BEYOND PITCAIRN 

Vance Ferrell

Chapter 4

West of Pompeii   

A fleet of oar-powered war galleys commanded by a Roman officer, Gaius Plinius Secundus, was based at the small town of Misenum on the westernmost point of the Bay of Naples when the inferno exploded to the east of them.

This commander is better known in history as the famous scholar and historian, Pliny the Elder.

His nephew, Pliny the Younger, was only eighteen years old when the holocaust came. But in answer to a letter from the historian Tacitus, the young man told how Pliny the Elder had boarded a ship and sailed right into the heart of the destruction.

"On the 24th of August [A.D. 79], about one in the afternoon, my mother desired him to observe a cloud which had appeared of a very unusual size and shape. He had just taken a turn in the sun, and after bathing himself in cold water, and making a light luncheon, [had] gone back to his books.

"He immediately arose and went out upon a rising ground from whence he might get a better sight of this very uncommon appearance. A cloud, from which mountain was uncertain at this distance, was ascending, the form of which I cannot give you a more exact description of than by likening it to a pine tree, for it shot up to a great height in the form of a very tall trunk, which spread itself out at the top into a sort of branches. It appeared sometimes bright and sometimes dark and spotted, according as it was either more or less impregnated with earth and cinders.

"This phenomenon seemed, to a man of such learning and research as my uncle, extraordinary , and worth further looking into

"As he was coming out of the house, he received a note from Rectina, the wife of Bassus, who was in the utmost alarm, at the imminent danger which threatened her; for from her villa at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, there was no way to escape except by sea. She earnestly entreated him therefore to come to her assistance. He accordingly. .ordered the galleys to put to sea, and went himself on board with an intention of assisting not only Rectina, but the several towns which lay thickly strewn along the beautiful coast."

The youth had stayed at Misenum with his mother when his famous kinsman set off across the bay to rescue those in danger at Herculaneum and Pompeii. But the elder Pliny never returned from his mission, for going ashore at Stabiae, just south of Pompeii, he was asphyxiated by a smothering blanket of ash and gases and perished in the holocaust.

Meanwhile, his nephew and sister stayed on at Misenum until the next day, when the narrative continues:

"Though it was now morning, the light was exceedingly faint and doubtful; the buildings all around us tottered, and though we stood on open ground, yet as the place was narrow and confined, there was no remaining without imminent danger; we therefore resolved to quit the town.

"A panic-stricken crowd followed us, and. .pressed on us in dense array to drive us forward as we came out. When we had gotten away from the house, we stood still, in the midst of a most dangerous and dreadful scene.

"The chariots, which we had ordered to be drawn out, were so agitated backwards and forwards, though upon the most level ground, that we could not keep them steady, not even by supporting them with large stones. The sea seemed to roll back upon itself, and to be driven from its banks by the convulsive motion of the earth; it is certain at least that the shore was considerably enlarged, and several sea animals were left upon it.

"On the other side, a black and dreadful cloud, broken with rapid, zigzag flashes, revealed behind it variously shaped masses of flame ..Soon afterwards the cloud began to descend and cover the sea. It had already surrounded and concealed the island of Capri and the promontory of Misenum ..I looked back; a dense dark mist seemed to be following us.

 'Let us turn off the main road,' I said, 'while we can still see. If we should fall down here, we might be pressed to death in the dark by the crowds following us.'

"We had scarcely sat down when night came upon us, not such as we have when the sky is cloudy, or when there is no moon, but that of an enclosed room when the lights are out. You might hear the shrieks of women, the screams of children, and the shouts of men; some calling for their children, others for their parents, others for their husbands, and seeking to recognize each other by the voices that replied; one lamenting his own fate, another that of his family; some wishing to die from the very fear of dying; some lifting their hands to the gods; but the greater part convinced that there were no gods at all, and that the final endless night of which we have heard had come to the world. .

"A heavy shower of ashes rained upon us, which we were obliged every now and then to stand up and shake off, otherwise we should have been crushed and buried in the heap."

