What's the Difference? And Why Does It Matter?

Tom: Thanks, Gary. You’re listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a program in which we encourage everyone who desires to know God’s truth to look to God’s Word for all that is essential for salvation and living one’s life in a way that is pleasing to Him. Our subject for the last few weeks, and which we’ll continue discussing today, is “Challenges to the Bible.” There seems to be no end of such challenges, not just from critics, or groups like the Jesus Seminar, which we’ve talked about many times, but from those who are trying to develop their own peculiar brand of Christianity. For example, last week we noted a website, which made the claim that polygamy was supported by the Bible and therefore it could and should be practiced among Christians. So, Dave, what’s a person to do about all these challenges? I mean things can really get confusing!

Dave: Well, we do what we’ve been doing. We face them, check them out. If the Bible, as we’ve often said, is not God’s word, then it would have contradictions in it. I mean, you couldn’t have something written by 40 different men over 1,600 years, most of whom didn’t know one another, from different cultures, different times in history—you couldn’t have a book like that that wouldn’t be . . . it would be full of contradictions, mistakes. You would have superstitions from the past in it, and so forth.

So, go for it! Try to find such things. Try to find contradictions. Try to find scientific errors, historical errors, etc. They aren’t there. But if someone comes up with them we’re willing to face them.

Tom: Dave, we certainly want our listeners to grow in their knowledge of the Bible, and particularly new Christians. We want them to become more and more familiar with the Scriptures. But often, sometimes with regard to these things, these challenges, just common sense will do. Let me start with our first question. And I think it’s a good example of what we’re referring to here: “The Bible claims to have been inspired of God, yet we find very similar accounts of some of the stories it records—Adam and Eve, the temptation in the Garden, Noah and the Flood—in the myths of many people scattered around the world. Some of these myths seem to be much older than the Bible. There are, for example, Assyrian tablets, pre-dating the books of Moses, which tell of creation, the temptation in the garden, the flood, and the Tower of Babel, in language very similar to the Genesis account. The first man in the Babylonian myths was called Adamai. Is it not possible, then, that at least some of the Bible was derived from pagan mythology rather than from divine inspiration?”

Dave: Well, Tom, just asking that question doesn’t really help the skeptic. First of all, why are they so similar? Why do we have similar accounts all over the world going way back to the most ancient times? That would rather indicate that they weren’t making them up. Now, they may have perverted them, but there is a core of similarity there that you cannot escape. Now what did somebody do? Run around and make sure everybody had the same myths? No, obviously not. These people were separated by thousands, some of them by thousands of miles, mountains, oceans, etc.

So, we have to decide, where did this commonality—how are you going to explain the commonality?

Tom: Right.

Dave: Now, they are similar to the Bible. But when you examine them, you find that the Bible is actually on one side, and all of them are on the other side. I don’t think an honest investigator could look at these without coming to the conclusion: Now, wait a minute, the Bible—there’s a consistency to it, there’s a ring of truth to it, whereas the other ones read like fables. There’s mythology, fantasy, and the biblical account of Genesis is consistent with the teaching all through the Bible. For example, the Bible is alone in the depiction of the serpent as the destroyer, the enemy of mankind, the liar. Every other account that I can find, that historians have been—or archaeologists have been—able to dig up, the serpent is, in fact, the good guy. He’s the savior, the creator, the redeemer—we could give a lot of examples of that. The Orphic egg, for example—the symbol of the cosmos has a serpent wrapped around it; the Tripod of the Oracle of Delphi, which I visited many years ago; the ruins near the temple of Zeus, and so forth, on the Peloponnesian Peninsula. That was . . . each leg of the tripod had serpents wrapped around it. You’ve got the Caduceus . . .

Tom: Dave, as you explore other religions, ancient religions, you find that the serpent is a main item, not just for worship but for the giving of knowledge, and so on. Again, looking back to Genesis. But what about those who say . . .

Dave: But, Tom, it’s the opposite of what the Bible says! So, although they have a serpent, the serpent obviously . . . if the serpent is who the Bible claims, this is Satan speaking through him—then you can certainly see his influence in all the other accounts in contrast to the Genesis account that has him as a liar, the destroyer. All the other accounts—they have a serpent, there’s that similarity—but they turn it on its head. It’s inside out.

