THE PROBLEM STATED


Let me now give an idea of the method I propose to follow in the study
of this subject. Let us suppose that a student living in the year 3000
desired to make sure that such a man as Abraham Lincoln really lived
and did the things attributed to him. How would he go about it?

A man must have a birthplace and a birthday. All the records agree as
to where and when Lincoln was born. This is not enough to prove his
historicity, but it is an important link in the chain.

Neither the place nor the time of Jesus' birth is known. There has
never been any unanimity about this matter. There has been
considerable confusion and contradiction about it. It cannot be proved
that the twenty-fifth of December is his birthday. A number of other
dates were observed by the Christian church at various times as the
birthday of Jesus. The Gospels give no date, and appear to be quite
uncertain--really ignorant about it. When it is remembered that the
Gospels purport to have been written by Jesus' intimate companions,
and during the lifetime of his brothers and mother, their silence on
this matter becomes significant. The selection of the twenty-fifth of
December as his birthday is not only an arbitrary one, but that date,
having been from time immemorial dedicated to the Sun, the inference
is that the Son of God and the Sun of heaven enjoying the same
birthday, were at one time identical beings. The fact that Jesus'
death was accompanied with the darkening of the Sun, and that the date
of his resurrection is also associated with the position of the Sun at
the time of the vernal equinox, is a further intimation that we have