Did Pagan Constantine contribute in fabricating the word of God(bible)?

Question

It is worth noting, and well known throughout the religious world, that the choice of the present four "gospels" of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were imposed in the Council of Nicea 325 CE for political purposes under the auspices of the pagan Emperor Constantine, and not by Jesus. Constantine’s mind had not been enlightened either by study or by inspiration. He was a pagan, a tyrant and criminal who murdered his son, his wife and thousands of innocent individuals because of his lust for political power. Constantine ratified other decisions in the Nicene Creed such as the decision to call Christ "the Son of God, only begotten of the father."

Answer 1

i have heard the same thing, only i heard that he commanded every original bible to be destroyed and he rewrote it, or had someone else do it.

Answer 2

This "myth" has been going on for a long time and its wrong. Do some studying already. Constantine had no reason to interfer with the Church's decisions. What he was looking for was a united group to lend him a hand in bringing the Empire into unity once again after several long decades of fractional wars (similar to what happened in Gaza this week). He need them as much as they needed him to remove the "stigma" from Christianity. Many of the attending bishops had suffered persecution under previous rulers. Many were mained from their tourtures inflicted upon them. They were willing to die for the One they believed in, why then would they allow a "pagan" Emperor (as you call him) to dictate what their Bible would contain. Constantine did sit in on the Coucil Nicea, but he remained silent and did not participate in any of the discussions. If asked he would give his thoughts, but they were not binding. He also may have acted as judge if needed as well.

"Constantine ratified other decisions in the Nicene Creed such as the decision to call Christ 'the Son of God, only begotten of the father'." No way could he have ratified this since there was never any disagreement on it. The major battle of the Creed concerned the concept of Jesus being of the same essence as the Father. This was the Arian Controversy in which Arius argued that Jesus was different than the Father, subordinate to Him and there was a time in which Christ was not. It was argued against by Athanasis in which he proclaimed that Jesus was of the same essence as the Father , always was and always will be; and, was, is and shall forever be equal to the Father. 318 Bishops from throghout the Roman Empire argued this vital point for many days. It came down to Athanasis of Alexandria to convice the vast majority to agree that Christ was "homoousis" (same essence) not "homoiousis" (similar but different essense). Constantine never spoke a word about this controversy because he could not follow the arguments--it was above him. How then could he manipulate the content of the Bible or make decrees about other matters of the faith.

Finally, for jonmcn49--you say that Christians are uneducated and imply that we are dumb. I have a BA (with a 3.92 average); an MATS in Old Testament Studies (3.65) and an M.Div. (3.62). I have taken courses at Harvard Divinity School where I received 4.0's. I have studied Greek, Hebrew, Akkadian, Eblite, Arabic, Ugaritic, and several other Northwest Semitic languages. I am an Ordained Minister in the Church of the Nazarene. Finally, I was accepted into Mensa in 1979 with an IQ range of 140-144. What are your qualifications to call me dumb and uneducated?

Sorry about doing so much bragging about my education. I don't like to do that. But I really get upset when I as a Christian am constantly told that I am dumb because I believe in God and His son Jesus and His Holy Spirit.

My final question to you--jonmcn49--are you brave enough to tell us your qualifactions to call Christians dumb?

Answer 3

LOL. nice.

Is that the latest book? Hey let's start bashing guys that lived 1700 years ago and attribute all sorts of fanciful evil about them.

The Council of Nicea was attended by the leaders of the christian church only 300 years after Jesus bodily left the planet. Some of the old guys there were the pupils of the pupils of the pupils of the apostles. You think some emperor was going to bend the arm of a sold out Jesus junky? You don't have the faintest idea of what spiritual power this group had.

Granted Constantine like any other man was sometimes listening to the whispers of those only interested in this life. There were some misguided youths who were giving into the idea that Jesus attained His power and had not actually come from heaven, and they were spreading this idea around the church. "the Son of God, only begotten of the father" actually downplays what the majority of that meeting really believed, that Jesus Himself was God in the flesh.

