Misquoting Jesus: Reviewed

I am still working through the book but I thought I'd take the time to go through some of what I have read and my thoughts on this interesting book.

Introduction
I really liked how Erhman begins: with himself. He tells the audience where he comes from and what things in his life had lead him to the point he is at now. I like this because it gives us a chance to see some of the presuppositions a person comes to the table with, which is important because everyone comes to the table with some presuppositions that can negatively or positively influence one's arguments.
One of the interesting things you will find out about Dr. Ehrman is that he became a "born-again" Christian after hearing the Gospel from a guy named Bruce as a sophomore in High school. He recalls that he had always felt an 'emptiness' as a teen, but when he had his 'born-again' experience, he felt as if the emptiness was filled. Read what he has to say:

"There was a kind of loneliness associated with being a teenager; but, of course, I didn't realize that it was part of being a teenager--I thought there must be something missing."
"Bruce was a completely winsome personality--younger than our parents but older and more experienced than we--with a powerful message, that the void we felt inside (we were teenagers! All of us felt a void!) was from not having Christ in our hearts." p.3

For me, this is very telling. I always find it strange when someone makes a universal statement ike that. I'm 22 and I can recall my feelings as a teenager and I don't once recalling a sense of "loneliness" nor "a void." in my life; and by all accounts I should have. I'm from a family of divorce. My parents split when I was young enough to not truly realize what was going on, but old enough to realize something was wrong. But hey, maybe I'm just the exception to the rule, I can accept that, but maybe there's something to the loneliness teenagers feel. Maybe as we get older, we try to fill that void with things and they work for a little while and then we have to find something new. Americans are infamous for this mentality. I think C.S. Lewis said it best:

“A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."

More to come later!!