It was he who, plowing his way through the heavens, despite the mist and clouds piled upon the great highway of his wonted march, rolled down at eventide the western declivity of the cerulean causeway to give place to Luna, queen of night, realizing that,
"Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale;"
and that
"Ten thousand marshaled stars, a silver zone,
Diffuse their blended radiance round the throne."
It was this mighty solar orb, "the king of day," who, having performed his wonted journey to the south, returned in early spring to banish the chilling blasts of the drear cold season; to drive from off the earth the biting frosts and freezing snows of gloom-dispensing winter, and pour down, in lieu thereof, his genial and vivifying rays to waken the flowers; to call forth vegetation, and ultimately ripen the golden harvest. In a word, he dispensed heat, light, life, and blessings innumerable over all the earth. How easy, how natural, then, it was for the untutored savage to conclude that the indwelling or on-dwelling spirit of the sun was "the chief of the Gods," to whom all the inferior Deities (those who presided over the stars) bowed in humble allegiance, acknowledging his superior sway, his right to rule over the boundless universe! The sun, being thus the great central wheel of all recognized power,—i.e., the tabernacle or dwelling-place of the supreme, omnipotent God,—became the principal object of admiration and adoration, the pivot around which clustered their deepest devotional aspirations; the subordinate Deities of the planets holding but a second place in their devout contemplations and uprising venerations. The worship of these imaginary beings, including the ruling and overruling "God of all," with his tabernacle pitched in the blazing sun, is now termed idolatry, and may be regarded as the second phase or form of this species of worship. Hence we may note it as a remarkable circumstance, that all the principal systems of religion now existing, as well as most of those which have passed away, exhibit very strong marks of this ancient solar worship; and it is more especially remarkable, that both Judaism and Christianity, with all their exalted claims to a supernatural origin, should be, as they seemingly are, deeply tinctured with this ancient Sabean or solar worship. Distinct traces of it are observable in the whole religious nomenclature of Christianity. It, in fact, pervades the whole system. This declaration is borne out by the fact that nearly every divine epithet, nearly every name applied to the Deity in the Christian scriptures, including those addressed to Jesus Christ, and also nearly every theological term in both the Old and New Testaments, are traceable to the ancient solar worship; that is, the words, when traced to their roots, or original form, are found to have been solar titles. We will present some samples by way of proof: The divine title Lord, in the New Testament, is translated from the Greek Kuros, which is the Persian name for the sun; God is from Gad, an Ammonian name for the sun; Jehovah, by translation and declension, becomes Jupiter, which, according to Macrobius, is "the sun itself;" Deity is from the Latin Deus, which is traceable to dies, a day,—a period of time measured by the sun; Jesus is from Jes or J-es (with the Latin termination us), which means "the one great fire of the sun;" and Christ is derived from Chris, a Chaldean term for the sun; and so on of other divine titles. And whole phrases of scripture-texts disclose the same idolatrous solar origin. Why is Jesus Christ called "the sun of righteousness"? (spelled s-u-n, let it be noticed), as this text, quoted from Malachi, is assumed to apply to him; and why is the term "light," so frequently used and preferred throughout the Christian scriptures, to denote the spiritual condition of man? Why are nations, whose minds are cultivated and stored with knowledge, said to be "enlightened"? Certainly, to our external vision, they are as opaque as the most grossly ignorant barbarians. But they are called enlightened when advanced in knowledge, simply because all knowledge was once supposed to be imparted by the God of the sun through its descending rays of light. Hence light and knowledge are now synonymous terms. David says, "The Lord is my light and my salvation" (Ps. xxvii. 1),—just what the ancient pagans used to say of the sun. Isaiah says, "The Lord shall be to thee an everlasting light" (Isa. lx. 19),—exactly such a conception as the ancient heathen entertained of the sun, to which its application is more obviously appropriate. Habakkuk says, "His brightness was as light" (iii. 4). Apply this language to the sun, and its meaning becomes strikingly significant. Christ is said to be "a light to lighten the Gentiles," "the true light," "the light of the world," &c.; and yet we can not discover that those who have embraced his doctrines, and thus come into possession of this "true light," shed any more light upon a devious pathway, traveled in the darkness of night, than the veriest Jewish pharisee or infidel. The Christian reader will reply, "These phrases are mere figures of speech." To be sure they are: we admit it. But then their derivation and origin are none the less obvious, and, when scrutinizingly examined, disclose remote traces of Oriental idolatry; and, moreover, they most unmistakably prove Christianity to be of heathen extraction with respect to its verbal habiliments, or external vestment, as well as the main drift and scope of its doctrines and teachings, as shown elsewhere. We will observe further, that such conceptions (found in the Christian Bible) as "God is a consuming fire," "God is light," &c. (John i. 5), originated in the primeval ages, when God was supposed to reside in the sun; also such ejaculations as "O Lord, the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising" (Isa. ix. 3). The words "light," "brightness," and "rising" apply with striking force to the sun, and were used by the ancient Persians in such a relation, while, on the other hand, it is difficult to discover any sense or appropriateness in applying them—at least the word "rising"—to the Supreme Being; for he is represented as always occupying "the highest heavens:" so there can be no higher point to rise to. We might also ask, Why are "the Lord's day" and "Sunday" used as synonymous terms? or why is the Lord now worshiped on the very day anciently set apart for the worship of the sun or solar Deities? Do not these facts prove that many remnants of the ancient idolatrous religions are still retained in Christian theology?
