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NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY (
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Price One Penny.
.
.
TWENTY-FOUR PROOFS
.
THAT THE
BIBLE is NOT the WORD of GOD.
By a CAMBRIDGE GRADUATE.
«.
■
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The 'popular doctrine concerning the Bible, taught by the
Church of England and other bodies of Christians, is that
it is a direct communication from an omniscient and all
wise God to his creature, man, inspired or breathed into the
minds of certain holy men of old. From this it follows, as
a logical necessity, that every syllable, from the first verse
in Genesis to the last in the Revelation of John, must be
absolutely true; that the morality and philosophy of the
Bible must be the most sublime imaginable; its history
perfect in accuracy ; and that its prophecies have been, or
will be, fulfilled in every detail. If this be not the case,
then we must conclude that it is purely human in its origin,
for we cannot suppose that it is partly inspired and partly
false, since God has given us no means of distinguishing
the inspired from the uninspired, and we should have tojudge for ourselves of its value—that is, use reason to the * . "
exclusion of faith, and treat it as we do any other book.
1. The Bible is clearly proved to be historically inaccurate, ’
since it contains contradictions in different accounts of the
same event. For example, we will take the story of the
resurrection of Christ. Matthew tells us that Mary Mag
dalene and the other Mary came to the sepulchre ; there
was an earthquake ; the angel of the Lord descended and
rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it; and
finally “ they did run to bring his disciples word ” (Matt,
xxviii., 1-8). Mark tells us that Mary Magdalene, J^Iary the
mother of James, and Salome, came to the sepulchre, found'the
stone already rolled away (no earthquake or angel this Time), .
and entering in they saw a young man sitting on the -right
side (evidently meant for the angel mentioned in Matthew,
since he gives the same message) ; and finally “ they
trembled and were amazed, neither said they anything to any
man” (Mark xvi., 1-8). Thus on the last .point Mark
flatly contradicts the other three evangelists. Luke tells
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us that Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of
James, and other women that were with them, came to the
sepulchre, found the stone rolled away, and entering in,
“ behold two men stood by them in shining garments ” ; and
“ they told these things unto the apostles. And their words
seemed unto them as idle tales, and they believed them not.
Then arose Peter and ran unto the sepulchre ” (Luke xxiv.,
1-12). Lastly, John tells us that Mary Magdalene went to
the sepulchre (apparently alone this time), and seeing the
stone taken away, ran and told Peter and the other disciple
whom Jesus loved that they had taken away the Lord. The
two disciples went into the sepulchre, and not seeing Jesus,
went away again unto their own home. Mary stood with
out, and saw the two- angels sitting, “ one at the head and
the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain,”
and she came and told the disciples (John xx., 1-18). It
certainly requires a considerable exercise of faith (self
deception ?) to persuade ourselves that these four accounts
agree with each other in every detail; yet on their truth
hangs the central doctrine of Christianity—namely, the
resurrection of Christ; for “ If Christ be not risen, then is
our faith vain.”
2. The genealogies of Christ given in Matt, i., 1-17, and
Luke iii., 23-38, are different and contradictory to one
another. Not only are the names different, but while
Matthew gives twenty-seven generations from David to
Jesus, Luke gives forty-two 1
3. We are told by John that “ no man hath seen God at
any time ” (1 John iv., 12), and yet Jacob said at Peniel:
“ I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved ”
(Gen. xxxii., 30). Again, we find (in Exodus xxxiii., 11)
that “ the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man
speaketh unto his friend ” ; and in the 20th verse of the
same chapter we are informed that he said to Moses : “ Thou
Sanst not see my face: for there shall no man see me and
live ” ; and so he put Moses in a clift of the rock, and put
his hand over him, and took it away, and showed him his
back parts as he passed by. We are also told that there
“ went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and
seventy of the elders of Israel: and they saw the God
.of Israel : and there was under his feet as it were
a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were
the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the
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nobles of the children of Israel he laid^not his hand: also
they saw God, and did eat and drink ” (Exodus xxiv., 9-11).
After this it may be thought hardly worth mentioning that
Isaiah puts in a claim to having seen the Lord in a vision :
“ I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted
up, and his train filled the temple ” (Isaiah vi., 1).
4. The Laws in the Old Testament, which are said to
have been given to Moses by God himself, prove on exami
nation not to be calculated to refine, elevate, and humanise
the race to whom they were given, educating and leading
them to nobler things—“ a schoolmaster to bring them unto
Christ”—such as would come from an all-wise and bene
volent being, “ whose mercy is everlasting ”; but a code
infamously unjust and cruel, brutalising and degrading, in
its tendencies, showing the grossest superstition in the mind
of the lawgiver, and altogether what we should expect to
find coming from a barbarous and primitive people. One
example of the injustice of these laws will be sufficient:
“ If a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and
he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished. Not
withstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be
punished : for he is his money ” (Exodus xxi., 20, 21).
