Question 47: What is the oldest religion known to man?

Answer: The oldest religion known to man can be traced all the way back to the Garden of Eden story found in Genesis 3. In the first six verses of this chapter,

• Satan challenge God’s Word (v. 1 “yea, hath God said”),
• Eve changes God’s Word (v. 2 she leaves out the word “freely” and v. 3 she adds the restriction of touching the tree, and finally in v.3 she changes God’s Word from “thou shalt surly die” to “lest ye die”),
• Satan responds with a lie (v.4 “ye shall not surly die”)
• Adam & Eve both sin as they disobey God, giving into the lust of the flesh & eyes and the pride of life (v. 6 “and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”).

The world’s first man-made religion is then found in v. 7 which states the following: “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” In an effort to desperately try to cover their nakedness with fig leaves, they created the first religion – using something to cover up their sin when only Jesus Christ can cover sin. In v. 21, “the Lord God make coats and skins, and clothed them” whereby replacing their man-made coverings with animal skins that required the first blood sacrifice to provide them.