A befuddled student asked apologist Wes Huff about how to make sense of the Trinity. Huff’s answer has gone viral (also here and here).

Obviously, Christians are enjoying and sharing Huff’s answer. But how helpful of an answer is it? Is this an answer that is going to help a thinking Christian love God with all her mind? Does it point her to the relevant biblical teachings?

Unfortunately, as Michael and I explain, for a number of reasons Huff’s answer is not helpful to the informed, Scripture-loving truth-seeker.

Just after the 48 minutes mark (52 minutes in the video below) I challenge Wes Huff to a debate on whether the one God in the New Testament or the Father alone. For these reasons, he probably will not debate me. But the Christian public who relies on Huff’s Trinity “answers” needs some better information, and to hear the unitarian Christian side of the case. If he does decide to accept the challenge, here is my recently updated starter pack for understanding my views.

As we recorded this video, I thought that perhaps it’s unfair to critique Huff’s Trinity thoughts based on an off-the-cuff answer. So in the next two episodes I’m going to interact with two other videos where he states his views at length and fully rehearsed. Perhaps those will fare better?

Here’s the video version:

Links for this episode:

Michael Temperato’s YouTube, Tiktok, Instagram

Tuggy, What is the Trinity?

Stanford Encyclopedia, “Trinity”

What Would It Take To Convert You Back To Trinitarianism? ?

R. T. Mullins’s interview of William Lane Craig on his own Trinity theory

Gaston, Dynamic Monarchianism: The Earliest Christology?

Unitarian Christian Alliance Youtube channel

Unitarian Christian Alliance

Unitarian Christian Alliance – Conference near Sydney, Australia, March 2026

podcast 137 – Daniel Whitby’s “Mystery and Revelation Inconsistent”

The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel – Dale Tuggy, Benjamin D. Sommer

on Gregory of Nyssa’s On Not Three Gods

podcast 302 – The Stages of Trinitarian Commitment

podcast 262 – The Trinity before Nicaea?

podcast 249 – Tuggy vs. Brown debate – The God of the Bible is the Father alone

McIntosh, ed. One God, Three Persons, Four Views

podcast 388 – Yes, “the Trinity” is a Problem – Part 2

podcast 387 – Yes, “the Trinity” is a Problem – Part 1

The Standard Opening Move

Why I’m Not a Buddhist – Dr. Dale Tuggy

podcast 76 – Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho – Part 3

podcast 75 – Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho – Part 2

podcast 74 – Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho – Part 1

This week’s thinking music is “Going Rogue” by Grumplefunk.

Other videos in this UCA series:

This final installment includes the cross-examination times, audience Q & A, and our closing statements, of course with my commentary.

The cross-examination times are revealing. As we heard in part two, I presented Dr. White with an argument that his interpretation of John 1 implies that there are at least two gods and so should be rejected. In the cross-examination here, I ask which premise he rejects and why, and he says that he rejects this one, because it assumes unitarianism, or that God can be only one Person:

4. To have the divine essence is to be a god. (true by the definition of “divine essence”)

But as I explain in this episode, that premise doesn’t assume unitarianism at all, and in fact some trinitarians agree with it, holding that the Father is a god, the Son is a god, and the Spirit is a god, but also that they’re the same god. Really, White’s favorite “assuming unitarianism” argument is just an irrelevant ad hominem.

Also, the lexicons exchange in my cross-ex time has to be heard to be believed.

I wrap this series up by explaining which side won this debate and why.

Here are the images I refer to in my closing statement which summarize three clashing narratives about Trinity doctrines: what apologists say, what theologians say, and what historians say, that is, what one learns from a deep dive into all the primary sources up to about the year 400 (in other words, the truth). (Thanks to Mark Cain for creating these!) If you want to hear more about these pre-trinitarian theologies check out podcasts 381 and 384 linked below.

Links for this episode:

In this second of three episodes, we’ll review the rest of Dr. White’s opening statement and the two rebuttals. In several cases I push the discussion past what we were able to do in the confines of the debate.

Topics covered include:

Here’s the argument which I gave against White’s interpretation of John 1 which I give in my rebuttal. The point is that White is committed to 1-3 and that 4 is true by the definition of “divine essence.” The rest follows. My response is to deny premise 2. What is White’s response?

(Note: on my debate slide there was a typo at the end of the last line – it cited 7 not line 6.)

Links for this episode:

Brent Nongbri’s blog Variant Readings (articles)

God’s Library: The Archaeology of the Earliest Christian Manuscripts

“Reconsidering the Place of Papyrus Bodmer XIV-XV (P75) in the Textual Criticism of the New Testament,” Journal of Biblical Literature 135 (2016), 405-437.

[on P66:] “The Limits of Palaeographic Dating of Literary Papyri: Some Observations on the Date and Provenance of P.Bodmer II,” Museum Helveticum 71 (2014), 1-35.

podcast 62 – Dr. Dustin Smith on the preexistence of Jesus in the gospel of John

podcast 61 – Dr. Dustin Smith on preexistence in ancient Jewish thought

This week’s thinking music is “Gemini Instrumental” by Pipe Choir.