5. Not only has the Mosaic code of laws cursed the race
to whom it was given, but even now it exercises a baneful
influence over the world ; those laws sanctioning and regu
lating slavery proving most formidable obstacles to the
abolition of the slave trade in the Colonies and Southern
States of America, where large meetings of ministers were
held declaring slavery to be enjoined by God; and in every
session of Parliament at the present time are they brought
up by the opponents of the Bill for legalising marriage with
a deceased wife’s sister.
6. The laws in the Old Testament on witchcraft (Lev.
xix., 31 ; xx., 6, 27, etc.) have caused tens of thousands of
innocent men, women and children to be burnt alive in the
middle ages, and now the world has discovered it to be a
purely imaginary crime 1 Is it possible that God, fore
knowing all this, would have inspired such laws ?
7. Polygamy is nowhere condemned in the whole Bible,
and is distinctly allowed in the Old Testament; the chief
saints, as Abraham, David and Solomon, being all poly
gamists.
8. We are taught that “ God is love ” and yet that he is
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going to burn the vast majority of mankind for all eternity
in hell; for “ strait is the gate and narrow is the way,
and few there be that find it ” ; “ many are called, but few
chosen ” ; “he that believeth not shall be damned.” Surely
no one will contend that the majority believe.
9. Paul teaches that God will torture us in hell, not for
resisting his will, but because he makes us sin without our
being able to resist. “ He saith to Moses, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on
whom I will have oompassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth
mercy. For the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for
this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show
my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on
whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault ?
For who hath resisted his will? Nay, but, 0 man, who
art thou that repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed
say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus ?
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same
lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto
dishonor ? What if God, willing to show his wrath,
and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.”—Rom.
ix., 15-22. So Paul teaches us to believe, not in a merciful,
all-loving Father, “ unwilling that any should perish,” but in
an omnipotent Devil, who amuses himself by roasting us in
hell for committing sins which he himself forces us to
commit.
10. The Bible does not solve the difficulty of the origin of
evil, but on the contrary states expressly that God is the
author of evil. “ I form the light, and create darkness : I
make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.”
—Isaiah xlv., 7.
11. There are many other passages which prove that the
God of the Bible, whom we are taught to love and reverence,
is malignant in character, and are wholly incompatible with
those passages attributing to him mercy and goodness. For
example, Paul says, speaking of certain persons, “ God shall
send them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
that they all might be damned” (2 Thess. ii., 11, 12).
Noble motive truly I
�12. In the Old Testament especially, God is represented
as approving of the most horrible atrocities ; among otherstoo numerous to mention, slaughtering all the Midianitesb
men, women and children (Numbers xxxi., 1-18}.
13. God is even represented as accepting a human sacri
fice, as in the case of Jephthah’s daughter, who was offered
up “ for a burnt offering ” (Judges xi., 30-39).
14. We submit that the basis of morality held up through
out the Bible is purely selfish ; not doing right because it is.
right, but rather for hope of reward in heaven, and from
fear of hell; trying to curry favor with God, no matter at
what expense to our fellowmen.
15. In some of the Psalms (read every Sunday in the
churches) we find sentiments simply diabolical in theirmalignity. David prays concerning his enemies, “ Let their
table become a snare before them: and that which should
have been for their welfare, let it become a trap. Let their
eyes be darkened that they see not; and make their loins,
continually to shake. Pour out thine indignation upon
them, and let thy wrathful aDger take hold upon them..........
Add iniquity unto their iniquity : and let them not come
into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book
of the living, and not be written with the righteous ” (Psalms,
lxix., 22-28). Just fancy praying that your enemies may
not repent, lest they should get saved and not be burnt for
ever in hell! And this is implied in the above passage.
We can only compare this prayer, inspired by the Holy
Ghost into the mind of David, the man after God’s own
heart, for true charity and nobility of thought, with the
following passage of the Christian father Tertullian, who is.
so highly esteemed by the Church : “ Expect the last and
eternal judgment of the universe. How I shall admire, how
laugh, how rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many
proud monarchs and fancied gods, groaning in the lowest,
abyss of darkness ; so many magistrates, who persecuted the
name of the Lord, liquefying in fiercer fires than they ever
kindled against the Christians ; so many sage philosophers
blushing in red-hot flames with their deluded scholars ; somany celebrated poets trembling before the tribunal, not of
Minos, but of Christ; so many tragedians more tuneful in
the expression of their own sufferings ; so many dancers,” etc.
(De Spectaculis, cap. 30).
16. Again we find in another Psalm—“ Set thou a.
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wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right
hand. When he shall be judged let him be condemned,
and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few, and
let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually
•vagabonds and beg : let them seek their bread also out of
desolate places. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath,
and let the strangers spoil his labor. Let there be none to
extend mercy unto him ; neither let there be any to favor
his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off, and in
the generation following let their name be blotted out. Let
the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord,
and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out ” (Psalm
cix., 6-14). In our churches and Sunday-schools to-day it
is taught that this is the inspiration of hi a who said, “Love
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you
and persecute you” (Matt, v., 44).
