March-May 1999 The Sabbath Sentinel

Paganism Surviving in Christianity

Our friend David Hill of Queensland, Australia, continues to re-publish additional books by the great Seventh Day Baptist writer, Dr. Abram Herbert Lewis. With David's help, the latest Lewis book to be offered by the BSA is the 1892 work, Paganism Surviving in Christianity, 135-page photocopy, $8.50 donation.

Lewis had a keen interest in returning exclusively to Biblical Christianity. Part of this task involves ridding ourselves of pagan trappings, which infiltrated the early Church.

As shocking as it sounds, Lewis shows that pagan methods of interpreting the Scriptures are still prevalent today. Lewis examines pagan water worship in Asia, Greece, Northern Europe, and Mexico, and how this was transferred to professing Christianity. He explores the effect of sun worship, gnostic antinomianism, Sunday observance, the pagan cross, Christmas, Easter, Penance, Lent, the State religion, and many other pagan ideas and practices on the Church.

A.H. Lewis presents these helpful insights in a thorough, yet clear, easy-to-understand manner. He concludes,"When the last stain of paganism is removed, the world will see a Christianity which will be primarily a life of purity , through love for God and truth and men, rather than a creed . . . . The Sabbath, as God's day, free from burdensome formalism, and filled with good works and spiritual culture will be restored; and this recognition of-it as God's ever-recurring representative in human life will do much to bring in that universal Sabbathism towards which God is patiently leading His truth-loving children."

TSS

March - May 1999 The Sabbath Sentinel