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Life in the Letters: Uncovering creation truth in ancient cultures

by Ava Ford, M.D.*

The truth about origins--about the creation of the world and its implications--has increasingly become a topic of colorful conversation in many facets of our society, not the least of which are the pulpits of our churches. At a recent Sunday night church social, I sat down at a table where two men were discussing the pastor's talk that night regarding creation, evolution, and the Bible. Both men had earned doctorates, and while one remained a steadfast believer in young earth creation, based on the authority of Scripture, the other man ardently held to the theory of theistic evolution, convinced that the earth is billions of years old.

I remained silent during the conversation until our church's evangelist sat down wearing an unusual shirt--a gift he had received on his recent trip to China. The shirt had scribbles of various Chinese characters, most of them in disjointed, incomplete sentences.

As I began to translate for him, I honed in on two of the characters in particular: "life" and "believe." It struck me that these words had relevance to the creation account in Genesis, the very topic of the pastor's talk.

Ancient Insight on Faith and the Creator

Chinese script is expressed through ideographic pictures developed from the picture writings on ancient oracle bones--a kind of "hieroglyphic" of Chinese language. Therefore, each character can be broken down into component parts. For instance, the word for "life" is made up of "motion" plus "Lord," which reveals the ancient Chinese belief that the Lord is the maker of all life.1 "Believe" is also comprised of two components: "person" plus "word," which means that placing trust in a word is considered an act of faith or believing. Simple, yet profound, especially when translated within a biblical context. The story of the Roman centurion in Luke 7:2-10 comes to mind; Jesus specifically remarked that this man's "belief" in His Word was greater than what He could find in Israel.

According to research found in Harvard's Yenching Library, the written Chinese language may have originated as far back as 2500 B.C.,2 which coincides closely with the estimated time of the great dispersion of humanity from Babel, as calculated from the biblical genealogies.3 When all mankind was divided into new linguistic groups and scattered over the face of the earth, ancient Chinese people would have also carried with them an accurate account of early human history. Their knowledge of creation and the great Flood had to be fresh in their minds since they were likely contemporaries of Noah, who lived for 350 years after the Flood (Genesis 9:28) and knew all the details of creation through his own father, Lamech, who was only 56 years old when Adam died. With life spans averaging about 912 years in that era, he would have been considered a relatively young man (Genesis 5:1-11).

Interestingly, the ancient Chinese record Feng-su T'ung-yi (Comprehensive Meaning of Customs) states that all people on earth are descended from "Nu-wa." (Some have suggested this to be a version of the biblical name Noah, as found in other ancient Chinese texts.)4 The Chinese were known for meticulous recordkeeping from the time of the Hsia dynasty in 2205 B.C., and according to their most acclaimed set of ancient manuscripts, Shu Jing (The Book of History), many generations of Chinese emperors recited texts of praise during the annual Border Sacrifice as they brought their people together to worship "Heavenly Sovereign Shangdi," the Creator of the universe and the one true God.5

    Of old in the beginning, there was the great chaos, without form and dark. The five elements (planets) had not begun to revolve, nor the sun and the moon to shine. In the midst thereof there existed neither forms nor sound. Thou, O spiritual Sovereign, camest forth in Thy presidency, and first didst divide the grosser parts from the purer. Thou madest heaven; Thou madest earth; Thou madest man. All things with their reproducing power got their being.6

Sounds remarkably similar to Genesis, doesn't it?

Acknowledging the Creator through Science

When you look at our beautiful planet earth, the changing colors in its seasons, and all its diverse, complex, interdependent creatures sustained by sophisticated ecosystems, have you ever stopped to wonder how it all came to be? Who set it all in motion and why?

Growing up in an unbelieving home, I was quite ignorant of the concept of God as Creator. In school I was only taught Charles Darwin's theory of evolution: that all life forms evolved from a single cell. However, when I entered medical school, and particularly during anatomy class, I began to seriously question its validity. Each day I encountered the intricacies of the human body and something within me demanded an honest appraisal of Darwin's theory. I really wanted to know the true account of man's beginning. But none of my professors could give satisfactory answers to my questions.

I got my first glimpse of the Genesis account during a grueling 10-day mountain climbing expedition through a region called the "valley of death." At one point during the climb, we were forced to spend a night in a cave because of a heavy rainstorm. In that cave, one of my teammates introduced me to the book of Genesis and the God of the Bible.

It wasn't until months later when I began to attend a Bible study with this same student that I heard the full story of the creation of the universe, the first man and woman, the institution of marriage, the temptation and fall, death as the consequence of sin, God's worldwide judgment through the Flood, the tower of Babel and the subsequent dispersion of humans through the confusion of many languages. As I studied, my excitement in the Bible grew. Not surprisingly, most of my classmates at medical school laughed at my enthusiasm for these new discoveries, which they considered to be no more than fairy tales suited for children, not for scientifically-minded, educated people.

So I began to search for evidences outside the Bible, mainly through books on archaeology. I recall at this time in the late '70s that the media was buzzing about the cuneiform discoveries at Tel Mardikh (Ebla), on clay tablets dating back to 2250 B.C. Many scholars suggested parallels with the early chapters of Genesis, shedding new light on the credibility of the Bible. Names of biblical patriarchs were recorded, as well as a "creation hymn." I found through other books on fossils, geology, astronomy, history, ancient languages, and medicine, much more evidence I could not simply brush aside--evidence that substantiated the veracity of Genesis, which led me to place my trust in the authority of God's Word, to "believe" the Bible accounts from Genesis through Revelation as literal truth. In time, by God's grace, this confidence in the Scriptures led me to personal faith in the Lord Jesus.

Critics of the Creator

There are, I know, many well-meaning and well-educated Christians today who struggle with belief in the Genesis record. Sadly, they have placed more trust in science--in the words of men--than in Scripture. To these critics of the Creator I would ask if they consider themselves more qualified than the patriarch Job to answer the hard questions of God (Job 38-42). With all his wisdom, Job could only reply, "What shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth" (Job 40:4).

It is both dangerous and dishonoring to God when His own people attempt to "spiritualize" the Scriptures in order to make them fit the musings of men (Job 36:26; 37:1-24). Science and its resultant evidence are vital for the progress of our God-given stewardship of the earth, but these must never be placed over the authority of God.

"Life" does not come through faith in the science of men, but through "belief" in the Creator of life, Jesus Christ.7

References

   1. Compare Colossians 1:15-17.
   2. Kang, C. H. and E. R. Nelson. 1979. The Discovery of Genesis: How the Truths of Genesis Were Found Hidden in the Chinese Language. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, xiii.
   3. Johnson, J. J. S. 2008. How Young Is the Earth? Applying Simple Math to Data Provided in Genesis. Acts & Facts. 37 (10).
   4. Truax, E. A. 1991. Genesis According to the Miao People. Acts & Facts. 20 (4).
   5. Compare Psalm 74:17; Acts 17:26-27.
   6. James Legge, The Notions of the Chinese Concerning God and Spirits (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Register Office, 1852), page 28, as cited in Kang, C. H. and E. R. Nelson. 1979. The Discovery of Genesis: How the Truths of Genesis Were Found Hidden in the Chinese Language. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 15.
   7. John 3:14-16; 20:31.

* Dr. Ford has served in medical missions on three continents since 1985.

Cite this article: Ford, A. 2008. Life in the Letters: Uncovering creation truth in ancient cultures. Acts & Facts. 37 (11): 4.