The Supernatural in the New Testament, Possible, Credible, and Historical / Or, An Examination of the Validity of Some Recent Objections Against Christianity as a Divine Revelation

by C. A. Row

It follows, therefore, that the New Testament affirms that a purpose is consistently carried out in the history of redemption far different from that which has been here placed before us as the assumptions of Ecclesiastical Christianity. The author has placed these in their most objectionable form; and if Christian apologists have affirmed on such premises as those above stated that a divine interposition was rendered probable, I shall not attempt to defend them. To establish the probability of a revelation additional to that afforded by creation we have no occasion to appeal to theories, but to facts.

The existing moral and spiritual condition of mankind is universally admitted to be imperfect. Both believers and unbelievers in revelation alike acknowledge that the attempt to improve it is desirable. No less certain is it that man possesses faculties which can only receive their perfect development in a higher condition of things than the present. These as much point to a higher development of man as the organization of the lower forms of animal life points to the higher and more perfect ones. If, therefore, God be the Creator and moral Governor of the world, a further manifestation of Him is rendered highly probable.

This probability may be reasoned out by analogies in the history of the past. Higher developments from lower forms have been the rule. Are they then to cease with man in his present state of imperfection? How man came to be thus imperfect, how his moral degradation has originated, is a question which does not fall within the present argument. It is a fact, by whatever theory it may be attempted to be accounted for. If a rational being had existed in [pg 193] those ages during which there was manifested nothing but the lower forms of life, and had come to the conclusion that the world as it then existed was the work of an intelligent Creator, he would have pronounced it highly probable that the resources of creative power would yet receive a more glorious manifestation. When vertebrate life was first introduced into the world, a careful examination of the state of things would have led to a similar conclusion. But the lower forms of vertebrate life are typical of the higher, and the higher point to man. Before man entered the world a being capable of comprehending the condition of things as then existing would have pronounced it highly probable that there would be yet a further manifestation of creative energy, and that the work required for its consummation the production of rationality.

Such and far more numerous have been the actual stages of creative action. Are we entitled to call them a failure because they were relatively imperfect, or any fresh intervention of divine power an interference to remedy a previous failure? On the contrary, these so-called interventions are the persistent carrying out of a determined purpose. The acts of Deity are inaccurately designated interventions. He is always working with the most perfect knowledge of the means which He employs, and the most perfect controul over them. Failure with Him is impossible. The word “intervention” as applied to the operations of God conveys the idea of a machine which He originally constructed, and then left to its own operations. Such a machine will in course of time get out of order, or perform its work imperfectly, and require to be supplemented by additional contrivances. Thus when the clock ceases to go there arises a necessity for the intervention of the clockmaker. He constructs [pg 194] his clock and leaves it to itself. But creation is no mere machine; the Divine worker is always present in His works. The last idea which would have occurred to the authors of the Bible was that God was obliged to be making a number of special interventions to cure defects in the results of His operations. As the Bible cannot help using the language of man, expressions derived from the defects of human language are at times used in it, but the one prevalent idea is that God is always present working in the kingdoms of nature and of grace, that all His actions are the constant carrying out of a predetermined purpose, and that with Him is no variableness neither shadow of turning.

If the possibility of the introduction of moral evil into the universe is a necessary condition of the creation of a free moral agent, or in other words, if the contrary supposition involves a contradiction, the Creator must have viewed the production of such a free agent as so desirable, that it formed a part of His purpose to create him notwithstanding this possibility. If then moral evil became a fact, it involved no failure in the purposes of God. He must have viewed the existence of such beings as desirable, even if this contingency became a fact. Why, I ask, may not a further manifestation of Himself, by means of which moral evil might be reduced to the smallest dimensions, or even ultimately removed, while freedom is still preserved, form a portion of the same great purpose of the divine mind? If this be possible, the assertion that Redemption is a special intervention of God for the purpose of remedying the breaking down of his creative plan, is disproved, and with it all the other inferences of the numerous writers whose views I am considering.

