“The Armenian, Georgian and Ethiopian churches are the only instances of the imposition or force of Christianity on countrymen by their sovereign rulers before Constantine, the Council of Nicaea and the Roman Empire.
Who knew, at the time, that Christianity would dominate the religions of the world once the "die was cast" in the Roman Empire? [Latin translation of the Greek imperative mood would be "alea iacta esto", (idiom) let the die be cast. Thomson, D. F. S.; Sperna Weiland, Jan (1988). "Erasmus and textual scholarship: Suetonius". In Weiland, J. S. (ed.). Erasmus of Rotterdam: the man and the scholar. Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. Brill. p. 161. ISBN 978-90-04-08920-4. ].
The "die was cast" systematically. Initial conversions by the Roman Empire occurred mostly in urban areas of Europe, where the first conversions were sometimes among members of the Jewish population. Later conversions happened among the Grecian-Roman-Celtic populations over centuries, often initially among its urban population, with rural conversions taking place some time later.
- Forced impositions of Christianity by sovereign ruler Constantine, the Council of Nicaea and the Roman empire were massive.
- “The Christianisation of the Roman Empire was divided into 2 phases:
- 1. in ernest, immediately before 312 AD
- 2. and after the year 312 AD.
After the year 312 AD was marked by the momentous conversion of Constantine 'the sun worshiper' which has been controversial for centuries. By 312 AD, Christianity had already converted a significant but unknown proportion of at least the urban population of the Roman Empire including a small number of the elite classes.
Constantine's methods were characterized by 'conquest and triumph' over the pagans and others, and if that didn't work, Constantine's constituients were 'Feared into believing in God’, because if they didn't believe, the devil or "boogy-man was going to get them." [TJM]
In contrast, Jesus' church was not a common institution for all members..
Mat 16:18: And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Jesus had no brick and mortar church, nor forced or imposed his beliefs on anyone and Jesus didn't even know the term Christian. Both the Jesus method of conversion, (even though the term Christianity was unknow to him), and Constantine conversion method of Christianisation, ~ 300 years after Jesus, were successful Christianisations. Both methods had significantly different doctrines. Yet both leaders accomplished their goals, while the Constantine conversion method furthered the core Christian doctrines with animistic (supernatural), superstitious, fear of the devil emphases.
Jesus was the embryonic beginning of Christianity. Constantine and the Nicene Council versions of Christianity were the Roman Empire's permanent beginning Christian doctrines, for centuries that have followed. Let's be clear. Both have led the narrow, sometimes difficult way to God and that's what is important.
"In 313 AD, Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, legalizing Christian worship. Christianity was accepted and Constantine became the "Christian Monarch". 10 years later, 323 AD, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. The Holy Bible was cannonized and printed by the Constatantinites in 325 AD." Thereafter, as Christianizatin moved forward, multiple Christian and Protestant Religion splits resulted.
References
- Wendy Doniger (ed.), "Constantine I", in Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2006), p. 262.
- Noel Lenski (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine (Cambridge University Press, 2006), "Introduction". ISBN 978-0-521-81838-4.
- A. H. M. Jones, Constantine and the Conversion of Europe (University of Toronto Press, 2003), p. 73. ISBN 0-8020-6369-1.
- Hans A. Pohlsander, The Emperor Constantine (Routledge, NY 2004), pp. 82–84. ISBN 0-415-31938-2; Lenski, "Reign of Constantine" (The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine), p. 82.
- Gonzalez, Justo (1984). The Story of Christianity. 1. Harper Collins. p. 176. ISBN 0-06-063315-8.
- Pohlsander, The Emperor Constantine, pp. 78–79.
