Before Ehrman went to seminary and began to doubt Scripture, Ehrman allowed suffering in his family to start turning him away from God. He (Former Fundamentalist ‘debunks’ Bible, 2009) relates one incident when his dad was dying of cancer in the hospital.
The youth leader visited Ehrman's father when he was dying of cancer in a hospital. The youth leader used a bottle of hotel shampoo to "anoint" his father, and tried to persuade his father to confess specific sins, Ehrman says. Ehrman says he was angry at the minister for acting "self-righteous" and "hypocritical." "For a vulnerable high-schooler who is trying to figure out the world, a personality like that is very attractive," Ehrman says. "They're like cult leaders. They have all the answers."
Ehrman says he later became an agnostic because he couldn't find the answer to another question: How could there be a God when there is so much suffering in the world? An agnostic is one who disclaims any knowledge of God but does not deny the possibility of God's existence. From these early doubts, Ehrman went on to completely repudiate all beliefs in God and the Bible.
We have answered two of Bart Ehrman’s alleged contradictions in God’s Word in the post Inerrancy of Scripture (click to open). Now we will address two more (3 and 4 below).
1. There are differences in the genealogies of Christ in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 which prove the Gospels untrue.
2. Only John has Jesus claiming to be the Son of God.
3. Ehrman also claims that the Gospels’ record of the Jesus crucifixion is different, especially Mark’s and Luke’s.
In his debate with Craig Evans (2011), Ehrman argued that Mark does not record Jesus saying anything as he carried his cross. Mark records that two robbers were crucified with Jesus and both reviled him but he answered them not a word. The only statement that Jesus made from the cross according to the Gospel of Mark was his cry of despair, “My God, My God….” (Mark 15:34).
Luke, on the other hand, gives a completely different story that, according to Ehrman, contradicts Mark’s account. Luke has Jesus speaking as he carries his cross. Jesus speaks to the crying women: “Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for yourselves and for your children” (23:28). Luke has Jesus speaking to one of the robbers and telling him, “Today you shall be with me in paradise.” Because Mark did not record this saying this must be a contradiction according to Ehrman. Also, Luke has Jesus saying, “Father forgive them” and Jesus not dying in despair but in victory, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit.”
What Christians do, Ehrman says, is smash all these Gospels together and come up with the Last Seven Sayings of Jesus from the Cross. But none of the Gospels do this. This is not one of the Gospels, Ehrman says, “This is the Gospel according to you.” The Gospels contradict themselves and are totally untrustworthy, Ehrman concludes. Steven Cole (2006) wrote:
The late theologian Kenneth Kantzer had a friend whose mother was killed. Kantzer first heard about her death through a trusted mutual friend who reported that the woman had been standing on the street corner, was hit by a bus, was fatally injured and died a few minutes later. A short time later he heard from the dead woman’s grandson that she was riding in a car that was in a collision, she was thrown from the car and killed instantly. The boy was quite certain of his facts. Which story was correct?
If you didn’t like or trust the grandson, you would conclude that the boy was confused and that the first account was the correct one. Or, if you had a problem with the first man, you could believe the boy’s account. Or, you could scoff at both accounts and say that obviously, they contradict one another, so neither story is true. Your approach to the credibility of the witnesses would greatly affect your conclusion.
Dr. Kantzer later learned from the dead woman’s daughter that her mother had been waiting for a bus, was hit by another bus and critically injured. A passing motorist put her in his car and sped off to the hospital. En route, he was in a collision in which the injured woman was thrown from the car and killed instantly. Both accounts were literally true! All of the accounts in the Gospels can also be explained as true.
The Four Gospels give four different looks at Jesus
The Holy Spirit led Mark to write what would best fit his purpose in portraying Jesus as the Servant and also the best witness to his Roman audience. The Holy Spirit led Luke to write not the same thing about Jesus but what would also better suit his portrayal of Jesus as the compassionate Son of Man. If each Gospel were the same that would be total redundancy. Then the critics would accuse the Gospel writers of forgery. The four Gospels all bear witness to Jesus as the Son of God. The Old Testament rule was; in the mouth of two or three witnesses, a truth is confirmed. In the Gospels, we have not just two or three witnesses but four witnesses shouting Jesus is the Son of God who must be received as Savior.
4. Ehrman, in the interview with Ruth Graham (2014), espoused "that Jesus’ body was likely not buried in an individual tomb, but would instead have been left on the cross to be eaten by scavengers, and then deposited in an ignominious mass grave."
