Unitarians, Evolution and the Coming Debate

by Ed Enochs,
The Evangelical Debate Society

"And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God."

John 3:19-21


A week has come and gone since last Friday's Debate with Dan Mages and before I can gather my breath, we are having another debate in exactly two weeks (June 16th) with some more Biblical Unitarians at my home church in Yorba Linda California. This time, I will be involved in an exciting three on three debate and we have an exciting line up prepared.

Pastor Mike Sarkassian (three earned Master's Degrees from Biola, Azuza and Trinity Seminary), Joel Hughes (Greek and Apologetics teacher at Faith Community Church, current CSUF major in Philosophy) and I, will be debating against Danny Dixon, Director of HungerTruth in Texas, David Murphy, Biblical Unitarian from New Mexico and Robert Hach, Professor of Rhetoric at Dade Community College in Miami Florida on the Subject of the Trinity and truth of the Biblical Unitarian on Friday June 16th, 2006 at 7:00pm.

As I reflect upon the Biblical Unitarian arguments, I am very perplexed as to who Jesus Christ really is to these guys. They espouse this concept of Unitary Monotheism and say that there is only one singular person in the godhead, namely the Father and the Jesus Christ are not co-equal and co-eternal members of the godhead.

Yet, according to the Biblical Unitarians, Jesus Christ is but merely a man, a created being who is somehow perfect, sinless, born of a virgin, our Lord and Savior, our mediator, our advocate, high priest, Messiah, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, yet inexplicably remains just a man and not God.

Dan Mages in my debate with him last Friday, argues that while Jesus Christ is not God, He is somehow greater than a man, who had the power to be the substitutionary atonement for our sin?

A long time ago, Greek Scholar J.B. Phillips published a book entitled, "Your God is too Small" and I am afraid the Jesus of the Biblical Unitarians is too small and does not possess intrinsically within Himself the ability and the power to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins, if in fact Jesus is merely a man. If He is more than a man, how so? One scholar recently told me he views the Biblical Unitarians to be similar to the Arians and Jehovah's Witnesses that suggest that while Christ is not "Almighty God", He is a "lesser God." Thus, the Arians and Jehovah's Witnesses are guilty of erecting an unbiblical divine caste like system or a pantheon of gods where the Father reigns as the supreme God and Jesus Christ is created being, is a sort of "demi-god", who possesses an enormous amount of derived power but is some how not God in the same sense as the Father.

Similarly, it appears that besides the very wear arguments the Biblical Unitarians use to explain away Jesus Christ's pre-existence, which I clearly refuted at the First Debate in Riverside last December 30th, the major "Achilles heel" and weakness of the Biblical Unitarian position concerning Jesus Christ is attempting to explain how Jesus Christ, while not being God, was born without sin and is able to atone for our sins all though he is a mere man. If He is more than a man, then he is a demi-god and thus, the Biblical Unitarians fall into the heresy of Bitarianism and polytheism, believing in two gods in the godhead and the belief in many gods existing simultaneously.

The Biblical Unitarian postion greatly depreciates the person and work of Jesus Christ and offers us no good reason to adopt their postion. In all actuality, like the evolutionist who has more faith than the creationist that the complex design of earth and the universe came into being via pure random chance then simply believing in a God who can create the earth, the Biblical Unitarians have a Jesus who is perfect, sinless, born of a virgin and can perfectly atone for our sins on the cross and yet remain less than God.

I believe it takes more blind and unsubstantiated faith to believe in the truncated Jesus of the Biblical Unitarians than believing in the true Jesus Christ found in Holy Scripture.

Yet, it is not too late for Dan, Danny, Robert, David and Anthony Buzzard and the Biblical Unitarians to change the road they are on. I believe there is still hope for them to change their views and come to faith in the triune God of Scripture before its too late.

I look forward to the debate coming up in two weeks at Calvary Chapel Saving Grace on Firday, June 16th at 7:00pm. Invite your friends and family, everyone is invited!

Sincerely in Jesus Christ, the True God and Eternal Life,

Ed Enochs,
Chairman,
The Evangelical Debate Society