- Wylen, Stephen M., The Jews in the Time of Jesus: An Introduction, Paulist Press (1995), ISBN 0-8091-3610-4, Pp 190-192.; Dunn, James D. G., Jews and Christians: The Parting of the Ways, A.D. 70 to 135, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (1999), ISBN 0-8028-4498-7, Pp 33-34.; Boatwright, Mary Taliaferro & Gargola, Daniel J & Talbert, Richard John Alexander, The Romans: From Village to Empire, Oxford University Press (2004), ISBN 0-19-511875-8, p. 426 [Wikipedia]
The first recorded use of the term Christian (or its cognates in other languages) was after the life of Jesus and is in the New Testament, in Acts 11 after Barnabas brought Saul (Paul) to Antioch where they taught the disciples for about a year, the text says: "[...] the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." (Acts 11:26). The second mention of the term follows in Acts 26, where Herod Agrippa II replied to Paul the Apostle, "Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." (Acts 26:28). The third and final New Testament reference to the term is in 1 Peter 4, which exhorts believers: "Yet if [any man suffer] as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf." (1 Peter 4:16). [ Wuest, Kenneth Samuel (1973). Wuest's word studies from the Greek New Testament. 1. ISBN 978-0-8028-2280-2.]
Roman Emperor Constantine began Christianisation’s enormous number of conversions before and after the year 312 AD. These enormous conversions were a ‘beginning stage of intended worldwide Christianity’, which continues closely in doctrine to this date.
For example: CHRISTIANISATION, An Excerpt And More From ‘A Christianisation of Switzerland’; Urban and Rural Transformations in a Time of Transition - AD 300-800 1.2.1 Christianisation
“The religion of Constantine was achieved and strengthened, in less than a century and was the final conquest of the Roman Empire. The victors themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of their vanquished rivals. (Edward Gibbon 1776-1789, Vol. II, p. 70)
“The term ‘Christianisation’ originally was conceived as a socio-historical term to explain the mechanisms behind the conversion of the Roman world.
“Initially, Christianisation was regarded as the process in which people were converted to the new religion. Gibbon painted the rise of Christianity as a religion of ‘conquest’ or ‘triumph’. The Christianity and the nature of ‘Christian triumphalism’ was faced with various controversies in the fourth and fifth centuries. An article in the European Journal of Political Economy examined the triumph of Christianity in relation to the late Roman economy (Ferrero 2008).
As a result, it is easy to lose perspective on the pluralism of religions in antiquity. Furthermore, it neglects to recognize that that the reception of Christianity was a two-way process. Just as the religion made its impact on society, so too was Christianity transformed and shaped by the different regions, societies, geographies, and peoples (Cameron 1991:21)
The concept simplifies a transition that was inherently complex and quickens the rate at which the religion disseminated throughout the entire Empire (Dijkstra 2008: 86; Cameron 1991: 22). It was in reaction to these many problems that a new paradigm arose. Peter Brown’s ‘The World of Late Antiquity’ (1971) described Late Antiquity as a slow yet dynamic period of cultural and social change, contrasting the notion of a period of decline, into which the Church arose.
“It is within these types of studies that a common theme is noticeable - Christianisation. Initially, Christianisation was regarded as the process in which people were converted to the new religion. For example, MacMullen (1984) examined the motivations behind people to convert to the new religion, concluding that the “belief of miracles” was pivotal to the rise of converts in the early phases of Christianity (ibid: 108). “One strong review, however, rightly pointed out that one cannot determine motives behind the conversion of masses of people (Hanson 1985: 336).
In contrast to MacMullen, Wood’s (2005) recent research on the conversion of the various ‘barbarian’ people in Europe utilized the primary sources as his guide. His analysis stresses a ‘top-down’ model of Christianisation, since the evangelisation of kings and dukes attracted the attention of writers (ibid: 715; 721). Within archaeology, the term has broadened out to include the ‘Evangelisation’ of landscapes, cities, and burial customs. The majority of these works are interdisciplinary, utilizing the historical sources alongside the archaeological evidence.
A popular theme is the ill-fate of temples and the emergence of churches in the landscapes (e.g. Goodman 2011;Dijkstra 2008; Bayliss 2004; Sotinel 2004; Caseau 2004; Ward-Perkins 2003; Salzman 1999; Trombley 1993-94; Saradi-Mendelovici 1990; Krautheimer 1980; Spieser 1976; Deichmann 1939).
