Part
4 of 11
The
Greatest Corrupting Influence Upon Christianity
Please note that the
glorious grace gospel Bible verses
I’ve cited in the previous installment are all taken from Paul’s
epistles. Then after reading the good news these verses declare, one might
ask;
How
could one quarrel with these clearly unambiguous words from the Apostle
Paul?
Then
also, how could the Christian church grow into opposition to or compromise
of Paul’s glorious grace gospel
message of salvation and relationship with God by grace ALONE through
faith…ALONE in Christ ALONE?
Let’s
now look at where, when, and how
the greatest corruption of the Apostle Paul’s simple grace
gospel message occurred. How did it become so murky and obscured
from view in the church-at-large?
Here
is how the established church became corrupted… the
fact is that church has largely set aside the truth of Paul’s “grace
gospel” in favor of establishing
and maintaining various degrees of “the Law” and religious authority
by a hierarchical, and sometimes mediatorial, clergy system.
During
the first few centuries in this age of grace,
Satan opposed and attacked the Lord’s people, work, and Paul’s grace
message outright, through persecution.
But then,
in 313AD, Satan took a new tactic, he worked
by his “seducing
spirits” (1Tim 4:1)
to
have Christianity legalized under the auspices the corrupt Roman
Emperor, “Constantine
the Great.”
The
result of
Constantine
’s influence has worked to obscure, corrupt and undermine the
elements of
Paul’s simple grace message, even to this day. Many today are
robbed of hearing Paul’s pure simple grace
gospel message and of its full potency to save and bless their lives
with rest, peace, and security!
Wikipedia:
“…
CONSTANTINE’S ENDORSEMENT OF THE
(CHRISTIAN) TRADITION was a TURNING
POINT FOR CHRISTIANITY.
In
313, Constantine and Licinius
issued the Edict
of Milan legalizing
Christian worship. The emperor became a great patron of the Church and
SET A PRECEDENT FOR THE POSITION
OF THE CHRISTIAN EMPEROR WITHIN THE Church and the notion of orthodoxy,
Christendom,
and ecumenical
councils that would be
followed for centuries AS ‘THE
STATE
CHURCH OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.’”
The
Roman Church in the day of the Reformers of the 16th century
still heavily bore the marks of
Constantine
’s 4th century “State
Church of the Roman Empire.”
The “Five Solas” of the Reformers summarized their
basic Biblical theological truths and beliefs that were in stark
contradistinction with
the teachings of the Roman
Catholic Church of their day.
Constantine
had
adopted Christianity in order to unify the vast
Roman Empire
at that fractious time in the Empire. Thereby,
the once underground Christian church was usurped and became a branch of “the
state church of the
Roman Empire
.” The church became a hierarchical
religious mediatorial institution organized within the confines
of the Imperial Roman Empire. This is how Christianity, at
least in name, ultimately came
to be the
Rome
’s catholic (empire-wide or universal) authorized religion.
The
Roman Empire
formerly was pagan and it yet remained pagan. To his dying day
Constantine
still functioned as the high priest of paganism by retaining the pagan
title “Pontifex Maximus,” (Latin, “greatest
pontiff”) as chief of pagan priests. The
Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church says in
the fifteenth century, after the Roman Empire had long ceased to exist,
“Pontifex Maximus” became the honorific title for the Roman Pope as
the high priest of the
College
of
Pontiffs
(Collegium Pontificum) in ancient
Rome
.
During his
reign,
Constantine
established the precedent of his Imperial involvement in all matters of
the Christian faith. By the end of the 4th century a later Roman Emperor, Theodosius,
had established Christian doctrine as the
Roman state’s
official religion, the details of which would be
formalized by the first
seven Ecumenical Councils. The Emperor himself came to be seen
as the church’s defender and leader, along with the bishops.
After
Rome
’s fall in 476AD, the Roman church continued as the surviving part of
the
Roman Empire
, then still claiming the Empire’s endorsement toward its identity
throughout the middle-ages.
