NINETEEN centuries have rolled away since, according to our creed as Christians, the angels of heaven proclaimed to men of earth the Gospel—i.e., the Glad Tidings—of the advent of Jesus. More than eighteen hundred years have passed since the Jewish artisan whom we declare to have been God incarnate, leaving the carpenter’s workshop, tried to reform His fellow-countrymen by declaring to them that the final Day of Judgment was at hand. One millennium has slowly but for ever gone, and even a second millennium has nearly passed away, since the poor Communist of Galilee, whose followers had “all things in common,” solemnly affirmed, “ Ye cannot serve God and Private-property.” At least a hundred generations have one after the other suffered and passed on into the darkness since the followers of Paul-were at Antioch first called Christians. And over a millennium and a half divide us from the time when Constantine, the worshipper of the Sun-God Apollo, made the faith so zealously preached by Paul the State Religion of the almost world-wide Roman Empire.
Thanks primarily to the action of Constantine, the Church we belong to had for at least a thousand years the nations of Christendom at its feet, and the almost almighty power of education in its hands. For several centuries, too, it had sole control of the literary records of the wisdom and history of the past, and could destroy or alter what it chose.
It is, alas! greatly to be feared that our Church at times somewhat abused the power in question.
One of the greatest sins against humanity in the direction indicated was undoubtedly the destruction of the priceless manuscripts which, when Constantine the Great died, were still stored in the famous library of Alexandria.
Upon the strength of an accusation made by a Christian Bishop against the Saracen who conquered Alexandria A.C. 640, this crime has long been charged to the account of the broad-minded and tolerant Caliph Omar, whose behaviour when he captured Jerusalem puts that of the Crusaders to shame. But it is now more or less generally admitted that the invaluable records in question were destroyed at the request of the Christian Bishop of Alexandria some fifty years after the death of Constantine, and two hundred and fifty years before the army of Omar appeared upon the scene.
Yet, notwithstanding such unscrupulous actions as the one referred to seems to have been, notwithstanding the great lapse of time since Paul started its career as a supposed world-conquering force, notwithstanding the unexampled chances and unequalled opportunities which it inherited as a result of succeeding in its youth to the position of State Religion of the world-wide Roman Empire, notwithstanding the fact that the races over which it has had control have been the most strenuous upon the face of the earth, notwithstanding the dying-out before its advancing armies and colonists of many a pagan race,— notwithstanding all these things the Christian Faith has come to a dead halt. For every genuine recruit it obtains otherwise than from the nurseries of its followers, two of its rank and file at heart waver in their allegiance.
As a matter of fact, our faith as Christians, despite the noble efforts of individuals, is, as a whole, losing ground. Not only has Christianity, with all its advantages, failed, even in eighteen centuries, to secure even the nominal suffrages of one half—much less of the whole—of human kind, but the proportion which those who honestly believe in its distinguishing dogmas bear to the remainder of our race, is undoubtedly decreasing.
As a son of the Church, and one convinced of its immense potentialities for good, the author has searched for, and, as he thinks, has found, those weak points in the Christianity of the last eighteen centuries which its history and the present state of affairs betoken.
But the discussion of those weak points does not lie within the province of the present volume, and must be reserved for a future one.
For before the weak points of any one’s religion, whatever religion it be, can be anything like accurately gauged, a painful process has to be gone through. So absolutely one-sided in their views are nine hundred and ninety-nine people out of a thousand, and so prejudiced are they in favour of such belief as their education and environment have caused to be their second nature, so few even of the few really earnest ones seek Truth, whatever it may cost, rather than a confirmation of their own opinions, that a necessary preliminary to a just discussion and appreciation of the weak points of one’s religion is a personal and searching inquiry into the evidence which can be produced against one’s creed.
The greater part of the real or supposed evidence against our creed as Christians, which opponents of Christianity have at one time or another brought forward against us, can be ascertained by an intelligent inquirer without very great difficulty. But the evidence producible by those who believe that the Sun-God worship once prevalent throughout the Roman Empire, did not exactly die out, but became merged or evolved into what is now called Christianity, cannot be so ascertained, and a clear statement of it does not exist. The present volume is therefore an attempt to supply what, if not a want, is, at any rate, a deficiency.
