IN writing the concluding chapter of this work, the author deems it
proper to re-state some points, and elaborate others, and anticipate
some objections to some of the positions advanced. Each division of the
subject will be marked by a separate figure, and treated in a brief and
succinct manner, as follows:--
1. Several persons, who examined this work before it went to press, have
expressed the opinion that it must exert a powerful influence in the
way of producing an entire revolution in the religion of orthodox
Christendom sooner or later. But this must of course be the work of
time, as moral revolutions are not the work of a day. When the human
system has been long prostrated with chronic disease, no system
of medication can restore it at once to health. The same principle
governing the mind makes it morally impossible to eradicate its
deeply-seated moral and religious errors in a day by even the
presentation of the most powerful and convincing truths and
demonstrations that can be brought to bear or operate upon the human
judgment. The mind instinctively repels everything (no difference how
true or how beautiful) that conflicts with its long-established opinions
and convictions. The fires of truth usually require much time to burn
their way through those incrustations of moral and religious error which
often environ the human mind as the products of a false education. But
when they once enter, the work of convincement is complete.
2. It has been stated that the resemblance between Christianity and the
more ancient heathen systems is complete and absolute throughout in all
their essential doctrines, and principles, and precepts. And if it shall
be found, on a critical reading of this work after it comes from the
press, that there is one feature of Christianity which has not been
traced to pagan origin, or that any points of resemblance have been
omitted, they will be supplied in an appendix.
3. It has been stated that a transfiguration is related of Chrishna of
India (1200 B. C.) in the Hindoo bible (the Baghavat Gita), which is
strikingly similar to that of Christ. We will here present the proof.
"Abandoning the mortal form, he (Chrishna) appeared to his disciples in
all the divine eclat of his Divine Majesty, his brow encircled with such
a brilliant light that Adjouma and the other disciples, unable to bear
it, fell with their faces in the dust, and prayed the Lord (Chrishna) to
pardon their unworthiness. He replied, 'Have you not faith in me? Know
ye not, that whether present or absent in body, I will be ever present
with you to guard and protect you?'" (Gaghavat Gita.) How remarkable
this to the story of Christ's transfiguration!
4. Some readers, perhaps, will be surprised to observe that we have
named so many crucified gods to whom some writers assign a different
death. But we have followed, as we believe, the best authorities in
doing so.
5. In our work, "The Bibles of Bibles," we have shown that the score of
bibles which have been extant in the world teach essentially the same
doctrines, principles, and precepts. There are to be found in the old
pagan bibles the same grand and beautiful truths mixed up with the same
mind-enslaving errors and deleterious superstitions as those contained
in the Christian bible. And the same exalted claim is set up by the
disciples of each for their respective holy books--that of being a
direct revelation from God, and inspired at the fountain of infinite
wisdom. And all were exalted, adored, and idolized by their respective
admirers, as containing a perfect embodiment of truth, without any
admixture of error. The ancient Persians carried their bibles in their
bosoms, and read them and prayed over them daily. The Hindoos often read
their bible through on their bended knees, and sometimes committed it
all to memory. The Baghavat has the following text: "The most important
of all duties is to study the Holy Scriptures, which is the word of
Brahma and Chrishna, revealed to the world." Some of the Mahomedans
claim that immortal life can only be obtained by reading the Koran, and
that the reading of it is essential to the progress and practice of good
morals, and the advancement of civilization; and that it will ultimately
reform and civilize the world. Both they and the Hindoos, like the
Christian world, have numerous commentaries, explaining the obscure
texts of their bibles, and aiming to reconcile their teachings with
reason and science. And the disciples of all bibles had a mode of doing
away with the immoral teachings, and concealing the worst features
of their sacred books by bestowing on them a spiritual meaning, as
Christians do theirs, thus dressing up error in the guise of truth. The
Hindoo bible, the Mahomedan bible, and other holy books, consign those
who disbelieve in their teachings to eternal damnation, denouncing them
as infidels. In this respect, also, they are like the Christian's bible.
6. "But then, after all (as some good pious Christian will probably
exclaim after reading this work), the bible and Christianity are
essential to the progress of good morals, and the advancement of the
cause of civilization, and the civilized world would sink into a state
of heathen darkness, demoralization, and savagism without them; for
every enlightened nation owes its present moral and intellectual
greatness to the Christian bible and the Christian religion, and
would relapse into barbarism without them." This is a mistake, a most
egregious mistake, my good brother Christian, as the following facts of
history will show:--
1. There are heathen nations now existing who never saw a bible, and
others which flourished in the past, before our bible was written, who
nevertheless attained to a higher state of morals, and a higher state
of civilization in some respects, than any Christian nation known to
history. A whole volume of facts might be adduced, if we had space for
them, drawn from the ablest and most reliable authorities, to prove that
India, Egypt, Greece, and other countries had reached a high state of
civilization centuries before Christianity or any of its founders
were even heat'd of, or made their appearance in the world. India was
distinguished for her teaming, her laws, her legislation, her civil
courts, her judicial tribunals, her astronomers, her poets, her
philosophers, her writers, her moralists, her libraries, her men of
literature, and her good morals before Moses was found in the bulrushes.