Tom: And, Dave, about these—for example, in the question [the writer] mentions the Assyrian tablets pre-dating the books of Moses. All of this had to come down—with the exception of Moses, who was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—but for these other religions, they came . . . they were passed orally. It was a tradition. And, Dave, throughout the centuries, as you mentioned before, these oral traditions get corrupted not only by the flesh of men but by those who would want to interpret these things they were passed down in their own ideas. 

Dave: Tom, I was speaking (I can’t remember where it was now) and I guess I was talking about the serpent, Adam and Eve, and so forth, and a young man raised his hand, and he said he had just come from far north of India—way up in the jungles where outsiders very seldom get—and they came to an ancient temple, and in the temple on one of the walls was sort of a fresco, worn out, you know, but you could distinguish . . . there’s a woman, a serpent, and a tree. Which, well, you always find these. Archaeologists dig them up. They are together—a woman, a serpent, and a tree. And in this particular temple, they worshiped the serpent, and he asked, “Why do you worship the serpent?”

“Well,” they said, “he’s our savior. He’s the one who came to rescue us, to deliver us.”

And, you know, in yoga, for example, yoga is depicted as a raft of serpents, cobras, that takes you across the ocean into the Promised Land, into . . .

Tom: The power within yoga, kundalini serpent . . .

Dave: Right. So, definitely there is something behind this, okay? And you can see the contrast: the serpent in the Bible is different from the serpent depicted everywhere else. Now, this theme carries through the entire Bible. So, when you get to Revelation 12, for example, there you have the serpent again—well, it’s a red dragon. But it also . . . and that’s interesting—you find dragons everywhere, in India, China, and Tibet, and so forth, on the temples. It [Revelation:12:9And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
See All...] says, “This is the serpent, that old serpent, the dragon, Satan,” it says, “who deceives the whole world.” Obviously, he has deceived the world into thinking that he’s the redeemer in contrast to what the Bible says.

Tom: Dave, as I mentioned before, many people haven’t done a lot of research on this, but again common sense would tell you that if an event took place in history, and it was spread among the people, orally at first, again it supports the idea that this event was definitely historic, as you mentioned. But what about in the case of Moses, knowing these things in detail and laying them out with great specifics?

Dave: Well, once again, the Bible does not claim to come from oral tradition. I mean, if it had, why not admit it? And then, it should be like the others, instead of having so many contrasts. The Bible claims to be inspired of God. Moses claims that he received this revelation from God.

Tom: Right. He wasn’t there at the point of creation.

Dave: So, check it out. And, scientifically, it does check out. You can’t improve upon it. The first three words in the Bible, “In the beginning”—there was a beginning to the universe. “In the beginning, God . . . ” God created. The Bible tells us He created everything out of nothing. The Bible tells us He hangs the world on nothing. The Bible talks about the circle of the earth—the earth is round in contrast to the Qur’an that says it’s flat, and in contrast to the mythological accounts from the various pagan traditions. You’ve got a tortoise floating on a sea, and an elephant up there, and this is why the earth was shaking, I mean . . .

Tom: Atlas holding the universe.

Dave: . . . there’s so much nonsense. You do not find that in the Bible. So, we have every reason to believe that the Bible is indeed inspired of God.

Furthermore, just common sense would indicate that, if there is a God, if He created us, He must have had a reason for it, and we must be part of that reason. One would expect that we should cooperate in this. We have the power of choice that God would want us to know. He would want us to have a proper relationship with Him. Therefore, He is going to give us something in writing. Oral traditions, as you indicated, they just change. People pervert them, or they misunderstood what it was, and they pass it on in a wrong way, and so forth. So, it makes sense that God would give us the Bible.

Now, there are many books that make that claim. Muhammad, for example, claimed that he was inspired by Allah through the angel Gabriel. Well, check it out. We’ve talked about some of these things. You have such nonsense, and I’m not trying to offend Muslims, but we have to face the facts.

Tom: Right. We’re not talking about just some book, but these are sacred books to the people who believe in them.

Dave: Yes, so, if you believe this is God’s Word, then why does the Qur’an have, for example, “The sun gets tired every evening, and it settles in the slimy pit;” and Alexander the Great went there? Why does the Qur’an say that Alexander the Great was a man of God, when, in fact, he was a pagan who worshipped idols? He claimed to be the reincarnation of one of the gods, and so forth.

