Chapter I: 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 become a successful student of early Church history, nor of present tendencies, nor of future developments. History is a series of results, not a medley of happenings. It is the story of the struggle between right and wrong; the record of God’s dealing with men. The “historic argument” is invaluable, because history preserves God’s verdicts concerning human choices and actions. Events and epochs, transitions and culminations, are the organized causes and effects which create the never-ceasing movement, and the organic unity called history. Hence we learn that ideas and principles, like apples, have their time for development and ripening; that the stains of sin, the weakness of error, and the influence of truth commingle and perdure through the centuries; that good and evil, sin and righteousness, persist, or are eliminated, in proportion as men heed God’s voice, and listen to His verdicts.

The scientific study of history reveals the norm by which ideas, creeds, movements, and methods are to be tested. Such a standard, when contrasted with the speculations of philosophy, is granite, compared with sand. God’s universal law, enunciated by Christ, is: “By their fruits ye shall know them.”

The efforts of partisans to manipulate early history in the interest of special views and narrow conceptions, have been a fruitful source of error. Equally dangerous has been the assumption that the Christianity of the third, fourth, and fifth centuries was identical with that of the New Testament, or was a fair representative of it. The constant development of new facts shows that at the point where the average student takes up the history of Western Christianity, it was already fundamentally corrupted by pagan theories and practices. Its unfolding, from that time to the present, must be studied in the light of this fact. The rise, development, present status, and future history of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, cannot be justly considered, apart from this fact. The fundamental principles, and the underlying philosophy of these divisions of Christendom originated in the paganizing of early Christianity. This fact makes the re-study of the beginnings of Christianity of supreme importance. The pagan systems which ante-dated Christ, exercised a controlling influence on the development of the first five centuries of Western Christianity, and hence, of all subsequent times. This field has been too nearly “an unknown land,” to the average student, and therefore correct answers have been wanting to many questions which arise, when we leave Semitic soil, and consider Christianity in its relation to Greek and Roman thought. “Early Christianity” cannot be understood except in the light of these powerful, pre-Christian currents of influence; and present history cannot be separated from them.

This book presents a suggestive rather than an exhaustive treatment of these influences, and of their effect on historic Christianity. The author has aimed to make a volume which busy men may read, rather than one whose bulk would relegate it to the comparative silence of library shelves. The following pages treat four practical points in Christianity, without attempting to enter the field of speculative theology, leaving that to a future time, or to the pen of another--viz.: The influence of pagan thought upon the Bible, and its interpretation; upon the organized Church, through the pagan water-worship cult; upon the practices and spiritual life of the Church by substituting pagan holidayism for Christian Sabbathism, through the sun-worship cult; and upon the spiritual life and subsequent character of the Church, by the union of Church and State, and the subjugation of Christianity to the civil power, according to the pagan model. Facts do not cease to be facts, though denied and ignored. They do not withdraw from the field of history, though men grow restive under their condemnation. I have dealt mainly with facts, giving but brief space to “conclusions.” I have written for those who are thoughtful and earnest; who are anxious to know what the past has been, that they may the better understand the duties of the present and the unfolding issues of the future. Such will not read the following pages with languid interest nor careless eyes.

The issues involved are larger than denominational lines, or the boundaries of creeds. They are of special interest to Protestants, since they involve not only the reasons for the revolt against Roman Catholicism, but the future relations of these divisions of Christendom, to each other, and to the Bible. The supreme source of authority in religion is directly at issue in the questions here treated. That is a definite and living question which cannot be waived aside. At this threshold, the author extends the welcome which each searcher after facts and fundamental truths gives to fellow investigators.

ABRAM HERBERT LEWIS.

Room 100, Bible House, New York City, May, 1892.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. REMAINS OF PAGANISM IN CHRISTIANITY 1

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.

CHAPTER II. PAGAN METHODS OF INTERPRETING THE SCRIPTURES 31

Contrast between the Christianity of the New Testament and
That of the Later Centuries--Gnosticism and Allegorical
Interpretation--Testimony of Harnack and Bauer Concerning
the “Hellenization of Christianity”--Hatch on “Pagan
Exegesis”--The “Fathers” as Allegorists; Justin, Clement of
Alexandria, Barnabas, and Others--Examples: “The Red Heifer
a Type of Christ”; “Spiritual Circumcision”; “Scriptural
Significance of Foods”; “The Cross in the Old Testament”;
“Why Are There One Hundred and Fifty Psalms?”; “The Phœnix
a Type of the Resurrection”; “Gnostic Exposition of the
Decalogue”; “Types of Christ”; Various Examples from
Augustine.

CHAPTER III. ASIATIC PAGAN WATER-WORSHIP 71

Fundamental Corruption of Christian Baptism through
Pagan Water-Worship--“Baptismal Regeneration,” the
Product of Paganism--Spiritual Purity Sought through
Pagan Baptism--Testimonies from Jamblicus, Virgil,
Ovid, Herodotus, Juvenal, and Others--Baptism and
Serpent-Worship--Baptism and Egyptian Sun-Worship--The
Sacred Nile--The Prevalence of Water-Worship in
India--Sacred Wells--Sacred Rivers--Modern Buddhistic and
Modern Hindu Baptism.

CHAPTER IV. WATER-WORSHIP IN NORTHERN EUROPE AND IN MEXICO 98

Water-Worship Prominent in Many Ways, and Associated with
Holy Seasons--Infant Baptism among the Scandinavians and
Teutons--Pagan “Christening of Children”--Sacred Water as a
Safeguard against Disease, etc.--Virtue of Water Used for
Mechanical Purposes--Water Sprites--Similarity between Roman
Catholicism and Paganism of Mexico--Aztec Baptism--Prayer
for “Baptismal Regeneration” of Child by Mexican Midwife.

