Paganism Surviving In Christianity - free ebook by Abram Herbert Lewis

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Paganism Surviving In Christianity

Abram Herbert Lewis

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PAGANISM SURVIVING IN CHRISTIANITY

PAGANISM SURVIVING IN CHRISTIANITY

BY ABRAM HERBERT LEWIS, D.D. AUTHOR OF “BIBLICAL TEACHINGS CONCERNING THE SABBATH AND THE SUNDAY,” “A CRITICAL HISTORY OF THE SABBATH AND THE SUNDAY IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH,” “A CRITICAL HISTORY OF SUNDAY LEGISLATION FROM 321 TO 1888, A.D.,” ETC. G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK 27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET LONDON 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND The Knickerbocker Press 1892...

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PREFACE.

PREFACE.

He who judges the first century by the nineteenth will fall into countless errors. He who thinks that the Christianity of the fourth century was identical with that of the New-Testament period, will go widely astray. He who does not look carefully into the history of religions before the time of Christ, and into the pagan influences which surrounded infant Christianity, cannot understand its subsequent history. He who cannot rise above denominational limitations and credal restrictions cannot be

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CHAPTER I. REMAINS OF PAGANISM IN CHRISTIANITY.

CHAPTER I. REMAINS OF PAGANISM IN CHRISTIANITY.

Preliminary Survey—An Imaginary Past—Issue between Protestantism and Romanism—General Testimony Relative to Pagan Elements in Christianity, from Dyer, Lord, Tiele, Baronius, Polydore Virgil, Fauchet, Mussard, De Choul, Wiseman, Middleton, Max Müller, Priestley, Thebaud, Hardwick, Maitland, Seymore, Renan, Killen, Farrar, Merivale, Westropp and Wake, and Lechler. A preliminary survey is the more necessary lest the general reader fail to grant the facts of history a competent hearing and a just co

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Gnosticism.

Gnosticism.

Long before the time of Christ the Oriental religions had developed a system of philosophy in which were the seeds of that which in later times was known as gnosticism. This claimed to hold within itself “the knowledge of God and of man, of the being and the providence of the former, and of the creation and destiny of the latter.” [26] In its journey westward this system had mingled with Jewish thought and given rise to the Kabbalists or Jewish Gnostics. In the Oriental religions all external ph

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Biblical Exegesis.

Biblical Exegesis.

Whatever touches the Bible and its interpretation touches Christianity at a vital point. The fundamental difference between the pagan gnosticism and Christianity lay in the fact that Christianity was a revealed religion, finding its beginning and end in the divine love and life unfolded in Christ Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. On the contrary, gnosticism found its source in human reasoning, human philosophy, and speculations. Dr. Schaff describes its influence when he says: “It exaggerates the Pau

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The Fathers as Allegorists.

The Fathers as Allegorists.

Beginning with Justin, the leaders of thought in the Church, from the middle of the second century, were men who had been brought up as pagan philosophers, or educated under pagan influence. It was therefore unavoidable that this corrupting system of exegesis should be applied to the books of the New Testament. This was done by the Gnostics, according to their theory that the true meaning of all writings was hidden. Christ’s life presented many difficulties to the philosophers. To explain its se

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This Method Opposed by Some.

This Method Opposed by Some.

Some of the early Fathers, those who were least tinctured with Greek thought, especially Tertullian, opposed this method at the first. He declared that it was one of the arts of Satan, against which Christians must wrestle. But the system was too deep-seated in all the prevailing currents of influence to be displaced. Even while Tertullian was opposing it, it was tightening its grasp upon the Christian communities; a grasp which is by no means yet removed. Starting first at Alexandria and streng

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Further Examples.

Further Examples.

Still further examples of the fanciful perversions of the Scriptures, by the Fathers, are presented in order that the reader may be left without a doubt as to the ruinous effects which the pagan allegorizing methods produced upon the infant Church. The Epistle of Barnabas , falsely attributed to the companion of Paul, is a notable example of unmeaning allegories which totally pervert the Scriptures. Take the following examples: “THE RED HEIFER A TYPE OF CHRIST. [46] “Now what do you suppose this

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Corrupting Influence of Pagan Water-Worship.