There are so many errors in the Qur’an, but you can’t find them in the Bible. Okay, now, look—here we are, human beings on this earth. We want to know God. We’d like to know who the true God is. Well, then, let’s not follow mythologies. Let’s not follow superstitious accounts that obviously have scientific errors in them, but let’s go to the Bible, which rings true to our conscience; it rings true to history. It’s about real people, real places, real events. Then, let’s have some confidence in it, unless you can point out some reason for not having confidence in it.

So, Tom, the similarities are significant. They show that something actually happened. This has been passed down through centuries—thousands of years. It has become perverted, but there is a commonality to all of the other accounts. The Bible stands alone, and I don’t know of anything more significant than that.

Tom: Dave, this challenge here—it’s a terrific challenge, and I know I’ve had opportunities to witness to people, who—oh, for example, I was on a plane coming back from Dallas, and the guy sitting next to me was a college professor. And we got to talking about religion, and he said, “You know, I really think all religions are the same.”

And I said, whoa—I’m thinking, This is great! I’d like to have his explanation.

So, he tried to explain how they were all common. And I said, “But aren’t there real distinctions between some of these things? Even contradictions?”

He said, “Yeah, but it’s the commonality.”

I said, “Well, do you have an idea of how this commonality came about?”

Dave: What commonality?

Tom: Well, just as we’re talking about here.
 

Dave: Some higher power?

Tom: Well, no, we’re talking about creation stories, myths, and so on. That’s what he was referring to. So, I said, “What do you think? How do you think all this came about?”

And he said, “Well, you know, I really don’t know.”

And I said, “Well, I’ve got an idea.” And I took him through, basically, what you’ve laid out for us.

And he said, “Well, you know, that makes sense!”

This comes back to the point I was trying to make. This isn’t written for a rocket scientist. What we’re talking about here is not something that you need a Hebrew or Greek background in to understand. A lot of this is just very . . . it’s faith—we accept it by faith, but faith based upon reasons, good reasons, for what we believe.

Dave:  Right. Well, commonality in religions—well, they all have some idea of god, except Buddhism. Most Buddhism is basically atheistic. Buddha didn’t believe in God. But, other than that . . . So, okay, isn’t that wonderful? We have a common idea that there’s some higher power out there. But, wait a minute! The Hindus have about 330 million gods, the Muslims claim there is only one god, the Greeks and Hebrews have many gods, we’ve been through this before. The character of these gods—there are 99 characteristics of Allah, in the Qur’an, and not one of them is love.

The Bible says God is love. I think everyone would recognize the highest, most wonderful experience we can have is love. The most beautiful poetry, novels, movies, and so forth, involve love. But love is foreign to the Allah of the Qur’an. You certainly can’t say these are the same god. So, on the one hand we have the common idea that there must be some power out there—even Einstein acknowledged that.  But what is it? A Force? Star Wars force? An impersonal power? Some cosmic energy source that you couldn’t communicate with, you can’t love, and so forth?

“Oh, no, but we will use it for our own ends.” Now that force couldn’t create mankind. So, yes, there’s some commonality—they believe in an afterlife. Well, for the Muslim, the afterlife is the ultimate sensual trip. The Muslim today, the fundamentalist Muslim today—you really have to live like Muhammad, act like Muhammad, eat like Muhammad, dress like Muhammad, and so forth, and the women must do the same. So, they despise the luxury of the Western world. This is what the Taliban wanted to do. They want to move us back to the seventh century.

On the other hand, their “paradise” is the ultimate sensuality! You’ve got tables a mile long loaded with delicacies. You’ve got rivers that run with wine (which they’re not allowed to drink in this life). You have endless sex, and so forth. And it contrasts to the heaven of the Scriptures, where we experience God’s love for us, His grace, His mercy—we praise Him. We’re not the focus of it—it’s not our sensuality, but we get to know this God, how great He is, and we bow before Him and worship Him, and experience His love and His perfection!

