William Lane Craig - On Guard: defending your faith with reason and precision

What people are saying about

On Guard
and
William Lane Craig

In these pages, youll learn the most compelling arguments in favor of Christianity. Not only that, but youll also find out how to respond to the most popular objections to those arguments. Youll discover that On Guard is solidly factual, winsomely personal, consistently practical, and ultimately convincing in its presentation of the case for Christianity.

Lee Strobel, former skeptic and author of The Case for Christ and The Case for the Real Jesus

There is probably no greater defender of the Christian faith alive today than William Lane Craig. On Guard is Craigs introduction to the wealth of information, logic, and evidence that powerfully point to the truth of our Christian beliefs. Read it to deepen your own faith and to embolden your confidence in sharing that faith with others.

Mark Mittelberg, author of Faith Path, Choosing Your Faith, and coauthor of The Unexpected Adventure

On Guard is an excellent summation of how the Christian faith makes sense of the real world in which we all live. Speaking the truth in love, once again William Lane Craig proves we dont have to be abrasive to be persuasive.

Jim Thomas, pastor at the Village Chapel, Nashville, and author of Coffeehouse Theology and Streetwise Spirituality

William Lane Craig is arguably one of the finest Christian philosophers of our time. His knowledge and skill have placed him on platforms on every continent, engaging the most notable skeptics in dialogue and debate.

Ravi Zacharias, founder and chairman of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries

It is hard to overstate the impact that William Lane Craig has had for the cause of Christ. He is simply the finest Christian apologist of the last half century, and his academic work justifies ranking him among the top 1 percent of practicing philosophers in the Western world. Besides that, he is a winsome ambassador for Christ, an exceptional debater, and a man with the heart of an evangelist. I know him well and can say that he lives a life of integrity and lives out what he believes. I do not know of a single thinker who has done more to raise the bar of Christian scholarship in our generation than Craig. He is one of a kind and I thank God for his life and work.

J. P. Moreland, distinguished professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology

ON GUARD

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Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked RSV are taken from the Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971], Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved; NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved; ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version . Copyright 2000; 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved; NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation , copyright 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust; NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible , 1960, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation; KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. (Public Domain.) All versions used by permission. The author has added italics to Scripture quotations for emphasis.

LCCN 2009943352

ISBN 978-1-4347-6488-1

eISBN 978-1-4347-0188-6

2010 William Lane Craig

Some material adapted from Reasonable Faith , third edition, by William Lane Craig 2008. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.

The cartoon by Mary Chambers in chapter one is reprinted with the artists permission.

The Team: Brian Thomasson, Karen Lee-Thorp, Jaci Schneider, and Karen Athen

Cover Design: Amy Kiechlin

Cover Photos: iStockphotos, royalty-free

Interior Portraits: Dan Schultz

Interior Sketches: Luke Flowers

First Edition 2010

To the Defenders

Contents

Foreword

by Lee Strobel

William Lane Craig is, in my opinion, among the very best defenders of Christianity in this generation. With doctorates in philosophy and theology, a sharp and incisive mind, and the passionate heart of an evangelist, Bill travels the globe debating some of the most ardent and articulate atheists. Invariably, their arguments against God wither in the face of Bills affirmative evidence for the existence of a Creator and the truth of the Christian faith.

For example, in 2009 Bill debated Christopher Hitchens, author of the best seller God Is Not Great and one of the so-called four horsemen of the new atheism. Bill built an impressive case for the existence of Goda case that Hitchens absolutely failed to refutewhile at the same time artfully exposing Hitchens empty rhetoric. What was the result? Well, heres how an atheist commentator summed up the event: Frankly, Craig spanked Hitchens like a foolish child.

I first met Bill several years ago when a friend of mine, who was the national spokesman for American Atheists, Inc., said to me, Wouldnt it be great if we could lay out the case for atheism and your side could lay out the case for Christianity, and we could just let the audience decide for themselves?

I jumped at the opportunity. You go out and find the strongest defender of atheism you canyour best and brightest, I said. Well go out and get a top-notch proponent of Christianity, and well have an intellectual shoot-out!

The atheists chose Frank Zindler, a colleague of renowned atheist Madalyn Murray OHair and a former professor of geology and biology. We chose Bill Craig to present the Christian case.

The news mediaamazed that a church was unafraid to confront the toughest objections by skepticswas quickly abuzz. Soon I began getting calls from radio stations across the country. Can we broadcast this debate live? they would ask. Uh, sure, Id say. To our astonishment, pretty soon we had 117 stations from coast to coast.

On the night of the debate, traffic became gridlocked around the church. When we opened the doors, people ran down the aisles to get a seat. When is the last time you saw people run into a church? In all, 7,778 people showed up for the event. The atmosphere was electric!

Bill began by spelling out five powerful arguments for God and Christianity. First, the beginning of the universe clearly points toward a Creator (Whatever begins to exist has a cause; the universe began to exist; therefore, the universe has a cause). Second, the universes incredible fine-tuning defies coincidence and exhibits the handiwork of an intelligent designer. Third, our objective moral values are evidence that there is a God, since only He could establish a universal standard of right and wrong. Fourth, the historical evidence for the resurrectionincluding the empty tomb, eyewitness accounts, and the origin of the Christian faithestablish the divinity of Jesus. And, fifth, God can be immediately known and experienced by those who seek Him.