From the title, the premise of the book is that God created man perfect, including his intellect. From the very beginning of time, mankind has possessed many creative and intellectual abilities that far surpass even the most learned in our own time.

But this isn't what the evolutionists would have us believe. In order for their "theory" to hold true, man would have to evolve from an unintelligent ape into a supreme fount of knowledge. This isn't what we see when we examine ancient history.

The Genius of Ancient Man: Evolution's Nightmare is an extremely well-researched textbook on the intelligence and accomplishments of ancient man.

An important concept related to this intelligence, is the fact that it was there before man was dispersed at the Tower of Babel. We know this because the same abilities are seen all over the world in all different cultures. For instance, several cultures around the world have succeeded in building towers and structures that boggle the minds of present day scholars. These cultures didn't have Google to look up "how to build a ziggurat" and there were no YouTube videos to teach "construction methods of ancient pyramids." This was information that was passed down to the cultures from their ancestors...their common ancestors.

It was also at the Tower of Babel that Satan showed his desire to counterfeit the things of the Lord. One of the first counterfeits was the tower itself. But there have been many, many more counterfeits over time. The book names several of the counterfeits, including man-made mountains (towers), astrology (counterfeiting God's original purpose for the stars), human sacrifice (God made the ultimate human sacrifice with His perfect son, as a redemption for sinful man), and rainbows (very interesting discussion on Satan's attempts to pervert the rainbow)--and several others!

Other than the fact that there was so much research done to produce a book of this caliber, my favorite parts of the book were the beautiful images in the book and the well thought out charts and graphs. I am a visual learner and these two things helped me realize the extent of the similarities in cultures all over the world. The charts and graphs help to break down the information into bite-size digestible nuggets.

For instance, a pictorial map shows over 50 locations where pyramids, ziggurats, obelisks, mounds and henges are located. When it is put together in this way, the reader can really get a grasp of how widespread the intelligence needed to build these was dissipated. And because all of these monuments were built early in the history of mankind, we can see how profound mankind's knowledge was at this time!

No longer are we left with the primitive caveman grunting and pointing. Ancient men (and women) were truly geniuses!

The Genius of Ancient Man: Evolution's Nightmare is another of Master Book's publishing successes. Don Landis, the general editor for the book in conjunction with Jackson Hole Bible College have put together a wonderful book in explaining facts about ancient man from a Biblical worldview, that some, even Christians may fail to realize or even know about. The book is hardcovered and case bound and measures 8 1/2 by 11 inches and has 112 pages that are full of factual information and scientific process that doesn't debunk the Bible as merely a story. This isn't a simple, read-through-in-a-day book this book must be relished, taking the time to read and understand it's findings in light of Biblical historical accuracy.

Some of what you'll read include:

Why structures echoing the Tower of Babel have been recreated on almost every continent and major culture

What artifacts and archaeology, technology and innovation really reveal about the origin of mankind

Why many biblical symbols (rainbows, human sacrifice, mountains, the Son/sun worship) were, and continue to be, distorted in pagan religious practices

What the historical record reveals about Satan's "counterfeit" of God's plan for humanity

I found it fascinating how well this book tied in with our current history and geography curriculum and find it fascinating to read more about the statues of Easter Island and that dragons really did roam the earth with humans (there is some speculation that there even may be some dragon-like creatures alive today, but I digress). I love it when a book that has been researched and can prove the Bible's truth in God's Creation and historical accuracy as well as prove to man how Satan can turn good and perfect things into evil things. I really enjoyed this book and it gives me a chance to delve deeper into our studies as well as giving my older children something more than milk — it gives them the meat that they'll need to eventually stand for God's Word in a world and even a Church that is diluting God's Word.

**Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of this book from Master Books, a division of New Leaf Publishing, in exchange for posting my honest opinion, no other compensation was given.

You might be saying Why is this book about Ancient Man important for Christians at ALL? And I am too happy to tell you. Dr. Don Landis, President of Jackson Hole Bible College. together with his research team, is the author of this book, The Genius of Ancient Man., This book is a large hard bound book filled with history, archeology, color photographs while providing a glimpse of the way that History is His story, and truth can never be rewritten to the point that it completely hides God's works and ways, although the enemy will try. In the war against God, keeping people from seeing His hand in history is a major strategy. When God says that Man was made in His image, and that even after the Fall man was fantastically intelligent, the enemy trains our children to think ancient man could barely figure out how to tie a loin cloth on and sat in a cave trying to make fire all day. Cartoons like Barney Rubble gave us this, and I know older adults who had been given the idea that aliens built the impressive structures of the ancient world.