As a conclusion to this introductory chapter, the author would ask the reader, when considering that part of his work written from a Gnostic point of view, to bear in mind (1) that in ancient days religions were national; (2) that the Romans tolerated the religion of every nation they conquered; (3) that their persecution of our faith when it was in its infancy was due to the fact that it was non-national, and therefore from their point of view a hateful superstition undermining the religions of all the nations they protected, and subversive of all good rule; (4) that it was probably the first faith ever preached as intended for all nations; (5) that the Gospels “according to” Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were written after Paul went about preaching his new and non-national creed, as it is clear that he was ignorant of all save one of the many great marvels recorded therein,—the miraculous birth and ascension of Jesus, for instance, not being once mentioned in V his arguments; (6) that while Paul was by his own confession “all things to all men,” Jesus spent much of His time in denouncing the possession of Private-property; (7) that the followers of Jesus had “all things in common”; (8) that it was the followers of Paul who were called Christians; (9) that while Jesus said, “ The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do ” (Matt, xxiii. 3), Paul was an apostate as regards Judaism; and (10) that Jesus repeatedly declared that His mission was to, and his “gospel” or “glad tidings” for, the Jews alone.
ARCHBISHOP WHATELY has told us that “Not to undeceive, is to deceive”; that “We must neither lead, nor leave, men to mistake falsehood for truth”; and that “He who propagates delusion, and he who connives at it when already existing, both alike tamper with the truth.”
These sayings are quite as applicable to our religious teachers as to our teachers of science and philosophy.
Let us, for instance, see how matters stand as to what they have taught us concerning the origin of our religion.
If Christians—whether followers of the Greek Church (which, as more or less representative of the primitive Church, essentially a Greek one, sometimes claims to be the Mother Church), or followers of that Church which has succeeded to the priestly powers of the Caesars (and may perhaps be allowed to have the best claim to the title “Catholic”), or followers of the Protestant Churches—if a number of representative Christians were asked the plain question, “Did Christianity exist before the birth of Jesus the Nazarene? ” their answers would be found ultimately divisible into three classes: (1) that of the Christians unable to give a plain and straightforward reply; (2) that of those who would reply “Of course it did not”; and (3) that of those who would reply “Of course it did.”
Those who would not give a plain and straightforward answer need not be considered. Those who would give the reply “Of course it did not,” would give the only plain answer logically possible upon the part of those who stand by the Christian creed as nowadays generally taught. But the few, the very few, who would answer, “Of course it did,” would have very good grounds for their assertion.
Some Christians think that even Civilisation came into the world after, and as a result of, the advent of Jesus. As a matter of fact, however, a high state of civilisation existed, in various countries at various times, thousands of years before our era. And as to the Roman Empire and the countries into which that “world in itself” was ultimately split up, it is well known that as Christianity triumphed so Civilisation died out. Whatever may have been the cause, none can deny the fact that the Dark Ages followed close in the wake of the conquering Church.
It is true that the Monks were for centuries the centres of such light and learning as survived in Europe. And why was this? It was because Constantine the Great having utilised his power, as High Priest of the Gods of Rome and supreme Emperor of the whole Roman world, in favour of Christianity, making it the State Religion, the Christian Church became mistress of the situation, and got Emperor after Emperor not only to increase its power, but also to stamp out of existence the literary evidence against its own version of the nature, origin, and history of the Christian Faith; the Church itself taking possession of all the manuscripts which were to be saved, and, by securing a monopoly of the power to educate, thus safeguarding and perpetuating its powers and privileges.
As to the contention that our present civilisation is due to the monks and to Christianity, it is more than fifteen hundred years since the Sun-God worshipper Constantine laid the whole Roman world at the feet of the Christian Church, and also gave it a monopoly of the right to benefit by endowment; a right still refused to its opponents even in free England. It was in the first half of the fourth century of our era that Christianity was made the state religion of the Roman Empire, let us look a century ahead of the date in question, and ask ourselves whether the Christian Church had been employing its immense powers in favour of science and of progress? Was the state of Christendom in the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, or even in the sixteenth century, a credit to Christianity ? Was the condition of Christian lands, even in the seventeenth century, anything to boast of?
In every Christian history dealing with the city at the time in question, it is stated that the Caliph Omar, whose forces captured Alexandria in the year A.C. 640, ordered the priceless manuscripts which on the accession to power of the Christian Church were still safely stored in its famous library, to be destroyed; the Caliph saying that if the works in question agreed with the Koran they were superfluous, while if they did not agree with it they were pernicious. It is the mistaken statement of a Christian Bishop. The invaluable manuscripts in question, the sole record of much of the knowledge of the history and wisdom of the ancients, were destroyed in the year A.C. 390 at the request of the Christian Bishop of Alexandria, who, wishing to safeguard the position of the Church, had petitioned the Emperor Theodosius for the requisite authority. And this prelate’s successor in the holy office was the Bishop whose clergy murdered Hypatia A.C. 415.
Then, and thus, were the Dark Ages inaugurated.
