A leading NT textual critical expert, Bart Ehrman is also one of the most formidable critique of the Christian faith to have come out of north America. He claimed to have been a born-again fundamentalist Christian in his teenage years. He attended Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton College and earned his PhD in textual criticism from Princeton Theological Seminary, all with magna cum laude. He lost his faith in Christ, and now considers himself an atheist. Ehrman is also profuse in his publications, with a count of nearly 40 books that he wrote or edited, with enticing titles like Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why, The Orthodox Corruption of Scriptures, and Forged. He has also managed to grow a popular following with his frequent appearances on public TV and on his blog.
Ehrman claims that he first left the Christian faith after he "realized that at the time we had over 5,000 manuscripts of the New Testament, and no two of them are exactly alike," and, therefore, the Bible could not be true. He finally turned atheistic after struggling with the issue of evil. Some commentators have suggested that most of what he rebels against is not evidentially based (others have come to conclusions very different from his based on the same evidences) but a carry-over from the narrow-minded strictures of American fundamentalism; if this was the case, he isn't the first victim of such tragedy.
While Bart Ehrman may be interesting in many ways, he has little relevance for the preacher on most issues. We know of no case where it has been suggested Ehrman's journey away from faith is an example of how critical studies can easily lead one astray from the faith. It is, however, an opinion that should not be attempted; it is simplistic, unfair and unkind. Unless Ehrman himself affirms it to be the case, none of us knows him—or his faith journey—well enough for such an opinion to be truthful.
Resources:
Ask N T Wright Anything: How do you Respond to Bart Ehrman?
Peter J Williams, "How Scepticism became a bestseller." Article: Tyndale House. 6 September 2019.
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Peter J Williams & Bart Ehrman debate on The Big Conversation. Tyndale House (Premier ChristainRadio). 1½ hrs.
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