Monotheism: From the Temples of China to the Sands of Egypt

written by Chris Carter

In his book of Ecclesiastes, the Israeli King Solomon reveals a profound knowledge of life and the heart of man. He realizes that we are all on this earth for a short period of time, and he points out the changing of times for every person. One of his most astute observations, though, is that the Creator has set into each person’s heart some idea of the divine. Of this Solomon writes, “He (God) has also set eternity in the hearts of men” (Ecclesiastes 3: 11). That wise king knew that somewhere in the depths of each man’s heart he was aware that there was something bigger than this life, beyond this life; Solomon knew that the very essence of human being cried out to know the Creator. This longing is captured best in the German word Sehnsucht. That word describes such a depth of longing that it has no English translation. Because of man’s Sehnsucht and his handed-down stories of the lost Eden, many cultures in their developmental infancy formed elementary ideas of monotheism, the belief in and worship of a single god. The modern education system tries to teach students that man’s religious impulse began with animism and polytheism. This idea, though, is very far from fact. The Bible and modern research are showing that the religious impulse of primitive man began with an unrefined brand of monotheism; and from the ashes of this primitive monotheism came the Hebrew and Christian faiths. To better understand this idea, though, one has to understand the secular viewpoint.

On March 20, 1852, Herbert Spencer published his ground-breaking idea on the evolution of religion. Appearing first in “The Leader,” Spencer’s Development Hypothesis, which has been one of the leading ideas on religious evolution among primitive cultures, posits that mankind’s initial religious system was a sort of crude polytheism that centered on ancestors. After many centuries of this style of worship, the ancestors began to acquire divine attributes. So, from having a multiplicity of venerated ancestors, ancient man gradually gained a pantheon of gods. Polytheism would hold firm for many years until men evolved further. The result of this continuing evolution is the advent of monotheism, which primitive man would have been too simple to understand, many evolutionary advocates would state. In addition to Spencer’s idea, there is another road of religious evolution that advocates of the Development Theory. They say that most primitive cultures were animistic in origin. The animistic ideas would give rise to beliefs in spirits, which in turn would become the belief in many, varied deities. Then from a well-developed polytheism could monotheism grow. This theory has become very pervasive; it is accepted by many in the fields of anthropology, sociology, and theology. Even the 11 century AD Jewish scholar Rabbi Rashi believed that monotheism did not begin until God’s revelation to Abraham in Genesis 12. It is so widely accepted because it fits in very neatly and comfortably with the evolutionary worldview, yet it is biblically inconsistent. Even some findings in modern research are showing that the Development Hypothesis is wrong. What does the Bible teach on this subject?

From the standpoint of biblical scholarship, primitive monotheism was the original form of worship in most cultures. From the beginning Adam and Eve knew God (Genesis 2). Though they were affected by the Fall, the primeval parents passed down the knowledge of God. This knowledge they gave to their third son Seth, and he handed it down to his child Enosh. It washis generation that began to call on the name of Yahweh (Genesis 4:26). The Hebrew Bible uses the word Yahweh in this passage. That is significant because Yahweh was the name God revealed to the Jews and Christians. The generation of Enosh was seeking the same God as the Jews and Christians. Thus the worship of God was passed down from Enosh to Noah, from whose sons came the rest of the world. They carried with them the stories about Creation, the Fall, and the Flood. The person of God had been very real to their not-so-distant ancestors.

Then the generation that built the Tower of Babel arose. They still had the traditions and Genesis stories, yet they were intentionally led away from God. The man known as Nimrod encouraged men to abandon God and build that infamous Tower at Babel. Of this the Jewish historian Josephus in his book The Antiquities of the Jews writes, “Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than anyone could expect”. Humans, in their hubris, were trying to build a tower so high that it would reach God. In Akkadian Babel means gateway to a god. Yahweh, though, struck the tongues of that rebellious generation and confused their speech. In Hebrew that same word balel, means confusion. Man’s rebellion from God caused confusion. This idea would hold firm as later generations spread out and forgot God; in their worship of many gods, they became confused.