Jacolliot says, "India gave civilization to the world." Egypt borrowed
of India, the Greeks of the Egyptians, and the Jews and Christians are
indebted to the Greeks for both their morals and their civilization.
Dubois, a Christian missionary, in his "Memoirs of India,"
testifies that "kindness, justice, humanity, good faith, compassion,
disinterestedness, and in fact nearly all the moral virtues, were
familiar to the ancient Brahmans and Hindoos, and they taught them both
by precept and example." Can as much be said of any Christian nation?
Certainly not. And the Rev. D. O. Allen says they were distinguished for
all the arts and refinement of civilized life--thus placing them on the
highest plane of civilization and moral elevation. And other nations
might be referred to. Egypt had her vast temples of science, Chaldea her
astronomical observatories, and Greece her distinguished academies of
learning, her profound philosophers, and her high-toned moral writers
and moral teachers, while the Jews, "God's holy people." were in a
state of semibarbarism. So affirms the Rev. Albert Barnes.
2. No advancement has often been made in morals or civilization in any
country by the introduction of the Christian bible or the Christian
religion. It is the arts and sciences which accompany or follow the
bible which do the work. A proof of this statement is found in the
fact, that no improvement takes place in the morals of the people by
the introduction of the bible till the arts and sciences are also
introduced amongst them. On the contrary, the morals of many
deteriorate by reading the bible alone, because it sanctions as well as
condemns every species of crime then known to society. (For proof see
Chap. XXXIX. of this work.) That India has become corrupted and sunk in
morals since the introduction of the Christian bible, is admitted by the
Rev. D. O. Allen, for twenty-five years a missionary in that country.
But science, especially moral science, imparts a different influence. It
explains the nature of crimes, and teaches and demonstrates that a life
of honesty and virtue can alone produce true and real happiness, while
the bible augments the temptation to commit sin by teaching that "it
is a sweet morsel to be rolled under the tongue," and that its punitive
effects may be entirely escaped by an act of divine forgiveness. But
science, either directly or by the enlightening of the mind, teaches and
convinces the wrong-doer that there is no escape from the evil effects
of a wrong or wicked act, and that sin is not a "sweet morsel," but
ultimately a _bitter pill_. And thus it arrests the demoralizing effects
of this pernicious doctrine of the Christian bible.
3. It may startle some of the bible devotees to be told that their
sacred book, instead of being a prompter to civilization and good
morals, is really a hindrance to those ends; and that consequently
nations without bibles advance faster in these respects than those
who are well supplied with this book. But the facts of history seem
to establish this as a fact. As a proof we will contrast the present
condition of heathen Japan with that of Christian Abyssinia. Colonel
Hall and Dr. Oliphant both testify that no drunkenness, no fighting,
no quarreling, no thefts, no robberies, no rapes, no fornication, no
domestic feuds or broils, and no fraudulent dealing take place in Japan.
No locks or keys are used, for none are needed. There is no disposition
to steal, or even to cheat, or overreach in dealing. But in Christian
Abyssinia, on the other hand, according to Mr. Goodrich, where bibles
and churches are numerous, and preaching and praying are heard every
day, nearly all the crimes above enumerated are daily committed. The
people go naked, eat raw flesh, cheat, lie, and murder, and practice
polygamy. Such a thing as a legitimate child, he tells us, is not known.
And thus it has been for fifteen hundred years, while in the daily
practice of reading their bible. The arts and sciences have never been
introduced amongst them. And this fact explains the cause of their
continued moral degradation.
4. According to Noah Webster, the cultivation of the arts and sciences
is essential to the progress of civilization and good morals. But bible
religion knows nothing about the arts and sciences. It don't even use
the words. Paul uses the word science only once, and then to condemn it.
But Jesus omits any allusion to science, philosophy, or natural law.
So thoroughly convinced were the early disciples of the Christian faith
that the teachings of their bible are inimical to the arts and sciences,
that they destroyed works of art wherever they could find them, and
opposed with a deadly aim every new discovery in the sciences.
5. As bibles represent only the morals and state of society in the
age in which they are written, and are not allowed to be altered or
transcended, they thus hold their disciples back in all coming time, and
compel them to teach and practice the morals of that semi-barbarous
age as found taught in their bibles. And thus bibles prevent the moral
growth of the people as effectually as the Chinese wooden shoes prevent
the growth of the feet. For a fuller exposition of this matter, see The
Bible of Bibles, Chap. XIV.
