AI Religious Debates
Two AI models argue opposite sides of Every Religious Debate, point by point, under the strict format of a formal debate. The more time each side gets, the better the debate — but that time has a real cost, and cost is what limits how far any given debate can go. An independent panel of strict AI judges, each given a distinct personality, then scores the record clash by clash, blind to which side wrote what. No winner is declared: the scores are published, and you weigh them. As Christians, we hold that the Holy Spirit is the final arbiter of truth — AI must never be allowed to replace any function of the Holy Spirit or rewrite scripture. That is a dangerous line we will not cross.
This is a work in progress, and a tool to assist scholars rather than a verdict — it puts debated Religious beliefs through the strict and systematic structure of a formal debate to help surface and weigh all the arguments, not to settle them. A side ahead on points has argued its case well; but that isn't the same as being correct. We're still working to design this apparatus so that the side with the best religious argument wins rather than the side with the best debate techniques. Depth also varies: each debate is limited by the resources given to it, the hours of AI thinking allotted to each side. Click into a debate for the full discussion.
One thing we should say plainly rather than bury: the judges are not neutral on the question of authority. Their rubric tells them that Scripture is presumptively the strongest evidence — that a verse, accurately quoted and on point, starts ahead of a scholar, a council, a Pope, or a philosophical argument. That is a Protestant standard, close to sola scriptura, and on debates about church authority, the Eucharist, icons, purgatory or Mary it is itself one of the things being argued about. The Catholic and Orthodox side of those debates is arguing against a standard the panel has already adopted. There is no neutral ground available here — any rule about what counts as the strongest evidence is already a position — so we would rather name ours than claim we don't have one. Why this matters, and what we'd rather do instead.
Denominational Score Card Open the card ▾ Close ▴ 25 traditions across 52 debates — how the side each tradition actually teaches has fared in this record. This is not a ranking of churches.
Each bar is one debate. Its height is the share of that debate's score held by the side this tradition teaches, against the dashed 50% line. A bar is filled in only where the panel found the surviving record actually established something — a hollow bar means a side led on points without anchoring one argument that survived attack, which is a fact about point volume rather than about the resolution. Click any bar for the resolution, the citation, both scores, and the way in.
Positions are recorded from each body's own confession, catechism, canon or official position paper, and the citation is shown with every bar. A tradition is left out of a debate entirely where it has no settled position — an empty slot is not a low score. Nothing here ranks churches, and a side ahead on points has argued its case well in this record, which is not the same as being right.
Not yet on the card: All Israel Will Be Saved, The Rebirth of Israel and Prophecy, Tithes: Home Church Only, The Third Temple, Salvation and the Jewish People, Christians and the Modern State of Israel — scored, but no tradition has been mapped to them yet.
Pentecostal & Charismatic 11 debates Hide Show 11 debates hidden — click to show
The distinctive Pentecostal/charismatic experiences and offices — tongues, healing, prophecy, apostleship — argued against cessationist and mainline readings.
The Baptismal Formula
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Christian baptism must be administered in the name of Jesus alone, as in Acts 2:38, and baptism pronounced with the threefold formula of Matthew 28:19 is not valid baptism.
The affirmative (the Oneness Pentecostal position) argues that every baptism the New Testament actually records is 'in the name of Jesus' (Acts 2:38, 8:16, 10:48, 19:5), that 'the name' in Matthew 28:19 is singular and is the name of Jesus, and that the apostles obeyed the command exactly as they understood it. The negative argues that Matthew 28:19 is Christ's own command and supplies the words, that 'in the name of Jesus' in Acts describes the authority and kind of baptism rather than a spoken formula, and that the Didache and the whole early church baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
per point: 0.7 · 2.5/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Trinity or Oneness?
Round 2 PAUSEDResolved: The Bible teaches that God is a single divine Person who is revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, not three co-equal, co-eternal Persons in one Godhead.
Oneness Pentecostalism's modalist Christology (rooted in a 1916 split within the young Assemblies of God itself, and confessed today by the United Pentecostal Church International and similar bodies) against the ecumenical Trinitarian doctrine held by virtually every other Christian tradition, Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal alike.
per point: 1.0 · 2.1/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Spirit Baptism & Tongues
Tongues as Initial Evidence
Round 4 ACTIVEResolved: The Bible, especially the Book of Acts, presents speaking in tongues as the initial physical evidence that a believer has received the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
This debate is argued from the Bible, above all the Book of Acts; church tradition and denominational statements are not the standard. The affirmative argues that when Acts describes believers first receiving the Holy Spirit and says what followed, they spoke in tongues (Acts 2:1-4; 10:44-46; 19:1-6); that at Cornelius's house the apostles knew the Spirit had been given because “they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God” (Acts 10:45-46; 11:15-17; 15:8); and that the other accounts point the same way (Simon “saw” something in Acts 8:18; Paul later spoke in tongues, 1 Corinthians 14:18). The negative argues that Acts also records believers receiving the Spirit with no mention of tongues (Acts 2:38-41; 4:31; 8:14-19; 9:17-18); that Acts 19:6 pairs tongues with prophecy and Acts 10:46 with praise; that Luke records what happened without making it a rule for every believer; and that Paul expects not every believer to speak in tongues (1 Corinthians 12:7-11, 29-30).
per point: 1.1 · 5.7/20
Spirit Baptism as a Subsequent Experience
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a definite experience of empowerment distinct from and subsequent to conversion, not simply another name for the new birth.
