Chapter 11
Influences Toward Apostasy
(97) MITHRAISM, an
outwardly refined sun worship, invaded the Roman Empire in B.C. 67, and made
way for itself by gathering under its wing all the gods of Rome, so that
"in the middle of the third century [A.D.] Mithraism seemed on the verge
of becoming the universal religion." - Encyclopedia
Britannica, Vol. XVIII, art. "Mithras," p. 624, 11th edition,
1911.
That which made Mithraism so popular was the fact that the
Roman Caesars adopted it, and the soldiers planted its banner wherever they
went. The higher schools of Greek learning also accepted it, as did also the
nobility, or the better classes of society, which gave it great prestige. Its
"Mysteries" had a bewitching and fascinating influence on the people.
And Sunday, "the venerable day of the sun," was the popular holiday
of Mithraism.
On the other hand, the primitive Christian religion appeared
to the learned Greek scholastics and their followers of eminent nobility only
as "foolishness" (see 1 Cor. 1:18-23),
1Co 1:18 For
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us
which are saved it is the power of God.
1Co 1:19 For
it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent.
1Co 1:20 Where
is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not
God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
1Co 1:21 For
after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
1Co 1:22 For
the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
1Co 1:23 But
we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks
foolishness
--and the Romans looked down upon the
Christians with disdain and utter contempt. After the Jews had rebelled against
the Roman government (Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed by Titus, A.D.
70, and multitudes of the Jews were sold as slaves), hatred and contempt for
them had become quite general among the Romans, and everything Jewish was
despised. Thus Sunday, in the Roman world, stood for what was eminent and
popular, while the Sabbath, kept by the Jews, stood for what was despised and
looked down upon. The temptations placed before an aspiring man, therefore, lay
all in one direction. Dr. J. L. Mosheim says:
"The profound respect that was paid to the Greek and
Roman mysteries, and the extraordinary sanctity that was attributed to them,
were additional circumstances that induced the Christians to give their
religion a mystic air, in order to put it upon an equal footing, in point of
dignity, with that of the Pagans. For this purpose, they gave the name of mysteries to the institutions of the Gospel,
and decorated particularly the holy sacrament with that solemn title. They used
in that sacred institution, as also in that of baptism, several of the terms
employed in the Heathen mysteries, and proceeded so far, at length, as even to
adopt some of the ceremonies of which those renowned mysteries consisted....A
great part, therefore, of the service of the Church, in this century, had a
certain air of the Heathen mysteries, and resembled them considerably in many
particulars." - "History of the
Church" (2-vol. Ed.) Vol. I, Cent. 2, part 2, chap. 4, par. 5, p.
67. New York: 1871.
(98) Gradually, as the
church lowered its standards, many of the Greek scholars accepted Christianity
(while they retained their heathen philosophy), and they carried with them into
the church more or less of their former viewpoint and teaching. Then, as heathenism
assailed the church, and the Roman government persecuted it, these men, such as
Origen, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, et al., wrote
"apologies" and "treatises" to vindicate Christianity.
They, however, sadly mixed heathen sentiments with Christian doctrines, and the
church gradually became permeated with the teachings of these men, who now had
become the new leaders. Dr. Cummings says:
"The Fathers who were really most fitted to be the
luminaries of the age in which they lived were too busy in preparing their
flocks for martrydom to commit anything to writing....The most devoted and
pious of the Fathers were busy teaching their flocks; the more vain and
ambitious occupied their time in preparing treatises. If all the Fathers who
signalized the age had committed their sentiments to writing, we might have had
a fair representation of the theology of the church." - "Lectures on Romanism," p. 203;
quoted in "History of the Sabbath," J. N. Andrews, pp. 199, 200.
In a very short time, the customs of Mithraism became
incorporated into Christianity. John Dowling, D. D., says:
(99) "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. Frantz Cumont (who is probably the best informed
man of our age on the subject of Mithraism) says of Christianity and Mithraism:
"The two opposed creeds moved in 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 Pub. Co., 1911.
The Introductory Essay by Grant Showerman says:
"Nor did Christianity stop here. It took from its
opponents their own weapons and used them; the better elements of paganism were
transferred to the new religion." - Id., 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 purified in some degree
the customs which they could not abolish."
"The pre-eminence 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. New York:
1912.
"Sunday, over which the Sun presided, was especially
holy....
