The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2019 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 66

Constantine’s Various Visions

Were Constantine’s visions prophecies, or just propaganda?

Constantine claimed he was told in a dream to fight his battles under a Christian symbol.

Or — he saw a vision telling him to fight with the words “in this sign conquer.”

Or — he was told to fight because he had seen a vision of the sun god Apollo.

Encyclopedia Britannica, article Constantine I —
He fought the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in the name of the Christian God, having received instructions in a dream to paint the Christian monogram (Chi-Rho, known as the sacred monogram, is formed by the conjunction of the first two Greek letters of the word Christ.) on his troops’ shields. This is the account given by the Christian apologist Lactantius. A somewhat different version, offered by Eusebius, tells of a vision seen by Constantine during the campaign against Maxentius, in which the Christian sign appeared in the sky with the legend “In this sign, conquer.” Despite the emperor’s own authority for the account, given late in life to Eusebius, it is in general more problematic than the other, but a religious experience on the march from Gaul is suggested also by a pagan orator, who in a speech of 310 referred to a vision of Apollo received by Constantine at a shrine in Gaul.

Three heavenly visions, all different, from 2 different divinities. Were Constantine’s visions real prophecies or really just propaganda?

Galerius, a junior emperor, persuaded emperor Diocletian to persecute the Christians. When Diocletian abdicated his position in 305, Galerius became emperor. Then he got to do his own persecuting.

However, that tenth persecution no more ended the Christian wave than the first nine did. After a few years as persecutor maximus, Galerius came down with his final illness. He then called off his persecution with the Edict of Toleration in 311.

Gibbons’ The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Vol. II says,
The experience of six years of persecution, and the salutary reflection which a lingering and painful distemper suggested to the mind of Galerius, at length convinced him that the most violent efforts of despotism are insufficient to extirpate a whole people or to subdue their religious prejudices.

On his deathbed, Galerius requested the Christians to pray to their God for the emperor. They probably did, but he died anyway and he did not get baptized as a Christian.

By 313, only two emperors of the Tetrarchy were left, Constantine in the west and Licinius in the east. Together they issued the Edict of Milan, which accepted the Christian religion as it did all others. This approach of pluralism, accepting all gods or religions, seems good to human reason. The big flaw in that thinking, however, is that the Christian God is real; all others are just human fairy tales.

“Galerius [in his Edict of Toleration] thus recognized the divine authority of the Christian God and the pagan deities, but maintained them as separate concepts. Later Licinius and Constantine [in their Edict of Milan] carried the development a step farther by combining them, and by showing devotion … to an unnamed and impersonal deity, — variously called summus deus, summa divinitas, mens divina, — who was not the exclusive property of the Christians or any sect, but might be common to all religious faiths, although differing in aspect and emanation to each and every faith.”
The Edict of Galerius (311 A. D.) re-considered [article], J. R. Knipfing, Revue belge de Philologie et d’Histoire Année 1922, https://www.persee.fr/doc/rbph_0035-0818_1922_num_1_4_6200, 9/11/19

Notice the concept there. God is in all religions, but with a different appearance in each. So in the Edict of Milan, Constantine did not name any one specific god, like Apollo or Mithra or Yahweh. Since they are all aspects of a common religion, he only used terms that were acceptable to all religions. No Christ or Jesus in there.

In 321, Constantine issued his famous Sunday decree, “On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed.” As with his titles for God in the Edict of Milan, the Sunday decree was acceptable to both Romish Christians and sun worshipers.

Constantine chose Sunday to be the day for Christian worship as it already enjoyed special status in the Roman week. Named after the Pagan Sun God Invictus, Sunday had become the day when wages were traditionally paid to workers, leading it to be seen as a day of celebration and thanks. In corresponding the Christian Sabbath with an already established day of rest, Constantine ensured that his decree would be accepted swiftly and harmoniously.
Constantine Decrees “Sun-Day” as Day of Rest, 7 March 321, History Channel, This Day in History.

Sun worship has had many forms and names. One was Mithra.

