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Declension in the Church

What is Christmas and where did it come from? To answer that question, we have to ask another one—what is Christianity? It is something very personal. The first man, Adam, was representing all mankind when he sinned and lost his personal relationship with God. Yet God in his grace took the initiative and in the person of his beloved Son and by his death on the cross, he atoned for the sins of all of Adam’s descendants whose hearts he would subsequently open, whereby they would personally see and confess their sins and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior (see, for example, Nicodemus in John 3). Now personal responsibility is very important to note, if we are going to understand something of the concept of Christmas. Jesus and his apostles predicted repeatedly that the church would go bad—that people would come to believe a lie rather than the truth (Matt 7:15; Rom 16:17, 18; 1 John 2:18, 19; Jude 3, 4, 12). It happened! See Gal 1:6–8, written c. 50 AD. We know that Polycarp (c. 70–155 AD), a disciple of John and leader of the church in Smyrna, went to Rome shortly before his martyrdom there, in order to counteract prevailing heresy.

By 400 AD the New Testament doctrines respecting sin and salvation were being reinterpreted in the most influential part of the church. In a significant measure, true Christianity was being displaced by “Churchianity.” Instead of the apostolic teaching that Jesus died for the individual person who subsequently believes personally in him (justification by faith), it began to be taught that Jesus died for the church, so that to know God, be saved and get to heaven, a person had to be part of the church and to believe with a general/catholic faith that there is remission for the sins of the church. The new doctrine would eventually teach that at a person’s baptism the Holy Spirit infused grace into them and justified them, thus beginning a process of increasing or decreasing justification, dependent on the good or bad works performed by that person throughout their life (this see-saw of justification was even seen as continuing after death and became formulated in the doctrine of purgatory). So with a denial of the final definitive authority of Scripture, the clergy could formulate autonomous doctrines and worship as long as the new teaching had the blessing of the Pope and/or consensus of the church hierarchy. The result of this autonomous authority was a progressive corruption of worship and doctrine. The doctrine of justification by faith alone was replaced by human merit, sacerdotalism (human priests acting as a mediator to God), and works of righteousness. Doctrine always affects worship so, not surprisingly, worship degenerated into the gross, blasphemous idolatry of the mass, Mariolatry, saint worship, prayers for the dead, and so on.

During the early church period there were four centers of the faith—Jerusalem and Antioch in the east, Alexandria and Rome in the west. With the disintegration of the Roman Empire, the church at Rome gradually took over the wealth and influence of the emperors, even adopting some of their methods of administration. Eventually, Rome sent emissaries to all of the other churches, calling upon them to submit themselves to the authority of the Bishop of Rome, to whom was granted the title of “father” or “Pope.” So the church in Rome was not concerned so much with pagans coming to an inward personal faith in Jesus, only that they joined the church and so became Christians outwardly through baptism. To encourage pagans to do this, the church allowed them to keep their old non-Christian traditions, gave them different names and called them Christian festivals! With the church’s degeneration, it also began to become liturgical, with growing emphases on outward material matters as opposed to inner spiritual truths. Church leaders’ dress-code, supposed locations of certain biblical events and their supposed dates assumed an importance that was void of any biblical warrant. Paul’s warning to the Galatians was to avoid legalism. He sought to counter the plausible arguments of the Judaisers that, if adopted, would have resulted in a good-works religion, with a practical syncretism of following both Jesus and Judaism.

