Each generation sees the world for the first time, thus to them this is the first time this has happened. However, with my particular belief structure with past lives, it's complicated to try and recall past lives. In turn though, if one is able to recall enough memory they'll see a pattern. All in all, perhaps it is only but a scare tatic to make people more faithful to a particular belief system. Who really knows for sure, as the Bible has been written many many centuries ago (supposedly) and has had countless translations since then.