Feb 17 2024 55 mins 23
In this episode I first explain what I mean by “the best Craig” and why in my view we’re not getting that in some recent responses to my arguments. I then respond to some recent podcast episodes by Dr. William Lane Craig here and here, where Craig is not engaging with my arguments, instead dismissing me as a fringe kook who can be safely ignored.
I note how quickly he jumps from the Trinity to the Incarnation, and I challenge him to explain why, on biblical grounds, a doctrine of the Trinity is essential for Christianity. I also point out some mistakes and misunderstandings, as well as his failure to engage with my published critique of his Neo-Apollinarian christology and my views on the fourth gospel.
We again revisit what Craig calls “the modern relation of identity” (really: a modern understanding of identity) and I point out what is now an area of agreement about the concept of identity. Yet based on his recent remarks, Craig doesn’t understand what I think about the identity of God and the Father in the New Testament.
I refute his recent allegation that no New Testament scholar thinks that nowhere in the New Testament is Jesus taught to be fully divine; my counterexample is the famous and influential James Dunn. I then offer a few thoughts on his fallback objection that the vast majority of New Testament scholars would disagree.
Lastly, I respond to his brief argument from divine providence and the fourth gospel. Am I committed to God failing in his promised post-resurrection revelation?
Links for this episode:
podcast 374 – Book Session Identity Crisis – Part 3
podcast 373 – Book Session Identity Crisis – Part 2
podcast 372 – Book Session Identity Crisis – Part 1
Reasonable Faith Podcast: Trinitarianism vs Unitarianism Part One
Reasonable Faith Podcast: Trinitarianism vs Unitarianism Part Two
Craig, In Quest of the Historical Adam: A Biblical and Scientific Exploration
Craig and van Inwagen, Do Numbers Exist?
4 views on the Trinity – William Lane Craig, Dale Tuggy, Beau Branson, William Hasker
the arguments Dr. Craig didn’t want his podcast audience to hear
podcast 270 – Origen’s “one God”
Does God Exist? William Lane Craig vs. Christopher Hitchens – Full Debate
Gaston, Dynamic Monarchianism: The Earliest Christology?
Restitutio Podcast 528 Dynamic Monarchianism: The Earliest Christology (Thomas Gaston)
podcast 176 – Photinus of Sirmium
podcast 286 – Is the Trinity Essential? – Three Views
podcast 291 – From one God to two gods to three “Gods” – John 1 and early Christian theologies
podcast 338 – What John 1 Meant
“Craig’s Contradictory Christ”
podcast 344 – Craig’s Contradictory Christ – Part 2
podcast 343 – Craig’s Contradictory Christ – Part 1
How much did Aristotle understand about numerical sameness (identity)?
Dunn, Christology in the Making
Dunn, Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?
SEP “Trinity” 1.4 The Trinity as Incoherent
Molinism, a.k.a. Middle Knowledge
A letter from the Lord Jesus: About God and Me
