FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
Mithraism, Romanism, and December 25 (Part II)
“Jake Dowling, D.D., says: ‘There is scarcely anything which strikes the mind of the CAREFUL STUDENT of ancient ecclesiastical history with greater surprise, than the comparatively EARLY period at which many of the corruptions of Christianity, which are EMBODIED in the ROMISH SYSTEM, took their rise.’ – ‘History of Romanism,’ Book II, chap. 1, par. 1, p. 65.
“Christianity soon became so much like Mithraism that there was ONLY A STEP between them. Franz Cumont (who is probably the most informed man of our age on the subject of Mithraism) says of Christianity and Mithraism: ‘The two OPPOSED creeds moved into the SAME intellectual and moral sphere, and one could ACTUALLY PASS from one to the other WITHOUT SHOCK OR INTERRUPTION…..The religious and mystical spirit of the Orient had slowly OVERCOME the whole social organism and prepared all nations to UNITE in the BOSOM OF A UNIVERSAL CHURCH.’ – ‘Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism,’ pp. 210,211. Chicago, Ill: Open Court Publishing Co., 1911.
“The Introductory Essay by Grant Showerman says: ‘Nor did Christianity stop there. It took from its OPPONENTS their own weapons and used them; the better elements of PAGANiSM were TRANSFERRED to the new religion [Mithraism + apostate Christianity= The Church of Rome].’ – Ibid, pp. xi, xii.
“It would be too long a story to trace the doctrines of Mithraism that were brought into the church. We must confine ourselves to our subject, Sunday-keeping. Mr. Cumont says further: ‘The ecclesiastical authorities [not Christ neither the apostles nor anywhere in the Bible] purified in some degree the customs which they could not abolish.’
‘The preeminence assigned to the DIES SOLIS [Sunday] by Mithraism also certainly contributed to the general recognition of Sunday as a HOLIDAY [among Christians].’ – ‘Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans,’ pp. 171,162, 163. NY: 1912.
“Sunday, over which the Sun presided, was especially holy…..The worshippers of Mithraism held Sunday sacred, and CELEBRATED THE BIRTH OF THE SUN ON TWENTY-FIFTH DECEMBER.’ – ‘The Mysteries of Mithra,’ pp. 167, 191. Chicago: Open Court Pub. Co., 1911.” – Facts of Faith, Christian Edwardson, pp. 99, 100. Southern Pub. Asso. Nashville, TN, 1943.
More tomorrow, God willing. Bless all, NMF