RE: [SPAM]Re: What Bible? (Bart Ehrman and Elaine Pagels)

I have found time and again, that agnostics feel betrayed by an absences of
perfection - in life in general and in the Bible in particular. Several
thoughts on that:

1. When police officers investigate a crime and hear testimonies which are
exactly the same, they reject those testimonies. No two people see things,
or remember things, the same way. Even when the same person tells the same
story the same way twice, it becomes suspect. Our own testimony varies with
what we remember in that particular telling.
2. What does perfection accomplish? Why is it a goal? Yes, in a sense, it
should be our goal, but if we reach it, we are done. It's all over.
3. Why is it a requirement that God be perfect? Don't misunderstand. I am
not saying that God is imperfect, I believe that he is the standard of
perfection and so is 'perfect' however he is. One definition of 'perfect' is
'conforming to an ideal standard' - God is the standard, so God is perfect.

Back to my point. God's perfection is irrelevent. He is our creator and
omnipotent. That says it all. He's the potter; we're the clay - he had the
power to do what he wants; we don't. This status does not depend upon how
good or bad he is or how many votes he gets in the next election.

Yet, I find so many people who have lost their faith due to not finding the
perfection they sought.

Debbie Mann
(765) 477-1776

-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On
Behalf Of Clarke Morledge
Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2006 6:08 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: [SPAM]Re: What Bible? (Bart Ehrman and Elaine Pagels)

I ran across a very revealing (and admittedly, disturbing) article about
Bart Ehrman that might be of interest to those of you following this
thread:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/04/AR2006030401
369.html

The story chronicles Ehrman's journey from disinterested youth to
fundamentalist at Moody Bible Institute to becoming a disbeliever while
doing graduate work in textual criticism.

It is a sad story. While I do not agree with the conclusions Ehrman came
to regarding the trustworthiness of historic, Christian faith, I can
definitely appreciate the emotional component: the all-or-nothing,
gut-wrenching sense of thinking that he had to decide between
fundamentalist faith and no real faith at all. What a tragedy.

Whether it is textual criticism or science, I am sure that there are
ASA'ers on this list who can probably relate. I just wish he had found
another way --- maybe there will be an opportunity for him to encounter
God's grace again in Christ at a later stage in his journey.

I can only pray for that and trust that God will make Himself known to
Bart Ehrman.

Blessings in Him,

Clarke Morledge
College of William and Mary
Information Technology - Network Engineering
Received on Tue Mar 14 23:08:59 2006