My object in this lesson is to present the myths, the ancient, fictitious
and fanciful narratives concerning the gods, in such a manner as to enable
you to see the utter absurdity of the idea that the religion of the Bible
is of mythical origin. _Myths_ are fictitious narratives, having an
analogy more or less remote to something real. From this definition you
discover that a myth is _always_ a counterfeit, and as such always appears
in evidence in favor of something more or less remote, that is true. Now,
if the Bible had a mythical origin, it sustains some analogy to something
found in the mythical or fictitious and fanciful narratives concerning the
gods, and is therefore the myth of a myth; the counterfeit of a
counterfeit. If such be the truth in the case, where do we find the origin
of the myths from which “Bible myths” have descended? Is it found in the
true God presiding over the elements of nature and the destinies of men,
as well as the events of creation and providence? Or, can it be possible
that we have many counterfeits _without a genuine_? Many myths sustaining
no analogy, either near or remote, to anything real? It is an absurdity,
destructive of the term employed, because _myths_ cease to be _myths_
without some near or remote relation to realities. They _must_ sustain
some analogy to something real. And _counterfeits_ also cease to be
_counterfeits_ when it is shown that they sustain no relation, through
analogy or likeness, to anything that is genuine. In the mythical systems
of olden times we have, in the midst of a vast deal of false and fanciful
narrative concerning subordinate and secondary gods, evidence of a supreme
God presiding over all things; and the secondary gods performing many
things which belonged to the province of the “Almighty One,” with many
degrading, vile and corrupting habits.
A letter written by Maximus, a Numidian, to Augustin, reads thus: “Now,
that there is a sovereign God, who is without beginning, and who, without
having begotten anything like unto Himself, is, nevertheless, the Father
and the former of all things, what man can be gross and stupid enough to
doubt? He it is of whom, under different names, we adore the eternal power
extending through every part of the world, thus honoring separately by
different sorts of worship what may be called His several members, we
adore Him entirely. May those subordinate gods preserve you under whose
names, and by whom all we mortals upon earth adore the common Father of
gods and men.” In this letter we have a clear presentation of the mythical
system concerning the ancient gods, and also the “analagous relation” to
the “Master God.” Each god having his particular dominion over place or
passion, appears before us as a representative of the supreme, or “Master
God;” and by worshiping each member or God they claimed to adore entirely
the “common Father of gods and men.” Augustin answers, In your public
square there are _two statues_ of Mars, one naked, the other armed; and
close by the figure of a man who, with three fingers advanced towards
Mars, holds in check that divinity so dangerous to the whole town. With
regard to what you say of such gods being portions of the only “true God,”
I take the liberty you gave me to warn you not to fall into such a
sacrilege; for that only God, of whom you speak, is doubtless He who is
acknowledged by the whole world, and concerning whom, as some of the
ancients have said, the ignorant agree with the learned. Now, will you say
that Mars, whose strength is represented by an inanimate man, is a portion
of that God? That is to say, the dead statue controls Mars, and Mars is a
subordinate god representing the infinite God, and is, therefore, a part
of that God. Augustin adds, Not the Pantheon and all the temples
consecrated to the inferior gods, nor even the temples consecrated to the
twelve greater gods prevented “Deus Optimus Maximus,” God most good, most
great, from being acknowledged throughout the empire. Voltaire says, “In
spite of all the follies of the people who venerated secondary and
ridiculous gods, and in spite of the Epicurians, who in reality
acknowledged none, it is verified that in all times the magistrates and
wise adored one sovereign God.” Secondary gods were _myths_, counterfeits,
sustaining the _relation_ of counterfeits. The ancients attributed their
own passions to the “Master God,” and had subordinate gods representing
passions. They also had a god for each part of His dominion; and these
gods they called members of the true God, and claimed to worship Him, by
worshiping all the members or gods. Mars was the god of war; Bacchus was
the god of drunkenness. They had a god for this and a god for that. The
ancient pagans seemed to think that infinite divisibility belonged to the
“true God,” for they distinguished between passions, and divided up the
universe among the gods until they had it crammed full of subordinate and
ridiculous gods, each one a member of Jehovah, and each member a part of
the great mythical system.
