Eric Huffman - Scripture and the Skeptic

Scripture and the Skeptic

Scripture and the Skeptic:
Miracles, Myths, and
Doubts of Biblical Proportions
978-1-7910-0421-7
978-1-7910-0422-4 ePub

Also by Eric Huffman

40 Days of Doubt:
Devotions for the Skeptic
978-1-5018-6913-6
978-1-5018-6914-3 ePub

Miracles, Myths, and Doubts
of Biblical Proportions

ERIC HUFFMAN

SCRIPTURE AND THE SKEPTIC

Copyright 2021 Eric Huffman
All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Permissions, The United Methodist Publishing House, PO Box 280988, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., Nashville, TN 37228-0988 or emailed to .

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020949129
ISBN-13: 978-1-7910-0421-7

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations noted ESV are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations noted KJV are from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crowns patentee, Cambridge University Press.

Scripture quotations noted NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org/.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Dedicated to my daughter, Zaira Joelle,
for whom I have repeated the stories of Esther, Ruth, and Mary
at least a thousand times.
And to my son, Koen Timothy,
who begged me to recite every word of Samsons story
every night for a year.

Even before taking your first steps,
you loved the Bible with all your little hearts.
Your love of Gods story inspired my love of Scripture, too.
I may be the grown-up, the pastor, and your father,
but you two, along with your mother,
have been ministers to my soul.
Of all the many dreams that I have for you,
one of my highest hopes is that youll always love the Bible
with all your little hearts.

Love, Daddy

Finding the drawer full of teeth was the point of no return along my journey into cynicism. I was eight or nine years old when, while ransacking my moms bedside table in search of loose change because the ice cream truck was fast approaching, I happened upon a plastic bag with almost a dozen familiar baby teeth. My teeth. The teeth my mom swore the Tooth Fairy so desperately wanted. What was I supposed to believe nowthat the Tooth Fairy swiped those teeth from under my pillow and then left them in Moms drawer? Thats ridiculous, I reasoned. Why would the Tooth Fairy pay me good money for teeth and then turn around and give them to Mommy?

Something wasnt adding up. After running through all the possible scenarios in my headMommy bought my teeth back from the Tooth Fairy, Mommy stole my teeth from the Tooth Fairy, Mommy is the Tooth Fairylogic led me to one painfully obvious conclusion.

Mommy lied about the Tooth Fairy.

Looking back, I think a switch flipped in my heart that day; from then on, I was paranoid about all things supernatural. I became the preeminent anti-Santa crusader in my fourth-grade class. My school occasionally invited magicians to entertain the student body, but while other kids seemed to enjoy the swindlers tricks, I hyper-analyzed every sleight-of-hand until I could debunk them all.

Amplified by adolescence, my cynical edge grew louder and meaner in the 1990s. Most people were shocked when they heard that the guys from Milli Vanilli were lip-syncing the whole time, but not me. I knew something wasnt right about those guys. And when the obviously guilty Hall of Fame running back got off scot-free after killing his ex-wife and her boyfriend? I called it. When others were scandalized by the proliferation of steroids in our national pastime, I wore my Sammy Sosa jersey with pride. Who cares? Everybody was doing it. And when the president lied about what he did in the Oval Office with the intern in that blue dress? So what? Politicians lie all the time.

Just like my mom, about the Tooth Fairy.

The only reason Im telling you this is so youll know how out of character it is for me to be writing a book in defense of the whole Bible. There are so many reasons not to put stock in a three-thousand-year-old religious book full of miracles and outdated rules, especially since its been translated hundreds of times and we dont have a single original copy.

Ive spent my whole life with the Bible. As a kid, I believed it because I was told thats what the best kids do. In college, I rejected it because I was told thats what the brightest students do. In my twenties, I used the parts that supported my leftist politics, and I ignored all the rest. This book is the story of how a snarky, cynical, social justice warrior came to believe that the Bible is perfect and true.

This book is the story of how a snarky, cynical, social justice warrior came to believe that the Bible is perfect and true.

I became a Christian when I was thirty-four, a full thirteen years after becoming a pastor. How does one become a pastor without being a Christian? I hear you asking. It was pretty simple, really.

I lied.

I grew up in rural northeast Texas, also known as the buckle of the Bible Belt. My dad is a pastor, and so were my grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather before him. My entire life has revolved around my small-town Methodist church, and I was the poster boy for straitlaced, cookie-cutter, red-blooded American Christianity.

Then I went off to college and married the cutest Christian girl I could find, and between my junior and senior years, I accepted the first ministry job that came my way. At twenty-one years of age, and for a salary of $16,000 a year, I became the pastor of Mooringsport Methodist Church in northern Louisiana. No one who knew me was surprised by my lifes trajectory.