Historians, missionaries, archeologists, and creationists tell of the preservation of biblical details by many various people groups. Among other things, these are cultural memories of the creation of mankind, a great worldwide flood, and the dispersion of peoples to far-flung corners of the world after a sudden and tremendous multiplicity of languages. Though corrupted by mistake, legend, and bias, such amazing evidence from all over the world testifies to the incredible historical accuracy of Genesis.
For example, consider the country of Myanmar (formerly Burma) in Southeast Asia, which has been in the news in recent years because of the decades-long communist dictatorship and civil war. The Hmong and Ka-rén, primitive and frequently animist peoples in the mountainous regions of Southeast Asia, have been “freedom fighters” in Myanmar, and have high percentages of Christians among them. For them, there have been cultural connecting points that have helped them come to the Christian faith.
For instance, the Hmong kept an oral tradition of reciting long poems in song at weddings, funerals and other occasions with meticulous recording of their history as descended from Japheth (Jah-phu) son of Noah (Nuah). They were careful to point out that they are not descendants of Ham (Lo-Han), like the Han Chinese, who persecuted them and drove them out of Southern China. They also preserved in their poems the names of many other patriarchs from Genesis, including Shem (Lo-Shen), Lamech (Lama), Cush (Cusah), Gomer (Go-men), and others.1
As in Genesis, the Hmong poems mention that God created man from dirt and that He created a woman from the man He had created. They speak of a Great Flood with torrential rains that lasted exactly 40 days, as Genesis tells us. And the poems speak of the fact that in the beginning, mankind all spoke one language and that they all worked together to build a big city with a very high tower. They say that God became angered at the offensive collective arrogance and made it so they could not understand each other’s language, causing them to abandon the project and disperse throughout the earth.2
Another hill tribe – the Ka-rén – is also known to have poems that relate an astounding connection with the Old Testament understanding of biblical history and of Yahweh (Y’wa). However, the poems do not mention Abraham or Moses. Therefore, they cannot owe their heritage to being a lost tribe of Israel or having other foundational contact with Jews. Neither can they be said to have had contact with Christian missionaries. That’s because they have no poem speaking of Jesus the Redeemer. In fact, what they did have at the time of Adoniram Judson’s missionary contact in 1813 was an ancient tradition of a prophecy of a white man carrying a golden book who would one day arrive to bring salvation! 3
Indeed, one of Judson’s first few converts to Christianity in Myanmar was a Ka-rén thief and murderer, Ko Tha Byu, whom Judson met in prison. He became an incredible evangelist to his people, connecting the dots for his listeners to their own people’s history and prophecy! Through Byu, many thousands became Christians. And conversions spilled over to other hill tribes as well, with continued missionary activity through the 19th and 20th centuries.
Hill tribes such as the Lahu, the Wa, the Akha, the Lisu, the KaChin and others had heard of the white-man-golden-book-salvation prophecy and had their own people-group history connecting to true biblical history, helping to steer them to redemption with our Holy Creator!
In a time of false philosophy, ideology, and revisionist history, we do well to remember, and to encourage others to understand, that we all need to go to the Bible to accurately assess the truth. The Bible shines the light on all things and offers life abundant and eternal.
References:
- Cooper, B., The Authenticity of the Book of Genesis, Creation Science Movement.
- Ibid, page 242.
- Rogers, B., “People of the ‘Golden’ Book”, Premier Christianity.
Image: Hmong Woman in Laos, Thomas Schoch, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
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