Title: Contradictions of the Bible, An Outline of two Lectures on the Bible, Delivered in the Queen’s Theatre, Sydney, on October 17 and 31, 1875

Author: John Tyerman

In: The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 35

Publication details: Victoria University of Wellington Library, Wellington

Part of: The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand Licence

Preface.

I have received many inquiries from persons in Sydney, Melbourne, and other parts, as to whether I purposed publishing the course of lectures—some twelve or thirteen—that I am delivering at short intervals, on the Bible. I am thankful for the interest thus manifested in the subject dealt with, and have replied, that I trust I shall be able to comply with such a general wish after a while. In the meantime, I have thought it well to issue this little Tract, in the hope that it may do some good, in opening the eyes of the people to see one of the greatest and most mischievous delusions that ever misled mankind—namely, that the book called the Bible is the inspired and infallible word of God. It is not against the Bible as a book that I am contending, but against what I regard as erroneous views of its origin, character, and authority, which have so long been palmed upon the world as Divine truths.

When I state that the two lectures on the Contradictions of the Bible occupied over an hour each in delivery, it will be seen that the following reports only give an outline of what I said on the subject; but condensed, and imperfect, as the sketches are, I trust they will be the means of convincing some of the Bibliolaters of our time, that the book they prize so highly is one of the most contradictory, and consequently unreliable, productions in the English language. I have only produced a few of the many irreconcilable discrepancies that mar the harmony of the Bible; and yet quite sufficient to satisfy any impartial reader that, apart from the number of other objections that can be urged against it, this one feature completely destroys its claim to be acknowledged as a Divine and unerring guide for mankind.

I appeal to our Spiritualistic and Freethought friends in these colonies help to give this little Tract as wide a circulation as possible, especially among professing Christians. When such sham defenders of the popular faith as the Revs. Dr. Barry and James Greenwood, yield so much, on behalf of the Bible, that Freethinkers of different schools have so long been fighting for, and yet pretend to believe that Christianity remains unaffected by their admissions, and refuse to credit our side with the concessions they are compelled to make, it surely becomes all true Liberais to bestir themselves to expose the sophistical and dishonest course of such men; and to show that if the inspiration, and consequent Divine authority, of some parts of the Scriptures is given up, the whole system of orthodoxy is virtually surrendered; seeing that no tribunal is acknowledged that can determine which parts of those records are of God, and which are of man. It is a melancholy prostitution of talent and of the ministerial office, to try to lull the people into the delusion that the superstructure of Christianity is perfectly safe, while you make admissions which tend as directly to sap its very foundations as the efforts of avowed opponents. And yet, inconsistent and reprehensible as such conduct is, it shows how difficult it has become to defend the orthodox views of the Bible against the assaults of modern criticism; and strengthens our belief that the time will come when that book will be compelled to take its place on the plane of purely human productions, and when the doctrines and institutions that rest on the assumption of its Divine authority, will be swept away. And with these will pass away that unctuous cant, pharisaical exclusiveness, and sectarian intolerance, of which the popular belief in the Bible is such prolific source. Let all our friends do their best to bring about that desired result.

In closing these remarks, I would direct the reader's attention to a common orthodox trick which I exposed in the second of the following lectures. I refer to the practice of charging most of those who reject the Bible, with doing so in order to get rid of its moral restraints, and thus exciting an unjust prejudice against them. Of the four lecturers who have lately appeared in the Masonic Hall, under the auspices of the Young Men's Christian Association, three of them—the Revs. Dr. Barry, W. Curnow, and J. Greenwood—indulged in that dignified game of clerical dirt throwing. The honourable exception was the Rev. Principal Kinross. My remarks on that contemptible dodge were made before the first lecture on the other side was given, and the conduct of those three Rev. gentlemen proves that they were much needed.