Roman Mythology
Some readers of this blog have begun reading since the last time I defined what I reference when I use the term “Roman mythology.” Sometimes I am more specific and call it “Roman Catholic mythology.”
A few centuries after the resurrection of Jesus, Constantine, emperor over a quarter of the Empire of Rome at the time, decided to make an attempt to control a larger part of the empire than the west, which was already under his power. He made a famous trek through the Alps from Britain to invade Rome. Vague sources state that either on the day before the invasion, he saw a vision in the sky, or on the night before the invasion, he had a dream, in which he saw in the sky a cross, with the words around it, “conquer by this sign” in Latin.
Taking this as an omen that a god was speaking to him and wanted to give him the battle, he changed his banners and the emblems on his men’s shields so that they bore crosses like the sign he had seen in the sky. His defeat of the forces of the tetrarch Maxentius, who outnumbered him, caused him to believe that the God of the Christians was more powerful than the gods of Rome. From that time, he claimed that he was a follower of the Christian God. Since he still built pagan temples after that time, his conversion seems to me to be a superstitious attempt to appease this God so that He would continue to patronize Constantine’s empire.
As Constantine took greater control over the half of the Roman Empire that he then ruled, his influence over the religions in it increased, including the church. Basilicas that resembled pagan temples became approved places of worship instead of homes. A priesthood that resembled priestly servants of the gods of the Greeks and Romans replaced the expectation that every believer had a contribution to the work of the Savior in the earth.
The final damage to the identity and mission of the church came when popes and bishops of the church of Rome invented a cult that ruled over its membership with the powers to kill and banish to hell. The teachings that their priests offered the sacrificial blood sacrifice to pay for the sins of persons present in any of the meetings they conducted and that their leaders could invent new doctrines infallibly are the foundation of myths on which the Roman Catholic church was built. Most of her denominational “children” (Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Reformed, Methodist, et cetera) are under her mis-influence.
In many ways that are not acknowledged as abandonments of the early ways and teachings of the church, almost every modern form of the Church follows many teachings of Roman mythology: Sunday morning services where pulpits and professionals have replaced meals and the ministries of all believers, buildings where people sit in rows or stand in lines to receive blessings from the professionals (since they are not qualified to bring any blessing themselves), and a displacement of the influence of the Holy Spirit by the New Testament (which only the theologians are capable of properly interpreting for the common people).
If you are interested in a much better description of the progress of the deception, an investment in a small book might be valuable– Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices, by Frank Viola and George Barna, BarnaBooks 2012.