When & How Paganism mixed with Christianity
an anthropological look at the birth of the Roman Catholic Church
Dr. John Harbaugh, with Denise Styka
17 September 2007
The heathen Canaanite and Shinar pagan religions were well
established centuries before Christianity became a sect of Judaism. They even existed before the Hebrew religion.
(Joshua
24:2 KJV) "And Joshua said unto all
the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your
fathers dwelt on the other side
of the flood in old time, even
Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods."
At Shinar, famous for the city and tower of Babel - Nimrod, Semiramis and their son Tammuz were the source of pagan
worship which began centuries before even the establishment of God’s covenant
with Abraham, Isaac, and , Jacob the Fathers of the Hebrew people. (Woodrow)
Ancient Roman religion was based upon and evolved from the
classic Greek “Helenistic” worship. The names of the Greek Gods became Roman,
yet were also recognized by their Greek names.
Based heavily in mythology, Roman religion became polytheistic during a time when it
embraced all religions.
Hellenism originally followed a rural animistic tradition, in which
many spirits were each responsible for specific, limited aspects of the cosmos
and human activities. Kind of like the
“Saint System” in practice in the Roman Catholic Church, today.
A SIGNIFICANT OBSERVATION (I will address the significance of Pergamum in a separate post): The city of Pergamum (Pergamos) became a major center
for the development of the Greek’s Hellenistic cultuer
and religion, and was later emulated at Alexandria.
As Rome came to power and the process of the
culture/religion mixing pot was influienced by military neccessity,
because of the power derived from conquest and a new Roman process of infusing
the armies instead of killing them –the Hellenistic religion became tolerant of
the heathen Canaanite and Shinar pagan religions. Yet the true Roman citicen
maintained a somewhat more perfect Hellenism.
Rome
came to tolerate, encompass, and absorb hundreds of other
religions developing a rich and complex mythology which was pagan to its core. Scripture records such tolerance during the
rule of the Herods, in Israel. It was all about finance and politics.
(Mark
15:6 KJV) "Now at that feast
he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired."
(Luke
13:1 KJV) "There were present at that
season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their
sacrifices."
When this period ended with the death of the
church leaders at Masada in 70 A.D because the Hebrew people never
accepted subjugation, none of their three major religious sects was tolerated
until the “Edict of Milan” was issued in c313 A.D. This only resulted in a toleration of the
sect called Christian.
The Edict of Milan
set a precedent for the toleration of Christianity. This letter put an end to governmentally
sponsored religious persecution and proclaimed full religious tolerance. Although there were setbacks that took place
following this edict, it is here where ancient pagan religion began to merge
with Christianity.
In c323 A.D., there raged a Roman Civil War between the
religion of undefiled paganism (representing the pagan priest and their attempt
to gain and maintain political power) and Constantine, who eventually sided
with the religion of an increasingly ecumenical Christianity as a way of
unseating the power of the pagan priest.
By c324 A.D. Constantine had defeated his enemies and a completely
united Roman Empire resulted.
The reign of Constantine established a precedent for the
position of the Christian Emperor in the Church; Constantine considered himself
the pagan Bishop of the Roman capitols of both Rome and Byzantium (also known
as Constantinople and Istanbul) responsible to the gods for the spiritual
health of his subjects, and thus he had a duty to maintain orthodoxy. Once the
pagan priest were defeated, the Emperor -not the "Pontiff" no longer
needed their political influences. Yet “orthodoxy” for the new Universal
Catholic church had yet to be established.
It was during his reign as emperor of the united Roman
Empire that Constantine I, convened the Council of
Nicaea in c325 A.D.
By way of example, two major doctrinal arguments came out of
this ecumenical convocation. One is
interesting because of
its reemergence in
contemporary Christian cults of today.
The trinity and in particular the belief of whether Jesus Christ is God
Incarnate or was “created” by God for the expressed purpose of dying on the
cross was at the heart of the debate.
