Your ShelfYour Projects

A REVIEW OF PAINE'S “AGE OF REASON.”

3%

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, April 15, 1880

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 16

Read the full edition

A REVIEW OF PAINE'S “AGE OF REASON.”

By Alonzo T. Jones

BY ELD. A. T. JONES.
(Concluded.)
On page 108 Mr. Paine quotes from Jeremiah 37:11–14: “And it came to pass, that when the army of the Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army,” that “Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to separate himself thence in the midst of the people. And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Irijah; . . . and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans. Then said Jeremiah, It is false; I fall not away to the Chaldeans.” And he says that Jeremiah, being thus stopped and accused, was, after being examined, committed to prison, on suspicion of being a traitor, where he remained, as stated in the last verse of this chapter, chap. 37:21.
“But the next chapter gives an account of the imprisonment of Jeremiah, which has no connection with this account, but ascribes his imprisonment to another circumstance, and for which we must go back to the 21st chapter. It is there stated (verses 1–10) that Zedekiah sent Pashur, the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Masseiah the priest, to Jeremiah to inquire of him concerning Nebuchadnezzar, whose army was then before Jerusalem; and Jeremiah said to them (verses 8, 9), ‘Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.’ This interview breaks off abruptly at the 10th verse of the 21st chapter, but the continuation and event is in the first verse of the 38th chapter.
“The 38th chapter opens with the words of this conference; then these men say to Zedekiah, ‘Therefore we beseech thee, let this man be put to death; for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them; for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt;’ and in the 6th verse it is said, ‘They then took Jeremiah, and put him in the dungeon of Malchiah.’
“These two accounts are different and contradictory. The one ascribes his imprisonment to his attempt to escape out of the city; the other to his preaching and prophesying in the city; the one to his being seized by the guard at the gate; the other to his being accused before Zedekiah, by the conference.”
Now that these two accounts are different I admit, because they relate to different circumstances. But that they are contradictory I deny; for both accounts are necessary to properly explain the manner in which Jeremiah was treated. Let us compare Jer. 37:21, and see if this is not so.
Jer. 37:21 says, “Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison. . . . Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.” But chap. 38:6 says, “Then they took Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah; . . . and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire; so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.” Now without the account of chap. 21:1–10 and 38:1–5, the narrative would be contradictory; for then it would have been left so that one verse said that he was in the court of the prison, while the very next verse declared that he was sunk in the mire in the dungeon of Malchiah. So it is readily seen that the words which he declares make the account contradictory, are the very ones that prevent such contradiction. Did not Mr. Paine know this? I believe that he did; but he would not suffer anything to stand as it really is, if there was any possible means of showing it in a false light.
See again page 111: “In the 34th chapter is a prophecy of Jeremiah to Zedekiah in these words (verse 2), ‘Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire; and thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon. Yet hear the word of the Lord, . . . Thou shalt not die by the sword, but thou shalt die in peace; and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so shall they burn odors for thee,’ etc.” “Now, instead of Zedekiah’s beholding the eyes of the king of Babylon, and speaking with him mouth to mouth, etc., . . . the reverse, according to chap. 52:10, was the case. It is there said that ‘the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes;’ then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in chains and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.”
I should like to know how Zedekiah could be brought to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and the king of Babylon give judgment upon him, slay his sons before his eyes, and then put out his eyes, and yet Zedekiah’s eyes not behold the eyes of the king of Babylon. Perhaps he, by his method of reasoning, could discover or invent some way; but I cannot. And it is likewise true that although Zedekiah was carried a prisoner to Babylon, yet he died in peace, and was buried with the burnings of his fathers, and they burned odors for him.” Proof: “When the king was come to Babylon, he kept Zedekiah in prison till he died, and buried him magnificently.”—Josephus; Antiquities, book x. chap. viii. sect. 7. And a magnificent burial was nothing less than one accompanied with a grand display of pomp and grandeur, and with great burnings.
On page 110 he says: “In the 39th chapter [of Jeremiah] we have another instance of the disordered state of this book; for notwithstanding the siege of the city, by Nebuchadnezzar, has been the subject of several of the preceding chapters, particularly the 37th and 38th, the 39th chapter begins as if not a word had been said upon the subject; and as if the reader was to be informed of every particular respecting it.” “But the instance in the 52d chapter is still more glaring; for though the story has been told over and over again, this chapter still supposes the reader not to know anything of it, for it begins by saying,” etc.
Compare with this, the following, from page 127: “But . . . the presumption is, that the books called the Evangelists, and ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and that they are impositions. The disordered state of the history in these four books, the silence of one book upon matters related in the other,” etc. Also on page 90. Mark the inconsistency. He condemns the book of Jeremiah as an imposition, because, as he petulantly exclaims, “the story has been told over and over again;” “as if the reader was to be informed of every particular respecting it;” and then turns around and condemns the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, because they do not tell the “same story over and over,” and because each one does not inform the reader of “every particular.” (On page 90, the books of Kings and Chronicles are condemned for the same reason.)
Cannot the reader, whoever he may be, see by this time that Mr. Paine is determined not to be satisfied with anything that is stated in the Bible? And this fact becomes still more apparent as we go on through the New Testament.
On page 10 he says: “That such a person as Jesus Christ existed, and that he was crucified, which was the mode of execution at that day, are historical relations strictly within the limits of probability. He preached most excellent morality, and the equality of man.”
