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Tag: Church

  • EMPIRE Fallen: Church Divided – Part 3

    EMPIRE Fallen: Church Divided – Part 3

    10 August, AD 2013 – This time in history.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

    Where does the Early Church fit into this history?

    The tragic answer includes many martyrs for Christ Jesus, including one who died on this day.

    10 August, AD 258 Laurence, Deacon and Martyr, died (b. ca. 225). You can read of the atrocities and horrors of his torture and death in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

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    Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. – Galatians 1:8 NLT

    AD 570 – Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad – born in Mecca Arabia.  Not everyone accepted God’s message transmitted through Muhammad. Even in his own clan there were those who rejected his teachings, and many merchants actively opposed the message. 

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    The Holy Roman Empire – continued:

    10 August AD 955 The Battle of Lechfeld was a decisive victory of the forces of Otto the Great, King of the Germans, over the Magyar leaders. The Magyars retreated to the Carpathian Basin, where they settled into a more agricultural way of life and were eventually Christianized.

    Otto I is considered by many to be the founder of the Holy Roman Empire.  In order to unify and control the major territories of Germany, he established the Church-State Alliance; this strengthened his power and decreased the power of the duchies. He gave large grants of royal land to bishops and abbots, who became his royal vassals and were obligated to provide him with military and political services. It was successful for both the Church and the State because it had church officials ruling the land, but allowed Otto the power to appoint them.

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    The fall of Rome

    “Rome wasn’t built in a day and did not fall in one day.

    AD 235- AD 476 – A blow-by-blow account of the fall of the Roman Empire.

    The Empire Reorganized – The Church Prospers
    AD 257/258  Emporer Valerian issued edicts against the Christians. This series of persecution was not a general attack as had come from Decius. This was targeted at the bishops and the upper class Christians.

    In the 260’s the borders of the empire were being breached by barbarian tribes. The peace and security of the Roman Empire was threatened on every side. Emperor Gallienus sought to keep things in order – he could not protect the outer regions, so regional legions did their best. Territory was lost around the edges, but the empire was held intact.

    AD 284 – Diocletian became the emperor, and brings Maximian into his confidence. The two men rule the empire as a team, Diocletian ruling in the east and Maximian in the west. In effect, there were now 4 emperors, each waging war against the barbarian hordes in a different region.

    AD 300 – According to Eusebius, there were 40 churches in Rome. The third Christian century was coming to a good close – everything was good – the church was growing, church buildings were getting larger, and the Church was financially prosperous. The peace of Rome was good and the Christian Church was enjoying being a legitimate part of that peace.

    AD 306-324 – Civil war between the two halves of the Empire. Constantine won control of both halves and moved the capital from Rome to Byzantium, later renamed: Constantinople.

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    Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus – The first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity

    AD 325 – Constantine played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan, which decreed religious tolerance throughout the empire. He called the First Council of Nicaea in 325, at which the Nicene Creed was professed by Christians.

    AD 337-395 – Emperor Constantine planned succession of the Roman Empire to be divided between his three sons, but war between them caused permanent division in AD 395.

    9 August, AD 378 – The Visigoths defeated Eastern Roman Emperor Valens.

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    AD 383 – Augustine arrives in Milan. After his conversion takes the position as bishop of Hippo  near his native Carthage, N. Africa, in 396, a position which he held until his death in AD 430.

    AD 401-410 – Visigoths make incursions into northern Italy and sack Rome.

    AD 429-435 – Vandals in N. Africa cut-off Roman grain supplies.

    AD 440-455 – Huns threaten Rome, are paid off, and then attack; then sack Rome.

    AD 476 – Last western emperor, Romulus Augustulus, is deposed by the barbarian general Odoacer who then rules Italy.

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    As you can see, “The Roman Empire fell long before Emperors gave up their false claims of leadership of the Roman citizens.

    The Church became divided with Empire.  The Church is up against continual opposition from without and within.

    Faithfulness to God, Christ Jesus, and the Holy Spirit has given example to pagan Empires of a nation under God.  Yet corruption of church leadership and division of the church has also weakened Christ’s church in the same way as divided and fallen Rome.

    The Gospel has been taken into all the world and Rome had a role in God’s plan.  Christ is opposed at every front by the enemies of the love of God and grace of the risen Christ Jesus.

    Matthew 24:14 – And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.

  • EMPIRE Fallen: Church Divided – Part 2

    EMPIRE Fallen: Church Divided – Part 2

    9 August, AD 2013 – This time in history.

    Genesis 1:2a King James Version – And the earth was without form, and void…

    ‘without form’ – tohuw – place of chaos;

    “Most history is untold and unknown to most.

    We look at history as a timeline of what someone has suggested has relevance to our own lives.

    AD abbreviation – Anno Domini (used to indicate that a date comes the specified number of years after the traditional date of Christ’s birth). Forgotten in secular timelines.

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    AD 753 – AD 1806 — The Holy Roman Empire

    By the time of its end, the Holy Roman Empire was far from holy, had nothing to do with Rome and evolved slowly from powerful Empire of Charlemagne to a powerless attempt to keep title of sovereignty from Napoleon.  The sometime anarchy from power plays of royalty and church leadership was just one facet of a complex schism of the Church with political alliances divided between Rome in the West and Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem in the East.

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    AD 1375– AD 1378 The War of the Eight Saints, carried on with spates of unprecedented cruelty to civilians…

    9 August, in the year of our Lord 1378, French bishops declared Urban VI’s election as pope invalid. This began the great schism in which two and then three popes claimed the Holy See of Rome at once. Once in office, Urban (ca. 1318–1389) had become overbearing.

