World Traveler and Textual Critic

I have been back from the Alpha and Omega Cruise for about a month now. Boy was it a great time. This cruise was a late honeymoon for my wife and I, since we could not afford one when we got married. We saw and did some great things. The highlight of the trip, as far as traveling goes, were the underwater scooters (see picture). I would say everyone needs to do this at least once in their life. We met a lot of great new people and made some new friends.
It was a lot of fun to be on a cruise with other like minded Christians. It made for some great conversations and interaction. There were two highlights of the trip, as far as the theology aspect goes. The first was smoking a Cuban cigar and talking theology with Gary Demar on the deck of the ship. He gave me some great advice as I move forward with my life and get closer to finishing seminary.

The second theological highlight was the debate between Dr. Bart Ehrman and Dr. James White on the topic of "Does the Bible Misquote Jesus." This is the second debate I have seen live with James White and there is something unique about actually being at the debate live. With this particular debate, it was interesting to watch Ehrman's reactions to White's presentations. There was one point in the debate, during Whites first rebuttal, that I was sure Ehrman was going to stand up and interrupt Dr. White. Ehrman was getting so animated.

I have since then listened to the debate a few times on my iPod. I think Dr. White did a great job of showing that an evangelical Christian can be scholarly and stand toe-to-toe with modern biblical scholarship. As someone who is an aspiring New Testament scholar, this was very encouraging. Thanks Dr. White.

Since the debate there has been a few developments in regard to New Testament Textual Criticism (NTTC) and Dr. White. The first was an interaction with fellow believer Joel McDurmon, who was at the debate. You can find some of Dr. White's comments about this on his blog. The second development was with a NT textual critic who blogs on Evangelical Textual Criticism, Dr. Tommy Wasserman. This discussion was started on a disagreement about the state of modern NTTC and devolved into a "he-said-she-said" conversation when Dr. Wasserman misunderstood Dr. White's article.

All and all, the trip was great. I learned a lot. Had a great time with my wife traveling around the world and meeting some new friends.