Bart D Ehrman's Latest Apostate Hits (or Misses!)

Recently BAR magazine delivered the teachings of Dr. Bart Ehrman to light as he did an expose on how Jesus  the man became venerated as deity. 

Building on and reaffirming his self proclaimed "agnosticism" the American New Testament scholar, currently the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,  took about 45 minutes to make his case, beginning with a 2 minute presentation of a parallel called "One remarkable Life" based on the life of Apollonious of Tyana, who was said to have many of the same appellations of Jesus, claiming that there were "many" son of God myths during that time, flying around the pagan (non-Jewish) world.

In his diatribe he claims that Apollonious of Tyana was an incarnation, born of a virgin, was a miracle worker, suffered at the hands of Romans, and experienced resurrection...in other words, Apollonius's life was parallel to Jesus life during the same historical time, therefore the recorded events of Jesus life and even Jesus himself was not specially unique for the time. The peanut gallery asks:  Is any of this true? Well some is and some isn't, and what isn't makes the total difference.  

Unraveling The Tangled Web Of Deception

Unfortunately, Dr. Ehrman continues to persist in partial and half truths to make and promote whole and complete lies. In the Facebook group In Defense Of The Faith, I took the time to outline Dr. Ehrman's flawed starter argument in the following manner:  

"In this discourse Dr. Ehrman sets out to prove how Jesus became the "Christ" or how he became divine. He, like Robert Price, are building off a discredited hero thesis by English folklorist Lord Raglan who claimed that all hero myths of antiquity shared 22 traits. Price claims that Jesus had all 22 and therefore was nothing more than a hero myth.

One of the criteria, is that this figure is often called a "son of God" has a unique and special beginning and relationship with his mother, had a special life in which he performed miracles, a special death and was seen after his death in a sort of resurrection.

Ehrman presents Apollonius of Tyana as the perfect fit to a Jesus parallel and one that proves that hero myths were a common thing of antiquity.

First, Dr. Ehrman plays fast and lose with the facts. How? He implores what is called anachronistic view of events for starters. See, Apollonious came along in the second century and no stories were mentioned about him until over 100 years AFTER his death and the person that commissioned the writings was Empress Julia Domina who is said to have done so IN RESPONSE to what was found in the gospels about Christ. In other words, the Romans needed a Jesus parallel.

Another important fact is that all that we know about Apollionius is found in ONE writing (as stated long after the fact and after actual events) It can be found in the "Life of Philostratus" (once again commissioned by Julia Domina). In this book there is ONE supposed appearance of Apollonius after his death to a person who didn't know if he may be dreaming or not. OK, is that anything close to the resurrection appearances or accounts????

Further, Ehrman claims a parallel of works and miraculous healings...is that so Dr. Ehrman? Lets take the raising of a little girl from death...In Philostratus's over 100 year removed account (200 years removed from Jesus) he recounts that some of the people "believed" the girl to be dead while others didn't...(Life 4,45) OK...is there anything wrong with that picture? I think so. The gospels lay out healing and miracles and resurrections of people who were definitely sick, definitely dead and definitely in need of a miracle. Philostratus's SINGULAR account does no such thing.

In short, what we have in the life of Apollonius is a very late development of a story from a singular source with no external verification of any kind, with evidence that the personality was created and presented to compete with the information that we find in the Gospels written over 100 years prior, in effort to keep pagans from becoming Christians. We have a known "magician" with a reputation problem in his time and miracles that lack any sort of credibility even by the account itself.

Do you think Ehrman knows any of this? Certainly, as a historian he would have to. But look at his evil heart. He would shade the truth, conflate and confuse in effort to deconvert those who don't know. He says this is the first thing he tells his students every spring. What is he trying to do? Shake the faith of those students who are believers.

What if a student asked him, "How many sources are there for that story Dr. Ehrman?" "Who commissioned the account and how many years later or after the reported events was it commissioned?" "What of the miracles Dr. Ehrman, wasn't there confusion over whether the girl raised from the dead was actually dead? There was no confusion over any of these facts reported in the gospels were there?"...I mean we could go on but this is what we find in the first 2 minutes of his discourse...more false and erroneous info than could choke a horse.

Prepare your children before you send them to ANY school and especially one where the bible is supposedly taught. A supposed "professor" doesn't assure a good education. Ehrman's tirades and the rank heresy and spurious interpretations found within his books are positive proof of that."

As I concluded I stated: 

"FYI, Paul's account of Jesus as recorded in 1 Cor. 15 was about 20 years after the death of Jesus and records that multiple people saw Jesus, even over 500 at one time, all while they were wide awake (not sleep) 

As a historian, Dr. Ehrman knows that the criterion of "early enough" is one historical criterion to determine authenticity of events and history. Ehrman makes no mention of this criterion even though he claims to be a leading historian. In fact he violates all of his training to make the case that Apollionius runs parallel to Jesus. he knows that is a bold faced LIE but he sells books and his sales prove that he is right...yea right!!!!! 

TRUTH is the greatest weapon in the current culture of lie, partial truth and utter deception."

As you can see, there is no good reason to conclude that the story of Apollionous of Tyana is either true, or a good parallel to that of Jesus or that the Christian church borrowed the story in any manner. In fact quite the opposite is true. As a historian, Dr. Ehrman certainly knows and is aware of all of this, but he has bigger fish to fry. He has book sales to make and students to deconvert. 

Well we have things to do too...Souls to save and untie from Ehrman's confusion. We have awards to give as well...Dr. Ehrman continues to hold our Anti-Christ Advocate of the Decade Award for his astounding work and utter confusion that he consistently delivers through his books, seminars and almost every time he opens his mouth...Dr. Ehrman, CONGRATULATIONS! AGAIN...

Blessed!

Next, we'll deal with Ehrman's theory and assertion that Jesus was an "adopted" son of God at the resurrection. That is a total trip!!!!