"[The worshipers of Mithra] held Sunday sacred, and
celebrated the birth of the Sun on the twenty-fifth of December." - "The Mysteries of Mithra," pp. 167,
191. Chicago: Open Court Pub. Co., 1911.
(100) Professor Gilbert
Murray, M.A., D.Litt., LL.D., F.B.A., Professor of Greek in Oxford University,
says:
"Now, since Mithras was 'The Sun, the Unconquered,' and
the Sun was 'The royal Star,' the religion looked for a King whom it could
serve as the representative of Mithras upon earth:...The Roman Emperor seemed
to be clearly indicated as the true King. In sharp contrast to Christianity,
Mithraism recognized Caesar as the bearer of the divine Grace, and its votaries
filled the legions and the civil service....
"It had so much acceptance that it was able to impose on
the Christian world its own Sun-Day in place of the Sabbath, its Sun's
birthday, twenty-fifth December, as the birthday of Jesus." - "History of Christianity in the Light of Modern
Knowledge," Chap. III; cited in "Religion and
Philosophy," pp. 73, 74. New York: 1929.
Rev. William Frederick likewise states the same historic
fact:
"The Gentiles were an idolatrous people who worshiped
the sun, and Sunday was their most sacred day. Now, in order to reach the
people in this new field, it seems but natural, as well as necessary, to make
Sunday the rest day of the church. At this time it was necessary for the church
to wither adopt the Gentiles' day or else have the Gentiles change their day.
To change the Gentiles' day would have been an offence and stumbling block to
them. The church could naturally reach them
better by keeping their day. There was no need in causing an unnecessary
offence by dishonoring their day." - "Sunday
and the Christian Sabbath," pp. 169, 170; quoted in Signs of the
Times, Sept. 6, 1927.
Thomas H. Morer makes a similar acknowledgement. He says:
"Sunday being the day on which the Gentiles solemnly
adored that planet, and called it Sunday,...the Christians thought fit to keep
the same day and the same name of it, that they might not appear causelessly
peevish, and by that means hinder the conversion of the Gentiles, and bring a
greater prejudice than might be otherwise taken against the gospel." - "Dialogues on the Lord's Day," p.
23. London: 1701.
(101) The North British Review gives the following
reasons for the Christians' adopting the heathen Sun-day:
"That very day was the Sunday of their heathen neighbors
and respective countrymen, and patriotism gladly united with expediency in
making it at once their Lord's day and their Sabbath....That primitive church,
in fact, was shut up to the adoption of the Sunday, - until it became
established and supreme, when it was too late to make another alteration."
- Vol. XVIII, p. 409. Edinburgh: Feb., 1853.
Thomas Chafie, a clergyman of the English Church, gives the
following reasons why the early Christians could not continue to keep the Bible
Sabbath among the heathen, nor change the heathen custom from Sunday to
Saturday:
"Christians should not have done well in changing, or in
endeavouring to have changed their [the heathen's] standing service-day, from
Sunday to any other day of the week; and that for these reasons:
"1. Because of the contempt, scorn and derision they
thereby should be had in among all the Gentiles with whom they lived; and
toward whom they ought by St. Paul's rule to live inoffensively, 1 Cor. 10:32,
in things indifferent. If the Gentiles thought hardly, and spoke evil of them,
for that they ran not into the same excess of riot with them: 1 Pet. 4:4, what
would they have said of Christians for such an innovation as would have been
made by their change of their standing service-day? If long before this, the
Jews were had in such disdain among the Gentiles for their
Saturday-Sabbath,...how grievous would be their taunts and reproaches against
the poor Christians living with them, and under their power, for their new set
Sacred day, had the Christians chosen any other than the Sunday?
"2. Most Christians then were either Servants or of the
poorer sort of People: and the Gentiles (most probably) would not give their
servants liberty to cease from working on any other set day constantly, except
on their Sunday....
(102) "5. It would
have been but labour in vain for them to have assayed the same, they could
never have brought it to pass." - "A
Brief Tract on the Fourth Commandment...About the Sabbath-Day," pp.
61, 62. London: St. Paul's Church Yard, 1692.
Richard Verstegen, after much research, writes of the heathen
nations:
"And it is also respectable, that the most ancient
Germans being Pagans, and having appropriated their first Day of the Week to
the peculiar adoration of the Sun, whereof that Day doth yet in our English
tongue retain the name of Sunday." - "Restitution
of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities," p. 11. London: 1673.