All the “bishops” in
attendance with the exception of 2 voted down the idea that Jesus was “created”
by God, whereby maintaining the full deity and equality of Jesus Christ to God.
Another result of the council was an agreement on when to
celebrate the resurrection on Easter, the most important feast of the Roman
ecclesiastical calendar.
The council decided in favor of celebrating the resurrection
on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox,
already an important Roman pagan holiday.
This decision was obviously independent of the Bible's Hebrew Calendar,
and it authorized the Bishop of Alexandria to announce annually the exact date
to his fellow bishops. It also gave the an open ended process to determine what “orthodoxy” was
to become.
(Acts 12:4
KJV) "And when he had apprehended
him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the
people."
“Easter” was a well established pagan holiday long before
the death of Christ. Even if a Jew were
celebrating Easter as the Passsover, it has nothing to do with the Ressurection of Christ.
(Exodus
12:21-27 KJV) " ….. Draw out and take you a lamb according to
your families, and kill the passover.
….. That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover,
who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote
the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and
worshipped."
Here is when the first notable pagan compromise
was reached. Until the 4th century A.D.,
The Ressurection (for obvious reasons) and Pentecost
(the Arrival of the Holy Ghost) were the only two holy days that Christians
observed.
Passover was a celebration of the death of the Lamb of God
and the deliverance of Israel. So the
church was relegated to celibrate the resurrection of
Christ, by practicing it on the pagan holiday on which he died.
Persecutions had not destroyed the Christian faith, they
actually grew. Constantine knew
this. So Constantine endowed numerous
indulgences upon the Christians, abolishing death by crucifixion and the
persecution which had become so cruel at Rome while protecting the Hellenistic
traditions, and other important heathen and pagan practices, important to the
larger demographics of the Roman Empire.
It (the Council of Nicaea ) worked!
After all, Similarities in Constantine’s mind existed between the two
religions. Instead of the empire
constantly being divided – with pagans in conflict with Christians – why not
take such steps as might be necessary to mix elements of both religions together,
he reasoned and thereby bring a united force to the empire. So the Christianity of Constantine was a mixture.
Much like the King/Queen of England, being the head of the
English Church, as Pontifex Maximus
he also continued to watch over the heathen worship and protects its rights,
and its traditions.
The word “Catholic” became the name of the Roman
Church. It means “universal”, or
“ecumenical” -something for everyone.
Catholic:
(literally meaning: according to (kata-) the whole (holos) or more
generally "universal") is a religious term with a number of meanings:
* The term can refer to the notion that all Christians are part of one Church,
regardless of denominational divisions.
Common Definitions of universal: "the shrewdest political and ecumenical
comment of our time";
(linguistics) a grammatical rule
(or other linguistic feature) that is found in all languages
(logic) a proposition that asserts
something of all members of a class
(cosmopolitan) of worldwide scope or applicability; "an
issue of cosmopolitan import"; "the shrewdest political and
ecumenical comment of our time"; "universal experience" ; a behavioral convention or pattern characteristic
of all members of a particular culture or of all human beings; "some form
of religion seems to be a human universal" ; applicable to or common to all members of a
group or set; "the play opened to universal acclaim"; "rap
enjoys universal appeal among teenage boys"
BABYLON MYSTERY RELIGION; Ralph Woodrow; Ralph Woodrow
Evangelistic Association Inc.; (1966)
WIKIPEDIA:
1.
Constantine I – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I
2.
Religion
in Ancient Rome – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_ancient_Rome
3.
First
Council of Nicaea – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea
4.
Constantine I and Christianity – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I_And_Christianity
(Exodus
34:12-17 KJV) "Take heed to
thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither
thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of
thee: {13} But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and
cut down their groves: {14} For thou shalt
worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a
jealous God: {15} Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the
land, and they go a whoring after their gods,
and do sacrifice unto
their gods, and one call
thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
{16} And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go
a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
{17} Thou shalt make thee no molten gods."
