February 2, 2021 • 43 mins
This episode describes the damage the Emperor Constantine did to Christianity. He built the first "churches," and designed them like courthouses to intimidate worshipers. He named "Sun Day," appointed royal "priests" to supervise worshipers, and much more. These actions founded Institutional Christianity, and are the root of today's Christian crisis.
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Episode Transcript
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John (00:00):
John Shields opens the episode by saying
once again, my friends! Andwelcome to Episode 05 of the
"Saving Christianity" podcastfrom Christian Family Online.
(00:23):
And I want to thank you here atthe beginning today, for tuning
in with us on our podcast.
Maybe this is your first time.
Maybe you've been listeningevery time.
Whatever the case is, we're gladthat you're here.
I'm your host, John Shields.
And we are continuing ourdiscussion of Saving
Christianity, a book that showsus how to have more peace,
(00:47):
healing, and hope.
And I'm sure I don't know anyonethat doesn't want more of that
in(his or her) life.
Now today, this episode iscalled"The Courthouses." Yes,
you heard me right.
"The Courthouses." We're goingto tell the rest of the shocking
story-- and that's not anunderstatement-- of the Roman
(01:10):
emperor, Constantine, and how hesuppressed Christianity in the
Fourth Century.
And as we saw previously, hechanged the structure of
Christianity from a Spiritualdesign, to a non-spiritual
design, as part of his overallplan.
(01:33):
It was to be the Supreme Emperorof a United Roman kingdom.
But, before we go any further,let's pause to introduce-- by
now you know-- my best friendand co- host of the podcast,
Owen Allen.
Owen, why don't you welcome ourfriends?
Owen (01:51):
Glad to, John! Nothing makes me happier than talking to
our friends.
That's why we're here! You know,I was thinking driving in, I
miss the studio when we're nothere recording-- with our
producer, Shannon Wolfe, behindthe sound board, and all of his
equipment.
You know-- and I can tell youthis too, John-- I'm deeply
(02:13):
gratified by the acceptance thatour podcast episodes are
receiving, not only in the U.S.,but around the world.
And you know, that's a very,very important thing.
Because as I said, that's whywe're here! That's what we feel
like we need to do! And it'sjust very exciting for all three
(02:35):
of us to be here at the studioagain.
John (02:39):
Yeah, Owen, I am too.
And it's wonderful.
And I'm just glad that we'reable to be a part of this.
Owen (02:47):
Well, that's right! "Wonderful" doesn't cover it!
(Chuckles.) But...
and I want to say something elsetoo, John...
and to Shannon.
I think these episodes aboutConstantine are some of the most
valuable episodes we'll ever do.
And I'll tell you why.
Because if most of the peopleout there hearing us at this
(03:09):
moment are like we were, andlike I was, very few people know
anything about Constantine.
Maybe they've heard his name.
But very few understand what heactually did to Early
Christianity.
John (03:24):
Owen, I couldn't agree more! That's certainly my
experience as well.
And it's incredibly importantfor people to know the truth
about Constantine.
And actually to know what he didto Christianity.
Because his story-- we're goingto see-- is the key to knowing
the cause of today's crisis inChristianity.
Owen (03:49):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And it's a horrible thing-- andthat's a word I choose
carefully! But so, why don't we-- in this episode-- try to talk
about just five of the mostdamaging actions that
Constantine took against theEarly Christians in the Fourth
Century.
(04:10):
And you know, John, if ourfriends need to review-- want to
review-- Episode 04, where weintroduced Constantine last
time.
They know they can do that bygoing to CFOpods.com on the
Internet.
That's C-F-O-P-O-D-S.com on theInternet.
(04:30):
And that'll take them right tothe correct page on our website
to review all of those episodes.
But, let's settle down and thinkabout the rest of Constantine's
story.
First of all, we know that heworked for 25 years-- that was a
long time in those days-- toredesign Christianity.
(04:55):
And frankly,"redesigned" is apolite word.
The truth is, he devastated theSpirituality of Christians so
completely...
think about this a minute...
Christian Spirituality is stillrare today among today's
Christians!
John (05:13):
Yeah, and when I hear you say that, Owen, and every time I
think about that, I'm shocked byit, really.
But I also know that it's truein all of my experiences down
through the years.
Well, moving along to get usstarted, we know that
Constantine passed more than 300-- that's right-- 300 laws to
(05:37):
regulate and control the EarlyChristians.
But, I think it begs thequestion, which of those laws
was the most harmful to them?
Owen (05:48):
Wow, John, that's a great question! That gets right to the
heart of the problem! But let'sanswer it.
Here's the answer (05:55):
Our friends will remember that for the first
three centuries of EarlyChristianity-- that would be
about the first eightgenerations of the early
Christians-- all Christiansworshiped informally in small
groups in private homes.
(06:16):
And let's repeat that.
All Christians worshipedinformally in small groups in
private homes.
That was what we call theirOrganizational Design, or
Organizational Structure.
We're going to talk about that alot in this episode.
But, that was the key to theiramazing Spirituality.
(06:39):
So, since they had that design,here we go: The most harmful
action that Constantine took wasthe one he took against
Christian small groups.
And another thing, as a sidebar.
Let's remember that theChristian Small groups were
unique in the Roman empire.
(07:00):
None of the other religions inthe empire met in small groups.
How did they meet?
They met in large groups, inlarge temples.
For example, the sun godreligion, one of the official
religions of Rome-- and thereligion in which Constantine
(07:20):
was the high priest-- theydidn't worship in small groups.
And neither did the severalhundred other non-Christian
religions in the empire.
John (07:33):
Ah, well that's an amazing fact! And I just say to our
listeners, stay with us now, aswe move through each of these
facts.
And they are so, so important.
So next, let's tell our friendswhy worshiping in small groups
was so important.
Owen (07:53):
Well...
as we said...
these Christian small groups--that was the key to their
Spirituality.
As I said, we call that theirOrganizational Design.
And that's what created theamazing peace, and healing, and
hope, and miracles, that theearly Christians enjoyed.
John (08:14):
Yeah, Owen.
Our listeners may or may notknow that I've been a trained
pastor for-- in a traditionalsense-- for over 30, or right at
30 years.
And this actually a revelationto me.
As we've been embarked on thisjourney, this quest, as we
(08:38):
started out, that's true.
And just like me, I have afeeling that our listeners may
not know how small groupmeetings actually did that.
Owen (08:53):
Well...
there's a basic principle...
if you stop and think about it...
it's very logical.
As we so often say,"God is alogical Person." The principle
is this (09:03):
Meeting in small groups in private homes is quicker,
easier, safer, cheaper, moreconfidential, more convenient,
and more intimate, and-- mostimportantly-- more Spiritual,
(09:24):
than meeting in large audiencesin large buildings.
John (09:29):
And obviously, there are reasons for that! I bet a lot of
people never thought about thisfact from history.
Owen (09:37):
No, probably not.
Well, let's try and explain it alittle more completely, then, by
asking a question.
Here's the question (09:44):
Why did the Early Christians meet in the
first place?
What was the point?
Have you ever thought aboutthat?
Why did they meet in thoseancient times, in their little
stone homes, and what was thepoint of it?
See, they didn't meet for thereasons that non-Christians met.
(10:05):
Why did the non-Christians meet?
To obey their priests.
To make burnt offerings.
To have drunken banquets.
To have ceremonial parades.
To have ritual orgies.
