FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK: MITHRAISM, SUNDAY, THE LORD’S DAY, CHRISTIANITY, AND ROMANISM (Part VII) “Cardinal Newman says: Confiding then in the power of Christianity to resist the infection of evil, and to transmute the very instruments and appendages of demon-worship to an evangelical use, the rulers of the Church from early times were prepared, should the occasion arise, to ADOPT, to IMITATE, or sanction the existing rites and customs of the populace, as well as the philosophy of the EDUCATED CLASS…… “The same reason, the NEED OF HOLY DAYS for the multitude, is assigned by ORIGEN, St. Gregory’s master, to explain the establishment of the LORD’S DAY…….. “We are told in various ways by EUSEBIUS, that CONSTANTINE, in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen, TRANSFERRED into it the outward ornaments to which they had been accustomed in their own…..Incense, lamps, and candles, holy water; asylums, holy days, and seasons, the ring in marriage, turning to east [Easter Sunday morning worship services], images, ……are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.’ – ‘Development of Christian Doctrine,’ pp. 371-373. London: 1878. “Real SUPERSTITIONS have sometimes obtained in parts of CHRISTENDOM from its intercourse with the heathen, as PHILOSOPHY has sometimes corrupted her divines [church leaders], so has paganism corrupted her worshippers.’ Ibid, pp. 377, 388. “The Church can CONVERT heathen appointments into spiritual rites and usages. Hence there has been from the first much variety and change, in the SACRAMENTAL acts and instruments which she has used.’ -Ibid, p. 379.”- (From “Facts of Faith,” Cristian Edwardson, p. 104. Southern Publishing Asso., Nashville, TN. 1942. The Christian religion of man is mingled with pagan practices. The Christian religion of Christ and the Bible is free from these corruptions of faith and doctrines. What is your religion? Bless all, NMF