Speaking of the Saxons, he says:
"First then unto the day dedicated unto the especial
adoration of the Idol of the Sun, they gave the name of Sunday, as much as to
say the Sun's-day, or the day of the Sun. This Idol was placed in a Temple, and
there adored and sacrificed unto, for that they believed that the Sun in the
Firmament did with or in this Idol correspond and co-operate. The manner and
form whereof was according to this ensuing Picture." - Id., p. 74.
(Capitalization as given in this ancient book.)
It is hardly fair to accuse the Roman Catholic Church of
exchanging God's holy Sabbath for a heathen festival without giving her the
opportunity to deny or acknowledge this accusation; so we will now let her
state the fact in her own words, frankly. She says:
"The Church took the pagan philosophy and made it the
buckler of faith against the heathen....She took the pagan Sunday and made it
the Christian Sunday....There is, in truth, something royal, kingly about the
sun, making it a fit emblem of Jesus, the Sun of Justice. Hence the Church in
these countries would seem to have said, 'Keep that old, pagan name. It shall
remain consecrated, sanctified.' And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to
Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus." - "Catholic World," March, 1894, p.
809.
(103) So willing were
church leaders to adopt the popular heathen festivals, that even heathen
authors reproached them for it. Faustus accused St. Augustine as follows:
"You celebrate the solemn festivals of the Gentiles,
their calends and their solstices; and as to their manners, those you have
retained without any alteration. Nothing distinguishes you from the pagans
except that you hold your assemblies apart from them." - Cited in "History of the Intellectual Development of
Europe," Dr. J. W. Draper, Vol. I, p. 310. New York: 1876.
Similar reproaches had been made earlier, for Tertullian
answers them, making the following admission:
"Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be
confessed, suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians, because it is a
well-known fact that we pray toward the east, or because we make Sunday a day
of festivity. What then? Do you do less than this?...It is you, at all events,
who have even admitted the sun into the calendar of the week; and you have
selected its day, in preference to the preceding day....You who reproach us
with the sun and Sunday should consider your proximity to us." - "Ad Nationes," Book I, chap. 13; in
"Ante-Nicene Fathers," Vol.
III, p. 123, ed. By Drs. Roberts and Donaldson. New York: 1896.
Tertullian had no other excuse for their Sunday-keeping than
that they did not do worse than the heathen. Not only did the Church adopt
heathen festivals, but Gregory Thaumaturgus allowed their celebration in the
degrading manner of the heathen:
"When Gregory perceived that the ignorant multitude
persisted in their idolatry, on account of the pleasures and sensual
gratifications which they enjoyed at the pagan festivals, he granted them a
permission to indulge themselves in the like pleasures, in celebrating the
memory of the holy martyrs, hoping that, in process of time, they would return
of their own accord, to a more virtuous and regular course of life." - "Ecclesiastical History," J. L.
Mosheim, D.D., Vol. I, Second Century, Part II, chap. 4, par. 2, footnote (Dr.
A. Maclaine's 2-vol. Ed., p. 66). New York: 1871.
(104) 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, or 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 the east, 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 at times
corrupted her divines, so has paganism corrupted her worshipers." - Id.,
pp. 377, 378.
"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." -
Id., p. 379.
Speaking of the immoral pagan feast he says:
"It certainly is possible that the consciousness of the
sanctifying power in Christianity may have acted as a temptation to sins,
whether of deceit or of violence; as if the habit or state of grace destroyed
the sinfulness of certain acts, or as if the end justified the means." -
Id., p. 379.
The terrible nature of these sensual gratifications of the
pagan festivals, in which the leaders of the Church now allowed its members to
indulge, a person can hardly imagine till the sickening facts are spread before
one's eyes by Livy. (Hist., lib. xxxix, chap. 9-17.) The learned Englishman,
George Smith, F.A.S., in his "Sacred
Annals," Vol. III, on the "Gentile Nations," pp. 487-489,
says that this "most revolting and abandoned villiany" was so
general, that when the Roman Senate had to proceed against its worst features,
"Rome was almost deserted, so many persons, feeling themselves implicated
in the proceedings, sought safety in flight."
(105) A church that
will take in such members, without conversion, and then allow them to continue
in the most putrid corruption, must have lost all respect for morality (not to
say true Christianity), and cannot be in possession of the divine power of the
gospel; which changes the hearts and lives of people. (Romans 1:16; 2 Cor.
