For example, my wife, Jan, was once talking to a gal in the student union who said that she did not believe in God. Jan replied, “Well, what do you think of the argument for the first cause?” “What’s that” she said. Jan explained, “Everything we see has a cause, and those causes have causes, and so on. But this can’t go back forever. There had to be a beginning and a first cause which started the whole thing. This is God.” Now this was obviously a very simple statement of the kalam cosmological argument. The young woman responded, “I guess God exists after all.” She wasn’t ready to place her faith in Christ at that point, but at least she had moved one step closer, away from her atheism.


Many years ago, when we were studying in Germany on a research fellowship, we met a Polish physicist who was there on a similar fellowship. As we chatted, she mentioned that physics had destroyed her belief in God and that life had become meaningless to her. “When I look out at the universe all I see is blackness,” she explained, “and when I look within myself all I see is blackness.” (What a poignant statement of the modern predicament!)
Well, at that point Jan volunteered, “Oh, you should read Bill’s doctoral dissertation. He uses physics to prove God exists.” So we loaned her my dissertation to read on the cosmological argument. Over the ensuing days, she became progressively more excited. When she got to the section on astronomy and astrophysics, she was positively elated. “I know these scientists that you are quoting!” she exclaimed in amazement. By the time she reached the end, her faith had been restored. “Thank you for helping me to believe that God exists,” she said.
We answered, “Would you like to know him in a personal way?” Then we made an appointment to meet her that evening at a restaurant. Meanwhile we prepared from memory our own hand-printed Four Spiritual Laws.
After supper we opened the booklet and began, “Just as there are physical laws that goven the physical universe, so there are spiritual laws that govern your relationship to God.” “Why, physical laws! Spiritual laws!” she exclaimed. “This is just for me!” When we got to the circle at the end representing two lives and asked her which circle represented her life, she put her hand over the circles and said, “Oh, this is so personal. I cannot answer now.” So we encouraged her to take the booklet home and to give her life to Christ.
When we saw her the next day, her face was radiant with joy. She told us of how she had gone home and in the privacy of her room prayed to receive Christ. She then flushed all of the wine and tranquilizers on which she had been relying down the toilet.


Dear Dr. Craig,

I went off to college 37 years ago, having been raised a Christian, who believed in the main tenets of the faith simply because everyone I knew and trusted believed in them. Once in college, in the mid 70s when atheism and anti religious sentiment was quite fashionable, this led to a process wherein daily intellectual and social assaults on my faith led eventually to a faith crisis that was so devastating that I still remember those dark times and have night mares about it to this day.

I wish to God that you had been around all those years ago. Having gone through a long period of utter despondency over the nihilistic implications of atheism, and although never self destructive, I finally came around, on my own, to subject atheism, and all the standard criticisms of theism and orthodox christian dogma to the same level of scrutiny as my professors did of theism. I find that your ministry of defense of the central tenets of Christianity to be extraordinary and only blind faith in materialism, or atheism, or fear of professorial peer pressure can stand against many of the insights that you have, and the broader counteroffensive that believers have made these past 20 years.

I also found that when I actually took up the Bible and read it for myself, that Jesus first asked his prospective disciples to follow him, not so much to believe in a preexistent body of beliefs about him. I have found that by actually trying to follow Jesus has made all the difference in my life. You have shown to me conclusively that the central tenets of the Christian faith are not an attempt to "believe ten impossible things before breakfast", but overall make the most sense, and even better yet, yield the most hope.

I have been a street cop in the worst neighborhoods of --------, made famous by several different police shows on TV for over 26 years. I have seen up close and personal more death and senseless violence than the vast majority of police officers ever see. These horrors, combined with the worldview of hopelessness and pointlessness that is the byproduct of pop nihilism could have driven me simply mad. Due in part to your ministry, intellect and powers you have brought to bear on what are the questions of the most profound import to our lives, you have shown Christianity to be quite credible, and along with asking Jesus into my life, to show himself to me, then joining a Christian community and with them attempting to practice Christ and Christianity, this has made an incredible impact in my life. Jesus offers us a new life, a better hope and a better way to be in this life, and in part due to your demonstrations, this is not a pie in the sky, wishful thinking hope, but rather is a set of beliefs not merely emotionally and spiritually satisfying, but cognitively persuasive as well. God bless you sir.




I am a sophomore at Ohio University. In April I attended the Veritas Forum where you spoke and my life changed. That day I went in to your lecture not knowing it had anything to do with God and the Lord Jesus--in fact I was invited by a Christian at work and we did not even know each others names! When listening I was shocked to hear the logical arguments you presented for there being a god and that Jesus exist. While you gave your testimony on the first night I knew my life would never be the same. Now I finally have true happiness and peace by knowing that the Lord exist and loves me.



I just wanted to say thank you, so much, from the bottom of my heart for your work. I found your site about 4 months ago, when I was struggling deeply with trying to find a reasonable basis for my faith. I googled your name and found your website, and started listening and reading. Then I bought Hard Questions, Real Answers, all the while praying for strength to pull me through this MAJOR period of doubt. I just want to thank you SO MUCH for your resources over the last few months; I seriously don't know what would have happened without them to me. You have helped to bring me back on track, and saved me, too, from giving up on being a christian.



