Chapter 6. The Constantine Bridge. When the idea to build the Brooklyn Bridge across the East River from Brooklyn, New York to Long Island was first conceived, it was met with great skepticism and criticism. One of the greatest obstacles mentioned was the perceived impossibility of laying the foundation towers down into the bedrock under the East River. For millennia, silt and clay had been deposited there, making it nearly impossible to sink a foundation to the rock.
To defy the odds, the engineers completed the task by creating a special diving bell equipped with a scooping device that permitted the divers to dig up the silt and clay deep from the river bottom. This allowed them slowly and painfully to reach the bedrock beneath. Unfortunately, diving to these depths unveiled many mysterious and previously unknown complications for divers. Many of them suffered severe compression sickness, resulting in cramping, paralysis, and even death. Even Washington A.
Roebling, the chief architect, died of complications he contracted from the unforgiving power and pressure of the deep. For me, bridging the chasm between the early Church and the modern age seemed just as perilous. The bedrock of doctrines that I found beneath centuries of denominational silt and clay completely altered my life.
But as I searched for an explanation of how the Church got to where it was in the fifth century, I quickly discovered that a single man, Constantine, had made a tremendous impact on what I was calling the Church.
I discovered that regardless of whether historians see Constantine as a benefactor or a spoiler, all of them agree that the bridge spanning the chasm between the persecuted Church of the first century and the powerful Church of the fifth century rests its foundation towers on the influence of the Emperor Constantine. Without a doubt, Constantine ushered in changes that drastically altered the theology, practice, and political standing of the Church.
These alterations have endured to the practice of the modern Church today. Background. Near the end of the third century, the Church was experiencing a bit of relief from persecution. Christianity was gaining ground, experiencing widespread conversions, reaching even to the Emperor's own family. For a moment, it seemed safe to be a Christian.
Diocletian had become Emperor and, gifted with a mind for strategy and logistics, he reorganized the Roman Empire into four sections, each run by a separate governing Emperor with himself in the head position. For a while, his plans brought in a greater Roman peace and prosperity. For the Christians, however, the peace was very brief, and the times of testing soon returned.
In AD 295, Galerius, one of Diocletian's four new governing Emperors, saw to it that a group of Christians be executed for refusing to join the army. Another group of new converts soon followed them, condemned to death for trying to leave the army. Galerius came against the Church in his geographical area. Eventually, he was influential in convincing Diocletian that the Christians could not be trusted to be loyal in any part of the empire and should therefore be looked on as a threat.
By AD 303, this influence led to an empire-wide edict pronounced against the spread and practice of Christianity. With these new laws in place, compounded by a few natural catastrophes, which were conveniently blamed on the Christians, the flames of persecution reached an all-time high. Christians were tortured in an attempt to force them to renounce the faith, surrender holy writings, and worship false gods. Diocletian Persecution.
All across the empire, the scenes multiplied of courageous, unmovable Christians who refused to cast a pinch of incense into a flickering flame as homage to an idol. For their punishment, they were sentenced to execution by flame and wild beasts. Instead of bowing to false gods, their bodies became fuel for a living sacrifice offered up to the true God of heaven. Many heroes and martyrs for Christ emerged during this persecution. Unfortunately, however, not everyone persisted to the end.
After a period of toleration and ease in the empire, the Church had grown somewhat lax. When the purifying fires of persecution hit, many, even a large number from the ministry, compromised by turning over sacred copies of the scriptures. Some even sacrificed to idols. Through it all, the Church came into the fourth century limping, dragging theological and political baggage with them. Predictably, Diocletian's quadrilateral plan to strengthen the empire did just the opposite.
It caused rivalries that led to civil wars. In AD 304, Diocletian became sick, and by AD 305, Galerius took over his section of the empire, gaining for himself the leading Augustus position. During this time, civil wars battered the kingdom back and forth in political chaos for many years. All along, the persecution of Christians raged on. Soon after Galerius made it to the leading throne, he came down with a painful gastric disease that covered him with ulcers and an innumerable swarm of devouring insects.
Many of the Christians saw this as the judgments of God. Constantine to the Rescue. Onto this tempestuous scene of momentary prosperity, political chaos, and severe religious persecution entered the opportunistic young ruler, Constantine. Seizing on the chaotic nature of the empire, Constantine began to design a plan that would allow him to have the empire as his sole possession. About AD 312, Constantine put his desires into action.
In an attack on the unsuspecting armies of Rome, Constantine led 98,000 soldiers from Gaul (present-day France, Belgium, and western Switzerland) across the Swiss Alps and marched on the capital city. On the way to this battle, Constantine had an experience that would change the world forever. Hockwinds. According to the ancient historian Eusebius, on the day before the battle to take Rome, Constantine reported that he and his men looked up into the sky and saw a vision of a shining cross resting above the sun.
Over the cross was the inscription, "By this conquer." Another ancient historian explained that the cross Constantine saw comprised the first two Greek letters of the name of Christ, X, Chi; and P, Rho. The next day, it is reported that Constantine awoke in a terror when an angel exclaimed to him, "Hockwinds," which translated means, "By this sign, conquer." Astonishingly, Eusebius claimed that this angel was Christ himself.
