The Forgotten Trinity by James White
I’ve criticized James White on several occasions. The most recent criticism was for the modernist ecumenical dialogue where he discussed religious perspectives with Islamic apologist Dr. Yasir Qadhi in a Protestant Church. Looking beyond this, I actually admire the man for many of his writings. I’ve probably read a dozen books by the man and some of them are quite good. Here are the top three James White books that I would recommend to everyone.
The Forgotten Trinity
When it comes to the doctrine of the Trinity, Dr. White hits a home run. White has dealt with many non-Trinitarian groups such as the Mormons, Jehovahs Witnesses, Modalists and Muslims. Starting with the words I love the Trinity, Dr. White goes on give the best modern defence of the Trinity. He gives an interesting evaluation of the passages that present Christ as God, including a brilliant explanation of John 1:1. He has a whole chapter on specific arguments to use against Jehovahs Witnesses, followed by an amazing chapter on the Holy Spirit. It’s quite ironic that White is very anti-Catholic, though he defends this Catholic doctrine quite well. A future convert perhaps? Probably not but God can do anything. Regardless, this book is a masterpiece for sure; easily his best book.
The Same Sex Controversy
The Christian world was asleep at the wheel during the 1980’s and the 1990’s and quietly many revisionists crept in and tried to reverse the Biblical condemnation of homosexuality. White did the Christian world a huge favour by writing this book and responding to the best of two decades of clever deception by pseudo scholars. In 2012, when a young slick homosexual apologist named Matthew Vines made a one hour video promoting this revisionism on a popular level, White didn’t have to do any research. It was all there from a decade before. Every verse used by homosexual apologists is refuted in this book. There is no defence for this revisionism. White shows that clearly in this great book. One downside of this book is that it’s not enjoyable to read at all. That’s probably the case because it’s not a pleasant topic to write about. I’m sure that Robert Gagnon agrees with him.
The God Who Justifies
I rather like this book. Unlike the first two books where I agree with about 98% of what White is saying, I disagree with the central thesis of this book. I’ve read about half a dozen books specifically on the topic of Sola Fide and I must say that White has written the best one. In my opinion its a valiant attempt to defend and indefensible doctrine. This book made me think, in a good way. It forced me to look at scripture in depth and look to Traditional Catholic commentaries on scripture where modern liberals fail. Some parts of the book are weak. Romans 8 and James 2 are argued poorly in my opinion but he does better than most people on these verses. One certainly can’t critique White for being lazy on these passages. He certainly puts in full effort. Overall the book is great and one that everyone who calls themselves a Christian should read.
Thank you for that. I shall take a look at them.
Hi Allan,
I am not as impressed with “Dr.” White’s, The Forgotten Trinity, as you. As one who was a former Jehovah’s Witness (4th generation), and now a Trinitarian, I found his chapter on the JW’s to be quite weak (his arguments therein have been addressed at length by Greg Stafford).
I also found his use of the Church Fathers to be weak, and at times, flawed. For instance, he references Melito of Sardis as example of early Trinitarainism. Unfortunately, Melito was modalist, not a Trinitarian. (See THIS THREAD for documentation.)
If one is looking for a good, single volume, introduction to the doctrine of the Trinity from a Reformed author, one’s money would be much better spent on Robert Letham’s, The Holy Trinity. (See THIS LINK.)
If one would prefer a Catholic author, I highly recommend Joseph Pohle’s, The Divine Trinity. (Free PDF copy HERE.)
Grace and peace,
David
When I used to live in an apartment in the downtown area of my city, JW’s used to park themselves out a block away to catch people going home from work. I engaged them on several occasions and found the arguments that Dr. White used to be quite good. So I’ve field tested them, but I’ll admit you probably have a better view on it than I do seeing that you used to be a JW.
They’ve worked for my encounters so far. Perhaps I haven’t met some of the finer apologists or missionaries. I no longer live in that apartment so I don’t engage with them anymore.
Hello again Allan,
Thanks for responding to my post. That you have had some success with JWs using “Dr.” White’s arguments comes as no surprise to me, for as you hinted, there exists degrees/levels of knowledge and debating ability amongst individual JWs. Now, with that said, I know for a fact that there are a number of bright JWs who have responded to not only the material in “Dr.” White’s book on the Trinity, but also to his articles on his website. To my knowledge, he has not produced any significant developments in his JW apologetic material since the mid-90s, but I can assure you, the same is not true for the JWs. Those bright JWs I mentioned are producing books, podcasts and individual websites which are dealing with not only White’s arguments, but also gents like Bowman, Gruss, Reed, et al.
Anyway, thanks again for you input…
Grace and peace,
David
Hey David,
This is something I’ve started to do with JWs whenever I see them which is not much anymore. They have a few topics that they really want to debate on. These are the deity of Christ, the existence of hell and a couple others.
What I do is completely confuse them by debating issues they haven’t even thought of. For example in their Bible, they use the Protestant canon of 66 books. I criticize them for not using the full 73 books and they’re like a deer caught in the headlights. They don’t know anything about textual history. They want to debate their few topics and have no idea how to debate this topic or several others.
Hi Allan,
Forgive my somewhat tardy response to your 02/07 post, but it has been very busy over at my blog the last couple days, and I just now had some time to check back in on your blog. You wrote:
==This is something I’ve started to do with JWs whenever I see them which is not much anymore. They have a few topics that they really want to debate on. These are the deity of Christ, the existence of hell and a couple others.==
Good observation. In addition to the deity of Christ/Trinity and hell, I would add Christian involvement in war, celebration of holidays, and eschatology as other topics they want to debate on.
==What I do is completely confuse them by debating issues they haven’t even thought of. For example in their Bible, they use the Protestant canon of 66 books. I criticize them for not using the full 73 books and they’re like a deer caught in the headlights. They don’t know anything about textual history. They want to debate their few topics and have no idea how to debate this topic or several others.==
You are spot-on. Most folk want to start with the deity of Christ/Trinity, but this is the last topic one should begin with when dialoguing with JWs. The issue of the canon is a great place to start. I know from personal experience that the failed predictions of the WTBTS concerning the battle Armageddon and Jesus’ return in judgment is another great topic (1918, 1919, 1925, 1975 – though you need to be prepared with the proper documentation).
Grace and peace,
David
Can you list the names of those “bright JWs” so we can investigate their writings and assertions?
And if you want bright, intelligent refutations to the Staffordites (since I assume you are referring to those who follow Greg Stafford) then look no further than here: http://forananswer.org/
And in case you have the likes of Patrick Navas in mind, White took him to school very badly in the debate they did via radio podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRJsLJRYG9M&t=3993s