Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig. Today, the Doctrine of God,

Part 3. For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonable faith.org.

We're studying the attributes of God, and the first of God's infinite attributes that we've turned to examine

is God's aseity or self-existence. And we saw a lot of God's infinite attributes that we've turned to examine is God's aseity or self-existence.

And we saw last time that a robust understanding of this attribute implies not simply that God exists independently of everything else,

which would in itself be remarkable, but even more fundamentally, that God exists by a necessity

of his own nature, so that if it's even possible that God exists, then it follows that God

necessarily exists. And therefore, God's aseity entails or implies to further divine attributes,

namely God's eternality, that God is permanent,

he never came into being, will never go out of being, and second, God's necessity, that

he is a being whose non-existence is impossible, a necessary being.

Now in contemporary philosophy, this is usually expressed

by saying that God exists in all possible worlds. But that seemed to be a problematic

concept to some in the class last week, and it shouldn't be, this is meant to be simply

a heuristic device, not a piece

of serious ontology.

Thinking of possible worlds is simply a way of saying that if something is possible, then

that means there is a possible world in which that thing exists.

And if something is necessary, then it exists in all possible

worlds. But I've been reading a book lately by the philosopher Bob Hale entitled

Necessary Beings. Hale is a secular philosopher, very brilliant, and this is a study of necessity and

necessary beings. And the way Hale explocates necessity can perhaps be helpful to those who don't

...