Ehrman got this idea from the former Roman Catholic priest John Dominic Crossan (The Historic Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1992) who justified his rejection of the resurrection of Jesus by theorizing that a Roman soldier disposed of Jesus' body in a ditch which was then eaten by dogs (pp. 392-393). For further reading on Crossan’s view, consult Kenneth D. Boa and Robert M. Bowman’s (2002) book 20 Compelling Evidences That God Exits. Chapter 16 “Evidences of Jesus’ Empty Tomb” is very helpful.
So the empty tomb means nothing to Ehrman and Crossan. If the body of Jesus never resurrected why did the early church preach and die for the risen Savior?
Ehrman claims that the belief that Jesus is God is the result of visions and hallucinations that his disciples and Paul experienced. Ehrman expressed this view in an interview with the Boston Globe (2014):
It (Christianity) originated in real, actual experiences of some of Jesus’ followers, as they had visions of Jesus not long after his death. These visions were experienced by several different people—Peter, Mary, James, and then much later Paul. The visions appear to have taken these people by surprise. And they convinced all of them that Jesus was no longer dead, but had been raised bodily from the dead. If it matters when and how Christianity originated—the religion of over 2 billion people in our world today—then it is worth knowing that it began with the visionary experiences of some of Jesus’ friends and at least one of his enemies.
The problem with Ehrman’s theory of visions
The problem with Ehrman’s theory of visions also known as the hallucination theory is that Jesus appeared many times to many different believers and also to groups of disciples at many different locations and not just believers but his greatest enemies. Paul wrote that Jesus appeared to over 500 disciples on one occasion (1 Cor 15:1-6). Did 500 believers experience the same mass hallucination?
Lee Strobel
Lee Strobel had the same Christian evidence as Bart Ehrman. Strobel became an investigative journalist for the Chicago Tribune. He was an atheist. His wife Leslie started going to Willow Creek church and Strobel noticed positive changes in her lifestyle. He went to church with her at Willow Creek and heard Bill Hybel preach.
Strobel started what became a two-year investigation of Christianity. The first year he studied the Gospels. He wanted to know if the Gospels were historically accurate. Was there eyewitness verification to the events in the Gospels? Were there contradictions? Was the transmission of the text reliable since there were no original autographs? Was there outside corroboration of the New Testament? What about the Gnostic Gospels? So Lee sought out and interrogated leading theologians. They answered his questions.
Lee ceased being an atheist and became a seeker. Next, he asked the scholars "Who was Jesus?" He learned that Jesus claimed to be God (John 14:8-9) and Jesus performed miracles that gave evidence of his claims. The evidence convicted Lee. The same evidence that Bart Ehrman had studied and rejected.
In the second year, Lee examined the resurrection of Jesus. All the time his wife was praying for Lee's salvation. Finally, on November 8th, 1981, Lee went into his study with a legal pad. He drew a line down the middle and wrote on one side "Positive Evidence" and on the other side, he wrote "Negative Evidence." He then weighed the evidence and decided to trust Christ as his Savior.
The impact of Christian evidence in Lee's life, however, did not take place in a vacuum. He heard the Word of God preached by Hybel and witnessed to him by his wife. God used the evidence but it was the Word of God under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit that drew him to Christ.
Can the Gospels be trusted? The evidence is there. It is up to you! “Choose you today whom you will serve.”
THE FOUR GOSPELS MAKE UP ALMOST HALF OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
They are the longest books in the New Testament. Mark the shortest of the four Gospels is longer than the book of Revelation which is the longest of the other New Testament books.
Why is so much material in the four Gospels? Because the subject of the four Gospels is the story of Jesus: His virgin birth, sinless life, miraculous healing, powerful preaching and teaching, substitutionary death, and victorious resurrection.
The four Gospels are first in the New Testament not because they were written first. Most of the Epistles were written before the Gospels. The four Gospels are first in the New Testament because the message of the four Gospels completes the Old Testament. The Gospels show the fulfillment of the prophecies of Christ in the Old Testament. The very first verse (Matthew 1:1) connects the Gospels to Christ fulfilling promises to Abraham and David.
The four Gospels not only complete the Old Testament but also bridge the Old Testament with the New Testament. The book of Acts takes up where the four Gospels conclude as Acts 1:1 shows. What Jesus commanded in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20, the early church in Acts fulfills. Paul defines the Gospel as the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ in 1st Corinthians 15. The four Gospels are necessary to understand The Gospel. The book of Revelation refers to Jesus who “was dead” and is “alive forevermore” in 1:18. The record of the death and resurrection is of course found in the four Gospels.
