Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-02-19
CONFERENCE POSTPONED.
A FOOLISH INFIDEL.

a peculiar attnck has been mad
upon the Christian religion by a Ger
man professor, Arthur Drews, whit
has undertaken the Impossible tasl
CT proving that Jesus never lived.
According TO Berlin cable to the
New York Times. Drews. the othei
day, addressed a huge concourse oi
people at the geological garden. and
the following evening he appeared In
the same place to defend his position
against all comers. Some famous the
ologians responded TO tho invitation
The debate was carried on with fervor
and passion before an audience of over
1000 persons. who were held spellbound
until o'clock the next morning. The
last hour was employed by Drews in a
final retort TO his critics His on
slaughts on the most cherished tenets
OF Christian doctrine, the account says.
were so graphic and ruthless that
many women in the audience were
overcome with emotion and had to be
carried. from the hall. shrieking hys-
tericaly. An intensely dramatic scenc
was presented by one woman. who
stood on a chair and held her arms
outstrctched i'll the attitude of sup
pIication to heaven to send down
retribution upon the head of the Karls-
ruhe hereto.
Drews. It seems. is rcvving the dead
cause of Strauss who created a SEN
sation by affirming that a vast mass
of myth has been woven around the
historical Jesus. Only he goes further
than Strauss. He asserts that no such
person as Jesus of Nazareth ever lived,
The discussions. 1t is said. have
aroused tremendous interest through
out Germany The newspapers have
published exhaustive accounts OF them.
and they have proved the talk of the
town. despite the fact that the Court
season is at its zenith and the public
mind is occupied with social gayety.
The rise of Christianity, it has been
observed. appeared of so little impor
tance to the Roman world as To at
tract almost no attention among its
historians The Jewish people wero
despised and ignored Palestine was a
small country far removed from the
center of the empire For that rea-
son the career of Jesus was not fol-
lowed with any degree of interest out
side the immediate field of His labor.
From an outside point of view Jesus
was merely Jewish rabbi teaching
doctrines in conflict with those OF other
hhIa md
altar OF intolerance and blgotry, but
there was nothing in the controversy
of interest TO those who looked upon
the entire Jewish religion as austere
fanaticism. Consequently, pagan con-
temporary writer's do not take any
more notice of RABBI Jesus than of
other rabbis
But there are some references to
Him by few carly writer's who are
found to take cognizance OF the Chris
tians when Christianity became a men
ace topaganism. TacItus In his annals
says; They called them Christians.
Christ. from whom the name was
given. had been put TO death in the
reign Of Tibcrius. by the procurator.
Pontius PLATE" Pliny records that
Christ was worshiped by the Christians
OF Pontus and Bithynia as their God
These arc pagan testimonies az IN .ho
historical reality of the founder or
Christianity. that cannot be set aside
But the Christian writer's are the
chief witnesses. The letters Of tho
Apostle Paul. written from twenty 10
forty years after the foundation Of tbe
church. had been impossible but for tbe
tnen generally accepted facts recorded
III the gospels There could have been
no Pauline cpistles and no Gospels had
not the life and death of our Lord hoo,
generally known facts The Gosn,;s
are founded upon an earlier record mr.
tradition. Luke expressly states M,
nc mad made thorough Investigation
OIL events from the beginning. and that
nc mad embodied only what way attsst
ed by eyc-witncsses. The same s,urc.
OF Information is drawn upon hy
Matthew and Mark. as is clear I, III.
various texts are compared. These ,ro
three independent witnesses to tho
VI tiit 0UIfdtiSp con-
cerning the life of Jesus Then there
is the Gospel by John. which rounds
out the synoptIcal narrative and gives
to the historical picture greater COM
pleteness.
All this has been thoroughly thresh-
ed out between assailants and de-
tenders of the Christian religion in
former ages. and the historical reolit,
OF our Lord can no more be doubtc1
than the historical reality OF Napo,soo
or Julius Caesar II the facts OF ,bo
Christian religion are moi proved. then
no fact OF history can be- proved II
must all be consigned to the realm or
myth.
ono Of fhe opponents of DFews. a
baron and a professor OF theology TX
said to have maintained that even If
1t were firmly proved that no such per-
son as Jesus ever existed. that youl1
hardly lnJure the heart and core OF tho
Christian religion, That strikes us ns
n very poor defense. Higher critics
have offered us the consolation OF A
Christian religion without divInely
inspired Bible. Now this professor
suggests that the Christian reIIo;on