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Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ003127S
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00:46 He merged them into an empire that lasted for centuries.
00:56 [Battle sounds.] 01:04 This is his story. A story of romance, intrigue, power 01:09 and conquest. 01:40 The life of Constantine the Great is something of a 01:44 miracle story. It's packed full of amazing coincides, 01:48 the most unlikely outcomes, and astonishing achievements. 01:53 He was born to a peasant girl under a cloud of illegitimacy. 01:57 For the first nine years of his life, nobody knew that his 02:01 real father was the governor of Dalmatia an important province 02:06 of the Roman Empire and a position assigned to people 02:10 of power and influence. 02:11 Not only did Constantine eventually come to know his 02:16 real father because of an unexpected altercation with 02:20 some guests of the stable of his grand-father's Inn, but he ended 02:24 up living in, of all places, the very palace of the 02:28 Roman Emperor himself. 02:31 For 12 years Constantine worked directly 02:34 for the emperor Diocletian, he learned how to administer 02:38 an empire and witness first-hand all kinds of momentous events. 02:43 He watched the emperor success- fully crush a rebellion in Egypt 02:48 and he was there when the official persecution of the 02:51 Christians began in the year A.D. 303. 02:55 Unbelievably his own mother became a Christian, then Emperor 03:01 Diocletian unexpectedly abdicated. Constantine saw his 03:07 opportunity to seize power, he fled the palace and 03:11 joined his father in Britain and there in York 03:15 he was crowned Augustus, Ruler of the Western Empire. 03:20 But he wanted more than that, he wanted the entire empire 03:25 and so marched on Rome. 03:27 On the way, he saw a super- natural phenomena in the sky, 03:32 he saw a cross of light super imposed on the sun and attached 03:37 in Greek were the words. 03:42 Now Constantine himself a pagan sun worshiper converts and 03:49 embraces Christianity and his army with his new symbol 03:54 the Chia-Roh emblazoned on their shields is victorious 03:58 at the famous battle of the Milvian Bridge and now the gates 04:04 of Rome lay open before him. 04:07 Constantine, the illegitimate child of a peasant girl 04:12 is now the most powerful man on earth, the Emperor of Rome. 04:17 And what he does next will change the world forever. 04:57 Constantine's victory at the Battle of the Millville Bridge 05:00 was to define the world we live in today it was a turning point 05:05 in history. Constantine the Great has influenced the way 05:11 we think the way we live and what we believe. 05:14 He was a Game Changer. He was strongly influenced 05:21 by his mother's religion and credited the Christian God 05:25 with being responsible for his victory. 05:27 In return, Constantine pulled Christianity out of the shadows 05:33 and made it the premier religion of the Roman Empire 05:37 Shortly after defeating Maxentius at the 05:41 Battle of the Milvian Bridge Constantine entered Rome 05:45 he proved himself remarkably generous and magnanimous to his 05:50 former enemies that included the senate of Rome who had 05:54 supported Maxentius. Instead of exacting revenge 05:58 and executing the senators Constantine promised to restore 06:02 them to their former power and glory. 06:05 The senate was so grateful that it commissioned the 06:09 construction of the Arch of Constantine. 06:12 This magnificent monument that you can still 06:15 visit in the heart of Rome today. 06:18 That day when Constantine rode victoriously into Rome 06:23 was the day that the paths of Jesus and Constantine finally 06:28 met decisively, it was a clash of empires, Rome and Christianity, 06:35 it was a clash of cultures, beliefs and faiths 06:38 but there's a strange twist to this clash of empires... 06:43 What happened next was so explosive that it changed 06:49 everything, it changed the Roman Empire, the Christian Church, 06:53 world politics, and the way we see the world today 06:58 Constantine made the radical decision to merge these two 07:04 empires, to combine them into one but there's more to it 07:09 than meets the eye. 07:18 You see, under Constantine the Christian religion changed 07:22 because the Prince of Peace had now become The Roman God of War. 07:27 Jesus moved from being the God of the outcast and persecuted 07:33 to the God of the Roman Empire. 07:36 Under Constantine Christians were no longer a fringe group 07:41 instead, they are at the heart of the empire itself. 