No good having ever resulted to man from such visits from the Great Author of all things, is proof presumptive that they never took place. So far from any moral good having resulted to Adam and Eve from their daily intercourse with Jehovah, we find in the case, of Eve, that, being seduced, either, by the serpent, or her own vicious inclination, she ate the forbidden fruit The ejectment of our first parents from the garden of Eden, would seem to warrant us in believing that the Lord watched over them for evil, and not for good. A pair of human beings brought into existence without experience of the past, or knowledge of the future, must stand much in need of instruction from their Creator; and yet the result of all the recorded intercourse was, they became disobedient; and were driven out of the garden provided for them by no less a being than the Author of the universe. Had the Bible-makers arranged the story so as to have made the conversations and intercourse result in the continuance of our first parents in the garden, the account would have borne some resemblance to truth: but to represent it as having ended in their expulsion, is by far too large a draft upon human credulity, unless they can believe that God is what Christians declare the Devil to be.
If the advocates for the authenticity of the Bible contend that the recorded intercourse between the Lord and our first parents is literally true, that view of the subject is attended with so many difficulties that it is almost impossible to give credit to it But if they contend that it is an allegory, then the probability is that the account of the creation is altogether a fabulous tradition, consequently not a divine inspiration. When the Lord is represented as having appeared to Abram, or any of the renowned men of old, such appearances are not spoken of as being of uncommon occurrence, nor is any surprise manifested. The Lord is always represented as having appeared in a human form. Before the sceptic can believe in the reality of these visitations, he must know for what end they took place; and, also, why the Lord should in the olden times be always ready to appear to, and converse with, his favorites, and in modern times altogether discontinue his visits, as if there were now nothing on earth worthy of his particular notice.
The Bible informs us that three angels in the form of men appeared to Abram, and that one of them was called the Lord, the Judge of all the earth. They must have been in the likeness of men: for, they had their feet washed; they dined with Abram, and the particular kind of food is mentioned, which in our day would be denominated veal and griddle-cake. And at this dinner the promise was confirmed that Abram and Sarah should be blessed with a son in their old age, and that from his descendants one should arise who should be for the healing of the nations. After dinner the Lord informed Abram that he had heard that Abram’s neighbors were extremely wicked, and that he and his companions had come to ascertain if the report were correct, and that the vengeance of Heaven was about to fall on Sodom and Gomorrah for their crimes. The good old man plead hard for the inhabitants, saying, “Far be it from the Lord to slay the righteous with the wicked,” and thereby in a slight degree averted the dreadful doom. The reader can peruse the account (Genesis, chapter xviii.,) and make his own comments. The writer could as soon believe that the moon is a large cheese, suspended in the firmament, as give credit to this contemptible story. If it should be asked, how Moses obtained his information as to what Abram had for dinner, the answer is, by inspiration.
We will here notice two remarkable appearances of the Lord: one of them to Balaam, the other to Moses, A few remarks on each will suffice. Balaam was a conjuror, and a person of no small consequence in his day. He was applied to by the princes of Moab to prophesy evil against the Israelites, That whole nation, under the guidance of Moses, being in the act of marching through the land of Moab on their route to the land of promise, and having the character of making too free with other people’s property, the princes of Moab hired Balaam to curse them. We are told that the heathen prophet judged it best to procure the permission of Jehovah, the God of the Jews, before he cursed his people. He, therefore, erected an altar on the top of a hill, and on it sacrificed seven bullocks and seven sheep. During the sacrifice, the Lord of heaven and earth came down, and called the prophet aside from the presence of the princes of Moab, and forbade him to curse his people. The sacrifice was repeated thrice. On each occasion the Lord appeared to Balaam, giving him leave to go with the princes, but forbidding him on any account to curse the Israelites. The remainder of the tale is to be found in the history of Balaam.
Now, can it be possible, that this account contains a particle of truth? Can we suppose, that the unknown power, whom man calls God, presented himself at the altar of a heathen necromancer, and, whispering in his ear, forbade him to perform his monkey tricks to the detriment of his chosen people? And that three times he should descend from heaven to overawe the old trickster, as if he thought him capable of doing harm to the Israelites? This account is rendered more contemptible by being referred to by New Testament writers, although the scripture declares in many places that “no man can see God and live.” Christians little think how largely their credulity is taxed when they are taught to believe that such accounts were given by divine inspiration.
It is written in the book of Exodus, (chapter xxiv.,) that After the giving of the moral law on Mount Sinai, the Lord called Moses to the top of that remarkable place to give him instructions respecting the tabernacle and its paraphernalia. Moses remained there forty days, attending to the commands of Jehovah. The Lord, on a sudden, informed Moses that the Israelites had forsaken him, had set up a golden calf, and were in the act of worshipping before it and dancing for joy. Moses was ordered to go down. Before he left the mount, however, the Lord’s anger waxed hot, and he told Moses not to plead for the wicked people. Jehovah, being about to destroy them, Moses besought him not to cut them off, and reminded him that, by so doing, the Egyptians would triumph and say that their God led them into the wilderness to destroy them.
Moses also reminded Jehovah of the promises made to Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, respecting their posterity; and by the arguments he made use of in favor of showing mercy to the Jewish people, at length prevailed on the Lord to suppress his anger. Having descended from the mount, Moses found the people half-naked, and dancing in a state of joyful excitement before the Golden Calf. The man who had but just before plead the cause of his brethren, and thereby prevented Jehovah’s destroying the whole of the seed of Abram, found it less difficult to quiet the fury of an angry God, than to keep his own temper; for, when he saw their idolatrous dancing and revelry, he lost all patience, and, throwing down the tables of stone on which the laws were written, made the inquiry, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” The Levites instantly came forward and declared for the Lord. Moses ordered every man to take his sword and slay his neighbor and friends who had rebelled against Jehovah,—a shocking slaughter ensued, for three thousand were slain on that day!
If this account could be credited, it would be truly harrowing to the reflecting mind. To believers in Christianity, we would say, can you expect persons who depend on the exercise of their reason for the discovery of truth and the detection of error, to believe the account of the transactions of Jehovah and Moses on the mountain? Surely, you cannot. We give the following reasons why it is out of our power to believe it:—The narrative represents the Almighty Ruler of the Universe as possessing the same frailties as his creature, man. The Creator is forty days contriving (assisted by Moses) ornaments and decorations for his own worship. Before these were completed, the people, who were to be the worshippers, deserted their God, and either commenced a new religion or revived an old one. For a considerable time, Jehovah allows Moses to remain in ignorance of what is going on at the foot of the mountain; then, all of a sudden, informs him of it; in a burst of passion tells him to stand out of his way, so as to be no hindrance to him in pouring out his wrath; and seems determined to exterminate the whole race. Moses, less passionate than the Deity, argued strenuously in favor of his brethren, and pointed out to Jehovah two reasons why he ought to spare them:—first, that their extermination would break the promise made to Abram; and secondly, that the Egyptians would exult in the destruction of their former slaves, Jehovah losing all the honor of having brought them out of bondage with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.
Having thus cooled down Divine vengeance, Moses himself became the Jack Ketch, or executioner of his brethren.
If this account had been found in any book but the Bible, not one person in a thousand would have believed it. It destroys the attributes of the God of all worlds, gives the lie to his foreknowledge and immutability, and then invests him with all the weakness, folly, and mutability of poor, frail, erring man.