Bart Ehrman's books, and the problem of pain and suffering

Over the past few years, I have really come to respect the writings of Bart Ehrman. Mr. Ehrman is the James A. Gray professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and he has written the New York Times bestsellers. "Misquoting Jesus", and "God's Problem - how the Bible fails to answer our most important question, why we suffer". I am currently reading his recent release "Jesus Interrupted" and have been truly intrigued by the fact that most of these contradictions in the Bible and Bible manuscripts are known by Biblical scholars and yet they are often not taught or purposely ignored within the church. On the surface, these contradictions may not seem to be major, but they exist nonetheless, and eventually make you wonder what people mean when they say "the Bible is inerrant". But to even think of this question, as some assume, is to question God, something that is considered heresy in many circles, even if my explicitly. Can one still find the Bible to be the inspiring without assuming that it is inerrant? Just asking this question may put you in the league of "flaming liberals" who are assumed to be going to hell.

I stumbled into the writings of Mr. Ehrman years ago after doing an Amazon search for a totally different book; when I saw the subtitle of his book "God's problem" , I knew I had to read it. It is truly a great book that I wish all preachers and clergy members would read, not only because of his own honesty, but because of the level of scholarly research that was put into it. I have not come to the same conclusion that Mr. Ehrman has come to. I still have faith in Jesus, while he is now an agnostic; He used to be a fundamentalist Christian who went through the whole range of experiences, Bible College, born-again experience, disdain for liberal interpretations of the Bible etc. But upon further scholarly studies, he became an agnostic, mainly because of the problem of pain and suffering. I still do respect his writings, however, because in a time when the Bible has been reduced to a "formula for success", it is refreshing to read a meticulous examination of the fact that the Bible is not a linear book that can be read like you do a well written thriller or math problem. I guess you can say that the reason why I appreciate the writings of Mr. Ehrman is because for too long I have literally felt that I was on the verge of madness for not being able to "obey the Bible" to solve my inner problem of pain and sorrow.

I remember when I first picked up one of Mr. Erhrman's books. I thought that he was some flaming liberal who was trying to discredit the Bible as some form of heresy. I quickly realized that this was not the case at all. If anything, Mr. Ehrman shows more seriousness in exploring the Bible as a true scholar than many people who profess to be "Bible believing born-again Christians" and in many ways this underscores the seriousness of his quest for truth when he was a Christian. I have no doubt in my mind that he once did have a born-again experience, and I have no doubt that he is not joking when he says that the problem of pain left him completely disillusioned. Some of his critics have said that he is writing with an agenda, an agenda to disprove the authenticity of the Scriptures or to nullify the conservative Christian agenda. I don't believe that those who say such things have really read his work. For one, he talks about facts about the Bible, who wrote it, conflicting messages etc that are often uncomfortable amongst devout Christians, because it appears to do so is to question God or the authenticity of the Bible. But if the Bible is the truth, why should we be afraid to put it through the ringer of textual analysis?

Maybe another reason why I also appreciate Mr. Ehrman's writings is because for the past few years I have been going through a spiritual transformation of my own. Some may call it a crisis, but I call it an evolution. I used to easily assume that I had the fundamental answers to most spiritual issues. Having accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior when I was 15, I became dedicated in trying to study the Bible from a devotional standpoint to know His word and know what to do. In so doing I came to certain basic conclusions which I assumed were a given: we suffer because we live in a fallen world, if you want to prosper or be blessed by God, obey the Bible or obey the teachings of Jesus etc. But slowly but surely my life and the deep and intense struggles that I faced, started to poke holes in my assumptions. Holes such as "if we suffer because we live in a fallen world, then why do we tell people that results in their lives are basically based on reaping what they sow? As if to imply that sometimes the wicked don't prosper (and get away with it) and the righteous don't suffer without explanation (one trip to a children's ward of any hospital will humble you)? Why do we tell people that obeying the Bible or the teachings of Jesus is the key to the successful Christian life when this is a literal impossibility, because it begs the question, which teachings? On one hand I can use some verses to justify killing you for disobeying certain parts of the Bible, but then I can turn around and use other verses to justify showing you mercy or grace.

One of the things that I value more than anything else in any writer's work is authenticity, and I can definitely appreciate where Mr. Ehrman is coming from. He is able to break down in layman's terms what those of us who never went to Seminary are curious about and sometimes wish preachers would be a little honest about. Unfortunately, I believe the reason why most preachers cannot talk about some of these issues with this level of frankness is that it may not help to fill the pews, and in the end, that does not really help the Institutional church's bottom line. Maybe that is the main reason why Mr. Ehrman's critics are so furious....

Stephen Akinduro