04.04. The Divine Origin of Christianity

THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY. That Christianity exists in the world and has to do with the destinies of men and nations cannot be denied by any one. Since it began to exist it has had its friends and enemies. From whence came this great system? It is easy for a Christian to satisfy himself that Christianity is of divine origin, for he has tasted of its fruit and knows that it is good. But the man who has not experienced any of the blessings which come through its revolutionizing influence in the lives of those who have subscribed to its precepts may stand at the threshhold and demand to know of the power of this system before entering. It is our purpose to give some of the facts and evidences which show Christianity to be of divine origin. The proofs are so many and so varied that it is a problem to select that which will be most appropriate for the lesson. ITS RESULTS. A Tree is Known by Its Fruits. (Matthew 7:20.) A good tree may bear some wormy, knotty fruit. It is not to be judged by that—other causes are responsible. Christianity is not to be judged by wild fanatics, nor moral perverts, who profess to enlist under its banner. The question is, Has it borne good fruit? When men and women live up to its demands and ideals, are they made better? Anyone, unless warped by prejudice and hatred, knows that it is elevating in its influences. Now, Christianity is either true, or the greatest lie ever invented. Is it possible, then, that the greatest lie ever invented will reform and elevate character? A lie does not reform people, nor does it elevate them. Truth reforms and elevates. Christianity reforms and elevates.

Material Progress. This may truly be called the byproducts of Christianity. Where Christianity goes material improvements follow. Christianity does not say anything about building better houses, but it builds them. It does not say anything about better methods of farming, but it inaugurates them. It does not say anything about better stock, but it gives us better breeds. There are causes for these improvements. Christianity gives us higher ideals, and these create a desire for better things: and these higher ideals are reflected in better living conditions. Moreover it gives us a higher standard of morals, and this, together with higher ideals, quickens the intellect, and produces a more intelligent. citizenship. As a result of this quickening of the ideals and intellect, better living conditions are not only desirable, but they are made possible. A contrast between the living conditions where Christianity has the greatest influence with the conditions where Christianity has no influence will convince any thoughtful person that these statemens are true.

Women. If you wish to get a view of what Christianity has done for woman, contrast her condition and standing in a land influenced by Christianity with her condition where Christianity has not gone, or with her condition before Christianity began. Where Christianity has not gone brute force is the main force, or factor, in shaping social and domestic life. Physically man is stronger than woman. He is made so because of the part he must play in life. Where brute force controls there is one inevitable result—the man subdues the woman to a state of drudgery and menial service, little, if any better than slavery. How any woman of intelligence can fail to be an ardent believer in Christianity and an enthusiastic advocate of its principles is more than we can understand.

Philanthropic. As people advance in Christianity they become more and more interested in their fellow men. Christianity develops love for others, and a desire to help. This spirit leads them to sacrifice for the well-being and happiness of others. Instead of casting the infirm and helpless aside, as so much incumbrance, people, influenced by the spirit of Christ, build hospitals, asylums, homes, and schools, for them. If it is in your heart to reply that people who are not Christians frequently give liberally to such institutions, just remember that people brought up in Christian homes and surrounded by Christian influences generally imbibe some of the Christian spirit, though not themselves Christians. And even if some should give through a desire to create a favorable impression, and gain applause, or increase of business, they are paying tribute to the Christian spirit—they realize that people full of the Christian spirit applaud sacrifice for others. And remember, too, that these things are not done in heathen lands where the spirit of Christ is unknown. Could a falsehood develop such a good and helpful spirit? Is Christianity the biggest lie ever propagated? Does any sane person think that the biggest lie ever invented has developed more good in people than all truth combined?

Lord’s Supper. There is an institution observed by many churches every Lord’s day. This institution they call the Lord’s supper. It is observed in commemoration of Jesus Christ. Whence came this supper? It had a beginning. It is declared in the scriptures that Jesus instituted it, and commanded, "This do in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:19-20). Paul also declared, "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come" (1 Corinthians 11:26). It is a monument to Christ—when was it erected, if not when the scriptures declare? If it is not of divine origin, it is an imposture—a fraud. It is not enough for infidels to say that Christians now are deluded in the matter—they must account for its origin. The first group who ate the supper—how were they induced to believe that it was of divine origin, if it is forgery? If a deceiver or deluded man had tried to induce them to begin the observance of an unheard of thing, how would he have so deceived them? He could not have told them that a recently crucified and risen Christ had instituted and commanded it. They would have known better, if it were not true. If he told them that such a Being in the remote past had required it, they would call for historic evidence, and demand why it had not been observed before. It is an unanswerable argument, and by its observance we do show his death, and it will continue till he comes again.

