When Mortals Became Gods: The Hidden History the Church Tried to Bury

The very first deception recorded in Scripture sets the pattern for all human idolatry that followed. In Eden, the serpent whispered a promise that has echoed through every empire and every occult system in world history: “Ye shall be as gods.” At its core, this temptation united two forbidden desires; to become divine, and to gain hidden, forbidden knowledge. Across the ancient world, these two ambitions shaped the birth of false religion, priestly magic, imperial cults, and the deification of rulers. What began as natural admiration for powerful leaders slowly evolved, through ritual, memory, mythmaking, and occult influence, into worship. This is not speculation. It is what ancient writers themselves recorded.

Before temples, myths, idols, and divine titles existed, there were simply men; rulers, inventors, founders, generals, and kings; whose names were preserved, whose images were honored, and whose stories were gradually magnified into something supernatural. Over time, the humanity of these figures was forgotten and replaced with manufactured divinity. Again and again, from Egypt to Greece to Rome, the same pattern appears. And Scripture warns that this same ancient mechanism will be used one final time, when a mortal man is exalted as the Beast through deception, occult signs, and spiritual power not from God.

To understand the future, we must understand the past.

Ancient writers repeatedly claimed that the gods were once mortal. Early Christian writers did not invent this idea; they learned it from the pagans themselves. They saw in pagan religion the very fulfillment of the serpent’s promise; a human longing to rise above creaturehood, surrounded by rituals that offered secret knowledge and channels to hidden spiritual forces.

Lactantius, in his Divine Institutes, explains that idolatry began when people memorialized their dead rulers. Images were created to honor the memory of great leaders, but later generations forgot the original purpose. What began as remembrance turned into offering, worship, and finally divine status. In several passages Lactantius describes how kings, benefactors, and heroes received posthumous honors that evolved into full religious devotion. He noted simply that people “made images of their dead,” and that their descendants came to believe that these images represented actual gods. For Lactantius, pagan religion was built on two linked deceptions: the elevation of mortals into gods, and the work of deceiving spirits inhabiting the images and idols. In other words, the divine honors given to the dead were not only historical misunderstandings; they were forms of occult manipulation.

Other Christian writers in the early centuries said the same. Clement of Alexandria wrote that craftsmen carved images of men who were afterward treated as gods. Eusebius showed that the genealogies of the gods all traced back to human ancestors and rulers. Theophilus of Antioch and Minucius Felix argued that pagan worship originated in the veneration of founders, benefactors, and kings. They were not proposing a theory; they were describing what they found in Greek and Roman literature.

Pagan historians agreed. Euhemerus taught that the gods were ancient kings whose stories had been exaggerated into divine myth. Diodorus Siculus described rulers being elevated after death into divine status. Herodotus recorded hero-cults built around tombs. Even pagan thinkers openly admitted that their gods began as human beings; it was the later priesthoods, cults, and occult traditions that pushed these figures into the realm of divinity.

The same pattern repeats everywhere. A great leader dies. A memorial or statue is built. Descendants honor the memory with offerings. Stories grow. Miracles are added. The human past is forgotten. The honored dead become gods. Then temples are constructed, priesthoods develop, rituals emerge, and a spiritual system forms around the memory of a man who once lived.

By the time Rome reached its height, this entire process was institutionalized. Emperors were declared gods by vote. Priests were appointed to oversee their cults. Temples were built over their tombs. The boundaries between man and god were blurred almost completely. And Christian writers immediately recognized what this process truly was: the ancient satanic promise dressed in imperial robes. “You shall be as gods” had become a political and religious system.

This was the root of all idolatry, and according to prophecy, it is also the pattern by which the final world ruler will arise. A mortal man, lifted through political power, occult rites, spiritual deception, and public veneration, will be presented to the world as something more than human. The ancient pattern will repeat itself one final time.

