THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL OF MAN-MADE RELIGION
In his pride man has lost sight of the importance of following God and engaging in fellowship with his heavenly Father. Yet in living by his blueprint to life we do not find man resurrecting self to a better life; instead we find the downward spiral of mankind. However, as the history of the Bible clearly reveals, God, in His love and compassion, has been calling people back to Himself down through the ages.
Before looking at the devastating effects of man's unfaithfulness to the one true God, please answer the following questions:
1. How has man perverted the one true religion?
2. How and why did polytheism develop?
3. How did different belief systems spread so rapidly?
Pride has been a stumbling block to mankind from the beginning of time. Yet, God's word is a reminder of how fleeting our lives are.
All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever. 1 Peter 2:24-25
I am greater than the stars, for I know that they are up there and they do not know that I am down here.William Temple
The Freedom and Simplicity of Faith
Throughout scripture we see that man is called to cease from his own striving to earn favour with God, and move away from his own self-taught worldview, to embrace the offer of life extended to him by His Creator. In this we see that true religion is about receiving before it is about doing. God wants us to know Him. God wants us to receive from Him. God provides a way whereby fallen man may return to Him. God is interested in you.
Throughout scripture we see the simplicity of faith in the way man is called to approach God with that which only God could give him.
The first record of two people making a sacrifice before God outside of Eden is found in Gen 4:3ff, where we find Abel's offering of blood being accepted whilst the fruit of Cain's hand was rejected (Gen 4:3ff). Why was Cain's rejected?
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Hebrews 9:22
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. Leviticus 17:11
In Deuteronomy 27:5-6 and Joshua 8:31 we read that altars to the Lord, at this point in time, had to be made with uncut stones. Why?
What do the following two verses tell us about the simplicity of faith:
Say to the Israelites, 'You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy. Exodus 31:13
Then the nations will know that I the LORD make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them forever. Ezekiel 37:28
Christ is the fulfilment of the Sabbath:
Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Col 2:16-17
Throughout scripture we see a beautiful, simple picture concerning how man was to approach God - empty handed and trusting fully in the provision that God made as a means whereby man could approach him. God wants us to know Him. God wants to be known.
However, as we look outwards from the Garden of Eden and away from the instruction of God, we find man perverting the One True Religion which is all about a heavenly Father who approaches His fallen world in grace, mercy and love and without compromise to His holiness, righteousness and justice.
A downward spiral
Archaeological evidence indicates a gradual degeneration from monotheistic beliefs to polytheism as man began to lose sight of the One True God. Note Gen 6:5 and Jeremiah 17:9, which reads: "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"
When we look in the field of anthropology we see that the religion of hundreds of isolated tribes in the world all have roots which speak of a 'High God', a 'benign Creator-Father-God who is no longer worshipped. Instead of offering sacrifice to him they concern themselves with how to appease the 'spirits of the jungle.'
The most ancient literature of the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Chinese, the Hindus, and the traditions of many people groups reveal that the first men brought animals to represent them and substitute for them in their worship of God.
The Way of Cain
Archaeology reveals that long before Abraham there were already sophisticated systems of religion in place all across the world. This should not surprise us when we realise that Cain was aware of God, interfaced with God and yet chose to live by his own belief system (Genesis 4). Now note the following three verses and make the connection:
Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12
...maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.Exodus 34:7
...The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. Numbers14:18
The fruit of Cain's lineage is seen in the words of one of his descendents:
If Cain is avenged seven times then Lamech seventy-seven times. Genesis4:24
Note also the lack of mention of death in Cain's lineage whereas it is continuously mentioned in Seths (Gen 5). Why do you think this is so?
Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. 1 John 3:12
Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam's error; they have been destroyed in Korah's rebellion. Jude 1:11
In Cain's approach to God we are reminded of two aspects of the temptation of Eve by the serpent.
Satan tempted Eve into believing that she had the right to decide who was telling the truth, the Creator, or some other source. Eve was also tempted to believe that she was smart enough to tell who was telling the truth, the Creator or some other source. In Cain we see someone who believed he had the right to say how God could, or could not be approached.
