Christian Destruction of Paganism

There is a false historical narrative that has been popularized by certain "Christian" cults which bear little resemblance to what actually happened in history. According to these folks, traditional Christianity was infiltrated by paganism and bears little resemblance to the Christianity taught by Jesus, Peter, Paul, James, and John. Now, the notion that traditional Christianity has been swallowed whole by paganism was introduced during the Protestant Reformation (but that's a subject for another post).

In modern times, the most vocal proponents of this idea have been the Jehovah's Witnesses. In an article titled "The Roots of Modern Christmas" (The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom Magazine, 1997), we read: Actually, the only celebration that Christians are commanded to observe is the Lord’s Evening Meal. (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) Because of the idolatrous practices associated with Roman festivals, early Christians did not share in them. For this reason third-century pagans reproached Christians, saying: “You do not visit exhibitions; you have no concern in public displays; you reject the public banquets, and abhor the sacred contests.” Pagans, on the other hand, bragged: “We worship the gods with cheerfulness, with feasts, songs and games.” By the middle of the fourth century, the grumbling subsided. How so? As more and more counterfeit Christians crept into the fold, apostate ideas multiplied. This led to compromises with the Roman world. Commenting on this, the book The Paganism in Our Christianity states: “It was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance.” Yes, the great apostasy was taking its toll. The willingness of the so-called Christians to adopt pagan celebrations now brought a measure of acceptance within the community. Before long, Christians came to have as many annual festivals as the pagans themselves. Not surprisingly, Christmas was foremost among them.

Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God also taught that traditional Christianity had been corrupted by paganism. In one of their publications, we read: Visible Christianity was well on the way to becoming just another version of a modern, updated Oriental mystery religion. Elaborate ceremonies were instituted, an intellectual priestly caste began to assert itself, and esoteric doctrines were kept back from the multitudes. Many of the major tenets of competing pagan religions readily found a safe haven within the walls of a changing Christianity. Pagan divinities were transformed into Christian saints, martyrs and angels. The cult of the Oriental mother goddess was revitalized in the veneration of the Virgin Mary. And pagan temples were often transformed into "Christian" houses of worship. - From the booklet "The White Horse: False Religion" by George Ritter, Pasadena: Ambassador College Press, 1976.

Wrong! This post will demonstrate that almost the exact opposite actually happened - that Christians eschewed heathen religions and actively sought to convert their adherents and erase their influence from the face of the earth!

At the conclusion of the post preceding this one, I mentioned the fact that Christians quite deliberately sought to erase all traces of paganism from the places where they prevailed. In his book The Triumph of Christianity (by Bart Ehrman, New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018), we read: On one level, it is impossible to say that Christianity caused the disappearance of so much that was lost. What we can say is that much that was alien to Christianity did indeed disappear. A great deal of pagan culture was eventually destroyed or, at least, never renewed. We have seen the beginnings of the destruction in the fourth century, with temples, shrines, and cult statues taken down and mutilated. Some, of course, remain, adorning many of the great museums of the world or left, in some instances, intact at archaeological sites on their places of origin. But most went away forever, destroyed by fervent bishops or marauding monks. Other artifacts that were not made of marble and stone disappeared out of neglect. All sorts of literature, gone forever, thousands of books known and suspected to have once existed: plays, novels, poems, histories, philosophical works, scientific treatises, essays, name your genre. It is not that these were necessarily burned by zealous Christians opposed to the classics, although that sometimes did happen. Instead, they simply were never recopied for posterity. And for a simple reason: copyists throughout the Middle Ages were almost invariably Christian monks working in monasteries. They were far more interested in producing copies of the letters of Paul than the plays of Plautus.

Moreover, Ehrman's view is supported by the ACTUAL history of Christianity. As part of the University of Chicago's series on this history, in the article The End of Paganism, we read: When Constantius II (the second son of Constantine I) visited Rome in AD 357, the Altar of Victory was removed from the Senate House. Although returned by his successor Julian, it again was taken away by Gratian in AD 382, this time at the instigation of Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who also persuaded the emperor to withdraw State subsidies, and prohibit the legacies and revenues that maintained many of the pagan cults, including endowment of the Vestal Virgins and the college of pontiffs. The title of pontifex maximus, which had signified authority over State religion since the time of Julius Caesar, was renounced as well. The article continued:  The Altar was not restored; indeed, measures against pagans became more repressive. Ambrose also exerted extraordinary dominance over Theodosius I (AD 379-395), to whom he threatened excommunication for having ordered the massacre of thousands in the circus at Thessalonica. The chastened emperor presented himself, bareheaded and in sackcloth at the cathedral in Milan. The next year, in AD 391, he issued the first in a series of edicts that prohibited all pagan cult worship and effectively made Christianity the official religion in the empire. They are preserved in the Codex Theodosianus, a codification of legislative enactments (constitutiones) from the time of Constantine, issued by Theodosius II in AD 438.

