By David J. Stewart | October 2012
Thank you Alexei in Brazil for the information to publish this needful article online, exposing Dr. William Lane Craig as another heretic who complicates and corrupts the simplicity that is in Christ. 2nd Corinthians 11:3, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
On his website Reasonable Faith there is a section about Questions and Answers. There is a question number 152 - What does it mean to have a relationship with God.
The following is the link to the question...
http://www.reasonablefaith.org/what-does-it-mean-to-have-relationship-with-god
Here is the full answer of William Lane Craig. I marked with red the false statements...
[I was so heartening to receive your letter, Mark, and to learn of your return to Christian belief! I hope you're drinking deeply from the well of Alvin Plantinga, especially Warranted Christian Belief, which has a good deal of material which is relevant to your question, particularly his discussion of the religious affections.
As I read your question, I couldn't help but wonder if you might not find yourself in the situation of someone who has returned intellectually to belief in a Christian worldview but who has not yet come into a saving relationship with God. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but since I don't know your story, I can only guess at what seems to be amiss.
One of my concerns about a ministry like mine which focuses on the truth of the Christian worldview and arguments for it is that people may not realize that the Christian faith is not just about having a change of mind and coming to accept a new worldview. It's about coming into a new relationship and becoming a new person. That's easy to miss when we're so focused on defending propositional truth.
The Christian faith is about coming into a saving relationship with God. Obviously, we're all related to God in certain ways, such as creature to Creator, but the Christian faith emphasizes that on a personal level we do not naturally find ourselves properly related to God. Instead, we find ourselves spiritually alienated from God due to the sin (moral evil) that pervades our lives. We do not fulfill our moral duties, toward God, toward others, toward ourselves: we have done what we ought not to have done, and we have not done what we ought to have done. As a result we find ourselves morally guilty before a holy God and under His just judgement. Our personal relationship to God has thus been ruptured. Like a Father and a son who are estranged from each other because of the son's rebellion, so we find ourselves estranged from God. God did not create us in order to stand in a relation of condemnation to us, but of welcoming acceptance, nor were we created to stand to God in a relationship of indifference or even hostility, but one of love and adoration. Thus, I think you can see how ruined and twisted our relationship with God is. Instead of friendship, there is alienation and enmity. That's what it means to lack a personal relationship with God.
So God has set about restoring the personal relationship with Him that He created us to have. Since we are, according to the Bible, spiritually dead in our sinful condition, that is, lacking a proper relationship with God and powerless to do anything about it, God must quicken us spiritually in order to restore us to a right relationship with Him. The Bible calls this "regeneration" (in popular piety, it is called being "born again," which is just what "regenerate" means). This takes place by the action of the Holy Spirit in response to a person's placing his faith in Christ for salvation.
Now "faith," as the Reformer Martin Luther emphasized, is a multivalent word. At the most basic level, faith involves what Luther called notitia, which is simply cognizance or understanding of a proposition. Next comes what he called assensus, which is assent to the proposition in question. Finally, there is fiducia, which is trust in the relevant person or thing. All three are involved in saving faith. First, there is understanding the great truths of the Gospel, such as that God exists, that I am morally guilty before God, that God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on my behalf in order to reconcile me to Himself, that forgiveness and moral cleansing are available through Christ, and so on. Next, I must not merely understand but believe these truths. Finally, I must place my trust in Christ as my personal Savior and Lord in order to be saved from sin and separation from God.
"What does it mean to trust God, and for what?" It means that you place your life, your well-being, wholly in His hands, relying upon Him and Him alone to save you. It is making a whole-hearted commitment to follow Christ as his disciple, to allow him to reshape you to become the kind of person that he wants you to be. It means saying to God, "Not my will, but Thine be done. I am no longer my own man; I am Yours, to be and do what You will."
When you make such a commitment to Christ, the Holy Spirit regenerates you spiritually and restores you to the proper relationship with God that you were meant to have. Not only so, but in some mysterious way you are actually indwelt by God's Spirit, and as we yield daily to Him He transforms our character to make us become more Christ-like and directs our paths according to God's providential plan.
How this new relationship plays itself out experientially varies from person to person and over time. Sometimes one may sense God's presence in a very real way; other times one will hardly be aware of it, but one walks by faith, not by sight. Minimally, you should experience an assurance of salvation, a sense of being rightly related to God as His child, forgiven and restored. As you walk in the power of the Spirit you should experience joy, peace, love, and the other fruit of the Spirit in the life of a regenerate person who is yielded to Christ.
"Why talk to God?" Because you love Him! (This is like asking, why talk to your wife!) Of course, you needn't talk out loud, since He reads your mind. And of course, you don't need to provide Him with any information, since He knows everything. But you should communicate with your Heavenly Father. "What would one say?" Tell Him you love Him; tell Him how thankful you are for saving you; offer Him praise for what He has done and is doing in your life; ask Him to guide you, to strengthen you, to help you to resist temptation.
"Should one pray despite the feeling that no one is listening?" You should talk to God, or pray, whether you sense His presence or not. It is part of your life of faith. "What would one hear?" Some people claim to hear from God almost audibly, but most of the time He "speaks" to us through the inspired writings collected into the Bible. When reading the Bible reflectively, you'll sometimes find that a passage will strike you powerfully in a new way, perhaps convicting you, or encouraging you, or inspiring you, or directing you. We should expect God to speak to us in this way, through His Word.
"What is expected of me and what should I expect of God?" The answer to the first part of your question is: Everything! Look at Jesus' parable of the unworthy servants (Lk. 17.7-10). Jesus says, "So also you, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'" We're to give God his legal right—namely, all that we have and are. We are to be as a matter of course totally dedicated to God and filled with the Holy Spirit.