The young Pliny tells us that they waited there in "the belief that the whole world was dying and I with it," until a yellowish sun finally brought the morning, and revealed a landscape "buried deep in ashes like snowdrifts."  

 It was the latter part of August, 79 A.D, The end of the world had indeed come to the inhabitants of Herculaneum and Pompeii.

Founded in 80 B.C., Pompeii was the commercial, agricultural and maritime center of the Sarnus Valley in south-central Italy, and had a population of about twenty thousand.

Pompeii had the palatial country estates of many of the wealthy of Rome. Mount Vesuvius had not erupted for several centuries, and no one suspected that the cooling breezes from the Bay of Naples would that summer turn into a fiery, smoking besom of destruction.

We have no record of the death of any Christians at Pompeii when Vesuvius exploded, but of course this is possible. Herod Agrippa I is mentioned in the Bible in Acts 12, t when he killed the Apostle James and tried to kill Peter, before he, himself, was killed by an angel (Acts 12:1-3,19-23). This Herod had three daughters, one of whom was named Drusilla. When she was grown, she married Azizus, king of Edessa. But it was not long until Claudius Felix, the procurator of Judea, asked her to leave her husband and marry him. This she did. During his rule, he came to Caesarea with Drusilla, and the Apostle Paul was brought before them to be examined.

A warning to flee from a terrible doom was given by Paul to both, as he spoke of righteousness, temperance and the judgment to come. Felix was terrified, and answered Paul: "Go thy way for this time; and when I have a convenient season, I will call thee." (Acts 24:24-27).

Felix died a terrible death and left his wife, Drusilla, and her son behind.

Drusilla and the boy were at Pompeii that summer in 79 A.D. when Vesuvius belched fire and ash. Both of them died as the suffocating heat, smoke, and fine dust poured over the city.

The location of both Herculaneum and Pompeii was forgotten in the centuries that followed. In 1738, diggers trying to find antique treasures for the king of Naples accidentally discovered Herculaneum. Pompeii was found ten years later.

On the walls of Pompeii were scribbled curses and vile love notes that give indication of the kind of people destroyed in the eruption that summer.

But beads of sweat broke out on the foreheads of the archeologists as they stepped back from the writing on one wall:

"And three words were found that seem to turn the destruction of Pompeii into a divine judgment-three simple words that even 2,000 years later make us thoughtful: 'Sodom and Gomorrah.' "Ivar Lissner, "The Living Past, " page 402.

And yet, one hundred and thirty miles north of the flames and sulphurous rain over Pompeii was to be found yet another Sodom.  

BEYOND PITCAIRN

5 Roman Holiday

 Slowly, the men worked the winches and an immense section of sand-covered floor arose to the surface of the Coliseum. On it were four wild African lions. As it moved upward, the men could hear the muffled cheers of thousands as they sat in the bleachers awaiting the end.

The men at the winches were slaves brought in from the provinces. They knew that as the massive framework neared the surface, it would become suddenly lighter as the beasts bounded out onto the floor of the vast amphitheater.

 Overhead, they knew that more Christians were preparing to die.

The city of Rome, in the years that followed those when Christ walked the dusty lanes of Galilee, was a metropolis unmatched by any other in all history. And yet we must go to Rome in order that we may better understand the mystery of Pitcairn.

But the power of Rome went on for centuries. And as we shall learn, history was made and changed at Rome. For Rome was a different kind of place in many ways.

The remains of the Coliseum are to be seen in Rome to this day. Shaped like a football stadium, its four stories were 161 feet high, 600 feet long and 500 feet wide. 45,000 spectators could watch as men and beasts fought and died on the vast amphitheater floor.

Jesus taught and suffered and died in the early part of the First Century A.D. By the end of that century the Bible had been finished, as the Apostle John penned his books.

Turning time back, we walk its streets and find about us a metropolis such as the world has not otherwise seen. Many of the free citizens may have been poor, but at their disposal was the luxury of this city that ruled the civilized world. For Rome was a welfare state within itself. Always available was the free food, attendance at the theaters, circuses, amphitheaters, and stadiums. Romans exercised, refreshed, amused and educated themselves in the baths. They enjoyed the shade of a hundred massive colonnades, and walked under decorated porticos that covered many miles of streets, -three miles in the Field of Mars alone.