Now, in order to establish the proposition that our religion is of
mythical origin, it is necessary to show, first, that the Bible was
written this side of or during the age of myths, and, having done this, it
is necessary to show that the Hebrew people were a mythical people;
neither of which can be accomplished. It will not be amiss to present in
this connection a statement given by Justin to the Greeks. He says: “Of
all your teachers, whether sages, poets, historians, philosophers, or
law-givers, by far the oldest, as the Greek historians show us, was
Moses.... For in the times of Ogyges and Inachus, whom some of your poets
have supposed to have been earth-born—that is, to have sprung from the
soil, and hence one of the oldest inhabitants—_the aborigines_, Moses is
mentioned as the leader and ruler of the Jewish nation.” He is mentioned
as a very ancient and time-honored prince in the Athenian, Attic and
Grecian histories. Polemon, in his first book of Hellenics, mentions Moses
as the leader and ruler of the Jewish nation. Ptolemæus, in his history of
Egypt, bears the same testimony. Apion, an Egyptian writer, in his book
against the Jews, says “Moses led them.” Dr. Shaw, a modern traveler, says
the inhabitants of Corondel, on the eastern side of the Red Sea, to this
day preserve the remembrance of the deliverance of the children of Israel
from their bondage in Egypt. Diodorus, the most renowned Greek historian,
who employed thirty years epitomizing the libraries, and traveled over
Asia and Europe for the sake of great accuracy, who wrote forty volumes of
history, says he learned from the Egyptian priests that Moses was an
ancient law-giver.
It seems to us that, no sane man, who is acquainted with the ancient
mythicals, can regard the religion of the Bible as a child of mythical
descent. It is as deadly in its influence upon those myths, and all
mythical worship, as it could be made by an infinite mind.
Voltaire says “the character of the mythical gods is ridiculous;” we will
add, it is ridiculous in the extreme. Listen—Hesiod, in his theogony,
says: “Chronos, the son of Ouranos, or Saturn, son of Heaven, in the
beginning slew his father, and possessed himself of his rule, and, being
seized with a panic lest he should suffer in the same way, he preferred
devouring his children, but Curetes, a subordinate god, by craft, conveyed
Jupiter away in secret and afterwards bound his brother with chains, and
divided the empire, Jupiter receiving the air, and Neptune the deep, and
Pluto Hades.”
Pros-er-pi-ne, Mella-nip-pe, Neptune, Pluto and Jupiter are all set forth
in the mythical writings as adulterers. Jupiter was regarded as more
frequently involved in that crime, being set down as guilty in many
instances. For the love of Sem-e-le, it is said that he assumed wings and
proved his own unchastity and her jealousy. These are some of the exploits
of the sons of Saturn. Hercules was celebrated by his three nights, sung
by the poets for his successful labors.
The son of Jupiter slew the Lion, and destroyed the many-headed Hydra; was
able to kill the fleet man-eating birds, and brought up from hades the
three-headed dog, Cerberus; effectually cleansed the Augean stable from
its refuse; killed the bulls and stag whose nostrils breathed fire; slew
the poisonous serpent and killed Ach-e-lò-us. The guest-slaying Bu-sí-ris
was delighted with being stunned by the cymbals of the Sat-yrs, and to be
conquered with the love of women; and at last, being unable to take the
cloak off of Nessus, he kindled his own funeral pile and died. Such are
specimens of the ancient myths. Their character is such as to leave an
impassible gulf between them and the character of the God revealed in our
religion. No development theory, seeking the origin of our religion in the
old mythical system, can bridge across this chasm. It is as deep and broad
as the distance between the antipodes. There is no analogy between these
counterfeits or myths and the “true God,” save that remote power of God
which is divided up and parceled out among them. Their morals were the
worst. The whole mythical system is simply one grand demonstration of
human apostacy from the “true God.” Homer introduces Zeus in love, and
bitterly complaining and bewailing himself, and plotted against by the
other gods. He represents the gods as suffering at the hands of men. Mars
and Venus were wounded by Di-o-me-de. He says, “Great Pluto’s self the
stinging arrow felt when that same son of Jupiter assailed him in the very
gates of hell, and wrought him keenest anguish. Pierced with pain, to the
high Olympus, to the courts of Jupiter groaning he came. The bitter shaft
remained deep in his shoulder fixed, and grieved his soul.” In the
mythical system the gods are not presented as creators or first causes.
