Insufficiency of Proofs
not a mathematical problem. Nevertheless, the inward and outward characteristics of revelation do without a doubt add up in number and force against its opponents.
Numerous arguments have been introduced over the years to challenge the genuineness and reliability of the Holy Scriptures, but many soon appeared to be unconvincing and had to be taken back.
Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930) declared that the time was past in which we could see in the oldest Christian writings a tissue of deceptions and distortions, for the reports we have about the origin of Christianity are correct in broad outline. Egyptian and Assyrian archeological discoveries have established beyond doubt that all claims about the lack of culture in Moses' day and the impossibility that the decalogue had been delivered at that time are completely untenable. If in the Scriptures we were dealing with ordinary history, and sinful self-interest and human hardness of heart played no role, the proofs for their truth would generally be regarded as sufficient.
The blame for man's unbelief lies not in God and His revelation but in man himself.
Insufficiency of Proofs Nevertheless, because of the subjective inclination of the human heart, all proofs are insufficient to move man to believe. The word of the Gospel itself lacks the power. How then could this be strengthened by human proofs for the truth of that word? These proofs are usually of a more or less scientific nature and are the result of a great deal of study and reflection. Before they were discovered, they could, of course, do no service. Now that they do exist, they are usually known and understood only by the highly educated. Moreover, closer investigation and more serious reflection may rob them of all or part of their strength. They are therefore of
importance in any scientific struggle, but for religion they have only a limited value, for no person's religious life is based on or nurtured by such proofs. For this we can be thankful. The revelation given us in God's Word is for everyone, for the learned as well as the common man. Its truth may not hinge on scientific investigations which are accessible only to the wise and learned.
This is why revelation possesses a wholly unique character. It is history; it consists of words and facts that have obtained a place in the life and history of mankind. But its entire development is ruled by one special, divine idea. Revelation is an organism with a life of its own. At work in it are powers that are not earthly but heavenly, not temporal but eternal, not human but divine. It is flesh in its whole manifestation, but that flesh is inhabited by the Word, which is with God and which is God Himself. It is not just a witness about events in the past which no longer concern us; as a witness of the miraculous deeds of God in days gone by, it is a word that even now still goes out from God to man, calling him back to His fellowship.
Just as history in general is no mere sum of incidents but an organic unity of interrelated events tied together by a single idea, so the words and facts that belong to the sphere of special revelation comprise a system ruled by one thought, one plan, one goal. Anyone who doesn't understand this thought doesn't understand revelation.
That person cuts the heart, the soul, the life out of the organism and is left with nothing but a dry skeleton which falls apart and is destined for the charnel house. Then the words and facts, which derive their value from revelation, lose their meaning and significance, because they then must be explained on a natural level and judged by human standards. The inevitable result is that the unity of Scripture, the unity of faith, the unity of the church, and the unity of theology disappears.
If the history of revelation is not grasped and described from the viewpoint of its own idea, it also stops being history in the ordinary, natural sense of the word. The Holy Scriptures constantly disappoint
us if we subject them to the same demands we put on other historical sources. Certainly the books of the Old Testament do not enable us to write an ordinary history of Israel. The Gospels are just as unsatisfactory for a continuous narrative of the life of Jesus. And the Epistles constantly let us down if we use them to acquaint ourselves with the lives of the apostles or the history of the church during the first century. All these writings are composed from the viewpoint of faith. None of them is the product of a so-called presuppositionless, scientific, historical investigation. All are the testimonies of believers.
Anyone who tries to write a regular history of Israel, of Jesus, or of the apostles apart from the idea of revelation will find himself constantly forced to resort to hypotheses, to fill the gaps with conjecture, to emend, criticize and register the sources in order to achieve a continuous whole.
From this special character of revelation it directly follows that reasonable scientific proofs are insufficient to establish the truth of the Christian religion beyond a reasonable doubt in the same way as that of ordinary historical events. All those proofs only touch the facts externally and do not penetrate to their heart and essence. In the words of Nathasius, they lead us to the empty tomb but not to the living Savior. At most they lead to a historical faith. In the Roman
Catholic scheme this is enough to receive supernatural grace through baptism, and even within Protestantism it is not devoid of all significance; nevertheless, it is not the genuine, true faith.
Historical faith reduces revelation to ordinary history that took place in the past but no longer concerns us. It removes from the Word of God that which is the core and what today still makes it an evangel, the good news of salvation. It is nothing more than a rational assent to some past events, without any involvement of heart and without a change of direction in one's life. The Roman Catholic
Church also claims such faith is insufficient for salvation. According to the Roman Catholic confession, this faith must be supplemented by love and receive its form and features from love in order to justify and sanctify man. This supplement, however, introduces no real