In the center of town was the Roman Forum, ever busy with business, echoing with oratory and debates. Encircling it were the majestic temples to the gods, the palaces of nobility, the theaters and baths for the masses. Gardens and pleasure places were to be found everywhere.

Marriage, once sacred in ancient Rome, had now become a passing adventure. Amid a heavy overextension of credit, everyone was in debt, and no one wanted children. Abortion of babies had become not only a city-wide pastime, but a publicly approved science.

For Rome had become decadent. Expensive silk cloth from the Orient was so common in the Eternal City that men as well as women wore it. Delicate eye makeup, exotic facial cosmetics, and high-heeled shoes were common. Jewelry was in abundance among the middle and upper classes; so much so that the manufacture and sale of imitation "emeralds" and other fine jewels was a thriving business. Rome was not only decadent; it had become artificial.

The luxuries of their homes exceeded the luxuries of their clothing: floors of marble and mosaic; columns of alabaster, many-colored marble, and onyx. On the walls were to be seen brilliant hand-painted murals, or inlays of costly stones. Ceilings were often in gold or plate glass, while beneath them rested tables and divans decorated with ivory, silver, gold or tortoise shell.

By the fourth Century A.D., there were 856 baths and 1352 public swimming pools in Rome. The Baths of Nero had 1600 marble seats and accommodated 1600 bathers at a time. But there were others that held 3000 bathers each. This was Rome.

Banquets began at four in the afternoon and lasted until late in the night or till the next day. The tables were strewn with flowers and parsley, the air was scented with perfumes. Rare fish, birds and fruit from far-away lands were to be had. Eels and snails, ostrich wings, flamingo tongues, geese livers and songbirds were favorite dishes.

But everything in Rome centered around the Roman holidays. Every century, more were added until fully one-half of each year was dedicated to some festival or other.

The festivals took the people to the races at the Circus Maximus, where forty-four races might be run in two days. Or a holiday might be spent just outside the imperial city viewing the stupendous naval battles that took place on artificial lakes. For each such occasion, enormous boats were constructed and, as the people gazed from the sidelines, massive battles would take place for their amusement. In one contest alone, 19,000 men in ships fought and died together while the people on shore applauded.

But even more popular was the Coliseum: The arena was an immense wooden floor strewn with sand. Parts of this floor could be lowered and then quickly raised with a change of scene. At brief notice the whole floor could be covered with water. Beneath it, in large rooms, were the wild animals, men and machines that would be used in the fights for that day. No admission was charged. All Rome could come and sit in its thousands of seats, beneath huge canvas awnings, and watch what took place. In one day, under Nero, 400 tigers fought with bulls and elephants; on another day, under Caligula, 400 bears were slain; Claudius made a division of the Praetorian Guard fight panthers.

And this is where the humble Christians were brought to die, for no other crime than that of following the teachings of the Bible and living as Jesus lived.

But the influential Roman Christians lived above all this.

They were able to enjoy the good life. The worst of the world flowed into Rome, for that is what it wanted. And the Church at Rome also wanted that which the world had to offer.

As if there were not already enough at Rome, new deities and gods were imported from everywhere. War captives, returning soldiers and merchants brought in new religions and philosophies from many lands. And they were welcomed by worldly pagans and worldly Christians. Yes, there were faithful Christians in the city who lived and died in the catacombs or in the Coliseum. But it was the worldlings who were the leaders of the Christian Church at Rome. It was they who demanded that all the other churches of Christendom bow to their brand of Christianity.

And, as we shall see, it was the Church at Rome that introduced paganism into the Christian churches everywhere, by requiring that they accept these heathen rituals and beliefs.

But more than just new rituals, it was the Church at Rome that was destined to give to all the world the new Roman holiday. 

BEYOND PITCAIRN

6- Christening of Paganism

 We have from ancient records the stories of many brave men and women who suffered and died for their faith, rather than yield their allegiance to God and Jesus Christ. One of these was Perpetua. About twenty-six years old, she was married and had an infant child. Seized as a Christian, she was thrown into prison, where her father came and tenderly pled with her to give up Christianity. When she refused, he became angry, beat her and left, declaring she would never see his face again.