    1378 A.D to 1417 A.D. – Western Schism or Papal Schism was a split within the Catholic Church.  Two men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope, driven by politics rather than any theological disagreement. The Western Schism is sometimes called the Great Schism, although this term is also applied to the East–West Schism of 1054 A.D.

    “Doubt still shrouds the validity of the three rival lines of pontiffs during the four decades subsequent to the still disputed papal election of 1378. This makes suspect the credentials of the cardinals created by the Roman, Avignon, and Pisan claimants to the Apostolic See.” [3]

    Urban was declared excommunicated by the French antipope and was called “the Antichrist“, while Catherine of Siena, defending Pope Urban, called the cardinals “devils in human form.

    On the death of Charles of Naples in 1386, Urban contrived to take advantage of the anarchy which had ensued and in August 1388 Urban moved from Perugia with thousands of troops.

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    AD 1432 – Mehmed II was born in this capital of the Ottoman Empire. Islamic education had a great impact in molding the mindset of Mehmed and reinforcing his Muslim beliefs. He began to praise and promote the application of Sharia law.

    The influence of Ak Şemseddin in Mehmed’s life became predominant from a young age, especially in the imperative of fulfilling his Islamic duty to overthrow the Byzantine empire by conquering Constantinople.[5]

    AD 1453 – The capture of Constantinople marked the end of the last remnant of the Roman Empire, an imperial state which had lasted for nearly 1,500 years.  The Christian Church had been divided by the Great Schism of 1378 for less than 80 years and the enemy of Christ extends the political and religious power of Islam.

    Edirne, in northwest Turkey located north of the Aegean Sea and south of the Black sea, was formerly known as Adrianople and borders areas of conquest between Rome and its invaders.  During the existence of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, the Crusaders were decisively defeated by the Bulgarian Emperor Kaloyan in the battle of Adrianople (1205).

    To be continued…

  • EMPIRE Fallen; Church Divided – Part 1

    EMPIRE Fallen; Church Divided – Part 1

    8 August, 2013 A.D. – This time in history.

    Genesis 1:2a King James Version – And the earth was without form, and void…

    Creation, mankind, nations, the church, families and individuals ALL have a history.

    “Most history is untold and unknown to most.

    We look at history as a timeline of what someone has suggested has relevance to our own lives.  Take just this particular day from American history for example.  August 8, 1635 AD, Roger Williams was sentenced to banishment by the British colony of Massachusetts for his differing religious views. In exile he founded Rhode Island on principles of freedom of conscience.

    Among other issues of the time, Christians were divided not only as Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Catholic minorities in the Colonies, but Protestants were divided in Europe and the New World over other doctrine, including use of the Geneva Bible or the King James Bible.

    In the Empire of Great Britain, Prince James became King of Scotland on 24 July, 1567, at the age of 13 months, after his mother Mary, Queen of Scots was forced to abdicate. Mary fled to England, where she was imprisoned for the next 19 years. Mary and Elizabeth were heirs through different mothers, among the six wives of: “Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head”

    When Elizabeth I died childless, James inherited the throne. He married Anne of Denmark and fathered several children, dissolved Parliament in 1622, and allegedly had sexual relationships with both women and men.  King James, who also authored several books about himself, was quoted as saying, “Monarchy is the greatest thing on earth. Kings are rightly called gods since just like God they have power of life and death over all their subjects in all things. They are accountable to God only … so it is a crime for anyone to argue about what a king can do.”

    8 August, 1635 A.D, is just twelve years after King James dissolved Parliament and Roger Williams is banished from Massachusetts to Rhode Island.

    You may know well the partial histories of Henry VIII creating new political alliances that broke relationship between the British Throne and the Roman Catholic Church.  You may know of the previous separation of Protestants under Martin Luther from the Roman Catholic Church.

    One related history of the English Bible is that of William Tyndale.  He is frequently referred to as the “Architect of the English Language”, (even more so than William Shakespeare) as so many of the phrases Tyndale coined are still in our language today.

    William Tyndale’s New Testament, 1525-26, was defiance of protest against Papal authority.  It was printed in Germany, where Martin Luther’s New Testament was first printed in 1529. One risked death by burning if caught in mere possession of Tyndale’s forbidden books.  Having God’s Word available to the public in the language of the common man, English, would have meant disaster to the church. No longer would they control access to the scriptures. If people were able to read the Bible in their own tongue, the church’s income and power would crumble.

    Tyndale’s flight was an inspiration to freedom-loving Englishmen who drew courage from the 11 years that he was hunted. Books and Bibles flowed into England in bales of cotton and sacks of flour. Tyndale was arrested and imprisoned for over 500 days of horrible conditions. He was tried for heresy and treason in a ridiculously unfair trial, and convicted.

    Tyndale was then strangled and burnt at the stake in the prison yard, Oct. 6, 1536. His last words were, “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.” This prayer was answered three years later, in the publication of King Henry VIII’s 1539 English “Great Bible”.  (In 1539, Spain annexes Cuba and Hernando De Soto claims Florida for Spain.)

    The great American Empire of the 20th century little remembers that England and Spain, Empires of the day, would be divided and fall, as had the great empires of earlier history, most notably Rome.  At the center of this great history of the conquest and sin of man, God remains sovereign over Creation, mankind, nations, the church, families and individuals.

    To be continued…