Chapter 2.5.
Is the Bible Corrupted?
1. Claims by so called "Christian Theologians" that the Bible text is corrupt
There are many such claims - mostly in vague and general terms - about the “many Christian Theologians” that claim that the Bible text is full of errors and inconsistencies. There is seldom a clear name and CV of such persons’ credibility about what they claim and how true it is.
Here is one typical list received during a Facebook debate:
“There are many Christian Clergies and Western Scholars who were born in Christianity and studied the Bible carefully testified against the Bible about its manipulations and distortions.
Dr. Hugh Schofield in the book titled 'those incredible Christians' says: "within the covers of the Bible we can meet with forgeries, manipulations and deliberate inventions just as much as outside it. Scholars are aware of that." This claim doesn’t provide any examples.
Dr. Graham Scroggie of the Moody Bible Institute Chicago :- "one of the most prestigious Christian Evangelical Missions in the world say on page 17 of his book that:" the Bible is human yet divine" which means the Bible has been affected by human errors, yet it contains the Word of God. Such a vague statement without any examples.
The Jehovah Witnesses in their:- "Awake" Magazine dated 8th September 1957 published the following headlines:"50,000 errors in the Bible." (Many Muslims like to quote this very often during Social Media debates)
Another western Christian Scholar and Historian of French origin called Thomas Paine wrote in page 65 of his book titled :- "The Age of reason" that : "but in addition to all the normal evidence against the Bible, I will, in the progress of this work produce such other evidence as even a priest cannot deny and show that the Bible is not entitled to credit as the Word of God."
The French Roman Catholic Scientist, Dr Maurice Bucaille, in page 120 of his book titled,' The Bible, Quran and Modern Science, says there are Monumental Scientific and other Historical errors in the Bible. Again, without any reference.
George Bernard Shaw in page 17 of his book titled: The truth about the Bible, says "the Bible is the most dangerous book on earth, and it should be kept under lock and key". He doesn’t mention at all why this book is so dangerous.
Robert Funk, a renowned Bible Scholar and 50 religion professors, in his book titled:"In search of Jesus", April 8th, 1996, page 47-53 says: -"not more than 20 percent of the sayings and even fewer of the sayings, and even fewer of the deeds attributed to Jesus are authentic." Again, without any reference.
An American writer, Mark Twain (18:35-1910) wrote:-"the Bible has noble poetry in it, and some clever Fables, and some blood - drenched history and some good morals, and a wealth of obscenity, and upwards of a thousand lies." Must one continue with the same comment… without any example or reference.
32 Christian Scholars… of the Highest Eminence backed up by 50 different Christian denominations, had opined in the preface of the Revised Standard Version page 3, that: - "yet the King James Version of the New Testament has grave defects. By the middle of the nineteenth century the development of Biblical studies and the discovery of many manuscripts more ancient than those upon which the King James Version was based made it manifest that these defects are so many and so serious as to call for the revision of the English translation. They further said: "the King James Version of the New Testament was based upon the Greek text that was marred by mistakes containing the accumulated errors of the fourteenth centuries of many scripts copying." (Please look to the next section 10.2 *that deals with those acclamations against the King James Version, already published in 1611)
2. Dr Bart Ehrman.
He is one famous example of such “so called Bible scholars” that strengthen Muslims in their claims that the Bible text is “full of errors and inconsistencies”.
Take note: Ehrman are not a Christian only because his topics cover the New Testament text (On a direct question to him, he couldn’t decide if he was an agnostic or an atheist, but he not claims to be a Christian).
Pastor Mike Winger said the following about Ehrman: “Bart Ehrman has convinced more people to reject the Christian faith than anyone alive today. But he has done so largely through being very misleading. I'm going to provide some solid examples of this as it relates to the crucifixion of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark because I think there is a lot of benefit in dealing with misleading claims about the Bible”.
In “How an Atheist Scholar Misleads Millions of People: The Mark Series: Mike Winger deal with Ehrman’s way of looking to things.
The viewer must decide for himself how honest Ehrman is dealing with the Bible text in his presentation.
One gets the impression he is a very learned, but confused Bible scholar that became extremely popular among likeminded people that left the Christian faith behind and now look for any person to provide information to confirm and support their own mostly atheistic viewpoints.
In my many years' experience with Muslim Evangelism I saw many times how they quote Ehrman because he said exactly what they want to hear to proof their Islamic religion against Jesus Christ as our only Saviour and degrade the Bible as a "corrupt" book.
After listening to some of his presentations, I experienced that his conclusions are mostly very provocative against the Christian faith.
Ehrman easily make such generalised claims like “The Bible Manuscripts have ‘thousands of errors and can therefore not be trusted”.
He made claims like... "Jesus was not mentioned by anybody in the entire first century..." A total lie, proofed by the research material from many N.T. scholars and Historians.
Just look to the many reports of Jesus' crucifixion. (See the information on the picture on the left)
Flavius Josephus was born ad 37/38 in Jerusalem and died ad 100 in Rome.
Cornelius Tacitus (ad 56 – c. 120) was a Roman historian and politician
I think Ehrman is tremendously used by Satan to attack the Christian faith and the Good News of Jesus Christ.
I read somewhere a quote that explains a lot behind the reasons why Bart Ehrman became famous... "Often atheists like to quote other atheists and liberal scholars like Bart Ehrman in an attempt to say Jesus never existed."
Why not more often quote Ehrman's professor at Princetown - Bruce Metzger - "Today no competent scholar denies the historicity of Jesus"
3. Did Bart Ehrman change his mind?
In a recent video Apostate Prophet asked Ehrman about the Crucifixion of Jesus. Just listen what he answered there:
Go to the Facebook Page where this video was shared:
https://www.facebook.com/GodAlsoLovesMuslims/posts/2824521461167313
4. How to deal with such claims from so called “Christian Theologians”
The answer is easy. Only by exposing the LIES and presenting the TRUTH.
Two discussion about Ehrman’s method of looking to the Christian scripts in comparison with the Quran are showing underneath.
4.1. A Question to Ehrman: Was the Quran perfectly preserved?
- 👉Look to his response in the video here
4.2. NT Wright response to Bart Ehrman
- 👉Look here and decide for himself.
4.3. The Blog "Ehrman Project”
The following very useful Blog Ehrman Project is initiated by numerous Christian Biblical scholars, who profoundly disagree with his findings, make it their goal to provide responses to Dr Ehrman's mostly provocative statements about the Christian faith and the Bible.
One example is his claim that the Bible Manuscripts have "thousands" of errors and can therefore not be trusted - see a response with this video How do we explain the Bible's 400,000 errors?
Barth Ehrman's purpose is to be popular and therefore says such things that also people like Muslims want to hear.
Why not listen to many other Christian Bible Theologians who differ from him about the Bible.
Most important, ask yourself if Bart Ehrman is a Believer of Jesus Christ, if he knows the meaning of being born again and if he has a personal relation with Jesus as his Lord and Saviour.
4.4. Listen what Nabeel Qureshi said about Ehrman.
Qureshi said “Ehrman put his faith in the Bible, and not in Jesus. When he learned things about the Bible that he can’t understood, he rejects the Bible and stop believing in Jesus”. No, said Nabeel; I believed in Jesus because of the historical certainty about His crucifixion and resurrection and therefore I accepted the Bible as true; not otherwise. It is not the Bible that determine if you are a Christian; It’s faith in Jesus (even before the New Testament was written). Otherwise, it is ideology. (Look to the video from Qureshi)
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