Anno Domini. Christianity has become so fixed as a truth that all people in the civilized world acknowledge the year of Christ’s birth in all written communications and legal documents. Even those who profess not to believe in Christ must also bear witness to this great truth in their letters and legal documents. For or Against Christ. "He that is not with me is against me" (Luke 11:23). No one but a dullard can be indifferent to Christ and his claims. People cannot let him alone. No matter where you go, if there is a man in the community who does not believe in Christ, he makes the fact known—he is, as Christ said, against him; and his very opposition becomes and is a declaration of the truthfulness of the claims of Christ—that he was more than a man. Men may disbelieve in Mohammed, and you never know of it—in fact they are serenely indifferent towards Mohammed; but the one who disbelieves in Christ is pronounced in his opposi­tion to Christ and Christianity. Christianity has a vital force about it. Men cannot be opposed to it and let it alone. It not only demands their attention, but has their attention—you are either for or against Christ.

Unity of the Bible. The claims of Christianity rests on the Bible. If the Bible is the product of divine wisdom and benevolence, so is Christianity, for it is the central thought, the goal towards which everything in the Bible tends.

During a period of about fifteen hundred years, many men of various attainments, under various conditions and circumstances, separated widely by time and space, were engaged in writing the Bible; yet the entire Bible presents one central thought, Jesus the Christ the Son of the Living God. Only because these men were guided by one supreme Intelligence could they have so co­ordinated their work that the unity is constantly seen and that no conflicting statements were made. In these lessons we present only a part of the mass of evidence which is available to prove the claims of the Bible to be the product of divine Wisdom.

Laws of Sanitation. Only in the past few years has the medical profession learned much about sanitary regulations and how certain diseases are spread. Only recently have we learned that indiscriminate spitting spreads disease. But thousands of years before medical science knew anything about the laws of sanitation, or the need of such laws, God gave through Moses a system of sanitary laws superior to any now in operation in the most enlightened communities. Read Leviticus 15; Deuteronomy 23:10­. The most enlightened nations that that time, and for thousands of years later, could not have developed a system of sanitation any ways near approaching that given through Moses, much less would we expect such laws to have been developed by a nation of people just out of slavery. These laws came from God; on no other grounds can we account for them.

ARGUMENTS FROM PROPHECY.

Prophecy Defined. A combination of circumstances or causes may plainly indicate that certain things will happen—to predict such inevitable results is not prophecy. From observation and the history of a disease the physician may be quite certain what the developments of the morrow will show in his patient, but that is not the result of prophetic powers. A prophecy is a prediction concerning future events, which the unaided powers of man cannot forecast. It is such a declaration as only One who sees the end from the beginning could make. Such prophecies are found in the Bible concerning men, cities, and nations. History enables us to trace out these prophecies and see their complete fulfillment; and their fulfillment proves conclusively that "no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21) We invite your attention to a few of these prophecies.

Babylon. This city can be traced back to about three thousand years before Christ. See Genesis 10:10; Genesis 11:1-9. Isaiah speaks of it as "Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans pride" (Isaiah 13:19). After Isaiah’s day the city continued to grow in power and splendor for more than a hundred years, and became the seat of universal empire. It was located in a fertile plain on the Euphrates river. The city was laid off as a square, and has been variously estimated by historians to have been forty to sixty miles in circumference. A great wall of defense, seventy-five feet thick, on which were two hundred and fifty towers. surrounded the city. This wall was surrounded by a deep, wide ditch filled with water from the Euphrates. Perhaps no city of that time was so well fortified, and yet Jeremiah says, "The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire" (Jeremiah 51:58). Previous to this Isaiah had declared, "And Babylon, the glory of kingdom the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there. And wolves shall cry in their castles,. and jackals in the pleasant places" (Isaiah 13:19; Isaiah 22:1-25). No matter how it might prosper for a time, God had decreed its utter destruction and ruin. See also Isaiah 14:4-27. Later, about the time of Babylon’s greatest glory, Jeremiah uttered prophecies to the same import (Jeremiah 25:8-14; Jeremiah 51:1-64). These seemingly unreasonable prophecies have been literally fulfilled; for centuries the city, now no more than heaps of ruins, has been uninhabited. Desolation is spread over the place, and the once glorious city has become the home of the wild beast and doleful creatures. And, as the prophet said, the Arabian refuses to pitch tent there, and shepherds camp not there with their herds. This complete desolation of the once mighty Babylon is a continuous argument for the inspiration of the men of God, Isaiah and Jeremiah, who, while the city was in its glory and still prosperous, foretold its downfall and present desolation.