Henothism and Polytheism
The earliest literature of India, the Sanskrit Vedas, picture the nomadic Aryan tribes who fought their way eastwards across the Indus and the Ganges plains. The head of the tribe offered animal sacrifices with the same simplicity as Abraham.
When they settled in India the Aryans developed a regular priesthood, and the Vedas are the hymns which the priests chanted as the sacrificial smoke ascended to God.
The hymns address God under various names such as 'The Sun', 'The Heavenly One' and 'The Storm'.whatever name they gave to God, they worshipped him as the supreme Ruler of the universe. This practice is called Henotheism. God has several names - but the names do not indicate different gods. They are different facets of one God.
In Hebrew thought the name of a person tells you something about what that person is like. Hence God revealed Himself through many names. For example: Elohim BaShamayim: God in heaven (Deut 4:39); AdonKol Ha'Aretz: Lord of all the earth (Psalm 24:1; 97:4-5); K'dosh Yisrael: Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 43:14-15); Abba Father (Isaiah 63:16); Adonai Rofekha: The Lord Your Healer (Exodus 15:26); Roeh: Shepherd, (Gen 48:15-16); Adonai Oseynu (Gen 1:27; Psalm 100:3). Note that Manassah knew that the Lord is God (2 Chron 33:13).
Henotheism changes into Polytheism when the names of God were so personified that various gods were separated, and they began to disagree and fight among themselves.
"It was the perennial failing of ancient religion that it tended to see the personal everywhere, to identify everything with the divine, to worship everything within sight - stones and cats and crocodiles. It is the radical defect of Western twentieth-century civilisation, on the other hand, that it tends to depersonalise everything, even the ultimate ground of existence, the great First Cause..."
E.L. Mascal, 'The Importance of Being Human, p 17.
Polytheism also 'developed' as man, in his vulnerability began to deify nature and some of the creatures around him in his effort to find security and protection in his world. Ultimately, like so much of modern psychology (!) these belief systems destroy the very people they are set up to protect.
"The important thing is that by inserting an overlooked fact into our sequence of thought, chaos is often reduced to order and meaninglessness to meaning. What modern philosophers have been busy doing - indeed, philosophers of all time have practiced the same art - is removing by unbelief certain facts from the sad case of this suffering world, facts given us by God himself to enable us to handle the problem intellectually."
Prof A.E. Wilder-Smith, 'Paradox of Pain', p25.
...But what if the information you insert to make sense of the world is wrong information?
The Failing Priesthood
In the Old Testament a priest is a person who has access to God's presence, and who, in Israel (eg Zech 3) represented men before God and God before men. A priest in Israel was someone who brought back to God that which only God could have provided - a sacrifice involving blood.
Priesthood predates the Israelite priesthood, in that we see Cain and Abel coming before God (Abel with that which only God could provide).
Prior to the fall Adam had a priestly role in that he walked with God, received from God and was thus able to reciprocate in love. We will be looking at the priesthood and the circle of life later in this course.
As civilisations developed into larger family groups and gatherings we find the priestly role lived out in patriarchal families with the head of the family exercising a priestly role over their households. Note for example: Job (Job1:1-5), and Noah (Gen 8-9). Note also Gen 12,13,15 &35 where we see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob exercising priestly roles. Note also Hebrews 12:16 where Esau is called 'godless.' He was not willing to take on the responsibility of bringing his household before the Lord. He did not want to accept the priestly role and rejected the ways of God.
Scripturally, the development of the priesthood is seen in that God took his people out of Egypt and said to them:
Although the whole earth is mine you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites Exodus19:5-6
Hebrews 9 informs us that Christ is both 'The High Priest' and 'The Offering'. It is through Him and in Him that we are a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9)
At Babel God dispersed the human race across the world into different groups. Each group took their knowledge and understanding of God (which was already beginning to be perverted) and this is why we find elements of the One true religion in many cultures and religions around the world.