Answer 4

Yes you are correct, this was the marriage of Church and State that started the first official Christian religion, and along with it many new ideas that the original church did not agree with and caused a great amount of division in the church. And this heathen man ( Constantine ) decided on his death bed maybe he should get baptized. But what inspired him to even side with Christians politically was a decisive battle was won in his mind because he painted crosses on his soldiers shields before this battle at a suggestion of a man's dream. But because he was more pagan than Christian he made all the official pagan holidays now Christian holidays and married them together also. So that the pagans would stop killing and hating the Christians.
The early Bible had no history, it was letters written back and forth mainly from Paul to churches from his prison cell. The Gospels were accounts of the life of Jesus and not known to be a Bible by the early church because they all assumed Jesus Christ was coming back before John the disciple died.
John died of old age while all of the other disciples were killed by religious people.

Answer 5

Constantine became an advocate for the Church by the power of God.

Other than that, he had little knowledge of the faith, and had no power to determine anything at all about it.

The truths of the faith had already been widely accepted and understood, from the earliest days.

All Nicea did was to make them official ... and the main thing Nicea confirmed was that Jesus and God the Father were co-equal and co-eternal ... in rebutttal to certain heretical beliefs that were then circulating.

Read the original Church documents and you'll see the truth.

Or perhaps you can't handle the truth?

Answer 6

He didn't fabricate it. The Christians were splintering between those who believes JC was a son of God-like Hercules was the son of Zeus, or that he was God in a human body. Constantine liked the idea of a religion only having one god. At the time, the Roman Empire was supposed to be ruled by 4 people. Constantine wanted to be the only one, so a monotheistic religion was ideal for him. But, since they weren't getting their stories straight, he made them gather together to vote on what the church was going to believe. He contributed in making them have the meeting but it was those religious leaders who actually decided on what the Bible would say.
BTW, not only was he a blood-thirsty tyrant but he had children by more than one woman-the one he had killed, he accused of having an affair with his first son, which was by anther woman who he supposedly loved-it wouldn't suit his political motivations to marry her, unlike the other one he later had killed.

Answer 7

Considering that Jesus had been crucified , buried & resurrected long before the gospels were even written do you find it surprising that he didn't ratify them! Also , of the original 12 disciples , all but John died horrific deaths because of their commitment to Jesus ...were they all madmen on a suicide mission ?

The other point of note is that the scriptures , through the interpretation from the original Hebrew & Greek have stood the test of time...countless millions have been martyred because of their faith...are they all mad as well ?

Are you aware that there have been more believers killed for their faith in the past 100 years than in the previous 1900 ?

Are you aware that as we enjoy the benefits of a soft lifestyle with all of the freedoms that affords , Christians are being persecuted , murdered , starved , flogged , discriminated against because of their faith while the likes of you sit back & belittle their beliefs ?

Christians deserve the rights as much as any other faith to worship in freedom without the fear of persecution .

You make your own choices but please , spare us the benefit of your take on what is truth & what is not !

Answer 8

numerous factors. initially, Jesus in no way knew what Christianity develop into. He in no way heard of it. It develop into formed via Jews (Paul, Peter,etc.) properly after Jesus died on the bypass. i be attentive to which you have been taught that the gospels are interior the order you gave, besides the shown fact that, maximum historians and theologians experience that Mark wrote first, then Matthew, Luke and John. Constantine stated okay to Christianity which took a failing faith and revived it giving it the backing of a Roman Emperor. Mark in no way noted as Jesus the son of God. the 1st Christians (who have been noted as Galileans) in no way noted as Jesus the son of God. in certainty, there develop into no faith in the start noted as Christianity. The call got here plenty later as Jews dropped out and extra Pagans joined. with out Constantine's endorsement Christianity might have probable died.

Answer 9

Yes! If you remember at the rise of Constantine, the true Christians saw Constantine as a type of antichrist, and took their Bibles and fled to the hills and started living in caves and catocombs. And was there for years!

