The History of Christianity and the Catholic Church... Part 2

In 202 AD, about the time that the Mishnah was recorded, emperor Septimius Severus banned any Roman citizen from converting to Christianity or Judaism. Those who refused to obey the emperor were often tortured by soldiers or subjected to wild animals at sporting events (The Great Roman Coliseum). Despite this brutal persecution, Christianity persevered and continued to grow in numbers. This became inherently frustrating for the Roman ruling class.

In 303 AD, the pagan Roman Empire under emperor Diocletian, made one last great attempt to exterminate Christianity. Diocletian despised the Christians. His main target was the New Testament and the documented histories of Christ. Many great publications were systematically destroyed as a result. There were thousands and thousands of Christians at the time and many of them had copies of the New Testament. Only about 5,000 manuscripts have survived and the oldest is dated some time around 350 AD.

In 306 AD, the Roman throne was seized by Constantine. Four years later, the new emperor Constantine made the practice of Christianity legal along with every other religious practice. Constantine supported Christianity, but he himself continued to worship the pagan Roman gods.

In 324 AD, Licinius ruler of Byzantine was killed by Constantine. The capital Byzantium was renamed Constantinople and became the center of the entire Roman empire. Ultimatley, this split the empire into two parts consisting of "New" Rome and "Old" Rome.

In 325 AD, consisting of 318 bishops, the Nicene Council was developed. During the bishops tenure in Nicaea, the Nicene Creed was formed and many fundamental basics of Christian doctrine were established... (such as the affirmation of Jesus Christ's divinity.)

In 337 AD, Constantine, on his death bed, called for a bishop so that he could be baptized into the church. He was the first emperor to accept Christianity and is considered as the first pope of the Catholic church. Ceasar Julius I then assumed the throne as emperor.

Prior to the time of Constantine's "conversion", Christians had been persecuted not so much for their faith in Christ, but because they refused to include pagan deities in their religious observances. With Constantine's emphasis on making his new-found Christianity palatable to the heathen in the Empire, the "Christianization" of these pagan deities and the practices therein, were facilitated. For example, pagan rituals and idols gradually took on Christian meanings and names and were incorporated into "Christian" worship (e.g., " the saints" replaced the cult of pagan gods in both worship and as patrons of cities; mother/son statues were renamed Mary and Jesus etc.). Pagan holidays were reestablished as Christian holy days (e.g., the Roman Lupercalia and the feast of purification of Isis became the Feast of the Nativity. The Saturnalia celebrations were replaced by Christmas celebrations. This is where we get December 25th as a date of celebration for Christ's birthday. (No one knows when exactly Christ was born. It is projected that Jesus was born somewhere between 6 BC and 2 AD, but due to Diocletians attempt to exterminate Christianity and its history, alot of information was lost as a result.)The ancient festival of the dead was replaced by All Souls Day and was rededicated to Christian heroes which is now called and observed as Halloween.

(Also worth noting...the supposid statue of St. Peter in the Vatican is actually not a statue of Saint Peter..but a statue of the pagan god Jupiter!)

From 375 - 383 AD, the empire was ruled by Emperor Gratian. The highest office held in the pagan pantheon was that of Pontifex Maximus or Supreme Pontiff. This position was held by the Roman Caesars. The last Caesar to hold that title was Emperor Gratian who conferred the position upon Pope Damascus. This shows the seemless transition from pagan Rome to papal Rome.

In 381 AD,(interesting that this council conferred during the transfer of title "Pontifex Maximus" to Pope Damascus) The council of Constantinople was formed. It consisted of 150 bishops... further establishing church doctrine fundamentals as dictated by the early Catholic church. Several additions and changes were made to the existing Nicene creed. It is here that the trinity of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and The Holy Spirit was established and where the Virgin Mary is parralled with the Holy Ghost. And I quote: "and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost OF THE Virgin Mary". (The Holy Ghost is defined as one with God within the creed, therefore, to parallel Mary with the Holy Ghost is to give Mary the affirmation as a deity. This is blasphemy, and the reverance of the Virgin Mary is most certainly apparent in modern day Catholic practices.) This however, is no coincidence. Just as noted previously, the worship of a mother/son deity was prominent in pagan worship well before the establishment of Christianity.
Adherance and reverance of this creed is viewed among Catholics and several other churches as necessary for salvation. This in itself is self-defeating... as stated in Romans 10:8-10...

("8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.")

No case is made biblically for an ,over-ruling, authoritarian creed that you MUST align yourself and your beliefs with to sustain salvation... but only to confess with your mouth and believe with your heart... rediculous... this spirals right back into the legalism that Jesus spoke out against concerning the Sadducees and Pharisees.

The persecution of Christians never actually ceased after its inception. During this time, only the way that Rome persecuted Christians changed. Instead of being persecuted for failure to worship pagan Roman deities, the Christians who did not agree with the particular orthodoxy backed by the Emperor were now persecuted in the name of Christ! "Christianized" Rome had become the legitimate successor of pagan Rome! This is the true origin of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 387 AD, Emperor Theodosius I deemed Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

In 392 AD, pagan worship within the Roman empire is officially outlawed.

To avoid legal prosecution, many Romans continued to practice pagan rituals under the projection that they were in fact "Christian". As noted above, many traditions and practices that we observe presently are a result of pagan rituals renamed and repackaged as Christian practices. Not to mention that this in some ways was intentionally done to make Christianity appealing to the masses. Just like I discussed in the last series, this is just like the "Hellenization" of Judaism. Christian and Jewish practices alike, are full of pagan influence because of the Greeks and Romans. But, this is no coincidence. Just like everything else we have covered, this is a well orchestrated plan....tactics imposed by Lucifer to disrupt God's truth and to deceive his people.

In 431 AD, another council converged. Deemed The Council of Ephesus, the councilmen reaffirmed the original Nicene creed established by the council of 325 AD. The Council of Ephesus also declared that "it is unlawful for any man to bring forward, or to write, or to compose a different faith as a rival to that established by the holy Fathers assembled with the Holy Ghost in Nicaea." Over the centuries, much controversy has risen reguarding this declaration. For instance, the addition of the Latin phrase Philioque (or "and the Son") to the procession of the Holy Spirit that is established in this creedo, has rattled the Catholic and subsequent churches since its inception in the late 5th century. To the "letter of the law"... just like the Sadducces and Pharisees.

Only a legalist who applies their own desires upon doctrine instead of applying doctrine to their desires, could possibly split the church over 3 words... Jesus certainly addressed the consequence of legalism in Matthew 15:8...

(Matthew 15:1-9 "1 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, 2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?4 For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."

About 12 emperors ruled from the time of Pope Damascus being appointed Supreme Pontiff to when Romulus Augustulus, the final emperor of Rome, abdicated in 476 AD. These "Emperors" were only puppets who answered to the Papal dynasty. There were several barbarian invasions of Rome during this time and it were these invasions which are blamed for the supposid fall of Rome. This of course never happened.

Rome never fell...it became the Catholic church!

To Be Continued...