For example, all early sacrificial systems (eg the Hebrew patriarchs, Aryans in India, China, etc) speak of covenants based on eating together in friendship, witnessed by the blood of an animal. The head of the family or tribe was responsible for passing on the ways of god or the gods to those around them.
It is because of the dispersal from Babel that we have creation stories around the world, which contain elements of truth, yet are perversion of God's word. All across the world there are stories of a god or gods who were wronged by man at the very beginning of time. For example, one Chinese tradition, which speaks of man breaking into God's garden and eating his white strawberries and being thrown out.
"There are two Mesopotamian texts about the Flood dating from the first half of the second millennium BC. The Atrahasis Epic is named after the human hero who was the Babylonian Noah.Versions exist from several periods, showing that it was copied and recopied over the centuries."
"The most complete version dates from the seventeenth century BC and it is probable
that the original was 100-200 years earlier than this. It includes multiple gods, the chief of who was Enlil who destroys humans by a flood because they disturb his sleep. Atrahasis builds a boat, loads it with goods and animals and escapes."
Dr C. Mitchell, 'Creationism Revisited', p 182.
The story of the flood travelled across the world with the different people groups that were dispersed from Babel.
At Babel we find that man was already interpreting God's commands to suit his own means and builds a name for himself, and so it should hardly come as a surprise that, as we read records of the floods, the flood stories 'develop' in different ways.
Evidence of flood stories in different cultures is so great that anthropologists cannot easily dismiss the stories as being no more than a local myth, since the definition of a myth is a story that does not travel out of its own locality.
There are 59 flood legends from North America; 46 from Central and Southern America (from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego), 21 from Europe (from Greece, to Ireland and Iceland); 17 from the Middle East, 23 from Asia and 37 from the South Sea Islands, Australia and New Zealand.
Dr Filby, writing of flood stories contained in the 'sacred' Vedas from the 6th says:
"In one of these we are told that after the demon Hayagriva stole the Vedas from Brahma, the human race became wicked with the exceptions of Stayavrata, prince of Dreavidia, and the seven Rishis. While the prince was washing in the river, Vishnu appeared to him as a small fish and warned him that the world would be flooded in seven days time. Satyavrata was commanded to take food, and pairs of animals together with the seven holy men and their wives and enter a vessel which would be provided."
Dr Filby, 'The Flood Reconsidered', page 49.
Another record of a flood story, from a different culture and time period is the report of Berossus, a Chaldean priest contemporary with Alexander the Great. He reported that the Flood occurred in the reign of the 10th King of Babylon, "a recognisable analogy with the Bible record of ten antediluvian patriarchs", according to Dr Mitchell in Creationism Revisited (p183).
In this version of the Flood story, the god Chronos warned the king of Babylon to build a ship to save his family, friends and animals.
In another story (from Manethos c 280BC), a High Priest of a temple on the Delta wrote of a Greek legend in which Zeus destroyed all living things because of human wickedness. The survivor was a righteous man, Deucalion, who with his wife Pyrha, was saved in a ship. After the waters abated they were said to have offered a sacrifice and then asked Zeus how they were to continue the human race.
Dr Filby writes of the sagas and legends that tribes brought to northern Europe and Iceland:
"No one knows when they were originally put together but they tell of huge struggles between the gods, the Aesir, and the Fire and Frost Giants. They tell of a flood either by sea or by the blood of a giant and of the escape of Bergelmir and his wife in a ship.
The Norse god Odin was also the god of the dead and besides having the two raven-messengers, Huginn and Munninn, was a so-called 'Raven-god.' The raven long remained as a sign on Viking ships. Remains of a flood story are found in Lithuania, Finland and Lapland."
Dr Filby, 'The Flood Reconsidered', p55.
Looking at the genealogies in the early parts of Genesis we find that Noah was a young man in the latter years of Adam's grandson, Enosh's lifetime. We also see that Noah was alive at the time of Babel (he lived to be 950) and was still around at the time of Terah, Abraham's father. Think of the information that could have been passed on!
