Many Infallible Proofs: The Evidences of Christianity

The writer of these pages once found himself getting into the deep darkness of doubt. Beginning at the foundation, he searched for himself, till he found the proofs ample — that the Bible is the Book of God; and Christ the Son of God. It was like finding one’s way out of a dense wood into the full light of day.

Others are still in the dark; and these chapters are the “blazed” trees that mark the path by which one man got out of the forest. Perhaps some one else may try the same route, with a like result.

The importance of the study of the Evidences of Christianity, which estabhsh the claim of the ReHgion of Christ, as the one and only Divine Religion, cannot well be overrated, or overstated.

All knowledge is good, desirable in itself and desirable for the sake of the power which it adds to character; but especially is knowledge necessary, when it helps either to create or to confirm our faith in the great truths of our holy religion. The teachings of the Bible are at once so peculiar and so important, that it is one of our first duties and privileges to attain a certainty of conviction as to the divine origin of the Holy Scriptures, and the divine character and mission of Jesus Christ.

Such certainty ought to be attainable. If any human ruler should address to his subjects the most ordinary proclamation, touching their duties as citizens, those subjects have a right to claim good plain proofs that whoever may have written or composed that proclamation, it is by the King’s authority, and that he is its proper author. No subject should be satisfied unless the grand royal signature and seal are found upon the decree; otherwise it might prove the device of some traitor or enemy to mislead and betray subjects, and even to overturn lawful rule.

If therefore God has given to mankind a revelation of His will upon matters of the first moment, there can be no doubt that it is in some plain, unmistakable way marked by His hand: it has on its very face God’s signature and seal: there are many infallible proofs to satisfy honest doubt.

We need not fear to take strong ground and it is especially necessary in these days. Principal Fairburn, in an address at the Union Theological Seminary, remarked that an entire change has become necessary in conducting the defence of Christianity, owing to the change of ground on the part of its enemies. The Deism of the last Century conceded much, in admitting the claims of natural religion. Now everything is denied, and everything must be proved. But allowing this to be so, everything true must be capable of proof. God could not ask of us anything which is not right and reasonable; and it would be neither reasonable nor right to ask us to take it for granted that the Bible is God’s own Book, simply because it says so, or somebody says so, or even because any number of people honestly believe it. God himself gave us reasoning powers to weigh evidence with, and he means that we shall test truth and falsehood, proving all things and holding fast the good.

There is a kind of doubt that is entirely right, and of that sort is the doubt of one who does not believe what he has no reason to believe, and what he has no proof of, as true. The mind is endowed with powers of investigation, reflection, reason, that we may carefully examine into evidence and so decide what is true and what is false. He speaks to our reason, who gave us our reason. He appeals to it even in his own Word. He bids us be ready always to give an answer to every one that asketh us a reason for the hope that is in us. Such an answer implies knowledge.

God himself, then, asks of us no blind faith. We should know what we believe and why we believe it. Nothing is to be accepted unless based on good evidence; to believe hastily may be to blindly embrace error and untruth. Equally certain is it, inasmuch as God gives the Bible for the guidance of all men, that the proofs that this is his Word will neither be hard to find nor hard to see; they will be plain, like the signature and seal on the royal proclamation, to be found and understood by the common average man.

This is a day of doubt. Scepticism is more than ever widespread. It is in our books, in the conversation of our friends, in the very air that we breathe. It is finding its way quietly into the very churches of Christ. We must be on our guard.

I. These proofs, if they are candidly examined, will cure all honest doubt. Much scepticism is born of an evil heart of unbelief, that departs from God on account of a perverse and wicked will opposed to God. Such doubts no amount of evidence will remove unless the heart is changed; such doubters would not be persuaded though one rose from the dead.

But all honest doubt will yield before the proofs of a fact or a truth; and so there is no excuse for doubting, where we have the means of knowing. It is wrong to be willingly ignorant. Whatever doubts then do not spring from a wicked heart and unwillingness to be convinced, will disappear when the proofs are seen and examined.

There have been many candid doubters, but never one who had carefully studied the Evidences of Christianity. Mr. Hume confessed himself the prince of sceptics, as Voltaire was the prince of scoffers, and dark indeed were those depths of doubt into which his speculations plunged him. He said of those speculations: ‘’They have so wrought upon me and heated my brain that I am ready to reject all belief and reasoning, and can look upon no opinion even as more probable or likely than another.” And yet, though pretending to great diligence in the search after truth, and using all his fine powers and culture to destroy faith in the Gospel, he confessed, as Dr. Johnson tells us, that he had never read even the New Testament with attention.

Whenever an honest doubter comes to me, I feel perfectly safe in calmly saying, to his face, ‘’you have never studied the evidences, and it is likely never attentively examined the Bible.” And that arrow never misses its mark.

Some five years since, I was brought into contact with a man, who took pride in his sceptical opinions and made a boast of not being misled by the credulity of Christians. I ventured to take the old arrow out of my quiver. I said, “you have never thoroughly studied the Bible, sir.” He turned my arrow aside, saying very positively, “you are mistaken there; for I have been familiar with the Bible from my boyhood.” And yet within ten minutes he had shown that he did not know the difiference between Job and Lot, but thought it was Job that lived in Sodom and dwelt with his two daughters in the cave!

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