For example, Goodman’s (2011) recent analysis of temples in Gaul and the local accounts show that tales of temple destruction only represent a few small, and rare, cases. Dijkstra’s (2008) work in Egypt produces a similar conclusion.
Watagh described the 3 phases of Christianisation:
- Phase I •pre-Constantinian Christian presence •domus ecclesiae act as congregation points •veneration of martyrs from persecutions
- Phase II •Constantinian acceptance •bishops formally appointed •visible Church •extramural and primarily intramural churches built •administrative focus
- Phase III •urban spaces receive new churches •episcopal church becomes more complex (n.b. palace) • burials in intramural space • monasteries and sanctuaries gather around cemeterial and matyrial churches •relics moved to urban churches [Model for urban Christianisation as defined by Cantino Watagh (1995).
“The spread of Christianity to rural spaces has similarly produced works suggesting specific phases and processes. Caseau (2004: 105-145), again approaching from an historical perspective, presented this transition as a confrontation between pagans and Christians, with evidence for both destruction and reuse of old temples.
"Indeed, many studies on the Christianisation of the countryside suggested that after Christianity was established in 4th-century urban spaces, private-led, imperialed, and episcopalled foundations begin to ‘Christianise’ the purportedly pagan landscape (Fig. 1.3). The initial ‘push’ to rural settings is usually identified as the 5th and 6th centuries. In rural settings“belief of miracles” was pivotal to the rise of converts
“Baptismal churches are branded as ‘episcopal foundations’ and churches with furnished burials as ‘private’ or ‘familial’ churches. Imperial- or royal-sponsored churches are only recognized by historical or epigraphic source material. “During the 7th and 8th centuries, rural monasteries (usually royal) are constructed and the ‘ancient pagan landscape’ is no longer identifiable, concluding the processes of Christianisation (see Chapter 5).
“Archaeological and historical data pertaining to the Christianisation of Switzerland between AD 300 and 800 were analyzed and published. During the period examined, the Swizerland experienced a number of geopolitical changes: the end of Roman administration, the rise and fall of the Burgundian kingdom, and the gradual takeover by the Merovingian and later Carolingian Franks.
“Throughout these phases, the Church was a common institution and transformed urban, rural, and burial landscapes through the construction of cathedrals, funerary churches, chapels, and monasteries. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, this research thesis brings to light that Switzerland experienced multiple ‘Christianisations’ and that topographic factors and regional identities were intrinsic to the development of the Christian Church.
Although Christian populations are attested in alpine towns prior to the fourth century albeit mainly on the basis of documented martyrdoms (e.g. at Lyon in AD 177) and the presence of structures known as memoriae - only from the mid-4th century does Christianity become securely visible in Swiss towns. “A discourse on early medieval Switzerland has been addressed in the volume 'Die Schweiz zwischen Antike und Mittelalter: Archäologie und Geschichte' des 4. bis 9. Jahrhunderts (Furger et al. 1996).
There the focus was presenting a broad overview of life in the region, discussing aspects of religious, economic, and settlement change. A more specific theme drives this project, namely the Christianisation of the region. [A Christianisation of Switzerland? Urban and Rural Transformations in a Time of Transition - AD 300-800 Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Leicester by Chantal Bielmann, School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, August 2013]
- “Imperialism colonized almost all countries of this earth and was deeply involved in the confusion and conflicts of pre“Why was selfish imperialism so violent and ruthless executed by the people.”
- “Why did people promote inhumane exploitation and become cruel to indigenous people?”
- “It has been a policy to make other countries colonies and dependent countries by military power. Expansionism and conquestism began ages ago and then spread to the world.”
- “Imperialism is an undeniable fact, but imperialism motives are inconsistent [6: The period background of imperialism 1, Posted on 2017/02/12 by aquacompass7]
- “It is so complicated, except for one thing: The history of human existence, although remarkable in so many individually wonderful ways, is tarnished by our undeniable history of destruction and self-justified cruelty.” [Cindy Knoke}
- “Discovery of the new world, earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas (including nearby islands such as those of the Caribbean and Bermuda), sparked a resurgence of expansionism, conquestism, imperialism and Evangelicalism, evangelical Christianity, or evangelical Protestantism.
