I am so very thankful that in the interview on Issues Etc., Todd Wilken asked the perfect question of Bart Ehrman. I will be playing it on Thursday’s Dividing Line, but briefly, Wilken asked him what kind of conditions would have to prevail for him to believe the Bible was inspired and inerrant. This was similar to a question I asked Dr. Crossan last August, specifically, what would it take to prove to him that a miracle had taken place in the past, and he admitted nothing could convince him of that. Ehrman’s answer shed a tremendous amount of light upon why he says the things he says and why he abandoned the faith: he actually said that if God inspired Scripture, He would make sure there would be no textual variants in the transmission of the text over time! What an incredible statement! Think about that for a moment. That is his way of saying that, by definition, God could not give the Scripture in such a fashion as to match the spread of the Christian faith in the first century. Evidently, God could only give the Scriptures on specially engraved plates delivered by angelic messenger from heaven. Basically, revelation could not come until Gutenberg created a printing press…well, no, you have errors there, too. And realize as well, this incredible standard would mean that if a scribe began to get sleepy and was about to make an error in transcription, God would have to…freeze him in his tracks, or, maybe, kill him before an error could be made in a copy of Scripture! Would that mean that God would likewise have to make sure groups like Jehovah’s Witnesses never arise, never produce travesties like The New World Translation? Or would He just have to blow up the printing presses before they could produce the first copy? The utter irrationality of Ehrman’s criteria for inspiration is painfully obvious.
Let’s face it. For Bart Ehrman, there can be no divine revelation by definition. This is not the result of in-depth study on his part. His naturalistic, anti-supernatural worldview came out in glowing colors, as we will see.
By the way, for all those Muslims who have been touting Ehrman’s materials, realize that every time you quote him, you are quoting someone who would likewise say your Qur’an is just as much a human document as he says the New Testament is. So every time you promote his works, realize you are promoting someone who is just as opposed to your position as to ours. That’s called hypocrisy.
Alpha and Omega Ministries is a Christian apologetics organization based in Phoenix, Arizona. James White, director, is a professor, having taught Greek, Systematic Theology, and various topics in the field of apologetics for numerous schools.