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WHERE DID CHRISTMAS COME FROM? (part 3)

HOW DID MITHRA WORSHIP BRING THESE THINGS INTO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH?

In order to understand how and why Christmas came into the Christian church back in those early centuries, we need to understand the tremendous influence of pagan Mithraism in the first few centuries after the time of Christ-and how Christian leaders decided to adopt the customs of paganism in order to win the battle against it.

The following information is vital and comes from an earlier study:

THE PLANETARY WEEK -The various days of the week were, in ancient times, called the first day, second day, etc; for these were their Biblical names.  But about the time of Christ they were given new names.  The non- Christians began calling them ‘the Day of the Sun, (Sunday) the Day of the Moon, (Monday) etc. in honor of different heavenly bodies.  This was known by the pagans as the ‘planetary week.’

Each day was ruled over by a different god; but the most important of all gods was given the rule of the first day of the week, (Sunday), with the idea in mind that the first is always more important than that which follows it.  The most important of all the heathen gods was given the rule over the first of the seven days.  It was his day, the day of the sun.  And Mithra, the Sun god was worshiped each week on his day, the Sun day.

Now although these names for the days of the week were new, the day devoted to the Sun god was not new.  The worship of the sun arose from a devotion to that most powerful of natural objects.  It was one of the most ancient forms of worship and is represented by solar-disk images found on nearly every continent of our world.  (”Sun worship was the earliest idolatry”—A.R. Fausset, Bible Dictionary, page 666.)

The Arabians appear to have worshiped it directly without using any statue or symbol (Job: 31:26-27).  Abraham was called out of all this when he went to the Promised Land.  Ra was the Sun god of Egypt; and On (Heliopolis, which means “city of the sun’ in Greek) was the center of Egyptian Sun worship (see the Hebrew of Jer.43:13).

Entering Canaan under Joshua, the Hebrews again encountered Sun worship.  Baal of the Phoenicians, Molech or Milcom of the Ammonites, Hadad of the Syrians, and later the Persian Mitras or Mithra.

Shemesh was an especially important Sun god in the Middle East. Later, in Egypt, Aton was the name of the god of the Sun Disk.  The temple at Baalbek was dedicated to Sun worship.

By associating with Sun worshipers, the Israelites frequently practiced it themselves (Lev. 26:30, Isa. 17:8).  King Manasseh practiced direct Sun worship (2Kings. 21:3, 5).  Josiah destroyed the chariots that were dedicated to the Sun and worship processions (2Kings. 23:5, 11-12).  Sun altars and incense were burned on the housetops for the sun (Zeph. 1:5).  And Ezekiel beheld the “greatest abomination”: direct Sun worship at the entry way to the temple of the true God.  This was done by facing east-ward to the rising sun (Eze.8:16-17).

Continue part 4