Wedding Bells
The sound of wedding bells echoed through the air in the
city of seven hills, proclaiming to all the union of a
seemingly idyllic couple.
The groom was a man of stature, risen to the rank of general,
fresh from the battlefield in triumph.
The bride was a lovely lady, her upbringing having been
handled with the finest of care from a tender age. She
had been chosen for a special purpose and even betrothed,
yet not to this man. She had been betrothed to another
husband.
The groom's name: Constantine.
The bride's name: the Church.
This monumental event took place in the year 312 AD. It
was the marriage of church and state. At their embrace,
both parties were changed forever. The mighty civil government
of the Roman world became a religious empire, with Christianity
at its side as the state religion. It was an eerie fulfillment
of the words spoken by the prophet Daniel almost 1000 years
before:
As you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, so they will
mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold
together, just as iron does not mix with clay. (Daniel
2:43, RSV)
The iron of Rome was married to the clay of religion,
but it was a marriage of convenience, and such marriages
are by nature unstable. Yet Constantine's marriage vows
were promising, as recorded in the famous Edict of Milan:
...no one whatsoever should be denied the opportunity to
give his heart to the observance of the Christian religion... any
one of these who wishes to observe Christian religion may
do so freely and openly, without molestation... we have given
to those Christians free and unrestricted opportunity of
religious worship.
The groom's benevolence on his wedding day even extended
beyond his blushing bride to all of his subjects, that
there would be liberty in all his domains:
Let the followers of error enjoy the same peace and security
with those who believe ... Whatever truth a man has received
and been persuaded of, let him not smite his neighbor with
it ... For it is one thing to voluntarily undertake to
wrestle for immortality; it is another to constrain others
to it by fear. [1]
This liberty, however, was short-lived. After Constantine's
death, his sons used against all who would not embrace
the Christian religion the same instruments of oppression
that Nero had employed against Christianity. Their reaction
against other religions elevated and
established Christianity as the state religion
of the empire, and set in motion an unholy alliance between
the church and the state. The adulterous relationship begun
at this point has continued on down through history and
marches prophetically toward the consummation of the age. [2] Once
Rome declared Christianity to be its state religion, the
Roman church was instantly clothed with civil power and
began to persecute all those who disagreed in matters of
conscience and belief.
In doing so she shamelessly fulfilled the fears Paul the
apostle had expressed about her when her waywardness had
first begun to show:
I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you
to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his
cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere
and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:2-3)
She was indeed led astray in many ways, not the least
of which was her departure from the way Yahshua had taught
His disciples to treat those who did not receive Him (or
them). Once when some Samaritans didn't receive Him on
His way to Jerusalem, His disciples James and John said, "Lord,
do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven
and consume them?" But He rebuked them, saying, "You do
not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son
of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save
them."
It was not that people who rejected Him or His teachings
didn't deserve judgment, but He knew that the day for judgment
had not yet come:
If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do
not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but
to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not
receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken
will judge him on the last day. (John 12:47-48)
Until then, the responsibility of the Church was to be
the light of the world, showing by her purity and devotion
to Him, expressed in self-sacrificing love and kindness,
that she was worthy to be His bride. That light of love
would draw the sincere to be saved, and repel the wicked,
sealing them for their eventual judgment.
But now more than 200 years had passed since the days
of her pure and simple devotion, the common life of love
and
unity described in the book of Acts in which all were
full participants in service and worship. Now rich Christians
oppressed their poor brothers, and a professional clergy
in fancy robes lorded it over the common people. As one
historian put it, "Between the years AD 100 and AD 500,
the Christian Church changed almost beyond recognition." [3]
So it was little surprise that she committed adultery
with this king of the earth. She had forgotten the companion
of her youth and the covenant of her God. [4] By
uniting herself with the state she showed herself to be "of
the world" and immersed in world affairs, [5] contrary
to the words of her now-forsaken Master as He faced the
cross:
My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of
this world, my servants would fight... But my kingdom is
not of this world. (John 18:36)
In the most tragic of ironies, soon those who called themselves
His servants, in contempt of His words, would take up worldly
weapons and wage war under the banner of the cross, shouting
the battle cry, "God wills it!"
[1] A. T. Innes, Church
and State , p. 30
[2] Revelation 11 & 18
[3] Tony Lane, The
Lion Book of Christian Thought , Lion Publishing
PLC, 1992.
[4] Proverbs 2:16-17
[5] John 17:16
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