But the Christians?
They didn't meet for any ofthose reasons! They met to
experience the power of peace,healing, and hope, from the Holy
(10:29):
Spirit.
They met to let the Holy Spiritwork through them with
supernatural guidance, miracles,and Spiritual growth.
And none of the non-Christianreligions met for any of those
reasons.
John (10:45):
Wow, that is a very, very powerful fact of history.
Owen (10:52):
Well, I think it's the most powerful thing on earth.
But here here's the point, John.
The Holy Spirit-- hold on!-- isonly free to act, when
Christians don't haveceremonies, and programs, and
rituals, and all the things thatthe non-Christians had that
(11:12):
"suppress"...
that's a careful word, it meansto push down, to mash down...
that suppress his actions.
In other words, Christians needto meet where they have complete
freedom to experience the powerof the Holy spirit.
And the Small Group Structure isthe only Organizational Design
(11:37):
that allows that kind ofpersonal freedom.
John (11:42):
That explains a lot, Owen.
And when you think about it...
as we started in our firstpodcast...
we were talking about how somany people have come away
saying that Christianity isboring, and not relevant, and
those types of things.
A nd w hen you stop and thinkabout it, how in the world-- if
(12:04):
the Holy Spirit was free to workand act-- there's no way we
would say something like that!So, we can see the truth of what
you're talking.
We're actually saying that theinformality, and the intimacy,
of the small group is thestructure and the design that
(12:27):
creates Spiritual growth.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Absolutely, John! And people don't think about it.
I remember a guy used to say afunny thing to me.
He used to say,"Don't you thinkGod is bigger than what we see
on Sunday morning?" And there'sa lot of truth to that little
saying.
John (12:46):
Isn't it, though! But on the other hand, Owen-- right?
-- if we look at it in reverse,are we saying then that the
formality of large groupmeetings, with rigid ceremonies,
programs, rituals, et cetera,are a design that-- I hate to
even say this-- actuallysuppresses Spiritual growth?
Owen (13:09):
Well, it is.
I mean, yes.
That's what we're saying.
And here's something a lot ofpeople don't think about, John.
The Small Group Design thatwe'll be talking about a lot in
this podcast, is the design thatthe Holy Spirit gave Christians
on the day that He foundedChristianity.
(13:32):
See, this came from God! Itdidn't come from Constantine or
other people.
And, God has never changed it!And more importantly, Christians
were never supposed to stopusing that meeting design.
John (13:50):
Uh, you know, Owen.
I'm thinking as you're sayingthat, Jesus Himself modeled
this.
He didn't choose 1,200 people.
Initially, He chose 12.
And he handpicked them.
So we're saying that Constantinecame along in the Fourth Century
(14:12):
and changed the OrganizationalDesign that was the only thing
that made Christians differentfrom non-Christians.
Owen (14:22):
That's true, as far as design.
Of course, there are many otherdifferences.
But, precisely that's true.
The Small Group Structure was--as we said-- the design that God
gave Christians.
And it was the only thing thatmade the Christian design
different from the non-Christiandesign.
So, when Constantine changedthat basic structure...
(14:45):
I'm answering your earlierquestion...
it was the most harmful actionthat he took against the Early
Christians.
And by the way, that's why ourfriends will be happy to know
that we're going to describe,and explain, and give examples,
and everything else, of howChristian small groups work, in
(15:07):
upcoming episodes.
John (15:09):
Right, Owen.
And we are.
And that is really, reallyimportant.
It's something that we havespent countless hours talking
about.
But let's go back to Constantinea minute.
I think it's important that weanswer this question: What did
he do to Christian small groups?
How did he change them?
Owen (15:31):
Well...
this is very, very interesting.
He just gradually suppressedthem with new laws.
You mentioned the 300 lawsearlier.
And the result of that was, thatover a period of the 25 years
that I mentioned, the smallgroups got weaker, and weaker in
(15:51):
the empire-- the entire RomanEmpire.
Worldwide, now remember we'retalking(about).
But then finally, Constantineeventually died.
And when he did, his followers--the emperors that followed him--
small groups were permanentlyoutlawed in the empire.
And think about this (16:10):
From that point forward, the late Four
Century, Christians caughtattending small groups were
subject to arrest, imprisonment,torture, and even execution.
John (16:26):
So this is a benchmark.
So, the key, really, toChristian Spirituality-- which
is the essence of what we're allabout-- the habit of meeting in
small groups was terminated inthe Fourth Century.
Owen (16:45):
Yeah.
You know...
they had a movie, I think, someyears ago, called"The
Terminator." Well, if anybodywas a"Terminator," it was
Constantine! But look, thatexplains why so many Christians
today(who) meet in small groupsare so few.
I should say, Christians today(who) meet in small groups-- as
(17:08):
their main form of worship!Think about this, now.
A lot of Christians meet insmall groups for things like
Bible study, and prayer, andSunday school.
But there are very fewChristians who meet in a small
group(of) six, eight, 10 people,as their main form of Sunday
worship!
John (17:27):
Yeah, it's kind of been looked at as an"add-on." That's
true from my experience.
A lot of us never thought ofthat.
Owen (17:36):
Well, that's right! Because today's Christians,
their main form of worship ismeeting in(large) groups, in
large buildings, watching largeceremonies, programs, and
rituals.
But you know what?
They're still obeyingConstantine's laws from the
Fourth Century.
John (17:56):
That's unbelievable, when you think about it, really.
But how was Constantinestrategically able to change the
worship habits of all theChristians, really, in the
entire Roman Empire at once?
Owen (18:11):
Yeah, you think about that! How do you change
something in the entire world?
Well, that was one of the powersof the Roman Empire.
It was centralized in Rome.
And it was centralized under theemperor.
But remember this too, he hadthe whole Roman army-- the most
powerful army on earth at thetime-- to enforce his laws.
(18:33):
But he didn't use it very often.
What he used is a technique thatdictators still use today.
It's called"gradualism." What hedid, he gradually chipped away
at Christians with little lawsspread out over a period of 25
years.
So, you really didn't noticethem that much.
(18:54):
Until finally, all of theselittle laws added up to a great
big fat change in the entireOrganizational Design of
Christianity in the entire RomanEmpire.
John (19:09):
Yeah.
What was the actual...
let's talk about what the firstthing(was) that Constantine did
to change the Christian smallgroup meetings throughout the
empire.
Owen (19:20):
Well, John.
I think this is going tosurprise(chuckles) a lot of
people.
But, just a couple of yearsafter Constantine came to power,
he started construction of thevery first Christian buildings
ever built.
You stop and think about it,John.
(19:41):
It's sort of funny.
A lot of people ride down thestreet of their hometown, and
they pass a lot of"churchbuildings." They assume that
that's how it was always done.
That Christians always had whata friend of mine calls"steeple
houses." But that is not true.
They didn't exist until theFourth Century.
And check this out.
(20:02):
He named those buildings"churches," a word that he
invented.
It didn't exist until the FourthCentury.
Then he passed a law requiringthose buildings to be open on a
day that he named-- hang on--"Sun Day."("The Day of the
Sun.") And that's another wordthat he invented.
(20:25):
And finally, he now made it lawfor all Christians t o-- quotes
--"Go to church on Sun Day." Inother words, all Christians had
to attend those buildings onthat day...
if they wanted to worshipwithout getting arrested.
