A Legacy to the Friends of Free Discussion / Principal Historical Facts and Personages of the Books Known as The Old and New Testament; With Remarks on the Morality of Nature

by Benjamin Offen

Here, then, was the fatal mistake, the unfortunate error; and now we may ask, for what was Jesus sent? Jehovah knew that they would not receive him, and that a failure would be the consequence. But if Jehovah did not know of his rejection, what then are we to say of the attributes of the God of Israel? Taking either side, involves the greatest absurdity, and is shocking to every idea we can have of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness.

If Jesus, on his arrival to the Jews as a nation, intended to prove his divine mission by the performance of miracles, he appears to have taken the wrong course to carry conviction to the minds of his fellow countrymen. Instead of performing signs and wonders before the most learned of his nation, he associated with the most ignorant classes of society. These were chiefly fishermen, who could be easily imposed on by any sleight of hand, performed by a dexterous juggler. It was to the most learned and competent men of that day to whom his appeals ought to have been made; but on the contrary, he employed such vulgar abuse as—“O, generation of vipers! how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” It may safely be inferred, that such abusive language as this would be considered by the priests and rulers sufficient to stamp its author as a man of low character and violent temper.

Again, instead of opening his mission with the declaration of Jehovah’s former promises to the Jewish nation, that the God of their fathers had sent him to recover the lost sheep of the home of Israel, he tells them that the holy temple was then a den of thieves; and at another time, commences with a cord, or rattan, (like a drunken man,) to drive men from the temple. Is it possible to conceive that such could be the conduct of him who was proclaimed to be “Peace on earth and good will towards men”?

Again, miracles, as proofs of Christ’s divine mission, ought to have been performed before the most learned and talented men among the Jews. On the contrary, it was the ignorant and unlettered part of society who were the witnesses of his mighty deeds; for it is impossible for men who are unacquainted with the laws and phenomena of nature, to form any thing like a correct judgment of those laws, so as to know what were their natural operations, to the exclusion of divine power. So that a performance of any thing, however wonderful to ignorant and untaught men, would, to others, who were better acquainted with the laws of the universe, be no miracle at all.

In conclusion, then, so far as miracles are concerned, a miracle must be something performed by another, that is impossible to take place without superhuman aid; and before persons who are so fully acquainted with the laws of the universe, that imposition would be impossible. Now the Jews, at the time of the coming of Christ, if he did come at all, had no such knowledge. In that age, many strange things were believed, that never had any real existence. For instance, it was fully believed by the Jews, and nearly throughout the world, that evil spirits or demons took possession of the bodies of men, and ceased, not to torment them in a thousand ways; and the casting out of these was considered a miracle. Jesus is said to have performed many miracles of this kind. Mary Magdalene had seven of them ejected by the Saviour. So it is recorded.

But now, no man of science gives the least credit to such tales; so that the fact is, no devils ever were cast out, because none ever entered the human body. If Jesus, then, pretended to cast out devils, when he knew there were none possessed of them, how can we exempt him from the charge of being a deceiver? If, on the other hand, he believed that Mary Magdalene had seven, and that they left her by his orders, in that case, what shall we say as to his knowledge?

At the present day, should a person apply for medical aid to cast out a devil, such person would be considered a lunatic. This is proof positive that Jesus partook of the superstition of the age in which he lived; and that his pretensions to cast out devils by the power of God, were incompatible with his mission as the Son of God, the Redeemer of Israel.

The history of Jesus, as recorded in the four Gospels, fully represents him as acting like most reformers in all ages and nations, namely, by abusing men of wealth and power. But, unlike most others, Jesus represented himself as the only Son of God, by whose authority he (Jesus) called the priests and the rulers of Israel by names the most offensive, thereby exciting their opposition to his mode of teaching and acting. At the same time, the lower grades of society did then, as they do at the present day. They considered him as a reformer, the friend of the people, in proportion as he was lavish in his abuse of the most violent nature.

In concluding this chapter, we may safely infer, that if Jesus was sent into the world to be put to death as a sacrifice for sin, his manner of preaching to his countrymen, and his violent abuse and denunciations against the then rulers of Israel, were calculated to bring about his tragical end. But, on the contrary, if Jesus came from God, To restore the lost sheep of the home of Israel, as the Jews, one and all, expected the Messiah would do, it then follows, that the Jews, as a nation, were deceived, and in putting him to death, they thought him a blasphemer, having no claim to be considered as the true deliverer of his nation. If Jesus came from God to the Jews, as their long-expected Saviour and Deliverer, and every blessing, as it respected them, depended on their giving him an obedience agreeable to his mission as an ambassador of peace, to mistake him for an impostor, was a misfortune more deplorable than all the misfortunes, as a nation, the Jews had ever experienced from the call of Abram until the time that Christ is said to have arrived in the land of Judea. If, in reality and truth, he came from the Jehovah of that people, as they had for ages expected, then, instead of his collecting together a few fishermen, common sense would instruct us to suppose, that the Lord’s anointed would go direct to the priests and Jewish, rulers, and accost them in the following way:—“The long-expected, the long-desired, is now in the midst of you. I am the true, the very Christ, the anointed of Jehovah, of the seed of Abram. My beloved mother will lift her hand, and swear on the altar of her God and my God, the Father of us all, that I am the offspring of God, and that in the absence of all earthly intercourse, she brought me forth, and that angels announced her miraculous conception, before I saw the light; and that I am endowed with power from on high, to do before your longing eyes miracles and wonders, such as all former pretenders could not perform. But, as you have before been deceived by impostors who have forged my name, and assumed my character, believe me not for my word, but for my works’ sake. Mark well my deportment Give credit to my mighty deeds only when they are openly addressed to your senses, that no doubts may remain as to the identity of my person, and the high commission of which I am the bearer; and being fully convinced of my Messiahship, obey me as the earthly representative of your heavenly Father, while I unfold the blessings that await you, in the fulfilment of the promises made to Abram and his seed forever.” Instead, however, of thus openly and frankly making known the object of his message to his nation, Jesus begins by making use of expressions the most insulting, charging the priests and rulers with crimes of the basest description, in the worst language possible; the direct tendency of which was, to arouse their worst feelings, leaving them in doubt what to think of one who arrogated to himself authority over the Mosaic law, and whose teaching was so obscure as not to be understood even by his own disciples. In speaking of himself and the kingdom he was about to set up, he said that his death formed a part of the divine arrangement included in his mission; as much as to say, I must be put to death before my plane can be developed. At times, in the course of his preaching, Jesus referred to his future exaltation, as the “Judge of quick and dead.” At other times he represented himself as the only true light that enlightens every man that cometh into the world; and yet, he courted obscurity in most of his preaching, so much so, that one of his most intimate friends (Judas) was bribed to inform the rulers who this extraordinary man was, and where he could be found.

What would be thought of an ambassador, sent from America to England on business of the first importance, if, instead of proceeding to the Court of St. James, at London, he should be found lecturing to fishermen and people in the lower walks of society, and at the same time, in language of the most violent kind, abusing the British Government? In fine, such was the preaching and acting of Jesus during his stay in the land of Israel, that to me it appears impossible to discover the object or the utility of his coming. No wonder, therefore, that the Jews rejected him altogether.