Some may not advocate as emphatically as their forefathers, that in 2 Thess 2:7, Paul’s “mystery of lawlessness” is referring to the Roman Catholic Church, which came to prominence with the demise of the Roman Empire. However, the fact is that in Rome, Christianity was taken under the protection of the sovereign and an unnatural connection was formed between church and state, which subsists to the present day in so many countries around the world. What was this but a recurrence to the “weak and worthless elementary principles” (Gal 4:9) under which the church was placed in its minority? Roman Catholicism was simply Satan’s attempt to return to Judaistic Israel of old. What is all the pomp and ceremony that have been introduced by the Church of Rome but an imitation of the Roman Emperors and before that, the Tabernacle worship? The splendid edifices are but imitations of the Jewish Temple. The ecclesiastical dignities that are so highly prized are but an imitation of the emperors and the institution of the Jewish priesthood. The same is true of the robes which distinguish the clergy, together with the titles they have assumed. As the power of the Roman Empire waned, the power of the Christian church waxed. The church, especially the Western church, also adapted the remnants of the Empire for its own purposes. Greek, the language of the gospels and the early church, was abandoned in favor of Latin, the language of the Western Empire. Bishops adopted the imperial purple, a color that they wear to this day. They also adopted secular symbols of power like the staff and mitre. They took to wearing special rings, which people would be expected to kiss. Each took over a diocese, which had been the jurisdiction of a Roman governor, previously set up by Diocletian (245–316 AD). Similarly, imperial provinces became the jurisdictions of metropolitans. Church ritual was borrowed from imperial court ritual, and church architecture from imperial architecture. Basilicas were originally secular buildings, large rectangular halls with columns down the side and an apse at one end. The emperor sat on a throne in the middle of the semicircular apse surrounded by his officials. Similarly, a judge would sit in the center surrounded by assessors. These basilicas were converted into Christian churches, and soon new basilica churches were being purpose built. Now a bishop sat in the apse, his throne (cathedra) at the center of a semicircle of his clergy. The apse of many high modern churches is a reminder of this arrangement. A modern day bishop still sits on a throne, called a cathedra, and the church in which he keeps his throne is thus known as a cathedral church. The thrones are now generally moved to the side, their original position now being occupied by the altar, but the bishop and his subordinates still wear their imperial court robes, a contemporary fashion from two thousand years ago. In the Western church, clerical robes are modeled on courtly robes from the time of Constantine, while in the Orthodox churches the vestments worn by bishops are the same as those once worn by the emperor in church.

What is the distinction between clergy and laity but a copy of the separation of the Levites from their brethren? On what does their claim of receiving tithes rest but the example of Israel? From where do they arrogate to themselves the exclusive right of dispensing ordinances, and endeavour to trace their genealogy as the successors of the apostles but because it was unlawful for any but the priests, the successors of Aaron, to offer sacrifice or burn incense? How do they assume the name of priests, seeing the office is exclusively held by the Son of God, as is shown at large in the epistle to the Hebrews? Correspondingly, what are the festivals of Lent, Easter, and Christmas, etc. but an imitation of those appointed by Moses and Roman pagans?1 The Emperor Aurelius (c. 215–275 AD) had appointed himself pontifex maximus, high priest to the sun god Sol Invictus, and his successors had continued to use the title until 379. This title was applied to the Bishop of Rome originally as a criticism, because of its pagan associations but that was soon forgotten. Popes also appointed themselves Bishops of Bishops, another title borrowed from the emperor and which Constantine himself had once borne. So, too, popes decided that they should be addressed as Your Holiness, as emperors had been. Since the fourth century they have issued decretals, documents with the name and style of imperial edicts. They even invested selected bishops with a fur tippet (or pallium, a circular band about two inches wide, worn about the neck, breast, and shoulders, and having two pendants, one hanging down in front and one behind), just as emperors had previously invested their legates. In short, it will be found that the whole system of Roman Catholic worship is founded on the pagan Roman Empire and the Jewish law, the latter fulfilled and abrogated by Christ. If the instruction delivered by Paul to the Galatians, is understood and acted upon, it will destroy the very foundation of Rome’s worship. The idea of dividing up Christ’s life into events and sections and then attaching festival days or distinct holy days to each event, was brought into church practice in imitation of Roman emperor-worship. There was not a month in the Roman Empire’s calendar that did not have its religious festivals.

Religion of the Romans

The Romans were polytheistic (with over sixty known gods), the greatest of their gods being Jupiter followed by Mars, Quirinus, Diana, Mercury, and Saturn. By the New Testament era, Roman emperors were themselves being worshipped as the embodiment of these gods. The Roman was, by nature, a very superstitious person. Emperors would tremble and even legions refuse to march if the omens were bad ones. The Pantheon in Rome was home to all their gods.

