A Biblical vs. a Pagan Understanding of God / the gods, and the Cosmos

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I. Two Preliminary Definitions:

1. What is “the ancient near-east”?

   The expression, “the ancient near-east refers to Israel and the nations surrounding Israel, during the time of the Old Testament (approximately 3,000 BC to 400 BC). For example: Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, ancient Syria, Moab, and Ammon, are all in the ancient near-east. The expression “ancient near-east” is often abbreviated “ANE.’

2. What do we mean by the term “pagan”?

   The term “pagan” labels a way of understanding and relating to the cosmos and its ‘gods’. We may call this the pagan “worldview.”

   Some basic features of a pagan worldview are: There are many ‘gods’. No one god is truly in control. And the main way we relate to those gods and perhaps influence those gods is through rituals, incantations, and sacrifices. We will say more about this in the next section.

   All of the nations surrounding OT Israel were pagan; none of them was monotheistic. That is to say, in the entire ancient near-east, the only ANE nation that was not pagan, was Israel.

   Ancient Greece and ancient Rome, which were the major western world powers just before and during the time of Jesus and the New Testament, were also pagan.
   

   This handout will elaborate on the difference between a pagan understanding of their gods and the cosmos, in contrast to a biblical understanding of God and the cosmos. And it will explain why this difference matters.

II. The Main Features of a Pagan Understanding of the ‘gods’ and the Cosmos:

1. There is more than one ‘god.’ This belief is called “polytheism” (= “many gods”).

   All pagan religions are polytheistic. But the differences between pagan polytheism and biblical monotheism are not as simple as saying, “We believe in one God; they believe in many gods.” Keep reading.

2. No one god is truly supreme; no one god is sovereign; no one god is finally in control.

3. There is no basis for absolute morals. While pagan societies generally recognize commonly accepted moral rules (such as: do not murder, do not steal, do not commit adultery), nonetheless, they have no final basis for a identifying a set of absolute moral values.

4. These gods did not create the cosmos; they did not create matter out of nothing

5. Rather, before there were any gods, there was initially a vague form of matter, called chaos, in which nothing was organized, nothing was distinct from anything else. It is sometimes described as being water and darkness. There were no stars, no mountains, no seas, no plants, no animals, nothing specific. There was just one large undifferentiated mass. It is kind of like a soup in which there are no specific ingredients, just ‘soup’. Pagan legends and myths do not explain where this initial matter came from; it was just there.

   The word chaos is contrasted to the word cosmos. In the initial state of chaos, there is no organization, and there are no specific things. But in the cosmos in which we live, there is organization, and there are specific things (such as the sun, the moon, land, and humans).

6. In the pagan worldview, the first gods somehow arose out of the churning dark chaotic watery mass.

7. There was initially one male and one female god; they mated and gave birth to more gods

8. These gods are not morally perfect. They eventually quarrel with each other and are jealous of each other. They fight, and sometimes kill each other.

9. However, sometimes when the gods battle each other, there is no clear winner.

   So for example, it is sometimes said that one god is active for a while (say, during the summer), but then is subdued for a while (during the winter). But then he will return and be more active again the next summer. This cycle will repeat. Such pagan legends are used to explain the change of the seasons.

10. Cosmos. It is the gods who bring order to the universe; it is the gods who bring cosmos out of chaos. They sometimes use the dead bodies of other gods, and from them they will form and fashion the sun, the stars, the moon, and the earth. Again, in the pagan worldview, the gods do not truly create these things. Rather, they fashion them out of something. In some pagan legends, the drops of blood from the dying gods become the first human beings.

11. In the pagan understanding, some of the gods are generally good: these are the gods who bring enough sun and enough rain for the crops to grow. These are the gods who make herds and flocks healthy and fertile, so that they reproduce and provide meat for food.

12. Everything that we now attribute to the normal operation of the universe according to science and natural law, pagans attributed to the work of a god. For them, there is no distinction between the natural and the supernatural.

    So for example, there is a god who flies the sun through the sky, a god who brings the rain, and god who controls the wind. There are gods for many of the animals, especially the important ones (like cattle, sheep & goats, and crocodiles). In pagan thinking, everything is controlled by the gods. They do not have modern scientific notions such as “natural law.”

13. But in addition to the generally good gods, there are demons and evil spirits. And there are also other gods who are viewed as generally bad. These bad gods are sometimes called chaos-gods, because they want to drag the orderly, functioning cosmos back down to a state of chaos. In the pagan view of things, the good gods fight and struggle against the chaos-gods. They do this to keep the chaos-gods from turning the cosmos back into chaos. Thus a major idea in the pagan understanding of the cosmos is that there is ongoing conflict between the relatively good gods, and the chaos-gods.

14. The gods must be fed to remain strong.

    They are fed by the sacrifices (the grain, and especially by the meat and blood of the animal sacrifices) that are offered by humans. Gods who are not fed will actually become weak. To pagans, when their sacrifices were being burned up on the altar, their gods were eating those sacrifices; when the fire consumed an offering, a god was consuming the offering.