07:45 Constantine's Edict of Milan in A.D. 313 gave Christians 07:51 freedom of religion and equal rights throughout the empire 07:55 he appointed Christians to high office and gave Christian 08:00 priests the same privileges as pagan ones... 08:03 Christians were given the keys to Imperial Power. 08:08 Constantine quickly went on to conquer the rest of the empire 08:13 and reunite all of Rome's lands under one banner 08:18 he became its sole ruler, the most powerful man 08:21 on earth. 08:23 Though Constantine would prove to be a good emperor, 08:27 the most important consequence of his victory was religious. 08:31 Constantine knew that he was going to have to find some way 08:36 to keep the vast empire together some way to achieve harmony 08:42 enter Christianity. Constantine admired the Christian strength 08:48 commitment and endurance, he was also impressed by their unity 08:53 he had seen the way they stood together against 08:56 persecution, they appeared so perfectly united, so perfectly 09:01 in agreement that nothing could make them fall and that's 09:07 what he wanted for his empire and he quickly realized 09:11 that if he could only use Christianity to create a 09:15 population which was as dedicated to the empire 09:17 as the Christians were to Christ. It would seal and secure 09:22 his imperial authority. His strategy was clear and simple 09:28 Constantine would try to hold the empire together 09:31 by uniting pagans and Christians in one great system of religion. 09:37 However, if Constantine did ever convert to Christianity 09:43 himself, his fate was hardly worthy of the Prince of Peace. 09:47 Constantine had no problem murdering relatives whom he 09:53 considered political threats and that included his wife 09:58 and son. His 21 year old son Crispus had just won a brilliant 10:04 military victory. Constantine may have felt threatened by his 10:08 rising popularity so Constantine had him put to death. 10:12 Then he murdered his wife by basically boiling her in a 10:17 hot bathtub. Remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:20. 10:29 There's no question that Constantine knew about the 10:33 Christian God, he respected the faith and admired the 10:37 dedication of Christians however respecting God and submitting 10:42 your life and will to Him are two different things. 10:46 Constantine believed that if he could merge the Christian Church 10:50 with Rome and this would be the recipe to long-term political 10:55 stability so he became actively involved in church affairs 11:00 and administration. 11:02 The state and the church became more and more entwined 11:06 and interlocked. Back then Egypt was a hotbed of controversy 11:15 among Christians and a contentious issue arose 11:18 that caused deep division and threatened the unity 11:22 of the church. The dispute centered around where the 11:27 Christians who had given up their faith and left the church 11:30 during the earlier persecution should be allowed back into 11:34 the church now that the persecution had ended 11:37 and it was safe to be a Christian again. 11:39 Those who had stayed in the church called those who had 11:44 caved in under the persecution and left the church 11:48 Traditores that's actually where the word Traitor comes from. 11:53 The Bishop there was in favor of letting them back in 11:57 but the hard-line Christians who didn't want the traitors 12:01 back in, wanted their own man to be the Bishop 12:04 his name was Donatus Magnus that's why this was called 12:09 the Donatus Controversy. 12:12 The controversy was threatening to tear the church 12:16 apart and when the warring factions couldn't solve the 12:19 problem themselves, they asked the emperor to step in 12:23 and resolve this internal church dispute. 12:26 This was a pivotal moment, a radical departure 12:31 from how Christians previously resolved their internal disputes. 12:35 The state had given the church religious liberty and now 12:40 the church had put the power over its internal affairs 12:43 in the hands of the state. 12:46 In A.D. 314, Constantine called all the bishops from 12:52 across the empire to help decide the matter 12:55 and the case went against the Donatus, it went in favor of 12:59 allowing the traitors back into the church. 13:02 But the Donatus wouldn't accept their decision and Constantine 13:07 was furious. He threatened them with severe consequences 13:12 if they didn't fall into line. 13:14 This was the first time that the force of the state 13:19 had been threatened in order to settle an internal church 13:23 dispute. The state was getting more and more involved 13:27 in church affairs and the emperor wanted to establish 13:31 a unified definition of what Christians believe. 13:34 And so he organized and personally attended the 13:38 Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. 13:41 It was held in modern-day Turkey and is one of the most important 13:46 church councils in history. Early Christians had always 13:50 determined their beliefs based on what the Bible proved 13:54 and fortunately their well- established Bible position 13:58 on the divinity of Christ and the books of the Bible 14:01 were accepted at Nicaea but now a change began to take place. 14:07 The state and outside influences rather than the Bible 14:12 began to interfere and determine what the church believed. 14:16 The Bible was no longer the authority in religious matters, 14:21 the emperor himself had a say and played a major role. 14:26 The Council of Nicaea helped to underscore Constantine's 14:31 new role as the head of the Christian church 14:33 and helped to seal the marriage of church and state 14:36 that would define the church from that day forward. 14:41 But the standard for truth for Christians is not the state, 14:45 not the emperor, but the scriptures, the Bible. 14:49 Here's what is says in 2Timothy chapter 3 verses 16 and 17. 15:12 Starting from Constantine however, the Christian church 15:16 was flooded with opportunity seekers from the general Roman 15:20 public. That was because Christianity now had the favor 15:26 of the emperor. Christianity became popular so much so 15:32 that pagans were baptized into the church. 15:34 Now the term paganism was first used in the 4th century by 15:40 early Christians to describe people in the Roman Empire 15:44 who practiced Polytheism, that is, who worship many Gods 15:49 rather than the one true God that the Christians worshipped. 15:53 These pagans joined the church but they also brought many 15:57 of their pagan images, beliefs and practices with them. 16:01 Here's what one historian writes. 16:27 Here's another historian, Bruce Shelley in his book 16:31 Church History in plain language. 16:51 This is the record of History, the facts are clear 16:55 here's another historian. 17:08 And so quietly and gradually beliefs, practices, and 17:14 doctrines that had never been taught by Jesus, 17:17 doctrines that are not found in the Bible crept into the church. 17:21 False teachings crept into the church and many of the 17:26 great truths Jesus gave were lost. 17:29 The church, the fortress of truth that Jesus and the 17:33 apostles built was weakened and reduced to ruins by the 17:38 insidious introduction and spread of pagan objects, 17:42 beliefs and practices. And by accommodating paganism 17:47 and compromising with the state, what our Christian ancestors did 17:52 was to launch what we might call a substitute empire. 17:56 It looked like Christianity, it sounded like Christianity, 18:00 but it had some real problems, it was an imposter, a counterfeit. 18:06 Roman style politics and paganism had found their way 18:11 into the Christian Church and its governments. 18:13 Over the years the church became less about fulfilling the 18:18 gospel commission and looking forward to the return of Christ 18:22 and more about the earthly governments. 18:25 With the Roman Emperor at the head of the church 18:28 Christians began to handle matters the same way that 18:31 Constantine did based out of using coercion and force 18:36 rather than persuasion. 18:38 The persecution and killing of other Christians by Christians 18:43 using state-sanctioned force began from the time of 18:47 Constantine. But that wasn't what Jesus taught, 18:52 rather He said this in Matthew chapter 22:21. 19:05 But with Constantine, Christians started burying the lines 19:10 between what belonged to God and what belonged to Caesar. 19:13 Constantine was willing to sacrifice the teachings of the 19:18 Bible in order to make it as easy as possible for pagans 19:23 to join the church. 19:24 This included transferring many of the holy pagan days 19:29 to Christianity in order to make it easier for pagans to convert 19:33 that's why the most holy days in the Christian colander 19:37 all have their origins in paganism. Constantine just took 19:43 the pagan holy days and gave them a different name 19:46 but kept their pagan traditions and symbols. 19:50 In A.D. 321 Constantine even passed a law forbidding work 19:56 on Sunday, the law said. 20:08 When Constantine passed that law while he was influenced by 20:13 Christianity he hadn't forsaken paganism either, 20:17 that's probably why he referred to the first day of the week 20:21 as the venerable day of the sun. 20:25 The first day of the week was considered sacred to the sun god 20:29 by the ancient Romans, that's why we call it Sunday today. 20:35 What Constantine did was Christianize it 20:38 and then use the force of the state to make it mandatory. 20:43 Here's how historians record it. 21:04 Four years later at Nicaea Constantine did the same with 21:11 Easter. It was originally a pagan festival, it pre-dated 21:15 Christ by thousands of years and was associated with 21:19 re-birth and fertility using rabbits and eggs as its symbols. 21:24 At the Council of Nicaea in A. D. 325, it was adopted 21:29 as a celebration of the resurrection of Christ. 21:33 It was officially confirmed as a Christian celebration 21:38 and tied to the Lunar cycle. According to the Easter rule, 21:43 it had to be celebrated on the first Sunday that occurs 21:47 after the full moon on or after the vernal equinox. 21:52 Then Christmas was officially adopted as a Christian 21:57 celebration during this period as well, 22:00 no one knows the real birthday of Jesus, no date is given 22:04 in the Bible. The pagans celebrated the birth of Mithra, 22:09 the sun god on the 25th of December. 22:12 So under Constantine, it was accepted the birthday of Jesus 22:18 and the church in Rome began formally celebrating Christmas 22:22 on the 25th of December in A.D. 336. 22:27 And so with all this happening the two empires merged, 22:32 Christianity and Rome became entwined and interlocked. 22:37 Due to Constantine, many of our Christian holy days, 22:41 symbols, traditions, customs and beliefs have pagan DNA. 22:47 Constantine's victory over the Battle of the Milvian Bridge 22:51 has defined the world we live in today, 22:55 it was a turning point in history. 22:58 Constantine the Great has influenced the way we think, 23:06 the way we live, and what we believe. 23:09 That's the testimony of history, his fingerprints are everywhere. 23:15 Here's the report of church authority Cardinal Henry Newman. 23:34 Now should this surprise us? Didn't the Bible predict that 23:38 this very thing would happen to the church? 23:41 Notice the warning of Peter the apostle in 2 Peter 2:1,2. 23:59 Paul also predicted that the great truths of the Bible 24:04 would suffer and that new false teachings would enter the church. 24:08 Notice what he said in Acts 20: verse 29. 24:23 The apostle Paul warned that after his death changes and 24:27 compromise would way-lay the church and this is exactly 24:32 what took place, just as the Bible predicted. 24:35 But there were Christians in the empire who heeded 24:39 the Bible's warning, they rejected the changes and 24:42 paganism introduced by Constantine and others 24:46 they determined to remain true to the Bible and its teachings, 24:51 they remained faithful to Jesus. 24:53 There were two empires Caesar's and Christ's, those faithful 25:00 early Christians made their decision, they decided which 25:04 empire they were going to belong to. 25:06 It's described in the Bible book of Daniel 2:44. 25:32 Those early Christians remembered the promise of Jesus 25:35 found in Luke 12: 32. 25:47 If you would like to know more about the amazing promise given 25:53 by Jesus to the early Christians and how the birth of two great 25:57 empires resulted in a clash that's changed the course of 26:01 history, then I'd like to recommend a free gift we have 26:05 for all our Incredible Journey viewers today. 26:10 It's the booklet One World Two Empires. 26:14 It will take you behind the scenes and give you a 26:18 totally new perspective on what's taking place in our world 26:22 right now. This booklet is our gift to you and is absolutely 26:27 free. There are no costs or obligations whatsoever 26:32 so don't miss this wonderful opportunity to receive the gift 26:36 we have for you today. Here's the information you need. 26:40 Phone or text us at 0436.333.555 in Australia, or 020.422.2042 26:51 in New Zealand, or visit our website at TiJ.tv 26:56 to request today's free offer and we'll send it to you totally 27:00 free of charge and with no obligation. 27:02 Write to us at GPO Box 274 Sydney NSW 2001 Australia 27:09 or PO Box 76673 Manukau, Auckland 2241, New Zealand, 27:16 don't delay, call or text us now. 27:23 If you've enjoyed our journey in the footsteps of 27:26 Constantine the Great and our reflections on the clash of 27:29 empires that's taking place in our world right now 27:33 then be sure to join us again next week when we will share 27:37 another of life's journeys together. 27:40 Until then, let's pray to the God in heaven who guides 27:44 our world and ask Him to guide our lives. 27:48 Dear Heavenly Father, We thank you for the evidence 27:52 of history and a clear light through your word the Bible, 27:56 to help us understand our past and where we are in the world 28:00 today. Thank you because you will soon establish your 28:05 everlasting kingdom and that's where we want to be. 28:08 Help us to make the right decisions. 28:10 For we ask this in Jesus name. Amen! |
Revised 2022-01-27