5:17.) The Apostle Paul had foretold this "falling away" of the
church. (Acts 20:28-30; 2 Thess. 2:1-7.) And it was during this fallen
condition that the Church changed its weekly rest day from the Sabbath to the
Sunday. Dr. N. Summerbell says:
"The Roman church had totally apostatized....It reversed
the Fourth Commandment by doing away with the Sabbath of God's word, and
instituting Sunday as a holiday." - "The
Christian Church," p. 415. Cincinnati: 1873.
Now, long after the Sabbath has been changed, Protestants are
at a loss to find authority in the Bible for this change. They have rejected
the authority of the Roman church to legislate on Christian faith, and cannot
accept tradition, therefore they know not where to turn. Professor George
Sverdrup, a leading man in the Lutheran Church, gives expression to this
predicament in the following words:
"For, when there could not be produced one solitary
place in the Holy Scriptures which testified that either the Lord Himself or
the apostles had ordered such a transfer of the Sabbath to Sunday, then it was
not easy to answer the question: Who has transferred the Sabbath, and who has
had the right to do it?" - "Samled
Skrifter I Udvalg," Andreas Helland, Vol. I, pp. 342, 343.
Minneapolis, Minn.: 1909.
(106) Walter Farquhar
Hook, D.D., Vicar of Leeds, expresses the same thought:
"The question is, whether God has ordered us to keep
holy the first day of the week. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are undoubted
ordinances of God; we can quote the chapter and verse in which we read of their
being ordained by God. But as to the Lord's Day [Sunday], we are not able to
refer to a single passage in all the Scriptures of the New Testament in which
the observance of it is enjoined by God. If we refer to tradition, tradition
would not be of value to us on the point immediately under consideration. The
Romanist regards the tradition of the Church as of authority equal to that of
Scripture. But we are not Romanists....But on this point there is not even
tradition to support us....There is no tradition that God ordained the first
day of the week to be a Sabbath....The change of the Sabbath from Saturday to
Sunday was never mentioned, or, as far as I can discover, thought of by the
early Christians. The Sabbath, that is to say, the observance of Saturday as a
day to be devoted to God's service, to rest of body and repose of mind, was an
ordinance of God. This ordinance relating to Saturday could be changed by God
and by God only. We, as Protestants, must appeal to the Bible, and the Bible
only, to ascertain the fact that God has changed the day - that God has Himself
substituted Sunday for Saturday....It is no answer to this to say that the
apostles seem to have sanctioned the assembly of Christians for public worship
on the Lord's Day, or that St. John in the Apocalypse speaks of the Lord's Day
and may possibly allude to the Sunday festival. For this is one of those
arguments which prove too much. We ourselves keep Easter Day; this is no proof
that we do not keep Christmas Day, or that Easter has been substituted for
Christmas. And if we have instances of the first day of the week being kept
holy by the apostles, we have more instances of their observing the Jewish
Sabbath." - "Lord's Day," p.
94. London: 1856; quoted in "The
Literature of the Sabbath Question," Robert Cox, Vol. II, pp. 369,
370.
(107) Dr. Edward T.
Hiscox, author of the "Baptist Manual,"
says:
"There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath
day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday. It will be said, however, and with
some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the
first day of the week with all its duties, privileges, and sanctions. Earnestly
desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I
ask, where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New
Testament, absolutely not. There is no Scriptural evidence of the change of the
Sabbath institution from the seventh to the first day of the week.
"I wish to say that this Sabbath question, in this
aspect of it, is the gravest and most perplexing question connected with
Christian institutions which at present claims attention from Christian people;
and the only reason that it is not a more disturbing element in Christian
thought and in religious discussions, is because the Christian world has
settled down content on the conviction that somehow a transference has taken
place at the beginning of Christian history....
"To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus during three
years' intercourse with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the
Sabbath question, discussing it in some of its various aspects, freeing it from
its false glosses, never alluded to any transference of the day; also that
during forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated. Nor,
so far as we know, did the Spirit, which was given to bring to their
remembrance all things whatsoever that He had said unto them, deal with this
question. Nor yet did the inspired apostles, in preaching the gospel, founding
churches, counseling and instructing those founded, discuss or approach this
subject.
"Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into
use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the
Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with
the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun-god, when adopted
and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to
Protestantism!" - A paper read before a
New York Ministers' Conference, held Nov. 13, 1893. From a copy
furnished by Dr. Hiscox for the "Source
Book," pp. 513, 514. Wash., D.C.: Review and Herald, 1922.
