The Ideas of a General Atonement and Redemption, Entertained by
Ancient Heathen Nations, Derived Originally from the Teachings of
Earlier Servants of God.
The following are some natural deductions drawn from the theories
entertained by men and recorded in history, which tend to establish
rather than to overturn the principles which are so clearly
demonstrated in the foregoing pages, exhibiting and showing that the
atonement was a great plan of the Almighty for the salvation,
redemption and exaltation of the human family; and that the pretenders
in the various ages had drawn whatever of truth they possessed, from a
knowledge of those principles taught by the Priesthood from the
earliest periods of recorded time; instead of Christianity being
indebted, as some late writers would allege, to the turbid systems of
heathen mythology and to pagan ceremonials.
We believe in the foregoing pages it has been clearly demonstrated to
all Latter-day Saints, that the prophecy and promise of the coming of
the Son of God was fully understood in every dispensation of God's
providence from the earliest period of the world's history, down
through the succeeding ages, everywhere and at all times when the
Church of God existed on the earth. Furthermore, that the doctrine of
the atonement, as understood by us, was understood in like manner by
the ancient servants of the Lord, and that it was the central
principle of their faith, the foundation of their hope for eternal
felicity and salvation, and their only trust for the resurrection of
their bodies and life everlasting in the presence of the Father. Again
that the ancient Patriarchs, Seers, Prophets, High Priests and others,
were almost as intimately acquainted with the earthly life and
ministry of the Savior, by and through the gift of prophecy and the
spirit of revelation, as we are by the perusal of His history, given
to us in the sacred Scriptures. These worthies of olden time knew
where He would be born and the names that would be given to Him; that
His mother would be called Mary, and be a virgin of the tribe of Judah
and house of David. Herod's massacre of the Innocents, and the flight
of the holy family into Egypt, were not hidden from them. They spake
of Christ's baptism by John in Jordan, and of the Divine approval that
would follow; they prophesied of His ministry, rejoiced in His
wonderful works of power and deeds of charity and love; they
understood that He should be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver;
they mourned at the vision of His sufferings and death, and rejoiced
at his triumph and resurrection. Even the minor details of the
soldiers parting His raiment among them, His death between two
malefactors, and His burial in the rich man's tomb were revealed; and
still further, His descent into Hades, His preaching to the spirits in
prison, His visits to the Nephites and His ultimate ascension to the
Father, were all comprehended. They knew that He would triumph over
death, hell and the grave, be crowned with glory at the right hand of
the Majesty on high, and that all power would be given to Him in
heaven and on earth. These and many more details were understood,
prophesied of, talked about and rejoiced in by the Priesthood and
Saints from the days of Adam to the hour that they began to be
fulfilled by His advent and incarnation.
It is needless for us to go backward to the days before the flood to
learn to what extent these truths were understood by the antediluvian
races; for all the accounts that we have of those peoples come down to
us through the channel of the Holy Priesthood, and all the records,
books, traditions, etc., of those early inhabitants of our globe were
brought to the children of the renovated earth through one family,
that of Noah; and that Patriarch, by right of universal fatherhood to
the new generations, ruled them as High Priest, Patriarch and King, as
one to whom the living God revealed His mind and will, through whom
the keys, rights and powers of the everlasting Priesthood were
continued upon the earth, and with whom special covenants were made by
the Almighty and the bow set in the clouds as an everlasting token of
their perpetuity and unchangeableness.
It will be perceived that in the first days after the flood there was
but one religion, and that was the worship of the true God under the
ministration and guidance of His duly authorized servants. Further,
that the belief of the first inhabitants of the postdiluvian age was
not only the true one, but it was accompanied by the power and
authority of the Holy Priesthood, which received revelations direct
from the Almighty. Thus the young world, like the old, was opened with
a dispensation of God's mercy, and the posterity of Noah were not left
to grope in the dark for light and truth, anymore than had been the
immediate descendants of our great original father. The effects of
thus repeopling the earth under the direct and immediate guidance of
Jehovah, through His duly appointed servants, have been felt through
all succeeding generations; for men, as they scattered over the earth,
took with them the seeds of Divine truth, and though, frequently, in
after ages, they disfigured it with false and base theories of their
own, introduced all manner of corruptions into their forms of worship,
established orders of uninspired and unauthorized priesthood, and
replaced the worship of the true God by idolatry, yet the fact of the
existence of God the universal Father was not entirely forgotten, nor
was the doctrine of the atonement ever utterly obliterated from the
minds of men. So strong and so universal a hold had this principle in
the varied religions of antiquity, that its very strength has been
used as an argument against the doctrine; and it has been vigorously
asserted that the Gospel taught by the Savior was of pagan origin, and
that He was simply a reformer who took the most excellent wisdom of
past ages and framed it into a code of morals and system of religious
faith to suit His own ideas and accomplish His own purposes, however
noble those purposes might have been.
