Truth Triumphant - Benjamin G. Wilkinson

Germanic tribes. Perhaps no political divisions of
the state did more to bring glory to the Oriental
deity than the Germanic provinces of the empire.
The city of Rome itself abounds with the
monuments of Mithra.[35] It is an evidence of the
great strength of Mithraism that pagan Rome, and
later papal Rome, was seen surrendering to the
religion of the Persians, its enemies.
It was difficult for Christianity in its pioneer
days to face a religion which for six hundred years
had been the dominant cult of the Persian and
Parthian Empires. A spiritual opposition, however,
more serious than persecution devolved upon the
early evangelists of Christianity because many
outward features and beliefs of Zoroastrianism
appeared identical to those of the apostolic church.
This anti-Christian religion began to tell of Mithra
the mediator, of his terrestrial mission to defend the
faithful, of his ascension to heaven, of the baptism
he instituted, of his second coming followed by the
restoration of all things and the final unending
reign of the righteous. Resemblances between
Christianity and Zoroastrianism were so great that
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