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William Lane Craig lectures on the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus

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Here is Dr. William Lane Craig giving a long-form argument for the historical event of the resurrection of Jesus, and taking questions from the audience.

The speaker introduction goes for 6 minutes, then Dr. Craig speaks for 35 minutes, then it’s a period of questions and answers with the audience. The total length is 93 minutes, so quite a long period of Q&A. The questions in the Q&A period are quite good.

Introduction:

  • Many people who are willing to accept God’s existence are not willing to accept the God of Christianity
  • Christians need to be ready to show that Jesus rose from the dead as a historical event
  • Private faith is fine for individuals, but when dealing with the public you have to have evidence
  • When making the case, you cannot assume that your audience accepts the Bible as inerrant
  • You must use the New Testament like any other ancient historical document
  • Most historians, Christian and not, accept the basic minimal facts supporting the resurrection of Jesus

Fact #1: the burial of Jesus following his crucifixion

  • Fact #1 is supported by the early creed found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 15)
  • Fact #1 is supported by the early Passion narrative which was a source for Mark’s gospel
  • Fact #1 passes the criterion of enemy attestation, since it praises one of the Sanhedrin
  • Fact #1 is not opposed by any competing burial narratives

Fact #2: on the Sunday following his crucifixion, Jesus’ tomb was found empty by some women

  • Fact #2 is supported by the early Passion narrative which was a source for Mark’s gospel
  • Fact #2 is implied by the early creed found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 15)
  • Fact #2 is simple and lacks legendary embellishment, which argues for an early dating
  • Fact #2 passes the criterion of embarrassment, because it has female, not male, witnesses
  • Fact #2 passes the criterion of enemy attestation, since it is reported by the Jewish leaders

Fact #3: Jesus appeared to various people in various circumstances after his death

  • Fact #3 is supported by the early creed found in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 15)
  • Fact #3 is supported by multiple, independent reports of the events from all four gospels
  • Fact #3 explains other historical facts, like the conversion of Jesus’ skeptical brother James

Fact #4: the earliest Christians proclaimed their belief in the resurrection of Jesus

  • Fact #4 explains why the earliest Christians continued to identify Jesus as the Messiah
  • Fact #4 explains why the earliest Christians were suddenly so unconcerned about being killed

Dr. Craig then asks which hypothesis explains all four of these facts. He surveys a number of naturalistic hypotheses, such as the hallucination theory or various conspiracy theories. All of these theories deny one or more of the minimal facts that have been established and accepted by the broad spectrum of historians. In order to reject the resurrection hypothesis, a skeptic would have to deny one of the four facts or propose an explanation that explains those facts better than the resurrection hypothesis.

I listened to the Q&A period while doing housekeeping and I heard lots of good questions. Dr. Craig gives very long answers to the questions. One person asked why we should trust the claim that the Jewish leaders really did say that the disciples stole the body. Another one asked why we should take the resurrection as proof that Jesus was divine. Another asks about the earthquake in Matthew, which Mike Licona and I doubt is intended to be historical, but is more likely to be apocalyptic imagery. Dr. Craig is also asked about the Jewish scholar Geza Vermes, and how many of the minimal facts he accepts. Another questioner asked about the ascension.

You can see this evidence used in an actual debate, against a historian who disagrees with Dr. Craig. That post contains a point by point summary of the debate that I wrote while listening to it.

If you are looking for a good book to read on this topic, the best introductory book on the resurrection is “The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus” and the best comprehensive book is “The Resurrection of Jesus“.

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DeSantis beats Disney’s lawsuit, while Trump loses defamation lawsuit

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This week, we had some lawsuit news. First, Donald Trump lost a defamation lawsuit to a crazy lady, and now he has to pay $83 million. You’ll remember that Ron DeSantis decided to sign legislation that protected young children from LGBT indoctrination in schools. Disney, one of the biggest corporate promoters of LGBT activism, sued him. And the lost their case.

