And the Lord God said unto the serpent, … And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The above text can be read in the Torah, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The story it tells is an ancient one. Many believe the narrative comes from Adam, the first of us that bear the image of God. Humanity witnessed the Lord God speak to Satan about the enmity that will be upon the earth because of sin. He foretold that the head of Satan would be bruised. And Satan would bruise the heel of a man. By this we know of a promised hero, a savior.  Even though he is an offspring of a fallen and flawed humanity, he would need to be so much more to destroy evil.  Winning in the face of evil is not something we can do on our own, as humanity’s fall from glory makes obvious.

LEGENDS COME

Since then, down through time, humanity looked for that savior in the face of a man. The pattern carried over into emerging cultures. The manifestation of it can be seen in many times and civilizations. From here legends come. I will name but a few, and in no particular order.

THOR

God of thunder. Son of the chief of the gods of Norse paganism, Odin. His mother was Jord, the personification of the earth. Thor had a magic hammer and did mighty deeds. It was said that Thor was fighting the Frost Giants when it thundered and lightened. Today we look upon the stories of Thor as folly and myth. But there was a time when he was the center of a religion that people were willing to die for, and did.

NIMRUD

Mighty hunter before the Lord. This figure has historical basis. It is believed that he was the one behind the building of the Tower of Babel. Nimrud has a negative reputation, apparently due to his tyrannical nature. His life inspired religion and much folklore. At death he was ascribed to be divine. Even if this mighty man could have bruised the head of evil, it would be like fighting fire with fire.

HERCULES

Son of the king of the gods, Zeus. His mother was a human, Alcmena. Some think that the Hercules myth began with a real person that was elevated to cult status after his death. He is perhaps the most popular character from Greek Mythology. Notice how he fits the pattern from Genesis – part divine, part human. 

KING DAVID

David killed the lion, the bear, and the giant. The story of David is considered to be largely historical rather than fable, but it is just as extraordinary. The divine providence of the Lord God to bring forth a savior out of humanity began with Eve. By the time of David, the human material from which the savior would come was “bottle-necked” into a single bloodline - I have more details about this here:  http://www.theythirstednot.blogspot.com/    

 

Stories of such heroes are everywhere. They inspire religions, art, and literature. The pattern is even in our modern movies – like Dune, Matrix, Star Wars, and even Superman, to name but a few. Since the beginning of paradise lost, we have sought that man that could… bruise the head of the evil one. It began with a promise that the Lord God made in the face of Satan, a prophecy witnessed by humanity. But how could a mere man bruise the head of… the serpent, the roaring lion, the dragon, the fallen star? We looked. We dreamed. We waited.

CHRIST THE TRUTH

Some popular books mistakenly claim that Christ is a copy from some Messiah myth pattern. But such legends are only echoes of the voice of the Lord God that the first man and woman heard in the Garden of Eden.

Christians believe that Jesus (or Iesus, Iesous, ‘Isa, Yeshua, etc.) is the hero that the Lord God spoke of in Genesis. More than that, Christians believe that Christ is God in the flesh. Christian scholars point out that the New Testament of the Bible teaches us that Christ is God.  The complete truth about this will unfold in time, at the Second Coming of Christ according to the holy scriptures.

Why do I consider Christ to be God? I will not go into the biblical details. It is easy enough to find the works of Christian scholars that explain all this. I will simply say that the New Testament points to Christ being God. If you pay attention, you undeniably see it. He did not sin and forgave sins. If you develop the idea, that alone is enough to be called God. But there is more. He often said that God and I are one. He makes the blind see. He quiets the storm with a word. He walks on water. He raised the dead and rose from the dead.

Are religions mere fairytales that help people cope with the challenges of life and mortality?

Maybe. If so, then reality would leave us only with science – evolution, the big bang, etc. I have climbed the summits of science to admire the view, but from there I did not see a happy horizon. Admit it or not, those of an atheistic or purely scientific mindset still must make leaps of faith… and toward an end that is bleak. I accept Christianity, seeing it as my destiny to do so. If it is a myth, at least it serves as a moderating force in my life. It keeps me from killing my neighbor, faithful to my wife, striving toward goodness, and offers peace of mind about death. Without it I would be on a path of destruction and maybe despair, or already dead. Some say that to many have killed in the name of God and cast insults at believers. But secular and atheistic communism kills in the name of the greater good, or whatever. Humans kill for anything, or nothing. This issue is not a deterrent to believing in God, and so I do. To me the universe does not make sense otherwise. I reached these conclusions using the shortsighted logic of my mind. And beyond the logic is much more.  The substance of my faith increases as God blesses me more and more with understanding as time goes by.

And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 

John 1:5