- “Protestantism was a worldwide, trans denominational movement within Protestant Christianity which maintains the belief that the essence of the Gospel consists of the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ's atonement.[1][2][3]
“Evangelicals believe in the centrality of the conversion or "born again" experience in receiving salvation, in the authority of the Bible as God's revelation to humanity, and in spreading the Christian message. The movement has had a long presence in the Anglosphere before spreading further afield in the 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries.
“Its origins are usually traced to 1738, with various theological streams contributing to its foundation, including English Methodism, the Moravian Church (in particular its bishop Nicolaus Zinzendorf and his community at Herrnhut), and German Lutheran Pietism.
“Preeminently, John Wesley and other early Methodists were at the root of sparking this new movement during the First Great Awakening. Today, evangelicals are found across many Protestant branches, as well as in various denominations not subsumed to a specific branch.[4] Among leaders and major figures of the evangelical Protestant movement were John Wesley, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Billy Graham, Bill Bright, Harold John Ockenga, John Stott and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. The movement gained great momentum during the 18th and 19th centuries with the Great Awakenings in Great Britain and the United States.
The United States has the largest concentration of evangelicals in the world.[5] American evangelicals are ~ 25% of the nation's population and its single largest religious group.[6][7] In Great Britain, evangelicals are represented mostly in the Methodist Church, Baptist communities, and among evangelical Anglicans.
While evangelicalism is on the rise globally, developing countries have particularly embraced it; it is the fastest growing portion of Christianity.
Evangelicalism, evangelical Christianity, or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, trans-denominational movement within Protestant Christianity which maintains the belief that the essence of the Gospel consists of the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ's atonement. Evangelicals believe in the centrality of the conversion or "born again" experience in receiving salvation, in the authority of the Bible as God's revelation to humanity, and in spreading the Christian message.
Concerning the Western Hemisphere, “when the book Savagism first appeared (in 1953, as The Savages of America: A Study of the Indian and the Idea of Civilization), there was very little literary interest in broad, historical studies of ideology and discourse.
Foreword: (pp. vii-xvi) Arnold Krupat: “The reissue of Roy Harvey Pearce’s Savagism and Civilization comes at an especially favorable moment, one in which there is a renewed interest in cultural criticism attentive to discursive and ideological issues. Indeed, it is probably not too much to say that Pearce’s book has played some real part in keeping the possibility of such criticism alive in America.
“The renaissance Englishmen who became Americans were sustained by an idea of order. They were sure of the existence of an eternal and immutable principle which guaranteed the intelligibility of their relations to each other and to their world and thus made possible their life in society.
“It was a principle to be expressed in the progress and elevation of civilized men who, striving to imitate their God, would bring order to chaos. America was such a chaos, a new-found chaos. Her natural wealth was there for the taking because it was there for the ordering. “Americans who were setting out to make a new society could find a place in it for the Indian only if he would become what they were, settled, steady, civilized. Yet somehow, he would not be anything but what he was roaming, unreliable, savage.
“So they concluded that they were destined to try to civilize him and, in trying, to destroy him, because he could not and would not be civilized. He was to be pitied for this, and also to be censured. Pity and censure were the price Americans pay for destroying the Indian.
“American double-mindedness about the Indian issued rapidly into a theory of his life, an idea of ‘savagism’, it was called. “As all ideas should be, this one was for its time true. That is to say, it consisted of a set of interrelated propositions which held together and made logical sense of all that was known and felt about the Indian, and it made for understanding, belief, and action. As data about the Indian accumulated, the idea was first filled out, then modified, and finally broken through.
“The derogatory conclusion of Savagism was at best an hypothesis which called for proof. Proof required first-hand observation and then close analysis, classification, and summing up of what had been observed. Facts were collected first-hand, recorded, analyzed, and conclusions made.
