A Christmas Devotional From BART EHRMAN: The Life-Changing Message of Christianity
Bart says you can take the boy out of Christianity but you can’t take Christianity out of the boy!
1. The world is not as its meant to be- Bart wants a transcendent ideal for the world without a Transcendent Being behind it
2. Ehrman’s secular humanism gives him no basis for objective morality or a better way to live than the example of Jesus
3. Ehrman likes the idea of a saviour but not the idea of sin
4. Ehrman still sees astounding beauty in the Christian message- how will you respond to it?
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New Testament scholar, Dr. Bart Ehrman, is one of the most prominent voices against Christianity in the world today. Countless people have had their faith shaken from his writings and videos. Many Muslims, agnostics and atheists alike collectively look up to Ehrman as a champion for truth.
Ehrman’s impact is so widespread that there is even a Christian site containing content from Christian academics, called the Ehrman Project, dedicated to debunking his work.
Ehrman is particularly famous for his work on variants in the New Testament manuscripts, claims that the four Gospels are anonymous nor based on eyewitness accounts and that Matthew, Mark and Luke do not teach a divine Jesus.
We have addressed these issues along with highlighting some statements many would not expect from Ehrman in other posts outlined below:
Ehrman on Christmas
However, today we will be looking at Ehrman’s comments on Christmas.
Several years ago, Ehrman published a piece on Christmas Reflections.
Ehrman explains:
“More than any other time, event, or celebration, Christmas, for me, shows that you can take the boy out of Christianity but you can’t take Christianity out of the boy. As much as I am a completely secular-humanist/agnostic/atheist (pick your term), I am still hopelessly attracted to Christmas and what it stands for.”
Ehrman then continues to write about how he thinks very little material in the Gospels is historical and notes that Christmas is a very painful of the year for some people.
For Ehrman, however, Christmas helps him remember the good times of peace and happiness growing up, enjoy life, enjoy seeing generosity and appreciate kindness between fellow human beings.
Nonetheless, the most striking aspect of Ehrman’s post is the final part.
Yes, the close that focuses on the image of God Christmas conveys.
Ehrman continues:
“The God of Christmas is not a God of wrath, judgment, sin, punishment, or vengeance. He is a God of love, who wants the best for people and gives of himself to bring peace, joy, and redemption. That’s a great image of a divine being. This is not a God who is waiting for you to die so he can send you into eternal torment.
It is a God who is concerned for you and your world, who wants to solve your problems, heal your wounds, remove your pain, bring you joy, peace, happiness, healing, and wholeness.
Can’t we keep that image with us all the time? Can’t we affirm that view of ultimate reality 52 weeks of the year instead of just a few?
I myself do not believe in God. But if I did, that would be the God I would defend, promote, and proclaim.
Enough of war! Enough of starvation! Enough of epidemics! Enough of pain! Enough of misery! Enough of abject loneliness! Enough of violence, hatred, narcissism, self-aggrandizement, and suffering of every kind!
Give me the God of Christmas, the God of love, the God of an innocent child in a manger, who comes to bring salvation and wholeness to the world, the way it was always meant to be.”
Reflections on Ehrman’s post
Let’s take a look at some quick reflections on Ehrman’s post.
1. The world is not as its meant to be- Bart wants a transcendent ideal for the world without a Transcendent Being behind it
Ehrman refers to wounds, problems, pain, abject loneliness, wars, narcissism, starvation, epidemics and even the “way (the world) was always meant to be.”
How does Ehrman know how the world is meant to be? Where does this sense come from? Where does this view of joy, peace, happiness, healing and wholeness being how to world is meant to be come from?
Who meant for the world to be such a way? How can the world be meant to be a certain way if no one even meant for the world to be?
What makes narcissism, self-aggrandising and hatred wrong?
Under a secular humanist/ agnostic/ atheistic worldview, the world just is. It is matter and movements. Bart is basically a bag of localised chemical reactions.
