Expert: Griff Ruby - 12/26/2010

Question
If we claim that the Judeo-Christianity as being true, how do we explain religions that predate it? Also we know that there are south American tribes, and even Indians in the Americas that were just as old if not older..I guess my main point is if our faith is true then why was it not made universal in the beginning for all to have? It seems that people of other areas had their own gods as they seen as the real god(s) Greeks, etc; thanks!

Answer
No religions predate that of the Bible, though obviously the Faith of Abraham was quite a bit simpler than that of Moses, and the Faith of Noah simpler still, and of Enoch and Seth and Adam still more simple.  But all of that came from God, while the other religions obviously has other sources that come later, even if not later than Moses.
Perhaps the "gods" of the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and so many other ancient peoples may well have had something to do with dim tribal memories of a time when the fallen angelic "sons of God" married women and begat the Nephilim ("great ones" or "giants") as reported in Genesis chapter six.
I think the key is that there are those who remained loyal to the Patriarchal line and succession and as such were part of what God intended Faith to be for that era, and there were those who departed from that line, going off (quite literally geographically) to other far corners of the world and starting their own rival societies with their own rival systems of belief as suited those making their original departures, perhaps even carrying vestiges of where they came from with them.  For example, in the Hindu god's name "Vishnu" might there not be some "memory" of the man (Hebrew: "ish") Noah who "preserved" life through the flood for his family and many other creatures?  Oftentimes there are in the most ancient myths and legends some hint of reference to events described in Scripture.
So there was never a time that humanity existed in which there was no religion from God the Creator among the sons of men, available to any and all who sought it, and of course the very oldest religion came from God and is simply that of the earliest Biblical Patriarchs.
Hope this helps, God bless!