Corrupting Influence of Pagan Water-Worship.

The work of corrupting Christianity went forward systematically, as though an enemy planned to undermine its fundamental truths and ruin the Church through internal errors. When allegorical methods had shorn the Bible of authority, and pushed God, as represented in his word, far away from men, the next important step was to corrupt the developing Church by a false standard of membership, thus planting a sure seed of decay in its heart. In New Testament Christianity, baptism—submersion in water—w

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Purity Sought through Baptism.

Purity Sought through Baptism.

The pagan conception that water produced spiritual purity was expressed in many ways. Juvenal describes the custom of Roman women who sought to expiate their sins, committed in licentious revelries, as follows: “She will break the ice and plunge into the river in the depth of winter, or dip three times in the Tiber at early dawn, and bathe her timid head in its very eddies, and thence emerging, will crawl on bending knees, naked and shivering, over the whole field of the haughty kings [the Campu

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Mithraic and Gnostic Baptism.

Mithraic and Gnostic Baptism.

The conception that water cleansed from sin was a prominent feature in Mithraicism and in gnosticism. King , who is authority on all gnostic questions, says: “In my account of Mithraicism, notice has been taken of the very prominent part that sacraments for the remission of sin play in the ceremonial of that religion; the following extracts from the grand Gnostic text-book will serve to show how the same notions, (and probably forms) were transferred to the service of Gnosticism. “‘ Baptism Remi

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Baptism of Blood.

Baptism of Blood.

The importance which the sun-worship cult attached to baptism is further shown in the baptism of blood, which formed a prominent feature in the Mithraic system of atonement and spiritual enlightenment. This is commented upon by King as follows: “The ‘Taurobolia,’ or Baptism of Blood , during the later ages of the Western Empire, held the foremost place, as the means of purification from sin, however atrocious. Prudentius has left a minute description of this horrid rite, in which the person to b

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Baptism at Death, and for the Dead.

Baptism at Death, and for the Dead.

The following throws light upon the pagan origin of baptism as a saving act, at death, and after death. Describing the nature of the mystic formulæ which the Gnostics used, King says: “The motive for placing in the coffin of the defunct illuminato these ‘words of power’ graven on scrolls of lead, plates of bronze, the gems we are considering, and doubtless to an infinitely greater extent on more perishable materials, derives much light from the description Epiphanius gives of the ceremony whereb

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Baptism and Serpent-Worship.

Baptism and Serpent-Worship.

The serpent worshippers formed a prominent branch of the Gnostics, if they were not the originators of the system. Water-worship was a special and fundamental idea in their creed. Witness the following from King. “The well-informed and temperate Hippolytus, writing at the most flourishing period of these transitional theosophies, thus opens his actual ‘Refutation of All Heresies,’ and his Fifth Book with the description ‘of that sect which hath dared to boast the Serpent as the author of their r

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The Sacred Nile.

The Sacred Nile.

Pagan water-worship everywhere was closely associated with sacred rivers. Hardwick speaks of the Nile as follows: “As the Nile, for instance, was a sacred river and as such was invoked in the Egyptian hymns among the foremost of the national gods, whatever bore directly on the culture of the soil, and the succession of the crops in every district of the Nile valley, was enforced among the duties claimed from husbandmen by that divinity. To brush its sacred surface with the balance bucket at a fo

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Water-Worship in India.

Water-Worship in India.

Sir Monier-Williams describes water-worship in India as follows: “Rivers as sources of fertility and purification were at an early date invested with a sacred character. Every great river was supposed to be permeated with the divine essence, and its waters held to cleanse from all moral guilt and contamination, and as the Ganges was the most majestic, so it soon became the holiest and most sacred of all rivers. No sin was too heinous to be removed, no character too black to be washed clean by it

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Modern Buddhistic Baptism.

Modern Buddhistic Baptism.

