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.
4. PLACE OF THE ORIGIN OF MAN
The unity of the human race is further proved by the fact that it originated in one locality and not in many. The locality is the one described by Moses. And the fact that Moses correctly located the beginning of the race, when he himself had no personal knowledge, proves that he was inspired and taught of God. He never could have guessed the spot to which history and the migration of nations point, and which the evolutionists themselves are obliged to concede.
The habitable countries of the world total 50,670,837 sq. mi. We are making a generous estimate, when we suppose the garden of Eden to have been 100 mi. wide and 125 mi. long,—12,500 sq. mi. There are 4005 such areas in the habitable globe. It is located in Mesopotamia on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Maps of ancient nations show that mankind radiated from this centre. The great nations of antiquity were clustered about it. The beginning of the race after the flood was in the same general locality.
Ridpath in his great history of the world, graphically shows the migrations of races and nations. With this, even evolutionists agree. They draw a line “according to Giddings,” running through western Asia, in the region of the garden of Eden. Since there are 4005 such areas in the habitable globe, Moses had only one chance out of 4005 to guess the spot, if he had not been inspired of God. Anyone guessing, might have located the origin of man in any of the countries of Europe, Asia or Africa. This clearly demonstrates that God revealed the truth to Moses, and that the story of creation is true and of evolution false.
If evolution were true, there must have been, 6,000 years ago, many heads to the race, in many places. It is incredible that there would be but one spot where brutes became humans. There would be an innumerable host of anthropoid brutes, in many parts of the world, in all gradations. Who can believe that one species or one pair forged ahead so far as to become human?