on the reverse, the pagan sun god driving a chariot drawn by four horses (Sol in Quadriga). The inscription reads SOLI INVICTO: “The Invincible Sun.”
A similar mosaic found in the Vatican grottoes under St. Peter’s Basilica, on the vaulted ceiling of the tomb of the Julii (also known as Mausoleum M), depicts Christ as the sun-god Helios/Sol riding in his chariot and is dated to the third century AD. The two left horses were destroyed when the hole was made to enter the tomb. This mosaic demonstrates that the pagan Roman culture of the day was incorporating Christ into the myriad of idols that they worshipped. An inscription by a T. Flavius Hyginus, dating to around 80–100 AD in Rome, dedicates an altar to Sol Invictus Mithras. These facts combine to explain why the Savior was honored by some in Rome with the title, “Sun of Justice.” It is simply the attachment of a Mithraic title to Christ!
Many Romans simply preferred to worship the sun god that their ancestors had always worshiped. Their “god of light” was known by many names such as Mithra, Baal, and Sol Invicti. Now, another name was being connected to this pagan deity of the sun. That name was none other than Christ Jesus!
Syncretism
It appears that the church in Rome was willing, at the very least, to look the other way as the connection was being made. The intention of converting pagans to Christianity may have been a noble one. However, it appears that rather than converting pagans to Christianity, paganism was thoroughly incorporated into Christianity. The historian Clement A. Miles states:
The Dies Natalis Invicti was probably first celebrated in Rome by order of the Emperor Aurelian (270–275), an ardent worshiper of the Syrian sun-god Baal. With the Sol Invictus was identified the figure of Mithra, that strange eastern god whose cult resembled in so many ways the worship of Jesus, and who was at one time a serious rival of the Christ in the minds of thoughtful men. Mithraism resembled Christianity in its monotheistic tendencies, its sacraments, its comparatively high morality, its doctrine of an Intercessor and Redeemer and its vivid belief in a future life and judgment to come. Moreover, Sunday was its holy-day dedicated to the Sun.7
In 313, Emperor Constantine “converted” to Christianity and in 321, he enacted the first “Sunday” law, in the following terms:
On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given the 7th day of March, Crispus, and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time).
Schaff goes on to explain that Constantine
enjoined the observance, or rather forbade the public desecration of Sunday, not under the name of Sabbatum or Dies Domini, but under its old astrological and heathen title, Dies Solis, familiar to all his subjects, so that the law was as applicable to the worshippers of Hercules, Apollo, and Mithras, as to the Christians. There is no reference whatever in his law either to the fourth commandment or to the resurrection of Christ. Besides he expressly exempted the country districts, where paganism still prevailed, from the prohibition of labor, and thus avoided every appearance of injustice. Christians and pagans had been accustomed to festival rests. Constantine made these rests to synchronize, and gave the preference to Sunday, on which day Christians from the beginning celebrated the resurrection of their Lord and Savior.8
As an aside, this event immediately preceded the medieval period of church history. Following Constantine’s edict, regard for Sunday as a day of rest increased and continued through the Christianisation of barbarian nations. Newly converted Germanic tribes recognized the similarities between the Jewish Sabbath and their own pagan taboo-days, therefore they willingly accepted a Sabbatarian Lord’s Day.
The most important factor in the Lord’s Day assumption of the requirements of the Sabbath came from the great scholastic theologian Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas developed a method of distinguishing between the moral and ceremonial aspects of the fourth commandment, which allowed the Christian to spiritually keep the Sabbath (with its moral aspects), without observing it on Saturday (the ceremonial aspect). Aquinas also articulated a doctrine which linked the Ten Commandments with the Natural Law, which he saw as binding on all men everywhere. This Thomist view of the Ten Commandments survived some challenges, to become the prevalent view of late medieval and traditional Roman Catholic theology, so was the leading view heading into the Reformation.9
We make mention of this, because later chapters will show how in the early church period, and also in the Reformation and the second Reformation periods, many theologians regarded the acceptance of Christmas as detracting from the Lord’s Day. This was especially true of those who adopted the Puritan view that the Lord’s Day was the Christian Sabbath, a creation ordinance binding on everybody, everywhere. It is unlikely that this Puritan view would have evolved, if the Reformers had made a complete break from the Roman Catholic position. Neither Luther nor Calvin believed that the Christian Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment was still in force and manifested in the Lord’s Day.10 (As we shall notice later, this inability of the Reformers to completely break from Roman Catholic practice, also had a significant impact on the whole issue of “holy days” such as Christmas.)
This was also the first use of a seven-day week in the Roman calendar.11 The first and most important day of the week was Sun-Day, in honor of Sol Invictus/Baal. The six other days were all names of planets. The seventh day of the week, called Saturday (not Sabbath-day), represented the planet Saturn, which is furthest from the Sun and likewise on the calendar was day seven, the furthest day from Sun-Day, day one.12
The use of pagan names of the seven days was Constantine’s way of erasing Sabbath and the Lord’s Day. Hence, Christians conformed to the abolition of Sabbath as the day of rest, from an emperor who overtly chose a special day to honor his Sun-God, whom he patronized as being identical to Jesus. Sun-Day was central to Constantine’s thinking and not only was the weekly holy day moved to Sunday, but Easter was moved to a Sunday as well. Easter had originally been celebrated on the fourteenth of the Jewish month of Nisan: the lunar month starting with the first full Moon after the spring equinox. Western Christians shifted it to the following Sunday, but it still depended upon the lunar cycle, which is why Easter falls at different dates in different years, and why it still causes so much confusion. A complicated set of tables is provided in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer for calculating the date of Easter for each year up to 2299.
Today in Christianity, we think that we can make a very clear distinction between worship of the sun, and worship of the Son. However, we can still commonly find a connection between Sol or Baal and Christianity in much of the Christian artwork of today. It is very common to see Christ, the apostles, prophets, Mary, lambs, and doves portrayed with a sunburst or halo of light surrounding their head. A halo or sunburst is also sometimes included in images of the cross. While some may make a link with the implausible theory of the star of Bethlehem shining directly onto Jesus’ head, these halos and sunbursts are the same as those used in Mithraism or sun worship. Sadly, we can find this type of artwork today in the buildings of many Protestant denominations.
There were northern and southern European pagan winter festivals which extended from November 1 to January 10. The Celtic New Year began on November 1 and the Teutonic one on November 11. The idea was linked
