Snapshots of Serpent Deities: The Water Serpent

By Bethany Youngblood

(Wikimedia commons)

For the Tewa Indians living near the Rio Grande in New Mexico, as well as other Pueblo people of North America, the “mythical” Avanyu was believed to be a very powerful god. According to their ancient religion, this deity can supposedly cause both earthly and supernatural events. Like other serpent deities of ancient North America, the beliefs about Avanyu seem to be similar to those found in Meso-America, leading many archaeologists to lump them together under the same term: “Feathered Serpent”.

Traditions of Christmas

By Analea Styles

To begin this post, we want to be clear that we are not condemning Christmas or the classic Christmas traditions and symbols. This post is merely to inform and encourage you to think about what we truly celebrate during this season and why.

The Christmas holiday has been a beloved celebration for hundreds of years for many Christians. Many people believe that Christmas really began with the birth of Christ and is a purely Christian holiday but this is actually not the case. Here are a few examples of Christmas traditions that may have roots in ancient pagan practices.

A Stone Canvas (Part 1)

 By Bethany Youngblood

Chauvet Cave
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/

Mention “cave art”, and you’ve introduced the image of charcoal scrawls and odd looking stick-men into your listener’s head. This realm of primitive man cannot possibly hold any of the beauty or finesse we associate with the term ‘art’, can it? What is more, even if the doodles could be recognized as man or beast, would they have any commonality with our art today? The answer is a resounding yes! The realm of ancient artwork is a vast landscape rich in a variety of styles and purposes. To serve as an introduction to this beautiful chapter of ancient man we want to take you on a little art tour. We will start by focusing in on that first misconception at the beginning of this paragraph: cave art.

Timelines and Perspectives: Timelines of History

By Brian Mariani

How many religions do you think there are there in the world? Millions? Thousands? Hundreds? A dozen?

Ancient Java: Exploring Commonalities and Counterfeits

By Tim Thornton

Bell-shaped stupas of Borobudur
Photo Credit: Sid Thornton

Along the equator in Southeast Asia is a vast archipelago of over 17,000 islands known today as the country of Indonesia. With the world's fourth largest population, Indonesia is home to hundreds of people groups and languages that have their roots in a variety of ancient cultures.[1]  The island of Java holds many antiquities that give us insight into the past of one such ancient culture.

The Heaven's Counterfeited!

By Danae Styles

Flammarion Woodcut depicting a flat earth with a curious traveller peaking out into the world beyond. 

The night sky has captured the hearts and minds of mankind since the beginning of time. It is great and unknown, challenging human intellect and imagination. Perhaps this is because “the heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Psalm 19:1-2 emphasis added). That glory is a beautiful mystery to man; he desires to know it and understand it. And so the he lifts his eyes to the night sky and ponders...

Babel is Not Gone

By Jacob Brockmann

Artist's concept of the tower of Babel
http://www.emergingtruths.com/tower_of_babel/tower_of_babel.html

We recognize many commonalities between the religious and cultural systems of ancient people, but what significance does that have to us today?

We can see the influence of Satan's counterfeit throughout the world of long ago, and this can be a powerful demonstration of the influence that Babel (also called Babylon) has had in our culture. But what kind of Babylonian influence would we find if we looked around ourselves now?

Gospel in the Stars?

By Analea Styles

In our article The Heavens Declare we present from Scripture how God created the stars with a plan and a purpose. He counts them and names them.  And because God never says or names anything without meaning, their names must have a purpose that ultimately brings Him glory.

What was/is this purpose? There are some who say God wrote the gospel in the stars and their constellations as a witness to all mankind from the beginning of time. This is our defense for the possibility of this theory.

The Heavens Declare

By Analea Styles

Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also.” Genesis 1:14-16 (NASB) 

The Genius of Ancient Man teaches the Axiom that Satan is incapable of creating anything (Axioms section, page 100). He can only pervert that which God has already designed. In fact, it is his aim to distort anything and everything that God has planned and created. Therefore, when we see a great distortion, we can discern there must be a great truth worth distorting.

So it is with the stars. In chapter four, The Genius of Ancient Man presents a brief overview of Satan’s counterfeit of God’s work in the heavens (page 35). The stars have been used for horoscopes, astrology, false worship and telling the future, but these were not their intended purpose. They are a part of God’s creation and they declare His glory. The existences of such anti-God perversions involving the stars hints to us the existence of a pure and beautiful purpose for which God designed them. Here we would like to explore God’s purpose for the stars in more detail.