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was a perpetuation of John’s baptism and nothing more;
but the baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire was
reserved only for Islam. The expression that some twelve
persons in Samaria “had not yet received the Holy Spirit,
because they were only baptized in the name of our Lord
Jesus (pbuh) ” (Acts vii. 16, 17), is decisive to frustrate the
pretentions of the Church.

The last three verse in the passage cited are held by
many to be an interpolation. They did not exist in the
oldest existing MS., which is, of course, the origin of all
subsequent versions of the Bible, including the Vulgate. A
document is unworthy of serious judicial notice if a portion
of it is proved a forgery. However, here we go a step farther
for the said addition to the original text is admitted to be
such even by those who speak of its genuineness.

Nevertheless, let us take the prophecy as it stands.
I need not say that it speaks of things at which ordinary
common sense can guess, seeing that the events foretold
are always occurring from time to time in the course of
Nature. Pestilence and war, famine and earthquakes have
visited the world so often that a mention of them in a
prophecy as a sign of its authenticity would deprive it
of any importance it might otherwise possess. Besides,
the first followers of a new faith are sure to meet with
persecution, especially if they chance to be of inferior
social position. Apart from this, the prophecy speaks
in one strain of several things, which may or may not
occur together at any one time. They have never yet
so occurred. The persecution of the disciples began
immediately after the departure of Jesus (pbuh) from
Judah. They were “delivered up to the synagogues and
into prison, and brought before kings and rulers” for his
name’s sake. The prediction, however, did not need a
prophetic mind, since the persecution had started even
when Jesus (pbuh) was with his disciples. These events