With
Constantine
’s acceptance, the genuine Christian church emerged from being
“underground,” becoming the
Roman Empire
’s sole authorized religion. The
essentially “nameless” underground Christian church had previously
been a relatively pure expression of the genuine
living “church, which is the
body of Christ.” But then
Constantine
’s pagan influence came to be seen
everywhere.
Consider these
below as just a few examples.
·
The
Sun God: “Sol
Invictus” (“Invincible Sun”) was
the official sun
god of
Roman Empire
.
Constantine
decreed that Sunday
would be the day of rest – as a legal holiday. His intention is doing so
was to honor the god Mithras; “the Unconquered Sun.”
Excavations at
St Peters
in the
Vatican
uncovered a mosaic of Christ in a mausoleum
as the “Unconquered Sun.” By contrast, under Paul’s gospel of grace
for today there are no Sabbaths
or holy days, special
diets and the like (
Col
2:16).
·
“Church
of the Apostles” in
Constantinople
: When Constantine
built this church in 330AD; he included twelve monuments to the twelve
Apostles surrounding a single tomb for himself as the thirteenth and
“chief apostle.” (http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/istanbul-church-of-holy-apostles.htm)
·
Sacred
Objects and Places:
Constantine
borrowed from the pagans (not the Jews) the
notion of the sacredness of objects and places. Graven images are
Biblically forbidden. Largely due to his influence, relic
mongering became common in the church. By the 4th century some church
leaders of that day spoke out against this as “a
heathen observance introduced to the church under the cloak of religion…
the work of idolaters.”
Constantine
’s mother, Helena, was most noted for her obsession with relics. In
327AD she made a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem
, where she reportedly found the cross and nails used to crucify Jesus.
Constantine
promoted the idea that the bits of wood that came from the cross possessed
spiritual powers. Obviously the pagan magical mind was at work in Emperor
Constantine. I’ve visited Roman churches where relics of bone, etc.
abound in glass cases.
·
Holy
Sites:
Constantine
is also noted for bringing to the Christian faith the idea of the holy
site, which was based upon the pagan shrines. Because of the aura
of “sacredness” that the fourth century Christians had attached to
Palestine
, it had become known as “the
Holy Land
” by the sixth century.
·
Constantine
Declared Divine: The Roman Senate
declared
Constantine
to be a pagan god at his death and no one stopped them from doing so.
·
Constantine
’s
Building Program:
Constantine
began erecting church buildings worthy of an
Emperor throughout the Empire at public expense. He named these after
“saints” – just as the pagans named their temples after their gods.
He built these over supposed burial sites of the dead saints and these
were considered “holy
spaces.”
·
Necromancy:
The largest church buildings were
built over tombs of martyrs. This practice was based upon the idea that
the martyrs had the same powers that were once ascribed to the gods of
paganism. The church’s practice of prayer to dead saints comes from the
pagan practice of communication with the dead. This is called
“necromancy,” which is forbidden in Deuteronomy 18:11, along with
witchcraft. Those who pray to saints or family members and claim to hear
them are actually speaking with demonic
spirits – that’s why it’s forbidden.
Many
of the Roman
Church’s teachings and practices were then and still today
are a mixture of the Empire’s paganism
mixed with some Biblical truth. There is come truth is seen in the
first Nicene Creed, adopted by the church in 325AD. Yet,
Constantine
essentially remade the church of this corrupted mixture, distorting the
truth. Whenever we have some truth while our doctrine
and/or practice are corrupt, it serves to bury or obliterate the TRUTH.
This is why standing on the absolutes
of the “Five Solas” is
so important. We stand upon 1)
The Scripture ALONE, which tells us of 2) God’s salvation by
Grace ALONE, 3) through Faith ALONE, 4) in Christ ALONE,
giving expression to 5) the
Glory of God ALONE, now
and hereafter.
