| Dear Friends of Reasonable Faith,
As we begin the New Year and cast one last glance back over 2020, I have to say in all honesty that despite, and even in some ways because of, the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 was a marvelous year of ministry for Reasonable Faith. As I’ve mentioned before, because we are a virtual ministry with no physical offices, our online ministries have continued unabated during the pandemic. If anything, traffic at our various sites has increased because people have been largely confined to their homes. Our YouTube views for 2020 topped 7.2 million views and our Facebook views over 12 million! We also added 44 new RF chapters this past year, bringing our total to 196, including our first chapters ever in Paraguay, Finland, Philippines, Ukraine, UAE, Germany, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Argentina. That’s just a sampling of what’s been going on!
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| Since I could no longer travel after last March due to the pandemic, I have had uninterrupted time in my home office for study and writing, which has proved to be enormously productive. I was able to bring to a close last May my forthcoming book In Quest of the Historical Adam and deliver the typescript to the publisher. This was a very significant project, both for me personally and, I believe, for the church at large, and I’m greatly anticipating the book’s publication this year.
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| 2020 was also a year of new beginnings for us at Reasonable Faith. First, in late May, after finishing my book on the historical Adam, I at last took up the most ambitious project I’ve ever undertaken: the writing of a systematic philosophical theology. To my great surprise and delight, I’ve found that because of the time I’ve had at my disposal, I’m not bogged down simply in studying for this project but have already actually begun to write! During the remainder of 2020, I wrote my Introduction (Prolegomenon) to the work, delineating the various disciplines involved in this integrative project, including systematic theology, biblical theology, historical theology, philosophical theology, fundamental theology and apologetics, and philosophy of religion. Then I wrote my first chapter on the Doctrine of Scripture (De Scriptura Sacra), exploring what Scripture teaches about itself, formulating a theory of biblical inspiration based on divine middle knowledge, and defending the rationality of belief in scriptural inspiration. Then I began work on my next chapter on Faith and Reason (De Fide), exploring the nature of faith and the rational basis for Christian faith. I hope to finish this chapter, Lord willing, by spring.
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*Not actual logo and design for the William Lane Craig Center
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| The other new beginning in 2020 was our first steps toward the establishment of an online Center for Christian Philosophy, Theology, and Apologetics, to be affiliated with an accredited Christian university or seminary. Our Board approved the allocation of funds for the development of this Center, a genuine step of faith. So far, we’ve completed a list of over 40 Master’s level course titles and descriptions, a similar list of Bachelor’s level course titles and descriptions, and over twice as many certificate course titles and descriptions. Most important, we have assigned to each course a Subject Matter Expert (SME) who will develop the online course. I contacted personally some of the best up-and-coming, young philosophers and theologians, as well as a few senior scholars, for this job, and to my utter delight almost every single one said he or she would love to do it! This represents a major step toward the realization of a curriculum. The next step is to develop a so-called “treatment” laying out the vision of the Center, along with its curriculum and SMEs, which can then be presented to various candidate universities and seminaries to see if we can find an interested institution to affiliate with. That will be proceeding later this coming spring. So, Lord willing (as always!), 2021 holds great things ahead!
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One final note of praise! I just learned today that we hit our goal of $300,000 in our fall Matching Grant Campaign! PTL! A substantial portion of the money raised will go toward funding our proposed Center’s development. Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all of you, who during this year of such difficulty, opened your wallets and gave so generously to RF! It really is humbling and remarkable.
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Wishing all of you a Happy and Fruitful New Year in the Lord’s service,
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| For Christ and His Kingdom,
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Dear Dr Craig,
I wanted to briefly write to express my thankfulness for your ministry. You have been a blessing to the my faith. I am an MD-PhD student from Melbourne, Australia. Over the last five years I have been learning Apologetics primarily through your ministry. You would be interested to know that over the last three weeks I have run an Apologetics course at my local church. The first session was on "Does God exist?", the second session was on "Objections to God's existence" and the third session on "Jesus' resurrection". I used your animated videos before explaining the content in more detail. It was received with wonder. I am so sad that Christians know so little about Apologetics. That was part of the reason why, perhaps, I was so nervous presenting. Many of the Christians I am around do not value the intellectual side of Christianity. Nonetheless your ministry helped me incredibly. I do want to ask what future animated videos you have planned? I heard you recently say you are preparing one on the Applicability of Mathematics. I would love to see one on Evolution. I feel there is a need for that. I would love to financially contribute to one of your planned animated videos, so please get in touch.
Kindest regards,
Roshan
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