William Lane Craig
Bill Craig’s a specialist in debating Muslims, and he does it at the universities in many Muslim countries, too, for their professors and grad students. Well, he just did one in South Africa, and now I’ve got the podcast of his after-action report. The debate was held in front of about 1000 people. The topic was “Identifying Jesus: Was he man, or both man and God?”.
Details:
- who was Craig’s opponent?
- why did they decide on that topic?
- what sayings of Jesus, that are widely regarded as authentic, imply his divinity?
- how the resurrection confirms Jesus’ radical claims to be God stepping into history
- Craig’s response to the argument that the gospels are myth not history
- explain the incarnation – the idea that God the Son has two natures – using “Avatar”
I’ll be updating this post with details as I listen to it a second time, but the main thing is how he describes the audience of South African Muslims. People in the West keep thinking that the way to make Muslims like us is by caving in to their demands. But that is baloney. I used to dialog with Muslims in my undergrad years, and what they respect is convictions, courage and strength. They despise people who try to appease them by arguing for some sort of both-and pluralism. If we want to have any hope of dealing with Muslims, we need to stand up for the exclusive claims of Christianity.
Frank Turek
I also listened to Frank Turek’s latest episode of the Cross Examined radio show, and he had an ex-Muslim convert to Christianity on for the first 10 minutes and he was explaining what the Quran really says, as well as the Muslim doctrine of abrogation, which requires that the earlier peaceful verses be overridden by the later warlike verses.
The rest of the podcast is on same-sex marriage. He goes over a bunch of false facts from the Judge Walker decision.
Your Friday night listening is now all set.
WINTERY KNIGHT 
I’m a fairly new reader of your blog. I love your synopses of these debates, talks, and interviews. I find it helpful it prioritizing what I listen to (though I’ve already got WLC podcasted on my PC).
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I was in the audience at this debate. My assessment of the muslims at the debate is that they saw it as a contest between their hero and the Christians’ hero. A couple of them even came with placards, as one would at a sports match. They cheered for things their hero said, and grumbled when he was criticised for his approach. They did listen intently to what WLC had to say and were eager to ask questions. They saw him as one would see the captain of the opposing team. But I do think they respected him for taking up the debate intelligently.
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Was also at the debat. this was one of the best debates i have seen in years. During the question & answers session, however i felt Craig came out second best as Ismail clearly thinks faster on his feet. there were some in the audience who were disappointed with Craig’s performance and some who even felt that he lost the debate. Nevertheless, the atmosphere was electrifying, the audience were on the edge of their seats and a standing ovation was given at the end when both Craig and Ismail warmly embraced each other
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Yes, I also spoke to some who felt that Craig lost the debate. However, I think they misunderstand correct debate technique. Ismail was throwing out objections all over the place and they wanted Craig to respond to each of these. However, Craig intentionally chose undisputed evidence from agreed sources. Once these are agreed on, the rest can be accepted by induction. Ismail was unable to refute these and so he resorted to distraction and an aggressive stance towards Craig himself, which was enough to impress the crowd. (You should have seen the visuals…) It’s a great pity that more people couldn’t recognize this.
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Oh but of course you DID see the visuals. ;-) Theatricality at its finest…
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I agree. His visuals and powerpoint were awesome and theatrically captivating. doesn’t mean his facts were true. nevertheless Ismail must have been one of the toughest opponents Craig has come up against. Even if one were to look at the classics with John Dominic Crossan and Gerd Ludemann, this debate has to be right up there. I really enjoyed it after seeing it again on youtube.
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