2 Thessalonians 2. The falling away came. As Dr. Killen
(Presbyterian), of Ireland, says in the preface to his "Ancient
Church:"
[Illustration: THE SABBATH FROM EDEN TO EDEN
Blessed and sanctified in Eden. Gen. 2:3. Christ the Lord of the
Sabbath. Mark 2:28.
Written by God in His law. Ex. 20:8-11. To be observed in the new earth.
Isa. 66:23.]
"In the interval between the days of the apostles and the
conversion of Constantine, the Christian commonwealth changed
its aspect.... Rites and ceremonies, of which neither Paul nor
Peter ever heard, crept into use, and then claimed the rank of
divine institutions."
In his "Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine," Cardinal Newman
(Roman Catholic) tells how rites and ceremonies were borrowed from
paganism:
"Confiding then in the power of Christianity to resist the
infection of evil, and to transmute the very instruments and
appendages of demon worship to an evangelical use,... the
rulers of the church from early times were prepared, should the
occasion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or sanction the existing
rites and customs of the populace, as well as the philosophy of
the educated class.
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