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

Today, the Doctrine of Revelation, Part 1.

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

Today we open the first section of our new Defenders survey of Christian Doctrine, which will be on the Doctrine

of Revelation. In surveying Christian doctrine, we're going to be looking at the traditional

so-called Loki Communes of Protestant theology. The loki communes is Latin for the common places or chief themes or topics

of Christian theology.

So traditionally the Loki communes would include things like Doctrine of God or Doctrine of Christ,

Doctrine of Man, Doctrine of Salvation, and so forth.

And we'll be opening our study of Christian doctrine by looking at the locus called Doctrine

of Revelation.

Key to the study of Christian theology is the question of authority.

Who has the authority to speak about matters of God and our relationship to Him.

Is it sacred scripture or is it the Church?

Well, I want to suggest that authority ultimately lodges in God himself.

Any other authority is a derivative authority that comes from God being,

for example, the author of Scripture or his providential guidance over the church. Ultimate authority

lodges in God himself. He is the one who has the ability to speak

authoritatively about himself and his truth. Now, when we talk about authority, what do we

mean? Well, I'm defining authority to mean the right to demand belief and obedience. The right to demand belief and obedience.

We're all familiar with authorities in human affairs. For example, the state has a certain

authority within a sphere of jurisdiction. Parents have authority in the family.

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