TESTIMONIALS

First of all I want to say thanks to you and those you work with in doing God's work and reaching those that need Him.

My name is Doug. I am a newly married 29 year old man living and working in TX. I grew up in a religious family that attended church regularly and was very involved in the youth group while I was young. After I graduated and moved off to college doubts started to take root in my heart and slowly I grew less and less serious about my faith and my belief in God's existence. As years went by and life moved on these fears and doubts just festered away to the point that I could say that I believed in God but deep down was very much lying to myself. To me Christianity started to look like a dying crazy religion that people clung to despite that fact that science had pretty much proven all of it away. The further my feelings and emotions drifted away the crazier it looked to believe in a wacky story about a man who did miracles like a cartoon character and eventually died for our sins and raised from the dead. I claimed Christianity but was dying and hopelessly suffering inside. Also there are many in the atheist community that seemed to have gained this great arrogance and aggressiveness which resulted in me feeling that any attempt to believe in the idiocy of religion was just a convenient lie to get me through a terrible and depressing life. As spiritually beaten down as I was it was very easy to buy into. I also didn't want to research the truth about many claims because I was afraid that it would simply lead me to discover the lies of faith and the Bible which would destroy any sliver of faith I may have had left.

Fast forward to this past June. My wife and I finally got married after years of dating. It was wonderful and I was very excited. Deep down, however, I felt my foundation starting to shake and it terrified me. Up until this point in my life my doubts and decisions, at least in my mind, only really affected me. If I made a bad decision then I alone would suffer the consequences for it (that sounds silly to say now that I know better but at the time that's what I thought). This made dealing with my empty spiritual canteen unnecessary because I was only hurting myself and I was so hopeless and unhappy about my unbelief in God I didn't really care. Now I had become a Husband with the possibility of becoming a father a realistic thought within the next couple years and it shook me to the core. I didn't know how I could be a good husband. A good boyfriend was easy but a good husband is a whole other thing. We were no longer dating, we were family. We no longer simply enjoyed each other's company, we now relied on each other and committed completely to each other. What kind of husband was I going to be? One who saw the world as dark and horrible? One whose only real purpose in life was to simply get by until I pass away and cease to exist? How would I raise my children to believe in God when I couldn't make the same claim? I didn't want my wife and my kids to have to deal with the same feelings of hopelessness I did. More than that I couldn't bear the possibility of being the one whose lack faith could potentially lead his family astray.

So I decided it was time to make a mature decision. Instead of hiding from the atheist claims that I was so scared of I chose to challenge them and face my doubts directly. Popular culture these days has done a real number on the reliability of the Bible from "The Da Vinci Code" and Bart Ehrman's claims that the bible has been corrupted and changed. I dove in and researched the origins of the Bible and how our current Bible came to be. Anything I had a problem with I researched. Any issue I was sensitive over I researched. The more I learned the more questions would continue to arise but I would attack those as well and try to understand what the truth was. In the midst of this I discovered several Youtube videos of a man I had never heard of by the name of William Lane Craig that baffled me. For years I had believed that the idea of a Christian was a emotional fool who was clinging to the dying idea that God existed despite the fact that the more down to earth atheists could run circles around them logically and show how foolish they were. Yet here was a man who didn't come off like a kook, but a very intelligent and talented debater. He wasn't arguing God's existence through emotions and weak ideas, he was arguing intelligently with an air of confidence in his voice. I watched your debate with Mr. Ehrman and your deconstruction of his book "Misquoting Jesus" (I watched that one 3 times). I watched you give a conference over "The God Delusion" (Dawkins was another one that helped me run from God). I subscribed and listened to your podcasts as well as dived into a wealth of other material. I began to feel like Christians weren't the kooky ones, I was for shutting myself off from God. My skepticism didn't seem as important and slowly it just melted away. I began reading the Bible again and didn't feel uneasy and embarrassed that I was taking what I was reading seriously. I was proud to be a Christian and happy.

