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

With these qualifications I fully accept the position taken by this writer as a correct statement of the points at issue between those who affirm, and those who deny the claims of Christianity to be a divine revelation, and [pg 014] accept his challenge to defend the supernatural elements in the New Testament, or to abandon it as worthless. To maintain that any of its dogmas can be accepted as true while its miraculous elements are abandoned seems to me to involve a question which is hopelessly illogical.

Modern unbelief rejects every supernatural occurrence as utterly incredible. Before proceeding to examine into the grounds of this, it will be necessary to lay down definitely the bearing of the present argument on the principles of atheism, pantheism, and theism.

As far as the impossibility of supernatural occurrences is concerned, pantheism and atheism occupy precisely the same grounds. If either of them propounds a true theory of the universe, any supernatural occurrence, which necessarily implies a supernatural agent to bring it about, is impossible, and the entire controversy as to whether miracles have ever been actually performed is a foregone conclusion. Modern atheism, while it does not venture in categorical terms to affirm that no God exists, definitely asserts that there is no evidence that there is one. It follows that if there is no evidence that there is a God, there can be no evidence that a miracle ever has been performed, for the very idea of a miracle implies the idea of a God to work one. If therefore atheism is true, all controversy about miracles is useless. They are simply impossible, and to inquire whether an impossible event has happened is absurd. To such a person the historical enquiry, as far as a miracle is concerned, must be a foregone conclusion. It might have a little interest as a matter of curiosity; but even if the most unequivocal evidence could be adduced that an occurrence such as we call supernatural had taken place, the utmost that it could prove would be that some [pg 015] most extraordinary and abnormal fact had taken place in nature of which we did not know the cause. But to prove a miracle to any person who consistently denies that he has any evidence that any being exists which is not a portion of and included in the material universe, or developed out of it, is impossible.

Nor does the case differ in any material sense with pantheism. When we have got rid of its hazy mysticism, and applied to it clear principles of logic, its affirmation is that God and the Universe are one, and that all past and present forms of existence have been the result of the Universe, i.e. God, everlastingly developing himself in conformity with immutable law. All things which either have existed or exist are as many manifestations of God, who is in fact an infinite impersonal Proteus, ever changing in his outward form. From him, or to speak more correctly, from it (for he is no person), all things have issued as mere phenomenal babbles of the passing moment, and by it will be again swallowed up in never-ending succession. Such a God must be devoid of everything which we understand by personality, intelligence, wisdom, volition or a moral nature. It is evident therefore that to a person who logically and consistently holds these views the occurrence of a miracle is no less an impossibility than it is to an atheist, for the conception of a miracle involves the presence of personality, intelligence, and power at the disposal of volition. All that the strongest evidence could prove to those who hold such principles, is that some abnormal event had taken place of which the cause was unknown.

It is evident, therefore, that the only course which can be pursued with a professed atheist or pantheist, is to grapple with him on the evidences of theism, and to endeavour to prove the existence of a God possessed [pg 016] of personality, intelligence, volition, and adequate power, before we attempt to deal with the evidences of miracles. Until we have convinced him of this all our reasonings must be in vain.

There are four modes of reasoning by which the being of a God may be established. I will simply enumerate them. First, the argument which is founded on the principle of causation; second, that which rests on the order of the universe; third, that from its innumerable adaptations; fourth, that which is derived from the moral nature and personality of man. If the argument from causation fails to prove to those with whom we are reasoning that the finite causes in the universe must have a first cause from whence they have originated; if that from the orderly arrangements in the universe fails to prove that there must be an intelligent being who produced them; if its innumerable adaptations fail to establish the presence of a presiding mind; and if the moral nature of man fails to prove that must be a moral being from whom that nature emanated, and of whom it is the image, it follows that the minds must be so differently constituted as to offer no common ground or basis of reasoning on this question. The whole involves an essential difference of principle, which no argumentation can really reach. To attempt to prove to a mind of this description the occurrence of a miracle, is simply a waste of labour.

A work, therefore, on the subject of miracles can only be addressed to theists, because the very conception of a miracle involves the existence of a personal God. To take this for granted in reasoning with a pantheist or atheist is simply to assume the point at issue. It is perfectly true, that a legitimate body of reasoning may be constructed, if the pantheist or the [pg 017] atheist agrees to assume that a God exists for the purpose of supplying a basis for the argument. We may then reason with him precisely in the same way as we would with a theist. But the contest will be with one who has clad himself in armour which no weapon at our disposal can penetrate. After the strongest amount of historical evidence has been adduced, and after all alleged difficulties have been answered, he simply falls back on his atheism or his pantheism, which assumes that all supernatural occurrences must be impossible, and therefore that alleged instances of them are delusions.

This is not unfrequently the case in the present controversy. A considerable number of objections which are urged against the supernatural elements of Christianity, derive whatever cogency they possess from the assumption that there is a God who is the moral Governor of the universe. These are not unfrequently urged by persons who deny the possibility of miracles on atheistic or pantheistic grounds. It is perfectly fair to reason against Christianity on these grounds; it is equally so for a person who holds these opinions, to attempt to prove that the historical evidence adduced in proof of the miracles recorded in the New Testament is worthless as an additional reason why men should cease to believe in them. But it is not conducive to the interests of truth to urge objections which have no reality except on the supposition that a God exists who is the moral Governor of the universe, and then to fall back on reasonings whose whole force is dependent on the data furnished by pantheism or atheism. I shall have occasion to notice a remarkable instance of this involved mode of reasoning hereafter.

I shall now proceed briefly to state the mode in which I propose to treat the present subject. The point which I have to defend is not any conceivable body of miracles or their evidential value, but specially the supernatural occurrences recorded in the New Testament. I must therefore endeavour to ascertain what is the extent of the supernaturalism asserted in the New Testament, and what is the degree of evidential value which its writers claim for it.

It has been asserted by many writers that the sole and only evidence of a revelation must be a miraculous testimony. Whether this be so or not, this is not the place to enquire. But in relation to the present controversy the plain and obvious course is to ask the writers of the New Testament what is the precise evidential value of the supernatural occurrences which they have narrated. This is far preferable to falling back on any assertions of modern writers, however eminent, on this subject. They may have over-estimated, or under-estimated their evidential value. The writers of the New Testament must be held responsible, not for the assertions of others, but only for their own. I must therefore carefully consider what it is that they affirm to be proved by miracles.