One of the other software engineers at work is always finding interesting sermons and lectures to listen to. On Friday afternoon, things were a bit slow, so she messaged me a lecture featuring Dr. William Lane Craig, talking on “Who Was Jesus?” at Columbia University. I wanted to encourage her, so I put it on to listen as well. I liked it so much, I wrote out a summary below to go with it.

Here is the lecture:

Description:

Dr. William Lane Craig unpacks questions surrounding Jesus’ resurrection and the historical accuracy of the biblical claims.  Columbia University, 2009.

And my outline:

Different views of Jesus:

• Jewish view of Jesus
• Muslim view of Jesus
• skeptical historian view of Jesus
• what did Jesus think about himself?
• Jesus didn’t write anything of his own
• best sources are the records of Jesus followers
• problem: how do we know these records are accurate
• maybe stories of Jesus’ divinity emerged over time

New tools from the Renaissance:

• historiography
• textual criticism
• investigate Jesus as a historical figure
• same tools are used for other historical figures

Sources:

• Christian
• Jewish
• Roman
• Many more sources than other figures of antiquity

External sources:

• confirm what the gospels say, but don’t say anything new

Treating the Bible as a collection of ancient documents

• not using the Bible to prove the Bible is divine
• just treating the books as historical documents

New Testament

• a collection of the earliest documents
• much later documents about Jesus not included
• later documents not written by eyewitnesses

Skeptical scholars:

• ignore the earliest sources
• focus on the later sources
• result is a more radical left-friendly Jesus

Burden of proof

• are the gospels assumed reliable until proven unreliable?
• are the gospels assumed unreliable until proven reliable?

Five reasons to assume the New Testament is reliable

1. Insufficient time for legendary influences to erase the historical core

• the gap between the events and the sources is much shorter than other comparable sources
• Greek and Roman sources are at least 1-2 generations from the events they record
• Gospels written down and circulated within first generation after the events they record
• the eyewitnesses were alive at the time they were written down

2. Gospels are not the same genre as folk tales or urban legends

• Gospels talk about real people who actually lived
• Gospels talk about real places excavated by archaeologists

3. Oral tradition in first century Jewish society

• Jewish culture valued reliable transmission of religious tradition
• Memorization of long passages and entire books

4. Restraints on the embellishment of traditions about Jesus

• The apostles and other eyewitnesses could correct embellishments

5. Gospel writers make testable statements that are found to be true

• Luke is the author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts
• In Acts, Luke accompanies with the eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus
• Acts contains many historical details accurate to the times and places he writes about
• Luke’s gospel is in accord with archaeological discoveries made since

It’s reasonable to accept the general reliability of the Gospels, unless they are found unreliable

Historical basis for facets of Jesus

1. Unique Son of God

• historical critics claim that the divinity of Jesus developed over time
• why would monotheistic Jews contradict their monotheism by inventing a divine Jesus?
• the only reasonsable answer is that Jesus claimed divinity for himself
• His followers accepted it because Jesus provided reasons to believe
• Mark 12:1-8
  Earliest gospel reveals Jesus’ self-understanding as God’s “only beloved son”
• Matthew 11:27
  “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” This story is also in Luke. Source is “Q”, an early set of traditions common to Matthew and Luke
• Mark 13:32
  Jesus sees himself as above humans and angels, but subordinate to God the Father

Why would anyone take Jesus seriously, unless he was able to provide evidence?

2. Jesus’ miracles

• Jesus’ miracle stories are in all four sources
• The only reason to reject them is because of a philosophical bias against the supernatural

3. Trial and crucifixion

• Crucifixion narrative is in the Gospels, Paul’s letters, Acts
• Also confirmed by Josephus and Roman historians
• Historians across the ideological spectrum affirm the crucifixion

Why was Jesus crucified?

• Doesn’t fit with the skeptical view that Jesus was uncontroversial and had few followers

4. Jesus’ resurrection

• Jesus resurrection is the best explanation for historical facts accepted by diverse majority of historians

1. Burial location known to friends and enemies, and corpse would refute the resurrection
2. Tomb was found empty by a group of Jesus’ women followers
3. Post-mortem appearances to individuals and groups, friends, skeptics and enemies
4. Original disciples became convinced that Jesus rose from dead counter to their own interests

• The facts are accepted by a majority of scholars across the ideological spectrum
• Dr. Craig’s debate with a scholar who invented an unknown, identical twin brother who was separated from Jesus at birth
• Jewish historian Pinchas Lapide affirms the resurrection of Jesus as a historical event

Then there is a period of question and answer, which I did not find useful, because the questions seemed to be more about the needs and feelings of Christians, rather than about the facts presented by Dr. Craig, or about how these facts survive in debates on university campuses. Facts don’t care about your feelings.

