The Truth of Christianity: Being an Examination of the More Important Arguments For and Against Believing in That ReligionTurton, W. H. (William Harry)
Religion
The Truth of Christianity: Being an Examination of the More Important Arguments For and Against Believing in That Religion
Turton, W. H. (William Harry)
Apologetics
Now, if we find two statements regarding an event, or series of
events, which, though not identical, are yet perfectly consistent,
this agreement must be either _accidental_ or _not accidental_. And
supposing it to be too minute in detail to be accidental it shows
that the statements are somehow connected together. Of course, if
the events are true, each writer may know them independently, and
their statements would thus be in perfect, though unintentional
agreement. But if the events are not true, then either one writer
must have made his account agree with the other, or else both must
have derived their information from a common source. In the former
case, there would be intentional agreement between the writers; in
the latter, between the various parts of the original account. In
any case, there would be designed agreement somewhere; for, to put
it shortly, the events, being imaginary, would not fit together of
necessity, nor by accident, which is excluded, and hence must do so
by design.
This has been otherwise expressed by saying that truth is
necessarily consistent, but falsehood is not so; therefore, while
consistency in truth may be undesigned, consistency in falsehood can
only result from design. And from this it follows that an
_undesigned agreement_ between two statements--provided of course it
is too minute to be accidental--is a sure sign of truthfulness. It
shows, moreover, that both writers had independent knowledge of the
event, and were both telling the truth. And of course the same
argument applies if the two statements are made by the same writer,
though in this case there is a greater probability that the
agreement is not undesigned.
We will now consider a single example in detail, and select that
referring to the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, as it is
connected with an important miracle. Korah, we are told,[99]
belonged to the family of Kohath and the other two to that of
Reuben; and from incidental notices _in another part of the book_,
we learn the position of the _tents_ of these men. The former was to
the south of the central Tabernacle, or Tent of Meeting, on an inner
line of tents, while the latter were also to the south, though on an
outer line of tents.
[Footnote 99: Num. 16; 2. 10, 17; 3. 29.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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