Sunday, the day of the Sun, was especially sacred, as was the 25^th of December, the birthday of the god Mithras. This day was celebrated by sacred festivals.
Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age, By Antonia Tripolitis, 2002, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI

Another form of sun worship was Sol Invictus, Unconquered Sun. Emperors, including Constantine, often issued coins imprinted with their own likeness and Sol Invictus, to show that the sun god was with the emperor. On his coinage, Constantine frequently used the phrase SOLI INVICTO COMITI, or “companion to the emperor.”

Coin of Emperor Constantine I depicting Solis Invictus with the legend SOLIS INVICTO COMITI, c. 315, by Classical Numismatic Group, Inc.
http://www.cngcoins.com, used by permission.

The Arch of Constantine stands to this day next to the Colosseum in Rome. It was built to glorify Constantine for his victory over a fellow co-emperor, and included a scene of “sacrificial ceremonies in honour of Hercules, Apollo, Diana and Silvanus.” It also has “river gods above the two smaller arches,” and “a single round sculpture depicting the Sun (east side) and Moon (west side), both riding chariots.” https://www.ancient.eu/article/497/the-arch-of-constantine-rome

In fact, the Arch was specifically built to align with the huge statue of Sol. Someone approaching the Arch of Constantine would see big Sol right behind the emperor.
E. Marlowe, “Framing the sun. The Arch of Constantine and the Roman cityscape”, Art Bulletin 88 (2006) 223–242.

The Arch of Constantine, with this inscription
To the Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantinus, the greatest, pious, and blessed Augustus: because he, inspired by the divine, and by the greatness of his mind, has delivered the state from the tyrant and all of his followers at the same time, with his army and just force of arms, the Senate and People of Rome have dedicated this arch, decorated with triumphs.
By RClay – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25978188

Since Constantine still allowed and participated in paganism —

Did he really see Christian symbols in a dream, or did he just see the writing on the wall?

What writing?

Roman emperors had long used religion to help unify the Empire. That’s why they made emperors gods.

Vespasian, “In his last illness he said, “Vae, puto deus fio.”

Translated, the dying Vespasian said, “Oh dear, I think I’m becoming a god.”

Sure enough, “after his death he was immediately accorded deification,” Encyclopedia Britannica, “Vespasian”.

Would he have preferred being a live human or a dead god? It does make you wonder.

All the emperors who persecuted Christians were simply trying to use religion, including emperor worship, to unify the Empire. The Christians wouldn’t offer sacrifice to the emperors, so the emperors sacrificed the Christians.

Over the centuries, emperor worship declined in emphasis but emperors still wanted religious unity. Aurelian, who reigned a few decades before Constantine, tried to create religious unity in the Empire under one form of sun worship. That was a logical choice, since sun worship was already the most common religion in the Empire.

He sought to subordinate the divergent religions of the empire to the cult of the Unconquered Sun (Sol Invictus) and so create the kind of religious unity that came only later with Constantine, Encyclopedia Britannica, Aurelian.

Aurelian strengthened the position of the Sun god Sol Invictus as the main divinity of the Roman pantheon. His intention was to give to all the peoples of the Empire, civilian or soldiers, easterners or westerners, a single god they could believe in without betraying their own gods…During his short rule, Aurelian seemed to follow the principle of “one faith, one empire”, which would not be made official until the Edict of Thessalonica. Wikipedia, Aurelian, 9/16/19.

Notice the crucial points there:
1. a single god they could believe in without betraying their own gods;
2. the principle of one faith, one empire.

Rome had tried to unify the Empire religiously by eliminating Christianity. After about 250 years, from Nero to Galerius, any fool — or emperor — could see that didn’t work. When centuries of trying to unite Rome without Christianity failed, did Constantine see the writing on the wall and then shrewdly decide to unite Rome —

Under Christianity and sun worship?

Did he simply carry on Aurelian’s principle of one faith, one empire —

And then combine ever popular sun worship with Romish Christianity to make a faith that sun worshipers and Christians would accept?

