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

The onus probandi therefore clearly rests on the opponents of Christianity. If they deny the truth of the fact which the Church has ever handed down as the true account of her origin, they are bound not only to show that it is devoid of historical attestation, but to propound a theory which will adequately account for [pg 375] all the facts to which history testifies. It is clear that nothing short of this is required of them as philosophical historians. Certain facts are plain and undeniable. A society, of a very special character, sprang into existence at a definite point of history, and has exerted a mightier influence than any other on the destinies of man. If therefore they reject the account which the Church herself gives, they are bound to supply a rational account of how this great society came into being; how the phenomena which constitute its history have been brought about; and what it was that imparted to it its vitality and power. We are in the presence of the greatest institution with which history is acquainted, founded as it is on the greatest ideal conception (if it is not historical) which the human mind has ever succeeded in inventing. Both these came into existence, not in pre-historic times, but in the midst of a period of contemporaneous history. Respecting the times, the modes of thought, and the general character of the period, we have extensive historical data. The religious, moral, and philosophical opinions, and the general line of thought, are well known. The various forces which were then in activity we are able to appreciate. With all these data before him, it is incumbent on the philosophical historian to give us an account of the moral and religious forces in activity at this period, which were capable of creating the Christian Church, and generating its conception of the ideal Christ. If it is alleged that after the utmost investigation it is impossible to account for their origin by the action of any known moral or spiritual forces acting on the human mind, this would be at once to confess that the origin of Christianity and the Church is entirely abnormal, or in other words, that it is a moral and spiritual miracle.

To do unbelievers justice, they have not been slow to recognize the fact that if they reject the account which the Church has given of its origin, they are bound to give us a rational one of how Christianity came into existence. Accordingly, theory after theory has been propounded on this subject. No intellectual exertion has been spared to point out how Christianity and the Church have succeeded in getting into existence, and in effecting their religious and moral conquests, by forces purely human, and without the aid of any supernatural intervention.

One thing respecting these theories is worthy of particular attention. No unbeliever has as yet been able to suggest one which has succeeded in commanding, I will not say the universal, but even the general assent of the unbelieving world. Theory after theory has been propounded and abandoned. It is therefore clear that the difficulty of accounting for the origin of Christianity and the Church through the action of the ordinary forces that operate on the human mind, is extreme. There is no analogous case in the whole history of man. Let me briefly enumerate the chief principles which have been invoked to aid in the solution of this problem.

First, it has been attempted to get rid of the supernatural elements contained in the Gospels by representing them as distorted representations of real facts. This has been justly abandoned as childish. Then came the mythic and legendary theories. These, having been found inadequate, have been supplemented by various theories of development of ideas; and the supposition of a violent party spirit existing in the Church, which under the influence of a spirit of accommodation produced various compromises; a mass of varied and often contending opinions seething in the [pg 377] bosom of a society continually threatened with disruption, until they somehow succeeded in welding themselves together; enthusiasm, fanaticism, boundless credulity, aided by a prodigious power of mythic and legendary invention, and whenever occasion so required, the presence of a moral atmosphere, which on great emergencies did not shrink from deliberate imposture. All these, in ever varying degrees and proportions, have been pressed into the service of creating the Church, the ideal Christ, and the Christianity of the New Testament. It is impossible in a work like the present to examine these various theories, and show their inadequacy as philosophical explanations of the fact. This I have already done in a former work,[5] to which I must refer the reader for their refutation. A few observations only will be necessary in this place.

First: The positions taken by unbelievers are theories, which rest on the smallest basis of historical evidence. I readily admit that where there is a known fact, but the recollection of the events which would give an account of its origin has perished, if a theory can be propounded which fully accounts for the fact, then it has a right to take its place as an historical event which rests on evidence of the highest probability. An example derived from the mode in which the study of comparative philology discloses the history of the past will explain my meaning. We have before us the facts of language. The history of those who formerly used it has perished; the accounts of their migrations have nowhere been preserved. But certain facts of comparative philology justify the assumption that certain primitive races of men must have migrated in particular directions. These assumed migrations are really a theory, but one which is exactly adequate [pg 378] to account for the facts which language unquestionably presents. Thus the facts of the Indo-Germanic languages justify the assumption that in the pre-historic ages, migrations westward must have taken place, of which history contains no record. Still the theory affords so perfect an explanation of the facts, that the occurrence of the migrations is as certain as if they had been recorded by contemporaneous writers. On similar grounds it has been inferred with a degree of probability so high as to be equal to certainty, that a language earlier than the Sanskrit, and from which both it and the Indo-Germanic family of languages have been derived, was spoken by a previous race. Investigations of this kind are largely adding to our historical knowledge.

Let us observe the basis on which such arguments rest. In all these cases we have before us not mere conjectures, but a distinct and positive fact, or set of facts. The connecting links are missing. By the aid of conjecture we propound a theory; or in other words, we suppose a set of events to have occurred, which, if they really happened, would be adequate to account for the facts in question. When they thus account for them, and for them alone, and no other conjectural occurrence will do so, the assumed fact is fully entitled to take its place in history as an event which has actually happened. The reason of this is, that it can stand the test of historical verification.