(108) Bishop Skat
Rordam, of Denmark, says:
"As to when and how it became customary to keep the
first day of the week the New Testament gives us no information....
"The first law about it was given by Constantine the
Great, who in the year 321 ordained that all civil and shop work should cease
in the cities, but agriculture labor in the country was permitted....Still no
one thought of basing this command to rest from labor on the 3rd [4th]
commandment before the latter half of the sixth century. From that time on,
little by little, it became the established doctrine of the church during its
'Dark Ages,' that the holy church and its teachers, or the bishops with the
Roman Pope at their head, as the Vicar of Christ and His apostles on earth, had
transferred the Old Testament Sabbath with its glory and sanctity over onto the
first day of the week." - "Report of
the Second Ecclesiastical Meeting in Copenhagen, Sept. 13-15, 1887,"
P. Taaning, pp. 40, 41. Copenhagen: 1887.
Bishop A. Grimelund, of Norway, says:
"Now, summing up what history teaches regarding the
origin of Sunday and the development of the doctrine about Sunday, then this is
the sum: It is not the apostles, not the early
Christians, not the councils of the ancient church which have imprinted the
name and stamp of the Sabbath upon the Sunday, but it is the Church of the
Middle Ages and its scholastic teachers." - "Sondagens Historie"
(The History of Sunday), p. 37. Christiania: 1886.
"What do we learn from this historical review?...That it
is a doctrine which originated in the papal church that the sanctification of
the Sunday in enjoined in the 3rd [4th] commandment, and that the essential and
permanent in this commandment is a command from God to keep holy one day in
each week." - Id., pp. 47, 48.
CONSTANTINE
(109) Constantine had
been watching, he said, those Caesars who had persecuted the Christians, and
found that they usually had a bad end, while his father, who was favorable
toward them, had prospered. So, when he and Licinius met at Milan in 313 A.D.,
they jointly prepared an edict, usually called "The Edict of Milano,"
which gave equal liberty to Christians and pagans. Had Constantine stopped
here, he might have been honored as the originator of religious liberty in the
Roman Empire, but he had different aims in view. The Roman Empire had been
ruled at times by two, four, or even six Caesars jointly, and in his ambition
to become the sole Emperor, Constantine, as a shrewd statesman, soon saw that
the Christian church had the vitality to become the strongest factor in the
empire. The other Caesars were persecuting the Christians. If he could win them
without losing the good will of the pagans, he would win the game. He therefore
set himself to the task of blending the two religions into one. As H. G.
Heggtveit (Lutheran) says:
"Constantine labored at this time untiringly to unite
the worshipers of the old and the new faith in one religion. All his laws and
contrivances are aimed at promoting this amalgamation of religions. He would by
all lawful and peaceable means melt together a purified heathenism and a
moderated Christianity....His injunction that the 'Day of the Sun' should be a
general rest day was characteristic of his standpoint....Of all his blending
and melting together of Christianity and heathenism none is more easy to see
through than this making of his Sunday law. 'The Christians worshiped their
Christ, the heathen their sun-god; according to the opinion of the Emperor, the
objects for worship in both religions were essentially the same.'" - "Kirkehistorie" (Church History),
pp. 233, 234. Chicago: 1898.
Constantine's Sunday law of 321 A.D. reads as follows:
"On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and
people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the
country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully
continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so
suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper
moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given the 7th
day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second
time." - "Codex Justinianus,
lib. 3, tit. 12, 3"; translated in "History
of the Christian Church," Philip Schaff, D.D., (7-vol. Ed.) Vol.
III, p. 380. New York: 1884.
(110) Dr. A. Chr. Bang
(Lutheran bishop, Norway), says:
"This Sunday law constituted no real favoritism towards
Christianity....It is evident from all his statutory provisions, that the
Emperor during the time 313-323 with full consciousness has sought the
realization of his religious aim: the
amalgamation of heathenism and Christianity." - "Kirken og
Romerstaten" ("The Church and the Roman State"), p. 256.
Christiania: 1879.
That Constantine by his Sunday law intended only to enforce
the popular heathen festival is acknowledged by Professor Hutton Webster, Ph.D.
(University of Nebraska), who says:
"This legislation by Constantine probably bore no
relation to Christianity; it appears, on the contrary, that the emperor, in his
capacity as Pontifex Maximus, was only adding the day of the sun, the worship
of which was then firmly established in the Roman Empire, to the other ferial
days of the sacred calendar." - "Rest
Days," p. 122. New York: 1916.