Remember that from the time of Hadrian there were 2 Christian groups, those who were like the original flock and those who were like Rome. The original flock kept the Bible days, as did the Jews and only looked to Christ to govern them. The Romish Christians adopted Roman days — which were the same days that pagans kept. And their government was Rome.

The Encyclopedia Britannica explains how Constantine seized power, to move from the Tetrarchy to the Con-archy.

In 305 Constantine assisted his father, the newly appointed Western emperor, with a campaign in Britain. Their army proclaimed Constantine emperor after his father’s death the next year. A multisided civil war ensued between Constantine and the several other factions vying for the throne. Constantine defeated his main rival for the Western emperorship in 312 and defeated the Eastern emperor in 324 after years of strained relations, thus making Constantine sole ruler of the Roman Empire.

Notice the dates of his accessions. In 312, Constantine became emperor of the west. In 313, he and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan. Then in 314, the very next year, Constantine summoned the western Christian bishops to the Council of Arles.

Encyclopedia Britannica
Council of Arles, (AD 314), the first representative meeting of Christian bishops in the Western Roman Empire. It was convened at Arles in southern Gaul in August 314 by Emperor Constantine I, primarily to deal with the problem of the Donatists, a schismatic Christian group in North Africa.

Who called this council? The Christians as a whole, or the elders, or the big bishop of Rome, later called the pope? Did any of those call that council?

No.

Constantine called this council —

To eliminate schisms among Christians.

No other emperors had fretted about differences among Christians. So what did he care if there were differences among the Christians?

Like all other emperors before him, Constantine wanted to achieve unity in religion in his empire.

Encyclopedia Britannica
At Arles the Donatists were again condemned, but they rejected the decisions reached by the council and again appealed to Constantine to review their case.

Donatists refused to accept ruling bishops who had caved in to Rome during the recent persecution, a fairly conservative group. Yet to whom did the Donatist Christians appeal to settle this Christian dispute?

They appealed to Constantine.

Constantine wasn’t even a Christian!

He deliberately refused to be baptized, until he was on his deathbed. Obviously, he did not think he needed the Redeemer until he was ready to die. The King of the Roman Empire did not bow to the King of heaven until he was about to be dethroned into the dust of the earth.

In refusing to be baptized, Constantine did not think that he individually needed the spirit of Christ to overcome himself. Somehow he — the emperor! — was above that personal need. Apparently, Constantine just wasn’t that carnal, OK?

By contrast, this woman had a great personal need.

Luke 7
36) One of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him. He entered into the Pharisee’s house, and sat at the table.
37) Behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that he was reclining in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of
intment.
38) Standing behind at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
39) Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner.”
40) Yeshua answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” He said, “Teacher, say on.”
41) “A certain lender had two debtors. The one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.
42) When they couldn’t pay, he forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him most?”
43) Simon answered, “He, I suppose, to whom he forgave the most.” He said to him, “You have judged correctly.”
44) Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head.
45) You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet.
46) You didn’t anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.
47) Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
48) He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

Now who was Emperor Constantine like, the repentant woman or the proud Pharisee?

Baptism is to be washed clean of your sins, if you have any.

Acts 3:19
19) “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,

Acts 2
36) “Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Yeshua whom you crucified.”
37) Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38) Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Yeshua Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Constantine was not cut to the heart.

He did not see the need to be washed clean of his sins, he refused to repent and humbly seek baptism to cover his sins with the blood of the Savior, and he saw no need for the Holy Spirit in his life. He was Constantine the Great.

In short, Constantine, the great Christian emperor — DENIED CHRIST!

More than his contradictory visions, more than his sun god support, and more than his participation in pagan rites, Constantine’s refusal to seek baptism shows his real view of Christianity. It was not a faith to change a person’s life, to change his life, but just a tool to help unify the Empire — his empire. One faith, one Empire, combining old sun worship with Roman Christianity.

So this is the guy that the Donatist Christians wanted to settle their Christian dispute. But Constantine the non-Christian had called the Christian council to seek unity and when the Donatists did not go along — surprise, surprise! — he refused their appeal.