Classical Pentecostalism's doctrine of subsequence — a second, identifiable work of the Spirit after salvation — against the standard evangelical position that every believer is fully baptized in the Spirit at the moment of saving faith, with no further "second blessing" to seek.
per point: 2.6 · 0.0/20
Spiritual Gifts & Healing
Healing in the Atonement
Round 4 ACTIVEResolved: Christ's atonement secured physical healing for believers on the same footing as the forgiveness of sins, making healing a provision to be received by faith in this present life.
The Divine Healing/Pentecostal reading of Isaiah 53:4-5 and Matthew 8:17, in which bodily healing is "in the atonement" alongside pardon, against the broader Christian view that physical healing, unlike forgiveness, is granted at God's sovereign discretion and is not a guaranteed present-life entitlement of faith.
per point: 2.2 · 1.5/20
Continuation of the Spiritual Gifts
Round 4 ACTIVEResolved: The miraculous spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12–14 — including prophecy, healing, and tongues — remain fully operative in the church today and were not limited to the apostolic age.
The Pentecostal/charismatic continuationist position that the Spirit's miraculous gifts never ceased, against the cessationist view — held across much of Reformed and dispensational evangelicalism — that the sign gifts ended with the apostles or the closing of the New Testament canon.
per point: 0.7 · 1.1/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Physical Manifestations of the Spirit
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Being "slain in the Spirit" and similar involuntary physical manifestations — falling, shaking, weeping, holy laughter — under the Spirit's power are genuine, Scripturally warranted works of God, not primarily psychological or emotional phenomena.
Common revival-meeting phenomena in Pentecostal and charismatic worship, defended by appeal to biblical precedents such as the soldiers falling backward in John 18:6 and Saul's collapse on the Damascus road, against the position of many non-Pentecostal Christians that such manifestations lack clear scriptural warrant and are better explained as emotional or psychological rather than a strict work of the Spirit.
per point: 0.9 · 0.6/20
Apostolic & Prophetic Offices
Apostles and Prophets Today
Round 3 ACTIVEResolved: The governing offices of apostle and prophet named in Ephesians 4:11 remain valid, Spirit-appointed offices in the church today, not roles confined to the first century.
The Pentecostal/charismatic and New Apostolic Reformation position that all five Ephesians 4 offices continue, against the traditional view that apostleship (and, for many, the prophetic office) was a foundation-laying role that ended with the first generation of the church.
per point: 2.4 · 2.6/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
The Authority of Modern Prophecy
Round 2 PAUSEDResolved: The New Testament presents the gift of prophecy in the church as authoritative revelation from God, not as a fallible impression for the church to weigh.
The Pentecostal conviction that a genuine prophetic word carries the weight of a message from God, against the qualified continuationist position — associated with figures like Wayne Grudem — that treats present-day prophecy as impression-level and inherently fallible, as well as the cessationist view that denies the gift altogether.
per point: 0.6 · 2.2/20
Prosperity & Holiness
Entire Sanctification as a Second Work of Grace
Round 3 PAUSEDResolved: The Bible teaches entire sanctification as a definite, instantaneous second work of grace after justification, in which the believer's heart is cleansed from inbred sin by faith.
The Wesleyan-Holiness doctrine — carried directly into classical Pentecostalism's own three-stage theology (justification, sanctification, Spirit baptism) by bodies like the Church of God (Cleveland) and the Church of the Nazarene — against the Reformed/Baptist view that sanctification is a single, gradual, lifelong process begun at conversion, with no separate "entire" crisis experience to seek.
per point: 2.6 · 4.6/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Does God Guarantee Financial Prosperity to Believers of Sufficient Faith?
Round 3 PAUSEDResolved: The Bible teaches that God guarantees material financial prosperity, as a covenant blessing, to believers who give generously and believe and confess His promises.
The Word of Faith/prosperity teaching found across much of independent charismatic and televangelist Christianity against the position — held by classical Pentecostal bodies like the Assemblies of God in their own official statements, as well as the broader church — that Scripture promises no such guarantee, and that faith, suffering, and material circumstance are not correlated this way.
per point: 0.7 · 4.6/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Catholic & Orthodox 13 debates Hide Show 13 debates hidden — click to show
Doctrines and practices distinguishing Catholic and Orthodox belief from Protestant positions — authority, sacraments, Mary, saints, and the afterlife.
Church Authority & Tradition
The Filioque
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: The Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque), and the Western addition to the Nicene Creed is a legitimate expression of apostolic faith.
The affirmative argues from John 15:26 with 16:14–15, Galatians 4:6, Augustine, and the unity of the divine operations. The negative (the Orthodox position) argues that the Father alone is the source of the Godhead, that the addition was made without an ecumenical council, and that it confuses the persons.
per point: 2.0 · 2.6/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Apostolic Succession
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Legitimate church authority passes through an unbroken succession of bishops from the apostles, and ministry outside that succession lacks it.
