by Joey Jo-Jo 44 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Donuthole,
Agreed, it seems to me that many people are looking to find a way to disbelieve in God and the bible and these book with their air of authority hlep them do just that.
One wonders if they put this much effort into CONFIRMING what these authors OPINIONATE or if they take them as facts at face value.
Just remember that Bart is stating an opinion and nothing more and like any opinion, the counter arguments should also be studied with equal zeal.
I have studied them, they are a lot less logical IMO.
-Sab
Here's one thing I learned from Professor Ehrman: We don't have any original manuscripts. We have copies of copies of copies of copies of copies. If the WT teaches this, I must have missed that particular meeting. I suppose I was just operating under the "God did it" explanation.
The codex Siniaticus and Vaticanus are from the mid to late 4th century, just 300 years after Jesus's death and the first writings about Jesus, as any historian will tell you, that is VERY close in historical terms.
VERY close <--------- Copies of copies of copies of copies of copies.
As long as you receive a Personal Revelation, then I don't see how the Scriptures even matter. Moreover, most folks just interpret away the portions of Scripture they don't agree with.
donuthole
A couple of weeks ago Don Veinot gave a very good lecture on some of Ehrman's stuff at the WNFJ convention. He's also written some on him as well.
Here's a sample: http://midwestoutreach.org/blogs/interrupting-ehrman
Below is a very recent debate with Ehrman. . .
This is the March 31, 2010 debate between two prominent New Testament scholars: Dr. Dr. Craig Evans and Dr. Bart Ehrman (specific debate info and bios here) on the topic: Does the New Testament Misquote Jesus? The format revolves around 7 critical questions on the topic, with each participant providing their prepared answers. Wintery Knight has his overview of the debate here. Video can be found here.
Full Debate MP3 Audio here. (90 minutes)
http://apologetics315.blogspot.com/2010/04/craig-evans-vs-bart-ehrman-debate-does.html
From Deputy Dog's link, above, is this statement:
He was and continues to be very clear that the Bible is fundamentally not reliable.
PSac, do you agree with Ehrman on this point? Or, is that description a bit too strong? I know that you don't think the Bible is free of errors, etc.
He's an interesting guy. I got to see a lecture he gave and meet him. With all my arcane questions I asked him after his talk (such as NT allusions in the epistle of 1 Clement or the exegetical use of Psalm 69 in early Christian writings), the funny part was when he asked, "Who ARE you?" lol
The guy in the YouTube video above (posted by onemore) seems to have as much disdain for "Liberal" Christians and NPR as he does for Ehrman (an agnostic).
IMHO, Ehrman's books don't represent a threat to Cahtolics or Episcopals. His books 'might' shake the faith of an ignorant Fundmentalist -- which is what I used to be.
Reality tells us that MOST Christians don't view the Bible as the inerrant Word of God.