All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever. 1 Peter 2:24-25
Remember the slide we had of a young girl with HGPS. The following is taken from 'Creation' Magazine Dec 04 - Feb 2005, and relates to that slide:
Imagine waking up ever morning having aged five days while you slept - in thirteen years you would come to the end of your life. There is a children's disease with similar effects, called Hutchinson-Gilfor Progeria Syndrome (HGPS).
HGPS causes premature aging in children, affecting only about 1 in 6 million children. It causes skin to age, heads to go bald at a very early age (pre-kindergarten), bones to develop problems usually associated with the elderly, and growth to be stunted.
Body parts, including organs, age rapidly, causing death at the average age of thirteen years.
A single point mutation in the DNA causes progeria - just one flaw. This defect is a sobering reminder of the importance of the amazing ability of the human DNA strand to reproduce itself virtually error-free.
Our DNA has a total of 3 billion base pairs, or 'letters', designed by God to build an entire human body.
The DNA contains genes, which in turn are made up of an almost infinitely carried sequence of four molecules - Cytosine, Thymine, Guanine and Adenine. A single misplaced 'letter' on the gene causes HGPS.
If one genetic mismatch can cut life short by a factor of 5-10 times, then could another defective gene be the culprit that shortened our average age from 900 years to the present 80 years or so (a factor of 11 times)?
Back to the Downward Spiral of Man
Where people came together in 'city kingdoms' we see a priesthood developing that would represent gods to men and bring man to approach the gods the right way.
For example, there are hundreds of documents preserved from one of the most ancient religions accessible, in a deciphered script that is in Sumer. These documents list sacrifices to the gods at the temples of Ur, Nippur and other cities.
By Circa 2,500BC, we know that the city temples had acquired vast lands, and there was fierce rivalry between the priests and the government. Numerous other gods who lied, lusted and fought against each other 'joined' Enlil, the god of creation. A corrupt priest-craft serving degenerate gods heralded the overthrow of this city-state civilisation by the Semites from Babylonia.
In the city-states markets law courts and entertainment made it seem as if God was 'out there' in nature somewhere, but more in the background than anywhere else. Yet, the frustrations of life made man need more than that which was around him and so man began localising god or gods in shrines as idols where he could go and find help if he needed it.
Priests would serve at the temple, and eventually started dictating to others how it was that they should approach their brand of deity. The priest would take up special training before assuming his position in the shrine or temple.
The Babylonians had an elaborate priesthood with vast temples and hordes of temple servants. The main difference was that the priests were mostly of the royal family, and the supreme head was a priest-king. This may reflect the original nomadic practice of having a head in charge.
Again and again we see the slow perversion and degeneration of religious beliefs as even pagan priesthoods became more and more corrupt. For example, there is an account of the degeneration of the Brahmin priesthood of India circa 1500BC.
Under settled conditions the power of the priest tended to increase. These priests then began to say that unless the right sacrifices were offered the gods would be displeased, and therefore only highly trained priests could learn the prayers and rituals, which were necessary. Sound familiar? (Note 1 Peter 2:9 concerning all true believers).
By the time of the Brahmanas (c 600-700BC) the Brahmins had become a hereditary priesthood in charge of all sacrificial duties, for which the people paid them fees. The Brahmins were now suggesting that by the right sacrifices, which they alone could offer, they could procure the favours of the gods, various temporal blessings, and a good place in heaven. Gods, men, governments, all were under priestly control.
A later Veda (writings) called the Atharva Veda (not recognised in some parts of Southern India), reveals lowering standards, containing charms and incantations for magical purposes. This shows how easily priestcraft degenerates into occultism and subjectivity.
Man's vulnerability and pride meant that sacrifice degenerated into a meritorious act which sought to force God to give blessings, and ensure protection from, or harm towards those you did not like.
The essence of false priest-craft was the rise of a group of people who claimed to control access to God, and who suggested that the offering of sacrifice was a meritorious act that then forced God to grant various favours. False Priest-craft always takes the joy out of worship. It stifles individual piety, truth and justice, and divorces morality from religion. Its tragedy is that it forces honest and true men to fight against God, since God appears to be the ally of the priests.