The affirmative argues from the appointment of elders in Acts 14:23 and Titus 1:5, the passing of the charge in 2 Timothy 2:2, and the witness of Clement and Irenaeus. The negative argues that the New Testament uses 'elder' and 'overseer' interchangeably, that the monarchical episcopate is a second-century development, and that authority rests on apostolic doctrine rather than on a chain of hands.
per point: 1.0 · 2.2/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Church Authority
Round 2 PAUSEDResolved: Christ established a single visible Church governed by apostolic succession and the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, rather than leaving final authority to interpret Scripture to the priesthood of all believers.
Papal primacy and apostolic succession against the Protestant priesthood-of-all-believers and congregational-autonomy model of church governance.
per point: 1.6 · 2.6/20
Reformation-Era Disputes
The Deuterocanonical Books
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: The deuterocanonical books — Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1–2 Maccabees — are inspired Scripture and belong in the Old Testament canon.
The affirmative argues from the Septuagint, the early Church's use, the councils of Hippo and Carthage, and Trent. The negative argues that Jesus and the apostles received the Hebrew canon, that the books were never counted as Scripture by the Jews, and that Jerome and others distinguished them.
per point: 0.4 · 2.9/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Justification By Faith Alone
Round 5 ACTIVEResolved: A sinner is justified before God by faith alone (sola fide), apart from works of the law, and not by a faith formed and completed by works of charity.
The Reformation's material principle: Protestant sola fide against the Catholic understanding of justification as a process involving faith, grace, and good works.
per point: 3.7 · 1.0/20
Sola Scriptura
Round 4 ACTIVEResolved: Scripture alone (sola scriptura) is the church's sole infallible rule of faith; sacred tradition and the ecclesial magisterium hold no equal or supplementary binding authority.
The Reformation's formal principle: Protestant sola scriptura against the Catholic/Orthodox claim that Scripture and apostolic tradition together, safeguarded by the Church's teaching office, form the rule of faith.
per point: 0.8 · 1.1/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Sacraments
Confession to a Priest
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Confession of grave sin to a priest, with sacramental absolution, is the ordinary means Christ established for the forgiveness of sins committed after baptism.
The affirmative argues from John 20:22–23, James 5:16, and the unbroken practice of the Church. The negative argues that 1 John 1:9 and Hebrews 4:16 grant direct access to God, that the apostolic authority to forgive was declarative, and that a priestly mediator obscures Christ's priesthood.
per point: 3.0 · 1.2/20
The Eucharist
Round 4 ACTIVEResolved: In the Lord's Supper the bread and wine are truly and substantially changed into the body and blood of Christ (the Real Presence), and are not merely symbolic or memorial.
Catholic, Orthodox, and Lutheran real-presence views of communion against the Reformed and Baptist memorialist view.
per point: 1.8 · 2.0/20
Marian Doctrine
Saints & Images
Petitions to Mary and the Saints for Intercession
Round 3 PAUSEDResolved: It is a biblically warranted and spiritually beneficial practice for Christians to ask Mary and departed saints in heaven to intercede with God on their behalf, and this does not violate Christ's unique mediatorship.
The Catholic/Orthodox doctrine of the communion of saints, defined at the Council of Trent (Session 25, 1563, "good and useful... to invoke [the saints]"), against the Protestant/evangelical position that 1 Timothy 2:5's "one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" rules out petitioning any deceased human however honored, and that Scripture gives no precedent for the practice.
per point: 1.8 · 3.3/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Image Veneration
Round 3 PAUSEDResolved: The veneration of icons and images of Christ, Mary, and the saints — bowing before them, kissing them, giving them reverence — is a legitimate Christian practice, not a violation of the Second Commandment's prohibition of graven images.
The Second Council of Nicaea's (787) doctrine that the honor (dulia) paid to an image passes to its prototype and is categorically distinct from the worship (latria) owed to God alone, against the Protestant/evangelical reading of Exodus 20:4-5 as forbidding the practice regardless of that distinction.
per point: 2.9 · 1.3/20
The Afterlife
Prayers for the Dead
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: It is right for Christians to pray for those who have died.
The affirmative argues from 2 Maccabees 12:44-45, 2 Timothy 1:16-18, the ancient liturgies, and the unbroken communion of the church across death. The negative argues that Hebrews 9:27 fixes the destiny of the dead at death, that Scripture gives no command or example in the canonical books, and that the practice presupposes a doctrine of purification the Bible does not teach.
per point: 1.5 · 1.2/20
The Existence of Purgatory After the Cross
Round 2 PAUSEDResolved: Purgatory — a temporary post-mortem state of purification for souls who die in God's grace but imperfectly cleansed — exists as a real reality, and Christ's atonement on the cross does not eliminate the need for it.