And that's why today, 1,700years later, Christians still--
(20:54):
quotes--"Go to church on SunDay," instead of worshiping and
small groups in their homes.
John (21:02):
Yeah, Owen.
I'm glad I'm already sittingdown.
(Laughter.) After hearing thatagain, it's incredible.
I mean, it really is! You canactually begin to put the pieces
together, and how things beganto unravel.
But I bet very few people knowthese historical facts.
They're shocking.
Owen (21:24):
Well...
they are.
But as we promised our friendsat the start of the podcast, the
purpose of these episodes is toexplain the root cause of
today's Christian crisis.
And to explain what to do aboutit.
Well, now we know the rootcause.
(21:45):
And the root cause of today'scrisis is Constantine coming to
power 1,700 years ago, andredesigning Christianity.
John (21:57):
Of course, he's the counterfeiter, isn't he!
Owen (22:00):
(Chuckles.) Yeah.
But listen, here's the GoodNews.
Now that we know the root cause,we can talk about what to do
about it.
John (22:09):
Yeah...
that is desperately important.
We've tried to make clear fromthe beginning that we're not
just here to talk aboutproblems.
But we're here ultimately totalk about solutions.
But in that context, I have aquestion.
The title of this episode is,"The Courthouses." And we all
(22:34):
have an image of that.
But what does that title mean?
What were the courthouses?
Owen (22:40):
That's a fascinating question, John! Let's summarize
what we've said so far, to putit in context.
First, number one...
we said that before Constantine,all Christians met in small
groups in private homes.
Number two...
we said that those meetings ofthose small groups were the key
(23:01):
to the peace, and healing, andhope, that the Early Christians
enjoyed.
And number three...
we said that all of this wasbecause the Small Group
Structure gave Christians thefreedom-- I want to emphasize
that word-- the freedom to haveSpiritual experiences.
John (23:22):
That's an excellent summary, Owen.
Owen (23:22):
Okay...
so...
but as we said, Constantinecomes along, and his plan for
the empire was that everyreligion be controlled the same
way.
And if the non-Christians hadtemples, then Constantine said,
(23:42):
okay, then Christians are goingto have temples too.
And so he designed, and planned,and built, the first Christian
buildings.
And by the way, they still standin Rome today.
I've been in them.
But let's say it again (23:59):
It was the Emperor Constantine who
designed, planned, and built,the world's first Christian
buildings.
Before him, there were nobuildings.
None have ever been found.
There are no ruins anywhere.
Because there were only smallgroup meetings in private homes.
John (24:19):
That's unbelievable, isn't it?
(Chuckles.) I wonder how manypeople realize that Christians
haven't-- that is, have not--always had buildings?
Obviously, that's such anemphasis(today).
Or that Christians never wantedto have buildings?
Owen (24:42):
Now, you know, that's a neat fact, John.
Because, think about it (24:44):
In 300 years and eight generations, if
the Christians had wanted to,they could have built buildings.
They knew how! They came fromtemples, after all.
Well...
no, but few people know thesefacts.
And we've all heard the oldsaying that goes something like
this,"Those who don't know thepast, are doomed to repeat it."
(25:08):
So, because so many Christiansdon't know who Constantine was,
or what he did, they'll keep onmeeting the way Constantine
mandated, until somebody tellsthem differently.
John (25:21):
And that's why we're producing this podcast! We're
here with Good News-- the BestNews! News of a solution to tell
them differently.
Owen (25:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean...
I hope so.
That's what keeps us up atnight.
But now, let's answer yourspecific question.
Let's get back to the title ofthis episode.
What were the"courthouses"?
Here's the answer (25:47):
When Constantine designed his first
Christian buildings, he designedthem in a very special way.
He designed them as Christian--excuse me-- as Roman
courthouses.
John (26:02):
Wow, that is so interesting! And so, what was
his motive behind that?
Owen (26:08):
Well, look at it this way.
As a frame of reference (26:11):
In that day, non-Christian temples were
designed either round, orsquare.
But, Constantine designed hisfirst Christian buildings in a
rectangular shape.
Think of a shoe box...
a long, narrow shape.
(26:31):
They were long buildings.
And you went up a flight of widesteps in front.
And then you went into anentrance lobby.
And then you went and opened bigdoors, and you went into a long,
narrow room, that had a centeraisle.
And then you went down thatcenter aisle, and in the front
(26:52):
of the room was a big platform.
And on that platform, was sometables, and chairs, and other
equipment.
John (26:59):
Yeah, you know, I think it was Churchill that said,"We
shape our buildings, and thenour buildings shape us."(Winston
Churchill said this in Englandin 1943.) That(design) sounds
like a typical church buildingtoday.
In fact, it sounds like the--quote, end quote-- the"church
building" I grew up in.
Owen (27:16):
Absolutely! And me, too.
And why?
Because 1,700 years after thefact, Christians are still using
Constantine's Fourth Centurydesign for their buildings.
And well...
(27:36):
I think let's take a breath, andslow down a second.
And think about this (27:39):
Notice that Constantine, as we said,
did not design his buildingslike the non-Christian temples.
They weren't round.
They weren't square.
They were rectangular.
And so, we ask ourselves, whydid he do that?
John (27:56):
I know he had a reason!
Owen (27:58):
Yes, and that was a very clear reason.
As we already said, he did itbecause that's the shape of a
Roman courthouse.
Let me put it this way.
He actually built courthousesfor the Christians! And then he
made it a law that they had tomeet in those courthouses as
(28:20):
their place of worship.
Why do we think he did that?
John (28:24):
Owen, I can only think of one logical reason.
Courthouses are intimidating tothe average person.
People tend to avoid them, ifpossible.
So meeting in courthouses wouldhave that effect.
It would be intimidating to theEarly Christians.
Owen (28:45):
Bingo.
That's the reason, John!Remember, that you asked earlier
what was Constantine's motive?
His motive, his goal, was tosuppress Christian Spirituality.
He wanted to bring it to heel,the same way the non-Christian
religions had been brought toheel.
(29:06):
And so, this is interesting, hisbuildings were not even called
"churches" until several yearslater.
For the first few years-- checkthis out-- they were called
"basilicas." And the word"basilica" is a Latin word.
And guess what it means! Itmeans"royal court"! So, imagine
(29:31):
how these Early Christians--remember now, some of them were
illiterate...
they were children...
they were slaves...
they were women-- imagine howthey felt, when they were told,
by the army and whoever, thatthey had to start meeting in the
royal court instead of theirhome.
(29:52):
We can feel the intimidationthat they must have felt.
And that was his first big steptoward suppressing the free and
informal small group worship ofthe Early Christians.
John (30:06):
Ah, you can't make this stuff up! It's unbelievable.
Constantine was clever in anevil sort of way.
But, we said that the buildings,the basilicas-- is that right,
Owen-- the basilica facility wasonly his first step.
Unfortunately, there are otherthings he did to suppress the
(30:30):
Early Christians.
Owen (30:32):
Yeah, bad news, John.
Like we said, he did that(with)over 300 new laws over a 25-year
period.
So he did a lot.
And his changes were many.
And they were so deep, really,that we can't cover them in this
brief podcast episode.
But, our friends need toremember that we explain all of
(30:53):
this fully in Chapter 4 of thebook, Saving Christianity.
We can't get into that detailhere.
But let's do this (31:01):
We promised at the start of the episode to
talk about Constantine's fivemost harmful actions.
And we've already talked aboutthe first three.