As to the libel on the great and magnanimous Omar, this was first given currency among Christians by Bishop Abulfaragius of Guba, in the thirteenth century; and no such statement as his was made by any one of those who during the five hundred years immediately succeeding the capture of Alexandria by Omar, dealt with the history of that city. This silence upon their part is not to be wondered at, seeing that the priceless parchments in question were purposely destroyed by the Christians themselves just two centuries and a half before the army of Omar appeared upon the scene.
The libel in question, which is still given every currency in our schools, our histories, and our books of reference, is the more to be regretted inasmuch as Omar and his followers in the seventh century were more civilised than the Christians even of the eleventh century; as can be seen by comparing the just behaviour of the Moslems, when they captured Jerusalem in the year A.C. 637, with the barbarities which the Crusaders inflicted upon Moslem and Jew alike when they captured the city in the year A.C. 1099. And during all the intervening centuries it was the Moslems, and not the Christians, who had held alight the torches of Science and Civilisation.
Moreover, though it is true that our present knowledge of the old Greek and Latin classics still extant is derived from manuscripts saved by Christian monks—saved, that is, from their own destroying hands—the revival of Science and of Learning in these latter days is due, not to the Christian Church, which to some extent stamped out Science and Learning, but to the Moslems against whom, in crusades begotten of ignorance and bigotry, all the so-called chivalry of Christendom was repeatedly flung in vain.
In vain; for it is not the Banner of the Cross but the Banner of the Crescent which for the last seven centuries has waved, and still waves, o’er Calvary. In vain; for not to the Three-in-One but to The Only, is dedicated the sacred building which crowns the topmost height of Mount Moriah.
Yet not altogether in vain. For the seven great Crusades, by helping to destroy the civilisation of the Saracens or Moors, and to develop marine intercourse between the nations, caused the evolution of a Christian civilisation, and now enables the Church to claim as its peculiar product a result achieved in spite of itself.
In spite of itself; for from the destruction of the Alexandrian Library in A.C. 390 and the murder of Hypatia, down to the persecutions of Galileo and of Bruno, and the invectives which, even as late as the present century, the Greek, Roman, and Protestant Churches have alike thundered forth against scientific facts and their promulgators, the Church has everywhere and always used its influence in as adverse a manner towards science as it dared.
But even if the reader has just possibly been able to free himself or herself sufficiently from the prejudices of a Christian education and environment to assimilate the foregoing facts, such an one may yet be quite unaware, or unable to realise, that Christianity as well as Civilisation existed before our era, and, like it, was not due either to the advent, life, or teaching, of Jesus the Nazarene.
This was admitted by more than one of the Fathers, however, and amongst others by the great St. Augustine. For toward the close of his remarkable career, that famous Bishop of Hippo wrote the following ever-to-be-remembered passage:—
“Again, in that I said ‘This is in our time the Christian Religion, which to know and also follow is most sure and certain salvation’; it is affirmed in regard to this name, not in regard to the sacred thing itself to which the name belongs. For the sacred thing which is now called the Christian Religion existed in ancient times, nor indeed was it absent from the beginning of the human race until the Christ Himself came in the flesh, whence the true religion, which already existed, came to be called ‘the Christian.’ So when after His resurrection and ascension to heaven the Apostles began to preach and many believed, it is thus written, ‘The followers were first called Christians at Antioch.' Therefore I said 'This is in our time the Christian Religion,' not because it did not exist in earlier times, but as having in later times received this particular name."
"THE sacred thing which is now called the Christian Religion existed in ancient times, nor indeed was it absent from the beginning of the human race.” Let us never forget this pregnant admission of one of the greatest of the Fathers, which by some happy chance has been allowed to come down to us.
For this confession of St. Augustine is an affirmation in plain and unmistakable terms by one who ought to have known, that what was in his time called the Christian Religion, existed long before the life, death, and alleged resurrection of Jesus, as preached by Paul in connection therewith, gave it the new name of Christian, and caused the followers of Paul at his headquarters at Antioch to be called Christians; a name subsequently given to his followers elsewhere.
Nor was St. Augustine the only famous Father who is known to have admitted that what was called the Christian Religion was no new thing.
Even in the works of the great Ecclesiastical Historian, Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, we come across a passage which states that—
“What is called the Christian Religion is neither new nor strange, but—if it be lawful to testify as to the truth—was known to the ancients.”
This, also, makes it plain that the Christian Religion was not the new thing it was supposed to be; that the officials of the Christian Church kept this a secret from the rank and file; and that what was and is known as Christianity existed ages before it was given that title, or was centred round the name and fame of Jesus the Nazarene by Paul of Tarsus and his followers.