to know about the subject in a short paperback book, or in a lecture or three. Here are some questions which any actual expert should have ready and supportable answers for. 10 Basic or Fundamental Questions about "the Trinity": What is "the doctrine of the Trinity"? Why is...

We've heard quite a bit from the famous, learned, and eloquent early American unitarian preacher and author William Ellery Channing (1780-1842): podcast 308 – Channing’s “Unitarian Christianity” – Part 1 podcast 309 – Channing’s “Unitarian Christianity” – Part 2 podcast 310 – Channing’s “Objections to Unitarian Christianity Considered” podcast 311 – Channing’s “The Evidences of Revealed Religion”...

This episode is my modernized version of William Ellery Channing's 1828 sermon "Likeness to God." In it Channing takes as his starting point the text, "Therefore be imitators of God , as beloved children." (Ephesians 5:1) Human beings imitating God, which entails being like God? Yes. His thesis is that "... true religion consists in intending as our main goal a growing likeness to the Supreme Bein...

In this episode you'll hear my modernized version of William Ellery Channing 's 1821 lecture "The Evidences of Revealed Religion." It's about the rationality of believing in divine revelation on the basis of miracles, so it's about what can be known about God by divine revelation ("revealed religion") as opposed to what can be known on the basis of ordinary experience and reason alone ("natural re...

In this episode you'll hear a complete, slightly modernized presentation of William Ellery Channing's 1819 article "Objections to Unitarian Christianity Considered." In this piece he engages with "popular" objections , the kind current not so much with scholars as with ordinary people. The objections he answers are that unitarian Christianity: Denies "the Divinity of Christ." Takes away the only h...

In this episode, the remainder of Channing's famous sermon, in which he objects to Calvinistic theology that it says that God is morally perfect, but then describes him as doing things which obviously conflict with moral perfection. In his view unitarian Christian teaching on God, sin, and salvation actually presents God as wholly good. He then discusses theories of atonement ; while unitarian Chr...

The famous Congregationalist minister William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) has been called "the apostle of unitarianism." In this episode you'll hear the first portion of Channing's famous sermon given at the ordination service for Jared Sparks in Baltimore, Maryland in 1819. "Unitarian Christianity" is a sort of manifesto of early 19th century New England Unitarian Congregationalism. In it, Channi...

In this episode I discuss and criticize what I call the "esoteric" reading of Mark defended by Dr. Michael Bird in his book Jesus the Eternal Son: Answering Adoptionist Christology . Like Dr. Richard Bauckham, he argues that Mark implies in several ways that Jesus "shares the identity" of the one God . He makes his case based on this book's use of the Greek word kurios ("Lord"), Jesus's forgiving...

In this episode I critique a reading of the Gospel According to Mark by Dr. Daniel Johansson in his chapter in The Essential Trinity , edited by Brandon D. Crowe and Carl R. Trueman. I call it an “esoteric” reading , as according to it Mark sort of encodes his claim that Jesus is God via his use of the term kurios (“Lord”), and he sneakily implies that God is triune by his portrayals of Christ and...

What should the reader conclude about Jesus based on the earliest gospel, the gospel according to Mark? In this and the next episode I present and compare two different approaches to interpreting Mark : treating it as a " popular " writing meant for the masses which wears its message on its face, or as an " esoteric " writing which encodes its most important point about Jesus in all sorts of cleve...

What are the "absolute basics" of the Christian faith ? According to this series of videos produced by a Wesleyan ministry, these include that God is an eternal relationship of three divine Persons , and that Jesus is both human and divine, a " godman ." In this episode, I weigh the claims of these videos against history and Scripture: "Who is God? God is Trinity" "What is God Like"? "Who is Jesus...