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A Humble Rebuttal:

    Over the last few months I have undertaken a study of certain contemporary books which seek to attack Christianity.  The first was Sam Harris's "Letter to a Christian Nation,"  Which I discussed on this blog, the second was Christopher Hitchens's "God is Not Great."  This I did not post on because his arguments were almost identical to Harris's, and his tone was patronizing and belittling.  In short, I found Hitchens to be a jerk.  Many of his "arguments" against Christianity came in the form of backhanded snipes which implied that only a complete idiot would believe the teachings of Christ.  I have not yet justified him with a response, and probably won't.  The third book in my anti-canon is Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus.
    I have addressed Ehrman before on this blog here.  He is different from the other Authors I have thus far encountered as Ehrman is not an atheist, nor is he a hater of religion.  He is the chair of the religion department at the University of North Carolina and the default religious "authority" for many news outlets including NPR.  In Misquoting Jesus Ehrman presents the case that the scriptures we have come to rely on as the New Testament are not so reliable.  He shows, or attempts to show, that over the centuries scribes and other ne'r-do-wells have changed the original meaning of the documents so that we cannot know what they originally meant.  This is a reformed and sophishticated (please pardon the pun) version of the old "telephone" argument, which goes:  The Bible is like a centuries old game of telephone, in which participants make a line and whisper a phrase into one after an other's ear.  By the time the last person gets the message, and announces it to the group, it has completely changed from the original.  I do not have the intellectual tools to confront Ehrman head on.  As I make my way through his book I will do my best to pick apart his argument.  But what strikes me on first glance follows:

    God was active in the writing of the scriptures.  One of the crux's of Christianity is the "inspiration" of scripture.  In other words; while the specific words of Paul, Luke, Moses etc were their own, the ideas behind those words came from God.  This idea is represented in II Tim 3:16, II Peter 1:20-21  and Deut 29:29.  The Bible is God's special way of revealing himself to us.  It was written over a period of 2000 years, by more than 40 different authors.  God was not only present when the ideas were put down, but He has been present throughout time, ensuring that those ideas remain accurate into every time and every translation.  Ehrman obviously does not subscribe to this belief.  He must believe that immediately after having inspired each of the scriptures, God abandoned them and left it up to fallen, sinful human beings to preserve them for generations.  This is not consistent with the sovereign God represented in both the Old and the New Testaments.  Just as God was sovereign in the time of Abraham, Moses, King David, and Paul the Apostle, He was sovereign in the time of Socrates, Ceasar, Charlemagne, Henry VIII, and Napoleon, and He continues to be sovereign today.  And just as the scriptures were important to the people of the first century, so are they important to us today.  God would not have abandoned His inspired, special revelation, just as He has not abandoned us.

Here are a few better rebuttals to Ehrman.  I have not read them, but will try and figure out which one is best and purchase it.  Look for a review later on.

Misquotes in Misquoting Jesus

    By Dillon Burroughs from Dallas Theological Seminary

   By Timothy Paul Jones, published by Inter Varsity Press

This entry was posted at 7:11 PM . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

3 comments

Burroughs  

Thanks for mentioning my book MISQUOTES IN MISQUOTING JESUS. After discovering traditional publishers wouldn't get a book out to respond until a year later, I worked out a deal with Nimble books to get this title out within the first four months after Ehrman's release.

I hope you find it helpful and written with a good attitude toward the topic. Feel free to shoot questions or ideas my way. Thanks!

4:18 AM
TimothyPaulJones  

And thanks for your mention of my book Misquoting Truth! Lots of resources regarding Bart Ehrman's work can be found at http://misquotingtruth.timothypauljones.com . If there are any ways that I can be of service to you in your endeavors, please let me know.

2:10 PM
rugger341  

Thank you both for the comments. I really didn't think anyone read my blog. I am doing this as part of a Sunday School series for high school students on apologetics for a post-modern world. I am trying to prepare them for the challenges they will face in college and beyond. I will continue to post regarding Ehrman's book over the next few weeks, and may very well take you up on your offer of help. Thanks again.---Dave

5:08 PM

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