The unity of ancient religions proves the creation of man who received
a divine revelation. According to evolution, all religions were
evolved or invented by humanoids. In that case, we would expect them
to be widely divergent; and we would be surprised, if they agreed on
great and important points, and especially on points which could not
be clearly arrived at by reason. For instance, what in reason teaches
us that an animal sacrifice is a proper way to worship God? How could
unassisted reason ever arrive at the conclusion that God is properly
worshipped by sacrificing a sheep or an ox? If we grant that one
section of the anthropoid host might have stumbled on the idea, how
can we account for its prevalence or its universality? A very high
authority says, "Sacrifices were common to all nations of antiquity,
and therefore, traced by some to a personal revelation." By
revelation, we learn that the animal sacrifice prefigured the Lamb
slain on Calvary. It was revealed. No race of monkey-men could ever
have invented the idea.
The most ancient nations worshipped God by sacrifices. Homer's Iliad
(1000 B. C.) and other works of Grecian poets are full of it. All the
classics, Greek and Latin, are crowded with accounts of offerings. The
earliest records of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hindus and
Chinese speak of sacrifices long in vogue. This unity of religions on
the point of animal sacrifices bespeaks revelation and not evolution.
The division of time into weeks of 7 days, prevalent among the
ancients, suggests an ancient revelation in commemoration of creation
as against evolution, which denies creation. The following statements
from Dr. J. R. Dummelow, an eminent commentator, show that the
Babylonians both divided time into weeks, and offered sacrifices,
pointing to the unity of religions. "The Babylonians observed the 7th,
14th, 21st and 28th of each lunar month as days when men were
subjected to certain restrictions; the king was not to eat food
prepared by fire, _nor offer sacrifice,_ nor consult an oracle,
nor invoke curses on his enemies." They also observed the 19th of each
month. It was customary, therefore, in the days of Abraham, for the
Babylonians to offer sacrifices and to observe the 7th day as
especially sacred. This can only be accounted for upon the assumption,
that God had revealed to the human race that creation occupied 6 days
or periods, and the 7th was to be observed,--all of which was
doubtless handed down by tradition. There were priests and temples in
the most ancient empire known.
Dr. Dummelow says: "It is now widely admitted that the Genesis account
of creation contains elements of belief which existed perhaps
thousands of years before the book of Genesis was written, among the
peoples of Babylonia and Assyria." Many of the primeval revelations
were handed down by tradition. God communed with Adam. There are many
relics of the original religion: the division of time into weeks, and
the institution of the Sabbath day; the sacrifices so common in the
ancient religions; the general existence of priests and temples in all
ages, and among all nations; marriage, the divinely authorized pillar
of society; the early institution of the family, and the use of the
root words for father and mother, in all the most ancient languages,
and families of languages, as well as in the scattered languages of
the earth spoken by the most savage. The belief in the immortality of
the soul, is well nigh universal, even among tribes, who, unlike
Plato, possess no power to reason it from the light of nature. In
contrast, we behold the sorry spectacle of the anthropoid
evolutionists of our day trying to drive from the hearts of men the
hope of immortality by their "science falsely so-called." The burial
of the dead is, no doubt, a relic, since animals, even of the monkey
tribe, do not bury their dead.