Constantine: Compromise and Controversy Season 1 | Episode 1
As we trace back our spiritual lineage to the early centuries,
we find the Christian Church a maligned religion.
It was not popular.
Many of the Christians in the early centuries paid the ultimate price for their faith with their lives.
The Colosseum in Rome stands today as a testament of this fact.
Under Pagan Rome the Christian Church struggled along,
but one thing was sure.
The intensity of the persecution
kept the church free from nominal and lukewarm Christians.
If you were a Christian, you had to be all in,
there was no middle ground.
But in the fourth century an event would come along
that would change all of that dramatically.
The conversion of Constantine
changed the course of history for the whole of Christendom,
and the roots of that come down here to York, England.
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In 306 AD, Constantine was declared Emperor here.
His father, Constantinus, was in Britain from 305-306 AD
and Constantine was with him until his death.
He was then declared Emperor,
but it was not to be a smooth sailing.
There were counterclaims to the Emperorship from Licinius and Maxentius.
And it was before a battle with Maxentius
that Constantine felt he needed more help than just the soldiers he had,
and so he sought the help of God.
He believed he saw a cross in the sky
and heard the words, 'By this sign you shall conquer'.
He took this as a sign to convert to Christianity,
and a major switch began to take place.
Rome would go from being pagan to papal,
from paganism to professed Christianity.
Many historians debate the authenticity of Constantine's conversion.
Was it a deep-rooted biblical conviction,
or was it a political ploy to keep a divided empire together?
One thing is sure though, that after his conversion,
practices crept into the church that previously had no place there.
Temples that were pagan were changed to Christian.
The Pantheon in Rome was changed into a Christian Church
and the names of gods were changed to Christian saints.
For example, Jupiter became St Peter,
and the list goes on.
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While some were happy for these changes
and welcomed the lack of persecution and their new found status,
there were many Christians all over Europe who resisted these changes.
For them the persecution continued,
as they stayed out of line with the 'mother church'.
These were Christians who were maintaining the pure Apostolic faith
that was handed down to them over the years.
There were scattered groups of people all over Europe.
In northern Italy, in southern France,
the Celtic Church here in Britain,
and in various other places.
The Bible refers to them as the 'Church in the Wilderness'
in Revelation chapter 12, verses 6 and 14.
They were not always the biggest,
they were not always the largest,
but God would always have a people
that were true to Him and that were faithful to His word.
And so from this point on,
two branches of the church would emerge.
The recognized, the mainstream, but the compromised church,
and then the persecuted, often the smaller, but the pure church.
The question for us today is,
which one of these two are we are part of?
May we never compromise truth for popularity.
May we be faithful to God and to His word no matter what the situation is.