Apr 13, 2009

Colbert and Ehman and the Final Arbiter


Perhaps you have seen the video making the Bible blog rounds of Stephen Colbert, a comedian and Bart Ehrman (see here for example). The context of the “interview” is Ehrman’s recent book Jesus Interrupted, a book which according to the books description suggests that, “the authors of the New Testament have diverging views about who Jesus was and how salvation works, the New Testament contains books that were forged in the names of the apostles by Christian writers who lived decades later , Jesus, Paul, Matthew, and John all represented fundamentally different religions, [and] established Christian doctrines—such as the suffering messiah, the divinity of Jesus, and the trinity—were the inventions of still later theologians.”


Colbert after taking Ehrman to task concludes his questioning with, “I tell you what. Why don’t we both die and let God settle it. To which Ehrman replies, “That would be fine with me.”

This final exchange is a helpful reminder that at the end of the day, the right view on an issue is not your view or my view, but it is God’s view. Pastor, teacher, or professor, are you willing to give an account to God for your interpretations and theology?

1 comment:

Chris Price said...

I fear both men might have the same destiny, but the exchange was quite funny.