CHAPTER V. GREEK WATER-WORSHIP 112

Sprinkling and Immersion Both Used--Prominence of “Baptismal
Regeneration”--Lustral Water at Temple Doors--Baptism of
Animals--Influence of “The Greek Mysteries” on Christian
Baptism--Initiatory Baptisms--Scenic Illustrations--Mithraic
Baptism Engrafted on Grecian--“Creed,” “Symbol,” Drawn from
Grecian Water-Worship Cult--Identity of Grecian and Roman
Catholic Forms--The Use of Spittle in Pagan Baptism.

CHAPTER VI. PAGAN WATER-WORSHIP TRANSFERRED TO CHRISTIANITY 128

Testimony from Tertullian, Barnabas, Justin, Methodius,
the Apostolic Constitutions, etc.--Holy Water, or Repeated
Baptism, Borrowed without Change--Magical Effects of Holy
Water, the Same in Christian as in Pagan Cult--Baptism of
Animals by Holy Water, to Produce Magical Results--Holy
Water Prepared after the Pagan Method--Consecration of
Baptismal Waters Borrowed from Pagan Combination of Sun-
and Water-Worship--The Church Filled with Baptized but
Unconverted Pagans, and so Passed under Pagan Control.

CHAPTER VII. PAGAN SUN-WORSHIP 156

Sun-Worship the Oldest and Most Widely Diffused
Form of Paganism--Gnostic Antinomianism or
Lawlessness--Anti-Judaism, Mainly of Pagan
Origin--Anti-Sabbathism and Sunday Observance
Synchronous--Anti-Lawism and Anti-Sabbathism
Unscriptural--Christ’s Teachings Concerning the Law of God;
Paul’s Teachings on the Same--Destructive Effect of Pagan
Lawlessness on Christianity.

CHAPTER VIII. SUNDAY OBSERVANCE UNKNOWN TO CHRISTIANITY
BEFORE THE MIDDLE OF THE SECOND CENTURY 171

Mistaken Notions Concerning the Beginning of
Sunday Observance--No Sunday Observance in the New
Testament--Sunday Directly Referred to but Three Times--It
is Never Spoken of as a Sabbath, nor as Commemorative of
Christ’s Resurrection--The Bible does Not State that Christ
Rose on Sunday--Christ and His Disciples Always Observed
the Sabbath--The Change of the Sabbath Unknown in the
New Testament--The Sabbath Never Called “Jewish” in the
Scriptures, nor by Any Writer until after Paganism had
Invaded the Church--Origin of Sunday Observance Found in
Paganism--First Reference to Sunday Observance about 150
A.D.--No Writer of the Early Centuries Claimed Scriptural
Reasons for Its Observance--Pagan Reasons and Arguments
Adduced in Its Support; a Day of “Indulgence to the
Flesh”--Pretended Scriptural Reasons, _ex post facto_.

CHAPTER IX. STATE RELIGION A PAGAN INSTITUTION 188

Christ’s Attitude toward the State--The Roman Conception
of Religion as a Department of the State--Roman Civil Law
Created and Regulated All Religious Duties--Effect of the
Pagan Doctrine of Religious Syncretism on Christianity--The
Emperor a Demi-God, Entitled to Worship, and, _ex officio_,
the Supreme Authority in Religion--The Deep Corruption of
Roman Morals and Social Life under Pagan State Religion.

CHAPTER X. THE CONTROL OF CHRISTIANITY BY THE STATE UNDER
CONSTANTINE AND HIS SUCCESSORS 203

A New Epoch in the Paganizing of Christianity--Paganism
Seeking a New God, Strong Enough to Save the
Empire--Constantine Not a “Christian Emperor,” but
Superstitious, Time-Serving, and Ambitious--Murdering His
Kindred while Promoting Christianity as a Rising Political
Influence--Seeking Christianity Mainly for Ambitious
Ends--Professing Christianity Only on his Death-Bed--Making
the Most of Both Worlds--Constantine Corrupted and Perverted
Christianity More than He Aided It.

CHAPTER XI. CONSTANTINE’S LEGISLATION CONCERNING THE PAGAN
SUNDAY 217

All His Tolerative Legislation Essentially Pagan--Christians
did Not Seek for Sunday Laws--The First Sunday Law, 321
A.D., Pagan in Every Particular--Essentially Identical with
Existing Laws Concerning Other Days--Legislation against
Heathen Religions Feeble and Unenforced--Constantine Not a
“Christian Prince.”

CHAPTER XII. OTHER FORMS OF PAGAN RESIDUUM IN CHRISTIANITY 231

A Low Standard of Religious Life--Faith in Relics--The Cross
an Ancient Pagan (Phallic) Symbol--A “Charm” borrowed from
Paganism--Constantine’s Use of the Composite Symbol as a
Military Standard--Prevalence of Faith in “Charms”--Sign
of the Cross in Baptism--Baptism and Holy Water as
“Charms”--Stupendous Miracles, like Pagan Prodigies, through
Baptism--Delayed Baptism--Orientation at Baptism, etc.

CHAPTER XIII. SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED 263

Lights in Worship--Worshipping “toward the East”--Easter
Fires--Beltane or Baal Fires--Penance--Mariolatry--The
Mass--Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead--Peter’s
Keys--Christmas--Easter--Lent, etc.