July 2010 I started doubting my belief for really no reason at all. I started coming up with alternative explanations to some of the things in The Bible (some of which were dismantled in The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel). I don't know if these thoughts were from myself or from the devil but regardless, they were really bothering me. I thought maybe Mary was having a mini-seizure in the front lobe of her brain or perhaps she ate some bad food and was hallucinating that the angel Gabriel appeared to her and told her she was going to give birth to the son of God, and perhaps Jesus used the same trickery with his miracles as the magician Chris Angel does (Chris Angel walked on water, and levitated). Some other thoughts plagued me but I can't really remember what they were now but some of them did include alternatives to Jesus' resurrection and empty tomb. I also thought about how many religions are in this world, and I was beginning to wonder if Christianity was just another superstition made up by people just like Wicca, Buddhism, Islam, Scientology, and even the mythical greek & roman gods that nobody worships anymore. I was quickly being pushed towards agnosticism and I was scared because I WANTED to believe in God. I loved Him! He's the greatest friend anyone could ever have! I remembered the verse Mark 9:24 where a man asked Jesus to help him with his unbelief.

I knew that IF God was real and The Bible was true, then He would WANT me to keep believing in Him so I could get into Heaven and I also knew that He could help me with MY unbelief just like he did with that man in Mark 9:24. I prayed for a few days and my faith was supernaturally restored. About 2 or 3 weeks later, a Facebook friend of mine posted a link to the documentary "The Case for a Creator" on YouTube. I found out that science & logic can actually prove God's existence! Later I purchased The Lee Strobel collection and watched all 3. That really helped with my faith as well. Around this same, I got involved with conversations with atheists and my conversation with one before the doubt spell hit is actually I think what caused my doubt to begin with. His arguments were not very powerful. He was really just one of those arrogant jerks that say "Oh well, you're indoctrinated by your parents" and blah blah blah, but he DID bring up a good point about this world having many religions and many gods, and that's what I believe really struck me at my core. I believe God supernaturally held off my skepticism until I could discover Lee Strobel's books

I still question Christianity sometimes, but because of my studying apologetics, I am usually able to answer my own questions.How can I know God exists? Starts talking about the fine tuning of the physical laws of the universe, the watchmaker argument about how complicated the human body is, the fact science proved the universe CAME INTO EXISTENCE, etc. etc. What proof is there of Jesus' resurrection? Starts talking about the secular documents that refer to Him, the Pontius Pilate Stone, the fact that the disciples died proclaiming Jesus was God raised from the dead and that nobody would die for a lie. Apologetics has REALLY helped me answer tough questions and objections I had to the Christian faith and it's one of the things I thank God for. I can still be a critical thinker and follow Jesus at the same time.

"Evangelical Christians believe that they ought to obey Jesus' command to, "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 22:19). In order to help Christians carry out this "Great Commission," D. James Kennedy created a door-to-door evangelism technique called, "Evangelism Explosion" (EE). If you're a Christian, the EE technique allows you to quickly ascertain where a person is spiritually. After introducing yourself, you are to ask questions like these to the person answering the door: 1. Can I ask you a spiritual question? And 2.) If you were to die tonight and stand before God, and God were to ask you, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" what would you say? Most people are curious enough to say yes to question 1. (If they say, "What do you mean by 'a spiritual question'?" you go ahead and ask them the second question.) As for the second question, the EE manual predicts that the non-Christian will usually give the "good works" answer. You know, something like, "God will accept me because I'm basically a good person. I haven't killed anybody; I go to church; I give to the poor..." In that case, the EE manual tells you to respond with the gospel (literally the "good news"): that all (including you) have fallen short of God's perfect standard, and no good work can erase the fact that you've already sinned; but the good news is that you can be saved from punishment by trusting in Christ, who was punished in your place. While this technique has been very successful, some non-Christians do not respond to the two questions as expected. For example, one evening I (Norm) decided to take EE to the streets along with a fellow member of my church here's how it went:

Knock, Knock.

"Who's there?" (A man came to the door.)

I stuck out my hand and said, "Hi! my name is Norm Geisler, this is my partner, Ron, and we're from the church at the end of the street."

"I'm Don," the man replied, his eyes quickly sizing us up. Immediately I jumped into action with question 1: "Don, do you mind if we ask you a spiritual question?" "No, go ahead," Don said boldly, apparently eager to have a Bible thumper for dessert. I laid question 2 on him: "Don, if you were to die tonight and stand before God, and God were to ask you, 'Why should I let you into my heaven?' what would you say?" Don snapped back, "I'd say to God, 'Why shouldn't you let me into your heaven?"
Gulp...he wasn't supposed to say that! I mean, that answer wasn't in the book! After a spit second of panic, I offered up a quick prater and replied, "Don, if we knocked on your door seeking to come into your house, and you said to us, 'Why should I let you into my house?' and we responded, 'Why shouldn't you let us in?' what would you say? Don pointed his finger at my chest and sternly replied, "I would tell you where to go!" I immediately shot back, "That's exactly what God is going to say to you!" Don looked stunned for a second but then narrowed his eyes and said, "To tell you the truth: I don't believe in God. I'm an atheist."

