The earlier post was inspired by something that happened today. Given that I am all by myself at home (apart from Sherlock, who is fast asleep) I was watching some videos on YouTube. I decided to watch the Gifford Lectures 2018 delivered by N.T. Wright at the University of Aberdeen earlier this year. All eight lectures are available on YouTube. I did not get through even the first lecture because in the midst of it my eye was drawn to the “Up next” list on the right.

Three videos caught my attention:

1. N. T. Wright on the Rapture Passage on the YouTube channel Primitive Christianity.
2. On N.T. Wright’s View of the Second Coming of Christ on the YouTube channel drcraigvideos which hosts videos by William Lane Craig.
3. N.T. Wright is wrong AGAIN! on the YouTube channel Wretched which hosts videos mostly by Todd Friel.

While I am acquainted with William Lane Craig’s work, I had never heard of Todd Friel till today.

I watched all three videos, the first one only because it was not too long. I am well acquainted with N. T. Wright’s work so only wanted a refresher before watching the other two videos. I urge the reader to watch all three videos before proceeding with this post.

If you have watched the videos, one thing will be clear. Craig’s and Friel’s videos have disabled comments. This means that no one can question their interpretation of their subject matter publicly. It is simply another way of avoiding, or rather refusing, debate. And frankly, if N. T. Wright is teaching wrong things, then, given how immensely popular he is today, it behooves Christians who know how he is wrong to allow other Christians to voice their views. The unwillingness to permit discourse is, quite frankly, one of the reasons why most people reject Jesus – his people just do not know how to listen to differing viewpoints and debate in a civilized manner in public.

Both videos indicate that the speakers (Craig and Friel) have no idea what Wright has said. They take his words out of context and use partial quotes to make their point. They also do not try to understand how Wright has used words in his books. Friel objects to the length of Wright’s books. One reason why they are so lengthy is that he devotes many pages telling the reader how he will be using the key words!

Both videos are classic examples of how we can misrepresent someone with whom we have a disagreement – do not permit dissenting voices to clarify the opponent, misquote the opponent, and misuse the opponents words.