Paganism and Rome

Although the origins of Paganism go back to the fall of Satan himself, according to Scripture the father of modern Sun Worship was the great grandson of Noah. Noah's son Ham had a son named Cush, who in turn had a son named Nimrod. Nimrod, evidently, was the first man after the Flood to organize open rebellion against God and His government. In Genesis 10:8-10, we read, "And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel." |0+|

In ancient sun worship, no particular day was set aside for the religious services to the sun. But then, just before the time of Christ, the "planetary week" rose in significance. |1+| In this system, each day was named after a different planet in the heavens. Just before the time of Christ, sun worship was powerfully represented in the religion of Mithra (the god of war from ancient Persia). So the Medo-Persian Empire had a most profound effect upon the evolution of sun worship by transforming their chief god, Mithra, into the sun god because, when the Roman Empire conquered Medo-Persia, the Romans adopted many Persian concepts for their own. Thus, Mithraism became a leading religion in the Roman Empire by the 1st century. The Romans worshiped Mithra, the sun god, often calling him "Sol Invictus Mithra", which is "the Invincible Sun Mithra." During the early Christian Era, Mithraism was one of the two primary pagan religions of the Roman Empire.

While Mithraism was mostly a private, though pervasive, cult, the religion of "Sol Invictus Elagabal" or "the Invincible Sun Elagabal" was predominately a public and well funded cult. The cult of Elagabal maintained grandious temples and lively public worship scenes. During the rule of Emperor Elagabalus (note the name), in AD 218-222, "Sol Invictus Elagabal" was made the official religion of the whole empire.

The evolution of false religion was carefully orchestrated by Satan to closely approximate true religion in many ways. There were yearly feast days set aside as holy. There was a dead, yet resurrected, saviour (the myth of the dead and resurrected sun god, Nimrod). It had Baptism of its converts--in the blood of a slain bull. In addition, there were many other similarities. But the rise of the planetary week provided a most alluring counterfeit: a weekly worship day. The day of the sun, ultimately called, "Sunday," assumed greater and greater significance in the pagan rounds of worship.

Gradually, large numbers of pagan people began to worship on Sunday in honor of the sun. The sun god was especially liked by the Roman soldiers because his worship included feats of athletic skill and "warlike manliness." During the time of Augustus Ceasar (about 31 BC), the worship of Mithra had spread across the Roman empire into Europe. In the middle of the 2nd century AD, Emperor Pius declared that the deity Mithra was to be called "Sol Dominus Imperii Romani", or "The Sun, the Lord of the Roman Empire." This title and the name "Sol Invicto" appear together on his coinage. Between the official status of sun worship and the importance of planetary days, the practice of non-Christian sun worship on Sunday became accepted as the appropriate way to keep a holy day throughout the empire. Worship on Sunday thus was firmly established in the official Roman religion by the beginning of the 3rd century.

Keeping in mind the firm establishment of Sunday worship in the pagan religion of Rome, we must now examine how this fact affected early Christians.

In AD 70 and AD 135, major Jewish revolts were put down and a deep anti-Jewish sentiment was developing.|1+| As a result of this, the hatred of the Romans toward anything that savored of Judaism became intense. Hadrian, the emperor, issued an edict strictly prohibiting the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. But, imperial decrees tended to be short-lived, and Christians generally disregarded it. However, in Rome itself, things were different.

Anicetus, the local bishop, or leader of the Christian church in Rome urged his followers, as well as neighboring churches, to keep the first day instead of the seventh.

At the risk of his life, the aged Polycarp, who had been a close friend of the Apostle John before his death about 100 AD, traveled to Rome about the year 155, and strongly protested this action on the part of Anicetus. The Roman bishop refused to yield to Scripture in the matter, but otherwise the meeting was courteous. Polycarp returned to Smyrna and was martyred the next year.

Because the Roman Empire had become officially pagan, and because Sunday worship had assumed official status, and because Christians didn't want to be associated with Jews, and because some Christian leaders were succumbing to pagan pressure to worship on Sunday, everything was in place to cause a major shift in Christian worship. Many changes other than the day of worship occurred in Christianity during the third century. However, it is beyond the scope of this website to address those topics.

Keeping in mind the other factors pointing toward major changes in the early Christian Church, we will now look at the final factor that caused those changes to take place. That final factor was the growing importance and recognition acquired by the Roman Christian Church. |2+| Once the Roman Church had obtained the needed power, the pagan influences in Rome were distributed throughout the Christian Church. The same pagan ideas, of which the Roman Church had partaken, it then impressed upon the other Christian Churches. Since Sunday worship had become an important pagan concept, and since sun worship was the official Roman religion, and since Rome was the seat of the empire, Sunday worship was one of the first heresies accepted by the Roman Christian Church. This heresy was then impressed upon the other Churches.

Looking back across the span of history, we can see how God has tried to keep His followers separate from the influences of Satan. Satan in turn has set up a false religion as a close counterfeit in attempts to lure the people of God away from strict obedience to Him. The worship of God has always been known by obedience to His commandments. The worship of Satan has always been known by rebellion against the government of God.

As we examine sun worship, we see that it is an attempt by Satan to set up an alternative to the obedience of God. Even the names of the gods attest to their Satanic purpose: "Bel (the confounder), Merodach (the Rebel)", etc. Satan's purpose has always been to lead people to rebel against God. Sun worship through the centuries has served his purpose well. Today we see remnants of the system of sun worship in the planetary week which we presently know (Saturday--for Saturn, Sunday--for the Sun, Monday--for the Moon, etc.). These remnants may still play a major part in our lives if we keep the "venerable day of the sun", Sunday as a holy day. The track of history shows us that this day of worship can be traced back to the influence of Nimrod the great rebel against God, and to Babylon the city of confusion.