Quotes from William Lane Craig

G. W. Leibniz, codiscoverer of calculus and a towering intellect of eighteenth-century Europe, wrote: "The first question which should rightly be asked is: Why is there something rather than nothing?"[1] In other words, why does anything at all exist? This, for Leibniz, is the most basic question that anyone can ask. Like me, Leibniz came to the conclusion that the answer is to be found, not in the universe of created things, but in God. God

Leibniz's reasoning: 1. Everything that exists has an explanation of its existence. 2. If the universe has an explanation of its existence, that explanation is God. 3. The universe exists.

I have found that the more I reflect philosophically on the attributes of God the more overwhelmed I become at his greatness and the more excited I become about Bible doctrine. Whereas easy appeals to mystery prematurely shut off reflection about God, rigorous and earnest effort to understand him is richly rewarded with deeper appreciation of who he is, more confidence in his reality and care, and a more intelligent and profound worship of his person.

For hence it is that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to him by God, by whose merit apprehended by faith he is absolved from his sins and obtains a right to life" (1992, 16.9). Faith is thus "the instrumental cause of our justification" (1992, 16.7) and by implication of our union with Christ. Hence, believers have "immediate and absolute union" with Christ (1992, 18.25).

It is evident that imputation depends ?upon our union with Christ. "Having been made by God a surety for us and given to us for a head, he can communicate to us his righteousness and all of his benefits." Our union with Christ is the "cause and foundation" of our sharing in all his benefits, including justification (remission of sins and adoption as sons) (1992, 16.6).

THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT: A SIMPLE FORMATION Everything that exists has an explanation of its existence, either in the necessity of its own nature or in an external cause. If the universe has an explanation of its existence, that explanation is God. The universe exists. Therefore, the explanation of the universe's existence is God.

The point is this: if God does not exist, then life is objectively meaningless; but man cannot live consistently and happily knowing that life is meaningless; so in order to be happy he pretends that life has meaning.

Ghazali frames his argument simply: "Every being which begins has a cause for its beginning; now the world is a being which begins; therefore, it possesses a cause for its beginning.

The origin of the Christian faith is therefore inexplicable unless Jesus really rose from the dead.

Good apologetics involves "speaking the truth in love" (Eph. 4:15). Is Apologetics Biblical?

Thus, although arguments and evidence may be used to support the believer's faith, they are never properly the basis of that faith.

The only way an actual infinite could come to exist in the real world would be by being created all at once, simply in an instant. It would be a hopeless undertaking to try to form it by adding one member after another.