Losing faith: how secular scholarship affects scholars
by Andrew Calder
Photo sxc.hu.
Recently, the Biblical Archaeology Review published an interview, conducted
by editor Hershel Shanks, with four scholars discussing ‘What effect does
scholarship have on faith?’ (pdf of article
here courtesy of
Biblical Archaeology Review).
The scholars are:
- Bart Ehrman, expert on the apocryphal gospels
- James F. Strange, archaeologist
- Lawrence H. Schiffman, Dead Sea Scroll scholar
- William G. Dever, archaeologist
Here are the brief stories of each of them.
Bart Ehrman
He says he had a fundamentalist faith, and a very high view of Scripture as the
inerrant word of God.1 But his
studies early on as a graduate student unsettled him that his views about the Bible
were wrong. He started finding supposed
contradictions, and thus his confidence was eroded. The final straw was
the problem of suffering: if God is all-powerful and is able to prevent suffering,
and is all-loving so that he wants to prevent suffering, why is there suffering?
He decided that he couldn’t believe in a God who was in any way intervening
in this world, given the state of things. This led him to question historical claims
that Christians have made about Jesus, e.g. that he was raised from the dead, ‘I
mean either he was raised from the dead or he rotted in his grave.’
Summary: Contrary to his stated early views, he no longer believes that the Bible
is the inerrant word of God.
James Strange
He describes himself as ‘a Baptist minister without a pulpit’ with a
faith disconnected from his scholarship. It is instead ‘based on my own experience—a
good old Protestant principle.’ ‘My faith is not based upon anything
like a propositional argument. When I indulge myself in all this scientific research
and explication, I’m not doing anything about faith.’ He notes that
suffering tends to disconfirm the hypothesis that there is a loving God that intervenes
upon the earth, but he is not really much interested in the attributes of God anyway.
He says the best analogy of his faith is ‘falling in love’. He does
not believe in Jesus’ literal Resurrection. He agrees that in the earliest
Christian language there are certain historical claims, but since he is not in any
position to be able to check those claims or even decide on their plausibility,
he just doesn’t worry about it. When asked ‘is your religion truer than
another?’ he replied, ‘We’ll never know that.’
Summary: Contrary to traditional Baptist belief, he does not accept that the Bible
is the inerrant word of God. He is now left with a ‘faith’ that has
no objective roots, a faith disconnected from the real world. This is not Christian
faith.
Lawrence Schiffman
He is an Orthodox Jew, not a Christian, and claims that the Bible was never taken
literally in Judaism:2 ‘It
doesn’t mean that it’s not historical, but it is not taken literally
in the Protestant sense’. However, he does admit to a literalist strain in
a minority of medieval Jewish thinkers. He believes that an experiential approach
to faith is much more primary in Judaism. He believes in a personal God, but is
unsure whether this God ‘interferes’ in people’s lives or how
you would get close to that God. While he doesn’t believe in pluralism, and
does believe that certain things are ultimately true or untrue, issues of biblical
historicity are not important to him. ‘There’s a non-literalist tradition
that I’m coming from. And for this reason a lot of these issues aren’t
challenges to my faith.’
Summary: He does not accept that the Bible is the inerrant word of God.
William Dever
His father was a ‘fire-breathing fundamentalist’ preacher. Dever was
ordained a minister at age 17, attended various universities including Harvard,
obtaining two theological degrees, and pastored a congregation for 13 years. Starting
with the idea that ‘In Biblical faith, everything depends upon whether the
original events actually happened’, and believing they had happened,
he went to Harvard to study Old Testament theology. ‘I got disabused of that
in the first semester, so I shifted to archaeology. The rest is history.’
