VALIDITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AS SHOWN BY INTERNAL EVIDENCE.
INFLUENCE OF THE SCRIPTURES--THEIR AGREEMENT WITH SECULAR
HISTORY--COLONY OF PHILIPPI--ANCIENT COIN--CERTAINTY OF BIBLE
HISTORY--GIBBON'S TESTIMONY--QUOTATIONS OF CELSUS--MARCION THE
APOSTATE--CLASSIFICATION OF NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS--AVOCATIONS OF THE
APOSTLES--THEIR MANNER OF PREACHING--THEY CHALLENGED CRITICISM--DENIAL
OF MIRACLES, A MODERN INVENTION--SUFFERINGS OF THE APOSTLES--THEY
SEALED THEIR TESTIMONY WITH THEIR BLOOD.
Faith rests upon facts, superstition on theories. Faith is increased
by intelligence, superstition by ignorance, Faith courts investigation
for thereby it is strengthened; superstition shuns it as fatal to its
existence. Thousands can bear witness to the truth of the words of the
Savior, "If any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine,
whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself;" yet surrounded
as we are by skeptics and cavilers of every sort, it is well that we
should be prepared to ward off the fiery darts of the wicked, to meet
them with their own arguments, and as the youthful {88} David did to
Goliath in days of old, cut off the boastful atheistic giant's head
with his own sword.
In looking over the history of the world, we find that those books,
which collectively are called the scriptures, have in all ages, exerted
a controlling influence over the destinies of mankind. Their teachings
are perused with pleasure by the child, and pondered with patience by
the philosopher. Their practical wisdom has guided the judgment of the
wisest kings of antiquity and still teach the humblest peasant his duty
to his neighbor. Their precious promises have lighted the prophetic
eyes of old; they are still chanted by the mother over her cradle, and
by the orphan over the tomb. Here, thousands of miles distant from the
places where they were first revealed, in a language unknown alike at
Cumorah and Jerusalem, they rule as lovingly and as powerfully as in
their native soil.
With all these palpable facts in view, let us enquire into the origin
of the book which has produced such results. On looking at the Bible we
find it composed of a number of separate treatises written by different
authors, at various times; some parts fifteen hundred years before the
others. We find also, that it treats of the very beginning of the world
before man was made and of matters of which we have no other authentic
history. Again, we find portions which treat of events connected in a
thousand places with the affairs of the Medo-Persian, Macedonian and
Roman empires, of which we have several credible {89} histories. Now
the statements made in these works, so far as they refer to subjects
mentioned in the Bible agree with the Biblical record, in every
particular. Further, the inscriptions on monuments and ancient coins
have often settled mooted questions in history and invariably have been
found to agree with the scriptural narrative. For example, we are told
in Acts, xiv 12, that Paul went "to Philippi, which is the chief city
of that part of Macedonia, and a colony." "Now," says the infidel,
"Greece at that time was a conquered country; and it was contrary
to Roman customs to form colonies of Roman citizens in conquered
countries. Besides, we have no account by any Roman historian that
Philippi was a colony. Hence we may conclude that the New Testament
account is incorrect."
[ILLUSTRATION: FACSIMILE OF COIN FOUND AT PHILIPPI]
At first all this seemed plausible, but a few years ago, a scientific
association was formed to excavate among the ruins of eastern cities,
and, among others, Philippi came in for a share of attention. In
excavating around one of the ruins an ancient coin was unearthed,
which bore upon its surface the effigy of a Roman emperor, surrounded
by the following inscription: "PHILIPPI COLONA, CLAUDIUS IMPERATOR,"
which signifies in plain English, "_Colony of Philippi, Claudius being
emperor_."
{90} Here, then, we have an ancient Roman coin bearing testimony to the
truth of God's word. Further, by means of this coin we see a depth of
meaning, in the last five verses of the 16th chapter of Acts, not at
first perceptible. We are thus able to perceive, in some degree, the
terror of the Philippian magistrates when they learned that Paul and
Silas were also Romans.
