A Resurrection Is The Best Explanation of the Facts

Dr. William Lane Craig, is a theologian and scholar who has spent decades carefully examining theological issues, in particular, the resurrection of Jesus. Dr. Craig states these four facts “are widely accepted by New Testament scholars today.”

Fact number 1: After his crucifixion, Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea in the tomb.

Fact number 2: On the Sunday following the crucifixion, Jesus’ tomb was found empty by a group of his women followers.

Fact number 3: On multiple occasions and under various circumstances, different individuals and groups of people experienced appearances of Jesus alive from the dead.

And… Fact number 4: The original disciples believed that Jesus was risen from the dead despite their having every reason not to.

There are many more things which could be said in support of each of these four statements but a great question to consider in light of these truths would be this: What is the best explanation of these facts?

If you are my friend on social media you already know my position on the matter, but I will state it here, anyhow: the best explanation for these four facts is that God, the Father, raised Jesus from the dead.

You say, “Yeah, but if you believe that explanation it means you have to believe a miracle occurred.”

That’s true. But it’s okay. He’s God. He is capable of performing miracles. In fact, what we consider miraculous is actually simple and natural to Almighty God.

“He isn't here! [The tomb.] He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen.”

Matthew 28:6

Fine-Tuning Indicates Something Important About Human Life

The vast size and intricacy of the universe does not diminish the importance of life here on earth.  Actually, the fact that our incredible universe is precisely fine-tuned in such a way as to permit life here on earth indicates something quite meaningful and important about life on earth. 

“That the entire universe should thus be so designed as to culminate in man as its most marvelous creation is highly suggestive of some special care of the Creator for human creatures in particular.” William Lane Craig

An Awesome God Who Is Worthy of Worship

There is a theological concept which suggests that since God is omniscient (knows everything) He, therefore, knows every possible alternative that would have happened if different decisions were made or if different events occurred.  In other words “God possesses hypothetical knowledge of conditional future contingents.” (William Lane Craig)

Did you catch that?  It’s pretty fancy:  “Hypothetical knowledge of conditional future contingents.”

Theologian/philosopher William Lane Craig points out, “Such hypothetical knowledge is knowledge of what philosophers call ‘counterfactual conditionals’…”

So, when we entertain ourselves with questions like, “I wonder what would have happened if I would have gone into the military instead of going to college after high school?” we are, of course, pondering a matter that we could never possibly know with any certainty.  Think of the countless ramifications on our own lives and the lives of multitudes of other people that such a change would cause.  It’s a staggering idea.

However, God’s knowledge of counterfactual conditionals means that He actually knows in every detail exactly how that change would affect every aspect of the future.  It is knowledge of what did not actually happen but what would have happened IF…

I’m not bringing this up to bore everyone.  (Even though I find it interesting.)  I’m bringing it up because it helps me think about God’s incredible omniscience in a way that makes me stand, once again, in awe of Him.  This kind of knowledge of all things and all possible things is hard to wrap our heads around. 

To say that it is astonishing is a vast understatement.

To say that this God deserves our worship is true.

An Intellectual Journey

In my early adult life I began to wonder about God and Christianity.  And I began to ask myself questions along these lines:

Is this Christian faith—that I say I believe—something I really do believe?  Or, is it something I’ve just accepted because it is what my parents have handed to me?

Can the Christian faith hold up to hard questions and intellectual scrutiny?  Or, is it simply a blind leap in the dark?

This began a process that has prompted much thinking, questioning, searching, self-reflection and study.  I am not a brilliant person.  But I have enough intellectual capability to think and reason and investigate.  And this has led me to discover and read authors such as:  Paul Little, Ravi Zacharias, G.K. Chesterton, Josh McDowell, Philip Johnson, William Lane Craig, C.S. Lewis, James Sire, Norman Geisler, Frances Schaeffer, Os Guinness, J.P. Moreland, Charles Colson, Paul Copan, N.T. Wright, Lee Strobel and many others.

I have discovered that the Christian faith has an incredibly deep and rich intellectual heritage.  It turns out the hard questions have actually been asked and wrestled with for a long time.  In fact, I found that questions I would have never even thought to ask have been grappled with for many centuries.

Have all my questions been answered?  No!

But I realize, now, that no worldview, philosophy, or scientific approach can answer all the questions.  There are simply things we do not know.

It’s almost like “life” says to all of us, “There are things you don’t get to know.  Get used to it!”

Do I still have faith in Christ at this point in the process?  Yes.  I still believe.  My heart still tells me that He is the way, the truth and life.  I cannot walk away from that conviction.  This may sound strange to those who do not share my convictions, but the truth of Jesus seems as true to me as the fact that I breathe.  But now my intellect is satisfied that it is a reasonable faith based on truth that is supported by credible evidence.

Dan Marler

Oak Lawn, IL

E-Flash From Dan, September 8, 2011

Dear E-Flash Friends;

“…[If] God does not exist, then life is objectively meaningless…” – Theologian & Philosopher, William Lane Craig

“‘Everything is meaningless,’ says the Teacher, ‘completely meaningless!’” – Solomon, Ecclesiastes 1:2

Hmm, what do you think?  Does life really have objective meaning and value?  That is one of the key questions we will be addressing in the new series we begin this Sunday, September 11, 2011, services 9am and 11am.  It’s our Fall Kick Off and our new series title is:  The Meaning of Life.  We’ll be studying highlights of the biblical book of Ecclesiastes. 

