Answering The Unitarian Objection That Jesus Was Made/Installed As Lord As A Reason To Reject Trinitarianism

 Acts 2:36    Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."

Acts 2:36 is used by Unitarians to argue against the Trinity because they claim that if Jesus was made/installed as Lord and Messiah at that time, then Jesus wasn't Lord inherently; and therefore Trinitarianism is false.

But Just because Jesus is at that time made or declared to be Lord doesn't mean He wasn't Lord previously. Same with being "made" [read as publically declared] to be Messiah. Because Jesus is described as being Lord and Messiah prior to the events of Acts 2:36 [even in the Luke's earlier book the Gospel of Luke]. Just as Roman 1:4 says, "...and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead..." Jesus was the Son of God prior to His resurrection. It wasn't only at or after His resurrection was Jesus made the Son of God. Jesus said in John 17:5 He had a glory with the Father before the world existed. There is a distinction between who Jesus was in actuality and what was known or publicly declared to people at a later time.

See Anthony Rogers' explanation of the Son being INSTALLED as Lord and GIVEN authority in this already cued video at 56:25 HERE: https://youtu.be/VtUvrCssBuk?t=3385

Rogers points out that the same language is used of the Father. In Scripture when God accomplishes some great feat [as in creation; redeeming His people; defeating His enemies etc.] it says He is, through such feats, "exalted," "enthroned," "established in His Kingship" et cetera. See for example, Ps. 29; 1 Chron. 29:11; Rev. 4:11; Deut. 33:5

Deut. 33:5 Thus Yahweh ***BECAME*** king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people were gathered, all the tribes of Israel together.

Rev. 4:11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to ***RECEIVE*** glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."

Also, that objection about being made/installed Lord & Messiah doesn't factor in Phil. 2 which teaches that before Jesus' incarnation He was in the form of God and equal with the Father and that at the incarnation He humbled Himself in the form of a [human] servant. When that's factored in, it can explain how, after humbling Himself, He can then afterwards [after gaining victory] be lifted up and exalted to the position of Lord and Messiah.

The Mystery of Godliness Considered in Sixty-One Sermons by Thomas Bradbury

 [originally posted 2026/10/21]

 

Here's another older work in public domain in defense of the Trinity. Such older works often have some problems [as I've mentioned in the past], but nevertheless, in general can also be very useful, informative and persuasive in defense of the Trinity.

 

The Mystery of Godliness Considered in Sixty-One Sermons. Wherein The Deity of Christ is Proved Upon No Other Evidence Than the Word of God, and With No Other View Than For the Salvation of Men by Thomas Bradbury 

 

Volume ONE 1726 edition
https://archive.org/details/mysteryofgodline01brad/mode/1up
Volume TWO 1726 edition
https://archive.org/details/mysteryofgodline02brad/mode/1up

OR

Volume ONE 1795 edition
https://archive.org/details/mysteryofgodlin01brad/mode/1up
Volume TWO 1795 edition
https://archive.org/details/mysteryofgodlin02brad/mode/1up
 

 

 

 

 

 

"Our God Is Triune" book authors on "The Gospel Truth" YouTube channel

 

Some of the authors of the excellent book "Our God Is Triune" are gathered in the following YouTube video:

Our God is Triune: Dr. Michael Burgos, Anthony Rogers, Vocab Malone & Dr. Edward Dalcour
https://youtu.be/zNH-b3_uIsI

 

 

 

More by David Waltz on Monoousios vs. Homoousios

 

I find David Waltz research informative. For years he has discussed the difference between Monoousios vs. Homoousios. Here are some recent blogposts of his on the topic:

Monoousios vs. Homoousios

Monoousios vs. Homoousios - further reflections

 

 

 

Rabbi Tovia Singer is Wrong About the Trinity by Gavin Ortlund

 

Rabbi Tovia Singer is Wrong About the Trinity by Gavin Ortlund
https://youtu.be/1Xtl6jR2SdI

 

Is Belief in the Deity of Christ Necessary for Salvation? by Anthony Rogers

 

Is Belief in the Deity of Christ Necessary for Salvation? by Anthony Rogers
https://youtu.be/Ft0JfLroFQM

 

 See also my blogpost:
Does the New Testament Require Belief in the Full Deity of Jesus For the Reception of Salvation?

 

The Running Conversation in Your Head

 

One of my browsers recommended this article The Running Conversation in Your Head. I found it interesting given Trinitarian theology. There are different Trinitarian models. While I'm a convinced Trinitarian, I don't dogmatically hold to any Trinitarian model. Nevertheless, one that I'm fond of is the usual Evangelical view whereby three centers of consciousness share the one being of God. Given, that view, the article might have some relevance when one considers that humans were made in God's image. Here's a quote from the article:

Beck: You think of inner speech in terms of a dialogue. If it's between the self and the self, how does that splitting of the self work out internally? Is it like the old Freudian superego telling the id, “Don’t eat that donut?”

Fernyhough: That can be part of it. The key thing is that the self is multiple, that we have different parts to the self. Whether you want to fit that into a Freudian frame or not, that can be useful, but it’s not really the way I take it. The most important thing is that there's this basic structure of a dialogue where somebody’s speaking and somebody’s listening. It can be you as a listener but it can also be another person. I can have an inner dialogue with my mum, for example. A few people have told me over the years that they have inner dialogues with people who aren’t here anymore. It can be a dead person, it can be an imaginary person, it can be God. In the book I tried to use this as a way of rethinking the idea of spiritual meditation and of prayer. The idea of having a conversation with another being. To me, it’s all made possible by that dialogic structure that's created because of the way we develop as children. Because we internalize social dialogues, we bring in that dialogic structure and it's right there at the heart of our thinking.

Anyway, I thought the article was interesting. I'm not making any dogmatic claims about the relevance of the article to Trinitarian models. Only that it can spark some new ideas in Trinitarian thinking.