Here’s the first story about Trump, reported by Daily Wire:

A jury found former President Donald Trump should pay writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in damages in a defamation trial that ended on Friday.

The amount awarded to Carroll is well over three times more than her legal team asked for in its closing argument – $24 million – and more than eight times the amount Carroll requested in her initial lawsuit — $10 million, according to CNN.

The jury found that Trump owed Carroll $11 million to cover the costs of a campaign to repair the harm done to her reputation and $7.3 million to address the emotional harm the 80-year-old writer sustained from remarks Trump made in 2019 about her and her accusations of rape. The jury ordered Trump to pay another $65 million in punitive damages.

Trump likes to run his mouth when he has nothing to gain for his supporters, and everything to lose. And then he gets hammered for it. He lacks discipline. He lacks self-control.

Meanwhile, DeSantis got sued by Disney, except he got sued for doing the right thing for his supporters – he passed the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, and Disney was mad.

Daily Wire reported on his win:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis beat Disney on Wednesday after a federal judge tossed the company’s lawsuit that claimed the governor retaliated against the company.

The company filed the lawsuit after DeSantis dismantled a special Disney-controlled tax district that gave them the power to govern themselves, claiming that he retaliated against them for publicly criticizing his Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, which empowers parents to make the best decisions for raising their children and protects children from being exposed to dangerous leftist gender ideologies in school.

Disney employees have been involved in a lot of disgusting situations with kids. It’s nice when someone competent goes up against them, and wins. We need a winner. Someone who knows policy and the law. Someone with self-control, who isn’t an easy target for the secular left. Someone without baggage, who has won elections as a Congressman and as Governor of Florida. Twice.

Related posts on DeSantis’ achievements

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Christians and conservatives should be careful where they bank

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I’m sure that my readers who have been following the story of what happened in Canada with the Trudeau Liberal Party and the peaceful trucker protests in Ottawa will know how much the secular left loves to freeze the bank accounts of people who challenge them. Well, you might be surprised to find out that it happens in America, too. Well, with certain banks.

My podcast partner Rose sent me this article by Jeremy Tedesco of Alliance Defending Freedom, which appeared in the Daily Wire (full text archived).

It starts by talking about a New York State case that is going before the U.S. Supreme Court:

[T]he National Rifle Association is challenging New York’s attempt to coerce banks and insurance companies to withdraw services from the group. The NRA alleges that the Department of Financial Services — at the behest of then-Governor Andrew Cuomo — used its vast power to regulate “reputational risk” along with back-channel meetings, public investigations, and threats of fines to punish the group for its Second Amendment advocacy.

What I liked about this article, but you might find it disturbing, is the list of other times when banks tried to “de-bank” Christians and conservatives:

 As Alliance Defending Freedom points out in a friend-of-the-court brief filed in support of the NRA’s position, pro-life group Heartbeat International was recently canceled by its insurance provider over its “anti-abortion” advocacy.

He linked to a whole list of de-bankings here. Some of the victims are famous, like former Republican Senator Sam Brownback! And The Ruth Institute – I’ve blogged many times about the founder of The Ruth Institute, Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse.

More from the article:

[…]Former Brexit leader Nigel Farage’s high-profile case resulted in the ouster of megabank NatWest’s CEO. Serial offender JPMorgan Chase’s hit list includes the Arkansas Family Council, Defense of Liberty, and U.S Ambassador Sam Brownback’s National Committee for Religious Freedom.

You can check how bad your bank is at this link (from the article). I was happy to see that my bank was pretty good, but I chose them after looking at their political donations on OpenSecrets.org. Mind you, I’m trying to switch over to a state-level bank right now.

But another step I took was to move to a red state, and that’s something that might help me in the future:

The solution to this problem may lie with the states. This state legislative season presents an opportunity for states interested in protecting against politicized de-banking to act. Any such law should focus on the worst actors – the largest banks and payment processors.

The conservative states are more likely to do something about this, just like you see Texas fighting back against Biden to secure the border. I can’t imagine why someone would live in a leftist state – it’s just too easy for them to persecute you there.