Rhemalogy

By the early fourth century, Christianity was straddling the Roman Empire, boasting of churches from Britain to Carthage and Persia. The gospel had spread mouth-to-mouth, person-to-person, until, despite relentless persecution, it had taken root. “Every time a drop of blood was shed,” said Spurgeon, “that drop became a man.”

The final storm occurred when Emperor Diocletian suddenly unleashed the Great Persecution, fiercest of all purges. But Romans eventually sickened of the blood, and the Christian holocaust created far-reaching sympathy for believers. When Diocletian abdicated, a power struggle erupted between two titans: Constantine and Maxentius. Their armies met at the Milvian Bridge outside Rome; and Constantine, as he later told the historian Eusebius, turned to the Christian God for help. In a dream on October 28, 312 he saw a cross in the sky with the Greek words In This Sign Conquer. Thus encouraged, he advanced and prevailed. After the battle he openly espoused Christianity, and the outcast church suddenly found itself on top of the world.

Constantine extended great liberties to bishops. He abolished crucifixions and ended gladiatorial contests as punishments. He issued the Edict of Milan which said in part: “Everyone who has a common wish to follow the religion of the Christians may from this moment freely proceed without any annoyance or disquiet.” He made Sunday a holiday, built church buildings, financed Christian projects, and gathered bishops to discuss theology.

But whether Constantine was genuinely born again is doubted. He treated church leaders as political aides. He banished churchmen he didn’t like and retained paganism he did like. Under his rule the church, while enjoying freedom, deteriorated from an army of noble martyrs to a mixed multitude of semi-converted pagans. An alignment between church and state developed that set the stage for the Middle Ages and that continues to this day in the state churches of Europe.

The “conversion” of Constantine was at once both the best thing that could have happened to the church and the worst.

Let the name of the Lord be praised now and forever. From dawn until sunset the name of the Lord deserves to be praised. (Psalm 113:2-3)

Robert J. Morgan, On This Day: 265 Amazing and Inspiring Stories About Saints, Martyrs & Heroes, electronic ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000, c1997). Oct.28.

Header by Livioandronico2013 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37033257

ALSO ON THIS DAY

1636 – By a vote of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, what will become known as Harvard is founded with the primary purpose of preparing ministers and religious educators.

1646 – in a wigwam at Nonantum, Massachusetts; missionary John Eliot preaches the first worship service to Native Americans in their native language

1892 – Edith Warner arrived at Lagos, Nigeria, and was transferred to shore by hoists and derricks as if she were a bale of cotton. She served as a missionary in Nigeria for decades, often going where no white person had ever gone before.

1926 – As part of a new policy to make the Chinese church more nationalistic; Pope Pius XI consecrates six Chinese priests as bishops in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome,

1958 – the Roman Catholic patriarch of Venice,; Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, becomes Pope John XXIII. He will convene the Second Vatican Council in 1962.

1959 – Fifteen hundred people attend a Pentecostal evangelistic meeting in Puerto Rico. Raimundo Jimenez preaches while his brother Eugenio prays for the sick, resulting in six thousand inquirers.

Information is taken from christianhistoryinstitute.org.