The modern water-worship connected with Buddhism is described by Sir Monier-Williams in his latest book [86] as follows: “In Burmah, where a good type of southern Buddhism is still to be found, the New Year’s festival might suitably be called a ‘water festival.’ It has there so little connection with the increase of the New Year’s light that it often takes place as late as the early half of April. [87] It is, however, a movable feast, the date of which is regularly fixed by the astrologers of Ma

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Baptism among the Hindus:

Baptism among the Hindus:

“Water is supposed to cleanse the soul and guard from evil. When a child is born priests sprinkle it, and sprinkle the dwelling, and all the inmates of the house bathe. They do this from an idea that it keeps off evil spirits. People perform ablutions before they eat; and priests purify themselves with water, accompanied with prayers, on innumerable occasions. When a man is dying, Brahmins hasten to plunge him into a river, believing that the departing soul may be thus freed from impurities befo

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Water Securing Immunity from Disease.

Water Securing Immunity from Disease.

Sacred water as a means of lustration and of immunity from disease is yet a prominent characteristic of Northern European water-worship. Grimm thus describes it: “In a spring near Nogent men and women bathed on St. John’s eve: Holberg’s comedy of Kilde-reisen is founded on the Copenhagen people’s practice of pilgriming to a neighboring spring on St. Hans aften to heal and invigorate themselves in its waters. On Midsummer-eve the people of Ostergötland journeyed according to ancient custom to Lag

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Water-Worship in Mexico.

Water-Worship in Mexico.

Prescott speaks of the amazement with which the early Spaniards beheld the points of similarity between the customs of the pagan Mexicans and the Roman Catholic Church; he says: “With the same feelings they witnessed another ceremony, that of the Aztec baptism; in which, after a solemn invocation, the head and lips of the infant were touched with water, and a name given to it; while the goddess Cioacoatl, who presided over childbirth, was implored that the sin which was given to us before the be

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Influence of the “Greek Mysteries.”

Influence of the “Greek Mysteries.”

The influence of the Greek mysteries in corrupting Christian baptism is more plainly seen than that of any other specific department of the pagan cult. These mysteries were the remnant of the oldest religion known to the Greeks. They embodied the worship of the gods of the productive forces in nature, and of the gods of death. The most important centre of this cult was at Eleusis, where the worship was celebrated in the largest temple in Greece. The chief elements in the cult were initiation, sa

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Anointing and Baptism.

Anointing and Baptism.

The use of anointing oil in baptism was borrowed directly from paganism. To economize space, and fortify by the power of a great name, we again quote from Hatch: “The general inference of the large influence of the Gnostics on baptism, is confirmed by the fact that another element, which certainly came through them, though its source is not certain, and is more likely to have been Oriental than Greek, has maintained a permanent place in most rituals—the element of anointing. There were two custo

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Use of Spittle in Baptism.

Use of Spittle in Baptism.

The pagan doctrine of exorcism was carried still further, and baptism was corrupted yet more by adding the use of human saliva as a “charm.” This arose from the general use of spittle by the pagans as a talisman against harm and evil influences. Rev. John James Blunt says: “Human saliva was heretofore very generally used as a charm, and was thought particularly efficacious against the venom of poisonous animals. Pliny quotes some authorities to prove that the pernicious powers of toads and frogs

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Baptism in the Early Church.

Baptism in the Early Church.

Turning to the earlier Church fathers, who formulated much which has come to us as Christian doctrine, we find the pagan idea of baptism repeated in all its essential characteristics. We have seen that the Greek fathers came to Christianity by way of Neo-Platonism rather than the New Testament. They accepted Christianity as containing many excellent things, but not as the only authoritative system of faith. They followed the popular syncretic tendency, and combined Christianity with the pagan fa

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Holy Water.

Holy Water.

The use of holy water formed an important part of the pagan system. It was a sort of continuous baptism, a succession of baptismal acts. That it is wholly unscriptural, and in every way foreign to Christian baptism, is too obvious to need statement. There are abundant evidences of its pagan origin; among them are the following: “Some persons derive the use of holy water in the churches from the Jews; but that it has been derived from the ancient heathens of Rome is now very generally believed, a

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Roman Catholics Defend this Use.

Roman Catholics Defend this Use.

