Rome and the Cult of the Sun

By Julio Cesar Prado

We go back to the days when God took Israel out of Egypt, where the sun was worshipped. At the foot of Mount Sinai, His voice was heard, proclaiming, amidst thunder and lightning, the Ten Commandments. Israel had pledged obedience. Meanwhile, a few weeks later, we find them prostrating before the image of the sun god, Apis the Ox. “They sacrificed unto devils, not to God” says the scripture in Deuteronomy 32:17. Thousands of people were killed because they refused to abandon this seductive and fascinating pagan worship.

Sun worship had specific days and times when its numerous deities were worshiped. The first day of the week was dedicated to the god of the sun. The Apostolic Church, like ancient Israel, was surrounded by the idolatrous cult of the Sun. Mithraism, another name for that cult, was founded in Rome in 67 BC. Adopted as the religion of the Roman emperors and armies, it spread throughout the world, eventually becoming the universal religion by the mid-third century. According to Dr. Francisco Cumont’s Mysteries of Mithra, “Sunday, over which the Sun presided, was especially holy.”

An English magazine classifies Sunday as ‘the wildest holiday of all pagan times” and defends the introduction of this pagan party into the Christian church by saying: “That same day was the day of the sun belonging to its pagan neighbors and their respective compatriots; and patriotism of goodwill gave the hand at convenience to make this day the Lord’s day, and their Sabbath” (North British Review, Vol. 18, p. 409) Unconsciously, the Christian church largely followed apostate Israel by bowing to the idol of the sun-god. This apostasy was prophesied in the Word of God.

The apostle Paul warned that the time would come when an “apostasy” would appear, revealing himself as the “man of sin” and “the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” The apostle said: “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4, 7). In his time, the root of this apostasy was already developing.

These remarkable prophecies were precisely fulfilled in the rise and development of the Roman Church. Little by little, over centuries, many heresies have crept into their beliefs and observances, including the worship of images, the veneration of relics, the prayers to saints, the baptism of children, sprinkling instead of immersion, the doctrine of purgatory to frighten the gullible, the glorification of Mary, the placement of tradition instead of scripture, a man instead of God, penance instead of repentance, works instead of faith, and Sunday instead of the seventh-day Sabbath.

This power was revealed to the apostle John while he was exiled on the island of Patmos. He describes her as follows: “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea … And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.” Revelation 13:1-5.

The Bible speaks clearly of this spiritual Babylon that exists today and whose sins have reached Heaven: “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Revelation 18:1-5.

The divine sentence gives the religious world the name “Babylon the Great” because of its terrible sins that, like a tower, pile up to heaven.

About: Julio Cesar Prado is a journalist whose articles have been published in various newspapers in Brazil.