Tyre. As far back as the settling of the Israelites in Canaan Tyre was a fortified city (Joshua 19:29). In the days of David and Solomon, Tyre was friendly to Israel (2 Samuel 5:11; 1 Kings 7:13-45). Tyre was a city of wealth (Zechariah 9:3), the merchant of the people of many isles (Ezekiel 27:3), a great shipping center, and her for fortifications were so complete that a five year siege by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, failed of results. "It was against a city such as this, so confident, and to all appearance so justifiably confident, of sitting a queen forever, that several prophets, particularly Isaiah and Ezekiel," through inspiration foretold its destruction. "And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise; and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses; and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the waters. . . . And I will make thee a bare rock; thou shalt be a place for the spreading of nets; thou shalt be built no more: for I Jehovah have spoken" (Ezekiel 26:12-14). A part of Tyre was on the main land and a part on an island near to shore. Ezekiel tells us that Tyre would be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (Ezekiel 26:7-11). History tells us that after a siege of thirteen years Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city on the main land. Later Alexander the Great laid siege to the city. He took the ruins of the part destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar and laid them in the water so as to build a pass-way to the island, thus literally fulfilling Ezekiel’s words. Also so completely were the ruins of Tyre thrown into the sea that its location has been lost; and this fulfills another statement of Ezekiel: "Though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again" (Ezekiel 26:21). The student should read Isaiah 23:1-18; Ezekiel 26:1-21, Ezekiel 27:36. Ezekiel 26:1-26; Amos 1:9-10; Zechariah 9:2-4; and then search histories, books of travel, and Encyclopedias, and see how literally all these prophecies have been, and are being fulfilled.

"Alexander the Great, after a memorable siege, captured the city of Tyre and reduced it to ruins (332 B. C.). She recovered in a measure from this blow, but never regained the place she had held in the world. The larger part of the site of the once great city is now ’bare as the top of a rock’—a place where the fishermen who still frequent the spot spread their nets to dry."—Myers’ General History, page 55.

Egypt. (See Isaiah 19:1-25; Ezek. 29:30,31.) From these prophecies we learn that Egypt was to be reduced to a land of desolation and waste, "in the midst of the countries that are desolate." "And I will diminish them that they shall no more rule over the nations." At the time of this prophecy, and from the dawn of history, Egypt had been one of the leading nations of the earth. They had subdued many nations. Some of their works are the wonder of the world today. The recent discoveries in the tomb of King Tut-Ankh-Amen show the splendor and glory of that ancient kingdom. But in the midst of her glory Jehovah predicted her complete downfall. "And there shall no more be a prince from the land of Egypt." This is a remarkable feature of the prophecy. More than five hundred years before Christ Egypt lost her independence; and it has since passed under the dominion of different governments. Every effort to gain their independence, or to put one of their own race on the throne, has met with failure. Study the prophecies relating to Egypt and study her history, and see that she presents a perpetual monument to the inspiration of the Bible.

Prophecy of Moses Concerning the Jews. (Deuteronomy 28:1-68) The student should read the entire chapter. This remarkable prophecy was uttered by Moses concerning his own people before they reached the land out of which they were to be taken, and fifteen hundred years before the events occurred. If the student would read a vivid account of the fulfillment of this prophecy, he may do so in the Wars of the Jews, by Josephus, Book 2, chapter 7 to close of Book 6. (Let the teacher mark some of the striking passages in Josephus, and read them to the class.)

Let us notice some of the predictions in this chapter (Deuteronomy 28:1-68). Many ills were to befall the Israelites in case they disobeyed the Lord.

• "Jehovah will bring a nation against thee from afar, as the eagle flieth" (Deuteronomy 28:49). Israel was not conquered by her neighbors, as is usually the case; but by a nation from afar, Rome, conquered her. And there was no cringing fear in the hearts of the Roman soldiers as they came upon the Jews—like an eagle, the Roman army was fearless and certain in its movements.

