Fact or Figment? A Debate Between William Lane Craig & Gerd Lüdemann
Edited by Paul Copan & Ronald K. Tacelli
A Debate Between William Lane Craig & Gerd Lüdemann
Edited by Paul Copan & Ronald K.Tacelli
InterVarsity Press Downers Grove, Illinois
InterVarsity Press P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426 World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com E-mail: [email protected] ©2000 by Paul H. Copan, Ronald K. Tacelli, Gerd Ludemann and William Lane Craig All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press. InterVarsity Press is the book-publishing divtsion of InterVarsity Christlan Fellouship/USA ${ }^{\bullet}$, a student movement active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Felloushtp of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellouship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Bax 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version ${ }^{\mathrm{b}}$. NIV ${ }^{\mathrm{a}}$. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. (lsed by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Cover photograph: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, N.Y. ISBN 0-8308-1569-4
Printed in the United States of America $\infty$ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Craig, William Lane. Jesus’ resurrection : fact or figment? : a debate between William Lane Craig & Gerd Ludemann / edited by Paul Copan & Ronald Tacelli. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-8308-1569-4 (paper : alk. paper)
BT481 . 06962000 232’.5-dc21 00-056735
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INTRODUCTION ….. 7 PAUL COPAN & RONALD K. TACELLI PART 1 THE DEBATE OPENING STATEMENTS WILLIAM LANE CRAIG ….. 31 GERD LUDEMANN ….. 40 FIRST REBUTTALS WILLIAM LANE CRAIG ….. 46 GERD LUDEMANN ….. 52 SECOND REBUTTALS WILLIAM LANE CRAIG ….. 56 GERD LUDEMANN ….. 60 CONCLUDING STATEMENTS WILLIAM LANE CRAIG ….. 63 GERD LUDEMANN ….. 66 PART 2 RESPONSES THE QUESTION OF MIRACLES, ASCENSION & ANTI-SEMmSM STEPHEN T. DAVIS ….. 71 THE EXPLANATORY POWER OF CONVERSION-VISIONS MICHAEL GOULDER ….. 86 TRIMMING THE DEBATE ROBERT H. GUNDRY ….. 104 A CONTEST BETWEEN ORTHODOXY & VERACITY Roy W. HoovER ….. 124 PART 3 CLOSING RESPONSES GERD LUDEMANN ….. 149 WILLIAM LANE CRAIG ….. 162
“What inclines even me to believe in Christ’s resurrection?” The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein put this question to himself in a private notebook that recorded his many interior struggles. “It is,” he explained: as though I play with the thought.-If he did not rise from the dead, then he decomposed in the grave like any other man. He is dead and decomposed. In that case he is a teacher like any other and can no longer help; and once more we are orphaned and alone. So we have to content ourselves with wisdom and speculation. We are in a sort of hell where we can do nothing but dream, roofed in, as it were, and cut off from heaven.’
This passage might seem to some naive and overwrought. But it does in fact capture the seriousness and urgency of the question Did Jesus really rise from the dead? as well as the far-reaching implications for countless lives that a negative answer holds.
To make this a bit clearer, consider the biblical story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal (cf. 1 Kings 18:20-39). Elijah, the outspoken prophet of Yahweh, and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal are engaged in a kind of contest to determine which is the true God. To this end sacrificial bulls are prepared, and the true God, when called upon, is supposed to send down fire to consume the offering. The prophets of Baal go first.