So as men spread out from Babel in the plains of Shinar, they took with them the stories of Genesis and the worship of the God, who had just, through judgment, reaffirmed himself in their eyes. As different societies were formed, some were more agrarian or nomadic or settled like the Sumerians or Egyptians. According to Wilhelm Schmidt and Don Richardson, who are two leading proponents of the theory of primitive monotheism, the more primitive, agrarian or nomadic cultures of the earth have a clearer concept of a supreme, benevolent creator god.

Throughout history there have been many examples of civilizations that have started off with some kind of simple monotheism. In his book, Eternity in their Hearts, Don Richardson writes this concerning societies with a simple monotheism, “Probably 90 percent or more of the folk religions on this planet contain clear acknowledgment of the existence of one Supreme God” (qtd. in Morris)! For example, the Blackfoot Indian tribe believed that Nah-too-si, which means Holiness, created everything contained in the universe and the earth itself. He is the highest god. All that is below are spirits. In the Cherokee tribe there also exists a simple monotheism. This tribe’s religion centers on The Great Spirit, or Yowa. Linguistically, Yowa is very similar to the Hebrew name Yahweh. Like Yahweh, Yowa is considered omnipresent. Another striking similarity is that Yowa greatly loves the earth. He is even transcendent like Yahweh. The only major point of difference is that Yowa is considered to be part of creation. Like the Cherokees, the Karen tribe of Burma worshiped a Supreme God. They called him Y’wa, which is also strikingly close to Yahweh. In his aforementioned book, Richardson cites this Karen hymn:

The omnipotent is Y'wa; him have we not believed.
Y'wa created men anciently;
He has a perfect knowledge of all things!
Y'wa created men at the beginning;
He knows all things to the present time!
O my children and grandchildren!
The earth is the treading place of the feet of Y'wa.
And heaven is the place where he sits.
He sees all things, and we are manifest to him."

This hymn is very similar to a passage from Isaiah 66:1, "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?” Indeed, these smaller tribes were not the mightiest or most technologically advanced of nations, yet they possessed a faith reaching nearer to heaven than any polytheistic system.

In addition to the tribal examples, there are many advanced societies that at one period in their existence adhered to a simple monotheism. In the September 1991 volume of “Creation,” Dr. Henry Morris writes about the simple monotheism that pervaded ancient China for many centuries. “For a long time,” he writes, “the Chinese people worshipped just one God, Shang Ti (also called Shang Di), the Lord of Heaven, retaining a clear tradition of the Great Flood and their migration from the region of Babel. Eventually, however, this system was replaced by the humanistic religion of Confucius, still later by the occult religions of Taoism and Buddhism, and finally by the atheistic religion of communism” (“Missions”). When juxtaposed to the Hebrew religion and God, Chinese monotheism is very advanced for its time. First, the Chinese had a consistent system of sacrifice to Shang Di. Between 2256 BC and 2205 BC the Shu Jing, a very old book of Chinese history, records that Emperor Shun sacrificed a bull to Shang Di. This was known as the Border Sacrifice. Eventually it became a yearly rite to be performed by the emperor. So, in the Temple of Heaven a bull would be sacrificed annually to Shang Di. The Chinese Border Sacrifice echoes the Hebrew sin offering set forth by God in Leviticus 9:2, which says, “Take a bull calf for your sin offering and a ram for your burnt offering, both without defect, and present them before the LORD.” In addition to this, Shang Di held many common aspects with Yahweh. Both were considered loving, and both were seen as the Creators. The great Chinese philosopher Motze says this of Shang Di as Creator, “I know Heaven loves men dearly not without reason. Heaven ordered the sun, the moon, and the stars to enlighten and guide them. Heaven ordained the four seasons, Spring, Autumn, Winter, and Summer, to regulate them. Heaven sent down snow, frost, rain, and dew to grow the five grains and flax and silk so that the people could use and enjoy them. Heaven established the hills and river, ravines and valleys, and arranged many things to minister to man’s good or bring him evil” (qtd. in Nelson). Until 1911 the annual sacrifice to Shang Di was executed, but after that year the last emperor was deposed. China then entered a dark period of atheism.