Then Perpetua was brought before the Roman proconsul, Minutius, and was commanded to sacrifice before an idol. A shrine was in a prominent place of the large room, and a statue of a heathen god was standing within it. A small box of incense was handed to her husband and he held it out to her. All she need do was to take a pinch of the fragrant herb and place it on the smoking incense plate that lay before the unspeaking idol. A large number of people had gathered for the occasion, for she was known and liked by many. On one side stood her husband and close friends who pled with her. On the other, stood the Roman pro-consul, Minutius. By his side was a scribe prepared to pen "not guilty" in a record book if she would but offer the incense.

But Perpetua refused the command to sacrifice to idols, for in this way she would have proved to all that she had renounced her faith in Christ.

Taken back to prison, she was again visited by her father who, sorry for having earlier beaten her, again pled with her. But her only reply was that she must obey God. At the urging of her husband, relatives and friends, the judge himself then went and pled with her.

While awaiting the day of execution in prison, she was joined by another young woman who had also refused to renounce Christianity. Her name was Felicitas.

When the day of execution arrived, they were taken out into the amphitheatre, where wild beasts were turned loose upon them. It was March, A.D. 205.

If faithful, someday you will meet them in heaven. The Bible is worth it; Jesus is worth it; eternity is worth it. Give to God all that you are and have, and obey His Written Word. And you will never be sorry for having done so.

But back in those early centuries, just as today, there were many professed Christians who were not faithful to God and the teachings of the Bible. The last writer of Scripture had laid down his pen, and although many were dying for the Christ of Christianity, there were yet others who decided to follow an easier way. And there were those who decided to gain power and prestige by so doing.

Here is a description of a church service at approximately the time when Perpetua and Felicitas laid down their lives for Christ:

"The daily ritual of Isis, which seems to have been as regular and complicated as that of the Catholic Church, produced an immense effect on the Roman mind. Every day there were two solemn offices, at which white-robed, tonsured priests, with acolytes and assistants of every degree, officiated. The morning litany and sacrifice was an impressive service. The crowd of worshippers thronged the space before the chapel at the early dawn. The priest ascending by a hidden stairs, drew apart the veil of the sanctuary, and offered the holy image to their adoration. He then made the round of the altars, reciting the litany and sprinkling the holy water from the secret spring." Samuel Dill, "Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius," pp. 577-578. London, Macmillan, 1904.

What you have just read sounds exactly like a Roman Catholic "sacrifice of the mass," but instead you have read about the service that gave birth to the later Roman Catholic services: The Egyptian worship of Isis, the "Queen of Heaven," and her infant, Horus, the "Son of the Sacred Heart."

Long robes, "tonsured" heads (cut bald in the center with a ring of hair on the outside, in honor of the Sun god) in a sacred procession with acolytes (men and boys dressed in robes)carrying an image of the Mother god and her infant son, as the holy priest recited the "litany" (mystic words spoken in an unknown tongue)while making signs with his fingers and sprinkling holy water upon the faithful bowed before him as he passed by.

All this was taking place in the Near East, and down in Egypt, years before the local Christian Church at Rome decided to begin copying it.

But it was not long before the worldly Christians at Rome discovered that if they modeled Christianity closely enough after the heathen pattern, they would cease to be persecuted.

And the plan worked. While the true Christians, who loved God and obeyed Bible teachings were thrown to wild animals in the Coliseum, the Christian modernists decided to be more progressive. Blood wasn't worth the price of obedience to God, they decided.

We have already mentioned the tonsure (read Lev 21:5, and Deut 14:1) in honor of the Sun god; and holy water for sprinkling, instead of baptism by immersion as given in the Bible (Acts 8:35-38; Rom 6:3-5), It was a proverb that everything finally came to Rome. And the worldly Christians there were among the first to accept it. From India came the practice of ascetics (monastic hermits) and rosary beads. The burning of candles came from the worship of the Sun God, Mithra. Tertullian (A.D. 196-220), one of the few authenticated Christian writers before 300 A.D. (whose writings we know to be genuine and not later forgeries), who advocated Sunday keeping by Christians, gives careful instructions how to keep Sunday in place of the Bible Sabbath. And he then adds a brand new heathen practice for the faithful to observe: "the sign of the cross."