So now the picture becomes clearer. The Desposyni; the blood relatives of Jesus; were gradually pushed aside and silenced. James the Just, head of the Jerusalem church, was murdered by the religious authorities. Domitian, fearing that a genuine heir of the Messiah’s line might challenge imperial power, interrogated the grandsons of Jude (another brother of the Lord). In time, the Church’s solution to eliminating the relevance of Jesus’ family was to claim that Mary remained a perpetual virgin; a doctrine that contradicts earlier testimony. Eusebius himself records that James the Just was the son of Joseph and Mary, which directly refutes the later idea that Jesus had no biological siblings.

The belief that the gods were once men is not modern speculation. It is an ancient explanation found both in Greco-Roman philosophy and within the Hebrew Scriptures. Euhemerus argued that the gods were originally mortal rulers and benefactors whose tombs, temples, and inscriptions preserved their memory long after their deaths. Biblical theology, centuries older than Euhemerus, critiques this same pattern from a theological standpoint, warning that humans continually exalt other humans and call them divine, and that this impulse lies at the heart of idolatry. When Euhemerism, biblical warnings, Roman apotheosis, and later Christian practice are placed side by side, a continuous pattern emerges in how cultures elevate the dead. This continuity becomes especially important when examining how saint-veneration and the funerary rites of popes developed.

Euhemerus’ Sacred History, preserved in fragments by Diodorus Siculus and Ennius, claimed that the gods began as human kings. On the distant island of Panchēa, Euhemerus said he found a magnificent temple of Zeus Triphylius with a golden inscription describing Zeus as a mortal king: born in Crete, ruling as a benefactor, traveling across the earth, and dying and being buried. Uranus, Cronus, and others were described the same way. What later generations called “gods” were simply rulers whose deeds were preserved in temples built over their burial sites. When Ennius translated Euhemerus into Latin, Romans learned that Jupiter had a tomb in Crete, that divine genealogies had human beginnings, and that apotheosis was a historical process rather than a revelation from the heavens.

Scripture presents a parallel critique, not historical but theological. Isaiah describes a man cutting down a tree, burning half of it for warmth, and carving the other half into a god, showing that humans create their own deities (Isaiah 44:14–17). Paul says that the nations “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man” (Romans 1:23). Ezekiel rebukes the prince of Tyre for claiming divinity, saying, “You say, I am a god, yet you are but a man” (Ezekiel 28:2). Herod is praised as a god, not a man, and is struck down (Acts 12:21–23). The people of Lystra attempt to worship Paul and Barnabas as gods after witnessing a miracle (Acts 14:11–15). The Bible treats death as decisive proof that no mortal can be divine: “You shall die like men” (Psalm 82:7), and “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish” (Jeremiah 10:11). Against the elevation of mortals stands the eternal God: “From everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Psalm 90:2). Where Euhemerus argued historically, Scripture argued morally and theologically; yet both arrived at the same conclusion that mortals cannot become gods.

Early Christian apologists recognized Euhemerus as an unexpected ally. Minucius Felix quoted him as proof that the gods were mortal men with birthplaces and tombs. Lactantius used Euhemerist evidence to show that Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars had once lived as men and received divine honors only through custom. Eusebius treated Euhemerus as a historian whose testimony exposed the human origins of pagan deities. For these writers, Euhemerus confirmed what the Scriptures already taught: that human beings manufacture their gods and that ancestor worship is the origin of mythology.

Roman religion centered on the veneration of the dead. Through consecratio ceremonies, dead emperors were transformed into gods. Their funerals included temple-like pyres, the release of an eagle symbolizing ascent to heaven, and the establishment of a cult complete with altars and priesthoods. Hero cults honored founders and warriors at their tombs. Ancestor worship included offerings, commemorative meals, and household shrines. Temples were often built over the graves of legendary figures. These rituals created civic deities believed to continue guiding and protecting the state.

Christianity emerged within this world, and early Christian practices reflected the same cultural environment. Martyrs were buried in catacombs, and believers gathered at their tombs. The anniversary of a martyr’s death, the dies natalis, became an annual commemoration. Shrines were built over graves, and inscriptions began asking martyrs to “pray for us.” By the fourth century, churches were intentionally built over tombs—especially the alleged tombs of Peter and Paul. Yet this raises a serious historical problem: if both men were martyred as criminals under Roman persecution, why would their exact burial locations be known, preserved, and later monumentalized? Roman authorities did not honor executed enemies, and early Christians hid their dead, not enshrined them. The later identification of these tombs reflects developing tradition, not verifiable apostolic history.