The earliest departures from the straight and narrow path to the lives
that are eternal, appear to have been made in Chaldea and Egypt. In
the former land, Nimrod was one of the first leaders in apostacy and
wickedness.[A] These evils so rapidly spread, that as early as the
days of Melchizedec and Abraham, the worship of false deities and
idols seems to have become almost universal; and even those who did
not worship graven images, the starry hosts of heaven, or the forces
of nature, had so far perverted the principles of the Gospel, that
they taught numerous soul destroying errors, totally inconsistent with
the plan devised by heaven. In Egypt the apostacy began, and an
unauthorized priesthood was established as early as the days of the
grandson of Ham. The origin of this defection is explained in the Book
of Abraham, as follows:
[Footnote A: Josephus' Antiquities, Book I, Chap. 4.]
"Now the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the
eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the
manner of the government of Ham, which was Patriarchal. Pharaoh being
a righteous man, established his kingdom and judged his people wisely
and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that order
established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of
the first Patriarchal reign, even in the reign of Adam, and also of
Noah, his father, who blessed him with the blessings of the earth, and
with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the
Priesthood.
"Now, Pharaoh being of that lineage by which he could not have the
right of Priesthood, notwithstanding the Pharaohs would fain claim it
from Noah, through Ham."
As the idolatries of Chaldea and Egypt gave marked tone and color to
the mythologies of the dominant races of antiquity on the eastern
hemisphere, we shall not trace the growth and development of the
religions of Persia, Greece, Rome, etc., through their various
branches and ramifications. Such an effort would require a volume; but
we shall confine ourselves simply to a brief consideration of the
doctrine of the atonement, as understood by the ancient Gentile
nations; referring only to such other theories and ideas as have
naturally a bearing on that doctrine.
As a starting point we believe we may state with assurance of its
truth that the expectation of the coming of a Son of God, a Messiah,
in the flesh was universal with all the leading nations that
flourished in the ages previous to the advent of the Redeemer. This is
true of the people of Egypt, Babylon, Arabia, Persia, Hindostan,
Greece and Rome; as also of the races that inhabited the American
continent. And so strong in certain cases had this idea grown that by
gradual stages it became changed into the belief that that expected
Son of God had already come, and such a being was reverenced and
worshiped under various names. In Greece and Rome this idea became so
prevalent that nearly every very eminent man was thought to be a son
of one of the gods; and evil designing men sometimes personated these
deities on purpose to seduce the virtuous of the other sex, whose
chastity they could overcome in no other way than by falsely declaring
themselves to be the god for whom such women had particular reverence
and esteem.[A] Whilst on the other hand young women who found
themselves mothers without husbands would cunningly declare that their
children were the offspring of a god; or, to use the words of the
historian Grote, when speaking of Greece, "the furtive pregnancy of
young women, often by a god, is one of the most frequently recurring
incidents in the legendary narratives of the country." To such an
extent did this excess run, that at a later period a decree was issued
subjecting to a very severe penalty any woman who should pretend that
her child was of divine parentage. One writer states: "Many are the
cases noted in history of young maidens claiming a paternity for their
male offspring by a god. In Greece it became so common that the
reigning king issued an edict, decreeing the death of all young women
who should offer such an insult to Deity as to lay to him the charge
of begetting their children." Whilst on this point Mr. Draper writes:
"Immaculate conceptions and celestial descents were so currently
received in those days, that whoever had greatly distinguished himself
in the affairs of men was thought to be of supernatural lineage. Even
in Rome, centuries later, no one could with safety have denied that
that city owed its founder, Romulus, to an accidental meeting of the
god Mars with the virgin Rhea Sylvia, as she went with her pitcher for
water to the spring. The Egyptian disciples of Plato would have looked
with anger on those who rejected the legend that Perictione, the
mother of the great philosopher, a pure virgin, had suffered an
immaculate conception through the influences of Apollo, and that the
god had declared to Ariston, to whom she was betrothed, the parentage
of the child. When Alexander issued his letters, orders and decrees,
styling himself 'King Alexander, the son of Jupiter Amnion,' they came
to the inhabitants of Egypt and Syria with an authority that now can
hardly be realized. The freethinking Greeks, however, put on such a
supernatural pedigree its proper value. Olympias [Alexander's mother],
who, of course, better than all others knew the facts of the case,
used jestingly to say, that 'she wished Alexander would cease from
incessantly embroiling her with Jupiter's wife.'"—Draper's Conflict
between Religion and Science.