Now I'm not so foolish to think that it'll always be sunshine and rainbows or that my faith will never be tested again. I know I still have a long way to go spiritually and that I'm far from perfect or realizing what God wants me to be, but I feel like I've connected again with God and the idea of living in a world without Him just seems so miserable and pointless. In many ways I'm still searching and learning but I feel more like I'm being led as opposed to scrambling on my own in hopes of finding SOMETHING. I also don't know if you'll actually have the time to read this or not (I'm sure giant emails aren't something that scream "excitement" when you first pass over them) but I pray you do if just for the reason that I want you to know you've made a difference on me. I can't say I wouldn't have found God if I hadn't come across your work (I truly feel that He's been chasing me for a LONG time) but I absolutely know that's He's used you and your ministry to touch my heart and help me find Him again and for that I can't thank you and your colleagues enough. I pray God continues to bless you, your ministry and anyone else who may find your work and be led back to God. Thank you so much for everything.

-Doug

I am a junior in high school in Tennessee. As part of my homeschooling, I was required to prepare and execute a Lincoln-Douglas style debate. After finishing the debate my sister and I watched a recording of your debate with Dr. Ludemann in 1977, "Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?"

It was impressive to see how well you stayed on topic through all the red herrings that Dr. Ludemann brought up. You didn't overstate your conclusions and were very polite. But most importantly, you defended well one of the key doctrines, if not the key doctrine, of Christianity. It was a real encouragement to have clearly stated the many compelling reasons to believe that Jesus did rise from the dead, and vindicated His claims to deity.

I pray that God will bless you as you continue to defend the faith. I hope that you will continue to use your talents in critical thought to advance His kingdom.

-Daniel

About a year ago, an online friend, who teams up with me to argue with atheists in a forum, asked me what I thought of William Lane Craig, and gave me a link to this website.

I checked it out, and started listening to the podcasts, including the Defenders classes, and have become a big fan. My dad had used the word "apologetics" when I was a kid, so I knew what it meant, but aside from C.S. Lewis, or Answers in Genesis, I probably couldn't have pointed to anything concrete. Now, I listen to apologetics podcasts about 20 hours a week, as my job is very conducive to wearing headphones all day, and I look forward to downloading the latest Reasonable Faith each week. I also listen to Jim Warner Wallace, Brett Kunkle, Ravi Zacharias, and lately: Phil Fernandez, although I am pretty much current with the first three and so will need to find a new source soon.

Anyway, to get to my point, I attend a church of about 500 attendees on a weekly basis, and three weeks ago I started an apologetics class. I was worried that it would consist of my wife, my son (15), and I alone, but it has had 14, 16, then 10 classmates, with my best friend who has been a firm believer but not really a firm follower of Christ, his mom, and a new believer. (a side note: this is a really good attendance record for my local church) It is a real exciting time for me, and, to be honest, a somewhat terrifying time. I feel like Moses complaining to the burning bush that I'm not a well spoken person...I am after all the church's "facilities caretaker" or janitor, not one of the pastors or ministry leaders. However, your work has given me the confidence to lead the class, understand where people's questions come from, and have an answer for them.

If the class continues in such a positive way, I will suggest starting a Reasonable Faith chapter locally, and I'm about a quarter of the way through the Reasonable Faith study guide. (I have a lot more time to listen than to write)

The whole point I am trying to make is to say "thank you". Although I suppose I should just say it: thank you. Your work has been a help, not only on the international scale, but also on the local scale in New York.

-Mikel

Featured Testimonial - November 2012
I wanted to take a moment to give a very sincere thank you to Dr. Craig and the entire staff at Reasonable Faith. Dr. Craig's lectures, essays and books have literally saved my life. I'm a 50 year old man, with a wonderful wife, kids, cat, good job, and nice house. Until recently I would have considered myself an atheist, maybe an agnostic at best on a good day. My life was I am not afraid to say, miserable. Every day it was a chore to get up, get through work and face another night in which I believed that the only accomplishment I made that day was to get one step closer to death and nothingness. It was an extremely long, depressing time for me.

My friends started to notice how much more depressed and grumpy I had become and would often try to talk to me about it. I think my wife had just gotten used to it. Finally one day a Christian friend recommended I try attending a church service with him. I reluctantly attended and after my first visit thought to myself that it wasn't really that bad. I was expecting money grubbing, "you're going to burn in hell" types of people. But it was so much different than that. They could have cared less if I gave them even a penny and their friendliness and compassion was unbelievable. I decided to keep attending and eventually it occurred to me that I was enjoying it. I felt as if a heavy weight was being removed from my shoulders.