When centuries of trying to unite Rome without Christianity failed, did Constantine shrewdly decide to unite Rome —

Under Christianity and sun worship?

Absolutely. We know he decided to do that because that’s what he did.

Constantine did follow through with Aurelian’s principles of Empire religion.

1. a single god they could believe in without betraying their own gods;

That means a religion that is above all other religions, but accepts practices from those other religions.

2. the principle of one faith, one empire.

Such an empire means that humans have achieved unity without the Holy Spirit of God.

Constantine and the Christian Roman Empire that followed him did mesh much of Roman paganism right into Roman Christianity. Pagan peoples had little difficulty accepting a Christian religion that included their doctrines and days. All they had to do was change a few names and then keep on truckin’.

Constantine and his Christian successors did not fully succeed in one faith in their Empire. There was always a remnant of those who did not give in to Hadrian, who would not offer the emperor a pinch of incense, and who would not — even at cost of their own lives — accept Rome’s pagan-Christian combo religion, when Rome again persecuted them. This scattered flock was not under the government of Rome, even Christian Rome, but only under the government of Christ the King.

Those principles of Rome, a single god, accepting but above all other gods, and one faith, one empire —

A religion over all religions, that everyone must be in, but that accepts all other religions, except for those hardheaded, intolerant, judgmental Christians —

That Rome will be seen again as Satan ends his rule.

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2019 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 65

Balaam, Emperor of Rome

The Jews declared that Caesar was their king. “We have no king except Caesar,” John 19:15.

Would the Christians do the same thing?

Actually, the whole world had some kind of Caesar or king, except for the Christians —

Who had the Son of God.

Soon after the Flood, Nimrod set himself up as the first emperor, king or Caesar. Yahweh did not set Nimrod up as a king. God didn’t even set up Noah or Shem as king. God did not set any human being as king of the earth.

In fact, He did the opposite.

Instead of putting everyone under one ruler, God told them to spread out around the earth, so it was geographically impossible — at that time — for one human king to rule over all people. Yahweh Himself was their king and He was the only one who could rule over all humanity, spread all over the world.

But Satan has another system —

Centralized human power.

So all over the earth, humanity rejected their heavenly King and set up human kings, with each king trying to climb above all the others. The best killer became the biggest king. “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Yahweh” — a mighty hunter of people.

Later, Yahweh rescued Israel from Pharaoh in Egypt and carried them to the Promised Land. Instead of giving them another Pharaoh, He gave them judges to teach His laws and judgments. Yahweh Himself was still their king.

But Israel rejected Yahweh as king and demanded a king they could see. Judah did have some good kings, perhaps 7, but none were perfect as Yahweh is. Most of Judah’s and Samaria’s kings were bad, like 34 out of 41, leading the people into lawlessness. The kingdom of Israel/Samaria was destroyed and in Judah, the throne of David was in ruins.

When the Jews returned from Babylon, they again had a nation but they did not have a king of David’s line. They had wanted a king like the world, so they were put under the kings of the world. However, they were promised that a descendant of good King David would be given the throne of David.

Ezek 21 Jewish Publication Society Tanakh 1917

25) thus saith the Lord GOD: The mitre shall be removed, and the crown taken off; this shall be no more the same: that which is low shall be exalted, and that which is high abased.
26) A ruin, a ruin, a ruin, will I make it; this also shall be no more, until he comes whose right it is, and I will give it him.

The kingship was in ruins and would be no more, until He came whose right it is.

And then He came…

Yeshua, the King of the Jews, came to rebuild the ruins of David’s throne and to establish the Kingdom of God.

Matt 13
47) “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet, that was cast into the sea, and gathered some fish of every kind,
48) which, when it was filled, they drew up on the beach. They sat down, and gathered the good into containers, but the bad they threw away.
49) So will it be in the end of the world. The angels will come forth, and separate the wicked from among the righteous,
50) and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.”

The King of the Kingdom of Heaven is gathering the subjects of His kingdom. Like Israel in Egypt, these subjects were slaves — but slaves of sinful human nature. They are redeemed by Yahweh from sin and their sinful nature, and follow no other king but Him. Only He can free them from the slavery of sin.