Egypt is another example of a very advanced society that possessed a simple monotheistic religion at one time. The god Amun-Ra was the chief of all Egyptian deities. He was the one in whom Egyptian monotheism previously dwelled. Like Yahweh, Amun-Ra had no parents. During the New Kingdom period, Amun-Ra was believed to transcend this world, like Yahweh. Amun-Ra’s cult developed so much that, like Brahman in India, the lesser deities became mere manifestations of this supreme deity. In support of Amun-Ra’s Yahweh-like qualities, Egyptologist Sir William Budge cites this passage from the Book of the Dead, "A Hymn To Amen-Ra ... president of all the gods ... Lord of the heavens ... Lord of Truth ... maker of men; creator of beasts ... Ra, whose word is truth, the Governor of the world, the mighty one of valour, the chiefs who made the world as he made himself”…” He heareth the prayer of the oppressed one, he is kind of heart to him that calleth upon him, he delivereth the timid man from the oppressor ... He is the Lord of knowledge, and Wisdom is the utterance of his mouth” (qtd. in Merrill). In so many aspects of their religion, the Egyptians were close, but they just did not quite get it.

The Sumerian civilization, like Egypt, was the earth’s oldest civilization and also possessed a simple monotheism at one time. If one will remember that the Tower of Babel was built on Sumerian soil, it only makes sense that this culture was monotheistic for a time. The 1930-1936 excavation of Tell Asmar (Eshnunna) greatly reinforces the claim for Sumerian monotheism. This site revealed that in a social setting were found religious objects. They were found in a temple and the houses of temple worshippers. In Sumerian religions, cylinder seals are normally dedicated to a certain god. The ones found in this area, though, according to the archeologist Dr. Henry Frankfort, “can all be fitted into a consistent picture in which a single god worshipped in this temple forms the central figure. It seems that at this early period his various aspects were not considered separate deities in the Sumero-Accadian pantheon" (qtd. in Merrill). Along with Sumer, India possessed a simple monotheism years ago. The German scholar Max Muller in Lectures on the Science of Language states that "there is a monotheism that precedes the polytheism of the Veda; and even in the invocation of the innumerable gods the remembrance of a God, one and infinite, breaks through the mist of idolatrous phraseology like the blue sky that is hidden by passing clouds” (qtd. in Merrill). The Indian religion of Hinduism once taught that there is one god called Brahman. All the lesser gods were merely manifestations of him.

As shown through the above paragraphs, many ancient societies used to know and worship the one true God. In Deuteronomy 6:4 God makes this proclamation to the children of Israel: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.” For many centuries civilizations like China, Sumer, and the Cherokees held fast to the essence of that declaration, yet in their sinful states they traded the perfect God for lesser deities. In Romans 1:18-23 Paul writes of this trend and how it comes to be. He writes, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” The trend of surrendering worship of God for idols happened in various ways. The first way it could have happened is that over time aspects of the Supreme God were vested in a multitude of lesser deities. For many civilizations, such as India or Greece, this process is captured in their mythologies. Max Muller explains this process well when he writes, "Mythology, which was the bane of the ancient world, is in truth a disease of language. A myth means a word, but a word which, from being a name or an attribute, has been allowed to assume a more substantial existence. Most of the Greek, Roman, Indian, and other heathen gods are nothing but poetical names which were gradually allowed to assume divine personality never contemplated by their original inventors” (qtd. Merrill). Originally the Greek word hekatos was just another word for the moon, but after time passed it developed into the goddess Hecate. Sometimes, when these aspects were being transferred, they were not completely transferred. In India, it is believed that there is a supreme god Brahman, but they believe that he manifests himself in lesser deities. According to a second principle, another way cultures fall into paganism is just through simple interactions with other cultures. Cultural interactions produced bigger pantheons. According to Sir Flinders Petrie, who is an Egyptologist, “Each city appears to have had but one god belonging to it, to whom others were in time added. Similarly, Babylonian cities each had their supreme god, and the combinations of these and their transformations in order to form them into groups when their homes were politically united, show how essentially they were solitary deities at first” (qtd. in Merrill). If either of these two principles were not the case for a society, there is a third principle: History, especially of events from Genesis 1-11, became mythology, confusing who was man and who was God. The most prominent example for this principle is Greece. In his December 2003 article in “Answers”, Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr. says, “I maintain that myth is essentially history, and that many ancient myths and works of art tell the same story as the book of Genesis” (“Athena and Eve”). In other cases a fourth principle applies: simple monotheism is just overtaken by newer, more powerful religions. China is the perfect example of this. For centuries they worshiped Shang Di until the advent of Confucianism and Buddhism. As with China, these principles find application in many cultures worldwide.