[Footnote A: See Josephus' Antiquities, Book xviii, Chapter iii.]
Returning to Egypt where, as before stated, a priesthood, disowned of
God, had been set up, we are informed[A] that those who were initiated
into the inner mysteries of its mythology, were taught that God
created all things at the first, by His first born, who was the author
and giver of all knowledge in heaven and on earth, being at the same
time the wisdom and the word of God. The incarnation and earthly life
of this important being constituted the grand mystery of their entire
religious system. So great was their faith in the advent of this Holy
One, that they had chambers prepared in their temples for His
nativity.
[Footnote A: See Osborn's "Religions of the World."]
The priesthood of the Egyptians, though entirely without Divine
authority, taught many great truths which they had received from Noah,
through Ham and Pharaoh, and it took generations before these Gospel
truths were so entirely overlaid and corrupted by falsehood and pagan
innovations, that they became undiscernable to all but the initiated.
It is an important fact, holding good of other ancient civilizations
as well as that of Egypt, that the farther we trace back their
religious beliefs and mythologies, the purer does the creed become,
the nearer it approaches to heavenly truth, and the stronger and more
evident are the traces of Gospel teachings. This fact alone is
sufficient to prove that paganism had its origin in the revelations of
heaven, from which, in its various diverse branches, it had turned and
strayed, and by gradual growth, had become the vile, inconsistent,
degrading and loathsome system which is abhorred by all pure minded,
honorable and intelligent people. Had the various forms of ancient
dominant pagan worship been radically and entirely different, with
only those features in common that could reasonably be attributed to
accident or the inter-communication of races, the inference would be
strong that they had different origins; but when, as is the case,
there is a strong family likeness, and that likeness grows stronger
the further it is traced back, and continually points to a common
parentage, and that parentage is the truth as taught by the early
patriarchs and inspired servants of heaven, our conclusions must
necessarily be that these correct and God-given teachings were the
source from whence the whole sprang, and the differences in
development arose from the varied incidents in the history, and the
peculiar surroundings of the various races that gave a local hue and
tinge to their forms of belief. It is also noteworthy that the
fundamental principles of the everlasting plan devised by infinite
wisdom, and which were the most widely taught and accepted, are those
which prevailed the most extensively in pagan creeds, and which
longest retained their hold in the faith of the different races.[A]
Amongst these ideas or principles we will mention a few that were so
general that they might almost be called universal:
[Footnote A: See writings of Hitzig, Hyde, Faber, Goodsir, Higgins,
Osborn, Levy, etc.]
1st. The belief in one great father God.
2d, The expectation of the coming of His Son to dwell in the flesh and
redeem mankind.
3d. The belief in a resurrection, and in future rewards and
punishments for acts done in this life.
4th. The observance of the rite of sacrifice.
5th. The doctrine of repentance, and in certain cases the ordinance of
baptism.
We ask, when it is proved that all these principles were taught by the
duly appointed servants of God in the earliest ages, where else but
from them could the ancient Gentile races have obtained their
knowledge thereof?
