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

This point is so important, that I must make the position which I intend taking with respect to it clear. It involves the distinction between revelation and theology. The religious and moral teaching which is contained in the New Testament is in a very unsystematic form. Not one of its writings is a formal treatise on theology, nor does one of them contain a systematised statement of what constitutes Christianity. Its teaching of religious truth is incidental, and is called forth by the special circumstances of the writer. The plain fact is that four of the writings which comprise the New Testament are religions memoirs. One is an historical account of the foundation of the Church. Twenty-one are letters, written to different Churches and individuals, and all called forth by special emergencies. These all partake of the historical character. The only one which does not participate in this character is the Apocalypse, which, being a vision, is utterly unlike a formal or systematic treatise on Christianity. The result of the form in which the New Testament is composed is that its definite teaching is always incidental, called forth to meet special circumstances and occasions in the history of Churches and individuals, and never formal. It is also universally couched in popular, as distinct from scientific or technical language. Not one of its writers makes an attempt to formulate a system of Christian theology.

The person of Jesus Christ constitutes Christianity in its truest and highest sense. Three of the Gospels embody the traditionary teaching of the Church on this subject. The fourth is the work of an independent writer. The epistles may be received as a set of incidental commentaries on the person and work of Jesus Christ, called forth by the special occasions which gave them birth, and embodying the author's general views as to his [pg 010] work and teaching as adapted to a number of special circumstances and occasions.

Between the contents of the New Testament and what is commonly understood by Ecclesiastical Christianity the difference is extremely wide. The New Testament contains a divine revelation. Ecclesiastical Christianity is a body of religious teaching in which Christianity has been attempted to be presented in a systematised form, or, in other words, it is a theology more or less complete.

It is necessary that we should have a clear appreciation of the difference. Theology is an attempt of the human intellect to present to us the truths communicated in Revelation in a systematised form. It is in fact the result of the human reason investigating the facts and statements of Revelation. Theology therefore is a simple creation of human reason erected on the facts of divine revelation. As such it is subject to all the errors and imperfections to which our rational powers are obnoxious. It can claim no infallibility more than any other rational action of the human mind. Theology is a science, and is subject to the imperfections to which all other sciences are liable. It stands to the facts of Christianity in the same relation as philosophy and physical science stand to the works of nature. In the one the human intellect investigates the divine revelation contained in the works of nature, and endeavours to systematise its truths: in the other it does the same with respect to the divine revelation which in accordance with the assertions of the New Testament has been made in the person of Jesus Christ.

What I am desirous of drawing attention to is that theology is not revelation. Systems of theology may be accurate deductions of reason from Revelation; or [pg 011] they may be inaccurate and imperfect ones. It is very possible that a system of theology which has been evolved by human reason, although it may have attained a wide acceptance, may be as inadequate an explanation of the facts of revelation, as the Ptolemaic system of astronomy was of the facts of the material universe. Objections which were raised against the latter were no real objections against the structure of the universe itself. In the same way objections which may be raised against a particular system of theology, may leave the great facts of revelation entirely untouched.

If we look into the history of Christianity, we shall find that as soon as the Church began to consolidate itself into a distinct community, the reason of man began to exert itself on the facts of revelation, and to attempt to reduce its teaching to a systematic form. From this source have sprung all the various systems of theology which have from time to time predominated in the Church. It has been a plant of gradual growth, and as such may bear a fair comparison with the slow growth of philosophy or physical science. Such an action of reason on the facts of revelation was inevitable and entirely legitimate. What I am desirous of guarding against is the idea that when reason is exerted on the facts of revelation, it is more infallible than when exerted on any other subjects which come under its cognisance.

I am not ignorant that there is another theory respecting the nature of theology. A large branch of the Christian Church holds that a body of dogmatic statements has been handed down traditionally from the Apostles and other inspired teachers, which has been embodied in the system of theology which is accepted by this Church, and that this was intended to [pg 012] be an authoritative statement of the facts of the Christian revelation. It is also part of the same theory that the Church as a collective body has in all ages possessed an inspiration, which enables it to affirm authoritatively and dogmatically, what is and what is not Christian doctrine, and that which it thus authoritatively affirms to be so, must be accepted as a portion of the Christian revelation as much as the contents of the New Testament itself.

I fully admit that those who assume a position of this kind are bound to act consistently, and to defend every statement in their dogmatic creeds as an integral portion of Christianity. Nor is it less certain, if this principle is true, that if any portion of such dogmatic creeds can be successfully assailed as contrary to reason, as for instance the formulated doctrine of transubstantiation, it would imperil the position of Christianity itself. Those, however, who have taken such positions, must be left to take the consequences of them. It is not my intention in undertaking to defend the historical truth of the supernatural elements in the New Testament, to burden myself with an armour which seems only fitted to crash beneath its weight the person who attempts to use it.

It has been necessary to be explicit on this point, in order that the argument may be kept free from all adventitious issues. The introduction into it of the expression, “Ecclesiastical Christianity,” brings with it no inconsiderable danger of diverting our attention from what is the real point of controversy. I must therefore repeat it. Ecclesiastical Christianity is a development made by reason from the facts of the New Testament, and is a thing which is entirely distinct from the contents of the New Testament. With its affirmations therefore I have nothing to do in the [pg 013] present discussion. It will not be my duty to examine into its positions, with a view of ascertaining whether they are developments of Christian teaching which can be logically deduced from its pages; still less to accept and to defend them as authoritative statements of its meaning. In defending the New Testament as containing a divine revelation, I have only to do with the contents and assertions of the book itself, and with nothing outside its pages. What others may have propounded respecting its meaning can form no legitimate portion of the present controversy. The real point at issue is one which is simple and distinct. It is, are the supernatural incidents recorded in it historical events or fictitious inventions? As that is the question before us, I must decline to allow any other issue to be substituted in the place of it. Our inquiry is one which is strictly historical.

Another statement made by the author before me requires qualification. He says that “Christianity is a scheme of religion which claims to be miraculous in all points, in form, in essence, and in evidence.” This statement I must controvert. Christianity does not profess to be divine on all points. On the contrary, it contains a divine and a human element so intimately united, that it is impossible to separate the one from the other. It is also far from clear to me how it can be miraculous in form when it is contained in a body of historical writings. I shall have occasion to show hereafter, that although miracles form an important portion of the attestation on which it rests, they are not the only one.