If anything, the Romans had a practical attitude to religion, as to most things, which perhaps explains why they themselves had difficulty in taking to the idea of a single, all-seeing, all-powerful god. Insofar as the Romans had a religion of their own, it was not based on any central belief but on a mixture of fragmented rituals, taboos, superstitions, and traditions they collected over the years from a number of sources. To the Romans, religion was less a spiritual experience than a contractual relationship between mankind and the forces which were believed to control people’s existence and well-being. Every conquest by Rome of a new territory resulted in her adoption of that territory’s gods with great pomp and ceremony, resulting in an absurd variety of religious worship. Provided that your choice was not to the exclusion of other deities from Rome’s list, anyone could express their preference for the deity of their choice, just as later in the Middle Ages, Roman Catholics could express their preference of patron saint.2, 3 In spite of such polytheism and syncretism, Rome was a sacral society, where religion and state were indistinguishable. (This was true of Old Testament Israel, which was a church-state and a state-church, and both this model and that of pagan Rome would be subsequently mirrored in the Roman Catholic Church).

If the pontifex maximus (greatest pontiff) was the head of Roman state religion, then much of the organization rested with four religious colleges, whose members were appointed for life and with a few exceptions, were selected from among distinguished politicians. The highest of these bodies was the Pontifical College, which consisted of the rex sacrorum, pontifices, flamines, and the vestal virgins. Rex sacrorum (the king of rites) was an office created under the early republic as a substitute for royal authority over religious matters. Later he might still have been the highest dignitary at any ritual, even higher than the pontifex maximus, but it became a purely honorary post. Sixteen pontifices (priests) oversaw the organization of religious events. They kept records of proper religious procedures and the dates of festivals and days of special religious significance. The flamines were priests to individual gods: three for the major gods Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus, and twelve for the lesser ones. These individual experts specialized in the knowledge of prayers and rituals specific to their particular deity. The flamen dialis, the priest of Jupiter, was the most senior of the flamines. On certain occasions his status was equal to those of the pontifex maximus and the rex sacrorum. The vestal virgins (numbering two to six) were priests to Vesta, the god of home/family. The only female priests permitted in the Roman system, they kept a sacred fire burning in her temple in Rome.

The temptation by some in the church to imitate the Roman calendar is understandable when we remember that the early church was composed of many converted Jews and Gentile proselytes to Judaism, all of whom had been used to following the Jewish calendar with its feasts and holy days throughout the different seasons of the year. Such imitation was not novel to the second and third centuries AD, as it was already happening during the Apostolic era. Paul addresses the issue in Galatians, to which we have already referred. He condemned such days when he rebuked believers who wanted to retain the old covenant shadows.

But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons, and years! I am afraid I may have laboured over you in vain. (Gal 4:9–11)

James Bannerman writes:

And in the context it is not difficult to gather the twofold ground on which the apostle condemned such observances. First of all, he grounded condemnation of ecclesiastical days on the fact that, in attaching importance to them, and regarding them as ordinary parts of the service due to God, the Galatians, like “children, were in bondage under the elements (stoicheia) of the world;” in other words, he stigmatises these appointments of days and seasons as rudimentary observances suited to the infancy of the church, but only fetters to it now, when it ought to have arrived at spiritual manhood.

And again he characterises them as “the weak and beggarly elements (or rudiments) whereunto the Galatians desired again to be in bondage.” They were the empty and outward appointments of a carnal and worn-out dispensation.4

Since 500 BC (era of Esther), Roman pagans had kept the holiday of Saturnalia, a weeklong period of lawlessness celebrated between the 17th and 23rd of December, which had evolved out of worship of the mythological god Saturn, attributed with control of wealth and agriculture to name but a few of his supposed attributes. During this festival period, Roman courts were closed and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. It was largely wild, violent, and immoral. It was the only week of the year when gambling was permitted in public.

Costumes were worn and cross-dressing was common, as was role-reversal, where slaves were served by their masters and so on. All sexual prohibitions were lifted and erotic dancing in public was commonplace. The giving and receiving of presents was another feature (small dolls were a popular gift, although for an unpleasant reason, as they commemorated a myth that Saturn ate all his male children at birth to fulfill a pledge that he would die without heirs). All businesses were closed and the only vocations permitted to work were those of bakers and cooks. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the Lord of Misrule. Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in binge eating and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the original festival’s conclusion, December 23, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman. This violent ending became less common with the passage of time and the influence of Greek customs and practice, so that by the New Testament era the festival had become more light-hearted. The Lord of Misrule was selected by the drawing of lots and adopted the role of a mock king in charge of all the revelry, who was expected to order outlandish and scandalous actions to be performed by himself and others.