However, Pilgrimages to the tombs of saints became common. These practices paralleled Roman hero cults, retaining their structure while giving them new theological meaning.

And here Pope John Paul II lifts up the visages of deceased popes upon the monstrance, inviting the faithful to bow before them; even as the bodies of those same popes lie entombed beneath the basilicas.

The papacy developed in this same ritual world. Early popes were buried simply in catacombs. After Constantine, popes were buried inside basilicas and often directly beneath the altars, continuing the Roman custom of building places of worship over graves. By the medieval period, papal funerals included public lying in state, ceremonial processions, incense, candles, acclamations, embalming, monumental tombs, and the nine-day novendiales ritual. These rites strongly resembled the imperial funerals of Rome, and the pope became the new sacred figure of the capital; not pagan in doctrine but continuous in ceremonial form.

Canonization later developed in a way that parallels Roman apotheosis. The Roman Senate declared an emperor to be a god; the pope declares a saint to be in heaven. Apotheosis gave the emperor a temple; canonization gives the saint feast days, churches, and devotional rites. Roman priests administered the cult of the deified emperor; clergy administer the cult of saints. The offerings changed, but the structure remained. Though Catholic theology denies the divinity of saints, the ritual pattern reflects the same anthropological instinct that underpinned ancient apotheosis.

Christian basilicas themselves follow the architectural logic of tomb-temples. Roman temples were often built over the graves of heroes and founders. So were Christian basilicas: St. Peter’s was built over Peter’s tomb (how would they know with no DNA) St. Paul Outside the Walls over Paul’s grave, and other basilicas over the tombs of martyrs and bishops. Altars were placed directly above graves, and relics were required inside altars. Worship occurred in close proximity to the dead, mirroring Roman beliefs that the deceased retained presence and power at their burial place. Relics were treated as holy and miracle-working, and pilgrimages to tombs resembled ancient devotional journeys to the graves of heroes.

This naturally raises the question whether such practices amount to worship of the dead.

Catholic theology denies this, distinguishing between worship given only to God and honor given to saints. Yet the very categories used to defend the practice; latria for God and dulia for saints; are themselves later inventions, created to justify rituals that resemble the very acts they claim to avoid. These terms never existed in apostolic teaching, and naming an action differently does not change its nature.

Biblical critics, however, point to passages condemning worship at tombs; “who sit among the graves” (Isaiah 65:4); and prohibiting consultation of the dead (Deuteronomy 18:11). They argue that prayers to saints resemble necromancy and that votive offerings and shrine rituals mimic pagan hero cults. Protestant Reformers insisted that veneration had slipped into worship. Historians and anthropologists, studying the forms rather than the theology, observe clear continuity between Roman ancestor cults, emperor worship, and Christian saint-veneration.

The pattern that emerges is consistent. Euhemerus exposed the human origins of pagan gods. Scripture condemned the elevation of mortals into divine beings. Roman rituals created civic deities from dead emperors. Christianity in Rome did not erase this cultural world; it absorbed and transformed it. The veneration of saints, the architecture of basilicas, the structure of papal funerals, and the ritual patterns of canonization reflect the same ancient instinct to honor the dead as ongoing protectors. The theology changed, but the forms remained. The elevation of popes and saints is not an isolated Christian invention but a reinterpretation of the Roman pattern of apotheosis (look also at modern royal and presidential funerals). Euhemerus described and the Bible warned against: the human impulse to exalt the dead, surround them with temples and rituals, and give them sacred memory.

Well this helps explain the following verses:

Revelation 19:19 (KJV)

“And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.”

I wonder who the false prophet could be.....

Proof that these practices were not apostolic begins with the simple fact that the earliest Christians did none of the things later associated with saint-veneration, tomb cults, relics, or canonization. Before Christian communities ever gathered at graves, built shrines, celebrated death anniversaries, or invoked martyrs for help, the apostolic church had no such customs at all. These practices developed only after the age of the apostles, gradually, culturally, and under the influence of Roman funerary religion.

