By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Monday, August 24, 2026

Christian apologist William Lane Craig participates in a discussion with Alex O’Connor at the Royal Institution in London, England, on May 5, 2026. | Screenshot/YouTube/Alex O’Connor

Prominent Christian apologist and theologian William Lane Craig drew backlash last week over a clip in which he questioned the Nicene Creed and its assertion that Jesus Christ is eternally begotten of the Father in His divine nature.

“There is a doctrine that has become part of the famous Nicene Creed that says that the Son of God is begotten from the Father, not in His human nature, but in His divine nature; that somehow from eternity past, even prior to the incarnation and His virginal conception, the Son of God is begotten from God the Father in His divinity,” Craig said in a clip, which was first posted on Aug. 19 by William Lane Craig’s official ministry account, Reasonable Faith. The clip went viral after being reposted by the popular Christian X account Protestia, and has 1.4 million views as of Monda

Craig, who was educated at Wheaton College and serves as a professor emeritus of philosophy at the Talbot School of Theology of Biola University, went on to claim that New Testament scholars “seem to have reached something of a consensus that this is not a doctrine to be found in the New Testament.”

“When John talks about Christ as the only begotten Son of God, he’s not talking about Him being begotten in his divine nature. Certainly, Christ is begotten in His human nature in being born of Mary, but I don’t think you’re going to find very good proof texts in the New Testament that Christ was eternally begotten in His divine nature. Rather, the origin of this doctrine stems from what is called ‘Logos Christology,’” Craig said.

Craig claimed Logos Christology emerged from early Greek Christian apologists in the late second century, who, from the apostle John’s description of Christ as Logos, “imagined that initially there was just God the Father, and that somehow the mind of the Father proceeded and came forth from Him as a second person, and this was then the Son of God, who became incarnate in Christ.”

“So the idea was that the second person of the Trinity proceeds out of or emanates out of the first person of the Trinity, the Father. And this Logos Christology became extremely influential in the early church, and it eventually gets ecclesiastical status as authoritative in the Nicene Creed and then the Council of Chalcedon later on,” Craig said.

“I am skeptical of this doctrine. I don’t want to deny outright a doctrine that has such a strong ecclesiastical tradition, but I refrain from affirming it. I do not confess it,” he continued, adding, “I just don’t have a belief in that regard, and so similarly, I do not believe or confess that the Son is eternally begotten from the Father in His divine nature, and I think in so saying, I am being faithful to the New Testament.”

Craig’s theological claim prompted backlash from many Christians on social media, some of whom accused him of drifting into heresy

“This is heresy. The Logos Christianity and Eternal Generation Craig doesn’t confess isn’t a product of Greek theologians, it comes straight from the apostles,” said Michael Carlino, an adjunct professor of theology at Boyce College in Louisville, Kentucky. He cited John 1:14: “And the Word [λόγος] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten [μονογενής] of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Father Ron Offringa, a presbyter in the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), echoed the view that Craig’s claim is heretical and laid out why he believes its implications are serious.

“Craig’s teaching is heresy. Why does this matter? If the Son is son only in a human sense, then he has no adoption as sons to offer us,” Offringa said. “We are already sons of God in a creaturely sense. The Son gives us an adoption that we might be partakers of the divine nature.”

“I’m not a [Craig] hater. I think he has done a lot of important apologetic work. But this is really bad,” said Luke Stamps, who serves as a theology professor at the Clamp Divinity School of Anderson University in Anderson, South Carolina.

“Logos Christology originates with John (and OT precedents). Both Word and Son imply (eternal) origin. Plenty of ‘from’ language in the NT that can’t be reduced to the economy,” Stamps added.

Jared Moore, senior pastor at Homesteads Baptist Church in Crossroads, Tennessee, said Craig didn’t articulate the actual teaching of the Nicene Creed in the video clip.

“When the church fathers and those who wrote the creed were arguing that the Son is eternally begotten from the Father, they were arguing for the logical taxis [relational arrangement] among the Trinity. They were arguing for logical distinction, not ontological difference,” he said.

“There is no difference between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for there is no ‘between’ them. These Three are one God, one Nature. All that the Father is, the Son and Holy Spirit are as well. The only distinction among them is their logical order of subsistence, their taxis. Without logical distinction, you have no distinction among the Trinity.”

“You end up with three gods if you separate the Trinity rather than distinguish logically, and you end up with Modalism if you say there is no logical distinction. *If you’re going to deny the Nicene Creed, you’d better have a better answer than the creed rather than punting like William Lane Craig does in this video,” Moore added.

Dinesh D’Souza, a right-wing political commentator who also engages in Christian apologetics, questioned the purpose of Craig wading into such theological squabbles.

“Before undertaking a project like this, one must answer the question, ‘Why am I doing this?’ That is my question for the great WLC. What is the point of this exercise?” he asked.

Craig has raised eyebrows in recent years for asserting doctrines that many Christians consider to be at odds with the Bible, including his Christology and his rejection of Young Earth creationism, positing that the book of Genesis is a blend of history and myth.