Dr. Wiseman , who stands high as a Roman Catholic authority, in his third letter, in reply to Poynder’s Pagano-Papismus defends the use of holy water: “But did not the ancient Christians use holy water? Indeed they did, and that in a manner to shame us. They did not sprinkle themselves with it, to be sure, or help themselves from a vessel at the door, as you express it; they did more than either, they bathed in it . Read Pacciandi, De Sacris Christianorum Balneis , Rome, 1758, and you will find

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Preparing Holy Water.

Preparing Holy Water.

The corrupting presence of paganism is shown in the preparation of water for purification and for baptism quite as much as in its use. The following description is from Foy , Romish Rites , as quoted by Brock : “It appears that there are three kinds of holy water, two of which are used for the consecration of churches. Of these two, the first is considered to be inferior, since nothing but salt is used in its preparation—‘salt exorcised for the salvation of those that believe.’ It serves for spr

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Sun-Worship and Water-Worship.

Sun-Worship and Water-Worship.

We have already shown that the sun-worship cultus and water-worship were united from the beginning. This union was made anterior to Grecian or Roman times, and much of the sacredness of water arose from it. Hislop describes this connection in the sanctifying of water, as follows: “In Egypt, as we have seen, Osiris, as identified with Noah, was represented when overcome by his grand enemy, Typhon, or the ‘Evil One,’ as passing through the waters. The poets represented Semiramis as sharing in his

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Summary.

Summary.

1. The worship of water as a divine element or agent, and hence its use as a protection against evil, and, in baptism, as a means of producing spiritual purity, forms a prominent feature of pagan religions. 2. Pagan water-worship was associated with the higher forms of sun-worship in various ways, and notably with that lower phase, Phallicism, with the obscene rites of which it is yet closely connected in India. In Mexico the cross was the special symbol of the water-worship cult. 3. In pagan wa

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The Simultaneous Development of Anti-Sabbathism and of Sunday Observance.

The Simultaneous Development of Anti-Sabbathism and of Sunday Observance.

Gnosticism was antinomian from the core. All knowledge, and hence all authority, was in the heart of the “true Gnostic.” The “initiated” were divinely enlightened, were a law unto themselves. This was doubly true when they came into contact with a law promulgated by the “inferior God of the Jews,” the weak Creator of matter, and hence a God in league with evil. Such opposition was natural, was unavoidable, from the gnostic standpoint. Coupled with the allegorical method of interpretation, it was

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Antinomianism and Anti-Sabbathism Unscriptural.

Antinomianism and Anti-Sabbathism Unscriptural.

Before we inquire how Sunday was introduced, it will be well to consider the unscriptural and destructive nature of the theories by which the Decalogue and the Sabbath were dethroned, through false teachings. Christ is the central figure in both dispensations. If new expressions of the Father’s will are to be made in connection with the work of Christ on earth, they must be made by the “Immanuel,” who is thus “reconciling the world unto himself.” Did Christ teach the abrogation of the Decalogue,

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Christ’s Resurrection and Sunday.

Christ’s Resurrection and Sunday.

Another popular notion is equally unsupported by New Testament history. The Bible never associates the observance of Sunday, or of any other day, with the resurrection of Christ. The Bible does not state that Christ rose from the grave on Sunday. The most that can be said on this point is, that when the friends of Christ first came to the tomb it was empty. He had risen and gone. Matthew xxviii., 1, shows that the first visit was made ‘late on the Sabbath,’ i. e. on Saturday afternoon before sun

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The Sabbath in the New Testament.

The Sabbath in the New Testament.

The history of the Sabbath in the New Testament is as much at variance with popular notions as is the history of Sunday. The statement sometimes made that “The Sabbath was never observed after the resurrection of Christ,” contains as much error as can be put into that number of words. Since the facts are in the hands of every reader of the New Testament, only a general summary of them is given here. Collating the facts, and summing up the case as regards the example of Christ and His Apostles, i

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Pagan Reasons for Observing Sunday.

Pagan Reasons for Observing Sunday.

