Defenders Podcast

Will Christ reign on earth for a literal thousand years after he returns? The idea comes from Revelation 20, and Christians have read that passage in very different ways. Dr. Craig introduces the three main views of the millennium: amillennialism, premillennialism, and postmillennialism. He then walks through the case for the amillennial view and the replies premillennialists offer, and invites listeners to weigh the arguments for themselves.

Scientists who predict the end of the universe say there is nothing we can do to prepare for it. Dr. Craig argues the return of Christ is the opposite: an end we can and should prepare for. Drawing on Peter, Paul, and John, he explains why the Second Coming should shape how we live, what we give ourselves to, and why Christians can face the future with hope rather than fear.

Why hasn’t Christ returned after two thousand years, and should we expect him in our lifetime? Dr. Craig wraps up his treatment of the timing of the Second Coming with Jesus’ warnings about readiness and Peter’s reminder that with the Lord a thousand years is as one day. He also takes on an honest objection: the Second Coming is simply too otherworldly to believe. His answer might just surprise you!

Did Jesus expect to return within his disciples’ lifetime? A pair of sayings in the Gospels can give that impression. But Dr. Craig points out that Jesus also told parable after parable anticipating a delay before his return: the faithful servant, the ten maidens, the talents, and the sheep and the goats. What do these stories reveal about how Jesus prepared his followers for the long wait ahead?

Did Jesus predict he would return within the lifetime of his hearers? Dr. Craig takes a closer look at two of the most contested sayings in the Gospels, Mark 9:1 and Mark 13:30, and asks what "the kingdom of God come with power" and "all these things" may have referred to in their original contexts. The answer may not be the Second Coming at all.

Did Jesus predict he would return within the lifetime of his first hearers? Some of his sayings seem to say exactly that. Dr. Craig weighs two common answers to this "delay of the parousia" problem, explains why neither satisfies him, and offers his own solution, drawn from a surprising detail in Matthew's account of Jesus sending out the Twelve.

Did Jesus expect to return within the lifetime of his first hearers? Dr. Craig takes up one of the most debated questions in the doctrine of the last things: the timing of the Second Coming. In the Olivet Discourse of Mark 13, Jesus predicts false messiahs, wars, earthquakes, famines, persecution, cosmic signs, and the preaching of the gospel to all nations before the end. Paul adds more in 2 Thessalonians 2, where the rebellion and the man of lawlessness must come first, and in Romans 11, where the full number of the Gentiles comes in before all Israel is saved. Taken together, these texts suggest Christ's return lies far in the future. Yet Jesus also says "this generation will not pass away before all these things take place" (Mark 13:30), and that some standing before him would not taste death before seeing the kingdom come with power (Mark 8:38–9:1), a saying Matthew 16:28 makes sharper still. Dr. Craig sets these two lines of evidence side by side and frames the puzzle he resolves in the next lesson.

Why does Christ need to come back at all? Dr. William Lane Craig lays out four purposes Scripture assigns to the Second Coming: it completes the work of redemption begun at the cross, triggers the resurrection of the dead, brings about the judgment of all people, and gathers the elect into the Kingdom of God. Drawing on 1 Corinthians 15, John 5, Matthew 16 and 24, and Jude, Dr. Craig shows that the Second Coming is not a single event with one purpose but a multifaceted culmination of God's redemptive plan.

Having rejected both the Rapture view and the Preterist view in prior lessons, Dr. William Lane Craig lays out the classical Christian position: Christ's return will be a single, visible event. In this lecture he examines four characteristics of that return. It will be personal, a literal coming of Christ himself, not a symbolic or figurative event. It will be glorious, a public display of power in contrast to the humility of his first coming. It will be decisive, bringing human history to its close. And it will be sudden and unexpected, which is why Scripture calls believers to readiness rather than speculation about timing. Dr. Craig supports each point from Scripture, including 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5, Acts 1, Matthew 24, Mark 14, 1 Corinthians 15, and Revelation 1.

Dr. William Lane Craig continues his critique of the preterist view that Christ's "coming" as the Son of Man was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. He argues, first, that the New Testament consistently describes this coming as visible and public: witnessed by everyone, not a secret event hidden from history. Second, he contends that Christ was already reigning as the risen and ascended King well before AD 70, so the Olivet Discourse can't be describing his enthronement in that year; it's better read as his future return as conquering King. Third, and most decisively, Paul ties Christ's coming to the bodily resurrection of the dead, which plainly did not happen in AD 70, a problem so sharp that even interpreters sympathetic to a preterist reading, as N.T. Wright's own remarks show, end up treating Paul's resurrection hope as a separate, still-future event. Dr. Craig explains why, despite its appeal, he can't accept Preterism as the solution to the New Testament's expectation of Christ's return.