The New Testament gives us the first martyr, Stephen. His body is buried and nothing more is done in relation to his grave, as Acts 8:2 records. There is no shrine, no festival marking his death, no pilgrimage, and no prayers addressed to him. This silence reflects Jesus’ own rebuke of shrine-building in Matthew 23:29, where He criticizes those who build tombs for the prophets. The apostles worshiped in homes, not at tombs, as shown in Acts 2:46 and Romans 16:5. They never prayed to believers who had died, never sought their intercession, and never treated graves as sacred places. Apostolic Christianity knew nothing of tomb-veneration or the honoring of the dead with religious rites.

The later practice of celebrating a martyr’s death anniversary, the dies natalis or birthday into heaven, is entirely absent from the New Testament. It first appears nearly a century after the apostles in the account of Polycarp’s death. Grave-meals were likewise not apostolic; these came from Roman pagan funerary customs. Early Christian writers such as Tertullian and Origen complain that some Christians were imitating pagan practices, which proves these customs were never apostolic teachings.

Equally absent from the apostolic era is any prayer to martyrs. There is no New Testament prayer directed to a departed saint and no first-century Christian text that asks a martyr to intercede. Inscriptions invoking the dead appear only in the late third or early fourth century, around 250 years after Christ. They arise precisely at the time when Christianity becomes more accepted within Roman culture and begins absorbing its funerary traditions. If the apostles intended Christians to pray to departed saints, the first century would not be completely silent on the matter.

Shrines and churches built over tombs do not appear until the fourth century. Before Constantine, Christians avoided monumental structures and did not build sacred spaces around graves. Their worship remained domestic and simple. Once Christianity was “legalized”; or more accurately, absorbed and repurposed by imperial power; Roman architectural and religious patterns quickly took control of Christian space. Massive basilicas rose directly over tombs, including those claimed to belong to Peter, Paul, Agnes, Lawrence, and Sebastian. Yet how could anyone possibly identify the remains of men who died as criminalized enemies of the state and members of an outlawed faith? Such certainty is impossible unless later elites reshaped the story for their own benefit, appropriating supposed sacred bones so they could enthrone themselves as the new divinized rulers while keeping the masses dependent, obedient, and spiritually locked out of heaven.

This represented a clear departure from the apostolic pattern and imitated the Roman practice of constructing hero shrines and founder temples over graves.

The worldview of the apostles was formed within Judaism, which rejects necromancy as forbidden in Deuteronomy 18 and considers contact with graves a source of ritual uncleanness, as in Numbers 19. The Old Testament condemns the building of shrines at tombs, such as in 2 Kings 23. The dead were never consulted for spiritual aid. None of these Jewish practices include tomb-veneration, prayers to the dead, or sacred spaces built on top of graves. In contrast, Roman culture was built around ancestor worship, tomb-feasts, temples raised over graves, the veneration of dead emperors, and funerary cults used to maintain civic unity. When Christianity moved into Roman society, it was Roman culture; not apostolic tradition; that shaped these practices.

The historical timeline makes this unmistakably clear. From AD 30 to 100, during the apostolic era, there were no shrines, no prayers to martyrs, no grave-feasts, no relic veneration, no pilgrimages, no altars on tombs, and no canonization. In the late second century, the first hints of tomb remembrance appear with Polycarp. In the third century, grave-meals and tomb gatherings appear, along with the earliest attempts by some Christians to ask martyrs for help. In the fourth century, basilicas are built over tombs, relics are placed beneath altars, pilgrimages become widespread, and prayers to saints become normal. In the tenth to twelfth centuries, formal canonization rites develop, closely mirroring Roman apotheosis in structure and social function.

Every major feature of later saint-veneration has a Roman parallel: annual death festivals, tomb-feasts, shrines over graves, relics treated as sources of sacred power, rituals surrounding the dead, processions through the city, formal declarations elevating certain people after death, elaborate funerals, and pilgrimages to graves. None of these appear in the apostolic era, but all of them appear in Roman religion long before Christianity and enter Christian practice only as the church becomes culturally Roman.