After working as an archaeologist in Israel for 12 years, he ‘more or less
forgot his Christian background’. Eventually he decided that archaeology threw
biblical history into doubt: the call of Abraham, the Promise of the Land, the migration
to Canaan, the descent into Egypt, the Exodus, Moses and monotheism, the Law at
Sinai, divine kingship.3 ‘My
long experience in Israel and my growing uncertainty about the historicity of the
Bible meant that was the end for me.’ Such ‘scholarship’ destroyed
his faith. ‘And I realized I was never really a believer, but it just took
me 40 years to figure out that it was no longer meaningful.’ He converted
to Judaism, ‘precisely because you don’t have to be religious to be
a Jew.’
Summary: Contrary to the views of his family upbringing, he does not believe that
the Bible is the inerrant word of God (if he ever really did).
Can we learn something from these men?
We cannot comment on specific archaeological issues because we only get a glimpse
of the supposed biblical ‘contradictions and discrepancies’ that affected
Ehrman,4 and the alleged archaeological
evidence against Abraham et al that affected Dever, with no details provided
in the interview. See Archaeology
Q&A, which covers some of the wealth of archaeological evidence that backs up
the Bible’s account of history (Abraham, the Exodus, etc.). And there are
archaeologists who have maintained and strengthened their Christian faith, including
Dr Bryant Wood, Director of Associates
for Biblical Research, Dr Clifford Wilson
and David Down.
Nevertheless, the issue of ‘why is there suffering in the world?’ was
specifically raised by Ehrman (and mentioned by Dever in the context of his son’s
death five years ago)—a crucial issue for many trying to make sense of this
world.
The problem of pain
The Bible does address the issue, as you would expect. Ehrman’s complaint
was this:
‘Depending on what part of Job you read, you get one set of answers. If you
read the Prophets, you get a different set of answers. If you read apocalyptic literature,
you get still a different set of answers … Finally, because I became dissatisfied
with all the conventional answers, I decided that I couldn’t believe in a
God who was in any way intervening in this world, given the state of things. So
that’s why I ended up losing my faith.’
Perhaps it is significant that Ehrman does not mention the answer given in Genesis.
This is where the Bible provides the ‘big picture’, whereas Job and
the Prophets focus on more specific examples, and only make sense in the light of
Genesis.
Genesis tells us that suffering and death is a consequence of human sin. But you
can only accept this explanation if you are willing to submit to the Bible’s
chronology—that is, first came creation, including Adam and Eve, then came
sin, then came the consequences: death and suffering. If in reality death
and suffering pre-dated human sin, then this biblical explanation is false—and
no wonder people lose their faith in the Bible. Thus all Christians should be very
clear about what we believe in this regard. Are we willing to accept world-views
such as ‘theistic evolution’ and ‘progressive creation’?
Both of these man-made ideas deny the Bible’s explanation of suffering, and
malign the character of God.
it is only if God is real that we are prompted to ask earnestly, ‘Why does
He allow suffering to continue?’
Suffering should direct Ehrman to see that something is fundamentally not right
with the world, which is exactly the biblical view. If you deny the existence
of God, then you must see suffering as natural and purposeless. How, then, can you
determine your role as part of the solution, when there is no problem? Whereas it
is only if God is real that we are prompted to ask earnestly, ‘Why does He
allow suffering to continue?’ And, ‘What is my God-anointed role in
alleviating suffering?’
Ehrman’s proposition that a good ‘intervening’ God could not allow
suffering assumes implicitly that avoidance of suffering sits at the pinnacle of
God’s Hierarchy of Needs (apologies to Maslow). But, actually, on
top of the Needs tree is salvation—that is, restoration of our relationship
with Him. So death and suffering should alert us to the need for salvation. (A more
deep-thinking question would be, ‘Why did God make the world at all, knowing
his creation would turn against him?’)
Schiffman said: ‘But we know that we can’t explain evil, especially
after the Holocaust. Any person who says that he can give an explanation for the
Holocaust is crazy. Judaism doesn’t claim that the individual will get all
the answers to everything.’
This is only partly true. The Bible does not give a personal explanation for each
and every one of our individual cases of suffering, but it does explain
the big picture, so we can understand evil in general.
