Engaging God's Problem -- Disagreements with Chapter Eight

Bart Ehrman. God's Problem. Chapter Eight. There are so many things to disagree with about this chapter but here is the short list.

1. Bart Ehrman really does not give the freewill argument its full weight. Freewill is central to the Bible and this is evident very early on. There is little point in giving people a commandment if there is no choice about it. This is one point that is obvious but even many Christians do not understand the implications of commandment and how it proves freewill exists but the simple fact is to give a command implies that there is a possibility of obedience or disobedience thus -- freewill about the choice. This becomes central to God's dealings with mankind from the first commandment onward.

2. A little politics slips through in Bart as he bashes the government's inability to get response to Katrina, etc. My point is two fold: 1) The response to Katrina was both swift -- faster than any other response to a hurricane in US history and it was comprehensive (more aid than any other hurricane in US history). I refuse to diminish the work of many professionals who saved lives and did what they could (0ne attends my church) by sitting there and complaining about how fast the government responds. This is just Bush bashing. 2) Why is it that we expect the government to always be the bailout for us. It causes me to worry who and what we place our trust in. The fact is now New Orleans is not being rebuilt by people who didn't whine and expect someone else to help them. The whiners live somewhere else.

3. He relies too much on penal atonement theory -- here it is again. He also assumes the Paul's views of atonement are penal as well.

4. 'Soon' -- based on who's context top we say Jesus is coming soon -Ours or God's.

5. Just because the ancients have a different cosmology of the universe does not make the concept of 'God will deal with evil and make everything right in the end' void. The fact is the cosmology of the Bible (how the universe is laid out) is generic and open in understanding. The thought that the Bible's cosmology is based on 'mythological' ideas is false, you may say incomplete ideas but not mythological.

6. I am not sure even when all is said and done God is trying to bring humans to utopia. The fact is that even Revelation has some things to say about the new heaven and earth -- including that there may be people who rule it -- there seems to still be need to grow and develop as a race even at the end.

7. On thing that comes through in all this is that Bart assumes his own goodness and the goodness of the human race. He talks about his own social complicity as if it is justified but then his view is to 'eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die'.

Next: Agreements with Chapter Nine (The Last Chapter)