Constantine's reign as Roman emperor (A.D. 306-337) dramatically changed the direction of Christianity, though in ways far different from those portrayed in The Da Vinci Code. This grew out of his strategy for unifying his empire by creating a "catholic"�meaning universal �church that would blend elements from many religions into one.
While Constantine supposedly converted to Christianity in 312, he wasn't baptized until on his deathbed 25 years later. In the intervening years he had his wife and eldest son murdered, and from all appearances he continued as a worshipper of the sun god. Long after his supposed conversion he had coins minted with a portrait of himself on one side and a depiction of his "companion, the unconquered Sol [sun]" on the other.
The "Christianity" Constantine endorsed was already considerably different from that practiced by Jesus Christ and the apostles. The emperor accelerated the change by his own hatred of Jews and religious practices he considered Jewish.
For example, at the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325), church authorities essentially replaced the biblical Passover with Easter, a popular holiday rooted in ancient springtime fertility celebrations. Endorsing this change, Constantine announced: "It appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast [Easter] we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul . . . Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd" (Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3, 18-19, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1979, second series, Vol. 1, pp. 524-525).
Constantine's affection for sun worship had earlier led him to endorse Sunday, the first day of the week and a day dedicated to honoring the sun, as a weekly day of rest in the Roman empire . This created considerable hardship on those Jews and true Christians who continued to keep the biblical Sabbath on the seventh day of the week. (A century later the Council of Laodicea would essentially outlaw Sabbath-keeping and Christian observance of the biblical Holy Days.)
British historian Paul Johnson summarizes how Constantine's approach of merging religious practices produced a corrupted Christianity that meshed paganism with biblical elements: "Thus the followers of Isis adored a madonna nursing her holy child; the cult of Attis and Cybele celebrated a day of blood and fasting, followed by the Hilaria resurrection-feast . . . the elitist Mithraics, many of whom were senior army officers, ate a sacred meal ...
"Many Christians did not make a clear distinction between this sun-cult [Mithraism] and their own. They . . . held their services on Sunday, knelt towards the East and had their nativity-feast on 25 December, the birthday of the sun at the winter solstice ...
"How could the Christian Church, apparently quite willingly, accommodate this weird megalomaniac [Constantine] in its theocratic system? Was there a conscious bargain? Which side benefited most from this unseemly marriage between Church and State? ... Did the empire surrender to Christianity, or did Christianity prostitute itself to the empire?" ( A History of Christianity, 1976, pp. 67-69).
When we consider the vast differences between the mainstream Christianity of today and the original Christianity of Jesus Christ and the apostles, we can trace much of that change to Constantine and the religious system he put in power....Striving to get back to the faith once delivered to the saints!
I like this post beefcake. I have read some of the documents regarding the "conversion" of the Jews to Christianity or Catholicism and the fact that they were forced to deny all of their Jewish beliefs and abandon all Jewish traditions and they had to sign a document stating they did so and then they were baptized into the Church. This persecution of Jews and Sabbath keeping Christians continued through the Inquisition for over 500 years and was finally stopped when Napoleon conquered Italy and captured the Pope and took him back to France. When Napoleon released the Pope he only allowed him to have The Vatican City and not all of Italy.
I have read a document that is a statement of the Constantine Church that says "we have changed the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday, not by the authority of Scripture, but by our own authority"
Not only did this church of Constantine give us Easter but they also gave us Communion which is equally pagan and unbiblical.
Can you point to any document...book...Anything that even implies that Holy Communion was started by Constantine?
Constantine only converted because of the vision God gave him and his subsecuent victory. It was his mother that was the "closet' Christian and the major influence on him.
Yes, The Church was constantly bickering and having to put out little fires everywhere.
As for using pagan sites and dates -- where better to construct a church than on a pagan site or a pagan worship date?
The ring we wear on our finger as a symbol of marriage is pagan. Constantine did not incorporate various religions into one. On the contary...the Bishops smashed anything that was contary to the Full Deposit of Faith Given to The Church by Christ. Perhaps with too much zeal and an Iron Fist yet there was no doubt in their minds that Christianty would survive and not flounder.
We can find fault in their methods and The Church has made many...many mistakes, But -- She has not changed or added anything to what was Given Her! And Christ's Promise that she will be here when He Returns has held true.
You cite books written by detractors as Gospel and there are some here who will read it as such. For every book you cite...I can cite dozens -- written by men that were taught either by the Apostles themselves or a generation or two removed. These men were Doctors of The Church. Some died as Martyrs. They didn't need to take classes on reading Greek or needed to have someone "interpret" Scripture for them. They "KNEW" what was meant because The Church KNEW.
There was no confusion on what Scripture meant. It was only the Mysteries of Christ that would bring about discussions as to Why or How and eventually The Church would have a Council to Define whatever was being argued.
My Brothers and Sisters...we are children "playing" as Adults. We refuse to except any Authority and we use our Higher Intellect to rationalize and justify. For 1500 years there was just One Authority. Now we have over 30,000 different authorites...more if you count the "Individuals" that will "prove" you wrong.
This is not the way God intended His Plan of Salvation to go...spinning like a top through time...being yanked here and there by man!