The answer to the second part of your question is that God bestows upon us, positionally, as we are in Christ, forgiveness of sins, eternal life, adoption as sons, and the availability of unlimited help and power for Christian living. Moreover, He gives to us, experientially, as we are Spirit-filled, the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. When our relationship with God is healthy, the product in our lives will be righteousness, and the result of righteousness is happiness. Happiness is a byproduct of holiness, as God's righteousness is realized in us.
If you don't feel led to cultivate a relationship with God, Mark, it may be because you're not yet a regenerate Christian. You may have come only so far in faith as assensus but have not yet reached fiducia. You've not yet fallen in love with God, and so your heart is cold toward Him. Jesus said that he who has been forgiven much loves much. I'd encourage you to meditate on your own sinfulness and on how much God has forgiven (or will forgive) you and what it cost Christ to win your salvation—he was willing to die for you! Appreciating this doesn't require that you have some theory of the atonement in mind. Whatever theory of the atonement you accept, the fact remains that Jesus went to the cross for you and your redemption, a sacrifice, even on a purely human level, that is hard to fathom.
If you're not yet a regenerate Christian, then I encourage you to go to God in solitude and offer a prayer of commitment like the following:
God, I really need You. I recognize that I am sinful and wretched and in need of Your forgiveness. I believe that Jesus died on the cross to save me from my sins. And right now, in the best way I know how, I open the door of my life and invite you to come in and be my Savior and Lord. Forgive my sins, take the throne of my life, and make me into the kind of person you want me to be. I give myself to you.
Then, like a spiritual newborn, begin to receive the nourishment that comes through God's Word, meaningful corporate worship, prayer, confession and restitution, sharing your faith with others, and other spiritual disciplines.
It's not enough just to believe the truths of the Christian worldview. Our relationship with God needs to be restored and healed. That will come only through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in response to trust and commitment.]
Commentary On The Preceding Text
As you can see, there are many things that are dead wrong on this text! This man Knows a lot and the Devil knows how to make a good text, but the Bible shows the mistakes and heresies. First we don't make Jesus Lord, because He is the Lord Almighty!
The problem here is that salvation and the discipleship are being confounded. Commitment is a work. Offer a prayer of commitment is another therefore if I'm not mistaken those are works and according to my God in his Holy Book - Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
John 6:28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
The only work is in John 6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
Jesus is my Lord and my Saviour, but I didn't make him Lord of my Life to be saved from hell. I believed the gospel according to 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Romans 11:6 And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
There are other texts from mister Craig that contain other mistakes, but at this moment I could not find them because this research was done many months ago. When I find more I'll send you another e-mail with the information.
Final Comments
Lordship Salvation is the best poison made by Satan, and even Dr. Craig could not see the lies of the evil. It's very difficult for me to understand how a person that has full time job on studying God and the Scriptures misses the point so badly.
While watching his debates about evolution versus creationism I noticed that he relied only on evidences and historical facts to prove his point.
What about these passages from the Scripture:
1 Corinthians 1:17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
1 Corinthians 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
On the following link you will find a text that Craig attacks Fundamentalism for being too separate from the heathen universities.
[Ever since biblical Christianity slipped into the intellectual closets of Fundamentalism, we’ve been losing ground in American culture. Not that the Fundamentalists believed the wrong things; rather it was their withdrawal from mainstream culture and institutions that proved so damaging to the cause of Christ. We let the mainline denominations and seminaries drift away and left the secular universities in order to separate into our own institutions. What you’re sensing now about the drift of American culture away from Christian faith is in part the product of decades of neglect on the part of the American church. The problem is not that rigorous apologetics was tried and failed; the problem is that it was not tried. Back in the 1950s what apologetic literature was available for the training of the church? Carnell, Van Til, Clark—that was about it!]
He goes on and says on the same text a little further.
[So how do we impact culture via apologetics? As I have repeatedly emphasized, not through popular level apologetics but through Christian scholarship. We need to help students see that becoming university faculty is a calling from the Lord to be salt and light in a sometimes hostile environment. If Christian scholars show that they deserve a place at the table in our top universities, then their colleagues will treat their beliefs with greater respect in the classroom and the perception of Christianity among students will change. The university is the most important institution shaping Western culture, and so the university must be the arena in which we bear witness to Christ by the caliber of our Christian scholarship.]
I know that Jesus Christ said in John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
And added in 2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
What about the Holy Spirit? William Lane Craig does a good Job in contending for some areas of the Christian faith. But it appears that he is a tool of Satan.
I'm saddened about this fact.
John 12:40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
2 Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Jesus Christ taught us to pray. It's our greatest work and grace bestowed upon us alongside with Soulwinning. Therefore we have to pray for him
Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
And we have to expose and rebuke him with the Sword of the Spirit.
Titus 1:13 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;
Ephesians 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
And finally we have to - Ephesians 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
There are many false prophets on the internet. I pray for Mr. Craig that he may become a Christian and not a religious scientist philosopher.
Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Ephesians 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
2 John 1:9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
Please understand that this article is not intended to be unkind nor cast any negative reflection on Dr. Craig's personal character. This article deals solely with Dr. Craig's false teachings, primarily concerning the gospel message. The Biblical gospel according to 1st Corinthians 15:1-4 is that Jesus Christ DIED, was BURIED and then RESURRECTED three days later. Salvation is by grace through faith plus or minus nothing!!!
Please read, ANOTHER GOSPEL by Pastor Harry Ironside.
