In this chapter, we examine Mr. Paine's view of the New Testament Church. As we have come to expect, his discourse concerning his understanding of the subject is again wanting. It would make one's efforts more worthwhile if his arguments were of any substance. Take this statement for example: "Had it been the object or the intention of Jesus Christ to establish a new religion, he would undoubtedly have written the system himself, or procured it to be written in his lifetime." - Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason) His opinion of what Jesus Christ undoubtedly would or would not have done is an argument based upon sheer speculation, for he or no one else could presume upon the mind of Christ. However, because of the influence that his name carries we will proceed and address his accusations. "The Christian Mythologists tell us, that Christ died for the sins of the world, and that he came on purpose to die. Would it not then have been the same if he had died of a fever or of smallpox, of old age, or of anything else? The declaratory sentence which, they say, was passed upon Adam, in case he eats of the apple, was not, that thou shall surely be crucified, but thou shalt surely die — the sentence of death, and not the manner of dying. Crucifixion, therefore, or any other particular manner of dying, made no part of the sentence that Adam was to suffer, and consequently, even upon their own tactics, it could make no part of the sentence that Christ was to suffer in the room of Adam. A fever would have done as well as a cross, if there was any occasion for either." - Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason)
Mr. Paine continues to demonstrate he knew nothing about the subject of which he was writing. What he was attempting to accomplish with this argument is a mystery as well. In his ignorance, he sees no difference in the mode of death the Christ was to suffer, if he had any understanding of the subject of which he is writing he would have known the necessity of the Crucifixion in Christian doctrine. The Prophet Isaiah wrote 700 years before the Crucifixion concerning Christ saying:
Isaiah 53:1-12 ESV
(1) Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
(2) For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
(3) He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
(4) Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
(5) But he was pierced [Crucified] for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
(6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
(7) He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
(8) By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
(9) And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
(10) Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
(11) Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
(12) Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa) is one of the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in Qumran in 1947. Pieces of the scroll have been dated using both radiocarbon dating and palaeographic/scribal dating giving calibrated date ranges between 356 and 103 BCE. The necessity and the means of Christ's death long precede Mr. Paine's imaginary Christian Mythologists.
A book bound in wood and leather and found in a child's grave south of Cairo is the oldest complete copy of the biblical Book of Psalms ever found and possibly the world's oldest book, scholars who have studied the volume say it dates around the year 350 AD. The Book of Psalms is estimated to have been written between 1440 BC and 586 BC, long before Mr. Paine's so-called Mythologist. In Psalms 22 we find this description as well as the fact it is recorded that Jesus quoted from this Psalm during the Crucifixion identifying himself with it.
Psalms 22:1-31 ESV
(1) To the choirmaster: according to The Doe of the Dawn. A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
(2) O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.
(3) Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
(4) In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.
(5) To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
(6) But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
(7) All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
(8) “He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
(9) Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.
(10) On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
(11) Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.
(12) Many bulls encompass me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
(13) they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.
(14) I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast;
(15) my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
(16) For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet [Crucifixion]
(17) I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me;
(18) they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
(19) But you, O LORD, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid!
(20) Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog!
(21) Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
(22) I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
(23) You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
(24) For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.
(25) From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
(26) The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD! May your hearts live forever!
(27) All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.
(28) For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.
(29) All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive.
(30) Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
(31) they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.
Mr. Paine may have been offended by the Crucifixion, however, he cannot argue against it in favor of another mode of death, except in ignorance of the doctrine he is professing to critque.
In previous paragraphs to the one quoted above, Mr. Paine mentions the betrayal of Judas again portraying his ignorance of the subject he writes about, in Psalms 41 we find this reference.
Psalms 41:9 ESV
(9) Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
Then in Zechariah 11:12 ESV
(12) Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver.
And then in Matthew 27:9-10 ESV
(9) Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel,
(10) and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.”
From this Mr. Paine moves on in his discourse again discrediting the authenticity of the New Testament books which we have already addressed in the previous chapter. Then he begins a discussion of purgatory, selling of pardons, dispensations, and indulgences. We will not address those subjects in this treaty as we do not consider them Christian doctrines. There are no Scripture references to none of these doctrines mentioned and Mr. Paine is confusing Catholic beliefs with Christian doctrines.
