Part 15 (1/2)

The Reverend debater attempts to belittle the Jerusalem career of Jesus, by suggesting that he was not there much, when according to the Gospels, it was in that city that his ministry began and culminated.

Again, to our argument that Paul never refers to any of the teachings of Jesus, the Reverend replies: ”Nor is it of consequence that Paul _seldom_ quotes the words of Jesus.” _”Seldom”_---would imply that Paul quotes Jesus sometimes. We say Paul gives not a single quotation to prove that he knew of a teaching Jesus. He had heard of a crucified, risen, Christ--one who had also inst.i.tuted a bread and wine supper, but of Jesus as a _teacher_ and of his _teaching,_ Paul is absolutely ignorant.

But by saying ”Paul _seldom_ quotes Jesus,” Dr. Barton tries to produce the impression that Paul quotes Jesus, though not very often, which is not true. There is not a single miracle, parable or moral teaching attributed to Jesus in the Gospels of which Paul seems to possess any knowledge whatever.

Nor is it true that it is of no consequence that ”Paul seldom quotes the words of Jesus.” For it proves that the Gospel Jesus was unknown to Paul, and that he was created at a later date.

Once more; we say that the only Jesus Paul knew was the one he met in a trance on his way to Damascus. To this the pastor of the First Congregational Church of Oak Park replies in the same we-do-not-care- to-explain style. He says: ”Nor is it of consequence that Paul values comparatively lightly, having known him in the flesh.”

The words ”Paul valued comparatively lightly” are as misleading as the words ”Paul _seldom_ quotes Jesus.” Paul _never_ quotes Jesus'

teachings, and he _never_ met Jesus in the flesh. The clergyman's words, however, convey the impression that Paul knew Jesus in the flesh, but he valued that, knowledge ”comparatively lightly,” that is to say, he did not think much of it. And Dr. Barton is one of the foremost divines of the country.

And now about his admissions:

VI

I. ”The Gospels, by whomever written,” says the clergyman, ”are reliable.” By _whomever_ written! After two thousand years, it is still uncertain to whom we are indebted for the story of Jesus. What, in Dr. Barton's opinion, could have influenced the framers of the life of Jesus to suppress their ident.i.ty? And why does not the church instead of printing the words, ”The Gospel according to Matthew or John,” which is _not true,_--print, ”The Gospel by _whomever_ written”?

II. ”At the very least, four of Paul's epistles are genuine,” says the same clergyman. Only four? Paul has thirteen epistles in the bible, and of only four of them is Dr. Barton certain. What are the remaining nine doing in the Holy Bible? And which 'four' does the clergyman accept as doubtlessly ”genuine?” Only yesterday all thirteen of Paul's letters were infallible, and they are so still wherever no questions are asked about them. It is only where there is intelligence and inquiry that ”four of them” at least are reliable. As honesty and culture increase, the number of inspired epistles decreases. What the Americans are too enlightened to accept, the church sends to the _heathen_.

III. ”It is true that early a sect grew up which....held that Jesus could not have had a body of carnal flesh; but they did not question that he had really lived.” According to Dr. Barton, these early Christians did not deny that Jesus had really lived,--they only denied that _Jesus could have had a body of carnal flesh_. We wonder how many kinds of flesh there are according to Dr. Barton. Moreover, does not the bible teach that Jesus was tempted in all things, and was a man of like pa.s.sions, as ourselves? The good man controls his appet.i.tes and pa.s.sions, but his flesh is not any different from anybody else's. If Jesus did not have a body like ours, then he did not exist as a human being. Our point is, that if the New Testament is reliable, in the time of the apostles themselves, the Gnostics, an influential body of Christians, denied that Jesus was any more than an imaginary existence. ”But,” pleads the clergyman, ”these sects believed that Jesus was real, though not carnal flesh.” What kind of flesh was he then? If by _carnal_ the Gnostics meant 'sensual,' then, the apostles in denouncing them for rejecting a carnal Jesus, must have held that Jesus was carnal or sensual. How does the Reverend Barton like the conclusion to which his own reasoning leads him?

IV. ”It is true that there were literary fictions in the age following the apostles.” This admission is in answer to the charge that even in the first centuries the Christians were compelled to resort to forgery to prove the historicity of Jesus. The doctor admits the charge, except that he calls it by another name. The difference between fiction and forgery is this: the former is, what it claims to be; the latter is a lie parading as a truth. Fiction is honest because it does not try to deceive. Forgery is dishonest because its object is to deceive. If the Gospel was a novel, no one would object to its mythology, but pretending to be historical, it must square its claims with the facts, or be branded as a forgery.

V. ”We may not have the precise words Jesus uttered; the portrait may be colored;....tradition may have had its influence; but Jesus was real.” A most remarkable admission from a clerical! It concedes all that higher criticism contends for. We are not sure either of Jesus'

words or of his character, intimates the Reverend preacher. Precisely.

In commenting on our remark that in the eighth century ”Pope Hadrian called upon the Christian world to think of Jesus as a man,” Dr.

Barton replies with considerable temper: ”To date people's right to think of Jesus as a man from that decree is not to be characterized by any polite term.” Our neighbor, in the first place, misquotes us in his haste. We never presumed to deny anyone the right to think of Jesus what he pleased, before or after the eighth century. (_The Debate,_ p. 28.) We were calling attention to Pope Hadrian's order to replace the lamb on the cross by the figure of a man. But by what _polite_ language is the conduct of the Christian church--which to this day prints in its bibles ”Translated from the Original Greek,”

when no _original_ ma.n.u.scripts are in existence--to be characterized?

Dr. Barton's efforts to save his creed remind us of the j.a.panese proverb: ”It is no use mending the lid, if the pot be broken.”

VII

The most remarkable clerical effort thus far, which _The Mangasarian- c.r.a.psey Debate_ has called forth, is that of the Rev. E. V. Shayler, rector of Grace Episcopal Church of Oak Park.

”In answer to your query, which I received, I beg to give the following statement. Facts, not theories. The date of your own letter 1908 tells what? 1908 years after what? The looking forward of the world to Him.”

Rev. Shayler has an original way of proving the historicity of Jesus.

Every time we date our letters, suggests the clergyman, we prove that Jesus lived. The ancient Greeks reckoned time by the Olympiads, which fact, according to this interesting clergyman, ought to prove that the Olympic games were inst.i.tuted by the G.o.d Heracles or Hercules, son of Zeus; the Roman Chronology began with the building of Rome by Romulus, which by the same reasoning would prove that Romulus and Remus, born of Mars, and nursed by a she-wolf, are historical.

Rev. Shayler has forgotten that the Christian era was not introduced into Europe until the sixth century, and Dionysius, the monkish author of the era, did not compute time from the birth of Jesus, but from the day on which the Virgin Mary met an angel from heaven. This date prevailed in many countries until 1745. Would the date on a letter prove that an angel appeared to Mary and hailed her as the future Mother of G.o.d? According to this clergyman, scientists, instead of studying the crust of the earth and making geological investigations to ascertain the probable age of the earth, ought to look at the date in the margin of the bible which tells exactly the world's age.