The Wave of Scepticism and the Rock of Truth

by M. H. Habershon

In designating his argument "rabid" and "preposterous," our author exposes himself to arrows winged with similar feathers. When he unwarrantably pretends to know that the earliest records of what Jesus did and taught did not contain anything but what comports with the German school of theology which he favours, and which he has done his best to make familiar to English readers, without exposing himself personally to the odium which attaches to such opinions in a Christian community, he has no claim to indulgence from those who examine his language and animadvert thereupon.

Considering that, according to his own showing, the belief was, at all events, prevalent in the Christian Church in the middle of the second century that these writings of the apostles were authentic, and that he cannot account for their being so esteemed, so soon after the events occurred to which they refer, as to be universally read in all the Christian Churches; it is, to say the least, unbecoming in him to exalt his conjectures into oracles. Other critics, quite as inquiring, able, and learned, more modestly say, "The subject presents a variety of embarrassing circumstances, so that it is difficult to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion." He lays himself open to be classified with those who "rush in where angels fear to tread." There is a close analogy between those who say in their hearts there is no God, and those who say He has never spoken; and we know what is said in the Bible of the former.

I will give here a specimen of the way our author quotes to suit his own argument, and you will see whether the epithet "preposterous" is at all applicable to him.

In showing how much John was opposed to Paul on the question of Gentile Christians observing Jewish rites, he says, "Allusion is undoubtedly made to Paul in the Epistle to the Churches, in the Apocalypse;" and, "It is clear that Paul is referred to in the address to the Church of Ephesus." The first passage is Rev. ii. 2, "I know thy works and thy patience, ... and how thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them false;" implying that John was so opposed to Paul as to deny his being an apostle, which is grossly improbable.[28] But the full absurdity of the idea is more manifest in the next quotation from Rev. ii. 14: "But I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols," &c. It would not have answered his purpose to finish the sentence, so he stops at the word "idols," and puts "&c." When I mention that the words which are represented by the "&c." are "and to commit fornication," you will agree with me, that not only is the idea of John saying that Paul had taught the Christians at Pergamos to sin in this respect the climax of absurdity, but that an author who quotes so unfairly, and reasons so strangely, is not to be implicitly trusted, nor his conclusions accepted. He has adopted the erroneous notion of Baur, the late eminent Professor of Theology at Tübingen, and other German writers, that the difference between the Jewish and Christian converts, in reference to circumcision and other Jewish observances, amounted to a party contest, which caused Paul and Peter and James to be seriously at variance. Now we know the facts of the temporary disagreement, and they certainly do not justify such a conclusion. The hypothesis of such a Pauline and a Petrine contest needs only to be brought into contact with the letters of Paul, in which he refers frequently to the Gentile Churches sending help to the Jewish church at Jerusalem, and it is at once exploded. He tells the Galatians how it was arranged at Jerusalem, after the matters in dispute had been discussed, that he and Barnabas, receiving the right hand of fellowship, should go to the heathen, and James, Peter, and John to the circumcision; only the latter stipulated that the poor at Jerusalem were to be remembered, which Paul says, "I was forward to do." And he instructs the Corinthians in his first epistle as to their collections on the first day of the week before he came, that their liberality might be ready to send to the poor saints at Jerusalem. There is here the very opposite of such extreme hostile and disgraceful party feeling as must have existed if John could indulge in such language regarding Paul as our author attributes to him. There were false men, such as Simon the sorcerer; false apostles, such as Paul alludes to; and corrupters of morals, such as the Nicolaitanes; so that there is not the slightest necessity to think of Paul and his dispute about Jewish rites, to make the words of the Apocalypse intelligible.

Clement's letter, written from Rome to the Corinthians, probably about the year 94 or 95, supplies us with evidence as to the nature of the difference between Peter and Paul, as well as proves the epistle to be genuine. He says, "Do take up the writings of the blessed apostle. What did he say to you in the beginning of the Gospel? Truly, by Divine Inspiration, he gave you directions concerning himself and Peter and Apollos, because even then ye were splitting into parties. But your party spirit at that time had less evil in it, because it was exercised in favour of apostles of eminent holiness, and of one much approved of by them. But now consider who they are that have subverted you. These are shameful things, brethren, very shameful, that the ancient and flourishing Church of Corinth have quarrelled with their pastors, from a weak partiality for one or two persons."

Clement contrasts the eminent holy Peter and Paul and Apollos with the persons who were subverting them, and the latter were undoubtedly the sort of false apostles that John alludes to in the Apocalypse. The evidence of the Second Epistle of Peter is not to be set aside because our author includes it among the questionable writings of the New Testament; and Peter there speaks of Paul as "our beloved brother, who according to the wisdom given him hath written unto you."[29] It is not convenient for such critics to allow the letter to be genuine, on account of this very passage. But there is ample proof, from internal evidence, as shown by Dr. Macnight, Dr. Blackwell, and Dr. A. Clarke, that it is a genuine letter. What a weak case he must have in hand who has to resort to such means to defend it!

The foregone conclusion that miracles are incredible, hampers all the investigations of these German scholars, and compels them to resort to all sorts of conjectures and devices to account for things which, on the basis of Evangelical views, are neither mysterious nor inharmonious. If it be true of Germany that her ablest theologians are now exploding such fallacies, the argument of our author is one, the force of which is expended, a gun brought into the field of battle when the fight is nearly over. It may do some damage, but cannot affect materially the issue of the contest. The outspokenness of the sceptics has roused the believers, and the result, we cannot doubt, will be for the furtherance of the gospel.

"The natural and spiritual miracles of the sacred narrative are only the notes of a higher harmony which resound throughout the discords of earthly history. To our dull sense indeed they may seem disconnected, but the more we listen the more we perceive a connected law of higher euphony, now presaging, and finally bringing about the solution of all dissonance into an eternal harmony. Surely then a believer may look down with pity upon the spirit of the age and its declaration, that the harmony of the Kosmos is destroyed by the miracles of the Bible." (Beyschlag.)

The "Shepherd of Hermas" is next alluded to, but as it is not pretended that it contains any quotation from, or reference to, any passage of the Old or New Testament, it is simply a negative witness in this case. It is found in the Codex Sinaiticus, after the Epistle of Barnabas. The following is Mosheim's description of the work: "The book entitled the 'Shepherd of Hermas' (so called because an angel is the leading character in the drama) was composed in the second century, by Hermas, the brother of Pius, the Roman bishop. The writer, if he was indeed sane, deemed it proper to forge dialogues held with God and angels, in order to insinuate what he regarded as salutary truths more effectually into the minds of his readers. But his celestial spirits talk more insipidly than our scavengers and porters."

What a contrast between the writings of the New Testament and those left out of the canon does such a book as this "Shepherd of Hermas" exhibit! Bunsen thus alludes to it: "That good but dull novel which Niebuhr used to say he pitied the Athenian Christians for being obliged to hear read in their meetings." "From the very dawn of Catholic literature, beginning with 'Hermas the Shepherd,' it had been the object of the Christian writers to render the Greek and Roman mind, by degrees, independent of the heathen philosophers, and to create a Catholic literature and library, more particularly for the use of children and catechumens."[30]