In the fourth century AD, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Church leaders in the west succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians. As the church historian Philip Schaff noted, had the syncretism of winter festivals with the birth of Christ arisen during a period of Christian persecution by pagans, then everything pagan would have been abhorred and the idea of mixing the two, undoubtedly refuted. However, as the idea occurred “in the Nicene age, this rigidness of opposition between the church and the world was in a great measure softened by the general conversion of the heathen.”5 The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. The weeks around December 25 coincided with a wide range of celebrations in earlier cultures, including the Midwinter Solstice (which at that time according to the Julian calendar fell on December 25), North European Yule, Celtic Samhain, Roman Saturnalia, and the Roman Birthday of Sol Invictus (or Invincible Sun), the official sun god of the Roman Empire, celebrating the rebirth of the winter-sun unconquered by the rigors of the season. In the third century AD this birthday was deemed to be December 25.

Excursus on Mithraism

The first empire after the Flood was that of Babylon (c. 2200 BC) under Nimrod, Noah’s descendent via Ham and Cush (Gen 10:8–10). Ezekiel, prophesying to the Jewish captives in their Babylonian exile around 600 BC, condemns the worship of Tammuz (Ezek 8:13–18) the mythological son of Nimrod mothered by Semiramis, believed by pagans to have been born miraculously at the winter solstice. Numerous Babylonian monuments show the goddess-mother Semiramis with her son in her arms.

From Babylon this mystery religion spread to all the surrounding nations as the years went on and the world was populated by the descendants of Noah. Everywhere the symbols were the same and everywhere the cult of the mother and child became the basis of the ancient pagan religion’s popular system. Their worship was celebrated with immoral practices and the image of the queen of heaven with the babe in her arms was seen everywhere, though the names might differ as languages differed. It became the mystery religion of Phoenicia and by the Phoenicians was carried to the ends of the earth. In Egypt, the mother and child were worshipped as Isis and Osiris or Horus; in India as Isi and Iswara; in China, Japan, and Tibet, as the mother goddess Shing-moo with child (Jesuit missionaries to the East were astonished to find the counterpart of the Madonna and child as devoutly worshiped as they were in Rome); in Greece as Ceres or Irene and Plutus; in Rome as Fortuna and Jupitor-puer, or Venus and Adurnis; and in Scandinavia as Frigga and Balder. When Caesar invaded Britain, he discovered the Druid priests worshiping the “mother of god” as Virgo-Patitura.

The mother and child were worshiped in Babylon as Ishtar and Tammuz, and in Phoenicia as Ashtoreth and Baal. When Belshazzar was slain (Dan 5:30) and the Persians came to power under Cyrus and later Darius, the worship spread west into Anatolia which eventually by the first century BC, became the Roman province of Asia. As Imperial Rome was tied to Egypt by conquest and by necessity (the fertile lands around the Nile providing a major source of food for Rome), it is not surprising to discover that the Isis cult became fully integrated into Roman life. Ancient Egyptian depictions of Isis and Horus became replicated in Roman coinage of the third century AD.

Semiramis was worshiped in Ephesus as the pagan fertility goddess Diana, who represented the generative powers of nature. She was referred to as a fertility goddess because she mothered all the numerous pagan gods representing the god-incarnate Tammuz.

Diana was pictured with numerous teats so that she could nurse all the pagan gods, and she wore a tower-shaped crown symbolizing the Babylonian tower of Babel.

Sun worship is very central to Buddhism and Hinduism in which some of the doctrines are as follows: as the sun god (Nimrod) plunged into the waters of the Euphrates River, so the reincarnated son plunged into the waters of the womb to be worshiped as the savior; the cycle of the sun represents the sun rising (Brahma), the sun at the meridian (Siva), and the sun setting (Vishnu); at night, the sun rests in the womb of the ocean in the darkness of the underworld, representing the death and suffering of the sun god. As god of the ocean (Poseidon, Neptune), he was also worshipped as the fish god Dagon, who had plunged into the waters of the womb to be reborn. The most prominent form of worship in Babylon was dedicated to Dagon, later known as Ichthys, or the fish (Judg 16:23; 1 Chr 10:10; 1 Sam 5). Another name for sun worship is Mithraism. The Encyclopaedia Britannica calls Mithra “the Iranian god of the sun, justice, contract, and war” and states that this pagan deity (originating in Indo-Persia during Moses’ era c. 1500 BC) was referred to as “Mithras” in the Roman Empire during the early centuries after Christ’s death.6 (It should be noted that from the eighteenth century onwards in the rise of modern human secularism, much has been published that emphasizes similarities between Mithraism and Christianity, arguing that the latter is but an imitation of the former. However, on closer scrutiny, these claims are spurious and are void of any tangible evidence from the extant records of Mithraism.)