Thus
the usurped church became established as a branch of the
Roman Empire
, having the full might of the Empire. Being such, it then became
fashionable to be a Christian, at least in name only. Thousands of
unsaved Roman pagans then became baptized and started calling themselves
“Christians.” Did water baptism save them and make them true
Christians? Certainly not! The rite of Water Baptism actually belongs to
Israel
, not “the church, which is the
body of Christ.” Thus “the state church of the
Roman Empire
” had gained in numbers while the quality of most of its supposed
devotees was still pagan, unchanged. A multitude of hypocrites and
pretenders entered “the church.” There was a massive growth in numbers
but no growth in genuine purity of
faith. The church became more and more worldly and corrupt.
Today, both the Eastern
Orthodox Church (of Constantinople, Greek,
“Constantine’s–polis,” city), and the Roman
Catholic Church still claim to be the historical continuations
of Constantine’s Roman Church. They refer to Emperor Constantine
as “Saint Constantine the Great.”
Constantine
moved the capital of the Roman Empire to
Constantinople in AD 330, ancient
Byzantium
; now called
Istanbul
,
Turkey
).
The genuine underground church in its early
years, before
Constantine
, had stayed mostly pure because it
had cost something to be
a Christian at that time. Often it had meant suffering and
persecution. Genuine Christian believers weren’t popular in the world.
Persecution actually serves to purify and strengthen the faith of genuine
believers. These early Christians under
Rome
’s domination had suffered persecutions because they refused to worship
the pagan Roman
gods or to pay homage to the Roman Emperor
as being divine. But then in
Constantine
’s day it did NOT
cost anything to be a Christian. In fact it then was to an advantage
to be called a Christian, it was politically correct.
Similarly today in the
USA
, it is still relatively safe to be called a Christian because visible
Christianity has become quite mixed with the world in money, power, pomp
and splendor. There’s little persecution and cost. But if you express
your loyalty to the Word of God
and Christ ALONE as God
and Savior, in some circles your acceptance likely will be diminished
or you may be belittled among them as a religious zealot or kook.
There is a day coming when the governments
of the earth will require everyone to take “the
mark of the Beast (the Antichrist)” of the Book of Revelation in
order to “be able to buy or
sell.” Do you think it then will be obvious who the genuine
believers at that time are and are not?
Before
Constantine
, the Church had been persecuted but strong and independent of
Roman
State
’s power. They had Paul’s
letters to establish the correct doctrinal elements of “the faith” and
practice in the local assembly in this age of grace. But when the church
encountered the supposed “kindness” of
Constantine
’s acceptance, a “worldly spirit” entered the Church. Seemingly
blinded to the consequences, the church
accepted the olive branch and offer of sharing
power. They perhaps saw the gesture as a well deserved
God-ordained reward for their faithfulness. Thus the church drank the
venom of money and worldly power, allowing it to be controlled by
Constantine, an individual who lacked genuine Christian virtue. This
allowed “the faith” to be mixed with pagan practice, ceremony, and
ritual. The church had outwardly merged with the pagan
Roman
State
. Instead of keeping “the faith” that had been persevered regardless
of its difficult times, the church was now made part of the corrupt
culture of the
Roman Empire
.
Today, being regarded as
“spiritual” and having a nameless god as with the “Oprah’s
style” of spirituality, is fine with the world, but, serious belief in
and fidelity to “Jesus Christ” is considered too narrow. I say they
claim a “nameless god” because these liberal spiritualists generally
speak of “whatever your god is”
or “your higher power,” never
testifying to or naming the name of “Jesus Christ,” by whom only we
may be saved
“Neither
is there SALVATION IN any other: for THERE IS NONE OTHER NAME (THAN
JESUS) UNDER HEAVEN GIVEN AMONG MEN, WHEREBY WE MUST BE SAVED.”
(Acts 4:12)
“For
many deceivers are entered into the world, (those)
WHO CONFESS NOT THAT JESUS (the) CHRIST (Messiah) IS
COME IN THE FLESH. THIS IS A DECEIVER AND AN ANTICHRIST.
(2
John 1:7)
Thus
we have recounted the sad history of the greatest and most toxic pollution
of Paul’s “gospel of the grace
of God.”