Originally Posted by Kenny
Okay, I just finished listening to the latest podcast on Dr. Craig's view on eschatology. This time he speaks of the rapture (10/12/2009 - The Doctrine of the Last Things, Part 2). And thank God he doesn't hold to a pretrib rapture view! But so many Christians hold to this view and Dr. Craig speaks to many churches who are dispensationalists. I have no doubt that Dr. Craig will have many Christians criticizing him for not holding to the rapture. I have to hand it to Dr. Craig for having the guts to say something that may make him potentially unpopular. I bet you some Christians who listen to Dr. Craig's podcast may not know that there is an alternative to the pretrib rapture view! But something tells me that the Jack Van Impe, Hal Lindsey, Benny Hinn, Tim LaHaye, and John Hagee crowd are going to get on Dr. Craig's case for this. I remember many creationists getting on Dr. Craig's case because he doesn't hold to a 6-10,000-year-old earth. I wonder what they'll call Dr. Craig this time.

Anyway, I can't wait for next week's podcast. From the sounds of it, I think Dr. Craig will deal with the destruction of Jerusalem and the AD 70 premise. As a preterist, I'm interested in what Dr. Craig has to say. However, what concerns me is the fact that Dr. Craig spoke of N. T. Wright (and others) holding to the view that all of the prophecies in the New Testament were fulfilled in AD 70. I don't think that Dr. Wright holds to this view (known as hyper-preterism). He's more of a orthodox preterist (or "partial-preterist" - I don't like the use of this term because of said reason - but I use it to distinguish it from hyper-preterism). So, I would disagree with Dr. Craig's assessment there on N. T. Wright, because Wright is not a hyper-preterist (this article may be helpful). Or maybe I misunderstood Dr. Craig. I guess, we'll have to see until next week.

Thoughts

Originally Posted by Kenny
Dr. Craig doesn't believe in any rapture (pre-, post-, or mid-). But he does believe in the Second Coming of Christ.

Originally Posted by Maxeo

Quote:

Dr. Craig was smart to stay out of that debate.  It's too bad he had to jump into it.

It is a contentious issue amongst the various proponents.  Though I believe this to be a very side-theolgical issue, many see it as a fundamental component of the faith.  It's too bad.

I hope he doesn't wear too much grief for this.

Originally Posted by Kenny
Jonahbear,

William Lane Craig has a doctorate in theology! Why not get into this debate? As a philosopher, he's been given enough slack for holding to the cosmological argument for God's existence. But, yes, I hope he won't be given grief for his view on the rapture.

Although Dr. Craig seems to be primarily known as a philosopher, I hope he writes a book on systematic theology one of these days. Now, that's something worth looking for. If I'm right, Dr. Craig is a Wesleyan. An Arminian Wesleyan by the name of Vic Reasoner wrote a commentary on the book of Revelation from a preterist's viewpoint here. The book is a great read.

Kenny