Pagan philosophy as a source of argument in favor of the observance of Sunday is made still more prominent by Clement of Alexandria, as follows: “And the Lord’s day Plato prophetically speaks of in the tenth book of the Republic , in these words: ‘And when seven days have passed to each of them in the meadow, on the eighth they are to set out and arrive in four days.’ By the meadow is to be understood the fixed sphere, as being a mild and genial spot, and the locality of the pious; and by the se

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Clement on the Sabbath Law.

Clement on the Sabbath Law.

Prominent examples of paganism are found in Clement’s Gnostic Exposition of the Decalogue . Discoursing upon the Fourth Commandment, he says: “Having reached this point, we must mention these things by the way, since the discourse has turned on the seventh and the eighth. For the eighth may possibly turn out to be properly the seventh, and the seventh manifestly the sixth, and the latter properly the Sabbath, and the seventh a day of work. For the creation of the world was concluded in six days.

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Tertullian on the Sabbath.

Tertullian on the Sabbath.

Tertullian was a prolific writer, and one not noted for consistency. He taught the abolition of the Sabbath (see Against the Jews , chapter iv.), and refers to the observance of Sunday without giving formal reasons therefor. But incidental references which he makes show how the Sunday, although it had then come to be called the “Lord’s Day,” still bore the heathen characteristics. Witness the following: “The Holy Spirit upbraids the Jews with their holy-days. ‘Your Sabbaths, and new moons, and c

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Christ’s Attitude Toward the State.

Christ’s Attitude Toward the State.

Christ taught the infinite worth of man as an individual. The divine priesthood of every believer in Christ, and his absolute spiritual kingship over himself, under God, is a fundamental doctrine of the Gospel. On such a platform, Christ proclaimed the absolute separation of Church and State. “My kingdom is not of this world” was the keynote in His proclamation. His kingdom knew neither Jew nor Greek, Roman nor Egyptian, bondman nor freeman. Ethnic distinctions and lines of caste were unknown to

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Roman Conception of Religion.

Roman Conception of Religion.

The reader will be better prepared to understand how Christianity became corrupted along this line, by considering the genius of the Roman nation, and its conception of religion. The idea of law as the embodiment of absolute power pervaded the Roman mind. Men were important only as citizens. Separate from the state, man was nothing. “To be a Roman, was greater than a king.” Every personal right, every interest was subservient to the state. This conception of power was the source of Roman greatne

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Religious Syncretism.

Religious Syncretism.

The prevailing tendency to religious syncretism in the Roman empire paved the way for corrupting Christianity by union with the State. The doctrine of courtesy in religious matters had risen in the Roman mind, to a theory of religious syncretism, which offered recognition to other religions outside the Roman. The religions of the Orient and of Egypt already had a place and protection at Rome. These, like the citizens of the lands whence they came, were taken in charge by the laws of the Mistress

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Character of Constantine.

Character of Constantine.

Constantine has been called the “first Christian Emperor”; how unjustly will be seen in what follows. In a certain sense, Christianity ascended the throne of the Cæsars with Constantine. It was a political triumph, but a spiritual defeat. That we may the better understand the case, the reader needs to look carefully into the character of this first representative of the pagan state-church policy, and of the subordinating of Christianity to the political power. The reader will be permitted to mak

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Edict Concerning Aruspices.

Edict Concerning Aruspices.

“The August Emperor Constantine to Maximus: “If any part of the palace or other public works shall be struck by lightning, let the sooth-sayers, following old usages, inquire into the meaning of the portent, and let their written words, very carefully collected, be reported to our knowledge; and also let the liberty of making use of this custom be accorded to others, provided they abstain from private sacrifices, which are specially prohibited. “Moreover, that declaration and exposition written

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A Low Standard of Christian Life.

A Low Standard of Christian Life.

That the standard of individual character in the Church was brought far below that of the New Testament, and much below what would be accepted at the present day, appears in the history of morals and social life, and in many ways in the Church. The degenerate character of his time is thus set forth by Chrysostom : “Plagues too, teeming with untold mischiefs, have lighted upon the Churches. The chief offices have become saleable. Hence numberless evils are springing, and there is no one to redres

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Faith in “Relics.”

Faith in “Relics.”