Monotheism.—This word—from monos, one, or alone, and Theos, God—represents a belief in but one God. We have shown in the preceding section how a belief in a plurality of Gods originated. We will now trace the progress of this idea to a unitary conception of the Deity. It will be observed, by the study of ancient theology, that, as the human mind becomes enlightened and expanded by the discovery of the laws governing the heavenly bodies, the lesser or inferior Deities gradually fall into disbelief and disuse, and "the Supreme Holy One" proportionally becomes exalted in the devout affections of the worshiping multitude, until most religious nations become, in one view, virtually and practically monotheists. And it may be remarked here, that, as neither the imaginary God nor carved images of God were objects of worship by the most enlightened classes of any nation, they can not strictly and truthfully be termed idolaters. Hence some writers are bold to affirm there never was a nation of idolaters; and we incline to this opinion. We are also bold to affirm that there never was, properly speaking, a nation of monotheists,—believing in but one God, and no more,—neither Jews nor Christians excepted; and we are likewise prepared to exhibit the proof of the affirmation, that every nation, reported in history making a profession of religion, has acknowledged the existence of one supreme God. This is true even of those who believe in a multiplicity of Gods,—a circumstance which places both Jews and Christians in rather an awkward position, claiming as they do, and always have done, a monopoly of this faith; and the fact that they have long professedly labored to bring other nations to this belief, while some of those nations have, as we shall show, been much more consistent, both in the belief and practice of this doctrine, than themselves, places them, as we conceive, in rather a ludicrous aspect. The Christian Bible and the Christian world have arrogated vastly too much to themselves, and overstepped the bounds of truth, in claiming to be the only propagators of the unitary conception of a God, as the following citations from historical authorities will clearly manifest:—
1. Christians have a numerous cortege, or retinue, of angels in their system of inspired theology, as is shown in various parts of the Bible, which, in theological parlance, must be regarded as so many secondary Gods, inasmuch as they are assigned the same duties, perform the same functions, and sustain precisely the same relation to the supernal Deity as did the subordinate Gods of the pagans under the ancient systems. It is, in fact, only a change of name, in order to get rid of the illogical dilemma of holding to the existence of but one God, while virtually acknowledging the existence of many. We might cite many facts and testimonies from history in proof of this statement, but will restrict ourselves to one. Mr. Higgins says, "All nations believed in one supreme God, and many subordinates. The latter some termed angels; others called them Gods." More anciently than the Jews, we find that the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Persians, and Syrians all vested these subordinate beings with the properties of mere angels. "Angels," then, with Christians, we legitimately infer, is only another name for second-class Gods, or subordinate Deities of the Orientals.
2. Even if we should pass over, as unworthy of consideration, the historical facts which go to identify the Christian angels with the subordinate Deities of the ancient pagans, there is yet spread out before us a broad and tenable ground for charging Christians with being polytheists,—that is, for rejecting their pretensions of worshiping and preaching a unitary God; for it is a very striking and depreciating fact, that, notwithstanding their boastful and arrogating claims, there are many texts in the Old Testament which imply, in the most distinct manner, a belief in a plurality of Gods. Indeed the first passage in the book, according to Mr. Parkhurst, would read, if correctly translated, "In the beginning the Gods created the heavens and the earth," thus disclosing an acknowledgment of more than one God. And we find many other passages which are made to conceal the old polytheistic idea by a wrong translation. Fortunately, however, for the disclosure of truth, there are many texts in which it comes very distinctly to the surface. As for example, in Genesis i. 26, we have the undisguised language, "Let us make man in our own image." Now "us" and "our" being plural pronouns, it would be folly and nonsense to deny that they refer to a plurality of Gods. "Let us make man" means, "Let us Gods make man;" for no sophistry, shifting, or dodging can make sense of it with any other construction. And several times, in this and other chapters, is similar language used. We will cut the matter short by observing, upon the authority of Parkhurst, that Aleim and Elohim are the Hebrew plurals used to represent God in the Old Testament; that these are much more frequently employed than the singular forms, Al and El, thus disclosing the conception of a plurality of Gods beyond dispute.
3. And this argumentation acquires additional logical strength when based on the fact that the Jews did not claim Jehovah as the only God, but merely as supreme to other Gods. He was "God of Gods" and "Lord of Lords." Nor was he claimed to be a God of any but the Jewish nation. Jethro is made to say, "Now I know that Jehovah is greater than all Gods" (Exod. xviii. 11). And in Exodus xv. 11 it is asked, "Who is like unto Jehovah among the Gods?" Just such a claim as is put forth for Jupiter by Homer in his Iliad:—
"O first and greatest God, by Gods adored,
We own thy power, our Father and our Lord!"