Dear Friends of Reasonable Faith,
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Here in the U.S., we celebrate Thanksgiving this month, giving thanks to God for His blessings on us individually and as a nation. Jan and I are thankful for the continued good health and vitality which we enjoy and for the way the Lord has blessed the ministry of Reasonable Faith throughout the world.
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We just returned from a week of teaching at the newly re-named Houston Christian University (formerly Houston Baptist University). I taught a course on the attributes of God, using chapters of my projected systematic philosophical theology, focusing on divine incorporeality, aseity, omniscience, eternity, and omnipotence, taking one attribute per day. This was a deep dive into very challenging material! We had students both in person and online, and both groups were able to participate in the lively discussion, which was ably monitored by Cameron Bertuzzi of “Capturing Christianity.”
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The most memorable part of our trip was my participation in the Sunday morning services of a Houston church named The Story. As the name suggests, this is a very contemporary church, which emphasizes reaching out to doubters and seekers. I was interviewed in the morning services by the pastor, Eric Huffman. He is a remarkable man—in fact, I’ve never met anyone like him. He shared with us that for over a dozen years he was a pastor in a liberal church. He said that during that time, he was really an atheist. He didn’t believe anything of Christianity. All he preached on Sunday morning was social justice. Then he began to watch videos on YouTube about the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection. He encountered my debates with secular scholars and was astonished at what he saw. Gradually, his mind began to change, and he finally came to place his faith in Christ as Savior and Lord.
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Now he is a transformed man, so zealous for apologetics, especially the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus that changed his life. He told us that at The Story they take all the junior high school students through apologetics training based on my book On Guard. One of the most interesting features of our interview was his reaction to my book In Quest of the Historical Adam. He had been trained in seminary to believe that Genesis was pure myth and that no such person as Adam ever existed. So, in contrast to conservatives who decry any departure from a strict literal interpretation, he found my defense of the historicity of Adam and Eve to be tremendously encouraging and bolstering to the faith!
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During October I also did a remote interview with the students at Canford School in the UK. You may recall that a few years ago we did a UK speaking tour of British schools for high school age students. Like the other schools we visited, Canford is an elite school that we Americans would call a private school. The students there are so sharp and asked me great questions on a wide range of topics. The teacher who set up the interview later reported that the students were enthusiastic and grateful for our interaction.
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I also did an interview with Alex O’Connor for his podcast “Cosmic Sceptic” in the UK. We talked at length about the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection. He is such a nice person and seems so open to Christian truth. He even told me that he’s dropping the name “Cosmic Sceptic” in favor of a more neutral name for his podcast. A big step in the right direction!
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I also recorded a podcast with our local Reasonable Faith chapter in Dallas, Texas. Our global chapter director Tyson James reports that our number of chapters worldwide, all active, has swelled to 232. Praise the Lord! The next day I did a very interesting interview with Cameron Bertuzzi’s “Capturing Christianity” on the subject of divine omnipotence. As a result of my recent studies, I had some new insights to share into this old topic.
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As always, I keep plugging away at my systematic philosophical theology. I must say how encouraged I am at my progress! I’m working on the Doctrine of Creation and have now finished the section on creation out of nothing. This involved responding to some recent criticisms by the philosopher Erik Wielenberg. I’m currently writing an Excursus on Creation and Evolution, drawing on material from my Defenders class and In Quest of the Historical Adam.
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We keep pressing on! We wish for all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving, complete with turkey, dressing, and pumpkin pie!
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For Christ and His Kingdom,
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To Whom It May Concern:
I was hoping you could pass a message on to William Lane Craig for me. This past Easter, I became a full-fledged Christian. As I am getting more involved with the Church, people have repeatedly asked me for my conversion story. I was studying Philosophy for a Ph.D. program I had been accepted to in the UK. (Stupid COVID-19 shut down the passport office, though.) I tripped over Avicenna's Proof of the Truthful, and, by what I now attribute to the Holy Ghost, I instantly "fixed" it to accommodate modern Cosmology as far as I understand it. It ended up being pretty close to Al-Ghazali's argument. Long story short, I couldn't break the arguments, so I looked to see if anyone else had. After several months of attempting this, I found Craig's debate with Cristopher Hitchens. I had watched other debates featuring Hitch, and he pretty routinely won. The thought was that someone out there would have also discovered Avicenna and Al-Ghazali and throw it at Hitch. Enter William Lane Craig. Watching Craig wipe the floor with Hitch- seemingly without effort- is what made me realize that I, the all-knowing atheist, may actually hold the untenable position. This started me down the path of apologetics where I was constantly on the lookout for an atheist who could restore my position. I realized slowly and by degrees that the atheists' arguments were not arguments. They were opinions and emotions. People like Craig kept their cool and relied upon logic, not their preferences or emotions. I figure now the best thing I can be is useful. So, I wanted to let Craig know that he has been amazingly useful to me, and in the first few moments after his YouTube video, while I was questioning everything, I began my walk with Christ. Your recent brother in Christ,
-Liam
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