“In the end the hypothesis was proved in fact; the savage proved savagism; a symbol bodied forth an idea. Yet we can look back at American studies of the Indian and see, in a century-long perspective, how the facts disprove those conclusions.
“Even as all American thinking about the Indian was based, at the very least, on an implicit comparison of savage and civilized life, a great deal of his thinking about himself was based on explicit comparison of the two.
“For the American before 1850, a new man, as he felt, making a new world, was obsessed to know who and what he was and where he was going, to evaluate the special society in which he lived and to know its past and its future. One means to this end was to compare himself with the Indian.
“The Native American Indian, over whom Americans finally triumphed, was he whom they put in their plays, poems, and stories. New-rich in their discovery of the possibility of a national culture, they were certain that they could find the Indian’s place in the literature into which that culture was ‘to flower’.
“We cannot say why the storyteller’s image of the Indian did not take shape and meaning as did the dramatist’s and the poet’s, why novelists and writers of tales did not generally adopt themes and strategies involving the ‘noble savage’ of drama and poetry. Nor can we say why they did not adopt from the captivity narrative the convention of the ‘bloodily ignoble savage’.
Some have described Constantine’s Religion as a religion where humans are ‘Feared into believing in God’. “Only belief in Constantine’s Christian Miracles and fear that the devil is going to get you, can save you.Fear of the devil and miracles keep Humans in line, moral and ethical. It worked and it is still working.
“Exorcism in Christianity is the practice of casting out demons from a person they are believed to have possessed. The person performing the exorcism, known as an exorcist, is often a member of the Christian Church, or an individual thought to be graced with special powers or skills.”
“The exorcist may use prayers and religious material, such as set formulas, gestures, symbols, icons, amulets, etc. The exorcist often invokes God, Jesus and/or several different angels and archangels to intervene with the exorcism.
“A survey of Christian exorcists found that most exorcists believe that any mature Christian can perform an exorcism, not just members of clergy. Christian exorcists most commonly believe the authority given to them by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (the Trinity) is the source of their ability to cast out demons.[1]
The term became prominent in Early Christianity from the early 2nd century onward.[2]Constantine and the Nicene Council canonized the Holy Bible in 325 AD.
“In general, people considered to be possessed are not regarded as evil in themselves, nor wholly responsible for their actions, because possession is considered to be unwilling manipulation by a demon resulting in harm to self or others. Therefore, practitioners regard exorcism as more of a cure than a punishment. The mainstream rituals usually take this into account making sure that there is no violence to the possessed only that they be tied down if there is potential for violence.[3]
- Mohr, M. D., & Royal, K. D. (2012). "Investigating the Practice of Christian Exorcism and the Methods Used to Cast out Demons", Journal of Christian Ministry, 4, p. 35. Available at: http://journalofchristianministry.org/article/view/10287/7073.
- The Westminster handbook to patristic theology. Westminster John Knox Press. 2004. ISBN 978-0-664-22396-0. Retrieved 2007-12-31. Exorcism From the Gree exorkizo, "i adjure" (cf. Matt. 26:63), exorcism became a term prominent in early Christianity from the early 2nd century onward (cf. Justin, Dialogue with Trypho 76.6;85.2) as the casting out of devils.
- Malachi M. (1976) Hostage to the Devil: the possession and exorcism of five living Americans. San Francisco, HarperCollins p.462 ISBN 0-06-065337-X
- Wikipedia
We Humans are dumb animals. A football coach told my teammate once, “all you have to be is big and dumb to be a lineman and all you need to be to become a running back is just dumb. Humans celebrate gladiators and football games; the harder the hitting the better. If one takes the hurt and injury out of football no one will enjoy it. Animals and football athletes fight for dominance. Football is ‘sort of a religion’ of ‘conquest’ and ‘triumph’.
Unfortunately, some religions are now again preaching ‘conquest and triumph’, hate and discrimination, dominion based on wealth, race, angloshpere, utilizing derogatory names i.e. deporables, libtards etc. to disparage and control the vulnerable, similar to Christianisation of the Roman Empire's pagans in the Old World and the new found Native American Indian 'savages' in the New World, in the name of religion.