Purgatory as dogmatically defined at the Councils of Florence (1439) and Trent (1563, CCC 1030-1032), classically argued from 2 Maccabees 12:46 (deuterocanonical, outside the Protestant canon) and 1 Corinthians 3:15, against the Protestant/evangelical position — central to sola fide theology — that Christ's finished work (Hebrews 10:14, "by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified") leaves no post-mortem purification for believers to undergo. Related to, but distinct from, the already-live JustificationByFaithAlone (which concerns justification in this life, not what follows death).
per point: 1.1 · 2.8/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Secular & Apologetics 7 debates Hide Show 7 debates hidden — click to show
Foundational questions argued on evidence and philosophy rather than within a single tradition — God's existence, evil, and the historical record.
The Existence of God
The Problem of Evil
Historical Claims
The Historical Adam
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Adam and Eve were real historical individuals, the first human pair from whom all humanity descends, and the Christian doctrine of original sin depends on that history.
The affirmative argues from Genesis, the genealogies of Luke 3, and Paul's Adam–Christ parallel in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15. The negative argues that Adam functions as a literary or representative figure and that genetics rules out descent from a single pair, without the doctrine of sin collapsing.
per point: 2.2 · 1.0/20
The Deity of Christ
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Jesus of Nazareth is fully God — co-eternal and of one essence with the Father — and the New Testament teaches this plainly rather than as a later development.
The affirmative builds the case from John 1, Philippians 2, Colossians 1, Hebrews 1, the 'I AM' sayings, and the worship Jesus receives. The negative (unitarian and critical positions) argues that the earliest Christology was exalted-human or agent Christology and that full deity is a post-apostolic conclusion.
per point: 3.7 · 1.9/20
The Historical Exodus
Round 1 PAUSEDResolved: The Exodus of Israel from Egypt under Moses was a real historical event substantially as the book of Exodus describes it.
The affirmative marshals the internal evidence, Egyptian loanwords and customs, Semitic presence in the Delta, and the improbability of a nation inventing slave origins. The negative points to the absence of archaeological trace in Sinai and Egypt, the settlement pattern in Canaan, and the text's late composition.
per point: 0.7 · 3.6/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
The Reliability of the Gospels
Round 1 PAUSEDResolved: The four canonical Gospels are historically reliable accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, rooted in eyewitness testimony and preserved without substantive corruption.
The affirmative argues from early dating, undesigned coincidences, named witnesses, and manuscript evidence that the Gospels report what happened. The negative argues that they are late, theologically shaped documents whose contradictions, legendary development, and anonymous authorship make them unreliable as history.
per point: 2.5 · 2.2/20
Salvation & Grace 13 debates Hide Show 13 debates hidden — click to show
How a person is saved and kept saved — predestination, justification, sanctification, and the security of that salvation.
The Historical Adam
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Adam and Eve were real historical individuals, the first human pair from whom all humanity descends, and the Christian doctrine of original sin depends on that history.
The affirmative argues from Genesis, the genealogies of Luke 3, and Paul's Adam–Christ parallel in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15. The negative argues that Adam functions as a literary or representative figure and that genetics rules out descent from a single pair, without the doctrine of sin collapsing.
per point: 2.2 · 1.0/20
Salvation and the Jewish People
Round 1 PAUSEDResolved: Jewish people can be saved through God's covenant with Israel, apart from faith in Jesus as the Messiah.
The affirmative (dual-covenant theology) argues that God's covenant with Israel was never revoked (Romans 11:28-29, 'the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable'), that Paul leaves Israel's final salvation in God's hands rather than in a mission to convert, and that the Church's call to the nations does not cancel Israel's own covenant. The negative argues that there is salvation in no other name (Acts 4:12, John 14:6), that the apostles preached Jesus as Messiah to Jews first (Acts 2:36-38, Romans 1:16), and that Paul prays for his own people to be saved because zeal for the law without Christ does not save (Romans 10:1-4).
per point: 1.7 · 3.2/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Original Sin and Inherited Guilt
Round 1 PAUSEDResolved: Because of Adam's sin, every human being is born already guilty before God, not merely born with a corrupted nature.
The affirmative argues from Romans 5:12-21, Psalm 51:5, and Ephesians 2:3 that Adam's guilt is imputed to his descendants. The negative holds that Scripture teaches inherited corruption and universal actual sin, but that guilt attaches to a person's own sin, and that Ezekiel 18:20 forbids counting one man's guilt against another.
per point: 4.3 · 2.0/20
Predestination & Free Will
Limited Atonement
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Christ's death was intended by God to secure the salvation of the elect alone, not to make salvation possible for every human being without exception.
The affirmative (particular redemption) argues that the atonement actually saves, that intent and application cannot diverge, and that John 10, Ephesians 5, and Revelation 5 speak of a definite people. The negative argues from John 3:16, 1 John 2:2, 1 Timothy 2:4–6, and 2 Peter 2:1 that Christ died for all and that limitation lies in unbelief, not in the cross.
per point: 1.3 · 1.3/20
Predestination
Round 2 PAUSEDResolved: God unconditionally predestines individuals to salvation.
Examination of predestination and free will. Rebuilt fresh under the current engine/schema — the prior debate under this title predated per-session time tracking entirely (0 recorded working time) and is being redone from scratch rather than topped up.
per point: 1.1 · 1.0/20
Free Will
Round 3 PAUSEDResolved: Human beings possess genuine free will.
