Pages

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Puzzle Pieces: the Chinese Language

By Analea Styles

In The Genius of Ancient Man we talk about the different puzzle pieces that make up the big picture story. Lots of times, the pieces aren’t recognizable at first or don’t seem to fit but as we continue to study and learn, and widen our view, suddenly the pieces fall into place.


Hidden Secrets

One such puzzle piece is the ancient Chinese language. One of the oldest known written languages, the earliest records of Chinese (written on bones and shells) date back to over 4,000 years old. The Chinese people use a logographic system (a series of symbols that represent a complete word or phrase) of writing, which has changed little over the centuries. With over 50,000 specific characters, the language is very difficult to master. [1]

However, the old age of the language and the nature of the pictographic characters make for a fascinating study. Many of the characters are made up of multiple symbols (similar to a "compound word" in English) that seem to contain Biblical truths in their meanings. Before we look closer at these symbols, we need to revisit some basic truths:
  • The whole population of the earth descended from Noah's son's, Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Genesis 10:32)
  • At one time, in the beginning, the whole earth used the same language and the same words (Genesis 11:1)
  • God confused the language of the whole earth at Babel and scattered them abroad over the whole earth (Genesis 11:9)
Note that everyone, the whole earth, was judged and scattered, not just the rebellious tower builders. So when the people spread out, the pagan religious practices of Babel spread (such as the false trinity, mound building, and star worship as we detail in The Genius of Ancient Man) but God-fearers also scattered over the earth. Not everyone followed the false religion promoted at Babel, there were still believers in the truth. When the people where scattered these believers took the truth with them wherever they eventually settled. It is believed that a group of God-fearers traveled to what we now call China and they preserved their knowledge of history and Biblical concepts in the written characters of their language.

See for yourself...

The following images are taken from The Discovery of Genesis by C. H. Kang and Ethel Nelson. We invite you to decide for yourself whether the ancient Chinese knew the truths of Genesis long before the days Moses wrote it, or if this is all mere coincidence.

“Then the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being” – Genesis 2:7
“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them….God saw all that He had made, and behold it was very good…By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done…” – Genesis 1:27, 31, 2:2
“The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed” 
– Genesis 2:8

“Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…The Lord God commanded man saying…’but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die.’” – Genesis 2:9, 16, 17
 “When the woman saw  that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate…” – Genesis 3:6


“On the very same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark” –Genesis 7:13 

There are more aspects of the ancient Chinese culture and religion which also lend evidence to the theory that they knew the truth of the Biblical record and believed it. Long before Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, the ancient Chinese people worshiped a single, creator god they called Shang Di. Many of the characteristics of Shang Di closely resemble the true God of the Bible. 

Validity of the Meanings

There are critics of this information who say that the characters' translated meanings are being skewed and do not actually have any relation to the Bible. However, as this article on the Creation Ministries International website (CMI misrepresents ancient Chinese language?) states, the information is well researched and verified by professionals. 

World Bible School also has a great online presentation of the Chinese language that we would encourage you to check out. 

According to a literal reading of Biblical record, it makes sense that various cultures around the world would have knowledge of the true God, His creation, the fall of man, and the flood. The amazing preservation of the Chinese language is one clear evidence that they did.  

Read about other Puzzle Pieces:





[1] “History of Chinese Writing System”. http://www.char4u.com/article_info.php?articles_id=2

4 comments:

  1. I love that God is in everything!

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I see you've deleted my previous comment. If you found it flippant or offensive, I apologise.

    However, what I was getting at was that the "presuppositional view" you take while examining evidence is more commonly called a bias. When you make a conclusion in advance (i.e. God exists and he created the world in the way the Bible says) then it's no surprise at all that when you search for it, you find evidence that aligns with your conclusion. And if you don't, you look harder - all the while ignoring everything else that is contrary to your conclusion.

    This is called Confirmation Bias, and in order to avoid it good science (and everything else) works in exactly the opposite way: a conclusion is made AFTER examining the available evidence. It should never be your starting point.

    It was for this reason that I suggested that if you were to go into your investigation fully committed to the idea that you will find themes from Star Wars in the Chinese language... you probably will. "Seek and ye shall find".

    ReplyDelete
  4. My apologies for not responding sooner, I agree with you that we do start out with a presuppositional bias. However our point is that everyone has a bias; everyone has a starting point with which they view evidence and the world, aka a worldview. The difference between a presupposition that starts with evolution (or any other view rejecting God) and a presupposition that starts with God and the Bible is that the Christian worldview is correct and the only ultimate starting point that makes sense.

    The theory of evolution, along with other unbiblical belief systems, gives no base for absolute truth. Without absolutes, everything is relative. There is no truth. Therefore individuals who hold to these belief systems have no grounds to say anything with authority. Christians like us, on the other hand, rest in the supreme authority of God. He is the one and only God, creator of all things. He knows everything, is all-powerful, and has chosen to reveal truth to mankind throughout history. The Bible is His Word, the only source of absolute truth we have today. Without an infinite, all-knowing and all-powerful God, you cannot know anything for certain. One of the things we know, since it was revealed in His Word, is that everyone knows that He is God. But unbelievers reject Him in their unrighteousness.

    I would agree that we should not ignore everything contrary to our own opinion, however I am confident that there is no truth contrary to the Bible. I’m not saying there is nothing contrary to my opinion, but I am saying there is nothing that can contradict the Bible, because it is the inerrant, infallible Word of an omnipotent, omniscient God who cannot lie or change. Thus I can trust everything it says and because it is true there will never be anything to contradict it.

    So in the specific case of this article, if we have ignored something contradictory, my apologies, however as stated above, no truth will contradict what the Bible says. In the case of the Chinese language I cannot be dogmatic and say, “I am 100% positive that the early language was telling the pre-flood story” while I would say there does seem to be a fair amount of evidence supporting it (this information was from a book called “The Discovery of Genesis” by C. H. Kang and Ethel Nelson. The authors explain that they didn’t just come up with it themselves, they had language experts aiding them). I cannot be dogmatic about it.

    - Matthew Zuk

    ReplyDelete