College Students Defend Faith

Special Report - March 30, 2011
Christian students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) are stepping up to defend their faith against the arguments of UNC-CH Professor Bart Ehrman, whose writings have gained significant attention for seeking to discredit the Bible. As The News & Observer recently reported, leaders of UNC’s Campus Crusade for Christ recently launched The Ehrman Project, a website which seeks to provide students with alternatives to Ehrman’s “one-sided view.” In addition to providing a host of book recommendations and helpful links, the website also provides short video segments from prominent Christian thinkers on topics such as the inerrancy of scripture, the reliability of historical manuscripts, human freewill, and the subject of suffering, among others. The website also provides the opportunity for individuals to submit their own questions and have them answered by Bible scholars.

As a one-time self-professed Christian who attended both Wheaton College and the Moody Bible Institute, Dr. Ehrman later lost his faith -- an experience that according to the News & Observer, he discusses in the classroom “because students ask.” In recent years, the Princeton Theological Seminary graduate has increasingly gained significant media attention with his recently published books Misquoting Jesus, God’s Problem, and Jesus, Interrupted. In his latest book, Forged: Writing in the Name of God— Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are, Dr. Ehrman challenges the canon of scripture and accuses the Bible of having a “scandalous origin.”

Bill Roach, Director of Special Projects for the North Carolina Family Policy Council, responded to Ehrman’s arguments, commenting, “These attacks are nothing new, as there has long been a concerted effort against the truthfulness of God’s inspired and inerrant Word. Professor Ehrman’s latest book, Forged, serves as a reminder that this assault still occurs in our day.” Roach added, “As these types of books continue to gain attention, Christians should be prompted to study the arguments both defending and attacking the truthfulness of the Scriptures, in order to be prepared to defend the Gospel against the onslaughts of its opponents.”

Recent studies have shown that approximately 70 to 75 percent of Christian youth leave the church after leaving home. Dr. Turek, co-author of the bestselling book I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist, refers to these troubling statistics as the “Youth Exodus Problem.” In an effort to combat those trends, Dr. Turek launched CrossExamined, a non-profit ministry established to “address the problem that 3-out-of-4 Christian youth leave the church while in college, many because they are intellectually skeptical.” CrossExamined now tours the country conducting seminars, specifically aimed at provided young Christians with the knowledge they need to defend their faith intellectually.

Related resources:
The Truth Project Coming to NC - May 22, 2009

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