Proof of the Gospel

“The questions I would ask them are these: whether any other deceiver… is ever reported to have become as a teacher the cause of meekness, sweet reasonableness, purity, and every virtue in those that he deceived?”

Eusebius, The Proof of the Gospel 3.3 (trans. W. J. Ferrar, 1920, public domain).public domain

“He commanded them besides all this to hold so fast to truth, that so far from swearing falsely they should not need to swear at all.”

Eusebius, The Proof of the Gospel 3.5 (trans. W. J. Ferrar, 1920, public domain).public domain

In the gameEusebius sets Christ’s moral teaching beside every other teacher’s and lets the comparison stand. An argument that has to concede the point sometimes has nothing at all to say next — the foe may be left FROZEN.

“He who pleads his cause first seems right; until another comes and questions him.”

Proverbs 18:17 (WEB).

In the gameChallenge the foundation of an argument before it can be pressed. Lowers the foe’s Contend.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”

Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

“Christianity is neither a form of Hellenism, nor of Judaism, but… a religion with its own characteristic stamp, and… not anything novel or original, but something of the greatest antiquity, something natural and familiar to the godly men before the times of Moses.”

Eusebius, The Proof of the Gospel 1.2 (trans. W. J. Ferrar, 1920, public domain).public domain

In the gameThe charge is that the faith is new, and therefore false. Eusebius answers by going further back than his accusers can: this is the religion of the patriarchs, older than Moses, older than the law, older than the nations bringing the charge.

“Such were the far-famed wonders of His power. Such were the proofs of His divinity.”

Eusebius, The Proof of the Gospel 3.4 (trans. W. J. Ferrar, 1920, public domain).public domain

In the gameThis is about what Christ did, not only what he taught: his works were done in public, before witnesses. Several books make this argument in their own words.

“Now if any Greek is the accuser, let him realize that his accusations would not please his own teachers, who, it may be, assisted by us, for they have come after us in time, have expressed such sentiments as these in their writings.”

Eusebius, The Proof of the Gospel 3.3 (trans. W. J. Ferrar, 1920, public domain).public domain

“To the supreme God, as a certain wise man has said, we must neither offer by fire, nor dedicate any of the things known by sense… By pure silence and pure thoughts of Him we will worship Him.”

Porphyry, On Vegetarianism 2.34 — named as such and quoted by Eusebius, The Proof of the Gospel 3.3 (trans. W. J. Ferrar, 1920, public domain). The same Porphyry wrote fifteen books against the Christians.public domain

“If then these are the conclusions of eminent Greek philosophers and theologians, how could he be a deceiver who delivers to his pupils not words only but acts, which are far more important than words, to perform, by which they may serve God according to right reason?”

Eusebius, The Proof of the Gospel 3.3 (trans. W. J. Ferrar, 1920, public domain).public domain

In the gameCall a witness the room already respects, even one who is no friend of yours. Testimony from someone the accuser trusts cannot be dismissed as special pleading. Sometimes lowers the foe’s Contend.

The Proof of the Gospel spends eight of its ten surviving books doing one thing: setting a Hebrew prophecy beside the event, and then doing it again. No single sentence carries the case, which is rather the point of it.

See Eusebius, The Proof of the Gospel, books 1–10 (trans. W. J. Ferrar, 1920). Described, not quoted — the sentence above is the game’s own.

In the gameProphecy after prophecy set beside the gospels: the town, the mother, the years, the death, the scattering. The number of fulfilments is the argument.

“We will extend our lies not only to men of our own race, but go forth to all men, and fill the whole world with our fabrications about him.”

Eusebius, The Proof of the Gospel 3.5 (trans. W. J. Ferrar, 1920, public domain) — the apostles’ imaginary conspiracy meeting, written to be laughed at.public domain

“For what could be finer than to make both gods and men our enemies for no reason at all, and to have no enjoyment of any kind, to have no profit of our dear ones, to make no money, to have no hope of anything good at all, but just to be deceived and to deceive without aim or object?”

Eusebius, The Proof of the Gospel 3.5 (trans. W. J. Ferrar, 1920, public domain) — the same imagined speech, further in.public domain

In the gameSay the argument back to it, straight-faced and in full, until the shape of it does the refuting. Often finds the telling stroke — and occasionally goes too far and misses.