Likewise, in yet another article in this series (The Temple of Serapis in Alexandria), we read: The destruction of the Temple of Serapis (the Serapeum) at Alexandria is related in the ecclesiastical histories of the church fathers. Encouraged by the imperial edict addressed to the prefect of Rome prohibiting pagan worship (Codex Theodosius, XVI.10.10), Theophilus, the patriarch of Alexandria, took the cult objects that had been found during the conversion of a pagan temple and contemptuously paraded them in the street, holding them up to ridicule. A riot was provoked and Christians killed. Just four months after promulgating his first edict in February AD 391, Theodosius I was obliged to reiterate the prohibition against pagan worship (CTh. XVI.10.11), this time in a rescript addressed to the prefect and military governor in Egypt. Indeed, most historians are quite clear that these were NOT isolated instances. In his article "The End of the Temples: An Archaeological Problem," Bryan Ward-Perkins observed: The Christian challenge to paganism was very explicitly a challenge to these imposing pagan buildings and sacred images, rather than a persecution of individuals, and the triumph of Christianity was marked by the destruction or removal of cult objects, above all statues, and by the destruction or, at least, closure of the temples. 

In still another article in the University of Chicago series titled The Destruction of Pagan Temples, we read: In AD 385, Theodosius I directed Cynegius, his praetorian prefect in the East, to enforce the prohibition of sacrifice for the purpose of divination (CTh. XVI.10.9). Exceeding his mandate, Cynegius began to suppress the temples, themselves, including the Temple of Zeus at Apamea in Syria. Its destruction by the bishop there is described Theodoret in his Ecclesiastical History. An attempt was made, but the stone was so hard and the columns so massive, each measuring some twenty-five feet in circumference and held together with iron and lead clamps, that the prefect despaired of pulling them down. Praying for divine assistance, the bishop was visited the next morning by a simple laborer, who suggested that the foundation of three of the columns be undermined and replaced by timber beams, to which he then set fire. "When their support had vanished the columns themselves fell down, and dragged the other twelve with them. The side of the temple which was connected with the columns was dragged down by the violence of their fall, and carried away with them. The crash, which was tremendous, was heard throughout the town" (V.21). The bishop destroyed other pagan shrines in his diocese and Cynegius proceeded to Egypt. A little later, in the same article, we read: In AD 401, the last remnants of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, built to house the great cult image of Artemis and regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world, were plundered by John Chrysostom, the patriarch of Constantinople, its marble burned in lime kilns to make cement, and the stone robbed for the construction of other buildings. 

In a Church and State article entitled Christian Atrocities: Three Centuries of Pagan Persecution, we are given a rather impressive chronology of Christian anti-pagan activities. Unfortunately, due to space and copyrights, only a portion of that timeline can be given here:

326 Constantine, following the instructions of his mother Helen, destroys the temple of the god Asclepius in Aigeai Cilicia and many temples of the goddess Aphrodite in Jerusalem, Aphaca, Mambre, Phoenicia, Baalbek, etc.

330 Constantine steals the treasures and statues of the Pagan temples of Greece to decorate Nova Roma (Constantinople), the new capital of his Empire.

335 Constantine sacks many Pagan temples of Minor Asia and Palestine and orders the execution by crucifixion of “all magicians and soothsayers”. Martyrdom of the neoplatonist philosopher Sopatrus.

341 Flavius Julius Constantius persecutes “all the soothsayers and the Hellenists”. Many gentile Hellenes are either imprisoned or executed.

346 New large scale persecutions against non-Christian peoples in Constantinople. Banishment of the famous orator Libanius accused as a “magician”.

353 An edict of Constantius orders the death penalty for all kind of worship through sacrifices and “idols”.

354 A new edict of Constantius orders the closing of all Pagan Temples. Some of them are profaned and turned into brothels or gambling rooms. Executions of Pagan priests. First burning of libraries in various cities of the Empire. The first lime factories are built next to closed Pagan Temples. A large part of Sacred Gentile architecture is turned into lime.

To be clear, Christians should NOT be proud of this history of destruction. Nevertheless, the intolerance which motivated these actions makes the notion that early Christians were overwhelmed by paganism absurd! On the contrary, the evidence is clear that early Christians were extremely prejudiced against pagans and often actively worked to destroy the edifices of their religious life.

