Is Christianity a pagan religion? Varghese Pampalnil
Letter to the Editor:
It is certain that Christianity took many things from Pagan religions. If what our columnist Pamplani says it true, it is worth an in depth study. In any case Jesus didn’t come to start a religion of his own or the present one called Christianity, to compete with other man-made religions to demonstrate that His religion is the best of all manmade religions.
This is what the Pharisee was trying to show by his comparison with the publican, who was thumbing his breast, acknowledging his worthlessness, before the whole world. Therefore, Jesus says, the publican went out of the temple justified and the Pharisee condemned, before God. james kottoor, editor CCV
Read below Pamplani’s letter:
Roman Catholicism is not any unique stand alone religion. It has borrowed heavily from the Egyptian cult of Isis and the Greco-Roman cult of Dionysius as well as Mithraism with its roots in Persia. The cult of Mithraism was in vogue in the Roman Empire at the time Constantine, as political expediency, adopted Christianity as the state favoured religion. The Christian religion reverted to the beliefs and practices of paganism to attract more members to it.
“Mithraism was the most popular religion in the Empire in the 1 st through the 4 th among the Romans, especially the Roman soldiers.One of the key features of Mithraism was the sacrificial meal, which involved eating the flesh and drinking
the blood of a bull.
Mithras the god of Mithraism was believed to be “present” in the flesh and blood of the bull, and when consumed, granted salvation to those who partook of the sacrificial meal,(the eating of one’s god). Mithraism had also seven “sacraments” making similarities between it and Roman Catholicism to be ignored”observes one Christian commentator.
Church leaders, after Constantine, found it easy to substitute the sacrificial meal of Mithraism by the concept of the Lord’s Supper/Christian communion. The Church seemed to have transposed mysticism in the Lord’s Supper rejecting the biblical concept of a simple and worshipful remembrance of Christ’s death/and shedding of blood.
The sacrificial consumption of Jesus Christ, now known as the Catholic Mass/Eucharist; was a tragic compromise in order to make Catholic Church attractive to the Roman followers of paganism.
If one studies the history of Rome, one can clearly notice perfect resemblance between the priests of the Pope and those of Bacchus: with reference to the vows of celibacy, secret auricular confession, celebration of “sacred mysteries” and most of all, the unmentionable moral corruption of the two systems.