It never hurts to listen to William Lane Craig. If you listen enough, you can remember his points when you get the opportunity. In college, all of my friends at Crusade could do his opening speech from his debates on God’s existence from memory.

Welcome to episode 35 of the Knight and Rose podcast! In this episode, Wintery Knight and Desert Rose continue our discussion on how to choose a worldview. We discuss the predictions and prophecies of different traditions, and whether they were correct. If you like this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We would appreciate it if you left us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Podcast description:

Christian apologists Wintery Knight and Desert Rose discuss apologetics, policy, culture, relationships, and more. Each episode equips you with evidence you can use to boldly engage anyone, anywhere. We train our listeners to become Christian secret agents. Action and adventure guaranteed. 30-45 minutes per episode. New episode every week.

Episode 35:

Episode  Summary:

Wintery Knight and Desert Rose continue their discussion about whether all religions are equally valid paths to God. In this episode, we look at what different worldviews have predicted about the future. We don’t just focus on the prophecies of various religious, but also look at the predictions of secular, non-religious people. We’ve decided to expand this series to five parts, so this episode is the third in a five-part series.

Speaker biographies

Wintery Knight is a black legal immigrant. He is a senior software engineer by day, and an amateur Christian apologist by night. He has been blogging at winteryknight.com since January of 2009, covering news, policy and Christian worldview issues.

Desert Rose did her undergraduate degree in public policy, and then worked for a conservative Washington lobbyist organization. She also has a graduate degree from a prestigious evangelical seminary. She is active in Christian apologetics as a speaker, author, and teacher.

Notes

Early on in the episode, Rose mentions how Muslims present prophecies in the Quran to non-Christians as evidence. She meant to say non-Muslims.

References

• Jehovah’s Witnesses and their many false prophecies
• Does the Koran contain any fulfilled prophecies?
• Human Manifesto I – American Humanist Association
• Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us

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Music attribution:

Strength Of The Titans by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5744-strength-of-the-titans
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

A few people have asked me about my policy of preferring candidates for wife and mother who have earned STEM degree(s). In this post, I’ll explain 5 goals for my marriage. Then I’ll explain 6 reasons why a STEM degree helps me to execute that plan. Then I’ll answer 3 objections to the STEM degree requirement. Then I’ll explain the relevance of STEM for a woman’s marriage roles.

What is STEM?

So, to start, STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. A STEM degree is a degree in a STEM field. This includes things like petroleum engineering, bioinformatics, and computer science. But it also includes things like economics, accounting and business. Basically, anything with math that involves solving problems in the real world. Anything that encourages logical reasoning and using evidence to sustain an argument.

My goals for marriage

So, here are my goals for marriage:

• influence the church with apologetics
• influence the university campus (students and professors) with apologetics
• be involved in politics, advocate for conservative policy
• open the house to students and neighbors to teach apologetics and demonstrate a loving marriage
• raise 3-4 financially independent and influential children

Everything I want in a wife is related to this plan. I evaluate women according to these goals, because I want my marriage to make a difference for Christ and His Kingdom. I’m flexible on plans and requirements, so long as the proposed changes result in a greater impact for Christ and His Kingdom.

How a STEM degree relates to marriage

The plan is for my wife to earn a STEM degree, marry me, and work full-time until the first child is born. Then, she stops working and becomes a stay at home mom. She could return to work after the each child reaches 5 years old. My preference is that she not return to work, but instead homeschool the children, or at least monitor their education in private evangelical Christian schools as a stay-at-home mother.

So, how does a woman’s having a STEM degree help me to achieve my marriage plan goals?

Here are 6 ways:

1. STEM equips her to homeschool influential and effective children. A wife who has completed high school and college courses in math, science, engineering and/or technology will know how to either homeschool our kids, or monitor their homework and grades so they achieve good academic results. Think of how Asian families raise high-performing children. I want that.

2. STEM teaches her to produce results in the real world, e.g. – working code that solves a problem, lab results, bridges that support a load, etc. In the lab, decisions cannot be made based on feelings or peer approval. The lab doesn’t respect horoscopes, devotions, romance novels, essentual oils, romantic comedies, “The Secret” or “The Law of Attraction”.