The first principle finds application in Egypt. Budge posits that some characteristics of the creator god were transformed into lesser gods. In one Egyptian creation myth, the creator Amun created all the other gods in the beginning of time. While Judaism teaches that God alone is sufficient to sustain creation, Egyptian mythology taught that Amun made smaller gods to oversee creations continuing functionality. Thus, Amun may have initially been seen as the sufficient Creator, his functions to rule the creation fell to lesser gods and goddesses. Another example of the first principle is India. The Indians at once worshipped Brahman as the supreme god, but he later was divided into lesser deities, such as Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. There is even an apparent linguistic connection between Brahma, the creator, and Brahman. Then in the second principle, Sumer would be a good example. The Sumerian cities were independent city-states. Each city-state had a patron deity, which reflects the primeval memory of the One God. Political unions of city-states resulted in the inclusion of many local gods into a bigger pantheon.

By far the best example of the third principle is Greece. They originally had a concept of God that became Zeus. Just in a simple etymology of the name “Zeus” one can see his ancient connection to God. His name is very similar to the word Theos or Deos (meaning god). That word originally comes from the Proto-Indo-European word Dyeus ph₂tēr, meaning “Sky Father”. In the ancient Indo-European language, the words sky, heaven, and god are all under the same word, dyeu. Thus, Zeus is the god of the heavens (or sky). Deuteronomy 26:15 refers to the heavens as God’s dwelling place. As Zeus rules the heavens so does God. At the same time, though, God is bigger than the heavens. This can be seen in the Old Testament passage of 1 Kings 8:27, which says, “The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you.” Zeus is limited to heaven. In addition to this , in his Hymn to Zeus, the Greek poet Cleanthes says, “We are his offspring” (NIV Bible footnote). In Acts 17:29 Paul applies this same phrase to God. Similar to the corruption of God that became Zeus, many of the mythological stories had their roots in stories from Genesis. As many similarities as there are between God and Zeus, the latter god lacks a critical aspect of Yahweh: sovereignty. Even though Zeus is king of the gods, he is not unlimited in power. He is bound by the decree of the fates. He cannot even completely control the earth because it belongs to his mother, the primordial deity Gaia. The true God of the Jews, though, controls heaven and earth. There is none who has competing claims with Yahweh. It belongs to him by right of creation. Zeus did not even create the earth. He is truly sovereign . Indeed, in the person of Zeus the Greeks remembered some of who God is, yet they also became confused over his identity and lost some aspects of his character. Some of Zeus’s identity was influenced by another biblical figure: Adam.

