Philosophy (part 5)

Philosophy (Part 5)

Kevin Harris: There have been a series of books recently that have had a huge impact on society at large and on the Christian church. And, Dr. Craig, you are involved in those three books. In fact, you are interviewed in those three books by Lee Strobel: The Case For Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for a Creator.

Dr. Craig: That’s right, Kevin. Lee did come to Atlanta and interview me for all three of those. I first got to know Lee Strobel back when he was a minister at Willow Creek Community Church. He and Mark Mittelberg sponsored a huge debate at Willow Creek between myself and Frank Zindler from the American Atheists organization.

Kevin Harris: How many came to that debate?

Dr. Craig: That was funny. When they held it, Bill Hybels, the pastor, said to them, “Mark and Lee, you are going to be lucky if you get three hundred people come to this. Nobody is interested in this kind of intellectual stuff.” Well, that afternoon at around four o’clock buses began pouring into the parking lot. When they opened the doors the main auditorium which seats five thousand filled in thirty seconds. People were running down the isles to find a seat. It overflowed into the chapel and into the gymnasium. At the end they had just under eight thousand people attend that debate at Willow Creek. It was the largest indoor event they ever had. And it was broadcast live over the Moody Radio Network at the same time. So it was a tremendous event that reached thousands of people.

Kevin Harris: Bill, many people discovered you by watching that debate on video. And it is still available.

Dr. Craig: It is still available. Zondervan puts it out. Lee and Mark said to me that they hope that this would be something that would be a help to my own ministry as a Christian philosopher and theologian. It certainly has been as many people, even in other countries, have seen this debate with Frank Zindler.

Lee Strobel’s books that you mentioned have also been a great benefit to me because folks read those books and then they come to discover my work and then will come and hear me speak on a campus or read something I’ve written. I even had my next door neighbor come up to me while I was out weeding in the front yard and say to me, “Bill, are you William Lane Craig?” And I said, “Yes, I am.” And he said, “I’ve been reading The Case for Christ – I didn’t know that was you!” So it is funny how people have gotten to know me through reading Lee’s books.

Kevin Harris: Well, you are an overnight success twenty years in the making. [laughter] Again, these books are a good starting point for a lot of people to begin to study. These books are also a part of the apologetics renaissance that we’ve been talking about.

Dr. Craig: We are seeing a renaissance in apologetics. Back in the late 1940s, you could find practically nothing written on Christian apologetics. Virtually no books at all. And now we are just suffused with fine books on apologetics. Lee’s are just three of them that I think are very good books. They are at an introductory level, they are easy to read, but nevertheless they are based on interviews with really top people. The material, though simplified, is solid. So I commend Lee’s books to any of our listeners that are beginners and would like to begin to understand how to defend their faith.

Kevin Harris: Apologetics seems to do a couple of things. It strengthens the faith of the believer and their appreciation and wonder and awe at a mighty God. And it also helps those who may have roadblocks to faith come to know Christ.

Dr. Craig: It does both of those things. In the life of the believer, there are often times when our spiritual life is not as vital as we would like it to be. There are times of spiritual dryness or the dark valley. During those times when the witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts may seem eclipsed or muted, it is nice to know that there are good reasons and arguments for believing what we believe – that there is a personal God who created the world and has revealed himself in Christ. Then, of course, as we share our faith with an increasingly secular culture we need to be prepared to give reasons for why we believe what we believe; otherwise, people will simply dismiss us by saying, “Well, that is nice for you but it is not true for me.” We need to have objective evidence and arguments to support our faith.

Kevin Harris: What can we do to encourage and continue this renaissance – this explosion – of apologetics and interest in this area?  [1]

Dr. Craig: There are a number of things that I would like to see folks do. One thing I would like to see happen is I would like to see churches establish scholarship funds for high school graduates or college graduates in their churches to attend schools where they can get this kind of training. We need to treat this as seriously as we treat candidates for the mission field and have student scholarships that they would be interviewed for and make application for so that they can go to seminary and study at a place like Talbot School of Theology and get a degree in philosophy of religion or Christian apologetics.

In the same way, I would like to see people open their pocket books and begin to give to these institutions that do offer these programs. I am connected with Talbot where we have the largest M.A. program in philosophy of religion in the English speaking world and also a huge program in Christian apologetics. There are many international students that would like to attend. We get students applying from China and Ethiopia and Sweden and other countries who would like to attend but many times lack the funds. These kids need scholarship money. One of the things that Jan and I do with our own personal Lord’s money – our own giving – is we contribute to student scholarship funds to help fund these students who can’t afford it to come and do these programs. Then they will go back to their countries and be an influence for Christ there. For example, there is a fellow now at Talbot from Ethiopia who is – he was dirt poor. I mean, he didn’t even have the clothes to come to America much less the payment for tuition and books and so forth. But we, that is to say the school and other Christian philosophers, helped to fund him. When he goes back to Ethiopia, he is guaranteed a position as a Professor of Philosophy at the University in Addis Ababa. And he will be one of three philosophers in the entire country and will be teaching philosophy from an explicitly evangelical point of view. This is the kind of person that we need to rally behind and get behind in a tangible way. So I would like to see people give to programs like that.

I would also like to see people become members of the Evangelical Philosophical Society. This is the largest society of Christian philosophers in the world. It is the only society of Christian philosophers which is dedicated to doing philosophy from an evangelical point of view. Laypeople can join the society as associate members. When they do so, they will receive a subscription to our journal, Philosophia Christi, which is one of the finest journals in philosophy of religion that is out there today. By joining the society and contributing their dues, which is about thirty dollars a year, this can help to fuel and fund this movement in Christian philosophy and apologetics that is going on.

So those are some practical ways that I think people can encourage this movement and see it go forward.

Of course, in their own lives, I would like to see Christian parents begin to teach these kinds of arguments and evidence to their own children. I think that parents of high schoolers ought to send them to a summer camp with Summit Christian Ministries where these high school students will get worldview training to prepare them for college education and will be trained by top Christian philosophers in apologetics. They are doing terrific work with Summit Christian Ministries. I also think that we ought to encourage students to enroll in programs such as those that I mentioned at Talbot School of Theology, at Denver Seminary, Liberty University, Bethel Seminary, where good work on Christian apologetics is being done. We need more people to catch a vision of becoming a Christian apologist and want to enter into this in a vocational way.

Kevin Harris: Equipping yourself in this area just helps one become a good ambassador for Christ, an effective ambassador. What kind of ambassador for Christ do you want to be – a good one or a bad one?

Dr. Craig: Exactly. This isn’t just for people who go into this full time. I’ve been talking about the movement of professional Christian apologists and those who are receiving training in this area. But every layperson can benefit from this. So I would encourage people to get into discussion groups where you will read through, for example, The Case for Christ or Reasonable Faith. Do the study questions as you go through it and discuss it amongst yourselves. After you finish that book, graduate to another book. Be involved in this kind of way in stimulating each other intellectually and mentally to wrestle with these issues. You will become a deeper, more interesting, more well rounded person as a result of that kind of interaction.

Of course, I think our churches need to offer Sunday school classes in this. We need to quit having adult Sunday school classes which simply offer simpering devotional lessons week after week and get serious about educating our adults. We need to have classes in church history, classes in New Testament and Old Testament content, in systematic theology and doctrine, and in Christian apologetics. I would say we even need to offer classes in New Testament Greek. So the Sunday school classes are something that we need Christian education ministers to get a vision for and to really transform into giving our laypeople serious apologetics. They deserve no less. [2]