But let's list all five of themquickly.
We'll add the other two at thebottom of the list.
The first big change that hemade was to build the first
(31:23):
Christian buildings, thebasilicas.
And he designed them like Romancourthouses, and made it the law
that Christians had to go therefor worship.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
xxxThen xxx secondly, he eventually created the name
church and gave that name to thebuildings.
And that's why we use that wordtoday.
Right?
We'll come back to this, by theway, John, in a later episode,
number three, he named the firstday of the week, the day of the
(31:54):
sun.
And what did that mean?
He passed that as a law thatChristians had to worship that
day.
The reason he did that, hewanted Christians hanging on to
be sun God worshipers.
That was his motive.
So that was the day they had toworship.
It will.
Over the years, this longphrase, the day of the sun, or
(32:15):
originally it was the venerableday of the sun was shortened to
sun day.
And today we call it Sunday.
Constantine was the high priestof the sun, God religion.
And he did his best.
He fail, but he came close tomaking Christianity, a sun, God
(32:37):
worshiping religion.
Fourth Constantine created a newgroup of Royal priests to run
his new Christian buildings.
But check this out.
He gave them the legal authorityof Roman judges and he created a
name for him.
He called them the clergy,another name that he invented.
(33:01):
And so Christians had to abatethose priests because they had
the power of judges and thatfurther intimidated of men.
Finally, we'll stop with thisone.
Constantine created the cross asthe main Christian symbol.
Think about it.
The cross was not an originalChristian symbol.
(33:23):
We've mentioned symbology andearlier episodes, but just to
cover the base, there is noevidence ever been discovered
anywhere of a cross as aChristian symbol before the
middle of the four century.
And researchers think that thecross originated from the
(33:46):
mysterious plus sign thatConstantine had in his dream.
We mentioned that in an earlierepisode and he had that
installed and the upraised handof the giant statue that he put
in the center of Rome and peoplethink that was the beginning of
the cross.
We do remember from an earlierepisode that the original
(34:11):
Christian symbol was the fish, adiagram of a fish.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Oh.
And, uh, needless to say, theseare deeply disturbing facts.
Uh, they should shock and enrageactually the average Christian,
but uh, beyond that, where doall these actions by Constantine
leave us?
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Yeah.
Where do they leave?
Well, I think they leave us witha deed, uh, to do what we talk
about in the book, uh, savingChristianity and that is get
back to the basics.
We need to sidestep everythingthat has happened to Christian
since the fourth century.
(34:58):
And we need to mentally jumpback over all of those centuries
and get our heads back.
And the first three centuries ofChristian history and start
doing what they did in thosecenturies.
And that's what we call gettingback to the base.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
And that is actually extreme.
It's fascinating, but, uh, howlet's let our friends know, uh,
how we can do that,
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Huh?
Well, the first step I think isto understand how the early
Christians really lived met.
And, and that's why we'redigging up all of these
historical facts and what we'recalling our time capsule.
We talked about that so much inepisode one and a little bit in
(35:49):
episode two, but the second stepis to start thinking, meeting
and worshiping the way the earlyChristians did, because as we so
often say, if we do what theydid, we'll have what they had.
If we do what they did, we'llhave what they had.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Yeah.
But how can canoe today?
How can Christians find out whatthe early Christians did?
I mean, find it out, uh, in away clear enough to start doing
what?
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Well, obviously it takes a little time and a little
commitment.
People must want spiritualgrowth enough to pursue it.
But then after that, John,anybody can do three things.
First.
They can read the book, savingChristianity, the second they
(36:49):
can subscribe to and listen tothis podcast.
And third, they can read thetrue stories on my blog about
the Christians who are livingthe early Christian lifestyle.
Yeah,
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Totally agree.
And most importantly, uh, all ofus can start praying for the
Holy spirit to guide us each day
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Each and every day.
Absolutely.
That's most important of allcalls.
The Holy spirit think about thisis the same today as he was in
the first century.
Yeah.
Think about that.
He has a changed, and that meansthat Chris, Janet D works
(37:36):
exactly the same way today as itdid in the first century.
So that leaves us with one bigfat question to add, sir, John,
as we come toward the end ofthis episode, why is
Christianity in crisis today?
(37:56):
And the answer simple back inthe four century, Christians
were forced against their willto stop meeting in small groups
and their homes and to stopbeing guided by the Holy spirit.
They were forced to startmeeting and large groups and
large buildings where they wereforced to watch preplanned
(38:19):
ceremonies, programs, andrituals.
And over time, 25 years or more,those changes eventually
suppressed and basically killedearly Christian spirituality.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
We're going to talk about this more, but, uh, it's
almost overwhelming.
It was turned in from life to,to an institution and we have a
lot of ground to make up today.
Don't we?
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Yeah, we do a lot of ground Jamaica.
The good news is we're gonnamake it.
And however, John, I'm lookingat the big clock on the wall now
and it's time to close episodefive.
And the next episode, we'regoing to start talking about how
to make up this lost groundthat, that Christians have lost
(39:10):
since the fourth century.
So I'm thinking that episode sixis going to be an exciting one.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Certainly as Bay, we desperately need to know how to
overcome what Constantine did toChristianity.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, I'll tell you what let'sdo then, John, right now let's
close this episode bysummarizing Constantine's
legacy.
If that's right.
I'm not sure that's a good word.
Constantine's legacy to Chris,Janet Dean to do that.
Let me read a few sentences atright at the end of chapter four
(39:49):
of the book saving Chris, Janet.
Yeah.
That's perfect.
Go and go for it.
Okay.
These, these lines are right atthe end of chapter four and
we're summarizing here.
What happened in the fourthcentury after Constantine died
and I quote after Constantine'sdeath and the late fourth
(40:12):
century, the emperor whofollowed him developed choirs
and chants, incense and candles,mass quotes, Sarah bonus, other
words, communion ceremonies, theuse of sermons by professional
speakers, the habit of lettingthe clergy make all
(40:35):
congregational decisions behindclosed doors.
And most importantly, we alreadymentioned this.
They outlawed small groups andprivate homes.
Uh, and as we'll see, uh, allabout that more clearly in a
later episode,
Speaker 2 (40:54):
It's, uh, uh, factually correct that, uh,
about everything that we callChristian today actually came
from Constantine.
It didn't come from the earlyChristians
Speaker 3 (41:08):
[inaudible] that's right.
Well, tragically.
I mean, I use that wordcarefully.
It's it's a, uh, absolutetragedy.
Yeah.
Well, John, probably by now ourfriends who were listening, uh,
probably asking themselves twoquestions.
How much of what I know aboutChristianity actually came from
(41:31):
Constantine and not from theearly Christians.
And if, if a lot of what I knowcame from Constantine and not
from the early Christians, howmuch has that suppressed my
spiritual growth.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Right.
And I think, Oh, and just frommy own experience, it's going to
take, uh, uh, some openness andsome courage to go there.
Um, but I can see that episodesix is going to be a big help to
our friends and starting to growspiritually.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Right.
And let's just remind ourfriends as we leave that this is
episode five and our podcast andthat a script and recording of
it, or@cfopods.com on theinternet, C F O P O D S CFO,
pods.com on the internet.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Also, we hope that you will subscribe to this
podcast and that you'll read thebook, savy Christianity
Speaker 3 (42:37):
That's right.