Men have been ever prone to apostacy; our fallen nature is at enmity
with a godly life; sometimes in one way, sometimes in another, Satan
led men from the right path and under the influences of a false or
diabolic inspiration many errors were introduced; as well as through
the natural corrupt ambition of men who sought to obtain power over
their fellows by promulgating new theories in the name of God and
under the auspices of religion. The "ologies" of to-day would have
been impossible in the days of Pharaoh and Nimrod. The style of
apostacy was necessarily fashioned by the condition of men's minds,
their advance in civilization, and their understanding of physical
laws. In the rudimentary condition of the nations who scattered at
Babel, the easiest thing for them to do was to worship their dead
ancestors and the heavenly orbs. In due course naturally followed the
framing of idols, which at first only represented the being or thing
worshiped, but which were afterwards regarded as gods themselves, and
as such reverenced. The idea of God's anger at men's sins, associated
with the law of sacrifice, led mankind to believe that the more
precious and beloved was the offering to him who offered it, the more
acceptable would it be to heaven. As a result, men soon began to offer
up their sons and their daughters to appease the wrath of their gods.
Abraham informs us:
"Now, at this time it was the custom of the priest of Pharaoh, the
king of Egypt, to offer up upon the altar which was built in the land
of Chaldea, for the offering unto these strange gods, men, women and
children. And it came to pass that the priest made an offering unto
the god of Pharaoh, and also unto the god of Shagreel, even after the
manner of the Egyptians. Now the god of Shagreel was the Sun. Even the
thank-offering of a child did the priest of Pharaoh offer upon the
altar which stood by the hill called Potiphar's Hill, at the head of
the plain of Olishem. Now, this priest had offered upon this altar
three virgins at one time, who were the daughters of Onitah, one of
the royal descent directly from the loins of Ham. These virgins were
offered up because of their virtue; they would not bow down to worship
gods of wood or of stone, therefore they were killed upon this altar,
and it was done after the manner of the Egyptians."—Book of Abraham.
This practice of offering human sacrifices had become very general on
the eastern continent in Abraham's day.
One peculiar phase of false doctrine with regard to the atonement had
grown strong in the days of this Patriarch. It was "that the blood of
the righteous Abel was shed for sins."[A] This was a very natural
mental outgrowth among people who believed in the consequences of the
fall of Adam and had been taught the necessity of a redeemer. It was a
very easy thing to fall into the error that as Adam had transgressed,
so his immediate son atoned by his blood for his father's act. And in
the spread of this incorrect idea of Abel's atonement amongst the
early peoples, may be found the origin of the many diversified legends
of a sacrificed redeemer. This theory was taught at a day so early in
the world's history, that it spread with the migrating races in every
direction, so that traces of it can be found from Hindostan to Spain,
from the Baltic to Ethiopia. Of course, every people in their own
language had their peculiar name for this savior, and each race
claimed him as theirs, as Abel certainly belonged as much to one as
the other, having no posterity; and by degrees they wove many fanciful
and mythical legends round his life and death, varying according to
the tastes, imaginative power and environment of the different races.
This, to a very great extent, explains that enigma to Christians, who
believe that Gospel truths were first taught by Jesus when in the
flesh, how the knowledge of the principle of the atonement and the
tradition of a Savior was so wide spread throughout the world before
His actual coming.
[Footnote A: Inspired translation of Genesis, xvii, 7.]
There is another way by which the knowledge of these truths was
taught. We refer to the extended preaching of such worthies as
Melchizedec, Abraham, Jethro, Job, Jeremiah, Jonah and others; and
above all to that of the Apostles after the Redeemer's death.
Dispensation succeeded dispensation, as age succeeded age; time and
time again the people apostatized, but each time some little remnant
of divine truth remained with them. Jesus Christ was preached by name
soon after the creation, as Cyrus was named by divine revelation about
two hundred years before his birth. Thus, in some languages, we have
accounts of great men of God or gods, as the case may be, whose acts
are said to have been, in a greater or less degree, the counterpart of
those of the Messiah when He tabernacled in the flesh; and whose names
bear a most remarkable likeness to that of the Son of God. Hence we
have Checsna or Chrishna of Hindostan, and Hesus of the Druids, both
of which names bear a marked similarity to those of the Redeemer; the
first to Christ, the second to Jesus. It appears altogether probable
that the histories of these men are simply the shadowy traditions of
the Savior, the faint recollection of the teachings of inspired men,
which were localized to suit sectional vanity or pride of race; or
that some ancient teacher of their own peoples has been clothed with
the attributes and works of Christ, and during the lapse of ages the
acts and deeds of the two lives have been intermingled in one, until
at this day a rightful separation is impossible. This habit of mixing
and mingling the great deeds of several distinct persons, and forming
therefrom one grand, if not altogether harmonious whole is one well
understood by those who have studied the traditions of mankind; it is
not peculiar to any age or race, and even in our day we often find a
certain anecdote, whether real or imaginary, told of various
celebrities, some of whom may be yet living, while others are among
the recent dead. The effects of this habit, when continued through
long ages, amongst semi-civilized or barbarous nations, went far to
fashion the history of their gods, and often to manufacture deities
out of altogether imaginary personages.