Christ started a Real physical Church and gave Her (His Bride) The Holy Spirit (to ensure She would not change or add to His Teachings) and Christ Promised that she would ENDURE to the End of Time.
Think about what would happen in this world if we Christians would stop bickering and truly pray with one Voice! Move as One! Vote as One!
I believe that was Christ's last prayer to His Father...that we be One as he is One with The Father.
Please don't take offense. As beefcake has said this can be easily researched on the internet. My intent is to worship and serve God as He intended me to amd not as the Church is telling me to. There is not Scriptural basis for Communion and it was created by the Catholic, or Constantine, Church. Even the documents of the Catholics in the Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledge that there is no such command from Jesus to practice Communion but that it was implied at the Passover known as the Lord's Supper, Last Supper or whatever other nonbiblical term might be assigned to it.
My point is that the early church did not practice it and it is blatantly evident by proper research that it is an adaptation of sun worship as is much of the symbolism in the Catholic Mass. What's more, there is no evidence that I could find of it in Church history prior to 1,000 a.d. and it is merely assumed that it may have been practiced in various forms.
I do not mean to imply that it is wrong or a sin to practice the traditional sacraments of the Church. I am merely stating that there is no basis for it in the Bible. I intend to worship God with the purest intent as He has desired to be worshiped and therefore I don't practice certain traditions that cannot be substantiated by Scripture. By no means do I intend to impose my practices or the reason for them onto other Christians. My intent is simply to inform them and perhaps introduce them to a concept with which they are not familiar in the hopes that they will search it out and decide for themselves.
I will also strongly state that I do not intend to offend Catholic Believers or their beliefs regarding Holy Communion.
Thunder: My point is that the early church did not practice it and it is blatantly evident by proper research that it is an adaptation of sun worship as is much of the symbolism in the Catholic Mass. What's more, there is no evidence that I could find of it in Church history prior to 1,000 a.d. and it is merely assumed that it may have been practiced in various forms.
I am sorry, brother. I usually agree with your posts, but this one is way off. It was being practiced, rather poorly, by the early church at Corinth. Do we need to look back at Pauls letter taking them to task for their behavior and telling them how it was to be done?
The Lord Jesus Himself said, This, as often as you do, do in remembrance of Me. Who could ignore that plea?Especially among us that know what He was preparing Himself for?
Give me a few days to put together some Scriptural References and also what The Early Church wrote. As for the Internet -- I would not trust everything I read on the internet, unless I knew the source had "hardcopies" of valid originals.
The Church at Corinth (I think) was admonished by Paul for "eating of The Lord's Supper" (Holy Communion) incorrectly. Christ prayed to His Father at The Last Supper and Instituted this Sacrament (This is mY BODY..this is MY BLOOD). "If you do not EAT of my FLESH and Drink of MY BLOOD...you have No Life in you..."
Even Scripture itself tells us that if everything Christ said and did was written down "...The World could not hold the books." Are we to disregard what Christ said and did just because it was not written down? Scripture is The Written Revelation from God. Are we to ignore The Oral Revelation from Jesus Christ that has been passed down through history by Trustworthy Elders and Vouchsafed by The Holy Spirit?
Satan looks for any crack to pry a wedge in God's Church. He has found many and has placed many wedges in Her. Let's work on becoming One Church again...as it was for over 1500 years.
I do not believe the Lord's Supper is Communion. There is no evidence that it is. This was likely a fellowship meal but I am sure the early Christians did not call Communion the Lord's Supper because they did not practice Communion.
What's more, if you have experienced Pasach, as I have every year for the last 12 years, you would understand that there is a very specific piece of bread in the Sader that is broken that Jesus was breaking when he said "this is my body" and there is a very specific cup of wine, of the four in the service, that he would have said "this cup" about and it is the Cup of Redemption. The disciples would have known that he was saying that this piece of bread has always and now does represent his broken body and that the Cup of Redemption is representative of a new Covenant of redemption in his blood. They never would have thought that Jesus was instituting a new sacrament. What's more he told them to eat that piece of bread and the Cup of Redemption in remembrance of Him. Up to that time they had been eating the bread and drinking the cup looking forward to him. All of the feasts of the Jews are prophetic and typical of Jesus the Messiah.
As I have said, the only place the Bible says that Jesus instituted Communion is in the marginal notes. My whole point here is that the Church has sold this story so well that most Christians can't separate the Truth of the Word form the lies of the men that instituted Communion.
If you read the Catholic Encyclopedia you will have the evidence of what I am talking about. The links in my previous post are both from that book.
By the way Arch, I understand you are Catholic so I'm asking you not to take my posts here personally. I have nothing against Catholics but I do have some issues with their doctrines and practices. I ave issues with many of the Churches practices and doctrines. :winksmile: It is nothing personal. I think you are a good Theologian and I enjoy the conversations we have here. We are brothers in Christ where the rubber meats the road.
I'll stay out of this one for the most part, I promise! But I do think that, whatever you call it, the last supper is supposed to be observed in it's entirety. Like Leon pointed out, Paul took the time to explain how to do it properly, so they must have been doing it. I'll have to agree with Thunder though...it has been mixed with a load of pagan symbolism...and possibly "overdone".
