Did Constantine's recognition of Christianity change the religion? In what ways? Was that a good thing? WHY

Answer 1

Don S. is correct.

D3slyn is also correct. It was one or two emperors after Constantine who ordered everyone to convert to Christianity.

Filling up the "church" with lots of false converts.

Politicians therefore took over the politics of the church.

The Chief Politician was called the Pope.

You guy should read up on the "Edict of Milan".

There is so much false information going around about Constantine its hard to keep track of it all.

The Edict of Milan legalized Christianity and stopped making the Act of Worshipping Jesus as the only God a crime of treason against Rome.

The Edict of Milan did not make Christianity the State Religion. It make Christianity one of several hundred state approved religions.

Anyway Constantine was not the problem, one or two Emperors who followed him was the problem.

The result was the birth of what is known today as the Roman Catholic Church and that's a bad thing.

Pastor Art

Answer 2

Sure it changed the religion, in terms of its position as a major world religion. Constantine's recognition of Christianity made it the official religion of the Roman Empire, which meant that all peoples under the rule of the Romans would be expected to convert to christianity.

Was that a good thing? Depends on who you ask. It was a great thing for the pope, but the Pagans probably have a different take on the subject.

Answer 3

Brother Mike:)
When Rome accepted Christianity as a State religion,it is said that Constantine had a dream in which he saw a cross with the words written on it, "By this sign conquer." He discovered that the cross was a sign of Christianity; so he accepted Christianity as the state religion. He encouraged people to be baptized, and whoever was baptized was given two white robes and a few pieces of silver.

The church was united with the world; therefore, the church became fallen... becoming the biggest state religion. According to men, this would be an advancement; yet the Lord is displeased. When the church unites herself with the world, the testimony of the church is wrecked. The church is a sojourner in the world. It is all right for the boat to be on the water, but not for the water to be in the boat.

Good question brother
In Christ
sandy

Answer 4

Constantine's recognition of and conversin to Christianity did indeed change it.

Christianity was until then a variety of different sects, including the Essenes, for example. What Constantine did was to standardize and organize Christianity, so that all Christians followed one guiding book and one guiding creed.

Was this a good or a bad thing? It was both. Standardizing the religion and adopting it as the state religion of the Roman Empire gave Christianity a lot of power and, eventually, a lot of political influence. I think it probably nipped in the bud any infighting that might have erupted between the many sects which existed before the Council of Nicea. For 1200 years or so, the Catholic Church was pretty much a uniform body, the only schism being that of Eastern Orthodoxy. It allowed for uniformity of worship and uniform rules, whichever country you might travel to. Wherever you went, the mass was said in Latin.

Unfortunately, investing so much power into one religion afforded its higher-ranking clergy the ability to abuse that power, which they did. Roderigo Borgia (Pope Alessandro VI), had a mistress and, I believe, raised his illegitimate children either in or near the Vatican. He was also tremendously wealthy, as was Cardinal Wolsey of England.

These abuses of power, among others, led to the eventual formation of Protestantism. With that break-up came religious wars and persecutions by all sides.

On the other hand, I think Protestantism has on the whole been a good thing for Christianity, although I don't care for Fundamentalism. No religion can stay uniform and unchanging forever, and useful new ideas should be welcomed and explored.

Answer 5

Yes. It changed Christianity because he needed a uniform religion so he set up the council of bishops which met at Nicene and pressurised them to come up with a single creed. I don't think there is much evidence that he was concerned about what was in it - it just had to be a single statement of belief.

He also instructed that copies of the bible were to be made. Note that there is no evidence that any of the books of the bible were written for the first time then. On the contrary they were already in existence and had been written about by the earlier Church fathers. But the first full copies which we have come from the fourth and fifth centuries.

His mother went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and found out where the significant parts of the Christian story took place - skeptics would say that when she didn't know she guessed!

It was a good thing in that all persecution of Christians ceased. It was a bad thing because all sorts of people jumped on the bandwagon and tried to use it to exercise power.

To reply fully would really need a book.

Answer 6

Christianity was accepted into the Roman Empire. Due to that bond it outlived even mighty Rome. That's a good thing from my view.

Edit: Uhh guys, Constantine did not make Christianity the "State Religion." It was actually an emperor after him. In fact he put off converting to Christianity until he was in his death bed. He knew he would lose the support of some of his most valued generals and politicians if he had radically altered the Roman religious hierarchy.

Answer 7

Yes. Now no one really knows when Jesus' birthday is. Some say he was born in the summer or around March. Also, from my research Constantine's birthday is December 25, strange, huh? And due to him having the Bible edited and made "politically correct" for the times you can't tell where the truth ends and the lies begin. He was only trying to pacify everyone which as we see now is not a good thing. What happened to the Gnostic Gospels and why doesn't more of Jesus' disciples have any representation in the Bible . . ?

Answer 8

What Constantine did was bring Christianity to the for front and legiticalize it. In doing so he open the door for it to be used by men. After this the papacy was bought and sold and evil took over. It was good that it was opened to more people and the bad is that it was open to more people (the wrong kind).

Answer 9

Constantine changed nothing within the true Church.What you read in history is not always the truth.Do you really think that Mexico's story of the Alamo is the same as ours is?

Jesus meant what He said when He told Peter that He would build a church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The Catholic Church is not and was not the true church that Christ told Peter about.Martin Luther was not the last person on the planet to get true religion.Many true worshipers of God were persecuted by the church at Rome.

I know that many will be offended at this but there are just to many doctrines that go completely against the word of God for it to be the Church that Christ talked of.I am not talking man made doctrines.We all have them weather we want to admit it or not.What I am talking about is false doctrines.

Many Christians have been put to death by the Catholic Church.Take one look at William Tyndale.This man was strangled and his body burned because he translated the Bible from Greek to English.If you helped someone like this your property would be seized by the catholic church and you and your family imprisoned to hard labor.Does this sound like the true church?The words that I speak here are true.If I lie then show to me where I have erred.Explain how the true church could put a man to death for what William Tyndale did?

Answer 10

Yes. In order to convert the masses, Christianity adopted many of the old sabbats that had nothing whatsoever to do with when things really happened (supposedly) in the Bible.

Like putting Christmas within a few days of the Winter Solstice. It was easier to replace the old holidays with new holidays, because then they could get people to at least "pretend" to be following Christianity.

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