The Supernatural in the New Testament, Possible, Credible, and Historical Or, An Examination of the Validity of Some Recent Objections Against Christianity as a Divine — Reading Notes

troduction. The Position of the Controversy Between the Opponents and the Defenders of Christianity. Chapter II. Definitions of Terms. Chapter III. The Supernatural Elements Contained in the New Testament: In What Do They Consist? And What View Do Its Writers Take Respecting Them? Chapter IV. Miracles, What Do They Prove? Chapter V. The Antecedent Improbability of Miracles.—The Unknown and Unknowable God. Chapter VI. The Objection That Miracles Are Contrary To Reason Considered. Chapter VII. The Allegation That No Testimony Can Prove The Truth Of A Supernatural Event. Chapter VIII. The Objection That The Defenders Of Christianity Assume Certain Facts The Truth Of Which Can Only Be Known By Revelation, And Then Reason From Those Facts To The Truth Of The Bible, Considered. Chapter IX. Demoniacal Miracles—General Considerations. Chapter X. The Existence And Miracles Of Satan. Chapter XI. Possession: Is The Theory That It Was Madness Subversive Of The Historical Value Of The Gospels Or Inconsistent With The Veracity Of Christ? Chapter XII. Possession, If An Objective Reality, Neither Incredible Nor Contrary To The Ascertained Truths Of Mental Science. Chapter XIII. The Alleged Credulity Of The Followers Of Jesus. Chapter XIV. The Love Of The Marvellous—Its Bearing On The Value Of Testimony To Miracles. Chapter XV. Our Summary Rejection Of Current Supernaturalism Considered In Its Bearing On The Evidence For Miracles. Chapter XVI. General Objections To Miracles As Credentials Of A Revelation. Chapter XVII. The Historical Evidence On Which The Great Facts Of Christianity Rest—General Considerations. Chapter XVIII. The Testimony Of The Church, And Of St. Paul’s Epistles, To The Facts Of Primitive Christianity. Their Historical Value Considered. Chapter XIX. The Evidence Furnished By The Epistles To The Facts Of Our Lord’s Life, And To The Truth Of The Resurrection. Chapter XX. The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ An Historical Fact. Chapter XXI. The Historical Value Of The Gospels As Deduced From Previous Considerations. Chapter XXII. The Historical Character Of The Gospels As Deduced From Their Internal Structure. Footnotes

[Transcriber’s Note: The above cover image was produced by the submitter at Distributed Proofreaders, and is being placed into the public domain.]

To The Committee Of The Christian Evidence Society.

My Lords and Gentlemen,

Having undertaken to compose this work at your request, I beg permission to dedicate it to you. In doing so I feel that it is a duty which I owe both to you and to myself that I should state the position which we respectively occupy with regard to it. Your responsibility is confined to having requested me to compose a work in refutation of certain principles now widely disseminated, which impugn the supernatural elements contained in the New Testament. For the contents of the work and for the mode of treatment I alone am responsible. When I considered the position of the present controversy, I felt that it was impossible to treat the subject satisfactorily except on the principle that the responsibility for the mode of conducting the argument and of answering the objections should rest with the writer alone. In dealing with a subject so complicated, involving as it does questions of philosophy and science as well as the principles of historical criticism, I can scarcely venture to hope that every position which I have taken will prove acceptable to all the various shades of theological thought. I have endeavoured to take such as seemed to me to be logically defensible without any reference to particular schools of theological opinion. As the entire question is essentially historical, I have done my utmost to exclude from it all discussions that are strictly theological. Modern unbelief however puts in two objections which if valid render all historical evidence in proof of the occurrence of miracles nugatory, namely that they are both impossible and incredible. In meeting these I have been compelled to appeal to what appear to me to be the principles of a sound philosophy. In all other respects I have viewed the question before me as exclusively one of historical evidence.