"Since, then no external evidence can, at this long distance of time, be produced to prove whether the Church fabricated the doctrines called redemption or not (for such evidence, whether for or against, would be subject to the same suspicion of being fabricated), the case can only be referred to the internal evidence which the thing carries within itself; and this affords a very strong presumption of its being a fabrication. For the internal evidence is that the theory or doctrine of redemption has for its base an idea of pecuniary Justice, and not that of moral Justice.
If I owe a person money, and cannot pay him, and he threatens to put me in prison, another person can take the debt upon himself, and pay it for me; but if I have committed a crime, every circumstance of the case is changed; moral Justice cannot take the innocent for the guilty, even if the innocent would offer itself. To suppose Justice to do this, is to destroy the principle of its existence, which is the thing itself; it is then no longer Justice, it is indiscriminate revenge." - Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason)
Mr. Paine was here attempting to make an argument by making a pecuniary offense different from a moral offense. If I owe someone money and don't pay that debt, it becomes a moral offense. His reasoning is again irrational. Penalty refers to a punitive measure that is imposed by law for undertaking an act that is forbidden or failing to perform a statutorily required act. It can take the form of imprisonment or a fine. The word penalty is derived from the word penal which describes the punishment for correcting the action of the wrongdoer under a legal system. It is like a price tag attached to a specific non-compliant behavior, paid by those who engage in such behavior. How in the world this can destroy the principle of its existence I suppose could only have been found in the mind of Mr. Paine.
We have already explained penal substitutionary atonement in Chapter 5 so we won't revisit that here, but Mr. Paine's conundrum is solved there. As a further explanation of the doctrine that so offends him, we will need to look at a few Scriptures.
Romans 6:23 ESV
(23) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God is the one who has been offended, God is the Judge of the offense, God is the one who assigns the fine or penalty. The fine or penalty that is assign is death, that is the wages that are to be paid.
Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV
(1) And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
(2) in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
(3) among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
That death is reigning in us now, though we are alive in the flesh, the penalty is working in us. It is a spiritual death that will continue to reign in us. When our flesh dies, we carry that penalty with us, paying it in full throughout eternity. However, the redemption which Mr. Paine charges is a fabrication is purchased by Christ. His charges of fabrication are answered from the Scriptures stated at the beginning of this chapter from Isaiah 53. It was articulated 700 years before Mr. Paine's so-called fabrication.
Ephesians 2:4-9 ESV
(4) But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
(5) even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved
(6) and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
(7) so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
(8) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
(9) not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Colossians 2:13-15 ESV
(13) And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
(14) by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
(15) He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Mr. Paine ends this section with another absurd rant consisting of no argumental substance whatsoever. Speaking of the Christian Mr. Paine states:
"Yet, with all this strange appearance of humility and this contempt for human reason, he ventures into the boldest presumptions; he finds fault with everything; his selfishness is never satisfied; his ingratitude is never at an end. He takes on himself to direct the Almighty what to do, even in the government of the universe; he prays dictatorially; when it is sunshine, he prays for rain, and when it is rain, he prays for sunshine; he follows the same idea in everything that he prays for; for what is the amount of all his prayers but an attempt to make the Almighty change his mind, and act otherwise than he does? It is as if he were to say: Thou knowest not so well as I." - Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason)
Here Mr. Paine charges the Christian finds fault with everything, yet Scripture says, Hebrews 13:5 ESV
(5) Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Mr. Paine charges the Christian is full of selfishness and he is never satisfied, yet Scripture says, Philippians 2:3-4 ESV
(3) Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
(4) Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Mr. Paine charges the Christian's ingratitude is never at an end, yet Scripture says, Colossians 3:15 ESV
(15) And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Mr. Paine charges that the Christian directs the Almighty what to do, yet Scripture says, James 4:15 ESV
(15) Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
Mr. Paine charges that the Christian prays dictatorially, Yet Scripture says, 1 Peter 5:5-7 ESV
(5) Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
(6) Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
(7) casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
Mr. Paine suggests the Christian says to God, "Thou knowest not so well as I." Yet, Scripture says, 1 Timothy 1:17 KJV
(17) Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Mr. Paine's ignorance of Christian doctrine almost brings him to a state of slander to the one who calls himself a Christian. How is it that one who so misunderstood the subject before him chose to embark upon the task of writing about it? He writes as one full of anger, who cares not for truth but only to strike injury to that which offends him.
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