When it came to fully explaining the pagan origins of catholicism, one of the most influential religious writers of all time, a man who was provided the rank of cardinal in the Roman catholic church, John Henry Newman wrote:
“The use of temples, and these dedicated to particular saints, and ornamented on occasions with branches of trees; incense, lamps, and candles; votive offerings on recovery from illness; holy water; asylums; holydays and seasons, use of calendars, processions, blessings on the fields; sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure, the ring in marriage, turning to the East, images at a later date, perhaps the ecclesiastical chant, and the Kyrie Eleison, are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.”
Understanding these pagan origins and realizing that the Roman catholic church is a church that is built on pagan traditions and not the Word of God is significant, especially when considered in light of the Holy Scripture which makes a clear statement against tradition and the power it has to, through practice but not authority, effectively render God’s Word useless to those who put their trust in traditions like these pagan roots:
Mark 7, 8-13:
“And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.”
I think it is very important that we all pay very careful attention to those eight very powerful words: “making the word of God of none effect” and, if we truly are Christians and truly do place our Trust in Christ Alone, then we know that we must reject traditions like those of the catholic church which are contrary to God’s Word, so that we do not render His Truth of “none effect” for ourselves.
