The Religious Landscape of the Ancient World = Animism.
The Religious Landscape of the Ancient World = Animism.
The previous two (2) Blogs dealt with Judaism. Judaism was the seed from which Christianity grow. God planned it that way. He set up the Jewish nation to be separate from the pagan nations around them to keep the human linage of Christ pure, and he set up the sacrificial system to point to Christ and his sacrificial death. It was all temporary "shadow," (Heb 8:5 and 10:1). When Jesus comes and brings in the reality, the shadow is no longer needed, and is discarded. That truth under-pins the book of Hebrews, and then to "seal the deal," in 70 AD the Temple was destroyed; God made it impossible for the Jewish system to continue.
So God's plan starts with the Jews, and then goes into the world, which is 100% pagan, demon worshiping, animism. The Greek Roman world into which the gospel went was 100% pagan demon Lucifer inspired animistic worship! As was the entity of Europe, Africa, Asia, the Indian sub-continent, Oceania, and North and South America.
That is a strong statement, but remember, "The whole world (cosmos!) lieth in the lap of the evil one." 1Jn 5:18
He is said to "deceive the whole world."
"And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." Rev 12:9
Animism is the belief that spirits control the natural world and human activity. One spirit controls a river, another spirit controls the fish in the river. If you want to catch a fish, you sacrifice/present an offering to the fish spirit, to gain his/her favor, so they will cause you to catch a fish. It is the same with human activity, if you want a baby, you offer to the appropriate spirit and they cause you, or your wife to get pregnant. The Greek god of fertility was Priapus, the Roman male god of fertility was Liber, and Libera was the female god.
Egypt, Persia, India, China, Greece, Rome, Africa, American Indians, the Aztecs, the Mayans, the Incas, the Vikings, the Irish, the Scots, everyone were all animists.
The Ten Plagues were God judging the gods of Egypt, to show they were lying spirits, that they did not control the various aspects of the natural world. Each plague was aimed at a specific Egyptian god, and meant to show the powerlessness of that god; God could turn the Nile to blood anytime he wanted, and Hapi, the god/spirit whom the Egyptians said controlled the Nile, was powerless to stop him.
The Pharaohs were the sons of the Sun god Ra. They did not represent the god, they were living gods, so when the angel of death killed the first born of Pharaoh, God showed that both he Pharaoh, and Ra himself had no power at all.
"For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD." Exo 12:12
"And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle." Exo 12:29
When we enter the New Testament time, nothing changes.
Paul tells the Corinthians: "What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils." 1Co 10:19-21
Even though with the advent and death of Christ, the biblical Judaism ended, Judaism continued to exist as a human religion, the religious landscape became 3 "religions:" Animism, Judaism, and Christianity.
And yes, to clarify, I know biblical Christianity is NOT a religion; religion is man's efforts to get God to save them, using false methods (lies) propagated by the devil. The many pseudo-Christian religions of today, like Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness, Roman Catholicism, are religions. Biblical Christianity is God's work to save man, but in English, we have only one word, "religion," so I have to use that!
As you read the New Testament, remember that the Four Gospels record events that were part of the Old Testament Era, and therefore functioned under the 2 religion scenario; the history they record occurred in a Jewish context, almost totally ignoring the Greek - Roman pagan world. In fact Jesus himself left Israel proper only a few times, and he specifically told his followers to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel:
"These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Mat 10:5-6
Acts then gives us the gospel's progress from the Jewish world at Jerusalem, into the Greek-Roman pagan animistic world. Peter does some of this, bringing the gospel to Samaria and then the gentile Cornelius, but the travels of Paul to Greek and Roman cities takes up more than half the book. There are small Jewish populations in those cities and he preaches to them first, but is generally rejected by them, and so he then goes to the Greek-Roman populations of those cities. Contrary to what we like to think, the new testament churches that Paul started were made up mainly of Greek-Roman people, ex-pagans, which the content of his epistle bears out. His Epistles were written to the Christians in Greek-Roman cities, and the gentile area of Galatia. God had prepared Paul to be the Apostle to the Gentiles by having him be born and raised in Roman Tarsus. He was a Roman citizen, which gave him status and openings, and he understood Greek-Roman culture and thinking. He was a native Greek speaker, and he wrote Greek like a Greek.
So as the gospel left Jerusalem and Samara, and moved into non-Jewish areas, it encountered animism in one form or another every place it went. People interacting with their "gods" via a priest, who is the intermediary for that god: a priest for each and every area of the natural world; a the healing priest, a witch doctor; a harming priest, inflicting injury on people via voodoo and spells; he can give advise, having gotten information from his familiar spirit, like the oracles of Delphi.
