Geisler's Christmas Carol

If you are not familiar with the present controversy involving Mike Licona and Norman Geisler, it is one well worth being acquainted with. The results could well affect the health of the church for many years to come. You can read all the details on postings I have made on my blog; the subject entry link is

http://tektonticker.blogspot.com/sear...

Entries will be in reverse chronological order. In this description we will provide only a summary "information key" corresponding with the film.

:35 Geisler had written Licona privately asking for answers on these issues. Licona had informed him that with various commitments -- debate preparations, and a vacation among them -- he would not respond quickly. Geisler nevertheless took it upon himself to post an "open letter" concerning the matter before Licona could respond.

1:31 While I do disagree with Licona's reading of Matthew 27, his reasoning in terms of inerrancy is sound. Please see the Ticker postings for details.

1:58 Licona offered an invitation to Geisler to attend a conference to discuss these issues. Geisler declined, under the premise that it was in essence a case of foxes guarding the henhouse.

2:13 Geisler has repeatedly deleted challenges to his arguments (including mine) from his Facebook page.

2:40 Despite his tactics, Geisler has professed to be acting in brotherly love.

2:57 Because of Geisler, Licona -- one of today's leading apologists and defenders of the faith -- was "disinvited" from a conference in New Orleans, as well as other functions.

3:30 In 1983, Geisler similarly oppressed Robert Gundry for his argument than Matthew intended for his Gospel to be understood as midrash -- a sort of Jewish commentary on other Scriptures -- rather than literal history. While we also do not agree with this view, if Matthew did intend his Gospel to be understood this way, then Gundry is not arguing against inerrancy.

That said, though Geisler has made much of alleged comparisons between that situation and this one, there were more than 1,600 present at that meeting, and the final vote was 116 to 41 in favor of Gundry being ousted, which is hardly overwhelming (less than 10% of the voting bloc). It suggests that the overwhelming majority either didn't care or didn't know what to think. It should also be noted that Geisler himself left ETS some years later under the premise that it was headed in the wrong direction.

I should also confess to an error: I used a recent picture of Robert Gundry and assumed that while he is bald now, he must not have been in 1983. I found out too late that he was bald even back then. I hope he doesn't mind the fresh mop.

4:51 Those scholars who have supported Licona include (pictured left to right, bottom row): Daniel Wallace, Edwin Yamauchi (member of the inerrancy committee), Gary Habermas, and Paul Copan. Standing at right is J. P. Moreland (also on the committee). Standing at left are Nick and Allie Peters, the (modified) voices of the Ghosts of Inerrancy Future and Past, respectively, and also Licona's son in law and daughter.

5:18 Supporting Geisler have been (left to right) Al Mohler, and two bloggers, pastor Tim Rogers, and Ed Dingess.

6:30 Some real concerns indeed, if Geisler takes the day (see my "high stakes" post).

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  Education

[Inari1987]

The irony of Geisler's position of inerrancy is...in one of his books (I don't have enough faith to be an atheist) he says that even if inerrancy were wrong, the overall message of Christianity could still be true.. I need to find the page though.. Well, he co-authored that book..so perhaps it was his co-author who wrote that? Who knows.

[tektontv]

Turek, the co-author, would say that...and I have doubts Geisler edits his books to any real extent.

[Daniel Case]

Tektontv I have a biblical question for a fellow brother in christ you did a video on Elijah not going to the heaven but rather the sky where do you think he ended up.

[tektontv]

No telling really. Could have been Paradise....or another dimension.

[MikeJunior94]

JP, Have you seen this video? It made me laugh and facepalm for a solid minute:

youtube.com/watch?v=fGq7akNAm4­I

[tektontv]

Yep. I saw that a while back. Good arguments there. :P

[tektontv]

Sorry, I wouldn't call it horrible or wack even though I disagree with it. His analysis is highly professional and careful and deserves better than that.

[tektontv]

ROFL...I never even heard the term until about 7 years ago. It's amazing how some numbskulls will try to sexualize anything just to give themselves thrills.

[tektontv]

Yes, we have. It's got nothing new in it so we decided to ignore it for now. ("We" meaning myself and Mike's son in law.)

[Tyrone Tork]

J.p: I don't know if you've come across this yet: IS MIKE LICONA THE NEXT BART EHRMAN? A PaperPresented to Dr.Norman Geisler Veritas Evangelical Seminary

[Dante Ting]

Sounds like somebody forgot about the Book of Revelation.

[philosophizer149]

Wow I am just hearing about this. I never really paid much attention to Geisler because he always seemed so surface level in his writings, but I didn’t know he was this shallow in his understanding of Biblical exegesis.