But for now this is Owen
Speaker 2 (42:41):
And this is John Shields with our producer,
Shannon
Speaker 3 (42:44):
Saying, may the God of our fathers bless you and
keep you and guide you andprotect you.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
[inaudible].
John Shields opens the episode by saying
once again, my friends! Andwelcome to Episode 05 of the
"Saving Christianity" podcastfrom Christian Family Online.
(00:23):
And I want to thank you here atthe beginning today, for tuning
in with us on our podcast.
Maybe this is your first time.
Maybe you've been listeningevery time.
Whatever the case is, we're gladthat you're here.
I'm your host, John Shields.
And we are continuing ourdiscussion of Saving
Christianity, a book that showsus how to have more peace,
(00:47):
healing, and hope.
And I'm sure I don't know anyonethat doesn't want more of that
in(his or her) life.
Now today, this episode iscalled"The Courthouses." Yes,
you heard me right.
"The Courthouses." We're goingto tell the rest of the shocking
story-- and that's not anunderstatement-- of the Roman
(01:10):
emperor, Constantine, and how hesuppressed Christianity in the
Fourth Century.
And as we saw previously, hechanged the structure of
Christianity from a Spiritualdesign, to a non-spiritual
design, as part of his overallplan.
(01:33):
It was to be the Supreme Emperorof a United Roman kingdom.
But, before we go any further,let's pause to introduce-- by
now you know-- my best friendand co- host of the podcast,
Owen Allen.
Owen, why don't you welcome ourfriends?
Owen (01:51):
Glad to, John! Nothing makes me happier than talking to
our friends.
That's why we're here! You know,I was thinking driving in, I
miss the studio when we're nothere recording-- with our
producer, Shannon Wolfe, behindthe sound board, and all of his
equipment.
You know-- and I can tell youthis too, John-- I'm deeply
(02:13):
gratified by the acceptance thatour podcast episodes are
receiving, not only in the U.S.,but around the world.
And you know, that's a very,very important thing.
Because as I said, that's whywe're here! That's what we feel
like we need to do! And it'sjust very exciting for all three
(02:35):
of us to be here at the studioagain.
John (02:39):
Yeah, Owen, I am too.
And it's wonderful.
And I'm just glad that we'reable to be a part of this.
Owen (02:47):
Well, that's right! "Wonderful" doesn't cover it!
(Chuckles.) But...
and I want to say something elsetoo, John...
and to Shannon.
I think these episodes aboutConstantine are some of the most
valuable episodes we'll ever do.
And I'll tell you why.
Because if most of the peopleout there hearing us at this
(03:09):
moment are like we were, andlike I was, very few people know
anything about Constantine.
Maybe they've heard his name.
But very few understand what heactually did to Early
Christianity.
John (03:24):
Owen, I couldn't agree more! That's certainly my
experience as well.
And it's incredibly importantfor people to know the truth
about Constantine.
And actually to know what he didto Christianity.
Because his story-- we're goingto see-- is the key to knowing
the cause of today's crisis inChristianity.
Owen (03:49):
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And it's a horrible thing-- andthat's a word I choose
carefully! But so, why don't we-- in this episode-- try to talk
about just five of the mostdamaging actions that
Constantine took against theEarly Christians in the Fourth
Century.
(04:10):
And you know, John, if ourfriends need to review-- want to
review-- Episode 04, where weintroduced Constantine last
time.
They know they can do that bygoing to CFOpods.com on the
Internet.
That's C-F-O-P-O-D-S.com on theInternet.
(04:30):
And that'll take them right tothe correct page on our website
to review all of those episodes.
But, let's settle down and thinkabout the rest of Constantine's
story.
First of all, we know that heworked for 25 years-- that was a
long time in those days-- toredesign Christianity.
(04:55):
And frankly,"redesigned" is apolite word.
The truth is, he devastated theSpirituality of Christians so
completely...
think about this a minute...
Christian Spirituality is stillrare today among today's
Christians!
John (05:13):
Yeah, and when I hear you say that, Owen, and every time I
think about that, I'm shocked byit, really.
But I also know that it's truein all of my experiences down
through the years.
Well, moving along to get usstarted, we know that
Constantine passed more than 300-- that's right-- 300 laws to
(05:37):
regulate and control the EarlyChristians.
But, I think it begs thequestion, which of those laws
was the most harmful to them?
Owen (05:48):
Wow, John, that's a great question! That gets right to the
heart of the problem! But let'sanswer it.
Here's the answer (05:55):
Our friends will remember that for the first
three centuries of EarlyChristianity-- that would be
about the first eightgenerations of the early
Christians-- all Christiansworshiped informally in small
groups in private homes.
(06:16):
And let's repeat that.
All Christians worshipedinformally in small groups in
private homes.
That was what we call theirOrganizational Design, or
Organizational Structure.
We're going to talk about that alot in this episode.
But, that was the key to theiramazing Spirituality.
(06:39):
So, since they had that design,here we go: The most harmful
action that Constantine took wasthe one he took against
Christian small groups.
And another thing, as a sidebar.
Let's remember that theChristian Small groups were
unique in the Roman empire.
(07:00):
None of the other religions inthe empire met in small groups.
How did they meet?
They met in large groups, inlarge temples.
For example, the sun godreligion, one of the official
religions of Rome-- and thereligion in which Constantine
(07:20):
was the high priest-- theydidn't worship in small groups.
And neither did the severalhundred other non-Christian
religions in the empire.
John (07:33):
Ah, well that's an amazing fact! And I just say to our
listeners, stay with us now, aswe move through each of these
facts.
And they are so, so important.
So next, let's tell our friendswhy worshiping in small groups
was so important.
Owen (07:53):
Well...
as we said...
these Christian small groups--that was the key to their
Spirituality.
As I said, we call that theirOrganizational Design.
And that's what created theamazing peace, and healing, and
hope, and miracles, that theearly Christians enjoyed.
John (08:14):
Yeah, Owen.
Our listeners may or may notknow that I've been a trained
pastor for-- in a traditionalsense-- for over 30, or right at
30 years.
And this actually a revelationto me.
As we've been embarked on thisjourney, this quest, as we
(08:38):
started out, that's true.
And just like me, I have afeeling that our listeners may
not know how small groupmeetings actually did that.
Owen (08:53):
Well...
there's a basic principle...
if you stop and think about it...
it's very logical.
As we so often say,"God is alogical Person." The principle
is this (09:03):
Meeting in small groups in private homes is quicker,
easier, safer, cheaper, moreconfidential, more convenient,
and more intimate, and-- mostimportantly-- more Spiritual,
(09:24):
than meeting in large audiencesin large buildings.
John (09:29):
And obviously, there are reasons for that! I bet a lot of
people never thought about thisfact from history.
Owen (09:37):
No, probably not.
Well, let's try and explain it alittle more completely, then, by
asking a question.
Here's the question (09:44):
Why did the Early Christians meet in the
first place?
What was the point?
Have you ever thought aboutthat?
Why did they meet in thoseancient times, in their little
stone homes, and what was thepoint of it?
See, they didn't meet for thereasons that non-Christians met.
(10:05):
Why did the non-Christians meet?
To obey their priests.
To make burnt offerings.
To have drunken banquets.
To have ceremonial parades.
To have ritual orgies.
But the Christians?
They didn't meet for any ofthose reasons! They met to
experience the power of peace,healing, and hope, from the Holy
(10:29):
Spirit.
They met to let the Holy Spiritwork through them with
supernatural guidance, miracles,and Spiritual growth.