A deep test debate to explore how far structured arguments can descend.
per point: 1.2 · 3.2/20
Eternal Security
Justification
Penal Substitutionary Atonement
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: At the cross God punished Christ in the place of sinners, bearing the penalty their sins deserved, and this is the central meaning of the atonement.
The affirmative argues from Isaiah 53:5-10, Romans 3:25-26, 2 Corinthians 5:21, and Galatians 3:13. The negative argues that Scripture's dominant images are victory, ransom and representation rather than penal exchange, that penal substitution sets the Father against the Son, and that it is a late systematization of a richer biblical picture.
per point: 1.9 · 1.3/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Justification By Faith Alone
Round 5 ACTIVEResolved: A sinner is justified before God by faith alone (sola fide), apart from works of the law, and not by a faith formed and completed by works of charity.
The Reformation's material principle: Protestant sola fide against the Catholic understanding of justification as a process involving faith, grace, and good works.
per point: 3.7 · 1.0/20
Sanctification
Baptism & Salvation
Baptismal Regeneration
Round 1 PAUSEDResolved: Water baptism is the ordinary means by which God gives the new birth and the forgiveness of sins, so that baptism is necessary for salvation wherever it can be received.
The affirmative argues from John 3:5 ('born of water and the Spirit'), Acts 2:38 and 22:16, Titus 3:5's 'washing of regeneration', and 1 Peter 3:21 ('baptism now saves you'), and from the early church's unanimous reading of them. The negative argues that Scripture ties salvation to faith apart from any rite (Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 4), that Cornelius's household received the Spirit before they were baptized (Acts 10:44-48), and that baptism is the believer's public confession of a new birth already given, not its cause.
per point: 2.5 · 3.1/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Is Water Baptism Necessary for Salvation?
Round 1 PAUSEDResolved: Water baptism, administered in the name of Jesus, is a necessary component of the new birth, such that a genuinely repentant believer who has not yet been baptized is not yet savingly regenerated.
The Oneness Pentecostal/Apostolic reading of Acts 2:38's "repent and be baptized... for the remission of sins" as a necessary step in salvation, against the broader evangelical and Trinitarian Pentecostal position that a person is saved by faith alone the moment they believe, with water baptism following as obedience and public testimony rather than a saving act itself.
per point: 4.8 · 2.0/20
Believers Baptism
Round 2 PAUSEDResolved: Baptism is to be administered only to professing believers upon their own confession of faith (credobaptism), not to the infant children of believers (paedobaptism).
The Baptist/Anabaptist position against the Reformed, Lutheran, Catholic, and Orthodox practice of infant baptism, and what the sign is held to signify and confer.
per point: 3.6 · 1.9/20
Church Practice & Order 14 debates Hide Show 14 debates hidden — click to show
How the church orders its common life — leadership, worship, giving, and the ordinances it observes.
Christians and Alcohol
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Scripture permits a Christian to drink alcohol in moderation.
The affirmative argues from Psalm 104:14-15, the wine of Cana in John 2, Paul's counsel in 1 Timothy 5:23, and the cup of the Lord's Supper. The negative argues from the warnings of Proverbs 23:29-35, the Nazirite and priestly abstinence, the law of love in Romans 14:21, and the harm that follows where the church permits it.
per point: 1.1 · 1.7/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Divorce and Remarriage
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Scripture permits a believer whose spouse has committed adultery or abandoned the marriage to divorce and to remarry.
The affirmative argues from the exception clause of Matthew 19:9 and Paul's provision in 1 Corinthians 7:15. The negative (the permanence view) argues that Jesus taught marriage is indissoluble, that the exception concerns betrothal or separation, and that remarriage while a spouse lives is adultery.
per point: 2.6 · 1.4/20
Leadership & Ordination
Worship
The Seventh Day Sabbath
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: The seventh-day Sabbath remains a binding commandment for Christians, and Sunday worship does not fulfil it.
The affirmative argues from creation, the Decalogue, Jesus' own practice, and the absence of any command changing the day. The negative argues that the Sabbath was a sign of the Mosaic covenant fulfilled in Christ (Colossians 2:16, Hebrews 4) and that the first day marks the resurrection.
per point: 1.0 · 0.0/20
What Governs Corporate Worship?
Round 3 ACTIVEResolved: A local church's corporate worship practices — musical style, raised hands, dancing, spontaneous singing and prayer — are rightly governed by the normative principle (permitted unless Scripture forbids it), not the regulative principle (permitted only if Scripture commands or clearly warrants it).
The normative principle assumed by Pentecostal, charismatic, and most broader evangelical worship practice against the regulative principle of worship historically held by confessional Reformed and Presbyterian churches, which restricts corporate worship to elements Scripture explicitly authorizes.
per point: 0.7 · 0.8/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Giving & Stewardship
Tithes: Home Church Only
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: The Bible teaches that tithes must go only to a person's home church, and not to Christian ministries outside the home church.