But why four Gospels? Is it true what we sometimes hear critics say, “If you have read one Gospel you have read all four?” No! The four Gospels are not four separate pictures of Christ, but rather one picture from four different angles of Christ.
EACH GOSPEL WRITER PRESENTED THE SAME SAVIOR DIFFERENTLY
1. Matthew presented Christ as the Old Testament prophesied King to his Jewish readers.
Matthew emphasizes Jesus’ birth and his credentials to be king. The genealogy of the King is found in chapter one and only in Matthew. Jesus had a human right to be King (1:1-17). He was the Son of David. Jesus had a divine right to be King (1:18-25). He was the virgin-born Son of God.
Matthew records the fulfillment of the Old Testament Messianic prophecies. Matthew breaks the silence of 400 years with “that it might be fulfilled” eleven times (1:22-23; 2:15, 17-18, 23; 4:14-16; 8:17; 12:17-21; 13:35; 21:4-5; 26:56; 27:9-19).
2. Mark portrayed Christ as the tireless servant to his Roman Gentile reader.
Mark wrote in Rome to his aggressive, practical Roman audience. The Romans who conquered nations and built the Roman roads would be attracted to Jesus the worker. A keyword in Mark is “straightway” or “immediately" to describe Jesus' ministry. Mark starts not with the birth of Christ, but with the public ministry of Christ beginning at his baptism which would have been more important to the Type A Roman. Mark says that Christ “came not to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). More miracles are detailed in Mark by the miracle worker than in any other Gospel. Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels for on-the-go Romans.
3. Luke the Gentile physician wrote more for the Greek gentile to show Jesus as the perfect Son of Man.
Like Matthew, Luke also mentions the birth of the Son of Man. But unlike Matthew, Luke the physician focuses on more of the intimate details of the virgin birth of Jesus. Luke traces Jesus’ genealogy not back to Abraham and David like Matthew did but back to Adam, the first man (Luke 3:38). Luke records more prayers of Jesus than any other Gospel writer. If Jesus in His humanity needed to pray so do we.
4. John presents Christ as the incarnate Son of God for Jew or Gentile to be received by faith as Savior according to John 20:31.
John starts not with the genealogy of the King, or the birth of Christ, or the baptism of the Servant but with the eternality of Christ in John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word.” This phrase is used at different times in Scripture in reference to Jesus. Mark 1:1 uses “in the beginning of the gospel” to refer to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry at His baptism. Genesis 1:1 uses the phrase to refer to creation. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” John takes us back to eternity when he writes, “In the beginning was the Word.” It is the little word “was” (imperfect tense in Greek) which means “already was and still is.” When God was creating the universe Jesus already was because He is eternal.
John 17:5 is a follow-up to John 1:1. In John 17:5, Jesus prayed, “And now, O Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you which I had with you before the world was.”
As a matter of fact, because Jesus existed before creation He could create and did create everything. John says this in 1:3, “All things were made by him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.”
In John 15:5, Jesus alluded to the phrase “without Him” when Jesus said, “Without me you can do nothing.” But with me, because I am God and the Creator of everything, you can do all things that are my will. Jesus went on to say, “If you abide in me and my Words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.”
I saw a license tag with the word “Godable.” There were not two words God Able but one word, “Godable.” We are Godable with Jesus. Listen as Paul describes our Godable Jesus, “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
All four Gospels together give the full picture of Christ. Matthew presents Christ as King, Mark presents Christ as Servant, Luke presents Christ as Son of Man and John presents Christ as the Son of God.
Critics start from the false assumption that each writer undertook to relate all that had taken place or been said about Jesus. In other words, the critics say that each Gospel writer painted a complete portrait of Christ, and because each Gospel has differences they are full of contradictions.
The four Gospels do not contradict each other, the four Gospels supplement each other. For example, the superscription over the cross of Christ illustrates this reality. All the Gospel writers refer to the title of Jesus on the cross but none of them quote the title the same. Matthew says, “This is Jesus the king of the Jews” (27:37); Mark, “the king of the Jews” (15:26); Luke, “This is the king of the Jews” (23:38); and John, “Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews” (19:19). There is no contradiction. The full superscription is the combination of all four Gospel writers: “This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews.” A. W. Pink ((Why Four Gospels. Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot Publishers, 1921) puts it this way, “Why four Gospels? Because one or two was not sufficient to give a perfect presentation of the varied glories of the blessed Lord” (12).
You can be like Bart Ehrman and examine the evidence and reject it or you can be like Lee Strobel and examine the same evidence and honor God with your faith. The choice is yours!