And none of the non-Christianreligions met for any of those
reasons.
John (10:45):
Wow, that is a very, very powerful fact of history.
Owen (10:52):
Well, I think it's the most powerful thing on earth.
But here here's the point, John.
The Holy Spirit-- hold on!-- isonly free to act, when
Christians don't haveceremonies, and programs, and
rituals, and all the things thatthe non-Christians had that
(11:12):
"suppress"...
that's a careful word, it meansto push down, to mash down...
that suppress his actions.
In other words, Christians needto meet where they have complete
freedom to experience the powerof the Holy spirit.
And the Small Group Structure isthe only Organizational Design
(11:37):
that allows that kind ofpersonal freedom.
John (11:42):
That explains a lot, Owen.
And when you think about it...
as we started in our firstpodcast...
we were talking about how somany people have come away
saying that Christianity isboring, and not relevant, and
those types of things.
A nd w hen you stop and thinkabout it, how in the world-- if
(12:04):
the Holy Spirit was free to workand act-- there's no way we
would say something like that!So, we can see the truth of what
you're talking.
We're actually saying that theinformality, and the intimacy,
of the small group is thestructure and the design that
(12:27):
creates Spiritual growth.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Absolutely, John! And people don't think about it.
I remember a guy used to say afunny thing to me.
He used to say,"Don't you thinkGod is bigger than what we see
on Sunday morning?" And there'sa lot of truth to that little
saying.
John (12:46):
Isn't it, though! But on the other hand, Owen-- right?
-- if we look at it in reverse,are we saying then that the
formality of large groupmeetings, with rigid ceremonies,
programs, rituals, et cetera,are a design that-- I hate to
even say this-- actuallysuppresses Spiritual growth?
Owen (13:09):
Well, it is.
I mean, yes.
That's what we're saying.
And here's something a lot ofpeople don't think about, John.
The Small Group Design thatwe'll be talking about a lot in
this podcast, is the design thatthe Holy Spirit gave Christians
on the day that He foundedChristianity.
(13:32):
See, this came from God! Itdidn't come from Constantine or
other people.
And, God has never changed it!And more importantly, Christians
were never supposed to stopusing that meeting design.
John (13:50):
Uh, you know, Owen.
I'm thinking as you're sayingthat, Jesus Himself modeled
this.
He didn't choose 1,200 people.
Initially, He chose 12.
And he handpicked them.
So we're saying that Constantinecame along in the Fourth Century
(14:12):
and changed the OrganizationalDesign that was the only thing
that made Christians differentfrom non-Christians.
Owen (14:22):
That's true, as far as design.
Of course, there are many otherdifferences.
But, precisely that's true.
The Small Group Structure was--as we said-- the design that God
gave Christians.
And it was the only thing thatmade the Christian design
different from the non-Christiandesign.
So, when Constantine changedthat basic structure...
(14:45):
I'm answering your earlierquestion...
it was the most harmful actionthat he took against the Early
Christians.
And by the way, that's why ourfriends will be happy to know
that we're going to describe,and explain, and give examples,
and everything else, of howChristian small groups work, in
(15:07):
upcoming episodes.
John (15:09):
Right, Owen.
And we are.
And that is really, reallyimportant.
It's something that we havespent countless hours talking
about.
But let's go back to Constantinea minute.
I think it's important that weanswer this question: What did
he do to Christian small groups?
How did he change them?
Owen (15:31):
Well...
this is very, very interesting.
He just gradually suppressedthem with new laws.
You mentioned the 300 lawsearlier.
And the result of that was, thatover a period of the 25 years
that I mentioned, the smallgroups got weaker, and weaker in
(15:51):
the empire-- the entire RomanEmpire.
Worldwide, now remember we'retalking(about).
But then finally, Constantineeventually died.
And when he did, his followers--the emperors that followed him--
small groups were permanentlyoutlawed in the empire.
And think about this (16:10):
From that point forward, the late Four
Century, Christians caughtattending small groups were
subject to arrest, imprisonment,torture, and even execution.
John (16:26):
So this is a benchmark.
So, the key, really, toChristian Spirituality-- which
is the essence of what we're allabout-- the habit of meeting in
small groups was terminated inthe Fourth Century.
Owen (16:45):
Yeah.
You know...
they had a movie, I think, someyears ago, called"The
Terminator." Well, if anybodywas a"Terminator," it was
Constantine! But look, thatexplains why so many Christians
today(who) meet in small groupsare so few.
I should say, Christians today(who) meet in small groups-- as
(17:08):
their main form of worship!Think about this, now.
A lot of Christians meet insmall groups for things like
Bible study, and prayer, andSunday school.
But there are very fewChristians who meet in a small
group(of) six, eight, 10 people,as their main form of Sunday
worship!
John (17:27):
Yeah, it's kind of been looked at as an"add-on." That's
true from my experience.
A lot of us never thought ofthat.
Owen (17:36):
Well, that's right! Because today's Christians,
their main form of worship ismeeting in(large) groups, in
large buildings, watching largeceremonies, programs, and
rituals.
But you know what?
They're still obeyingConstantine's laws from the
Fourth Century.
John (17:56):
That's unbelievable, when you think about it, really.
But how was Constantinestrategically able to change the
worship habits of all theChristians, really, in the
entire Roman Empire at once?
Owen (18:11):
Yeah, you think about that! How do you change
something in the entire world?
Well, that was one of the powersof the Roman Empire.
It was centralized in Rome.
And it was centralized under theemperor.
But remember this too, he hadthe whole Roman army-- the most
powerful army on earth at thetime-- to enforce his laws.
(18:33):
But he didn't use it very often.
What he used is a technique thatdictators still use today.
It's called"gradualism." What hedid, he gradually chipped away
at Christians with little lawsspread out over a period of 25
years.
So, you really didn't noticethem that much.
(18:54):
Until finally, all of theselittle laws added up to a great
big fat change in the entireOrganizational Design of
Christianity in the entire RomanEmpire.
John (19:09):
Yeah.
What was the actual...
let's talk about what the firstthing(was) that Constantine did
to change the Christian smallgroup meetings throughout the
empire.
Owen (19:20):
Well, John.
I think this is going tosurprise(chuckles) a lot of
people.
But, just a couple of yearsafter Constantine came to power,
he started construction of thevery first Christian buildings
ever built.
You stop and think about it,John.
(19:41):
It's sort of funny.
A lot of people ride down thestreet of their hometown, and
they pass a lot of"churchbuildings." They assume that
that's how it was always done.
That Christians always had whata friend of mine calls"steeple
houses." But that is not true.
They didn't exist until theFourth Century.
And check this out.
(20:02):
He named those buildings"churches," a word that he
invented.
It didn't exist until the FourthCentury.
Then he passed a law requiringthose buildings to be open on a
day that he named-- hang on--"Sun Day."("The Day of the
Sun.") And that's another wordthat he invented.
(20:25):
And finally, he now made it lawfor all Christians t o-- quotes
--"Go to church on Sun Day." Inother words, all Christians had
to attend those buildings onthat day...
if they wanted to worshipwithout getting arrested.
And that's why today, 1,700years later, Christians still--
(20:54):
quotes--"Go to church on SunDay," instead of worshiping and
small groups in their homes.
John (21:02):
Yeah, Owen.
I'm glad I'm already sittingdown.
(Laughter.) After hearing thatagain, it's incredible.
