The histories of former religions are vague, distant, and so covered over by tradition, myth, and folklore, as to be difficult to trace.
The beginnings, history, and progress of the Christian religion are comparatively nearer at hand, and the process above outlined readily demonstrable.
Not only so, but the recognition of the facts and processes is everywhere in evidence.
This fact, however, by no means ends the controversy.
Traditions, creeds, and dogmas die hard, and fight to the last extremity. Nothing else known to man fights so desperately and dies so hard as an organized priesthood, and beyond this, they are upheld by the ignorance, superstition, the fear, and the faith of the masses.
Their adherents often believe and assume that they have discovered final truths, essential and unalterable verities. They undertake to support and to maintain these by dogmatic authority, a holy book, a “thus sayeth the Lord.”
“There it is, down in black and white.” No further evidence is required.
To question such authority is to be damned. To believe, accept, and to conform, is to be saved.
Difference of opinion and of interpretation inevitably arise, even among those who dare not question the ultimate authority and genuineness of the original revelation. Hence arise sects, schisms, and theological warfare.
Notwithstanding all this, the original revelation becomes a matter of thorough investigation and of criticism.