Faith in “Relics,” bodies, bones, garments, places, etc., as retaining the virtues of the persons with whom they were associated, was a prominent characteristic of paganism, from the earliest time. Paganism brought this element into Christianity, where it took root and flourished, like a fast-growing, noxious weed. The whole system of relic worship, down to the “Holy Coat at Treves,” in 1891, is a direct harvest from pagan planting. Relics were believed to be powerful agents for good, by direct

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The Cross, its Sign, and other Charms.

The Cross, its Sign, and other Charms.

Comparatively few readers realize that the cross was of heathen origin, and a religious symbol of the lowest order, and that it was not adopted as a symbol of Christianity until the Church was well paganized. Its origin lies in the shadows of the prehistoric period. It was a religious symbol in the Asiatic, Egyptian, Grecian, Roman, Druidic, and Central American heathenism. It originated in the lowest department of sun-worship cultus . Ishtar, the Assyrian Venus, was represented as holding a sta

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The Sign of the Cross in Baptism.

The Sign of the Cross in Baptism.

As one of the supreme charms, the sign of the cross was associated with baptism, which was also made a “charm” under the influence of pagan water-worship. It was associated with anointing, which was also a pure importation from paganism. Speaking of this sign Bingham says: “The third use of it was in this unction before baptism. For so the author under the name of Dionysius, describing the ceremony of anointing the party, before the consecration of the water, says, The Bishop begins the unction

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Baptism and “Holy Water” as “Charms.”

Baptism and “Holy Water” as “Charms.”

The pagan doctrine of baptismal regeneration involved the idea of water as a charm against disease and misfortune, in men, in animals, in growing crops, and fruits. These notions were brought into the Christian Church and soon became widely spread and firmly fixed. An excellent review of this subject is furnished by Canon Farrar in his description of Cyprian’s views relative to baptism. These are his words: “Cyprian holds that in baptism the Priest commands the power of the Holy Ghost to forgive

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Miracles through Baptism.

Miracles through Baptism.

Socrates , the Church historian, tells of miraculous cures through baptism as gravely as Sozomen does of the finding of “Relics.” Hear him: “This was one important improvement in the circumstances of the Church, which happened during the administration of Atticus. Nor were these times without the attestation of miracles and healing. For a certain Jew being a paralytic had been confined to his bed for many years; and as every sort of medical skill, and the prayers of his Jewish brethren had been

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Delayed Baptism.

Delayed Baptism.

The pagan idea of “baptismal regeneration” took such hold of the Church as to become a grave evil, by inducing men to live in sin, under the belief that they could gain salvation at the last moment. The testimony of Bingham is presented again, which testimony is the more valuable, because coming from a conservative English Churchman. “Others deferred it out of heathenish principles still remaining in them, because they were in love with the world and its pleasures, which they were unwilling to r

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Orientation at Baptism.

Orientation at Baptism.

The corruption of baptism by the pagan sun-worship cult was especially shown in the practice of turning eastward and westward in connection with baptism. This chapter has space for a single quotation on this point from Bingham: “This custom of turning about to the East when they made their profession of obedience to Christ is also mentioned by St. Ambrose, Gregory Nazianzen, Cyril of Jerusalem, and the author under the name of Dionysius. For which they assign two reasons: 1, Cyril tells his disc

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Lights in Worship.

Lights in Worship.

The pagan origin of lights in worship is universally acknowledged. Their use was sharply condemned in the earlier times. [234] The Synod of Elviri (305 or 306 A.D. ) condemned their use in cemeteries, where they already formed a part of the services for the dead. Canon 34 reads: “It is forbidden to light wax candles during the day in cemeteries for fear of disquieting the spirits of the saints.” Baronius explains this as follows: “Many Neophytes brought the custom from paganism of lighting wax c

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“Orientation.”

“Orientation.”

Another residuum from sun-worship led to building churches with the altar at the east, praying toward the east, burying the dead with reference to the east, etc. Of the pagan origin of the custom, Gale speaks as follows: “Another piece of Pagan Demonolatry was their ceremony of bowing and worshipping towards the East. For the Pagans universally worshipped the sun as their supreme God, even the more reformed of them, the new Platonists, Plotinus, Porphyry, and Julian the apostate, as it appears b

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Easter Fires.

