Here’s the lecture:
There are lots of interesting things in this lecture:
The total is 100 minutes long, but if you give it a listen, I’m sure you will hear something new. He actually lectures only for the first hour, and then the hosting pastor speaks for 23 minutes and then there is some Q&A with the church members until the end.
William Lane Craig is the greatest Christian debater in the history of the church, and Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong is a very liberal non-Christian.
Part 1 of 2: (61 minutes)
Part 2 of 2: (42 minutes)
The moderator is none other than the famous journalist David Aikman! The opening speeches are only 15 minutes, and the rebuttals are 10 minutes. This debate is accessible because Craig’s opponent is not really attacking him on a scholarly basis, but more as the pretty typical liberal atheist that you meet at work.
Craig spends all of his opening speech explaining historical methods, sources, dating and how he infers the resurrection as the best explanation of the minimal facts. The resurrection of Jesus is quite awesome to debate when people are given time to explain the historical methods and how the scholars use these methods to evaluate which facts are likely to be historical and which are not.
Dina sent me this article from the UK Telegraph.
Excerpt:
Israeli archaeologists have discovered a 2,700-year-old seal that bears the inscription “Bethlehem,” in what experts believe to be the oldest artefact with the name of Jesus’ traditional birthplace.
Experts state the tiny clay seal’s existence and age provide vivid evidence that Bethlehem was not just the name of a fabled biblical town, but also a bustling place of trade linked to the nearby city of Jerusalem.
Eli Shukron, the Israel Antiquities Authority’s director of excavations, said the find was significant because it is the first time the name “Bethlehem” appears outside of a biblical text from that period.
Shukron said the seal, 1.5 centimetres (0.59 inches) in diameter, dates back to the period of the first biblical Jewish Temple, between the eighth and seventh century B.C., at a time when Jewish kings reigned over the ancient kingdom of Judah and 700 years before Jesus was born.
The seal was written in ancient Hebrew script from the same time. Pottery found nearby also dated back to the same period, he said.
Shmuel Achituv, an expert in ancient scripts at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University who did not participate in the dig, said the discovery was the oldest reference to Bethlehem ever found outside of the Bible.
Apart from the seal, the other mentions of Bethlehem, Mr Achituv said, “are only in the Bible”.
There’s some good news for your Sunday!
WINTERY KNIGHT 