These days it’s hard to look at the Religion section in your local bookstore and not see several anti-Christian books by the famous apostate Bart Ehrman. It seems that he’s always got another book coming out attacking the Christian faith. As bad as things seem to be, all is not lost.
Brant Pitre in his new book The Case For Jesus tackles Ehrman head on. He pulls no punches in decimating the liberal scholarship on the New Testament that dominates western academia. If you’re thinking that Bart Ehrman has finished off the Christian faith then think again. The book has received endorsements from great writers like Jennifer Fulwiler to great Biblical scholars such as Dr. Craig Keener.
Pitre starts off with defending the traditional authorship of the Gospels, disputing their anonymity. He uses both internal and external evidence in making the plain case that the authors are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He shows that the four gospels are an excellent witness to our Lord and that later gospels such as Thomas are simply unreliable and were never used by the early Church.
Another topic he tackles is messianic prophecy. He spends a whole chapter on the book of Daniel, exegeting texts that most Christians haven’t even thought about. While most Christians may only know about the main prophecies such as Psalm 22 or Isaiah 53, Pitre shows us that Daniel is a treasure chest of prophecies about Jesus.
Pitre also puts to rest the idea that the Gospel of John is the only gospel that presents a divine Jesus. This chapter in my opinion is worth the cost of the whole book. He shows us that by looking at the synoptic gospels through the lens of first century Judaism and not as a 21st century westerner that Jesus is just as divine in Matthew, Mark, and Luke as he is in John. The facts are clearly presented to the reader and the only way to reject them is to do so willingly. The Fathers of the Council of Nicaea were certainly correct in their beliefs about our Lord.
In addition to being a great text for the library of an apologist, this book is an extremely enjoyable read. It’s very well written, easy to understand, and presents the case for Jesus as well as any modern scholar or apologist could. All of the faithful can benefit from the reading of this book. I would also encourage any atheist, Muslim, or Jew to have a read through it themselves. The atheist will have his hands full in the analysis of the evidence for the gospels, the Muslim will come face to face with the deity of our Lord, and the Jew just might discover that Jesus is who he claimed to be.
The average Christian no longer has to cower before Bart Ehrman or the young and eager atheist or Muslim using his work. The buck stops here and we all owe a great debt to Dr. Pitre for making it so. The fight for our faith continues, and now with The Case For Jesus we’re back in the game.
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