http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=13&article=1775
Resurrected “Savior-Gods” and the Prophets of Old
Periodically, critics of Jesus question why there are so
many
stories of “savior-gods” (outside of Judaism and Christianity) that
sound somewhat similar to the story of Jesus. Why would various
civilizations (e.g., Egyptians, Greeks, etc.) that existed centuries
before the time of Christ have “legends” about god-like characters who
worked miracles, conquered death, and were revered by their followers?
What logical answer can be given as to why stories similar in some ways
to the Gospel story existed hundreds or thousands of years
before Jesus?
Although several reasonable answers have already been given to the above questions in past articles (e.g., Butt and Thompson,
2001a and
2001b),
another logical explanation for the presence of these stories revolves
around the prophets of old. When Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and lawyers
for their hypocrisy, He mentioned their unrighteous ancestors and made
the following statement:
Therefore the wisdom of God also said, “I will send them prophets and
apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,” that the blood
of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel
to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the
temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation (Luke
11:49-51, emp. added).
According to Jesus, God used prophets as far back as “the foundation of
the world,” specifically from the time of Abel, Adam’s second son
recorded in Scripture. The apostle Peter made a similar statement while
preaching to thousands of Jews in Solomon’s Portico.
Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out,
so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and
that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom
heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began (Acts 3:19-21, emp. added).
“Since the world began,” God has revealed messages to mankind via His
prophets. Sometimes these messages were regarding the coming physical
destruction upon a particular nation (e.g., Jonah 3:1-10; Nahum 1-3). At
other times, they were about one particular person or tribe of people
(e.g., Genesis 40; 49). But no prophecies were more important (nor more
prevalent in Scripture) than those concerning Christ. And, God’s
spokesmen have been foretelling His Coming specifically
since the earliest of times.
Luke recorded how, after the birth of John the Baptizer, his father,
Zacharias, “was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying,”
Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His
people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of
His servant David, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, who have been since the world began (Luke 1:67-70, emp. added).
God’s prophets have not foretold the coming of a great Redeemer only
since the Mosaic period, nor were prophecies concerning the Savior of
the world limited to the Jewish people. Zacharias rejoiced that God was
sending the Redeemer and Savior of Whom the prophets had spoken “
since the world began.”
Admittedly, most all of the Messianic prophecies recorded in Scripture
appear after God revealed to Abraham that through his seed “all the
nations of the world shall be blessed” (Genesis 22:18; 12:1-3; 49:10;
etc.). Yet, one recorded messianic prophecy goes back centuries before
Abraham—all the way to Adam and Eve’s tenure in the Garden of Eden.
There God informed the serpent following his deception of Eve: “I will
put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her
Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis
3:15). In this very first messianic prophecy, a suffering, but
victorious, Redeemer is pictured.
Thousands of years later, hundreds of similar prophecies about the
Christ were given to the Israelites. It is logical to conclude, however,
that similar messianic prophecies would have been delivered by other
prophets outside of Judaism. The patriarch Enoch, just seven generations
from Adam, “walked with God three hundred years” and “prophesied”
(Genesis 5:22; Jude 14). His great-great-grandson Noah, whom the apostle
Peter described as “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5), very
likely knew of the Messianic prophecies during patriarchal times, and
may very well have received direct revelation from God on the matter
(similar to how God spoke to him regarding the Flood—Genesis 6:13-21).
Centuries later, non-Jewish, God-fearing men such as Melchizedek, king
of Salem, “the priest of the Most High God” (Genesis 14:18; Hebrews
7:1), Job, and others worshipped and served the one true God.
We have no way of knowing how many of God’s spokesmen through the
centuries have prophesied about the coming of a Savior. We do know,
however, that some prophecies about Christ are virtually as old as the
world itself, and the Bible nowhere pretends to contain
every Messianic prophecy
ever spoken.
One may reasonably conclude that a chief reason nations outside of
Israel possessed stories of savior-gods who share many commonalities
with Jesus is because
they had heard either inspired prophets foretell the Redeemer’s coming, or the prophecies made “from the foundation of the world” had been
passed down to them by word of mouth.
Interestingly, some of the first people on Earth to recognize the
arrival of the Messiah were men the Bible calls—not Jews—but “wise men
(magi, NASB) from the East” (Matthew 2:1). From
where did these men receive such knowledge? How did they know that a
particular “star in the East” (Matthew 2:2) would indicate the Messiah’s
entrance into the world? The fact is, they received Divine direction
(cf. Matthew 2:1-12).
Truly, God’s scheme of redemption through a “hero” that would save the
world from sin and death has been revealed since the fall of man. Simply
because civilizations from the past (outside of Judaism and
Christianity) possessed similar “redemption” stories and/or knowledge of
a Redeemer should not be troubling or surprising. They likely were
based (at least partly) on messages preached by the prophets of old.
REFERENCES
Butt, Kyle and Bert Thompson (2001a), “Jesus Christ—Unique Savior or Average Fraud? [Part 1],”
Reason and Revelation, 21[2]:9-15, February, [On-line], URL:
http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/156.
Butt, Kyle and Bert Thompson (2001b), “Jesus Christ—Unique Savior or Average Fraud? [Part 2],”
Reason and Revelation, 21[3]:17-24, March, [On-line], URL:
http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/475.
I’m
typing this article on a personal computer. You are most likely reading
it on some form of one, whether a desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet
(which are really just small computers). These amazing devices are all
around us. Brilliant researchers have spent billions of dollars
designing the most functional computers to help people all over the
world achieve their goals. You may well know, however, that one computer
is more powerful than any that humans have been able to design—the
human brain. As LiveScience writer Charles Choi stated, “The most powerful computer known is the brain” (2013).
American
abolitionist, editor, orator, author, statesman, and reformer,
Frederick Douglass, himself a former slave, was invited to deliver a
speech in 1852 (eight years before the Civil War) to a women’s
anti-slavery society in Rochester, New York. His assigned subject?
“What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?” His remarks demonstrate
forcefully that the Bible and the Christian religion were not to be
blamed for the existence or perpetuation of slavery. In his brilliant
oration, Douglass demonstrated that those “Christians” and churches in
America at the time that used the Bible to sanction slavery were misinterpreting and misrepresenting it. He stated:
