Sep 14
23
Brothers and Sisters,
Do you remember how a few Sundays ago I spent a good bit of time introducing the Gospel of John, talking about different views concerning authorship and the dating of the book? All of that eventually lead to the comment, by way of application, that “we Christians need to learn to think critically about the ideas of those who think critically about the Bible.” In other words, we should not blindly buy into the ideas of these liberal scholars who seek to undermine the authority of scripture simply because they have written best selling books, or teach at prestigious universities, or appear on television. They may be brilliant, but that does not meant they are correct. They may have high IQ’s, but do not forget that their hearts may be at war with the living God, and their intellect used, not for the glory of God, but for the defamation of his name.
I would like to recommend an episode on the Reformed Forum podcast in which a number of Christian scholars do this very thing – they think critically about the ideas of those who think critically (in this case, the ideas of Bart Ehrman).
This episode will give you a glimpse into the kinds of debates that take place in scholarly circles in regard to the trustworthiness of the Bible and orthodox Christian belief. This episode is particularly timely in that it deals with the subject of the early churches view of the deity of Christ, John 1:1-14 being a central text in that conversation.
I hope you can listen in. Enjoy!
Pastor Joe
