More Speculation From William Lane Craig!

 

Another speculative video from William Lane Craig! The transcript begins as follows:

“People sometimes ask, ‘Where is Jesus’ physical body now?’ Well, scripture doesn’t really answer that question, so we can only speculate.”

That is not correct. Scripture does answer that question. It says that he ascended into heaven:

Luke 24:

50 And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.

51 And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.

Acts 1:

10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Mark 16:

19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.

1 Timothy 3:

16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Also these additional verses:

Matthew 26:

64 Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

Acts 7:

55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

Romans 8:

34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Ephesians 1:

20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

Colossians 3:

1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

Hebrews 1:

3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:

He ascended to heaven, the same place that all the glorified and redeemed saints go to after the resurrection. They all go to where God is, and dwell with him eternally (with their glorified and resurrected bodies, forever). That is salvation and eternal life, to dwell eternally with God:

Revelation 21:

3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Revelation 22:

3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

None of his wild philosophical speculation is supported by scripture. He then he continues:

“We know that Jesus had a physical body when he rose from the dead, and appeared physically alive to his disciples, and then he ascended into heaven, and his body left this universe.”

Where does it say that his body “left this universe”? And what other “universes” are there? It says he left this world, in which he had been dwelling during his mortal experience. It says nothing about a “universe”. Again, he is engaging in a lot of unwarranted speculation. He continues:

“So how should we understand this? Well I don’t think it means that Jesus went off into outer space, to another planet. I think this is a pictorial way of saying that Jesus has exited our four-dimensional space-time continuum, and therefore he is no longer to be found in this four-dimensional space-time manifold that you and I occupy. And therefore I would say, his physical body doesn’t appear; even though he continues to exist, he is not in this space-time continuum, and therefore his physical body is not manifest, or apparent in any way.”

“Apparent” to whom? To himself? To the Father? To the angels? To the glorified and resurrected saints in heaven? How can he “dwell” with the saved, glorified, sanctified, resurrected beings in heaven, without being “apparent” to them? Again, he is engaging in wild hypothetical speculation, with zero credibility or scripture reference. He continues:

“An analogy I like to use is thinking of a tuning fork. If you pluck the tuning fork, you will hear it set up a hum as it vibrates. Now if you place that tuning fork while it is still vibrating inside a vacuum jar, and extract all of the atmospheric gas, the fork is still vibrating, but there will be no sound; because in order for there to be a sound, there has to be an atmosphere. There has to be air to transmit those vibrational waves; and in the absence of the air, the tuning fork hasn’t changed in any way, it is just not in a medium in which sound will be manifest. And I think that is the way it is with the human nature of Christ. Christ still exists, but he is no longer in a space-time continuum, where he will be manifested as a physical body.”

Which is absolutely meaningless, and has no basis in scripture or revelation whatsoever. He finally concludes:

“But the doctrine of Christ’s second coming is that someday Christ will return, and he will re-enter our space-time continuum, and then his physical body will be once again manifest and apparent; just as if you were to reintroduce the molecules of air into the vacuum jar, suddenly the hum of the vibrating tuning fork would again become manifest and apparent.”

More wild speculation, with no scripture support. So the bottom line is that you can’t do theology with philosophy. The only source of true Christian theology is scripture, the word of God, and nothing else.