A. H. Lewis, D. D., who spent years of study and research on
this subject, declares, that "the pagan religion of Rome had many
holidays, on which partial or complete cessation of business and labor were
demanded," and that Constantine by his Sunday law was "merely adding
one more festival to the festi of the
empire." - "A Critical History of
Sunday Legislation from 321 to 1888 A.D.", pp. 8, 12. New York: D.
Appleton and Co., 1888.
This is clearly seen when we carefully examine all the
circumstances presented by Dr. Lewis:
1. Constantine's Sunday edict was given March 7, 321. The
very next day he issued an edict commanding purely heathen superstition. We
quote:
(111) "The August
Emperor Constantine to Maximus:
"If any part of the palace or other public works shall
be struck by lightning, let the soothsayers, following old usages, inquire into
the meaning of the portent, and let their written words, very carefully
collected, be reported to our knowledge." - Id., p. 19.
2. The Caesars for over a century had been worshipers of the
sun-god, whose weekly holiday was Sunday. Dr. Lewis says: "The sun-worship
cult had grown steadily in the Roman Empire for a long time." - Id., p.
20. He then quotes the following from Schaff in regard to Elagabalus, a Roman
Caesar of a century before Constantine's time:
"The abandoned youth, El-Gabal or Heliogabalus
(218-222), who polluted the throne by the blackest vices and follies, tolerated
all religions in the hope of at last merging them in his favorite Syrian
worship of the sun with its abominable excesses. He himself was a priest of the
god of the sun, and thence took his name." - Id., pp. 20, 21.
Dean H. H. Milman says:
"It was openly asserted that the worship of the sun,
under the name of Elagabalus, was to supersede all other worship. If we may
believe the biographies in the Augustan history, a more ambitious scheme of a
universal religion had dawned upon the mind of the emperor. The Jewish, the
Samaritan, even the Christian, were to be fused and recast into one great
system, of which the Sun was to be the central object of adoration." - "History of Christianity," Vol. II,
Book 2, chap. 8, par. 22, p. 178, 179. New York: 1881.
Dr. Lewis further says that Aurelian, who reigned from
270-276 A.D., embellished the temple of the Sun with "above fifteen
thousand pounds of gold." - "History
of Sunday Legislation," p. 23. Diocletian, who reigned from 284 to
305, "appealed in the face of the army to the all-seeing deity of the
sun." - Id., p. 24.
(112) "Such were
the influences which preceded Constantine and surrounded when he came into
power. The following extract shows still plainer the character of Constantine
and his attitude toward the sun-worship cults, when the first 'Sunday edict'
was issued:
"'But the devotion of Constantine was more peculiarly
directed to the genius of the Sun, the Apollo of Greek and Roman
mythology....The sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and
protector of Constantine.'" - Id., pp. 26, 27.
"These facts combine to show that Sunday legislation was
purely pagan in its origin." - Id., p. 31.
"In this law he only sought to give additional honor to
the 'venerable day' of his patron deity, the sun-god." - Id., p. 32.
"His attitude toward Christianity was that of a shrewd
politician rather than a devout adherent." - Id., p. 6.
Dr. Lewis quotes from Dr. Schaff a very fitting conclusion to
his remarks regarding Constantine:
"'And down to the end of his life he retained the title
and dignity of pontifex maximus, or
high-priest of the heathen hierarchy. His coins bore on the one side the
letters of the name of Christ, on the other the figure of the sun-god, and the
inscription 'Sol invictus.'" - Id., p. 10.
That the Christians at this time were still keeping the
Sabbath can be seen from the following statement of Hugo Grotius, quoted by
Robert Cox, F. S. A. Scot.
"He refers to Eusebius for proof that Constantine,
besides issuing his well-known edict that labor should be suspended on Sunday,
enacted that the people should not be brought before the law courts on the
seventh day of the week, which also, he adds, was long observed by the
primitive Christians as a day for religious meetings....And this, says he,
'refutes those who think that the Lord's day was substituted for the Sabbath -
a thing nowhere mentioned either by Christ or His apostles.'" - "Opera Omnia Theologica," Hugo
Grotius (died 1645), (London: 1679); quoted in "Literature of the Sabbath Question," Cox, Vol. I, p. 233.
Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart, 1865.