The King gathers His subjects together into a scattered flock, leading them through the wilderness of Satan’s world. He gives them His spirit to overcome Satan, Satan’s world, and their own human nature.

The earliest Christians wanted to huddle together in Jerusalem and wait for the Kingdom of God. After the Flood, “Yahweh scattered them [the people] abroad on the surface of all the earth,” Gen 11:9. In the same way, Yeshua had the Christianos scatter from Jerusalem, to spread the message of the King.

Yeshua did not appoint a pope, chief apostle, or overarching archbishop to rule His flock. In reality, no human could rule over all those dispersed people. Only Yahweh Himself, as Yeshua the salvation of Yahweh, could reign over His scattered flock.

However, this scattered assembly soon wanted to set up visible human rulers to follow. Corinth tried to do that with Paul, Peter and Apollo. Later Marcus became the first Gentile bishop over the Jerusalem area and he led the Christians who stayed there into anomia, or Commandment breaking. In time, many other bishops gradually acquired elevated titles, distinctive dress, and pontifical prestige and power — like Christian rabbis.

Matt 23
5) …They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments,
6) and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,
7) the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi, Rabbi’ by men.

Christian religious rulers ruled a diocese like mini-kings, following the common pattern of putting human kings between them and the heavenly King. The most prestigious bishop of all came to be the bishop of Rome. Since the emperor of Rome ruled the carnal world, it seemed natural that the bishop of Rome should rule the ecclesiastical world. Caesar was the pontifex maximus of the empire. The bishop of Rome would be the pontifex maximus of the religious empire.

However, there came a time when the pontifex maximus of the Roman Empire became like the pontifex maximus of the Roman Church.

The emperors of Rome persecuted Christians for two and a half centuries. For  as long as the history of the United States from the late 18^th century to the early 21^st century, Rome tried to exterminate the people of Christ.

That didn’t work.

Then Satan tried a new tactic, a subtle approach, a different twist, a different fist —

Constantine.

Constantine was a fairly typical Roman emperor.

Not good.

One writer for the Foundation for Economic Education, Lawrence Reed, tried to answer the question, “Who would you rank as the Empire’s worst Emperor?”

I deplore concentrated power so I really don’t like any of them. Of the grand total of 178 emperors—81 in the Western Empire and 97 in the Eastern—dozens of them were loathsome tyrants with little redeeming value.

Power does so much more than corrupt. It attracts the already-corrupted and gives them the wherewithal to administer their corruption. It feeds on arrogance, narcissism, and self-deception. It dements the mind until it embraces schemes that ruin the lives of others. It rots the soul. I can think of no more destructive motivation than the lust for it. Rare is the individual who emerges a better person for having possessed it. Roman history demonstrates these truths vividly.

Power rots the soul. This is true of political or church positions. The more power, the more rot.

Reed then mentioned some of the worst of the rotten Roman emperors, like Nero who used Christians for torches; Commodus, who had a harem of 300 young women and 300 boys, and could have passed for a modern day Democrat; and Elagabalus, of whom one historian said, “The name Elagabalus is branded in history above all others” on account of his “unspeakably disgusting life.” Reed then concludes that Caligula was the worst of all. History calls him the mad emperor, but often tries to say that his evils were caused by a mental disease instead of a spiritual one.

In trying to pick the worst Roman emperor, Reed observes, “Picking a really bad despot out of 178 despots is like shooting fish in a barrel. You’ll get one no matter where you aim.”

He concludes his article this way.

The intoxicant known as power knows no equal. It is malevolent by its very nature. It has enslaved, tortured, and murdered more people than any other poisonous impulse in history. Perhaps the philosopher Eric Hoffer put it best when he wrote,… “absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes.”
https://fee.org/articles/caligula-plumbing-the-depths-of-ancient-tyranny, 9/24/19

Interesting concept — “absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes.” Was there ever a dictator, political or ecclesiastical, who wasn’t trying to do good for his people?

And then there was Constantine.