"At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign of the cross."

And what were the faithful Christians doing all this time in Rome? While the bishop of Rome (shortly to call himself the "pope") was gaining in wealth and power through an alliance with heathenism, the men and women who loved God were struggling to keep alive. And their number included some who formerly were civic leaders.

Flavius Clemens (first cousin of the Emperor, Domitian), and his wife Domatilla; were martyred instead of yielding their faith in Christ. Another prominent victim was Acilius Glabrio, a member of one of the foremost families of Rome. During those long centuries Christians fled to the Catacombs. The famous Catacombs of Rome were forgotten for long centuries and only rediscovered by accident in 1578 by Antonia Bosio, when he dug underneath the home of Domatilla,

In the centuries that followed Christ, Rome became the largest inhabited city in the entire world. Christians who were there, in an effort to flee from persecution, dug hiding places for themselves below the city of Rome. These were long tunnels cut out of the porous tufa rock that lay beneath this great metropolis, the capital of the Empire. A labyrinth of passageways went for miles in every direction. Here Christians lived and worshiped, died and were buried in crypts by kind friends. It is estimated that if the passages were placed in a straight line, they would extend more than five hundred miles.

But there were only two ways to escape the terrible persecutions that so frequently came at that time: Either by renouncing one's faith in Christ, or by living so much like the pagans that one's religion hardly seemed different. And this, many chose to do. 

BEYOND PITCAIRN

7: To The Glory of Mithra

It happened in the late summer of A. D. 286.

The Roman army was divided into legions, each one numbering nearly seven thousand soldiers, and Roman legions were scattered all over Europe, North Africa and the Near East in order to keep peace throughout the Empire.

But one legion of soldiers, numbering over 6,600 men, was entirely composed of Christians. It was called the Theban Legion, for all of the men had been raised in Thebais. They were stationed in central Gaul (modern France). In July, the Emperor Maximillan ordered a general sacrifice to be made to the Roman gods, and commanded that every soldier throughout the Empire take part. And, in addition, he ordered them to take an oath to assist him in the annihilation of Christianity.

But the men in the Theban Legion refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods, or to promise to kill Christians. Learning of this, Maximillan was so enraged that he ordered every tenth man to be put to the sword. But when it was done, those remaining still refused to submit to the Emperor's requirements. A second time every tenth man was slain.

Now, those still alive wrote an appeal and sent it to the Emperor, declaring their loyalty but maintaining that they must also fear God and could not do this. In a white-hot anger, Maximillan ordered soldiers from nearby stations to go there and slay every one of them.

Out of nearly 7,000 men, not one would deny His faith in Christ. The date: September 22, A.D. 286.  

And yet elsewhere at this very same time, Roman soldiers were fast being won over to a new god. While pledging their allegiance to all the old Roman gods, and to the worship of the emperor, they were now rendering their special devotion to Mithra, the Sun god. And, since new emperors frequently came by popular demand from among the best-known army generals, an increasing number of emperors were also worshipers of Mithra.

This growing trend was destined to change Christianity for all time to come.

The only safe religion is Bible religion. Find out what that is and stay by it. There is no alternative that you or I dare follow. How did the Bible Sabbath on the Seventh day of the week turn into Sunday the first day of the week? It is at Rome that we learn this story.

There have been seven days in the week from time immemorial. After God created the world in six days and then rested on the seventh, and hallowed it for worship (Gen 2:1-3), the seven-day week went all over the world-and down through history to our own time. And we know, from the records of historians and astronomers, that the weekly cycle has never changed: the Seventh day of the week is the same now as it was back in Bible times and before.

We can read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and we will find only Seventh-day Sabbath worship. There is nothing about first-day worship in the entire book. Where then did it come from?

