IN the New Testament we find the teachings and sayings of Christ. If
we say that the book is inspired, then we must admit that Christ really
said all the things attributed to him by the various writers. If the
book is inspired we must accept it all. We have no right to reject the
contradictory and absurd and accept the reasonable and good. We must
take it all just as it is.
My own observation has led me to believe that men are generally
consistent in their theories and inconsistent in their lives.
So, I think that Christ in his utterances was true to his theory, to his
philosophy.
If I find in the Testament sayings of a contradictory character, I
conclude that some of those sayings were never uttered by him. The
sayings that are, in my judgment, in accordance with what I believe to
have been his philosophy, I accept, and the others I throw away.
There are some of his sayings which show him to have been a devout Jew,
others that he wished to destroy Judaism, others showing that he held
all people except the Jews in contempt and that he wished to save no
others, others showing that he wished to convert the world, still others
showing that he was forgiving, self-denying and loving, others that he
was revengeful and malicious, others, that he was an ascetic, holding
all human ties in utter contempt.
The following passages show that Christ was a devout Jew.
"Swear not, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth
for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem for it is his holy city."
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets, I am
not come to destroy, but to fulfill." "For after all these things,
(clothing, food and drink) do the Gentiles seek."
So, when he cured a leper, he said: "Go thy way, show thyself unto the
priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded."
Jesus sent his disciples forth saying: "Go not into the way of the
Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not, but go
rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
A woman came out of Canaan and cried to Jesus: "Have mercy on me, my
daughter is sorely vexed with a devil"--but he would not answer. Then
the disciples asked him to send her away, and he said: "I am not sent
but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
Then the woman worshiped him and said: "Lord help me." But he answered
and said: "It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it unto
dogs." Yet for her faith he cured her child.
So, when the young man asked him what he must do to be saved, he said:
"Keep the commandments."
Christ said: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat, all
therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do."
"And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the
law to fail."
Christ went into the temple and cast out them that sold and bought
there, and said: "It is written, my house is the house of prayer: but ye
have made it a den of thieves."
"We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews."
Certainly all these passages were written by persons who regarded Christ
as the Messiah.
Many of the sayings attributed to Christ show that he was an ascetic,
that he cared nothing for kindred, nothing for father and mother,
nothing for brothers or sisters, and nothing for the pleasures of life.
Christ said to a man: "Follow me." The man said: "Suffer me first to go
and bury my father." Christ answered: "Let the dead bury their dead."
Another said: "I will follow thee, but first let me go bid them farewell
which are at home."
Jesus said: "No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back
is fit for the kingdom of God. If thine right eye offend thee pluck it
out. If thy right hand offend thee cut it off."
One said unto him: "Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without,
desiring to speak with thee." And he answered: "Who is my mother,
and who are my brethren?" Then he stretched forth his hand toward his
disciples and said: "Behold my mother and my brethren."
"And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren or sisters, or
father or mother, or wife or children, or lands for my name's sake shall
receive an hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting life."
"He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and
he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."
Christ it seems had a philosophy.
He believed that God was a loving father, that he would take care of his
children, that they need do nothing except to rely implicitly on God.
"Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy."
"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate
you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you."
"Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall
drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.... For your heavenly
Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things."
"Ask and it shall be given you. Whatsoever ye would that men should do
to you, do ye even so to them. If ye forgive men their trespasses your
heavenly Father will also forgive you. The very hairs of your head are
all numbered."
Christ seemed to rely absolutely on the protection of God until the
darkness of death gathered about him, and then he cried: "My God! my
God! why hast thou forsaken me?"
While there are many passages in the New Testament showing Christ to
have been forgiving and tender, there are many others, showing that he
was exactly the opposite.
What must have been the spirit of one who said: "I am come to send fire
on the earth? Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell
you, nay, but rather division. For from henceforth there shall be five
in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The
father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father,
the mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother,
the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law."
"If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother, and wife, and
children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot
be my disciple."
"But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them,
bring hither and slay them before me."
This passage built dungeons and lighted fagots.
"Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels."
"I came not to bring peace but a sword."
All these sayings could not have been uttered by the same person. They
are inconsistent with each other. Love does not speak the words of
hatred. The real philanthropist does not despise all nations but his
own. The teacher of universal forgiveness cannot believe in eternal
torture.
From the interpolations, legends, accretions, mistakes and falsehoods
in the New Testament is it possible to free the actual man? Clad in mist
and myth, hidden by the draperies of gods, deformed, indistinct as
faces in clouds, is it possible to find and recognize the features, the
natural face of the actual Christ?