The Triumph of Christianity Over Paganism

The Jehovah's Witnesses and the Armstrong Churches of God have promoted the notion that traditional Christianity has absorbed many of the practices and traditions of paganism. In this service, they have employed many of the long discredited and anti-Catholic narratives of the Protestant Reformation. The real narrative, however, is that Christianity triumphed over paganism, and very nearly obliterated all traces of the religions of the Western World! Indeed, as we will demonstrate in this post, the Christians of the first four centuries of the Church were inexorably opposed to the pagan religions of the Roman Empire.

In his The Triumph of Christianity (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018), Professor Bart Ehrman's analyzes the causes/reasons for the growth of Christianity, and its eventual victory over other faiths of the Western World. He wrote: One thing lost in this triumph was all the massive and glorious diversity of religious expression found everywhere throughout the pagan world. We can never lose sight of just how varied the thousands of pagan cults were. They did share common features--sacrifice and prayer, for example. But they involved the worship of different gods, known from different myths, adored through different practices, cults devoted to Zeus, to Athena, to Apollo, to Haphaestus, to gods of forests and streams and meadows, to gods of the household and gods of the family. As a rule this enormous diversity brought with it a widespread tolerance of difference, a sense that varying paths to the divine were not only acceptable and allowed but also desirable. Tolerance was to be encouraged. Freedom of religion was to be embraced. One of the greatest aspects of ancient paganism, taken as a whole, was the widespread willingness to accommodate an even revel in diversity. That was lost with the triumph of Christianity.

We will now survey the writings of some of those "early Church Fathers" of the first four centuries of the Christian era to demonstrate just how negative their reaction to the paganism of the Roman Empire actually was. In looking through these writings, it will become very clear that these leaders of the Christian Church were unalterably opposed to paganisms in all of its many forms and practices. This, alone, should be enough to discredit the narrative of the Jehovah's Witnesses and Armstrongists about the infiltration of paganism into traditional Christianity. Even so, this blog and others (like As Bereans Did and Banned by HWA) have published numerous well-researched posts dealing with specific holidays and religious traditions which also disprove this false narrative. Nevertheless, let's take a look at what those Church Fathers had to say on the subject of paganism.

Justin Martyr (100-165)

For of philosophy, too, some assume the name and the garb who do nothing worthy of their profession; and you are well aware, that those of the ancients whose opinions and teachings were quite diverse, are yet all called by the one name of philosophers. And of these some taught atheism; and the poets who have flourished among you raise a laugh out of the uncleanness of Jupiter with his own children. And those who now adopt such instruction are not restrained by you; but, on the contrary, you bestow prizes and honours upon those who euphoniously insult the gods.

Why, then, should this be? In our case, who pledge ourselves to do no wickedness, nor to hold these atheistic opinions, you do not examine the charges made against us; but, yielding to unreasoning passion, and to the instigation of evil demons, you punish us without consideration or judgment. For the truth shall be spoken; since of old these evil demons, effecting apparitions of themselves, both defiled women and corrupted boys, and showed such fearful sights to men, that those who did not use their reason in judging of the actions that were done, were struck with terror; and being carried away by fear, and not knowing that these were demons, they called them gods, and gave to each the name which each of the demons chose for himself. And when Socrates endeavoured, by true reason and examination, to bring these things to light, and deliver men from the demons, then the demons themselves, by means of men who rejoiced in iniquity, compassed his death, as an atheist and a profane person, on the charge that he was introducing new divinities; and in our case they display a similar activity. For not only among the Greeks did reason (Logos) prevail to condemn these things through Socrates, but also among the Barbarians were they condemned by Reason (or the Word, the Logos) Himself, who took shape, and became man, and was called Jesus Christ; and in obedience to Him, we not only deny that they who did such things as these are gods, but assert that they are wicked and impious demons, whose actions will not bear comparison with those even of men desirous of virtue.

Hence are we called atheists. And we confess that we are atheists, so far as gods of this sort are concerned, but not with respect to the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and the other virtues, who is free from all impurity. But both Him, and the Son (who came forth from Him and taught us these things, and the host of the other good angels who follow and are made like to Him), and the prophetic Spirit, we worship and adore, knowing them in reason and truth, and declaring without grudging to every one who wishes to learn, as we have been taught.

From The First Apology

Clement of Alexandria (147-215)

Chapter 1. Exhortation to abandon the impious mysteries of idolatry for the adoration of the Divine Word and God the Father.