Here are some events recorded in Acts:
Acts 13: Paul and Barnabas go to Cyprus, they witness to a Roman Governor, and are opposed by a sorcerer.
Acts 14: They go to Lystra and the people call them the Roman gods Jupiter and Mercury, and the priest of Jupiter leads oxen out into the city plaza sacrifice to them; they wanted to worship Paul and Barnabas! (Act 14:18)
Acts 16: Paul and others go to Philippi, and they are harassed by a girl possessed with the spirit of Python, a town from the Delphi region of Greece, where the Oracles of Delphi operated out of the Temple of Delphi. Google this and you will be amazed. They are then thrown into prison by the Roman officials (remember Philippi was a Roman colony) on the charge: "They teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans." The "customs" were that these spirits were really lying demons, and that there was only ONE God; animism is a system of many gods.
Acts 17: He then goes to Athens, capital of the ancient Greek pagan world, which is described as "the city wholly given to idolatry," which was named after the Greek god Athena, the sister of the Greek god Ares.
Acts 18: He then goes to Corinth, a city know for its pagan practices. The Epistles to the Corinthians are filled with Paul dealing with pagan thought and conduct in the church: incest, sacrificing to idols, eating pagan sacrifices, temple prostitution, wrong concept of the resurrection (the Greeks thought matter was inherently evil, and so therefore the resurrection could not involve the physical human body), etc.
Acts 19: He then goes to Ephesus, where he goes to a public venue, the school of Tyrannus, and preaches. This stirs up the demon world, and a demon possessed man beats up the 7 sons of Sceva, which results in so many people believing that there is a public burning of their occult books and paraphernalia, the value of which was 50,000 pieces of silver, which in turn stirred up the silver smiths who made the silver idols/statues/representations of the goddess Dianna, the patron goddess of Ephesus, who started a riot, fearing no one would want to buy their idols anymore.
Each city had a patron god/goddess: Ephesus had Dianna, Lystra had Jupiter (Acts 14), Athens had Athena, etc.
We think of Athens as a place of philosophy, learning, etc. No, it was a place of animistic religious activity. It was said there were more idols in Athens than people.
"Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." Act 17:16
"Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection." Act 17:18
"Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious/religious For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you." Act 17:22-23
All social life, political life, civil life was really religious life: keep the gods happy so they will protect us and prosper us.
Mars hill was a religious place, that is where all the main Greek temples were. Google it, the ruins of those temples still stand today.
Its name in Greek is the Areopagus, "The Hill of Ares," who was one of the Twelve Olympians (Greek gods), the brother of Athena the patron goddess of Athens, after whom the city was named. From Wikipedia: The Greeks were ambivalent towards him. He embodies the physical valor necessary for success in war but can also personify sheer brutality and bloodlust, in contrast to his sister Athena, whose martial functions include military strategy and generalship. An association with Ares endows places, objects, and other deities with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality.
What we call Greek and Roman Mythology, myths, in that we mean they are stories, with no reality, was an elaborate, inter-twined, system, encompassing and controling all of life, set up by Satan, using some of his fellow fallen angels to deceive the Greeks and Romans into believing they were the gods who controlled all things, and demanding sacrifice by way of a priest, so they would either be pacified if angry or motivated to help. But in reality, they were deceiving the people and thereby enslaving them, and bring them captive to hell.
"And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." 2Ti 2:26
It was into this world that the gospel went!
It was these people who "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;" 1Th 1:9.
Here is an excerpt from an article about Thessalonica, the city to which Paul wrote his letter to the Thessalonians.
Like many Greco-Roman cities, Thessaloniki was religiously pluralistic. Thessalonians worshiped a plethora of “gods,” such as the city’s patron god, Cabirus, along with the likes of Dionysus, Aphrodite, Zeus and Asclepius, the god of medicine and physicians. Macedonia, like much of the Roman Empire, was a region of strong emperor worship, where Caesar was also considered to be divine. In short, most everyone in Thessaloniki was an idol and emperor worshiper before Paul and his companions arrived there to proclaim the Gospel of Christ (see 1 Thess. 1:9).
The full article is very good!
These were the people to whom Paul wrote his letters: ex-pagans, who had been demon worshiping animists, but had believed in Christ, and been rescued form the power of Satan (Act 26:18).
Remembering this should give better understanding as you read the New Testament, especially Paul's letters.
16 March 2025