Day by day as scientific investigation proceeds we hear of additional
corroborative evidence. Every year throws some new light on oriental
manners and customs, while from the ruins of Nineveh and the sepulchres
of Egypt, we receive unlooked-for testimonies to the minute accuracy
of the inspired penmen. The objection that the scriptures contain
mysteries, or statements which are difficult to be understood, is
in reality one of the strongest proofs of their divine source and
authority. The words of a teacher are often misunderstood by the pupil,
because the pupil's mind is not sufficiently developed to comprehend
them. Sometimes, indeed, they are entirely misapprehended for the same
reason. So also, it is to be expected that the full import of the
divine communications would sometimes transcend the partially-developed
intellect of man. The thoughts and methods of infinite wisdom,
expressed in the plainest of human words, must sometimes remain
inscrutible. After all that can be said in reference to the weakness of
the human medium, through which the divine will has been communicated,
we find in the scriptures, a wonderful agreement with the development
of {91} truths which have come to man in the progress of the ages.
Science has never successfully impeached any statement of the
scriptures when rightly interpreted. For example, "in the first chapter
of Genesis we find a brief account of the creation of the world.
Until modern times, it was the popular opinion that this narrative
taught that the earth and heavens were created during an interval of
six days of twenty-four hours each and that the work dates back but a
few thousand years. These views were entertained when our Bible was
translated into English. Since that date, several sciences have sprung
into existence which throw a vast amount of light on the history of
the creation; and if King James' translators had their work to perform
to-day, they would see meanings in Genesis of which the world had not
dreamed two hundred years ago; and they would make the translation read
a little differently, _in order to make it agree more exactly with the
original Hebrew_." (_Winchell's Reconciliations page_ 357).
Have we not here one of the plainest admissions of the total apostasy
of the so-called Christian church? Had the translators of the
scriptures been in possession of the Holy Spirit, they would have had
no difficulty in translating the sentiments dictated by that same
Spirit to the seers and prophets in ages past. Then, too, we would
have had a translation which would have furnished a key by which to
detect the true science from the false. In Genesis we have an account,
to which, when rightly understood, the latest indications of {92}
science admirably conform. This circumstance alone, ought to be strong
evidence, even to a skeptic, of its super-human origin. Written ages
before the birth of modern sciences, there was the utmost liability for
mere human authorship to fall into the most egregious misstatements
respecting the phenomena of the natural world; but in point of fact
some of its statements were so far in advance of the highest human
knowledge in all the ages past, and even the boasted science of the
nineteenth century, that we are only just beginning to understand them.
Now, the only way for us to know anything beyond our eyesight, is
to examine it, and gather testimony about it. All the blessings of
education, civilization, law and liberty have come to us through the
channel of abundant, reliable testimony. There is perhaps, not a man
living who was present at the battle of Quebec, in the encampment of
Valley Forge, or heard Washington deliver his farewell address; yet
the fact that these things transpired as they are related, no one will
doubt. Few persons now living ever saw Washington, yet no one doubts
that he lived. Certainty about the Bible history is just as attainable
as certainty about American history. Let us begin at the present and
trace the records back to the times in which the New Testament was
written. We presume there are few persons as ignorant as an infidel
lecturer we once heard, who, when asked, "Who compiled the scriptures?"
answered, after some hesitation, "The American Bible Society."
{93} Sometimes infidels tell us that the Emperor Constantine called
various councils which compiled the New Testament, in the fourth
century. We can scarcely wonder at this statement coming from those
who look upon the Catholic church as representing Christianity.
Constantine, the man who had murdered two of his sons, and strangled,
while in a bath, the wife who had trusted in him, was surely a worthy
representative of that church whom the Apostle John styles _the mother
of harlots and abominations of the earth_. Still we cannot help asking
how it was that this murderer who had made himself obnoxious even
in pagan Rome on account of his crimes and his confederates equally
wicked, was able to dictate words of such sublime virtue as are
everywhere found in the New Testament. The infidel, Gibbon, attempts
to explain, and tells us "The austerity, purity and zeal of the first
Christians, their good discipline, their belief in the resurrection of
the body, and the general judgment, and their persuasion that Christ
and His apostles wrought miracles, had made a great many converts."
