(i) Constantine and Christianity Introduction
The story of the Roman Emperor Constantine and Christianity begins in 274 CE. in a town called Naissus, a baby boy was born out of an encounter between a Roman soldier on leave and a bartender. His name was Constantine and had a MASSIVE influence on the direction of Christianity. He became a general in the army rising up through the ranks.
The story of Constantine brings things full circle as it was a Roman emperor who was responsible for the crucifixion of Christ & now we have a Christian Emperor Constantine who would murder non believers.
Constantine saw Christianity’s belief in one God as a way to unify the Empire that had been so badly divided for two decades. But he discovered that Christianity itself was not unified so he called the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE to bring together about 1800 bishops from around the Empire to work out official doctrine and provide the basis for a unified Church. Constantine paid for the entire Council and even paid for travel, giving bishops the right of free transportation on the imperial postal system.
Constantine decided that Christ’s birthday was Dec 25th and that the resurrection was Easter.
(ii) Constantine and Christianity Constantines Dream
He had a dream of a flaming sign and within the sign there were the worlds “In this sign you will conquer” and the sign was made beautiful with gold and gems on Constantine’s instructions. It was a long sphere overlaid with gold, the tip was formed with gold jewels and 2 letters: PX symbol of Christ.
The figures in the banner are Constantine and his children.
(iii) Constantine and Christianity Constantine’s Army
By 330 CE Constantine had taken control of both the western and eastern provinces and declared himself supreme Caesar over all of the Roman Empire. He appointed one of the rival “Christian” chieftains Lucius Lactantius as his official Latin theologian, propagandist, and tutor to his son Crispus. Lactantius soon lost the job of tutor when Constantine had his son murdered for adultery with his stepmother. Lactantius praised Constantine as “a model of Christian virtue and holiness” (De Mortibus Persecutorum).
Constantine was the first Roman Christian Emperor. His dream was therefore for power & something to justify it but in the Bible we find the following verse:
Jeremiah 29: 8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.
What the bible is saying is that we should not be attached to our dreams as we have gone to sleep and caused them from our own attachments and desires. Dreams are therefore deceptive and we should distance ourselves from them. It does not support the murderous actions of Constantine after following his dream described above.
Constantine slaughtered non Christian Romans and Greeks & he eventually got enough armies together to take on Islam, but lost.
Churches converting to Christianity were given gold and jewels.
Mark 14: 58 We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.
The only temple that can be raised that is not made with hands is one that is constructed inside of us. That is the temple of Jesus Christ.
Constantine presided over the deaths of many:
E.g. Mystics – they do not need gold and palaces; they say the kingdom of God is within. They are the antithesis of Constantine.
He then put laws in place which forbade any worship of religion other than Christianity. The library of Alexandra was destroyed along with many temples of the mysteries in which the mysteries of the inner kingdoms were practised.
Constantine the founder of European Christianity murdered his wife’s father, his sister’s husband, his nephew, two of his wives by drowning them in a bathtub and is known as Saint Constantine to the Church. When Constantine died coins were printed with him riding a golden chariot and a hand reaching down guiding him to heaven.
A confession of a person who carried out orders of Constantine:
“I have caused great calamities, I have depopulated towns and provinces, I have murdered young and old, men women and children. I have done this for the love of Christ and his holy mother.” (Queen Isabella)
This was the way Europe was ‘persuaded’ to embrace Christianity. This was just the BEGINNING of the dark ages! The religion of Christianity is in place today in more or less the same way that it was ordained back then.
Orthodox Christianity has misinterpreted the Bible over many centuries:
Numbers 19:2 This is the ordinance of the law which the LORD hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke:
Red Heifer = symbolic of the emotions, same applies to the devil and The Red Sea.
The first Christian empire forbade free thought & they still do! The burning of the Library of Alexandra and other acts was all about controlling the masses through religion and taking away the power of the individual to find Jesus for themselves.
The result of this has been the spreading of false dogma by the church.
(iv) Constantine and Christianity The Dark Ages
The bible was put together in the DARK AGES. Why was this? There was no room for individual thought and spirituality at this time i.e. there was no ENLIGHTENMENT.
They burned the books that did not agree with strict literal Christian doctrine.
325 CE:Constantine tried to unify all the various doctrines that were all over Europe. One of the first things was to agree a date to celebrate Jesus birthday.
Dec 25th = the day the sun is born = satisfied Pagans. This was a compromise to satisfy the Pagans who worship the sun and the moon.
363 CE: 60 cannons (books) we enacted: these are the books of the Old & New Testament which may be read aloud. Nothing else could be read aloud.
In subsequent conventions bishops met and made more rules and regulations.
Once these rules and regulations were in place they started burning the mystical books, and when these were burnt they started burning people. If you taught that the kingdom of God was within then you were burned as a witch.
