 |
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
-10-
The God Who Is
In those early times, people first conceived God to be brute strength; so they built colossal statues and massive temples to picture His power and might. Strength was at first admired as seen in the legends of Hercules, Thor, Baal, and Bramah, to name only a few. But the admiration of strength resulted in the adoration of strength. Even today many people think the test of manhood is how much brute strength a person has.
With the adoration of strength, it soon became the popular notion that every strong man was particularly favored by the gods. Legends arose about giants such as the Cyclops, who had a large eye in his forehead, and who was hunted and defeated by Hercules.
It was only natural that the adoration of strength should become sensual. This is the reason many people in athletics and body-building become moral perverts. Whenever a society becomes preoccupied with sensuality, it becomes morally degenerate. In like manner, the fine arts appeal to the senses, whether we speak of music, painting, or sculpture; and history testifies that the times of greatest development of the arts has been during times of religious persecution, civil oppression, and moral lawlessness. And, sensuality resulted in fear. People became afraid of strength.
Fear resulted in the worship of those who possessed great strength; and legends arose of a race of gods. Since worship among the heathen was based upon fear, there was no attempt made to fellowship with their gods, but only to appease them. The heathen were afraid of their gods; and, whenever fear and worship are joined, the result is the exploitation of people. This exploitation took the form of a priesthood.
Unlike the Levitical priesthood of Israel in the days of the Old Testament, the priesthoods of the heathen were made up of a class of men and women who claimed for themselves the power of life and death over the people. They further claimed that the salvation of the people lay in their hands. Merle D'Aubigne wrote, "Salvation perceived as coming from man is the creating principle of all error and abuse." Satan argued with the Lord, saying, "...all that a man hath will he give for his life" (Job 2:4).
The people were exploited like so many cattle. They were told that the gods and goddesses demanded temple prostitution, bestiality, sodomy, and even human sacrifices as part of their worship. As a result, the Egyptians threw their children to crocodiles to appease Osiris, the god of fertility. The priests of Moloch, a demon who was worshipped by the Canaanites as god, demanded the people roast their children in the arms of the idol. It is little wonder, then, that God commanded their destruction.
The Hawaiians sacrificed the most beautiful woman or the strongest man in a village to appease the volcano god. When a Chinese nobleman died, the people would entomb all his living servants. The Egyptians did the same. The Aztecs and the Mayans practiced human sacrifices, as did the Incas, whose god demanded that they tear the heart from their victims while they were yet alive. The Bible tells us, "...the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God ..." (I Corinthians 10:20).
Some of the American Indians practiced human sacrifices, and so did the English of old. Germans in ancient times not only practiced human sacrifices, but also cannibalism. The Friesians killed Boniface, who had brought them the Gospel; then they ate him.
The gods of the heathen often demanded pain such as by lying on beds of nails like the Hindus, or suffering torturous pilgrimages, or cruel fasts. Some gods worshipped by the heathen actually demanded suicide. But it is not in the power of the religions of the heathen to satisfy the soul of man. They cannot ennoble, or elevate men because they cannot offer any help to remedy the problem of sin.
Whenever the people of Israel rebelled against the Lord and went into apostasy, they began to follow the gods of the heathen in whose land they dwelled. God said He threw out the Canaanites on account of their wickedness, and He gave Israel their land. But He said that if the people of Israel followed the heathen in their wickedness, He would throw them out of the land as well. They did, and He did.
In Micah chapter 6, the prophet, in reproving the children of Israel, says, "Wherewith (i.e. "How") shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?" When Solomon dedicated the temple he sacrificed 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. Micah continues:
"Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" The essence of true religion is doing that which is good: being just and merciful with men, and humble before God.
Micah says, "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good." God is good. He is the Author of good, and He is concerned with the doing of that which is good. But in what sense is God "good?"