A problem similar to that above referred to is the one which those who deny the historical truth of the Gospels are called upon to solve. We are in the presence of certain unquestionable historical facts, viz., the five above referred to, and many others. The denial of the truth of the Christian account leaves them without the connecting link which once united them. What [pg 379] was that link? It can only be supplied by conjecture. But to enable such a conjectural fact or facts to take rank as historical events, they must be adequate to account for the facts, and be true to human nature, and to the circumstances of the case; in other words, they must be capable of enduring a rigid historical verification. Theories which cannot endure this are no better than ropes of sand. This is the character of the theories which have been propounded to account for the Christianity of the New Testament.

Let me illustrate this by one of the favourite theories used by unbelievers for this purpose. We are told that a number of extremely hostile factions divided the primitive Church. Of these the followers of James, Peter, and Paul may be taken as fairly representative. These were in a state of great hostility to each other, and went on gradually elaborating a Christianity that was in conformity with their own views and tastes. After a while it occurred to these hostile parties that it would be advantageous to compromise their differences. An influential person, such as we may suppose the author of the Acts of the Apostles to have been, composed a history, for the purpose of making matters smooth, and to afford a common ground of union among the contending factions. This process was repeated as often as was necessary; and in good time, by the aid of myth and legend, and the whole of the needful apparatus, appeared the Christianity of the New Testament, and the Church was consolidated out of these varied elements.

Such theories grievously offend against the logic of history, and are in direct variance with the facts of human life. We are here in the midst of a whole mass of conjectural facts, each of which is imagined to account for the existence of the other; and the whole [pg 380] of them taken together fail to give an adequate solution of the phenomena before us. They are both untrue to human nature and unable to account for either the facts of Christianity or the existence of the Church. I must content myself with selecting one of them for illustration. We are asked to believe that the Church was divided into a number of parties, the opposition between whom was violent; and that these effected a number of compromises, out of which was ultimately evolved a common Christianity. This result is in direct contradiction to the testimony of the religious history of man. Religious parties do not effect compromises, but go on contending and widening their differences, until their enthusiasm wears out and they die of inanition. To this the history of all sects bears ample testimony, and the greater the enthusiasm and not unfrequently the lesser the grounds of difference, the greater the animosity. Compromises between hostile sects, in the rare cases in which they have taken place, have been brought about by means of external coercion. The religious history of mankind presents no example of furious religious parties, while animated by a living enthusiasm, voluntarily coalescing on the general principle of compromise. Witness the unsuccessful attempts at compromise between the Eastern and Western Churches, even when it was urged by the strongest external pressure. Witness the sects which grew out of the Reformation. Compromises have frequently originated among politicians, but these have in vain tried their healing influences among contending sects. Occasionally they have been brought about by the aid of pressure exerted by the temporal power, as in the Church of England. Nothing more strongly illustrates the difficulty with which compromise between religious parties can be [pg 381] effected than the failure of the attempts to reconcile the Church of England and the Methodists. The compromiser who will effect this union exists only in the hopes of the future. But we need not confine ourselves to the manifestations of sectarian spirit in connection with Christianity. The Mahometan Church is also divided by sectarian differences. Is there any tendency to produce a common Mahometanism, erected on the basis of compromise? Do Buddhism and Brahminism show any disposition to compromise their differences by fusing them into a common Pantheism which shall suit both parties? The idea of producing a Christianity by a succession of happy compromises entered into by violently hostile parties in the early Church, is a dream which, however plausible it may have seemed in the closet, is rudely dissipated the moment we come in contact with the stern realities of life.

But further: the wide separation of the early Churches from each other; and, according to the opinions of those against whom I am reasoning, their want of a governing power acknowledged by all, must have rendered agreement on the basis of mutual compromise impossible. Compromises are the results of considerations of policy, and are unheard of among fanatics, such as my opponents assert the early followers of Jesus to have been. But what further renders this theory untenable is, that it is compelled to imagine a number of developments accompanied by corresponding compromises between hostile parties, before we can succeed in evolving the Christianity of the New Testament. Not only does it contradict the history of man; not only is it an assumption made to form the connecting link between other established facts, but it is itself founded on other assumptions. Among these [pg 382] are the assertions made as to the evidence of the party spirit existing in the Church, and the opposition between its leaders. Party spirit we know to have existed, but not with the violence which this theory is compelled to postulate. The statement also that the doctrinal opposition between these parties was of so declared a type is not founded on the evidence that we possess, but on a highly exaggerated view of it, distorted for the purpose of adding strength to the theory; or, in other words, it is founded on a set of unwarranted assumptions. The passages in the New Testament alleged to prove the declared opposition between the leaders of the Church, which this theory is compelled to pre-suppose, can only be made to do so by taking it for granted that they do. For example, the assertion that the person denounced in the Epistles to the Seven Churches in the book of Revelation, is St. Paul, is a simply gratuitous one, the only evidence for which is the will and pleasure of those who make it. The theory, therefore, not only contradicts the history of man, but is based upon a number of alleged facts which are either absolute assumptions or exaggerations, and fail to give any account of the origin of Christianity which will stand the test of the scrutiny of a sound philosophy.