Tell the ancient story

This weekend we had our lawn aerated by a fellow who is a Vietnam vet. He was a very interesting guy, so instead of letting him do his job in peace I had to follow him around and chat with him. Somehow he brought up the subject of the ancient Sumerian texts and the Anunnaki, their gods who are said to have been aliens who cultivated human life on Earth. I later went on-line to research this business a bit, as it challenges what we believe. What I found inspired me to write this blog.

I can’t say much about the Sumerians other than they lived near the Tigris-Euphrates region (Eden’s vicinity) and were reportedly the first civilization on Earth – the precursors to the Assyrians and Babylonians. Their writings date back to 3000-2000 B.C. Their written language is one of if not the oldest. Although their concepts of God are different in many ways from those of the ancient Hebrews, their historical accounts are very similar.

The reason I bring this up at all is that while I did my tiny amount of research, I repeatedly came across a common challenge to the accuracy and reliability of the Bible. It goes like this: There were accounts of the flood, tower of Babel, creation, giants (the Sumerian texts refer to them) and many other unverified events and people long before Genisis was alleged to have been written by Moses – so, clearly, Moses borrowed these stories from other sources and adapted them to his own writings (if he could even write at all, the argument asserts). His inspiration, supposedly, would have come not from God but from other earlier religious writings. Therefore, no God. Therefore, leave me alone and let me wallow in my sin. (Okay, that’s my own little embellishment)

This notion rears its head often, doesn’t it? "Other people wrote it first, so your ‘God’ is just a copy of earlier myths." People who proclaim this rely heavily upon the arrogant belief that what we know now about history is so much more reliable than what people who lived it have told us. But here is a fact they seem to ignore: stories do not necessarily begin when they are written down. Genesis is not a "novel" such that it was conceived entirely by a man with a pen and paper. Genesis was a story, or collection of stories, that had been passed down (very probably in a meticulous manner) for generations. Other ancient stories (including famous Greek epics) were passed down this way as well. In ancient times, before writing existed, oral memory was seriously superior – far more reliable than the "whisper" experiment often performed in college classrooms. Eventually these stories were codified in writing, but that codification was by no means their beginnings. So what were the beginnings of the Sumerian stories? I doubt they were never told before they were written – in fact I’m certain (despite absence of scientific proof) that all the ancient "myths" and stories were circulating orally for centuries before the first religious texts materialized. From whence did they begin?

Here’s my answer to that question – "They all came from a common source." If this were so, wouldn’t most of the major religions of the world have some commonalities? Wouldn’t some stories overlap? The fact that the similarities exist, despite man having been sequestered into isolated "non-overlapping" regions and cultures for centuries, is a strong support for the belief that man, wherever and whatever his roots, once had a common story, religion, mythology, whatever you want to call it. Is it possible that, of all the branches, threads, evolutions and changes in religions across geography and time, that one thread might have survived which contained the original untainted story? Of course some would say "no," but I believe "yes." I believe it was the ancient descendants of Shem, then Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), who kept the accuracy intact. Can I prove it? No, but there is historical evidence to support it that is seemingly just as strong as the evidence against it.

So we’re again left with a measure of faith. Naturalists, scientists (some), humanists don’t embrace faith. But, brothers and sisters, there are holes, big ones, in our understanding and knowledge of this world and the universe in which it resides. Without faith we are severely limited to a belief system that is clearly too small for the spirit of man to settle for. I believe we weren’t created to settle for the little our minds can wrap themselves around. We were, in fact, created by God to love and fellowship with Him, regardless of our limitations by intellect and doubts by ignorance. Believe, never waver. Someday we will see Him and there will be an enormous "Oh yeah – now I get it." Until then, let us continue to tell the ancient story of His love and reconciliation to us, now through Christ.

Peace and Blessings.