From the earliest times, humans have looked
around and above them and wondered about the world, the universe, and the
meaning of life. Unlike animals, humans have a built-in desire to understand
how we got here, why we are here, and what happens after we die. Adam and Eve
knew God personally (Genesis 3) and spoke of Him (4:1). Their children brought
sacrifices to the Lord (4:3–4). And during the time of
their grandchildren, “men began to call on the name of the Lord” in corporate
worship (4:26).
In all of history and in every culture,
people have felt a need to worship what they perceive to be the source of life.
The Bible explains why: we are created in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), and God
has set eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We were created to be in
relationship with our Creator. The rituals and practices of religion began as
an expression of the created’s desire to worship the Creator.
Biologist Julian Huxley dismissed the
existence of religion as a vestige of past ignorance and superstition: “Gods
are peripheral phenomena produced by evolution.” In other words, primitive man
invented the idea of God in an ancient, superstitious time, and theism has no
relevance in today’s society. Theories based on an evolutionary premise imagine
that man’s belief in God was first expressed in animism, ghost-worship,
totemism, and magic. Not all scholars have reached this conclusion, however.
The Bible says that after the flood God
initiated the unconditional covenant between Himself and Noah and his
descendants (Genesis 9:8–17). Men disobeyed God’s
command to spread out and fill the earth, and they built a city and began
making a monumental tower instead. God confused their language and forced them
to disperse (Genesis 11:1–9). After that time, many
polytheistic religions sprang up around the world. Later, God made Himself
known to Abraham and introduced the Abrahamic Covenant (circa 2000 B.C.).
After God redeemed Israel from Egyptian
bondage, He gave them the Mosaic Covenant and later the Davidic Covenant. In
all of these events, it is God who reached down to His people, drawing them
into relationship with Him. This is unique in the history of world religions.
With regard to Christianity, God Himself was
responsible for introducing the New Covenant - an unconditional promise to
unfaithful Israel to forgive her sins on the basis of pure, undeserved grace
through the sacrifice of the Messiah. This New Covenant also opened up the way
for Gentiles to be saved. In all of this, it is God who initiates the
relationship. Biblical religion is based on the fact that God reached down to
us, not man’s attempt to reach up to God. Biblical religion is a response to
what God has done for us, not a code of conduct that we must perform for God.
One reason we have so many different
religions is the deception imposed on the human race by the enemy of our souls,
who seeks glory and worship for himself (2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 Timothy 4:1).
Another reason is man’s inherent desire to explain the unexplained and to make
order out of chaos. Many of the early pagan religions taught that to prevent
disasters from befalling them, they needed to appease their fickle, petulant
gods. Through the centuries, religion has often been hijacked by kings and
rulers in order to subjugate their people in a state-run “church” system.
The true religion that God initiated
thousands of years ago with Israel pointed forward to a coming Messiah who
would provide the way for all people to be reconciled to their Creator. After
Christ came, Christianity spread by word of mouth as the disciples of Jesus
took the gospel to the world and the Holy Spirit changed lives. God’s Word was
also preserved in writing and is available today throughout the world.
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