(113) Pope Sylvester
co-operated with Constantine to bring paganism into the Christian church
(especially Sunday-keeping). This caused the true Christians to have repugnance
for him. The Waldenses believed he was the Antichrist. Dr. Peter Allix quotes
the following from a prominent Roman Catholic author regarding the Waldenses:
"'They say that the blessed Pope Sylvester was the
Antichrist, of whom mention is made in the Epistles of St. Paul, as being the
son of perdition, who extols himself above every thing that is called God; for,
from that time, they say, the Church perished...'
"He lays it down also as one of their opinions, 'That
the Law of Moses is to be kept according to the letter, and that the keeping of
the Sabbath...and other legal observances, ought to take place.'" - "Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches
of Piedmont," p. 169. Oxford: 1821. Page 154 in the edition of
1690.
Having obtained a glimpse of the opposition of God's people
to this falling away, let us now return to our subject, to get a view of the
novel means Constantine employed to make converts in accordance with his
amalgamation scheme. Edward Gibbon says:
"The hopes of wealth and honors, the example of an
emperor, his exhortations, his irresistible smiles, diffused conviction among
the venal and obsequious crowds which usually fill the apartments of a
palace....As the lower ranks of society are governed by imitation, the
conversion of those who possessed any eminence of birth, of power, or of
riches, was soon followed by dependent multitudes. The salvation of the common
people was purchased at an easy rate, if it be true that, in one year, twelve
thousand men were baptized at Rome...and that a white garment, with twenty
pieces of gold, had been promised by the emperor to every convert.""-
"Decline and Fall," chap. 20,
par. 18.
Constantine gave the following instruction to the bishops at
the Council of Nicaea, which shows his constant policy:
(114) "'In all
ways unbelievers must be saved. It was not every one who would be converted by
learning and reasoning. Some join us from desire of maintenance; some for
preferment; some for presents: nothing is so rare as a real lover of truth. We
must be like physicians, and accommodate our medicines to the diseases, our
teaching to the different minds of all.'" - "Lectures
on the History of the Eastern Church," Arthur Penrhyn Stanley,
D.D., Lecture 5, p. 271. New York: 1875.
The bishops were only too willing to follow the emperor's
instruction, and the result was disastrous to the church. J. A. W. Neander in
the following paragraph gives us some of the results of this policy:
"Such were those who, without any real interest whatever
in the concerns of religion, living half in Paganism and half in an outward
show of Christianity, composed the crowds that thronged the churches on the
festivals of the Christians, and the theaters on the festivals of the
pagans." - "History of the Christian
Religion and Church," Vol. II, Sec. 3, Part 1, Div. 1, par. 1, p.
223. Boston: 1855.
No wonder Rev. H. H. Milman exclaims:
"Is this Paganism approximating to Christianity, or
Christianity degenerating into Paganism?" - "History
of Christianity," pp. 341, 342. He answers this question later by
saying: "With a large portion of mankind, it must be admitted that the
religion itself was Paganism under another form." - Id., p. 412.
Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, and an admirer of Constantine,
co-operated with him in bringing "the venerable day of the sun" into
the Christian church. Speaking of Pope Sylvester, Constantine, and himself, he
says:
"All things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the
Sabbath these we have transferred to the Lord's
day, as more appropriately belonging to it, because it has a precedence
and is first in rank, and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath. For on that
day, in making the world, God said, 'Let there be light, and there was
light.'" - "Commentary on the
Psalms"; quoted in Literature on the Sabbath Question," Robert
Cox, Vol. I, p. 361.
(115) Eusebius
evidently used the strongest argument he knew as proof for Sunday-keeping; but
advocates of this new holiday had probably not yet conceived the idea that
Christ's resurrection would be an argument in favor of Sunday-keeping, so he
used creation instead.
OLD AND
NEW CHURCH MEMBERS
The church at this time consisted of two widely different
kinds of church members: 1. The old class,
with their devoted leaders, had accepted Christianity in the primitive way, by
genuine conversion and separation from the world, suffering for Christ and His
unpopular truth. This class lived mostly in the country and in out-of-the-way
places. 2. The new converts lived mainly
in the large cities, and had come in through a mass movement, following the
crowd in what was most popular, attracted by the hopes of temporal gain or
honor, or they had been forced in by the secular arm. These were devoid of any
personal Christian experience, but constituting the majority, they elected
bishops of their own kind.
