Journalist Kurt Eichenwald recently penned the late December 2014 Newsweek article entitled, “The Bible: So Misunderstood It’s a Sin.” The article was controversial to say that least and was roundly criticized by several top Biblical scholars such as Dr. Dan Wallace. In addition, my friend Dr. Michael L. Brown wrote a response to the article that Newsweek was gracious enough to publish on their website. The responses to Eichenwald were more than satisfactory and I did not feel the need to add my own voice to the chorus. That was until I heard Eichenwald say this on Michael Brown’s radio show, the Line of Fire (January 21, 2015):
Nowhere in the New Testament does it make reference to itself.
Naturally I found such a claim to be not only bizarre but demonstrably false. I took to Twitter and conveyed the following to Eichenwald:
I chose this verse because not only does it refer to other New Testament texts (Paul’s epistles), but even names them as, “Scripture.” I intentionally wanted to keep my comment simple. Of course there are other powerful points and examples that can be summoned such as 1 Timothy 5:18 referring to Luke 10:7 as, “Scripture.” Eichenwald quickly responded with:
Note: Read from bottom to top.
Eichenwald’s response was to essentially say that my example was not valid because 2 Peter should not be included in the New Testament. He also moved to cast doubt on John’s Gospel by making the spurious claim that it was written in the second century. This is easy to disprove. However, I sensed that Eichenwald would not continue our conversation at length and thus I sought to make a few quick points to counter his core positions:
I also included the following for good measure:
Eichenwald claims to be a follower of Jesus. However, his views toward basic issues such as the veracity of the Canon are quite troubling. Please consider adding Kurt Eichenwald to your prayers today and ask that he come to trust in God’s Word and follow the Jesus that is revealed within.
It is unfortunate that a man can go to theology school and leave confused. A man needs to know the God of creation through Christ before he goes to theology school and gets lost in literature. Unfortunately, he might become professor of the literature of a period and know the literature but does not know the Lord of all periods.