WHY WE BELIEVE THE BIBLE
by George W. DeHoff
The Voice of History
History teaches us that the earliest forms of heathen religions were purer than
the later forms. No nation or tribe has been found which did not believe in a Supreme
Being of some kind and practice religion in some form. In every heathen system,
especially the oldest ones, may be found traces of a once pure monotheism.
Professor Fairburn of Oxford said, “The younger the polytheism, the fewer its
gods.” (Studies in the Philosophy of Religion, p. 22.)
Dr. James Orr, Professor of Apologetics and Systematic Theology, United Free
Church College, Glasgow, having quoted the above, adds, “Man’s earliest ideas of God
were not, as is commonly assumed, his poorest. – No savage tribes are found who do
not seem to have higher ideas of God along with their superstitions. Man does not
creep up from fetishism, through polytheism, to monotheism, but polytheism represents
rather the refraction of an original undifferentiated sense or consciousness, or
perception of the divine. – In theism we find a monotheistic background.” (The Problem
of the Old Testament, p. 496.)
Dr. E. W. Hopkins, Ph.D. LL.D., professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology,
Yale University, says, “That all religions may trace back to one primordial religion is not
wholly a narrow ‘orthodox’ view. In this form, however, it is still held by both the Hindu
and the Christian of every conservative type. For example, about two thousand years
ago, Manu, the Hindu law-giver, declared, what is still believed by orthodox Brahmans,
that one true religion was revealed to man in the beginning and that all later types of
religion have been vain divergencies from this divine mode.” (The History of Religions,
p. 12.)
Dr. William Matthew Petrie, LL.D., Ph.D., etc., Professor of Egyptology,
University College, London, says, “Were the conception of a god only an evolution from
such spirit worship we should find the worship of many gods preceding the worship of
one god, polytheism would precede monotheism in each tribe and race. What we
actually find is the contrary of this, monotheism is the first stage traceable in history. –
Wherever we can trace polytheism to its earliest stages we find that it results from
combinations of monotheism.” (The Religion of Ancient Egypt, pp. 3-4.)
Dr. Hopkins quotes from R. H. Nassau, “All religions had but one source and that
a pure one. From it have grown perversions varying in their proportions of truth and
error.” (Fetishism in West Africa, p. 23.)
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Dr. William A. P. Martin of Peking University discusses the evolutionary theory of
the origin of religion and adds this significant comment: “This theory has the merit of
verisimilitude. It indicates what might be the process if man were left free to make his
own religion; but it has the misfortune to be at variance with the facts. A wide survey of
the history of civilized nations (and the history of others is beyond reach) shows that the
actual process undergone is precisely opposite to that which this theory supposes; in a
word, that man was not left to construct his own creed, but that his blundering logic has
always been active in its attempts to corrupt and obscure a divine original.” (The
Chinese, pp. 163-164.)
Professor Max Muller, Famous Oxford Professor, said, “Whenever we can trace
back a religion to its first beginnings we find it free from many of the blemishes that
offend us in its later phases.” (Chips from A German Workshop, Vol. 1, p.23.)
Egypt. Dr. Budge, keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian antiques in the British
Museum, says that as late as the Fourth Dynasty only about two hundred gods were
worshipped in Egypt. In the Nineteenth Dynasty Thebes alone had about twelve
hundred gods and there were hundreds of local gods in other religions centers. Dr.
Budge said, “The sublimer portions are demonstrably ancient; and the last state of the
Egyptian religion, that which was known to the Greek or Latin writers, heathen and
Christian, was by far the grossest and most corrupt.” (Quoted by Renouf in Hibbard
Lectures, p. 91.)
India. The Rig-Veda contains the most ancient hymns of India. It shows that the
early inhabitants of India believed in one God. A translation of the 129th hymn of the
tenth book reads thus:
“In the beginning there was neither naught nor aught
Then there was neither atmosphere nor sky above,
There was neither death nor immortality,
There was neither day nor night, nor light, nor
darkness,
Only the EXISTENT ONE breathed calmly selfcontained,
Naught alse (sic) but He was there, naught else above,
beyond.”
Babylon. “There are many, nay numberless gods; but they are only revelation
forms of the One Great Divine Might.” (Dr. Winkler as quoted by Orr, Problems of the
Old Testament, p. 409.)
Greece. “The Orphic hymns, long before the advent of the popular divinities,
celebrated the Pantheos, the Universal God.” (Dr. Martin, quoted by Dr. Ellinwood,
Oriental Religions and Christianity, p. 228.)
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China. Professor Legge of Oxford says, “Five thousand years ago the Chinese
were monotheists – not henotheists but monotheists.” (The Religions of China, p. 16.)
Australia. Andrew Lange, speaking of the early aborigines of Australia, said,
“They believe in a Supreme Being whose abode is in the heavens, and who observes
and rewards conduct.” (The Making of Religion, p. 189.)
North America. “The oldest tribes of North America: North-Central Californians,
Algonquins, Selish … Now it is precisely among these three oldest primitive peoples of
North America that we find a clear and firmly established belief in a High God, a belief
which, especially in the oldest of them, the North-Central Californians and the
Algonquins, is of quite a particular character by virtue of the high importance attributed
to the idea of creation. (p. 19.)
“The Supreme Being of the old Maidu religion bears the names Wonomi
(‘immortal, no death’), Kodo-yapeu (‘World-creator’), Kodo-yanpe (‘World-namer’),
Kodo-yeponi (‘World-chief’). He and only he is creator of the whole world. He is the
creator of men, whom he forms from the clay: a pair of beings, man and wife, whom he
animates. He is more powerful than any other being. It is true that he yields to Coyote
his adversary is stronger, but because, as he expressly says, men have followed him
and not the Creator. The Creator is exceedingly bountiful and intended to make human
life easy and agreeable and death an unknown thing. He is the author, warden and
judge of human morality. (p. 33.)
“There is also the belief that after a long time this world will fall down, all the dead
will return to life, and then the World-Creator will also return and renew all things. (p.
34.)
“In each of these religions there exists a true High God: nay, I do not hesitate to
employ a more decided phrase and say: these people worship One God.” (p. 129.) (W.
Schmidt, High Gods in North America.)
“By this method we have established the weighty fact that the very first men who
migrated into this continent, the first true discoverers of America, when they passed on
from north-east Asia to north-west America over what is now Bering Strait, then a
continuous land route, bore with them in their hearts the belief of one great God, creator
of heaven and earth and man…” (W. Schmidt, High Gods in North America, p. 133).
Peoples of every land originally believed in One God. “Look in what continent we
please, we shall find the myth of a Creation or a primeval construction, of a Deluge, or a
destruction and of an expected restoration.” (Daniel C. Brinton, Professor of American
Archaeology and Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, in Religions of Primitive
Peoples, p. 122.)
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Conclusion.
From these facts we must conclude that the Supreme Being, God, revealed His
will to man when man was first created and the religions of earth are but corruptions of
this original revelation.
DeHoff Publications
Murfreesboro TN
Copyright 1944