As for Job, God never revealed to him why he had to suffer. When Job earnestly questioned
God’s judgment, instead of an explanation, God gives Job a four-chapter-long
‘creation science’ exam beginning with this admonition:
‘Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me if you understand …’ (Job 38:3–4)
So we are called to trust the Creator of the universe—that He knows what He
is doing and what we, as fallen humans, need.
Fact or Fiction
There was much discussion in this interview about the basis of faith. James Strange
particularly said a lot about it, since he acknowledges that his whole faith is
based on experience.
‘(My faith is) based on my own experience with God.’
‘My faith is not based upon anything like a propositional argument’
(for example: ‘There is a loving God that intervenes upon the earth’).
‘When I indulge myself in all this scientific research and explication, I’m
not doing anything about faith.’
‘ … we intellectualized it (Christianity) so much that Christian experience
got submerged. Theology was bereft of any kind of experience.’
‘So it’s my own experience with God that tipped me over on the other
side. My best analogy is falling in love.’
When asked, ‘Does this God of yours have any attributes?’ he replied,
‘I suppose so, but I’m not really much interested.’
Real or imagined?
This kind of religious position raises questions. What quality of faith is so ungrounded
in any historical facts? What personal experience would it take to shake this faith?
(He got ‘mad as hell’ at God when his eldest daughter was born with
a heart defect, and didn’t lose his faith—but what if she had died?)
Does the issue of objective truth or untruth matter so little? Would he treat his
archaeological work in such a way? Why then matters of eternal importance?
Is a faith in ‘a God with uninteresting attributes and Jesus who didn’t
really rise from the dead’ attractive to the average non-Christian? Surely
this is problematic for a Baptist minister to evangelize or teach others. It seems
to me like an ‘emperor’s new clothes’ faith—no substance
and unconvincing.
Indeed, Ehrman, who yearns, ‘I would actually like to be a believer’,
seems unimpressed with Strange’s answers: ‘… your original question
about “What kind of attributes does God have?” matters. Just believing
in God is for me an amorphous idea. I think belief has content. Without content
it’s simply some kind of feeling that you have inside. I think that faith
has to have substance.’
Indeed so. The Bible recognises that Christians need to be ready to speak with some
intellectual appeal, not just emotionalism:
‘Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the
reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.’
(1 Peter 3:15)
Experiencing God
Schiffman, the Jew, has a similar view to Strange regarding personal experience
of God being a key driver to understanding God’s character. He is quite equivocal
about finding truth in the Jewish scriptures, however:
‘I believe in a personal God … Does that personal God interfere in
the individual’s life or not? How would I get close to that personal God?
Can I have a mystical experience? … Somehow or other God reveals himself
or his will to humanity. This revelation and its experience constitute in some mystical
way, if not in a physical way, the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings.’
‘The life experiences of people are very difficult and very complex, and believing
in God is itself a challenge. It’s not about whether I know the Exodus happened
or didn’t happen. It has to do with understanding the difficult world that
we’re in.’
This is how Ehrman, once a professing believer, links biblical history with experience:
‘Faith in the Judeo-Christian tradition has a God who intervenes. That’s
what the Exodus event is, that’s what the crucifixion is: it’s a God
who intervenes, and when I look around this world, I don’t see a God who intervenes.’
And Dever, also says he was a believer once, agrees precisely with Ehrman’s
summary, ‘I don’t see a God who intervenes’.
no experience, not even the mind-blowing experience of a resurrection, can change
your world-view if it is closed to the historical accounts of Moses and the Prophets.
This reminds me of the story Jesus told about Lazarus and the rich man, in Luke 16:19–31. As the dead rich man is suffering in
Hades, he called to Abraham, begging him to send Lazarus to his father’s house
where he had five brothers, to warn them, so they would not come to that place of
torment as well. Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets, let them
listen to them.’ The rich man pleads, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone
from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Abraham replied, ‘If
they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if
someone rises from the dead.’ He is saying that no experience, not even the
mind-blowing experience of a resurrection, can change your world-view if it is closed
to the historical accounts of Moses and the Prophets. In John 10:22–39, Jesus condemned the Jews for refusing
to believe him, even though they had witnessed his healing miracles.
So, a problem for Ehrman and Dever is perhaps that they are waiting to experience
God’s intervention in the world for themselves. But even when they see it,
the Scriptures suggest they would not recognise it.
Strange does see God intervening in the world, but this experience does
not seem to help him believe the history of the Bible (if God intervenes miraculously
into the natural order today, why is it so hard to believe that he would do so in
the past, e.g. during the Exodus from Egypt, or Jesus’ Resurrection?)
Herein lies the problem with the experiential approach to Christianity: experiences
can come and go; past experiences once relied on can be forgotten or fobbed off
as once-wishful thinking or coincidence (for example, answered prayer). Where then
is the objective basis of the faith? What is the authority for making any pronouncements
about the faith? Only the objective written word, God’s revelation, gives
us a basis for any understanding of God’s character. Otherwise anyone’s
opinion is as good as anyone else’s, and there is no shared basis for understanding.
This of course assumes that the truth actually matters. If it doesn’t
matter, then who cares—believe what you want. But the Bible is only ever interested
in the truth: ‘God is not a man, that he should lie’ (Num 23:19)’; Jesus repeatedly said, ‘Truly,
truly, I say to you …’ and ‘the truth will set you free’
(John 8:32).
Sure, God wants us to know him and to ‘experience’ him—He’s
not hiding! But how can I or anyone else make such a bold proclamation? Again, because
He revealed it to us: ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and
you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you’ (Matt 7:7). Indeed, Christianity is not a philosophy—it
is the way to restoring our relationship with our Creator God, through
Jesus Christ.
But how do we know the Bible, rather than the writings of a hundred other
religions, is God’s true revelation? The answer is: through the real historical
accounts of his interaction with mankind, which also reveal God’s character
and plan of salvation for us.
The sad fact is that scholarship has robbed two of these scholars of their faith
in the historical veracity of the Bible, although it was not really scholarship
but man’s opinions based on unbiblical assumptions. Strange has managed to
disassociate his ‘faith’ from historical facts, but the other archaeologists
did not agree with that approach.
Dever correctly said, ‘In Biblical faith, everything depends upon whether
the original events actually happened’. That is, if the history is false,
then the theology can be jettisoned as well, since it has no authority. Jesus himself
confirmed this when he said, ‘I have spoken to you of earthly things and you
do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?’
(John 3:12) By way of example, he demonstrated his own ‘theological’
authority to forgive sin, by a physical demonstration of his power over sickness,
when he healed the paralysed man (Mark 2). And Jesus made exactly that point when he said,
‘But that you may know that the Son of Man (i.e. Jesus) has authority on earth
to forgive sins … I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’
Strange denies the literal Resurrection:
‘I think I’m more or less untouched by the sort of literalist interpretation;
resurrection is sort of a metaphor’. Yet that has no apparent impact on his
theology: ‘I believe in something that means that Christ is alive, and our
explanation of that is that there was a resurrection.’
But Ehrman was unimpressed by this reasoning: ‘I think Jesus was crucified
like a lot of other people were crucified, and I think that, like a lot of other
people, he stayed dead. And so, for me, that had a damaging impact on my faith.’
And Dever too: for him, ‘it’s all true or none of it is true.’
His mother said to him, ‘If I can’t believe that the
whale swallowed Jonah, I can’t believe any of it.’
The biblical writers drive home the necessity that historical facts underpin
theology; for example, Paul said, ‘if Christ has not been raised, our preaching
is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses
about God’ (1 Cor 15:14–15). Even Jonah’s account is important,
since Jesus himself treated Jonah’s sojourn in the belly of a fish for three
days as real history, directly comparing his coming death and resurrection to that
event (Matt 12:40). God repeatedly reminded Israel that he ‘brought
them out of Egypt’ (the Exodus), a historical fact to underpin their theological
beliefs.