According to the Roman historian Plutarch (c. 46–120 AD), Mithraism began to be absorbed by the Romans during Pompey’s military campaign against Cilician pirates around 70 BC. The religion eventually migrated from Asia Minor through the soldiers, many of whom had been citizens of the region, into Rome and the far reaches of the empire. Syrian merchants brought Mithraism to the major cities, such as Alexandria, Rome, and Carthage, while captives carried it to the countryside. By the third century AD Mithraism and its mysteries permeated the Roman Empire and extended from India to Scotland, with abundant monuments in numerous countries amounting to over 420 Mithraic sites so far discovered. The worship of the sun remained very prominent in Roman society and toward the end of the third century AD, the Lord Jesus was being referred to as the “Sun of Justice.” There was without much doubt, a syncretism of the worship of the sun and the worship of the Son of God!

This Roman coin from the third century AD (Probus, AD 276–282) depicts, on the reverse, the pagan sun god driving a chariot drawn by four horses (Sol in Quadriga). The inscription reads SOLI INVICTO: “The Invincible Sun.”

A similar mosaic found in the Vatican grottoes under St. Peter’s Basilica, on the vaulted ceiling of the tomb of the Julii (also known as Mausoleum M), depicts Christ as the sun-god Helios/Sol riding in his chariot and is dated to the third century AD. The two left horses were destroyed when the hole was made to enter the tomb. This mosaic demonstrates that the pagan Roman culture of the day was incorporating Christ into the myriad of idols that they worshipped. An inscription by a T. Flavius Hyginus, dating to around 80–100 AD in Rome, dedicates an altar to Sol Invictus Mithras. These facts combine to explain why the Savior was honored by some in Rome with the title, “Sun of Justice.” It is simply the attachment of a Mithraic title to Christ!

Many Romans simply preferred to worship the sun god that their ancestors had always worshiped. Their “god of light” was known by many names such as Mithra, Baal, and Sol Invicti. Now, another name was being connected to this pagan deity of the sun. That name was none other than Christ Jesus!

Syncretism

It appears that the church in Rome was willing, at the very least, to look the other way as the connection was being made. The intention of converting pagans to Christianity may have been a noble one. However, it appears that rather than converting pagans to Christianity, paganism was thoroughly incorporated into Christianity. The historian Clement A. Miles states:

The Dies Natalis Invicti was probably first celebrated in Rome by order of the Emperor Aurelian (270–275), an ardent worshiper of the Syrian sun-god Baal. With the Sol Invictus was identified the figure of Mithra, that strange eastern god whose cult resembled in so many ways the worship of Jesus, and who was at one time a serious rival of the Christ in the minds of thoughtful men. Mithraism resembled Christianity in its monotheistic tendencies, its sacraments, its comparatively high morality, its doctrine of an Intercessor and Redeemer and its vivid belief in a future life and judgment to come. Moreover, Sunday was its holy-day dedicated to the Sun.7

In 313, Emperor Constantine “converted” to Christianity and in 321, he enacted the first “Sunday” law, in the following terms:

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).

Schaff goes on to explain that Constantine

enjoined the observance, or rather forbade the public desecration of Sunday, not under the name of Sabbatum or Dies Domini, but under its old astrological and heathen title, Dies Solis, familiar to all his subjects, so that the law was as applicable to the worshippers of Hercules, Apollo, and Mithras, as to the Christians. There is no reference whatever in his law either to the fourth commandment or to the resurrection of Christ. Besides he expressly exempted the country districts, where paganism still prevailed, from the prohibition of labor, and thus avoided every appearance of injustice. Christians and pagans had been accustomed to festival rests. Constantine made these rests to synchronize, and gave the preference to Sunday, on which day Christians from the beginning celebrated the resurrection of their Lord and Savior.8

As an aside, this event immediately preceded the medieval period of church history. Following Constantine’s edict, regard for Sunday as a day of rest increased and continued through the Christianisation of barbarian nations. Newly converted Germanic tribes recognized the similarities between the Jewish Sabbath and their own pagan taboo-days, therefore they willingly accepted a Sabbatarian Lord’s Day.

