First, he discusses the unreliability of biblical writings, such as the gospels of the New Testament, stating that "the Gospels cannot simply be taken literally because they give us accounts historically reliable of the things Jesus said and did,” (Ehrman 88), because not only were they written after the death of Jesus, but they did not even come from eyewitnesses who had personally seen or heard Jesus. Since the sources used in these writings are unknown , and their purpose was, in Ehrman's words, to spread the "good news" of Jesus, the information they contain must be carefully analyzed and compared with other sources, before it can be accepted as true. This leads to one of Ehrman's main arguments: Since the Hebrew Bible spoke of a messiah who was thought to be the future ruler of the people of Israel, but Jesus did not fit that image due to his pacifist and compassionate views, Ehrman states that Jesus' actions would not have led anyone to believe he was the messiah, ergo he must have told them he was. Another interesting point made by Ehrman is that some of Jesus' early teachings differed from the views of early Christians. For example, Ehrman cites a biblical passage that implies that people who are good and help others can go to heaven, despite the fact that the early church preached that heaven and salvation could only be achieved by believing in the death and resurrection of Jesus This, along with Ehrman's highlighting of the unreliability of biblical sources, furthers the idea that the real Jesus was very different from what he later turned out to be, and that much of him was likely distorted. misunderstood or exaggerated to fit Christian views, particularly because during his time, a largely oral tradition existed and much information was conveyed through storytelling.