Dr. Bart Ehrman
A few days ago, I was in a local coffee shop and saw a man who looked almost identical to the anti-Christian Biblical Scholar Bart Ehrman. I went over to talk to him. He had no idea who Bart Ehrman was but did say he would google him when he got home.
For anyone getting into apologetics, one needs to study the Christian faith in depth. If you check my recommended reading section, I have plenty of books there to check out. The other side of the coin is knowing what apologetics your opponents will use. In the last ten years, every mainstream bookstore has books by Bart Ehrman on the shelf. He has even written bestsellers. I first heard of this man in University when I was reading God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by the raging atheist Christopher Hitchens.
Bart Ehrman is a Biblical scholar who has made it his goal bring “scholarly” conclusions to the average Christian sitting in the pews. He often points out in his books that pastors in Churches aren’t teaching this to the people in their Church. He never concludes that maybe these conclusions aren’t accepted by most pastors. They’re pretty liberal conclusions.
Although, Bart Ehrman at times tries to present a façade of objectivity, his goal is ultimately to destroy the Christian faith. In his book Forged, he writes:
I want readers to think more deeply about the role of lies and deception in the history of the Christian religion. I want to show the irony in the fact that lies and deception have been used to establish the “truth.”
It’s pretty clear what Ehrman is about when reading statements like these. Regardless, the enemy reads him. Many atheists and Muslims in the West cling to the writings of this man. Many of them have not even read the scriptures but they want that extra ammunition for when they debate a believer.
He writes many popular and scholarly books. If you want to get into apologetics, reading his works are not an option. They must be read. Personally I haven’t read them all, but I’m working on it. He has thirty books in total. Many of them are just popular versions of his scholarly works.
When I read my first Ehrman book about six years ago, I must admit that it was a punch in the face. He comes out guns blazing with the firm attempt of destroying your faith. It’s very intimidating since he has a PhD in the field and is a distinguished professor.
It takes time and maturity to beat Ehrman’s arguments. You need to learn to ask the right questions. Sometimes he takes facts for granted and glosses over major flaws in his theories. It’s easy to get snowed by this because he’s a very talented writer and speaks in such a scholarly tone.
Most atheists or Muslims who quote him, often just quote him as an authority which is easy to refute. However, some actually quote his arguments and in this case it’s good have read them. As an apologist, it’s not fun reading what he writes, but someone has to do the dirty work.
Everything he’s written can be found here on his website:
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