The elections of bishops were attended with secret corruption
and bloody violence, which was only too natural for that kind of
"Christians." Edward Gibbon says of these elections:
"While one of the candidates boasted the honors of his
family, a second allured his judges by the delicacies of a plentiful table, and
a third, more guilty than his rivals, offered to share the plunder of the
church among the accomplices of his sacrilegious hopes." - "Decline and Fall," chap. XX, par.
22.
Rev. H. H. Milman says:
"Even within the Church itself, the distribution of the
superior dignities became an object of fatal ambition and strife. The streets
of Alexandria and of Constantinople were deluged with blood by the partisans of
rival bishops." - "History of
Christianity," Book 3, chap. 5, par. 2, p. 410. New York: 1881.
Schaff declares that "many are elected on account of
their badness, to prevent the mischief they would otherwise do." - "History of the Christian Church," Vol.
III, Sec. 49, par. 2, note 5, p. 240. Even the sanctity of the church was not
respected by the fighting parties. Milman, speaking of the installation of a
bishop at Constantinople, says:
(116) "In the
morning, Philip [the prefect of the East] appeared in his car, with Macedonius
by his side in the pontifical attire; he drove directly to the church, but the
soldiers were obliged to hew their way through the dense and resisting crowd to
the altar. Macedonius passed over the murdered bodies (three thousand are said
to have fallen) to the throne of Christian prelate." - "History of Christianity," Vol. XI,
p. 426. New York: 1870. Socrates ("Ecclesiastical
History," Bk. II, chap. 17, p. 96) gives the number slain as 3150.
Can we wonder at the lack of spiritual insight and sound
judgment of such bishops when they met at their councils to formulate the creed
of Christendom? They decreed in favor of image worship, purgatory, prayers for
the dead, veneration of relics, and many other heathen customs, persecuting all
who would not fall in line with their mongrel customs. At the Council of
Laodicea, A.D. 364, they anathematized Sabbath-keepers in the following way:
"Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath,
but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord's Day; and, if they can,
resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them
be Anathema from Christ." - Canon XXIX,
"Index Canonum," John Fulton, D. D., LL. D., p. 259.
That the Christians were then keeping the Sabbath we see from
Canon XVI of the same council, in which they decreed:
"The Gospels are to be read on the Sabbath Day, with the
other Scriptures." - Id., p. 255.
Dr. Heylyn also declares that the Christians were keeping the
Sabbath at that time:
"Nor was this only the particular will of those two and
thirty Prelates, there assembled; it was the practice generally of the Easterne
Churches: and of some churches of the west....For in the Church of Millaine
[Milan];...it seemes the Saturday was held in a farre esteeme....Not that the
Easterne Churches, or any of the rest which observed that day, were inclined to
Iudaisme [Judaism]; but that they came together on the Sabbath day, to worship
Iesus [Jesus] Christ the Lord of the Sabbath." - "History of the Sabbath" (original spelling retained),
Part 2, par. 5, pp. 73, 74. London: 1636.
(117) The true
Christians paid very little attention to the anathema of the bishops, for they
continued to keep the true Sabbath, as the following quotations show:
"From the apostles' time until the council of Laodicea,
which was about the year 364, the holy observation of the Jews' Sabbath
continued, as may be proved out of many authors; yea, notwithstanding the
decree of the council against it." - "Sunday
a Sabbath," John Ley, p. 163. London: 1640.
That the Sabbath was kept, "notwithstanding the decree
of the council against it," is also seen from the fact that Pope Gregory I
)A.D. 590-604) wrote against "Roman citizens [who] forbid any work being
done on the Sabbath day." - "Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers," Second Series, Vol. XIII, p. 13, epist.
1.
As late as 791 A.D. Christians kept the Sabbath in Italy.
Canon 13 of the council at Friaul states:
"Further, when speaking of that Sabbath which the Jews
observe, the last day of the week, and which
also our peasants observe, He said only Sabbath, and never added unto
it, 'delight,' or 'my.'" - Mansi, 13,
851; Quoted in "History of the
Sabbath," J. N. Andrews, p. 539. 1912.
Bishop Hefele summarizes the canon in the following words:
"The celebration of Sunday begins with Saturday evening.
It is enjoined to keep Sunday and other church festivals. The peasants kept
Saturday in many cases." - "Conciliengesch.,"
3, 720, sec. 404; Quoted in "History
of the Sabbath," Andrews, pp. 539, 540. 1912.
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