Some of the ethical teaching of Isaiah (740BC onwards) and other 8th century prophets find its way into the ethical teachings of Zoroaster (circa 600), Buddha (563-483, Mahavir (599-527) and Confucius (5512-497 BC).
By the time it takes us to write and publish a book, the ancient world would have gossiped the ideas far more extensively. The number of major cities from Athens to China were comparatively few, and all were cosmopolitan with several languages spoken by the various national groups who lived there. Religious teachers and their disciples travelled constantly and, most important of all, people had the time and interest to listen to them.
Buddhism states that salvation is by losing all desire (but you are supposed to strive for Nirvana(!*?); Ethicism states that salvation is by right attitudes; and Monism states that salvation is through union with the Absolute.
Monism first appeared in the Hindu Upanishads (teachings for a disciple). Writers did not seek to banish the gods, priests and sacrifices, but offered a parallel and deeper way of union with the Absolute (everything is god). Sacrifices were spiritualised and God was given a new meaning. He was no longer to be seen as a Theistic Creator, but the Absolute, the Deepest Self, the Ultimate Reality of what modern writers call "the ground of being".
Atheism!
One of the first recorded incidents of atheism (outside biblical teaching) arose out of a revolt in India. Some of the warrior caste became Atheists (Charvakas). They said that since God did not exist the whole system of priests, sacrifices and Vedic prayers was nonsense.
The first recorded example of Atheism is in Psalms where we read, "The fool says in his heart, "there is no God"" (Psalm 14:1). Since there is no God what must man do? The Atheist said that the only good that man knows is happiness, so the highest good was to do what made one truly happy.
Today we have more material wealth than ever before in the west, yet prescribe more antidepressants, and have more fragmented families and unwanted pregnancies than ever before. What does this tell us?
The following comes from another creation magazine and provides a helpful overview:
1860 Karl Marx the 'spiritual father' of the communist system was an avid adherent of Darwin. He wrote that Darwin's book 'contains the basis in natural history for our views'. His disciple Lenin applied utter ruthlessness and terror in Russia. The term 'rivers of blood' has commonly been applied to describing his reign.
1918 Leon Trotsky. He said that Darwin's ideas 'intoxicated' him, and that 'Darwin stood for me like a mighty doorkeeper at the entrance to the temple of the universe.' With no Creator's laws to restrain him and the justification of evolution, he felt he was free to use any means to attain power and political ends.
1930 Joseph Stalin. The world's worst mass-murderer studied at Tiflis Georgia (a theological college!). A friend later said Stalin became an atheist after reading Darwin. After understanding that evolution provided no basis for conscience or morals, he felt he was free to torture and murder to whatever extent he chose to achieve his communist goals.
1940 Adolf Hitler. Formed his racial and social policies on the evolutionary ideas of Survival of the Fittest and the superiority of certain 'favoured races.' The evolutionary 'science' of eugenics (an attempt to breed a better human race by applying evolutionary principles) provided him with justification for his decrees.
1975 Pol Pot. From 1975 he led the Khymer Rouge to genocide against his own people in a regime which was inspired by the communism of Stalin and China's Mao Zedong. Mao regarded Darwin and his disciple Huxley as his two favourite authors.
EUGENICS
"The doctrine of personality invests the human being with a most bracing, and at the same time a terrifying, combination of dignity and lowliness. As a person, man is subject to nothing but God; he is "the most perfect thing in all nature," and God has "put all things under his feet." But he is subject to God, and he does belong to the natural order. Hence his full potentialities can be realised only by a humble acceptance of his condition as a creature and of the particular nature that God has given him. He must be ready to live, not as a disembodied spirit, but as the kind of being, composed of spirit and matter, that he actually is, in a right relationship to God, to his fellow men, and to the material earth which is the basis of his physical life."
E.L. Mascal , 'The Importance of Being Human, page 42.
