By William Baker
Biblical scholar Professor Bart Ehrman is one of the foremost scholars on the New Testament manuscripts. He now considers himself an agnostic atheist. Agnostic because he does not know whether God exists. Atheist because he does not believe in the biblical God. He acknowledges that the creation of this world is beyond his comprehension, but he seems to accept the Big Bang and evolution. He says he is a firm believer in a materialistic understanding of the universe but the biggest problem for him is how to explain consciousness. He admits he does not have the mind for science. See https://ehrmanblog.org/on-being-an-agnostic-or-atheist/
In Prof. Ehrman’s book Misquoting Jesus he gives additional insight into the roots of his unbelief. His research into the Bible led him to conclude that the Bible was a very human and fallible book to which “…I could no longer hold on to the historical foundations of my belief.” The other big issue he had was suffering. He states, “For me to come to believe again, I would need to understand how there can be a God given a world such as this.” “…I don’t know how we can say that God exists, given the senseless pain and suffering in this world.” P. 246-248
Prof. Ehrman has been very open in sharing so much. It allows us to understand why he believes what he believes.
I believe everyone has bias. It is the result of our biology and life experience. How can my opinion matter next to Prof. Ehrman? Because my life experiences have led me to a different conclusion and my life experience might have intellectual value to someone like him in coming to the God conclusion. I will also acknowledge that Prof. Ehrman and I have something in common – I don’t have a mind for science either. Yet my book – which is an imperfect book by an imperfect man – discusses conclusions and concepts by people that have much greater intellect than me. As such it is a pathway to what others think in fields we both are not experts in. Our unique bias as people is one of the key understandings that I acquired in my search for God.
Another thing I have in common with Prof. Ehrman is that I needed intellectual evidence for my belief. That common need for intellectual evidence and discussion is a huge item. We may weigh the facts differently, but we still need factual evidence to reach a conclusion. I am wired that way just like him.
Where we differ is how I look at the big picture. I also see the Bible as a human product, but I believe the pattern of all the evidence (nature, archaeology, the Bible and Jesus burial cloths the Shroud of Turin and the Sudarium of Oviedo) proves it is God’s Word and thus proves God and that Jesus is God. Prof. Ehrman looks at the world and sees pain. His focus is just on the world, not recognizing eternity. I see the pain also, but I believe that our existence on earth is only part of our eternal life. The blink of an eye from the perspective of eternity. God has the eternal view. He knows there is suffering here. We are here to make a choice for Him. A lot of the pain Prof. Ehrman sees is man derived because God gave us dominion.
Now here is how my life experience has impacted my view of scripture.
I struggled with atheism, and I had no one who helped me to overcome my doubt. I reached out to pastors and gave up on them being able to answer my questions. That caused me to be a church going Christian that attended church but didn’t believe. My wife was a Christian and I wanted my daughter to be raised as a Christian because I wanted to be one and I wanted her to be one. I just couldn’t defend my faith. I searched for decades looking for the answer to belief. It wasn’t until I found a book on the burial shroud of Jesus (it is kept in Turin, Italy and is known as the Shroud of Turin) in a discount section of the bookstore that I finally found the key that would set me on the path to removing all my doubt. It was Jesus face on the book’s cover that caught my eye. When I read the book and it’s evidence, I knew I had finally found what I had been searching decades for. I am a retired CPA that struggled with atheism for decades. Do you think the Shroud would help me overcome my doubt if there wasn’t solid evidence to support it? Don’t you think I put it through the proverbial wringer before I believed? I investigated it because I needed answers. I questioned the evidence. I did my due diligence. It is the most important item on the planet supporting the resurrection of Jesus because it contains His blood and image, and it is evidence directly provided by God Himself. There can be no greater evidence. Our entire faith is built on the resurrection of Jesus. We have the evidence.
