Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics

418 Pages·2008·2.03 MB·English

by  William Lane Craig

Reasonable Faith
Christian Truth
Apologetics
and
THIRD EDITION
WILLIAM LANE CRAIG
“It is hard to overstate the impact that William Lane Craig has had for the
cause of Christ. He is simply the finest Christian apologist of the last half
century, and his academic work justifies ranking him among the top 1 percent
of practicing philosophers in the Western world. Besides that, he is a winsome
ambassador for Christ, an exceptional debater, and a man with the heart of
an evangelist. I know him well and can say that he lives a life of integrity and
lives out what he believes. I do not know of a single thinker who has done
more to raise the bar of Christian scholarship in our generation than Craig.
He is one of a kind, and I thank God for his life and work.”
—J. P. Moreland, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy,
Talbot School of Theology
“In admirably clear prose, Professor Craig presents important philosophical
and historical issues relevant to Christian beliefs. With extraordinary erudi-
tion, he sketches the arguments of major thinkers of both past centuries and
recent times, and he presents his own reasons for concluding that traditional
Christian doctrines about God and Jesus are credible. His replies to those
skeptical of the existence of God, of historical knowledge, of the occurrence
of miracles, and in particular of the resurrection of Jesus, take debates over
those difficult topics an important stage further. Here is an admirable defense
of basic Christian faith.”
—C. Behan McCullagh, Philosophy Program, La Trobe University
“Reasonable Faith is a much-needed book for our times. It overflows with
cogent and compelling argument presented in accessible and irenic language.
University and seminary students will find this book especially helpful in
exposing the fallacies and lack of evidence in the many and various challenges
that have been leveled against historic Christian claims. Craig offers solid,
convincing argument for and evidence of the trustworthiness of the New
Testament Gospels and the ancient, credible witness of the resurrection of
Jesus from the dead. I highly recommend this book.”
—Craig A. Evans, Payzant Distinguished Professor of New Testament,
Acadia Divinity College;
author, Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels
“Although my philosophical predilections often differ from Dr. Craig’s (as
they do from those of everyone else I know), I have found that he is very
knowledgeable about science and current cosmological ideas. He provides in-
teresting insights into their implications for our shared Christian beliefs.”
—Don Nelson Page, Professor of Physics, University of Alberta
Crossway books by William Lane Craig:
Two Tasks of the Christian Scholar: Redeeming the Soul,
Redeeming the Mind (co-editor)
Hard Questions, Real Answers
Time and Eternity: Exploring God’s Relationship to Time
Reasonable Faith
Christian Truth
and Apologetics
Third Edition

WILLIAM LANE CRAIG
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Reasonable Faith: Christian Faith and Apologetics
Copyright © 1984, 1994, 2008 by William Lane Craig
Published by Crossway Books
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187
Third edition 2008
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmit-
ted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.
Edited by John S. Feinberg and Leonard Goss
First printing, revised edition, 1994
First printing 2008
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design: Amy Bristow
Scripture quotations marked esv are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001
by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights
reserved.
Scripture references marked rsv are from The Revised Standard Version. Copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971, 1973
by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Scripture quotations marked at are the author’s translation.
Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-0115-9
PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-0452-5
MobiPocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-0453-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Craig, William Lane.
Reasonable faith : Christian truth and apologetics / William Lane Craig.—3rd ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-4335-0115-9 (tpb)
1. Apologetics. I. Title.
BT1103.C74 2008
239—dc22
2007051433
VP 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Jan, my love
“Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.” (Prov. 31:29)

Contents
Table of Figures 9
Preface to the Third Edition 11
Introduction 15
Part One: De Fide
1 How Do I Know Christianity Is True? 29
Part Two: De Homine
2 The Absurdity of Life without God 65
Part Three: De Deo
3 The Existence of God (1) 93
4 The Existence of God (2) 157
Part Four: De Creatione
5 The Problem of Historical Knowledge 207
6 The Problem of Miracles 247
Part Five: De Christo
7 The Self-Understanding of Jesus 287
8 The Resurrection of Jesus 333
Conclusion: The Ultimate Apologetic 405
Index 408
7

Table of Figures
3.1 Vilenkin’s model of quantum creation 115
3.2 Conical representation of Standard Model spacetime 127
3.3 Steady State Model 128
3.4 Oscillating Model 129
3.5 Vacuum Fluctuation Models 131
3.6 Chaotic Inflationary Model 133
3.7 Quantum Gravity Model 135
3.8 Pre-Big Bang Scenario 137
3.9 Cyclic Ekpyrotic Scenario 139
3.10 Oscillating Model with entropy increase 144
3.11 Birth of a baby universe 146
3.12 Bubbles of true vacuum in a sea of false vacuum 147
4.1 A global perspective on an island universe 167
4.2 An internal perspective on an island universe 168
9