Chapter 2. The absurdity and impiety of the heathen mysteries and fables about the birth and death of their gods.

Chapter 3. The cruelty of the sacrifices to the gods.

Chapter 4. The absurdity and shamefulness of the images by which the gods are worshipped.

Chapter 5. The opinions of the philosophers respecting God.

Chapter 6. By divine inspiration philosophers sometimes hit on the truth.

Chapter 7. The poets also bear testimony to the truth.

Chapter 8. The true doctrine is to be sought in the prophets.

Chapter 9. "That those grievously sin who despise or neglect God's gracious calling."

Chapter 10. Answer to the objection of the heathen, that it was not right to abandon the customs of their fathers.

Chapter 11. How great are the benefits conferred on man through the advent of Christ.

Chapter 12. Exhortation to abandon their old errors and listen to the instructions of Christ.

Explore not then too curiously the shrines of impiety, or the mouths of caverns full of monstrosity, or the Thesprotian caldron, or the Cirrhæan tripod, or the Dodonian copper. The Gerandryon, once regarded sacred in the midst of desert sands, and the oracle there gone to decay with the oak itself, consigned to the region of antiquated fables. The fountain of Castalia is silent, and the other fountain of Colophon; and, in like manner, all the rest of the springs of divination are dead, and stripped of their vainglory, although at a late date, are shown with their fabulous legends to have run dry. Recount to us also the useless oracles of that other kind of divination, or rather madness, the Clarian, the Pythian, the Didymæan, that of Amphiaraus, of Apollo, of Amphilochus; and if you will, couple with them the expounders of prodigies, the augurs, and the interpreters of dreams. And bring and place beside the Pythian those that divine by flour, and those that divine by barley, and the ventriloquists still held in honour by many. Let the secret shrines of the Egyptians and the necromancies of the Etruscans be consigned to darkness. Insane devices truly are they all of unbelieving men. Goats, too, have been confederates in this art of soothsaying, trained to divination; and crows taught by men to give oracular responses to men.

From Exhortation to the Heathen

Mathetes (Second Century)

Come, then, after you have freed yourself from all prejudices possessing your mind, and laid aside what you have been accustomed to, as something apt to deceive you, and being made, as if from the beginning, a new man, inasmuch as, according to your own confession, you are to be the hearer of a new [system of] doctrine; come and contemplate, not with your eyes only, but with your understanding, the substance and the form of those whom you declare and deem to be gods.

Is not one of them a stone similar to that on which we tread? Is not a second brass, in no way superior to those vessels which are constructed for our ordinary use? Is not a third wood, and that already rotten? Is not a fourth silver, which needs a man to watch it, lest it be stolen? Is not a fifth iron, consumed by rust? Is not a sixth earthenware, in no degree more valuable than that which is formed for the humblest purposes?

Are not all these of corruptible matter? Are they not fabricated by means of iron and fire? Did not the sculptor fashion one of them, the brazier a second, the silversmith a third, and the potter a fourth? Was not every one of them, before they were formed by the arts of these [workmen] into the shape of these [gods], each in its own way subject to change? Would not those things which are now vessels, formed of the same materials, become like to such, if they met with the same artificers? Might not these, which are now worshipped by you, again be made by men vessels similar to others? Are they not all deaf? Are they not blind? Are they not without life? Are they not destitute of feeling? Are they not incapable of motion? Are they not all prone to decay? Are they not all corruptible?

These things you call gods; these you serve; these you worship; and you become altogether like them. For this reason you hate the Christians, because they do not deem these to be gods. But do not you yourselves, who now think and suppose [such to be gods], much more cast contempt upon them than they [the Christians do]? Do you not much more mock and insult them, when you worship those that are made of stone and earthenware, without appointing any persons to guard them; but those made of silver and gold you shut up by night, and appoint watchers to look after them by day, lest they be stolen? And by those gifts which you mean to present to them, do you not, if they are possessed of sense, rather punish [than honour] them? But if, on the other hand, they are destitute of sense, you convict them of this fact, while you worship them with blood and the smoke of sacrifices. Let any one of you suffer such indignities! Let any one of you endure to have such things done to himself! But not a single human being will, unless compelled to it, endure such treatment, since he is endowed with sense and reason. A stone, however, readily bears it, seeing it is insensible. Certainly you do not show [by your conduct] that he [your God] is possessed of sense. And as to the fact that Christians are not accustomed to serve such gods, I might easily find many other things to say; but if even what has been said does not seem to any one sufficient, I deem it idle to say anything further.

