Expert: Scott Talbot - 12/18/2009

Question
I have a few questions. I was wondering why the old testament sometimes is extremely similar to pagan mythology like Noahs ark and geneis (the Sumerians). Also I was wondering why alot of the concepts of Christianity are similar to older religons. Like Jainism the soul is corrupted by "sins" and the goal is to cleanse the soul so it can be "reborn". Also just one more question. I was thinking that Christianity as we know it today is based on the books the Church chose because they discredited other books. Are the other books credible and the Gnostic gospels?  

Answer
Hi Dan,

You ask some good questions. To properly address your questions would take many hours and many pages. Since that is not practical for either one of us, I'll try to provide some basic answers. Hopefully this will prove helpful as you conduct further research into these issues.

Let me begin by asking you a question. I'm curious to know why you're asking these questions. Are you trying to make sense of the Bible? Seeking God but not sure what information to trust? Are you a Christian who is simply curious about such things? Knowing the reasons for the question helps one to answer the question in a way that addresses the underlying issues at the same time.

You asked a couple of questions that have a similar theme: "I was wondering why the old testament sometimes is extremely similar to pagan mythology like Noahs ark and geneis (the Sumerians). Also I was wondering why alot of the concepts of Christianity are similar to older religons. Like Jainism the soul is corrupted by "sins" and the goal is to cleanse the soul so it can be "reborn"."

If I may paraphrase, it sounds like you're asking why certain similarities exists between the stories and concepts of Christianity and pagan religions. Perhaps inherent in that question is this issue: What do the similarities demonstrate?

While one could speculate about the implications, here are the facts. God was both able and willing to communicate with mankind. One way He chose to do so was through the Bible. He guided penmen throughout the ages to write the EXACT words He wanted, so that the end result is that the words of the Bible are God's words (2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:20-21). Therefore, the Bible is completely and absolutely infallible, and everything stated in it is true and factual.

When the Bible reveals information about Noah, the flood, and events in the book of Genesis, God is revealing facts. When the Bible talks about sin, corruption, the soul, cleansing, the new birth, and other such things, it speaks truth.

One thing is clear. While there is a God, there are also other spiritual forces at work that are contrary to God. We are involved in a spiritual battle, and these spiritual forces want to draw us away from God's truth (Ephesians 6:12).

One of Satan's greatest weapons is deceit, and He has worked hard to perfect his skills at distorting truth. One of the most effective ways to undermine truth is to offer a viable counterfeit. A counterfeit, while false, contains a vast degree of truth, which makes it harder to distinguish from the real thing.

It shouldn't be any surprise, then, that Satan has offered manking many counterfeits to God's truth by spinning them with an air of believability.

Here's another way to look at it. If, for example, there really was a worldwide flood, as the Bible tells us, this would have been a monumental historic event. Surely others would have written about it outside of the Bible, and, as the story was passed down from generation to generation by secondhand or thirdhand points of view, the facts likely got distorted over time and resulted in a version of the story a bit different from the truth.

You asked another question:  "I was thinking that Christianity as we know it today is based on the books the Church chose because they discredited other books. Are the other books credible and the Gnostic gospels?"

You say the Church chose certain books for certain reasons. I think we need to look at the bigger picture. The same God who gave us the Bible also has the ability to preserve it throughout the ages for all generations, and to keep it separate from other documents which were not genuinely authored by God. One way God did this was to use certain individuals--primarily the apostles (those who personally met Christ and sat under His teaching) or those once removed from the apostles (those mentored or taught by the apostles) to authenticate the true Scriptures and to separate them from non-Scripture.

Like I said, the topics you brought up are HUGE topics, and there is an entire school of thought dedicated to the idea of how we got the Bible, how it has been preserved over the years, and how it has been kept pure from other non-Biblical writings. It is called Textual Criticism, and it involves very interesting scientific methods for answering these questions, and for understanding the human aspects of these issues.

I hope this helps a little bit. Feel free to write back if you would like to talk further.

Scott