Schiffman doesn’t treat the biblical account as real history: ‘…
the story of Adam and Eve is like a microcosm of human relations between a man and
a woman, about people and God, and about good and evil.’ To those who look
for archaeological confirmation of the Bible, Schiffman says ‘that is not
what this is about. There are major challenges to the Bible if you take it literally,
but that is not what matters.’
Well that is a big call, deciding what matters and what does not. But people are
concerned on questions like ‘Where is Eden? Was there really one human
being in the beginning?’ because it does matter to them—they want to
know whether biblical history is mythical or real—which is exactly what Ehrman
and Dever had been saying all interview. And there are good answers to these questions.
Experiencing God through evolution?
Schiffman cites a recent lecture by a rabbi about the problem evolution poses for
creation. The Rabbi asked ‘What do I do about it if evolution is obviously
true? We learn from Nachmanides that nothing in the Bible about creation is intended
literally. What’s important to me is that I have the experience of God as
the creator.’
Firstly, this demonstrates that evolution is not a side issue for the Christian
faith. It demonstrates how easily an unscientific, naturalistic philosophy masquerading
as science trumps the clear biblical teaching of Scripture when a person does not
have an understanding of the biblical worldview.
Anyway, how do you experience God the creator through evolution? How do random mutations
(all of which ever studied at the molecular level have reduced genetic information,
according to bioinformatics expert Dr Lee Spetner, an
Orthodox Jew) lead you to God the Creator? They point to God the Judge, perhaps.
Conclusion
Notably, both Dever and Ehrman say they would like to be believers, but they think
biblical history has been falsified. If only they would look past their erroneous
‘scholarship’, put aside man-made philosophy about origins (with its
assumption of naturalism) and
start with the true history of the universe, perhaps they would find it possible.
The Q&A answers page would
be a good place to start, coupled with a three year subscription to
Creation magazine.
The impact of ‘scholarship’ on these scholars is a warning for us, and
our children. We must understand the consequences of worldview, and be prepared
with answers. One can only wonder what they were actually taught … what ‘facts’
destroyed their faith, because this interview does not reveal it.
It is ironic that the non-literalists (Strange and Schiffman) managed to retain
their ‘faith’ because it is largely disconnected from reality, including
real history:
‘There’s a non-literalist tradition that I’m coming from. And
for this reason a lot of these issues aren’t challenges to my faith,’
said Schiffman.
Thus, liberals might feel that a non-literalistic approach to the Bible can actually
protect their faith! Well, what I find most illuminating is that Dever and Ehrman
were not persuaded by their associates’ non-literalist arguments,
since they were looking for a firm foundation for faith.
Jesus condemned disbelief, since trusting God’s Word is the basis of any relationship
with God. For example, Jesus said: ‘Whoever believes in him (Jesus) is not
condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has
not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.’ (John 3:18) And ‘Abram believed the Lord, and He credited
to him as righteousness.’ (Gen 15:6) That’s God’s call, not ours. Thus,
if we don’t know God how can we experience Him? First we must believe his
Word (on the basis of investigation and evidence). When we do the experience will
follow.
Related articles
References
- See articles
explaining inerrancy. Sometimes a misunderstanding of the doctrine causes problems.
For example, the Bible can accurately report the errant views of Job’s friends
without therefore being in error itself. Return to Text.
- His claim is incorrect. See
Creation days and Orthodox Jewish tradition. Return to Text.
- The lack of correspondence is largely due to the wrong chronology
attached to the history of Israel. When the chronology is corrected, everything
falls into place and there is abundant evidence for the biblical account. See Timing is everything.
Return to Text.
- Ehrman said he once believed in inerrancy, but if he had
truly regarded the Bible as inerrant he would never have entertained the idea
that it had contradictions, but rather would have recognized that any apparent problems
were due to his own lack of knowledge or intelligence. Return to
Text.
Published: 30 May 2007 (GMT+10)
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