In order to discover the origin and growth of worship on the first day of the week, we must look outside the Bible, into the pagan world of Christ's time and afterward. In fact, to locate the origin of the word "Sunday ," we must look to the same source. For first-day sacredness, and the very name "Sun Day", came from the same place.

In the Bible, the days of the week were simply called the first day, the second day, and so on. The last, or seventh day of the week, was called the Sabbath.

But about the time of Christ, the pagans began giving new names to the days of the week: the Day of the Sun, the Day of the Moon, etc., in honor of their planetary gods. This part of paganism is called "the planetary week. "

Each day was ruled over by a different god, but the most important god ruled the first dayand that was "the Lord, the Sun. " It was HIS daythe Lord's Day.

Of course, this was a clever counterfeit by Satan of the True Lord's Day. The Bible Sabbath is the day unto the Lord (Ex 16:23, 25; 31:15; 35:2), the day of the Lord (Ex 20:10; Lev 23:3; Deut 5:4) , and His own day (Isa 58: 13). Jesus, the Creator who gave us the Sabbath and everything else (Eph 3:9; Jn 1:3; CoI 1:16; Heb 1:2; Gen 2:1-3) was the one who said "I am the Lord of the Sabbath day" (Matt 12:8; Mk 2: 28).

Now, although these names for the days of the week were fairly new, the Sun god was not new. The orb of the sun had been worshiped for thousands of years.

"Sun worship was the earliest idolatry."Fausset, Bible Dictionary, page 666. The Arabians appear to have worshiped the solar disc directly without the use of any statue or other 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, City of the Sun) was the city of Sun worship in that country (see the Hebrew of Jeremiah 43: 13).

Entering Canaan under Joshua, the Hebrews again met Sun worship. Baal of the Phoenicians, Molech or Milcom of the Ammonites, and Hadad of the Syrians and later the Persian god Mithras (Mithra)all these were ancient pagan Sun gods. Shemish was an important Sun god in the Middle East. Later, in Egypt, Aton was the god of the Sun disc. The famous temple at Baalbek was dedicated to Sun worship.

All through ancient history, Sun worship was the great counterfeit of the true worship of God, the Creator of heaven and earth.

By associating with Sun worshipers, the Israelites frequently practiced it themselves (Lev 26:30; Isa 17:8). King Manasseh worshiped the Sun (2 Kg 21 :3,5). Josiah destroyed the chariots that were dedicated to the Sun god, and then removed the horses consecrated to Sun-worship processions (2 Kg 23:5, 11-12). Incense was burned on Sun altars on the housetops in worship of the Sun (Zeph 1:5). In vision, the prophet Ezekiel was shown the greatest of abominations: direct Sun worship at the entryway to the temple of the true God. This was done by facing eastward to the rising sun (Ezek 8:16-17). In our own time, this practice of worshiping toward the rising sun is to be found both in Christianity and heathenism. The entrance of every major cathedral of Europe faces west. By this custom, borrowed from ancient paganism, the worshipers inside will face the rising sun as they worship God. (In contrast, the ancient Sanctuary of Israel faced east, so that the worshipers would have their backs to the sun.)

It was only a short time before Christ, that the days of the week were dedicated to pagan planetary gods. The first day was the high day for worship: It was "dies Solis" the day of the Sun. All the other days were subservient to it ("dies Lunae, " the day of the moon, etc.).

All of this was in decided contrast with the religion of the Bible-in which we worship the Creator God of the Universe, and His worship day is the Seventh day of the week, as He commanded in the Ten Commandments.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work. But the Seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work: thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."Exodus20:8-11. The Fourth Commandment.

The sacred day of the people who believed the Bible was the memorial of Creation, the true Sabbath, the Seventh-day Sabbath: the only weekly rest day given in the Bible. The sacred day of paganism was the memorial of the Sun god. It was the first day of the week. His day was called "the venerable day of the Sun. "

Sunday sacredness is never found in the Old and New Testaments, nor was it commanded there. In the time of Christ and the Apostles, the official religion of the Roman government did not have a sacred day, but gradually many of the heathen in Rome began keeping Sunday.

