The Wave of Scepticism and the Rock of Truth

by M. H. Habershon

CONTEMPORARY EVIDENCE.

We now come to the question of contemporary evidence. Our author says the testimony of the New Testament in favour of the miraculous is inadequate because it is not contemporary. I have to endeavour to show that he has himself proved it to be contemporary.

The "Spectator" describes him as virtually saying: It is as if you tried to prove some unheard-of facts of the civil war in the time of Charles I. by testimony not to be traced higher than the reign of George III. I say we trace the testimony to one of Cromwell's own officers, and our author's own criticism shall be shown to prove it.

I take one piece of evidence of his own which he has elaborately presented. I compare it with proofs of the same kind from other sources. I refer to the authorities specified, and I accept it and endorse it. But I make a different use of it. He uses it to prove that because John, the apostle, wrote the Apocalypse, he cannot have written the Fourth Gospel. I use it to prove that because John wrote the Apocalypse the facts of the Gospel are by contemporary testimony substantiated; and I contend that this evidence—clear, direct, and irrefragable—neutralises his main argument and the object of his book, which is to invalidate supernatural religion and the reality of Divine revelation.

He says (on page 392 of his second volume): "The external evidence that the Apostle John wrote the Apocalypse is more ancient than that for the authorship of any other book of the New Testament, excepting some of the epistles of Paul. Justin Martyr affirms in the clearest and most positive manner the apostolic origin of the work. He speaks to Tryphon of a certain man whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, who prophesied, by a revelation made to him, of the Millennium and subsequent general resurrection. The genuineness of this testimony is not called in question by any one."

"As another most important point we may mention that there is probably not another work of the New Testament the precise date of the composition of which, within a very few weeks, can be so positively affirmed. No result of criticism rests upon a more secure basis, and is now more universally accepted by all competent critics than the fact that the Apocalypse was written A.D. 68, 69. The writer distinctly and repeatedly mentions his name. 'The revelation of Jesus Christ ... unto his servant John. John to the seven Churches which are in Asia;' and he states that the work was written in the island of Patmos, where he was 'on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus'" (p. 395).

"It is clear that the writer counted fully upon being generally known under the simple designation of John; and when we consider the unmistakable terms of authority with which he addresses the seven Churches, it is scarcely possible to deny that the writer either was the apostle, or, distinctly desired to assume his personality" (p. 397).

"The whole description (of the New Jerusalem) is a mere allegory of the strongest Jewish dogmatic character, and it is of singular value for the purpose of identifying the author" (p. 399).

"There is no internal evidence whatever against the supposition that the 'John' who announces himself as the author of the Apocalypse was the apostle. On the contrary, the tone of authority adopted throughout, and evident certainty that his identity would everywhere be recognised, denote a position in the Church which no other person of the name of John could possibly have held at the time when the Apocalypse was written. The external evidence, therefore, which indicates that Apostle John as the author is quite in harmony with the internal testimony of the book itself" (p. 402).

I have quoted sufficient to show that our author, whose object is to discredit the Fourth Gospel, elaborately and successfully proves that John the Apostle wrote the Apocalypse.