FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART
OP / ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
This week, I listened to an interview on NPR, FRESH AIR, and if I never knew better, I would have developed a hatred for the Bible as it was projected.
The interview was with Bart Ehrman, who is being called “a distinguished professor of religious studies from The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.” The interviewee also noted that Ehrman is one of America’s most widely read scholars of early Christianity and the New Testament. His books, such as “Misquoting Jesus” and “How Jesus Became God,” challenge many beliefs and shared wisdom. It was also observed that as a child, he was an altar boy in the Episcopal Church and at age 15, he became a born-again Fundamentalist Evangelical Christian.
After attending the Moody Bible Institute, Ehrman studied at Princeton Theological Seminary, which introduced him to texts and interpretations that led him to a more liberal form of Christianity. Eventually, he left the faith altogether.
What struck me about the interview was how Ehrman used the occasion to “trash” the Bible, declaring, for example, that the Book of Revelation was the poorest Greek that might be found anywhere in the writings of the time. He went on to state that the content only focuses on the wrath of God and that it has “no hope” or “expressions of love.”
He followed up with the view that the Gospels are very poorly written and are not to be taken seriously as a portrayal of the love of Jesus. But what was of greater interest, though, is that he had not taken note of the contradiction in his thinking when he proclaimed himself an “agnostic” (non-believer) in the Bible and an “atheist” concerning God but then went on to talk “ad nauseam” about the need for love in society.
I wondered as I drove along if, as a “distinguished professor,” Ehrman knew what he was talking about. I hope he will see my critique because I would like to tell him that the faith and love he was talking about are not expressions of faith and the love of God, for true faith and love come from God.
The author of the book of Revelation, whom Ehrman disparages, challenged the church of Ephesus that it was losing its “first love” (Revelation 2:4). He also mentioned those who were willing to be faithful in love even to the point of death. (Revelation 2:10-11). The author of Revelation, credited with the authorship of the Epistles, states, “God is love.” That is, he is the source of love. He also says, “Whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:16).
And further, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” (John 4:7-12, Emphasis mine).
Paul, the writer of Romans, adds, “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5 NIV).
It seems odd that a distinguished professor who calls himself an agnostic on the Bible should be talking about love in how he reads it. He should have seen that its main thrust is about the love of God offered to humanity and that God commands humanity to share his passion of love.
The same author of Revelation records the words that Jesus spoke at the foot-washing celebration, saying, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this, all will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34, 35 NKJV).
What kind of love is this? It is not sentimental love but the sacrificial love that took Jesus to the cross. It is not selfish to love that practices resentment and the kind of hatred that we see in the social order of the day, but it is the selfless love that allowed Jesus to lay down his life for the world. It is not a love of favoritism that causes us to love one and hate the other. But it is an all-encompassing love that allows a person to love the unlovely.
It is pathetic that the contradiction of love that the distinguished professor saw in the Christian churches is being heaped on the Bible. Yes, the contradiction might have led him away from his belief in God as it leads to multitudes. But I would like to encourage him and all that if they will take a humble look at the Bible and its portrayal of the love of God that they will find that there is no contradiction in God’s love.
I will vouch that if they pause to read the Bible humbly, it will rekindle the flame of love for God, making it clear that God is not all about wrath but also about love. Those who read the Bible humbly confess that it unfolds as a divine love story between the Creator God and humankind and that it is life transforming to the hardest hearts, in soul and society.