The affirmative argues from Malachi 3:10's 'storehouse', the Levitical pattern of tithes supporting the priests who served the people (Numbers 18), Paul's teaching that those who preach the gospel get their living from it (1 Corinthians 9:13-14, Galatians 6:6, 1 Timothy 5:17), and the orderly weekly giving at the gathering (1 Corinthians 16:1-2), that the local congregation is God's appointed treasury. The negative argues that the New Testament gives no single-church-only rule: the Philippians supported Paul's mission outside their own church (Philippians 4:15-18), the Gentile churches gave to the saints in Jerusalem (Romans 15:26, 2 Corinthians 8-9), John commends supporting traveling workers (3 John 5-8), and 2 Corinthians 9:7 leaves each giver to decide in his own heart.
per point: 0.4 · 1.7/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Is the New Testament Church Bound by the Old Testament Tithe?
Round 5 ACTIVEResolved: The Old Testament tithe (ten percent of income) remains binding on New Testament believers as God's minimum standard of giving, not merely a voluntary, grace-motivated pattern believers are free to exceed or fall short of.
The tithing doctrine taught widely across Pentecostal, charismatic, and much of the broader evangelical church against the position — held by a range of Bible teachers across traditions — that the Mosaic tithe was part of Israel's covenant law and was never repeated as a command for the church, whose giving is instead voluntary and grace-motivated (2 Corinthians 9:7).
per point: 1.5 · 1.5/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Does God Guarantee Financial Prosperity to Believers of Sufficient Faith?
Round 3 PAUSEDResolved: The Bible teaches that God guarantees material financial prosperity, as a covenant blessing, to believers who give generously and believe and confess His promises.
The Word of Faith/prosperity teaching found across much of independent charismatic and televangelist Christianity against the position — held by classical Pentecostal bodies like the Assemblies of God in their own official statements, as well as the broader church — that Scripture promises no such guarantee, and that faith, suffering, and material circumstance are not correlated this way.
per point: 0.7 · 4.6/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Ordinances
The Baptismal Formula
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Christian baptism must be administered in the name of Jesus alone, as in Acts 2:38, and baptism pronounced with the threefold formula of Matthew 28:19 is not valid baptism.
The affirmative (the Oneness Pentecostal position) argues that every baptism the New Testament actually records is 'in the name of Jesus' (Acts 2:38, 8:16, 10:48, 19:5), that 'the name' in Matthew 28:19 is singular and is the name of Jesus, and that the apostles obeyed the command exactly as they understood it. The negative argues that Matthew 28:19 is Christ's own command and supplies the words, that 'in the name of Jesus' in Acts describes the authority and kind of baptism rather than a spoken formula, and that the Didache and the whole early church baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
per point: 0.7 · 2.5/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
The Eucharist
Round 4 ACTIVEResolved: In the Lord's Supper the bread and wine are truly and substantially changed into the body and blood of Christ (the Real Presence), and are not merely symbolic or memorial.
Catholic, Orthodox, and Lutheran real-presence views of communion against the Reformed and Baptist memorialist view.
per point: 1.8 · 2.0/20
The Outward Ordinances
Round 1 PAUSEDResolved: Christ commanded His church to observe water baptism and the Lord's Supper as outward rites until He returns, and a church that sets them aside departs from that command.
The affirmative argues from the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19), 'do this in remembrance of me ... until he comes' (1 Corinthians 11:24-26), and the unbroken practice of the church from Acts onward. The negative (the Quaker and Salvation Army position) argues that the baptism that saves is the inward baptism of the Spirit (Matthew 3:11, 1 Peter 3:21), that communion with Christ is continual and spiritual rather than tied to a meal, and that outward rites were never made conditions of grace and can come to stand in for the reality they signify.
per point: 3.4 · 0.8/20
Baptismal Regeneration
Round 1 PAUSEDResolved: Water baptism is the ordinary means by which God gives the new birth and the forgiveness of sins, so that baptism is necessary for salvation wherever it can be received.
The affirmative argues from John 3:5 ('born of water and the Spirit'), Acts 2:38 and 22:16, Titus 3:5's 'washing of regeneration', and 1 Peter 3:21 ('baptism now saves you'), and from the early church's unanimous reading of them. The negative argues that Scripture ties salvation to faith apart from any rite (Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 4), that Cornelius's household received the Spirit before they were baptized (Acts 10:44-48), and that baptism is the believer's public confession of a new birth already given, not its cause.
per point: 2.5 · 3.1/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Is Water Baptism Necessary for Salvation?
Round 1 PAUSEDResolved: Water baptism, administered in the name of Jesus, is a necessary component of the new birth, such that a genuinely repentant believer who has not yet been baptized is not yet savingly regenerated.
The Oneness Pentecostal/Apostolic reading of Acts 2:38's "repent and be baptized... for the remission of sins" as a necessary step in salvation, against the broader evangelical and Trinitarian Pentecostal position that a person is saved by faith alone the moment they believe, with water baptism following as obedience and public testimony rather than a saving act itself.
per point: 4.8 · 2.0/20
Believers Baptism
Round 2 PAUSEDResolved: Baptism is to be administered only to professing believers upon their own confession of faith (credobaptism), not to the infant children of believers (paedobaptism).
The Baptist/Anabaptist position against the Reformed, Lutheran, Catholic, and Orthodox practice of infant baptism, and what the sign is held to signify and confer.
per point: 3.6 · 1.9/20
Scripture & Authority 9 debates Hide Show 9 debates hidden — click to show
Where final authority rests — Scripture alone, the teaching church, or continuing revelation.