It is reported that Constantine quickly added this XP symbol to the shields of the soldiers. After all these supposedly supernatural events, Constantine met the Roman army led by Emperor Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge, where Constantine's army defeated the local armies of Rome. During the battle, Maxentius fell into the river and drowned. Eusebius records that after Constantine took the city, he ordered that a statue of himself be erected.
The statue displayed the XP symbol in his right hand, with the inscription beneath, "By this saving sign, the true token of bravery, I have delivered your city from the yoke of the tyrant." The First Seeker-Friendly Church. Once the Emperor became supportive of Christianity, people started coming into the Church in droves. Christianity was becoming more and more publicly acceptable everywhere.
Constantine began rebuilding churches, giving state salaries and tax exemptions to ministers, freeing Christian slaves, and even giving money and new clothes to those who would convert to Christianity. Mass baptisms were conducted all over the empire, and in the matter of just a few years, literally hundreds of thousands of people came into the Church. Instead of seeing these secular favors as dangerous enticements, most Christians of the day gladly received them without question.
Eusebius wrote, "Surely it must seem to all who duly regard these facts that a new and fresh era of existence had begun to appear, and a light heretofore unknown suddenly to dawn from the midst of darkness on the human race; and all must confess that these things were entirely the work of God, who raised up this pious Emperor to withstand the multitude of the ungodly." The more the Church accepted these gifts, the faster the gifts came.
Some ministers were even invited to dine with Constantine in the Emperor's own palace.
Referring to one of these imperial feasts, Eusebius again boasted, "On this occasion, public festivals were celebrated by the people of the provinces everywhere, but the Emperor himself invited and feasted with those ministers of God whom he had reconciled, and thus offered, as it were, through them a suitable sacrifice to God." Not one of the bishops was lacking at the imperial banquet, the circumstances of which were splendid beyond description.
Detachments of the bodyguard and other troops surrounded the entrance of the palace with drawn swords, and through the midst of these, the men of God proceeded without fear into the innermost of the imperial apartments, in which some were the Emperor's own companions at table, while others reclined on couches arranged on either side. One might have thought that a picture of Christ's kingdom was thus shadowed forth, and a dream rather than reality.
But while the bishops and Church leaders were feasting in the imperial court, Constantine was busy restructuring the Church and the world. Pontifex Maximus. Constantine was always very interested in religion. The pagan religion of his ancestors was very important to him, especially Apollo the Sun God. In AD 308, he donated large gifts to the temple of the Sun God and obtained the position as the official high priest of the pagan Sun God, proudly holding the title Pontifex Maximus.
This position made him the supreme head of the doctrine and practice of the pagan religion throughout the Roman Empire. This was convenient for Constantine; it allowed him to govern even the spiritual and emotional infrastructure of his subjects. Having observed the benefit of its influence on the pagans, Constantine naturally stepped in to govern the affairs of the Church as well. Although Christianity was growing rapidly, paganism still continued strong, especially in the higher classes.
Constantine carefully governed both camps by walking a precarious line between paganism and Christianity. As late as AD 320, there were Roman coins minted with pagan gods on one side and the name of Christ on the other. He kept his title as head of the pagan religion until his dying day. Even after his death, the Senate, led by his children, declared him as a new pagan god. Political paranoia.
In spite of the Church's enthusiastic blessing and endorsement in the evil corrupt political arena, Constantine continued his cutthroat opportunist pursuit. Constantine began to see his brother-in-law, Licinius, as an obvious threat. In an easy defeat, Constantine's army overcame his unsuspecting brother-in-law without much of a fight. Momentarily considerate of family loyalties, Constantine then made a solemn vow to his sister Constance that he would spare the life of Licinius, her husband, after the invasion.
However, in AD 325, the very year of the Nicene Council, he broke his vow and had him executed. After this execution, Constantine's paranoia continued, and due to more political suspicions, he eventually had his 11-year-old nephew executed as well. But most tragically, in AD 326, driven nearly crazy by endless jealous surmising, Constantine even had his firstborn son, Crispus, put to death. In his twisted way of thinking, this would prevent any thought of sedition, conspiracy, or a possible future overthrow.
Yet all along, right through the paganism, scandals, and political atrocities, the Church walked hand in hand with Constantine, receiving his gifts, favors, and influence. But what I found even more astounding than the extent of Constantine's physical and monetary influence was the audacious place of leadership and authority that the Church so readily handed to him. Constantine was allowed to govern even some of the most sensitive aspects of Church polity and doctrine. Bishop Constantine.
Once persecution decreased and comforts increased, the Church quickly digressed into substantial parties and divisions, disgracing herself through heated religious debates. When Constantine noticed these divisions, he made it his business to call for a worldwide council of churches to decide various issues. The first of these so-called ecumenical or worldwide councils was held in AD 325 in Nicaea, situated in present-day Turkey. The council was held to settle disputes concerning the nature of Christ.