For the Christian record, the natural, demystified 'Jesus Christianisation Model’, hope, faith and love, our hero and savior, Jesus, taught during his moral life and time are more effective and continue to become a legitimate movement, when the message is willfully discerned and enacted from living examples, like Jesus, his teachings and parables, rather than dominating, conquesting, triumphing, beating and fearing Humans into worshiping God, similar to those they denigrate as pagans and savages, when legitimate or not.
Heb 5:12 ¶For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of (mother's)milk, and not of strong meat (of discernment).
Heb 5:13 For every one that useth (mother's) milk (Constantine Christianity) is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14 But strong meat (of discernment) belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
- Constantine Christianisation and morality began to seriously become prominent with 'righteousness for beginners', 'mother's milk', facilitated by “belief in miracles"(ibid: 108),
- ( supernatural, superstitious, spookes, Holy Ghost, fear of the devils) "were pivotal to the rise of converts", mostly pagans, in the early phases of 4th and 5th Century Constantine Christianity,
- who were feared into belief in God
- and continues to evolve today and sometimes beyond 'righteousness for beginners' 'mother's milk', with storng meat of discernment, now after about 1500 when science was discovered, by those Humans that are of "full age", mature, well educated, who seek better understanding of the meaning and purpose of life, the human soul and Eternity
- who have strong enough belief and faith that they don't require fear of the devil to worship God and most of whom require DIVINE INTELLIGENT DESIGNED CHRISTIANITY explanations for mature understanding.
- However, either way, with 'mothers milk' or 'discernment' all means for morality, belief-in and worship of our God are good
- We are all God's children, no matter race, creed, color, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation
- Luk 6:37 ¶Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.
In the Human Brain, God's Neurological Biomarkers, aka 'Fingerprints', are distinctive, unique, one-of-a-kind and interconnecting in at least 55 different Brain regions.
Just as in any other descriptive, comparative, experimental and lawful investigation, God’s Physical, Neurological biomarkers, aka 'Fingerprints', recordable in the genetically encoded Human Brain by EEG, MEG, PET, SPECT, MRI, fMRI, neurotransmitters and hormones, when willfully triggered and stimulated by spiritual, religious and meditation experiences, are the best Scientific, fact-based evidence on earth for Humans to witness the existence of God.
The research included in this report has carefully selected reputable research and has eliminated non-peer reviewed, quasi reports using non-conventional statistical tools that produce inflated false positives as described in the following reference and other unreliable investigations.[fMRI Studies of the Brain May Be Flawed by Kevin Murnane, Ph.D. Jul 29, 2016, Psychology today. Source: Credit: US Department of Health and Human Services: National Institute of Mental Health/Wikimedia]
DIVINE INTELLIGENT DESIGNED CHRISTIANITY are not dependent on miracles, supernatural phenomena, superstitions, spooks, ghosts, going to hell and fear of the devil to believe-in and worship God and don't have to be feared into believing-in and worshiping God.
- The the natural, demystified 'Jesus Christianisation Model’, hope, faith and love, our hero and savior, Jesus, taught during his moral life and time established in the New Testament and allegorically interpreted
- DIVINE INTELLIGENT DESIGNED CHRISTIANITY STRIVE FOR MORE 'JESUS-IZEMENT', 'JESUSISATION' (CHRISTIANISATION), THE 'Jesus Christianisation Model’
- in combination with the Neurobiological Anatomy and Physiology Created by God, the final stage of Human Brain Creation, a NeuroNetwork Brain system that triggers, stimulates and results in Human physiological, motor actions, memory preservations, all mental, Mindful actions and the Soul, detected and documented 'Fingerprints' and proof of God by scientific and medical laboratory findings as mentioned above,
- speak form themselves and 1. and 2. support an extremely believable, truthful, devoted, DIVINE INTELLIGENT DESIGNED CHRISTIANITY .
- No other entity has similar fingerprints or fact based evidence that similarly lights-up the Human Brain.
