![]() ![]() ![]() Some readers may wonder why I am not contrasting this view of Job with the famous passage of Job 19:25–26: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. Really? No one ? Does he have private access to an ancient poll taken of every living person?Įhrman frequently states what he believes as if opinion constitutes proof. For instance, he emphatically says, “There was a time in human history when no one on the planet believed that there would be a judgment day at the end of time” (8). (Hence the vulnerability of uninformed Christians who read his books.) Yet Ehrman frequently states what he believes as if opinion constitutes proof. Were he a lawyer he could take either side in any case and would likely persuade the jury. I admire Ehrman’s skill as a persuasive communicator. veryone will be saved.” Opinion Isn’t Proof He goes on to essentially applaud the rise of universalism in Christian churches: “Harkening back to Origen, and Paul before him, these committed believers maintain that in the end no one will be able to resist the love of God. He’s saying, “I don’t believe in an afterlife, but if there is one then everyone will be in heaven.” In the words of one modern Christian author, once himself a committed evangelical with a passion for the biblical witness, in the end “Love Wins.”Įhrman seems to offer universalism as a backup position to his naturalistic worldview. In, the love of God knows no bounds and cannot be overcome. However, Ehrman is certain he isn’t wrong about hell:Īre we really to think that God is some kind of transcendent sadist intent on torturing people (or at least willing to allow them to be tortured) for all eternity, a divine being infinitely more vengeful than anyone who has ever existed? (293–94)Īt the end of the book Ehrman quotes from ex-evangelical Rob Bell: But I have to say that at the end of the day I really don’t believe it either. So I’m completely open to the idea and deep down even hopeful about it. I certainly don’t think the notion of a happy afterlife is as irrational as the fires of hell at least it does not contradict the notion of a benevolent creative force behind the universe. Interestingly, though Ehrman doesn’t believe there is a heaven, he leaves room for its possibility: He simply ignores or reinterprets passages to the contrary (e.g. He says both of them, and the author of Revelation (whom he’s certain wasn’t the apostle John), taught annihilationism. But he doesn’t rant and rave he calmly presents his assertions, such as that Jesus and Paul disagreed on much, including the way of salvation, but shared a disbelief in an eternal hell. While he says little to refute pre-Christian views, once Ehrman gets to the historic Christian view of the afterlife, he conducts an all-out verbal siege. He then addresses the “later Hebrew position” on resurrection and Judgment Day from the intertestamental era. His core message is always: ‘Christians are dead wrong I know because I used to be one before I became enlightened.’Īrriving at the Bible, simply one more myth to Ehrman, he presents what he calls the “older Hebrew view” that death is the final end, followed by nonexistence. Whenever I read an Ehrman book, déjà vu kicks in. Along the way he interjects his belief that there’s no need to fear death, since it’s simply ceasing to exist (the very thing many people fear). ![]() Beginning with the Epic of Gilgamesh, he then examines Homer, Virgil, Plato, and other ancients. His core message is always: “Christians are dead wrong I know because I used to be one before I became enlightened.” Each of Ehrman’s books deals with something else Christians are wrong about and his newest, Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife, is another volume in his expanding canon of deconversion doctrine.Įhrman speaks with the authoritative tone of a historian-philosopher, a wise sage, unfolding humanity’s preoccupation with death and the fear of death. In this era of escalating deconversions, #exvangelicals, and the “Dones” (with church), Ehrman is a major instrument in countless readers’ downward spiritual trajectory. įalse teachers influence the church from both inside and outside, but outsiders gain special credibility when they are former insiders (cf. The subtitles of Ehrman’s books, including his five New York Times bestsellers, capture his premises: e.g., Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, How Jesus Became God: the Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galile e, and Forged: Writing in the Name of God-Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are. He also teaches eight of The Great Courses’s widely acclaimed Bible and Christianity classes, and has a part in 78 others. Bart Ehrman is professor of religious studies at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. ![]()
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