This was due to the influence of the Roman soldiers. Traveling to far lands in order to fight the wars and keep the peace, they brought back with them new cultures and new religions. But the one they especially preferred was Mithraism.

Mithra (also called Mithras) was originally an ancient god of Persia (where Iran is now located). He had been worshiped as the god of strength and war for centuries. But in the First Century A.D., he was transformed, oddly enough, into the leading Sun god of the Roman Empire.

Mithra was destined to become the leading pagan god of the western civilized world. The Romans gave him a new name, Sol Invictus, which means "the Invincible Sun." He was the great god of the Roman soldiers, and soon the masses began to worship him also.

By the middle of the Second Century, Mithraic Sun worship was the greatest heathen rival of Christianity.

The worship of Mithra was a clever counterfeit by Satan to draw men and women from the worship of the true God. Mithraism imitated the worship of Christ in several ways: It had a dying, rising Saviour god, whose birth and resurrection was celebrated every year. It had special religious suppers, or communion services, when the believers partook of their god. Its converts had to be baptized (by standing under an iron grating, over which a bull was slaughtered). And it had one day in the week that was sacred to its god, the first day of the week, the Day of the Sun.

Mithraism counterfeited the religion of the true God more cleverly than any other religion up to that time in history.

Gradually the new Roman holiday became popular, as large numbers of non-Christians began observing Sunday as a holy day in honor of Mithra. He was especially idolized by the Roman soldiers, for his worship included athletic feats of skill and "warlike manliness.

When Caesar Augustus became emperor, just before the birth of Christ, Mithraism was already spreading westward from Asia into Europe and the Roman Empire.

But of crucial importance was the fact that Roman generals frequently became the new emperor, upon the death of the Caesar already in power. This greatly favored the rapid acceptance of Mithraism by the people of Rome. Sun worship was rapidly spreading across the empire.

This was to culminate in the rise of an emperor, Constantine, whose family was especially dedicated to the Sun god, and who, as we shall see, was to actively work with the Christian Church leaders at Rome in bringing Mithra's holy day into the worship of the God of Heaven.

Mithra was the strongest rival of Christianity back in those days. Both religions strongly attracted the people. And great numbers in the Empire began keeping the Sun day of Mithra or the Sabbath of Christianity.

Even back in the First Century, when Christ walked this earth, many peoples of the Empire began worshiping on the Seventh-day Sabbath of the Bible. This was in great measure due to their respect for the Christians and the Jews.

But then two important events occurred that shattered this. In A.D. 70 (nearly forty years after the death of Christ), and again in A.D. 135, serious Jewish revolts were put down amid much bloodshed. In reaction, Roman hatred of everything Jewish became intense. Soon after this second Jewish rebellion, Emperor Hadrian issued an edict, strictly prohibiting the observance of the Seventh-day Sabbath. But, fortunately, imperial decrees tended to be short-lived, and Christians scattered throughout the Empire generally disregarded it. However, in the city of Rome itself, the capital of the empire, matters were different.

Anicetus, the local bishop (religious leader) of the Christian church in the city of Rome (men would today call him the "pope"), demanded that all of the Christians everywhere keep holy the first day of the week instead of the true Bible Sabbath, which was on the Seventh day of the week. At the risk of his life, the aged Polycarp of Smyrna (a close friend of the Apostle John before his death about 100 A.D.) traveled all the way to Rome to protest this apostasy. This was about the year 155 A.D. Anicetus, the Roman bishop, listened to what he had to say but refused to change his position. Polycarp returned home and was martyred the next year.

By the middle of the Second Century, Mithric Sun worship was becoming very popular among the Romans. The emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161 A.D.) erected a temple to Mithra at Ostai, a seaport town a few miles below Rome. Pius also had his name written at the base of the famous temple of the Sun at Baalbek (Heliopolis) in Syria.

By this time, the teachings of Mithraism were becoming popular among the teachers at the Christian Theological Seminary in Alexandria. (Alexandria, Egypt, was at that time one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire, and next to Rome itself, had the lowest morals.)

