An Ancient Witness to the Brutality of Paganism

One of the interesting things about my recent dialogue with self-described "Pagans" or "Neo-pagans" on this blog is their naïve view that pre-Christian human religions were somehow ethically and morally superior to Biblical Christianity. Of course, their worldview has no place for understanding human depravity, sinfulness, and the bondage of the will. Nor do they comprehend the light and hope the Christian movement brought to mankind.

Christian missionaries, pastors, and laymen preaching the gospel and teaching the Bible brought an end to the inhumane suffering of men and beasts in the Roman gladiatorial games, the aborting and abandoning of children in ancient garbage dumps, the binding of women’s feet in China, the burning of widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands in India, and the end of man’s enslavement of man in the Western world (Slavery still happens in some Muslim dominated areas—but there is little outcry by enlightened liberals against the "religion of peace" for this.).

Look at Julius Caesar’s description of the Druids in Gaul in 54 B. C.:

As a nation the Gauls are extremely superstitious; and so persons suffering from serious diseases, as well as those who are exposed to the perils of battle, offer, or vow to offer, human sacrifices, for the performance of which they employ Druids. They believe that the only way of saving a man’s life is to propitiate the gods' wrath by rendering another life in its place, and they have regular state sacrifices of the same kind. Some tribes have colossal images made of wickerwork, the limbs of which they fill with living men; they are then set on fire, and the victims burnt to death. They think that the gods prefer the execution of men taken in the act of theft or brigandage, or guilty of some offence; but when they run short of criminals, they do not hesitate to make up with innocent men (source: Jon E. Lewis, Ed., Mammoth Book of Eyewitness Ancient Rome, pp. 90-91).

Is this one of the "pagan rituals" we want to teach our children?

For a keen reflection on the "salt and light" influence of Christianity and the blessing it has been to humanity throughout history, see also the sermon by Scottish preacher David P. Murray, "What made Great Britain Great?" This message is also a tremendous warning to our nation and perhaps a prophecy of what lies ahead for American evangelicals.

JTR