Once again, science and observation are on the Christians side. This is why I am so excited to read this book- clear writing, color photography, and it is big! Twelve by ten inches and 107 pages long, this book, like all sound Christian Books, never neglects the spiritual realities of a topic. The way we think about ancient man will depend on our beliefs about spiritual things, our presuppositions. And most disturbing, if God's Word is not our foundation, we will get our ideas from other places, and those ideas will determine how we view ancient man and everything else. There are MANY counterfeit views on ancient man. It is not enough to have evolutionists telling us that we are slightly refined old world monkeys, spinning about in a world devoid of meaning, we now have new age cultists telling us that we are cycling through history, with mankind reaching almost to the heavens and then being wiped out again and again- with the final wipeout coming this December, four days before Christmas. In the midst of all these voices, what does the Bible tell us? What does history tell us? What does the record that ancient man left behind tell us? What do the mathematically correct angles and artful masonry of their work testify to? This book shows us through 107 pages of full color photographs. These photographs, maps, and timelines lay out the history of ancient man, what he built, what technology he had, how he traveled, where he traveled to, and all of this ultimately testifies to which version of history is true. It is Scripture's account that is proved true again and again. Man was made in the image of God with full intelligence surpassing our intelligence today, and then he fell into rebellion and sin which perverted his intelligence and led him to serve false gods and idols with the mind God gave him.

Why does this matter to us as Christians right now? For at least two very good reasons. The first is that if we allow the naturalists or the new agers to tell us what ancient man was, we have accepted mans word over Scripture and History. Once we get our History right, we can get our Present right. We aren't worrying about the end of the world this Christmas, because we know that God who Created Man and the World told us no man knows the End of the World.

The second reason is surprising and disturbing. Most of those giant pyramids, monuments were built with religious significance. A counterfeit religion, a perversion of truth, is seen in almost every place, every ritual. And more and more, these same counterfeits, these same perversions, are being highlighted today. There are whole cult groups today, rearing their ugly heads, trying to breath life into the dead cults of thousands of years ago. When ever a "new" religion begins to lead people astray we as Christians need to know about it, so we can know how to witness against it. This book would be a very good history/ Creation Science book for those ages 13 and up. It would also be a great book to start a Creation conversation on, because how many people do you know who would immediately look at the cover and say "Oh, an APEMAN!"

I am grateful to New Leaf Press for giving us The Genius of Ancient Man to review. It provided hours of edification to our family, and was a reminder of our past and a warning to be careful of counterfeit religions in the present based on the counterfeits of the past.

This schoolyear we are studying ancient history using MFW Creation to the Greeks for my 3 homeschooled kids. This book, The Genius of Ancient Man by Don Landis falls right along with what we've been learning about.

This book uses many ancient artifacts, construction feats, etc. to illustrate that ancient man was not any less cognitively developed. There's a great chapter on monuments, mounds, and pyramids that shows this style of construction all around the world. There is a chapter about Biblical truth and counterfeit (counterfeit religions, practices, etc.) There's a great timeline showing civilizations and central events from the beginning to the 1600's. There are discussions of such topics as the Tower of Babel and the Ice Age. There are wonderful photos of many ancient sites displaying ancient advanced technology, "mysterious" sites (such as Nazca Lines, Peru and Stonhenge, England for example), and Monuments around the world (such as different pyramids, the Terracota Army, some mounds, etc).

The book was great. I highly recommend it. My children enjoyed looking at the pictures, though they haven't read the text. We will be using it along with our studies this year!

I would definitely recommend this book. It's a great explanation of how non-simple ancient man was. Not the "caveman" type societies but rather well-developed societies with more advanced technology than they are usually credited with. On a superficial level, the book is very attractive, a great layout, wonderful pictures, and a compelling cover. Great book.

I received a copy of this book from Master Books, a segment of the New Leaf Publishing Group for the purpose of this review. I was not required to write a positive review.

Exceptional book. There is really nothing like it that I have found. It views the evidence for ancient man through a biblical filter and shows that ancient man was actually intellectually superior in many way to us. Exactly what you would expect when you read the Bible. It should be read by every pastor, homeschool moms and dads, and every Christian.