However, much more than Christology was discussed there. Following the pattern of his Roman predecessor, Diocletian, who had geographically divided up the Roman Empire, Constantine divided the entire Christian Church into four major geographic areas. He appointed an overseeing bishop called a patriarch or a metropolitan to each of these four areas. Local elders and bishops were now to submit their judgments and decisions to these four metropolitan areas.
In addition to these ecclesiastical changes, specific definitions and doctrinal formulas were drawn up with dogmatic resolves. Those who could not totally go along with the new structure were denied their ecclesiastical positions and privileges. National unity was crucial to Constantine. Groups of Christians who refused the new policies were put out.
After the council, Constantine wrote an edict to several of the nonconformists and separatists, calling them "haters of truth." He banished their ministers from office, demanded excommunications, and forbade the nonconformist churches to meet in public or even in private houses. Those who compromised the faith by accepting Constantine saw the king as having a genuine authority within the Church.
Speaking of Constantine's ecclesiastical office, Eusebius wrote, "He assumed, as it were, the functions of a general bishop, constituted by God, and convened synods of his ministers. How the Church could have let a non-baptized king, who still openly practiced pagan rites, have a ruling part in the Church is incomprehensible." The Great Abomination. "All of this really threw me.
I thought, 'If the Church of that early age would compromise like that, then what would happen today in the face of similar temptation?' I didn't want to sound unbalanced or extreme, but it all sounded an awful lot like the 'Great Abomination' prophesied in Revelation 17. In this prophecy, the bride compromises and commits adultery with the kings of the earth. This infidelity thereby produces a defiled hybrid made by joining church and state that eventually grows to persecute the true Church.
John said in his Revelation, "Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, 'Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.' So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: 'Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.' I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement." Now, I've never been a doomsday kind of guy, nor have I ever bought into a bunch of conspiracy theories. I was never one of those guys who had a problem accepting that Elvis was dead or that Neil Armstrong really walked on the moon. I'm not the kind of guy who just buys into everything radical just because it sounds sensational. But all that said, this Constantine stuff scared me. John said that this "whore of Babylon" was the mother of harlots.
That seems to imply that she has spawned harlot daughters after herself. I asked myself, could this mean that a church today, which also adulterates the bride of Christ by joining the Church with the kings of the world, might very well be considered one of her children, a daughter harlot of today? Now, I didn't want to go too far with this and pass blanket condemnations on the modern Church as a whole, but it did make me think. Saint Augustine seemed just to accept the hybrid.
Christianity today recently quoted Augustine referring to the bride of Christ, saying, "The church is a whore, but she's my mother." I understand the point they are trying to make, but I'm not at all comfortable with saying that. Jesus said that he is returning for a pure bride, not a harlot.
After all, John did conclude his warning about the whore of Babylon with the searing cry, "And I heard another voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins and lest you receive of her plagues.
For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.'" Let me say again that I don't feel a need to be the one to pronounce that judgment on any church today or even in times past, but I do feel that according to John's Revelation, at some point in time, Christians are going to need to discern the times and "come out." As for me, when I considered the changes and compromises that took place under Constantine, I couldn't help but think that for the most part, Christians have waited way too
late.
It's not his fault. Overall, looking at all these questionable acts of the Emperor Constantine, I couldn't necessarily put the whole blame on him. After all, it was the bride of Christ, God's people, the Church, that had allowed this spiritual adultery to take place. The things with which Constantine was dealing were spiritual things. They could not be governed, reasoned, or manipulated like the affairs of the state. Constantine never even claimed to be converted until he was on his deathbed.
It was the Church that had willingly traded truth for advantage. After reading the history of this period, I was very sobered. I realized that I could not simply blame others for any of my own ignorance or deception. The Church still will have to answer for compromise and deception today. All the compromises, concessions, and spiritual adulteries that have happened since the time of Constantine are difficult for anyone to ignore.
When I considered the church-state hybrid formed from this union way back then, I was astounded at all the damage that was done. The Kingdom of God. The need for clarity between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of this world was becoming painfully conspicuous to me. I saw that the things of the Kingdom of God could be known and understood only through the illumination of the Holy Spirit. Jesus spoke of his kingdom and salvation to Nicodemus, a leader of the Jewish synagogue.
He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3. What about me? I began to realize it was time for me, personally, to decide what I was going to do with these teachings of Christ and no longer blame my society, my culture, or my upbringing. Of course, the books I originally gathered from the army libraries and the chaplain's office did not include all these results of Constantine's pragmatism or Augustine's rationalism.
Those first books mainly focused on the idea of Christians defending the innocent to bring about a better good. The books all admitted war was evil. Everyone agreed with that. But the just war theory incorporated the idea that although war may indeed be evil, sometimes a lesser evil must be done to bring about the better good. In the books I read, argument after argument was made based on this type of rationalistic thinking.
But now, as I peruse through 1700 years of hindsight, it became obvious that as the Church grew in power, influence, and economic stability, it never again spiritually prospered as it once had in its humble, cross-bearing beginnings. As I continued to search my heart, I began to go beyond the bewilderment of finding out what happened in history to asking why it happened, and then why it continues to happen now. In doing this, God revealed even deeper areas of my life that needed to be turned over to him.