Reflections on Last Friday's Trinity Debate

No man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten God, who was in the bosom of Father He has declared Him" (John 1:18).


Now that my debate with Dan Mages on the Deity of Christ has come and gone, I have had a few days to reflect on the event. First of all, I want to thank every one that came out last Friday, it was an awesome time and I am confident that the Lord was glorified.

I have received an enormous amount of positive feed back on the event and also some criticism, so I want to deal with the negative comments first.

I know that in putting on an event like this, I cannot please everyone. Some people thought I was too friendly to Dan Mages, others feel I was too harsh, others feel I preached the Gospel too much throughout the debate, others did not like the fact that I had one of our worship leaders play a few songs before the event.

Some people felt that I did wrong in not bring up any Greek exegesis arguments in defending the Deity of Christ. One fellow, was even bold enough to tell me that "If I knew any Greek I would have defeated Him better!"

The list of criticisms about such an event can be discouraging, but I appreciate these comments because they only work to help me improve in putting together better debates in the future.

While, I know that I will never be able to please everyone all the time in conducting these debates, I will honestly take these concerns and issues before the Lord and attempt to adjust and modify things as the Lord leads.

It is important that people know that there is more to organizing a debate then just studying for the debate and then showing up. There are an enormous amount of unseen variables involved in orchestrating such an event. Hundreds of hours of organizing are put forth in attempting to put together the best event possible.

In founding the Evangelical Debate Society, I have learned that to have a successful debate ministry one needs to be flexible and work together with people.

In being the chairman of this ministry, I have to wear many hats and juggle many responsibilities behind the scenes.

First of all you have to work together with your debating opponent and his organization. You have to make sure that he feels that his views and organizing issues are being met. So, there are weeks, of back and forth discussion on what the debate proposition and timing ans structure of the debate will look like.

Secondly, I have to find time to study for the event, despite the massive amount of time needed to publicize and promote the event as well as working together will office staff, graphic designers, donars, pastors, the moderator and many other people.

All of this is time consuming and not seen by the average person that comes to watch the debate, yet I rejoice that such a ministry is possible and I have grown to love putting together all these details to put forward the best debate possible.

In the future, I plan on holding many, many other debates and I am learning crucial lessons of organizational leadership in the process, so I want to thank everyone for their constructive comments!

Now, regarding the debate itself. Dan Mages was a very formidable opponent and I enjoyed the lively exchange of ideas that we discussed.

I feel that the strongest arguments that I raised in the debate concerned the Prayers and worship of Jesus Christ. Dan did not seem to have a good answer in why the disciples in the NT prayed and worshiped Jesus and what the significance of the cross is to the Unitarians if Jesus Christ is not in fact God.

I am still greatly perplexed as to why Jesus' death matters at all if Christ is not in fact God. What is the purpose of the atonement? How can a mere man's death have universal salvific-soteriological implications if He is not God? Why is Christ's death any different than another man's, if Christ is not in fact God?

If Jesus Christ is not God, then why does His death upon the cross have any greater significance than any other death of other mortals?

I believe by declaring that Jesus Christ is not God, this then automatically robs and jettisons the cross of its soteriological gravity and significance, since it essentially says that Jesus' death is similar to that of any other man who lived and died.

Another issue that was raised concerns the sinlessness of Christ. If Jesus is not God as Dan Mages and the Biblical Unitarians suggest, how is it possible that Jesus remains without sin? How does Jesus remain impeccable if He is robbed of His Deity?

Dan argued that while Jesus Christ is not God, He is greater somehow than the average man. So, somehow Jesus is not God, but He is kind of an in-between, "Demi-god" like being that should be esteemed higher than the average person for some inexplicable reason.

Dan argued that people in the NT prayed and worshiped Jesus Christ somehow in some lesser capacity then God. I do not see how this is possible when in some passages of Scripture (Revelation 1, 5 and 7), the Father and Jesus are worshiped as God and the worshipers simutaneously worship Jesus and the Father at the same time without any distinction being made.