Going back still another hundred years we come to the times of the notorious apostate, Marcion. Several of the apostles were alive at the time Marcion was born; and his works date back to within twenty years of the latest apostolical writings. Having been cut off from the church, he was greatly enraged and said the worst he could about it. He traveled all the way from Sinope, on the Black Sea, to Rome, through Galatia, Bythynia, Asia-Minor, Greece and Italy, the very countries where the apostles preached, and the churches to which they wrote. He endeavored in many places to wrest the scriptures from their rightful meaning; but nowhere attempted to deny their authority (see Lardner, Vol. ix, page 358). Thus in the writings of Celsus and Marcion we have the most indubitable evidence, even the admission of enemies, that these books were in existence and universally received as true, by the early Christians, within twenty years of the time when they were written and by the very churches to which they were addressed. As printing was then unknown, and all important doctrines were written upon parchment, the books of that period presented rather a bulky appearance. Probably for this reason the four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, were commonly joined together in one volume and named The Gospel. The Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles to the churches of Thessalonica, Galatia, Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, Philippi, Collosse, the First Epistle of Peter, the First Epistle of John, together with those written to Philemon, Timothy and Titus, comprised a second volume called The Apostles. The remaining books of the New Testament, being the last written, usually formed a third volume and were known as Apostolical Writings. This arrangement did not injure the meaning but rather benefitted it by showing the relative dates of the various books comprising the New Testament.
It is evident that the gospels were not copied from each other, for they often relate different events, and when they relate the same occurrence, each man relates those parts of it which he saw himself, and which impressed him most. This agreement of independent writers is the more remarkable, as the writers were persons of various degrees of education, of different professions and ranks of life, born in different countries and writing from various places in Italy, Greece, Palestine and Assyria, without any communication with each other. Matthew was a tax collector in the province of Galilee; Mark, a Hebrew citizen of Jerusalem; Luke, a Greek physician of Antioch; James and John owned and sailed a fishing boat on Lake Tiberias; Jude left his home and shop in Galilee in order to preach the gospel; college-bred Paul cast his parchments and popularity aside, carried his sturdy independence in his breast, and his sail needles in his pocket, and dictated epistles and cut out jib sails and awnings in the tent factory of "Aquila, Paul & Co.," at Corinth; several of Paul's letters were written in a dungeon at Rome; the last of Peter's is dated at Babylon; Matthew's gospel was penned at Jerusalem, and John's gospels and epistles were written at Ephesus. The agreement of eight such witnesses, of different pursuits, and so scattered over the world, in relation to the same story is a convincing: proof of its veracity.
The manner in which the Apostles published their testimony to the world, bears every mark of truthfulness. Strong in the consciousness of right, they dared to assert that Jesus had risen from the dead, in the very streets of the city where he was crucified—in the temple, the most public place of resort of the Jews who saw him crucified—and to the teeth of the very men who put him to death. "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hung on a tree. Him that God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins. And we are His witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost which God hath given to them that obey him" (Acts. v, 30). Had Paul been conscious that he was relating falsehood, would he have dared to appeal to the judge, before whom he was on trial for his life, as one who knew the notoriety of these facts? "For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner" (Acts xxvi, 26).
The boldness of their preaching, however, is little, compared with the boldness of their design, which was nothing less than to convert the world. The heathens never dreamed of such a thing. The Jews were so indignant at the project, that when Paul hinted it to them, they cried, "Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live" (Acts xxii, 22).
It is remarkable, that while in addressing the Saints, the apostles rarely allude to their power of working miracles (fourteen of the epistles make no allusion to apostolic miracles), but dwell on the subject of a holy life. Yet they never hesitate to confront a Simon Magus, or a schismatical church at Corinth, or a persecuting high priest and sanhedrim with this power of the Holy Ghost.
Read the story of the miraculous healing of the poor, lame beggar, who laid at the gate of the temple, as recorded in the third and fourth chapters of Acts. Who ever heard of an impostor standing up before the tribunal of his judges, and pleading his cause in the following manner, "If we this day be examined of the good deed done unto the impotent man, by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand before you whole." Such an appeal was unanswerable. "Beholding the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it." Nay, they were compelled to acknowledge, "That indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem—we cannot deny it."
The denial of the miracles of the gospel is a modern invention. The Scribes and priests, emperors and philosophers of the first century, who had the best opportunity of proving their falsehood, were unable to do so. Why, then, it may be asked, did they not all become Christians? Because a miracle cannot convert a man against his will. The religion of the gospel is not merely a belief in miracles, but the love of Christ and a life in conformity with His commands.
The labors and sufferings of the apostles themselves furnish strong proof of the facts of gospel history. To preach another king, one Jesus, to the Romans, was to bring down the power of the empire upon them. Nothing could be more absurd in the eyes of Grecian philosophers, than to speak of the resurrection of the body. Nor could any plan be devised more certain to arouse the fury of the pagan priesthood than to denounce that by which they had their wealth. The most degraded wretch who perishes on the scaffold is not more contemptible in our eyes than the crucified Redeemer was to the Jewish and Roman peoples.
What, then, could induce any men in their senses to stem the tide of such opposition if they were manufacturing falsehoods to gain popularity and power. The religion they preached was not adapted to please sensual men; even infidels admit that they preached a pure morality. No provision was made for making money by their preaching. One of their first acts was to cause the church to elect deacons who might manage its money matters, and allow the apostles to give themselves wholly to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts vi, 2-5). Twenty-five years after they could appeal to the world that, "Even to this present hour, we (the apostles), both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place, and labor, working with our hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day" (I. Cor. iv, 11-13).
The New Testament opens with the story of the Savior's birth in a stable, with the manger for his cradle, and one of its last pictures, is that of His venerable apostle chained in a dungeon, and begging his friend to bring his old cloak from Troas, and to do his diligence to come before Winter (II. Tim. iv chap.).