Great Apostasy

The Great Apostasy is a term used by some religious groups to describe the perceived fallen state of traditional Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church, because they claim it allowed traditional Greco-Roman culture (i.e.Greco-Roman mysteries, deities of solar monism such as Mithras and Sol Invictus, pagan festivals and Mithraic sun worship and idol worship) into the church. That it is not representative of the faith founded by Jesus and promulgated through his twelve Apostles: in short, in their opinion, the church has fallen into apostasy. They feel that to attract the pagans to nominal Christianity, the Catholic Church took measures to amalgamate the Christian and pagan festivals so pagans would join the church; for example, bringing in the pagan festival of Easter as a substitute for the Pasch or Passover, although neither Jesus nor his Apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival.

They consider the Papacy to be in full-blown apostasy for allowing pagan rituals, beliefs and ceremonies to come into the church, having those who pointed out its apostasy persecuted and killed and never repenting of or fully admitting the true extent of its actions.

Some modern scholars believe that the church in the early stages picked up pagan oral teachings from Palestinian and Hellenistic sources which formed the basis of a secret oral tradition, which in the 4th century came to be called the disciplina arcani. Mainstream theologians believe it contained liturgical details and certain other pagan traditions which remain a part of some branches of mainstream Christianity (for example, the doctrine of transubstantiation is thought to have been a part of this by Catholic theologians). Important esoteric influences on the church were the Christian theologians Clement of Alexandria and Origen, the main figures of the Catechetical School of Alexandria.

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