Modern revelation has restored another most important key to unlock
the mystery of the almost universal knowledge of the Redeemer and of
the plan of the atonement. It is found in the statement that Jesus,
after his resurrection, visited at least the inhabitants of two
distinct portions of the earth, which could not have been reached
through the ministry of His Jewish Apostles. These two peoples were
the Nephites on this land, and the Ten Tribes in their distant
northern home. The knowledge that the Mexicans, and other aboriginal
races of America had, at the time of their discovery by the Spaniards,
of the life of the Savior, was so exact, that the Catholics suggested
two theories (both incorrect, however) to solve the mystery. One was
that the devil had invented an imitation gospel to delude the Indians;
the other, that the Apostle Thomas had visited America and taught its
people the plan of salvation.
The story of the life of the Mexican divinity, Quetzalcoatl, closely
resembles that of the Savior; so closely, indeed, that we can come to
no other conclusion than that Quetzalcoatl and Christ are the same
being. But the history of the former has been handed down to us
through an impure Lamanitish source, which has sadly disfigured and
perverted the original incidents and teachings of the Savior's life
and ministry. Regarding this god, Humboldt writes: "How truly
surprising is it to find that the Mexicans, who seem to have been
unacquainted with the doctrine of the migration of the soul and the
Metempsychosis should have believed in the incarnation of the only
Son of the supreme God, Tomacateuctli. For Mexican mythology,
speaking of no other Son of God, except Quetzalcoatl, who was born of
Chimelman, the virgin of Tula (without man), by His breath alone, by
which may be signified his word or will, when it was announced to
Chimelman, by the celestial messenger, whom He dispatched to inform
her that she should conceive a son, it must be presumed this was
Quetzalcoatl, who was the only son. Other authors might be adduced to
show that the Mexicans believe that this Quetzalcoatl was both God and
man; that He had previously to His incarnation existed from eternity,
and that He had been the Creator both of the world and man; and that
He had descended to reform the world by endurance, and being king of
Tula, was crucified for the sins of mankind, etc., as is plainly
declared in the tradition of Yucatan, and mysteriously represented in
the Mexican paintings."
The following brief extracts relating to Quetzalcoatl, are from Lord
Kingsborough's "Antiquities of Mexico." Speaking of a certain plate,
he observes: "Quetzalcoatl is there painted in the attitude of a
person crucified, with the impression of nails in his hands and feet,
but not actually upon the cross." Again: "The seventy-third plate of
the Borgian MS. is the most remarkable of all, for Quetzalcoatl is not
only represented there as crucified upon a cross of Greek form, but
his burial and descent into hell are also depicted in a very curious
manner." In another place he observes: "The Mexicans believe that
Quetzalcoatl took human nature upon him, partaking of all the
infirmities of man, and was not exempt from sorrow, pain or death,
which he suffered voluntarily to atone for the sins of man."
Rosales, in his history, when speaking of the people of the extreme
southern portion of America, states: "They had heard their fathers
say, a wonderful man had come to that country * * * who performed many
miracles, cured the sick with water, caused it to rain that their
crops of grain might grow, kindled fire at a breath, healing the sick
and giving sight to the blind; and that he spoke with as much
propriety and elegance in the language of their country as if he had
always resided in it, addressing them in words very sweet and new to
them, telling them that the Creator of the universe resided in the
highest place of heaven, and that many men and women, resplendent as
the sun, dwelt with him."