Apostolic Christianity, as described in Scripture and the earliest Christian writings, was marked by simplicity, worship in homes, prayer directed to God through Christ (not to a statue of Mary animated by deceiving spirits for occult purposes, nor bowing to a pope as though he were a god), avoidance of necromancy and grave-cults, and strict monotheism that exalted only the living God. It did not practice the veneration of the dead, the construction of shrines over graves, the invocation of saints, canonization, or relic-centered worship. These practices arose later, shaped by Roman culture and funerary tradition; not by the apostles, not by Jesus, and not by the earliest Christian communities.

If Peter was crucified under Rome and Paul was beheaded by Nero, how did later bishops of Rome come to receive funerals, rituals, monuments, and veneration that look remarkably like the deification of emperors? The answer is not theological but historical: Christianity in Rome absorbed Roman religious forms. What developed was not apostolic succession in the biblical sense, but a Christianized version of Roman apotheosis, the ancient ritual by which emperors became gods.

Roman apotheosis involved a highly structured transformation of a dead ruler into a divine protector. When an emperor died, the body was displayed in imperial robes. A wax effigy was placed on a couch. Incense, candles, and processions filled the streets. A temple-shaped pyre was built. An eagle was released to symbolize the emperor’s ascent to the divine realm. A priest, the flamen, was appointed to oversee the emperor’s cult. A feast day was created in his honor, and often a temple was built over his tomb. The entire ritual expressed the Roman belief that the illustrious dead could protect the living.

Papal elevation mirrors these same structures. When a pope dies, his body lies in state for public veneration. Incense, candles, and processions accompany the body. He is displayed like a king, robed and enthroned. Special death-verification rites take place, including the silver hammer ceremony (how is this not witchcraft?). Nine days of ritual Masses follow, known as the novendiales. The pope is buried in a basilica, often beneath an altar. His tomb becomes a site of pilgrimage. His memory is celebrated on feast days. The church assigns prayers to him as an intercessor. A formal process exists under papal authority to elevate others to the status of “saints.” Structurally, this is the Roman apotheosis system expressed in Christian vocabulary.

This development cannot be apostolic, and Peter and Paul are the clearest proof. Peter was executed as a criminal, traditionally crucified upside down. He was not laid in state, not embalmed, not enthroned, and not buried beneath a shrine. Paul was beheaded under Nero. There was no procession, no relic cult, no canonization, and no imperial honor. If apostolic succession were faithful to apostolic example, their successors would resemble them. Instead, popes sit on thrones, wear imperial robes, receive ceremonial funerals modeled on Roman state rituals, are buried beneath monumental basilicas, have their bodies embalmed and displayed, and receive veneration at their tombs. This resembles the religion of emperors, not the ministry of fishermen and tentmakers.

Why are popes buried under altars when Peter was hanged on a cross? Because Constantine continued the Roman practice of building temples over the tombs of heroes. In pagan Rome, Aeneas had a hero-shrine, Romulus had a temple, and the Caesars had mausoleums and apotheosis temples. Constantine built St. Peter’s Basilica directly above the grave believed to be Peter’s. From that moment onward, basilicas in Rome were deliberately built over tombs, just as Roman temples had been. This was architectural continuity with pagan Rome, not an apostolic practice.

More than 148 popes have been buried under "St. Peter’s" Basilica alone, either originally or by translation. Dozens more lie in St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and many other Roman churches or catacombs. Altogether, more than 200 popes lie beneath basilicas or adjacent tombs. Their remains include embalmed organs, reconstructed skeletons, wax-covered faces, bodies claimed to be incorrupt, and displayed mummified remains. These practices resemble ancient funerary cults, not the simplicity of apostolic burial.

