Speaking Truth to Ehrman

It's no surprise that the media love Bart Ehrman. Through his highly promoted books, he mounts a seemingly endless attack on the reliability of the Bible and historic Christianity. Ehrman is a man on a mission. His disdain for the faith in which he was raised is, at times, palpable in his writing. But Ehrman is no slouch. He is a scholar and thus his challenges to the Bible ought to be carefully critiqued and refuted.

Michael Kruger is one who has done this quite effectively. The following videos featuring Dr. Kruger will give you a taste of the sort of believing scholarship from which the church benefits.

Answering Ehrman

Bart Ehrman, a New Testament scholar who rejects most of the New Testament, is, ironically enough, a graduate of both Moody and Wheaton. He is also the go-to guy for the media when they are looking for a "Christian" to bash Christianity. Ehrman's books sell well and many nice church-going folks have seen their faith devestated by his arguments. Now, a helpful website has been established to answer Ehrman's charges.

Also, if you would like to go deeper, check out the outstanding The Heresy of Orthodoxy which dismantles Ehrman's foundational assumptions.

Ehrman's Errors

In the latest issue of Themelios, Darrel Bock reviews Bart Ehrman's latest attack on the Bible, Jesus, Interrupted.

Bart Ehrman’s Jesus, Interrupted by his own admission says nothing new. It packages what scholars have been saying about issues in the Bible in a very public way for two decades. As Ehrman points out, these issues go back centuries—and the positions he defends have been advocated for a few centuries. What the book does is put many of these well known examples in one place, laid out so anyone reading the Bible has to face up to them. In a real sense, Jesus, Interrupted is an “in your face” book for those who have a high regard for the Bible. Saying in effect, “Take that,” Ehrman tackles an array of textual issues. His chapters discuss supposed contradictions he sees in the text, the point of variant readings, debates about authorship, treatment of issues tied to the historical Jesus, and discussion about orthodox Christianity emerging later than the first century out of an originally more diverse situation.

In fact, folks like Augustine and Origen were aware of the kinds of issues he raises. Answers and debates around what Ehrman raises have been around for a long time, but one reading this book would never really know what the real conversation is about in these kinds of examples. Ehrman begins his study on a biographical note. He often does this in his books to tell how, becoming enlightened, his position changed. He notes that when he learned the historical critical method in place of the devotional method, he discovered the Bible was full of contradictions and discrepancies. He came to see it as a completely human book with Christianity being a religion that is completely human in its origin and development. His experience portrays the core thesis of Jesus, Interrupted. Ehrman has become a one-man band seeking to make clear what everyone should know about the origins of the Christian faith—its roots can be explained on completely human terms.

Read the entire review HERE.

For some reason, the word "admissions" in the first sentence of the quote above is a link to University of Phoenix. Earlier it was a link to a message that said, "Obama wants moms to return to work." I have no idea where that came from. For some reason I cannot remove the link. Anyone out there care to tell me how something like that happens?

Witherington on Ehrman

Ben Witherington has been interacting with Bart Ehrman's latest - Jesus Interrupted.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Bible Battles

It's the fight that seems never to end. Every generation of Christians is faced with those who challenge the truthfulness and reliability of the Bible. We expect this from unbelievers and those who are hostile toward Christianity. What is disheartening is when these voices of criticism come from within the church. It is a subject that has prompted some interesting conversations on this blog.

Al Mohler has posted some thoughts on a USA Today article attacking the trustworthiness of the Bible:

The Monday "On Religion" feature in USA Today is consistently interesting, even if often exasperating. That is what should be expected of an opinion column -- strong opinions in both the column and the reaction it prompts. Well, get ready to form your own opinion about today's feature, for it is likely to make a lot of waves.

Tom Krattenmaker, a Portland, Oregon based member of the paper's Board of Contributors, levels a broadside attack on the unity, inspiration, and veracity of the Bible as the Word of God in his column, "Fightin' Words".

Krattenmaker first celebrates what he describes as "a year of retreat and retrench" for conservative Christianity. Now, he says, "here come more challenges to traditionalist views of the Bible and Christian faith from a lineup of big-name, liberal-leaning scholars and theologians."

First up on Krattenmaker's list is Bart Ehrman of the University of North Carolina. As Krattenmaker explains, Ehrman "mounts evidence against literalist conceptions of the Bible as factual history and a divinely transmitted testament to an afterlife-focused religion called Christianity."

This is an important and timely post. Read the whole thing HERE.

Bart Ehrman on Colbert

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Bart Ehrman
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Ehrman is a hack who gets his facts wrong. He is a man who, for whatever reason has a grudge against biblical Christianity.

Read Professor Denny Burk's review of Ehrman's last book HERE.

Ehrman Redux

Darrel Bock is weighing in on Bart Ehrman's newest hit piece on Jesus and the Bible, Jesus, Interrupted.

Bart Ehrman's Jesus, Interrupted by his own admission says nothing new. It packages what scholars have been saying for two decades. Since he learned the historical critical method in place of the devotional method, he discovered the Bible was full of contradictions and discrepancies, a completely human book with Christianity being a religion that is completely human in its origin and development. That is the core thesis of Bart Ehrman's new book, who has become a one man marching band to make clear what everyone should know about the origins of the Christian faith. We cannot speak of the divine in any of this, he says, because historians cannot handle that kind of data. This represents a convienient limitation on what he can speak about (even as he makes all kinds of pronouncements about what is taking place and who is responsible).

Read Dr. Bock's entire post HERE.