From The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus

Tertullian (160-220)

The principal crime of the human race, the highest guilt charged upon the world, the whole procuring cause of judgment, is idolatry. For, although each single fault retains its own proper feature, although it is destined to judgment under its own proper name also, yet it is marked off under the general account of idolatry. Set aside names, examine works, the idolater is likewise a murderer. You may ask, whom he has slain? If it contributes ought to the aggravation of the indictment, no stranger nor personal enemy, but his own self. By what snares? Those of his error. By what weapon? The offense done to God. By how many blows? As many as are his idolatries. He who affirms that the idolater perishes not, will affirm that the idolater has not committed murder. Further, you may recognize in the same crime adultery and fornication; for he who serves false gods is doubtless an adulterer of truth, because all falsehood is adultery. So, too, he is sunk in fornication. For who that is a fellow-worker with unclean spirits, does not stalk in general pollution and fornication? And thus it is that the Holy Scriptures use the designation of fornication in their upbraiding of idolatry. The essence of fraud, I take it, is, that any should seize what is another's, or refuse to another his due; and, of course, fraud done toward man is a name of greatest crime. Well, but idolatry does fraud to God, by refusing to Him, and conferring on others, His honours; so that to fraud it also conjoins contumely. But if fraud, just as much as fornication and adultery, entails death, then, in these cases, equally with the former, idolatry stands unacquitted of the impeachment of murder. After such crimes, so pernicious, so devouring of salvation, all other crimes also, after some manner, and separately disposed in order, find their own essence represented in idolatry. In it also are the concupiscences of the world. For what solemnity of idolatry is without the circumstance of dress and ornament? In it are lasciviousnesses and drunkennesses; since it is, for the most part, for the sake of food, and stomach, and appetite, that these solemnities are frequented. In it is unrighteousness. For what more unrighteous than it, which knows not the Father of righteousness? In it also is vanity, since its whole system is vain. In it is mendacity, for its whole substance is false. Thus it comes to pass, that in idolatry all crimes are detected, and in all crimes idolatry. Even otherwise, since all faults savour of opposition to God, and there is nothing which savours of opposition to God which is not assigned to demons and unclean spirits, whose property idols are; doubtless, whoever commits a fault is chargeable with idolatry, for he does that which pertains to the proprietors of idols.

We observe among the arts also some professions liable to the charge of idolatry. Of astrologers there should be no speaking even; but since one in these days has challenged us, defending on his own behalf perseverance in that profession, I will use a few words. I allege not that he honours idols, whose names he has inscribed on the heaven, to whom he has attributed all God's power; because men, presuming that we are disposed of by the immutable arbitrament of the stars, think on that account that God is not to be sought after. One proposition I lay down: that those angels, the deserters from God, the lovers of women, were likewise the discoverers of this curious art, on that account also condemned by God. Oh divine sentence, reaching even unto the earth in its vigour, whereto the unwitting render testimony! The astrologers are expelled just like their angels. The city and Italy are interdicted to the astrologers, just as heaven to their angels. There is the same penalty of exclusion for disciples and masters. But Magi and astrologers came from the east. We know the mutual alliance of magic and astrology. The interpreters of the stars, then, were the first to announce Christ's birth the first to present Him gifts. By this bond, [must] I imagine, they put Christ under obligation to themselves? What then? Shall therefore the religion of those Magi act as patron now also to astrologers? Astrology now-a-days, forsooth, treats of Christ — is the science of the stars of Christ; not of Saturn, or Mars, and whomsoever else out of the same class of the dead it pays observance to and preaches? But, however, that science has been allowed until the Gospel, in order that after Christ's birth no one should thence forward interpret any one's nativity by the heaven. For they therefore offered to the then infant Lord that frankincense and myrrh and gold, to be, as it were, the close of worldly sacrifice and glory, which Christ was about to do away. What, then? The dream — sent, doubtless, of the will of God— suggested to the same Magi, namely, that they should go home, but by another way, not that by which they came. It means this: that they should not walk in their ancient path. Not that Herod should not pursue them, who in fact did not pursue them; unwitting even that they had departed by another way, since he was withal unwitting by what way they came. Just so we ought to understand by it the right Way and Discipline. And so the precept was rather, that thence forward they should walk otherwise. So, too, that other species of magic which operates by miracles, emulous even in opposition to Moses, tried God's patience until the Gospel. For thenceforward Simon Magus, just turned believer, (since he was still thinking somewhat of his juggling sect; to wit, that among the miracles of his profession he might buy even the gift of the Holy Spirit through imposition of hands) was cursed by the apostles, and ejected from the faith. Both he and that other magician, who was with Sergius Paulus, (since he began opposing himself to the same apostles) was mulcted with loss of eyes. The same fate, I believe, would astrologers, too, have met, if any had fallen in the way of the apostles. But yet, when magic is punished, of which astrology is a species, of course the species is condemned in the genus. After the Gospel, you will nowhere find either sophists, Chaldeans, enchanters, diviners, or magicians, except as clearly punished. Where is the wise, where the grammarian, where the disputer of this age? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this age? 1 Corinthians 1:20 You know nothing, astrologer, if you know not that you should be a Christian. If you did know it, you ought to have known this also, that you should have nothing more to do with that profession of yours which, of itself, fore-chants the climacterics of others, and might instruct you of its own danger. There is no part nor lot for you in that system of yours. He cannot hope for the kingdom of the heavens, whose finger or wand abuses the heaven.

