04 - The Question of Revelation

SECTION IV. THE QUESTION OF REVELATION. THE positions taken by orthodox Christians upon the question of Revelation are: (1) That the Old and New Testaments contain a special revelation from God; that there are some parts of the Bible which are not divinely inspired, but are simply the recorded opinions of the writers, and that the New Testament is of more importance to Christians than the Old, because the latter was intended for the Jews. Some Christians, however, urge that, in order that the Jews may participate in the salvation offered through Christ, it is necessary that they should accept the New Testament as well as the Old. (2) That Biblical revelation was necessary, inasmuch as nature is not only insufficient as a guide to mankind, but that on many "an occasion of our sorest need" it "is blind and deaf to our beseeching." Such is the statement of Professor Stewart, who adds: "We find it impossible to believe that a Supreme Being who is good would leave man without needed guidance, and that One who is wise and powerful could not discover a method of affording such guidance." (3) That the doctrine which denies that God "has revealed himself, except through nature and conscience, finds itself involved in difficulties when confronted with the problem of physical and moral evil." These are the three principal features which differentiate Christianity from natural religion. As to the first position. If the whole of the Bible is not a revelation from God, how are we to decide what portions are inspired and what are not? If each person is to decide the question for himself, then, as the Rev. Dr. Caird has shown, other Bibles that inculcate teachings which are very different from those taught by Christianity may be considered as "divine revelations." Besides, this " explanation makes the man decide what is "divine," which is fatal to the claims of Christianity. Moreover, against the validity of this Christian position the following objections appear to us to deserve attention: Could revelations which are contradictory in themselves emanate from a mind that is infinite and unchanging? If the later revelation contains something which is superior to anything found in the earlier, is it not a reflection upon an all-wise and all-good God that he should have so long deprived his children of the superior communication? Supposing that God sent the Old Testament to the Jews, it is reasonable to presume that he knew what would be sufficient for them. Is it not, therefore, orthodox impertinence to endeavor to force upon them the New Testament?

Another point that should be remembered is that, if this alleged new revelation were a direct communication from God, it could only have been so to the person or persons to whom it was made. A revelation to Paul would not be a revelation to us, and therefore it could be of no evidential value to the present generation. There is also to be considered the doubtful channel through which the New Testament has come down to us; the many abridgments and interpolations to which the documents have been subjected must necessarily have prevented it from being evidence in support of the Christian claims. Again, it does not appear that the writers of the New Testament professed that what they recorded was a revelation from God; they only claimed it to be a narration of what they saw, heard, and gathered from the traditions of earlier periods. This seems to be the Rationalistic view that should be taken of the entire Bible, inasmuch as the numerous errors and contradictions which it contains make the fact self-evident that the book, as we have it to-day, could not possibly have been a revelation from a perfect Being. The second position taken by Christians as to revelation is based upon the double fallacy of supposing that the New Testament gives us a better guide for human conduct than we find in nature; and that the God of Revelation is not "blind and deaf to our beseeching." Here, as in previous sections, we find orthodox assumptions taking the place of legitimate evidence. Can there be any doubt that the two important guides, cultivated reason and scientific facts, are to be attributed to nature? Where are these guides to be found in the Christian Revelation? In it faith is regarded as being higher than reason, and reliance upon prayer as of more value than dependence upon science. It should be borne in mind that at one period of our history an attempt was made to accept this revelation as a guide of life, but it was found thoroughly inadequate as a monitor in human actions. The very effort to make it so completely paralysed the progress of science, the advancement of education, and the ethical growth of the age. Even now, when the "Peculiar People" follow the teachings of this revelation as a guide, the results are unfortunate, for the consistent believers are punished for adhering to the assumed revealed instructions. It is only where reason and science, aided by human experience, guide the actions of mundane life that we find advancement going on to a higher and nobler civilization.