For many centuries our fathers closed their eyes to the contradictions
and inconsistencies of the Testament and in spite of their reason
harmonized the interpolations and mistakes.
This is no longer possible. The contradictions are too many, too
glaring. There are contradictions of fact not only, but of philosophy,
of theory.
The accounts of the trial, the crucifixion, and ascension of Christ do
not agree. They are full of mistakes and contradictions.
According to one account Christ ascended the day of, or the day after
his resurrection. According to another he remained forty days after
rising from the dead. According to one account, he was seen after his
resurrection only by a few women and his disciples. According to another
he was seen by the women, by his disciples on several occasions and by
hundreds of others.
According to Matthew, Luke and Mark, Christ remained for the most part
in the country, seldom going to Jerusalem. According to John he remained
mostly in Jerusalem, going occasionally into the country, and then
generally to avoid his enemies.
According to Matthew, Mark and Luke, Christ taught that if you would
forgive others God would forgive you. According to John, Christ said
that the only way to get to heaven was to believe on him and be born
again.
These contradictions are gross and palpable and demonstrate that the
New Testament is not inspired, and that many of its statements must be
false.
If we wish to save the character of Christ, many of the passages must be
thrown away.
We must discard the miracles or admit that he was insane or an impostor.
We must discard the passages that breathe the spirit of hatred and
revenge, or admit that he was malevolent.
If Matthew was mistaken about the genealogy of Christ, about the wise
men, the star, the flight into Egypt and the massacre of the babes by
Herod,--then he may have been mistaken in many passages that he put in
the mouth of Christ.
The same may be said in regard to Mark, Luke and John.
The church must admit that the writers of the New Testament were
uninspired men--that they made many mistakes, that they accepted
impossible legends as historical facts, that they were ignorant and
superstitious, that they put malevolent, stupid, insane and unworthy
words in the mouth of Christ, described him as the worker of impossible
miracles and in many ways stained and belittled his character.
The best that can be said about Christ is that nearly nineteen centuries
ago he was born in the land of Palestine in a country without wealth,
without commerce, in the midst of a people who knew nothing of the
greater world--a people enslaved, crushed by the mighty power of Rome.
That this babe, this child of poverty and want grew to manhood without
education, knowing nothing of art, or science, and at about the age of
thirty began wandering about the hills and hamlets of his native land,
discussing with priests, talking with the poor and sorrowful, writing
nothing, but leaving his words in the memory or forgetfulness of those
to whom he spoke.
That he attacked the religion of his time because it was cruel. That
this excited the hatred of those in power, and that Christ was arrested,
tried and crucified.
For many centuries this great Peasant of Palestine has been worshiped as
God.
Millions and millions have given their lives to his service. The wealth
of the world was lavished on his shrines. His name carried consolation
to the diseased and dying. His name dispelled the darkness of death, and
filled the dungeon with light. His name gave courage to the martyr,
and in the midst of fire, with shriveling lips the sufferer uttered
it again, and again. The outcasts, the deserted, the fallen, felt that
Christ was their friend, felt that he knew their sorrows and pitied
their sufferings.
The poor mother, holding her dead babe in her arms, lovingly whispered
his name. His gospel has been carried by millions to all parts of the
globe, and his story has been told by the self-denying and faithful to
countless thousands of the sons of men. In his name have been preached
charity,--forgiveness and love.
He it was, who according to the faith, brought immortality to light, and
many millions have entered the valley of the shadow with their hands in
his.
All this is true, and if it were all, how beautiful, how touching, how
glorious it would be. But it is not all. There is another side.
In his name millions and millions of men and women have been imprisoned,
tortured and killed. In his name millions and millions have been
enslaved. In his name the thinkers, the investigators, have been branded
as criminals, and his followers have shed the blood of the wisest and
best. In his name the progress of many nations was stayed for a thousand
years. In his gospel was found the dogma of eternal pain, and his words
added an infinite horror to death. His gospel filled the world with
hatred and revenge; made intellectual honesty a crime; made happiness
here the road to hell, denounced love as base and bestial, canonized
credulity, crowned bigotry and destroyed the liberty of man.
It would have been far better had the New Testament never been
written--far better had the theological Christ never lived. Had the
writers of the Testament been regarded as uninspired, had Christ been
thought of only as a man, had the good been accepted and the absurd, the
impossible, and the revengeful thrown away, mankind would have escaped
the wars, the tortures, the scaffolds, the dungeons, the agony and
tears, the crimes and sorrows of a thousand years.