From On Idolatry

Origen (185-232)

But now, since we are treating of the manner in which the opposing powers stir up those contests, by means of which false knowledge is introduced into the minds of men, and human souls led astray, while they imagine that they have discovered wisdom, I think it necessary to name and distinguish the wisdom of this world, and of the princes of this world, that by so doing we may discover who are the fathers of this wisdom, nay, even of these kinds of wisdom. I am of opinion, therefore, as I have stated above, that there is another wisdom of this world besides those (different kinds of) wisdom which belong to the princes of this world, by which wisdom those things seem to be understood and comprehended which belong to this world. This wisdom, however, possesses in itself no fitness for forming any opinion either respecting divine things, or the plan of the world's government, or any other subjects of importance, or regarding the training for a good or happy life; but is such as deals wholly with the art of poetry, e.g., or that of grammar, or rhetoric, or geometry, or music, with which also, perhaps, medicine should be classed. In all these subjects we are to suppose that the wisdom of this world is included. The wisdom of the princes of this world, on the other hand, we understand to be such as the secret and occult philosophy, as they call it, of the Egyptians, and the astrology of the Chaldeans and Indians, who make profession of the knowledge of high things, and also that manifold variety of opinion which prevails among the Greeks regarding divine things. Accordingly, in the holy Scriptures we find that there are princes over individual nations; as in Daniel we read that there was a prince of the kingdom of Persia, and another prince of the kingdom of Græcia, who are clearly shown, by the nature of the passage, to be not human beings, but certain powers. In the prophecies of Ezekiel, also, the prince of Tyre is unmistakeably shown to be a kind of spiritual power. When these, then, and others of the same kind, possessing each his own wisdom, and building up his own opinions and sentiments, beheld our Lord and Saviour professing and declaring that He had for this purpose come into the world, that all the opinions of science, falsely so called, might be destroyed, not knowing what was concealed within Him, they immediately laid a snare for Him: for the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers assembled together, against the Lord and His Christ. But their snares being discovered, and the plans which they had attempted to carry out being made manifest when they crucified the Lord of glory, therefore the apostle says, We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, but not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, who are brought to nought, which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

From De Principiis (Book III)

Athanasius (296-373)

