Did William Lane Craig really say this?
Recently I posted about apologist William Lane Craig’s statements* about Genesis because of his blatant compromise with evolution/millions of years and his seeming mocking at the idea Adam was made directly from dust and Eve directly from his side. On January 27, Craig was interviewed on a podcast to respond to what I had stated about his compromising position on Genesis. At the end of the hour-long podcast (“William Lane Craig: What Is His Response?”), Craig was asked two hypothetical questions.
I include a transcript of how Craig answered and I would challenge every Christian to check what this Christian leader says concerning Christ with what the Bible says about Jesus, including while he was here on earth before his death and resurrection. E.g.: “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2–3); “When Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, ‘Why do you question in your hearts?’” (Luke 5:22); “But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Come and stand here.’ And he rose and stood there" Luke 6:8; “Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand’" (Matthew 12:25).
Final question part 1:
Host (@swamidass): The final question, and this is the one I thought was really good, and it was fun…if you could get into a time machine and travel back to Jesus in Jerusalem and ask him, “is evolution true or not?” what do you think he would say?
Craig: Well, I feel quite certain he would say, “what do you mean? Explain it to me! I’ve never heard of it!” And then you would have to lay out for him the theory. We must not think of the incarnation as Superman disguised as Clark Kent.
Host: So this gets back to some of @Andrew_Loke’s stuff and the hidden and the “kryptic” incarnation that Jesus actually laid aside some things. He laid aside some things when he became, you know, you know, a human amongst us.
Craig: Yeah, that’s right and there’s no reason to think that Jesus would have been able to answer questions…about…
Host: So you explain it further. So let’s take the thought experiment further, you explain it to him. What do you think he would say then?
Craig: Oh! Well, um, I hope he would say, “well I guess I don’t see any conflict between that and what Moses teaches in Genesis.”
Final question part 2:
Host: Yeah, okay so here’s another question then, let’s say we get to heaven—we’re not going back in time we’re going forward in time…so you can kind of give us like what your bet is on this and we find out together. You ask Jesus, “is evolution truly…did you make things through a process, a providentially governed common descent?” What do you think he will say?
Craig: I’m not sure he would be committed to common descent past the Cambrian explosion. Um, but I think that he would say that a great, great deal of the biological lifeforms that we observe today are related by common descent.
Host: What about human common descent, do we share common ancestors, with the great apes?..Of course, this is all highly speculative, right? We don’t know.
Craig: When you say, “What would Jesus say?," what you’re really asking is what does the evidence indicate? Because that’s what we’re trying to surmise…I suspect the truth is someplace close to what I suggest in this book about “Human Origins.”
The reason I included this transcript of Craig’s answers is because he does impact a lot of people with what he teaches. And I challenge every Christian to judge what any Christian leader is teaching (including all of us at
Answers in Genesis
) against the absolute authority of God’s Word. That’s what we should always do. I personally believe that Craig’s compromise of Genesis with evolutionary ideas undermines the authority of God’s Word and has negatively impacted many people in the church.Ken Ham’s post: Ken Ham - Did William Lane Craig really say this?...
See the video to which Ken Ham is responding here: William Lane Craig: What is Your Response to Ken Ham?
Here is one of WLC’s past statements on the incarnation and omniscience: