March 2, 2008

 

The “marriage” of church and state under Constantine-

 

1. Circumstances of the persecution of Christians generally came to an end with the Edict of Toleration 311, followed by the Edict of Milan in 313 providing legal

recognition and protection of the professing church.  But “liberty” was not so easy, with conformity to the state-church under Constantine quickly developing with the exclusion of any sects or heresies.  While much of the Roman

empire had some aspect of Christianity, much of it was moving far from the

NT descriptions—distinguishing Christian from pagan was now in name only.

 

2.  Constantine (274-337) was emperor and was faced with disintegration of

his empire and the onslaught of a variety of violent and pagan hordes from

the north.  He claimed a military victory was due to his having seen a “cross” in the sky with the words “in this conquer”.  Philip Schaff says the following of him,

“…was the first representative of the imposing idea of a Christian theocracy,

or of that system of policy which assumes all subjects to be Christians, connects

civil and religious rights, and regards church and state as two arms of one and

the same divine government on earth.”

   Constantine was a brilliant, decisive leader who used the Christian faith as

a tool to organize his empire, all the while personally practicing paganism.  He was not even baptized until his death bed.  He had a caesaropapcy = state

domination of the professing church.  Many pagans adopted Christian language

and practices without any genuine experience of the new birth—it was widely

done among invading tribes from the north in order to achieve unity with

Constantine.

 

3. Eusebius, the historian-propagandist, writes in the most glowing terms of Constantine as a spiritual man all while Constantine was responsible for numerous murders of family members.  He also founded the city of

Constantinople in 330, obviously naming it after himself.

 

4. Following Constantine would be Emperor Julian (called the Apostate)

a fanatical and scheming man who loved paganism and hated Christianity.

He used his influence attempting to destroy any appeal the Christian faith

had toward his empire.  His death brought celebration from Christians.

 

The Council of Nicea in 325

1. Called by Constantine to eliminate contentions & divisions among churches over the deity of Christ, over 318 bishops gathered in Nicea of Bithynia.

 

2. In attendance were such notables as Eusebius and Hosius who were strongly connected politically to Constantine; also, Athanasius, a gifted teacher on the Trinity and Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, Egypt.  The discussion revolved around the Son’s relationship to the Father.  As a result, doctrinal creed was produced that expressed God as One in Essence, yet three in Person, all equally sharing attributes of true deity in an undivided and indivisible whole.  The full

humanity and deity of Jesus was strongly affirmed.

 

3. The council was divided into 3 groups:

 the orthodox party, which firmly held to the deity of Christ

 the Arian group, which diminished the deity of Christ

 the majority of others who took a middle of the road approach, but leaned

   toward the orthodox position

 

4. Under the influence of the Arians, Constantine wound up banishing Athanasius, who led the orthodox group.  Later defenders of the Nicean

Creed included Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianus, Gregory of Nysaa.