Consistently, for the next two centuries, the pattern was this: The worldly instructors at the Christian preacher-training school in Alexandria would adopt pagan and philosophical religious ideas and practices, teach them to their students, and write books on Christian philosophy." Alexandria was extremely inventive when it came to new ideas. Then, the leaders of the Christian Church in the capital city of Rome would adopt these heathen theories and rituals as new light" and begin demanding that all the Christian churches throughout the civilized world practice these errors, just because the Church at Rome had so decreed it!

The purpose of all this was quite simple: The local Christian Church at Rome wanted to gain dominion over all the other local Christian churches throughout Christendom. And they used their demand that new ideas be adopted as a wedge with which to gain this control. And the plan succeeded.

From about 125 A.D. till 325 this concerted effort continued. Finally, with the accession of Constantine to the throne in 312, they gained the help needed for the final take-over. This, in brief, is the story behind the rise of the "Roman Catholic Church" to power.

Gradually, the worship of the Invincible Sun became even more popular and widespread throughout the Roman Empire. Emperor Aurelian (270-275 A.D.), whose mother was a priestess of the Sun, made this solar cult the official religion of the empire. His biographer, Flavius Vopiscus, says that the priests of the Temple of the Sun at Rome were called "pontiffs" They were priests of their dying-rising saviour-god Mithra, and "Vicegerents" (second in command, next to him) of the Mithraic Church. At a later time, the bishops of the local Christian Church at Rome adopted both of these titles as their own, and became the "vicegerents" of Christ and the "pontiffs." before whom all the faithful in Christendom must bow on pain of death.

So it came to be that by the middle of the Second Century-150 A.D. (only 120 years after the death of Christ)worldly Christians in Alexandria and Rome began keeping Sunday as a holy day. One of the reasons they gave for this practice was that it made them better accepted by their pagan neighbors, and thus made Christianity more appealing to worldlings. The same method of "converting the world" by becoming more like it is still being used today by a number of Christians.

Because Sunday sacredness was pagan and not Scriptural, many of the worldly Christians observing it excused their practice by calling it "the Lord's Day," even though it was obvious that Revelation 1:10 said nothing about Sunday. "Christian" philosophers at the seminary at Alexandria declared that Sun-day was the "Lord's Day" of Revelation 1:10, but the entire Bible reveals that the "Lord's Day" is the Bible Sabbath. (Read Exodus 20:10; 16:23,25; 31:15: 35:2; Leviticus 23:3; and Deuteronomy 5:4.) God, Himself, calls the Bible Sabbath "My holy day" in Isaiah 58: 13.)

Then the ball bounced back the other way. Picking up this idea from the worldly Christians, the followers of Mithra began calling their Sun day, the "day of the Lord Mithra," and "the Lord's day." This led to Emperor Pius' official declaration that the great god Mithra was to be called "Sol Dominus Imperii Romani"-"The Sun, Lord of the Roman Empire." This new title and the name "Sol Invicto" appeared together on his coinage.

Most of the new rituals and theology that came into the Christian Church from paganism in these early centuries (125 A.D. to 350 A.D.) originated in Alexandria, and were then decreed by the local church at Rome upon Christians everywhere. But, for the most part, before Constantine became emperor, many of the other local churches ignored the demands of the Roman bishop as ridiculous. Because of this trend, Egypt and North Africa (heavily influenced by that theological school in Alexandria), and Italy (under the domination of the bishop of Rome), tended to have more errors than the Christian churches in Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Central Europe, Britain, Scotland and Ireland, which remained closer to the teachings of the Bible.

Mithraic Sun worship gradually came to dominate the empire as the leading Sun-god religion, until Constantine I defeated Licinius in 323 A.D. After that date, Constantine worked steadily with the Christian bishop of Rome to make the worldly Christianity of Rome the official religion of the entire Empire.

Within a few short years, Constantine, working closely with the bishop of the Christian church at Rome, demanded a new Roman holiday of Christians everywhere.

And when this happened, Mithraism died, for Satan no longer needed it, for all Rome was now "Christian."

But the changeover was made at great cost to genuine Christianity. For Rome had become the new City of the Sun,