Israel and the Church
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: National Israel retains distinct, unfulfilled covenant promises — including the land — that the Church has not inherited or replaced.
The affirmative (dispensational) argues from the unconditional Abrahamic covenant, Romans 11, and the literal reading of prophecy. The negative (covenantal) argues that the promises are fulfilled in Christ and the one people of God, Jew and Gentile, and that the land points to the new creation.
per point: 3.3 · 2.1/20
The Seventh Day Sabbath
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: The seventh-day Sabbath remains a binding commandment for Christians, and Sunday worship does not fulfil it.
The affirmative argues from creation, the Decalogue, Jesus' own practice, and the absence of any command changing the day. The negative argues that the Sabbath was a sign of the Mosaic covenant fulfilled in Christ (Colossians 2:16, Hebrews 4) and that the first day marks the resurrection.
per point: 1.0 · 0.0/20
Rule of Faith
The Deuterocanonical Books
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: The deuterocanonical books — Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1–2 Maccabees — are inspired Scripture and belong in the Old Testament canon.
The affirmative argues from the Septuagint, the early Church's use, the councils of Hippo and Carthage, and Trent. The negative argues that Jesus and the apostles received the Hebrew canon, that the books were never counted as Scripture by the Jews, and that Jerome and others distinguished them.
per point: 0.4 · 2.9/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Young Earth Creation
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Genesis 1–2 teaches that God created the heavens and the earth in six ordinary days within roughly the last ten thousand years, and a faithful reading of Scripture requires that conclusion.
The affirmative argues from the plain sense of the text, the genealogies, Exodus 20:11, and the theological link between death and the Fall. The negative argues that the text's genre and ancient Near Eastern context permit an old earth, and that day-age, framework, and analogical readings are faithful, not compromises.
per point: 2.7 · 2.1/20
Biblical Inerrancy
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: The Bible, in its original manuscripts, is without error in everything it affirms — including matters of history and the natural world, not only faith and morals.
The affirmative defends the Chicago Statement position from the Bible's own claims about itself and Jesus' use of Scripture. The negative holds that Scripture is infallible in its saving purpose while containing genuine historical and scientific errors, and that inerrancy is a modern imposition.
per point: 2.2 · 1.8/20
Sola Scriptura
Round 4 ACTIVEResolved: Scripture alone (sola scriptura) is the church's sole infallible rule of faith; sacred tradition and the ecclesial magisterium hold no equal or supplementary binding authority.
The Reformation's formal principle: Protestant sola scriptura against the Catholic/Orthodox claim that Scripture and apostolic tradition together, safeguarded by the Church's teaching office, form the rule of faith.
per point: 0.8 · 1.1/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Teaching Authority
Ongoing Revelation
Apostles and Prophets Today
Round 3 ACTIVEResolved: The governing offices of apostle and prophet named in Ephesians 4:11 remain valid, Spirit-appointed offices in the church today, not roles confined to the first century.
The Pentecostal/charismatic and New Apostolic Reformation position that all five Ephesians 4 offices continue, against the traditional view that apostleship (and, for many, the prophetic office) was a foundation-laying role that ended with the first generation of the church.
per point: 2.4 · 2.6/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
The Authority of Modern Prophecy
Round 2 PAUSEDResolved: The New Testament presents the gift of prophecy in the church as authoritative revelation from God, not as a fallible impression for the church to weigh.
The Pentecostal conviction that a genuine prophetic word carries the weight of a message from God, against the qualified continuationist position — associated with figures like Wayne Grudem — that treats present-day prophecy as impression-level and inherently fallible, as well as the cessationist view that denies the gift altogether.
per point: 0.6 · 2.2/20
God & the Trinity 3 debates Hide Show 3 debates hidden — click to show
The nature and unity of God.
The Filioque
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: The Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque), and the Western addition to the Nicene Creed is a legitimate expression of apostolic faith.
The affirmative argues from John 15:26 with 16:14–15, Galatians 4:6, Augustine, and the unity of the divine operations. The negative (the Orthodox position) argues that the Father alone is the source of the Godhead, that the addition was made without an ecumenical council, and that it confuses the persons.
per point: 2.0 · 2.6/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
The Deity of Christ
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Jesus of Nazareth is fully God — co-eternal and of one essence with the Father — and the New Testament teaches this plainly rather than as a later development.
The affirmative builds the case from John 1, Philippians 2, Colossians 1, Hebrews 1, the 'I AM' sayings, and the worship Jesus receives. The negative (unitarian and critical positions) argues that the earliest Christology was exalted-human or agent Christology and that full deity is a post-apostolic conclusion.
per point: 3.7 · 1.9/20
Trinity or Oneness?
Round 2 PAUSEDResolved: The Bible teaches that God is a single divine Person who is revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, not three co-equal, co-eternal Persons in one Godhead.
Oneness Pentecostalism's modalist Christology (rooted in a 1916 split within the young Assemblies of God itself, and confessed today by the United Pentecostal Church International and similar bodies) against the ecumenical Trinitarian doctrine held by virtually every other Christian tradition, Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal alike.
per point: 1.0 · 2.1/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
End Times 9 debates Hide Show 9 debates hidden — click to show
Eschatology — how and when the end unfolds.
