Sunday, 12 June 2022

Christianisation of the Roman Empire (CW107)

  World War 3 is at Hand

Vision of Constantine
    The Christian historian Eusebius Pamphilus, who later became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima, described what happened to Constantine: "He saw with his own eyes in the heavens the Cross arising from the light of the sun, carrying the message 'In Hoc Signo Vincesa' in Latin, meaning 'In This Sign Conquer'. Then in a dream Christ visits Constantine and gives him a battle strategy that helped him win."
   Constantine saw the vision of the Cross arising from the light of the sun and he was to conquer the whole Roman Empire to Christianity with the Gospel of Christ.
    For God to hand the enemies over to Constantine was easy, but to win the Roman Empire to Christ, he must trust Jesus, the Sun of righteousness and the Light of the World.
   To be the light of the world, Christ must have taught him to walk in humility and love in order to win over the trust of the equally powerful Pagan Emperor Licinius of the Eastern Roman Empire and the hearts of the powerful Pagan Roman Senate.
Mat 5:16  "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

Then in a dream Christ visits Constantine and gives him a battle strategy that helped him win.
  In his dream, Jesus must have taught him to set up the council of bishops similar to the council of Apostles and elders of Jerusalem in order to re-establish the Christian's doctrine to reunite the divided churches.

Christianity Legalized
  In 312 A.D, Constantine attributed the victory over his rival Maxentius to the God of the Christians in front of the powerful Pagan Roman Senate.
  On February, 313 AD Constantine in humility with the Pagan Eastern Emperor Licinius obtained the Senate's approval to sign the edict of Milan proclaiming religious tolerance in the Roman Empire thereby removing the persecution of Christians and the return of all confiscated properties.

Heresies facing Constantine
   By the 4th Century A.D, there was little agreement about Christianity's beliefs and teachings, the nature of Jesus and God, what writings were sacred, or even how to worship. There was a wide variety of views, many of which were later declared heresies.

Council of Nicaea
   Immediately after legalising Christianity, he invited 1,800 persecuted bishops from around the empire to provide the basis for a unified Church.  
   The Council of Nicaea in 325 AD with 384 bishops and presided by Bishop Hosius of Cordova made several decisions, including:
1. The Nicene Creed
The council created the Nicene Creed, a statement of faith that affirmed the divinity of Christ. The creed used the Greek term homoousios, which means "of one substance", to declare that Christ was of the same substance as the Father.
2. The date of Easter
The council established a unified date for Easter, which is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. This separated Easter from the Jewish calendar and created a distinctly Christian celebration.
3. Banishment of Arius
The council banished Bishop Arius and his followers, who denied the divinity of Christ and declared their teachings heresy.

Following the Council's advice, Constantine set aside December 25 for Christians to celebrate in unity the birth of Jesus (Christmas), and declared Sunday (the Lord's Day in Rev 1:8) for Christian to worship the Almighty God.
   He was a Saint more than a Conqueror.
 
After his death in 337 A.D, his son Theodosius I in 380 A.D declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

New Testament Books
    The Council of Rome in 382 A.D canonised the present 27 New Testament books (written in Greek) from amongst 50 false Gospels and hundreds of heretic and demonic records, which were all banned.  
  Unfortunately unlearned, heretics and Satan's agents had used and are still using these demonic false books to discredit and blaspheme our Lord Jesus, His Apostles and also His faithful servant Constantine.