Homer says, They were in the beginning generated from the waters of the
ocean, and thousands were added by deifying departed heroes and
philosophers. The thought of one supreme Intelligence, the “God of Gods,”,
runs through all the system of myths. It is found anterior to the myths,
and, therefore, could not have had its origin with them. The character
ascribed to our God, in our scriptures, has no place among the ancient
myths. They hold the “Master God” before us only in connection with power,
being altogether ignorant of His true character. They even went so far as
to attribute much to Him that was ridiculous. One of the ancients said,
“The utmost that a man can do is to attribute to the being he worships his
imperfections and impurities, magnified to infinity, it may be, and then
become worse by their reflex action upon his own nature.” This was
verified in the ancient mythical religion, without exception, and without
doubt.
“The character of all the gods was simply human character extended in all
its powers, appetites, lusts and passions. Scholars say there is no
language containing words that express the Scriptural ideas of holiness
and abhorrence of sin, except those in which the Scriptures were given, or
into which they have been translated. These attributes must be known in
order to salvation from sin, so God revealed Himself and gave the world a
pure religion, as a standard of right and wrong, and guide in duty, and
rule of life.”
The history of the ancient nations of the earth gives a united testimony
that their original progenitors possessed a knowledge of the one true and
living God, who was worshiped by them, and believed to be an infinite,
self-existent and invisible spirit. This notion was never entirely
extinguished even among the idolatrous worshipers. Greek and Latin poets
were great corrupters of theology, yet in the midst of all their Gods
there is still to be found, in their writings, the notion of one supreme
in power and rule, whom they confound with Jupiter.
The age of myths began with the tenth generation after the flood. The
evidence of this is given by Plato from one of the ancient poets in these
words: “It was the generation _then the tenth_, of men endowed with
speech, since forth the flood had burst upon the men of former times, and
Kronos, Japetus and Titan reigned, whom men of Ouranos proclaimed the
noblest sons, and named them so, because of men _endowed with gift of
speech_, they were the first,” that is to say, they were orators, “and
others for their strength, as Heracles and Perseus, and others for their
art. Those to whom either the subjects gave honor, or the rulers
themselves _assuming it_, obtained the name, some from fear, others from
reverence. Thus Antinous, through the benevolence of your ancestors toward
their subjects, came to be regarded as a god. But those who came after
adopted the worship without examination.” So testifies one who was
schooled in philosophy. Do you say there are points of similitude between
the Bible religion and the mythical? It would be strange if there were
none, seeing that the mythical is truly what the term signifies, a
counterfeit upon the genuine, or Biblical.
The points of disagreement, however, are such as to demonstrate the fact
that the ancient mythical people knew not the character of the Being, whom
they conceived to be the “God of Gods and the Father of Gods and men.”
Those who confound the Bible with the ancient myths upon the score of the
analogy that exists between it and the myths, remind me of a very learned
gentleman with whom I was once walking around an oat field, when he
remarked, “_there_ is a very fine piece of wheat.” The man had been
brought up in an eastern city, and was unable to distinguish between oats
and wheat. I knew a gentleman who asked a man, standing by the side of an
old-fashioned flax-break, what he thought it was used for? The man took
hold of the handle, lifted it up and let it down a few times, and said:
“It looks like it might be used to chop up sausage meat.” It is very
natural for us to draw comparisons, and when we do not make ourselves
familiar with things and their uses, we are very liable to be led into
error by a few points of similitude. All the infidels with whom I have
become acquainted look upon the Bible like the man looked upon the
flax-break, and like the man looked upon the oat field. If one had looked
upon the flax-break who was familiar with it, he never could have dreamed
of chopping sausage meat; and if the other had been familiar with wheat
and oats, as they present themselves to the eye in the field in the month
of June, he never would have called the oats wheat. And if any sane man
will make himself familiar with both the Bible and the old system of myths
and mythical worship, he will never confound the two. There are a thousand
things, very different in character and origin, which have points of
similitude. But similitude never proves identity short of completeness.
While the analogy between the ancient mythical system of gods and their
worship and the true God and His worship is restricted to power and
intelligence, there exists a contrast between them deep as heaven is high
and broad as the earth in point of moral character, virtue, and every
ennobling and lovable attribute.
There is an old myth in the Vedas—a god called “Chrishna.” The Vedas claim
that he is in the form of a man; that he is black; that he is dressed in
flowers and ribbons; that he is the father of a great many gods. It is
surprising to see the eagerness with which some men bring up “Chrishna” in
comparison with the Greek term “Christos”—Christ, and confound the two.
