Is There A Counterfeit Without A Genuine?
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 [pg 122] 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 [pg 123] 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 [pg 124] 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 [pg 125] 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 [pg 126] 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 [pg 127] 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, [pg 128] 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 [pg 129] 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, [pg 130] 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.