PART I
What were the mystery religions?
Mystery religions were part of a diverse religious movement that surfaced during the first century and died out by the end of the fifth century. These cult religions involved the worship of pagan deities from Greece, Anatolia, Egypt, Persia, and Syria.
Mystery religions were so named because they consisted of strictly secret cults characterized by elaborate initiation rituals and religious ceremonies known only to those formally admitted to the group. Due to their secrecy, information about mystery religions is fragmented and somewhat difficult to decipher.
The most well-known mystery religions to emerge were the Greek cults of Demeter, Eleusinian, and Dionysus; the Phrygian cult of Cybele (the Magna Mater, or Great Mother of the gods) and Attis; the Syrian cult of Adonis; the Egyptian cults of Isis and Osiris; and the Persian cult of Mithras.
While each mystery religion was separate and distinct based on cultural influences and the myths surrounding each cult, they shared a set of commonalities. The predominant trait of each was the practice of sacred rites, called mysteries. In these secretive rituals, cultic worship of the mythological god or goddess was reenacted. Partakers committed sacrilege if they divulged what happened during these ceremonies.
Other notable common points of the mystery religions were that new members joined by choice and not by birth; membership rituals included cleansings, baptisms, and sacrifices; and salvation or redemption was a focus. Most mystery religions included a deity figure who died and came back to life, had an eschatological emphasis, and used symbolism extensively.
Mystery religions were on the rise during the same period of history that the Christian church emerged and developed. In some respects, these cults shared traits in common with Christianity. As a result, a number of historians and scholars have argued that Christianity borrowed from the mystery religions or that the mystery religions influenced Christianity; however, a strong case can be made that the opposite is true—that the mystery religions borrowed from Christianity to add to their mythologies. Besides, the similarities between Christianity and the mystery religions are merely superficial.
The mystery religions were syncretistic, which means followers could incorporate beliefs from other religions into their own set of views. This disregard for correct doctrine is a key difference between mystery religions and Christianity. Christianity acknowledges only one way to God (John 14:6) and places utmost importance on right doctrine (1 Timothy 1:1–11). There is no room for merging beliefs with other religions.
While participating in secret rituals, devotees of mystery religions sought emotional experiences and often worked themselves into altered states of consciousness, which they believed to be an elevated realm of reality. Christians, on the other hand, are committed to knowing and living according to the truth of God’s Word (John 17:17; Ephesians 1:13; 2 Timothy 2:15; Colossians 1:5; James 1:18). They practice self-control, not self-indulgence (2 Timothy 1:7).
Adherents of mystery religions often took a vow of secrecy and silence, emphasizing inward worship in private groups. There are no secret beliefs or rituals in Christianity. Followers of Jesus Christ are called to evangelize and take the good news of the gospel into all the world: “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’” (Matthew 28:18–20).
Throughout all the ages, people have eagerly sought after religious experiences, while Satan has worked to deceive them (2 Corinthians 4:4). The mystery religions were merely the counterfeit of that age for the one true faith: “For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live” (1 Corinthians 8:5–6).
For Further Study
The Kingdom of the Cults, 6th edition: The Definitive Work on the Subject by Walter Martin
PART II
The following is an excerpt of article DB109 from the Christian Research Journal by Ronald Nash
WHAT WERE THE MYSTERY RELIGIONS?
Other than Judaism and Christianity, the mystery religions were the most influential religions in the early centuries after Christ. The reason these cults were called “mystery religions” is that they involved secret ceremonies known only to those initiated into the cult. The major benefit of these practices was thought to be some kind of salvation.
The mystery religions were not, of course, the only manifestations of the religious spirit in the eastern Roman Empire. One could also find public cults not requiring an initiation ceremony into secret beliefs and practices. The Greek Olympian religion and its Roman counterpart are examples of this type of religion.
Each Mediterranean region produced its own mystery religion. Out of Greece came the cults of Demeter and Dionysus, as well as the Eleusinian and Orphic mystery religions, which developed later.2 Asia Minor gave birth to the cult of Cybele, the Great Mother, and her beloved, a shepherd named Attis. The cult of Isis and Osiris (later changed to Serapis) originated in Egypt, while Syria and Palestine saw the rise of the cult of Adonis. Finally, Persia (Iran) was a leading early locale for the cult of Mithras, which — due to its frequent use of the imagery of war — held a special appeal to Roman soldiers. The earlier Greek mystery religions were state religions in the sense that they attained the status of a public or civil cult and served a national or public function. The later non-Greek mysteries were personal, private, and individualistic.
Mystery Religion- Basic Traits
One must avoid any suggestion that there was one common mystery religion. While a tendency toward eclecticism or synthesis developed after A.D. 300, each of the mystery cults was a separate and distinct religion during the century that saw the birth of the Christian church. Moreover, each mystery cult assumed different forms in different cultural settings and underwent significant changes, especially after A.D. 100. Nevertheless, the mystery religions exhibited five common traits.
(1) Central to each mystery was its use of an annual vegetation cycle in which life is renewed each spring and dies each fall. Followers of the mystery cults found deep symbolic significance in the natural processes of growth, death, decay, and rebirth.
(2) As noted above, each cult made important use of secret ceremonies or mysteries, often in connection with an initiation rite. Each mystery religion also passed on a “secret” to the initiate that included information about the life of the cult’s god or goddess and how humans might achieve unity with that deity. This “knowledge” was always a secret or esoteric knowledge, unattainable by any outside the circle of the cult.
(3) Each mystery also centered around a myth in which the deity either returned to life after death or else triumphed over his enemies. Implicit in the myth was the theme of redemption from everything earthly and temporal. The secret meaning of the cult and its accompanying myth was expressed in a “sacramental drama” that appealed largely to the feelings and emotions of the initiates. This religious ecstasy was supposed to lead them to think they were experiencing the beginning of a new life.
(4) The mysteries had little or no use for doctrine and correct belief. They were primarily concerned with the emotional life of their followers. The cults used many different means to affect the emotions and imaginations of initiates and hence bring about “union with the god”: processions, fasting, a play, acts of purification, blazing lights, and esoteric liturgies. This lack of any emphasis on correct belief marked an important difference between the mysteries and Christianity. The Christian faith was exclusivistic in the sense that it recognized only one legitimate path to God and salvation, Jesus Christ. The mysteries were inclusivistic in the sense that nothing prevented a believer in one cult from following other mysteries.
(5) The immediate goal of the initiates was a mystical experience that led them to feel they had achieved union with their god. Beyond this quest for mystical union were two more ultimate goals: some kind of redemption or salvation, and immortality.
Mystery Religion- Evolution
Before A.D. 100, the mystery religions were still largely confined to specific localities and were still a relatively novel phenomenon. After A.D. 100, they gradually began to attain a widespread popular influence throughout the Roman Empire. But they also underwent significant changes that often resulted from the various cults absorbing elements from each other. As devotees of the mysteries became increasingly eclectic in their beliefs and practices, new and odd combinations of the older mysteries began to emerge. And as the cults continued to tone down the more objectionable features of their older practices, they began to attract greater numbers of followers.
PART III
God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity and his final verdict
ROMANS 1: 18-32
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
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