• "A nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand." The Jews would have understood the language of the Syrians, or that of any other nation near them; "but Moses declared they would be conquered by a nation whose language they understood not. They understood not the language of the Romans.

• "A nation of fierce countenance, that shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young." This, as you learn from all histories, was characteristic of the Roman army.

• "And they shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fortified walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land; and they shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land" (Deuteronomy 28:52). The Roman army completely overran the land of the Jews, destroying not only Jerusalem, but the walls of every fortified city as well. Josephus records these matters at length.

• "And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and thy daughters. . . .The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eyes shall be evil towards the husband of her bosom, and towards her son, and towards her daughter, and towards her young one that cometh. out from between her feet, and towards her children whom she shall bear; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly, in the siege and in the distress wherein thine enemies shall distress thee in thy gates" (Deuteronomy 28:53-57). See how literally this was fulfilled.

"There was a certain woman that dwelt beyond Jordan; her name was Mary, her father was Eleazar, of the village of Bethezod, which signifies the house of Hyssop. She was eminent for her family and her wealth, and had fled away to Jerusalem with the rest of the multitude, and was with them besieged therein at this time." Josephus relates how all her living was consumed, and how, when she got together anything to eat, the rapacious guards robbed her of it till it was "impossible for any way to find any more food, while the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow, when also her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself; nor did she consult with anything but with her passion and the necessity she was in. ... She slew her son; and then roasted him, and ate the one-half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed. Upon this the seditious came in presently, and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her, that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not show them what food she had gotten ready. She replied that she had saved a very fine portion of it for them; and withal uncovered what was left of her son. Hereupon they were seized with a horror and amazement of mind, and stood astonished at the sight, when she said to them, ’This is mine own son, and what hath been done was mine own doing. Come eat of this food; for I have eaten of it myself.’ . . . After which those men went out trembling, being never so much afrighted at anything as they were at this."—Wars of the Jews, by Josephus, Book 6, chapter 3, section 4. This horrid incident in fulfillment of the prophecy of Moses needs no comment.

• "And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the people whither Jehovah shall lead thee away" (Deuteronomy 28:37). See also Jeremiah 29:15-20. Thus Moses spoke of the future of his own people, and this prophecy is today being fulfilled before the eyes of all nations. Every nation has its Jews, and everywhere the Jew is a wanderer, and a hiss, and a byword among all peoples. We hold that it is not possible for one to honestly read the history of the Jews as outlined in the prophecies and written by Josephus, and also observe their present condition, and not be convinced that these prophecies were given by inspiration.

Scattered, but not Consumed. In their dispersion the Jews were not to be utterly destroyed from off the earth. This is indicated in the statement that they would be a continual hiss and byword. See also Jeremiah 5:18; Jeremiah 30:11; Amos 9:8. They were to be scattered everywhere, never to dwell in their own land again, but would not be utterly consumed. Persecution has not destroyed him; neither has he lost his identity by marrying and intermarrying with other peoples. He is a living and perpetual demonstration that the prophets were holy men of God who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

Nineveh. Nineveh was one of the oldest cities of history (Genesis 10:8-12). It became a wonderful city, variously estimated to have been from sixty to seventy-four miles in circumference, with a protecting wall one hundred feet high, surmounted by fifteen hundred towers two hundred feet high. The people in this city, in its great glory, became so wicked that God sent Jonah to preach to them (Jonah 1:1-2; Jonah 3:1-2). In her great pride, Nineveh had boasted, "I am, and there is none beside me." The student should read the three chapters of Nahum and Zephaniah 2:13-15. These prophets foretell the utter destruction of this mighty city. She would become "a desolation, and dry like the wilderness. And herds shall lie down in the midst of her. all the beasts of the nation: both the pelican and the porcupine shall lodge in the capitals thereof; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the threshholds." Not one word of this prophecy has failed. The destruction and desolation is too well-known to every student of history to need recounting in this connection. Excavations, first begun in 1820, have revealed in destroyed. Nineveh only that which confirms all the Bible said of that place. Hence, the prophecies against Nineveh, like all other prophecies in the Bible, furnish proof of the inspiration of the Bible.

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND DISCUSSION.

QUESTIONS.

influence and those where it has not gone.