I have a few questions to put to every man who says Christianity is not
true. They are these: If Christianity is not true, where did it come
from? How came it into the world? What is its origin? These questions
are not trifling ones. Infidels have given as many different answers to
them as there are days in the week. There is no agreement among them
that amounts to a settlement of the questions among themselves. The
Scriptures are ancient. Porphyry, born at Tyre in 233, wrote a book
against them, which was burned by order of Theodosius the Great, in the
year 304. (Zell's Encyclopedia.)
The Emperor Julian, born in the year 331, and Hierocles, who lived in
the fourth century, both wrote against Christianity, against the
Scriptures, but did not call in question the existence of Christ, nor
the fact that he wrought miracles.
Celsus, an Epicurean philosopher who lived in the second century, was
the author of a work written against Christianity, entitled "Logos
Aleethees," that is, "Word of Truth." To this work Origen replied.
Celsus, in this work, quotes from the gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John, and does this over and over, and shows that the Christians valued
the books very highly; they suffered death rather than repudiate them.