The Lost Gospel and Its Contents: Or, the Author of "supernatural Religion" Refuted by Himself

In the 1870s, as critical scholarship increasingly questioned the supernatural elements of Christianity, M. F. Sadler mounted a vigorous defense of the canonical Gospels against the author of 'Supernatural Religion.' That controversial work had argued for a hypothetical 'lost gospel' underlying the New Testament texts, claiming it was more authentic than the four surviving Gospels. Sadler's response is methodical and devastating in its logic: rather than engaging in speculation, he turns to the hard evidence of early Church Fathers, particularly Justin Martyr, the second-century apologist whose writings provide a direct window into how Christians understood their faith barely a century after Christ's death. Through careful analysis, Sadler demonstrates that the supernatural elements of Christianity, the miracles, the resurrection, the divine claims about Christ, were not later theological embellishments but integral to Christian belief from its earliest documented expressions. This is dense, learned, 19th-century scholarly argumentation at its finest, rooted in primary sources and unafraid of technical detail. It remains essential reading for anyone studying the history of biblical criticism, the development of Christian doctrine, or the intellectual warfare that shaped modern theology.