There is no basis for objective transcendent morality or an objective transcendent ideal for the world. Nothing transcendent beyond the universe exists.
As the American Humanist Manifesto explains, “humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.”
There’s no real purpose behind the universe’s existence (as there’s no ultimate purpose giver) so why act as if there is an ideal purpose to the universe we should conform to?
The physical world is all there is. Any of the ideals Ehrman refers to are at best creations of his own subjective experience and at worst illusions and tricks played by chemicals in his brain. Under a secular humanist worldview, everything ultimately arises from chemical reactions.
What really seems to be happening is that, as Ehrman himself says, “you can’t take Christianity out of the boy.” The whole ideal that the world is fallen, broken, not as its meant to be and in need of restoration to an immaterial transcendent ideal (beyond the localised chemical reactions in Bart’s head) is one that is more consistent with a Christian worldview than an atheistic one.
In the words of Richard Dawkins on p. 133 of the God Delusion:
“In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but a blind, pitiless indifference.”
Under such a worldview there is no ultimate good or evil. Things just are.
More on this topic here:
2. Ehrman’s secular humanism gives him no basis for objective morality or a better way to live than the example of Jesus
As mentioned in point 1, Ehrman’s worldview provides no basis for objective morality.
There is no such thing as a Transcendent Moral Lawgiver so we can’t think there are any objective transcendent moral laws.
However, in some ways, Ehrman still points to Jesus as a type of moral ideal.
Elsewhere, Ehrman has purported Jesus’ teachings should dominate our lives.
"Jesus' teachings of love, and mercy and forgiveness, I think, really should dominate our lives.. On the personal level, I agree with many of the ethical teachings of Jesus and I try to model my life on them, even though I don't agree with the apocalyptic framework in which they were put.”
Even in the Christmas blog post, Ehrman points to the joy, peace and healing associated with the story of Jesus.
Jesus healed people throughout his ministry on earth and brought joy and peace to his followers.
Concerning Jesus’ birth, the angel proclaimed “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people (Luke 2:10).”
3. Ehrman likes the idea of a saviour but not the idea of sin
Ehrman juxtaposes “a God of wrath, judgment, sin, punishment, or vengeance” with “a God of love, who wants the best for people and gives of himself to bring peace, joy, and redemption.”
However, Ehrman later says, "Give me the God of Christmas… who comes to bring salvation and wholeness to the world.”
Yet, what Ehrman misses is that sin and salvation delivered by a saviour are interconnected.
To have a need to be saved, there is something that you need to be saved from.
As Matthew 1:21 says:
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Salvation is saving from sin. That is what Jesus came for. You cannot disconnect the two ideas. It is like disconnecting drowning from being rescued from drowning.
Ehrman seems to be aware of the issue of human fallenness when he expresses his concerns about “violence, hatred, narcissism, self-aggrandizement.”
This is precisely what we need to be saved from.
4. Ehrman still sees beauty in the Christian message- how will you respond to it?
As Ehrman explains, “This is not a God who is waiting for you to die so he can send you into eternal torment. It is a God who is concerned for you and your world, who wants to solve your problems, heal your wounds, remove your pain, bring you joy, peace, happiness, healing, and wholeness… I myself do not believe in God. But if I did, that would be the God I would defend, promote, and proclaim… Give me the God of Christmas, the God of love, the God of an innocent child in a manger, who comes to bring salvation and wholeness to the world, the way it was always meant to be.”
In Christianity, God is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Peter 3:9).”
God has a posture of open arms towards people. Jesus urges people who are weary and heavy laden to come to him and he will give them rest (Matt. 11:27-28).
This is not a God who remains distant from the pain, abject loneliness and suffering in the world. Rather, Jesus was rejected by his closest friends, and died a cruel and excruciating death for his friends.
The Transcendent brought low enough to be placed in a manger, a feeding trough for animals (Luke 2:7) because there was no room to be found for him anywhere else.