I started reading the bible and other historical documents and books by theologians. My research on the internet seemed never ending. There is so much information available. But...that is also what almost caused what I'll call a relapse back to atheism. When you search for phrases like "proof that God exists", or "is there life after death", you very quickly find out that atheists have found a haven on the internet. Many of the search results would bring me to an atheist website. Try as I might to simply ignore those sites, I found myself reading them. As I read them I felt the same dread come over me, the same miserable feelings, the same depression, that weight slowly being piled back on my shoulders.

Eventually it occurred to me that the reason I was feeling this way is because much of what you read on an atheist website comes directly or indirectly from some of the militant atheist scientists in the world. Most atheists are parrots for the more prominent atheists, scientists who believe that God and science are mutually exclusive of each other. They think if you believe in what science proves then you cannot believe in God. These scientists are extremely smart people. They have to be to do the work they do. But typically whatever they say I could never hope to dispute because I simply don't have the training they have. I am an engineer by trade, but my training is not in any field in which I could ever hope to debate or dispute what someone like Richard Dawkins might write or say. So it became very clear that what I needed to find was someone that could dispute and debate what the scientists say. I needed to find that person and find out what his/her thoughts were.

That's when I found Reasonable Faith. Finding your website has quite literally saved my life. As I started listening to some of Dr. Craig's podcasts I found myself actually crying I was so happy. Here was the answer to my prayers - someone that has the training and knowledge to speak to the atheist's claims, someone that can debate them with facts and proof and call them out on statements they make that the average person might not think to question. Once again, the weight is gone from my shoulders and I'm feeling better than I have in probably 30 years. I feel as if I have a reason to live now as if my life has purpose and meaning. I'm now an official member of my church, I've just been voted to chairman of the board of trustees, I love volunteering to help people in need and I have no problems at all telling people I'm a Christian. But my greatest pleasure comes when I'm alone and can read the bible or pray for God to continue to guide me and tell him that without him I am nothing. I truly believe now that God was working on me all these years. I had gotten to the point where my depression was so bad I just had to find something that would change my life, and deep down inside I had considered suicide. God didn't want that for me. I had never even considered becoming a Christian until that one conversation with a friend, a friend who was so understanding and caring.

My wife always did believe there was a God, she was not an atheist, but she was not a "practicing Christian" either. She now attends church with me, we read the bible and pray together and our marriage is better than it has ever been.

So once again - thank you so much to Dr. Craig and the entire staff at Reasonable Faith, and thank you God for helping me find them.

-Bill

There is no way to describe how your work has revolutionized my zeal to share the gospel in a new unprecedented way using reason, science, and philosophy and for this I thank God for you and for other authors and apologists like Ravi Zacharias, Normal Geisler, among others and you are constantly in my prayers. I have never had any love whatsoever for academic approach to things(barely made it alive out of school), but then when I found that there was some way of applying your apologetic principles and combining it with the 4 spiritual laws for example, that this would create such a hook for everyday people to pay attention to the gospel because it would give them such a scientific view of God and realize how real He is using scientific and philosophical approaches tied with the Scriptures. I have witnessed this when I shared the gospel to a couple but gave an introduction on who God is in terms of the cosmological argument and they accepted Christ there and then! Truly this is a testament to the parable of seed and sower where Christ mentioned other types of not-so-good soil which may be tilled with apologetics! I have presented the 5 arguments for the existence of God and these have changed the lives of many people around me! I am now formulating my ministry plan of bringing apologetics to the streets and working my way through your study guides as requirement for putting together a chapter from where I am. I wish to establish a Q&A forum and finding ways to present the gospel to the workplace, coffeshops and the urban workplace. I have RF and On Guard on my Kindle and hopefully despite the fulltime secular job and school work I will be able to finish these questionnaires. I am in school taking my Masters in Divinity and I am looking forward to taking either masters in Philosophy or Apologetics when I finish.

-Don