The rites performed on popes are occult in nature. The word “occult” simply means hidden rituals involving death, spirits, or supernatural symbolism. Several papal rituals fall directly into this category. The silver hammer ritual, in which the Camerlengo historically struck the pope’s head three times while calling his baptismal name, is a symbolic rite with no foundation in Scripture. The sealing of papal chambers and destruction of the Fisherman’s Ring are ritual actions intended to close spiritual authority and prevent misuse. Embalming and ritual preparation of the body reflect ancient cultic burial practices. The nine-day novendiales ceremonies directly parallel the nine-day mourning rites of Roman emperors. The enshrinement of popes in basilica crypts mimics Roman sacred tombs, where emperor cults were maintained. If the apostles witnessed these practices, they would not recognize them as the faith of Christ but as the very Roman customs they died resisting.

If Peter could not canonize the dead, why can popes? Peter never canonized anyone. The apostles never declared a deceased believer to be a saint by decree, never instituted feast days, never created liturgical cults around tombs, never distributed relics, never built altars over graves, and never invoked departed believers for intercession. Canonization as an official act begins only in the tenth century, more than nine hundred years after Peter. If apostolic succession means preserving apostolic teaching and practice, popes should not exercise powers the apostles never claimed. Canonization is not apostolic succession but ecclesiastical invention.

Why do popes sit on thrones while Paul was beheaded? Because Rome transferred imperial symbols to the bishop of Rome. The papal throne replaced the emperor’s throne. The Lateran Palace replaced imperial residences. Papal coronations replaced imperial coronations. Papal funerals replaced imperial funerals. The papacy adopted the role of a Christian emperor system rather than an apostolic shepherding model. Peter died like a criminal. Paul died like a criminal. Their successors sit enthroned, are carried on platforms, receive homage, and are buried like deified rulers. This reflects continuity with Roman political religion, not with Scripture.

Why are popes treated like gods? Because, functionally, the papacy inherited the emperor’s residence, the emperor’s clothing, the emperor’s funerary rites, the emperor’s authority, the emperor’s title of Pontifex Maximus, the emperor’s sacred tomb tradition, and the emperor’s ritualized cult of memory. In Rome, emperors were venerated as divine protectors; in Catholic tradition, saints and popes take on similar roles. This is not an accusation but a historical and anthropological reality.

The apostolic church was simple, Jewish in worldview, home-based, strictly monotheistic, opposed to necromancy, and entirely uninterested in cults of the dead. What emerged later was Roman in structure, monumental, ritualized, funerary, hierarchical, and patterned on emperor worship. Peter was crucified. Paul was beheaded. Neither was enthroned, embalmed, or placed under altars. Popes are. This is not apostolic Christianity but Christianized Rome—the continuation of apotheosis in a new religious form.

Why do Jesuits like Athanasius Kircher bolster the papal throne; Kircher himself dedicating an Egyptian obelisk to Ferdinand III of the Habsburgs; while writing in Latin, under papal authority, that he held rank within the Teutonic Order? And why does this matter? Because the Teutonic Knights traced elements of their heritage back to the Knights Templar tradition, a tradition long accused of preserving occult rites linked to the goat-god of Mendes and the Osiris cult; symbols of the underworld whose phallic obelisks now stand in the Vatican, Paris, London, and Washington D.C.

And why, in the United States, is the Capitol dome crowned with the fresco titled The Apotheosis of George Washington, while the Great Seal declares Novus Ordo Seclorum; “the new order of the ages”; on the back of the dollar bill?

In a previous blog post we also discussed the Requerimiento; the 1513 Spanish document used to justify taking the lands of Indigenous peoples. It claimed that because the pope supposedly inherited Peter’s authority through an unbroken line of successors, he possessed the right to grant entire continents to the Spanish crown. But this premise was false. The notion of an unbroken line of popes stretching back to Peter is a historical fabrication, already disproven by the first major schism, and later upheld through forged documents.

See The Pseudo-Isidorean Decretals (False Decretals)

The Requerimiento rested on the same kind of deception as the forged Donation of Constantine: a false assertion of papal authority used to legitimize conquest.

See further reading on the Requerimiento

https://www.rebuildspirit.com/post/isn-t-it-time-we-re-examined-the-authority-we-ve-trusted-with-our-souls