Ecclesiastes is, among other things, a study on the meaning life.  It was written by Solomon.  The Bible calls Solomon the wisest man who ever lived (that doesn’t include Jesus).  Solomon was also loaded.  By that I mean really, really, reallllllllly rich.  So, he had the practical savvy and intelligence along with the financial resources to make a very thorough investigation of this critical question in life.

I’m excited and I sure hope you are planning to be here on Sunday.  We’ll spend our time together worshiping God and learning from His word.  It’s going to be fun, exciting, interesting, helpful, inspirational, really irritating and meaningful!

(I’m kidding about it being “really irritating” …just wanted to see if you were still paying attention.)

There’s still time to invite someone to the services.  Would you take a risk and extend an invitation?

I have been praying for our Kick-Off Sunday and for this whole series.  I am expecting God to do good things.  I hope you are, too!

Love and blessings,

Dan

We Need God For Life To Have True Objective "Meaning"

If we lived forever, but there was no God, life would still ultimately be absurd and meaningless. In fact, at a certain point, it would probably seem intolerable for most people. Philosopher William Lane Craig says, “…[I]t’s not just immortality man needs if life is to be ultimately significant; he needs God and immortality.  And if God does not exist, then he has neither.” 

Review of: "On Guard"

When a world class philosopher writes a book, you would think the approach to the book would involve sound logic.  Right?  Well, that is the case with “On Guard” by William Lane Craig.  “On Guard” is a well reasoned approach to apologetics.

The material is presented in such a way that each subject lays the foundation for the next subject, moving from the existence of God to a more specific case for Christianity, and concluding with a relevant question in our culture:  "Is Jesus the Only Way to God?”  And, of course, in each subject the position which Dr. Craig defends is supported with sound, convincing, helpful, logical arguments.

William Lane Craig is a terrific communicator and he is able to write about deep subject matter in an understandable and, even, interesting manner.  This is an outstanding skill and it is not one that all Christian apologetic writers possess.  (Believe me, I’ve fallen into comatose states while reading many of these types of books.  In fact, I got a little sleepy just writing that sentence.)  “On Guard” is written with a lay audience in mind, but don’t take that to mean that it is unchallenging.  There is helpful material in this book even for those who’ve done a good bit of reading in the field of apologetics. 

“On Guard” is more personal than most of Dr. Craig’s works that are intended for a more scholarly audience and he includes what he calls a “Personal Interlude” a couple of times in the course of the book.  I found the personal interludes to be interesting. 

(But then again, I’m one of Dr. Craig’s close personal friends…on Facebook, so perhaps that’s my just my bias showing.)

One of the endorsements for the book comes from J.P. Moreland (who’s a pretty sharp thinker, himself) and he writes that Dr. Craig, “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.”  Pretty good.

The Bible says:  “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” 1Peter3:15.  If you take that challenge seriously, then this book would be well worth your time.

Review of "Passionate Conviction"

"Passionate Conviction" is a collection of essays gathered from several Christian apologetics conferences which were held by the Evangelical Philosophical Society, “the largest society of Christian philosophers in the world”. Counting the president of the society, their membership is now up to three.

That’s a joke. Relax. Actually, there are a significant number of Christian philosophers.

The book is divided into six parts with each part containing at least two essays:

Part 1, Why Apologetics?
Part 2, God (which includes arguments for His existence)
Part 3, Jesus
Part 4, Comparative Religions
Part 5, Postmodernism and Relativism
Part 6, Practical Application

It is a good and helpful book, although, it is typical of books on apologetics in that the writing can be a little dry. In fact, if you will quickly fan the pages of the book you will actually get a little poof of dust. (I know, the jokes are getting worse as we go along, but I’m amusing myself, slightly.)

My favorite chapters were:

In Intellectual Neutral, by William Lane Craig. Craig argues for the importance of deep thinking and study—in other words, “the intellectual life”—to the life of faith. He quotes J. Gresham Machen, “The church is perishing to-day through the lack of thinking, not through an excess of it.”

Living Smart, by J.P. Moreland. This deals with “integration” which has to do with unifying areas of our lives that involve diversity and yet, are part of the whole of who we are and what we believe as followers of Christ.

Christ in the New Age, by L. Russ Bush. It’s interesting how many really old ideas have become part of what is now considered to be “New Age” thinking. It’s also interesting to see how effectively New Age thinking has penetrated and influenced American culture; including the Christian church.

Reflections on McLaren and the Emerging Church, by R. Scott Smith. I found this chapter interesting because I find the “Emerging Church” movement to be interesting. I’m somewhat fascinated by what “catches on” and captures the thinking of a group of people. By the way, for a very helpful book on the subject of the Emerging Church, check out “Why We’re Not Emergent”, DeYoung and Kluck.

Dan Marler