The words are entirely different, save in a jingle of sound. They are no
more alike than the terms _catechist_—one who instructs by questions and
answers, and the term catechu—a dry, brown astringent extract. We could
give many such examples in the history of unbelievers and their war upon
the Bible, but this must suffice for the present. The truth is this: such
men, as a general rule, neither understand the Bible in its teachings and
character, nor the ancient mythical system. In it Jupiter, among the
Romans, and throughout every language, appears before us as the “Father of
Gods and men”—“the God of gods,” the “Master of the gods.” Voltaire says:
It is false that Cicero, or any other Roman, ever said that it did not
become the majesty of the empire to acknowledge a Supreme God. Their
Jupiter, the Zeus of the Greeks and the Jehovah of the Phonecians, was
always considered as the master of the secondary gods. He adds: But is not
Jupiter, the master of all the gods, a word belonging to every nation,
from the Euphrates to the Tiber? Among the first Romans it was _Jov_,
_Jovis_; among the Greeks, _Zeus_; among the Phonecians and Syrians and
Egyptians, _Jehovah_. The last term is the Hebrew scriptural name of
God—denoting _permanent being_—in perfect keeping with the Bible title or
descriptive appellation, “I AM THAT I AM.”
The ancient worshipers of the gods had lost all but the name, _power_ and
relation, which they ever knew of Jehovah. And they could do no more than
clothe Jupiter with their own imperfections and impurities—and then place
him above all the gods; it was necessary for them to view him as excelling
in all the characteristics of the secondary gods. And having attributed to
the gods all they knew of human passions and corruptions, they clothed
Jupiter himself with more villainy and corruption than belonged to any
other god. In this was the great blasphemous sacrilege of ancient
idolatry. They thus demonstrated their own apostacy; and the fact that
their system of gods was a counterfeit, a mythical system. They were
destitute of any standard of right and wrong, having no conceptions of the
divine character which were not drawn from their own imperfect and corrupt
lives. The divine character, as revealed in the revelation of Christ, and
presented to us as God manifest in the flesh, is at once the very opposite
of the characters given in the myths. The distance between the two is the
distance between the lowest degradation of God-like power exercised in the
lowest passions, and the sublimity of Heaven’s own spotless life. I love
the religion of the Scriptures, because it restores to the race the lost
knowledge of God and the additional life of Jesus—the only perfect model
known in the history of the race. It is the life of God manifested in the
flesh; make it _your own_, and it will save you. Mr. English, an American
infidel, said: “Far be it from me to reproach the meek and compassionate,
the amiable Jesus, or to attribute to him the mischiefs occasioned by his
followers.”
It is now conceded that Jesus Christ was _no myth_ by all the great minds
in unbelief. He lived. We love his life, because all who would rob Him of
His authority are compelled to speak well of it. Rousseau, another
infidel, says: “It is impossible that he whose history the gospel records
can be but a man,” adding, “Does he speak in the tone of an enthusiast, or
of an ambitious sectary? What mildness! What purity in his manners! What
touching favor in his instructions! What elevation in his maxims! What
presence of mind! What ingenuity, and what justice in his answers! What
government of his passions! What prejudice, blindness or ill faith must
that be which dares to compare Socrates with the Son of Mary!
“What a difference between the two! Socrates, dying without a pain,
without disgrace, easily sustains his part to the last. The death of
Socrates, philosophizing with his friends, is the mildest that could be
desired. That of Jesus, expiring in torments, injured, mocked, cursed by
all the people, is the most horrible that can be feared. Socrates, taking
the impoisoned cup, blesses him who presents it to him with tears. Jesus,
in the midst of a frightful punishment, prays for his enraged
executioners. Yes, if the life and death of Socrates are those of a wise
man, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God.” If such be the
model, the pattern, the example which I am to follow, let me live and die
a Christian. I love the religion of Christ, because its character compels
its enemies to speak thus of it. I love it because of its practical
influence in elevating all into the moral image of Christ. I love it
because it saves men through its influence from abominable sins and
consequent sorrows that would tear up the hearts of thousands. I love it
because it is the power of God to save the soul. I love it because it
leads men into communion and fellowship with all the good. I love it
because it leads to heaven and to God.
Civilization, it is true, is an arbitrary term. Anthropologists have not
yet settled the boundary line between a savage and a civilized
people.—_Prof. Owen, F. R. S._