NOTES
NOTE OF EXPLANATION.
In Chapter XXXI. we have traced Christianity to Essenism. This may need
a fuller explanation than we have yet devoted to this point, though we
have stated several times we consider them essentially one. The Essenes
had their "Exoteric" and their "Esoteric" doctrines. The latter, which
seems to have included the incarnation atonement, trinity, and all the
other Budhist doctrines as set forth in Chapter XXXII. (and now included
in the term Christianity), they never published to the world. Hence
Chapter XXXI. sets forth only their Exoteric doctrines. But as Philo,
Milman, Tytler, and other eminent authors show they held all the
doctrines of Budhism, we assume they were a Budhist sect Hence, when we
speak of Christianity growing out of Budhism, in Chapter XXXII., we
mean Budhism under the name of Essenism. We believe Christianity is from
Essenism and Budhism both, because they are essentially one; and that
Christianity is merely a continuation of Budhism as taught by the
Essenian sect of Budhists. Hence we have sometimes used the term
Essenism, and sometimes the term Budhism, as being the fountain head of
Christianity. We have stated Christ may have been an Essene either by
birth or by conversion. But our conviction now is, that he was one by
birth. And we now think it probable that that portion of the Jewish
nation which became known as Essenes sprang up in the Budhist school of
Pythagoras, in Alexandria, in the second or third century before Christ,
and thus became Essenian Budhists; i. e., a sect of Jewish Budhists
who called themselves Essenes. And consequently, neither Christ nor his
disciples made any changes in the Essenian religion, when they changed
its name to Christianity, except to ingraft a few unimportant tenets
borrowed from the principal Budhist sect We are now convinced that
Essenism was complete Budhism, that Christ was born of Essene parents,
and that no important changes were made by dropping the term Essenism,
and adopting the term Christianity in its place.
NOTE TO PAGE 178.
It may not be improper to explain more fully the reason for the opinion
expressed on page 178, that the Gospel writer John did not believe that
Christ first came into existence through human birth, but believed that
he, like some of the oriental Gods, was "The Word" personified, without
the process of birth; though he may, like the heathen orientalists,
have cherished the tradition that the second God in the trinity (as he
represents Christ to be), after having sprung into existence as "The
Word" was subsequently subjected to human birth. Either so, or else
his allusion to "the mother of Christ" was done in condescension to the
general belief among the people, that he had a human mother. Be that as
it may, he declares, '"His Word was made flesh" (John i. 14); nearly the
same language used by the orientalists,--which with them did not imply
human birth. And the declaration, "All things were made by him" (John i.
3), is proof positive he believed in Christ's existence as the creator,
before his human birth. Much of John's language is so strikingly similar
to that employed by the disciples of some of the oriental religions, who
believed that a second God emanated from the mouth of the Supreme, to
perform the act of creation, that we cannot resist the conviction that
this was John's belief; especially as many of them believed, like him,
that this creative "Word" became afterward a subject of human birth.
Thus, as we conceive, the proposition is established.
NOTE TO PAGE 346.
Our most reliable authorities testify that Babylon never was destroyed,
but successfully resisted, for one hundred and fifty years after
Isaiah's time, many of the most powerful sieges, and "the mightiest
munitions of war," conducted by seven of the most skilful generals that
ever wielded the sword--Cyrus, Darius, Alexander the Great, Antigonus,
Demetrius, Poliorcetes, and Antiochus. She then gradually declined
by the removal of her inhabitants to other and newer cities; thus
falsifying the prediction of Jeremiah (li. 8), "Her end has come,"
and of Isaiah (xiii. 22), "Her days shall not be prolonged," and that
"desolation shall come upon her in a day," and her destruction shall
be effected suddenly--all of which are falsified by the facts just
presented. And even if Babylon had been destroyed, the present existence
of Hillah, built in 1101 upon the same spot, with a population,
according to Wellstead, of twenty-five thousand, is a signal overthrow
of Jeremiah's prophecy, that it "shall become a wilderness, wherein no
man dwelleth" (li. 43), and of Isaiah, also, that it should not be dwelt
in from generation to generation. Jeremiah first predicted that her sea
and springs should dry up (li. 38), and then declared the waves of the
sea should come upon her (li. 42); and finally, that she should sink to
rise no more (li. 64). And Isaiah's prediction of ruin and destruction
included with Babylon, "the land of the Chaldeans" (l. 39), which was
then, and is yet, a great commercial country, with an annual revenue at
this time, according to Harvey Brydges, of a million pounds sterling.
Here, then, is a long series of prophecies falsified. Our authority for
saying that Hillah occupies the site of ancient Babylon is Malte-Brun's
Geography (page 655), which declares, "Hillah is situated within the
precincts of Babylon;" thus proving it is not "a wilderness, wherein no
man dwelleth." Had we space, we should present an extended view of the
prophecies.