Yesterday I was on an atheist forum. It was amazing to me what I saw. It was a discussion about textual criticism. These atheists were discussing how the text of the Bible had changed so much that there was no way anyone in their right mind would believe it. They were even going so far as to question the very existence of Jesus as a historical figure. Why? Well, from their point of view the testimony of the Scriptures is unreliable since the manuscripts that the stories come from were corrupted and, therefore, beyond rational belief. They brought up many points of textual criticism made by Agnostic scholar Bart Ehrman.
You see, Bart Ehrman knows about textual criticism. In fact, he is the only person in the history of the world to write a bestselling book about this subject. But his conclusions are irresponsible, imbalanced, and outright wrong. But, as I saw on the forum, most Christians have never studied the subject so it becomes a prime target for atheists to attack. After all, if there are so many errors, changes, and lies about the story of Jesus presented in the text, where do we turn to to get the Gospel?
The fact is that textual criticism is not a subject that the enemies of the Gospel should be able to use against Christianity. But if Christians are not informed about this subject, they will quickly get steamrolled as this is one of the primary ways that people use to attack the Bible. You should love textual criticism because you love the defense of the Gospel.
And this is the reason why we want you involved in this project. This project is about defending the Gospel against the very concerted attack of the enemy. Join with us at whatever level you can. Yes, we are funded for the minimal amount. But the more support we get, the more we will be able to produce this course at a high level and the best price you will be able to get the course.
With just 24 hours left, please help us kick-start Textual Criticism in a Big Way!
Keep the Faith. It is a cross to bear, but it is true.
Michael Patton
President, Credo House Ministries
www.credohouse.org
