Debating Bart Ehrman About the Gospels with Jimmy Akin

I Don't Have Enough FAITH to Be an ATHEIST

Dr. Frank Turek

Education, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.9 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

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Summary

When Christians suggest that the Bible is without error, what does that actually mean? And are there really good reasons to believe that the Bible, (specifically the New Testament) is both historically reliable and inerrant? Critics like Bart Ehrman raise challenging and thought-provoking questions about contradictions in the Gospels and Jesus' resurrection, but are they true contradictions or just apparent contradictions? For this week's podcast, Frank sits down with author and Catholic apologist, Jimmy Akin, to talk about his recent debate with the well-known atheist and UNC Chapel Hill professor, Bart Ehrman. Serving as a senior apologist on Catholic Answers, Jimmy will unpack how he used his seasoned debate skills to graciously disarm his opponent while laying out a good case for New Testament reliability and exploring the standards of writing in the first century. During their conversation, Frank and Jimmy will answer questions like: Did the Gospel writers remember and record the exact words of Jesus? Did Jesus have a twin brother who appeared to the disciples after the Resurrection? How do undesigned coincidences point towards New Testament reliability? Why are some of the New Testament events seemingly out of chronological order? Why did Bart Ehrman transition from a conservative fundamentalist Protestant Christian to now identifying as an atheist/agnostic? As Jimmy shares his unique strategy in approaching his dialogue with Ehrman, he'll also drop some insight on the importance of understanding the Bible's historical context, clarify the difference between truth and precision, and touch on why there are a variety of writing styles among the New Testament authors. This laid back and light-hearted podcast episode comes jam-packed with apologetics knowledge bombs so grab your pen and paper and prepare to learn more about what it really means for the New Testament to be reliable! And be sure to watch Akin and Ehrman's full debate on his YouTube channel HERE along with his fascinating podcast, 'Mysterious World'.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Does truth exist?
0:03.0	Because you have faith, does that make this book true?
0:05.0	Does God exist?
0:07.0	So when someone says there is no truth, if you apply the claim to itself, what should you say?
0:13.7	Is that true?
0:15.5	They don't think Christianity's true.
0:18.6	They're talked out of it.
0:20.3	You know why they're talked out of it?
0:22.2	Because they've never been talked into it.
0:24.0	Cross-examining skeptical and apiistic view.
0:28.0	Welcome to Cross-examine with Dr. Frank Turrick.
0:32.0	Ladies and gentlemen are are the Gospels historically reliable or unreliable?
0:39.0	And what do we mean by reliable?
0:41.0	Are there different levels of reliability? And how does reliability differ
0:45.8	from an errancy and what ways could we discover if the Gospels are reliable? What should we know about the accepted standards of writing in the
0:56.2	first century? And if we conclude the Gospels are reliable, how do we deal with the apparent contradictions
1:02.3	between the Gospel accounts of the resurrection?
1:05.0	You know, who got to the tomb first, where did they go after the resurrection?
1:08.0	All that.
1:09.0	And can we conclude from history that Jesus rose from the dead.
1:16.0	Well, you know, University of North Carolina professor at Chapel Hill, Bart Erman, who says he was a Christian at one point, but is now an
1:26.3	atheist claims that we can't conclude that Jesus rose from the dead, not from history anyway.
	...

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