But how came they to have this "belief, purity and zeal?" Just as if
we should enquire how the Chicago fire originated, and you should tell
us, that it burned very fast because it was very hot. What we want to
know is how it happened that frivolous Greeks, licentious Asiatics
and warlike Romans at once became pure and adopted the humble life
of the early Christians? What implanted the belief of a judgment to
come in the minds of {94} these heathen scoffers? Gibbon admits that,
"Christian churches were sufficiently numerous in the Roman empire,
to make it politic for the emperor to profess Christianity, and
sufficiently powerful to secure his success." Thus according to the
admissions of an infidel writer the Christians were already numerous,
and the story of Constantine forming the New Testament, which had been
read in churches and believed in for two hundred years, is as absurd as
to hear it stated that the saloon keepers, prize-fighters and hoodlums
of New York had just assembled in the Large Tabernacle in Salt Lake
City to construct the revelations contained in the book of Doctrine and
Covenants, which have been already accepted and believed by the Saints,
for more than fifty years.
If, on the other hand, we consult any or all of the hundreds of
manuscripts mentioned by Mosheim, Neander and Lardner in their
ecclesiastical histories we shall find that there were thousands, aye
millions, who believed in a teacher sent from God who had appeared
in Palestine and taught this religion which they had embraced, and
who had performed wonderful miracles such as opening the eyes of the
blind, healing lepers and raising the dead. They believed also that
this Teacher had been put to death by Pontius Pilate, a Roman governor,
had risen again from the dead, had spoken to hundreds of people and
gone out and in among them for six weeks after His resurrection, had
ascended up to heaven in the sight of numbers of witnesses, and had
promised that He would {95} come again in the clouds of heaven to raise
the dead and judge every man according to his works. Further, that
before He went away he appointed twelve of His intimate companions to
teach His religion to the world; that they and their followers did so
in spite of persecutions, sufferings and death, with so much success,
that immense numbers gave up idolatry and embraced Christianity,
braving the fury of the heathen mob, and the vengeance of the Roman
law. Afterwards, when persecution had destroyed great numbers, and
through apostasy they had lost the divine authority and priesthood we
hear of various councils wherein they assembled for the settling of
their disputes. These, so far from giving authority to the books of the
New Testament, constantly quoted the words of these books and referred
to them for proof and authority.
Again, one hundred years before the time of Constantine we find Celsus,
a celebrated infidel writer and sensualist, disputing the teachings of
the gospel because they interfered with his depraved appetites; and
in his writings he quotes freely from the New Testament. So numerous
are his quotations that from them alone, the student might gain all
the principal facts of the Christian religion. As Paine quotes the
New Testament to ridicule it, no man can deny that such a book was
in existence at the time he wrote; so the quotations of Celsus are
conclusive proofs that the books he referred to were considered
authority at the time he wrote. Yet in all his writings, Celsus never
{96} once casts a doubt on the authority of the scriptures, never
questions the gospels as books of history nor denies the miracles
recorded in them. It may also be added that the student who will
examine the writings of Celsus, will cease to admire the professed
wisdom of our modern skeptics. The objections made by Hume, Voltaire,
Hobles and Paine are frequently only the arguments of Celsus served up
in a modern style.
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 {97} 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 {98} 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
{99} 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 {100} 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.
{101} 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_.).
Unpopular and penniless, if the gospel story were not true, how could
it have had preachers? When Paul was changed from a persecutor to a
disciple, behold the prospect the Savior presents to him, "I will
show him _how great things he must suffer for my {102} sake_." Paul
declares, "The Holy Ghost testifieth that in every city bonds and
afflictions abide me. Yet none of these things move me, neither count
I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course with joy"
(_Acts xx_, 23, 24). In another place he adds, "Of the Jews five times
received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once
was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day T have
been in the deep: in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils
of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen,
in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the
sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in
watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness" (_II.
Cor. xi_, 24-27).
Man can give no higher proof of his veracity, save to seal his
testimony with his blood. This the apostles did. All, except John,
suffered martyrdom for the truth of the gospel.
{103}