I mean, it really is! You canactually begin to put the pieces
together, and how things beganto unravel.
But I bet very few people knowthese historical facts.
They're shocking.
Owen (21:24):
Well...
they are.
But as we promised our friendsat the start of the podcast, the
purpose of these episodes is toexplain the root cause of
today's Christian crisis.
And to explain what to do aboutit.
Well, now we know the rootcause.
(21:45):
And the root cause of today'scrisis is Constantine coming to
power 1,700 years ago, andredesigning Christianity.
John (21:57):
Of course, he's the counterfeiter, isn't he!
Owen (22:00):
(Chuckles.) Yeah.
But listen, here's the GoodNews.
Now that we know the root cause,we can talk about what to do
about it.
John (22:09):
Yeah...
that is desperately important.
We've tried to make clear fromthe beginning that we're not
just here to talk aboutproblems.
But we're here ultimately totalk about solutions.
But in that context, I have aquestion.
The title of this episode is,"The Courthouses." And we all
(22:34):
have an image of that.
But what does that title mean?
What were the courthouses?
Owen (22:40):
That's a fascinating question, John! Let's summarize
what we've said so far, to putit in context.
First, number one...
we said that before Constantine,all Christians met in small
groups in private homes.
Number two...
we said that those meetings ofthose small groups were the key
(23:01):
to the peace, and healing, andhope, that the Early Christians
enjoyed.
And number three...
we said that all of this wasbecause the Small Group
Structure gave Christians thefreedom-- I want to emphasize
that word-- the freedom to haveSpiritual experiences.
John (23:22):
That's an excellent summary, Owen.
Owen (23:22):
Okay...
so...
but as we said, Constantinecomes along, and his plan for
the empire was that everyreligion be controlled the same
way.
And if the non-Christians hadtemples, then Constantine said,
(23:42):
okay, then Christians are goingto have temples too.
And so he designed, and planned,and built, the first Christian
buildings.
And by the way, they still standin Rome today.
I've been in them.
But let's say it again (23:59):
It was the Emperor Constantine who
designed, planned, and built,the world's first Christian
buildings.
Before him, there were nobuildings.
None have ever been found.
There are no ruins anywhere.
Because there were only smallgroup meetings in private homes.
John (24:19):
That's unbelievable, isn't it?
(Chuckles.) I wonder how manypeople realize that Christians
haven't-- that is, have not--always had buildings?
Obviously, that's such anemphasis(today).
Or that Christians never wantedto have buildings?
Owen (24:42):
Now, you know, that's a neat fact, John.
Because, think about it (24:44):
In 300 years and eight generations, if
the Christians had wanted to,they could have built buildings.
They knew how! They came fromtemples, after all.
Well...
no, but few people know thesefacts.
And we've all heard the oldsaying that goes something like
this,"Those who don't know thepast, are doomed to repeat it."
(25:08):
So, because so many Christiansdon't know who Constantine was,
or what he did, they'll keep onmeeting the way Constantine
mandated, until somebody tellsthem differently.
John (25:21):
And that's why we're producing this podcast! We're
here with Good News-- the BestNews! News of a solution to tell
them differently.
Owen (25:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean...
I hope so.
That's what keeps us up atnight.
But now, let's answer yourspecific question.
Let's get back to the title ofthis episode.
What were the"courthouses"?
Here's the answer (25:47):
When Constantine designed his first
Christian buildings, he designedthem in a very special way.
He designed them as Christian--excuse me-- as Roman
courthouses.
John (26:02):
Wow, that is so interesting! And so, what was
his motive behind that?
Owen (26:08):
Well, look at it this way.
As a frame of reference (26:11):
In that day, non-Christian temples were
designed either round, orsquare.
But, Constantine designed hisfirst Christian buildings in a
rectangular shape.
Think of a shoe box...
a long, narrow shape.
(26:31):
They were long buildings.
And you went up a flight of widesteps in front.
And then you went into anentrance lobby.
And then you went and opened bigdoors, and you went into a long,
narrow room, that had a centeraisle.
And then you went down thatcenter aisle, and in the front
(26:52):
of the room was a big platform.
And on that platform, was sometables, and chairs, and other
equipment.
John (26:59):
Yeah, you know, I think it was Churchill that said,"We
shape our buildings, and thenour buildings shape us."(Winston
Churchill said this in Englandin 1943.) That(design) sounds
like a typical church buildingtoday.
In fact, it sounds like the--quote, end quote-- the"church
building" I grew up in.
Owen (27:16):
Absolutely! And me, too.
And why?
Because 1,700 years after thefact, Christians are still using
Constantine's Fourth Centurydesign for their buildings.
And well...
(27:36):
I think let's take a breath, andslow down a second.
And think about this (27:39):
Notice that Constantine, as we said,
did not design his buildingslike the non-Christian temples.
They weren't round.
They weren't square.
They were rectangular.
And so, we ask ourselves, whydid he do that?
John (27:56):
I know he had a reason!
Owen (27:58):
Yes, and that was a very clear reason.
As we already said, he did itbecause that's the shape of a
Roman courthouse.
Let me put it this way.
He actually built courthousesfor the Christians! And then he
made it a law that they had tomeet in those courthouses as
(28:20):
their place of worship.
Why do we think he did that?
John (28:24):
Owen, I can only think of one logical reason.
Courthouses are intimidating tothe average person.
People tend to avoid them, ifpossible.
So meeting in courthouses wouldhave that effect.
It would be intimidating to theEarly Christians.
Owen (28:45):
Bingo.
That's the reason, John!Remember, that you asked earlier
what was Constantine's motive?
His motive, his goal, was tosuppress Christian Spirituality.
He wanted to bring it to heel,the same way the non-Christian
religions had been brought toheel.
(29:06):
And so, this is interesting, hisbuildings were not even called
"churches" until several yearslater.
For the first few years-- checkthis out-- they were called
"basilicas." And the word"basilica" is a Latin word.
And guess what it means! Itmeans"royal court"! So, imagine
(29:31):
how these Early Christians--remember now, some of them were
illiterate...
they were children...
they were slaves...
they were women-- imagine howthey felt, when they were told,
by the army and whoever, thatthey had to start meeting in the
royal court instead of theirhome.
(29:52):
We can feel the intimidationthat they must have felt.
And that was his first big steptoward suppressing the free and
informal small group worship ofthe Early Christians.
John (30:06):
Ah, you can't make this stuff up! It's unbelievable.
Constantine was clever in anevil sort of way.
But, we said that the buildings,the basilicas-- is that right,
Owen-- the basilica facility wasonly his first step.
Unfortunately, there are otherthings he did to suppress the
(30:30):
Early Christians.
Owen (30:32):
Yeah, bad news, John.
Like we said, he did that(with)over 300 new laws over a 25-year
period.
So he did a lot.
And his changes were many.
And they were so deep, really,that we can't cover them in this
brief podcast episode.
But, our friends need toremember that we explain all of
(30:53):
this fully in Chapter 4 of thebook, Saving Christianity.
We can't get into that detailhere.
But let's do this (31:01):
We promised at the start of the episode to
talk about Constantine's fivemost harmful actions.
And we've already talked aboutthe first three.
But let's list all five of themquickly.
We'll add the other two at thebottom of the list.
The first big change that hemade was to build the first
(31:23):
Christian buildings, thebasilicas.
