Many Church History teachers have suggested that unless Constantine had come along, Christianity would have been defeated in the Empire. But Robert Arakaki, in an article entitled “Constantine the Great: Roman Emperor, Christian Saint, History’s Turning Point,” puts this into proper perspective: Contrary to popular belief, Constantine did not rescue Christianity from extinction. Even if he had not adopted the Christian cause, the majority of the Roman population was well on its way to becoming Christian. What Constantine did do was hasten the process of evangelizing the Roman Empire.
Many Church History teachers have suggested that unless Constantine had come along, Christianity would have been defeated in the Empire. But Robert Arakaki, in an article entitled “Constantine the Great: Roman Emperor, Christian Saint, History’s Turning Point,” puts this into proper perspective: Contrary to popular belief, Constantine did not rescue Christianity from extinction. Even if he had not adopted the Christian cause, the majority of the Roman population was well on its way to becoming Christian. What Constantine did do was hasten the process of evangelizing the Roman Empire. Constantine’s conversion marked the climax of a centuries-long process of evangelization that began in an obscure corner of the Roman Empire. For the first time, the entire structure of Roman civilization, from the emperor down to the lowest slave, shared the Christian faith.1 It’s not surprising that most HRM teachers view Constantine negatively, blaming him for intentionally severing the faith from its Jewish roots by changing the Sabbath to Sunday and establishing the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. In a word, many HRM teachers blame Constantine for making Christianity pagan. According to these teachers, the Church was well connected to its Hebrew root system until Constantine severed it from that root, replacing it with pagan ideas and observances. For example, he took a pagan festival celebrated on December 25th, which commemorated the birth of Mithras, the Persian god of light, and m...
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