    Thus for pagans, it was very important(!) to offer sacrifices to the good gods to keep them strong. Thus they offered such sacrifices again and again. The main responsibility for making sure the sacrifices continued to be offered fell upon the king and the high priest. A very real fear among pagans was that if they did not continue to feed their gods by offering sacrifices to them, the world would descend back into chaos.

15. In general, in a pagan view of the world, human beings do not have true dignity. Pagans do not speak of human beings as being created “in the image of God.”

    In some pagan accounts, the gods created humans to do the hard work (the “grunt work”) of actually raising the crops and the herds and offering the sacrifices, so that the lesser-gods would be freed from such drudgery. In pagan writings, humans are often described by the gods as savages and beasts.

16. Rituals. Similarly, rituals conducted on behalf of a god brought that god honor and respect in the eyes of other gods. Therefore it was important to conduct elaborate rituals on behalf of your gods. Again, the main responsibility for conducting these rituals fell upon the king and the high priest.

17. Another main way that pagans related to their gods was through ritual prayers and incantations. These prayers were used to seek the favor of a god. Perhaps a couple had no children, or a farmer’s crops were not growing well, or a some sheep in a shepherd’s flock were dying off. People would recite the appropriate prayer or incantation to appeal to a god to help them. They would often recite them many times.

    For pagans, what mattered most was the precise wording of the prayers and incantations. They were usually recited exactly, word-for-word. It did not much matter if the person praying was a good person or a bad person; what mattered most was finding the correct prayer and reciting it precisely.

    And these ritual prayers were not known by everybody; many were secret, and were known only by the priests. So ordinary people would sometimes pay a priest (= would have to pay a priest) to either recite ritual prayers for them, or else to teach them the prayer.

18. When two nations went to war against each other, in the pagan view of things, their gods were fighting each other. The god who is stronger, or is more respected by other gods, will win.

    Sometimes when one nation defeated another in battle, they would also destroy the statues of that nation’s gods. They would then replace them with the statues of their own gods. This was to demonstrate that the gods of the victorious nation were stronger.

    But some conquering kings did not do this. Instead, some conquering kings would go in to the temples of the defeated nation, and would offer sacrifices to that nation’s gods, to show respect. This often resulted in more cooperation between the two nations. But of course, the conquering king would set up the idols of his own gods in those temples, so that the local people would offer sacrifices to his gods, too.

19. Also, a common dynamic in pagan cultures is that people are very superstitious. There is fear that if certain things were not done in certain ways, it will bring bad luck, or worse, an evil spirit or a demon will harm someone.

    Again we see that emphasis is not placed on living in a moral or ethical way that pleases God. Rather, emphasis is placed on certain things that should only be done in certain ways.
    

20. Magic. In addition to ritual prayers, incantations, and superstition, the pagan understanding of the world also involved magic. By the use of a magical spell, or a magical object, or a magical potion, a person could bring about the result they desired.

    The realm of magic was viewed as having power of its own, apart from the gods. Magic spells were often closely guarded secrets. Similarly, objects that were believed to have magical power were carefully hidden. A very powerful magical spell or object could even enable a person to overcome the will of a god on a specific matter.

    Yet similar to their ritual prayers and incantations, what is important in magic spells is to recite them, or to perform the required ritual, correctly. The spell will not work(!) if it is not done correctly. In the case of magic, it does not matter at all if the person is a good or bad. What matters is that he or she recites the spell or conducts the required ritual or prepares the potion exactly.

III. Important Differences between a Biblical Worldview and a Pagan Worldview:

Anyone who knows anything about how the Bible describes God and the creation can see how radically different a pagan worldview is from a biblical worldview. Compare the biblical concepts listed below to the summary of the pagan worldview listed just above.

1. There is only one God. The Bible does acknowledge the existence of demons and evil spirits (1 Cor 10:19-21; Eph 6:12; and the gospels). But it does not acknowledge the existence of any other gods (Isaiah 43:8-12; Isaiah 44:6-8).

   The one true God exists eternally. He existed before the universe, before there was any matter.

2. God is all-powerful. He created the universe out of nothing by an act of his will. There is nothing that has independent existence apart from being created by God.

3. The world is not an extension of God; it is not a part of God. God created the world separate from himself. There is a clear distinction between the creator and the creation.

4. The universe is sustained by God’s power and operates according to his will. Its operation is dependable. Nothing outside of God can disrupt its operation, or destroy it.

5. God is all-knowing and is morally perfect; this is the basis for moral absolutes. Moral standards are based on his wisdom and his perfect, unchanging nature and character.

6. God cares very much about how we live, about our moral conduct. He will someday righteously judge the earth, and all who live in it.

7. God does not grow weary; He is not fed by human hands. Although humans may rightly serve the purposes of God (such as proclaiming the gospel), God himself is not served by human hands directly (Acts 17:25).

8. Human beings → are created in God’s image (Gen 1:26,27).

   Even though they are sinful and disobedient, they have dignity (Ps 8). Even though they have sinned, they still bear God’s image (Gen 9:5,6). And God has given them dominion over the earth (Gen 1:26-28).