Constantine is not called just Constantine, as Nero was called Nero or Tiberius was called Tiberius. Even to this day Constantine is called —

“Constantine the Great!”

Why?

Because he was the first Christian emperor and set the course of the Empire and the Church for centuries.

How can the one who is hailed as the first Christian emperor, who formed European and Christian culture, be a typical Roman emperor?

For one thing, Constantine got his position, like Augustus and others, by killing off his competition. Then as emperor, he fought repeated wars, including civil wars against his fellow Romans, to secure his own position. Pretty typical emperor there.

Diocletian had reorganized the Empire government into the Tetrarchy, rule of four. He appointed fellow officer Maximian with the title of augustus or co-emperor in 286. In 293, Diocletian appointed Galerius and Constantius, Constantine’s father, as caesars, or junior co-emperors. Those four men, the Tetrarchy, each ruled over a quarter of the vast empire, from Britain to Egypt.

Diocletian and Maximian both abdicated in 305. That raised Galerius and Constantius to augustus or full emperors, and then they appointed two new caesars or junior emperors, Maximunus and Severus.

Well, can you guess what happened?

That’s right. Power hungry men do not like to share power, so the Tetrarchy led to anarchy —

Civil war. Each emperor wanted to be the new Nimrod.

Constantine prevailed. In those civil wars, he was the most uncivil.

Constantine killed Maximian, his wife’s father, who had returned from retirement. Later Constantine defeated Maximian’s son Maxentius — Constantine’s brother-in-law — and paraded his head through Rome. Finally Constantine defeated Licinius, another co-ruler, and had him executed, along with his son, who was Constantine’s nephew.

Thus Constantine defeated the Tetrarchy and Rome again had a monarchy —

Actually a Conarchy — just Constantine.

So Constantine became emperor in the typical way. He killed off all the competition.

Those weren’t all he killed.

Remember what Augustus said about King Herod, that it was better to be his hog than his son? Herod didn’t kill swine because he didn’t eat pork, but he did kill his sons to protect his own position.

Constantine was a little different. He killed his hogs and his wife and son. It seems that his wife Fausta condemned Crispus, Constantine’s son by another wife, and Constantine had Crispus killed. Later it seems that Fausta implicated Crispus only to augment the position of her own sons by Constantine, so Constantine had her killed. Such actions are not that unusual for a dictator.

Constantine was a superior military leader. He had to be, to kill off all his competition.

Encyclopedia Britannica, article Constantine I —
In military policy Constantine enjoyed unbroken success, with triumphs over the Franks, Sarmatians, and Goths to add to his victories in the civil wars; the latter, in particular, show a bold and imaginative mastery of strategy. Constantine was totally ruthless toward his political enemies, while his legislation, apart from its concessions to Christianity, is notable mainly for a brutality that became characteristic of late Roman enforcement of law.

Constantine ruled brutally. That’s what emperors did; that’s what he did. That’s not what Christians did.

He is hailed to this day as the first Christian emperor, who changed Rome from an empire that killed Christians into a Christian empire.

When Balaam couldn’t curse Israel, he brought a curse on them by getting them to mix with Moab. Almost two millennia later, Satan did the same thing with the Christians. When the power of Rome could not eliminate the Christians, Satan simply got the Christians to join Rome. And that’s where Constantine came in.

God uses power centered in Himself. Satan uses power centered in people. But Satan often leads the multitudes to think these power mongers are led by God. What’s more, the power mongers, whether in religions or in reichs, themselves often believe they are led by God.

I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews, I am fighting for the Lord’s work. Adolf Hitler, Speech, Reichstag, 1936

This is a great lesson of the past and for the future. Satan deceives people to believe that power mongers are led by God. And the power mongers are so deceptive and effective in their role because they believe it themselves. ‘Follow me as I follow God!’

So did God use Constantine to make the Roman Empire Christian? Or did Satan use Constantine to merge the Roman Church into the Roman Empire? Was Constantine a great Christian emperor who helped make Europe Christian? Or did Constantine pull off one of the greatest con games in history?