We’ve warned you: kill the culture, and it’ll kill you back.
That seems to be what’s happening to ours.
Do you ever think about whole civilizations that are dead and gone, wiped out, erased from the record, kaput…? Do you ever wonder why they went out of business? What did they do that turned them into ruins and tall tales?
I think they must have done a lot of things that we do.
I think you are right. Remembering all the old nations that existed when the people of God came out of Egypt and these evil nations inhabited Canaan and were wiped out and replaced because God would not tolerate their evil sins any longer.
It is believed that there were vast cultures in the Americas, at one time, which have left behind numerous ziggurats, but little less. These were not “Indians”, but a people group which preceded them; it is believed that many of these people were red haired, so they were not likely to be the ancestors of what we think of today as Native Americans. Apparently these people practiced child sacrifice, and eventually became all but extinct.
The Bible gives us the history of events adjacent to the Promised Land. It is mostly a regional history, although many of the early events had global ramifications. The Bible doesn’t mention the Indus Valley, the Americas or many other places, and not unlike God’s dealing with the inhabitants of Canaan, I suspect that He may have seen fit to render judgment regarding egregious actions of groups whom practiced truly horrid acts.
I can’t help but imagine that there were the occasional persons whom feared God in those places. How did God handle that? It’s impossible to say how things worked out in individual situations, because there are records. Among his generation, only Noah found favor in the eyes of the True God.
Imagine that, of the entire world, only Noah, and his family were living godly lives. At times, one may feel isolated when surrounded by the sinfulness of this world, but Noah apparently had no one to talk to, outside of his immediate family. God delivered Noah, in an extraordinary manner, from highly extraordinary events.
Another example is Lot, who lived in a place renowned for its lusts, but somehow maintained uprightness. He was spared, shall we say strongly urged to flee, as judgment approached.
2 Peter 2:9-10
“then the Lord knows to deliver the devout out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous being punished unto the day of judgment, 10 and especially those walking after the flesh in the passion of defilement and despising authority. Bold, self-willed, they do not tremble blaspheming glorious ones,”
How many times have such scenarios played out, and in some cases, there may well have been a handful of inhabitants whom took exception to what was happening around them. There is no record, so we just don’t know.
Lee had mentioned the disappearance of the Indus Valley civilization, on a number of occasions, and indeed, the memory of these people has been erased from history, with only their buildings surviving. There was once a vast ancient city near where St. Louis, MO, exists today. There are evidences of large populations in Central America and down into South America, but we have no record of any details, nor names of anyone from those places. That’s an important point, because in the overall stream of time, the wicked will not prosper, and will eventually be completely forgotten.
There are still Mayans living today. But no Olmecs.
Exactly. God caused the nations to come into existence. We are told this in Genesis 10 & 11. While the Babel event may seem little more than a footnote in history, it is in fact, one of the most significant things that ever happened. Some scholars are of the mind that God allowed lesser spirit beings have dominion over various parts of the earth at that time, which makes sense in light of Deuteronomy 32:8 which when translated literally from Dead Sea Scroll sources tells us that God divided the nations according to the number of the sons of God, apparently referring to spirit beings of high rank. (Older translations say according to the number of the sons of Israel, which makes no sense, considering that Babel predates even the calling of Abram, not to mention the sons of Jacob {Israel}).
With the aforementioned in mind, it is logical that various people groups have arisen in these nations, and gone their own way, perhaps under influence from the spirit realm. This also explains the significance of the establishment of ancient Israel, as a land living under the law given to Moses, and directly ruled by God. (At that, apparently they thought that a human king would be even better than rule by the Ultimate Authority.)
As the various nations have lived, many of them gave into some form of worship, involving false gods. This never works to their good. Disgusting practices have occurred in many places, up to and including human sacrifice. Even in ancient Israel, worship of Baal and Moloch cropped up, and eventually led to God allowing the Babylonians to take the land and exile the inhabitants.
That’s the thing, fallen mankind seems drawn to the worship of false gods, even when living under the true theocracy of pre exile Israel. When the descendants of these exiles were allowed to return. It is obvious that they had learned their lesson with regard worshipping false gods, but they overreacted in the other direction, going beyond what was written in the Law, and oppressing by means of hyper technical definitions of the law, and imposing harsh penalties for perceived violation, hence Jesus spoke against the Scribes and Pharisees, of His day.
If all of this was happening in a place where they had the benefit of Divinely given law, imagine what it must have been like in other places, where awareness of the Creator was unlikely.
Hmm… food for thought.
As Romans chapter 1 tells us, nit recognizing the Creator, from His works alone, is without excuse. The Mayans, and countless other civilizations through the centuries, may not have had the Bible, or knowledge of Christ, but they should have known that there was a source of life, and acted accordingly.
Strictly a matter of personal opinion, I think about the countless people who have lived and died in ignorance, through out history. Even in polytheistic cultures, there has frequently been one God above all others, whom authored everything in both the spirit realm, and the material realm. Consider Noah, who wasn’t a Christian, and wasn’t a Jew, living long beforem
such information existed, yet he apparently took exception to what he saw happening around him, and wanted to live an upright life. The very same was true of Abram. Even Moses, while definitely coming from the lineage of Abraham, very much was taught in the ways of the Egyptians, but he knew that there was a higher authority. He saw the injustice towards his own people and God set forth to use him. There was no Law, beside the few things given to Noah, after the Flood, but Moses knew to do the right thing. Undoubtedly, there were other righteous people, in other places, and God would have been aware of them.
I recall seeing a documentary, tears ago, about an isolated tribe who had a festival where they threw off all restraint regarding sexual matters, perhaps once per year. A sociologist documented this, and noted that the was one older man in the tribe who took exception to these practices and refused to have any part in this festival. The sociologist returned 20 years later, and these immoral practices had ended, due to the resistance of that one man. If only for that one isolated group of people, his inner moral compass had changed history. It goes to show that in even extreme circumstances, we can be an influence for good.
When I read The Iliad, I can’t help sensing a subtext of monotheism–as if God were speaking to Homer and Homer didn’t quite get it.
The founding fathers warned future generations that if the country forgot God, it would be run by tyrants. Some even thought our country would only last two generations because they understood the sin nature in every person. If they could see America today, they would be horrified by what it has become – I bet they would vote for Trump over Kamala 🙂