The most important factor in the Lord’s Day assumption of the requirements of the Sabbath came from the great scholastic theologian Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas developed a method of distinguishing between the moral and ceremonial aspects of the fourth commandment, which allowed the Christian to spiritually keep the Sabbath (with its moral aspects), without observing it on Saturday (the ceremonial aspect). Aquinas also articulated a doctrine which linked the Ten Commandments with the Natural Law, which he saw as binding on all men everywhere. This Thomist view of the Ten Commandments survived some challenges, to become the prevalent view of late medieval and traditional Roman Catholic theology, so was the leading view heading into the Reformation.9

We make mention of this, because later chapters will show how in the early church period, and also in the Reformation and the second Reformation periods, many theologians regarded the acceptance of Christmas as detracting from the Lord’s Day. This was especially true of those who adopted the Puritan view that the Lord’s Day was the Christian Sabbath, a creation ordinance binding on everybody, everywhere. It is unlikely that this Puritan view would have evolved, if the Reformers had made a complete break from the Roman Catholic position. Neither Luther nor Calvin believed that the Christian Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment was still in force and manifested in the Lord’s Day.10 (As we shall notice later, this inability of the Reformers to completely break from Roman Catholic practice, also had a significant impact on the whole issue of “holy days” such as Christmas.)

This was also the first use of a seven-day week in the Roman calendar.11 The first and most important day of the week was Sun-Day, in honor of Sol Invictus/Baal. The six other days were all names of planets. The seventh day of the week, called Saturday (not Sabbath-day), represented the planet Saturn, which is furthest from the Sun and likewise on the calendar was day seven, the furthest day from Sun-Day, day one.12

The use of pagan names of the seven days was Constantine’s way of erasing Sabbath and the Lord’s Day. Hence, Christians conformed to the abolition of Sabbath as the day of rest, from an emperor who overtly chose a special day to honor his Sun-God, whom he patronized as being identical to Jesus. Sun-Day was central to Constantine’s thinking and not only was the weekly holy day moved to Sunday, but Easter was moved to a Sunday as well. Easter had originally been celebrated on the fourteenth of the Jewish month of Nisan: the lunar month starting with the first full Moon after the spring equinox. Western Christians shifted it to the following Sunday, but it still depended upon the lunar cycle, which is why Easter falls at different dates in different years, and why it still causes so much confusion. A complicated set of tables is provided in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer for calculating the date of Easter for each year up to 2299.

Today in Christianity, we think that we can make a very clear distinction between worship of the sun, and worship of the Son. However, we can still commonly find a connection between Sol or Baal and Christianity in much of the Christian artwork of today. It is very common to see Christ, the apostles, prophets, Mary, lambs, and doves portrayed with a sunburst or halo of light surrounding their head. A halo or sunburst is also sometimes included in images of the cross. While some may make a link with the implausible theory of the star of Bethlehem shining directly onto Jesus’ head, these halos and sunbursts are the same as those used in Mithraism or sun worship. Sadly, we can find this type of artwork today in the buildings of many Protestant denominations.

There were northern and southern European pagan winter festivals which extended from November 1 to January 10. The Celtic New Year began on November 1 and the Teutonic one on November 11. The idea was linked to the death of plants and the loss of leaves from trees. At this time of year there was an obsession with the cult of the dead. The pagan idea, widespread among many peoples, was that on one day or night of the year the souls of the dead return to their old homes and must be entertained. These and other superstitions marked this period up to and beyond the winter solstice. The number and regional variety of pagan folk customs and myths around Europe, based upon this time of year are too many to mention. As the Roman Catholic Church spread, there occurred a great medieval synthesis of paganism and Christianity. The church played a double role, at times an antagonistic one, forcing heathen customs into the shade and at other times one of adaptation, baptizing them into Christ, granting the pagan customs a Christian name and interpretation while often modifying their form. The church attempted to displace the pagan folk festivals with Saints days, in which the Mass was central. As a consequence of all of this, the pagans in the now apostate church could worship the queen of heaven and observe the birth of her son Tammuz, while the untaught, unsuspecting believers thought they were honoring Christ in the same ritual.