17. Jesus Christ prophesied that “ the son of man shall
come in the glory of his father with his' angels, and then he
shall reward every man according to his works. Verily, I
say unto you, there be some standing here which shall no
taste of death till they see the son of man coming m his
kingdom ” (Matt, xvi., 27-28). He said also, after referring
to the destruction of Jerusalem, “ Immediately after the
tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the
moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from
heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
And then shall appear the sign of the son of man m heaven:
and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they
shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels
with a great sound of a trumpet . . . Verily, I saij unto
you, this generation shall not pass till all these things ie ful
filled” (Matt, xxiv., 29-34). It is evident that these pro
phecies, which have been shown to be false by time were
understood by the apostles to be on the eve of fulfilment
when they wrote their epistles, for Peter and Paul apologise
for the end of the world not coming so soon as might be
expected (see 2 Peter iii., 3-12 ; 2 Thess. n.1-6) Peter
also says: “The end of all things is at hand (l Petei
iv , 7)/ Paul says: “ The Lord is at hand (Phil. iv., o),
and tells the Hebrews not to forsake their assemblies, and
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to exhort one another “so much the more as ye see the_
day approaching” (Heb. x., 25). James says: “Be ye
also patient; stablish your hearts, for the coming of the
Lord draweth nigh” (James v., 8). Jude says: “There
are certain men crept in unawares,” and after denouncing
them, reminds his readers of the words of Christ—“ How
that they told you there should be mockers in the last time ”
(Jude, v. 18). Lastly, John informs us that “the time is
at hand ” (Rev. i, 3). And all these things (and more, which
we have not room to notice) were written about the time
that “ that generation ” who heard Jesus was passing away.
Have not these predictions one and all been proved utterly
false by time, that trier of truth ?
18. The prophecies in the Old Testament, said by the
evangelists to refer to Christ, on examination will be found
wholly inapplicable. For example, Matthew (ii., 6) applies
to Christ the prophecy of Micah—“ And thou Bethlehem,
in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of
Juda : for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule
my people Israel.” On turning to Micah, however, we find
that this “ ruler in Israel,” who he says shall rise up, is a
general, coming to defend them against the Assyrians ; for
he goes on to say: “ This man shall be the peace, when
the Assyrian shall come into our land : and wh< n he shall
tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven
shepherds and eight principal men. And they shall waste the
land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod
in the entrances thereof ; thus shall he deliver us from the
Assyrian when he cometh into our land, and when he
treadeth within our borders” (Micah v., 5-6). It is some
what difficult to see how this can apply to Christ; yet if
it cannot the Holy Ghost must have made a mistake in
making Matthew quote part of this prophecy as being ful
filled in Christ.
19. Again Matthew tells us that the words of Hosea,
“ Out of Egypt have I called my son,” were fulfilled in
Christ (Matt, ii., 15). On turning to the prophet we find
him chiding Israel for national ingratitude. “ When Israel
was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of
Egypt. As +hey called them, so they went from them : they
sacrificed umo Baalim, and burned incense to graven
images ” (Hosea xi., 1, 2). We will merely remark on this
that we have not sufficient faith to enable ourselves to
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believe that this is not simply an historical reference to the
Israelites coming from Egypt under Moses, much less are
we able to see in it an overwhelming proof of prophetical
power in Hosea.
20. None of the prophecies said to refer to Christ will
bear the slightest examination. For example: “He shall
judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people :
and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their
spears into pruning-hooks : nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war any more”
(Isaiah ii., 4). Yet when the Prince of Peace did come, he
said: “ Think not that I come to send peace on earth: I
come not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to
set a man at variance against his father and the daughter
against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law” (Matt, x., 34, 35).
21. Science has clearly demonstrated that it is false that
“ in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the
sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day ”
(Exodus xx., 11).
22. Science has clearly proved that the grass and herbs
and trees were not created before the sun and moon and
stars, as stated in Gen. i., 11-18.
23. Science clearly teaches the utter absurdity of such
astronomical ideas as that “ God said, Let there be a firma
ment in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters
from the waters. And God made the firmament, and
divided the waters which were under the firmament from
the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven” (Gen. i., 6-8)
St. Augustine, in explaining this, informs us that the firma
ment was‘stretched across the sky like a skin. We suppose
this is what Peter refers to when he says “ the heavens shall
pass away with a great noise ” (2 Peter iii., 10).
24. If by any sophistry it were possible to reconcile
science and the Bible, it must still be admitted that in the
past God was unable to convey his true meaning on these
points, and not only has his revelation given rise to false
scientific ideas, but has hindered the development of science
at every tufti, and brought untold bitterness and persecution
in the last few centuries on scientific men, in addition to
wrecking the faith of many truthseekers at the present day.
Printed and Published by Ramsey and Foote at 28 Stonecutter Street, E.O.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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Twenty-four proofs that the Bible is not the word of God
Creator
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Cambridge Graduate
Description
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Place of publication: [London]
Collation: 8 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Tentative date publication from KVK. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Ramsey and Foote
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[1885?]
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N114
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Bible
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Twenty-four proofs that the Bible is not the word of God), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
Language
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English
Bible
God
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