God has directly impacted my life. First it was Jesus image and then it was an encounter with God. Let me explain. My wife and I met with a group of people for the first time and I shared the story of my struggle with atheism complete with references to Darwin and Dawkins who is a very well-known defender of evolutionary theory. We decided as a group to go hear a speaker at a local church. We came in as he was finishing his sermon and then he started to give out words of knowledge from the Lord to people there as he was led by the Lord. He picked me out of the group and repeated the story I had just shared an hour earlier to the group complete with references to atheism, Darwin and Dawkins. Then he said that Satan has been negatively impacting my relationship with the Holy Spirit and he was breaking it off in the name of Jesus. He also said that spiritual things must come from the heart and not from the mind. My wife and I were in a state of shock. That is the defining moment in my life, when I knew God was real and was personal. My heart had never stopped searching for Him. He was always there but He decided to respond to me in the most personal way possible that could touch my heart but also my mind. I owe my salvation to God.
I write in my book of a prophetic word I received three years later from the same prophet. I had felt the Lord wanted me to write an apologetic book with the Shroud in it. I felt incompetent to write the book and I wanted confirmation from the Lord. So, this same man was coming to my area, and I threw a fleece to the Lord asking Him to have the prophet pick me out of the group again and confirm the book. As I write in my book the Lord did exactly that and He responded in such detail I could not deny it was Him. I wrote the book because He confirmed that He wanted me to write it. But there is a hidden secret which I didn’t realize until after I wrote my book. Part of the Lord’s word to me was that the book would be a great testimony. That meant the Lord knew what I would write. We also know from scripture the Lord cannot lie. Here is the hidden meaning I did not see until later. He knew I would write about the Shroud because I had become obsessed with the Shroud. That was the reason He wanted me to write the book. His word to me confirms the Shroud and Sudarium are Jesus burial cloths. That is why I am so certain about my faith. I can see the resurrection and I know it is Jesus when I look at the Shroud. There is no doubt in my mind about Jesus being God!
God has never stopped acting in our world. He is personal. He is in control. He is my God and I give Him praise.
I have never advertised my book. I have also felt that it would reach whoever the Lord wanted it to reach since He asked me to write it that makes it His book too. But my book is not inspired scripture. It is just a book that is imperfect and written by an imperfect man that contains a message God wanted shared.
My opinion for the truth of the Bible rests upon the resurrection. The Bible, the Shroud of Turin (called the linens in John’s Gospel) and the Sudarium of Oviedo (the folded napkin/handkerchief/face cloth mentioned in John’s Gospel) form a unique trinity of three related objects that serve as witnesses to the truth of the resurrection of Jesus. The Sudarium has no image but after more than 25 years of scientific study we now know both the Shroud and the Sudarium covered the same corpse. People will question individual aspects of each of these. But when you look at them together in totality the evidence is so strong that it is hard to not accept the truth of them. Bible prophecy is physically confirmed by the cloths which confirms the message of scripture. Perhaps Dr. Ehrman’s opinion might change if he looked at the evidence for the Shroud and the Sudarium?
I have found the Church – both pastors and laity – to reject the Shroud without considering the evidence. Worse, I have even been criticized for my belief in the Shroud. Typically, they say I have faith and they don’t understand why I need the Shroud. What I have come to understand is how different we are as people. There are people like me and Prof. Ehrman that need evidence while there are others that don’t need evidence because they have the faith of a child (like my mom did). They don’t think the same way I think. They truly do not understand why I need the Shroud. That is an obstacle to our communication.
I believe the Shroud and Sudarium are supernatural evidence provided and protected by God Himself. As such they are the highest evidence in existence directly from God in support of the Bible. Shouldn’t all of the Church give that consideration? Look at the evidence before deciding. People like me need it.
Now I am certain that the Shroud and Sudarium are the burial cloths of Jesus. I look at the image of the man on the Shroud and I read my Bible linking Jesus to that image. I always wanted Jesus to be true, but secular beliefs in evolution caused me to doubt. But I never stopped looking and I found the evidence I had been searching for my whole life. Now my heart and mind are in agreement. Jesus is God and I will be with my Lord and Savior when I die. I will be home, but until then I will share the evidence for Him.