A Little Light At The End Of The Tunnel.
Across the world there are also many stories of people-groups of retained some of the knowledge handed down to them by their forefathers and were quite open to the gospel as the following reveals.
The Wa People (taken from 'Eternity In Their Hearts)
The Wa people are north Burmese tribesmen, and in the late 19th and early 20th century there were over 100,000 of them. These people were headhunters, but only went headhunting once a year in the planting season. They would plant human heads in their fields along with their seeds to ensure a good crop.
In the late 1880's one of the tribe's people known within their own religious beliefs to be a 'prophet' persuaded several thousand Wa tribesmen in Pong Lai village and surrounding areas to abandon headhunting and spirit appeasement. This man, Pu Chan, believed that Siyeh, the true God was about to send a long-awaited white brother with a copy of the lost book of religion. He said that if this person came close and heard that the Wa people were practicing evil things he might think them unworthy of the true God's book and turn away from them.
Pu Chan saddled a Wa pony and said to his followers, "Follow this pony. Siyeh told me last night that the white brother has finally come near! Siyah will cause this pony to lead you to him. When you find the white brother, let him mount this pony. We would be an ungrateful people if we made him walk the last part of his journey toward us."
To the surprise of the Wa people the pony did not stop at the first water hole but kept on walking and walking and walking over the mountains and hills. The pony eventually walked down into the city of Kengtung and turned in through the gate of a mission compound and headed straight for a well. The pony stopped beside the well and Pu Chan's disciples looked in all directions, but could see no trace of either a white brother or a book.
The Wa tribesmen then heard sounds in the well and looked inside it and saw no water, but only a pair of eyes looking up at them out of a friendly bearded white face. "Hello strangers" the man said, speaking the Shan language known by all the Wa's, "May I help you"? The man was a missionary called William Marcus Young who was still digging the well out. As he brushed the dust from his hands and faced them, the Wa messengers asked, "Have you brought the book of God?" Young nodded his head. The Wa tribesmen then told him about the message they had from Pu Chan, and said that the pony was saddled especially for him and that there people were waiting to hear from the book.
At that time thousands of other tribes people - the Lahu had come to Christ and Young did not feel it was right to leave them. So along with the Lahu William Young gave the Wa men a place to live and set up a teaching and training centre on the site of the mission, and started teaching them from the Bible. These men went back to their tribe and others came down. Thousands upon thousands of the Wa people turned to Christ as they heard from the word of God.
Young's son Vincent grew up hearing the Wa language spoken all around him and eventually translated the New Testament into this language. Vincent's daughter - Nelda still has a photo album with photograps of the pony that walked into the mission centre, and also hundreds of pictures of the Wa people standing in the river waiting to be baptised. In some of the pictures the whole hillside around the river is covered with tribes people who have come to watch the event.
The Karen People
In 1817 Adoniram Judson (a Baptist Missionary) arrived in Rangoon, Burma where the predominate religion was Buddhism. It was 7 years before he saw one convert.
He eventually came into contact with another people group who would travel up to 800 miles to trade in Rangoon - they Karen people.
Hundreds of thousands of these people were to turn to Christ.
Some of the prayers from their in their previous system of belief: -
"O children and grandchildren! Love Y'wa and never so much as mention his name lightly. If you speak his name lightly, He goes farther and farther from us! O children and grandchildren! Do not be fond of quarrelling and disputing, but love each other. Y'wa in heaven looks down upon us, and if we do not love each other, it is the same as if we do not love Y'wa."
"O children and grandchildren! If we repent of our sins, and cease to do evil - restraining our passions - and pray to Y'wa, he will have mercy upon us again. If Y'wa does not have mercy on us, there is no other who can. He who saves us is the only one - Y'wa."
Thus we see how far mankind strayed from God. Yet, man's emptiness was apparent in the way he sought to build his own form of religion. However, God continues to reach out to man throughout history, drawing his people back to himself.
Now go back to the questions you answered at the beginning and see what you can add to your answers.