In addition to having a corrupted version of God, the Greek myths were influenced by the Genesis stories. Though Zeus was originally based on God, his gradual corruption was quickened as aspects of the biblical figure Adam were joined to him. Joined with his consort Hera, these two divinities were influenced by the first couple, Adam and Eve. The two deities shared two critical connects. First, Zeus and Hera were also husband and wife. Similarly, Adam and Eve were joined in marriage. Second, Zeus and Hera were brother and sister. That is just a skewed version of Adam and Eve’s relationship beyond marriage. Eve was created from Adam’s rib, which God had removed for that purpose. When Adam first saw his beautiful, new helpmate he declared, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man” (Genesis 2:23). These two were not brother and sister. They had a deeper relationship; they were connected by creation. To further support this fact, Hera was once called Dione which is the feminine form of Dios or Zeus. Robert Bowie Johnson, Jr., addressing this subject, says, “This suggests that the two were once, like Adam and Eve, a single entity” (“Athena and Eve”). In addition to this, Hera and Eve were similar in another way. Both were considered mothers. Genesis 3:20 refers to Eve as “the mother of all the living.” Similarly, the sixth century BC Greek poet Alcaeus refers to Hera as the “mother of all” (qtd. in Johnson, “Athena and Eve”). Even the longevity of Adam and Eve’s lives could have led to their deification. Adam lived for 930 years!

Beyond Hera and Zeus, other Greek myths were influenced by Genesis. One such myth is Pandora and her infamous box. She, like Eve, was the first woman. Pandora opened the box, unleashing evil onto the world. Thankfully, though, she did not open it enough for hope to escape. Similarly, Eve ate the fruit of the Tree and brought evil into the world, yet a hope remained in God’s box. In Genesis 3:15 God declares this hope, “And I will put enmity between you (the tempter serpent) and the woman (Eve), and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” This prophecy of hope would be fulfilled in Christ. Another myth, the birth of Athena, echoes the birth of Eve. As Eve was conceived of a bone from Adam, Athena was birthed from Zeus’s skull. Both were born as adults. It can even be taken a step further by saying they only had fathers; Zeus was Athena’s father and God was Eve’s father. On this subject Johnson again states, “I have no difficulty in seeing the full-grown birth of Athena out of a male god as a picture of Eve’s full-grown birth out of Adam” (“The Serpent Worshippers”). The final myth to be compared to Genesis is the myth of Hephaestus. He was the god of the forge and metallurgy. Tubal-Cain, a descendent of Cain, was the first recorded man to practice metallurgy. From Tubal-Cain is derived the Greek god Hephaestus. This is an example of the Greeks confusing God and man. They had stories about their ancestor who was a man, but over time they made him a god.

As the Greeks represented the third principle, the fourth principle finds its primary representation in the Chinese civilization. Though they once worshiped Shang Di, the Chinese people soon were overtaken by the philosophies of Confucianism, the religions of Buddhism and Daoism, and finally the atheism of communism. For over a millennium the machinery of the Chinese state was fueled by the philosophies of Confucius. The main problem of it is that it focuses on man at the expense of Shang Di. Then with Buddhism Shang Di was shoved aside even more. By the time 1911 came the annual sacrifice to Shang Di was merely a meaningless ritual, stripped of its originally memory and beauty. In the vacuum caused by the humanism of these philosophies and the loss of Shang Di, atheism gained power. This is the result of letting new, powerful religions and philosophies take hold in the populace. Shang Di, though, is not with his people. Even as I write this paper, his power is sweeping over China and people are coming to know his son: the risen Jesus Christ.

In conclusion, as men spread out from the plains of Shinar, they carried with them for a time the knowledge of the true God. His worship was established in places like China, Egypt, and among the Cherokee tribes. Soon, though, they “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (Romans 1:23). Through whichever of the four principles it occurred, many cultures lost their original, simple monotheism and turned to pagan beliefs. This is evident in the cultures of Sumer, Egypt, and most prominently Greece, whose own mythology bears the distinct influences of God and the Genesis story. This is not defeat for the Creator, though. His voice can still be heard today. It rises up from ruins of ancient Egypt to the pinnacle of China’s Temple of Heaven. It goes forth to the whole earth, reaching out to every man. It is like Paul speaks to the Athenians in Acts 17: 26-27: “From one man he (God) made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole

earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each of us.” Whether you are in Egypt, China, or any nation of the earth, God is calling out to you today. Will you respond?

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