p. 565 | SAINT WORSHIP by Elder I. E. Kimball

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 16, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 36.

SAINT WORSHIP.

By Elder I. E. Kimball

BY ELDER I. E. KIMBALL. [This is article 11 of the series on the apostasy of the early church. Each is independent, but all are connected.]

NOTHING is more notoriously manifest in the annals of the Nicene church than the deifying of dead men. The imputation cannot be denied. They worshiped these familiar spirits, which appeared under the guise of the spirits of martyrs, sought their guardianship, protection, and aid, worshiped their relics, bowed down to their coffins, and made very much of their bones, as a talisman for every evil.

Now, that we may see how far this practice obtained in the church, I will quote: "O thou (Ephraëm) remember us and ask for us the remission of our sins."—Gregory Nyssa. "These are they who, having taken possession of our country as certain conjoined towers, secure it from the incursions of enemies."—Basil, Oration upon the Forty Martyrs. The same Basil, concluding his oration upon Mamas, the martyr, speaks of the church of Cæsarea "being guarded with the mighty towers of martyrs."

Chrysostom, in his twenty-second homily upon the epistle to the Romans, speaks of the relics of Peter and Paul: "This corpse [said he, meaning Paul's] fortifies this city of Rome more strongly than any tower, or than ten thousand ramparts, as also doth the corpse of Peter." "Faith's two towers in lady Rome do lie, two bulwarks strong against the enemy." Again, in homily seventy of the Egyptian martyrs, he says: "Those saints' bodies fortify our city more strongly than an impregnable wall of adamant, and, as certain high rocks, hanging on every side, repel not only the assaults of those enemies which are sensible and seen by the eye, but also overthrow and defeat the ambuscades of invisible friends, and all the stratagems of the devil."

Evagrius Scholasticus says the body of Symeon the Stylite was taken by Antiochians, for his city had no wall, it having been demolished; therefore this body was sought as a wall and fortress. So Hilary, so Gregory Nyssa, who calls the departed "guardians and protectors." Theodoret calls the holy martyrs "guardians of cities, lieutenants of places, captains of men, princes, champions by whom diseases are turned from us, and those which come from devils, debarred and driven away." Thus, with a finger to the skies, they with one accord directed all to confide in the "Virgin Mother of God" as an "impregnable wall and fortress of salvation," and to commend their temporal and eternal welfare to the guardianship of dead men.

Is this a Bible conception of things?—We well know that it is not. But this is the demonolatry of Pagan Rome, which came down from the elder world. The word "demon" (Greek, daimōn) is translated devil. The Gentile doctrine of demons was this: They were the spirits of dead heroes. In no way was the word "demon" used in a bad sense, but, rather, they were understood to be the guardians, and the intercessors with the gods, attendants who were to be supplicated, and in whom all should confide. The abundance of evidence will make this plain and set the doctrine of the invocation, whether of supposed saints or of ancient Roman heroes, free from all entanglements.

Plato, all the Platonists, and Plutarch, mention the demons as standing between the sovereign gods and mortal men. The gods proper were supposed to reside in the sun, moon, and stars, hence they "worshiped the host of heaven." And such were believed to be immortal—altogether eternal. Plato and Celsus speak of demons as "reporters and carriers from men to the gods, and from the gods to men, of the supplications and prayers of the one, and of the injunctions and rewards of devotion of the other." So Apuleius. Now the demons were supposed souls of men deified, as shown from Hesiod, Plato, Trismegistus, Philo, Biblius, Plutarch, Tully, Justin Martyr, etc. The Penates and Lares were the soul gods "of the Romans."

The Old Testament Baal is understood on all sides to have been the first deified king of Babylon, or Phenicia, for Babylon and Phenicia were one; and the Bel, Belus, or Belinnus of Babylon is the same as the Baal of the Zidonians; but it is evident from the above writers that Apollo's demon was called Apollo, and Jupiter's demon, Jupiter. So the sun god of the Phenicians and Bel are confounded together. Plutarch informs us that the souls of the deceased took degrees, commencing as "demon's heroes," and finally attaining to a demonship. It finally came to be believed, in the latter days of Rome, that evil men exercised power as wicked demons. So they sacrificed to them, to keep them from tantalizing and destroying. At the first only the good and the wise, and those who died honorably in battle, were understood to become demons. Heathen authors also mention a higher kind of demon, which was never connected with the body.

Augustine, in "De Civitate Dei" ("The City of God"), shows the demonolatry of the Gentiles. Some of the headings of chapters are: "Whether the Gods Do Use Demons for Their Messengers and Interpreters;" "Whether the Friendship and Favor of the Celestial Gods May Be Procured by the Intercessions of Demons;" "To the Attaining of Blessedness Man Hath No Need of a Demon for His Mediator." Celsus, in discussion with Origen, called Christ the "Christians' demon."

Demons were worshiped, and their presence retained, through consecrated images, or they were thought to hang about their coffins and sepulchers. This heathen notion is retained with us to-day in looking for apparitions in the graveyards. Images were but as bodies for demons to animate. All this may be shown from Trismegistus, Porphyry, Arnobius, Minusius, Felix, etc. With the Egyptians, demons were thought to animate living creatures as well; cats, birds, the cow, the bull, and even their water god, Nilus, were thus possessed. Demons were worshiped also in their relics, and at their shrines. The Gentile temples were nothing but the sepulchers of dead men, as the early churchmen declared.

Images are spoken of as "filled with divine fellowship," "animated statues" full of sense and spirit. "We do not think," said Arnobius, "brass and gold and silver and other materials of images to be of themselves gods, or holy powers, but in these we worship and reverence the gods brought into these images, and keeping their residence there by sacred dedication." Plato speaks of worshiping the coffins of demons, which were placed in the temples as so many statues, for "some souls were naturally tied to the body."

Now let us listen to Chrysostom; concluding one of his homilies, he says: "With this ardor, then, let us fall down before these relics of martyrs; let us embrace their coffins; for these may have some power, since their bones have, and not only on the days of their festival, but on other days also; let us fix ourselves, as it were, to them, and interest them to be our patrons." Again, he exhorts to "dwell in their sepulchers, to fix themselves to their coffins," for "not only their bones but their tombs and their urns overflow with blessings." And Basil informs us that all who were pressed with any difficulty or distress "were wont to fly for relief to the tombs of the martyrs, and that whosoever did but touch their relics acquired some share in their sanctity." Just a little before, this father had exhorted the Gentiles as follows: "Be ye therefore persuaded to forget and relinquish your demonship, and be ashamed to worship the sepulchers of dead men."

Epiphanius, when saint worship began to appear, heavily criminated the abettors, saying: "That also of the apostle is fulfilled of these, 'Some shall apostatize from the sound doctrine, giving heed to fables and doctrines of demons,' for they shall be worshipers of dead men, as they were worshiped in Israel." He refers to 1 Timothy 4, to which we have already called attention, where Paul says they should give heed to "doctrines of demons," doubtless speaking as he does of "doctrines of baptisms," etc., etc., showing that the Gentile doctrine of demons would be transferred to the Christian church through apostasy.