9. The way we relate to God is not primarily on the basis of rituals, prescribed sacrifices, or chanted incantations. There is no ritual or prayer that can force God to do something. God does not work that way.

   However, God may freely pledge himself to do something. For example, God has freely promised to save everyone who repents of their sin and believes the gospel. So if someone prays to become a Christian, that prayer does not force God to save them. Rather, it accepts God's promise, freely given, that He will do so. And God will be faithful to what He has promised.
   
   Also, we may ask God to do things, in general, through prayer. But our prayers do not force God to do anything.
   

   The way we relate to God is primarily by believing that He exists (Heb 11:6), confessing and repenting of our sin, and believing the gospel. Those who do so are reconciled to God, and are at peace with God (Rom 5:1-11), and receive the Holy Spirit (Gal 3:2; Eph 1:13-14).

   That is why the Bible says that we are “justified by faith” (Rom 3:28, 4:1; Gal 2:16, 3:24), not by performing rituals or good deeds (Rom 3:28, Gal 3:2).

10. Once we are reconciled to God, Christians should seek to live their lives in a manner that pleases God (Rom ch. 12; Eph chs. 3 & 4; Col ch. 3). We should learn more and more of God’s word and God’s ways.

    When Christians sin, we should confess it and repent of it (Ps 32; Ps 51; Rev chs. 2 & 3). This is not to obtain eternal forgiveness, but to be at rest with God, to be at peace with God, and to serve him better.

IV. Good Reasons to Believe that Paganism is Not True:

There are very good reasons to believe that paganism is not true.

1. Modern science has shown that paganism’s explanation of the origins of the world is ridiculous. No educated person believes such things anymore.

2. With the spread of Christianity, and later the spread of Islam, paganism was virtually wiped out in Egypt, northern Africa, the entire Middle-east, and in Greece and Rome. So all of the elaborate rituals and the many, many sacrifices which allegedly fed the gods were ended. The pagan priests had insisted that these rituals and sacrifices were utterly necessary(!) to feed the gods and thereby maintain the order of the cosmos.

   But when those rituals and sacrifices stopped, what happened? Nothing.

   The cosmos is still here. The sun still comes up in the morning, the stars still come out every night. The rains return in the spring (or the monsoon), and warmth returns in the summer. Crops grew, flocks & herds reproduced. People kept on having babies, as always The chaos and disaster that the pagan priests had assured people would happen, did not happen.

   That is why we may conclude that the pagan understanding of the cosmos and the gods → is false.

V. Practical Applications for Christians:

1. It is true that elaborate religious rituals at shrines and temples with chanted incantations, music and incense can feel very religious. But Christians need to realize that those activities do not reconcile us to God. They reflect a pagan worldview, not a biblical worldview.

   The idea that performing a religious ritual, in and of itself, presents us to God or reconciles us to God, is not a biblical idea, but is a pagan idea. What reconciles us to God is repenting of our sin and believing the gospel.

2. Similarly, such activities probably do not actually help those who participate in them to become better people on the inside.

   Jesus says that those who repeat prayer after prayer, the same prayer over and over, do not understand how they should pray to God (Matt 6:7).

   The apostle Paul says that religious festivals are not what are important; the reality is Christ (Col 2:16-17). He also refers to the restrictions on eating certain kinds of food; the Jews and some pagan groups emphasized such restrictions. Paul said such things may have the appearance of religion, but they do not have any value in changing us on the inside (Col 2:20-23).

   What God wants from us, in the Old and the New Testament, is to know him, to be reverent to him, and to live lives that honor him. He wants us to be changed on the inside (Eph ch. 4; Col ch. 3), so that we may be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom 8:29).

3. Christians should not be superstitious. The way the Bible describes the world and the nature of God does not fit with the idea that superstitions are real.

   However, when we are sharing the gospel, it is not necessary to attack superstitious beliefs at that moment. Rather, we should preach the reality of Jesus Christ, and what he has done for us, and what he will do for those who believe in him. As new Christians learn more about the Bible, they will change their mind about superstitions.

4. Finally, Christians should not participate in any form of magic or pagan rituals. Christians should not participate in a séance, or attempt to contact the dead. All these things were forbidden to OT Israel (Deut 18:9-13), and are likewise forbidden to Christians (1 Cor 10:18-22; Rev 21:8, 22:15).

   Yes, it is true that King Saul used a witch to contact the spirit of Samuel after Samuel had died (`1 Sam 28`). But `1 Chron 10:13-14` tells us that this was one of the reasons for which the Lord put Saul to death. `1 Samuel 28` records what Saul did; it does not recommend what Saul did.
   

   All of these activities are an affront to God. Christians should have nothing to do with them. Instead, Christians should worship God in spirit and truth (John 4:24).

A Closing Reflection:

Christians do well to reflect on the implications of the biblical doctrine of creation. Namely: that there is one God, eternally self-existent, who spoke the material universe into existence by an act of his will. It is his wisdom, will, and power that sovereignly maintain it. The implications of this are manifold, and are quietly staggering.

May I commend to your reading: Genesis 1, Job 38, Psalm 19, and Isaiah 40, esp. vv. 12-26.