Which Came First…

I was reading Eternity in Their Hearts, by Don Richardson last night. I reached a section in the book where Richardson was presenting an opposing argument that stated that we, as a human society, came up with the idea of God. And, like us, of course, the idea of God evolved through time. The father of this theory was a man named Edward B. Tylor. Tylor said that ancient savages conceived the idea of a soul because of their experiences with dreams, visions, sleep, and death and their observance of shadows and reflections. As time went on and society developed, they began to develop their ideas of the supernatural. When aristocracies appeared, the idea of gods ruling over spirits appeared. Then, with monarchies came the idea of a supreme god. According to Tylor, monotheism, or the idea that there is one “Creator God” is just an invention of man that was preceded by polytheism.
Later on, a man named Andrew Lang, who is described as “Tylor’s favorite pupil,” came to some conclusions of his own. You see, Lang was a strong supporter of Tylor’s theories, but he was soon to encounter strong, undeniable opposition. When Lang read a letter sent home by a missionary, celebrating the fact that the people the missionary had been sent to reach already had an idea of a “Creator God,” his ideas were immediately challenged. However, he vehemently opposed the idea of monotheism preceding native polytheism, or animism and began to publish more works and speak publicly supporting Tylor’s theory
Another strong supporter of Tylor, Wilhelm Schmidt, was spurred on by the fact that Lang’s ideas were not accepted by the scholarly community. So, he dedicated himself to the study of the subject, with the idea of proving Tylor and Lang correct. He found the evidence to be strongly in opposition to Tylor’s theory. It seemed that “native monotheism” was alive and well and had, in actuality, preceded the idea of animism. Schmidt ended up publishing 4,000 pages of evidence in 12 volumes supporting the fact that monotheism had actually preceded animism.
This anthropological victory got me thinking. Animism is alive and well in most third-world cultures. The presence of spirits and their influence on life and death and the events of every day is undeniable in many areas of the world. Because of this, people have a very strong fear of controlling spirits and become indebted to them. Their lives are dictated by the traditions associated with their religion, not because religion is an invention of man, but because they must appease the spirits. This enslavement is driven by a very real and valid fear of real spirits who oppress.
All of this is sometimes hard to imagine from a North American perspective. Satan also enslaves us, but from a standpoint of denial. We have a hard time acknowledging that the spiritual world actually exists. Satan’s control of our lives often comes from convincing us that that there is no spiritual battle. Therefore we become apathetic.
Satan’s strategy in animistic cultures, however, is the opposite. Everything is driven by fear. It is in this setting that God has called me to work. This raises the question; how am I, an apathetic North American, going to convince a culture that is ruled by fear that God is more powerful than the spirits that they serve? The good news is that it really isn’t my job to do the convincing. But, in my attempt to be a worker worth her wages, I have to make my life worthy of the sacrifice of Jesus. God must be so real in my life that He clearly outshines the demons in theirs. I must have such a strong faith in Christ and His redeeming love that the demons shriek in horror.
“Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) This scripture must become my life-verse. Lord, please remove my apathy and replace it with zeal for you and for the furthering of your kingdom.