Was Emperor Constantine I ever a follower follower of Jesus in his life time?

Question

I want to know cos according to the book Da Vinci Code, The emperor was only baptised on his sick bed when he was too weak to protest. If this is true then how can we trust him to put together the bible without monupulating the holy? book to his wish

Answer 1

Good question. The emperor constantine wasn't a true christian. He is to be blamed for Sunday worship observance starting at that time. He used chrisitanity as a political leverage and thus he tried to unite the pagans with christians and allow them to both worship on Sabbath(Saturday) and on Sunday to suit the pagans. It eventually became main stream and the Sabbath was dropped. Constantine combined church and state by given the bishops of Rome power and that eventually started the persecution of the saints and all those who didn't convert to christianity.

Answer 2

What the book says is true. Constantine was baptised in the last day of his life, I can't say if it was or wasn't according to his will.
Constantine was the illegal son of one of the 4 generals that were in charge of the Roman Army. This general slept one night at an inn in Tracia, and the patron of the inn presented the general his doughter Hellen (you get the ideea). The general eventually became a Caesar (at that time there were two caesars wich ruled the empire, one ruled in the western part and one in the eastern, Constantine's father ruled in the east side). Having no children he eventualy recognised Constantine as his own and Constantine became his succesor. He did many owfull things like killing his wife, boilling his son, killing his fatherinlaw(who ruled the western side) - the edict wasn't his ideea, it was the ideea of his brotherinlaw that isn't even remembered - but all this things were necessary so he could build a powerfull empire, and one of the things that helped him strenghten his empire was the tollerance of christians (the relligion was spreading very fast and if he weren't to do so, a revolt would have been iminent). Although he kept the emperor cult and the old religion (his mother dedicated her life to christians and helped them in many ways ), he was the first to tollerate christians and that was a big step in the evolution of the religion. I am ortodox, an old kind of chritian, and have in our callendar a saint called Stephan The Great and The Holly, he had more the 100 wives and killed many people, he ruled with terror(he was the ruller of my country in the XV age), but the church rememberd him and made him a saint becouse he had a strange custom that helped the church very much - after every war he woud built a church or a monastary - in his long life he built more than 50 monastarys - Constantine is recognised in the same way - although he wasn't a christian in his life time, he tollerated the religion which was a big thing then and helped the relligion very much and you must consider another thing, those were the times, killing was a daily thing

Answer 3

You have to remember, DaVinci Code is FICTION. The fact is, Constantine converted to Christianity early in his life as Emperor of Rome. Being baptized while on his deathbed does not mean that he had just become a Christian at that particular time. Baptism is not a requirement to become a Christian although it is strongly encouraged. A faith in Christ is the ONLY requirement to become a Christian in which Constantine strongly believed. Constantine enacted the law that put an end to Christian persecution and made Christianity the state religion of Rome.

Answer 4

I believe the Da Vinci Code has it correct. However, Constantine didn't put the bible together. St Jerome did in the Fourth Century, years after Constantine died.

Answer 5

It's more political than religious. He recognized it as the direction society was moving and basically gave it accreditation. I'm acually not sure about what was in the movie because you have to understand the whole accepting Christ traditional thing came later. I mean the fomality of it came later.

Btw, some very prominent historians believe Christianity was the cause of the fall of the Roman Empire because of the manner Constantine went about giving them their power.

Answer 6

Constantine was a pagan ruler. who saw Christianity being the dominant religion. Being the wise ruler he is, he declared Christianity to be the national religion. But integrated paganism culture into it. Dan Brown got the facts right on this one. Actually, it wasnt Dan Brown, its Dan's Brown's sources.

Imagine December 25 coinciding with the celebration of the greatest Pagan God. the god of the sun.

Answer 7

Who knows, alot of Emperors were Christians through the ages, especially when the Roman Catholic church was invloved in the government.

Answer 8

No he only converted on his death bed. He was a pagan his entire life. He did make the Roman empire Christian to stop fighting between the people and bring peace.

Answer 9

He was a monotheist who tolerated Christianity and used it when it served his purpose. Most of what I've read seems to doubt he was ever a devout Christian.

Answer 10

sounds like a lot of christians i know of.