In affirming the probability of a revelation, the Christian apologist need not go beyond the region of actual facts. He has no occasion to rest his proof on any statement made by a supposed revelation the truth of which is the point at issue. To do so would be to assume the thing which requires to be proved. But facts as they exist, independently of any statements in the Bible, are quite sufficient. Man exists. He is possessed of powers and aspirations which this state of things does not gratify. He is capable of moral action, and there is something within him which affirms that he ought to obey the moral law. Yet its realization by him is of the most imperfect character. Does the actual condition of man afford satisfaction even to the unbeliever, account for it as he may? Is there not a great amount of moral evil in the world? Do not considerable numbers of men, instead of progressing to higher degrees of moral perfection degenerate through various stages of moral corruption? Does not moral evil cause a great amount of physical suffering? Are not vast numbers of men the prey of ignorance and superstition—great evils doubtless, and of which unbelievers heavily complain? In one word, when we contemplate the present condition of mankind, does not the sternest reason affirm that it is inconceivable that this can be the final condition of God's creative work? Yet these things are no theories but obvious facts, and on the supposition on which we are reasoning, facts in the universe of God.

It follows therefore, that facts such as these, when contemplated by reason, establish the probability, nay almost the certainty of a further divine action. Of course this is based on the assumption that there is a wise and holy God who is the author of the universe, but both the opponents and believers in revelation can [pg 196] only argue this subject at all on the supposition that God exists. Any fresh mode of divine action will probably differ from the preceding ones, because man exists as a moral and spiritual being. It is therefore probable that such divine action will be moral rather than physical; or, in other words, the divine purpose of creation includes within it a yet further manifestation of the divine character and perfections. This is what the New Testament affirms to have taken place in the Incarnation. This is my position.

I shall only add one or two more brief remarks. Those who charge theologians with making unfounded assumptions should be guiltless of making them themselves. The warning against falling into this error may be profitably taken to heart by both parties to this controversy. It is affirmed that the constitution of nature bears everywhere the indications of systematic upward progression. I ask, is this systematic upward progression everywhere true of man? Are there no where indications of retrogression? Europeans generally during the last two thousand years have progressed, although even this is not universally true, for some of the fine arts attained to greater perfection in the ancient than in the modern world. But has the Hindoo race progressed during the last three thousand years? Have the Chinese? Is it not true that the progress of these two races has been one of considerable retrogression? Where is the progress made by the Negro races from the first dawnings of their history? Yet these three races form more than half of the human family. Again, have the Arab races progressed since the days of Abraham? Are the Mahommedan races in a state of gradual improvement? These are questions to which a definite answer must be returned before the proposition above referred to can [pg 197] be esteemed a solution of all the problems of human history.

It will perhaps be replied that nature is gradually extinguishing these unprogressive races, under the pressure of her inexorable laws. Yet they constitute an overwhelming majority of the human race, and it is strange to talk of this progressive improvement of the human race as a great law of nature, if the mode of improvement be the extinction of the great majority of mankind. But are the Hindoo, Chinese, Negro, and other unprogressive races less numerous than they were three thousand years ago? The evidence is all the other way. We want present facts and not theories of the future. It has been affirmed, that “The survival of the fittest is the stern law of nature. The invariable action of law of itself eliminates the unfit. Progress is necessary to existence. Extinction is the doom of Retrogression.” These assertions may receive their fulfilment in some period of the distant future, but they certainly do not agree with the past history of man. Whatever progress the European races may be capable of, certain conditions of climate form an inexorable barrier to their supplanting the Negro, the Hindoo, or the Chinese, and we know that European blood in certain climates has actually degenerated.

Again, it is stated “that the highest effect contemplated by the supposed revelation is to bring man into harmony with law; and this is insured by law acting on intelligence, and even on instinct.” Where, I ask, is the proof of this derived from the history of man? Is the moral condition of the races above referred to higher than it was three thousand years ago? Did the moral condition of the Greek race progress or retrograde during the four centuries which preceded the Advent? Which was the more elevated condition [pg 198] of Roman morality, that of the century which preceded and followed the conquest of Italy, or that of the empire and its crumbling institutions?