Easter Fires.

Another element of pagan sun-worship continues to the present time in the Easter fires, which abound especially in Northern Europe. Fire is regarded as a living thing, in Teutonic mythology. It is often spoken of as a bird, the “Red Cock.” Notfuer , “Need-fire,” is yet produced by friction, at certain times. Such fire is deemed sacred. On such occasions all fires in the neighborhood are extinguished, that they may be rekindled from the Notfuer . This fire is yet used to ward off evil, and to cur

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Midsummer Fires.

Midsummer Fires.

Midsummer was the central point of a great pagan festival in honor of the sun, who had then reached his greatest height, from which he must soon decline. Catholic Christianity continued these festivals, in St. John Baptist Day. Many of the peculiarities of these midsummer fires were similar to those of the Easter fires already noticed. The following description of the modern festival in Germany is taken from Grimm: “We have a fuller description of a Midsummer fire, made in 1823 at Konz, a Lorrai

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Beltane or Baal Fires.

Beltane or Baal Fires.

The Beltane or Baal fires and the ancient sacrifices to the sun-god still continue in modified form in Scotland. Grimm speaks of them as follows: “The present custom is thus described by Armstrong sub v. bealtainn : In some parts of the Highlands the young folks of a hamlet meet in the moors, on the first of May. They cut a table in the green sod, of a round figure, by cutting a trench in the ground, of such circumference as to hold the whole company. They then kindle a fire and dress a repast o

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Penance.

Penance.

The pagan theory of baptismal regeneration created a necessity for the doctrine of penance. Under the idea that baptism removed all sins up to the time of the ceremony, something was necessary to atone for sins committed after baptism. Dr. Schaff describes the origin of penance as follows: “The effect of baptism, however, was thought to extend only to sins committed before receiving it. Hence the frequent postponement of the sacrament, which Tertullian very earnestly recommends, though he censur

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Mariolatry.

Mariolatry.

The worship of a Mother Goddess and her son formed a distinct feature in the paganism of Babylon, India, Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Rome. Though variant in conception, the core of Mariolatry runs through all these pagan systems. Those who desire to follow this theme in detail will do well to consult Alexander Hislop . [245] A single extract from page 82 of that work is all that space will permit: “The worship of the Goddess-Mother with the child in her arms continued to be observed in Egypt til

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The Mass.

The Mass.

The mass, which has been for centuries the central item in Roman Catholic worship, finds its origin in the “unbloody sacrifices” which were offered to the Paphian Venus, and to her counterpart in Babylonia and Assyria. It was this worship of the Queen of Heaven into which the apostate women of Judah were drawn, whom Jeremiah [246] condemns for “burning incense, pouring out drink offerings, and offering cakes to the Queen of Heaven.” These cakes were marked with the phallic symbol of the cross. A

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Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead.

Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead.

All the leading systems of pagan religions have some form of purgatory, with its associate prayers for the dead, for which large sums are paid by the surviving friends. The purgatory which was developed in the Christian cult is like its pagan prototype in almost every particular. An extract from Wilkinson describing the practical workings of the doctrine in pagan Egypt would need little changing to fit the facts connected with the purgatory of Christians. We quote from Hislop [247] : “‘The Pries

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Saint Peter’s Keys.

Saint Peter’s Keys.

Those who claim the primacy of St. Peter and his right to the keys of heaven, pretend to found that claim upon Christ’s words to Peter. But an examination of the history and characteristics of the doctrine reveals its pagan origin too clearly to admit of question. Roman paganism had its college of pontiffs, headed by the emperor, as Pontifex Maximus . Babylonian and Assyrian paganism had a similar council of pontiffs. The especial primacy among the deities was associated with Janus and Cybele. E

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Representative Festivals.

Representative Festivals.

Those who have given even a cursory examination of the subject, know that the swarm of festivals which came into Christianity, after the second century, were nearly, if not all, pagan days, with new or modified names, but with little or no change of character. A few of the representative ones will be noticed here....

