2026

FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER

from William Lane Craig

Dear Friends of Reasonable Faith,

As I thought recently about the current tumultuous state of the world at home and abroad, the words of the gospel song came to mind:

In times like these we need a Savior,
In times like these we need an anchor;
Be very sure, be very sure,
Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

These words, written by Ruth Jones in the midst of World War II, are just as applicable today as when they were written. “This Rock is Jesus,” who is our “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6.29).

Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Reasonable Faith

This year we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of the founding of Reasonable Faith. We have much to praise the Lord for! In his year-end report for 2025, our Executive Director Michael Lepien reported that our digital engagements across our social media platforms in 2025 nearly doubled in number to over 70 million engagements, with 14 million occurring in the month of December alone! I have often said that Reasonable Faith has been a dream come true; but with these recent figures, I must say that it is beyond my wildest dreams!

All this is made the more remarkable by the fact that this past year we lost our marketing firm and so decided to bring the marketing in-house and do it ourselves on a reduced budget. This turned out to be one of the best decisions we’ve ever made! We know our own material and so understand how best to promote it. As a result, our engagement numbers have gone through the roof. Our YouTube channels are hitting numbers that we have never seen before. During the coming year, we plan to further improve our marketing to connect with even more users.

RF continues to produce high-quality content across multiple platforms, including new courses in our Equip curriculum, new Zangmeister animated videos, and additional AI-dubbed translations. We now have over 11,000 users on the Equip Platform and have begun the process of converting the site into an easily accessible app. Our Zangmeister video series on “What Is God Like?” has added the newest video on “God Is Omnipotent.” AI software has allowed us to see growth in our translations and international social media platforms, especially Portuguese and Spanish, while keeping translation costs low. We even have volunteers translating our videos into Mongolian!

Meanwhile, the number of our Reasonable Faith local chapters, directed by Tyson James, has continued to increase to a total of 264 local chapters in 39 countries around the world, 102 of these being international chapters, including our first chapter in the deeply Muslim nation of Pakistan. How thrilling it is to be equipping these local ministries for effective service!

All of this is being carried out by our effective Reasonable Faith team while I am ensconced in writing my Systematic Philosophical Theology. What a privilege to be working with such dedicated and talented people!

Social Media Speaking

During January, I began to ease back into the normal swing of things. Early in the month I did a podcast for the International Christian Medical and Dental Association. I’ve enjoyed interacting with this influential group of professionals in the past. We had a wonderful personal interview, and I was quite surprised to learn afterwards that we had doctors and dentists all around the world joining our podcast:

Burundi
Indonesia
Pakistan
Taiwan
Canada
Ireland
Panama
Thailand
Chad
Israel
Peru
Uganda
Congo, DR
Kenya
Philippines
Ukraine
Costa Rica
Latvia
Poland
United Arab Emirates

Incredible, isn’t it? I’m pleased to say, moreover, that the feedback we received was very positive.

I also recorded an i mportant interview for our own “Reasonable Faith” podcast with Kevin Harris. Several people on YouTube had reacted critically to my interview with Sean McDowell, in which I raised numerous objections to Andrew Rillera’s pointed attack on Jesus’ penal substitutionary atonement. The most important of these responses came from a New Testament professor named Max Botner. Watching his video, it became apparent to me that Dr. Botner was unfamiliar with my work on the atonement and so really missed his target. It turned out that he actually agreed with me that (1) Rillera did not offer any substantive criticism of the penal aspect of penal substitutionary atonement; (2) Rillera was mistaken in denying that Jesus’ death was a substitutionary death on our behalf; and (3) Rillera was also mistaken in thinking that Jesus’ death was not an atoning sacrifice for our sins in the biblical sense of “atonement.” Given the vehement attacks in our day upon Christ’s penal substitutionary atonement, it is vitally important that this central doctrine be vigorously defended!

Finally, later in the month I did an interview with the Indonesian podcaster Darren Christopher on the Trinity. We had a really penetrating discussion of questions like “Is the doctrine of the Trinity logically coherent? What is the strongest scriptural evidence in support of the doctrine of the Trinity? What philosophical model of the Trinity do you hold, and why?” These questions are especially salient for a Muslim society like Indonesia, where people reject the Trinity in favor of an Islamic view of God as unipersonal. I want to do all I can to help Indonesian brothers and sisters defend the biblical view of God.

Systematic Philosophical Theology

It’s hard to believe, but on January 5 I began work on the final locus of my five volume Systematic Philosophical Theology! It is on Doctrine of the Last Things, usually called eschatology (from eschatos, the Greek word meaning last or final). As I read in this area, I have been impressed by the fact that eschatology is not just a final add-on, a topic tacked on at the end of a systematic theology, but something that pervades almost all of Christian theology. Looking back on the previous four volumes, I can see how eschatological themes come up again and again in doctrines of creation, man, Christ, salvation, and the church. Given that eschatology deals with the ends of God’s creation, it’s not surprising that outside the doctrine of God Himself, Who exists independently of His contingent creation, all of these areas should have eschatological ramifications.

As I organize my reading and thinking, my plan is to deal with four major eschata:

1. Second Coming of Christ
1.1 Nature of the Second Coming
1.2 Time of the Second Coming

2. Resurrection of the Dead
2.1 Identity of the Resurrection Body with the Earthly Body
2.2 Last Judgement

3. The Intermediate State
3.1 State of the Soul after Death
3.2 Purgatory

4. The Final State
4.1 Heaven
4.2 Hell

As with other loci, there is a huge volume of literature on these subjects which I cannot hope to canvas thoroughly, so I have to be discerning in selecting the most important works to read. It is a dream come true to now be working on this final topic!

For Christ and His Kingdom,

Bill & Jan Craig