Succeeding “Christian” leaders influenced the Caesars of the Roman state, assuring a position of power for themselves in this deteriorating empire. In 370 CE, the Emperor Valens ordered a total persecution of non-Christian peoples throughout the Eastern Empire. The philosopher Simonides was burned alive and the philosopher Maximus was decapitated. The twilight of civilization was fast approaching.
Hypatia : in Alxandria Egypt taught the same things as Jesus ; the kingdom of God is within, Chakras, etc. She also studied Philosophy, Astronomy and Mathematics.
415 CE: One day on the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, a mob of Christian zealots led by Peter the Lector accosted a woman’s carriage and dragged her from it and into a church, where they stripped her and beat her to death with roofing tiles. They then tore her body apart and burned it. Who was this woman and what was her crime? Hypatia was one of the last great thinkers of ancient Alexandria and one of the first women to study and teach mathematics, astronomy and philosophy. Though she is remembered more for her violent death, her dramatic life is a fascinating lens through which we may view the plight of science and individual free thought in an era of religious and sectarian conflict.
In 429 CE depraved “Christian” mobs sacked the world-famous Parthenon, the temple of the goddess Athena on the Acropolis of Athens. From 440 to 450 CE, the “Christians” demolished all the monuments, altars and temples of Athens, Olympia, and other Greek cities.
Roman emperor Theodosius II in 448 CE ordered all non-Christian books to be burned.
Justinian 1st (see in the photo) is considered a saint amongst Eastern Orthodox Christians and was responsible for the closing down of Plato’s Philosophical Academy in Athens in AD 529.
From 500 – 1500 AD the authority of the church was the rule of life.
Going ahead in time in the ‘Dark Ages’ of Europe we can trace the following events:
1450 CE: The first major witch hunts began in many western European countries. The Roman Catholic Church created an imaginary evil religion, using stereotypes that had circulated since pre-Christian times. They said that Pagans who worshiped Diana and other Gods and Goddesses were evil Witches who kidnapped babies, killed and ate their victims, sold their soul to Satan, were in league with demons, flew through the air, met in the middle of the night, caused male impotence and infertility, caused male genitals to disappear. Historians have speculated that this religiously inspired genocide was motivated by a desire by the Church to attain a complete religious monopoly
Circa 1550 to 1650 CE: Trials and executions reached a peak during these ten decades, which are often referred to as the “burning times.” They were mostly concentrated in eastern France, Germany and Switzerland. Witch persecutions often occurred in areas where Catholics and Protestants were fighting.
In Summary The classical period of witch-hunt’s in Europe and North America happened in the Early Modern period or about 1480 to 1750, spanning the upheavals of the Reformation and the Thirty Years’ War(1618–1648), resulting in an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 executions. They were conducted as the so-called ‘witches’ were seen as a threat to Christianity.
The last executions of people convicted as witches in Europe took place in the 18th century. In the Kingdom of Great Britain, witchcraft ceased to be an act punishable by law with the Witchcraft Act of 1735. In Germany, sorcery remained punishable by law into the late 18th century. Contemporary witch-hunts have been reported from Sub-Saharan Africa, India and Papua New Guinea. Official legislation against witchcraft is still found in Saudi Arabia and Cameroon.
The Dark Ages are yet another episode in history which demonstrates when religious misinterpretation can have horrific consequences.
(v) Constantine and Christianity An Antithesis to Christ’s Teachings
Luke 11: 52 Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.
Lawyers = the law makers of the time which was the Church.
Taken away the key of knowledge = church has taken away the door the mysteries of the kingdom of Christ within & replaced it with religion. You no longer enter within yourself.
John 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Continue in my word = do what he tells you to do
John 8: 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
His truth will set you free from everything; illness, government, religious oppression etc. We will know a stillness and peace within that cannot be broken.
Religion has a monetary interest to keep you in bondage as if you are free they will lose business.
Romans 12 : 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
And be not conformed to this world = talking about the lower mind and they way we see the world through it.
Renewed mind = through meditation we transform.
The mental rules the physical so what emanates from our mind controls the body.
In the next verse Jesus is talking to the Clergy of the day:
Matthew 23: 26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Blind = cannot see Christ’s teachings
Within the cup = within you
Clean up what is on the inside of you so that you may be an outer reflection of spiritual wisdom.
Religion has problems with science so in the dark ages they would set fire to scientists to prevent them from speaking.
Much of the sayings of Jesus have been taken out of the bible e.g. The Gospel of St Thomas which is why I have been writing another section on this Gospel to introduce far more of the actual teachings of Jesus that have been missed. An example is given below:
Gospel of St Thomas(51): His disciples said to him, “When will the repose of the dead come about, and when will the new world come?” He said to them, “What you look forward to has already come, but you do not recognize it.”
This is saying Gods kingdom has already arrived and people don’t recognize it.
(vi) Recommended Videos
377 Our Christian Heritage From The Dark Ages
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