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Christmas.

Christmas.

The Scriptures are wholly silent as to the date of Christ’s birth. The 25th of December, the winter solstice, was not fixed as Christmas until a long time after the New Testament period. But in spite of serious objections, historical and otherwise, that date triumphed. The winter solstice was the date of the birth of Osiris, son of Isis the Egyptian Queen of Heaven. The term “Yule,” another name for Christmas, comes from the Chaldee, and signifies “child’s day.” This name for the festival was fa

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Easter.

Easter.

The earliest Christians continued to observe the Jewish Passover on the 14th of the month Nisan . As the pagan element increased in the Church, and the anti-Jewish feeling accordingly, after a sharp struggle, the time was changed from the fourteenth of the month to the Sunday nearest the vernal equinox. This brought it in conjunction with the festival of the Goddess of Spring, an ancient pagan feast, which probably dates back to the time of Astarte-worship, in Babylonia. The name “Easter” is com

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Lent.

Lent.

Lent has been given some appearance of having a Christian origin by the assumption, for which there is not a shadow of scriptural, or even apostolic authority, that it is the counterpart of Christ’s fast of forty days. But the history of Lent shows unmistakably its pagan origin. Its source is found in the fasting which the Babylonians associated with the Goddess of Reproduction, whose worship formed the starting-point of Easter. During that period of fasting, social joy and all expressions of se

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(1) Reinstatement of the Bible.

(1) Reinstatement of the Bible.

As the first step in perverting Christianity was to set aside the authority of God’s book, and to teach error for truth through false exegesis, so the first step toward reformation was the unchaining of that Word. Paganized Christianity had placed itself between men and God, and His Word. Faith, hedged and crippled, trusted in human traditions, forms, and ceremonies, and in priestly absolution from sin. Help could not come, neither could hope arise, until the pagan elements should be so far remo

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(2) Biblical Interpretation; Higher Criticism.

(2) Biblical Interpretation; Higher Criticism.

Whoever has read the chapters on gnosticism, and the allegorical method of interpreting the Bible, and has traced the influence of these pagan elements upon the history of biblical interpretation, cannot fail to see God’s guiding hand in the movements of the last half of this century. The revival of Bible study, the development of the “International Lessons,” the call for something yet better, and the growth of exegetical literature form an epoch not less important, though less noisy, because le

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(3) Concerning Baptism.

(3) Concerning Baptism.

The paramount question touching the residuum which came in from pagan water-worship does not lie primarily in the mode of baptism; although historically, logically, and symbolically there were no modes of baptism until they were brought in by paganism. Paganism immersed, affused, sprinkled. It immersed once, or three times. In the use of holy water it sprinkled repeatedly and indefinitely. According to the New Testament, baptism is submersion, as the symbol of death to sin and resurrection to ri

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(4) Sabbathism.

(4) Sabbathism.

The Sabbath question is not merely “one of days.” The fundamental conception centres around the fact that God must come to men in sacred time . Eternity is an attribute of God, and the measured portion we call “time” is the point where God and man come together as Creator and created. It is here that we “live in Him.” Scriptural and extra-scriptural history show that man has always felt the need of communion with God, through sacred time, and that God has always sought to meet this want. Physica

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(5) Christianity and the State.

(5) Christianity and the State.

Certain superficial investigators have claimed that the union of Christianity with the civil power was the outgrowth of the Hebrew theocratic idea. The claim is groundless. The theocracy was a State within the Church. The pagan theory, applied to Christianity under Constantine and his successors, gave a Church dominated by the State, and regulated, as to polity and faith, by civil law. History has written some plain and pertinent verdicts concerning the relations which ought to exist between Chr

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Last Words.

Last Words.

Whatever prepossessions or conceptions the reader may have brought to the perusal of these pages, he cannot finish them without seeing that much which has come down to us as “Christianity” is so tinctured with paganism that it does not fairly represent what Christ taught. The purity of the earliest Christianity was the source of its wondrous conquering power. After it was paganized, and united with the State, it continued to conquer, but by the sword rather than by the spirit of God. It is clear

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