All Israel Will Be Saved
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Romans 11:26 teaches a future, large-scale conversion of ethnic Israel to Christ.
The affirmative argues from Romans 11:11-15 and 11:23-29 (Israel's 'fullness', a partial hardening 'until' the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, gifts and calling that are irrevocable) and Zechariah 12:10 that a future turning of the Jewish people to Jesus as Messiah is promised. The negative argues that 'all Israel' is the whole elect people of God, Jew and Gentile (Romans 9:6, Galatians 6:16), that 'and so' means 'in this manner', and that Paul describes a remnant saved throughout the age (Romans 11:5), not a future mass conversion.
per point: 4.6 · 3.1/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
The Rebirth of Israel and Prophecy
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: The re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
The affirmative argues that the regathering promised in Ezekiel 36-37, Isaiah 11:11-12 and Amos 9:14-15 is a second, worldwide return distinct from the return from Babylon, and that 1948 is the budding fig tree of Matthew 24:32. The negative argues that those prophecies were fulfilled in the return under Ezra and Nehemiah or are fulfilled in Christ and his church, that the promised regathering is conditioned on repentance (Deuteronomy 30:1-5), and that a secular state founded in unbelief does not match the restoration the prophets describe.
per point: 2.2 · 1.8/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Israel and the Church
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: National Israel retains distinct, unfulfilled covenant promises — including the land — that the Church has not inherited or replaced.
The affirmative (dispensational) argues from the unconditional Abrahamic covenant, Romans 11, and the literal reading of prophecy. The negative (covenantal) argues that the promises are fulfilled in Christ and the one people of God, Jew and Gentile, and that the land points to the new creation.
per point: 3.3 · 2.1/20
Eternal Conscious Torment
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: The final state of the unredeemed is everlasting conscious punishment, not annihilation or cessation of existence.
The affirmative argues from Matthew 25:46, Revelation 14:11 and 20:10, and the parallel with eternal life. The negative (conditional immortality) argues that 'destruction' and 'perish' mean what they say, that immortality is a gift not a given, and that the fire is unquenchable but its objects consumed.
per point: 0.6 · 1.5/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
The Millennium
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: Christ will return bodily before a literal thousand-year reign on the earth (premillennialism).
The affirmative argues from Revelation 20, the Old Testament kingdom prophecies, and the early Fathers. The negative (amillennial and postmillennial positions) argues that the thousand years is symbolic of the present reign of Christ, and that the New Testament knows only one return followed by judgment.
per point: 1.2 · 1.1/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
The Timing of the Rapture
Round 2 ACTIVEResolved: The church will be removed from the earth in a rapture that precedes the seven-year tribulation, rather than during or after it.
Dispensational premillennialism's pretribulation rapture — official doctrine in the Assemblies of God's own Statement of Fundamental Truths and shared broadly across dispensational and non-denominational evangelicalism — against the historic premillennial, mid/post-tribulational, and amillennial positions held elsewhere in the church.
per point: 1.1 · 2.1/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
The Third Temple
Round 1 PAUSEDResolved: Bible prophecy requires a rebuilt Jewish temple in Jerusalem before Christ's return.
The affirmative argues from Daniel 9:27, 2 Thessalonians 2:4, and Ezekiel 40-48's detailed temple vision as describing a future, literal structure. The negative argues the Church itself is now God's temple (1 Corinthians 3:16, Ephesians 2:21) and that Ezekiel's vision, like Daniel's, is symbolic or has already found its fulfilment in Christ.
per point: 3.3 · 2.6/20
Salvation and the Jewish People
Round 1 PAUSEDResolved: Jewish people can be saved through God's covenant with Israel, apart from faith in Jesus as the Messiah.
The affirmative (dual-covenant theology) argues that God's covenant with Israel was never revoked (Romans 11:28-29, 'the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable'), that Paul leaves Israel's final salvation in God's hands rather than in a mission to convert, and that the Church's call to the nations does not cancel Israel's own covenant. The negative argues that there is salvation in no other name (Acts 4:12, John 14:6), that the apostles preached Jesus as Messiah to Jews first (Acts 2:36-38, Romans 1:16), and that Paul prays for his own people to be saved because zeal for the law without Christ does not save (Romans 10:1-4).
per point: 1.7 · 3.2/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE
Christians and the Modern State of Israel
Round 1 PAUSEDResolved: Christians have a biblical obligation to support the modern State of Israel.
The affirmative (Christian Zionism) argues from the blessing promised to those who bless Abraham's offspring (Genesis 12:3), the call to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), the Gentiles' debt to Israel (Romans 15:27) and God's continuing purpose for the Jewish people. The negative argues that the promise to Abraham's offspring is fulfilled in Christ and those who belong to him (Galatians 3:16, 29), that Christ's kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36), that the New Testament binds Christians to no earthly nation, and that Christians owe love and justice to Jews and Palestinians alike, Palestinian Christians included.
per point: 2.4 · 3.0/20 ⚠ VOLUME-SENSITIVE