Is Jesus really the reason for the season of Christmas?
Bart Ehrman is famous for “debunking” Christian claims about the Bible, Jesus, and early Christianity. He claims that early followers CHEATED by making stuff up about Jesus—including the Christmas stories.
But maybe Ehrman is the one CHEATING.
That’s what this video series is all about. Here is the first one. The transcript is below.
TRANSCRIPT:
Is Jesus really the reason for the season of Christmas?
Or did the followers of Jesus, in grief about his death, have some weird visions of him, convincing them that he wasn’t really dead, making them conclude that maybe he wasn’t really just a human like us, and retroactively adding stories to his life, things like the virgin birth in order to convince us that Jesus really is God.
Is Jesus really the reason for the season of Christmas?
Or did the followers of Jesus, in grief about his death, have some weird visions of him, convincing them that he wasn’t really dead, making them conclude that maybe he wasn’t really just a human like us, and retroactively adding stories to his life, things like the virgin birth in order to convince us that Jesus really is God.
In other words, Was Jesus Really God? Really?
Or was Jesus just a regular guy, and later his followers claimed he was God for some reason?
Historian and religious studies professor Bart Ehrman claims to show “How Jesus Became God”.
Essentially he claims that later followers of Jesus were just making stuff up about Jesus so that Jesus would seem like he was God. Of course he nuances that a bit—as we’ll see. But basically people added and augmented details about Jesus to make it look like Jesus was God.
Basically Ehrman say they cheated.
I don’t know about you. But I sometime I cheat at cards. I give myself a couple extra points. Deal from the bottom. Flash some signals to a partner.
But to be a good cheater, you can’t get caught.
Bart Ehrman, and many scholars like him, claim that early Christians were cheaters, making stuff up about Jesus. But these Christians were bad cheaters and have been caught by these modern critics—caught red-handed in the cookie jar.
But as we’ll see, it is actually Ehrman who is cheating with the evidence, claiming to have certainty about things that we don’t, claiming to know more than he could, and claiming that the early Christians were both brilliant and stupid at the same time.
The question is, Who is cheating when it comes to Jesus, early Christians or scholars like Bart Ehrman?
What’s it matter? And who am I?
Why do I care about all this?
Specifically, people read Bart Ehrman and have never looked at the Bible or faith in the way he suggests, he speaks so authoritatively and convincingly, and they assume Ehrman is right and they start questioning everything they’ve ever learned about Jesus and Christianity (which is kind of Ehrman’s goal).
But people who stumble on Ehrman don’t know he is cheating to win.
And more generally, I think we need to talk about how faith and history fit together, how doctrine and science can work together. And we need to talk about good and bad defenses of the faith, and the assumptions we bring to reading the Bible.
So, then, who am I?
I’m an author, and seminary theology professor, and pastor.
I’ve written several books, taught and lectured on these topics, and I care about helping grow the faith of everyday people like you. That’s what Grassroots Christianity is all about.
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Or did the followers of Jesus, in grief about his death, have some weird visions of him, convincing them that he wasn’t really dead, making them conclude that maybe he wasn’t really just a human like us, and retroactively adding stories to his life, things like the virgin birth in order to convince us that Jesus really is God.
For more on overcoming biblicism and regaining a better view of the Bible, see me course, “Deconstructing Fundamentalism without Destroying Faith“.