Thus we see that in the tradition's with regard to this especial God,
we have an almost complete life of the Savior, from the announcement
of His birth to His virgin mother by an angel, to His resurrection
from the grave. Had we space, other extracts could be given, showing
that there were many details, not above mentioned, ascribed to
Quetzalcoatl, that relate to incidents in the life of Christ. The Book
of Mormon alone explains the mystery. The account there given of
Christ's ministrations amongst the forefathers of these peoples makes
the whole thing plain. We understand, through that record, how and by
what means they obtained this great knowledge, and can also readily
perceive how the unworthy descendants of those whom the Savior
visited, gradually added much childish rubbish to the original facts;
making their story, like almost all other mythology, an unseemly
compound of heavenly truth and puerile fable. But, in view of these
facts, when all things are considered, it is almost a wonder that so
much of the truth was retained to the days when America became known
to Europeans.
We find, in the mythology of the Northmen, certain traditions that
lead us to imagine that it is possible that the visit of the Savior to
the Ten Tribes was by some means communicated to them. But this is
simply a conjecture. However, it is asserted that they claimed that
Woden, one of their principal deities, was a descendant of King David,
a very curious circumstance, that it is difficult to explain, only on
the supposition of Christ's visit, and that Woden, with them, occupied
the place that Quetzalcoatl did with the Mexicans.
There is yet another source from which the ancients obtained their
ideas of the life and mission of the Son of God. It is to be found in
the translation of Enoch and his city. The fact of Enoch's translation
was generally known by the people who lived immediately after the
flood. It had occurred so short a time before, that it was almost a
matter of personal recollection with the sons of Noah. They must also
have been acquainted with the fact that others were caught up by the
power of heaven into Zion, and it would appear strongly probable that
Melchizedec and many of his people were also translated. Revelation
does not state this in so many words, but the inference to be drawn
from what is said, points clearly in that direction. The fact of these
translations, the frequent visits of angels to men holding the
Priesthood, and the manifestation of God's power over the elements of
nature made manifest through His servants, laid a foundation for many
of the fables of ancient mythology; some of which, if we were to
change the names and localities to those of Bible history, would not
be as far from the truth as many suppose. This era of
inter-communication with the holy beings of the other world was easily
magnified and distorted into the Golden Age when gods dwelt with men,
associated with much of earth life, and were swayed by passions very
much as were their mortal companions. And, as before remarked, the
simplicity of these traditions was greatly changed as the ages rolled
around, until they were completely overlaid and hidden by abominable
and monstrous fables, invented, taught and used by the priests and
their associates for their own sinister and unholy purposes.
From the whole of these statements, we gather that while men, who have
written in relation to the various gods, or virgins who have, each in
her turn, conceived and borne a god or a messiah, would argue that the
accounts of the birth, ministry, death, resurrection, etc., of the
Savior, were simply a backing up and resuscitating of some of the old
legends of heathen mythology which had been in existence in ages long
antecedent to His advent, and that, therefore, the account of the life
and works of the Redeemer was simply an act of priestcraft, to
introduce another messiah, and another establishment of religion in
the interests of the projectors, and that Christianity was simply a
copy of the old paganisms that had exhibited themselves in the forms
above referred to, whereas the reverse is clearly demonstrated in the
foregoing chapters on the atonement. The fact is clearly proved,
instead of Christianity deriving its existence and facts from the
ideas and practices of heathen mythologists, and from the various
false systems that had been introduced by apostacy, unrecognized
pretensions and fraud, that those very systems themselves were
obtained from the true Priesthood, and founded on its teachings from
the earliest ages to the advent of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ;
that those holy principles were taught to Adam, and by him to his
posterity; that Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and the various Prophets had all
borne testimony of this grand and important event, wherein the
interest and happiness of the whole world were concerned, pertaining
to time and to eternity. The Gospel is a system, great, grand and
comprehensive, commencing in eternity, extending through all time, and
then reaching into the eternities to come; and the ideas with regard
to these disjointed materials, that are gathered together from the
turbid waters of heathen mythology, are so much clap trap and
nonsense, calculated only to deceive the unwary, superstitious and
ignorant, and are as far below those great and eternal principles of
heavenly truth which permeate through all time, penetrate into the
heavens, and are interwoven with all the interests, happiness and
exaltation of man, as the earth is below the heavens above. The object
of placing this statement before our brethren, is to prove and
demonstrate, what was stated in the commencement, that these truths
should "grow together unto the confounding of false doctrines, and
laying down of contentions."
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