If you've read the book review by Clyde Sousa (age 13) you might be asking, why is a Christian church reviewing a Greek myth book? How do myths about false gods written 2,500 years ago relate to us today? Around 400 A.D. Augustine wrote in Confessions, “For you made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you” (the one true God).
There is a long history of people trying to answer the question, “How did I get here, and why am I here?” Creation myths have been people’s attempts to answer those questions apart from having the truth revealed by the one and only God of the Scriptures. Reading myths from ancient cultures can reveal the futile efforts of people apart from God to come up with answers as to who controls the world. When we see their truly powerless gods, we come to worship our one true God even more.
We have a God who loves us so much that he would give us his Word so that we don’t have to guess about why we are here and what our purpose is. We’ve learned from Genesis that God created everything and everything is subject to His rule.
When we read myths from other cultures that fall short of the truth, we can discuss with our children how no invention by any human can come close to anything that resembles the God of the Bible: an all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful God who loves us and desires a holy relationship with us.
We can also use our knowledge of false gods to spread the good news of the one true God. In Acts 17, Paul stood at the Areopagus (“rock of Ares,” the Greek god of war) and used his knowledge of their gods to introduce the Unknown God the Greeks had built an altar for. “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man” (Acts 17:24).
Learning about false gods and cultural myths through well-written stories such as the D’Aulaires’ can help us love our God even more and help us to love people who may not know the one true God yet by sharing the good news of a perfect God who loves them and wants a relationship with them.
Stacy is the mother of five and loves teaching, learning and reading great books!
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