As Constantine Church / State started to take roots.

During that period of time were held the great councils of the church. The council of Nicea, the council of Chalcedon and others, determined the true doctrine of the person of Christ, who he was, and how he combined in himself the two natures. But it was also the time of the Wedding of the Church and the World under Constantine.

It is "No Accident" the Church of Pergamos or Pergamum in Revelation means "Marriage! It comes from the same root from which we get monogamy and bigamy. Constantine the Great was not really a true Christian. He adopted many Pagan practices and brought them into the church where they were accepted. Christianity was popular in those days, and many Pagan practices were incorporated into the Church.

This began when the church was viewed as a Worldly Kingdom, like any other Kingdom.

Many pagan practices and heathen rituals were introduced into the churches, baptized with Christian terminology, related in some way to elements of the Bible, and thus accepted as being true: Images began to be worshipped in churches. Various practices of priests, which were unknown to the early Church began to be approved.

The control of political powers by religious authorities was widely sought. This was leading up to a time when the Bishop of Rome came into universal acceptance, was called the Pope, and began to exercise dominion over even emperors and kings.

It wouldnt be until the Reformation that the start these errors would be corrected, of which a breaking away from the Roman Catholic church, would give Birth to Denominational churches.

It extends from the last half of the 16th century, immediately following the Reformation, to about the middle of the 18th century, to the beginning of the Evangelical Awakening.

The Reformation, of course, was a time when the church came out of death into life.

When Martin Luther discovered the great truth of justification by faith alone and began to preach throughout Germany, the good news spread like wildfire throughout the nations of Northern Europe.

People realized afresh the greatness, and liberty of the gospel.

All Europe was aflame with freedom.

So also in Martin Luther's day, the gospel spread like wildfire throughout that area and the cruel walls of spiritual bondage fell before the power of God's word. The Reformers preached again the truth about Jesus. They preached in the power of the Spirit.

Martin Luther in Germany,
Count Zwingli in Switzerland,
Calvin in Geneva,
John Knox in Scotland

And all of them preached justification by faith; that Christ was the sufficient Savior of men and they needed to believe that and receive it individually. This good news spread quickly!

But the sadness of it, it only lasted a relatively short time. Anyone familiar with church history must wonder at the way the great fires of the Reformation began to cool so quickly after the Reformers had gone. They did, because a fatal error had been made.

The churches began to fail even while the Reformers were still alive. The churches made a grave and serious mistake! They began to link the oversight and leadership of the church with the government of the country in which they lived!

Luther did it when he looked to the German princes for protection against the power of Rome. Zwingli did it in Switzerland because he was associated with the government of the country and brought the churches under his oversight into a direct tie with the state. Calvin did it in Geneva when he sought to turn the city into a theocracy. And Knox did it in Scotland as well. For the system of State churches was adopted.

This practice proved to be a very dangerous and destructive error and it ultimately drained the gospel of its spiritual content. There was no longer life within the great words. The reason for this death was that the pastors of the state churches were commissioned by the state to act as civil servants.

They had to do all the baptizing, the marrying and the burying of everybody in the parish (a geographical area that was assigned to them, often consisting of tens of thousands of people).

That meant they had no time left for proper study and preaching of the Word.

The result was that the churches were deprived very quickly of the hearing of the Word and the Power of the Spirit. Spiritual Life was drained away from their midst.

Answer 10

He also paid to have the book compiled. All books that were collected were scrutinized and those which were not agreed upon were destroyed. One such book not included was the gospel of Thomas recently found in Egypt. It parallels the other 4 gospels. Compare the 4 Gospels to the history of Christ Jesus in the Book of Urantia. Very close!
Ya, I buy most of the 4 gospels with at least one contradicting exception..
Rev. TomCat

Answer 11

Constantine is a major influence in seeing that the bible was about control through fear.

The bible is NOT about God or Jesus. It is about greedy men who desired to control the sheeple.