One may be forgiven for imagining that the gold statue (illustrated), is from a Hindu temple in India. However, this golden child is found in the Vatican treasury and like so many other images of the child in Roman Catholic churches, is reminiscent of the ancient worship of Tammuz as a child. Born on December 25, he represented the rebirth of the sun. In Europe alone, thousands of local female divinities transmogrified into the Virgin Mary, a fact that explains why even today she is represented in such conspicuously different ways in different areas of Italy, Spain, and Portugal.

We learn from Bede’s “Historia Ecclesiastica” of a letter addressed in 601 by Pope Gregory I (the Great) to Abbot Mellitus, giving him instructions to be handed on to Augustine of Canterbury, which sheds a vivid light on the process by which heathen sacrificial feasts were turned into Christian festivals. This Pope opined of the Anglo-Saxons,

Because they are wont to slay many oxen in sacrifices to demons, some solemnity should be put in the place of this, so that on the day of the dedication of the churches, or the nativities of the holy martyrs whose relics are placed there, they may make for themselves tabernacles of branches of trees around those churches which have been changed from heathen temples, and may celebrate the solemnity with religious feasting. Nor let them now sacrifice animals to the Devil, but to the praise of God kill animals for their own eating, and render thanks to the Giver of all for their abundance; so that while some outward joys are retained for them, they may more readily respond to inward joys. For from obdurate minds it is undoubtedly impossible to cut off everything at once, because he who strives to ascend to the highest place rises by degrees or steps and not by leaps.13

We see here very plainly the mind of the ecclesiastical compromiser. Direct sacrifice to heathen gods the church, of course, could not dream of tolerating—it had been the very center of her attack since the Apostolic era and refusal to take part in it had cost the martyrs their lives. Yet the festivity and merrymaking to which it gave occasion were to be left to the people, a policy which had clear advantages in making the church and therefore the church’s form of Christianity popular. What we find is many pagan practices concealed beneath a superficial Christianity, often under the mantle of some saint, yet side by side with these are many practices obviously identical with heathen customs. With respect to the believer’s attitude to the remnants of pagan idolatry, the biblical imperative is annihilation, not syncretism/incorporation! (see e.g., Deut 12:24, 30–31).

Roman emperors expected to undergo apotheosis and become gods when they died, therefore they were not too keen to learn that, according to Christian teaching, their fate was otherwise. To make Christianity more palatable, a compromise was achieved, by which newly expired Christian emperors became saints. Constantine thus became St. Constantine. Not taking any chances, the Senate recorded their gratitude after his death for the “divine” memory of Constantine, as they were to do for a string of subsequent Christian emperors. Constantine was a sun-god worshipper. He began in 309 his vast homogenous series of coinages inscribed “Soli Invicto Comiti.”

These coins had Constantine’s image on one side, and on the reverse “Soli Invicto Comiti,” meaning “Sol (Sun), Invincible, Comrade (of Constantine).” Sol Invictus is depicted as the sun-god with a rayed solar crown. One hand gives a blessing and the other holds a globe. Note the cross on his right, another indication of syncretism with Christianity. Constantine’s coinage to honor Sol Invictus was a huge scale operation, unmistakably intended to implant an idea in the minds of the population of the empire.14

Incidentally, compare the scudo from 1698 of Pope Innocent XII, which depicts a very similar image of Sol Invictus as Christ—with a rayed solar crown, one hand giving a blessing and the other holding a globe!

All Saints Day, (“All Hallows” in old English) on November 1, was certainly observed in England, France, and Germany in the eighth century. Pope Gregory III (731–741) moved All Saints Day (originally celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost, signalling the official end of Easter) from May to November 1. The day, which involved a vigil kept the night before (October 31) was set aside to commemorate all saints too numerous to be given their own feast day and was observed in Rome, before being extended by Gregory IV to the rest of the church a century later. It coincided with the Celtic New Year, “Samhain,” when pagans believed the boundary between this life and the next could be more easily crossed. However, there exists no evidence that either Pope had any knowledge of Samhain.