3. STEM equips her to argue apologetics from her experience of using reason, evidence, reality-based testing. All Christians need to know how to defend their core beliefs (God exists, etc.) to non-Christians. That means doing what works. And what works is logical argumentation supported by evidence. The best kind of evidence is scientific evidence. Then historical evidence. Confidence comes from competence at practical, real-world disciplines.

4. STEM degrees are a path to high paying jobs. Women who are debt-free are better to marry, because they don’t delay the process of buying a house and having children. Any kind of debt has to be paid off first. I’m not looking for a big spender, I’m looking for someone who can earn and save. The more children we can afford to have, the bigger our influence will be. Also, women who choose STEM demonstrate that they can delay gratification, and not be a slave to FOMO, YOLO, “living in the moment”, etc.

5. STEM equips women to find work easily, so she doesn’t feel pressured to accept a bad marriage proposal. She can move out and start saving money. She can buy apologetics books, lectures and debates. She can buy books on economics, marriage and parenting. She can prepare herself to attract the right man, and she can evaluate men to see if they are prepared for marriage.

6. Both the STEM departments AND the STEM workplaces less likely to be woke than non-STEM departments and workplaces. She will be able to hold to her convictions more easily in an environment where results matter more than having the “right” (left) opinions.

Objections to preferring a wife with a STEM degree

1. A woman with a STEM degree will not want to quit her job and become a stay at home mom during the critical period from birth to age 2, or even better, age 5.

2. A woman who takes years off for child-bearing and early childhood years will not be able to resume her job at the same level of pay.

3. Even in STEM departments, a woman will be exposed to an environment with secular left indoctrination, drunkenness and promiscuity. She is unlikely to come out of college as a virgin.

Responses to objections to the STEM requirement

Points 1) and 2) apply to every kind of degree, not just STEM. Any woman who does 4 years of college in any field will be “wasting” it if she stops working. First, in my plan, her education is to equip her to educate her children, because I trust her more than any teacher or stranger to do that important job. Teachers are not paid to produce results – they are unionized, and not paid based on performance. Second, even women with STEM degrees would generally prefer to work part-time or not at all. They want to stay with their young children. Third, we don’t need the money. That’s why I suffered through my BS and MS to earn 6 figures and have a 7 figure net worth. We don’t need her to work.

For point 3), I’m not saying that EVERY woman who graduates with a STEM degree is perfect for marriage. I’m saying that a STEM degree helps to have a marriage that is influential for Christ and His Kingdom. I’m open to other majors, so long as they address the concerns and goals I specified. I’m even open to a different plan. But the overriding concern is that the marriage count for something for the Boss. Even with a STEM degree, the man still has to ask the woman questions about politics and parenting. He still has to evaluate her sobriety, chastity and frugality. A STEM degree is just a starting point.

The difference STEM makes for apologetics

I think it’s obvious that having a wife who has taken courses and even worked a few years before the first child arrives helps her to be able to educate her kids and / or monitor their performance. But it also allows her use apologetics more persuasively on the university campus, in the church, and if we open up the home to college students and neighbors for movies / meals / discussions.

For example, take the fine-tuning argument. A knowledge of physics and chemistry helps you to explain why changing the fundamental forces results in a universe that does not support complex, embodied life. A knowledge of probability theory (e.g. – product rule) helps you to argue for intelligent design in the origin of life. And what about logic? Even in computer science, we had to study symbolic logic, the rules of inference, conditional proofs, Bayes’ Theorem, etc.

My wife’s job is to make the big picture of education clear to the kids, so they know what they can do in the real-world with what they are learning. So many Christians underperformed in school because they didn’t know the relevance of what they were learning for the task of defending their Christian worldviews. My wife’s job is to know how the material being taught relates to real-world goals, like defending Christianity. This is how parents produce children who grow up to be William Lane Craig, Stephen C. Meyer, Luke Barnes or Michael Licona. Boldness comes from knowledge.

Conclusion

First, I hope this post convinces women to start planning for their marriages early. You need to know things that matter for two reasons: 1) to attract a quality man, 2) to evaluate men and filter out the good ones. That means you need to know things like apologetics, politics, etc. Having money helps to buy learning material.

Second, I hope this post convinces men to stop choosing women based on youth and beauty. Your choice of wife will have a huge effect on your influence. Choose a capable, competent partner who complements your strengths with different strengths. Men spend their days in the workplace, where we cannot say much about religion and politics. If you marry an intelligent conservative Christian woman, she can be your voice to the university, the church, and the public square. Not to mention raising effective children. Therefore, choose wisely.

Acknowledgements

My wise friend Laura helped me with this post. Please check out her 10-part series for women on how to choose a husband.