"You're an atheist?"

"That's right!"

"Well, are you absolutely sure there is no God?" I asked him. He paused, and said, "Well, no, I'm not absolutely sure. I guess it's possible there might be a God." "So you're not really an atheist, then-you're an agnostic," I informed him, "because an atheist says, 'I know there is no God,' and an agnostic says 'I don't know whether there is a God."' "Yeah...alright; so I guess I'm an agnostic then," he admitted. Now this was real progress. With just one question we moved from atheism to agnosticism! But I still had to figure out what kind of agnostic Don was.

So I asked him, "Don, what kind of agnostic are you?" He laughed as he asked, "What do you mean?" (He was probably thinking, "A minute ago, I was an atheist - I have no idea what kind of agnostic I am now!") "Well, Don, there are two kinds of agnostics," I explained, "There's the ordinary agnostic who says he doesn't known anything for sure, and then there's the ornery agnostic who says he can't know anything for sure."

Don was sure about this. He said, "I'm the ornery kind. You can't know anything for sure." Recognizing the self-defeating nature of his claim, I unleashed the road runner tactic by asking him, "Don if you say that you can't know anything for sure, then how do you know that fr sure?" Looking puzzled, he said, "What do you mean?" Explaining it another way, I said, "How do you know for sure that you can't know anything for sure?" I could see the light bulb coming on but decided to add one more point: "Besides, Don, you can't be a skeptic about everything because that would mean you'd have to doubt skepticism; but the more you doubt

skepticism the more sure you become." He relented. "Okay, I guess I really can know something for sure. I must be an ordinary agnostic." Now we were really getting somewhere. With just a few questions, Don had moved from atheism through ornery agnosticism to ordinary agnosticism.
I continued, "Since you admit now that you can know, why don't you know that God exists?" Shrugging his shoulders, he said, "Because nobody has shown me any evidence, I guess." Now I launched the million-dollar question: "Would you be willing to look at some evidence?" "Sure," he replied. This is the best type of person to talk to: someone who is willing to take an honest look at the evidence. Being willing is essential. Evidence cannot convince the unwilling. Since Don was willing, we gave him a book by Frank Morison titled Who moved the stone? Morison was a skeptic who set out to write a book refuting Christianity but instead became convinced by the evidence that Christianity was indeed true. (In fact, the first chapter of Who Moved the Stone? is called "The Book That Refused to Be Written.")

We visited with Don a short time later. He described the evidence presented by Morison as "very convincing." Several weeks later, in the middle of a study of the Gospel of John, Don accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.
Today Don is a deacon in a Baptist church near St. Louis, Missouri. Every Sunday Morning, for years, he's driven the church bus through the local neighborhood to pick up those kids whose parents wouldn't come to church. His ministry has special meaning to me (Norm) because two men like Don (Mr. Costie and Mr. Sweetland) Picked me up with a church bus more than 400 times - every Sunday from when I was nine until I was seventeen. I was in a position to accept Christ at seventeen largely because of that bus ministry. I guess it's true what they say, "What goes around comes around," even if it's just the Sunday school bus.

Tack me on!

Apologetics comes in both a positive case, and a negative case. The negative being, a defense against claims by skeptics who proclaim that Christianity is irrational. The positive, would go beyond defense, and begin the proclamation. Not only defending, but attempting to demonstrate the rationality of Christianity over all other worldviews.

So a negative defense, would be one like dealing with the charge that, God and evil cannot both co-exist, and that it would be illogical, if evil exists, then God doesn't exist. This is known as the "Problem of Evil" (should be rightly renamed the Problem of Sin, amirite?). So the Christian apologist would then demonstrate that it is entirely logical for God to exist, even with the existence of evil. The first thing I personally would demonstrate, is that without God, nothing is evil. So I'd actually be taking the existence of evil, and turning it into an argument for the existence of God.

1) Evil exists
2) For something to be Objectively evil, this requires a Moral Law/Objective Morality
3) The existance of Objective morality, requires God
4) Therefor, God exists


At this point, it would move into scripture, to explain why on Christianity, God would allow evil. The simplest thing goes right back to this previous argument. The Christian need only accept, that God is objectively good. Even though we may not understand his reason for allowing our child to become dreadfully sick, or a tidal wave to crash into the coast of a country, he has an objectively good reason for allowing such events. An example, would be to refer to the book of Job.

The positive case, would be for example, the Kalam Cosmological Argument. It attempts to demonstrate that Cosmology (study of the stars and space basically) implies, if not requires the existance of God.

1) That which begins to exist, requires a cause
2) The universe began to exist
3)Follows from 1) and 2), the Universe requires a cause for it's existance
4) That cause is God*

*4) is reason from things such as, the cause needing to be an un-caused first cause, that is timeless, space-less, immaterial, attaining person-hood, and a few others I can't recall. (From WLC's Book On Guard)

__________________
Mark 13:20
If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them.

Proverbs 16:4
The LORD works out everything to its proper end—even the wicked for a day of disaster.

John 15:16
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.