For now the understanding of mankind leaped asunder from God; and going lower in their ideas and imaginations, they gave the honour due to God first to the heaven and the sun and moon and the stars, thinking them to be not only gods, but also the causes of the other gods lower than themselves. Then, going yet lower in their dark imaginations, they gave the name of gods to the upper æther and the air and the things in the air. Next, advancing further in evil, they came to celebrate as gods the elements and the principles of which bodies are composed, heat and cold and dryness and wetness. 2. But just as they who have fallen flat creep in the slime like land-snails, so the most impious of mankind, having fallen lower and lower from the idea of God, then set up as gods men, and the forms of men, some still living, others even after their death. Moreover, counselling and imagining worse things still, they transferred the divine and supernatural name of God at last even to stones and stocks, and creeping things both of land and water, and irrational wild beasts, awarding to them every divine honour, and turning from the true and only real God, the Father of Christ. 3. But would that even there the audacity of these foolish men had stopped short, and that they had not gone further yet in impious self-confusion. For to such a depth have some fallen in their understanding, to such darkness of mind, that they have even devised for themselves, and made gods of things that have no existence at all, nor any place among things created. For mixing up the rational with the irrational, and combining things unlike in nature, they worship the result as gods, such as the dog-headed and snake-headed and ass-headed gods among the Egyptians, and the ram-headed Ammon among the Libyans. While others, dividing apart the portions of men's bodies, head, shoulder, hand, and foot, have set up each as gods and deified them, as though their religion were not satisfied with the whole body in its integrity. 4. But others, straining impiety to the utmost, have deified the motive of the invention of these things and of their own wickedness, namely, pleasure and lust, and worship them, such as their Eros, and the Aphrodite at Paphos. While some of them, as if vying with them in depravation, have ventured to erect into gods their rulers or even their sons, either out of honour for their princes, or from fear of their tyranny, such as the Cretan Zeus, of such renown among them, and the Arcadian Hermes; and among the Indians Dionysus, among the Egyptians Isis and Osiris and Horus, and in our own time Antinous, favourite of Hadrian, Emperor of the Romans, whom, although men know he was a mere man, and not a respectable man, but on the contrary, full of licentiousness, yet they worship for fear of him that enjoined it. For Hadrian having come to sojourn in the land of Egypt, when Antinous the minister of his pleasure died, ordered him to be worshipped; being indeed himself in love with the youth even after his death, but for all that offering a convincing exposure of himself, and a proof against all idolatry, that it was discovered among men for no other reason than by reason of the lust of them that imagined it. According as the wisdom of God testifies beforehand when it says, The devising of idols was the beginning of fornication Wisdom 14:12 . 5. And do not wonder, nor think what we are saying hard to believe, inasmuch as it is not long since, even if it be not still the case that the Roman Senate vote to those emperors who have ever ruled them from the beginning, either all of them, or such as they wish and decide, a place among the gods, and decree them to be worshipped. For those to whom they are hostile, they treat as enemies and call men, admitting their real nature, while those who are popular with them they order to be worshipped on account of their virtue, as though they had it in their own power to make gods, though they are themselves men, and do not profess to be other than mortal. 6. Whereas if they are to make gods, they ought to be themselves gods; for that which makes must needs be better than that which it makes, and he that judges is of necessity in authority over him that is judged, while he that gives, at any rate that which he has, confers a layout, just as, of course, every king, in giving as a favour what he has to give, is greater and in a higher position than those who receive. If then they decree whomsoever they please to be gods, they ought first to be gods themselves. But the strange thing is this, that they themselves by dying as men, expose the falsehood of their own vote concerning those deified by them.

From Against the Heathen, Part 1

Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

That the Romans Did Not Show Their Usual Sagacity When They Trusted that They Would Be Benefited by the Gods Who Had Been Unable to Defend Troy. And these be the gods to whose protecting care the Romans were delighted to entrust their city! O too, too piteous mistake! And they are enraged at us when we speak thus about their gods, though, so far from being enraged at their own writers, they part with money to learn what they say; and, indeed, the very teachers of these authors are reckoned worthy of a salary from the public purse, and of other honors. There is Virgil, who is read by boys, in order that this great poet, this most famous and approved of all poets, may impregnate their virgin minds, and may not readily be forgotten by them, according to that saying of Horace,

The fresh cask long keeps its first tang.

Horace, Ep. I. 2:29.

Well, in this Virgil, I say, Juno is introduced as hostile to the Trojans, and stirring up Æolus, the king of the winds, against them in the words,

A race I hate now ploughs the sea,

Transporting Troy to Italy,

And home-gods conquered.

Æneid, 1:11.

And ought prudent men to have entrusted the defense of Rome to these conquered gods? But it will be said, this was only the saying of Juno, who, like an angry woman, did not know what she was saying. What, then, says Æneas himself —Æneas who is so often designated pious? Does he not say,

Lo! Panthus, 'scaped from death by flight,

Priest of Apollo on the height,

His conquered gods with trembling hands

He bears, and shelter swift demands?

Is it not clear that the gods (whom he does not scruple to call conquered) were rather entrusted to Æneas than he to them, when it is said to him,

The gods of her domestic shrines

Your country to your care consigns?

