WHAT ONE EVENT DID LYTTLETON SAY PROVED CHRISTIANITY?
[Above: George Lyttelton—Dcoetzee / public domain, Wikimeda]
GEORGE LYTTELTON authored poems and imaginary letters at a young age. In his early twenties, he became a parliamentarian and rose in politics as an ally of William Pitt the elder. The Prince of Wales also relied on his advice. Among his familiar acquaintances was the poet Alexander Pope.
While young, George Lyttelton expressed doubts as to the truth of Christianity. In his thirties, however, he seriously studied whether the faith is true. He concluded that Paul’s conversion in itself is sufficient to demonstrate that Christianity is a divine revelation. He recorded his considerations in Observations on the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul:
Now it must of Necessity be, that the Person attesting these Things of himself, and of whom they are related in so authentick a Manner, either was an Impostor, who said what he knew to be false with an Intent to deceive; or he was an Enthusiast, who by the Force of an over-heated Imagination imposed on himself; or he was deceived by the Fraud of others, and all that he said must be imputed to the Power of that Deceit; or what he declared to have been the Cause of his Conversion, and to have happened in consequence of it, did all really happen; and therefore the Christian Religion is a divine Revelation....
He concluded that the fourth option was “incomparably” the most probable.
In 1756, Lyttelton was made a baronet. He continued to write. Among his works was Dialogues of the Dead in which he juxtaposed such figures as the stern monk Cardinal Ximenez and easy-going Cardinal Wolsey or empirical John Locke and skeptical Pierre Bayle. He also penned a massive History of Henry the Second.
Never robust, he became ill in 1773 when he was sixty-four. Lyttelton died on this day, 22 August 1773, at Hayley, England. He had given proof of faith through a life devoted to goodness and his doctor recorded his lengthy deathbed confession which included these thoughts:
The evidences and doctrine of Christianity, studied with attention, made me a most firm and persuaded believer of the Christian religion. I have made it the rule of my life, and it is the ground of my future hopes. I have erred and sinned; but have repented, and never indulged any vicious habit.
—Dan Graves
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Learn more about Paul in Apostle Paul and the Earliest Churches
or watch a drama about Paul in Paul the Emissary at RedeemTV.
(Paul the Emissary can be purchased at Vision Video as can Apostle Paul and the Earliest Churches.)
The remarkable story of Paul is also told in Christian History #47, Paul & His Times
