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History: A Theory
A question which may bother many people, one which has bothered me, is why, if God is supreme over all, are there so many other religions in the world? Why did the begin if God created all people and all people at one time, at least, knew of and worshipped him? Such a question is difficult to answer; indeed, it may never be answered, as no human truly knows the reality of God's plan. However, as I posed this question to my own troubled mind, I propose a possible answer. In the next few paragraphs I will give my theory on how now pagan religions developed. It is just a theory and not concrete belief, nor a proved thesis.
If we look at the Biblical account of our history, we see, basically, the creation of man, then the great flood which killed all but Noah and his ark. From this point on we see the creation of humanity again. Judaism is really a reformation of the earlier beliefs; the people until that time had simply had a personal relationship with God without any official religious doctrine. As they became less faithful and pleasing to God, however, Judaism was introduced to restore worship of God. However, this, like many reformations, only affected the Israelites and their surrounding neighbors. And over time, even this reformation failed to restore the faith in God. All over the world, people, as they dispersed in time and space, began to drift from God; they thus began newer religions.
These newer religions were founded originally on the original religion: the faith in God. Over time and perhaps with the influence of Satan, however, the drifted away from God and took on a service role; most of the worlds religions focus on how god or the gods can help and benefit people. Again, while some elements of the original faith my have been retained, over time these religions faded from the original commitment to God. And as Judaism was itself fading from the original faith, Christ came to reform not only it, but all of the world. Christianity quickly spread into much of Europe and parts of Asia and Africa. This new reformation was doing what the old Jewish one had not. And as time went on, even this newer one was not keeping people faithful to the one true God. But instead of reforming with an entirely new faith, Christianity reformed from within, constantly restoring itself to what it should be. We see this constant reformation even today, as we witness those who call themselves Christians, but do not follow God, and also as we witness people changing their ways to restore their faith.
This theory is admittedly simplistic and with little concrete support. Perhaps in time I can expand on and strengthen it, for now I leave you with the above to consider.
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