Note that the ‘occult’ aspects of modern Halloween (all-hallows-eve) have their roots firmly in Roman Catholic belief, not in ancient paganism! Both the vigil and day remain Roman Catholic holy days of obligation. It would seem that the people needed something more tangible for their own dead and therefore All Souls’ Day, on November 2, with its solemn Mass and prayers for the departed was introduced to supply this need. The special liturgical features of the church’s celebration are the Vespers, Matins, and Lauds of the Dead on the evening of November 1, and the solemn Requiem Mass on November 2. Throughout Europe various customs continue to prevail, from making meals for the dead to eat in the night, to baking “soul-cakes,” given originally to the living as a reward for their prayers for the dead in purgatory.

St. Hubert’s Day, was concocted for November 3; St. Martin’s Day or Martinmas was concocted for November 11 by Pope Martin I (649–654); St. Clement’s Day for November 23; St. Catherine’s Day for November 25; St. Andrew’s Day for November 30; St. Nicholas’s for December 6; St. Lucia for December 13; and St. Thomas the Apostle for December 21. The three saints’ days immediately following Christmas are St. Stephen’s for December 26; St. John the Evangelist’s for December 27; and the Holy Innocents’ for December 28.

The number of fantastic superstitions which built up around those days, part pagan and part Roman Catholic in origin, not to mention those associated with Christmas Eve and the twelve days thereafter, are legion in number. In light of all of the Saints Days established, we can understand how the feature of Advent evolved, with a few churches commencing it the sixth Sunday before Christmas Day but most on the fourth Sunday before. While Advent was ratified at the Council of Tours in 567, it is attested to have been in existence since 480.

From our historical review, it can be gathered that while we associate Christmas with December 25, on its pagan side it cannot be separated from the folk-feasts of November and December. In the Hampton court of Charles I (d. 1649), Christmas was reckoned to commence on All Hallow Tide, (All Saints Day) on November 1.15 As November 1 was considered by many to be the start of Christmas, so Candlemas on February 2 was considered to be the end of Christmas. There had existed in Roman society a festival called the Amburbium, which took place at the beginning of February and consisted of a procession around the city of Rome with lighted candles to purify it. Candles or other lights were also placed in graves with dead bodies, the thought being that they would have light in the next world! This was displaced by Pope Liberius in the fourth century with Candlemas. Candles were blessed in church and then taken on procession as a symbol of Christ as a light to lighten the Gentiles. As with all of these “Christian” holy days concocted by the papacy, with the passage of time there was assimilation with the pagan myths and practices which the church festivals were intended to displace.

It was commonplace in some areas to remove the winter evergreens such as holly and ivy on Candlemas Eve, replacing them with spring plants such as snowdrops. Miraculous powers came to be associated with the candles, so that they would be lit and kept burning during times of storms or illnesses or at a death. Candlemas was believed by some to be the lighting of a partially burned stick from the Yule log of Christmas, therefore considered to be the last farewell to Christmas. Linked with this was Mary’s forty days of purification after she gave birth (Lev. 12:1–8) before she could offer a sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem, therefore with the assumption that the Lord was born on December 25, forty days later brings us to February 2–3 (Candlemas).

When it came to Christianising the pagan festivals, the church encountered a particular problem with New Year and the varied forms of paganism which evolved from the Romans Kalends celebrations. Their attempts to change it proved less successful, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter on New Year. The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern carolling), etc. We conclude this section with a quote from an American historian. Stephen Nissenbaum, history professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, writes,

In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been.16

1. Haldane, Reasons of a Change, 50–51.

2. Goldsmith, History of Rome, 42.

3. Minucius Felix, Octavius, ch. 25.

4. Bannerman, Church of Christ, 1:414.

5. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 3:396.

6. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mithraism.

7. Miles, Christmas, 23.

8. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 3:380, n. 1, quoting Codex Justinianus.

9. Bauckham,“Sabbath and Sunday,” 302–7.

10. www.bookofconcord.org, Art. 28; Calvin, Selected Works, 2:157–63.

11. Journal of Calendar Reform, 23:128n.

12. Weigall, Paganism, 231.

13. Bede, Ecclesiastical History, 1:30.

14. Grant, Collapse and Recovery, 51.

15. Dyer, British Popular Customs, 396.

16. Nissenbaum, Battle for Christmas, 4.