So, yes, there are similar ideas, but you can see they’ve been perverted. There is another would-be god, the serpent. And, the Bible will tell you of his rebellion. In Isaiah 14 he said, “I will exalt myself. I will be like the Most High.” And you can see his influence in the human race. What is the big problem between human beings? Brothers and sisters? I mean, look at a little child—you see it immediately. Pass out some cookies. Let’s say they are 4-year-olds or 3-year-olds. They’re all grabbing for the biggest one. There’re looking after number one. “I, I, I, my, me,” the most famous words in the human race; self-centeredness. This is what the Qur’an offers—a self trip of sensuality for the pleasure of the individual. And this is what you find in the whole human race. But the Bible says, “Deny self”!

Tom: Yeah. Let’s go back to Genesis, where the lies from the serpent were spread to mankind. The first . . .

Dave: Well, before it gets spread, Tom—sorry! Let’s take Eve. It’s a selfish trip: “How beautiful the tree looks to me, how delicious it will taste to me, how wise it will make me.” I, my, me . . .

Tom: But, Dave, you’ve just jumped ahead of me!

Dave: Oh, okay.

Tom:  Because it began with, “Did God say?”

Dave: Right.

Tom: And then, so there’s a doubting of God. Then there’s a denial of His character and what He has to say. “There is no death!”

Dave: This is Satan saying all of this, the serpent.

Tom:  Exactly. And all of the information that’s presented appeals to self. So, I’m agreeing with you. But, there’s one other aspect about it that I want to cover. We’ve  got a few minutes left.

There is no death. You look to the serpent . . .

Dave: This is what the serpent says.

Tom: Right. You look to the serpent in all other religions: He is immortality. There is no death. A consistency throughout. Now, you know, you mentioned a perversion . . .

Dave: Reincarnation— you keep coming back, and so forth.

Tom: Absolutely. So it’s a denial of what God has said—not only the death penalty, which was the result of disobedience of their sin.

Dave: Separation from God.

Tom: But it’s a continual denial and rejection of all those things.

Dave: It’s based upon justice. The Bible’s based upon justice. God is righteous and holy, and when He says, “Don’t do this,” He means don’t do this. Now, when we do it, we are rebels. Whether you tell a little white lie, or whether you exalt yourself above God—we take the life and existence God has given us, and instead of finding out what He wants for our lives, we’re going to live it for ourselves. Now, that’s serious, Tom! The God of the universe is a God of holiness, of justice, of truth. Now, what’s He going to do?

I mean, we’re trying to stamp out terrorism all over this world. What is terrorism? Think about it for a moment. It is a self-centered ambition to force other people to believe the way you do. And, you are just going . . . whether it’s the PLO terrorists— they’re going to keep blowing up Israelis, keep killing Israelis; or whether it’s the Muslim. It began this way with Muhammad: “Everybody has to submit, or else we kill you!”

So, the whole idea is, “I’m going to get my idea across by terrifying people, by forcing them into something.” Now, this is the way of the world. This is contrary to God’s will for mankind! And we’re going to try to stamp out terrorism? What is God going to do? “Well, just go ahead, do whatever you want, be . . .” You know what a cancer cell is? It’s a cell gone wild—it’s not following the DNA; it’s not doing what it should do. And man is like a cancer on this earth—doing his own will, following his own way.

Well, what is God supposed to do? “Well, so long as you’re sincere, we’re all taking different roads to get to the same place”—He’s just a big granddaddy up there. “That’s okay.” What would that bring about in God’s universe? Total chaos, total corruption, total self-centeredness.

So, the Bible is based upon justice. You don’t appease this God. You don’t turn over a new leaf and say, “Well, Judge, let me off this time; I won’t break the law again,” and so forth. No, any way you look at Scripture, any way you look at the Bible, there’s only one way of salvation for man. The penalty had to be paid. God, Himself, loves us enough that He became a man to take the penalty upon Himself that we deserve. And, only through the penalty being paid can God forgive us. This is a righteous God, a just God. You will not find that anywhere in any religion out there.

Tom: Dave, Islam means “submission.” But we as Christians are to submit as well. We’ve only got about 30 seconds left. What’s the difference?

Dave: We submit to God’s love, to His grace, to His mercy. And, we don’t do it in order to somehow earn a place in paradise, but we do it out of love and devotion to Him because He paid the penalty for our sins! That’s the big difference.