And he designed them like Romancourthouses, and made it the law
that Christians had to go therefor worship.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
xxxThen xxx secondly, he eventually created the name
church and gave that name to thebuildings.
And that's why we use that wordtoday.
Right?
We'll come back to this, by theway, John, in a later episode,
number three, he named the firstday of the week, the day of the
(31:54):
sun.
And what did that mean?
He passed that as a law thatChristians had to worship that
day.
The reason he did that, hewanted Christians hanging on to
be sun God worshipers.
That was his motive.
So that was the day they had toworship.
It will.
Over the years, this longphrase, the day of the sun, or
(32:15):
originally it was the venerableday of the sun was shortened to
sun day.
And today we call it Sunday.
Constantine was the high priestof the sun, God religion.
And he did his best.
He fail, but he came close tomaking Christianity, a sun, God
(32:37):
worshiping religion.
Fourth Constantine created a newgroup of Royal priests to run
his new Christian buildings.
But check this out.
He gave them the legal authorityof Roman judges and he created a
name for him.
He called them the clergy,another name that he invented.
(33:01):
And so Christians had to abatethose priests because they had
the power of judges and thatfurther intimidated of men.
Finally, we'll stop with thisone.
Constantine created the cross asthe main Christian symbol.
Think about it.
The cross was not an originalChristian symbol.
(33:23):
We've mentioned symbology andearlier episodes, but just to
cover the base, there is noevidence ever been discovered
anywhere of a cross as aChristian symbol before the
middle of the four century.
And researchers think that thecross originated from the
(33:46):
mysterious plus sign thatConstantine had in his dream.
We mentioned that in an earlierepisode and he had that
installed and the upraised handof the giant statue that he put
in the center of Rome and peoplethink that was the beginning of
the cross.
We do remember from an earlierepisode that the original
(34:11):
Christian symbol was the fish, adiagram of a fish.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Oh.
And, uh, needless to say, theseare deeply disturbing facts.
Uh, they should shock and enrageactually the average Christian,
but uh, beyond that, where doall these actions by Constantine
leave us?
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Yeah.
Where do they leave?
Well, I think they leave us witha deed, uh, to do what we talk
about in the book, uh, savingChristianity and that is get
back to the basics.
We need to sidestep everythingthat has happened to Christian
since the fourth century.
(34:58):
And we need to mentally jumpback over all of those centuries
and get our heads back.
And the first three centuries ofChristian history and start
doing what they did in thosecenturies.
And that's what we call gettingback to the base.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
And that is actually extreme.
It's fascinating, but, uh, howlet's let our friends know, uh,
how we can do that,
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Huh?
Well, the first step I think isto understand how the early
Christians really lived met.
And, and that's why we'redigging up all of these
historical facts and what we'recalling our time capsule.
We talked about that so much inepisode one and a little bit in
(35:49):
episode two, but the second stepis to start thinking, meeting
and worshiping the way the earlyChristians did, because as we so
often say, if we do what theydid, we'll have what they had.
If we do what they did, we'llhave what they had.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Yeah.
But how can canoe today?
How can Christians find out whatthe early Christians did?
I mean, find it out, uh, in away clear enough to start doing
what?
Speaker 3 (36:29):
Well, obviously it takes a little time and a little
commitment.
People must want spiritualgrowth enough to pursue it.
But then after that, John,anybody can do three things.
First.
They can read the book, savingChristianity, the second they
(36:49):
can subscribe to and listen tothis podcast.
And third, they can read thetrue stories on my blog about
the Christians who are livingthe early Christian lifestyle.
Yeah,
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Totally agree.
And most importantly, uh, all ofus can start praying for the
Holy spirit to guide us each day
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Each and every day.
Absolutely.
That's most important of allcalls.
The Holy spirit think about thisis the same today as he was in
the first century.
Yeah.
Think about that.
He has a changed, and that meansthat Chris, Janet D works
(37:36):
exactly the same way today as itdid in the first century.
So that leaves us with one bigfat question to add, sir, John,
as we come toward the end ofthis episode, why is
Christianity in crisis today?
(37:56):
And the answer simple back inthe four century, Christians
were forced against their willto stop meeting in small groups
and their homes and to stopbeing guided by the Holy spirit.
They were forced to startmeeting and large groups and
large buildings where they wereforced to watch preplanned
(38:19):
ceremonies, programs, andrituals.
And over time, 25 years or more,those changes eventually
suppressed and basically killedearly Christian spirituality.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
We're going to talk about this more, but, uh, it's
almost overwhelming.
It was turned in from life to,to an institution and we have a
lot of ground to make up today.
Don't we?
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Yeah, we do a lot of ground Jamaica.
The good news is we're gonnamake it.
And however, John, I'm lookingat the big clock on the wall now
and it's time to close episodefive.
And the next episode, we'regoing to start talking about how
to make up this lost groundthat, that Christians have lost
(39:10):
since the fourth century.
So I'm thinking that episode sixis going to be an exciting one.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Certainly as Bay, we desperately need to know how to
overcome what Constantine did toChristianity.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, I'll tell you what let'sdo then, John, right now let's
close this episode bysummarizing Constantine's
legacy.
If that's right.
I'm not sure that's a good word.
Constantine's legacy to Chris,Janet Dean to do that.
Let me read a few sentences atright at the end of chapter four
(39:49):
of the book saving Chris, Janet.
Yeah.
That's perfect.
Go and go for it.
Okay.
These, these lines are right atthe end of chapter four and
we're summarizing here.
What happened in the fourthcentury after Constantine died
and I quote after Constantine'sdeath and the late fourth
(40:12):
century, the emperor whofollowed him developed choirs
and chants, incense and candles,mass quotes, Sarah bonus, other
words, communion ceremonies, theuse of sermons by professional
speakers, the habit of lettingthe clergy make all
(40:35):
congregational decisions behindclosed doors.
And most importantly, we alreadymentioned this.
They outlawed small groups andprivate homes.
Uh, and as we'll see, uh, allabout that more clearly in a
later episode,
Speaker 2 (40:54):
It's, uh, uh, factually correct that, uh,
about everything that we callChristian today actually came
from Constantine.
It didn't come from the earlyChristians
Speaker 3 (41:08):
[inaudible] that's right.
Well, tragically.
I mean, I use that wordcarefully.
It's it's a, uh, absolutetragedy.
Yeah.
Well, John, probably by now ourfriends who were listening, uh,
probably asking themselves twoquestions.
How much of what I know aboutChristianity actually came from
(41:31):
Constantine and not from theearly Christians.
And if, if a lot of what I knowcame from Constantine and not
from the early Christians, howmuch has that suppressed my
spiritual growth.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Right.
And I think, Oh, and just frommy own experience, it's going to
take, uh, uh, some openness andsome courage to go there.
Um, but I can see that episodesix is going to be a big help to
our friends and starting to growspiritually.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Right.
And let's just remind ourfriends as we leave that this is
episode five and our podcast andthat a script and recording of
it, or@cfopods.com on theinternet, C F O P O D S CFO,
pods.com on the internet.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Also, we hope that you will subscribe to this
podcast and that you'll read thebook, savy Christianity
Speaker 3 (42:37):
That's right.
But for now this is Owen
Speaker 2 (42:41):
And this is John Shields with our producer,
Shannon
Speaker 3 (42:44):
Saying, may the God of our fathers bless you and
keep you and guide you andprotect you.
Speaker 4 (43:05):
[inaudible].
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