What consequences (positive or negative) had Constantine's reforms on an early Church? What is the significance (if any) of Constantine's reforms for the contemporary Church?
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Asked January 24 2014
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Jeff niedo
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For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Raymond F. Beaton
This comment by Bruce Lyon got me googling. I ended up on the Roman Catholic site wherein Constantine is described as St. Constantine and also as having declared himself a Christian around age 40. They do concede that some of his architecural monuments include pagan imagery. Apparently there is no historical consensus as to his character. (Perhaps not unlike the reactions to our own modern politicians). If Constantine was simply being pragmatic in using freedom of religion to unite his empire, that doesn't preclude the possibility that God used him to facilitate the growth of His Church. A modern analogy might be that God used Hitler to facilitate a guilt-ridden world's acceptance of reestablishment of the Jewish homeland.
The pagan influences in selecting dates for Christmas and Easter celebrations never bothered me either. Using extant holiday dates made practical sense and afforded an opportunity to redirect attention away from a pagan influence and toward Christ. Believers know what they are celebrating at Christmas and Easter and they know that yule trees and dyed eggs are totally unrelated to the real reasons for those seasons.
Ted Beaton
". If Constantine was simply being pragmatic in using freedom of religion to unite his empire, that doesn't preclude the possibility that God used him to facilitate the growth of His Church." I agree completely. He used Alexander the Great and Roman persecution as well. Alexander conquered the known world and forced them to all learn a common language. Then the Romans conquered the world and built the a network of roads all over the known world. Plus their persecution forced Christians to disperse all over the world. When those Christians dispersed they spread the Gospel in ... the common language that Alexander forced the world to learn. All this paved the way for the spread of the Gospel.
Fred Bamulutira
By giving in to Constantine, and allowing a pagan Emperor to be its patron, the church became greatly compromised. The message of the church now had to get approval from Constantine.
Instead of seeking guidance from God, the church now sought guidance from Constantine. Constantine was given freedom to introduce his own reforms into the church, even to lead into syncretism by bringing into the church pagan practices which have continued into the 21st Century Church.
Satan, who tempted humans in Eden into sinning, tempted Jesus Christ in the wilderness, left him for a season, then returned through Peter's words to dissuade Jesus from going to the cross, got defeated when Jesus took on the cross.
However, being who he is, the most crafty and treacherous, who comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy, in the person of Emperor Constantine resurfaces as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), who unfortunately was welcomed and given a free ticket by the then politically persecuted church to shape the church and its message the way he desired.
Through Emperor Constantine Satan took over the reigns of the Church, and the biggest swath of christendorm is under his sway. Does Revelation 13:7-9 strike a chord here?
Satan was the script witer and performance director when Emperors Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Decius, Domition, Diocletian, Trajan, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Severus, Maximus, Valerian, and Aurelian persecuted Christians.
The same Satan changed the script and performance in the person of Emperor Constantine, but remained the performance director now working not with external force as before, but from inside the church.
The angel of light (2Corinthians 11:13-15) now descended into the church to wreck havoc from within. This angel of light in the person of Emperor Constantine, went on to usher in false apostles, deceitful workers, who up to today are servants of Satan comouflaging as servants of Christ who have introduced false doctrines,(doctrines of devils,1Timothy 4:1), into the church.