If, then, Virgil says that the gods were such as these, and were conquered, and that when conquered they could not escape except under the protection of a man, what a madness is it to suppose that Rome had been wisely entrusted to these guardians, and could not have been taken unless it had lost them! Indeed, to worship conquered gods as protectors and champions, what is this but to worship, not good divinities, but evil omens? Would it not be wiser to believe, not that Rome would never have fallen into so great a calamity had not they first perished, but rather that they would have perished long since had not Rome preserved them as long as she could? For who does not see, when he thinks of it, what a foolish assumption it is that they could not be vanquished under vanquished defenders, and that they only perished because they had lost their guardian gods, when, indeed, the only cause of their perishing was that they chose for their protectors gods condemned to perish?  The poets, therefore, when they composed and sang these things about the conquered gods, had no intention to invent falsehoods, but uttered, as honest men, what the truth extorted from them. This, however, will be carefully and copiously discussed in another and more fitting place. Meanwhile I will briefly, and to the best of my ability, explain what I meant to say about these ungrateful men who blasphemously impute to Christ the calamities which they deservedly suffer in consequence of their own wicked ways, while that which is for Christ's sake spared them in spite of their wickedness they do not even take the trouble to notice; and in their mad and blasphemous insolence, they use against His name those very lips wherewith they falsely claimed that same name that their lives might be spared. In the places consecrated to Christ, where for His sake no enemy would injure them, they restrained their tongues that they might be safe and protected; but no sooner do they emerge from these sanctuaries, than they unbridle these tongues to hurl against Him curses full of hate.

From The City of God (Book 1, Chapter 3)

All of the above can be found at New Advent: Church Fathers

Thus, we have demonstrated that early Christian leaders were very much averse to paganism in all of its many forms and were hypervigilant not to be tainted by its faith and practices. Moreover, when we consider the destruction of statues, temples, and writings associated with those pagan faiths by Christians down through the centuries, the narrative that they were somehow tainted by those practices becomes grotesque and absurd!

The New Motto of the Former CGI Congregations: E PLURIBUS UNUM!

"How do we assert our independence without appearing to be rebellious and schismatic?" The answer to that question has alluded Armstrong Church of God ministers for many years now, but Pastor Bill Watson of Medina, Ohio may have finally found the "right" answer: Declare your independence from the Church of God International, declare that you're being faithful to the "truth," keep the money and resources of the local congregation within the local congregation, and agree to "cooperate" or "associate" yourself with other independent former congregations of CGI!

And Mr. Watson isn't the only one who has followed this formula. Mike Nolen has his Carolina Church of God Independent Ministries. We also have the Blue Ridge Church of God Independent Ministries of Jeremy Nix and Jeremiah Ridley. As of November first, there is also the newly minted Springfield Church of God Independent Ministries of Brad Campbell. There are other independent groups in Kentucky and Arkansas who have been accepted by some of the groups, and others have been invited to secede from CGI and ally themselves with the others. In other words, this is an active poaching operation! They appeal to the vanity, ambition, and restlessness of ministers who are tired of behaving and following corporate guidelines.

Indeed, the announcement of Brad Campbell's departure reveals much about the nature of these folks. The statement reads: "Greetings everyone! As of November 1st, 2026, the CGI congregation in Springfield is no longer a CGI congregation. This change is in no way a reflection of the CGI Organization in Tyler Texas but is a needed change for the local congregation due to a history of bad decisions on the part of some people from 14 years ago. As you may well know, if you know anything about the Springfield congregation from 14 years ago, they had become known as a group that allowed almost anything and the teachings had gone off the rails to the point of our doctrines not even being recognizable." The statement continued: "Because of the challenges attached to those old problems, we have asked the leadership in Tyler Texas to grant us the ability to work as an independent congregation. That has been granted and we have begun the changes necessary to establish our identity as an independent congregation." The statement continued: "You will also notice that we have listed several Ministry Partners on our website. As part of our new mission, we will post and work with as many of the Churches out there that want to participate in the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ unto all the world." (I'm sure that my readers can guess who their "partners" are - reference the links in the second paragraph of this post)

Even so, don't you dare accuse them of being schismatic or forming a new group! The statement concluded: "Will we still work with CGI in Tyler as one of those partners? Of course! It is not our intent to hurt anyone’s work or to hurt any individual in this process. Our new name is 'Springfield Church of God Independent Ministries. 'Our new motto is based on Eph 4:3 Endeavoring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace." Now, isn't that nice. They're not trying to hurt anybody, and they're just trying to preserve unity and peace among the brethren! I smell something, and it's usually associated with bulls!

By the way, just in case you're interested in their brand of the "Gospel" (or scanning the headlines and warning Americans about the really bad stuff that's right around the corner), then you'll be interested in their upcoming Wall Watcher Conference. The distinguished speaker's list is as follows: Bill Watson, Jeremiah Ridley, and Mike Nolen. With the results of the recent election, I imagine attendees can expect a lot of hair pulling and proclamations of imminent doom! This will probably be followed by everyone singing "Onward Christian Soldiers" and declaring how good it is for brethren to dwell together in peace and unity. Out of many one? Don't you bet on it! My advice: Get a bag of popcorn, relax, and enjoy the show - It's bound to be a doozy!