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Bible History of the Old Testament |
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No. 9 Heathenism
Some writers have written that "the birth of heathenism may be dated from the moment when the presumptuous statement was uttered, 'Go to, let us build a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name.'" Even Josephus, the ancient Jewish historian, regarded Nimrod as the feather of heathenism. Heathenism is the characteristic of which is to find strength and happiness in sin and not in God. Its essential principle is to reject all that is not seen, and to cling to that which is temporal. It is also possible for us to be heathens in our heart, even though we don't openly worship idols. Down through the ages, every nation and tribe that has been discovered, always has acknowledged and worshiped some superior Being; but not one of them worshipped the living true God except Israel, because that is who He revealed himself unto. Even after seeing God's mighty works and miracles, Israel required constant teaching, guidance, and discipline to keep them from falling back into idolatry.
Idolatry is a religion of sight in opposition to a religion of faith that is required to please God.
Instead of the unseen Creator, God, man worshipped that which was visible - the sun, moon, stars. He assigned to each thing a certain deity that could be seen or put in his house, and called them gods whom he thought would help him and protect him. The worship of the heavens, the worship of nature, or the worship of man; all are heathenism or idolatry. After years of this, there was much delusion and disappointment among man, because he must have felt a huge void in his life that idolatry couldn't fill. Man was created to worship the living God, so anything less would cause much seeking for something else. Gradually, when he didn't find it, he began to settle to a religion of his own making that satisfied as much as anything without God could satisfy. Even with all the idolatry going on, though God still had a remnant that he saved by giving them an inward searching after Himself, giving them a conscience to want something better than they had, giving them the desire to offer sacrifices, and letting them remember the ancient traditions of their ancestors. All these things seemed to point upward. A good example of this can be seen in the book of Job. It gives us a very interesting picture of very early times, as Job is thought to be among the first books written that are in the Bible today. There are definitely two things that are universal about the book of Job: its scene and actors are laid in patriarchal times, and it is outside the family of Abraham. It is a story of 'gentile' life in the time of the earliest patriarchs. Job seems to have a great knowledge of the true God, and he was an humble, earnest worshipper of Jehovah. He knew of what Moses and the prophets had spoken and he acknowledged God in reverent submission and spiritual repentance for his sins. When he knew that he had sinned, he offered sacrifices, he talks about the great tempter, and expects the coming of the Messiah. Even though the friends who came to see him didn't share his same views on what was happening to him, they didn't treat them as unheard of or strange. From this, we can get a picture of how far culture and civilization must have advanced in those times. Smith's Dictionary of the Bible says that Job himself was a man of great wealth and high rank. He lived in considerable splendor and dignity. He visited the city frequently, and was there received with high respect as a prince, judge, and distinguished warrior. In the book there are allusions to courts of justice, written indictments, and regular forms of procedure. Men had begun to observe and reason about nature, and astronomical observations were made also. There were mining operations, great buildings, ruined sepulchres, and great revolutions had occurred within the time of the writer. Nations which were once independent had been overthrown, and whole races were reduced to a state of misery and degradation. There was also violence, robbery, and murder in the land. But there were also many good glimpses of social life written in the history. Job talks about how the aged men stood up to greet him when he went to his seat in the streets of the city, and also how the young men hid themselves. It seems that he had much respect in the city because he had a good heart and was in a position to help many of the people. There was a real contrast in the rich and the poor in the city. There was also much idolatry and corruption in most of mankind by this time. This was the same idolatry that had started from the time of the flood, and which had soon grown to gigantic proportions with corruption after corruption that increased greatly over time. This was the land that Job lived in. He was a godly man in a sea of corruption and idolatry. For more information from this book, please go to the archives page at my site www.cathydeaton.com There are more articles of interest there also. This text taken from the book Bible History Old Testament written by Alfred Edersheim and permission has been given to use this text.
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