Those who profess to believe that the God of Revelation is not "blind and deaf to our beseeching" should produce some evidence that their belief has a sound basis. It is of no value as evidence to remind us that Revelation promises that prayers shall be answered, unless it can be shown that the promises were fulfilled. And this, we submit, has not hitherto been done, Have we not on record too many instances where loving parents have spent hours in "beseeching" that the lives of their children should be spared; of earnest prayers being offered up that pain and agony should cease that poverty and despotism should no longer mar the happiness of the race? Were not special supplications sent to the God of Revelation to avert the deaths of Prince Albert, the Duke of Clarence, the late Emperor of Russia, Abraham Lincoln, and Garfield? In these cases not only personal, but national "beseechings" were made to the God of Revelation that the lives of these men should be saved but he was "blind and deaf" to all "beseechings." It is no answer to say that in these instances it was not God’s will that the prayers should be answered, for, if that were so, it shows the folly of "beseeching" him to do anything. The Bible tells us that God " knoweth the secrets of the heart " (Psalms 44:21); that he "doeth according to his will, and none shall stay his hand" (Daniel 4:35); and that he never changes " (Malachi 3:6). If these "revealed" words are to be relied upon, where is the utility of "beseeching him to help us at all? He knows when help is required, and, if he intends to render it, he will do so; but, if he does not, no "beseeching" will be of any avail, for he "never changes." The third position involves the problem of the existence of physical and moral evil in the world. Professor Stewart, in his "Christian Evidences," admits that there are difficulties connected with this question, and he contends that the Deists with their "God of Nature" cannot remove the difficulties, but that the Christians with their God of Revelation can. Referring to John Stuart Mill’s essay, "On Nature," the Professor says: "It must be acknowledged that, if natural laws be all, and natural ends the only ends to be achieved, it is difficult to avoid the horns of Mill’s dilemma, by which we are called upon to reject either the power or the goodness of God. And what is true of physical evil is still more apparent when we turn to consider moral evil. Perfect as the system of the world may have been when it left the hands of its Creator, who can doubt, in the face of daily experience, that it has somehow gone wrong? Christianity recognizes this." Here it may be asked: "If the system of the world "were originally perfect, how could it have "gone wrong"? And, if God were all-powerful, why did he allow it to go wrong? The Christian’s answer is, that God could not give man liberty of choice, without his having the option of going wrong. This is the proffered harmony between the existence of a God of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, and the existence of physical and moral evil. We fail to see where the goodness of God is manifest here, for, from a human standpoint, we consider that, if a being had the power to keep the world right, it should have been impossible for it to have "gone wrong." It is admitted that there is physical evil in nature, and moral evil in man; therefore they must both possess a power independent of, and opposed to, infinite power. Is not this both absurd and contradictory? The defenders of the claims of Christianity seem to ignore the following logical conclusions from their preipises: If the Christian Deity be the creator of all things, then he must necessarily be the "God of Nature," and, in consequence, he is responsible for the pain and misery produced by such calamities as volcanoes, with their red-hot lava; the earthquakes and epidemics that destroy millions of human beings; the explosions in the mines which cause the agonizing deaths of husbands, fathers, and sons, upon whom whole families are dependent for the means of existence; the railway accidents and the storms at sea. Now, these calamities occur either with or without God’s interference. If with his interference, he is not all-good; if without, he is not kind and benevolent; and if they happen in spite of him, he is not all-powerful. Hence we agree with J.S. Mill when he says: "For, however offensive the proposition may appear to many religious persons, they should be willing to look in the face the undeniable fact that the order of nature, in so far as unmodified by man, is such as no being, whose attributes are justice and benevolence, would have made with the intention that his rational creatures should follow it as an example" (essay, "On Nature," p. 25). A new version of the Doxology would not be here out of place, and it should read something like this Praise God from whom all cyclones blow, Praise Him when rivers overflow, Praise Him who whirls the churches down, And sinks the boats, their crews to drown."

Briefly, the Rationalistic objections to the orthodox claims of a book-revelation from God are as follows: That in the New Testament nothing of any value is revealed that was unknown to the world before. That the God of Revelation, being the creator of all things, is responsible for the physical and moral evils in the world. That the same being who arranged for the redemption of man planned his fall, and surrounded that event with conditions that rendered moral freedom of no avail. That, if Adam and Eve before the Fall did not know good from evil, the power of choice to them was useless. That to postulate one infinite will as an absolute ruler of the universe, and then to add millions of finite wills, which are capable of thwarting the Infinite one, is, to say the least, absurd. That no evidence has been produced which shows that the God of Revelation listens to human "beseechings," and supplies the wants of mankind more than does the "God of Nature." Finally, that cruel and unjust as nature is (which it ought not to be if it is the production of a good God), in it are contained the remedies for all the evils that can be removed. When this nature is modified and improved by man, it is found to be the only source from which the means are obtained that enable us to augment human happiness, and to promote the physical, intellectual, and ethical advancement of the human race.