On page 20 he says: “The first four books, called Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, do not give a history of the life of Jesus Christ, but only detached anecdotes of him. It appears from these books that the whole time of his being a preacher was not more than eighteen months.”
Had Mr. Paine understood the Bible, or had he taken the pains to read in John 2:13; 5:1; 6:4, and 11:55, or had he even looked at the chronology in the margin of his Bible, he could not have failed to discover that the time of Christ’s ministry was more than three years. Nor can he make the excuse that this was written in Part First, when he had no Bible; for he repeats it in Part Second, when he had a “Bible and Testament.” See page 124.
On page 128 we read: “The story of Herod’s destroying all the children under two years old, belongs altogether to the book of Matthew; not one of the rest mentions anything about it. Had such a circumstance been true, the universality of it must have made it known to all the writers, and the thing would have been too striking to have been omitted by any.”
Here, again, he demands that the evangelists shall tell the same story “over and over;” besides, he conveys a false impression when he speaks of “the story of Herod’s destroying all the children under two years old.” There is no such statement in the book of Matthew, nor in all the Bible. Matthew says (chap. 2:16) that Herod “sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof.” But Mr. Paine took good care to leave this out.
Again he says, on the same page: “This writer tells us that Jesus escaped this slaughter because Joseph and Mary were warned by an angel to flee with him into Egypt; but he forgot to make any provision for John, who was then under two years of age. John, however, who stayed behind, fared as well as Jesus, who fled; and therefore the story circumstantially belies itself.”
What shall we think of the man? Is it utterly impossible for him to reason truthfully? Surely it seems so. Now notice the facts. The record says (Luke 1:39, 40): “And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda; and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elizabeth.” This city of Judah in the hill country was Hebron (see Joshua 21:9–11); and John was born, and was there, fifteen miles from Bethlehem, when Herod slew the children. Therefore, before that slaughter could have reached John, it would have had to sweep a compass of thirty miles in diameter, embracing twenty-nine cities and towns, and among them Jerusalem itself, which was only six miles from Bethlehem. If Mr. Paine’s statement were true, he might well speak of the “universality of the slaughter.” Call this the “age of reason!” A lunatic could do better.
On page 136 he says: “The whole space of time, from the crucifixion to what is called the ascension, is but a few days, apparently not more than three or four.”
If Thomas Paine had ever read the first three verses of the Book of Acts, he would have found these words (Acts 1:3): “To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days.” Therefore we are again left to the conclusion, either that he never read the first three verses of the Book of Acts, or that he glozed the record.
On page 148, he says of Paul’s words in 1 Cor. 15:41: “‘There is [says he] one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars.’ And what then? Nothing, except that he says that ‘one star differeth from another star in glory,’ instead of distance. All this is nothing better than the jargon of a conjurer, who picks up phrases he does not understand.”
Now we wish to inquire, Is Mr. Paine’s position true, that one star differeth from another star in distance only? or is Paul’s position true, that “one star differeth from another star in glory?” This question shall be answered by that science which Mr. Paine professed to know something about,—astronomy. “We have already noticed that the stars are of various colors. Sirius is white, Antares is red, and Capella yellow; while Lyra has a blue tint, and Castor a green one. In the pure, transparent atmosphere of tropical regions, the colors are far more brilliant. There, oftentimes, the nocturnal sky is a blaze of jewels, the stars glittering with the green of the emerald, the blue of the amethyst, and the red of the topaz. In our latitudes, there are no stars visible to the naked eye which are decidedly blue or green. [So it is true that one differeth from another in glory.] In the double and multiple stars, every color is presented in all its richness and beauty. We also find combinations of colors complementary to each other. Here is a green star with a blood-red companion; here an orange and blue sun; there a yellow and a purple one. The triple star Andromeda, is formed of an orange-red sun and two others of an emerald green. Every tint that blooms in the flowers of summer flames out in the stars at night. ‘The rainbow flowers of the footstool and the starry flowers of the throne,’ proclaim their common Author; while rainbow, flower, and star alike evince the same divine love of the beautiful.”—Steele’s Fourteen Weeks in Astronomy.
So just as surely as one flower differs from another in beauty, “one star differeth from another star in glory.” And just so surely did the apostle Paul perfectly understand what Thomas Paine knew nothing at all about.
On page 150 he says: “Should the Bible and Testament hereafter fall, it is not I that have been the occasion.” As I agreed with Mr. Paine in the first statement quoted, so also I agree with him in this, the last. For surely, if the Bible should ever fall, it will never be because the weak arguments, the shallow reasonings, and the shameless frauds, of Paine’s “Age of Reason” have ever been the slightest occasion.
But that is not what he meant by this statement. He actually thought that the Bible would surely fall; and we can hardly repress a smile at the supreme self-conceit of the poor man. Would that he might have peace; but “there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”
Dear reader, have you been standing in doubt of the truth of the Bible? Let me beseech you in the words of the Lord, “Come now, and let us reason together.” Oh! hear the call; take up the Bible; read it; study it; reason upon it. Love darkness no longer. Accept the Bible, even with the readiness with which you have been wont to accept the “Age of Reason.” Accept it in faith, asking, “What is truth?” and when you know the truth, receive it in the love of it. “We pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God,” that you may be saved. “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” Eccl. 12:14.
Mr. Paine expected the Bible to fall. He himself has fallen, and moldered back to mother earth; while the Book that he thought he had destroyed stands yet, its glorious rays enlightening many a benighted soul with the blessed hope of everlasting life and eternal glory.
“The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but THE WORD OF OUR GOD SHALL STAND FOREVER.” Isa. 40:8.